Choosing What to Sell Online
A 4-Point Formula
for
Profitable Product Selection
By Karen Brown
Copyright 2011 by Karen Brown
Smashwords Edition.
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
I dedicate this e-book to my soon-to-be-born daughter, Dharma.
I love you already.
Table of Contents
Chapter Two: Can I Really Make Money Selling Stuff Online?
Chapter Three: Congratulations! You’re A Winner!
Chapter Four: The Buy-Right Formula
Chapter Five: Buy Right Formula Point #1: Compatibility
Chapter Six: Buy Right Formula Point #2: Condition
Chapter Seven: Buy Right Formula Point #3: Demand
Chapter Eight: Buy Right Formula Point #4: Cost
Appendix A: The Hot Products List
Appendix B: The E-Retail Personal Session
Introduction
“What should I sell online?” That’s one of the first questions a person faces when first entering the business of online selling. With that question comes an overwhelming number of choices. Literally millions of products are sold online every single day. The task of choosing just a few of the millions to sell can seem daunting.
This e-book will help you answer that question in a way that considers your personal goals and your situation. It will begin by reassuring you that there’s plenty of money to be made in online selling. So the seemingly overwhelming amount of information you’re required to learn and process to do this business is merely the price of admission to earning a consistent and growing income right away. This e-book will then introduce you to a formula to help you wade through the millions of products you could possibly choose to sell to find the one or the several that are perfect for you to sell right now. The value of this formula is that it grew out of the mistakes and lessons I learned in the six years I’ve spent buying and selling online. It steers you clear of many mistakes and focuses you on some of the considerations that will make your business soar. I feel confident that this e-book offers good guidance for new online sellers as well as for veteran sellers looking to change their business model and increase their sales.
Caution: This is not a book on product sourcing. There is one paragraph on product sourcing in this entire e-book and that’s it. I intentionally wrote this e-book on the very narrow topic of choosing what to sell online so as to focus the reader on the weight and importance of this choice to the success of your business. There are tons of books on product sourcing available on the Internet as well as several online articles. I also have plans to produce an e-book on product sourcing in the coming months, so stay tuned.
So as not to disappoint those of you who are too Type-A to read the whole e-book and just want some quick ideas about what to buy to sell online, I have included in Appendix A of this book a Hot Products List. This list includes the top 10 highest-demand products in 24 product categories on Amazon.com.
You can use this information in several different ways. If you have these products at home, you now know you can sell them online for quick profits. Or, you could try to purchase these items from a vendor for re-sale. Still you could just peruse the categories and get a feel for what brands and products are popular and what you feel attracted to selling online
At the very end of this book in Appendix B you will find a fantastic offer for E-Retail Personal Sessions. Sometimes it just helps to talk to someone who’s done what you’re trying to do and have them give you one-on-one guidance specific to your personal situation. If after reading this e-book you feel like you’d benefit from having this kind of guidance just know that affordable E-Retail Personal Sessions are available to you.
It is my wish that you find the content in this book realistic, useful, timely and written with care.
Enjoy.
Who Am I?
My name is Karen Brown and I am a successful Amazon seller. I have operated a part-time business selling products occasionally on eBay and regularly on Amazon for about 6 years. I have a lifetime Amazon seller rating of 95% from 1,430 customer ratings as of this writing. In the past 3 years and while working a full-time job, I have grossed approximately $65,000 in sales on Amazon profiting approximately $48,000 after expenses. My main product line is new and used hardcover and paperback books. However, I also sell various health, beauty, household and home office products. I consider myself a seasoned Amazon seller whose made enough real money (and enough costly mistakes!) to be a useful guide to anyone wanting to learn to sell profitably online. It is my hope that you find the content of this e-book helpful, timely, well-written and easy to apply to your own situation.
Who Are You?
I know a little about who you are because all online sellers start at square one just like you are doing now. You are someone with a desire and a vision for a better life. You’re tired of being broke or just getting by. Maybe you have a family to feed or you’re barely making ends meet. Maybe you’re just looking for an additional income stream should your full-time job disappear. Or maybe you want to quit your job and do something more fulfilling and that makes you more money. You’ve heard that people can make a lot of money doing stuff online and maybe you’ve tried a few things. You’ve heard a little something about selling stuff online, too. You may even know some people who have sold stuff online and made money. Or, you may already be selling stuff online and just want to gather more information to improve your buying decisions. You came across this e-book and thought it might give you some good information. So you bought it. You made a good decision.
Once you begin seriously looking for products to sell online you go from “just thinking about it” to “just doing it.“ You become an entrepreneur specializing in the resale of new and/or used products to online consumers. You will have your own legitimate money-making business. You will be called a business-to-customer (B2C) seller since you will likely sell directly to the final consumer at first rather than to other businesses. You will popularly be known by the names “online seller,” “e-retailer,” “e-tailer,” “retailer” or “dealer,” to name a few. They all mean the same thing and are used interchangeably in this e-book. You will begin your business by buying new and/or used products to sell online from the manufacturer or another dealer like a distributor, liquidator, local retailer or other online seller. Or, you will spare yourself purchasing costs in the beginning and gather used products from your home and the homes of others you know to sell online. I like to call the latter scenario “repurposing product.”