Every once in a while you come across something pretty neat that is directly related to a new business idea.  If you are interested in the jewelry business, this company is a good opportunity to get going quickly.

To summarize what this site is about we have reviewed it and will include the details.

Details

• drop ship turnkey site
• pre loaded with 20,000 products
• $995 down and $50 per month.  Don’t let this number scare you, it really is pretty inexpensive when you consider you get the site and you do not have to hunt down any of the products.
• You get a customized logo
• Marketing tools (free data feed)
• Extensive FAQ’s section

Website Details

Your Turnkey Drop Ship Website Includes

• Clean and crisp high-resolution images with white backgrounds and image zoom functionality
• Products pre-categorized into collections for easy navigating
• Advanced search, search by price and keyword search capabilities
• ‘Email To Friend’ option on all product pages
• Mailing list with customer email addresses automatically added when orders are placed
• Email template generator to send promotional email blasts to your mailing list
• A complete shopping cart pre-integrated into your website
• Pre-optimized website with relevant meta tags ready for major search engine crawling
• Promotional messages displayed in FLASH on homepage
• ‘Last Updated’ date stamp on every page of the website
• Updated ‘Order Status’ and tracking information
• Promotional offers such as free shipping, jewelry box and certificate of authenticity

In order to be truly interactive, we really should have put this post out long ago.  So we are doing it now with a call for comments and questions.  What kind of help do you need?  We are prepared to tailor special sections, articles, video, or what ever it takes to get your questions answered and get you moving on your way.  To help you with this please refer to the following sections and include that in your reply or comment.

E-commerce

• Product Ideas
• Store front platforms
• Building the site
• Hosting the site
• Finding products after I get selling my own
• How to produce my own product locally

Importing

• Where to find product
• More information
• Where to find a sourcing agent
• Importing and selling on Ebay
• How to deal with customs.

Blogging

• What topic to blog about
• Where to set up my site
• Costs
• How can I make money at blogging?
• Differences between services
• How fast can I start

Ebay

• How to get started
• Where to host pictures
• Paypal

Information Products

• Where to get them made
• What topics do I pick
• I can’t write, now what?

So now comes the fun part, if you have signed up for our newsletter, take it a step further and ask us a question.  You can email us directly at our email address.  We are all about helping you get going, especially in today’s economy.  It really helps your state of mind when you know you have something going and can constantly work on it.

This response is to a forum that was asking about using article marketing for building links.  I figured my response was good enough to share with everyone here.

I use article marketing big time, but I do not do it in a manner like most people use it.  In fact I would say that I used to use a traditional approach of writing or buying some articles, putting a keyword phrase in the title and then making sure the right anchor text links were in the body of the article.  I would submit mine to ezine.  However I do not do it this way anymore and here is why.  The results more or less suck for my websites theme.  Chances are they suck for yours too.  I now use articles and focus on what I call a link cluster.  I pick a keyword that I want to focus on and attack it.  Lets say your doing an ecommerce site, I ask myself, what product keyword would I like to sell more of and rank for.  Then I decide that I need 7 really good articles.  I put the best one on my blog.  Then I build a combination of free blogs and web 2.0 sites that use that keyword in the url and link it around the blog, one link goes to the blog and the next link goes to the next 2.0 site.  Then I promote those sites with social bookmarks and articles (see next) to get them going.  Instead of calling it quits here, I go deep.  I add more blog posts and exhaust the topic around that keyword.  Over time this builds authority and this link cluster will be a powerful being and supply some great link juice.  Now referring to the articles I take some articles and submit them to ezine and anchor text link them to this link cluster matrix that I just created.  Most of the time the people that pick up these articles put them on crap sites that give you no real value whatsoever.  So I realize that and use them to get links instead of driving quality traffic.  If you can write a funny or controversial article, you will get more links.  Don’t be rude, just start to realize that people will read these types of articles.  I wrote one for a cooking blog and I am amazed at how many sites are still picking up this article months after  I wrote it.  This is my steriod approach to article marketing.

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.

If you are thinking about getting started with an online or home based business.  You can easily get overloaded with a ton of responses from all sorts of people in the business.  Most will say that their business is the best or most profitable.  A lot of time that is because they think its the best because it is the field they are in.  This is similar to someone saying the pizza is best from their home town just because its what they know and what they like.

What you need is the basic facts to get started, a place to learn the basics.  When you have those basics, then you can go on and start to sift out the gems from the rocks.  There are a lot of rocks out there.  We have found a site that is a video site and it teaches you how to get started in your home based business.  It gives you the basic dynamics of what to look for and explains some very important facts.

Buy a business on Ebay?

If you think a good idea is to buy a premade or existing business for sale on Ebay, then you really need to look at this site too since they really focus on it.  There is a lot of garbage out there and if you do not know what to look for, you will get separated from your hard earned cash.  The site includes a membership and you can easily get through all the material without having to sign up for another month.  The best part is the checklist that you can take with you (print) and use a valuable reference in whatever site you choose to buy (or create).

You can find all this information plus a bunch of free stuff in their guest section.

http://www.internetbusinessnavigator.com

This one I highly recommend.

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

So what’s Vendio?

Vendio is auction management software.
Why do you need it?
Well you don’t need it, but you will want it when you find out how simple it can make your life.

The old way

Go to Ebay to list your item, First you have to find a place to upload your pictures. That means you have to have a place where you can store all your pictures online and then plug that link into the Ebay listings. Next you start the listing process by filling in the template and writing all the text for your item.
You would next link those items to your pictures and fine tune the listing. If Ebay burps or you make some mistakes you could lose all your content and have to start over again. (grrrr)

The Vendio Way

Go to Vendio and sign up for free. Instead of finding a place to host your pictures, you can load them up on Vendio. They are all in one spot, its super easy to do, and you can keep everything organized. Next you want to launch an auction. You choose the auction template you like, fill in the blanks like
you did on Ebay, attach the photos and save. Now when you save it, it’s saved and you can simply copy it again if you want to run constant auctions with the same item. This gives you the ability to tweak your ad and constantly adjust. The best part is if you are running another auction it takes you about 10 seconds to launch one since all your text is prefilled in. They also have a variety of listing templates so you can give your auctions a professional look. Why not tip the scales in your favor?

Now here is the greatest part. Vendio is a database, so your items are organized by month, date, year etc. If you want to see what sold the best in March of last year, you simply look it up. If you want a bottom line figure to do your taxes, it’s all there. If you want to watch your auctions as they run and track how many people look at your auction, you can do that too. The possibilities are endless which is what makes it a great tool. You can automate your checkout for auctions and even remind people to leave you feedback. Vendio has it all and is very robust. The cost to use it is 1% of your final sale price and .10 per listing. To me it’s like having a personal manager track and organizes my activity and the 1% is always worth it. Beside’s, its tax deductible.

All the features can be seen here, this short article cannot possibly do all their features justice.

Where to go with your Budget

Here is a quick and dirty list of what you should at least consider when building your budget.  If you are in the website/ecommerce/blogging type game already, this is a familiar list.  IF you are not, you need to do your homework and learn how to implement these.  If you don’t, you will waste your money. These are not listed in any particular order.

1. Blog
2. Article Marketing
3. Social Bookmarking
4. Social Marketing
5. Forum Postings
6. Web 2.0 sites
7. Wiki’s
8. RSS Feeds
9. Directory Listings
10. Blog commenting

In summary I would like to leave you with some advice that is pretty much straight and to the point.  It is not meant to degrade or discourage anyone.  In fact if you are as bullheaded as I am, it may spur you on to make something happen.  When I was growing up, we had chores to do around the house.  Like any kid I tried to do as little as possible and cut corners where I could so I could go and do what I really wanted to do.  My father would say, “Why do it half as….”  Who wants to be known for that?  Anyone can do a mediocre job, why lump yourself in with that?  Since then I have added to that with these little morsels of learning.

1. Why be “just another _____” (fill in the blank)
2. Most people want to do things the easy way.
3. Being successful online is hard work and not easy.
4. If it was not hard, everyone would do it.
5. Easy, Guaranteed, Simple, Quick, “make big money”, “monster profits” and “fabulous opportunities” are terms for suckers.
6. Never put your success in someone else’s hands.
7. No one is as motivated as you are.
8. There is a time to outsource and time to do it yourself, but most of the time, you need to outsource it.
9. Try very hard not to “work in your business” “working on your business is much smarter.
10. Don’t just sit there, do it.

Looking for part one of The website Misnomer?

About 8 years ago I was looking for a way to supplement my income.  I worked for the airlines, which most people think is a good job.  However contrary to popular belief, even if you are in the cockpit, you are expendable and subject for dismissal at the moment fuel prices rise, but that is another story.

So there I am, no work and mouths to feed.  I had been selling children’s tables and chairs on Ebay for a while and it was going very well.  By the way, very good market here, the most powerful demographic online today (hint, foot stomp, wink)  But, the problem was, I could not make them fast enough in my basement to sell enough to live on. Somewhere along the way I needed a router table to make a better top and chair sides, so I built one.  I eyeballed that thing and thought I might be able to sell it better.  So I made a bunch and sales pick up.

I really needed some inserts for the table and was not able to find any.  I found a great website called “Global Sources” and found a company in India that did the Acrylic work I was looking for.  I stumbled onto this and wonder how I made it happen.  I ordered the parts, and had them shipped  to my nearest port of entry.  I will now give you highlights of all the dumb mistakes I made so the story keeps moving.

• Acted as my own freight forwarder, knew nothing about customs
• Screwed up customs form
• Had to drive to port three different times
• My goods had to be warehoused while I figured out how to get them out, I paid huge warehousing fees
• Went to load my goods into my pickup and warehouse strictly forbids loading your own goods
• Finally got items into truck and drove away not realizing that customs does not put things back the way they found them, lid to crate blew off half way home on the highway somewhere in Maryland. (if you were behind me, uh, sorry)

Despite my stupid mistakes I decide to bring more in a year later.  Do you think I used a freight forwarder this time?  Nope, I wanted to save some money.

• I did a slightly better job with customs
• I still had to pay some warehouse fees to some guy name Lou
• The port in Philadelphia is very scary, bring large friends
• I ended up paying the same price to bring something in, as I could have for retail
• Don’t try to skimp and save money, bring in a lot of goods and do it right, lesson learned

Ok now I am up to bat about 2 years later.  I have a website and want to expand my product line, so I contact another Chinese company and make arrangements.  This time I hire a freight forwarder.  You basically give them the order details and tell them to notify you when it gets here. (yeah, pretty easy)

• I ordered 10 pallets worth (called LCL, which is less than container load)
• I have to wait till truck comes which takes longer
• When truck driver comes, truck driver does not want to wait while you unload your stuff. Truck driver gives you evil eye if you don’t have forklift and muscle. (pallet jack too)
• LCL loads are prone to damage since more hands touch your stuff, I had many destroyed boxes by careless forklift drivers.
• I am learning, so this is better but I paid too much to the freight forwarder.

Now I am acting like the executive I think I would like to be.  I consider ordering a full container since I want to have less damage and get more product for my money.  I still work with same company but I have to hammer on them for quality control, lots of mistakes coming out of Chinese factory.   I order the container, but get little response from my manufacture overseas.  Why you ask?  Well it’s Chinese New Year, and basically everyone takes the month off, good luck.  Eventually I get going and give my order to the freight forwarder.

• Order comes, but the container is sealed with some kind of bolt not even Hercules can break (bring a hacksaw or grinder, just in case)
• I hire college kids with stronger backs and less sense than me. (they need money)
• I rent a forklift and pallet jack and even a friend who can drive a forklift
• We unload in less than 2 hours to my happiness.
• Everyone goes home and I am happy.
• Then the freight forwarding bill comes with surprises, a rate increase and fees not mentioned. Yep, time to find a new company.

The next order is a container from my same manufacturer and 10 pallets from a new company for two separate shipments.  This time I do more research,(I am big on research now) and hire a sourcing specialist.  I tell him my woes of poor quality, long delays and high prices.  He connects me with the right people who know what they are doing.  My sourcing agent actually goes to China, and goes straight to my manufacturer and hammers out new agreements.  He saves me money, time and grief.  I spend  less money, but he takes a small fee and so it’s like spending the same money without grief.  I now have our goods shipped to a fulfillment center, after the container hits port.

• I don’t worry
• I don’t lift boxes
• I don’t think about customs
• I don’t have to give money to a guy named Lou

Yes it is funny when I think about it now, but it is a life lesson.  The bottom line, don’t step over a dollar to pick up a dime.  Sourcing products from overseas can really bite you and cost you some serious dollars if you are not careful.  Learn about Chinese culture and how to build up relationships with factories overseas, this will help you in the long run, but that is another article.

This is probably the $64,000 question that I get asked frequently. So we have made a video to help you answer this question. It really does take research and some creativity to figure out what you would like to venture into. Get a pen and some paper and write down all your ideas after watching this video. The video has some key points in it and will help you to determine in which direction to go next. We will also list some references that you can check to get the job done. Don’t forget, there is a lot of reference material here on this site. It’s not all about manufacturing a product but more about manufacturing yourself as a business. That is whether you sell product, sell a service or sell knowledge. It all starts here.

Click To Play

Click To Play

Blog reference in the video

Forums

http://www.smallbusinessforums.org/

http://www.homebusinessonline.com/community/forum/

http://smallbusinessonlinecommunity.bankofamerica.com/index.jspa

Article

http://ezinearticles.com/?What-Kind-of-Business-Should-I-Start?&id=57316