Turning website into making profit

[Pekka]

I want to know all there is to this. With your help and guidance to the right sources of information, I will learn it all. I might have a website running rather sooner than later, and later on it might be doing some selling. Now, I'd like to knwo about internet selling, the tricks in the bag.

Also, if I do that, do I need to register it as a business?
How do I maximize the profits? If I sell outside my country, what is the best ways of finding the cheapest, yet fast enough couriering? What about boxes, I might have design for them, where can I order cheap boxes fort the products they'd be put in when shipping out?

Everything. Teach me.

[Sava]

Good luck... I hear amazon only turned a profit last year.

[Skanky Burns]

[Pekka]

Thanks for the input fellows. Now I know lots about this.

[Spiffor]

Laughing Skanky strikes again!

[Pekka]

Well let's say that I'm not creating this to nothing. I already have the products, or access to them. Also I don't need info on marketing. I need info on the other things. Not 'how people buy from you' but the practical stuff. And how I can squeeze the money right here.
It's not how much you make, it's how little it costs you.

[RGBVideo]

Insert black & white video cam with sound-recorder and a really lousy image quality into the toilet of your mothers apartment, then connect it to your live dialer requiring internet-webcam-service, claiming that the footage source is a public toilet somewhere in Houston.

$$$'s will just flow to your swiss bank account.

[Monk]

Tuomerehu's idea is being followed at www.chaos.dk

[Urban Ranger]

Re: Turning website into making profit

Originally posted by Pekka
I want to know all there is to this. With your help and guidance to the right sources of information, I will learn it all. I might have a website running rather sooner than later, and later on it might be doing some selling. Now, I'd like to knwo about internet selling, the tricks in the bag.

First rule of the land: avoid spam like the plague.

Originally posted by Pekka
Also, if I do that, do I need to register it as a business?

Setting up a limited company has advantages.

Originally posted by Pekka
How do I maximize the profits?

Sell high, buy low.

Seriously, without more information, nothing can be said.

Originally posted by Pekka
If I sell outside my country, what is the best ways of finding the cheapest, yet fast enough couriering?

What is "fast enough?" IOW, what are your time constraints?

Originally posted by Pekka
What about boxes, I might have design for them, where can I order cheap boxes fort the products they'd be put in when shipping out?

You are probably better off buying stuff locally unless your quantity is big enough to overcome the transportation costs.

[Pekka]

UR, more explained in my last post. Yes I don't have to spam. I don't need marketing advices, though I will read them too and appreciate it. I'm not know-it-all type of person.

What I'm really trying to.. I know where the profit comes from, like I said it comes from the small expenses. I guess I'm trying to cut as many corners as possible, in the littlest details. The products would definitely have to be in destination in two days inside EU (3 MAX), and 4 to 5 days if outside EU. Majority will be inside EU.

[Urban Ranger]

Well you seem to have a lot of time for delivery so you probably don't need a courier service, they are very expensive. It looks like you can use just regular mail (or perhaps a faster version of it).

One thing I found one is you don't want to compete on price. You need a huge volume and will constantly engaged in a neverending price war (e.g. Intel vs AMD). You want to have something unique to offer, so that means brand name, design, quality, or services. The latter 3 will contribute to brand name, but that's not always the case (I fail to see what's so hot about Louis Vuitton).

So first thing you need to consider is your product. Are you the only person who offers it? If not, you need to think hard. Can you perhaps get an improved model for yourself? Is there something unique about it that you can capitalise? For example, the Body Shop does not advertise, they rely on word of mouth, and they give back to the local community (at least some communities). So what is your selling point?

You need to look at your business flow. How do you minimise expenses? A lot of companies rely on computerised stock control to reduce inventory to a minimum. If you have a website, you need to make it completely automated. Again, look at Amazon's for a good reference.

[Zylka]

If you have to ask here

It ain't gonna work

[Pekka]

Yeah sorry I used the wrong term. By vourier I meant all kinds of delivering. Postal service should EASILY complete this task, at least inside EU. Shipping and handling is covered in 24 hours. I think if I make it a small business, I can even get some benefits and not have to pay the full price of posting. Maybe from taxes, can't remember.

It's not so much based on volume. The volume is not huge. But it has it advantages, like I'm not about to lose huge amounts of money either. Sales are almost guaranteed, the problem is if they are enough, and if I can profit enough to have the effort worth it. By minimizing expenses is the way to go I figure.
Also, as it is not my main thing to do, it wouldn't be disasterous if I don't make too much money of it. Some money is OK. I don't have to go to price wars. The prices are pretty regular already. The good thing is, I can capitalize on one thing with this that I will not reveal, and why I think it's worth a shot. If your advices need this information, I might PM you if you really want, because it's not that huge of a secret, but something I don't feel comfortable telling here publicly.

Also the sales in numbers I don't expect to get redicilously huge. I also don't expect to get rich. I expect to get some money (poor student, settles for little), and if not that, then at least good experience. BUt I'm serious about it. If oyu want to hear my selling point you have to PM me.

[Pekka]

Zylka, basically you're saying, if you don't know it, don't ask or try, it won't work? I don't belive in that .

I already have the concept. What I lack is expertise how to make more profit. How to cut expenses. And if someone has previous experinece, they can always chip in and share their knowledge.

[Zylka]

You seem not to even know what it is your selling specifically, nor who your website will cater to. Do you have any layout ideas or graphic knowhow? So far it just seems like an assumed Internet + selling stuff = $$$

It can work, and if you can pull it off - all power. G'luck my brave Fin!