by Davion Wong

Dropship wholesale distributors are the lifeline of a reseller business. Reselling in competitive markets is like climbing a mountain. It can be exhilarating when you reach the top but exhausting and discouraging on the way up and many may drop out. Normally, the market is competitive because there is a demand for such products. Demand fuels supply and competition. However, since everyone knows that, many resellers would enter the market and it hits saturation fast. In order to triumph over these competitors, you need to find dropship wholesale distributors with a cutting edge. Price differentials, product variety and shipping efficiency are crucial marks of great wholesale distributors.

In order to find reliable dropship wholesale distributors that you can form long-term partnerships with, you need to invest time and money to conduct research and evaluation. Though there is no clear-cut systematic approach towards finding good dropship wholesale distributors, there are generally a few ways to source for them.

1. Online Searches

Spend some time on the internet to search for dropship wholesale distributors that are listed in the search engines. Some of these wholesalers run their business online which is a perfect fit for you if you are selling your products online. They can understand the mechanics behind online marketing and therefore are more ready to meet the needs of your business. Occasionally, you would chance upon a few popular merchandises that keep popping up in your searches. This suggests that you might want to consider contacting the manufacturer to add them to your selling list.

2. Trade Associations or Embassies

Trade associations are great places to locate dropship wholesale distributors. Dropship wholesalers and manufacturers typically join major business associations for networking purposes. Do not overlook US or foreign embassies as well. These are places where foreign manufacturers and dropship wholesale distributors seek for business opportunities. You may get in touch with the foreign embassies for a business listing of wholesale distributors and information about their distribution channels.

3. Trade Exhibitions

Trade exhibitions are ideal places to meet face to face with potential wholesale suppliers. These shows are often held in major cities throughout the year. Keep a look-out for them and participate if you can. You would be able to network with other resellers, dropship wholesale distributors and manufacturers to negotiate deals and partnerships.

4. Dropship Wholesale Distributors Directories

Dropship wholesale distributors are often listed in directories. The question is where you can find them. There are services that have scoured the globe in search of excellent dropship wholesalers. They understand the time and capital constraints business owners have. Very often, sourcing for the best value for money wholesale deals requires days of searching, attending trade shows in different states, talking to suppliers and manufacturers and deal clinching. This is a luxury most small-time business owners such as home business or online business owners cannot afford. This is the reason why such directories are popular among work-at-home resellers and smaller business outfits.

Get useful search tips on wholesale dropshippers at my blog and find great wholesale deals. This article may be freely reprinted or distributed in its entirety in any ezine, newsletter, blog or website. The author’s name, bio and website links must remain intact and be included with every reproduction.

Davion is a successful webmaster, author and reseller. Discover how you can supercharge your profits and grab deep wholesale discounts from the best dropship wholesale distributors at his blog http://Drop-ship-Wholesale-Distributors.blogspot.com.

by Chris Malta & Robin Cowie

If you spend any length of time selling products on the Internet, you’re going to find out that it’s very hard to sell “very low priced” products.

What? Why is that? You’d think that people would LOVE to pay Very Low Prices for products!

Well, that’s true, when they’re getting value for their money. But there is one thing that will make your customer back up so fast, they’ll have to make a “beeping” noise, like a big truck in reverse:

Shipping charges.

Ah, yes. Shipping Charges. The bane of the Internet Retailer. Ground shipping, air, motor freight. Residential delivery surcharge. Shipping insurance charge. Signature release charge. They get you coming and going. (Literally!).

We sell brand name products on the Internet using the Drop Shipping method. We have genuine Wholesale Suppliers who will fill our single-item orders by wending the products we sell DIRECTLY to our customers from the warehouse, with our business name on the package. Very low cost and effective.

BUT…they still have to charge us shipping, which means we still have to charge our CUSTOMERS shipping.

Normally, that’s just fine. Internet customers understand shipping charges, and with most products, it’s not even an issue.

However, what happens when you have a site that sells an “accessory” type product that goes along with your general product line, but only costs about $5 retail? A customer comes along and wants to buy that inexpensive accessory, but during the process of completing the order, they realize they are going to have to pay about $7 in shipping.

Ouch! $12 for a $5 accessory? Don’t think so.

So what do you do? Are you going to deprive your customers of the “accessories” that go along with your general product line, and possible lose that customer’s attention for good?
Not your first choice, is it?

There’s a way around this problem for many types of products.

Suppose your site sells those cool Velcro-type dart boards that parents love to give their kids, because Velcro tips won’t put holes in the walls, or in the other kids either, for that matter. The dart boards come with a supply of plastic darts.

However, we’re talking about KIDS here. Plastic darts break. They disappear. They go running off down the road taped to the tail of the neighbor’s cat. Someday, little Johnny is going to want to play darts with a Dart Set that has no darts. There will be crying involved; I have three kids and a grandson, and I know that sound.

Some parents will think ahead and buy some extra darts from you when they order the Set in the first place. Most will not.

Ok, someone comes back to your site and wants to order another set of three plastic Velcro darts. You sell them for $5. The shipping cost is $7.

$12 for three plastic Velcro-tipped darts? Guess what…Johnny’s Mom or Dad is going to decide to spend some time convincing Johnny that the Dart Set was never any fun anyway. It won’t be easy, and Mom or Dad will probably blame YOU for that, whether they should or not. )

So what can you do about that?

It’s very simple.

You can “group” those little accessory packages of darts, and sell them as “sets”.

For example, group FOUR of those $5 packages of darts together as a single product on your site, and call it a “Complete 4-player Dart Set” (each player uses three darts while playing, so 4 sets covers 4 players.) That way, you have something you can charge $20 for (or a little less, since you’re moving them in bulk), and the $7 shipping charge suddenly doesn’t seem like so much to little Johnny’s Mom or Dad.

Think about how happy THEY’LL be with the idea too…EXTRA sets of darts for the NEXT time Johnny’s darts skip off into the Twilight Zone of Lost Toys!

Stretching it a bit? Sure I am! It’s a story, for the sake of illustration, but there’s a solid truth at the core:
When you sell products that require accessories from time to time, you should also be able to supply the accessories in a manner that will be comfortable for the customer.

Think about this too: the products don’t HAVE to be accessories. This works for ANY individual products that just happen to be very low priced to begin with. Be creative!

Grouping products into “Sets” can’t be done with every product, but you should be able to think of a way to do it for most!

BIOGRAPHY: Product Sourcing Radio is Created and Hosted by Chris Malta and Robin Cowie of WorldwideBrands.com, Home of OneSource: The Internet’s Largest Source of Genuine, Factory-Direct Wholesalers for online sellers. Click Here for more FREE E-Biz & Product Sourcing info!

by jake k forrester

With all the hype surrounding dropship wholesale products and using those products to run a successful home business, it’s important to know the following tips which will make your life easier as a home based entrepreneur.

First we’ll describe what dropshipping is and how it can be useful for a home based business. Dropshipping uses three entities: you, the customer, and the dropshipper. You advertise products that the dropshipper offers, and when customers would like to buy the product, they contact your. This can be done through traditional means such as newspaper or the more current trend with mediums such as web sites or auction sites. You never actually purchase the inventory until the customer pays you for it. This gives you the capital to buy the product and take your cut of the profits before the dropshipper. Once the dropshipper receives the order, they ship the product directly to your customer, with your return address listed. The customer thinks you shipped the item and usually has no idea the item was dropshipped.

Now that you have a better understanding of what dropshipping is, the tips below will help you avoid some of the pitfalls that usually occur when using dropshipping in your home based business.

Check the Inventory
You definitely don’t want to sell a product from a dropshipper only to find out the dropshipper doesn’t have the item in stock. This is one of the most common problems in the dropshipping business. Some dropshippers use an available stock field in their product description allowing you to see how many items they have available for immediate delivery.

Careful With Shipping
Most people new to the dropshipping business don’t think much about shipping costs and how it can cut into their profits. Remember your shipping charges and be sure to pass them on the your customer. Some use a flat rate shipping charge that can cover most and provide a small profit when more shipping charges are collected and not used.

Dropshipping Charges
Different dropship companies have different fees for dropshipping. Each individual item may have a dropshipping charge even if the order is for more than one item. Others charge a monthly or annual fee. It’s important to know the fees associated with using each dropshipper.

Saturation
When choosing a dropshipper, you don’t want to choose a dropshipper that has a saturated market. The supply and demand principle is still true even in the online world. If hundreds of people are selling the exact same product as you, you’ll need some sort of incentive for them to buy from you. Or find a niche dropshipper that can provide unique products at good prices.

Beware the middleman
Finding dropshipper that provide the products you want to sell maybe your biggest challenge. There are plenty of middlemen just waiting to soak up all your profits. Most true wholesale dropshippers will require a tax id. They are inexpensive to obtain and can help lead your home based business to success. Dropship directories such as public-wholesale.net and buywholesaledirectory.com can provide you with lists of dropshippers for free.

These are just a few tips for dropshipping with a home based business. For more information, be sure to check out the dropship directory with free dropship sources.

I wish I had a dime for every time I’ve been asked, “Tim, what’s the best product to sell online?” I also wish I had a nickel for every blank stare I received when I answered: “That’s simple: information.”

I’d have enough money to take off a month or two. )

As more and more people move to the World Wide Web seeking their fortunes, the number-one business question of the recent age has become: “What’s the best product to sell online?” The answer is simple: information. No other type of product is easier to create, faster to bring to market, easier to distribute and potentially more profitable, often offering profits of 1,000 percent or more.

Informational products come in many forms. An info product can be a digital book (an e-book), a digital report or a white paper, a piece of software, a web site or a newsletter. Any product that’s informational or informative in nature can be considered an info product.

Here’s why information is the best product to sell online:

• It’s fast to create, fast to market. Forget a product development cycle that’s years in the making. Forget an intense design and costly manufacturing process. I’ve literally created info products in as little as two hours and had them generating revenue shortly thereafter. If you have an appealing topic and a computer, you have all the tools you need to create an info product.
• There’s no inventory to stock. Forget filling your garage with boxes of cheap watches and cases of megavitamins that you’ll never sell. When you sell information, there’s no inventory to stock. Your product is digital (I like to call it electronic air) and requires no space in your garage, just a little space on your computer. One of my most successful info products is a 30KB e-book that requires almost no space at all.
• The startup costs are low. When you sell information, you can literally create a product for next to nothing. If your product is an e-book, the only investment required is the time it takes to put words to digital paper. And if you become an affiliate marketer of someone else’s info product, your investment can be zero.
• There’s an automated sales and delivery process. Thanks to internet technology, you can sell info products 24/7 and never lift a finger. In fact, you don’t even have to be awake or at home to make money with an info product. I know many successful info entrepreneurs who are getting rich despite the fact that they work as little as one hour a day. They check their website and their e-mail, then go play golf or hang with the kids for the rest of the day. You can completely automate the sales and delivery process so your site does everything for you. An automated site can give a potential customer your sales pitch, take the order and process the payment, deliver the product by e-mail, and even follow up in a few days to make sure the customer’s satisfied and offer to sell him additional products.
• Customers get immediate access or delivery. Online consumers are an impatient lot. They want things now! These are the people who stand in front of the microwave, impatiently tapping their foot and frowning at their watch. Selling information is the best way to give your customers immediate satisfaction. As mentioned earlier, an automated site can process the order and payment, then immediately e-mail the product’s download link to your customer.
• There are no shipping and handling charges. One of the things I never liked about selling hard goods was the manual process of taking the order, running the credit card, and placing the order with a drop-shipper or filling the order of my stock. I hated finding a box, packing peanuts, printing the label, taping it all up and lugging it to the post office. Every minute I spent filling orders was time that I wasn’t being compensated for; therefore, my profit grew smaller with every minute spent on shipping and handling. Informational products require no shipping and handling—most are delivered by e-mail. In the time it takes you to click your mouse, you can deliver an info product into your customers’ hands.

What topics make for good info products? Someone once said, “If you can teach people how to feel better, look younger, be thinner, get rich or be more attractive to the opposite sex, the world will beat a path to your door.” And those topics are just the tip of the iceberg.

An e-book is no different from its paper cousin, except that it’s meant to be delivered and read electronically. Topics for e-books are as wide-ranging as regular books. A few recent bestsellers show people how to:

• Start an eBay business
• Make money in real estate
• Make your own beer
• Protect yourself against a mugger
• Get the best deal on a used car
• Play a better game of golf

Where do you sell info products? Although some e-book authors go the traditional route and actually sell their e-books on CDs at neighborhood bookstores, the largest marketplace for digital info products is on the web. At any given moment, there are thousands of info products for sale on eBay, Yahoo! Auctions, specialized e-book seller websites, and even Amazon.com.

When marketing your own info product, you can’t wait for customers to find you—you have to bring your product to them. Seek out those who would be interested in what you have to say. If you’ve written an e-book on how to brew your own beer, check out the online forums devoted to the topic of beer. (You’ll might be surprised to find that there are hundreds of forums for beer lovers!)

Without posting an obvious ad, which is usually not allowed, offer to send free copies of your book to whoever will take one. Don’t worry about giving them away for free at first. Once your book finds an initial audience, these people will help you sell more books by referring customers to you.

I also recommend that you create a website to help sell your e-book. When John Grisham wrote The Firm, he had copies printed up and drove around selling them out of the back of his car. A website is the modern day equivalent of the bookseller’s car trunk.

If you’d like to cash in on the sale of information but don’t think you can write an e-book of your own, never fear. Finding someone to work with you on such a project is easier than you think. We’ll address that topic in next month’s column.

Here’s to your success!

Tim Knox
dropshipwholesale.net