Can you make money selling on the internet?

[Dermot]

I know the answer to this question is very broad, but ive been looking through a lot of your websites that are selling various products, from baby clothing through to books and business solutions.

Some of these products aren't really unique so I just wonder if you guys are making a living off any of your websites or do most of you just use them to supplement your income?

Also, are your monthly outgoings much?

[clairemackaness]

At the moment I do it to suppliment my income, but I hope that wont be the case for much longer!

[Dermot]

Hi Claire,

If you dont mind me asking.....

How many unique visitors do you get each day and whats your hits:sales ratio???


Anybody else willing to divulge?

[clairemackaness]

Laughable! I get between 50 - 100 UV's a day and sell about 3 products a month LOL

[bwglaw]

Declare whether you are from the Tax Office first!;)

You should also perhaps elaborate why it interests you, especially since you are new here and we know nothing or little of your business.

[Top Hat]

We sell stuff only on the interweb, we make a v good living, employ 5 people full time.

We started as a hoby, so it is possible

unique visitors : Lots and Lots

[Dermot]

Nope im not the taxman....

Im just interested cause myself and a few friends are thinking of selling T-Shirts online, producing designs ourselves etc.

But theres loads of these kinda sites out there, we wonder if theres any point? will it even cover our outgoings?

Plus once we have one ecommerce website set-up, it wouldnt be hard to change it over and sell different products. I know it all depends on the uniqueness and how the website is marketed, but theres alot of ugly websites out there (not yours folks, of course :D ), can they all be making enough money to be worth all the hassle?

[clairemackaness]

Dermot, it's always worth a try. My site cost me £100 to get running and I've spent about the same on products. At the end of the day, you have to speculate to accumulate and if you dont try you wont know.

As long as your product has a unique caption or phrase and is affordable and good quality, market it well and you should start to see results slowly but shurely.

Good luck

[Rob Holmes]

Hi Dermot - the answer is yes some people do make money on the internet and some do not.

The REAL question is what is the difference between people that make money on the web and those that do not.

It certainly isn't a case of build the site and the visitors will arrive. In fact there are a number of factors in building a successful money generating website.

Have a search of the forums, there are plenty of how-to's and suggestions made in response to specific problems when going from concept to creation of a business and website and then of course theres the on going daily tweaks....

Rob

[Mortime Business Software]

Laughable! I get between 50 - 100 UV's a day and sell about 3 products a month LOL

That's not laughable to me Claire. In fact I think it's quite impressive.

In the future, if you can increase your visitors, then wouldn't you increase your sales proportionally? Also, if you sell some other products too, then you should be able to create a nice little online biz. :)

And I think it's great to hear others like top hat are doing well in competetive industries.

If every potential business person was to sit around trying to think of something new to produce, then the vast majority of them would never start.

Dave

[clairemackaness]

Thanks for the compliment Dave, but it's hardly salary earning! I'd need to increase this by hundreds to make any real money at it.

[Mortime Business Software]

Thanks for the compliment Dave, but it's hardly salary earning! I'd need to increase this by hundreds to make any real money at it.

Couldn't you hit the art colleges and search for a few different genres amongst the students? You could take commissions on art you sell for them.

If you're getting an average of 2250 hits a month at your site, many of them might be looking for something different than what you're supplying. I know when I was at art college there were plenty of students who would have jumped at a chance like this. You don't have to buy the paintings from them. They will supply them on consignment, and take their cut if and when the painting is sold.

Dave

[DuaneJackson]

Amazon seem to do OK selling stuff online.

I sell a business solution online that I think is pretty unique although others maye argue it's not.

It makes a lot more per day than a person would working in McDonalds but not a huge amount. And it all gets re-invested in marketting.

[TheFreePlayBayinc.]

You need to optimize your site to rank on page one for certain keywords in the search engines. It's a long process but if you get it right, you could make thousands selling anything. Alternatively, you could use Pay per click for certain keywords, but that costs a fortune! It's a quick an easy solution though if you've got the money. I think the secret is to get thousands of quality links from other websites linking to your site and a lot of content on your site. If you get that high ranking, then use advertising like Google adsense or Chikita e-mini malls, you can make quite a good living from advertising on your site alone. Blogging is also good. Currently I have a blog and I'm on page one on google and other search engines for many keywords and naturally I get a lot of hits. A week doesn't go by without at least one new member in my biz due to this. Give it a few years and it all adds up naturally.

[clairemackaness]

I could do Dave, but then I'm making money out of other peoples talent. I really want to prove myself to myself and make my own name stand out from the rest.

[Rob Holmes]

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