How To Build A Successful Web Store

Are you chasing the online gold rush? Are you one of those people who work hard to make money online but hardly make enough? Don't worry, everyone starts there. The key to getting out of the hole is first to figure out that you are doing something wrong. And most people who don't succeed in online are doing something wrong. For example too many people try to make money with blogs when they have no writer's talent. Too many internet marketers are trying to be a media and earn from advertising and Adsense. The real money is not in advertising, it's in selling. How to do it? Build a web store and sell affiliate products, goods that you buy wholesale, or drop ship someone else's products.

Why Having Your Own Store Is Better?

It's possible to make money from buying and selling products without having your own store - Ebay for example is a great platform and many people use it. However on Ebay and similar platforms you need to create and promote auctions, compete with a lot of similar items, and of course pay fees. Having your own web store gives you a lot more opportunities. You can drive traffic from search engines, free articles, forums and so on, to your own site and build a long term passive income. The web store can work for you while you are on vacation - something that is much harder to happen on Ebay.

Finally your own store helps you build a brand and be recognized. People can refer each other to your web store instead of referring to Ebay and sending their friends to other sellers. 

Building your own web store is not as involved as it was in the past. Programming and design services are cheaper nowadays and there are a lot of pre-made scripts and templates that can be used. You can even make a store using Wordpress with few plugins and a premium theme - it's going to cost you no more than few hundreds. How To Find a NicheBefore building a web store, there is one very important thing you have to do - pick a hot and thin niche. What does "hot and thin" means? First, there must be enough people who are willing to buy the products in it. Second, the niche shouldn't be too broad - just "bikes" for example is a bad idea - how are you going to compete with the big bike stores and how are you going to be found and recognized at all?. On the other hand if you build a store specialized in selling scooters under 50cc the competition becomes lower, you will be able to offer more variety and will be found easier in search engines.

But how do you actually choose the niche? There are many methods, but my favorite ones are two - keyword research and browsing forums. 

If you want to use keyword research, start with a broad terms - something in the category of products you feel you would like selling. If we go back to the bikes example, start with "bikes". Use Google Adwords tool or other keyword research tool to obtain information about longer tail keywords, synonims etc. Everything that has at least 1,000 searches monthly is a good choice - of course after you check the competition and check how many stores are competing in the same niche and what are their strengths. Using forums is maybe easier, but a little less reliable. You need to find forums about the broad niche you are interested in, then check which of the categories attract the most discussions. Check what people are discussing there - are they buying products or are they more interested in reusing, DYI or just general advice. There are no exact numbers to look for - you just need to "feel" whether the niche will be profitable by browsing the forums. 

How To Find Companies That Will Drop Ship For YouFinding profitable niche is extremely important - and it's almost half of the way you need to walk to building your successful web store. What's the other half? Finding the products you are going to sell at good prices! Not only this, you need to find companies which will drop ship the products for your customers or at least ones that will sell small wholesale volumes to you.

This part isn't as easy as it seems - if you buy from the first supplier you find, you are most likely to get too expensive products and be unable to sell them. Finding drop ship companies is complicated process that involves more than "Googling". You need to research specific drop ship directories, and eventually pay for access to some. You may need to contact suppliers who don't advertise drop shipping and try to convince them. There are several ways to find suppliers and you will probably need to use them all and work hard - but the result is well worth it!