There are several ways of generating a profit using the various tools now available on the internet. Properly managing your online activity can help your business grow by increasing the number of potential customers you have, and therefore can help increase business profits.
After all, the web today is a marketing resource that companies just can’t ignore. If you aim to use the web to support the growth of your business, or you’re just striving to make money on the internet.
You can learn all you need and more in our free online training center.
In this article, we’ll get into one specific way of making money on the internet, which is how to sell your products online. This is assuming you already have a product and you are looking for ways to increase your online sales.
If you don’t have a product already. We can help you come up with a digital product to sell online, or help you learn how to sell other people’s products in our free online training center.
It may seem like an easy process… you put up a product on an e-commerce site (or your own website) and you wait for customers to get in touch.
The truth is, that would be super easy if you were the only seller on the web. But, guess what… you aren’t.
No matter how unique your products are, your competitors will inevitably be uncountable.
Nevertheless, to sell products online and generate a realistic income is not impossible. You just need to keep reading to learn the best tips and strategies you can use to help grow your business online.
Choose How To Sell Online
The first choice you will need to make when deciding to sell products online is what platform you’re going to use.
You’ll have two main options to choose from, and each of them has its advantages and disadvantages. It’s important to know what they offer, so that you make the best choice according to your needs.
1.) Selling on your own e-commerce store.
When running your own store, you’re in complete control. Not only can you decide on the look and feel of your store and how your products are presented.
You are also not vulnerable to external factors such as algorithm updates like you experience with promoting products via social media. Plus, having your own store when selling online gives you credibility and makes you look professional.
2.) Selling on online marketplaces like Amazon.
Online marketplaces can quickly expose you and your products to a massive number of potential customers in a way that your own e-commerce store can not.
On the other hand, it can be difficult to stand out from the crowd with your products.
Many online marketplaces also charge transaction fees that will take from your overall profit. Don’t forget to check for these hidden fees before signing up.
Selling on a marketplace such as Amazon can be a good idea if you’re aiming to sell your own line of branded products.
To learn how to sell your products on Amazon, see our dedicated article.
Figure Out Your Selling Strategy
Once you’ve decided on how you are going to sell your products online. You now need to outline your selling strategy.
1.) Set up an initial financial target.
Think about how many products you hope to sell in the first 6 months and how much money you hope to make. Without having these targets, you risk not noticing you’re not selling enough or in the best case, that your outcomes are higher than expected.
2.) Identify Your Profit Margin.
Find out how much it cost to produce, buy and deliver your products. Then subtract this amount from how much you are going to charge the customer. This will give you your price margin.
You don’t want to risk charging too little in an attempt to be competitive. Consider adding additional value to offer to help justify in additional pricing. We talk about this a bit more in our free online training center.
3.) Know your competitors as well as your customers.
Always look at what the most successful people in your industry are doing and try to learn from them. Often times, you can spot additional trends or patterns you can use when selling your products online.
At the same time, you should get to know your customers, how they spend their money and what matters most to them when it comes to your product offer.
What products to sell online
Google Trends, keywords researchers, reading online forums, learning from successful stories… are all tools and ways that can help you understand the potential demand for your product.
We’ve also discussed this issue in detail in a dedicated article – see how to find products your business can sell online.
Getting Customer and Making Sales
The next step is to reach as many potential customers as you can. The more bases you can cover, the more chance you have of making a sale.
- Social media: share links to your products, as well as information and promotions about your brand and product catalog. Social media gives you the ability to reach hundreds of thousands of potential customers.
- SEO Optimization: optimize all your texts, images, product titles and descriptions for search engines is a great way to generate organic traffic. Ranking high in Google, Yahoo or Bing is extremely important when keeping ad costs down and profits high. (See our article about why SEO is so important.
- Blogging: you may have noticed that a lot of e-commerce stores now have a blog section on their website. This is because blogging is a great way to boost your SEO and promote your brand. If you are just learning about blogging, check out the great article in the link.
- Run promotions: Ads are a great way to whip up interest in your products, but can also drain your pocket book. Learning how to properly run profitable ads will be clutch in making ads apart of any long term promotion.
In Conclusion
There are a number of ways to sell your products online. You need to first decide where you are going to sell, what you are going to sell and how you are going to sell your products online in order to be successful. We want to see you be successful and want to help you anyway possible.
If you are not a member of our online community, we encourage you to get started today. We want to help you sell your products online and turn your passion into profit!
