Okay I'm gonna look at a couple methods to sell products today.
Firstly as you may gather my own personal focus is more than just selling the product itself, I'm looking at tools and gadgets to help organize other areas of the process that leads to sales - in other words "I'm doing it my way" and getting involved in the niche of the business.
Finding Coffee Venues (groups on networks)
Part of my own system is building up a network of coffee venues across many networks then other coffee affiliates can then add their content and be welcome to do so - rather than the situation where affiliates roam about the web like lost sheep/spammers randomly posting in unrelated groups - and end up getting a bad reputation.
So I am creating Coffee related "Venues" or virtual cafe spots on-line where YOU as a coffee affiliate are allowed to post your coffee related information and network with other coffee people - this interaction is important as you learn about new products, suppliers to avoid and you create new friendships. It also means strength in numbers, a venue buzzing with coffee related people.
You will also note that it takes 'a while' for venues to get known about - I've seen some coffee venues that haven't been posted in for several years - so when I find a venue I decide - do I add to this older venue or start a new one ? - if it's full of spam and unrelated posts I start a new venue - if it's full of useful information, I 'dust it down' and begin posting in that old venue again - so finding and sorting the current coffee venues available - is what I am doing at the moment.
Customers Seeking Venues - go where the buzz is
Now a customer likes to be in control of their buying decision these days so rather than being blasted with ads or random posts, a customer who is wanting coffee - will LOOK for coffee - and when they look for it - a good place to start is a place that specialized in coffee -a coffee hub - Coffee HotSpots/Venues/Groups - when these groups are updated regularly, rather like blogs they get followed and shared more the more active they are, so coffee people regularly adding related coffee content will get noticed, by both potential customers and other coffee affiliates - when venues attract people they become more active and the effect is viral - a la viral marketing
Promotions to make the Customer aware of the Coffee (twitter promotions do this too)
Now I also realize some people need to be introduced, reminded that there are more kind of coffee in the world that the stuff you get from the supermarkets this is where the reminders and alerts to deals, flavors comes in - twittering about the coffee is a good reminder or introducer - especially when you make the tweet interesting - My friend - Tom Kern - is a good example of a person using twitter for coffee - So I recommend you follow his tweets to get ideas on how to promote your own coffee product:
http://twitter.com/rdmastk347 You should also be following Star Bucks as they were one of the first good example of using twitter to sell coffee products http://twitter.com/starbucks
I think most people could be tempted to vary their brand if introduced in the right way - some first they need to know it exists - classified adverts - again if you can't directly promote the product you promote your blog/website/twitter/splash page instead to get people to your product.
Many Ways/Methods to bring in sales
There are people out there that are into coffee like any other hobby as an affiliate of coffee you need to know that - and think like a coffee fan - a crazed, obsessed coffee fan maybe :-), a mental note taker/collector of coffee related things, as that's how you become knowledgeable about coffee and you self brand to become known as the person in the family or neighborhood to ask in relation to a coffee product.
With coffee I think the place to start can be the home, rather than trying to sell it to family, try sharing it with them - with my first Energi packs I've shared one pack with myself =) and family and the other pack I will share with people that buy products from my ebay store/listings.
Now, again not everyone wants an eBay store and additional products etc. but that is the way I personally know how to do it. and the one of the routes I will be following on this blog as the eBay store will be integrated with the retail blog to allow a flow of visitors the option to buy from either place.
Some affiliates just focus on one product, they usually have their own landing page / splash page to get people onto their mailing list so visitors aren't 'lost' - as if you 'capture' a visitor on your website, you can remind them to visit your chosen affiliation in each newsletter or updates you provide.
I haven't added this option to my coffee sites yet, but I will do eventually, I'll do one for this blog and point it out to you when it's done. The feedburner optin box is one form of capture page, but most are done via an autorespnder, which is why I am collecting free autoresponder services at the moment on Ning Nomads and trying them out!
ADWORDS - Google Income SCAMS in 2009 warning
Some affiliates have an advertising budget and will focus there attention on getting sales via google's adwords, me and adwords haven't worked together successfully so far in 8 years so I will be leaving adwords to the adswords experts and focusing on what I know instead.
Adwords is however the way that many affiliates make a regular income on-line, if you are going to follow that route ***BE VERY CAREFUL *** - there are a lot of scams out there just lately that use Google's brand virtually as their own and then trick "work at home people" into $70 or $80 USD's a month membership fees for "training"
I had a look at one of these latest scams in closer detail - but being the cautious type (on occasions atleast!) I read the small print, and got out of there! - they did however get my e-mail address during the exercise and the amount of "real spam" I now get via one of my accounts takes me back 8 years in time when that kind of unethical spam posting was actually allowed (because it was new and the rules hadn't been invented yet!)- so I recommend avoiding adding your e-mail for more information about making money on Google on any splash pages.
Making money on Google is the way many affiliates on one product only go - so if you are choosing the one product route - remember - the way you can make money with Google working from home is either with adsense or adwords - both are free to join - and they provide all the tutorials and help you need to get started for free - of course if you want to pay a dubious website $80 a month to send you to a free service that's up to you! - I'd save yourself some money and just go direct to google, join a few Google Adwords groups actually in 'google groups'
The Google Adsense method does work for me, so I will be talking about that method on this blog in the future.
If in doubt about a Company or service contact me and I will check out the service for you first - as I make a point of allowing my self to be taken in sometimes - so I can see how they trick people - sometimes I am tricked - but that's the point, unless you are tricked you don't understand the trick - or empathize with the victims of a trick on the right level.
Direct sales of coffee
So above I'm mentioned the number one source on-line for generating sales with coffee (or any other affiliate product) - Adwords - it's very simple, and I know MANY affiliates that earn their living on it - but as I said a lot of them also run their own websites dedicated to there chosen product - and you will also gather that adwords is not my thing at the moment.
Now you might wonder - well if it the case the Adwords is the thing, why is anyone bothering with social media, and other advertising methods ? as on the face of it if you know the "BIG SECRET" of making money on-line - why bother with anything else ?
Well - because there are quite a few people out there like me that aren't happy using adwords, for whatever reason, just like some people don't like stacking shelves in a supermarket but are happy working in an office.
For me personally I prefer the social / network marketing method of sales, adwords and similar sites involve a lot of number crunching, bidding on keywords - personally it reminds me of Forex or stock trading - It just hasn't worked out for me when I've tried it, so I'm trying alternative methods that have also been proven to work
Network Marketing was on the planet long before the Internet, groups of people meeting together and talking Business to Business - there are also many off-line companies that still make money selling items of small value to many people Betterware is a good example, they taught me some useful skills, so did stacking glasses come to think of it!.
Ebay is just an electronic form of marketplace but it still has a fun element for me, sales are made there and there is an element of chance, but I personally know that with eBay you can generate a profit if you properly take into account postage, advertising fees and time to do the work - AND big tip - don't try to beat people at the pricing games "loss leaders" only work when you have money there as back up if they fail!
Both eBay and Adwords sites have their rich people that have made fortunes - so in the end it is up to you the marketer - where you think your time and effort is best well spent on the traditional methods. You need a ways to capture your visitors though - and these are the various tools and websites and gadgets and stuff that I have been trying out over the years - just like the guy with the blender on youtube does "will it blend ?" - I try out the latest gadgets to figure out "will they stick ?" (meaning will the visitor interact with the gadget or widget on my website, and will they come back ?) "sticky" is a term used my webmasters to keep visitors eyeballs coming back to there website - good written content is "sticky" because if it's good the reader comes back for more. - Facebook - is sticky paradise for visitors as it is full of different sticky content in the form of interactive games and images that keep people on facebook, rather than in the search engines or on websites! - That is another lesson!
More about eBay:
As I said you can using eBay to drive traffic to your product range - even if you can't directly sell it on eBay.
Example so far it looks like eBay don't allow the Selling of food goods on eBay UK - but that in no way means I can't introduce my eBay customers to my product range, it just mean's I will have adapt my approach and think of other ways I can get samples of my products to potential customers... without breaking eBay ruules.
Now if my potential customers are coffee drinking people - or buying for coffee drinking people - which is quite likely - if they are visiting my coffee related items shop (or listings) it is pretty likely I will get chatting to them about Coffee Venues I use or recommend.
Note: You are not allowed to promote/ encourage off eBay sales with your eBay customers(last time I looked) but if you want to catch up with your customers on twitter or facebook - there is no rule banning you from connecting with people on other social networks as friends... and then they decide they want to visit your website well - eBay can't stop your friends visiting your facebook page or buying from where they want (as far as I know!)
- You just can't discuss your off eBay sales on eBay - as it's against the rules.
If a customer "reports you" for trying to sell off site you do risk being banned from eBay, so firstly make sure you know who your friends are! and secondly make it very clear to your customers that you can only talk eBay sales on eBay - they might look to connecting with you via another network if they wish to do a joint venture or set up a regular order, inquire about your product range etc.
To Sum Up - the main two places people generate direct sales on-line:
With Adwords - positive: it can make you money if you figure out how to use it properly - the basics of adwords is typing out a small advert then bidding on keywords (or letting adwords do it for you). Negative: just like anything you can lose money on it too - so it's weighing up your ability to use it with the risk.
With eBay - positive: you can generate an actually profit from it - for me personally I've had more success on eBay than Adwords - you need to take into account eBay and payPal fees, postal costs, these costs can be reduced if you develop customers into friends across networks (or get them onto a mailing list outside of eBay). - negative: the profit might not be as much per sale as you want, insertion costs and fees cut into profits, customers can be nastier in public to you over petty things like shape of the box an item comes in (really!). eBay can feel like "the front line" in sales, exciting when it goes right, deadly when it goes wrong! customers totally rule the roost in eBay land - that is a risk that needs to be factored in too.
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Tuesday, June 30, 2009
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Sunday, June 28, 2009
Hi Zara Calling with powdery delights!
Just a quick broadcast to remind folks into coffee try out my coffeedownline builder thingy if you haven't already, it's a free tool that gives you two ways to activate your network - getting new recruits - and promote your products - firstly you can recruit via the front page referral URL you are given, or you can introduce people to all the sites on one splash page - the second URL.
This builder is a part of a suite of tools I am working on to bring people interested in coffee together - maybe I should start a coffee dating site like "plenty of coffee" ? innit :P
Anyway - here's the bit.ly URL - I know my video is bad but you have to just do stuff sometimes right ? (unless you like people doing nothing o'course) http://bit.ly/14ebTo
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
The Coffee Lounge - feedback, chatter,queries
This chatroom is a bit of everything, but preference will be given to paying customers. and affiliates in my team.
Get your own Chat Box! Go Large!
Get your own Chat Box! Go Large!
30 places to connect accross networks
okey doke - so we have some of the main networks covered imagine each as a cafe bar you occasionally pop into and have an imaginary drink :-) You do too many bars and drink the wrong things, you are gonna end up flat on your face with a hole in your pocket =) So the idea with networks is maybe imagine you own them the a chain of these cafe bars, and you are just popping in to check all is well, your profile is set up, tidy and pointing in the right direction and your friends and potential customers are happy and enjoying the venue - and they can find their way to the bar - or have access to customer service (a waiter/ess).
"You can please all of the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time."
-Abraham Lincoln
30 places to connect with us | ||||
Questions and Answers Section
Hi this is a new Q & A section to the blog, feel free to leave a question or query in the comments and I will answer when I can.
Q - Who are you ? A - I am Zara an Internet Marketer based in the UK.
Q - What do you do ? A - I sell Coffee related items on-line, I have a particular interest in ganoderma coffee.
Q - Why are you doing it ? A - I personally like Coffee so thought I'd see if I could sell it, I've been interested in Internet marketing for 8 years, and decided to focus on the coffee niche to make use of everything I have learned so far.
Q - How are you selling it ? A - I am in the process of setting up Coffee Venues which are attached to revenue share business models such as affiliate marketing, dropshipping, estores, blogs and auction sites. This is combined with social networking and personal branding to create more awareness of the products and services available to coffee consumers.
Q - Where can you be contacted if I with to make a coffee purchase or join the affiliate programs you recommend ? A - If you wish to contact me regarding a purchase or coffee affiliate details I can be contacted for UK information @allthingscoffee or @coffee2u on Twitter ( note: @coffee2u is now my USA coffee information channel)I can also be contacted here: http://www.allthingscoffee.co.uk/about
Q - When is your next live broadcast/webinar/video blog/newsletter due out ? A - At the moment I don't have set dates for any of the above but you can generally expect a video and or newletter once or twice a week and my blog updates are delivered via feedburner once daily, providing I post that day. People can optin to extra e-mail courses as they wish.
Q - Who runs this ilovegano website ?
A - It is run/edited by Zara Lockwood
Q - What has the healthy coffee downline builder to do with this ilovegano blog ?
A - The downline builder is just a free tool for people that combines 3 healthy coffee programs I recommend on ilovegano 'under one roof' in a system/club - Blog visitors interested in building a team can use the tool to build a social network of interested parties by using the twitter and facebook connections.
I provide a splash page for people to put in traffic exchanges that contains their own affiliate links, also by signing up and providing a mailing address it also means I can contact, then send out any freebies/samples/vouchers offered/ given by coffee companies looking for potential distributors or "coffee cuppers" to try if they like.
Q - Who are you ? A - I am Zara an Internet Marketer based in the UK.
Q - What do you do ? A - I sell Coffee related items on-line, I have a particular interest in ganoderma coffee.
Q - Why are you doing it ? A - I personally like Coffee so thought I'd see if I could sell it, I've been interested in Internet marketing for 8 years, and decided to focus on the coffee niche to make use of everything I have learned so far.
Q - How are you selling it ? A - I am in the process of setting up Coffee Venues which are attached to revenue share business models such as affiliate marketing, dropshipping, estores, blogs and auction sites. This is combined with social networking and personal branding to create more awareness of the products and services available to coffee consumers.
Q - Where can you be contacted if I with to make a coffee purchase or join the affiliate programs you recommend ? A - If you wish to contact me regarding a purchase or coffee affiliate details I can be contacted for UK information @allthingscoffee or @coffee2u on Twitter ( note: @coffee2u is now my USA coffee information channel)I can also be contacted here: http://www.allthingscoffee.co.uk/about
Q - When is your next live broadcast/webinar/video blog/newsletter due out ? A - At the moment I don't have set dates for any of the above but you can generally expect a video and or newletter once or twice a week and my blog updates are delivered via feedburner once daily, providing I post that day. People can optin to extra e-mail courses as they wish.
Q - Who runs this ilovegano website ?
A - It is run/edited by Zara Lockwood
Q - What has the healthy coffee downline builder to do with this ilovegano blog ?
A - The downline builder is just a free tool for people that combines 3 healthy coffee programs I recommend on ilovegano 'under one roof' in a system/club - Blog visitors interested in building a team can use the tool to build a social network of interested parties by using the twitter and facebook connections.
I provide a splash page for people to put in traffic exchanges that contains their own affiliate links, also by signing up and providing a mailing address it also means I can contact, then send out any freebies/samples/vouchers offered/ given by coffee companies looking for potential distributors or "coffee cuppers" to try if they like.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Twitter and update
Hi just an update first, I've decided to follow Russell Brunson's method for organising the getting of the CD from my head into an actual CD product as I watched a free seminar where he covered some of the ideas I've been thinking of myself i.e the "who what why how ( where when) " writer's method of getting the main information needed on to video's - I read the free report that Dan Weaver (3 cash machine) mailed the other day about the lady who started a course on how to set up a preschool "mirco continuity" they call it - so yes I've been using my brain a little bit to get a product started in our niche.
Guess what - I might do a course on coffee (suprise surprise) using that method once I have gathered together the essential elements, so if you are reading this then you are part of the experience already, so I best get on with it.
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Twitter
===================
Okay today I thought I'd give a little talk of my perception of twitter and how it can help (or hinder)
Now I often have a browse of a UK forum/network called Ecademy, now you get a wide variety of folks in there, some are against the whole idea of twitter seeing it as wasteful where as at the other end of the scale you have a number of Experts - i.e people that have drilled down and focused their time and attention purely on the trends and ways of twitter to see how it works.
Now I'm kind of in the middle of all this, I've tried some of the marketing methods, and I've done a mental review of the whole thing and here's some observations / things I did then stopped and other things I've started.
So firstly I've stopped the auto unfollow (tweetlater) - as rumors abound that twitter is thinking of banning people that use software to auto unfollow - so it's back to manual on that for the time being, my other chosen method was to use 'Twitter Karma' a bit like a twitter defragmenter and ditch all the inactive people (to make room for active tweeters) but I'm wary of using these method now - until I have more reassurance that my accounts aren't in danger from this automating.
Their reasons for doing it
With the rise of popularity of twitter also comes a responsibility to keep the majority happy - with rules - it happened with facebook, twitter is rapidly filering into mainstream society - so if you think it is pointless - think again! - it is a large crowd puller - learning to navigate the crowd is the toughest part - it's why you need mentors (but that's another big topic for another lesson!)
It will be around for a while yet, so pay attention, as your customers might expect you to know about it too.
I notice some of the new old giants are showing signs of distress - myspace is suffering in a way that reminds me of Lycos and more lately Yahoo/aol etc. did - i.e couldn't react/change quick enough to a new form of public communication and they got 'knocked in the knees' by a toddler with a hammer maybe ... now if that is a toy hammer or one out of the garage remains to be seen)
Twitter and facebook are emerging as 'spotty teenagers' at the moment in their development, and the parents are having to lay ground rules, codes of conduct etc. but the teenager isn't moving out of home anytime soon - it is still 'gaining weight' in the minds of people - so as a marketer you have to ajust to the parent/teenager tantrums from both the parents and the kiddies (us lovely consumers! - yes even marketers are consumers - just look up 'facebook click fraud' in google and you'll see what I mean)
Secondly I've stopped the google alerts that I had streaming from google to my twitter account via twitterfeed.com on most of my accounts - including @coffee2u as although the idea was a great one, I personally was unhappy with the content that google was digging up for me.
i.e I personally don't add claims of medicinal value to instant drinks or food products -I read them, but it leads into "quackery" - i.e spammy headlines that make crazy claims - so I ditched the google feeds.
I've opted to complie my own selection of coffee related feeds instead - feeds that don't make claims that miracles with cancer and such like are possible. I have no problems with real health, fitness and supafoods who's aims are to improve the life and wellbeing of people - but the adverts of sites like MSN and facebook currently show pictures of women for example that were probabley pregnant - then lost all the weight after giving birth - but endorse the "miricle" weightloss on a berry or suppliement - now this kind of hard selling is not what social networking is about - so I took the action to stop suspect streams.
While doing this I also empathise with the marketer than is genuinley trying to sell / promote products - as well -as oviously we want to make a revenue stream from selling - we can't make any money if we are banned from promoting, so the alternative is to create our own coffee related networks and tools and offer people into our trading space in a way that doesn't rattle the 'anti sales brigade' and what I mean by that is folk who get irrate about people earning their living trying to sell things (these types also constantly moan about people on welfare I notice)
So again I will have to look at the issue of 'what is spam' in a separent lesson as it's another biggie!
A stream of infromation I am trying out for now is a collection of blogs about coffee - I complied most in Social Median - a news aggrigator that is mainly set up for techy/business/design types but could be used by artists and niche marketers to gather information on topics rather like friendfeed does.
Guess what - I might do a course on coffee (suprise surprise) using that method once I have gathered together the essential elements, so if you are reading this then you are part of the experience already, so I best get on with it.
===================
===================
Okay today I thought I'd give a little talk of my perception of twitter and how it can help (or hinder)
Now I often have a browse of a UK forum/network called Ecademy, now you get a wide variety of folks in there, some are against the whole idea of twitter seeing it as wasteful where as at the other end of the scale you have a number of Experts - i.e people that have drilled down and focused their time and attention purely on the trends and ways of twitter to see how it works.
Now I'm kind of in the middle of all this, I've tried some of the marketing methods, and I've done a mental review of the whole thing and here's some observations / things I did then stopped and other things I've started.
So firstly I've stopped the auto unfollow (tweetlater) - as rumors abound that twitter is thinking of banning people that use software to auto unfollow - so it's back to manual on that for the time being, my other chosen method was to use 'Twitter Karma' a bit like a twitter defragmenter and ditch all the inactive people (to make room for active tweeters) but I'm wary of using these method now - until I have more reassurance that my accounts aren't in danger from this automating.
Their reasons for doing it
With the rise of popularity of twitter also comes a responsibility to keep the majority happy - with rules - it happened with facebook, twitter is rapidly filering into mainstream society - so if you think it is pointless - think again! - it is a large crowd puller - learning to navigate the crowd is the toughest part - it's why you need mentors (but that's another big topic for another lesson!)
It will be around for a while yet, so pay attention, as your customers might expect you to know about it too.
I notice some of the new old giants are showing signs of distress - myspace is suffering in a way that reminds me of Lycos and more lately Yahoo/aol etc. did - i.e couldn't react/change quick enough to a new form of public communication and they got 'knocked in the knees' by a toddler with a hammer maybe ... now if that is a toy hammer or one out of the garage remains to be seen)
Twitter and facebook are emerging as 'spotty teenagers' at the moment in their development, and the parents are having to lay ground rules, codes of conduct etc. but the teenager isn't moving out of home anytime soon - it is still 'gaining weight' in the minds of people - so as a marketer you have to ajust to the parent/teenager tantrums from both the parents and the kiddies (us lovely consumers! - yes even marketers are consumers - just look up 'facebook click fraud' in google and you'll see what I mean)
Secondly I've stopped the google alerts that I had streaming from google to my twitter account via twitterfeed.com on most of my accounts - including @coffee2u as although the idea was a great one, I personally was unhappy with the content that google was digging up for me.
i.e I personally don't add claims of medicinal value to instant drinks or food products -I read them, but it leads into "quackery" - i.e spammy headlines that make crazy claims - so I ditched the google feeds.
I've opted to complie my own selection of coffee related feeds instead - feeds that don't make claims that miracles with cancer and such like are possible. I have no problems with real health, fitness and supafoods who's aims are to improve the life and wellbeing of people - but the adverts of sites like MSN and facebook currently show pictures of women for example that were probabley pregnant - then lost all the weight after giving birth - but endorse the "miricle" weightloss on a berry or suppliement - now this kind of hard selling is not what social networking is about - so I took the action to stop suspect streams.
While doing this I also empathise with the marketer than is genuinley trying to sell / promote products - as well -as oviously we want to make a revenue stream from selling - we can't make any money if we are banned from promoting, so the alternative is to create our own coffee related networks and tools and offer people into our trading space in a way that doesn't rattle the 'anti sales brigade' and what I mean by that is folk who get irrate about people earning their living trying to sell things (these types also constantly moan about people on welfare I notice)
So again I will have to look at the issue of 'what is spam' in a separent lesson as it's another biggie!
A stream of infromation I am trying out for now is a collection of blogs about coffee - I complied most in Social Median - a news aggrigator that is mainly set up for techy/business/design types but could be used by artists and niche marketers to gather information on topics rather like friendfeed does.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Check out "Why am I not getting leads from Social Networking?" on Sta.rtUp.Biz
|
downline club nearly done
Okay so I'm nearly happy with the 'barebones' of the downline club, I wanted to get that set up to get some of the programs I use in one place. It's the first php script that seems to work for me, so will probably set up some more recuitment tools, maybe an auction site or a paypal store.
As you can see from my video's I'm not planing on winning an oscar, the idea was to get a plan of action - into action. The next thing to do with the club is to get the recruiment page splashes into a rotor then into a traffic exchange, that way I will be giving free traffic for anyone who becomes a member of the downline club.
The downline club is hosted on my own domain, and is copyrighted by the script owners and myself .
But the idea of it is a tool for affilites - if they want it. I will go into further explainations and updates regarding that club over at http://incomeclubpro.com
As you can see from my video's I'm not planing on winning an oscar, the idea was to get a plan of action - into action. The next thing to do with the club is to get the recruiment page splashes into a rotor then into a traffic exchange, that way I will be giving free traffic for anyone who becomes a member of the downline club.
The downline club is hosted on my own domain, and is copyrighted by the script owners and myself .
But the idea of it is a tool for affilites - if they want it. I will go into further explainations and updates regarding that club over at http://incomeclubpro.com
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Hi folks update and a bit about eBay
Just popping in with a cyber wave, I m busy tweeking my websites at the moment and doing some videos for the downline club, once I've designed some banners for I will be intigrating the downline club into this blog to, this blog is informal (incase you didn't guess :P) where at the blog over at http://incomeclubpro.com might develop into a more a more business / press release type one, the downline club has yet to be attached to that blog.
Once I have these recruitment sites set up I will focus more again on products a person can protentially dropship / sell on auctions - in the UK I notice there seems to be some kind of ban on selling foodstuffs like Coffee as I notice on the USA websites places like Amazon and eBay have people that directly sell the product, where as the UK eBay and Amazon don't - so one of my missions is to find out what this rule is :
EBAY
- to a trip into the eBay community forums should give me a rough idea as there are often frustrated sellers quote various laws and complaing and the injustice of not being able to sell "blah blah" product because of "blah blah" rule - so it's a useful place to get info as a starting point - as where there is an injustice you usually get a "freedom fighter" that provides links to the government sites and alternate ways to sell the said product.
I've noticed eBay has been given lot of bad press on-line lately, becuse people are going to facebook and playing with virtual freebies rather than getting the novelty of a bargain at eBay - but I think for many people that sell items - eBay is probably the one plce many people actually manage to make sales - so don't listen to all the 'doom merchants' to much - as while it is true that eBay isn't the novelty it once was (and they charge joe averages way too much in my opinion!) it is still the closest thing you get to a market stall on-line where you can directly sell and know that if you pitch well enough - somebody will buy
- I'm in the process of gathering together a bundle of ebay ebooks to read through and get the best tips from - as I haven't sold there is a few years now, but I know a bunch of people that do make their living via eBay selling - and I haven't forgotten that!
Once I have these recruitment sites set up I will focus more again on products a person can protentially dropship / sell on auctions - in the UK I notice there seems to be some kind of ban on selling foodstuffs like Coffee as I notice on the USA websites places like Amazon and eBay have people that directly sell the product, where as the UK eBay and Amazon don't - so one of my missions is to find out what this rule is :
EBAY
- to a trip into the eBay community forums should give me a rough idea as there are often frustrated sellers quote various laws and complaing and the injustice of not being able to sell "blah blah" product because of "blah blah" rule - so it's a useful place to get info as a starting point - as where there is an injustice you usually get a "freedom fighter" that provides links to the government sites and alternate ways to sell the said product.
I've noticed eBay has been given lot of bad press on-line lately, becuse people are going to facebook and playing with virtual freebies rather than getting the novelty of a bargain at eBay - but I think for many people that sell items - eBay is probably the one plce many people actually manage to make sales - so don't listen to all the 'doom merchants' to much - as while it is true that eBay isn't the novelty it once was (and they charge joe averages way too much in my opinion!) it is still the closest thing you get to a market stall on-line where you can directly sell and know that if you pitch well enough - somebody will buy
- I'm in the process of gathering together a bundle of ebay ebooks to read through and get the best tips from - as I haven't sold there is a few years now, but I know a bunch of people that do make their living via eBay selling - and I haven't forgotten that!
Monday, June 15, 2009
Lesson 7 - Affiliates and Licensing
This is a response to somebody who asked about licensing laws and where coffee affiliates stand - I've added to this article as it was getting a big 'drawn out' on their comment page! :-)
Disclaimer: this is just my opinion (based on using various ecommerce methods in UK and USA - like International eBay sales, dropshipping accounts, Affiliate and Distribution/Reseller accounts) and you are best checking with a legal adviser, small business advice center or local government for your own County or States laws for professional advise.
Re. licensing - from my understanding a person that promotes an Affiliate program isn't 'directly' selling so doesn't need a license to promote a product or service or using online or off-line 'networking' to spread the word about it.
- An Affiliate lets people know about a product or service available to buy *at a merchants website* (a merchant is responsible for complying with the laws/licenses etc. that allow certain goods to be resold in a particular country etc.).
If you brought packs of the product (as stock), at wholesale then resold them at retail price directly to the public, your County or State would have licensing laws you'd need to follow, which might be covered in the distribution agreement/ license / terms from the company/ merchant you get on signing up.
However - with Affiliate programs you don't usually stock/directly resell the product you recommend, an Affiliate has a different role to a Reseller - some programs offer a mixture of both.
Offering a low cost/free sample for potential customers to try ( from your own personal supply - if you want) then *directing them to the website* (via flyer/ business card etc.) so they can order the full amount, and /or getting them signed up to the affiliate program has greater advantages in some ways.
- a website reselling example -
I can resell website hosting setting by own price, taking the money (setting up a paypal button), setting up the domain name for the client, setting up their e-mail account and / or manging their whole site for them (if they pay me!) or I can direct people to my webhosting providers affilite program and earn a commission that way.
If you had local people that wanted to buy direct from you rather than the merchant, you could 'dropship' the product to them i.e they go to your own .com website, buy the product out of the shopping cart - when you receive their money you order from the merchant and they ship the product, you keep the difference between wholesale and retail price - that isn't direct selling either as far as I know - as they are getting the goods direct from the merchant rather than yourself - however if the customer wants a refund they will have to send the product back to you (in some cases) although some dropshippers will deal with refunds from your customers - it varies
The thing to remember - is *an Affiliate recommends* they promote and guide a potential customer to a merchant, it's the merchant that makes the direct sale, financial transaction and delivers the product.
On a scale of 1 to 5 (5 being the most likely to need a license I'd score it like this
1. customer
2. affiliate
3. dropshipper
4. distributor / reseller
5. Merchant / Wholesaler
Note: if you are a distributor (or 'offical reseller') you could choose not to 'directly' sell as such (for example if but use an affiliate or dropship method - many websites offer to send the product to another address than on the credit card during the checkout process, when it asks where you want the package shipped to you add the customers address, signed for/insured/tracked delivery is best then you have proof the item was delivered.
Zara
Disclaimer: this is just my opinion (based on using various ecommerce methods in UK and USA - like International eBay sales, dropshipping accounts, Affiliate and Distribution/Reseller accounts) and you are best checking with a legal adviser, small business advice center or local government for your own County or States laws for professional advise.
Re. licensing - from my understanding a person that promotes an Affiliate program isn't 'directly' selling so doesn't need a license to promote a product or service or using online or off-line 'networking' to spread the word about it.
- An Affiliate lets people know about a product or service available to buy *at a merchants website* (a merchant is responsible for complying with the laws/licenses etc. that allow certain goods to be resold in a particular country etc.).
If you brought packs of the product (as stock), at wholesale then resold them at retail price directly to the public, your County or State would have licensing laws you'd need to follow, which might be covered in the distribution agreement/ license / terms from the company/ merchant you get on signing up.
However - with Affiliate programs you don't usually stock/directly resell the product you recommend, an Affiliate has a different role to a Reseller - some programs offer a mixture of both.
Offering a low cost/free sample for potential customers to try ( from your own personal supply - if you want) then *directing them to the website* (via flyer/ business card etc.) so they can order the full amount, and /or getting them signed up to the affiliate program has greater advantages in some ways.
- a website reselling example -
I can resell website hosting setting by own price, taking the money (setting up a paypal button), setting up the domain name for the client, setting up their e-mail account and / or manging their whole site for them (if they pay me!) or I can direct people to my webhosting providers affilite program and earn a commission that way.
If you had local people that wanted to buy direct from you rather than the merchant, you could 'dropship' the product to them i.e they go to your own .com website, buy the product out of the shopping cart - when you receive their money you order from the merchant and they ship the product, you keep the difference between wholesale and retail price - that isn't direct selling either as far as I know - as they are getting the goods direct from the merchant rather than yourself - however if the customer wants a refund they will have to send the product back to you (in some cases) although some dropshippers will deal with refunds from your customers - it varies
The thing to remember - is *an Affiliate recommends* they promote and guide a potential customer to a merchant, it's the merchant that makes the direct sale, financial transaction and delivers the product.
On a scale of 1 to 5 (5 being the most likely to need a license I'd score it like this
1. customer
2. affiliate
3. dropshipper
4. distributor / reseller
5. Merchant / Wholesaler
Note: if you are a distributor (or 'offical reseller') you could choose not to 'directly' sell as such (for example if but use an affiliate or dropship method - many websites offer to send the product to another address than on the credit card during the checkout process, when it asks where you want the package shipped to you add the customers address, signed for/insured/tracked delivery is best then you have proof the item was delivered.
Zara
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Thursday, June 11, 2009
lil update
Hi folks, I've received my first pouch of Energi coffee, but have yet to try it out as I plan to do a video of the first cup of each brand I try, but due to dental work I might not be able to taste much for the next couple weeks. So I'm just exploring ideas/places, and looking at other people's coffee websites. I should be getting my DXN distributor license soon, so I'll have a neat range of ganoderma products to share - I like the look of their lipsticks too :-)
I've got my printer up and running so I will be working on a local blog that will introduce this site (www.ilovegano.info) and CoffeeDrinker.org via postcards in shop windows and maybe a leaflet/flyer campaign - Ganobrand have got it right in the fact that business cards come in handy - my cards - well I might use vistaprint again, but window adds will do for starters
I am also still researching different membership site software as I want my favorite programs all in one place - a downline builder is one option - but a cheaper option is to create an ebook - so watch this space - as like I said I'm determined to crack this coffee niche - so if you haven't joined up to the programs I recommend yet, you'll get another chance to do so through the ebook I will design in a mo.
Later, Zara
I've got my printer up and running so I will be working on a local blog that will introduce this site (www.ilovegano.info) and CoffeeDrinker.org via postcards in shop windows and maybe a leaflet/flyer campaign - Ganobrand have got it right in the fact that business cards come in handy - my cards - well I might use vistaprint again, but window adds will do for starters
I am also still researching different membership site software as I want my favorite programs all in one place - a downline builder is one option - but a cheaper option is to create an ebook - so watch this space - as like I said I'm determined to crack this coffee niche - so if you haven't joined up to the programs I recommend yet, you'll get another chance to do so through the ebook I will design in a mo.
Later, Zara
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Hi folks
just a quick update to say I am still about, I've got toothache really bad at the moment so I won't be writing anything until I get that fixed, I will probably mess about on facebook for a few days to take my mind off the pain.
I got a package from DXN with some ganoderma capsules, so I'm going to start taking them to possibly help out keeping some of my other body functions 'balanced' until the tooth is sorted out (or taken out!)
Anyway I have also been sorting through my hard drive as I am planning on a CD for my downline members that will have lots of useful knick knacks on it I use myself (or intent to use in the future)so if there is any software affiliates need give me a shout and I'll add it, if I have a copy, CD will mostly be Ebooks that come with resell rights or for your personal use only - I'll create folders to make it clear, I'll probably create a digital version too - the CD version is mainly for eBay purposes and they don't allow digital downloads.
Going now as my toothy peg is hurting.
later, Zara
I got a package from DXN with some ganoderma capsules, so I'm going to start taking them to possibly help out keeping some of my other body functions 'balanced' until the tooth is sorted out (or taken out!)
Anyway I have also been sorting through my hard drive as I am planning on a CD for my downline members that will have lots of useful knick knacks on it I use myself (or intent to use in the future)so if there is any software affiliates need give me a shout and I'll add it, if I have a copy, CD will mostly be Ebooks that come with resell rights or for your personal use only - I'll create folders to make it clear, I'll probably create a digital version too - the CD version is mainly for eBay purposes and they don't allow digital downloads.
Going now as my toothy peg is hurting.
later, Zara
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Some UK coffee links to look through
A search through Bing (Microsofts 'Google') returned some of these for me to look at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee
http://www.coffeexclusive.com/
http://www.cafebar.co.uk/
http://www.cafebar.co.uk/coffee_school.aspx
http://www.whittard.co.uk/store/catalogue/Coffee-P3000/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffea_arabica
http://www.coffee-tea.co.uk/
http://www.cornishcoffee.co.uk/
http://www.24-7coffee.com/
http://www.realcoffee.co.uk/
http://www.anothercoffee.co.uk/
http://www.coffeesuppliesdirect.co.uk/
http://www.hasbean.co.uk/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee
http://www.coffeexclusive.com/
http://www.cafebar.co.uk/
http://www.cafebar.co.uk/coffee_school.aspx
http://www.whittard.co.uk/store/catalogue/Coffee-P3000/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffea_arabica
http://www.coffee-tea.co.uk/
http://www.cornishcoffee.co.uk/
http://www.24-7coffee.com/
http://www.realcoffee.co.uk/
http://www.anothercoffee.co.uk/
http://www.coffeesuppliesdirect.co.uk/
http://www.hasbean.co.uk/
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
howdy folks my 4 areas of focus
okay, what I am doing - I'm looking at a few things:
1. For my affiliates I am looking to create a new club to make referrals easier.
2. Another avenue I am looking down is via CD data disks
3. I'll be looking to get some traffic in here.
4. DXN & HealthyCoffee - these are ongoing, ganodermacoffee and gano excel are other options to consider.
1. For my affiliates I am looking to create a new club to make referrals easier.
2. Another avenue I am looking down is via CD data disks
3. I'll be looking to get some traffic in here.
4. DXN & HealthyCoffee - these are ongoing, ganodermacoffee and gano excel are other options to consider.
Coffee posters and prints
Art.com have an affiliate program which pays 30% on sales - the idea being that you can match or compliment your products and add an additional revenue stream. = on topic images / no worries about where they are sourced.
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