This is the age of the Internet. The days of offline sales is limited. You can see for yourself the amount of purchasing you do online regularly. Now is the time to know how to sell online and make money.
Selling online has become an art and science. The first challenge being never seeing the face of the customer. Their choice will never be revealed as conveniently as only a look into the eyes can say. But remember that you are still selling to real people. They will be attracted to buy only if you understand their behavior well. Hence, understanding the behavior of online buyer has is a science driven by data and an art to decipher this data.
But there is no need to be intimidated by seeing the words “science” and “arts” in this domain. Yes, it does take common sense to decipher the data and take actions accordingly. There are online tools available which helps in both gathering data and deciphering them. Therefore, selling online has become quite convenient and that is the reason why many people are able to make a decent income out of it.
We discuss here some popular online selling methods which are proven and works well to give you an income from the comfort of your home.
Online Store
There is a growing need of taking everything online which was once offline. Brick and Mortar stores have shifted to online stores. The advantages of an online store is immense. Online Stores is the first answer you get on how to sell online and make money.
The first advantage of an online store is that you do not need to invest in real estate- owned or rented. The online store is your virtual real estate. Hence, you don’t need to worry where to put up a store – prime location being a consideration at the least outflow of capital as possible. You just need to set up a store online and that’s it.
The major advantage of an online store is the customer reach it can generate. There is a worldwide audience of an online store and you sell to any part of the world. Off course, you need to take care of the legal requirements and taxation in the country where you sell.
Setting up an online store might be tedious and you might lose energy if you are doing it all by yourself. Service providers like Shopify provide an integrated platform to set-up your store. They also have useful plug-ins to collect customer data, automate your response and help you market your product. It is great to start with such platform if you intend to set-up your online store all by yourself.
Amazon, E-Bay
Rather than setting up your own online store and putting your solo effort to market the product, it is far better to sell on large e-commerce sites like Amazon or E-Bay. Selling on these e-commerce sites is the most convenient answer to how to sell online and make money.
Your solo online store will take some time to mature and the buyers to take note of it. That is if you are consistent in marketing it over a period. Doing social network postings and resorting to paid ads. Remember that paid ads can burn a hole in the pocket if not done the right way. Though your online store can be viewed round the globe, but the key question here is whether people are ready to buy from an unknown online store. Besides, various scams online has reduced trust in solo online stores and people need to be really convinced to part with their credit card details on an unknown online store.
All this is taken care by selling on large e-commerce sites. People trust buying on Amazon and E-Bay and similar sites. They don’t consider them as scam and don’t even think twice before parting with their credit card details. They know that these sites have a reputation at stake and won’t spoil it for small amount of money you are going to pay them.
However, competition is intense here. The price are market price or if you need to make more sales, you need to give a better discount than your competitors. Besides, since on-time delivery is extremely critical, you need to have some inventory at hand when booking orders. Your Seller Ranking will sky-dive in case, you are consistently not making on-time deliveries.
Hence, selling of e-commerce sites like Amazon and E-Bay is a great way to start making money online but has its own limitations.
YouTube
YouTube has gained in popularity over the years. There are videos on all kind of subjects on YouTube. Visual media is extremely effective when it comes to selling online.
On the other hand, making YouTube videos has become very simple and convenient. An amateur video can be made and uploaded using your smartphone. However, when it comes to video editing, you need some skill. There are software like Camtasia available in market which helps in editing your YouTube videos. Almost all of them have features like a whiteboard video or adding background music.
Add a link for buying on your channel and mention that specifically in your video to click on your link. Videos have a greater probability to sell than written words as that is how a buyer is supposed to behave.
Your Website
Your own website is a great place to start selling online. An online store is also your website but here I speak specifically about affiliate marketing. You promote other people’s products on your website but don’t sell it yourself. The sale is made in the back-end at the manufacturer’s website or for that matter on Amazon. You earn a commission if the sale is made through the lead from your website.
Interesting? Isn’t it. Here you cut down all the hassles of an online store, site trust, global reach and taxation complications. Also, you can obtain leads from all around the world meaning that you are promoting products worldwide. In my view, Affiliate Marketing is far better than any other form of online selling.
In case, you are interested in Affiliate Marketing, read my review of Wealthy Affiliate here.
Conclusion
Whatever mode you choose for online selling, it is imperative that you start today. Procrastination will leave you nowhere.
I wish you all success in selling online and making money. Please do leave your comment on your experience with selling online for making money in the comment box below. It will be a pleasure to hear from you.
