I think everyone wants to know how to make money selling online and why some folks manage it better than others. I will show you how you should go about selling your products or services successfully online.
First off, you need good niche…. Take your time working out what niche you are going to build. Its no point choosing one that is not narrow enough. Thinking that you can compete with others in a wide niche is a waste of time, pointless and frustrating. Read my article ‘How To Find A Profitable Niche In Affiliate Marketing’ if you are struggling to choose a suitable niche. Take time to research thoroughly and understanding exactly what your audience wants. Investing in a narrow field produces stronger results but make sure it is a field you are passionate about – you have to pass that enthusiasm onto your customers and be able to follow through with your business when the odds are stacked against you.
What Are You Going To Sell Online?
Are you going to sell a service ? Do you have skills that you could use to set up courses for example – CPR or Accident Prevention? Cycling Proficiency? Gardening? Do you have qualifications that you can turn into online tutorials?
Are you going to sell products? Niche products that are made in small batch runs or on demand?
If either of these sounds like you, there are a few points that will help you clarify exactly what you are going to sell online and these points apply to both services and actual products.
Tips For Starting Your Business
- Pinpoint a problem that your target audience has, then solve it. You need to identify the problem then create the product/service that will solve the problem. – Necessity is the mother of invention. The way to kickstart a successful business is to make it simple and effective, rather than bring in complications. For example… You are a keen cyclist, with qualifications in cycling proficiency – set up a business teaching cycling proficiency to local schools, teaching 6-7th grade kids how to be safe on the roads.
- Produce products that other people are passionate about and be passionate about crafting your business. Engage with your target audience to create the ideal product that matches their needs. Are you a gardener? Do you have a passion for succulents? What about creating these amazing table arrangements with succulents – makes a change from the usual plants that we see indoors. Maybe combine with a skill with timber.
These are the latest trending gardening displays. They sell for over $100 on Etsy.
3. Choose products that have good branding potential, one that resonates with your audience. This gives you a competitive edge to your business. This must be something that is recognisable, memorable, that will resonate with the audience you are wanting to attract. You want to attract customers and compel them to come back so you build a loyalty base. Its all about positioning your products to build that base and that starts with a brilliantly designed website.
4. Brands become lifestyles. You craft your brand – your niche – to resonate with your audience. Keeping on trend within your niche builds a lifestyle around your brand. Thinking laterally to offer up to date services and products keeps the niche fresh. As a small business owner you need any leg up you can find to establish yourself.
Steps To Selling Online
- Complete intensive market research.
- Finalise the product/s you want to sell – appropriate labelling for products.
- Choose a great domain name. Build your website using great template – Wealthy Affiliate is perfect for this.
- Structure your the categories for your product intelligently.
- Which platform do you want to sell on? – Facebook/Ebay/Amazon/Instagram/Google/Etsy/Pinterest – More on these later.
- Work out a payment process – PayPal/Square/Stripe
- Do you need particular licences for your business or industry? – I sell natural soaps and as I have customers in the EU I have to ensure I follow their regulations for testing and toxicology.
- Have you the necessary security on your website to protect your customers information?
- Do you intent to launch your site with all your productS?
- Work out your shipping methods and costs/returns/privacy policies online.
- Check whether your chosen marketplace has any restrictions on products and services. For example Amazon doesn’t allow the sale of vape equipment but does allow accessories – selling on Amazon will direct customers through Amazon to your store.
This article sets out the steps required to start selling online. If you are experienced with website building, you will be running away with your new business, if you’re not and need support in the intricacies of setting up the domain name and building, you need the support of a web building platform such as Wealthy Affiliate. Follow the link to start your new website business right now.
Where To Sell You Products Online
Facebook is a social media platform to engage your customers and bring exposure to your business and you can sell products directly on your Facebook Business Pages. Don’t use your personal Facebook account, it needs to be a business account.
Millions of customers visit Ebay every day looking for millions of products. You can set up an Ebay Storefront and sell your niche products at fixed prices, rather than the usual auctions that Ebay are known for.
Amazon is one of the largest market places in the world with the go-to shop for millions of customers. Selling on Amazon is a little more involved to start selling, depending on your products.
You need a Facebook Business Page to sell on Instagram. Once you’ve got this set up, you can link your Facebook account with Instagram Business Profile. Get your Instagram profile approved for shopping and you’re good to go.. You can then tag and highlight your products on your instagram account. Instagram focuses on images so this is more for your niche products that will sell with a concentrated visual focus.
This has to be the most popular search engine to sell your products. But to do that you really need to be on page 1 of Google. You can use Google Ads to achieve this if you are desperate to get going fast, but this costs money. You website will rank with Google, especially if you develop your website and use SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), this takes time to achieve but is the most economical way to get your niche market out to the world.
Etsy Market Place is perfect for artisans – handcrafted products! Getting an account is simple and straightforward. You will have your storefront up and running rapidly, with customisation it will be attractive to customers. Etsy however, does have limitations – they do charge fees – so maybe you don’t have many products there – just a few – to attract traffic to your website and avoid fees. They also have limitations on what can be sold.
Pinterest is a content sharing platform – again a visual platform. There are various ways to get your products sold – Buyable Pins/Rich Pins/Promoted Pins/Look Pins… Pinterest is used frequently for inspiration but also for a quick way to find these eclectic products for a particular look.
NIce! A road map for selling online. One step I would add is try to create or utilize video via Youtube to help broaden the audience and create a need to revisit your website. A video that is interesting and entertaining can really help improve the traffic that is visiting your site on a regular basis.
Thanks for your suggestion Lee. I forgot about YouTube…. I havent got as far as using it myself yet… or should I say I have but in a very general way. I should have thought to add it. I will do so now.
I have been looking into selling craft items online and a good friend of mine, who already sells cookery items online, has recommended social media avenues to me.
Now, I see you mention Pinterest in your article – would you recommend selling direct from their platform or would you recommend setting up a website to sell from instead (linking the website through Pinterest)?
I think the better way is to post images on Pinterest, with a link to your website. Pinterest is frequently used to gather ideas, find inspiration, not necessarily to sell but I use it to post from my affiliate marketing site, to attract customers over to see what else I have on my website.
Though I’m acquainted with the rudiments of being an affiliates marketer, I do not know anything about selling online specifically for my own products. This is a great simplification on the processes involved in selling online. This is great. I will get things started with soon concerning my personal sales. My wife makes candles and I would like to market the products for her by myself. Thanks
Way to Go!! Perfect product to sell ! Definitely a trending product and you will have so much fun setting up your website! Get great images, use social media… how exciting ! You have a product that can be shipped successfully, a great business!
How to make money selling online, one of my (and most who are reading here likely) favorite topics! I am constantly seeking knowledge in this ever-changing industry so your post is very helpful to me. A niche is so important as you’ve pointed out and there are so many of them out there! I really like your idea of pinpointing a problem that your target audience has and then solving it, and also your words on branding, as a competitive edge is the name of the game here. You’ve pointed out some solid outlets for selling. Etsy and Pinterest have become some of my favorites of late. Thanks for the solid information here, looking forward to reading more!
Thankyou for your comments, I am pleased to see that I was able to make the avenues for online selling understandable and achievable.
I am a real newbie who wants to start making money online, so your article here provide a good starting point for me. I’m still not really familiar with marketplace such as eBay or Etsy, so I need to learn about them. My problem is I don’t really know what I want to sell and where to acquire the product. I have general interest, but there isn’t anything that I am passionate with. Do you have a recommendation for my case? Thanks
I would recommend you write down everything you do like doing, whether it is a product or a service… you will have skills that others need. Once you have highlighted a few things that you do like doing, drill down into them then go onto jaaxy and put in those things and see what it suggests.. jaaxy is a keyword research tool but it also helps with defining your niche which is what you are looking for. Also look for my article on Niches.
Actually I can use Facebook for selling the products online, after all, I spend a lot of time and know a lot of things about it. Actually I want to know how I can determine a niche’s potential while selling products. I did quite thorough research but I still have no idea about it. What do you recommend for me?
I would recommend using Jaaxy and the site rank tool. You can use it to follow the rankings of each of your articles and see how your niche is faring.
A more demanding niche is a good recommendation for online business. I’m more familiar to Facebook where I easily sell my products. But this is limited to only those that stay not too far to my location. Although, Facebook has moved beyond that and I need to blend in order to expand my business. Just a recent, I heard about FBA on Amazon. And I viewed it as a good platform to make my product become known to the world. I just completed the training and will soon take the next step. If the two platform can workout as I wanted, it would be a huge hit.This review about how to make money selling online will go a long way in helping people to find their way in online business world. Weldone!
Thank you Stella for your comments, I am pleased to hear how well you are doing and that the article will help those following your path.
Hey,
thanks for your thorough introduction of how to sell online. I am a beginner at affiliate marketing and I found some interesting pieces of advice in your post.
For instance, I didn’t know about Etsy. But then I don’t really understand why you would use a platform that chares fees when you can use other platforms that have more users and charge nothing. What makes Etsy so special that it is worth the fees? Does it have so many users?
Of course platforms that don’t charge fees has got to be good but artisans will use Etsy for many reasons – they dont have access to Facebook (which is really only the platform that doesn’t charge fees), the security of selling through a platform that will deal with payment etc. Facebook leaves the seller and buyer to sort out finances. It is also a matter of choice, some artisans are not confident using some platforms to others.
Ebay dominated online selling for a very long time until the other interesting guys come along like Facebook and Etsy. Now with so many platforms, it’s more challenging to choose where to focus. It seems like a good idea to cast a huge net and market in all channels, but that’s going to stretch yourself thin.
Which social platform would you recommend selling online for beginners? Thanks.
I think Cathy it depends on what you are promoting. If your products are visual, your website is an affiliate website, then I would say all platforms are great, but for myself with a service, it becomes more challenging to find suitable images to get interest. Thats where maybe youtube would be more appropriate with a short video.