Selling products online is one of the simplest ways to start earning money via the internet, although not necessarily the easiest way to become successful. However, with the right tools and training, you can definitely start supplementing your income fairly quickly.
How to Get Started
There are several very good places to begin. Setting up accounts (or even stores) on sites like eBay, Etsy, Amazon, Shopify, SaleHoo, even your own online store is the first step. You can actually build an online store right here at WA, using SiteRubix and webstore plugins!
There are two main ways to sell online - the traditional method of buying products in bulk, then selling them via online stores, and drop shipping. Drop Shipping is the process of selling a product before you pay your supplier, and having your supplier ship the product directly to the customer.
Market Research
Now, you need to find out what people want to buy, but you will also need to know what your competitors are selling and what they are charging for their products. This will help you choose suppliers and your products.
There are many places to find the tools and resources for market research, including right here at Wealthy Affiliate. I highly recommend this training resource written by Boomergp08:
https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/training/how-to-sell-and-make-money-on-ebay-part-1
Promoting Your Online Sales
This is were online sales become a bit more advanced, and also where your Wealthy Affiliate training will be extremely useful. You will need to promote your online store if you want to grow your sales. Think of it like having a real shop, in a marketplace, and you are waiting for customers. You might make some sales, but only if people accidentally find you. You need to advertise!
Advertising, or promoting your online store, is very similar to promoting your on website. You can use content marketing, Pay Per Click or similar advertising, social media campaigns and any other tools available. If you haven't already, click on the "Get Started Here" button on the left of your screen and complete the basic training - you'll be on your way in no time.
The Downside
Even though selling products online starts out simply enough, it quickly becomes extremely time consuming and highly competitive. It's a great way to get started on your online income, but you will soon be wanting a less stressful way to make money.
Reply
Glad you found this helpful!
Love how you wrote from your own experience. I see that you have a very specific plan of action and it's interesting to learn how you diversify your income streams.
Personally, I found it better to focus on one specific strategy such as targeting low-competitive keywords and building my knowledge upon it.
I still have a long way to go, and can relate when you said that the hardest thing is when you put in loads of efforts yet didn't make enough money. Building an online business is easy in that you don't have a huge overhead cost, that said, you need great self-motivation to succeed.
I'm curious, what is the biggest lesson you've learnt from making money online?
Thanks for sharing!
Cheers,
Anh
This led to me finding and joining WA, and eventually completely replacing my income.
From all of this, my major lesson has been:
Take the plunge carefully. Don't keep all your eggs in one basket! Make sure you have multiple options - some that provide a base income, others that you can build over time.
I hope it helps!
Thanks for sharing your story. It's admirable that you took the plunge to diversify your income.
I found your answer very helpful since I am also in a position where I'm both working a full-time job and keeping my online business a side project. It not only helps me keep a healthy base income but also a good "distraction" of some sort from working on my computer alone all day.
It's probably not what we usually hear about "taking the plunge", as in you've gotta risk it all. I believe that life is more complex than that, and sometimes it's better to play it safe.
Stay awesome,
Anh
I really have to check myself when people ask in discussion, quite frequently, when will I make money. I check their profile and they are on day 2.
That's on me not them. It took me 7 months to get my first referral and 9 months to get my first sale.
I agree, the hardest part is when you have been working hours per day and you are on month 4 or 5 or 6 and nothing. The best advice here in my opinion here is:
Get back to it. Just keep going. Nice write up JessHop. When I feel my irritation starting I will link people to this article.
Barry
I am one of those who took longer to make my first sale. I only earned my first dollar after 4 months. And only a few more in the months afterwards because I made a mistake in not having specific monetization strategy.
"Keep going" is definitively the best thing you can do when building an online business. It's hard to swallow at first, but you truly need to make mistakes to succeed.
This reminds me of something Charles Ngo said:
"Want to succeed faster? Fail twice as fast. How do you fail twice as fast? Teams and systems."
How is your business doing?
Thanks for sharing!
Cheers,
Anh
