Ways to advertise and market your site - Need some advise..

Dear all


I'm currently operating online, and i sell IT gadgets, Computer accessories and such, check my site for more info. Link hidden: Login to view

Every single day I keep thinking on new ways to advertise, market and also new ideas on what to sell and how to improve my business.

In my opinion and as far as i can see, selling cheap do not bring definite success to business. It may just backfire for some reason. Of course, by selling affordable, cheap and budget products it may sustain your business, but it won't expand as there are a lot of competitors that are doing the same thing as you and also most of the time the products came from the same source.

It just goes down to price war in the end. This to me is a big factors as I can admit i do not have the funds to fight the war. So obviously i got to think of some ideas to survive and eventually succeed in my business.

Easier said than done, ideas are not hard to think off, but most of the time it's just not good enough.

I have spent numerous months, and weeks dwelling on this. And now i have began to question myself whether I'm wasting my time thinking of new unique ideas where no one (my competitors) have think off, or instead i should find out and improve on their weaknesses.

I don't expect you guys to flourish me with your business ideas and such..but i just need advise on the path i should take :)


Regards
Johnson

The first thing you do is dig in for the long fight, most people will suffer from self doubt when things aren't running as smoothly as they would like, but giving up guarantees you of only one result for sure, and that's not success!

If you did a course on marketing you would find something called a SWOT analysis, now I can tell from what you've written that your mind is in the right place and you're thinking of the right things, but I'll give you the 4 key areas of building a business plan.

S. Identify your strengths
W. Identify your weaknesses
O. Identify current and future opportunities
T. Identify your threats

Now there will be sub genres to those 4, and once you start breaking a SWOT analysis down, you'll find the sub genres that you can then focus pn and fine tune.

You need a direction in business, you need to know where you are starting from, where you want to get to and then build yourself a road map on how to get there!

Not many business's come with a guarantee of success, but the better you plan and identify these types of areas, the better your chances of long term success.

I do a SWOT analysis of every business I'm involved in every 6 months. Some times I find I don't need to make any alterations and some times the market has moved so far in 6 months I have to focus on certain areas quickly to cover myself.

I like the way you're thinking, it shows you can identify strengths and weaknesses, just focus on a complete SWOT. and you may just open up areas you hadn't even thought of as yet.

Hi Johnson,

Marc's advise is spot on and reading through your post seems like you are already on the right track :)

Other than coming up with new and unique ways to cater to your market, you also need to find a way to drive constant traffic to your site, the more people you can get to your site the higher chances you have of getting a sale. You might find this useful - Link hidden: Login to view

All the best!

Thank you Richelle and Fudjj for your prompt reply :)


I will do up a detail SWOT analysis and will keep you guys updated of my conclusion...

As I'm focusing on selling my products locally for now through online, I have face this difficulty

Due to low start up funds, I find it difficult to bring in assorted variety of items to sell even thought the item is low in cost and also no shop front to keep a lot of stocks.

I know other solution to this is drop shipping, but I think the customers won't want to wait for 1 week or so for a item that cost less than $2?

If you ask me why don't I just do drop shipping to other countries? I would say It's not under my plan for now as there are so much competitors out there doing the same thing as me. Until I think i have found a niche or untapped market, then I will venture abroad.

Would be glad if you guys can advise me on the difficulty I'm currently facing...


Regards
Johnson

Hi Johnson,

It's really nice reading how you know where you want to be and how determined you are about not joining the 'dropshipping' craze, which is good actually.

You might want to source your products locally, like store or warehouse sales - You can get really cheap products, sometimes cheaper than wholesale.

You might also consider selling a few of your old gadgets or other things to help you raise money to buy more brand new stocks.

Hope this helps somehow. All the best :)

Hi Richelle


Thanks for the reply.

Just to let you know I have thought of that also, but still it don't really provide solution to my concern.


hope u understand I'm not asking for spoon-feed here :)

Hi Johnson,

I understand and I am just trying my best to help you out :)

I'm not sure if you're aware or have come to know of this supplier -

Link hidden: Login to view

They're based in Singapore and may have the products you are interested in.

Cheers!

Hi Richelle


Yes I have heard of them :)

Nevertheless, thanks for your help


Regards
Johnson

just to ask..

do you come across any wholesaler that claim to be a wholesaler but they are just a company who does drop shipping instead of the real wholesaling?

Everyone come across them these days, it's one of my pet hates lol

The term wholesale is no longer used to define a business structure these days, its become a marketing term that many, especially drop shippers use to attract customers.

Of course what's the first thing that pops into your mind when you hear the word wholesale?, it's usually the word cheap or certainly something close. So now everyone wants to use the word wholesale in their title, whether they really are true wholesalers or not.

The truth is there are a lot of drop ship companies that actually use wholesalers to buy from, then of course call themselves drop ship/wholesalers. There is only ever one true wholesaler in a retail link, everyone else are just linking up further down the chain and soaking up margin as they go.

Sometimes there will be so many links in the retail chain that all the margin is actually gone before you even get it to a retail market, that's how crazy it's getting.

Drop Ship and Wholesale are two completely different animals, it doesn't mean that one supplier can't be both, but the structure will be different between the two. Drop Ship price will be set at 1 unit or very small quantities at least. Wholesale will be set at volume purchasing, the more you buy, the better the price.

Of course Drop Shippers ship for you, where as wholesalers ship to you!

Lots of difference, so never be fooled by the term wholesaler, it can mean very little these days. The easiest way to find out of they are a genuine wholesaler, ask for volume pricing and see what you get!

Another quick way to tell, most wholesalers will require a tax id to establish an account, where as drop shippers won't.