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Starting a Product Line, Need Advice

by trendier
9 replies
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So I found a niche I want to get into right away, and have a supplier on standby. I will do the shipping by myself for now to see how it takes off. My initial thought is since I have one product for now, to sell it on Ebay and Amazon, maybe Craigslist. I really wanted to create a site for it, and sell it on that site with a nice landing/squeeze page as the front, but I'm really worried that I'll waste a lot of time with SEO/driving traffic. It's not that I expect huge $$ without working for it, I just have a FT position already and a few side projects that I won't be able to manage this if it requires a lot of time every week.

So right now I'm losing confidence in the plan because I don't know how to execute. Should I sell on Ebay/Amazon first and then build a site...should I build the site, then sell on Amazon and Ebay and attempt to get traffic to the squeeze page? I'm not really sure how something like this would work. Can anyone help me figure out a solid plan? Thanks to anyone that replies, I appreciate any feedback!
#advice #line #product #starting
  • Profile picture of the author AJMontoya
    I would start with sellin on eBay and Amazon, and even Craigslist if you're comfortable with face to face transactions. If te product sells well on these websites, there's a good chance it will do well on its own website.
    Once you get to the point where you're making a good amount of sales on eBay and Amazon, go ahead and build a website. Once the site is built, create business cards with a link to your website/squeeze page and throw it in the box with the item you're shipping. This way your customers can come back to your site.
    You can ten continue to advertise the usual way.. Social media, PPC, etc.
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  • Profile picture of the author trendier
    Glad to hear that. I think I will just buy a small inventory and try it out. If anyone has any other tips for me I'd love to hear them!
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  • Profile picture of the author Auctiondebteliminator
    My question is - do you know your actual profits from the actual market worth of the item minus deductions?

    Can you make a profit from a fair market value? Or are you going off an MSRP/MAP price? Those rarely (if ever) make a profit, and you'll need to know EXACTLY how much you can sell your items for, and the formats to yield those profits.

    Because from there - you can then know if the niche really is good or if you need to negotiate a lower cost to acquire.

    Profit is predictable before listing on eBay - and actually VERY important to do - especially prior to supplier acquisition/negotiations.
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  • Profile picture of the author KevinW
    70-90% of website visitors never return so I say create a squeeze page and try to capture the contact info of the traffic your generating. Make this priority #1. And then try to sell them after you get the contact info.

    This is a change I made for my online businesses and it paid off big for me. The big benefit was developing the list to bring the visitors back. And it made it easy to launch and offer new products/services.
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  • Profile picture of the author CatK
    Some great info here. Selling on eBay etc seems good first to test the ground without too many costs involved. Setting up a WordPress website is easy after that. You can even put a link in your listing driving traffic back to your site.
    Good luck
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  • Profile picture of the author rodsav
    The most important thing to remember, is to start out small and make sure your product or service has a demand. I wouldn't buy a lot of inventory in the beginning, if things go well then you can invest more. But all in all you have a good plan, good luck.
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  • Profile picture of the author wakeforce139
    Lot of solid advice above but I'll throw in my addition.

    Can you please clarify since I'm not sure from your post - is this a product you are having made for you or are you buying someone else's product? If this is a unique product (essentially making you the mfg) you need to create an authority site for it. This can be minimalist but as a buyer I almost always look up the manufacturer's website before I buy something that is not well known or from a well known mfg. People want to research the product if they are not familiar with it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Gary Pettit
    You can build an Ebay storefront and drive traffic to that link via Craigslist advertisement. That way you can sell on Ebay as well as Craiglist and it lets everyone know everything you are selling compared to just one listing
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  • Profile picture of the author dave_hermansen
    If I were you I would launch an eBay and/or Amazon store using a unique, short name (for branding purposes). You know, something dumb, odd and memorable like Zatoo!

    Then I would launch an ecommerce store using my short name and I'd make my products available there (i.e. Zatoo.com). Then with each order I sent out I would include an insert with a coupon or some sort of promo for that domain name.

    Between the branding at Amazon/eBay and those inserts you should start building a following at the domain name. No other time or marketing effort would be required to get that domain name store moving in the right direction!
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