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How to Create A Website to Sell Products In 8 Steps [+6 Expert Tips]
For years, my friend Mia sold personalized T-shirts at local markets and online marketplaces, but she always dreamed of reaching a wider audience. Having her own website. Her e-shop.
So, we joined forces and are finally in the process of realization. The site is still not live, but things are moving forward, so I decided to take you through the steps and visions we have for it — backed up by 6 expert insights and research data.
Take a read for practical information.
Table of Contents
The Online Marketplace Today
Before going online with products, the main concern I heard among peers (even marketers) was that the market was oversaturated, and Mia wouldn’t receive a piece of the pie. So, I did some research.
In 2024, the global ecommerce market is growing like crazy, expected to reach $6.07 trillion and account for 21.2% of all retail sales. Statista predicts global ecommerce sales will hit $8.1 trillion by 2026 and grab 24% of retail sales.
Although we talk about pretty positive growth here, we should not ignore that in 2023, inflation was a big concern, and 2024 looks to continue that trend. With tighter budgets, people are likely to cut online spending to avoid impulse buys.
However, they aren’t stopping all discretionary spending. Instead, they’re being more careful about where and how they spend their money.
What counts as value is changing, as shown in Mintel’s 2024 Global Consumer Trends report:
“Consumers have increasingly diverse ideas of what indicates ‘quality’ in a product or service. As budget pressures force tighter trade-offs, consumers are becoming more realistic in their search for value as they strike a balance between quality received and cost incurred.”
So, taking all this into account, how can you create a site that truly convinces cautious and budget-conscious customers that your product is exactly what they need?
Let’s take a look.
How to Create a Website to Sell Products
To create a product sales page, follow a clear, step-by-step approach with a well-defined idea and vision. But what does it mean in practice? I can guide you through each step to make a website to sell stuff.
Step 1: Choose a resonating domain name and get hosting.
First, we start with domain and hosting.
Your website’s domain is its online address. Pick something short, catchy, and easy to remember. Once you decide on a name, make sure it’s available, and then buy and register it. In my case, it would be charmaloo.com.
Since this topic alone is quite extensive, check out the two guides below on registering a perfect domain name.
You also need to get web hosting. You’ll pay a monthly or yearly fee, typically between $5 and $50, depending on your needs.
Pro tip: HubSpot lets you connect a custom domain for free from day one. You can enjoy a beautifully branded website without hidden costs or forced upgrades.
Step 2: Choose a website builder.
Once you’re all set with the technical part, you need to choose between website builders — like WordPress, Wix, HubSpot, etc. Ease of use, design flexibility, ecommerce capabilities, and integration options are things you should take into account.
Payment processing, inventory management, and customer support are equally important.
Since I’m not an expert and needed the simplest option, I chose the HubSpot free drag-and-drop website builder. It’s super easy to use with pre-built templates. No coding or tech skills required at all.
Integrate eCommerce functionality
If you don’t create your website directly on ecommerce builders (e.g., Shopify), you need to integrate ecommerce functionality with options like:
- Shopify Buy Button: You can integrate the Shopify “Buy Button” feature into your existing website. It allows you to add shopping functionality without moving your entire site.
- WooCommerce: If your main website is on WordPress, you can add WooCommerce to manage your store. It integrates perfectly into WordPress sites.
- Ecwid: A flexible ecommerce solution that you can add to any website, including those built with custom code or other CMS platforms.
Pro tip: With the HubSpot CMS platform, you can incorporate ecommerce functionalities directly within HubSpot, eliminating the need for external solutions like Shopify. (That’s what I’m doing). But also, if you want, you can quickly connect it to platforms like Shopify, Wix, and WooCommerce.
Step 3: Design the layout.
At this point, you need to choose a style that fits what your website is about. Think about colors, fonts, and overall design. Decide where things should go on your pages.
You’ll need spots for your main content, like text and images, and areas for navigation, such as menus and buttons. The important parts must be easy to find, so people can quickly realize what your offer is.
In the HubSpot builder, me and Mia started by describing her business, Charmaloo, which offers personalized T-shirts.
The builder then used AI to generate a template with text about my T-shirts. (Pretty cool, huh!) I also selected colors that match the brand, inspired by those Mia used on Instagram:
With yellow as the main color, I decided to make it the dominant theme for the homepage. I opted for a colorful design with clear messages, a simple layout with minimal navigation, and a touch of cheerfulness.
The main menu options are Products, About, and Contact. I created CTA buttons in purple to make them stand out.
Right below the main message, I used three short statements to explain to customers why they should choose Charmaloo.
As you can see, I focused on making the messages simple, engaging, and friendly. No fluff. No novels. No one wants to read a wall of text. Visitors will come here to buy and I’ve got to convince them.
Step 4: Add product information & content.
Now you need to add product information to your website. I suggest creating detailed listings for each item, including a clear title, description, and high-quality photos because SEO technical guidelines matter for a successful launch of the site.
And, of course, add details like price, size, and stock availability.
I decided to showcase a few product categories directly on the homepage to attract customers and give them a preview of what’s available before they click on the “Products” category.
Right below the “Why Charmaloo” section, I added three T-shirt categories with short, interesting descriptions.
In the Products section, we plan to show each item with its name, price, and a brief description, including material, washing instructions, size, and a catchy line to draw customers in.
While this is still in progress, the goal is to present each product clearly and enticingly. Here’s the vision of it:
For content, I’m not planning to include a blog just yet, but I definitely want one in the future with fashion-related topics and my customers’ stories and interviews. This will help gain trust among visitors and attract more search traffic.
In the meantime, I’ve added an “About Us” section to present my small business and its main idea in a friendly, easy-to-read format.
There’s also a testimonial from a friend sharing her thoughts. Testimonials are a fantastic way to build trust, and in my opinion, every webshop benefits from having them.
Pro tip: Use HubSpot’s Content Hub to create, manage, and optimize content that resonates with your audience. Streamline your content strategy, increase engagement, and track performance—all from one single platform.
Step 5: Set up payment and shipping.
It’s time to set up payments and choose and integrate a payment processor, like Stripe or PayPal, into your online store.
You’ll need to link your payment processor to your bank account to receive funds. Once set up, customers can check out smoothly, and you can manage transactions securely.
Then, set up your shipping options with clear terms. Here’s what Mia did:
Shipping Terms:
- Standard shipping is $5, or get free shipping on orders over $70. Expedited shipping is available for $15.
- Orders typically arrive within 5-7 business days. Expedited shipping usually takes 2-3 business days.
- We currently ship within the U.S. and Canada. International shipping is not available at this time.
- You’ll receive a tracking number via email once your order ships, so you can monitor its progress.
Step 6: Optimize your site.
You need to optimize your content, improve on-page elements, and add internal links. Use SEO tools to find relevant keywords. Semrush and Ahrefs are the best, but you can also try a cheaper (and decent) alternative like Serpstat. Create content around these terms to improve your chances of appearing in search results.
That is all called On-Page SEO: Here is your ultimate guide to On-Page SEO in 2024.
Also, install Google Analytics to your website to track your website traffic, conversions, and user behavior. This helps you see how visitors interact with your site and where your traffic comes from, so you can properly refine your SEO strategy and web design to catch more sales.
Pro tip: Plan your content strategy and integrate the right keywords with HubSpot’s SEO management tools. It will help you stay updated and see which pages need updates for the biggest impact.
Step 7: Launch and promote.
Launching your website makes it visible to everyone. If it’s not live, no one can find it. After you click that “Publish” button, everything starts.
Actually, not yet. It’s time to promote it. Good promotion brings people to your site. More visitors can mean more sales.
Once we launch Mia’s site, we will promote it on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok to tell her existing followers about it.
She is also planning to pay for ads to show up in Google search results (this will be some “quicker” push forward, but I’m aiming for more organic traffic and focusing on SEO in the long run).
We’ll definitely run paid ads on Facebook and Instagram, as well as will team up with influencers, since it really helps in this niche. I’ll also offer a special discount shared on social media and with a pop-up on the site.
Something like this:
Step 8: Monitor and improve.
After launching your website, keep improving it with these simple strategies:
- Add ecommerce plugins: Improve your site with plugins. For example, Shopify has apps for shipping services to help estimate costs and print labels.
- Update content regularly: Keep your site fresh with new blog posts, videos, and product listings.
- Track site performance: Use tools to monitor how customers use your site. Then, use this data to improve your marketing, product offerings, and SEO.
To track site performance, I’ll mainly use Google Analytics because I know it inside and out. I’ll also go with HubSpot Marketing Analytics to keep an eye on marketing performance, website stats, and visitor behavior. It’s great for detailed reports, traffic tracking, and making smart decisions based on what you see.
6 Tips for Selling Your Product Online
Now that you have walked through the process of building a website to sell stuff, it’s time to reveal some juicy tips on how to get the best out of it.
1. Provide a smooth experience for mobile shoppers.
Mobile shopping has become the norm. By 2025, mobile retail sales are expected to more than double and make up 44% of US retail ecommerce sales.
You need to adapt to this. If you don’t have an app or, even worse, if your store isn’t mobile-friendly, you’ll miss out on many opportunities. Especially those who came from Facebook and Instagram ads using their phones.
“Offer a quick checkout option for mobile users. Simplify the process so they can fill their cart and pay with a single click. If you have an app, use push notifications to engage customers and remind them of special offers or abandoned carts,” says Kasey Luck, founder of Luck & Co Agency.
2. You need some UGC.
41% of US consumers spend more time watching user-generated videos online than they do watching TV or movies.
What does this mean for you?
Stop posting only generic pictures and professionally made videos on your site and social media. People want to see real people. Mix things up and show the human side of your brand. That’s what you’ll see in all the promotional videos of Charmaloo.
According to Kasey Luck, there are three good ways you can take advantage of this:
- Create content that looks like user-generated content.
- Collaborate with influencers to feature your brand in their content.
- Motivate your existing customers to post about your brand by offering incentives and sharing their content.
A great example is the Little Bellies site. Its homepage features real user photos and videos, making it feel genuine. When parents see other parents using the products, it somehow shows that they’re high-quality and worth buying.
3. Follow the trends like voice ordering.
Voice commerce with assistants like Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant is on the rise. In mid-2022, 27% of U.S. consumers used voice assistants for online payments. If you want to stay ahead of trends and catch these customers, add voice ordering to your website.
If you think people aren‘t familiar with this yet, you’re mistaken. In the ecommerce Evolution episode from 2020, Anmol Oberoi, Founder and CEO of Emitrr, discussed the rise of voice commerce. And Brett Curry, the podcast host, provided the best example of how customers can use voice shopping.
In the example, Oberoi discusses Alexa. Oberoi can be in the kitchen making breakfast and ask Alexa to order protein powder.
“So I don‘t have to break stride at all in making my breakfast and protein powder is on the way. I’ve also used it, and I don‘t know how common this is, I think it’s less common, but I‘ve also been in the kitchen and hanging out using the Alexa show or Echo show, and I’ll say, ‘Alexa, I want to buy a pH water tester,’” Oberoi continues.
And hey, we’re talking about 2020.
If it was relevant four years ago, just imagine how big it is now. People want convenience, and voice commerce can offer that.
4. Offer flexible payments to draw more shoppers.
Customers love flexible payment options.
The best proof is Klarna’s US user base which has surged to 8 million. It lets users pay now, later, or over time without interest. That’s why offering flexible payments like Klarna and PayPal is a great approach for drawing and keeping shoppers.
I also watched an interesting Discover Global Network webinar with John Jakobe, ex Market Intelligence Manager at the Strawhecker Group who talked about the growing trend of Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) services.
He noted that traders are jumping on BNPL options because they offer big benefits. For example, Sezzle users see higher approval rates, bigger orders, fewer returns, and easy setup.
5. Regularly update your site.
Google favors sites that are regularly updated with fresh content. “Favor” in this context means driving more organic traffic to your site.
So make sure you regularly update it and don’t let it become outdated. Frequent updates mean more pages for search engines to index, increasing the chances of appearing in search results.
To keep your ecommerce site looking lively and relevant, try these tips:
- Keep your inventory updated with new items or refresh existing ones with updated descriptions and images.
- Regularly update product pages with new reviews and feedback from customers.
- Update your site with the latest sales, discounts, and special offers.
- Refresh your site for seasonal trends or holidays to stay current and engaging.
“Chances are, your competitors have updated their websites in the past decade. You don’t want to fall behind your competition. Instead, keep your website up to date to remain competitive. Improving your website can help generate more visitors, and consumers will explore your content more. As people visit and explore your site, you can gather more analytics about your customers. This data can help you make informed marketing decisions,” says Hannah Francis for Bipper Media SEO Secrets podcast.
6. Keep checkout easy so you don’t lose orders.
According to the Baymard Institute, the global average cart abandonment rate is 70.19%, despite significant investments in various ecommerce strategies.
After researching checkout usability for over 14 years, the Institute’s findings show that poor checkout design is a major reason for cart abandonment, either due to user frustration or confusion.
This research includes benchmarking 250 major ecommerce sites against 110 guidelines, revealing that most sites perform at a “mediocre” level.
Improving checkout usability could potentially boost conversion rates by 35%.
That’s why you need to simplify your checkout process as much as possible. Minimize the number of steps and required fields.
Go for a streamlined, user-friendly experience that allows customers to complete their purchases quickly and easily. You’ll reduce friction and increase the likelihood of conversion that way.
Get Ready to Sell with a Standout Website
What I learned through this process is that a product sales page is not much different than making any other kind of website.
You need to provide quality and relevant content and keep the site updated regularly. Focus on easy navigation and, most importantly, a simple checkout process. You don’t want customers to abandon their cart because they’re confused by a messy layout or complicated steps.
Also, make sure to offer multiple payment options so customers don’t bail because there’s no payment option they prefer.
Keep up with trends. If more competitors are using voice commerce and stats show it works, go for it.
Lastly, put yourself in your users’ shoes. That’s the only way to create a successful website that will actually sell these products.
WORDPRESS
WP Engine sues WordPress co-creator Mullenweg and Automattic, alleging abuse of power
Web hosting provider WP Engine has filed a lawsuit against Automattic, and WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg, accusing them of extortion and abuse of power. The lawsuit comes after nearly two weeks of tussling between Mullenweg, who is also CEO of Automattic, and WP Engine over trademark infringement and contributions to the open-source WordPress project.
WP Engine accused Automattic and Mullenweg of not keeping their promises to run WordPress open-source projects without any constraints and giving developers the freedom to build, run, modify and redistribute the software.
“Matt Mullenweg’s conduct over the last ten days has exposed significant conflicts of interest and governance issues that, if left unchecked, threaten to destroy that trust. WP Engine has no choice but to pursue these claims to protect its people, agency partners, customers, and the broader WordPress community,” the company said.
The case document, filed in a court in California, also accused Mullenweg of having a “long history of
obfuscating the true facts” about his control of WordPress Foundation and WordPress.org
The story so far
Mullenweg had criticized WP Engine for infringing WordPress and WooCommerce trademarks. He called them the “Cancer of WordPress” and also called out WP Engine’s private equity partner, Silver Lake, for not caring about the open-source community.
Later, WP Engine sent a cease-and-desist letter, asking Mullenweg and Automattic to withdraw these comments. Automattic then sent its own cease-and-desist, accusing WP Engine of infringing WordPress and WooCommerce trademarks.
Notably, Mullenweg banned WP Engine on September 25 from accessing WordPress.org resources, including plug-ins and themes, and preventing WP Engine customers from updating them. Two days later, Mullenweg provided a temporary reprieve and unblocked WP Engine until October 1.
On Wednesday, Automattic published a proposed seven-year term sheet that it had sent to WP Engine on September 20, asking the hosting company to pay 8% of its gross revenues per month as a royalty fee for using the WordPress and WooCommerce trademarks.
Alternatively, WP Engine was given the option to commit 8% by deploying employees to contribute to WordPress’s core features and functionalities, or a combination of both people hours and money.
WP Engine didn’t accept these terms, which included a probation on forking plugins and extensions from Automattic and WooCommerce.
You can contact this reporter at [email protected] or on Signal: @ivan.42
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Automattic demanded web host pay $32M annually for using WordPress trademark
“WPE’s nominative uses of those marks to refer to the open-source software platform and plugin used for its clients’ websites are fair uses under settled trademark law, and they are consistent with WordPress’ own guidelines and the practices of nearly all businesses in this space,” the lawsuit said.
Mullenweg told Ars that “we had numerous meetings with WPE over the past 20 months, including a previous term sheet that was delivered in July. The term sheet was meant to be simple, and if they had agreed to negotiate it we could have, but they refused to even take a call with me, so we called their bluff.” Automattic also published a timeline of meetings and calls between the two companies going back to 2023.
Mullenweg also said, “Automattic had the commercial rights to the WordPress trademark and could sub-license, hence why the payment should go to Automattic for commercial use of the trademark. Also the term sheet covered the WooCommerce trademark, which they also abuse, and is 100 percent owned by Automattic.”
Automattic alleged “widespread unlicensed use”
Exhibit A in the lawsuit includes a letter to WP Engine CEO Heather Brunner from a trademark lawyer representing Automattic and a subsidiary, WooCommerce, which makes a plugin for WordPress.
“As you know, our Client owns all intellectual property rights globally in and to the world-famous WOOCOMMERCE and WOO trademarks; and the exclusive commercial rights from the WordPress Foundation to use, enforce, and sublicense the world-famous WORDPRESS trademark, among others, and all other associated intellectual property rights,” the letter said.
The letter alleged that “your blatant and widespread unlicensed use of our Client’s trademarks has infringed our Client’s rights and confused consumers into believing, falsely, that WP Engine is authorized, endorsed, or sponsored by, or otherwise affiliated or associated with, our Client.” It also alleged that “WP Engine’s entire business model is predicated on using our Client’s trademarks… to mislead consumers into believing there is an association between WP Engine and Automattic.”
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5 Most Profitable Online Businesses You Can Start Today for Free!
In today’s digitalized world, starting a business doesn’t always mean you have to have a good chunk of money and years of experience in the field. Yeah, it’s good if you have them, but even without them, you can start a business and make money. Not just a few hundred dollars; some businesses can even make you a millionaire if you invest your time and available resources into them.
You need to have the right approach and the proper set of skills to make that happen. And you can learn such skills for free on the internet. So, all you need is the willingness to put in the work and effort it needs.
In this post, you’ll see 5 most profitable online business ideas that you can start today for free. You don’t need anyone to help you with these businesses when you’re starting out; you can do it all alone, and you can manage these businesses from the comfort of your home.
Even if you don’t know a single thing about these businesses, you can learn them for free on YouTube, Udemy, and the Interent. There’s more than enough free resources out there about these topics to take you from 0-10 real quick.
So, sit down and grab your popcorns, because this article might be the only thing you need to launch your first online business, today itself!
Please note: This post contains affiliate links to products I use, trust, and recommend. If you choose to purchase a helpful product using these links, I may receive a small commission for referring you – at no extra cost to you. These funds help me keep this blog up and running.
1. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is one of the most profitable and easy-to-start businesses out there. In affiliate marketing, you need to promote someone else’s product in order to make money. The person who promotes the product in exchange for some commission is called an affiliate.
When you sign up to be an affiliate of any program, you’ll get a unique link to promote the products called an affiliate link. You need to use your affiliate link to send customers to the seller’s page. That link tracks the amount of sales you generate to determine the money you make.
You don’t need to create, package, or ship the products yourself. The seller who is selling the product will do these all. All you need to do is, refer customers to the seller. And when the customer referred by you through your affiliate link makes a purchase, you get a small percentage of the sale amount as a reward. That’s it. That’s what affiliate marketing is!
Through affiliate marketing, you can promote both physical and digital products.
You don’t always have to sell products to earn affiliate commission. Sometimes, you get commission to make people download something. That can be an app, software, or browser extension. Sometimes, you get commissions to make people sign up for particular websites or services. Sometimes, you get commission to generate leads for businesses and agencies, etc. All these things need to be done through your affiliate link in order for you to make a commission.
How to Get Started?
1. Choose your Niche
You need to choose a niche to start affiliate marketing. You can’t promote everything from workout gear to making money online courses yourself! So, choosing a niche is very important to succeed in affiliate marketing. Some popular niches for affiliate marketing are: health & fitness, finance, home & kitchen, technology, relationships, etc.
2. Find the Product
After choosing a niche, you need to find a product to promote. If you decide to get into the health and fitness niche, then you can promote workout plans, weight loss supplements, keto meal plans, hair loss products, and so much more. So, decide what you want to promote and find a good product for it.
3. Build a Platform
Now, you’ve decided your niche, and your product is ready to promote, so all you need is a platform to promote it. You can promote affiliate products either through a blog or through social media. You can write articles on your blog or grow your social media accounts to share your affiliate links.
Here are some popular affiliate marketing platforms you can join.
The affiliate marketing industry is worth nearly $17 billion. So, you can start your affiliate marketing journey today to get a small chunk of that seventeen billion dollars for yourself!
2. Selling Digital Products
Selling digital products is another great way to make a hefty amount of money online. Digital products are a great way to share your knowledge and creativity with the world while making some money.
Digital products are products that are created and sold online. They don’t exist in the real world, except for printables. Printables are graphics that are created digitally but needs to be printed out in the real world to be used.
From ebooks to online courses and printables to music, there’s a wide variety of products that you can create and sell.
Here are some digital products that you can create and sell easily.
If you’re wondering which digital product sells the best and which one you should sell, consider this analysis done among 96,000 creators by influencers.club. According to the analysis, online courses were the most sold digital products, with 35.7% of the entire digital products sold, followed by ebooks (7.3%) and cookbooks (3.8%).
Here are a few more:
Check out 16 Best Digital Products to Sell in 2024
How to Get Started?
1. Choose Your Niche
The first step to building a profitable digital product business is to choose a niche that you’re interested in and have a demand in the market. You can select a niche based on your expertise, passion or to profit from an untapped market opportunity. Make sure that there are enough people willing to pay for your products so that you can make a good amount of money selling them.
2. Create Your Product
After choosing a niche to get into, you need to create a solid product to sell. In order to get constant sales, your product needs to be highly valuable. Either it needs to solve your customer’s problem or it needs to add significant value to their life. Make sure that your product is up-to-date, functional, and user-friendly.
3. Set up a Platform to Sell
Now that you have decided your niche and your product is ready to sell, all you need is a platform to host and sell your products. You can either sell digital products through your own website or through platforms like Etsy, Gumroad, Teachable, etc.
You can sell ebooks, printables, planners, digital arts, wallpapers, templates, etc. through Etsy and Gumroad. And to sell online courses, you can use platforms like Teachable or Udemy.
You can use graphic design tools like Canva and Adobe Illustrator to create printables, stickers, templates, wallpapers, etc. And you can write your ebook on Google Docs or Notepad and save it as a pdf to sell it.
4. Price Your Products
After your product is ready and you’ve decided a platform to sell, you need to set a price to sell your products.
Pricing is a really crucial part. You can’t price it too high or too low. If you price it too high, very few people are likely to buy it, and if you price it too low, you won’t make enough profit.
So, while pricing your product, evaluate the product yourself and do your market research to analyze your competitors pricing to determine your own product’s pricing.
You can promote your digital products by creating video/image content, writing blog posts, email marketing, paid ads, SEO, and through social media marketing.
Digital products can be a great way to make money online passively without needing much work and attention. So, this might be something you would love to get into! The best part is, there is no limit on how much money you can make. Ana from TheSheApproach has made over $55,000 selling ebooks alone through her small blog.
3. Print on Demand
Print on Demand, or POD, is gaining immense popularity in recent times due to its business model. Print on demand business has less to no startup cost, which makes it easier for anyone to get into it.
In Print on Demand business, you create designs to print on mugs, t-shirts, hoodies, caps, pants, etc. After your design is ready, you find a print-on-demand supplier to print and sell your products.
Unlike other type of businesses, in POD, the products are not produced first and listed for sale later. Instead, the products are promoted first and only produced or printed when a customer places an order.
In POD, your job is to create designs and market your products. Your POD supplier will do everything else, from printing, packaging, and delivering the product. They will even handle the returns if they have to.
How to Get Started?
1. Choose a Niche
First of all, choose a niche you want to start your business in. Choose a niche that has huge demand in the market and something you’re interested in. For example, if you’re interested in sports, you can create designs related to sports, print them, and sell them.
2. Create Your Designs
After you’ve chosen your niche, you need to create designs to print on products. Good designs attract more eyeballs and generate more sales compared to plain, low-quality designs. So, put your maximum effort into creating good designs. Your designs might be the only differentiator between success and failure of your POD business.
3. Choose a Print on Demand Supplier
After your design is ready, you need to find a good and trustworthy POD supplier to print and supply your products. Choose a supplier that uses high-quality materials to create products, has less fees, low shipping time, good customer support, and large area coverage. These things are crucial for your business’s success.
Here are some popular print-on-demand suppliers:
4. Set up Your Store
Now that your product is ready to sell, you need to find a platform to sell it. You can sell your POD products on Etsy, WooCommerce, or eBay, or setup a Shopify store to sell them. Your store must be clean and colorful to convert more visitors into customers.
5. Price Your Products
After your store is setup, you need to price your product. Make sure to check your competitors prices before pricing your own products. You can’t sell your products for significantly more than what your competitor is selling for. If you do so, you won’t get as many sales as you would have with a lower price point.
You can market your Print on Demand products mainly through social media and paid ads. You can start and grow a social media account to promote your POD products for free.
The print-on-demand market is worth more than $7.24B in 2024 and is projected to reach $43.4B by 2030 with a growth rate of staggering 26.8%. So, this might be the chance to dip your toes into the world of ecommerce with print on demand.
4. Dropshipping
Dropshipping is one of the hottest and most popular online business right now. It has made thousands of teenagers and 20-year-olds millionaires, and its craze is not going down anytime soon.
Dropshipping is a business model where you find a product, advertise it, and generate sales, but someone else produces, packages, and ships them for you.
You buy products for less price from retailers or even manufacturers and sell them for a higher price through your own store. For example, if I find a cool watch on Alibaba.com that I can buy for $7 a piece, then I will create my own store to advertise that product and sell it for $20, $30, or even more. That is how you make money with dropshipping.
In dropshipping, you don’t have to worry about producing product, packaging, shipping, or keeping a product inventory because whenever an order comes in, you forward that order and customer’s details to your supplier, and then your supplier will produce, package, and deliver the product to your customer. There are several tools and softwares to automate this entire process. Here you’re basically a middleman reselling the products.
How to Get Started?
1. Find a Product
To start a dropshipping business, first you need to find a product that solves a specific problem of your customers. Sometimes the product can be a fashionable or decorative item like a watch. The product has to have a high potential to sell. In the world of dropshipping, a product that solves a problem and has a high potential to sell is called a winning product.
2. Find a Supplier
After finding a good product to sell, you need to find a supplier who can supply you the same product for a cheaper price. A supplier can be the making or breaking point of your business because your job is to promote the product and bring customers. Everything except that is done by your supplier, so if you find a good supplier, you won’t have or have very few problems in your business, and vice versa.
So, before choosing your supplier, check their product quality, delivery time, packaging style, and customer service. A good supplier must have high-quality products, low delivery time, good packaging quality, and good customer support.
AliExpress is the go-to platform to find suppliers and products at a cheaper price, for dropshipping.
3. Build Your Store
After you’ve found a good product and a reliable supplier, you need to build a store to market your products. You can create your store on platforms like WooCommerce, Shopify, GetResponse, and Wix or sell them directly on Amazon or eBay. The design of your store must be clean, simple, and colorful to get more sales.
4. Market Your Store
After your store is setup and ready to sell, you need to advertise it, to bring customers to it. To advertise your store, you can use social media, paid ads, content marketing, SEO, and more.
Most dropshippers advertise their store through either Facebook or TikTok ads and through content marketing by creating viral pieces of content for TikTok, Instagram reels, and YouTube shorts.
That’s it! That’s how you can start your own dropshipping business and profit from the $250B dropshipping industry.
5. Dropservicing
Now you know what dropshipping is, but have you ever heard about dropservicing? Huh? Dropshipping deals with selling physical products, but dropservicing is all about selling services.
Dropservicing, also known as service arbitrage, is a business model where you sell services to clients. But instead of doing the work yourself, you outsource the work to a third-party service provider, either a freelancer or an agency. In dropservicing, you’re basically a middleman, just like in dropshipping, who acts as a service seller in front of clients to make money without doing any work yourself.
Whatever remains after paying your service provider from the amount your client paid is your profit. For example, if you find a client who is ready to pay you $1000 to edit a video for him. Then you find a freelancer or a video editing agency who can edit the same video for $400, then you can keep the remaining $600 with yourself. The more you charge your client and the less you pay your service provider, the more money you make. Didn’t understand? Read it again, you’ll get it!
How to Get Started?
1. Choose a Niche
To start a dropservicing business, you must be good at some kind of skill or a particular niche. That can be web designing, video editing, graphic designing, content writing, etc. Even though you’re not the one doing the work, you need to have proper knowledge and skill in the field to convince your client that you’re capable enough and a perfect fit for the work.
2. Find Your Service Provider
After you’ve decided your niche, you need a service provider to do the required tasks for you. While choosing a service provider, you need to make sure that they are good at what they do; otherwise, you’ll end up with a low-quality output that may not satisfy your clients and may not fulfill their requirements. You can find service providers on platforms like Fiverr, Upwork, Freelancer, etc., or on social media platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn.
3. Setup a Platform
After you’ve decided your niche and found the service providers, you need to market your services in order to get clients. To do so, either you can create your own website, create a profile on freelancing platforms, or promote your services through social media.
While setting up a platform, you need to add your portfolio, past works, pricing, client testimonials, and contact information. Don’t worry if you don’t have any of these! You can add your service provider’s portfolio and client testimonials as yours while setting up your platform.
4. Set Your Prices
Before you launch your dropservicing business, you need to set a price for your services. While setting up pricing your services, find out how much your service provider is charging for the service you’re going to sell, and set your prices accordingly. For example, if your service provider charges $400 to edit a video, you can set your video editing price at $600, $700, or more.
You can promote your dropservicing business through content marketing, SEO, social media marketing, cold outreach, paid advertising, and freelance platforms.
Cold outreach is a process where you reach out to or contact someone via email who doesn’t have any connection with your business. The email is meant to aware them about your product or service and provide them with an offer.
Best Platforms to Start Your Business
If you’re thinking of starting a blog to get into affiliate marketing, then I would highly suggest you create your blog on either Wix or WordPress. These two are the best blog builders out there.
And if you’d like to create your own website to promote your digital products, dropshipping/dropservicing business, and print-on-demand products, then I would suggest you use GetResponse’s simple drag-and-drop website builder. It’s very easy to use and completely free to create and manage a website for lifetime. Getresponse also has its own email marketing tool, so, if you want, you can even start email marketing with it for completely free!
Tips to succeed:
1. Stay Consistent: You won’t see results overnight, so you need to be consistent to get results and make money.
2. Learn, Learn, Learn: Whatever business you get into, learn about it as much as you can. Learning will help you gather more knowledge about the topic, which ultimately helps you to get better results and earn more.
3. Be Patient: Many people give up too early because they are really, really impatient. Remember, great things take time, and if it were so easy and fast, then everyone would have done it.
4. Provide Value: If you want to make money, then you need to provide something that is equally valuable to your customers. So, make sure your main motive is to provide value along with making money.
So, these were the 5 most profitable online business ideas that you can start today for free. Let me quickly recap them for you. 1. Affiliate marketing 2. Selling digital products 3. Print on Demand (POD) 4. Dropshipping 5. Dropservicing. Make sure to give them a try if you’re thinking of starting an online business. And tell me in the comments, which one of these businesses would you start if you have to?