|
So, you may recognize me from my other thread about selling my business. Lots of questions were raised, and I hope I have answered this with this post. If not, leave replies below and I'll answer them as best I can. Hopefully other's will chime in as well, because more peeps means more knowledge. linky to old thread: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3562914 I AM NOT AN EXPERT, THIS IS JUST WHAT I HAVE LEARNED AND MAY BE WRONG AND/OR OUTDATED (but I don’t think so) Also, don’t be a NAGGER and try to break into my niche. I will kill you. Just kidding… No, really, I will. Let’s begin: In the 4 Hour Work Week (which I highly recommend all you NAGGERs read, it’s cheap as gently caress on Amazon, and illegally free elsewhere, and if you are poor and have morals, PM me and I’ll Amazon you a copy (up to 10 goons)***EDIT*** I ended up sending out about 30 copies, then decided it best to stop. If you're ethical and motivated, I'm sure you can come up with the $14 dollars***), Tim Ferris talks about the concept of a muse. This is a short recap. The goal: do whatever you want. Doing whatever you want requires money, so you get a job. Jobs then take huge amounts of your own time away in exchange for this money. Jobs also tie you to a particular place, which is just as bad as taking your time away. Jobs suck, but there is an alternative: a muse. A muse is anything that will generate you income without wasting too much of your time. Keep in mind that some time is required to maintain them, but it is usually quite low compared to a regular job. The best way to picture this is by calculating: (dollars earned)/ (time used). Most people receive an hourly wage. Let’s say $20/hour or $800/week at 40 hours. Now, if we had a muse that made the same $800/week but only took 4 hours to manage that week, the effective rate is $200/hour; a much better trade off. My take on this is to have a business that, once started, will be automated and streamlined enough that very little work actually needs to be done. This is possible, and easily attainable to anyone who is motivated enough to follow through and take action. The rest of this guide will talk about making money online. The reason is that I feel this is the best medium to reach a lot of customers and the best medium to automate a process. So, let’s begin. ===================================== Basic overview of making money online ===================================== So, there are several ways to make money online. All involve selling a product or service. The basic idea is that the farther you get away from the product the less money you make, but you also have the added benefit of less customer hassle and less business management. This is a general rule, and is subject to change based on your particular situation. So, let’s begin with a general summary of internet business ideas, starting furthest away from the product. Simple advertising: This is simply running a successful blog or website with high enough traffic that you can make a reasonable profit from advertising alone. It should be noted that simply putting up Google adsense is not enough. To be profitable, you must learn the entire platform of AdSense and tailor the ads to your website. There are also methods of identifying niche blogs that would gain more traffic than a random “good idea”, so if using this approach sound due diligence should be practiced before starting the blog. Pros: a. Just about the easiest way to start making money. b. Can be started in any niche of passion. Does not have to be related to a product. c. Can be a great way to build a ‘list’. (Lists can be used to make lots of cash through JVs (joint ventures) by broadcasting a sales letter and splitting profit.) d. If there are applicable products that can be pushed, this is an excellent way to make a hybrid business by combining affiliate advertising. Cons: a. While money can be high, it will most likely not be enough to free you from a 9-5. b. To maintain a readership, frequent posting is often needed. I.e. 1-2 posts per week. c. Advertising the blog is typically not an option, so this business is based chiefly on Google search rankings and can take some time to rank for a specific keyword phrase. (and to build readership and make money) Affiliate advertising: Rather than get paid for someone clicking on an ad, you get paid a commission of a product if it sells. This is done through a special link or ad on your website that contains tracking information so that if someone clicks on it, they are then taken to, let’s say, amazon.com and if they buy the product you are awarded a commission of the product. This is usually somewhere between 5-15% of the total sales price. However, affiliate programs outside of Amazon have been known to be as high as 75% (such as online degrees). Others offer a flat rate, such as giving $200 every time someone signs up for a special credit card deal. The way people typically capitalize on this type of business is to create a blog or review site in a specific niche and write about these products; then providing the affiliate link if someone chooses to buy. Pros: a. No customer support b. No initial investment c. Substantial increase in profit over ‘Simple Advertising’ business concept d. Lower maintenance than ‘Simple Advertising’ business concept e. Can be combined with the above business concept (and motherfucking should) Cons: a. Relies heavily on Google organic search ranking b. Total profit, while significantly higher than above, is severely limited. This makes paid advertising usually not an option. So, money sucks, brah Information Products: This is where it’s at. Ideally. (provided you don’t vomit poo poo into an ebook and try to sell it) This is where you identify a niche that could benefit from an information product, let say: how to make pasta. You then research, then write a guide/ebook around this niche. It’s important to note a few things. First of all, this is not a gimmick. You must really research, and write the best possible guide to the best of your ability. Additionally, this is going to be a legitimate business and must be treated as such. Alsoooo, don’t be afraid of writing about a niche you know very little about. Often a newb will write the best beginner guide due to their understanding of someone’s complete lack of experience in said niche. So, pros and cons: Pros: a. Huge profitability. If done with electronic delivery, margins are near complete profit. b. Customer service is surprising low in that you can issue a full refund with any complaint and lose no investment. c. There is no cash initial investment. d. No inventory means the business is infinitely scalable. I.e. only limited by your ability to draw traffic to the sales page. Cons: a. (VERY) Large initial investment of time. (it should be noted that testing PRIOR to creating a guide will limit loss of effort) Drop-shipping Products: This is where products are shipped by the manufacturer or a dropshipping business (more on this in a sec) on your behalf. They will then charge you a handling fee, add the shipping and cost of the actual product, and send you a bill at the end of the month. An alternate form of this is where the manufacturer has a special website that you input orders into and have them charged to your credit card but shipped to the customer. The best thing about this setup is that you can actually sell shippable products with no initial investment. Let me say this again for emphasis: the customer buys from you, and then you use that money to buy the product to ship to them and keep the profit. Earlier I mentioned dropshipping business. This is where a company has a warehouse or series of warehouses that hold a very large assortment of products. Their inventory is integrated into their online website where you then can browse and pick stuff to sell on your website. Pros: a. No initial investment required b. No making orders when supplies get low c. margins are high due to the product being available to you at manufactures price d. typically deals with damaged or defective products Cons: a. Not all manufacturers offer a dropshipping option (see fulfillment centers below for a solution to this problem) Fulfillment center based business. (this is what model my business is based off of) A fulfillment center is a company that has a very large warehouse and stocks other companies’ products. They then (though some sort of online website integration) pick, box, and ship products on your behalf. They typically charge a monthly fee, a monthly storage rate (based on warehouse spaced used), a picking fee (often referred to as handling), and the shipping cost. A neat benefit of this is that because they ship many companies’ products their shipping rate is usually significantly discounted, often offsetting all of their other fees. Pros a. A great solution to selling products from a manufacturer that did not have a dropship option. b. Discounted shipping often will turn an expense into yielding a little bit of profit. Cons a. Requires an initial investment of capital to stock the warehouse. b. While you can setup notification of low stock, you would still be responsible for placing orders. ===================================== Product Requirements ===================================== Think of these more as guidelines instead of absolute rules. The only exception being #1. 1. Start with something that is within your passion: I was a big believer in just covering your bases by making money first, then pursuing your passions after. However, after seeing many people try and not succeed due to simply ‘burning out’, I’ve come to embrace this as a requirement. Simply put: pick something that will hold your interest throughout your learning process. 2. Price Point: This is a big deal, as we will use it to filter customers. -Min max --Minimum price point of $50. The reason for this is that cheap people buy cheap products. If they do not have discretionary income then they will be much more critical of their purchase as well as taking advantage of any warranty or money-back guarantees. So, we set the bar at a minimum of $50 simply to out-price those bad customers. --Maximum price point of $300. This is really a soft rule, but understand why it’s even here in the first place: higher cost means that someone may be uneasy about laying down that much cash at a business they’ve never seen. This means that you are more likely to get calls from people wanting to make sure it’s not just a scam. Most of this however, can be avoided by making a very trustworthy site. 3. Low number of customers: let’s say you have a product that sells for $50 and one for $100. The % of profit is the same. If you could sell 100 of the $50 or 50 of the $100, which would you rather sell? The $100 of course! The lower number of customers means the lower your customer service will be. Also, by increasing price you can further price out bad customers. Win-sauce all around 4. Limited variation: this basically excludes poo poo that you would sell in many different color options, sizes, or features. Think: jeans. Too many sizes you’d have to stock. Same with colors or features. Read on. -Inventory costs: the more selection you offer, the more inventory you’ll need to purchase. This is bad. Especially with something that has many variations and sizes. Also, it leaves more room for orders to get messed up, or customers to change their mind. Speaking of customers thinking, we don’t want that. Why? --Eliminate indecision: it’s proven that the more choice a consumer has, the more likely they will be unable to make a choice. If they can’t choose, they won’t buy. Mr. Ford put it best when talking about the model ‘T’: “The customer can have any color they like, so long as it’s black.” 4. Shipability: shipping can have an impact on your choice of products, here’s why. -Avoid fragile products: obviously shipping out champagne glasses would suck compared to an equally priced/sized product because the glasses are more likely to break. This will result in a pissed off customer, a call, and a return. If you can avoid it, do. --Weight: avoid overly heavy products. The maximum UPS or FedEx will ship is around 65lbs. And that poo poo is expensive. Even if you’re under the cut-off point, keep in mind that shipping cost is based on weight, so the lighter the product the better. This can open you up to offering free shipping, which will increase trust on your site. ---Size: same deal as above. Even if your product is light, it may be large, which could be bad. Shippers also calculate what they call ‘dimensional weight’ which is based on a calculation of LxWxHx(somenumber) which will give the dimensional weight. If the dimensional weight is larger than the actual weight, you are charged at the dimensional weight price. 5. Marketability test: make sure your product passes the marketability test. That is, is there ALREADY an existing market for your product? The easiest way to determine this is to google your niche. Are people advertising? If yes, then you passed. If no, be careful. Many a wonderful idea and invention has been brought to market after many years of blood, sweat, and tears only to find that nobody ACTUALLY wanted it. The marketability test helps us avoid this pitfall. Keep in mind, there is the chance that your niche is actually new, where a product is wanted, but nobody has capitalized on it yet commercially. This is rare, but possible. Use your best judgement and try to do so without being seduced by the niche you’re exploring. Be objective. 6. Ease of use/simplicity: the easier it is to use, the lest customer calls/complaints you’ll have to deal with. When given equal products of varying complexity, always opt for the simple widget. 7. American manufacturing: awesome benefits. -Lead time to ship: this is the time it takes from when you place an order to when you can actually ship the product to a customer. When dealing with international manufacturers lead time to ship is usually huge. Consider the following. Orders are received next day (usually) to time difference (-1day). Payment takes longer due to the use of intermediary banks and currency conversion (-2days). Manufacturing (normal). Shipping (by air -1-2 weeks, by sea -4-8weeks). Clearing customs (-1-2weeks). Shipping to warehouse (normal). Total lost time: 4-12 weeks of lost use of capital. --Liability: if you are an American business and import something from another country for sale in the US, YOU are legally the manufacturer. Annddd therefore LIABLE for any injury or legal claim resulting from a manufacturing defect. (big deal, and might influence your legal structure) ---Disagreement: if there is a disagreement with an American company, you have easy legal recourse. If you have a disagreement with a, let’s say Chinese company, good luck. ----Dropship: probably the best perk of American manufacturing is that you most likely have the option to drop ship. European manufacturers do as well, it’s just shipping for individual items across the pond typically exclude this as an option for them. 8. Option to dropship versus fulfilment center: obviously the perks of a dropship arrangement would be more attractive. So, if given an option between two equal niches, pick the one that has a manufacturer that dropships. 9. Minimum net profit of $250,000 (initial calcs @ 1% conversion and 30% profit margin) this should be a rule. Using market samurai, calculate your annual possible profit: SEOT * Conversion * Retail Price * Profit Margin * 365 = AP (annual profit) The ranges we typically use are conversion rated of 1%, .6% or .3% based on what we feel will sell. For example, higher priced products typically have lower conversion rates. For profit margin, use 40%, 30%, or 20% based on competition in the niche. The more competitive it is, the lower the margin will typically be. -So, why $250,000? If a niche passes this test then we can proceed with testing and reasonably assume that even if testing goes poorly, it will still not have been a waste of time. If the business is only ten percent successful we will still make $25,000/year. Enough to sustain ourselves at the very least. Better put: if our conversion is only 33% o what we assumed, and the margin is half of what we thought, we’re still profitable at $37,000/year. --This guideline also helps us avoid ‘pet’ projects. Those little ideas that we cling to thinking they’d be amazing one day, or once people realize the product exists, or whatever. Those things are nice, but get money coming in first, then feel free to rub the guidelines once you know what you’re doing. ***EDIT*** Market samurai has made some major updates. Read this to make a bit more sense of it. Also, there ARE alternatives to MS, such as longtail keyword planner or just using google for free. Once you understand how competition and traffic play into a niche, it really doesn't matter what you use. Kung Fu Jesus posted:The original formula from the OP is still valid. Just ignore PBR in your research. ===================================== Basic series of steps to starting a product based business ===================================== 1. Identify product niche -Come up with initial ideas. Do not focus too much on one specific idea. These typically don’t pass the product guidelines mentioned above. The important thing is to write them down and use them for your keyword research in market samurai. An example of this is that when I was doing research for the Whiskey Still Company, the keyword was ‘moonshine still’ which failed miserably. However, ‘whiskey still’ worked out quite nicely. So how do you come up with these initial keywords? +Brainstorm – Yea, that simple. +Amazon – Go to amazon.com and click all departments. Then browse their departments. Also, their magazine department is pretty enlightening when it comes to niches. *Pro-Tip – once you choose a department, drill down until the ‘sort by price’ option is available. Sort by $100-$300, and back up to the department view then arrange by average customer review. This method is gold* +Magazines – go to a bookstore and browse the magazines. Pay attention to the different types as well as the ads in them +Catalogs – out of curiosity I was browsing through a Cabela’s catalog at work (/what’s that?!) and they are absolutely amazing sources of ideas and information. They even tell you if they dropship. (like the 3 person sauna they were selling “this product is shipped directly by the manufacturer” too easy) + My Rhythmic Crotch posted:I just wanted to pitch in an idea that I used to find one possible niche. 2. Plug into market samurai (or google keyword tool, but for the sake of this guide, all numbers are in MS) Once you have a list if keywords to throw into market samurai, do it. Then work your magic. Always keep in mind the product requirements from above, but now we’ll add a bit more to your plate: Niche Requirements --SEOT – usually I won’t consider a niche unless the SEOT is at least 1,000. This may change in the future, but as it stands now, there’s no reason to waste your time on anything under 1,000 because they are so plentiful (even when including the following requirements) I usually set the filter at SEOT=500 so I can see what’s out there. So, filter @ 500, minimum @ 1,000 --PBR – Phrase to Broad match Ratio. This is the chief indicator of relevance and must be at least 15% for a niche. I usually set the filter at 10%. 50-80% is godlike. For instance kitty house might have a pbr of 5%, and you’re like WTF? Then you realize ‘hello kitty’ has a pbr of 79% and you’re like awwwwwwwww damnnnnn. **EDIT** thanks unixbeard "Is SEOT daily or monthly" "Should i be using broad partial or exact" SEOT is daily, and you should be set to broad. Moreover, for goons in different regions, make sure you select the region. I realize that this will affect the $250k rule below if you're in a small region, so you've got harder decisions to make because it will probably take awhile to find a niche, and you may end up throwing in the towel and settling for something less. 3.SEOC – Search Engine Optimization Competition Search Engine Optimization Competition is a complicated subject. For the real quick once over, anything below 300,000 is good and accessible. However, this is only a general indicator. The way I approach this is if it is under 300k I will investigate the top 10 under market samurai’s SEOC module. If it is 2,000,000 or under, but very attractive, I will also pull the SEOC module information with the understanding that it may be difficult to break into. All of that being said, the SEOC module will be the determining factor for passing this test. In general, green is good, red is bad. Pages with PR (google page rank) 0 or 1 and pages with DA (domain age) of 2 or less in the top ten is a great indication you’ll do well. The absolute best indication is to review the URL of each webpage in the top 10. Does the keyword appear in the domain? If not, usually you’re good to go. This go or no-go decision based on SEOC and top-ten will be the most difficult decision you will make in internet business. Do not take this lightly, and do not hesitate to contact others for advice. 4.Select products Here you do your due diligence and in a timely manner discover most of the products for your niche/keyword phrase and choose ONE to sell. I would recommend basing the initial research off of the amazon reviews. Also, this particular manufacturer/model my change in the future, but selecting one model now is important because it lets us proceed with testing. 5.Create testing website This is where you will create a website, an actual real website, from which to sell your products. In the next step we will pay for advertising to send real people to your website to see if they will actually buy what you’re selling. Several important points to take away from this idea are: --This is a testing website… DO NOT put too much time and effort into making this perfect. If the conversion is too low, it may be scrapped. --Conversely, do not do this step too quick. Trust is a HUGE factor in online conversion. If you do a quick and lovely job, the conversion rate will be grossly under represented and you may have lost a good niche along with a bit of effort. --Keep in mind that when you perform this test, this will be the absolute worst your business will ever perform. With learning and testing, your conversion will only increase. --Also, setup payment services and link them to your paypal account. aslewofmice posted:Don't use godaddy - use namecheap.com. They're a much better company, cheaper, easier to use interface and offer free whois protection for the first year. Did I mention don't use Godaddy? **EDIT** For hosting and shopify (cheaper) alternatives: Delizin posted:I am using Lithium Hosting from SA Mart as my host and NopCommerce as my e-commerce framework. Delizin posted:It seems a lot of people here are doing shopify, but I personally prefer do just get hosting (Can get some good hosts pretty cheap from SA Mart) then installing a free open source e-commerce solution such as NopCommerce (asp.net MVC 4), Zen-Cart (PHP), or Magneto Commerce (PHP). 6.Test conversion So, you will send people here through google adwords (I say adwords, but there are other options out there, like renting lists, but that’s a little too deep for this article) So, basic steps: --Setup google analytics on your page. Google it… (this may be a little complicated, contact me if you can’t figure it out) --Setup a google adwords account (along with billing information) --Use whatever credit you have (like the code for $100 if you use shopify as your shopping cart) jabro posted:You don't have to put anything into adwords to get the $100. You just have to accrue $25 of charges in your account for the $100 kicks in and goes towards that $100. Sundae posted:Also- Google Adwords will start sending you even more coupon codes once you stop your first ad campaign to try to get you back, so make sure you check your mail from them before your follow-up attempts. They sent me a $150-for-$50 and another $100-for-$25 as well. --Create your ads --Do a final check of everything including the website and checkout. It’s important that you can receive orders, you can just cancel them later. --Turn on the adwords campaign. ---The longer you can let your campaign run, the more data you can get, and the more accurate your test will be. However, there’s a trade off. A longer test costs more money and if your niche CPC (cost-per-click) is high (like $2.00/click), this will be a limiting factor. I would say you would want a bare minimum of 200 visitors, 600 would be better, and ideally 1,000+. ---Now, turn off the campaign. Divide your completed (and then canceled) orders by the total number of clicks you paid for. This is your test conversion, and will be used in your calculations for your go/no-go decision. 7.Register business Your manufacturers will require a business ID, so you must register your business at your county clerk’s office. In Texas this only costs $15. This will also be needed when you open your business checking account (below). 8.Contact manufacturers (pricing/dropshipping) Now you contact the manufacturers you found in your initial research, or do more research and contact those peeps. In my experience this was a MAJOR hangup for me. So, here are a few solutions: --Find someone who sells the product, preferably a big box store. They usually show off the manufacturer in the details, or you can read it from a picture. Google searches will take it from there. --Check out alibaba.com or thomasnet.com --PROTIP: got a picture, but the people selling it don’t want you to know the real manufacturer? Do a google reverse image search. This also works well for identifying competitors. ---Once you have the manufacturer and they have approved you they will send you a pricing sheet. This is the final piece of data that you will use in your calculations for your go/no-go decision because it will give you your final test profit margin. Also: thegasman2000 posted:I am looking at one where a guy will find you a supplier in china for any product... Asked if a dropshipper for my product is possible. 9.GO/NO-GO DECISION: Remember this equation “SEOT * Conversion * Retail Price * Profit Margin * 365 = AP (annual profit)”? Well, now you apply your test data and subtract 5% for the overhead of running an online business. (go to alibaba.com and find a similar product to determine your possible cost) --Organic success – If your profit is now acceptable enough to justify the effort you will need to put into ranking organically, rock on! go Go GO! (and remember, this is the weakest your business will perform) (also, keep in mind that the higher the competition, the more you will need to work, and the longer it will take to rank #1, so it’s not all sunshine and dasies) --AdWords success – This is what you realllllly want. If your CPC is low enough, then you can start making money immediately. For this test, divide your CPC by your conversion (CPC/Conv). This will give you your average cost per conversion. Simply subtract this from your profit margin, and re-run the numbers. ---Let’s be clear: if your margin is only $30, and your CPC and conversion is $0.50 and 1% respectively then CPC/Conv = $0.50/.01 = $50. So, if we pay $50 to get one person to buy something that only makes us $30, the test obviously fails. --If your adwords margins are low or in the negative (like the example) this may merely mean that you cannot start with adwords, but as your organic work grows, your website will gain creditability and your CPC will go down. --Using this information, you can make three decisions: scrap, life support, or go Go GO!!! ---Scrap – if the test falls on its face and it is clear people don’t want your poo poo, bail. ---Life support – if the profit is a close negative or not where you want it, I’d suggest leaving it up and working on it maybe once a week or two. The goal of this is to gain domain age, and the occasional link or two. After awhile you should rerun the test. You may find that the CPC will go down, or you might start to get a trickle of traffic that makes it profitable. ---go Go GOOOO!!!! This will be obvious. Bust out your conversion and traffic skills after completing the next few steps. 10. Make initial investment If your manufacturer does not offer dropshipping, you will need to make an initial purchase of inventory as well as find a fulfillment center. -For fulfillment centers, google that poo poo. Just keep in mind you want to make sure they can integrate with your shopping cart, else there will be a lot of needless work for everyone. Tim Ferriss also had some good words to say about choosing a fulfillment center in the 4 hour work week somewhere. -For your initial investment, you can spend a lot, or spend the minimum order price. Keep these thoughts in mind: --grow your business much much faster. --Spending less limits risk (due to a bad test) and lets you stay flexible. Being flexible means you may find out that people prefer an alternative product, and you may need to switch. --My thought: if the test was successful with more than 1,000 test subjects, spend as much as you can. If less than 1,000, weigh the pros and cons. iv. If you have issues coming up with capitol, contact me. We *might* be able to work something out. --Complete the step below, then send an order and check to the manufacturer. 11. Create business checking account Shop around for a bank that offers business checking accounts. I use wells fargo and overall I’m unhappy with the personal service. Also, they are greedy as poo poo and hit you with all sorts of fees. However, after using them for awhile I can get around all of them. So, think about this when you’re interviewing banks. Once you get one, you’ll need to deposit cash to work out of. It’s important that you keep your personal and business finances COMPLETELY separate from this point forward. NEVER withdrawal cash from your business checking account unless you fully understand what it will do accounting and tax wise. If you want to pay yourself, write a check. (the bill-pay and direct deposit services are awesome for paying people and yourself) 12.BONUS: Setup merchant account/credit card processing (paypal, initially) So you’ll be using paypal to accept payments, and that’s fine, but it’s unprofessional and lowers conversion. So, you’ll eventually want to run with the big dogs and have payment processing done without leaving your website. Paypal offers this service, but they have a horrible initiation period, so screw that. Contact your bank and ask them about merchant services. Often they’ll be linked to a service provider like authorize.net (whom I use) and you can setup everything through them (the bank). This can be confusing as hell trying to setup, but stick to it. Also, you will be able to negotiate the rate (the price and fees the credit companies charge). So, do that. Negotiate. -This would also be a good time to create a separate paypal account for your business. I’d suggest calling them first because you’ll have to anyway. ===================================== fin Please send comments, suggestions, and whatnot to me via PM or post here. The idea is to make this little 9 page document into a living, breathing thing that can be used as a jumping-off point for all who want to take the control of their lives away from the chains of employment and start doing what they want. ~lx2036 ===================================== Recourses I've found helpful: Challenge.co This is the program I learned from. The videos are boring as gently caress, but it is an excellent primer on internet business. Keep in mind that this is geared to making money on ads, or selling a site and we are focused on eCommerce. That being said, the fundamentals are the same. http://www.challenge.co/training/ Market Samurai The HNIC of the internet. You learn to love this wonderful and amazing tool. Use the free three month trial in the challenge. Once that expires and you can't afford to buy a copy, send me an email. http://www.marketsamurai.com HOW TO USE THIS PROGRAM: http://www.noblesamurai.com/dojo/marketsamurai/ Hosting with Weebly Note: This is a paid service, you can register your own for free but it will have the weebly banner at the bottomThere’s other free poo poo out there if you pokle around Miscellaneous Resources 1800 Number with fax for $10/month http://grasshopper.com/ Use professional voice overs, see below Simple quality tasks completed for $5 http://fiverr.com/ I use it for voice actors. Virtual mailbox http://www.mailboxforwarding.com/ These people will give you an alternate physical address. Also, any mail received is scanned and emailed to you. Easy outsourcing for technical and not-so-technical stuff https://www.elance.com/ and https://www.odesk.com/ There's an art to it for sure, so read up a bit before hiring someone. SEO Tools: Ron Don Volante posted:It took me a few weeks just to get in the top 200 results for my target phrase (used this to check it). Here’s the story of my business: Had a bad-rear end job working as an operator at BP in Texas City. Worked a DuPont shift schedule which game me one week off each month, combined with vacay and sick-cation gave me 18 weeks off a year while making $110,000/year (seriously guys, look into a 2 year process technology degree). In my 20’s, no wife, no kids, be loving ballin. Started traveling a lot. Met a guy in france who held tim ferriss in god-like fashion (tim is a douche, btw, a genius, but a douche nonetheless) but made me to promise to read the drat book. So I bought it. It collected dust for about 6 months when, after getting tired of watching movies/sleeping at work, I began to read. poo poo was gold, and I could see the yellow brick road winding forth to my future. Then I started watching movies again and did nothing. For 6 months. Then, after Christmas 2011 I decided I was going to stop being a lazy gently caress and quit my job. I had started saving money, but wanted another safety net: a muse. So, on my four nights I locked myself into a room and pounded away on my computer and went from knowing nothing to having a test page up in 4 nights (40 hours). I let the test run until I got back to work and checked the results. $50/day average profit. Awesome! At $20,000/year I could travel indefinitely, wooo! So, I contacted the manufacturer of the pictures I stole and asked if I could sell their stills. They said yes, but needed a $5,000 minimum order. I happily paid, and three months later my stills arrived at my fulfillment center and were immediately sold out. That $5,000 turned into $12,000, then to $24,000, then on, and on. So, I finally quit my job (well, tried to take and 'educational leave' with online classes, but I was in Vietnam earlier this year and got a letter saying that my leave was revoked and I needed to be back to work the following day. gently caress them, well, HR really) So, now I'm on my own. But how to keep from doing work? Hiring workers from abroad costs about $250/month (40 hours per week) but expect to increase that to 500ish if they do a great job. Skype is easy peasy to setup to have the calls forwarded anywhere (1800-number->skype local number->answered wherever in the world) onlinejobs.ph is where I hired my team Now, if I was loving poor and wanted to start another business, here's how I'd do it: Google adwords tool does most everything market samurai does, but clunkier. use that to drill into niches, then every time you find one with low competition and high traffic with a marketable product, write it down and move on. Once you have a basket full of these, go to google and pull the top ten for the keyword phrase. It's pretty easy to tell if people in the top ten are optimized or not. If the top ten is a soup sandwich, good to go. Find the product on amazon(or wherever) to get a retail price, then roll over to alibaba and get a round-a-bout manufacturers price. Boom, now you have a tentative profit margin. Times this by the expected monthly traffic from your previous research, then by a conversion rate of, lets say, .5%, then by 12 to give yourself a yearly profit. If it's above $250,000 rock and roll son, you're in business. Money spent thus far: $0.00. Next step, see if it will sell. go to shopify and open an account. You'll get a 2 week free trial and if you have your poo poo together you can get a site up and running within a few days. Shopify is also partnered with google and will give you $100 in FREE advertising. So, enter that code, send people to the website, and see what the conversion rate is (that is, how many people visit your site versus how many buy). Run numbers on all of this poo poo to see if you would be profitable or not. If you're quick, this will all be free. If you're lazy, shopify charges $30/month. Sometimes ad CPC is high for google, but the more rare the product, typically the lower the CPC is (but adwords is a whole different beast in itself, and that requires another guide). Also, if I started a site like this selling, let say, 'auto rotisserie' (no poo poo, look it up), I'd expect demand to be low, and it be silly to stock inventory, so I'd find one of the few guys making them and ask them if I could drop ship. If no, gently caress it, I'd sell em anyway, then once I got an order, I'd place an order with the customer's shipping address. Done. A note on testing. Sometimes it can be quite expensive to get a reliable test. If you have looked over your niche very thoroughly and are comfortable risking a lot of your time in exchange for not spending money on the test, you can go ahead. If you get the SEO right, you'll get free advertising, and can start selling with virtually no start up cost. But there is that risk of not selling anything because you picked something you though people would buy, but don't. Another good indication is if someone is paying for ads. If someone is paying for ads, they're making money somewhere, which means someone's buying their poo poo. This will help make the decision not to test. So, there's a lot of information in here so I'll try to slow down for now, except to answer this question: ==================================================== If it's so easy to make money, why isn't everyone doing it? ==================================================== Answer: because they are loving morons.(well, ignorant, really) The internet has a convenient little search box wherein you can type anything you want and magically a list of whatever the gently caress you want to buy appears. You no longer need to go to the mall to buy your favorite perfume. Just type it into the google machine and amazon will be happy to send you a box cheaper that you would pay at the mall, with free two day shipping. Amazon does not need retail space on expensive property, does not need to pay commissions to the mall, or sales associates (well, sort of) and they well to the entire united loving states. Your local Dillards can barely sell to part of a city. Let's put this into perspective Amazon.com Customer base: 320,000,000 Dillards in Texas City : 32,000 So, when a merchant decides to enter the world of eCommerce selling a NICHE product, NOBODY can compete. The overhead is much to low for any brick and mortar retailer to even stand a chance. Large online merchants barely have a prayer, but because they cannot stage pinpoint ad campaigns, SEO campaigns, or all of the other various niche exposure techniques to all of their products, the can only compete based on the brand of the store. The only real competition are others in your niche, and this is easily avoidable in 2 ways: 1. choose a different niche, or 2. be better (and trust me, it is VERY easy.) The people who really know ecommerce and seo are too busy making millions and millions to be bothered by a niche like 'foldingbikes.com' =================== Other Misc Good Reads =================== Saint Fu posted:The original post didn't make a clear distinction between ad-based traffic and organic/search engine optimized traffic and this has led to a lot of confusion. A majority of the OP was dedicated to finding a niche with an opportunity to get into the top ten google search result organically. That is what those tables everyone has been posting are referring to. If several of the existing top ten are young pages with low page rank, it will be easier to get into the top ten organically; this requires optimizing your keywords and website to help you get there (this is why the OP said it is very useful to buy the aged domain even if it costs $5k, it gives you a huge boost in google's search hierarchy). Kung Fu Jesus posted:Be careful. I would not target rich people. That's why you want products in the $100-$300 range or so. Its low enough that regular people with disposable income will buy online but not too high that people expect five star customer service and constantly bother you because something isn't perfect. Unless you are a masochist and want to be a one-man call center. On AdWords issues with testing: Sundae posted:#1 - Is there something else your keyword could be used for searches that ISN'T niche? Example: "wine cooler" is both a beverage and a fridge. The beverage is way more popular than the fridge. http://www.thebeanbagchairoutlet.com/ http://www.websitepublisher.net/blog/2007/02/20/an-experiment-in-one-product-ecommerce/ http://www.websitepublisher.net/blog/2007/05/16/one-product-ecommerce-update/ http://www.organic-compost-tumbler.com/ *Edited for PC assholes* *edited again for a little grammar and a few updates* *edited again to add useful/informative comments* *unfortunately edited again to remove 'sensitive' information* (somebody's hand was caught in the cookie jar) lx2036 fucked around with this message at 15:46 on Sep 18, 2013 |
#
?
Aug 10, 2013 17:21
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 5, 2024 20:04 |
|
|
Thanks for posting this. Looks like it'll be fun.
|
|
#
?
Aug 10, 2013 19:19
|
|
|
This is a *really* useful post, but you're using a word that will get you probated/banned so I'd go back and edit the OP.
|
|
#
?
Aug 10, 2013 21:01
|
|
|
I'll get it started with a super basic question: is Market Samurai the slowest piece of crap software ever or am I doing something wrong? It seems to seriously take like 10 minutes to do things like "Load Keyword Research data" and "Load Google Keyword Tool". Basically every time I click anywhere it seems to hang forever.
|
|
#
?
Aug 10, 2013 21:21
|
|
|
lx2036 posted:Also, don’t be a nig and try to break into my niche. I will kill you. Just kidding… No, really, I will. As an African-American I find this kind of offensive.
|
|
#
?
Aug 10, 2013 21:34
|
|
|
I tried the challenge last year, spent probably 10-15 hours just putting words into market samurai and never found a niche that met their criteria. Apparently it was like 8 years old though and they are completely rebooting it this sept 1 so I guess I will try it again. Thanks for all the info despite the casual racism.
|
|
#
?
Aug 10, 2013 22:16
|
|
|
Oh wow, I didn't see that.
|
|
#
?
Aug 10, 2013 22:41
|
|
|
Appreciate the time you took out of your schedule to write this all up! I have a bunch of free time as it is, not 100% by choice since I am a freelance graphic designer, but would love to generate enough income to ditch some of the more problematic clients and keep the ones that are great to work with (and cool projects).
|
|
#
?
Aug 11, 2013 01:22
|
|
|
Stefan Prodan posted:I tried the challenge last year, spent probably 10-15 hours just putting words into market samurai and never found a niche that met their criteria. Apparently it was like 8 years old though and they are completely rebooting it this sept 1 so I guess I will try it again. Thanks for all the info despite the casual racism. Let's team up and rake in the bucks at the speed of e-business.
|
|
#
?
Aug 11, 2013 03:45
|
|
|
Thanks for the information. I'm thinking about writing an ebook. I'm wondering if it is better to sell it via Amazon (and hope people find it organically) or if I should sell it via a different avenue that would require me to advertise it.
|
|
#
?
Aug 11, 2013 04:17
|
|
|
"Whiskey still" has an SEOT of 167...so why'd you choose it? Or rather why did you even decide to test it out in the first place?
|
|
|
#
?
Aug 11, 2013 04:56
|
|
|
So I got questions. When you asked the manufacturer to sell their products, how simple was it? I don't see how Joe Schmoe with no track record is going to convince someone that they are serious. Also, did you start out with a customer service number? I'd say this is my second biggest fear, next to calling a manufacturer to get an account. I don't want to deal with customers all day, when the point is to have this thing run basically on its own. But I don't know how you'd set something up or what it would cost when the customer service folks know nothing about your product. Next, did the manufacturer of your stills allow you to private label them? Because your site makes it look like these are your brand of stills, not someone else's like a Hayneedle type of site. Final question. When you research the top ten in google, what do you think of big box stores or Amazon/Hayneedle results? Is it an automatic no go on the keyword?
|
|
#
?
Aug 11, 2013 05:01
|
|
|
Omits-Bagels posted:Thanks for the information. I'm not too familiar with ebooks and amazon, but there is a method to the madness. It would be worth a few dollars to purchase a course from someone who's done it before. For instance, to get into the top selling books on amazon requires very little effort, but very coordinated effort. If you can manage that, you're gold. Seriously, it's worth buying a guide. There are lots of great writers out there but none are heard because they are writers, not salesmen. Sad but true, and fortunate for you.
|
|
#
?
Aug 11, 2013 05:03
|
|
|
seacat posted:As an African-American I find this kind of offensive. Crazy, unless you have dual citizenship I thought we were all Americans. Also, go back and read the rules before cluttering up a useful thread, idiot.
|
|
#
?
Aug 11, 2013 05:09
|
|
|
Arakan posted:"Whiskey still" has an SEOT of 167...so why'd you choose it? Or rather why did you even decide to test it out in the first place? my original goal was $50/day starting out. the magic happens when you realize that that is the absolute rock bottom the business will ever make (considering split testing and alternate forms of advertising)
|
|
#
?
Aug 11, 2013 05:14
|
|
|
Kung Fu Jesus posted:So I got questions. Ok, easy peasy. Get a PO box, they're cheap (or a ups store or whatever) get the physical address then instead of PO box, put STE For example: 12665 Maple Street PO box 1156 Kansas City, KS becomes 12665 Maple Street STE 1156 Kansas City, KS Boom, done. 1.800 numbers are cheap as gently caress and usually come with great voicemail and call forwarding features. In the beginning, you will want an extension or two, but forward them all to your cell. The goal of this is to fiels calls and see what common questions/complaints people have so you can start writing a guide for when you hire someone else to take care of that tedious work. I personally never hired a customer service firm, I just hired a guy in the philippines because it was cheaper and simpler. If you get big enough though, you'll need a firm to protect from turnover. For contacting manufacturers, just have a semi professional website, use the address trick above, and basically make it look like a 5 year old didnt make it. Sometimes they require a minimum initial purchase, but in my experience, it's a lot lower than you think. As far as private labeling, don't worry about it. Hayneedle, wayfair, and amazon have their places, but if you're going niche, you'll beat them in search and price. Private labeling will just cut into your margin. As for my stills, I buy all they can manufacturer, so really, their stills are my brand. For top ten results, I am happy to see big box stores up top. It's impossible for any big box store to compete in a pinpoint niche. The poo poo I'd be worried about is the guy with the domain of my niche. For example, if the niche was 'tree stands' and a guy had treestands.com, that NAGGER knows what's up and best to just move on. However, on rare occasions, they have no idea and you can buy them out. I've personally never done it, but I'm sure it works. Oh, one more thing: I HATED answering calls. So, I had the 1800 number ring 5 times then forward to a voicemail that said "i'm sorry, we're either out of the office or down at the shop, please leave a message and we will return your call as soon as we step in". though there are really not a lot of calls/day. just enough to be annoying until you hire someone else to deal with them. Keep in mind a good english speaking philipino will be happy to work for you for $250/month ***edited for PC assholes*** lx2036 fucked around with this message at 05:54 on Aug 11, 2013 |
|
#
?
Aug 11, 2013 05:40
|
|
|
Lot of nice info here, thanks! I got 4hww on audiobook years ago, makes going back and underlining kind of difficult. Question about the billing... about how much does a bank charge a business to handle that, versus some of the newcomers to e-finance like Stripe or inDinero or something like that? I know people complain about having to use Paypal, is that just for ebay-type shipping, or are these other services harder for non-tech-people to integrate or something?
|
|
#
?
Aug 11, 2013 05:53
|
|
|
Thanks for the thread. It's an interesting read. I've got a few questions for you: 1. Sorry if I missed this in this thread or the other, but how much experience did you have with whiskey stills before deciding on that as your niche? 2. How did you explain the cancelled orders from the test site? I guess what I'm wondering is if you somehow get an extraordinary response from the test, is it possible to shoot yourself in the foot by cancelling too many orders and word getting out that your site isn't reliable (before you ever really launch it)? lx2036 posted:For contacting manufacturers, just have a semi professional website, use the address trick above, and basically make it look like a 5 year old didnt make it. Sometimes they require a minimum initial purchase, but in my experience, it's a lot lower than you think. 3. Did you show them a modified site, given that you were using stolen pictures of product before you made the deal with them?
|
|
#
?
Aug 11, 2013 06:11
|
|
|
How did you find someone to take care of your customer service abroad? Since it sounds like you have just one person taking care of a low volume of calls, how do you handle any calls where a customer asks to speak to a supervisor?
|
|
#
?
Aug 11, 2013 06:47
|
|
|
I have a ton more questions since I've been messing around with market samurai for a few weeks now...but one last one before bed: If I search a product and the top five SEOC results are like home depot, lowe's, amazon, other big home improvement stores, would it even be possible to achieve a high google spot in a reasonable amount of time? I know you said it's good to see broad sellers like this because these stores can't market every single product, but I'm just worried about how long it will actually take to get a site up there if you have to compete against them.
|
|
|
#
?
Aug 11, 2013 07:05
|
|
|
This thread would have been great if it wasn't for the completely irrelevant and unnecessary racial slurs in the OP.
|
|
#
?
Aug 11, 2013 07:25
|
|
|
Sutureself posted:Lot of nice info here, thanks! I got 4hww on audiobook years ago, makes going back and underlining kind of difficult. Welllll, paypal is free, basically, until you move to their paypal payments pro which starts charging you the usual transaction fees like the rest. The reason you might want to move to this is because you can complete checkouts without leaving your website (which increases conversion) alternatively almost all payment processors work like this(or what I think I remember): You need a merchant account (most banks will handle this) there's an application process and part of it is based on your credit report, but I don't recall it being a deal breaker You need a payment processor. I use authorize.net, but most will be fine as long as they work with your bank. they will start out charging around 3%/transaction +.30, however, based on a poo poo-ton of factors and your negotiation skills you can get it lowered. I think my effective is something like 1.8%+20 cents per transaction most of the big dogs integrate with the other big dogs. My bank is wells fargo wich integrates with authorize.net which integrated with shopify and it is all relatively easy to set up. It's also much easier than drat paypal which requires you to periodically transfer your own money. Once you get setup with the real processors, the money go straight into your account, every day. The only catch is however that they charge a monthly fee. The asked me for $100/mo, but they were easily talked down to $50. You could probably get lower if you dragged it out.
|
|
#
?
Aug 11, 2013 08:34
|
|
|
Arakan posted:I have a ton more questions since I've been messing around with market samurai for a few weeks now...but one last one before bed: So, it's good. Let's say you're looking at chainsaws and the box stores jump up in the top results, but there is no chainsaws.com anywhere to be found. Even better, there's nobody selling just chainsaws, you could rank quickly. That being said, we are only talking about ranking organically here. This is just one of many forms of advertising. If you made a bad-rear end site that had everything going for it to be ranked organically, you ALSO happen to have a bad-rear end site to get deep discounts on advertising through google's adwords machine. So, while it may take you a month to six to get there organically, you could be selling poo poo today if you had it all together. That being said, there are some tricks that will go a long way to helping both. 1. Acquire an aged domain with your keyword phrase in the domain 2. Acquire an aged domain with your keyword phrase in the domain 3. Acquire an aged domain with your keyword phrase in the domain (there's a reason these shits sell for a lot of cash) 4. Make sure you Title, header, meta, etc tags are filed out properly 5. Make a quality website that is not spammy. You want to make a legitimate business. The google machine can tell. If you don't have the cash to drop a few g's on an aged domain, buy an unused one from godaddy(or wherever) and once you get cash rolling in, switch it over (this is a mistake I made that I had wished I'd done) One more note on adwords. This is another reason box stores cannot compete with niche businesses (other than brand strength) When advertising, they have to spray and pray. Your ads will be in a state of constant inprovement. Better ads meand better click through rate and better conversions. Google gives you big discounts on not only having very relevant ads, but on having a good click through rate. Lowes can't do this for every item on their shelf. Moreover, manufacturers tend to not be loyal to their retailers. It is in the manufacturers best interest to sell as much poo poo as possible. They may impose area restrictions or MAP (minimum advertised pricing) but that's about it.
|
|
#
?
Aug 11, 2013 09:03
|
|
|
HookShot posted:This thread would have been great if it wasn't for the completely irrelevant and unnecessary racial slurs in the OP. you give words power (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
|
|
#
?
Aug 11, 2013 09:06
|
|
|
Can you give us an example of how you contact a manufacturer the first time? I'm having trouble considering what information to include. . . It is appropriate to request a sample? Should I mention how many units I would like to order in my first shipment? Do you pay by cheque?
|
|
#
?
Aug 11, 2013 09:07
|
|
|
JulianD posted:How did you find someone to take care of your customer service abroad? Since it sounds like you have just one person taking care of a low volume of calls, how do you handle any calls where a customer asks to speak to a supervisor? For what it was, the calls were surprisingly low. Especially considering what I was selling, and the price point. I mean, I sure as hell would like to talk to someone before tossing $500 across the internet. It also helped that my guy had worked in multiple call centers before and was extremely nice and courteous. The only complaints were usually to stills arriving damaged which is an easy no-fuss fix due to my guarantee. We simply replace it or give you a discount. However, I'd probably handle it like all things requiring my or my managers attention: "I'm sorry, but the owner is out of the shop right now, I'll try his cell phone and call back as soon as I have an answer" or some equivalent. However, once you've been up for a bit, there really is a limited number of things that can happen. They all go into a list. And they are cut and pasted into whatever problem email/call that comes up.
|
|
#
?
Aug 11, 2013 09:15
|
|
|
Science posted:Can you give us an example of how you contact a manufacturer the first time? Mayneeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, this is some poo poo I'm still having problems with. It really is a crap-shoot. Let me explain: EVERYBODY is a manufacturer! And they will lie and lie and lie to keep you believing it. So, you gotta play sherlock holmes and dig through the internet, stalk businesses on google street maps, visit them if they're close, call, whatever. Get as much info as you can then make an educated decision. Sometimes the 'manufacturer' is actually an importer (like I technically am). If theu are close enough to the supply chain, then so be it, buy from them provided you can support the reduced margins. Sometimes the manufacturer is actually the manufacturer. I once sold copper cream and found a brand another website was selling. I googled it, and boom, there they were. I called, the faxed over a distributor application, I sent it back, they emailed me a order form, I sent it back with a check, and a pallet of cream was on the way. Super smooth. So, to recap. Once you find a manufacturer, send them an email asking for a distributor application. It's important to look and be professional (and sometimes you'll need a tax id), then send it back. They'll then send you a catalog and a current price sheet. Some people are all official and poo poo and require you to fill out an order form and fax it in, while others just require a phone call "hey jim, send me 80, thanks." The tax ID is easy. Just go to the county clerk office and file a DBA, it costs about $10 As for payments, I just use the bill pay feature in wells fargo. For transfers abroad (in foreign currency) I use XE Trade as an intermediary because wells fargo anally rapes everyone with their sharky conversion rates. They put sprinkles on it though to make it seem like you're not being hosed so hard... lx2036 fucked around with this message at 15:50 on Sep 18, 2013 |
|
#
?
Aug 11, 2013 09:30
|
|
|
Science posted:Can you give us an example of how you contact a manufacturer the first time? Ah, I completely missed the main question. Sorry for the digression. I registered for a store front in shopify. I went to the manufacturers website (they also had a retail side). I stole all of their pictures and put them up on my website. Changed the product dimensions to standard instead of metric. Cleaned up the product descriptions. Made a store logo. Made an 'about me'. Made a fake testimonial page. Then applied to be their distributor. (I also used this for my testing phase, took about a day to get it all setup) It was a ballsy move, but they liked it and approved me.
|
|
#
?
Aug 11, 2013 09:35
|
|
|
RogueLemming posted:Thanks for the thread. It's an interesting read. I've got a few questions for you: 1. A lot. My previous job was industrial distillation which turned into a moonshine hobby. So, the first time I sat down in front of market samurai, i was the first thing I put in. The knowledge helped with some of the technical questions, but it was by no means necessary and could be easily learned. 2. I had made the site in shopify which already had a shopping cart and payment system integrated (via paypal) I just set the option to authorize the cards, but not charge so that no funds were transferred (they do this so you can review orders for fraudulent transactions). Simply cancel the transactions and send an email saying "I'm sorry, but I had to cancel your order because I ran out of stock. I will call you as I have one available." I would say, don't worry about shooting yourself in the foot. You're looking at people the wrong way. Think of it more like this: there is an infinite pool of people, a small portion of which will visit your store, then disappear, never to return. The next day, a whole new set of people will again appear, visit your store, then disappear, never to return again. And so on. None of them will ever talk. (however, this is by no means a license to be a dick, lol. It just makes analytics much easier to comprehend) Alternatively, you can make a three page website. Page 1: Sales page with a button somewhere that says 'click her to buy' that links to: Page 2: Enter your name, address, telephone number, and quantity, with a button that says 'next' that links to: Page 3: I'm worry, we're out of stock. You will be emailed as soon as we have more stock. add tracking to the pages through google analytics and count everyone who makes it to the third page as a conversion. run numbers from there. 3. Nah, I didn't want to do double work, so the site you currently see is a much more fleshed-out version of the one I showed them. I honestly didn't think they'd be pissed for me stealing their pictures. After all, I was trying to make us both money.
|
|
#
?
Aug 11, 2013 09:57
|
|
|
jonnies posted:I'll get it started with a super basic question: is Market Samurai the slowest piece of crap software ever or am I doing something wrong? It seems to seriously take like 10 minutes to do things like "Load Keyword Research data" and "Load Google Keyword Tool". Basically every time I click anywhere it seems to hang forever. It used to be lightening quick, buttttttttt slow as gently caress now. I find myself amazoning, alibabaing, and top-tening in the spare time. It still sucks, but sucks just a little bit less.
|
|
#
?
Aug 11, 2013 10:04
|
|
|
Okay, relevant question: this would be something I would definitely do if I were in the States, but I'm an expat. I'd have to talk to anyone in the US over Skype unless I'm physically over there, which happens around twice a year for a couple of weeks at a time. I can get the business ID itself and possibly the bank account taken care of fairly quickly, but how much more complicated would this make the rest of the process? On the other hand, I also have plenty of spare cash doing far too little and can probably throw money at any snags...hmm.
|
|
#
?
Aug 11, 2013 10:29
|
|
|
Adar posted:Okay, relevant question: this would be something I would definitely do if I were in the States, but I'm an expat. I'd have to talk to anyone in the US over Skype unless I'm physically over there, which happens around twice a year for a couple of weeks at a time. Let's see.. The only places I had to be physically was the county clerk office and the bank. Use earthclassmail.com (or equivalent)to create a mailing/business address (the will scan and email you all of your stuff, and even ship it if need be) A fulfillment center, lawyer, accountant, customs broker (in my case, UPS), can all be handled remotely. I'm pretty sure the lawyer could even file for the county clerk. The only thing that might be an issue is getting your articles of incorporation notarized. (I was able to do it online via Texas secretary of state, but ymmv. I spend most of my time traveling now, and have had no issues. Not a lot of info, but I hope it helps.
|
|
#
?
Aug 11, 2013 10:52
|
|
|
Do you have any other example websites that have the same business model as yours? I'd be interesting to see what other people are selling.
|
|
#
?
Aug 11, 2013 17:21
|
|
|
The checkout process on Shopify seems to require me to purchase a plan before checkouts can proceed. Should I just rely on shopping cart views for my estimate, or bite the bullet and give them $29?
|
|
#
?
Aug 11, 2013 19:34
|
|
Willson posted:The checkout process on Shopify seems to require me to purchase a plan before checkouts can proceed. Should I just rely on shopping cart views for my estimate, or bite the bullet and give them $29? You can sign up for the $29 then cancel before your 14 day trial runs out.
|
|
|
#
?
Aug 11, 2013 20:06
|
|
|
Arakan posted:You can sign up for the $29 then cancel before your 14 day trial runs out.
|
|
#
?
Aug 11, 2013 21:06
|
|
|
Wanted to say thanks for this and the other thread, they've been incredibly informative.
|
|
#
?
Aug 11, 2013 21:22
|
|
|
Omits-Bagels posted:Do you have any other example websites that have the same business model as yours? I'd be interesting to see what other people are selling. Here are just a few I found googleing. You'll quickly get the idea and realize you've seen these types of stores before... http://www.guncases.com/ http://www.doghouses.com/ http://outdoorrugsonly.com/
|
|
#
?
Aug 11, 2013 21:24
|
|
|
Shear Modulus posted:Wanted to say thanks for this and the other thread, they've been incredibly informative. Thanks man. It's something I've grown really passionate about and it loving destroys me when I try to share it with my friends who just don't care about changing their stars. It really, really makes me happy to be able to have a conversation about it. Even more so to help others. I managed to walk away from a $120,000/year cushy job to travel the world based on this information and I would absolutely loving love to meet others that have done the same. Even more so if I was able to have a part in their change. Now, all that being said, information is free and ideas are a dime a dozen. It's action that matters, and the grit to follow through. That's what will make the difference from a cubicle rat breaking out from his/her cage. As for now, I'm drunk and want to watch game of thrones. I have a list of niche ideas I'll post tomorrow for those who need a helping hand getting going. oh, one more thing... I offered to send 10 free books out to goons in the US, but only one person has taken me up on it. There are 9 copies left, send me a PM and it'll be on the way via amazon prime. the only condition is that you actually read it, then message me back your thoughts...
|
|
#
?
Aug 11, 2013 21:37
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 5, 2024 20:04 |
|
|
How did you find your foreign workers? Did you have a process for ensuring they were good? (I would pm you for the book but I lack pms)
|
|
#
?
Aug 11, 2013 23:02
|
|
