1. SECTION 2: CONTENT SITES – PART 1 AN INTRODUCTION

 

We now begin the second section of this ebusiness course, Content Sites. These lessons will cover all you need to know about the basic types of content sites and how to use them for promotion and profit.

This Part 1 Introduces this Section 2 of our introduction to ebusiness, and introduces the what, how, and why of Content Sites

 

We now begin the second section of this ebusiness course, Content Sites. These lessons will cover all you need to know about the basic types of content sites and how to use them for promotion and profit.

This Part 1 Introduces this Section 2 of our introduction to ebusiness, and introduces the what, how, and why of Content Sites

A. THE WHAT

Content sites provide information. Often there are no physical products offered at all, just digital information in the form of text, video, audio, etc. If they sell any physical product at all, it’s something containing information, like a book or DVD. Some of the biggest internet businesses are content sites, like Google, Yahoo, Youtube, and Facebook.

B. THE HOW

Before getting into basic types of content sites and revenue sources, here are a few points to remember.

1. The Key Reason a Content Site Succeeds Is the Same Reason ANY Business Succeeds – It Gives Perceived Value

Remember what that is? Let’s review.

2. Perceived value

· It fills a real need or demand. For example:

o McDonalds: Fast, cheap, reliably tasty food, saves time.

o Toyota: fuel efficient, reliable, durable cars at a fair price.

· It fills meets the demand in a way that is somehow better than the competition: faster, cheaper, more variety, more convenient, more specialized niche, higher quality, etc.

· It is not easily replaced or substituted. The rarer it is, the harder to find or replace with a substitute, the greater the perceived value. For example, to start an online book seller to compete with Amazon would require billions in technology, distribution centers, etc. Hard to do that.

C. THE WHY

In theory, information products could be the ultimate low risk start up.

· Low risk: If you produce the content yourself, you have no tangible investment in inventory at stake other than your time. Marketing and distribution can also be done, theoretically, free or cheaply as well.

· High return: If in fact production, marketing, and distribution costs can be kept low, anything you earn above that is profit.

· Simple shipping and storage: Since most information products are digital, they take up no physical space and are sent via email or download. There are issues and possible costs involved in protecting your copyrights and collecting payments.

D. So What’s the Catch?

The hard part is producing and marketing content for which there is a demand. Since truly original products or ideas are hard to produce, the easier way is to choose a subject that’s already popular online and add unique value. For example:

· Specialize in a niche. You select a niche, specialize in just that and produce superior quality and/or quantity of information on that niche than the bigger sites provide. For example, there may be many sites providing advice on stocks, but there will be far fewer focused on

o Stocks in a specific sector like utilities, energy, health care, etc.

o Stock for a specific type of investor, like those seeking high yield, fast trading plays, safe long term growth buy and hold stocks, etc.

· Provide information at a lower cost: Give away or sell info at a lower cost than the more established sites, at least until you build up a following. There are all kinds of dating, job, investment sites that charge users to access some or all of their information. If you can afford to provide comparable information for less, there will be demand.

Once you’ve got demand, all you need then do is effectively promote your site.

E. CONCLUSION

If we think about it, most of us have some kind of valuable expertise or experience from which others could benefit. A homemaker may have vast experience dealing with child or husband rearing for which a new mother would gladly pay. A civil servant may have a wealth of knowledge of how to save time or get money from certain government bureaucracies. The disabled or unemployed can offer advice to others with similar difficulties.

In short, you may well have a potential content site and profitable information product lurking inside you. If you don’t want to write, you can put it in audio or video format.

Obviously there are content sites like Google, Yahoo, WebMD, JDate, and others that are already highly developed, complex, and well known with an established brand name. It would require major investment to duplicate them, so very few will even think about doing so. But you need not start out or even end up that way. On the following pages you’ll see numerous cases of sites that started small and grew.

Next, we discuss the basic types of content sites and how they make money. End Part 1.

Looking for safe, high yield investments? Interested in all-weather stocks that pay safe, high dividends backed by strong businesses? Check out http://highincomestocksguide.blogspot.com

SECTION 1. SELLING ON EBAY: PART 5: CONCLUDING MISC IDEAS AND TIPS TO SELLING ON EBAY

Additional aids, sites, and software for selling on eBay.

A. EBay express

EBAY TAKES ALL BUY IT NOW ITEMS AND MAKES AN ONLINE STORE OF THESE. ITEMS MUST BE LOCATED IN US

B. Classified advertisements

GOOD IF SELLING ITEMS ON YOUR OWN WEBSITE AND WANT THOSE ITEMS TO SHOW UP IN EBAY SEARCH RESULTS

C. Best offer option

IS AN OPTION CHOSEN WHEN YOU LIST AN ITEM

D. Amazon fulfillment: useful if buying from wholesaler/manufacturer who doesn’t drop ship

AMAZON OFFERS FULFILLMENT I.E. YOU SHIP THEM ITEMS. THEY STORE AND PACK/SHIP AND PEOPLE GET IT FROM ITEMS. For example, you buy from China and ship to Amazon and sell on eBay. Good for if have hot selling item that you know could sell lots and better if get china and cut out drop shipper rather find own supplier in China or elsewhere. Find via alibaba.com.

FOR EXAMPLE, PURELAND Co. FOR SLEEPING BAGS AND OTHER CAMPING EQUIPMENT

E. Listing software if have auctions regularly

TURBOLISTER: FREE, FULLY SUPPORTED BY EBAY, I.E. IF SELLING SLEEPING BAG EVERY WEEK, IT DOES ALL THE SETUP AUTOMATICALLY ( so don’t need manually enter description, pictures, terms, and other listing details) IF PLAN TO RESELL AN ITEM REGULARLY START RIGHT AWAY USING TURBOLISTER

F. PayPal – a key point - must have

WILL AUTOMATICALLY INSERT THEIR LOGO INTO YOUR AUCTION IF YOU ASK THEM – IS GOOD GET AUTOMATIC LOGO INSERTION, SET IT UP IN MY ACCOUNT

Request a PayPal Dr. card.

If you don’t have someone in the US to whom PayPal can mail the PayPal debit card, use http://www.mustop.com/ . They’ll take delivery of anything and send it to you in wherever you are abroad, or use http://www.2checkout.com/.

G. How to calculate shipping costs for Israel

Go to Israel postal website for costs on shipping abroad: http://www.israelpost.co.il/

Can get the site in English

H. Other software

1. Auctiva

free auction tools for eBay sellers for tracking and managing bids, free eBay store fronts, etc.

Figure 1: Auctiva homepage summarizes free tools

2. Square Trade

An online warranty provider, online merchant verification and dispute resolution. Good for high priced items, they provide arbitration of disputes.

Figure 2: SquareTrade Homepage and Merchant Solutions pages

3. Automated bidding software

Auction Sniper and Bid Sniper are automated bidding software that will place bids at last moments of auction up to a limit you set, so you don’t have to watch auctions yourself, and won’t pay more than needed.

4. Software to do market research

Terapeak: Built into eBay. Free. See http://www.terapeak.com/ .

Figure 3: Terapeak Homepage Summarizes Its Features

Vendio see http://www.vendio.com/ . Has risk free trial, so I assume is not free.

Figure 4: Vendio Homepage Summarizes Its Features

I. Advertising your eBay items

AVOID EBAY’S ADVERTISEMENTS. BETTER:

1. Write a free guide or review about your product to generate interest

FOR EXAMPLE IF WRITE GUIDE, TAKE SOME IF IT AND PUT OUT FOR FREE ON EBAY FOR REVIEWS AND GUIDES. FOR EXAMPLE: SELLER OF GUIDE TO SELLING TKTS TO EVENTS ON EBAY WROTE FREE “TEASER” GUIDE OFFERING SOME TIDBITS IN ORDER TO GET YOU CURIOUS ENOUGH TO BUY THE BOOK

2. Other ways to promo your auctions

· EMAIL CAMPAIGN (MORE ON THAT LATER)

· USE SOCIAL MEDIA SITES LIKE http://www.stumbleupon.com/, facebook, youtube, etc.(MORE ON THESE LATER). SOCIAL MEDIA GOOD IF HAVE ESTABLISHED BUSINESS.

END BLOG 5

SECTION 1. SELLING ON EBAY: PART 4: THE BASICS OF WHAT TO SELL ON EBAY AND HOW TO SELL IT

1. IDEAS OF WHAT TO SELL

MUST BE SOMETHING OF VALUE AND CHEAP RELATIVE TO PERCEIVED VALUE.

A. Ideas include:

1. USE WHAT NATURE PROVIDES. Make or sell products based on what grows or is found cheaply where you live.

2. REPRODUCE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY NO LONGER COPYWRITED. F/e.g. come up u w/ an original idea f/e.g. replicas of old flags – no copyright on it. Or other stuff w/ no copyright.

3. SELL THINGS YOU ALREADY OWN i.e. find something of value at home you don’t need & sell it on eBay. Use http://www.terapeak.com/ or see similar items sold on eBay

4. THINGS YOU MAKE YOURSELF

5. FIND CHEAP ITEMS AND RESELL THEM F/EG GO TO THRIFT SHOPS – BUT MUST BE OF VALUE ELSEWHERE LIKE REGIONAL ITEMS

6. DIGITAL items f/ e.g. CD about how to sell tickets on eBay, to events

7. GO TO EBAY PULSE to find out what’s hot on eBay – so can apply “synthetic imagination,” that is, add value, a lower price, etc.

8. UNUSUAL ITEMS: For example, one man sold advertisements space on forehead

B. What to do if item doesn’t sell

As you learn to earn on eBay, you’ll try items that don’t sell. As long as you keep your investments small in the beginning, especially when selling new items, accept these small losses as part of the “tuition.”

1. RELIST IT AND PUT UNDER DIFFERENT CATEGORY. For example, leftover xmas tree lights can be sold as decorations for the Jewish holiday of Succot, which occurs in autumn. Small but heavy statuettes might sell as paper weights – seriously!

2. LOWER PRICE OR VARY SOME OTHER KEY FACTOR

3. PUT IN STORAGE AND TRY LATER IF IS SEASONAL ITEM LIKE XMAS ITEMS DURING XMAS

4. GROUP IT W/ OTHER UNSOLD ITEMS AND SELL AS PACKAGE DEAL

5. ADD EXTRA VALUE; IE OFFER W/ A FREE ITEM W/ PURCHASE

6. CAUTIOUSLY EXPERIMENT W/ EBAY LISTING ITEMS THAT COST EXTRA BUT BEWARE

7. REALIZE THAT NOT ALL ITEMS WILL SELL so either discard, lower price, donate, or otherwise cut your losses.

C. EBay stores

An eBay store is essentially your own ready-built e-commerce site that eBay offers. It may be worthwhile if

· you are already succeeding with eBay

· you want to list lots of items at a lower total cost

· you don’t want build own website

REQUIREMENTS FOR BUYING AN EBAY STORE:

· eBay member, feedback score of 20+

· id verified or PayPal account in good standing

1. Overview of how eBay store works.

EBay gives you tools to help you, like a choice of templates to allow for quick setup of the store. If you already have an eBay account and PayPal it is quick to set up. As with any set of e-commerce templates, you have a few options to customize if you need something a bit different. The big advantage is that you can list a lot of items f/ little money and whenever you auction an item, you have an icon next to it showing you have store, so people looking at your auction see the icon and can go look at store. Thus auctions now also serve as cheap advertisements for the store. The store costs $16 /mo. An eBay store is only recommended if selling a lot on eBay.

2. SELLING TIPS

Here are specific tips on making your product description and presentation sell via the right headlines, description, and images.

A. Top 7 headlines i.e. item description

Use some variation on one of the following.

1. PROMISE A MAJOR BENEFIT [double your income/intelligence/sales, etc….]

2. ASK A QUESTION [ is it really possible to lose 20 pounds in one week/ double your income, etc]

3. OFFER A SOLUTION TO A PROBLEM [Cures embarrassing acne]

4. GIVE A WARNING [You could lose everything in the coming energy crisis]

5. FLAG YOUR TARGET CUSTOMER [BUILD & REPAIR COMPUTERS LIKE A PRO]

6. USE A TESTIMONIAL [I never dreamed I could make $500K/year until I tried…]

7. NEWS ANNOUNCEMENT: [YOU’VE READ ABOUT X NOW ….]

B. Use power words – i.e. words that excite

VINTAGE

HARD TO FIND

ALMOST NEW

UNIQUE

PRISTINE

RARE

ORIGINAL, ETC.

C. Use pictures

· IMAGES SELL—CRITICAL TO USE IMAGES ON WEB: EG SHOW UP CLOSE IF NEEDED, SHOW ALL KEY VISUAL DETAILS OF DETAILS BUYER WANTS TO SEE

· DON’T BE LAZY W/ IMAGES; SELF HOST MANY ON YOUR WEBSITE.

· HAVE PIC CLOSE UP SHOWING DETAIL

· CLARIFY SCALE/ SENSE OF SIZE. If the item is small, try showing the item next to a ruler if small, or place it next to an object that makes the item’s size clear. For example, display a ring on someone’s hand close enough to see fingerprints.

3. SELLING STRATEGIES

Here are selling strategies, that is, basic ideas for what and how you will find and sell products on eBay

A. Either Focus on high volume or high profit:

· SPECIALIZE IN SMALLER PROFIT ITEMS AND TRY TO SELL A LOT OF THEM.

· SELL A FEW LARGE PROFIT ITEMS – RARE, HARD TO FIND, OR EXP BUT CHEAPER ON EBAY

B. Use drop shippers – avoid shipping and handling

Drop shippers are wholesalers that maintain large warehouses full of goods, allow you to sell their goods on eBay (or via other channels) and for a fee will do the shipping. They can be a major source of wholesale products, and it avoids hassle of shipping and handling. If find major success with an item from a wholesale drop shipper, you can then consider seeking out cheap manufacturer to buy from directly at super-wholesale prices via http://www.alibaba.com/.

One example of a business that buys items in quantity, wants you to sell it, and they’ll take care of all else: http://www.dsdi.com/

NB must ensure an item you auction w/b available from the drop shipper for at least the duration of the auction. Auctions can last 1-10 days, 7 is typical. Most wholesalers will allow you to place deposit on the item to hold it, or will even allow you to set an item aside without deposit. Make sure you understand in advance how they work.

2. Finding reputable, reliable drop shippers [many are scammers]

Directories of wholesalers/drop shippers

Pay for a directory of drop reputable drop shippers: SALEHOO or World Wide brands.

Find your own drop shipping sources

Go to a store/wholesaler/manufacturer and arrange to sell their items on eBay. But reach agreement on details so they won’t compete. For example, one entrepreneur arranged a deal with a large wholesale/retail lighting business. He built their website and does their online sales including eBay. They charged him at the wholesale price and did the drop shipping.

Could also seek out manufacturers or wholesalers via non-web sources (those on web are probably already selling on web, but perhaps not so worth seeking out manufacturers online to – or at least directories of them and then find ones that don’t have web presence and approach them.

Next time: Additional tips and tools for selling on eBay, and doing market research.