Ros' Ramblings

When I wrote the "The Super Affiliate Handbook: How I Made
($)436,797 Last Year Selling Other People's Stuff Online",
I didn't anticipate the wonderful spin-off effects it would
have.

Tim Knox's story is one such case in point. He recently sent
me a letter about how he's used affiliate marketing to boost
his business income significantly. I've included his letter
below.

Before you read it however, let me tell you a little bit about
Tim's method of doing business.

He specialises in dropshipping, which is a way of doing
business that works beautifully online.

I know because one of my own sites uses dropshipping to
fulfill product orders.

More specifically, I have an arrangement with Watchcraft, a
New York City based company that designs and manufactures
beautiful time pieces.

Whenever an order for a watch comes in through my
http://windingway.com site, I forward the order to
Watchcraft, and they ship the product out to my customer.

Easy as pie!

A friend of mine has a dropshipping agreement with a hip
hop clothing company.

I know others who specialize in giftware, and have several
different companies dropshipping for them.

Dropshipping is especially handy for auction sellers who
don't have their own products, and don't want to lay out a
pile of cash to buy products up front.

Each agreement varies in its terms. In some cases, a company
will want payment for goods up front, whereas in most cases
you pay only after the customer has paid you for the product.

But, I'll let Tim tell you how dropshipping works. With a
regular column at Entrepeneur.com, he's the expert.  I've
included his article 'Cut Business Start-Up Costs By Using
Dropshipping' which is in Q&A format.

Until next time, Read, Learn and consider dropshipping!
Rosalind

Rosalind Gardner is the Best-Selling Author of the "The
Super Affiliate Handbook:  How I Made $436,797 in ONE Year
Selling Other People's Stuff Online"

==> SuperAffiliateHandbook.com

Don't Miss...

Affiliate Masters Cruise

Letter From Tim

Hi Rosalind,
 
It's been awhile since we spoke on the phone and I wanted to
give you an update on how much my business has grown in a
very short time, due in no small part to the advice I
received from you about starting my own affiliate program.

If you recall, we initially spoke in October, 2003. I had
just purchased your Super Affiliate Handbook and had a
thousand questions about affiliate programs.  I invested in
an hour of telephone consultation with you and it turned out
to be the best investment I could have made in my business
because that call sparked my desire to build my own
affiliate program.

To refresh your memory, I already had a very successful web
site called DropshipWholesale.net which sells my own
© Copyrighted line of informational products focusing on
selling dropship and wholesale merchandise online.  My
customers consisted of people looking for dropship
information and products to sell on eBay and those looking
to start their own online sales business.

The primary reason for my call to you was to get your advice
on how to better market DropshipWholesale.net and the
related line of products. Your advice on marketing was
excellent, but it was your suggestion that I start my own
affiliate program that really spared the fire.

I launched the DropshipWholesale.net Affiliate program a few
weeks later and to say the least, the results have been
nothing short of phenomenal. I now have over 500 affiliates
around the world who market my products from websites that I
provide to them.  The affiliates are paid 50% commission on
everything sold.  I know 50% is a high commission to pay
affiliates, but as you pointed out it is my affiliates who
are helping me build the business, so the thousands of
dollars I pay out each week to affiliates truly is money
well spent.

DropshipWholesale.net is now one of the most heavily
trafficked websites on the Internet, with an Alexa.com
ranking of 24,400.   My affiliate program is spreading like
wildfire and my products, including the Ultimate eBay &
Dropship Power Pak and Amazing Little Website Affiliate
Program are some of the highest quality offerings on the Web
with less than a 2% return rate.

I am on track to do over $500,000 in revenue this year with
over $200,000 paid out to well-deserving affiliates.

My affiliates and I thank you for you contribution to our
success.

Sincerely,

Tim Knox, Founder
DropshipWholesale.net
http://www676.dropshipwholesale.net 

Article: Cut Business Start-Up Costs By Using Dropshipping

Q: I'm starting an online specialty shop that sells gifts
and home accessories. I want to be able to have items
dropshipped to customers through my site. I already have a
Web site and a domain reserved, but I don't have a lot of
money to get this going. Can you offer any insight?

A: Setting up relationships with companies who will ship
merchandise directly to your customers for you--
dropshippers, as they're called --is an excellent way to
start your e-business and, if done properly, doesn't have to
be a costly endeavor. There are literally hundreds of
companies out there that will dropship products for you,
everything from gifts and housewares to power tools and
furniture.

In a nutshell, here's how dropshipping works. You set up an
account with a dropshipper (or multiple dropshippers who
offer different kinds of products) who provides merchandise
that you can sell on your Web site. The dropshipper
typically supplies you with images and product descriptions
that you can use to build your online store or feature on
static HTML Web pages.

You can locate dropshippers with our new digital directory
The 2003 Ultimate Dropship & Wholesale Company Directory.
When a customer places an order for the product on your
site, he or she pays you for the product. You, in turn,
place the order with the dropshipper and pay them for the
product. The dropshipper then ships the item directly to
your customer under your company name. To your customer's
knowledge, the product was shipped by you.

Dropshipping offers many advantages to the shoestring online
start-up. You don't have to pay for an item until it sells,
and your customer pays you, so your personal cash outlay for
the product is zero. You never have to handle or warehouse
the merchandise, as order fulfillment is handled by the
dropshipper. You can also offer a wide variety of items from
multiple dropshippers, and your end customer is none the
wiser.

Dropshipping does have its downsides. Since you do not
actually stock the products featured on your site, you have
no control over inventory management, product availability,
order fulfillment, shipping processes and so on. Still, if
you do your homework and establish a good relationship with
a reputable dropshipper, the problems you experience should
be few.

Your goal should be to find a dropshipper that will ship
items one at a time instead of requiring that you purchase a
fixed minimum number of items each time (single-unit
purchases vs. minimum-order purchases). With this
arrangement, you don't have to invest your limited cash
reserves in inventory that might not sell (and that sits in
your garage for months).

Thanks to the stiff competition the Web has created, many
dropshippers will now do business with you without requiring
that you pay a setup fee or have a tax ID number. You simply
set up a reseller account (you're the reseller) and start
marketing the products on your site. Account registration
can often be done online at the dropshipper's Web site. With
this process, you can literally be selling products within
minutes of setting up your reseller account.

Be warned, however, that some dropshippers are not as
reliable as others. Also, be aware that some companies who
claim to be dropshippers are really middlemen who have
positioned themselves between the online merchant (that's
you) and the real wholesale merchandise distributor. These
middlemen will eat into your profits and usually don't offer
much in the way of customer support and service. They can
actually hurt your business more than help it, so make it a
point to do business only with--and directly
with--established, reputable dropship companies.

Spend the time to research the dropshippers doing business
in your particular product category, and try to get feedback
from their current customers. Remember that your customer
doesn't know (or care) that the product they are purchasing
from you really comes from a dropshipper. If there is a
problem, your customer will come back to you for resolution,
not the dropshipper, so make sure that the dropshipper you
use has a policy for resolving problems quickly.

Setting up an online store that offers merchandise from
dropshippers doesn't have to be expensive or time-consuming.
However, this brings up the age-old question: If I build it,
will they come? The age-old answer is: Only if you let them
know you are there, but that's another column.

Article by Tim Knox, Founder DropshipWholesale.net
http://www676.dropshipwholesale.net 

FREE eBook - Special Report: eBay Dropship Profits

Tim has kindly offered NPC subscribers a free copy of his "Special
Report: eBay Dropship Profits".

RIGHT Click Here to download and save it NOW.