Let’s face it eBay is a great way to sell your products online but in this post I want to introduce you to the best way to sell online – yes even better than eBay.
Not only is it the best way to sell it’s also the least hassle (but please don’t read that as involving no work – you will have to work fairly hard especially in the initial stages).
Let’s get cracking and start with how eBay works and why it works so well.
Jump to …
How eBay Works … and is limited
eBay is a well-established site that allows you to sell your product off their platform.
The listing is usually (but not always) free but you do pay a success fee on completion of a sale amounting to 10% of the sale price.
Pros of Selling on Sites Like eBay
Well established platform with a well-established reputation that people go to find products.
Easy to join.
Little or no cost to join.
Payment is handled by the site.
Listings usually free – eBay for example allows 50 free listings per month.
Various pricing options – usually a fixed price or an auction.
Possible Cons of Selling on Sites Like eBay.
Limited product options – you supply the product unless you utilize drop shipping.
Additional costs include postage/shipping, bank charges, packaging etc
Competition from other vendors selling a similar product for less.
Your listing is maintained by you.
To sum this up …
eBay and similar sites are easy and free to sign up.
Take some photos of your product and post them on the site.
Write your awesome listing description.
Sit back and wait for the sales to start rolling in.
Collect the money when sales are made and send the product off.
Rinse and Repeat – easy peezy.
Or is it? …
Having More Options To Choose From … with 100% control
What if I told you there is a more flexible option with far greater scope?
Don’t get me wrong – selling on eBay is very lucrative for many people, and it may suit you. You won’t know until you do your own research
My perception of these sites from my personal view is that it is very much hit-and-miss with no risk to eBay and the vendors (you and me) carrying all the risks of failure and costs.
I want to introduce you to a more sustainable business that guarantees success, removes all financial risk and gives you 100% control.
Are you ready?
The Good News … No risk and no big financial commitment
Rather than worry about creating and selling your own product what if I told you that you could sell anything you choose.
And you can choose only top sellers that are easy to find.
There are over 3 billion people who use the Internet – that’s half the world’s population.
We might wonder what the other half do but I suspect they are in underdeveloped areas – meaning this figure will continue to grow as the Internet tentacles eventually reach into even the remotest corners of the earth.
Of course not all of these people are buying products but a large percentage of them are – especially in well-developed countries like USA, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, China, Japan, Korea and others.
Online shopping is huge and the online shoppers are becoming more and more sophisticated each day.
Add to that the sophistication of algorithms and the ability to determine what people are buying and you have an explosive marketing opportunity – if you only know how.
Let’s look at Amazon.com for a minute.
Amazon is the world’s largest online retail outlet, with over 5.5 million products. In 2018 the annual revenue of Amazon was $232.887 billion, an increase over the previous year in excess of 39%. This upward trend continues to grow and does not appear to be showing any signs of slowing down.
Did you know that you can become an Amazon affiliate earn a commission for any sales you introduce?
Anyone can become an Amazon affiliate and can promote any of the products Amazon offers.
Amazon is not the only online retailer that has an affiliate program – there are literally hundreds of thousands of vendors that offer affiliate programs.
You don’t need your own product you don’t need to package and deliver or pay for shipping. All you have to do is send the customer to Amazon, or your chosen vendor, and if they purchase a product you get paid a commission for the introduction.
There are some really fantastic pluses to being an affiliate:
You can decide what you want to promote.
Easy to choose top sellers with a simple search. Why not promote something you know people are buying by the truck loads?
Here’s a search I did on Walmart for “Top-Selling Kitchen Appliances” – as you can see none of these would be difficult to promote.
Secret tip: Cross check using the same search on Amazon to be 100% sure you’re promoting a popular product.
Promote your favourite hobby, sport passion – promote whatever you are interested in.
No product needed.
Get started straight away – not that simple though as I’ll explain soon.
No dealing with customers – the vendor handles all of this.
No packaging and shipping – this is all handled by the vendor.
Your affiliate link works 24/7 all around the world – even when you are sleeping.
Can be done from anywhere in the world; I continually tell people “I sell products to people I don’t know (and will never meet) in countries I might never go to.” What could be better?
Absolutely minimal financial outlay – I run three separate business for a total of under $50.00 per month.
Getting started …
The Bad News … you need to commit time (and a tiny bit of money)
Obviously sending an e-mail to your best friend with an affiliate link may result in you getting one sale. But one sale does not make a summer or a business so you need to scale things up – DRAMATICALLY!
And the only way to do that properly is to use the tremendous power of the Internet – with a website and then drive traffic to it. The more people that see your site the more sales you will make.
It’s a numbers game – which is exactly what eBay and Amazon rely on.
For this you need:
To select your niche market.
The product/s you want to sell.
A domain name – this will cost less than $15.00 per year.
Your very own website.
A hosting company – the organisation that will keep your website live 24/7.
The skills to drive the traffic to your site.
A desire to succeed and work at it – real hard initially.
The Benefits of Your Own Website and Marketing Strategy
With your own website you are in complete control of EVERYTHING!
You decide how to design your site – layout colours, fonts etc.
It is entirely your decision to include or exclude ads from your page. If you look at my site (the one you are currently reading) you will note there are no distracting ads to attracct you away. That is a choice I made. I could as easily have decided to have others advertise on my website for which I would receive a bit of income – but that is not my goal with this site.
I said right at the outset that it won’t be easy – you will be building a sustainable business and not hoping for a get-rich-quick scheme.
If you’re interested in learning more about the ins-and-outs of affiliate marketing read this post on Wealthy Affiliate University – it’s not really a University but you get a much better education than you would at a traditional university.
Plus you get up to 50 websites, with hosting and all the training and tools you’ll ever need for under $50.00 per month.
And you will get to meet like-minded people, some just starting out and others who have very successful online businesses, all of them very willing to help you in your quest for an independent and financially secure lifestyle.
Go Independent as an Internet Affiliate Marketer
Sell whatever you want to, and that can include your own product, plus learn a hundred different ways to create a substantial and sustainable online business that you can run from anywhere in the world.
Make money while you sleep “Selling other people’s products, to people you will never meet in countries you may never visit.”
I do and you can too