Your Dropshipping Resource Center

Starting an eBay Business

2008-12-08T09:02:00.000-08:00

Drop shipping VS. Wholesale

Starting an eBay business is very involved. More so, than most people think. If you haven't already, go back and read Page 1 on starting with eBay.

Now that we have covered what not to sell, lets talk about what you should sell. You want to pick categories of items that are already HOT! Do not go for something obscure that only 5% of the population would know about...go for something that most people are interested in or have at least has heard of. For your eBay business, you will want to target an audience, for example, Webkinz (electronic pets) are hot right now, so your target audience would be elementary and junior high aged children (both boys and girls). Or you may be interested in selling automobile parts, which would make your target audience may be predominantly males, ages 16-50, for example. If you know who you are selling to, it will be much easier to actually sell.

Here is a list of the most popular search categories online:

· Antiques

· Dolls & bears

· Travel

· Art

· Books

· CD's

· DVD's

· Automotive parts

· Consumer electronics

· Computers

· Office supply

· Travel

· Books

· Gifts

· Software

· Apparel & accessories

· Tickets

· Coins

· Stamps

· Toys & hobbies

· Jewelry & watches

In order to give you a better idea of what types of items your eBay business should sell, we have compiled a list of great niche ideas, and they are as follows:

Antique Reproductions
Apparel & Accessories
Appliances
Art Reproductions
As Seen On TV
Automotive Parts & Accessories
Baby Products
Bags/Backpacks
Baskets
Bathroom Accessories
Batteries
Beads
Beauty & Barber Supplies
Binoculars
Books
Brassware
Briefcases
Calculators
Cameras & Supplies
Camping Equip & Accessories
Candles
Candy/Confectionery
Caps/Headwear
Cellular Products & Acc.
Ceramics (kitchenware)
Christmas Items
Cigarette Lighters
Cleaning Products
Clocks
Closeouts
Collectibles
Computer Parts & Supplies
Convenience Store Items
Cookware
Cosmetics
Crafts & Hobby Items
Crystal
Cutlery
Novelties
Office Supplies
Organizers & Planners
Outerwear
Paintball Games Supplies
Paints & Painting Supplies
Party Supplies
Perfumes & Fragrances
Pet Products
Pewter Items
Picture Frames
Plasticware
Plush Toys
Porcelain
Posters
Potpourri
Vitamins
Wallets

Decorative Accessories
Dollar Store Items
Dolls
Domestics
Electronics
Figurines
Flags
Floral & Supplies
Food Products/Snacks
Footwear
Framed Prints/Pictures
Fund Raising Items
Garden Products
Gemstones
Giftware
Gloves
Greeting Cards
Hair Accessories
Handbags
Hardware
Health & Beauty
Herbal Products
Home Furnishings
Hosiery
Houseware
Inflatables
Jewelry
Key rings/Chains
Knives (Kitchen)
Knives (Sporting)
Lamps/Lighting
Leather Goods
Licensed Products
Lingerie
Luggage
Magnets
Military Surplus
Mirrors
Musical Boxes
Pottery
Replica Arms & Armor
Rugs & Mats
Safety & Security Products
School Supplies
Shopping Bags
Smoking Accessories
Sporting Goods/ Sportswear
Stationery
Stickers & Decals
Store Displays
Sunglasses & Accessories
T-Shirts
Tapestries/Quilts
Tools
Toys
Watches

Now that we have covered what to sell, we need to discuss where you will get your items from. Dropshipping is a great way to start your eBay business because it minimizes risk. Not only do you not have to pay upfront for the goods, but you don't have to bother with shipping the item either. It is a quick and easy way to get yourself out there, and begin getting customer feedback. The drawback would be that you will not be able to compete as much as you would probably like to with the other sellers out there. When you are using dropshipping, you must use their given prices as your starting point, but you must also add in any drop ship fees, listing fees, and shipping costs associated with the product.

However, if you decide to go with wholesale items that you purchase first in bulk, you have much more control over shipping costs, pricing etc. There really is no right or wrong answer with an eBay business...it is just what ever you are comfortable with. You will notice there are powersellers in each category, so it is really up to you. We recommend using wholesale if you are comfortable with that, and can afford to shell out the cash first. You will increase your profit margin many times over, and also have unique photographs to post, and not the same ones other people might be using also.

Affiliate Networks and Drop Shipping

2008-12-08T08:32:00.000-08:00

Affiliate networks are an invaluable resource in driving a high volume of traffic to your website. As previously stated, successful marketing practices are what is going to feed your dropship business. The networks provide your business with multiple advantages. The first main advantage is that you could literally establish an army of affiliates, ready to promote your website, OVERNIGHT! It sounds too good to be true, but it's not. Once you go live on the network, you will be listed under whatever category and subcategory you specify. Immediately attracting marketers with websites and adWords campaigns.

There are a handful of well known networks, and probably 10 times as many not-so-well know networks. Below we have listed our favorites:

· Share-a-sale.com

· Cj.com

· Darkblue.com

· Clickbooth.com

· Linkshare.com

· Performics.com

· Clixgalore.com

· ***Abestweb.com

***This is not an actual affiliate network, but rather an affiliate forum---THE affiliate forum, where all the big hitters are. If you have an affiliate program, you MUST have it advertised on abestweb.com! You won't regret it!

Although each of these programs has their own rules and pricing, they are all great affilite networks, it is just finding the one for your website. However, we highly recommend ShareaSale.com. They are praised time and again on AbestWeb, and from doing our own research, we have found them to be not only affordable, but also extremely helpful in the set-up process, and works seemlessly with almost any shopping cart system. We used it with a Yahoo store, and the setup was literally minutes..not hours or days.

Doba

2008-12-08T08:18:00.000-08:00

The Drop shipping Details

Doba is one the largest wholesale supplier/dropshipping company on the web! They provide their retailers with over 1,200,000 products from hundreds of suppliers to promote, sell and profit from. In addition to providing a one-stop shop for products to drop ship, they also provide services such as advanced tools, data export, Push to Marketplace (eBay integration), intricate training and learning materials. They offer professional, quality product pictures, detailed descriptions, guarenteed lowest wholesale prices, and have everything on their site in stock about 90% of the time.

Pro's	Con's
1,200,000 Products	Thousands of marketers
eBay integration	Costs extra for that feature (not included in regular monthly fee)
Beautiful photos and descriptions	n/a
Beautiful, name brand products	Some prices aren't as competitive as marketers would like
Tools and online learning support	Some are included in monthly fee, others are an additional cost
Many products, so saturation isn't likely	The name brand products (more popular products) are most likely saturated on eBay already.

Drop Ship Legalities

2008-12-07T11:16:00.001-08:00

When starting your business, it is very important to do it right, by getting all of the drop ship legalities together FIRST! By drop ship legalities we are referring to your tax id number/resale license (or sellers permit depending on the state). If you skip this very important step and try to begin selling first, you will find many pot holes in the road along the way. Starting with this way first not only makes it legitimate, but it also makes it more "real" for you, and opens up a lot more doors.

*** NOTE: A true dropshipper will not work with any company that does not have a t.i.d. number.

By drop ship legalities, we are referring to really only 1 main legal process you need to go through while setting up your business. And that again is getting a tax id number. In order to get this you must decide if you are going to be a sole prop., an incorporation, a limited liabilty corp., etc. Once you know this, and you have your address (yes it must be a physical address not a P.O. box) you can fill out the online form and get a number within minutes. It is really quite simple. Just go to your state's site, or checkout legalzoom.com.

The importance of this step cannot be overlooked, as ALL of the "true" dropshippers require this because they have to report to their state with their tax information. When a drop ship company is dealing to a reseller (that's you), they do not charge tax on the products, they leave that up to you to do, and for you to pay Uncle Sam. Companies that do not require your legal information are probably not legitimate wholesale dropshippers.

Selling on eBay

2008-12-07T11:10:00.000-08:00

Drop ship VS. Wholesale

Anyone who is looking to start a business on eBay has one very important decision to make before they can begin...and that is where are they going to get their products? Although there are many different ways to get products to sell, because of the new laws that state you cannot sell for another person on an auction site unless you have an auctioneers licence...this really leaves you with 2 choices. You either go with a dropshipping business, or you buy first via a wholesaler. In order to make this very important decision, you must first decide what you want to sell.

Many people make the mistake of wanting to either:

a.) sell electronics

b.) sell only one type of thing

It is critical when selling on eBay, to be diverse, cheap, and you must be sure to play by the rules...or else you may lose your thriving business. Playing by the rules means, not selling products below M.A.P (manufacturers approved price), and selling exactly what you are promoting....not a knock off. One sure way to know whether or not the dropshipping or wholesale site you are thinking of parnering with is a scam, or the real-deal, is by looking at their electronics (if they sell them). The major manufactorers of products like Apple iPhones, Dell computers, wii video game consoles, etc., they do NOT sell to small companies, and ONLY supply large corporations with several hundred thousand dollar orders at a time. That means scammers like dropshipdesign.com who promote themselves as a wholesale dropshipper selling name brand electronics, are really NOT wholesalers at all.

Page 2 ---->

Dropship Secrets

2008-12-07T11:06:00.000-08:00

We are letting the cat out of the bag...We have some dropship secrets that will EXPLODE your business. Secrets other marketers don't want you to know, because well...they work! First of all we want to share with you our picks for great site ideas. These ideas can be easily made into highly profitable niche websites. All you have to do is find a supplier and create your store .

The second dropship secret may come as a shock to you. Afterall, this is a dropshipping website. However, dropshipping and purchasing wholesale go hand in hand, and we will show you how. It would not be difficult for you to create a website/store using both dropshipped products and wholesale products you ship yourself. To start out you might not want to buy first, but after you are up and running, you just might. The advantage to buying first is that you get cheaper prices, and have more control. We will disclose to you a top secret list of China imports that you can use to get sought after items, for pennies on the dollar. So let's begin with our first dropship secret...

Below is a list of 93 niche website ideas:

• Antiques

• Home security

• Obesity help

• Spyware remover

• Retirement planning

• Child sponsorship

• Private Schools

• Flooring

• Tooth whitening

• Sprinkler systems

• Affiliate marketing

• Restaurants

• Gifts • Wheelchairs

• Ringtones

• Psychology

• Athletic training

• Furniture

• Sunscreen

• Model railroads

• Cosmetics

• Dog breeding

• Chiropractors

• Area rugs

• Hair Care

• Financial analysts

• Celebrities

• Jazz music

• Landscaping

• Car rental

• Comic books

• Theme parks

• Soccer

• Fly fishing

• Apartments

• Dancewear

• Distance Learning

• Mutual funds

• Engineering

• Scuba diving

• Senior citizens

• Astronomy

• Wine

• Surfing

• Pottery & ceramics

• Car tires

• Home Schooling

• Paper shredders

• Natural disasters

• Assisted living

• Calligraphy

• Manufactured Homes

• Business Coaching

• Taxes help

• Swimming pools

• Event planning

• Waste removal

• Disability insurance

• Termites

• Luggage

• As Seen On TV

• Christmas

• Diamonds

• Photography

• Depression

• Bicycles

• Horses

• Opera

• Space Tourism

• Cosmetic surgery

• Sales & marketing

• Sports cars

• Watches

• Auto racing

• Daycare

• Luxury resorts

• Catering

• Sewing

• College degrees

• Human Resources

• Civil law

• Scrapbooking

• Fireplaces

• Cabinets

• Graphic Design

• Woodworking

• Computer programming

• Vacuum cleaners

• Quilting

• Digital video recorders

• Timeshares

• Charitable organizations

• Industrial equipment

• Job search

• Handbags

• Batteries

Now let's look at the other dropship secrets we have decided to reveal...wholesale buying from China imports. Although, again it may not be something you are interested in NOW, once your business is up and running, you may decide to switch over and do wholesale as well.

Import List:

cyberimport.com

dhgate.com

aliba.com

chinatoday.com

howtobuyinchina.com

chinaimportsecret.com

chinabrightstar.com

Dropship Websites and Store Providers

2008-12-07T11:02:00.000-08:00

Dropship websites require merely a nice looking site, that is clean and both human and spider friendly. There really isn't anything "special" about them as compared with a website that sells and ships the products themselves. Listed below are several really good website/ shopping cart providers. Our favorite provider of both a website and shopping cart is Yahoo. They provide beautiful, easy-to-use websites, that can easily be customized to make it as unique as you are. They are relatively inexpensive and have a great library of learning resources if you are new and do not have much experience with HTML, Java, etc.

volusion.com

easystorecreator.com

dynamicstorefront.com

onlinestorefronts.com

smallbusiness.yahoo.com

storefront.net

ecommerce.networksolutions.com

digitalstorefronts.com

americommerce.com

Drop Shipping Tips

2008-12-07T10:58:00.000-08:00

Listed below, are 17 drop shipping tips or essentials, that you absolutely MUST take into account, before choosing a supplier. And yes, it might seem like a daunting task when choosing a supplier considering all that should be taken into account, but it is the most important piece of the puzzle.

It is extremely important to qualify your sources before doing business with them. After all, you essentially become their customer. Remember, your reputation with consumers can easily be affected by the performance of your suppliers - They can be your greatest asset, or your worst enemy very quickly. Take a deep breath and try to relax………researching the best suppliers when launching your drop shipping business can be a lot of fun!

We have spent years searching the internet high and low for the best wholesale suppliers. In our opinion, the best source available today for ecommerce wholesale is www.worldwidebrands.com. Their OneSource software tool allows savvy online retailers to save valuable time and frustration when selecting the best suppliers. Each and every supplier is qualified through the strict OneSource program, so you know you’re dealing with legitimate businesses. Also, the software application allows you to look at keywords, consumer demand, competition and market research conducted by professionals that are closely connected with the wholesale world of ecommerce.

17 Drop Shipping Tips

That Will Make or Break Your Business

- Are they integrated with eBay? This will make your job a whole lot easier if you are looking to have an eBay store or auction.

- Do they offer data feeds? Save yourself tons of time and frustration....try to go with suppliers that have a data feed so you can easily bulk upload their resources onto your site. This will get your drop shipping business started almost instantly!

- Are they a “blind” drop shipper? A blind drop shipper will ship the products under your companies name, NOT their own. If they do not blind drop ship....what is the point???

- Does the supplier allow you to use their pictures and descriptions? If the answer to this question is no, you are not using a legitimate supplier...so RUN!

- Do they offer price guarantees/matching? Although Doba claims to do this, many people have stated otherwise. Price matching is good...but you do not have a good chance of finding it.

- Do they offer brand name products? What do the people want? Give the people what they want...and the money will come. If they do not offer name brand products, then how do they compare? Will people on eBay buy your nameless sneakers for the same price as the other guy selling Sketchers? Do your homework....don't just jump on the first good supplier you come accross.

- Do they offer educational training or multi media sources? Again---our FAVORITE source, OneSource, offers a tremendous training package to help you get your business started. This is a great asset to you, and you should look for sources with this tool.

- Do they offer a toll free number with customer service support? If you have a customer with lots of questions, who is willing to buy, but needs a few answers....or a customer with a shipping issue, or WHATEVER, you must have a telephone number for which you can call them to get your questions answered in a reasonable amount of time. If email is the only means of communication...you may want to check them out of RipoffReport.com or bbbonline.org. Chances are good that they are a scam and not a legitimate company.

- Do they offer sample products for you to test? Some companies will do this...but it isn't a necessity. Just make sure you can see pictures or order a product yourself.

- What type of payment methods are acceptable? You will want to know if they accept credit cards, PayPal, cashiers check, or what? Some companies will only do one or the other.

- Do they have a good reputation with the BBB? Always important...for your safety and your potential customers.

- How quickly is the order fulfilled? 2-3 business days, 4-5 business days, 1-2 weeks....VERY IMPORTANT when selling on eBay especially.

- How much do they charge for shipping and are there drop ship fees? These are factors you will have to take into consideration when calculating the cost per item...that is, if you want to make a profit!

- Is there a minimum order requirement? If yes, is it reasonable? If no, GREAT!

- Does the supplier offer true wholesale pricing? You can figure that out by doing research on a few of the items they have listed. If you can find them for much cheaper...then the answer is No.

- Are their products readily available and in stock? They should disclose this information on their FAQ pages, and if it isn't listed, contact them. You really have to know this especially for eBay.

- Does the supplier offer a back order system? Again....if doing eBay, you want to know these answers, otherwise you will get VERY bad reviews by customers, and may potentially get kicked off.

The Drop Ship System

2008-12-07T10:44:00.000-08:00

I have laid out the perfect Drop Ship System that will not only generate natural search traffic to your site, but also will take much of the guesswork out of knowing where to begin. Starting a business requires a lot of time, money and research. Many people give up because they don’t have 1 or all of these. I was always searching the internet for a way to make a legitimate income, never realizing that all the money I had been blowing on e-books, software and scripts (I didn’t know how to use), would never get me anywhere but farther in debt. One day, as I was researching all of the internet gurus and reading how they make like $70,000 a day doing affiliate programs, or creating websites, I stumbled across Site Build It. After reading the testimonials and all about Ken Envoy and his elite team, I knew this was the ONLY way for my wife and me to be able to make a living online (the first piece of the drop ship system). We have zero background in computers, technology, HTML, etc. We didn’t even know what a data feed was when we started...but that was okay because the S.B.I. system holds your hand and does all it all for you. They even tell you:

~How many keywords to use per page,

~How long the description should be,

~How and where to place links,

~What keyword placement works the best to generate natural search traffic

~And the list goes on and on.

Once we started using S.B.I. and began generating visitors almost immediately, we decided it was time to monetize. And this is where the "perfect Drop Ship System" was born! You can monetize using this system in lots of different ways. The most popular method of course being affiliate marketing, but it doesn’t have to stop there. You can also sell products, either your own, or you can drop ship them. Taking the power and know-how of Site Build it, and combining it with the largest wholesale directory on the web, makes for one killer combination.

Worldwide Brands provides not only legitimate wholesale drop shippers and small/large bulk suppliers, but they also have a market research tool, which takes all of the guess work out of trying to find products that will not only be “niche” but very profitable as well. You could literally spend years searching the internet looking for drop shippers and come up so far short of what Worldwide Brands has created (their drop ship system). That is because they spend thousands upon thousands of dollars for wholesale lists and they research each and every company listed. They are ensuring not only their integrity, but the integrity of your business, and anyone else who uses them for their supplier directory.

Combining the two is quite simple. You can easily open a store with S.B.I. and begin placing the products you wish to drop ship on there with the professional photos and descriptions provided to you from your supplier. You could literally have a legitimate business up and running over the weekend by simply following this drop ship system! We do suggest that you first get traffic driven to your site, before you open a store. Site Build It suggests you do the following:

Content-->Traffic-->Pre-sell-->Monetize

And in that order. If you try to skip ahead and go straight to monetize before you have the traffic and have pre-sold your readers, you will miss out on tons of free, natural search traffic. That is because the search engines may penalize you for having outbound links too quickly. For this reason alone, we suggest waiting until your S.B.I site is up and running and generating at least 30 visitors per day, before you open your store and integrating the drop ship system. While you wait and allow the visitors to come though, you can be getting your drop ship suppliers in order and have all of the graphics and descriptions ready to go, so when you hit your goal of 30 per day, you can monetize instantly! I will tell you that for several of our sites, we hit the 30 visitors per day mark in about 1 month. Results vary for everyone, but that has been typical for us.

My wife and I feel very passionately about Site Build It, and truly believe that anyone who wants to make a living online, who uses S.B.I and follows Ken’s instructions will not be disappointed. We receive checks in the mail at least twice a month from our S.B.I. sites and it has been excellent supplemental income for our family. Unlike a traditional business which requires lots of time, money and research, using Site Build It and Worldwide Brands you are saving yourself from needing all of these. The two companies save you tons of time by doing much of the research for you, and they save you money because their prices are ridiculously low considering all that they do for you and enable you to do. This is truly the perfect drop ship system. I really can’t say enough about either of these two companies, and hope you too will have the same (or better) success than we have had.

Wholesale or Drop Shipping..you be the judge

2008-12-07T10:36:00.000-08:00

Drop shipping or wholesale??? The question is a hot topic online right now. Although most people online seem to focus on drop shipping...it is not the only option for someone looking to open their own ecommerce website. Buying wholesale (in bulk) is another great option. You would be buying first and selling later. Although there is a risk involved the profit margin is much greater than drop shipping…well, sometimes! I say sometimes because the drop shippers you will find on One Source are selling their products wholesale. However, you will be the one receiving the “handling” fees and shipping the products, which is where some companies “get you”.

Buying bulk items wholesale can give you a huge advantage. Not only will you have more flexibility with your prices (because typically bulk is much cheaper than buying one at a time) but you will also have the capability to ship the items yourself. Shipping the items yourself does require more time spent on your end than drop shipping does, but with shipping the items yourself you will more easily be able to answer customers questions about when something should be arriving, and you will be spending less money for the shipping and “handling” fees.

From my own personal experience, I typically tell people to start with drop shipping, and evolve into buying bulk….but that isn’t for every item, and every person. There are some products that it just doesn’t make sense to buy in bulk. An example would be electronics. You will not find legitimate name brand products being drop shipped or sold in bulk. That is because the big companies/ manufacturers such as Nintendo (for example) will sell only to large businesses in bulk orders of several hundred thousand dollars…and no less.

You would be successful with buying shoes in bulk. Shoes like Sketchers sneakers (for example) would be a profitable investment. There are sites where you can buy a skid load of sneakers for only a few hundred dollars…your profit potential would be huge! It just all depends on 2 personal qualities. The first one being upfront capital…if you have it, great! If not, then stick with drop shipping. The second one being, are you willing to take a risk? If you aren’t able to financially handle a loss then again, stick with drop shipping, and leave buying in bulk to the people who can afford it. There really is no right or wrong answer here. It is simply what you prefer and what you can handle.

How Worldwide Brands Works

2008-12-07T10:24:00.000-08:00

To get started, I want to walk you through how Worldwide Brands works. First off, you must log in to the secure members only area. Next you can either browse through their library of valuable resources and videos, or you can click the launch button and go straight to OneSource. Once you have entered the directory, you can choose a category or a search word/ phrase (or both). I decided to use only a keyword, no category. The keyword phrase I used is “As Seen on TV” (which is listed on our Dropship Secrets page). As of today (01/04/08) there are:

2 Drop Ship Wholesalers

2 Light Bulk Wholesalers

1 Instant Import Buys

5 Liquidation Auctions

Although the numbers are quite low compared to other searches (like “camera”, which has over 700 suppliers), this is definitely a profitable niche. I know it is profitable because of the Market Research Tool, which rates every search I do, and tells me what the profitability is for that product. And in this case, it is 70% profitable, which means I have a very good chance of making money from this particular niche product.

What about the suppliers? You ask. Well I can assure you, they are the “real deal”. One of the sites alone has several thousand “As Seen on TV” items ready to be drop shipped.

Another niche we have previously discussed is home schooling. So I typed “home schooling resources” into the keyword bar and hit search. What came up was not all that surprising. There was only:

1 Drop Ship Wholesalers

1 Light Bulk Wholesalers

And the Research Analysis Tool gave it a 22% profitability margin. This alone tells me to move on and keep looking.

Using One Source is a really quick and easy way to take an idea, research it, and if it gets a good profitability score, to go with it, and begin selling! I have not found any source on the web that even compares to what Worldwide Brands is offering.

One Source

2008-12-07T09:10:00.000-08:00

One Source (a.k.a. Worldwide Brands) is by far the largest drop shipping directory in the world---and there is NO ONE like them! With their lifetime membership (a one time fee), you get access to over 3,000,000 million wholesale products from more than 9,000 suppliers worldwide! The O.S. team does their homework, spending over $1,000,000 a year on researching their suppliers. One tremendously helpful feature they offer is the market research tool, which will actually analyze the product(s) you are searching for in their directory, and tell you the profitability of that product. They even tell you what the current eBay bids are, the supply vs. demand of the product, how many pages are listed on Google, and Yahoo, etc. This is the only source you'll ever need for:

√ Drop Ship Wholesalers

√ Light Bulk Wholesalers

√ Instant Import Buys

√ Liquidation Wholesalers

√ Large Volume Wholesalers

√ Daily Wholesaler Updates

√ Instant Market Research

The market analysis tool is one of the best tools on the web to help you determine the profitability of the products you are interested in drop shipping or selling wholesale. You will have access to websites and suppliers found in no other directory on the internet.

Compared to Doba and Simplx, One Source is not only more comprehensive, because it gives you more options (new suppliers that aren't already saturated with other marketers promoting them) they also have a lifetime membership. That means you only have to pay a one time fee to join. And that fee is only $299!

Worldwide Brands is the only wholesale supplier publisher that is certified by eBay. This Drop Shipping Source has everything you need to succeed. Giving you all the tools you need to launch your dropship business...and become a Powerseller on eBay.

Marketing- Shopping Comparison Sites

2008-12-07T09:08:00.000-08:00

Shopping Comparison Sites are creating a *HUGE* opportunity for anyone starting a dropshipping business. According to the Winterberry Group; by 2009, B2C (business to comsumer) e-commerce sales are forecasted to reach $298 billion, and comparison shopping sites are expected to influence $25 billion of that projection. Also, a recent AOL survey found that 27% of online shoppers described themselves as comparison shoppers or researchers, up from 23% in 2007.

Shopping Comparison sites are a great way to market your products and get your dropshipping business going. You can go from no traffic, to a flood of traffic overnight by simply joining sites like NexTag, Amazon, GoogleBase, etc. Although most are pay per click's, if you are smart and invest your time into seeing which items are profitable, and which are bleeding you dry, you WILL succeed on the comparison sites. Amazon, for example, will let you create your own store to sell your products, you don't even have to have your own website. Here is a sample list:

Amazon.com

Become.com

BizRate.com

BuyersEdge.com

CNET Shopper

.com

Froogle

Google Base

*This is a MUST for any budget because GoogleBase does NOT charge pay-per-click fee's. It is completely free to use and is instant traffic.

Microsoft adCenter

Microsoft Live Se

arch

MSN Shopping

mySimon.com

NexTag

Performics

PriceGrabber.com

PriceRunner

Pronto

SHOP.COM

ShopLocal

Shopping.com

Shopzilla

Smarter.com

SortPrice

Yahoo! Shopping

dealtime.com

pricingcentral.com

probargainhunter.com

slingshop.com

Traffic Building Tips (page 2)--->

Dropship Source Directory

2008-12-07T09:04:00.000-08:00

When starting a dropshipping business, a Dropship Source Directory is key. Finding a good supplier is by far the most important part of the puzzle..and also the hardest. Using a Directory is really the only way to compare and analyze who is out there. As long as you have a good supplier, with good pictures, descriptions and pricing, the rest will fall into place (granted you know HOW to market). Here we will briefly describe each supplier in our Dropship Source Directory, and the pros and cons of each.

Doba

Doba® is one the largest wholesale supplier/dropshipping company on the web! They provide their retailers with over 1,200,000 products from hundreds of suppliers to promote, sell and profit from. In addition to providing a one-stop shop for products to drop ship, they also provide services such as advanced tools, data export, Push to Marketplace (eBay integration), intricate training and learning materials. They offer professional, quality product pictures, detailed descriptions, guarenteed lowest wholesale prices, and have everything on their site in stock about 90% of the time.

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One Source

One Source (a.k.a. Worldwide Brands is by far the largest dropship source directory in the world! With their lifetime membership (a one time fee), you get access to over 3,000,000 million wholesale products from more than 9,000 suppliers worldwide! One tremendously helpful feature One Source offers is the market research tool, which will actually analyze the product(s) you are searching for in their directory, and tell you the profitability of that product.

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Dropshipping Wholesalers

Dropshipping Wholesalers is an exclusive membership site, which gives access to over 500,000 products. Not to mention 10 ultra secret Chinese wholesalers, and over 600 of the worlds best wholesale dropshippers. With this directory you are granted lifetime access to all of their resources, and do not have to worry about "everyone else on the web" having the exact same information. This is because they are only offering this as a limited time offer. You will also have access to eBay ad wizard, and many other great features.

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Simplx

Simplx, like Doba® offers you a one stop shop at the cost of a monthly fee. They currently have over 60,000,000 products, eBay integration, up to 95% off retail prices and millions of name brand products. All of the drop ship products they offer, are brand new and have manufacturers warranties. Unlike Doba and One Source, Simplx has a screening process before they will accept new marketers to use their products. Once you go to their site, and fill out the application, they then ask for your credit card information....which causes many people to lose interest. This is the only major dropship source directory/supplier that asks for an application fee ($20). This fee is non-refundable, so whether or not they grant you access, they still pocket your $20. There are many pro's and con's to that system. First of all, it does elliminate competition, because most people aren't willing to invest even $20 into their business....which is not very much money when you consider starting a traditional, brick and morter business. And as they state on their site, they do this to elliminate market saturation on sites such as eBay.

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What Is Drop Shipping?

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Drop shipping is an extremely profitable way to do business, however it is not nearly as well known in the online community as other revenue generating programs such as affiliate marketing.

Drop shipping means that you sell wholesale products but are not responsible for the production, inventory or shipping. In short, you would take orders and payments for products sold on your retail website, forward these orders on to the supplier. The items are shipped directly to your customer. You pocket the difference between the retail and the wholesale cost of the merchandise!!

It's that simple. You market wholesale products and make money on each and every sale. There is no need to invest any money for inventory before it is sold. This lets you devote all of your time to what you do best: selling! You also get these great benefits:

No losses on unsold goods
No packing and shipping expenses
No warehouse costs
Zero inventory to keep
Sell unlimited products
Reduce risk by selling first
Sell to a global audience

5 Drop Shipping Essentials

1.) Domain Name

2.) Hosting Company

3.) Shopping Cart

4.) Merchant Account

5.) Wholesale Supplier(s)

Marketing Products

a.) Have their own web store

b.) Use eBay® (either with an eBay® Store or auction)

There are plenty of advantages and disadvantages to both scenarios...let's compare:

eBay®	Your own web store
220 million registered users	You must generate your own traffic
Tons of competition	Only your products are shown
Very little cost involved	Hosting fees, merchant account fees, marketing fees
No personal affiliate program	Have an in-house or network program
Must be very competitive with prices	You are in complete control of the pricing for your products