Diversification: The Best Path to Success
Building an online business is not an easy path to success and financial independence. The reality is that it takes a lot of time, effort and hard work in order to have a chance at success. The good news is that you have partnered with Essential Pet Products, and we are happy to share over 26 years of industry experience with you.
Many new sellers make the mistake of investing all of their money into a website, only to find out that the real investment of time and money has only just begun. SEO (Search Engine Optimization), pay-per-click advertising and all other sales and marketing techniques you will need to learn, this is where your true costs in time and money will be found. Simply building a website and hoping that customers will come, will leave you with an empty wallet and little to no results. If you cannot get qualified buyers to your website, you cannot get any sales and if you cannot get any sales you will go out of business and become disillusioned in no time.
While a stand alone website is an important part of any long term on-line strategy, it is not what will generate immediate revenue to fund your future growth. You need to diversify into as many on-line marketplaces as possible, and focus the majority of your time and efforts into building listings on these websites.
The two key players, where you must have a strong presence are Amazon.com and Ebay.com. While other marketplaces are important, and will help expand awareness of your company, Amazon.com and Ebay.com will not only give you exposure, they will generate immediate revenue. These are the two single most visited marketplaces in the world, and as such they can bring more customers to your digital storefront than you could ever hope to attract on your own.
Benefits of Listing on Amazon and Ebay
- You will drastically increase the number of people who see your products, and the name of your business. This helps build your brand.
- You will generate instant revenue to help sustain and grow your business.
- You will build a customer database and have direct contact with numerous customers through each marketplace.
- You can then use that information and those contacts to make people aware of your website, thereby retaining them as long term customers and driving traffic to your website.
There are costs associated with listing on these marketplaces, however when you consider the opportunities that they generate for you, and the instant revenue that they provide, the costs are well worth it. You must also consider the millions of dollars of your own money you would need to spend in order to generate the same amount of exposure to your company on your own. Who has that kind of money? With that in mind, giving them a 15% or more commission seems like a no-brainer.
Some Other Important Sites You Should Consider:
- Sears.com
- Rakuten.com (formerly Buy.com)
- Newegg.com
- Pricefalls.com
- Bonanza.com
- 11Main.com
The more sites that you list your product, your business name, your website and your contact information on, the greater the exposure you will receive. This is what will translate to long term success, and rewards for your efforts. The bottom line is that without a diversified and comprehensive sales strategy, your on-line business will not succeed. Without an enormous amount of effort, and attention to detail, you will not succeed. Building on on-line business is a very long and hard road, however with the right partners, knowledge and attitude you too can be very successful.
Once you have established yourself on as many of these sites as possible, you will be able to generate a large data base of customer information. You can then utilize this information to drive traffic to your own personal website without spending thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars per month trying to be noticed. We are always here to help in any way that we can. So please do not hesitate to reach out with any questions that you may have.