I have to admit that I haven't tried to make money with this online. I have, however, made decent money from this in the past when I published magazines. What I'm talking about is dropshipping.I can't see any reason why this wouldn't work with blogs as well, as there is only minimal risk.
So what is dropshipping?
In simple terms it's about selling items for other companies and organisations who then send the orders direct to your customers.
It's different to affiliate programs because the customer pays you. You send a percentage of the money you receive to the supplier (main source) and he then mails out the goods. The difference between what the customer pays and you send to the supplier is your profit.
So just to run through it again:
1. You locate a dropshipper (main source).
2. You advertise his/her goods - usually under your own name.
3. When you receive a sale you send an agreed amount to the dropshipper.
4. The dropshipper mails the goods direct to your customer.
As you will no doubt have realised this has many advantages over say buying and selling wholesale.
(a) You have no outlay.
(b) You have no stock to carry.
(c) You have no packaging worries.
(d) You get paid right away - by the customer.
(e) There is minimal risk involved.
So what could you make from dropshipping?
When I was publishing my magazines everything was on a 50% basis. When I sold other publishers magazines I kept half and sent off the other half.
When other agents and publishers got orders for my mags they also sent me 50%.
At the time I was publishing six magazine titles myself and I was an agent, on a dropship basis, for about another fifteen. By doing this I often as not got multiple orders.
Profit percentages will vary dependent on the type of products you are dealing with.
Both sides of dropshipping benefit. Though the dropshipper makes less money per item, he may well have dozens of people selling his products. Overall therefore he has a bigger turnover, increased profits and all he has to do is mail out the products - no advertising costs etc. needed.
As for the person who is actually selling the goods he has the benefits as (a) to (e) as shown above.
There must be snags.
The main one is that you have to deal with honest, reputable companies and people. So this takes a little research. You also have to establish policy for such things as returns, guarantees, non deliveries and so on. And it's best to get this in writing.
There's lots more info on dropshipping, drop ship, drop shipping on Google.
Dropshipping With Blogging.
You could in effect have dozens of products to sell on your blog, which would make you appear to be a sizable concern. You could, for example, write about different items every day, or specialise in a particular niche. It just takes a bit of brainstorming to see the possibilities and get the ideas flowing.
So there you have another string to your bow - dropshipping! Twang ......
Good luck,
Mike.
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