Internet and Mail Order Business Opportunities 6
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Should I wait until checks clear to ship merchandise?
Since most customers want their purchases to arrive as quickly as possible, many vendors do not wait until checks clear unless the amounts involved are very large or they have some reason to be suspicious. That is taking a risk, of course, but it is a risk some vendors feel is warranted if the average dollar amount of orders is small, or if they provide goods people can easily purchase elsewhere.
What about accepting credit cards? How do I go about accepting them?
You will need to apply for a merchant account through a bank or an independent sales organization authorized to grant merchant status to vendors. It is relatively easy to obtain a merchant account if you’ve never declared bankruptcy, but be on your guard! Watch out for hidden fees, noncancelable equipment or software leases, and other expensive pitfalls. These are discussed in detail in another chapter in this book.
Can I make money selling booklets by mail?
People do make money selling small booklets and reports by mail. In fact, booklets and special reports can be ideal mail order products because they are lightweight, don't break, and can often be sold for many times your production and mailing costs. However, to make money, your booklets will need to contain in-demand information that appears unique and that can be targeted to specialized audiences. Chances are you won't be able to support yourself on the income; however, you may be able to make a satisfactory part-time income selling information by mail.
What about selling ebooks on the Internet?
There are people making quite a bit of money selling information products on the Internet. And, if you know what you're doing and have a good product and a way to reach your market, the profit margins selling and delivering products online is going to be higher than if you were to sell and deliver the same product through conventional mail. But "knowing what you're doing" is the sticky point for many. Not surprisingly, some of the people who make the most money selling information products online, make most of their money from products that tell people how to make money selling ebooks online. Often those people sell additional products related to their how-to products, (software, sales letter services, or other products and services), making even more money from people who are trying to figure out how to sell on the web.
Why is targeting so important? Isn't it better to have a big market?
People today are bombarded with print and broadcast advertising. As a result, they tend to tune out noise advertising—which is anything they are not interested in hearing about or reading about at the moment. The way to avoid being noise advertising is to put your ads in places your customers are likely to search when they want a specific kind of product. Thus, while your potential market for herbs or recipes for making wine might be any adult, the people most likely to buy those items are more likely to look for them in a publication like Mother Earth News than in the classified section of the New York Times.
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