The Potential for 2008?

One of the questions I get asked frequently is “Is there still potential to make money selling products online or am I getting in to late in the game?”

Let me answer that question by sharing with you some pretty amazing numbers that were just released by Neilson/NetRatings on this year's holiday shopping season...

Green Monday

Monday December 10th or (now known as Green Monday) logged the highest amount of online retail sales ever (so far).

In the history of retailing.

$880 million dollars in a 24 hour period.

That's up from a record $633 million dollars sold last year on December 13th.

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If you want to use the Internet to make a part-time income or build a full-time business, the opportunity is there for you.

Yes there is competition. Yes, you will need to find the products that buyers want and then learn how to market them to that hungry group.

But the money is there to be made.

Were You Able to Systematize?

The extent to which you are able to systematize your business is the extent to which it will grow.

You MUST have a system for everything.

Listing.

Shipping.

Even product sourcing.

If taking a few photos and writing the accompanying listing descriptions is taking you the better part of each day, you’ll never be able to build up the volume of sales and income that you’d like.

Look at what processes you currently handle that could be accomplished by a piece of software, another person or a system.

You can photograph products much more effectively and efficiently if you schedule one day to photograph EVERYTHING you’re going to list.

You can write 3 times as many listing descriptions by picking a single day to bear down and crank out listing descriptions.

You can write several times as many listing descriptions by FIRST creating a listing template and then simply filling in the blanks with the appropriate details.

In the next few weeks, put every task to the test.

Could you systematize and automate this task in order to sell more products?

Did You Diversify Your Product Sources

Gone are the days when you could rely on ONLY a wholesale distributor as a product source or limit yourself to a drop shipper.

In order to sell the products that buyers want you MUST look at sourcing products from multiple points in the supply chain.

This means that you will carry brand new-to-season products AND closeout or liquidation inventory.

If you sell pre-owned goods, you should also mix in the new.

Your customers are looking for diversity and selection in your product line.

And to give that to them, you need to be open to sourcing products in multiple ways.

Social Shopping is Here to Stay

Think word of mouth (both offline and online) does not play a part in the growth of your business?!

Social shopping is here to stay. The more you can get word about your business on eBay out to relevant discussion groups, through social networking sites (like MySpace, Squidoo, and Facebook) the more people will become aware of your products and services.

Your store and your products become viral as people start to talk and pass around your business information online.

There's also another important thing happens when you do this...

Start Testing January 1

Do you know what works in your listings and WHY? Success on eBay is not a matter of hitting "the big home run" rather it is a matter of doing all the little tweaks and modifications (that take time and focus) to see what works and what doesn't.

THEN you do more of what works.

First you must start by doing what's called split testing.

For example - want to know the best title for your listing? Run two of the exact same listings with the only difference being the title.

THEN test to see which makes the more sales.

Unfortunately most people do not test. The put up a listing and it either sells or it doesn't sell and that's the end of it.

For those who take it one step past and test listings with different titles, listing formats, durations, ending dates, descriptions, etc.

And then RECORD that data and work from.

You will find that it's the SMALL changes that add up to BIG dollars in 2008.

Best of all?

While you're quietly working behind the scenes making small buy powerful changes to your listings, your competitors will still be looking the "that one homerun".

It doesn't exist.

The money is in the details.

Write Down Your Goals

If you've ever attended one of my workshops before,you know I am a BIG proponent of writing down your goals.

In fact you might find yourself saying "There she goes again, telling us to write down goals. But I HAVE my goals, right here, all in my head!"

But the reason I bring this point up time & time again in multiple workshops througout the year is that it WORKS.

In fact, the top 3% of millionaires in this country when interviewed, had one thing in common.

They ALL wrote down their goals.

Writing your sales goals down, your profit goals down, your business goals down WILL help you meet reach them next year.

Yet most people never do this.

Why? Because they don't believe it works.

But the great thing is that you don't even HAVE to believe it works - and it will work anyway.

I've read numerous books on this very interesting subject (I ALWAYS write down my goals for myself and my company) and the studies all find that even those who write down their goals and stick the paper in a drawre and NEVER look at it, achieve 70% of the goals on the list than those who kept everything in their head.

Even if you think this won't work - try it! It just takes a minute and it certainly can't hurt anything.

Then pull the list out at the end of next year and see how you've done.

I believe the results will speak for themselves.