I have some advice from you, but it tends to go a bit different than what you get on here.  Why on earth would you want to get your products into a bigger department store?  First of all, if you are new to the business, this takes some time and experience.  For example the buyers that work for these large chains have a manufacture list and can go direct to your source if they want to.  They really do not need a middle man, and I say who cares.  What you should really do is develop your own brand with these products and open a website that is niche oriented.  Niche is where the future is, niche is authority and Google and other search engines love authority.  My brother has an account with Walmart that took him 9 years to get into.  They (Walmart) has beat his pricing and packaging down almost to the point of pitiful margins.  He does much better working with his distributors and through his website.  Most people think that the major department store is really the sign of victory, but it is slowly changing.  Think about it, would you rather talk to some kid at walmart about a little bit of everything or to a expert in one particular product line.  If you specialize, like in niche markets, you are the experts and people will automatically recognize that as fact.  I hope this stretches your perception a bit.

This is an excerpt from a forum post, but I do believe that it holds a nice little snippet of information, which is the name of the game.

Answer 1

“i would say , that their are so maney ” networks marketers ” that the supply is greater then the demand.”

Answer 2

“The lack of marketing due to cost can be an issue. I suggest the advertising system I am using with great results to promote my own business. It is called The Online Ad Network and you can run as many ads as you like without having to worry about spamming.  (link omitted) You can have your new advertising account up and running within minutes.

You can also build a fantastic residual income referring other advertisers!!!!  It’s simple. And it truly pays to advertise!”

Answer 3

“The main reason is that network marketing takes WORK. Most of the time people talk to their friends and family and then do not commit to finding new contacts for there product. The second reason is that the products are not products that people use or reuse daily. The product needs to be something that will stand on its own, so it can be sold at retail for a profit. The fact is that people would rather work 8 hours a day to make other people money instead of spending a few hour a day building their own business.”

My answer

In my humble opinion it is a combination of things. One being that the programs that exist are over saturated and cheesy. They may be profitable in the very beginning but quickly fade out. There is not longevity to their programs. I think people are drawn to “easy” or “fast” or “automated” when real business is none of these concepts. When they find out how much work it takes, they lose interest. I am more the proponent of building something tangible and real, something that can be controlled, built and sold when your ready. But like I said, that is my opinion, I am sure many will disagree.

Ken

I copied a interesting question from a forum that I go to regularly.  I feel like the answer that I gave is very helpful when people are starting to promote their sites.

The thread copy is this: How can I make sales without paying Google so much money?

One answer was given as:

Its simple to make sales without purchasing/paying for those ads but it takes plenty of research….I personally help people through my website to get free advertising and floods of traffic to their Business…The website lists only the best resources for Google,Ebay,Classifieds and more….Some sites let you place ads that run up to 360 days free…visit the site…what you need is there

I can also place a link for you on my site….lets do the link exchange if you are interested.

The answer given to this post is:

Well I hate to rain on anyones parade but you have to do some serious research when it comes to link exchanges. Most people have absolutly no idea how it is viewed by Google but they dive in anyway. Link exchanges used to be popular, but Google has started to discount them and will soon disregard them in the future. Most people want to do them, because they are easy, easy stuff has a gravitational pull for most. The problem is when you sign up for “instant backlinks” is that you have no idea where your links are coming from until they start showing up. Links on link farms stink, and you really need to know where your link is placed. Its called theme relevancy. If your site is about kitchen gadgets and your link is on a computer site (with no page rank or authority) guess what your link relavency is? Yes you guessed it….zippo. That is because your sites are not about the same thing. Google has a bunch of brilliant people on staff, they know how to find people that are trying to game the system. Link building is a slow process is you do it right, you have to find or create good links to point to your site. Anything that says “free” “automatic” “easy” or “turbo” should be ignored.

Paying bills is no fun. Juggling costs for a start up business is not picnic either. If you are starting out on a shoe string, you know that it can be a challenge to pay everything on time. Again being organized is key. I do some key planning on the white board before starting the business. This can help in the lean months.

1. Set up a company bank account
2. Set up a company credit card linked to the bank account
3. Set up a credit line linked to the bank account.

Pick a bank you like and set up a separate account that has nothing to do with your home account. Most banks will be more than happy to set up the credit card at the same time as well as the line of credit if you qualify. I always try to pick a credit card that has some bonus point’s perks. Today’s marketplace is competitive. If the economy is slow, banks need to come up with ways to bring in more business.

The perks are for you. Use the card for all of your expenses and build up some points. Put every expense that relates to your business on it and watch it add up. You might as well enjoy an extra gift card or airline miles if it is available. Many of the awards are useful for your business such as gift cards to Office Depot or Staples. You can use these cards to save money on the things you need for the business anyway, or you can treat yourself for being smart.

Sometimes things come up in business that you did not plan. Occasionally you will be strapped for cash and you can use your card to take up the slack. It used to be considered evil to use a credit card to start a business or finance parts of a business. However times are changing and the use of the card in a responsible way is more accepted and encouraged.

Using line of credits in some instances is gaining more credibility as well. One of the main advantages of this and the credit card route is that you can do it on your own schedule. Banks are notorious for not giving loans to new businesses. That can make it very hard to get your business going. If you are responsible and can manage budgeting the card payments, this can give you some needed flexibility. A year or two later you have a track record as a business and you will be much more likely to get a loan.

Technorati Profile

Here is what I did, instead of going to the bank, assembling a business plan and jumping through hoops and begging for cash. I applied for a line of credit from my bank where my commercial account was set up. A lot of people preach against using Lines of Credit and credit cards for starting businesses. My take on that is, if you are irresponsible and cannot manage your money, then you should not own a business. But if you are tactical and strategic, then using this money can be smart and very flexible. Suze Orman used to talk all the time about using Credit cards to start a business. When your business is humming along after a couple of years, you then can approach the bank and the SBA for additional or expansion funds. When you have this proven track record and some cash that you invested yourself, you will have a better chance of getting approved. The banks call it “having some skin in the game” which means your personally vested in your future.

Make sure you plan on paying a nice chunk back to your line of credit each month. If you really want to do it right, make the LOC payment a regular payment with online banking. This way, you will never forget and it will show responsibility as well as keep you from doing “one more thing”

This is a great question.  I think a lot of people do not understand the importance of Pay per click verses organic search results.  I will try to keep it brief since its a 2 week conversation.  You use PPC to get going and build revenue until your organic listings start to rank.  Ranking organically is key since its free.  So how do you do that?  Here is a short list, keep in mind that these are long term oriented.  I do this for my sites so that I can rank on page one of Google and stay there.  So far I have had excellent results, but none of it is easy short cuts.

1.  Do your keyword research.  You have to know exactly what people are typing into Google to look for your product.  This is the single most important thing.  If you do not know the exact terms you will go nowhere.  When you find out those terms, incorporate them into your sales pages.  Make sure those keywords are present in your tags and in your content.
2.  Promote those keywords through articles and videos.  Write an article about your industry and at the end include an anchor text link of one of your kewords that link to that page in your site.  Do NOT write a sales page about your product, but rather write about something that is related and people would want to read.
3.  Take this article and submit it to Ezine articles, people will then take your article and post it on their sites or blogs.  This will give you links to your site and improve your rankings naturally.
4.  Set a Google alert for the title of the article, then you will know when the article gets posted somewhere.  When it does, bookmark it using your favorite social site.
5.  Start making short comments about your Industry, not your product on twitter.
6.  Write articles for hubpages and link them to your site.
7.  Rinse and repeat like as many times as you can.  Don’t stop.  If you cant write, hire a writer and pay them ten bucks instead of Google’s PPC.

I hope this helps.  It’s just the tip of the iceberg.