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How To Almost Guarantee a Profitable Online Business
You are the only person or one of only few firms selling a particular product or service.
Your site is unique and includes virtually everything people might wish to know about a particular product or service. It might in fact be a World Centre site which caters for one niche market product, say collectable teddy bears, scientific tools, worldwide riding holidays.
Your target audience may be small compared to other firms offering general products such as food and clothing, but you have no competition and yours is the only place in the world from which interested parties can purchase any one or more of potentially thousands of different products and services.
More than this repeat and back end sales are certain meaning you can sell to the same people time and time again possibly over the lifetime of your mutual existence.
To illustrate this latter point go to: http://www.sciquest.com/
This particular site labelled 'The Internet Source for Scientific Products' offers thousands of products from over 2000 suppliers. It also includes articles and chat forums for anyone interested in developments in science as well as products the firm is selling. I'm not sure whether the site sells goods on commission or charges for companies to advertise with them. In fact, I don't need to know the answer.
Already I can see several opportunities for anyone with potential to sell one type of product to millions of worldwide buyers. You could:
a) Create a catalogue of other firms' goods and services which you sell on commission, taking
payment from buyers, and processing a proportion of the takings for the supplying company to
dropship those items to your customers.
(b) Obtain the items yourself, if capital permits, and fulfil directly to your own customers.
(c) Act as central point for other companies to advertise their goods and services, either by having
their own web pages on your site or via links between your own and their sites (in this case you
promote on their behalf and send visitors and customers directly to their site) or by placing
their advertisements on your site's bulletin board.
You are an acknowledged expert on your particular subject.
You provide top quality service.
They've bought from you before and enjoyed the experience. They find your
products and services of the highest quality.
You give a complete guarantee of satisfaction or full money back refund.
Your site is interesting, it contains lots more than just products to buy. It may, for example,
include news and product updates, free tips and gifts, time-sensitive information,
competitions and prize draws, and so on.
Your site is updated often and visitors and customers have to visit regularly so as not to
miss out on new deals and special offers.
You offer a free advice and consultancy service.
You sometimes change the layout and text on your site, you add new photographs and graphics, so
no-one ever gets bored and your site never becomes stale or old-fashioned.
You move with the times and you regularly check your site for old-fashioned and out-of-date information. What's more you always give the date of the last time your page was updated and it was not very long
ago. People know you're on the ball and, most importantly, they know you're still in business.
Compare this with a page that was last updated four years ago where the first question for most people is:
Can I safely buy from them or have they ceased trading?
You always respond to queries and questions from visitors and customers. You answer
your emails, you reply to letters and faxes, you're there to answer the telephone.
Your site includes full contact details, that is your own name and street business address,
telephone and fax numbers, and so on.
There's a photograph of you or your business premises on your site, so visitors know there's a real person
and genuine business behind the scenes.
People feel comfortable dealing with you, for all the above reasons and because you have stated your privacy policy, you've said you won't pass email addresses or credit card numbers to other people, you have a secure ordering process in place, and so on.
(Note: all these and many more ways to increase visitor and customer confidence and to induce repeat
visits to your site are discussed in detail later).
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