Starting an Online Business For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech))
(this is because I was an online business dummy!)Just do it. It's very easy to sit around and think about it. If you think it's a great idea; if you're pretty sure you can make money at it, then just do it. Thought without action will net you a big fat zero.
Don't allow your emotions to run your business.
Be realistic. Learn to say NO to the lure of riches. Once you get started and those first sales start rolling in, it will be tempting to jump all over opportunities to make even MORE money and to jump hard. If you're not careful, you'll soon find yourself over-extended. I got myself in that pickle a few years ago and it was a twisty and exhausting effort to meet my commitments.
Be realistic. Oh, did I just say that? Well, I'm saying it again, for another reason. See next paragraph
Do your research. What is it you want to sell? Is it truly marketable? How big is the market for your widget-thing-whatever? Is there anything similar selling? How is yours better or different? Something about what you have to offer MUST be different and better if you want customers. You know what customers are. They're different from window-shoppers. Customers actually BUY.
Do your research. Yup, you're in an echo chamber. Now that you know what you're going to sell, what's the fair-market value for it? How do you do this? You research. You search online shops that sell items similar to what you're going to sell and you find out if the items are selling. Make lists. You want to sell earrings that are made of precious metal components and high-quality beads. You think they're worth at LEAST $50. Okay. Go do your research, find 30 pair of similar earrings THAT HAVE SOLD, write down the prices, throw out the high and the low and average the rest. That's your fair-market value. Don't be surprised if it's not what you thought it should be.
Undercutting your competition won't always get you the sale. Bottom line is Customer Service. Are you willing to take those extra few steps for your customer, regardless the size of their order, and regardless that it's past your bedtime (here in the US) and they are in another country, wide awake and awaiting a reply from you? If you're not, don't even start the business. Are you willing and able to fulfill custom and special orders? It's a good idea to set yourself up to be able to do this, but to also set realistic time-frames for them. Then, MEET the time frame.
Market yourself. If you are using a site like Artfire or Etsy, you can't rely on their tagging system to do all your marketing for you. Put yourself out there. Make noise and lots of it. Prove that you are knowledgeable with regard to your product. How do you do this? We live in an electronic age. There's this thing called the Blogosphere. Use it. Create several blogs. Utilize the tools on each blog to feed your products to it. Make sure the blog name contains a relevant search term for your business. Mine is the sale of jewelry supplies with a focus on Swarovski beads and prisms. While my blog urls don't have Swarovski in them, my blog names DO have it. It's a hugely relevant search term and it's not broad or general. If I'd simply called my blog "Bead Addiction" I wouldn't be getting the click-thru traffic I'm getting right now to my online shops. My blog wouldn't show up in search results. Be product specific. If you want someone to land on your blog, call it something that has some relation to your business. My business name is ArgentSol. It means "bright sun." That's NOT what I'm selling. I'm selling, primarily, Swarovski items, so that's my primary relevant search term.
When blogging, always be aware of google search terms. You want to use as many of them that are relevant to your product as possible. How will you know what words to use? Do Google searches on your type of product using what you think would be the best search words. See what comes up. Then do a Google search on: "what is the best Google search term for (your product).
Google Adsense. If you can get it to work. Right now, mine's not working and I'm not happy. Google is sending me a PIN so I can talk to them about it. Adsense is a Google widget that feeds pay-per-click ads to your blog. You will want them fed to the right hand column of your blog, and if you can do it, beneath posts. Use your footer for it too. You have to have an Adsense account to do it and it costs you nothing. There is a psychology to the placement and color of Adsense ads, and the most successful blog entrepreneurs follow that psychology and rake in scads of money from click-thrus. It's another source of income for you.
Don't get discouraged if you're not seeing sales right out of the starting block. Instead, investigate. On sites like Artfire and Etsy, if you see other sellers with your type of widget, and they are selling like gangbusters, take a look at their sites and see what's different from yours. Email them. Ask them what they did to optimize. I'd warrant they have a website out there someplace that drives traffic to their shop(s). I don't know a successful online seller in a community like Etsy or Artfire who does NOT have a blog and/or a website.
Be prepared to spend a lot of time up front getting it right the first time. Better that than a lot of time down the road fixing a mess. I know, because I've been there.
Take time for yourself. It's too easy to allow this monster you're creating to eat up every spare minute you have. Set a routine. If it is your primary source of income, set a work schedule, if necessary.
Organize. Very easy to say. Very hard to do. I'm a one-woman show, so I have to do it all. Everything. I'm the purchasing department, customer service department, inventory control manager, order fulfillment department, accountant, admin assistant, and tech support guru for my business.
Ship. Posthaste, post-payment. Get it to them FAST. They'll come back for more. One shipping screw up can cost you 20 new customers because it will show in your feedback, if your shop has a feedback section.
Stop worrying about housework. If, like me, you are running an inventory-heavy business, odds are very good that at least one room, if not more, in your house will look like a nuclear warhead loaded with boxes and padded mailers plowed through. Just deal. Tell everyone else to either deal, or do the housework themselves. Once the money comes in you can hire a maid.
Okay - enough for now. I have things to do - like shipping. I could expound on each of these items and time would slip away. What I DO know is that my blog is driving traffic to my store. I know my search words are working. How do I know this? Because I've had 91 sales in the past 2 weeks. Not really a lot, but a decent start. In another month, I expect that number to be much higher.
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