Drop Ship Business - You Can Start Today

The absolute best way to get started in eCommerce fast is to start a drop ship business. Why is this model so good for beginners? You can get started with no inventory and minimal start-up costs. You can try a variety of products and see which ones are the best fit for your efforts. Finally, you won't get stuck with a bunch of unsold inventory in case your offering is a bust. You will have a few losers in your quest to achieve eCommerce success, so drop shipping is the safest way to start.

So how do you start a drop ship business? You need to find good suppliers; that is the critical step. If you start out with a bad supplier, you may not find out how bad until it is too late, and you have invested valuable time promoting products. My advice: use a reliable drop ship supplier listing to find reputable partners for your drop shipping business. It might cost you a little bit up front, but as a voice of experience, you'll save money in the long run.

Spending several weeks or months trying to salvage your valuable customer relationships because you had a bad supplier is no fun at all. Your customers who bought from you are your most valuable asset, and you want to make sure that you can keep them satisfied. Make sure your supplier has a return policy, as well as a customer service team to help you along. Your supplier will be your most important business partner in eCommerce.

We reviewed 12 drop ship product directories, and found 3 we can recommend. Read more about our our review process.

Seven Deadly Sins of Your AdWords Account

Advertising on Google seems like a no brainer to many people. After all, how much brainpower does it take to create a simple ad and choose a couple of keywords? Based on my experience with auditing AdWords accounts lately, plenty of people share this belief and dive into paid search without any doubts.

Look at this checklist to see if your AdWords account is guilty of any of the common Google AdWords sins listed below:

1) Content and search network are in the same campaign

Why it's bad: Paid search works so well partially because it attracts people who are already searching for what you have to offer. When it comes to the content network, the story is different because the ads are served alongside the content the user is reading. It does not mean that content ads are a waste of time and money. It simply means that the rules of the game are different.

The punishment for this sin varies from overpaying for every click to killing the results you could be getting for your media dollars.

2) All keywords are broad match

As defined by Google, broad match keyword allows your ad to show on similar phrases and relevant variations. Basically, it means that your ads ads are matched to all kids of queries and you are overpaying on exact and phrase variations of the words.

3) There are no negative keywords

The punishment may be harsh in some cases, depending on your keyword list, but the idea behind negative keywords is to ensure your ad doesn't show for any search that is irrelevant (i.e. if you are selling custom bay windows, you do not want your ads to map to Microsoft Windows).

If your account has been running for a while without negatives, run a Search Query Report to identify the negatives you should add ASAP.

4) There's no tracking whatsoever

If you aren't tracking your results, there's no way of knowing if paid search works for you. Neither is there any data to help you make strategic decisions and optimize the account to deliver optimal results. But the biggest punishment is when things stop working and you can't see what went wrong.

5) You are chasing position 1

Vanity is never a good thing, but this is especially true in regards to paid search. It is a known fact that position one gets the most clicks, however, these clicks are known to have questionable quality as the user is likely to click on the first ad they see without really reading it. As a result, they click right out of it, but you still get charged for it. Big time.

6) Not using dayparting (ad scheduling)

Ad scheduling can help you improve your ROI by ensuring that your ads run when it makes the most business sense. For instance, a local business may only want to run their ads during business hours, or an online retailer may want to boost their bids during their busier-than-normal lunchtime shopping period.

7) All traffic goes to a homepage

This is typical and I see this across the board, yet it is the worst way to spend your media. Do take the time to think about a good landing page that helps you and the user meet the objective.

Guilty as charged? Make the changes now to avoid Google's punishment for your sins!

About The Author:
Maria Nikishyna is the Client Manager for Point It! Inc. and the author of Search Marketing Blog.
Maria is an accomplished search engine marketer specializing in Pay-Per-Click (PPC) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO). She oversees lead generation programs for small and medium size businesses, helping clients get outstanding results on a reasonable budget. Maria has a degree from the University of Washington.