What Should I Sell Online? - Ideas For Choosing Product Lines By Chris Malta & Robin Cowie At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

What NOT to Sell
Everyone who starts an E-Biz faces the question: What do I sell? And most everyone seems to make two classic mistakes in the beginning:

1. They try to sell what everyone else is selling — DVDs, electronics, designer clothing.
The problem they encounter is that the market is already saturated with these products, and the wholesale suppliers typically won't work in small quantity. To make any profit, they’d have to buy enormous quantities that exceed their small business budget.

2. They try to sell what they know and love.
Unfortunately, unless there's a significant demand for what they know and love, they're going to be stuck with a lot of product they can appreciate, but can’t move.

What’s an IDEA HOTSPOT?
Lisa Suttora, of http://WhatDoISell.com, explains, "An idea hotspot refers to anything, any place, or person that provides you with an unending source of new product ideas, of market trends, of developing niches, and product line education. It's a fertile ground for product ideas.” These hotspots keep you in touch with what people are buying, which products are up-and-coming, and which are on their way out.

If your ideas all come from one or two places, you're limiting yourself. Expand your thinking — you might consider looking at one of these “hotspots” for inspiration:

• Newspapers. You can get an idea of what is on the minds of consumers by simply reading the lifestyle section, the business section, or looking at the advertisements the big stores are putting out.

• Consumer publications. There are hundreds of magazines designed around niche products, niche hobbies, and niche markets. They are a terrific resource for building niche product lines.

• Malls/brick-and-mortar stores. Talk to the salespeople, find out what's selling. You can even source your suppliers off the boxes. Get the manufacturer’s name, call them up, and ask who their local distributor is in your area.

• Trend-spotting web sites, like http://www.trendwatching.com, http://www.influxinsights.com, and http://www.trendhunter.com.

• The entertainment industry — movies and TV drive product trends. If you know what's coming out in the movie industry, you can start sourcing related products before the trend begins.Http://Imdb.com maintains a list of movies that are going to be released in the coming year. So if you know now that a particular movie is going to be coming out, you can start stocking up on relevant products before they become pricey — like Batman, Superman, Curious George, and Star Wars.

Write It Down
Suttora strongly suggests carrying a product sourcing notebook, be it a PDA or hand-held notebook, to keep track of your ideas as they come. She warns, “Ninety percent of ideas that you don’t write down will get lost. When you’re at these idea hotspots, if you see a hundred ideas for products to sell, you won’t be able to remember them. You’ve got to write them down in your product sourcing notebook and then go back and start researching them.”

Published At: Isnare Free Articles Directory http://www.isnare.com
Permanent Link: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=80790&ca=Business

Important Notice DISCLAIMER: All information, content, and data in this article are sole opinions and/or findings of the individual user or organization that registered and submitted this article at Isnare.com without any fee. The article is strictly for educational or entertainment purposes only and should not be used in any way, implemented or applied without consultation from a professional. We at Isnare.com do not, in anyway, contribute or include our own findings, facts and opinions in any articles presented in this site. Publishing this article does not constitute Isnare.com's support or sponsorship for this article. Isnare.com is an article publishing service. Please read our Terms of Service for more information.