Make More from First Online Business
A business associate and I were speaking when he asked about my first online business, House Of Rave.com.I told him I started it in high school and it had consistently made an average of $800 or more per month for the last 5 years, I don't keep any inventory and all the shipping is done in California.
He then asked me, "Can you make more?" The answer was a simple yes. I spend less than 20 minutes a day on it, and if I spent a little time upgrading the whole operation, I could bring in about 50% to 100% more money. I know what works and doesn't work with this particular business, I've just somehow always been satisfied with the money it brings in.
Over the month of September, I am going to enact the following items to improve the business:
Add my own pictures - I never see most of the products I sell, so I want to order select popular items for myself, take my own pics and write my own descriptions. I've done this before and it was very successful.
Make contact form - An online contact form would allow customers to ask questions without having to physically send an email with their own account.
Put tracking system on my own server -I currently have an order tracking system, but it is hosted elsewhere. Customers do not see it is hosted elsewhere, but it costs more money to host with someone else.
Get exchange server for mail - I use webmail for the business right now, so I cannot keep long term track of old mail/sent mail.
Offer Gift Certificates - My shopping cart software allows for gift certificates, so there is no harm in offering them.
Updates every three days - This rule would make me update either the main page or the blog at least twice a week. This lets users know there is someone on the other end.
These are just a few of the updates I am going to make. Hopefully within the next few months I can increase net profits by at least 40%.
Labels: house of rave, Meeting CEO's
posted by Neville @ 1:03 AM
42 comments
42 Comments:
Simply awesome. As always, great post!
First of all, thanks for your great blog!
I've a question. How you can keep no inventory and all the shipping is done in California?
Thanks!
Martin
At a guess, Nev is either sourcing directly from the manufacturer or from a middleman who keeps their own inventory. I'm more impressed by the store software, which apparently beats the pants off what my present employer uses.
How he find a manufacturer? Via Internet, contact ?
For his store software, I'm not really impressed but it's sure that is a nice one.
-What sort of software do you use?
-How did you find your supplier?
-How do you spend so little time on the biz?
-Where do you host the site?
A quick "view source" says that the store software is "ShopSite Pro 7.0.4.
But, I join the others in eagerly waiting for the unveiling of this new business!
SUPPLIER: There is a supplier in California that sells all of the products I "carry". I simply add products as they come in stock.
I found the supplier by calling about 15 different places before I found one.
PROCESS: I send my orders to the company daily for them to send out.
MONEY: They sell to me at wholesale price, and I pay them for what I've bought from them every month. I keep the difference.
MERCHANT ACCOUNT: I use Linkpoint as my merchant account. In 5 years I've never had a single problem with them.
SOFTWARE: I use Shopsite Ecommerce Software. I first started using EC Builder 5 years ago, but I quickly outgrew it.
HOW I STARTED: I started this in high school. I was 17 and curious about Ecommerce, so I decided the best way to learn was to open my own Ecommerce business. I started the business with $200 in birthday money. My dad had to co-sign for the account because I was under 18 at the time.
Basically HoR started as an Ecommerce experiment, but turned into a dependable source of income for the last 5 years.
Hope this answers some questions!
-Nev
No offense intended to anybody, but I'd just like to take this opportunity to suggest to your other readers that if they plan to try this themselves that they show a little respect and find a different niche (puzzles, games, RC cars, poker equipment, vacuum cleaners, paintings of pipes, something that isn't directly competing). It shouldn't be too hard to come up with something else to sell, after all.
I do not work for this company, however I used to own a web hosting company so I am very familiar with the industry. Just trying to save you some money.
P.S. Please note that this is not criticism - you have a great site - just some suggestions for improvement (not that you asked though!!!). Good luck.
Just a thought
1. Get a shopping cart from OSCommerce.com. It's free, it has a lot of add-ons, and it's easy to install. Just get an SSL cert, merchant account (or paypal/2CheckOut.com), and load up your products.
2. Find a drop-shipper (sounds like what Nev is using). They carry the products, you order them, and they ship directly to your customers under your name. NetDropShipper.com is an example of one for electronics.
3. Advertise by feeding your produts through Froogle (Google's comparison shopping engine), using Google Adwords, etc.
If anyone needs help doing this kind of stuff, I love doing it in my spare time, so just email me at devanium at yahoo dot com.
-Justin
My site brings in more traffic to SPECIFIC products, which is great for sales. Those people KNOW what they want. People searching for "Rave" don't necessarily search that keyword to BUY anything.
Some strong searches I have on Google include:
-D i g i t a l G l o w s t i c k s
-F l a s h i n g S a n d a l s
-S o u l F u s i o n
-G l o w i n g S h o e s
-R a v e W a l l p a p e r
-l i q u i d i n g V i d e o s
I am currently going to improve the site step by step to hopefully bring in $1,500 a month.
I hope you continue to keep us updated, love hearing about your adventures!
... having owned a web media company... I can accurately say one thing... the layout needs some work.
If you can make several business like this one you may not have to do 9 to 5 jobs ever in your life.
You are going in the right direction! Enjoy!
Money and Investing
Exchange is just an email server, you're better off just using what your hosting company provides and downloading your email into an email client (ie. Outlook) to keep track of it.
Could you give us some tips on finding a great supplier or dropshipper? It seems hard to find and also not to mention the hundreds of scams out there.
Nev - what if you had 3 or 4 different HoR.com sites, selling things that reflect your other interests. This doesn't work the 'economy of scale' concept(purchase big inventory and boost margin), but the nature of work would be essentially the same.
-Chris
Great post, thanks Nev.
Dropshippers are not looking for you but you can find them at industry trade shows!
goldenbrownboyatgmaildotcom
Great work!!
Well, I was wondering, could you tell me, how did you get yours started? How did you find supplyers? How did you get word out to potential customers when you first started out?
So far, I've got 2 differant supplyers that I well be using, one pays a 10% commision on sales and the other 32%. In the past month, I made $23.78 from the 10% one, and $22.14 from the 32% one. I know it's not much, but I was just about jumping for joy when I got the checks!
So far this post here, is the only one I've read, but I well be reading more of your blog tonight, and am adding it to my blogroll so that I can keep coming back.
~~EK
I believe security with credit cards should be pointed out a little more as the online world is extremely carefull when it comes to using credit cards online.
houseofrave needs a larger security verification at the bottom or top of the page indicating using a credit card on your site is secure. Of course, your site must be secure to use a credit card before doing so.
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-Neville
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