Online Affiliate Marketing is a revenue sharing venture between a website owner and an online merchant. The website owner will place advertisements on his websites to either help sell the merchant's products or to send potential customers to the merchant's website, all in exchange for a share of the profits.

Affiliate Marketing Program
An affiliate marketing program is sometimes called an affiliate program, but also may be referred to as a pay-for-performance program or an associate program. An affiliate program is a marketing tool for the e-business that operates it, called merchant or advertiser and a source of revenue for the e-business that participates in it, called an affiliate or associate or publisher.

There are three ways to earn money through affiliate marketing:
1) Pay per Click or Cost-per-click affiliate programs: Every time a potential customer leaves the affiliate website by "clicking" on the link leading to the merchant's website, a certain amount of money is deposited in the affiliate's account. This amount can be pennies or dollars depending on the product and amount of the commission.
2) Pay per Lead or Cost-per-lead affiliate programs: The merchant pays the affiliate a set fee for each visitor who clicks through and takes and action at the merchant's site, such as completing an online survey, registering at the site, or opting-in to receive e-mail.
3) Pay per Sale or Cost-per-sale affiliate programs: Every time a sale is made as a result of advertising on the affiliate's website, a percentage, or commission, is deposited into the affiliate's account.

The Amazon Story
The world's biggest bookstore has one of the most successful examples of an affiliate program (called their associate program). Amazon now has well over 1 million affiliates! That is over 1 million websites actively promoting their products every single second of every single day. Amazon generates over 40% of its revenue through its affiliates program. That is over $ 3 billion in revenue every single year! As another (somewhat humble by comparison) example, Zeald generates over 50% of its revenue using its own unique affiliates program. Admittedly, not quite billions of dollars but that is definitely millions of dollars of revenue every single year.

Thousands of diverse e-businesses operate affiliate programs: Eg barnes & nobale, dell, 1-800-flowers, rackspace managed hosting etc.

Affiliate Programs as a Marketing Tool
The two major Advantages to merchant
1. Tie marketing effort directly to a lead or sales.
2. The merchant pays only for results.
The two major Advantages to affiliate
1. Additional source of revenue for affiliate who also sells products / services
2. Primary source of revenue for affiliate who offers entertainment or information
Two Approaches to Operating a Successful Affiliate Marketing
1. Acquire a huge and affiliate membership. eg The Amazon associates programs have over 1 million members as diverse as:
– RVPart – Sells parts for recreational vehicles and motor homes.
– Dilbert – Site for view cartoons, play games, send electronic greeting cards etc
– Books for Managers – Site for business reviews and lists of the currant top-selling business-related books provided by Business week, The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and other publications.
– HaperCollins – Its site to promote its authors and their books. However, like many book publishers. HaperCollins sells its books through bookstores and not directly to the public.
2. Acquire a smaller number of highly effective affiliates that have a high volume of website traffic and offer web page content, products and services that are directly related to the merchant's products and services.

Affiliate Programs as a Revenue Source
Participating in an affiliate program and then getting the most out of your participation involves:
– Selecting the appropriate merchant and affiliate program for your e-business
– Understand the terms of the affiliate agreement
– Add custom links to merchant's site from affiliate Web pages
– Build traffic at affiliate site to increase click-troughs to merchant site.

Top 10 Tips for Choosing the Affiliate Program That Is Right for You
1. You have to identify a product or service for which there is a need. The product should be such that you would love and enjoy promoting it. You could start by searching for "Affiliate Programs" in the Search Engines.
2. The product or service should be relevant to your website.
3. It is always wise to join an affiliate program that is long standing, safe and secure and has a good reputation in the Internet world. This can be easily verified from the Better Business Bureau or other similar organizations. Visits to Forums and Discussion Groups will also provide you with a lot of useful information.
4. Most affiliate program providers provide a commission of 5% to 50%. The commission you earn for the sale of a product is your main income. So while choosing an affiliate program you should study the commission paid out and decide on a program that pays at least 35% for you to run your business successfully.
5. There should be a proper tracking system in place to record all the clicks and sales made through the text links and banners placed on your website, e-mails and other advertisements.
6. One important factor that is often overlooked is the "hits per sale ratio". This indicates the number of hits that have to be made to a Text Link or Banner to generate a sale. This will give you an idea as to how much traffic is needed before a sale is made.
7. How often are commissions paid? This is another important matter that should be considered. Most reputed organizations pay their affiliates monthly or when they accumulate a minimum commission of $ 50 to $ 100 or as indicated by you. You should avoid any program that requires too many sales to reach the minimum amount.
8. Affiliate Programs are generally single tier or two tiers. A single tier program pays you for whatever business you have generated. On the other hand a two tier program pays you for the business you have generated and also a commission for the sales generated by a sub- affiliate, you have sponsored. A two tier program is always advantageous.
9. Long standing reputed organizations provide a whole range of tools and resources such as Banners, Text Links, Brochures, Websites and training for their affiliates. When choosing look out for such organizations because they certainly make life much easier and helps you grow your home based business.
10. Finally, you must read and understand the agreement before you join as an affiliate even if it happens to be the best organization in the world.

Understanding the Affiliate Agreement
The affiliate agreement created by the merchant and agreed by the affiliate, defines all aspects of the affiliate program and typically includes:
– Types of Web sites merchant will accept into the affiliate program
– Types of links allowed and guidelines regarding their use.
– Schedule and payments terms of fees and commissions
– Terms of usage of merchant logo, name and web content
– Technical specification that your web site must meet, if any
– Restrictions on types of content that may appear on affiliate sites
– Requirements for compliance with all government laws, ordinances, rules, and regulations.

Affiliate Tracking Systems
– Allow merchant to control how it credits click-throughs
– Monitor window of time in which affiliate can get credit for a click-through
– Record and store affiliate information
– Provide commission / fee reports

Affiliate management networks
An affiliate management network is a third-party entity that recruits affiliates, manages the registration process, tracks and properly credits all of the fee and commissions and arranges for payment. In return for these services, the affiliate management network collects from the merchant a percentage of each referral transaction's fee or commission-perhaps as much 30 percent.

Well-established affiliate management networks: Example: Commission Junction, LinkShare [2]

Affiliate tracking technologies
To achieve this we develop a strategic online relationship with advertisers to improve the creation, management, and analysis of online marketing and sales activities. These activities are supported by a scalable and reliable tracking technology. Keeping track of the click-throughs and properly crediting the affiliates is a complex programming task. Companies such as BeFree and ClickTrade sell software that automatically monitors and credits all followed links resulting in a sale. Note that ClickTrade was acquired by Microsoft and is now co-branded as part of Microsoft bCentral.

Some tracking technologies are following:
– Custom links containing affiliate information or affiliate and merchant information
– Tracking cookies
– Third-party tracking software
– Application service provider tracking service
– Sub Domain tracking
– Database record matching.

Affiliate Marketing Risks and Challenges
Affiliate marketing is not without certain risks and challenges primarily form unethical affiliates and the negative perceptions online consumers have about tracking technologies.

Unethical Affiliates
– Cookie stuffing – Multiple cookies placed on visitor's hard drive during a single visitor affiliate site.
– Spyware – General term used to describe software that has been installed on a personal computer without the owner's permission, its unknowingly download and install spyware when you download games, screensavers, freeware utilities and so forth.
– Parasiteware – Redirects affiliate links and Replaces content of existing tracking cookies
– Spammers – Merchant is responsible if affiliates use spam to promote sites
– Negative perception of tracking cookies – Many consumers install and use blocking software which includes Block tracking cookies and Delete tracking cookies.

Why Affiliate Marketing Is Profitable for E-Business
If you have been considering an affiliate marketing venture, there are some very good reasons why you should go with this method of generating recurring revenue. Here are some of the ways that affiliate marketing can be a lucrative means of creating income that will be stable and allow you to grow exposure over time.
– One of the first advantages of affiliate marketing for the new entrepreneur is that the startup cost is very low. Most companies that offer affiliate marketing programs do not require any type of monetary investment on the part of the affiliate.
– The second expenses are limited to what you have to pay to connect with the Internet, the software you may need to load on your computer, and a web site where the ads associated with the affiliate marketing program can be placed. With web site hosting such an inexpensive service these days, setting up your own web site for the affiliate ads will be a breeze.
– Another reason that affiliate marketing is such a moneymaker is the fact that there are so many different types of ways to set up the program. You can go with the pay per click option, which works out great when it comes to promoting special offers. Ads that lead to product review sites often are a way to allow product users to go through your portal and leave comments on the items they purchase.

First Thing's First-Avoid These Silly Affiliate Marketing Mistakes!
While affiliate marketing is a great way to earn a living, the fact is that many people become discouraged and drop out of programs. In many instances, the failure to be successful with affiliate marketing has to do with making a few simple mistakes. Here are some examples of those mistakes and why they should be avoided.
– A low-quality website with no original content and tossing in some affiliate links. While it is certainly true that you need to have a web site up and running in order to participate in an affiliate program, there is also the need to apply some effort to getting the word out about your site. Otherwise, the chances of people visiting your web site and clicking on one of the links are pretty slim.
– Another mistake many affiliate partners make is not choosing products that have some relevance to the content of your web site.
– Keeping your site content and the ads more or less relevant to one another will make it easier to generate revenue, and not fail as an affiliate marketer. Now, this may seem intuitive – but many make this mistake in subtle ways (ie they mismatch their customers with products).
– One final mistake that many affiliate marketers make is not sprucing up their web sites from time to time. Keeping the content fresh is one way of building and keeping a loyal reading audience because keeping the same old look and the same old text with nothing new to entice people back is a sure way to limit your chances at being a successful affiliate marketer. The fact is that you do have to proactively promote your site, keep the content fresh, and make sure the ads have some connection to the subject matter of your site.

What You Need Before Getting Started and Affiliated Marketing
While there is not a lot of expense in starting up as an affiliate marketer, there are a few things that you need to do if you really want to make money marketing other people's products.
Here are some basic tips to help you line up all your things to do before you ever sign up for that first affiliate program.
– One of the basic needs for any successful affiliate program is to have a web site of your own. While it is possible to purchase ad space on sites and to advertise through Google Adwords, this is short term strategy setting up a basic web site that has a particular focus will make all the difference in the world to the success of your program. Keep in mind that your web site does not have to be complicated with a lot of flash media, animation or other fancy bells and whistles.
– In fact, if you plan on focusing your attention on affiliate marketing strategies that target the home consumer, you are better off with a basic site that will load quickly on a dial up connection. After all, dial-up is still extremely popular in a number of locations.
– Online payments are a great way to easily receive your affiliate payments and keep track of your earnings. From this angel, you may want to look into opening an account with one of the more popular online services that send and receive funds. ig PayPal
– Another important aspect is determining just what your contact information will be, regarding communication with your affiliate program. This would include an email Address and physical mailing address. The email address should be one you have set aside specifically for your marketing business.

How to Pick the Best Product with the Best Payout and Great Demand
– One of the first things to think in terms of when it comes to affiliate marketing is determining where your talents and expertise happen to reside. One of the keys to picking the best products for your particular situation have to do with what you know and how much you know about it. As an example, a person that has worked in telecommunications for a number of years will probably know a great deal about telephony, related services, and technology that are used within that industry.
– Another aspect about setting up with the right products to promote has to do with where you see a niche to fill in. Finding a population or business sector that appears to be largely ignored in the marketing process can provide the inspiration you need to create a successful affiliate marketing program.
– Do not allow yourself to get discouraged simply because everything is not crystal clear as you begin this part of the process. Practicing some patience and giving yourself time to find the right products to promote as part of the program will only serve to make you more dedicated to the success of the program
In the end, you will find the products that will lead to a very successful affiliate marketing scheme and provide you with not only a handsome revenue stream, but also a lot of personal satisfaction.

Recommended Top Affiliate Networks on the Internet
When you decide to enter the world of affiliate marketing, there are a number of markets that are worthy of consideration. Here are three programs that have captured the attention of a lot of people, simply because of their stability and reliability.

1. Perhaps the best known of the three programs is Click Bank: clickbank. There a number of reasons why people find ClickBank such an attractive option when it comes to affiliate programs. One aspect is that the revenue generated by any purchase made through the ad portal is credited to your account within two minutes of the completion of the transaction. Because Click Bank provides such a comprehensive tracking program.
2. pavdotcom is also an excellent choice as an affiliate network. Just as with ClickBank, PayDotCom provides an easy to use affiliate interface that allows you to view your numbers in real time. You can easily track such data as the number of clicks on the ads and the amount of commissions you have made by directing visitors over to the marketplace through the portal on your web site. One of the advantages of PayDotCom is that this program will interface with your PayPal account, which means that vendors can send your monthly commission directly to your PayPal account. It is important to note that not all vendors will use PayPal as a payment method, so you may still receive payments by check as well.
3. shareasale is a third option that is rapidly gaining recognition among affiliate marketers. As a program that is designed to match up to the content of your existing web site, Share sale is free to join as an affiliate.

Rising to the Super Affiliate Level – What Constitutes a Super Affiliate?
A super affiliate is a marketing affiliate that has created a network that provides a high volume of traffic to affiliate products and a high percentage of completed sales from that traffic. The super affiliate is not one who reaches this level once, or even once in a great while.
– Creativity is an hallmark of a super affiliate. The ability to present the same old information is new ways will keep people interested. Super affiliates know how to look at products from a variety of different angles, determine a series of ways to present the product, and then go out and find an audience to match up with each one of those ways. For the super affiliate, there is always one more way to draw attention to a product, and find a larger audience than ever before.
– Another characteristic of a super affiliate is the desire and ability to master technology. This does not necessarily involve becoming an expert in information technology. But it does involve learning enough about existing technology to make good use of avenues already open on the Internet to promote products.
– Making the most of your status as a super affiliate means enjoying the opportunities that come to you through word of mouth; additionally, it means taking matters into your own hands and promoting your status in such a way that you increase your visibility.

The Super Affiliate Marketing Tactics Exposed!
So what is it that allows a super affiliate to make hundreds or even thousands of sales when you struggle to make 5 sales of the same product? Why is that super affiliates rake in the cash while you struggle to get by? Think about this carefully: you are both selling the exact same product. The only possible difference is the tactics you use to market it. Below, we have included a couple tactics that we should use to sell more like super affiliates. Try to incorporate them into your strategy.

Tactic # 1: Play the Long Game
Whenever some new launch is coming up, they will throw together a promotional website; and try to direct traffic to it using pay per click search engine advertisements or solo ads. But there is a major flaw with this approach: almost without exception, people will purchase a "big launch" product from an Internet marketer they already know this is why you have to play the long game, rather than focusing on each individual launch, prepare an approach that will work consistently for years to make more sales.
Tactic # 2: Steal from Super Affiliates Whenever Possible
Many super affiliates are also big name Internet marketers. They have public personas that we can follow quite easily. We can find their user ld's, blogs, mailing lists and their web site's. Through this approach we can learn from each of them.
Tactic # 3: Ignore Talk; Look for Revealed Preference
Talk is just that: talk. Many Internet marketers will talk about all sorts of different methods you can use to make money. They will tell you to advertise using Google AdWords or to build a list or to create viral reports. While some of this information may be useful and legitimate, we should ignore what they say and watch what they do. This is called "revealed preference.
Tactic # 4: Make Friends with the Seller
Believe it or not, the seller wants you to be successful, too. So contact him ahead of time, make friends with him; and see if he has any particular advice for you on selling the product. Keep in mind that he talks to a lot of affiliates on a regular basis (especially around big launches) and has the best understanding of the tactics they actually use.

Become a Supreme Affiliate Marketing: Additional Supreme Affiliate Marketing Tips
If you want to make a six figure income – and possibly a seven figure income – then you have to do something that is truly different than what you are doing now. The big question is "how can I do this"? Here's following suggestion:

Tip # 1: Start Acting Like a Business Owner
If you want to be a successful affiliate product marketer, you have to find people who can augment your weakness (and, trust me, no matter how smart you are, you have plenty of weaknesses). Additionally, affiliate marketers do not work in isolation. Most of them are friends with the marketers they sell products for; and this gives them far more leverage and information than you have access to. So start thinking of yourself as a business owner, rather than a completely self-sufficient Internet marketer.
Tip # 2: Concentrate on Regular Sales
Regular sales are easier to quantify and predict; and, for this reason, it is far easier to continually ramp up small, regular sales until you are making hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars each year. So don't worry if you're the top affiliate for some major new product launch. Instead, focus on regular sales and regular increases in sales.
Tip # 3: Do What They Do – Not What They Say
Observe the channels of marketer through which he promotes his product. Watch carefully to determine what methods he's using to make sales, so you can replicate his successes, rather than chasing after dreams he's written about.

Conclusion

We may conclude that choosing an Affiliate Program that is right for you might be time consuming but a worth while process. Going through the above whole process will also be a learning curve for new entrepreneurs who are serious about starting a successful home based business. So there is an opportunity for business students and young entrepreneur to develop a simple website with limited budget that can be arranged easily through their own personal savings. This website can be developed with only $ 100 to $ 200 (Approximately). You can increase your business growth through adopting the approach where you can affiliate your business with different websites having relevancy with your business and internet heavy traffic as well.

Finally there's no single path to affiliate marketing riches – and that's a good thing. Instead, there are many pathways through which you can make your millions. So scout carefully, look for functional methods you can use, and implement them in your own efforts. You may be surprised with the results. But whatever you do – don't continue to use strategies that haven't worked in the past. Always think like super affiliates because they use a range of tactics and adopt different ways in order to consistently outperform other affiliates. But one thing you should always play the long game and build lists, create forums, and secure a captive audience in advance of product releases.

Aknowledgement

The Author indebted to Ms.Umera Imtinan, Lecturer Comsats Unversity, Lahore for her suggestion to write this article.

References

1. Napier Albert. "Book: Creating a Winning E-Business", 2nd edition, p256-257
2. Article, "Affiliate marketing", zeald.com / Services ".
3. Article, "Affiliate Marketing Strategy for E-Business", "resources.alibaba.com".
4. Article, "Affiliate tracking", "kleindesigns.com".
5. Online Book, "Super Affiliate Marketing Secrets: Gain the Edge You Need to Become a Super Affiliate Marketer" "free-ebooks".
6. Internet Article, "Top 10 Tips for Choosing the Affiliate Program That Is Right for You", "articlesbase.com"

The key word is profit – relatively simple to “sell” products (just sell smartphones or technology products), but your profit margins will be hideous.

What most people don’t realize is that the money you “collect” from business is just part of the story.

“Full” retail purchases provide a gross income. To determine the profit, you need to discount COGS (Cost of Goods Sold) and any extra “administrative” expenses, such as advertising, warehousing and staffing costs.

Whilst the allure of the “digital” realm has encouraged millions to foray into its depths, it is not unique. You still need to account for profit (bottom line) rather than overall gross (top line) in order to maintain your sanity (& viability).

The “online” business world closely mirrors its offline counterpart, which means that if you’re looking to take advantage of the plethora of opportunities created with the likes of Amazon, YouTube, etc – you’ll want to look at how they work… as “markets”.

YouTube is a market for entertainment, Twitter is a market for attention and Amazon is a market for commodity prices. Understanding this puts you in the advantageous position of being able to determine a more effective way to provide solutions to participants in said markets.

Supply/Demand…

The most important thing to appreciate that it’s all about supply & demand – the cornerstone of a “free market”.

Supply/Demand states that if there is demand, supply will surely follow… Over-supply brings “prices” down. Under-supply brings “prices” up.

The most important thing to consider is how demand is created/influenced.

Demand is the cornerstone of whether a “product” will sell, and is why the likes of “technology” products always do well online (because people want to ensure they’re getting the latest & greatest components).

Therefore, when considering what to “sell” on Amazon, you’re basically looking at which products have demand and are under-supplied. The supply situation may not by indicated by high prices, but people will generally either hold back on “non-essential” purchases, or ask for variations of provided solutions.

The important thing to consider is that most people are focused on “supply” (typically over-supply), such as you’d see from products which either have a lot of buyers or a lot of vendors (“smartphones” being a prime example).

By selling a “me-too” product, you may get sales but you’ll almost invariably have no profit. In my own experience in the “tech” space, profits are minimal because volume is so high. Contrast this with the likes of furniture where volume is relatively low, profits can be much higher.

The point is that the “price” you achieve on any of the modern platforms is heavily dependent on the quality and veracity of the solution, rather than whether other companies are already offering it.

To this end, the following are some of the more effective solutions/products to sell through Amazon:

• ACCESSORIES For Popular Products
  This works especially well for smartphones, computers and video consoles/games. If you find a popular product (especially game), you should be able to source complimentary accessories for it. iPhone cases were very good for this from between 2013 to 2015.

• CHEAP-To-Make Kickstarter Products
  Kickstarter (crowd funding platform) is a goldmine for the inquisitive Amazon retailer. Not only do you have SPECIFIC listings of products which have been funded (and the actual data to support them), but you have a blueprint for products that a market will actually want. Some of the best categories for this are in the “creative” space – books and board games. Now, obviously the caveat here is to NOT rip-off the products in question – just use them as a point of observation of what you could buy/get made to compliment the demand they have PROVEN to exist.

• Boxed VIRTUAL Products
  If you can get STEAM codes cheap, why not pay some money to get them boxed? What about if you found several “guides” doing well on ClickBank’s marketplace (there are a TON of game guides for the likes of World of Warcraft Gold etc on there)? A great trick is to find a virtual product that’s already selling and just make a physical copy. Obviously, you CANNOT rip-off the other product. If you don’t have anything of your own to add, just buy their book and rewrite it or something. The point is that you need to provide a unique offer to a new market – with demand ALREADY proven.

• Custom / Unique Products You Have Access To LOCALLY
  One of the BIGGEST mistakes new sellers make with Amazon is basically just doing exactly the same as everyone else. They’ll even use the same “source” in China (via Alibaba of course). The best people are able to basically “source” their own products locally (or perhaps from their own suppliers) and then offer them as comparable products on the Amazon platform. For example, you may know a local clothing provider who’ll sell you cheap clothes (wholesale) – you’d be able to put them onto Amazon whilst targeting successful clothes that are on the platform already.

Notice all offerings above depend on there being very few other vendors in the market (whilst capitalizing on existing demand).

Whilst I believe the quality of a product is the most important thing, if you’re trying to make a penetration and don’t have resources/expertise to put into R&D, you’ll want to pick up any slack the market may have presently.

This is best done by playing the “demand arbritrage” game – providing products that have been proven in other markets, and offering an improved / comparable version through Amazon.

Alternative / Secret Trick…

To speak from my own experience, the whole supply/demand thing is legitimate for “commodity” products like technology components, clothes, food or generic medical solutions.

… BUT there is another way…

If you’re familiar with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human Needs, the “price” quantifier is important for the stuff that people *need*, but don’t necessarily *want*.

In other words, if you’re playing on “level 1” (psychological) or “level 2” (safety) of the hierarchy, pricing is going to play a major role because people can get the same solutions from most vendors (just look at Android).

This can be seen in almost every market – whereby a company will only provide “cheap” prices due to the generic nature of their solutions. They don’t do much different, and thus end up attracting a fickle crowd (who are price sensitive).

Reality is different. Rather than being a slave to circumstance, the best work higher up the hierarchy – towards belonging (brands/communities), self-esteem (personal development/”big risk”) & self actualization (legacy).

By doing this, they transcend price (although cannot escape it) because of the perceived uniqueness of their offering (often termed “perceived value” in marketing).

They attract buyers who actually *want* to deal with them, and are happy to pay a fair price to take ownership of a solution whose benefit far outweighs its worldly (“tangible”) value.

This is where “premium” and “luxury” companies come from.

The secret is that markets respond to solutions. You take your wares to market, you don’t want to let the market rule you. The potency of your solution determines its demand.

The trick I’ve found works best is to go out and try big, bold experiments on your own and then provide the “solutions” you discovered as packaged products. This can be done both virtually and physically (through Amazon) – and what’s more, it’s entirely dependent on you… meaning that there should be very little by way of “competition” that can affect how successful the products are.

For example, say you’re interested in playing video games. You may like World of Tanks. Posting videos of WoT on YouTube is done by anyone with a capture card, so it’s not likely to give you a huge edge (although it will work quite well if you post good replays) – the real trick will come from running WoT tournaments which you post the results for on you website, YouTube and also through the likes of Twitch.

The part where Amazon plays into this is that it will give you the opportunity to sell the “SECRETS” to successful WoT gameplay, as well as premium vehicles and physical (boxed) versions of any “strategy” guides you created.

The key is that people who enjoy don’t really want to buy your stuff – they only want to get better at the game. Thus, what you’re “selling” is a way to do this.

You attract people by the quality of your replays/tournaments, and you’re able to then offer other products as a result they’re able to replicate.

Likewise with other solutions. Perhaps you went on a trip to Tuscany and found some special clothing pieces, or you took your programming skills and created a custom web based application for users who wanted to enjoy the underlying way in which certain things work. The possibilities are limitless.

Remember, though, the KEY is to have people willing to PAY for the usage of the items you’re offering. Most make the mistake of selling the product – people want the SOLUTION (“results”). They don’t buy acne cream because it’s “natural” – they buy it to get rid of acne… the idea that it’s “natural” is a by-product of this underlying purpose.

School days come and school days go… but we wanted to make this one special for the children and their parents. So we, the staff of this little school in a remote corner of India decided to stage “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”

One of the most challenging and delightful roles of a teacher is to prepare the children for a play…especially if the children are in Junior School… The experience of training and getting them to practice defies description.

Snow White and the rest of the cast were from Grade 5 or less. A pretty and talented third grader became Snow White more so because she was relatively less naughty. The role of the wicked queen went to a smart 5Th grader who was really good at acting.

The seven dwarfs were chosen for their bright eyes, exuberance and general optimism about everything.. as you will soon see… The prince, who appeared only in the last scene was a quiet boy who learned his lines and recited them when asked to, a redeeming quality… as you will soon see…..

With minimum and minor hitches, we managed to get the children word perfect for the play. They emoted well, even the seven little boys… as they just had to be themselves, funny, and in high spirits.

The great day arrived… All were excited. The children were angels as far as punctuality and dress rehearsals were concerned. With the play scheduled for 7pm, the kids were brought to the green room at half past five.

As the dwarfs’ costume was uncomplicated they got ready first, their beards, whiskers and wigs fitted on and they were marched out to stand in a line, waiting for their great moment…..This was a great mistake….

They waited, 10 minutes… like good little boys, silent and happy… The next 10 minutes they looked around, and attracted others’ attention to their costume.. Some posed for pictures… They started talking … softly, louder.. louder until they were commanded to stand with fingers on lips.

It was then that the tallest of the boys noticed a lovely pit dug just behind the green room. He gestured silently to the other boys and said “Let’s see who jumps in and comes out first?”

Those that couldn’t jump just slithered in, shouted in victory and then clambered back to level ground. This seemed to be a nice game to pass the time… By the time they were missed and spotted, each dwarf could be credited with at least 3 attempts of jumping in and clambering out….

Their attire bore faithful testimony to this fact… The costumes were terribly muddied, the whiskers and beards were askance, there was no trace of make up and little fights of one up-manship had erupted…Of course they were lucky to have the pretty silver colored cardboard axes we had made for them, to begin their skirmishes. “Bang! Clash!” they mouthed to simulate a well fought axe duel….

However, the axes had not been designed for this eventuality and bore the brunt of the fights… all axes drooped uniformly and then some came apart….

The teachers quickly set the seven little boys right, making them presentable for the play.  Whiskers were stuck back, t clothes were dusted clean, spare axes given, and make-up  applied again…..

The play began..The queen, king, Snow White and the queen’s henchman were unbelievably good… Now our little boys were sent up on the stage…All got ready with their axes on shoulders and a happy grin.on their faces.. except one.. This little boy did not want his whiskers.any more.. they were tickling his nose! He cried for his mother and kept twitching his nose and sneezing until it fell away… he now looked what he was… a third grader…

Though he went on stage un-whiskered, he played his part well, as did the other six boys… We were almost getting complacent when the other shocks in store for us were revealed…

It was the scene of Snow White’s happy domesticity in the dwarf’s’ hut… She sang and danced and dusted and cleaned… The parents of the girl playing the part were so proud of her that her dad decided she should be photographed/video graphed/captured on mobile right then… So like any loving father he asked his other daughter (aged three years) to get up on stage and pose with her now famous Snow White sister..

Snow White loved all the attention, stopped singing and started posing for the pictures… I mean.. how often would this moment repeat for her? She made the best of it…

Play commenced after 10 minutes when one of us lifted the three-year old away from the stage and politely informed the now beaming father that people were waiting to see the play go on, so would he please take the rest of the pictures after the play?… Being magnanimous of heart he complied and settled back in his seat to watch the rest of the drama….

A real drama it was now… the wicked queen came with the pretty laces and bows .. she was applauded for her acting prowess by the parents while children watched her wickedness open-mouthed…Then the step mother disappeared…

It was the scene when she had to give Snow White the poisoned apple… Well… Snow White sang and knitted and danced and cleaned, waiting for the queen to appear, so did we… there seemed to be some commotion backstage…

What actually had happened was… the basket of shining red apples (five of them) tipped and the apples had rolled away… not one could be traced…A first grader wanted to help find it… he looked all around and then came running back to the director.. “Is this OK?” he asked… he had a melon sized red ball in his hand, which he had found somewhere.. It had broad white  stripes on it too..

I will not dwell on the director’s plight, nor will I pause to consider whether he considered using the huge plastic ball..for the apple….. because at that moment one apple was traced.. It had rolled onto the stage and settled below Snow White’s chair…

One enterprising 4Th grader, who was the presenter for the evening skipped onto the stage merrily, said “Hi Snow White! How are you? I’ll just be back..” and adroitly picked up the apple and went back stage….

There were no hitches after that… The prince brought Snow White back to life and the dwarfs cheered and the curtains came down……

Much later, while the Chief Guests and the School Management warmly appreciated the teachers’ efforts in making the play a success… I wondered whether we would be game enough to direct another play next year…. Maybe …”Alibaba and the 40 Thieves”?  Want to direct it anyone? 

Unfortunately, this is not that doom and gloom article announcing that PPC and SEO are no more. Rather we’ll discuss how audio search has shaken things up for the digital marketers.

In the world of search, the voice is an emerging trend and of course something that should be kept an eye on.

Google algorithms change once or twice in a day. But rarely do we experience major ranking fluctuations in it. Those are the updates marketers are concerned about.

One such important trend that may rule the SEO is:

Voice Search on Mobile

Google and Siri might have come in the picture long ago, but it is now that this search has got the ball rolling. Initially, consumers were not at all thrilled with this technology. It was a fun voice recognition gimmick that everyone may want to have fun with. According to research performed in those initial years, 83% of iOS users stated that they didn’t use Siri at all. But today, Google and Siri are leading the way.

With adaption to this new search, you can think of it growing exclusively.

Are you ready to learn more about it?

What is VoiceSearch?

It can be termed as a speech recognition technology allowing a user to perform a search through voice command. It is a two-way communication that assists the users to complete their tasks in real time.

Users nowadays expect a prompt and direct answer when they perform any search. And it is an ideal. In fact, if you dig a little deep in the context of voice queries, you will find it totally different from the specific keyword text search in the search engine.

Voice Search Gaining Popularity

Voice recognition is obviously nothing new, but to date, the practical application remained limited to shouting with anger at a phone to make it understand things or to bring it in exercise to create humor.

However, changing search trends have shown that practical voice interaction is finally a real thing.

It may be hyped as the “coming” technology, but the fact is that 40% of the users have made it today’s technology. Every adult user performs a voice search at least once in a day.

Remaining 60% started using it in the past year, and 40% in the past six months only. With these statistics, we can have an idea that “coming” technology has arrived.

So why are smart speakers and voice-activated search engines gaining such a momentum? Voice has become the opening door for innovation as it provides an appealing and personal and really natural means of interaction. Just think of playing music, ordering a pizza, getting breaking news and in fact turning on your light just through your voice. This is enough to explain why 40% of users have replaced their textual search with voice search seamlessly.

This is one of the massively growing markets and it won’t be wrong to say that Amazon Echo and Google Home are leading the show.

It started with Siri back in 2010 and ever since it started gaining success in the digital world, the market boomed up with the software offering a refined voice search facility. Today we have a big list of voice recognition systems:

Siri (2010)

Amazon Alexa (2014)

Microsoft Cortana (2015)

Google Assistant, Amazon Echo (2016)

Alibaba AliGenie, Samsung Bixby (2017)

Every year this voice search worked on the systems and headed towards success. And eventually, it has grounded its reputation in the market. Today the biggest reason behind the increasing rate of voice searches is a better voice recognition system.

Before getting in how voice searches impact SEO and digital marketing, let’s pay a look at related statistics:

46% of voice search users think of a local business daily

58% of the consumers used voice search to find local business information during last year

27% visit a local business website through voice search

76% of smart home speaker users search for local businesses once in a week with around 53% performing daily searches

The voice recognition market will hit $601 million industry by 2019

Impact on SEO

If voice search is the future, is it leaving any impact on SEO? Well, the answer to this is “Yes, it is”.

With a conventional search, a user types a question, or some keywords more commonly like “CA coaching Classes” or “Indian Cuisines”. With this you see a list of relevant sites helping you out. SEO here plays the role of bringing your site to the top of the list for such relevant searches.

And when a user asks the same to his or her digital assistant, two things come to a picture. Firstly, the search becomes more journalistic and secondly you won’t see any big list of results to choose from. It gives a very clear answer to a clear query.

However, this does not mean that SEO is no longer playing any role in it. In contrast to this, when a search gives just one answer, it makes the optimization even more critical. This is to make sure that your business is chosen from among so many. But with this, it is not like you need to determine a new pattern that is voice search.

Marketers just need to ensure that all the content is conversational and natural. This will help meet the Q and A pattern of voice search. There are a lot of tools like Schema Markup to make sure that Google has got most of the details of your business. Blogs were and will always be an important method to make your voice search successful. So, it is important to remember that voice search is equal to mobile search and portraying a mobile-friendly website is thus more crucial than ever.

Since voice search is the next big thing, brands will rapidly catch up with it. And obviously, these should! In fact, all the massive tech players have started to invest in personal assistant and voice. So, the question is:

Why is Voice Search an Important thing for the Brands?

Since the voice recognition system is working wonderfully in all the areas, how brands could be expected to stay at bay from such advancement. Voice searches will shortly take away all the search methods. And here are the top reasons why it is important for huge brands:

a. Natural Speed –

The fact is, there is no other platform as fast as this voice search system. You just say out and have the concise results among you. For brands, it is one of the most required assets. You execute a command and your task is done there and then. You do not have to spend time looking for the alphabet on a keyboard and then enter your query.

b. Enhanced productivity –

Speaking is faster than typing. Rather than using a touchscreen or keyboard to get an answer to your query if you switch to speech, you will save a significant amount of time. And when you save time, you ultimately increase your productivity.

c.Time is Money – Save it

Since the frequency of speech is faster than writing words, it saves plenty of time. And when your consumers get their work done in seconds, you will be their only choice. When brands partner with the voice search, they are likely to stay above their competitors.

d. Massive Access –

One of the best things about voice recognition systems is these can be accessed by one and all. Like most of the users skip using search engine systems because they do not know the language to type in. However, everybody knows the art of speaking. And because voice searches are available in almost all the languages, the reach maximizes to infinity. This factor certainly increases the consumer ratio.

e. Increased Brand Attention with User Attention –

Are you a brand more concerned about your consumer’s comfort, their requirements, and tastes? Well, if yes, you can be the next big player. More you will take care of your consumer’s ease; more will be the user attention. So, it is better you step into the voice ecosystem as soon as possible.

How to Start in the Voice Search? –

With so many different platforms to operate and perform your voice search on, you may get confused about operating it. Well, there is a very simple solution to it. Voice searches are far easier.

Voice Search Anywhere –

No matter you are sitting inside your cabin or traveling out, speak out your query loudly and get back a relevant answer to it.

Simply tap the mic on the Google search bar and start speaking. This works on Android, iOS, windows and chrome browsers for mobile phones, laptops, and desktops.

For example: Say something like, “Who designed Eiffel Tower?”

It is easy and displays very relevant answers to your queries.

Apart from this Siri works well if you are an Apple device user, Google voice search goes well for the Android devices and Microsoft’s Cortana is useful when it comes to your PC and smartphone using their app.

Tips for optimizing for Voice Search

1. Page Speed –

Page speed plays a vital role in voice search SEO. According to Backlinko, an average voice search result page loads in 4.6 seconds which is certainly 52% fast if compared to an average page.

2. Answer Length –

Google looks concise and to the point answers for search results. A standard voice search result is just 29 words in length.

3.Reliable Domains –

Reliable domains are likely to produce voice search results extensively more than non-reliable domains.

4. Social Sharing –

Content that has a higher level of social engagement perform better in voice search.

5. Simplicity of Language –

Simple and easy to read content is easily optimized by the voice search engine. An average Google voice search result is written at a 9th-grade level.

6. The featured Snippet –

If your business appears in featured snippet it helps you a great degree to rank in voice search. 40.7% of the voice search answers come from a featured snippet.

Different Optimization Strategies of different Voice Search Engines –

*Google Assistant – Focus on a local pack and featured snippet. Together with this, Google play optimization is also taken into consideration to offer relevant results.

*Alexa – Pays attention to Bing places, featured snippets and Yelp.

*Cortana – Do better optimization for Microsoft App store

Siri – Optimize according to Google Assistant and also develop Siri compatible applications.

Bing Plays a Key Role –

We can see in all the four voice search processes, three of them Apple’s Siri, Cortana, and Alexa take in Bing search for basic information rescue. Facebook is also joining the league and Google obviously powers its very own Google Assistant.

In fact, voice searches may become a standard very soon. According to 2016 data, Bing represented that 25% of the searches conducted via windows 10 taskbar were all voice based. And if we talk about this number in 2018, it must have increased a great degree, considering the popularity of voice searches.

No matter the search engine you give value to, there are two main areas to pay attention to local listings and featured snippets.

On-Site SEO Optimization is Vital –

Despite all these strategies, old SEO is obviously the king. You cannot skip doing SEO optimization like interpreting page content, make users understand about your webpage, answer relevant queries and find out if your page is well optimized to rank on the search engine. Page authority has got a big role to get the featured snippets.

Is this the end for search? –

The most important question that strikes is: if this is the end for search or if old SEO will be dead soon? Well, voice search has been here than you probably think of it. It dates back to 2002. It is just that it became getting popularity with a rise in the use of smartphones. The digital assistants like Siri and Cortana grew increasingly. But SEO did not go out in any case.

Speech search is simply an additional interface and is not expected to replace old SEO in any case. This may change the technique or add some tasks to SEO optimization but won’t kill the good old SEO of course.

The key aim is to design a channel strategy and a perfect method for researching typed and voiced opportunity as a part of the entire process.

There are certain tips that you can use to stand out in the influx of searches. These will hit the airwaves soon and will help you rank in the first voice environment.

Google is just making a move to mobile marketing and sound search but that does not mean the end of desktop search obviously.

voice-enabled may complement what is already in place. Marketers will now pay attention to mobile, desktop and voice. And when there are lots of search engines handy to users, it increases the Google reputation undoubtedly.

Wrapping Up –

Since this search is garnering a great chunk of the overall daily internet searches, it is important for all the businesses to optimize their respective business websites for audio search. It is just the right approach required to perk up the internet traffic for already existing keywords while establishing new key phrases making your products, content, and services easily visible on search engines.

The number one priority when an infant plays is the safety of the infant. As the early development stage begins in the infant, with eager and excitement it realizes the motions in the body and begins to test the skills in the hands and feet, innocent to all its surroundings and possible dangers which is liable to strike in subtle ways, ample safety is high priority for the protection of such innocence in every respect.

The absence of hard objects, shedding elements, toxins, and any possible substance liable to affect breathing, by the vigorous touch of the infant ought to take precedent in the choice of a toy. Baby’s toy doll should be absolutely free from all hazards and simple in design.

One of babies most sensitive ability is their taste, hence, everything in their reach generally when picked up by baby goes towards the mouth, and either get sucked or chewed on, even when the taste has no relevance to that of milk or food, it is still liable of being swallowed or find its lodging somewhere in the mouth of the infant if not caught on time. Since playing objects contribute to their learning while growing, early education by the things they touch and toy with should be informative and relative to them.

As baby gradually familiarize with his /her new world, early education is passed on by just about any and everything that surrounds that little life. Because everything is new to the infant, all the choices we make for them should contribute to their early development in every way. A girl baby may easily learn something about herself toying with a human realism toy doll by observing resemblance of the human species in the toy.

The introduction of a human realism toy doll is proper for babies’ first toy; to help them discover themselves by observing the features, being able to touch the body parts, feel the softness and the warmth of especially a soft cloth doll. Cloth forms much of baby’s world in providing adequate comfort in so many ways, it is unlikely to find a more appropriate toy for baby than that which is made of cloth, and this may be why some animal toys are made in 100% cloth to provide warmth, comfort, and safety for infants.

For decades cloth has been the most reliable material human beings depend upon to sooth just about all their lifestyle in a most satisfying way without trying to find a substitute; in fact how much can we do without incorporating cloth? It is harmless unless contaminated deliberately, to say it is the safest and one of the easiest materials to manipulate into whatever one desire to create is not an overstatement to those who are of creative mind.

Thinking safety in toys for infants? Think cloth.

It seems like every time I have logged into Facebook in the past month I have seen a sponsored ad from a clothing company by the name of SammyDress. The ad, which features a model in a cream dress with cute buttons down the side, boasts thousands of likes and comments. The ad seems to have really done it's job because hundreds of women have gone to the website and purchased the dress. How do I know? Upon reading the comments on the ad, I discovered that none of these customers ever received their dress (or any items their purchased from the website) and are now struggling to contact a seemingly non-existent customer service. What's more worrisome is that this is not an unusual situation, there are dozens of shopping sites on the internet that consistently frustrate shoppers with unusual and secretive business practices, this site just has a better marketing plan than the rest. So, how can you avoid unnecessary stress and potential loss of money while still enjoying the convenience of online shopping? I would like to share an insider's perspective on the online shopping market to keep you safe and happy through your shopping experience.

As an online retail boutique owner myself, I often make wholesale purchases online from clothing manufacturers. When I first got into the business, I had very little experience finding leads on indie designers or cool new clothing labels, so I turned to Google. My first few searches turned up some great stuff, designers and lines that you probably have in your closet right now – but as a new business owner without many funds, I wasn't able to make huge purchases from them all, so I became very picky and wanted to see everything on the market before making my buying decisions. This is when I came across International Wholesale Sites. There are TONS of them, and 'strangely' none of the ones I looked at during these searches still exist. They shut down quickly. While I wouldn't go as far as to say they are "scam" sites, I would recommend exercising extreme caution if you decide to make a purchase from one of these websites. Here are the facts:

1. Beware of "Wholesale" Sites
While they call themselves "wholesale" sites, they are nothing of the sort. I am able to shop at actual wholesale sites because I have a state tax ID and a registered retail business; without these documents most manufacturers and designers won't even let you look at their product. International Wholesale websites ask for no such credentials, but still claim to offer you a wholesale price. Perhaps it's just semantics, but they are offering a retail price, because they are in the retail business. Sometimes reputable closeout websites will use wording such as "below wholesale prices" or something similar, this is a marketing decision and not the same issue. If a site claims to be selling wholesale but doesn't require credentials or a minimum purchase, that is a red flag and you should consider taking your money elsewhere.

2. The picture is just an "example"
Many international clothing sites WILL actually fulfill your order (they don't just take your money and run) but that doesn't mean that you get what was in the picture. Oftentimes the photo is an outdated example of the garment that you will receive, the color, fit, length, pattern or overall structure might be completely different than you thought it would be based on the images. This isn't a case of "colors may appear differently on different computer monitors" this is a different garment than you thought you were ordering. Sometimes they will steal photos of designer items and insist that you will receive the item in the photo. Besides being a nuisance to you, they are also committing a crime against the designer of the original product. One time, I purchased a jacket for a photoshoot I was working on and actually really liked it. The fit was VERY small but it did the trick on my model. I liked it so much I decided to carry a few of them in my shop, however, upon re-ordering (just a couple of weeks later) I got an unfortunate, Frankenstein's monster version of the once-cute jacket. The fabric had changed, the buttons were twice the size and the fit was lopsided. Exact same item – just, not at all. Which brings me to concern # 3

3. There is no return policy.
Most of these international fashion sites do not offer returns at all, or if they do are under VERY specific circumstances. In most cases, even if a return were an option, the high price of international shipping would be enough to make most customers bite the bullet and keep the unwanted item. If you cannot live without an item, just know that you will HAVE to live with it once you make the purchase. Some sites (like Alibaba / Aliexpress) feature individual sellers who may have their own individual return policies. Be aware that there is not a lot of support when things go awry. Unlike sites like eBay, Amazon, Storenvy and etsy which all have great customer support, there isn't always parent company that will step in when things get weird between you and a seller. Beware of sites that are hands-off like this; you don't want to shop from a platform that makes it easy for scammers to scam you.

4. If The item is out of stock – they still keep your money.
Perhaps the most worrisome fact about these questionable sites is their practice of dealing with out-of-stock merchandise. It goes like this – you buy a skirt, the website is out of the skirt, they may or MAY NOT inform you of that fact. If you are contacted about the out-of-stock item, you may not receive your funds back, instead they put them into you "account" which is essentially a store credit. So you HAVE TO buy something else. If you fight the policy, you won't hear back from them. These websites are excellent at disappearing when customers become upset.

5. They are selling on Etsy
As a long time fan, and seller on Etsy, I am most disappointed by this recent development. Some of the items you come across in Etsy shops are not handmade / vintage at all but are cheaply manufactured goods from overseas pretending to be the work of artisans. These items can be harder to spot, and the only advice I can give you is to become familiar with what the international wholesale stock photos look like and make a point to avoid them when they pop up on Etsy. There has been a massive movement recently to remove scammers from the site, but I still see them on there consistently. Beware of sellers that do not want to answer questions or have a suspicious return policy (most sellers will take back returns on non-custom, non-clearance items).

6. VERY poor quality items.
So lets say you just can't resist and want to make the purchase anyway? Even if you avoid all of the inconveniences listed above, you still may not be satisfied with your item. Before researching these sites (and testing their product) I had the thought that many of you might have – "plenty of items I use every day are imported and are of great quality – what's the big deal?" Yes, we live in a world of cheap, imported items, but they are still held to standard of quality (however high or low) that you are familiar with. The main issue with these products is that you have no way of knowing what their quality standards are, and they are usually VERY low. I would say that the quality is much lower than that of Forever21 or Walmart, and the prices are actually no lower (especially when you consider international shipping.)

Best practices to avoid major retail disappointment:
– Shop USA-run sites, and locally if you can!
Avoid sites with names or tags like "cheap wholesale fashion" AND "fashion" or similar word and then a number (ex: "fashion7" "cuteclothes28")
Clothing is generally described as Korean, Japanese and Chinese.
As a rule of thumb, if the price seems to good to be true, it is.
Buy only from sites that have some sort of customer service. Don't give your info to a business that refuses to give you theirs.
Read reviews of the site (or seller) before making a purchase.
If you have had a bad experience with a retailer, take it up with them first. If you are still unsatisfied, let the world know! Save someone else the frustration and hassle!

Using the Internet to sell products and services to ever

increasing number of net users is a good way to start your own

business. If you are not taking advantage of this great

opportunity you are just missing the boat! Consider this:

e-commerce, contrary to popular believe, is thriving and

increasing at a double digit growth rate. According to Jupiter

Research, Online sales during this holiday season in United

States are expected to reach $21.6 billion, a 19 percent

increase over the same period last year. Jupiter also predicts

in the report that 86 million U.S. residents will make

holiday purchases online this year compared to 73 million

last year, which is an 18 percent increase.

No doubt that this is the right time to get into online

business. Building a website for selling products or

services is no longer that difficult. You can make your

own website by using available sophisticated but

easy-to-learn-and-use programs like Macromedia Dreamweaver,

Microsoft Frontpage, Adobe Go live, etc. There also

exist various online web store builders similar to

Rusbiz.com, which allow you to create powerful web

stores using simple editors and numerous templates.

You can also setup a store with E-bay and sell products

through it. Finally, you can hire professional web

designers to develop your website. So, the important

question isnot how to get online, but what to sell

on the Internet?

In one of my articles – What to sell on the Internet?

(http://ezine.rusbiz.com/archivenews.html?nl_oid=19)

– I wrote about selling information products. Although

this is an interesting concept, you might think that this

is not your cup of tea; and you still prefer to work

with some tangible products. In ideal scenario,

probably, you want to sell a product of your choice but

don’t want to carry your own stock and don’t want to

handle the shipping. Is there a way of doing this? Yes,

there is! It’s called “Drop-shipping”.

What is drop-shipping?

When a manufacturer, wholesaler, distributor or

importer, after receiving an order from their

retailers, individually pack and deliver the

product to the customer of the retailer with

retailers address as shipper, this selling

technique is called drop-shipping.

The advantages of drop-shipping include:

– You do not have any inventory. So, there is no stock

carrying expense involved.

– You pay for the item only when it is sold and you got

paid from your customer. You don’t need to invest money

in buying the product.

– You can sell just one item at a time. No minimum

quantity required.

– Your drop-shipper will supply you with necessary

product image and specification. You don’t have to

spend money on creating your own.

– You fix your own selling price of the product.

Convenient, when you know your niche market well.

– You can offer various products on your web store

from multiple suppliers.

Select a product to sell

Once you decided to go with drop-shipping you need

to find products to sell and find drop-shipping

suppliers for those products. According to the same

report from Jupiter following are the most favorite

categories for online shoppers: Books – by far the

most popular category, after that comes clothing

and shoes, music, toys, video tapes and DVDs, gift

certificates, consumer electronics, accessories,

videogames, bed and related items, and bath items.

You should also consider that this year, total

Internet sales of consumer electronics are expected

to rise 32 percent to $7.5 billion, making it the

fastest growing group among all retail sales

categories online.

The market research wizard developed by Worldwide

Brand Inc. is a great tool, which shows in a

probability scale whether it is worthy trying to

sell your selected product online or not.

You can find it over here.

(http://www.worldwidebrands.com/?8188)

Locate drop-shipping companies

After selecting the product the next step is to find

a reliable drop-shipper for it. This might not be an

easy task! The things that you should look into a

drop-shipper are the followings:

1. A reputable supplier with drop-shipping experience

2. Ready to ship one item at a time

3. Do not ask for any membership payment

4. Will use your name as shipper

5. Will enclose blank invoice or invoice from you

6. On the packaging there will be no indication that

they are the supplier.

You might think that the easiest way of finding a

drop-shipper is just to buy one of the numerous

lists on the Internet for sale. I won’t recommend

you to use them for number of reasons. Often, these

lists are outdated or carry wrong information. Even

if you find the companies through the lists, since

many people use these lists, you get into fierce

competition for market share not even starting

to sell.

Use the following approach instead:

Online search

The first step is, naturally, to use the search

engines. Using various combinations of the keywords

of your product with words: manufacturer, wholesaler,

drop-shipper, dealer, see if you can find the original

source of the product.

If several online retailers are already selling

this product, do some detective works! Check out the

sites thoroughly. May be, you can find a clue, which

will help you track down the supplier.

If it is an imported product go to the sites like

Alibaba, ecplaza, Rusbiz, trade-india. Locate the

manufacturer and get in touch with them to find who

you should contact in your country to retail sell

their products. If the product is manufactured in

North America, the best source to find them

is Thomas register.

Trade exhibitions

You should definitely attend the trade shows

related to your category of products. This is an

easy way to find a number of suppliers, who might

be willing to work with you.

Trade magazines

Trade journals and publications are also a good

resource for finding suppliers of your products.

Although, you might have to go through a sizable

quantity of them before you stumble on the right

supplier.

Conclusion

Drop-shipping has some inherent drawbacks too.

The biggest of them is you have to totally rely on

the drop-shipper to fulfill your order and get the

product to your customer on time. The others are:

you don’t have any control over the price or

availability of the product. However, a good

drop-shipper cares for his reputation since his

business depends on retailers like you. That’s why

you have to be very careful in choosing the right

drop-shipper.

With all the business education you can find today with just the click of a mouse, I am still amazed at some of the unrealistic expectations people have when it comes to product sourcing. Those who have chosen product marketing as a business model are naively under the impression that most wholesale suppliers will be able to provide them with just about any popular retail product, affordable to them at any price. Reality, however, always seems to get in the way of our ideals. Most current, in vogue, branded merchandise usually have restrictions on the way it is distributed. For example, LV Handbags are never sold “wholesale to the public”, or to just anyone who has a resale certificate. And while there are exceptions, you will never see too many “half off” sales of Louis Vuitton Handbags even at the retail level.

In addition, unsold inventory is not passed along to wholesalers or the secondary surplus market. Excess product that is damaged, is sent to their corporate service centers to be repaired. What cannot be sold or repaired is destroyed. In terms of online retail sales, the only web portal that markets LV handbags is Eluxury.com. Moet Hennessey, one of the leading luxury products group owns Eluxury.com as well as the rights to sell a number of additional products under the Louis Vuitton monique. Moet Hennessey also owns most over the counter retail stores that distribute Louis Vuitton merchandise. Not all brands are as restrictive, but some corporate buying policies can still provide barriers to entry in different ways.

Both Nike and Reebok do not confine the sale of their product to wholly owned corporate retail, or online stores. They distribute their brands to retail giants like Footlocker and will supply most independent clothing or sporting goods stores if they have the infrastructure and the funding to meet their monthly, or yearly purchasing minimums. Most small business start-ups do not have the finances to endure the costs of carrying popular branded merchandise. However, a limited amount of Nike and Reebok merchandise can find their way into the secondary surplus and wholesale market. But, that is mostly shoe or sneaker products that maybe one to two years out of style. You will never find current Nike or Reebok sneaker styles being carried by any wholesale distributor.

Despite some of the strict purchasing obstacles that corporations can provide, it does not prevent some people from giving up on the search for the branded merchandise of their choice. Some will try to bypass a company’s wholesale distribution chain or corporate purchasing restrictions by searching for the original equipment manufacturer. Since most popular retail clothing, apparel, sneakers, and electronics are manufactured overseas, the ever-vigilant Entrepreneur will usually turn to importing as means of securing items that have popular retail status here in the United States.

Take for instance Shenzhen, China. In Shenzhen, there is an enclosed shopping mall called Luohu Commercial City. The mall is six stories tall and sells a wide range of items, including handbags, brand name clothes, shoes, audio-visual products, souvenirs, and digital video discs. All can be had for a price that is about half to one third of what you would pay here in the United States. Some DVD’s can be purchased for four Hong Kong dollars, which translates to fifty cents in United States currency.

The biggest problem with all of the merchants selling their wares within this megaplex of retail activity is the undeniable fact that most of it is counterfeit. And, like the never ending parade of fakery that is part of the Luohu retail environment, finding your way to the authentic manufacturer or wholesale distributor of a particular branded item is like searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack.

Paperwork, does not make it authentic! There is a prevailing wisdom among some brand seekers that receiving a certificate of authenticity from a brand name overseas manufacturer will provide assurance that the article is genuine. Supplying paperwork to overseas customers as “proof of purchase” for branded merchandise is basically a fallacy. Any labels, tags, paperwork, or certificates of authenticity that assures the buyer of brand certainty can be faked right along with the product itself. The only individual or businesses that are required to have proof of authenticity, are those who are authorized to resell the branded item, or the original equipment manufacturer (OEM), of the brand in question.

If there is a legal challenge to the authenticity of the product they are selling, then paperwork can be provided to confirm that they are legally sanctioned to sell or manufacture a particular brand name product. To my knowledge, no wholesale supplier of brand name merchandise, either overseas, or in the United States, will offer their customers paperwork stating proof of authenticity. The proliferation of counterfeit items within the People’ Republic is staggering. The replication industry in China, as well as other Asian countries rely on the production of counterfeit merchandise and has become an industrial staple. It is estimated that 8.5 % of the Chinese GNP involves the production of counterfeit merchandise.

In addition, if you are thinking about importing brand name merchandise through online trading forums such as Alibaba.com and EcEurope.com, than I have some less than encouraging news for you. A majority of the trades leads on both forums require extensive research and a working knowledge of the importing business before you ever think about doing business with any of the listed companies. However, I don’t want to be totally negative about trade lead forums. I think that they serve their purpose in terms of finding leads for non-branded general merchandise, manufacturer leads, and industrial equipment purchases. But, I would be very skeptical of anyone who presented themselves as the original wholesaler or manufacturer of American brand name merchandise.

Trying to forge a relationship with someone who claims to have the genuine article can also be a financially dangerous endeavor. Most overseas business to business suppliers require payment in the form of wire transfer or telegraphic transfer (T/T). The purchasing minimum that some suppliers ask for is a shipping container load of merchandise. Wiring cash into an overseas business account can be a recipe for disaster. Once the money leaves your account it is gone forever. If the seller does not deliver, you basically have no legal recourse in terms of getting your money back. The only way to recoup any funds would be for the seller to rewire the cash back into your account. You are basically at the mercy of the supplier.

The bottom line is this. If you want products like Nike Air Jordan, you have to go to Nike and find out how to purchase their products. The same is true with just about any name brand merchandise you want to buy. If you cannot afford a particular product, well, then sell a non-branded item. There are plenty of product niches out there that you can explore. With that being said, I am not the last word when it comes to importing brand name merchandise. Please do your homework and consult the appropriate legal, business and import-export resources.

Since the dawn of time, mankind has been involved in trade of some sort or another. The role of middleman followed not far behind. Today, the middleman – or agent – remains one of the most attractive business models for those with no capital to invest. And the added benefit is that, unlike franchisees, agents work solely for themselves. But, where do you begin to get into this kind of business? Well, a bright idea helps:

Here are three recent success stories:

• Frank Audsley lives in Croydon, south of London. He’s making over €2,500 a month exporting wine to the Far East. In late 2010 he enrolled on a training course for Import/Export Agents with an utterly open mind on what sector to work in. “I really hadn’t any idea at all of what products to get started in. But one night I saw a short item in the news about Chinese people developing western tastes. A light went on my head and I went to check the course’s database of leads. I knew I’d seen a European Winery seeking export opportunities. Amazingly we had a deal agreed and the first buyers found within two months!”
• Meryam Gul is a shopkeeper from North London. She imports Garden Fencing from India to the UK. She says “I always wanted to get involved in International Trade, as I saw relatives in Cyprus make a handsome living from it. “I discovered how to get involved in import and export without risking any capital – good news as I had few savings. The fencing opportunity just fell into my hands – an advertisement I saw alerted me to an Indian supplier seeking representation, and when I contacted him we really hit it off. I’ve since learned how to track down buyers for him, and the product is a good one and virtually sells itself. My husband looks after the shop now, I’m projecting an income of £50,000 in this, my second year of trading.”
• Jamie Atwill is a local government worker in the Midlands. He imports organic olive oil from Portugal to Ireland and the Netherlands – “I was on holiday with my girlfriend in Galicia, where she comes from. We popped across to Portugal for the day and found this fabulous olive oil for sale at what amounted to a farm shop. We took details, but only on returning to the UK did we think about importing it here. My girlfriend did a bit of research and came up with the agency approach as the best for us – because we didn’t have any capital to spare. And just the very next day I spotted an advertisement for a home-study course the press. “Between us we got started by the end of the first manual, and within six weeks we had negotiated an exclusive deal with the farmer for Ireland and the Netherlands, and were already getting samples to wholesalers all over the two countries. We have nearly a dozen customers already buying the olive oil on a regular basis, and we are about to move into organic wines from the same region of Portugal.”

General information about Import/Export is generally easy to find. Websites like Alibaba and Tradekey are great sources of trade leads, and support is available from a variety of government bodies, trade associations etc. However despite opportunities like these there is surprisingly little on the web (or anywhere else for that matter) about how to become an Import/Export Agent. There’s big overlap in the skills set required whichever way you approach the business, but the Agent’s business model is quite different:

1) It allows you to get into world trade without risking your own money or your bank manager’s on stock – a risky business, particularly when you’re starting out.

2) Because you aren’t legally a principal in the deals you put together, you are not utitmately legally responsible if anything goes wrong.

3) Compared to an import/export distributor, you are able to have a more flexible approach to business. You are able to “follow the money” into newly developing markets comparatively easily, which makes this business model particularly resilient to recessionary business cycles.

4) A full-time agent could quite possibly have agreements in place with half a dozen or more suppliers, a making all sorts of different products for different markets. So variety is the name of the game!

While it doesn’t always feel seem like it when you watch the news, world trade is currently booming, and it’s a great time to get started. Even in the UK there are opportunities. British manufacturing, after years of neglect, now finds itself in a comparatively strong position for export, with a weak pound and low interest rates. Many of them would be pleased to hear from you…

Names have been changed in this article for reasons of privacy.

Nigeria is among the top producer of crude oil with billions of light crude oil reserves. It is a major exporter of crude oil in the world. Millions of barrels of crude oil are generated in Nigeria on a daily basis. The end supplier of crude oil in Nigeria is NNPC. You might have heard of allottees, fiduciary agent or operators. These sets of traders are under NNPC. It is through these traders that NNPC find buyers of its petroleum, but it may not be the only way.

If you want to buy petroleum from Nigeria, there are procedures you have to follow. They are made to suit the buyer. Most buyers sit in the comfort of their home and write procedures for the seller to follow. You should know that it is the responsibility of the seller to issue his procedure and not the buyer. Most sellers leave room for procedure negotiation, so you may take it as a advantage to fairly bargain with the supplier. NNPC does not load and keep vessels waiting for buyers. Vessels are loaded when a buyer shows interest.

A vessel is not loaded after a buyer signs SPA. SPA is not enough proof to show that a buyer can pay for the petroleum. This will not make NNPC to load a vessel in your name Anyone can sign SPA. Proof of funds (POF) is what will make a vessel to be loaded with the buyer’s preferred quantity of crude oil and on the buyer’s name. If you closely watch most procedures written by unreliable buyers, you will see that they want documents of loaded vessel for verification after SPA is signed. This is where most of them go wrong.

Furthermore, if you want to buy petroleum from Nigeria, you have to follow the end seller’s procedure. Once you follow the end seller’s procedure, you will have nothing to worry about. A lot of buyers complain that they have signed hundred of SPAs without the seller performing. They maybe two reasons why the seller did not perform. The seller is not registered with NNPC and as such he does not have the product. The second reason is because the buyer did not show POF. Most crude oil carriers hold up to 2 million barrels of petroleum. Calculating the price of this will give you up to $120,000,000 or over based on Platts. You can not expect a seller to load such amount of petroleum when there is no proof that you can pay. The seller will accrue a lot of loss when the buyer is not able to pay.

There are a lot of time-wasters in petroleum trading either posing as sellers or buyers. You can mainly find them at alibaba, trade-key etc. You should try to avoid them because they are not only time-wasters but scammers could also be find amongst them. I suggest you use a registered company to source for crude oil. When you get a seller working as an allottee, operator or fiduciary agent under NNPC, let the seller show you proof of product allocation from NNPC. Use the POP certificate to verify at any NNPC office before proceeding to deal with the seller. This is among the best way to buy crude from Nigeria and get it without getting scammed or fall into the hands of time-wasters.