Skip to main content

Affiliate or Drop Ship

I have learned a great deal about the differences of affiliate businesses versus drop ship businesses this week.  For an affiliate business you set up an internet site and advertisers share links or banners on your site to sell merchandise.  So this blog (if I has subscribers) would be the perfect place to start an affiliate business.  While affiliate businesses are easy to set up, take few resources to maintain and produce residual income, it might not be the best bet for an online business.  Affiliates have to wait for customers to click the link and buy the goods and services before they will see any money.  However, a drop ship company might be a better choice if you want more involvement in your business.  You select the items you want to sell on your website.  You can select many different items and never have to carry an inventory.  Once your customer buys the item from you, you contact your drop shipper and they send the item to the customer directly.  The down side to this business is that if the customer receives a bad item, or needs to return the item, it is up to you to figure out how to get the item back to the drop shipper for a return.  Many drop shippers don't have a return policy, so you could be in trouble when it comes to people requesting their money back.
There is no fail safe options when it comes to setting up a business, so you have to weight all the pros and cons of each method and decide for yourself which is right for you.   

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

ROI and Optimizing Ads

Everyone wants a good ROI (return on investment), but what does that mean to the laymen?  If you run a small business you want to get as much profit out of the business as you honestly can.  So if you sell hot cocoa for $1.00 a cup, the cost of the cup, cocoa, and advertising should cost less than $1.00 per cup to make a profit.  Now this is where the strategy comes into play.  Let's say that you can get the cups for .50 cents each normally, but if you buy 1000 cups you can get them for .30 cents each.  Your business savvy would come into play to determine if you can sell 1000 cups of cocoa, and if you have all the other supplies to make that happen.  If it is worth your while to buy the 1000 then it could save you money in the long run.  If you can only sell 100 cups, then you have overspent and you will be getting a smaller ROI that if you had only purchased 100 for .50 cents.  When factoring the optimization of advertising online you need to c...
Post a Comment
Read more

Habit 7 of The 7 Habits

This week I read a summary of the book titled The 7 Habits of Effective People by Stephen R. Covey.  The book lists 7 habits to develop to become more effective in the workforce and an all around better leader to your peers.  It breaks down the steps into dependency, independence, and interdependence.  The habit that I found most interesting is Habit 7 Sharpen the saw. So what does sharpen the saw mean?  It means don't forget to take care of yourself while you are working with others.  Covey lists several ways to practice self care.  Physical exercise daily, spiritual renewal, mental dimension, and a social/emotional dimension.  As I type this post I am in school trying to finish my bachelors degree that was started 22 years ago.  I have always felt that I wold go back someday, and what I realized after reading this summary i that we are born as learners, soaking in everything.  When we don't progress mentally we are not fulfilled in all asp...
Post a Comment
Read more

To PayPal or not to PayPal...

This week I have learned how to add a PayPal button onto my website.  I can choose different options for the purchase button, such as buy now, add to cart, donate etc.  PayPal does all the coding for you and you just copy and paste the code onto your web page.  After reviewing the option I have decided to include the prices for three different sizes, small, medium, large.  I also decided on set phrases that the customer can choose to be written on the sign.  I will limit the phrases to three or four options.  My concerns about accepting credit cards are; how will I know when to ship the merchandise? What happens if the customer pays with a stolen credit card?  How do I refund money back to the customer if the return the item?  Also what happens if the customer is shady and disputes the charges after receiving the goods?  I didn't know that so many questions could come up in regards to accepting credit cards for the business. 
Post a Comment
Read more