AboutJim Novo Expertise Questions about using customer data to inmprove online profitability, particularly in retailing. Topics include profiling customers using weblogs, figuring out which ads generate the highest value customers, how to reduce the numnber of 1x buyers, how to generate higher sales from current customers, customer analysis, ROI calculation, reducing discounts while increasing resaponse rates. Do you collect customer data (purchases, page views, surveys) and not really use it for anything? Want to find out how? Just ask.
Experience
Past/Present clients Cellular One, MBNA, SteelTorch Software, Retek Direct, CBS Sportsline, Kobie Marketing, Aerial, Tupperware, Barnes and Noble, Comcast Corporation, Home Shopping Network
I have heard of these online programs in which the site sets you up with your 'own' website that contains their catalog of products. These products are largely discounted due to selling bulk and range from food, to electronics, to whatever. The sites are provided at a free or minimal cost and you 'as the owner/host' earn commission on the products sold via the site.
Now I have searched a while and nothing fits the description of a high quality online website, that I can market to people to come visit, free or very minimal fee, reliable, and I can earn commission from.
What is/are sites like these #if they exist# and where can I research them?
Answer These companies usually provide links to sample customer sites. If they don't, then I would not trust them.
I don't know which of these companies might be "the best" because I think the business model is a very poor one that most people never make any money from.
Sure, there is a low cost of entry because the company is simply making copies of the same site over and over. That cost them about 10 cents, and to host it about $1 a month.
The problem with this model is the same as the benefit they promise, think about it for a minute. Sure, they "buy in bulk" but that means you are selling the exact same products for the exact same prices as 1000 or 10,000 or more other people.
Practically, what this means is you will have to pay for traffic, since you won't get any "natural" traffic from the search engines - your store, being the newest, will rank last of the 1000 or 10,000 on a Google Search, if it ranks at all (search engines don;t like "copies").
Which means you will have to buy traffic through pay-per-click. You set up an account and when you go to set your bids, you find out there are already 1000 or 10,000 people there bidding against you, which means the traffic costs will be really high - probably more than you will make on the products you sell.
It can be done, but it requires a great deal of skill to make this business model work for you, the odds are stacked against you.
You *can* make money selling products on the web, but the key is to find products that nobody else is selling or are selling poorly. That way when people search from them, you rank highly and get the traffic free. How?
1. Create a product. The easiest way to do this is to write a e-book on something you really know a lot about, a hobby or something. "How to repair a '65 Mustang" or "How to build a double-decker bird house" or "How to cheat on a video game". Write a software program, a recipe book for a specialized audience, whatever.
2. If you can't create a product, find a local business that is creating unique products and ask them if you can sell these products on the web for them. Then split the profits with them.
This is the reality of the web. The more unique it is, the easier it is to get buyers. the trick is to find something that is unique but at the same time has enough traffic to create a business for you. How do you figure this out?
Look at how many people are searching for the product idea you are considering by using the Google Search Tool:
By the way, this is the same tool you would use if you were going to buy Ads targeted to your searchers, so not only can you figure out what demand for a product might be, that leads you right into buying ads for the same traffic. You will need to do this until you are up and running for awhile and the search engines find you and put you in their listings.
