venturing into the ecommerce arena

[agh98]

First off, great book. It's obvious with sites like this, 43folders, lifehacker, etc. that a real shift is in progress; working as a 9-5 zombie does not necessarily bring the fiscal or emotional security as it may have in the past.

As an attorney, I think its fair to say that those (such as me) currently working on a billable hour basis are in even worse shape than typical corporate drones. A 2000-hour/year expectation hanging over your head, coupled with often less-than-satisfying work, does little for one's soul.

That said, thanks for stirring up the waters Tim, AND for writing a book that actually delivers real content, rather than mere philosophical fluff. I hope that a dialog might start here, fueled by the practical chapters speaking of drop shipping/ecommerce "muse machines" where people will share their experiences with various virtual assistants and content/product providers.

I have thrown away several hundred dollars thus far on the modern version of internet snake oil, and there certainly is a high noise ratio clogging the search engines concerning e-commerce.

Maybe to start things off, does anyone have any experience with www.dropshipsource.com (aka worldwide brands / onesource?) Tim recommends this wholesale resource in his book and on the site, but I find very little as far as independent reviews online. They evidently charge $250 for "lifetime" access to their regularly update list of drop shippers/light bulk wholesalers. I'd love to hear some more endorsements/comments before possibly throwing a few more hundred dollars down the drain...

Adam

[last mechanic]

I am with you on that. I work as a therapist and a consultant, and have hit the ceiling rather quickly in terms of both how many hours I can work and thus how much money I can make. And of course, all of those hours depend on face to face client contact. I've also realized that the stress involved in working as a therapist isn't worth it for me anymore.

I'm trying to retrain myself to think about "products" instead of services to sell, and am equally as anxious about dumping a lot of money into something that's not going to turn profit due to my inexperience.

I'll be watching the thread to see if anyone else has info on reliable sources of that kind of information. Someone in a thread I started in the Automation forum talked about clickbank.com (an affiliate program), in which you give away over 50% of your profit to affiliates. I'd never heard of it before, and similarly I don't know how to tell how legitimate it is or if it's better than just buying advertising elsewhere. It'd be great to have some more feedback on some of these resources.

[925 Dreamer]

You might want to check out Yahoo Answers and ask the users there if they are familiar with and/or have used either Clickbank or Dropship Source. They might be able to supply you with good information. I've purchased a couple of items from Clickbank, but I haven't become a publisher - yet. ;)

[agh98]

I'll be watching the thread to see if anyone else has info on reliable sources of that kind of information. Someone in a thread I started in the Automation forum talked about clickbank.com (an affiliate program), in which you give away over 50% of your profit to affiliates. I'd never heard of it before, and similarly I don't know how to tell how legitimate it is or if it's better than just buying advertising elsewhere. It'd be great to have some more feedback on some of these resources.

Good to hear I'm not alone on the billable hour issue...its so easy to coast through life knowing that a solution is possible yet just beyond reach. I'm most thankful to Tim for demonstrating that there is no better time than now for a mini-retirement or career reconsideration.

As far as clickbank - I'm not familiar with that particular affiliate problem. Nonetheless, it is obviously important to run a content-rich blog or some other site with content to house the advertisements. There seems to be a saturation of "built-for-adsense" type webpages. Besides being against google's policies, it doesn't seem that this could sustain an individual in any real way. It's likely a different story for corporations like godaddy and yahoo who can benefit from PPC ads on hundreds of thousands of domains names they own.

The idea of outsourcing blog content creation is an interesting one - but, again, surely not novel judging by web searches. I wonder how the economics of this could work - if there is enough revenue potential in PPC ads/affiliate programs while simultaneously having to carry the expense of content producers.

As for me, I'm thinking of setting up my first e-commerce site with the product being my photographs. Photography is my true passion and 11x14 prints could definitely be sold at the 8-10x profit margin that Ferriss recommends. I'm still undecided whether to setup a yahoo store (the monthly expense is quite high) versus a custom e-commerce site.

Lets keep the dialog going...the book is a great springboard for conversation and my last concern is giving up any of my "great ideas" on this board...there's certainly room for many more stores on the web.

Adam

[ffeingol]

As far as clickbank - I'm not familiar with that particular affiliate problem. Nonetheless, it is obviously important to run a content-rich blog or some other site with content to house the advertisements. There seems to be a saturation of "built-for-adsense" type webpages. Besides being against google's policies, it doesn't seem that this could sustain an individual in any real way. It's likely a different story for corporations like godaddy and yahoo who can benefit from PPC ads on hundreds of thousands of domains names they own.


Actually I think that you'll find a lot of people running ClickBank ads just run a "mini-site". They find a product that is moving well and has a high payout. Get a good domain name, setup a few page site to push the product and then use adwords to bring people in. When the product dies down, you just repeat.


As for me, I'm thinking of setting up my first e-commerce site with the product being my photographs. Photography is my true passion and 11x14 prints could definitely be sold at the 8-10x profit margin that Ferriss recommends. I'm still undecided whether to setup a yahoo store (the monthly expense is quite high) versus a custom e-commerce site.


Personally, I'd think "smaller". There are lots and lots of free e-commerce packages that most hosts provide (zencart (http://www.zencart.com/), cubecart (http://www.cubecart.com/site/home/) and oscommerce (http://www.cubecart.com/site/home/) are just a few). It may not be totally in-line with the but, but why not start out with a free cart and see how things go? Then when sales take off, move over to something bigger and better.

[wu-wei]

Prints won't earn you as much money as selling the rights to use the work commercially (stock photography) will.. look into sites like getty and similar for easy passive streams without having to worry about physical product.

[cornflower]

I had some "success" with oscommerce witha handmade jewellery site. The site looked great, worked great, I spent a couple of hundred hours on it making it PERFECT and the product was great.

Didn't make one cent tho' despite spending hundreds in advertising.

Product selection is crucial, so start small and test, test, test.

I'd either put up a quicky site or use yahoo store to get started as a litmus test before wasting time on the "real thing" shopping cart. Even just a page of your photos with separate links through to the paypal shopping cart would work if you don't have a huge product offering to start with.

[ffeingol]

Yea, that is why I was suggesting one of the many free e-commerce solutions. To be honest, the site does not have to be beautiful etc. If you can find what you want and get it ordered in a couple of steps, it's cool.

If you want to use one of the free ones, I'd also suggest googl'ing for "oscommerce themes" or "cubecart themes". There are numerous places where you can purchase a pre-made theme/template very cheap. Again, this may not be a long term thing to do, but it will get you going cheap and quick.

[austin06]

In answer to questions about Onesource and Clickbank, they are both well-known, well-regarded resources in the online world. Clickbank for the selling of information products and Onesource for physical products.

I've done consulting and teaching in Internet marketing (hear you about billable hours) and am now launching several online businesses. There is SO MUCH info out there about how to make money online that it can become overwhelming. At a recent well-known Internet marketing conference, one well-known speaker commented that most of the successful online marketers specialized in one area- adwords, info products, etc. He said that he and others tended to "turn off" what others were involved in so as not to be tempted to try something else that sounded like a great moneymaker. Being an info gatherer by nature, I am trying hard to turn away from all of the shiny objects out there and focus on taking action.

Tim's book is amazing. Upfront and full of great info that is out there elsewhere, but in hundreds of different places. I feel like I've lived a part of the book already as my husband and I took the plunge and quit our corporate jobs last year to move to a place we love and start our own businesses. Scary yes, but I knew once we had the idea to do it, that action was necessary and there was no waiting for the perfect time.

[iceaxe]

My first post on a blog...weird. Just read Tim's book and like it a lot. I am envious of those that are getting this info early in life. I have been through the corporate stuff several times over, sold two businesses..and must be on my 7th career doing mostly real estate investment and some other investing. Nothing has me really interested until now...as I look for my first muse. Tim is right...cash flow to allow freedom is king. I used to look at how much of my life I "rented" in order to earn money and acquire material things. Investing can be great but money comes in as chunks and it is unpredictable. The muse concept targets low impact cash flow which is the real key to enjoying life.

If anyone is interested, I have two web sites up for different businesses...both site were purchased from monstertemplate.com and then I had modified by outsourced IT for about $500 each all in. IT guy set up site so I can make text changes myself. Sites work like a dream but are not muse based. One is a service business and the other is marketing a real estate project. I use Getty images for both sites and select only the royalty free photos to lower or eliminate costs.

Happy to be here with fellow/potential NR. I have lots to learn in this new arena...and a lot to simplify in my life. Cheers mates!

[Talon]

MAYbe we can group our money to purchase the subscriptions together and use the same code for future use. Example 250 there is around 239 members a dollar a piece would allow all of us access.
just a suggestion...
:cool:
Maybe to start things off, does anyone have any experience with www.dropshipsource.com (aka worldwide brands / onesource?) Tim recommends this wholesale resource in his book and on the site, but I find very little as far as independent reviews online. They evidently charge $250 for "lifetime" access to their regularly update list of drop shippers/light bulk wholesalers

[Angelo T]

Good to hear I'm not alone on the billable hour issue...its so easy to coast through life knowing that a solution is possible yet just beyond reach. I'm most thankful to Tim for demonstrating that there is no better time than now for a mini-retirement or career reconsideration.

As far as clickbank - I'm not familiar with that particular affiliate problem. Nonetheless, it is obviously important to run a content-rich blog or some other site with content to house the advertisements. There seems to be a saturation of "built-for-adsense" type webpages. Besides being against google's policies, it doesn't seem that this could sustain an individual in any real way. It's likely a different story for corporations like godaddy and yahoo who can benefit from PPC ads on hundreds of thousands of domains names they own.

The idea of outsourcing blog content creation is an interesting one - but, again, surely not novel judging by web searches. I wonder how the economics of this could work - if there is enough revenue potential in PPC ads/affiliate programs while simultaneously having to carry the expense of content producers.

As for me, I'm thinking of setting up my first e-commerce site with the product being my photographs. Photography is my true passion and 11x14 prints could definitely be sold at the 8-10x profit margin that Ferriss recommends. I'm still undecided whether to setup a yahoo store (the monthly expense is quite high) versus a custom e-commerce site.

Lets keep the dialog going...the book is a great springboard for conversation and my last concern is giving up any of my "great ideas" on this board...there's certainly room for many more stores on the web.

Adam

Adam,

Photography is a passion of mine as well.

Just a thought, I have used pictopia.com for prints and have found the service and the quality outstanding. I haven't been back there in quite some time to check it out but I believe they do or did have a service where you could upload photos, set your price and they do the fullfillment.

Also you may want to check out fredmiranda.com and pose some questins regarding selling photos on the web there.

Best

AT