What can I sell online that will make me some money? What skills do I have right now that will earn me extra income and what are the best products that will sell online?
Take some time to consider your skills, your passions, what are you doing in your spare time? You do not have to have a degree in it, but a love and a knowledge for the topic is best. I’ll give you some ideas further down on how to capitalise on your skills and passions. But write a list out so you have a few ideas in mind as you read on.
Finding trending products to sell online that will bring in an extra income is important for an online business… Are they going to be longstanding trends, like the craze for cupcakes a few years ago that is still going strong or something that is a flash in the pan like the fidget spinners.
There is competition in just about every niche as it is so much easier now to replicate success with online platforms offering tutorials in marketing.
To have success in your online business, you need products that are in demand, will bring you a profit, and you have the skills to market and sell them.
Now is the time to take action. Never before has there been the information out there for new entrepreneurs to start up their own businesses, without forking out tons of money to get it up and running.
Your choice of products will determine how quickly you have success…. so choosing a hot selling trending product will bring in revenue quicker than going for an evergreen product that will be a longterm seller. So lets have a look at a few products…..
How To Determine What To Sell And Not Sell
Market research is too important here. Due diligence must be paramount before starting to sell anything, otherwise you may start selling a product that will never sell because there is no market for it or its over priced or you simply aren’t appealing to the right audience. Regardless of what you decide to sell, you need to answer four questions –
- Is there sufficient demand for the product?
- Is there too much competition within the niche for the product?
- Can you add value to your product to make it more attractive to your audience?
- Is your product niche enough?
There are tools you can use to check out these questions before you invest anything in your business. Some of them are paid tools but they do offer a free trial, so get your skates on when you sign up and you can get yourself out before you have to pay for them.
Amazon Sales Data – Check out similar products on Amazon to determine whether it will sell and whether the market can sustain your business.
Jungle Scout – This is tied to Amazon and will give you product research which will be invaluable to determine the viability of your product.
Viral Launch – This is also a product on Amazon that will show you the keywords for products that people are searching for, if theyre not looking for your product, then you won’t be able to sell it.
Use the tools to determine the market for your product.
Why Choose That Product?
There are 5 basic catagories to consider when choosing the ideal products to sell. When I talk about products, Im meaning either an actual physical product such as leather backpacks or a service like foreign language lessons.
Solve A Customer Problem
Solving a problem recurs constantly when talking about online marketing. The biggest chestnut of the lot is to solve a problem for your customer… possibly one they don’t yet know they have or one that you have discovered is causing them issues. Trawl through the haunts of your target audience, or research your skills, looking for issues they have. Solving a problem or finding a gap in the market in a niche that you are skilled in, will enable you to maximise that gap.
Early Trending Products
Using some of the tools online to pinpoint trends early will enable you to jump on them early before anyone else has chance and this could be hugely significant for your business. The skill comes in separating the ‘flash in the pan’ trend from the ‘stayer’. This type of product does hold more risk, timing is crucial when selling on trend products.
Products People Are Passionate About
Products for hobbyists are a great business idea, they are more likely to spend over the odds for a product and be return visitors. If you have a hobby that fits into this catagory, a perfect place to start your selling, as you have expert knowledge of what you are selling and more likely to engage your customer with much better insight into the product.
Products With Branding Potential
Most people will not think too much about buying a product between $20-$40. Do you have a passion for natural soaps or deodorants for men… Yes plenty are marketed for women. You can brand your own products, or if this is not your bag, source wholesale products in your niche from trusted suppliers and sell at the market rate.
Guilty Pleasures
Do you love chocolate? Can you make delicious chocolates or amazing shortbreads /macarons?
There are loads of amazing choccy pleasures that if this is your skill, become an artisan! Whether you are a girl or guy, this is something for everyone !
PHYSICAL GOODS ?
So you are thinking about physical things that you can sell….
- Consider shipping – will you be dealing with fragile products? If you have a choice, I would say…don’t ! The stress is too much!
- Will they take up a lot of storage space? Do you have this?
- Choose timeless products – nothing electronic (lose value) or seasonal.
- Goods between $20-$50 sell without purchasers taking much thought and products between $20 -$200 are in the best price bracket.
- Is your niche one that you can see has related goods?
- Will you personalise your product?
- Is it consumable? if it is, you can look forward to repeat customers.
What Can You Sell?
- Sell Yourself – Are you a whizz with calculus or trigonometry? Can you write code/build websites? Do you speak a foreign language?
For the teachers amongst you, take a look at bainmass.com, skillshare.com, gogokid.com, tutorvista.com – check out the jobs they offer to teachers from all over the globe. The internet has opened up a whole world of students needing you !
2. Handmade Crafts – Do you have a skill for handmade products? High class bakery, unique handmade potato chips, cheeses or handmade jewellery ? Check out Etsy Best Sellers to find where your niche would tae you. Have you thought about insect based snacks? Thats supposed to be the next big thing…..
3. Do you draw or paint? You might think that your skills aren’t up to much, we are our own worst critics. But you will be surprised…. Take a look on Etsy and Fiverr.com, whilst people look for graphics and vector designs there is a huge market for artwork. We can’t all afford a Renoir or a Van Gogh but I for one love artwork that has a a particular meaning to me. Whether it is a beautiful place I have visited depicted in art or some other piece to hang on my wall as a reminder of great memories.
4. Sell Used Books – Ok so probably most that you have in you house won’t bring in a pot of gold, but there is a growing business in selling second hand books, either online to specialist book resellers, or places like Amazon. If you find this a fascinating way to increase your income, you can start branching out and buying second hand books to resell… Have a read of this article that appeared in the Daily Mail (UK) This guy makes, on average, £2000 ($2500) a month from selling second hand books and only spends 10 hours a week doing it. He uses Amazon FBA – The books go off to Amazon, when they are sold, they are packed, shipped to the purchaser, all by Amazon. Food for thought…..
5. Photography – There is so much demand for photographs/images for online websites to add interest and detail to blogs, that almost any phootgraph has its place on an image website. I know this feeling as I struggle at times to find the right images for my blogs. There are websites we all go to, when looking for the perfect image and this can be quite a lucrative business. When they say you have to have an eye to be a photographer, I don’t really believe that, I think that anyone can take a good photo, if they are focused on what they are taking and why they are taking it. Do you like taking photos? Selling your photos is easy, take a look at shutterstock, Adobe Stock, Alamy, Istock or your own website?
6. Design Skills – Do you have skills in photoshop? or Illustrator? These are excellent skills that are in high demand for creating graphs, vectors, diagrams, drawings…. I have some skills with Illustrator so can make diagrams and drawings for my website but when its something more complicated, I hop over to Fiverr.com and find a designer to do it for me. Because their prices are so reasonable (takes them a few minutes to whip up a drawing) their prices aren’t too costly so there’s a lot of traffic going to fiverr.
7.Do you have green fingers? – Do you have a passion for plants? What kind? succulents? trees? bonsai? Easily shipped, you can sell from your own website, Ebay, Etsy. By shipping when still quite small they will survive the process and not add expense to the price of the plants. Succulents are big now. Once considered only outdoor rockery type plants, they are easy to look after, don’t require a lot of watering so even for someone like me, I can keep them alive!
8. Office Snacks – This is one of the latest trends… snacks specifically for the office workers to munch whilst working at their desks. These could be posted or delivered to local businesses. Chocolate nut balls, dried fruit medley, apple chip bars, almond brownies.
9. Ebook – They say everyone has a book in them. Well I had several ! Not on this subject but in my earlier life I made cakes… designer cakes and wrote books for Disney, for Disney cakes. I also wrote ebooks about babies…. mainly how to get them to sleep ! Do you have an idea for a book ? You can get a publisher, self publish or write an ebook. You need a platform to write it on and usually a pdf works well, but there is kindle – through amazon. I will be writing an article about how to write an ebook soon.
Where To Find Trending Products
So there are dozens of places to go to find a product to sell. This might not be a product you are actually going to buy to sell but get your ideas going and concentrate your thoughts onto what you want to sell. Go check out these places:-
Trendhunter / Trend Watching / Springwise / Uncrate / Aliexpress / Cool Material / More Inspiration / Cool Business Ideas
Try out the best sellers on Etsy, Amazon, Ebay, Sears, Walmart, Aliexpress.
Places to Sell
A great website is the first place to start with your products and thats were Wealthy Affiliate and myself comes in.
We can help you set up your ecommerce website ready for customers in a few short hours. Showing you where to find your audience, how to increase traffic and start bringing in a new income stream. Click the banner below to go check out Wealthy Affiliate, I will help you get yourself set up.
Amazon – If storage is a problem you can send all your stock to Amazon, and they will pack and ship when you sell. Clearly this is something you will pay for but you might decide that this is the easiest way for you to manage your business.
Ebay – Everyone loves ebay… Ive sold odd things through them but when you are doing it on a much larger scale, you can quicken the pace with their online tools. More intensive but better revenue.
Facebook – Free to sell on Facebook.
Etsy – Similar to Ebay but not an auction, you set the price but you also have the packing and shipping to sort out. Check it out, it is more up market than ebay or amazon and you find more artisan products there, great for a special present.
Craigslist – classified advertisements in sections selling your products, free to advertise.
Pinterest – Great for showing what you have got, very visual and a presence there will bring you traffic.
Leave me comments about my article, can I tell you more about how to sell online? Ask me questions !
Hi! This was an interesting read. I didn’t know there where so many options. I guess I’ll have to try a couple of these to see how they work for me. But right from the start, I think the best option will be to write ebooks. I like to read a lot and also like to write. I’ll be in expectation concerning this post you’ll write about how to write an ebook. I have heard a bit about Kindle from Amazon. This is a great way of making money. Thanks for suggesting it!
Thanks Henry, whilst there are so many places to get information and physical books are still very well used, the ebook market is rapidly increasing really due to the fact we are turning in a society that expects every thing right now. I will be doing ebooks soon !
Hi Quinn, Great post, really helps me understand some things I’ve being battling as regards this topic, thanks a lot!!! I have a question though, is it a good idea to sell products that do well on other sites but aren’t yet sold on sites such as amazon? And If so, are there any extra steps that I should take to make sure this completely new product does well.
Regards
Amazon is a good site to use, as they take away the issues of mass packing and shipping on low cost items, such as books etc but for products that are not sold on Amazon I would recommend a dedicated website is a good place to start along with Etsy which is used by all kinds of artisans selling their unique products. I think that there is a market for products like that, a good income can be made without using Amazon where there will be costs incurred.. Facebook for instance, adverts are free.
There are so many things we can sell online the list might literally be endless. I love how you even stated that you can sell yourself; as for me, being a personal trainer in one of my many endeavors requires just that; selling oneself. If you decided to sell your own products, would you combine it with affiliate marketing or set a separate niche site for affiliate marketing only?
I would not combine two sites. I have not recommended affiliate marketing in this article because I have other articles about affiliate marketing and wanted to offer the reader an article that was solely on their own products or services. There are a lot of people who are not interested in affiliate marketing but dont realise they have skills that they can legitimately make a decent income from, so this is why I would recommend not combining a website with their own products and affiliate products.
Hi, Gomer here, a home business coach. I am being asked by my clients about what to sell online and I usually reply to them that if they really want to make money online, they should sell something that’s not only high in demand but also with a desperate market like for example, a device for sleep apnea which solves the problem of difficulty in breathing while sleeping. I usually tell them that in today’s online marketing game, if buyers are not that desperate, it is harder to make a sale. Am I right with this mindset?
Hi Gomer, It is very wise to do due diligence before starting out selling a product. There has to be a market for it and not just a desire on the sellers part. But with a definite audience in mind before marketing the product, and an understanding on what the market is like for that product, you will make a sale, especially if you have added value to the product such as, to use your example, a sleep apnoea device that comes with a travel bag and antibac wipes. Makes your product stand out above others.
Must say that I am highly impressed with the colorful yet detailed outlook of the website. This website contains all the information that I needed to know about E-marketing. From right photos to links and the video. Great use of the visuals and graphics. Saw some of the great reviews that helped me finalize some of the purchases. Thanks to the author.
Thanks LK
Hey there!
Thanks for a great article. It is true that you can sell a lot of stuff online. You can also sell your skills as a freelancer on many sites. Photos are a great thing to sell as well! I think of selling some of mine. Which sites and what would you suggest I should look for when I sell photos?
Thanks!
Marios
Thanks Marios, I think people dont consider themselves as having anything to sell, but with thought and I hope reading my article, they will realise that there is huge potential. Photos are excellent and you can sell them on sites like istock, stockunlimited, dreamstime, adobe stock and these are only a few!
I haven’t focussed on selling my own products, because I had no idea what to sell, so I haven’t given selling something online much thought. Is it possible to even sell your own eBooks on the website you will be creating from the program you suggested? I’ve been thinking of selling ‘myself’ with a few pages, such as a guide that is related to the things I will cover on my website.
You have provided many options to choose from on what to sell online.
Thank you for this information and all the best to you.
Thanks Aabidah, you can sell your ebooks on your website – having an ebook that supports your website is a great idea!
They say that there are no such things as coincidences. Well today, I beg to differ. I have just finished making some preliminary notes in regard to ‘dropshipping’ This is all to do with me deciding to have a more ‘hands on’ approach to earning some extra revenue. I have been a long standing Ebay user and now have a decent amount of positive feedback to enable me to possibly diversify. Up till now iI have only ever sold items that Ii no longer need. In the past I have refurbished various electrical items for resale. Both of these can be problematic and don’t always command a good price. Is there no longevity in electrical products ? Buying from China seems to allow for a greater mark up so any ‘value loss’ could be taken into account, do you think ?
I’ve been thinking about seeing what else is out there that I could buy to resell. Now, I’m looking at not ‘holding’ any physical stock but using a website as a portal to sell others goods. I had no idea there was such a wealth of free tools available for choosing the right product. Also, I now have four very insightful questions to use to ‘vet’ any possibles, add to that, the list of ‘tools’ you have provided, my decision making process is now much simpler.
All that aside, your section on’ ebooks,’, has also piqued my interest. Ii know it sounds like I’m spreading myself too thinly but I do have a desire to write a novel. I had wondered if publishing it in ‘chapters’ within a website would have any benefits. Just as a way of testing the water maybe ? Or, is better to just write the whole thing and then look to publishing ?
Hello Twack, thanks so much for visiting my website and commenting! Electrical items lose value quickly because they are superseded by newer models, so for a good value product that you can sell long-term, electricals are not ideal. Along with the fact that many have warranties that will muddy the sales. Purchasing from China is a much better option for dropshipping, I would suggest getting samples first, check out the quality, ensure that the product needs no alterations/ modifications/adjustments. You then know by examining the product that you are happy to start selling.
As far as the ebook is concerned, Im going to be doing another article about them, but I would recommend writing the whole book and publishing… there is nothing stopping you releasing a chapter or a part of a chapter to any subscribers you have as a tester to gauge interest. Best of luck with your book !
I’ve heard about people making money by selling things online before but I’ve never bothered to try it myself. I really don’t know how to do it or get started.
Do I need a website? Or I can do it through Facebook and other social media? I don’t have that big of a following though so how can I approach people?
Thanks for your comments and questions Harry. I would recommend a website. If you have a good following on Facebook it helps but there are other forums on Facebook which are solely for selling stuff so you would be able add your products there. Its a good place to start, along with ebay to test the market for your products. For selling things like second hand books, I would highly recommend using a website dedicated to selling books, there are lots to choose from, as you tend not to get huge sums for most books so sending them in bulk is more advantageous.
The websites dedicated to selling artisan products are great to use, you don’t necessarily need a website at that stage but as time progresses and you get a few more, its ideal to have a showcase. You know when you find something online that you like on pinterest or google images, you go to the website to take a look at what else there might be, well thats the perfect scenario for selling your products.