Advice wanted

[paulho]

Thinking of setting up my own web based business. I have a small collection of collectable items that sell in the US for alot more money than I have paid for them in this country (for instance have bought an item on ebay for ten pounds that sells on some American sites for over 100 dollars). Have been offered free web hosting does this usually work or do i need to invest in professional services.

Could anyone give me any advice,in my mind I could make a lot of money, but am a bit frightened of parting with money as I have not a lot to spare. Want to ask loads of questions, but do not know what to ask.

I am using partners log in (with his permission) just for a bit of advice from people that he has had good advice from in the past.

Thanks

 

[Rob Holmes]

Hi Paulho,

Congratulations - if you've found a product that you can supply at a profit for relatively low startup costs then thats great!

I'll work through your questions to the best of my ability..

Can you get free web hosting? Sure, and some of it is good BUT theres usually a cost somewhere - if you decide to try and go for free hosting make sure they don't get you in the small print and backup your site after every change! You probably even have some webspace allocated to you by your ISP - be aware that it's not usually very configurable and you maybe penalised by the search engines - does that still mean it's free? Hmm - maybe the cost is in there somewhere... You'll find all sorts of hosting recommendations on this and other forums.

Advice on making the money? Well you've already said you purchased an item for £10 and can sell it for £100. Thats a good markup but you've got to prove it's sustainable. Have you actually sold it/any yet? If theres a big demand then you shouldn't have a problem.

So your startup is £10 plus an ebay listing fee to make around £90. Do that twice a day and you're in business!

It sounds the sort of thing you can build up over time while in employment elsewhere ? Thats a pretty safe way of doing things.

Hope this helps, I'm sure others will have more to add!

Rob