For online sellers looking for a way to expand their business, it often means looking no further than the lucrative global ecommerce market.

Spurred on by double-digit growth in 2010, international commerce is entering an explosive growth phase -  one that will continue this year and for several years to come.

International sales represent a huge opportunity for merchants of all sizes and in all niche markets.

Consider this… while 73% of people in North America have Internet access and rank online shopping as their favorite activity behind email, only 50% of people in Europe 17% in Asia currently access the Internet. 

And as with their American counterparts, international Internet users like to shop online.

According to Reuters, online sales are expected to increase as much as 40% annually in Japan.

But while there’s a lot of money to be made in global ecommerce, it can also represent a significant challenge for online sellers.

Shipping costs, lack of international tracking, customs and duty fees, long shipping times and post shipment customer services issues have caused many online sellers to limit or exclude international sales.

That being said, ignoring this mammoth customer base can have a dramatically negative effect on your bottom line.

Additionally U.S. markets saturated with products and sellers in certain categories, often remain wide open for those merchants who are willing to ship worldwide.

Without a global presence, your business is not fully online.

Bongo International Helps Sellers Create Hassle-Free International Sales

Fortunately, doing business in the global marketplace is now much easier thanks to an innovative service from Bongo International. I first learned about Bongo in April 2010 at the Ecommerce Summit in Las Vegas.  It was there that I met Greg Sack President of Sales at Bongo.  After talking with Greg at length and viewing a demo of the product,  I was impressed by the features and benefits of their service, as well as the user friendly integration for sellers.

Bongo International is a mail forwarding and parcel forwarding service that ships products from the U.S. to 174 countries worldwide.

But Bongo is much more than your old school run of the mill parcel forwarding service.

Bongo is truly a full service international liason between you and your global customers.

In fact, Bongo has developed an entire process designed to provide the solutions that resolve the everyday challenges faced by merchants who sell to international customers.

From international tracking numbers to payment fraud checks, package consolidation services that alleviate high shipping costs to the ability for your customer to calculate shipping, duties and taxes before checkout – Bongo International has looked at every problem with shipping worldwide and solved it.

Best of all, this service is free for online sellers and gives you the opportunity to increase your sales, while decreasing your costs as well as those of your customer’s.

Bongo Benefits for Your Business

In addition to the benefits listed above, one of the best features that Bongo offers is the ability for your customers to remain on  your site during checkout, thereby significantly reducing the potential of shopping cart abandonment.

• Because Bongo becomes a seamless part of your checkout process, it adds to increased international customer confidence.

• The consumer pays a small fee, either one-time or subscription (if they are frequent shoppers) for the convenience of using Bongo’s service.  Bongo customers can save up to 83% in shipping costs compared to other shipping carriers, making it an attractive option for international shoppers.

• The Bongo application works on eBay, ecommerce websites and with most major shopping carts; as well as Amazon, Buy.com and 1ShoppingCart.com. You can see some of the additional Bongo partners here.

• Bongo International has also recently partnered with ChannelAdvisor to provide integrated international shipping solution for ChannelAdvisor customers.

Listen to My Interview with Greg Sack and Learn How to Increase Your International Sales and Take the Pain Out of Shipping

In my interview with Greg, we walk through the international sales process step-by-step, as well as how Bongo easily integrates into almost any ecommerce scenario.

We also brainstormed an innovative way that international sellers can use Bongo’s services to work with U.S. wholesale suppliers and ship worldwide from the U.S., opening up a whole new business model for sellers outside the U.S.

The thing I like best about using Bongo’s service is it enables busy online sellers to stop wasting precious time dealing with the mundane tasks of international shipping and start focusing on making more international sales.

Which is exactly what you should be doing as the CEO of your online business.

Listen to my interview with Greg Sacks directly below. Learn step-by-step how to integrate Bongo into your business and get tips and strategies on how to sell successfully internationally.

Lisa Suttora Interviews Greg Sacks of Bongo International

(Click the + sign below to listen.)

Download

Then tell me below what your international selling strategy is.

-Lisa

Ready to make some money this holiday season? Then grab a glass of lemonade and sit down to read this post. Because what you’re about to read will be key to your holiday income success.

Starting on July 5th, with the kick-off of the back-to-school shopping season, the countdown begins to 2010 holiday sales. There are  almost 9 weeks from July 1st to September 1st, when 38% of online shoppers will begin their holiday shopping.

If you wait until Fall to starting thinking about and preparing for the holidays, you’ll find yourself in catch up mode from September to December, and as a result leave a lot of holiday money on the table.

Preparing begins with the actions you take in July.

Every year at this time, I begin helping people prepare for holiday sales.

Unfortunately not enough people take action early on. And there’s nothing worse than rounding the holiday bend in November and watching sadly as your holiday sales slip by.

Don’t let this happen to you! The time is now…

To get you started, I’ve listed some of the holiday prep steps you’ll take this year:

• Creating a holiday inventory list
• Choosing your affiliate products & signing up for the programs
• Creating a holiday marketing plan
• Ordering last-minute inventory
• Organizing your physical products
• Snapping up packaging supplies on the cheap
• Creating holiday advertising graphics
• Planning your website and blog “seasonal decor”
• Creating holiday gift sets
• Setting up your holiday blog/ sales pages if you are an affiliate marketer
• Setting up your email marketing campaign
• Bringing in seasonal help

Now if the thought of putting together a plan for the holiday selling season feels overwhelming to you and you’re wondering how you’re going to find time to add yet another thing to your already overloaded schedule, there’s relief in site.

With 15 holiday selling seasons under my belt (whew!)  – 7 offline & 8 online!  I have the planning and action steps for holiday income success down to a science. Stay tuned, for the upcoming announcement about this year’s Holiday Selling Guide.

If you want to be the first in line to plan your holiday sales, enter your name and email address below for early bird notification:

-Lisa

If you sell physical products, affiliate products or information products, you’re on the brink of the next big online selling season – back-to-school.

Even though many people are just getting into the swing of summer fun, those who have children attending school or who are attending school themselves are already starting their back to school shopping.

To see how back-to-school sales trend, you’ll need to use one of my top research tools Google Insights. You can see by the chart below that searches for the keywords “back to school” are already trending upward:

Teachers prepping the classroom are looking for ideas for their classroom bulletin boards and starting to buy classroom supplies.

And keep in mind that in many parts of the U.S., school starts in late August. So if you sell any merchandise related to back to school purchases, it’s time to get it listed now!

If you’re an affiliate marketer, your back-to-school affiliate sites should be up and running.

If your blog covers parenting topics, school related topics, fashion, technology, accessories etc. you should be reviewing and promoting  back-to-school affiliate products.

The back-to-school shopping season runs from July through the end of October.

July is the pre-season. August and September are in-season. October is post-season. (Post-season back-to-school shopping takes place after the kids have arrived at school, taken a look at what everyone else has/or is wearing and then head back online to round out their “must have’s”.)

That’s 4 months of heavy back-to-school related selling opportunities.

So while you may still be enjoying the summer, your business should be featuring merchandise or affiliate products that are in-demand by back-to-school shoppers.

Here are just a few of the hot products online shoppers will be looking for over the next few months:

• Laptops
• Netbooks
• Laptop cases
• Brightly patterned backpacks
• Rolling backpacks
• Sports bags
• Motorcycle boots
• Ankle bootsGirls school uniforms
• Boy’ school uniforms
• Locker gear (mirrors, shelves, decor)
• Running shoes
• Gym clothes
• Teacher supplies
• Art supplies
• Eco-friendly lunch boxes
• Eco-friendly hot mugs and thermoses
• Cosmetics
• Costume jewelry
• Watches
• Anything with a peace sign on it (clothes, jewelry, accessories)

And some hot brands…

• DV by Dolce Vita
• Dolce Vita
• GUESS
• House of Harlow
• Jessica Simpson
• Michael Antonio
• Miz Mooz
• Modern Vintage
• Nine West
• Rosegold
• Steve Madden

All this back-to-school traffic headed will also impact you if you sell non back-to-school related products as well. Once people are back inside and at the computer shopping for back-to-school supplies, they’ll also catch up on shopping for themselves.

How will you capitalize on the back-to-school shopping season?

Tell me below.

-Lisa

If you sell physical products online, the next 90 days (July – September) are key product sourcing months for your business.

Not only are there a variety of product sourcing opportunities to take advantage of  during this time, but it’s also the last chance you’ll have for  lead time when it comes to preparing your product line for holiday sales.

Whether you are sourcing products wholesale or sourcing locally, there are a number of opportunities to be aware of and to capitalize on over the next few months.

8 Ways to Successfully Source Inventory This Summer

1. Trade Shows. The best (and a must for all professional sellers or would be pros) way to source wholesale products is by attending an industry trade show. There are trade shows for every product category. The biggest benefit of attending a trade show is the ability to see hundreds of vendors exhibiting all in one place. You get to meet them, look at their products and write an inventory order during the show. The suppliers also get to know you.  Even if you don’t write an order at the show, 3 months down the road when you do call to place an order you already have a foot in the door. Making a call to say “Hi Steve, this is Jen – we spoke last July at the sporting goods show.  I’d like to place an order for the new  hockey sticks you showed me.” is a much better way to start a vendor relationship than making a cold call.

Locate all the industry trade shows here. And if you are traveling on vacation this summer, be sure to see if there is a trade show happening at your destination location.  You may be able to write off part of your trip (DISCLAIMER: Check with your accountant on this.)

2. End of season supplier specials. With the turn of season happening, now is the right time to contact your suppliers and pick up great deals on end of season merchandise. And as an online seller, you can you carry merchandise farther into the season than the brick and mortar stores do.  On the Internet people buy swimwear all year around. Take advantage of your supplier’s seasonal turns.

3. Place holiday season pre-orders. The hot holiday wholesale products sell out fast.  Call your supplier now and ask them what they expect to be their #1 selling products for the rest of the year.  Place orders now in anticipation of pre-holiday season delivery.

4. Retail resale. The back-to-school season starts in your local stores on the 5th of July. This means there will be racks and racks of saleable merchandise marked down and ripe for the picking by online sellers. Do your pricing research before you buy and then take advantage of these deals. Big box retailers are also clearing their toys shelves to make space for this year’s holiday inventory. For years I picked up Lego sets at Target at up to 70% off which I turned around and sold for a profit during the holidays. Again, you have to know your merchandise!  Not all Lego sets will sell well.  So use a tool like Terapeak to assess supply, demand and pricing potential.

5. Retail pre-sale. Your local stores are also bringing in the hot toys for the season! And while you won’t get these at a discount, if you have enough inventory capital to buy and hold, you can make a lot of money when these toys are in-demand and sold out by November. You MUST and I repeat you MUST do some trend research to find out what toys are expected to be hot this season.  Part of your job as an online seller is to know what will sell!  Want the insider tips on the latest product trends, be sure and sign up for my  free Hot Trend Alerts! newsletter. These trends don’t just cover toys, they cover all types of hot niche markets.  They also apply to affiliate marketing and information marketing!

6. Local sourcing. Yard sales, estate sales, thrift store sales abound from July-September. There is an unending supply of inventory for anyone who wants to get started selling on eBay or who is already in the business of selling unique, one of a kind items. When it comes to sourcing from yard sales and estate sales, start early and go back late. Start early for best selection then go back at the end of the day to see what can be picked up for free or purchased in bulk. Where are you going on vacation this year? What products are made/sold locally that you could stock up on and sell online? Do some research online and learn about the regional products of your destination.

7. Find suppliers who will drop ship. If you want to find suppliers who will drop ship products for you, you need to do so sooner rather than later – before supplier orders heat up! This applies especially if you have a plan to have products drop shipped over the holidays. Test out drop ship suppliers this summer, before the holiday rush starts!

8. Expand your product line with importing. If you’ve been thinking about importing products from China, using a service like the new AliExpress can help you expand your product line through importing with minimum expense and risk. Take some time to thoroughly research your importing options before your online sales ramp up in September.

As you can see, there are lots of sourcing opportunities over the next few months. Now that you know what the options are, take action! Don’t let this chance slip by.  Pick one or two of the methods I’ve outlined above  -the ones that are right for your business – and go for it!

“Markdown!” “Lowest Prices in Town” “Save 75%” “Rock Bottom Prices!” “We’ll Beat Any Price” “Cheapest Deal in Town”. For the past 18 months, these sales slogans have been screaming at consumers from websites, TV and newspaper ads and more.

$1 dollar bins, something you’d normally find only in the aisles of a dollar store, Wal-Mart or KMart are now a fixture in many stores – the first thing you see when  you walk through the door.

But here’s the problem. Shoppers are tired of the message.

Your customers have “frugal fatigue.”

They’re tired of pinching pennies, “buying down” from the product levels they’d normally buy at, always looking for the cheapest price. They’re tired of compromising on quality and service to save a few bucks. And even if they don’t have a lot of extra money to spend, they don’t want to be constantly reminded of it.

Granted, the rampant excess buying of extravagent luxururies is over.  Back in 2005, one of the trends I talked about when I spoke on stage at eBay Live! on the topic of product sourcing was a trend called “mass lux”.

Luxury for the masses.

At the time, people were spending huge sums of money on disposable products. Parents were buying $900 purses for their teenage daughters. In multiples! Heck women were buying $1500 – $2000 purses for themselves, without batting an eyelash.  And these were not people with 7 figure incomes. These were everyday people, making an average income.  Those days are gone.

A Badge of Honor

When the need for frugality kicked in, most people were actually glad to do it. Like eating a big buffet on Sunday and feeling virtuous about cutting back your food intake on Monday – people realized their spending had gotten out of control.

It even became somewhat of a sport for newbies. Those who had never looked at a price tags with much scrutiny were suddenly clipping coupons and happily telling their friends about the money they’d saved on their latest purchase. Or where to find the cheapest prices on food.

But the 2009 holiday season, it became apparent that people had frugal fatigue. Just like day 10 on a low calorie diet, the celery doesn’t have the same crunch and you’re ready for a cheeseburger!

In fact WordSpy, one of my favorite places to keep up with the latest in words, defines frugal fatigue as :

Mental exhaustion caused by constant frugality during hard economic times.

And yes, your customers have it.  They’re tired of being reminded that they are on a budget. Ready to upgrade their shopping choices.

And as a savvy online seller you want to make sure that you are communicating a Unique Promise of Value (UPV) that doesn’t focus solely on being the lowest price in town. You have to clearly explain the value of what you’re offering.

Reuters ran an interesting article today titled “Retailers Broaden the Meaning of Value” that underlines this point.

Recently the term “great value” has become synonymous with low price.  But value is and always has been about more than just price.

What are the benefits of your product?

What is your Unique Promise of Value?

You can’t compete on price. It’s a downward spiral. Even Wal-Mart changed their message from “Always Low Prices” to “Save Money. Live Better.”

Their new message brings up a much more compelling Unique Promise of Value for people.

If your store sells kitchen accessories – what would your message be?

How about “Cook at Home. Eat Healthier. Save Money.”  As a potential customer, now you’ve got my interest!

But if you were to say “Cheapest prices on cookie sheets.” The first thing I’d think of were those cheap baking sheets that warp, rust and burn my chocolate chip cookies.  As a shopper, I don’t want more junk to throw away in a landfill.

If you want to see a store that’s wildly successful and excels at promoting a Unique Promise of Value, check out Moosejaw.  Yes they run sales. And they have some great deals, but that’s not the message that attracts their customers.

So if you’ve been focusing your message on “Low! Low! LOW!” prices, it’s time to go back to the core of your business and see what else you have to offer your customer.

Whether it’s style, selection, value, service, expertise, humor, whimsy, trendiness, quality, product obsession, a keen eye for what’s hot, the latest and greatest, the tried and true or the plain but useful.You’ve got to have something besides “Great buys all the time.”

How about you?  What’s your Unique Promise of Value? Tell me below.

PS: This doesn’t mean that you can’t/shouldn’t offer your customers sales, discounts and special deals.

But when you do, add some special sauce to it! “Save 20% on our color-popping, sizzling hot summer tank tops!” (As opposed to “Lowest price of the season on all tank tops. Yawn )

It’s time to re-energize your customers and help pull them out of frugal fatigue!

-Lisa

Microsoft announced today that effective July 30th, it’s cancelling the Bing Cashback rebate program.  Bing Cashback gave cash back to buyers who made purchases from participating merchants located through the Bing search engine.

Microsoft stated that there was low consumer adoption of the program, but reading through comments from users on the blogosphere paints a different picture.  Bing Cashback was embraced by both buyers and participating merchants.

Even 3rd party sellers – those who sold on eBay benefitted from the added incentive of Bing Cashback. During the 2008 holiday season, many of my clients who advertised in their eBay sub-title “This item eligible for Bing Cashback” saw an increase in sales. At that point the rebate ran 25-30%.

In 2009/2010 the rebate percentages lessened, but people still found the rebates enough of an added incentive to use Bing to watch for shopping results that had the Bing “Gleam” (the gold coin with the dollar sign ) next to it.

Granted, the Bing Cashback program wasn’t perfect.

Some of my clients who own ecommerce websites wanted to participate, registered for the program and never heard back from a Bing rep.

For the most part buyers were happy with Bing Cashback, payment was quick – but everyone once in a while someone had an experience in which it took weeks to get cash back.

There’s all sorts of speculation today about the real reason that Microsoft cancelled the program. And Microsoft has announced there will be a new program rolled out later this summer. No word as to what that is or who will be able to use it. One thing’s for certain, today’s consumers like rebate, ca

So for now the shine is off the Gleam and cashback will soon be gone.  Hopefully we’ll see something new and exciting roll out before the holiday selling season.

-Lisa

Father’s Day is June 20th and it’s an important seasonal selling holiday for online sellers.

Increased web traffic and shoppers looking for that perfect gift for dad are an opportunity to not only sell Father’s Day related merchandise but also to sell that perfect item to the gift-giver who is doing the shopping!

This means increased sales across the board!

The key to making this a great selling season is to feature in-season merchandise on your website on online store.

Whether you currently stock merchandise that will fit the Father’s Day bill, or if you plan on purchasing additional inventory, there are several selling strategies that you can use to drive up those Father’s Day sales.

10 Ways to Turn Current Inventory into Father’s Day Sales

1. Go through all your existing inventory and identify what things might be suited to the Father’s Day buyer.

Think out of the box! Father’s Day sales are not just about polo shirts and neck ties.

For example, mens electric razors are a top seller, but other types of men’s grooming kits, skincare products and accessories are hot items as well.

Look at the items you already stock and determine which ones can be positioned for Father’s Day.

2. Reposition current inventory for Father’s Day. How you can market existing items for dad? If you sell gardening supplies, instead of ” a shovel” or “a lawn mower” put together a “Father’s Day Weekend Gardener” kit with everything dad needs to enjoy a warm summer day outdoors in his new garden.

Popular kits for dad include:

• Photography
• Woodworking
• Wine and beer making
• Sewing and knitting
• Gardening

3. A great Father’s Day gift doesn’t have to be brand new. Now is the perfect time to list those vintage fishing lures. Or popular vinyl albums collecting dust in the basement. In recent years, pre-owned products have taken on an entirely new life as eco-friendly consumers like to give and receive gifts that don’t use up additional manufacturing resources.

4. A Father’s Day sale doesn’t have to be a product for dad. This is where leveraging that Father’s Day shopping traffic comes in. Once someone comes online in “gift shopping mode” they are more likely to buy something for themselves in the process. Is your store up-to-date? Are you featuring the latest merchandise? Does your merchandising reflect the current season? If not, you’re missing a big opportunity to benefit from the extra sales traffic.

5. Use the keywords” and “gifts for dads” in your marketing copy and listing titles. In the last 90 days, searches for the keywords “father’s day” have skyrocketed. After you’ve identified your father’s day inventory, you must use the keywords related to this inventory to market your products. Use Google Insights and the Google Keyword Tool to determine which keywords best represent the products you’re selling.

If you’re selling a Father’s Day related gift on eBay, you want to use the Father’s Day keywords in your listing titles.

6. Offer special services. Now is the time to offer free gift wrapping, enclose a gift card, emphasize your FAST shipping policy, and offer to ship directly to the gift’s recipient… or even run a special promotion on your merchandise or extend a free shipping option Customer service does matter and buyers do not shop on price ALONE.

They’re also looking for good customer service, trustworthy sellers and convenience. Providing value added customer services will help distinguish you from the competition and give your buyer a reason to buy from you!

Make sure that you highlight these special services in your listings – TELL your buyers how great your service is and exactly what you can do to make their lives easier and their gift buying experience better!

7. Provide a Father’s Day environment for shoppers. Now is the time to add a “Gift’s for Dad” graphic to your website. Or a picture of a father and son. Visual imagery is very important when it comes to getting shoppers in the mood to buy. Offline stores spend billions of dollars a year on seasonal decor so that when a shopper walks into the store, they’re instantly put into the mood of the season. Your online shop should do the same.

8. Help your customers recognize great Father’s Day gifts! A quick scan of your eBay listing or web page should tell your buyers not only what you are selling but why this is the perfect gift for the dad on their list.

It doesn’t have to be fancy. Just a simple:

“Dads love our new stainless steel grill utensil set! Give the dad on your list the joy of outdoor cooking all summer long!”

A statement like this helps to plant in your visitors mind why this is the gift that they should buy.

9. Answer questions quickly. The biggest fear an online gift shopper has is that they won’t receive the gift on time for that special occasion. Answering questions quick instill confidence in your potential customer that their gift will arrive in the same manner. Be responsive, helpful and tell your customers why your product is the right choice for them with every customer question!

10. Offer “free shipping”. Free shipping is still the #1 favored promotion by online shoppers. Don’t even make shipping a question when it comes to Father’s Day gifts – offering free shipping will make a one-click purchase an easy choice for your customers.

William Shakespeare never ran an online store, but if he’d had the opportunity, I have no doubt he could have been successful.

Why?

Because William Shakespeare understood the importance of timing…

He once wrote…

“Timing is everything. There is a tide in the affairs of men  which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.”

The same applies to your online business.

Selling successfully online means paying attention to the change in seasons, the change in what your customers are buying and making the the right changes in your business at the right time to ride the wave of momentum towards  future fortune.

In short, it’s all about timing.

Now when many people think about summer, the word vacation comes to mind. But if you’re an online entrepreneur, don’t plan on taking the entire summer off!

Because… to quote another famous saying “You snooze, you lose.”

The summer is a golden opportunity for you to make some smart moves that will set you up to make more profits the rest of the year.

11 SMART Moves to Make This Summer (to Put Sizzle in Your Sales This Year)!

1. Put the plethora of available talent to work! Throngs of teens, college students, even your own children are looking for a way to make some extra money during the summer. Summer is the perfect time to enlist the help you might otherwise not have access to all year. Your children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, the neighbor kids, etc. would be thrilled to have a great summer job a few hours a week working for YOU.

The pool of qualified workers for straightforward home based business tasks mushrooms during the summer. Yet the home based business sector is the least likely to take advantage of this opportunity. And what’s ironic of course, is that home based business owners need reasonably priced labor most of all!

I  already sat down with my own kids and outlined what projects are available this summer in the business and what they’d like to do. And they’re thrilled!

NOTE:  I am not a lawyer or tax adviser. You’ll want to be sure and check the specific laws in your state when contracting children under age 18 to work for you. If you are actually going to hire a son or daughter, check with your accountant first.  And get clear on the number of hours you can bring someone in to work with you before the IRS requires you hire them as an employee.

I recommend bringing people in on a project by project basis.  i.e. photographing inventory, or organizing the office etc. If you do bring someone in to ship products a few times a week or do other tasks on an hourly basis, make sure they fill out a time sheet and that you track their time worked.  Dot every “i’ and cross every “t” but take advantage of this ideal opportunity to grow your business.

2. Snap up the sumptuous samplings of available inventory . If you sell unique one of a kind items online, the summer is your oyster. Yard sales abound, flea markets are in full swing, thrift stores are marking down their inventory.  In fact some of my clients brings in a team during the summer, just  to help them scour the city yard sales, estate sales and thrift stores several times a week.  They do 60% of their product sourcing from May – Sept.  With a team help them, they can cover 10 times the territory that they could cover on their own.

With the sunny summer weather comes the desire to clean out the house and have a yard sale.  This makes for a product sourcing cornucopia.

3. Contact suppliers for sizzling hot deals. End of season merchandise, pre-season specials, you name it!  Now’s the time to call and ask your supplier what summer deals they have available. Or take a trip and do some local product sourcing.  Heading to hot Atlanta? Visit the AmericasMart merchandise mart while you’re there.  Check with your accountant about writing off a part of the trip as a business expense.

4. Last call for holiday importing. Been thinking about importing new merchandise for the holidays? Better get the show on the road – because if you wait past mid-July it will be too late to get it in time for the holiday selling season.

5. Wave the flag and make sure your customers don’t forget you! Keep marketing!  Just because your customers are at the beach, on vacation, or enjoying the great outdoors, doesn’t mean that you should stop marketing to them.  Email marketing is still the best way to connect with your customers on a regular basis.  And people who receive emails from online retailers spend on average 138% more than than those who don’t receive emails.  Keep in mind that between Smartphones, Netbooks and iPads your customer may very well be at the beach while she is reading your email and shopping at your online store.

And make your marketing fun! Tie it to the 4th of July holiday or pick an obscure summer holiday like Bloomsday (June 16th) or Sewing Machine Day (June 13th)  or National Pink Day (June 23rd) and tie a related promotion to that.  Make it fun!  It’s summer!

6. Retail resale is real swell during the summer. Lego sets at 90% off. Wet suits discounted 60%.  Pre- back-to-school sales previews what will be the hot holiday products. It’s all there waiting for you at your local retail store. By July 5th, brick and mortar stores will be transitioning to their back-to-school inventory. You can pick up some GREAT deals in you local store and bring that inventory online for your global customer base.

Which brings me to… yep, dare I say it?   The holiday selling season!

7. Stock up now for the holiday selling season. Even though you’re wearing a bathing suit and sitting by the lake, your need to spend some time thinking, planning and sourcing for the holiday season. If you’ve been tracking the trends for 2010 in your category, you should already have an idea of what will be hot in  your category for Christmas. And for some categories, especially the toy category, NOW is the time to head to your local retail store and stock up on those hot sellers you can’t get from a wholesaler.

8. Sit under a tree, envision and plan. Did you know that envisioning what you want your business to look like, then planning it out on paper will make you money? In fact, without a vision and a plan, I can guarantee you won’t hit your goals. Next time you’re sitting under a tree, don’t just watch the grass grow.  Take a few of those summer days and purposefully get away from you desk, pack a lunch and head to the park to work.

Bring a notebook, a pen and let your mind flow.  Think about your business. What you from it.  What you want your day and your life to look like. Let all the creative business ideas you have in the back of your head come flooding back into your consciousness.  And let them flow onto the paper. By the time you’re done, you’ll have numerous profit generating ideas documented, a mind that’s clean and clear – ready for NEW ideas to grow and the empowering feeling of knowing that you are in charge of your business as the CEO, rather than beinghe business every day.

9. Clean sweep your product line. Throw open the windows, let the sun shine in and dig in to those boxes of inventory that need to be listed an sold! Have anything that will sell on Amazon? Box it up and ship it to Amazon FBA.  Let them handle the packing, shipping, customer service and while you spend your time being the CEO of your company with a focus on growth, marketing and bringing in new inventory.

10. Get organized! There is a direct relationship between the amount of clutter you have and the amount of income you can make. Over the years, I’ve consulted with many types of  clients – those who are neat as a pin and those work work in a “lived in” office.  And I’ve never once have a worked with a client whose income didn’t improve when they cleared out the clutter!

While you’re clean sweeping your product line, it’s a perfect time to clear out the clutter. It’s also a opportunity to hire a  Neat Nellie teen and let them have at it.  (And for those who think such a bird does not exist, I’ve had three of my 13 year old son’s friends beg me to come help with my organizational projects this summer because they “love to organize”.  (PS: So far it’s all been girls who have offered.)

Buy shelves, label your inventory, take inventory! and put it in a spreadsheet. Get your paperwork filed.  If you haven’t filed your tax returns yet, find the forms and finally get that refund.

11. Implement One New Thing In Your Business You’ve Never Done Before. There’s something about the summer sun (maybe all that Vitamin D?) that brings out the adventuresome spirit in us. A vacation spot you’ve never been to before, a taste of an exotic summer fruit, maybe a spin around the lake on a Seadoo or camping out under the summer stars…

Why not apply your adventuresome  summer spirit to your business and challenge yourself to implement something different in your business over the summer.  Maybe it’s a trek into video, testing a new product line, creating a Facebook Fan Page. Maybe it’s sending out your first email marketing campaign!

In fact, I’ll even go one better – I’ll put out a challenge to everyone  – implement something new in your business this summer and then come back to this post and tell me what you did!  The winner will get something cool.

Sales Happen When Preparation Meets Opportunity

There’s a Chinese Proverb that says “Luck is where preparation meets opportunity.”

The same is true of your sales.  If you use the dogs days of summer like one smart puppy and do a little every day to to get ahead of your competition. Come fall, when everyone wakes up out of the summer haze realizing that the biggest selling season of the year is right in front of them, and they’re not prepared… you’ll be sitting in your nice clean office, watching your products sell, calm and relaxed and excited about your sales figures this year…

Now that’s a long cool drink of lemonade!

-Lisa

PS: If you make a plan and do a bit every day, you’ll be able to put the sizzle in your sales and still have plenty of time to enjoy your summer!

In my last post  The 7 TOP Ways to Monetize a Niche, I outlined seven different ways to monetize a niche market. (You can start reading from the beginning of our Niche Monetizer™ series here.)

Today we’re going to look at 12 real-world examples of people who are successfully monetizing a niche in different ways.   Some of these sites are small, home based businesses, others are  larger organizations.

However it’s important to note, that it’s not the size of the business that matters. You can apply all of these Niche Monetizer™ methods at any level. And that’s exactly why this is a solid business building model, and a method that anyone can use to make money online.

Selling Physical Products in a Niche

Selling physical products is one of the easiest ways to monetize a niche. Why? Physical products are readily available.

I showed you earlier in this series how Wai Hong Fong monetizes 10 individual niche markets with 10 different websites.  Read how he does it here.

Take a look at how Melanie Landi, a member of my 2010 Business Growth Group monetizes the  kid’s products niche.  She runs two niche websites, Kid’s Chair World and Brianna’s Bedding and Beyond. By focusing on a specific niche, Melanie can search engine optimize her sites and focus her message clearly on her target customers. Melanie’s products have now been featured on some industry blogs (bloggers are very influential in promoting niche ecommerce websites) which led directly to increased traffic and sales. The combination of a niche market and the connection to industry bloggers opens up a whole new marketing and visibility pathway for Melanie’s business.

Fun Stuff for Dogs is a site for dog lovers with a sense of humor and a sense of fun. This is no generic Petco dog site, it has a clear focus on a niche. Not only does Fun Stuff for Dogs sell physical products, they’ve parlayed their expertise in this niche into a radio show on Blog Talk Radio that boasts over 21,000 listeners. . This now brings in other opportunities to monetize this niche.  In fact, this site is in a prime position to start having their own products manufactured and branded under this great brand!

Keep in mind that Fun Stuff for Dogs did not start out with a radio show – they started out as a simple ecommerce site.  And you can do the same.  No matter what niche you sell in!

Physical Products, Affiliate Products, & Information Products

When it comes to finer vintage china, no one is more of an expert than Sally K, owner of Kimbesas’s Closet and Diary of a Dishie.  Sally (who is also the uber forum moderator for my 2010 Business  Growth Group forum ) started monetizing her niche by selling products on eBay. But with the creation of her traffic driving blog, Diary of a Dishie, Sally has started monetizing her niche with affiliate marketing and consulting.  Sally’s business is now expanding into information as well.  She is a Platinum Ezine Articles author, (resulting in more than 11,000 new potential customers learning about her) has written for the Examiner, and has started two new blogs in different niches.

Branding Your Own Products

Here’s an example of a very successful site that started out as an email newsletter with 10 people on it, and has now grown into a multi-million dollar business. Marcia Cilley’s FLYLady started out as a small newsletter on how to keep your home clean and organized. It also addressed deep-seated issues that many of people experience like procrastination, perfectionism, lack of structure and more.

Marcia didn’t start out with a goal to turn this into a business that sells products – she only had a desire to help other people solve a problem. One of the  hallmarks of serving a niche.

Her originaly subscribers recommended the newsletter to their  friends, and before long FLYLady was a household name for millions of men and women across the world.

Marcia monetized this niche by taking an existing product and putting her brand name on it. And today sales of timers, feather dusters, De-Clutter kits, toolkits and more generate millions of dollars in sales.

Branding an existing product is a relatively simple thing to do.  It immediately gives you a product exclusive and you can customize it to fit the needs of your customers!

The Lizton Sign Shop on eBay has sold tens of thousands of custom ’street signs’  for personal use. Product customization is a super hot trend and this is a great example of a creative way you can capitalize on a trend by creating your own product to monetize a niche.

Niche Affiliate Sites – Multiple Monetizations

Themed weddings are a hot trend. Super Weddings is monetizing this niche in three ways.

They monetize through information marketing, physical product marketing and affiliate marketing.  They also sell advertising space to other information marketers.  And while the linking throughout the site and to their two wedding stores is not clearly laid out, the individual stores are keyword optimized, which means the people searching for the products or information being sold on these sites can find the site from multiple sides.

The Golf Collection sells physical products from their site, but they also have an affiliate program so that affiliate partners can market the sites products as well.

Urban Garden Solutions, a great site built around a sizzling hot trend, urban gardening, also sells their own products and offers an affiliate program for other marketers to sell products as well.

You can monetize a niche this way too.  Set your primary site up to sell products. Create an affiliate program for affiliate marketers to sell your products.  Or be the affiliate marketer who markets products for other people.

aStores for Amazon Associates

Amazon aStores are another great way to monetize a niche.  With aStores you can create a professional looking online store in minutes and monetize it with products from Amazon’s Affiliate Program. Then create an aStore and either embed it in an existing site, and customize it to reflect your branding as Sally K, owner of Diary of a Dishie does.

Monetizing a Niche Skill

Quilting teachers Jan and Leslie have taken their quilting skills and expertise and monetized it by creating an information products business. Top to Bobbin Quilting on eBay sells their how-to  DVDs teaching people their unique quilting expertise. They could also monetize this niche by selling beginning quilting products for an all in one shopping experience.

eBay seller beautifulfaces is a professional doll repainter. Not only does she sell her custom repainted dolls on eBay and her website, she also teachers other how to learn this skill so they can create their own repainted dolls to sell on eBay.  She does this by selling her training DVDs both on eBay and from her website.

Ask yourself “What expertise do I have? What do I know that other people would like to learn?” Then set about to create your first information product! You can burn it to DVD or CD and sell it on eBay. You can set it up as a digital product to sell on Clickbank (and have affiliates sell it too.) Or you can sell it from blog and using your existing PayPal account or Google Checkout account as a payment processor.

And these are only a few of the multitude of ways you can monetize a niche skill through creating and selling information products!

Find YOUR “Hidden” Monetization

Now that you know what to look for, it’s time for you to find the different ways to monetize your niche!

I call this  the Niche Monetization Mindset™.  When you know what opportunities to look for, you’ll see your opportunities differently.

All of the sites we looked at today are real sites, run by real people, making real money.

None of this is pie in the sky stuff. None of these are fly by night methods for making money. Just real people making real money based on solid business fundamentals.

Now that’s good business!

-Lisa

Last month, when speaking at the 2010 Ecommerce Summit someone asked me  “If there was one piece of advice you would give to up and coming online sellers, what would it be?”

My answer to this question is always the same and it applies no matter what you sell or where you sell it.

Your best opportunity for creating a successful business on the Internet is to…

Find a niche and FOCUS.

• If you’re a jack of all trades, master of none,  it’s time to find a niche!
• If you’re spreading yourself thinly between three different eBay stores and 12 different types of products and none of them are up and running profitably, it’s time to find a niche.
• If you’re selling information products on health and fitness, starting an eBay store that sells used computer parts and trying to monetize a green-cleaner website all at the same time, it’s time to find a niche and focus!

Over the years, in working with thousands of online sellers in11 different countries, selling in more than 2300 different niche markets, sub-niches and micro-niches -  one common thread runs through the most successful businesses…

Each one is succeeding in a niche market.

You see, once you’ve identified a profitable niche to serve, you can monetize that niche many different ways.   But without that niche identified you’ll find yourself chasing market after market, opportunity after opportunity, never making any traction or money.

Many would-be business owners find themselves dabbling in multiple niche markets, putting in 10% of their time and attention on each.  But 10% effort in 10 different niche markets does not add up to a 100% income.

You need to first be 100% focused on serving a niche and maximize the monetization of that niche to enjoy  a 100% income.

Because of the importance of this topic, I’m putting together a series here on my blog, showcasing some successful niche businesses and explaining why they work.  Additionally I’ll be explaining  how you can implement this in your business.

So let’s start first, by talking about 7 business reasons why you should find a niche and focus! (Note: There are many more reasons than this, but let’s start with 7.)

7 Reasons to Find a Niche and FOCUS

1. You can’t be everything to everybody. At first glance, this seems like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised at the number of business owners I see trying.  This especially afflicts new Internet business owners, who see the internet business buffet and want to sample everything. The problem is that this sampling goes on long past “happy hour” and into the “main meal” – the point at which you should be building a business that is hearty, focused and nourishing to your bank account.

2. The money comes from knowing your market. What does your market want? What are their problems? What are they buying? How do they like to be marketed to? Where do they hang out? It takes time to really get to know your market. If you don’t know your market, you won’t know what to sell to them and how to sell it. If you sell baby products, how to make money with Google Adsense eBooks, and affiliate products for pomeranians, you won’t have enough time to find out about ANY of those markets.  So you’ll throw a bunch of stuff up on the Internet and hope someone buys. And then they don’t.  Contrast this to selling baby products, eBooks about parenting and affiliate products in the baby niche and now you’re cookin’!

By the way, I call this my Niche Monetizer Method™, but that’s a subject for a later post.

3. It takes money to monetize a niche. If you sell physical products, in order to find the products buyers want, get the best inventory and stock your store, you need to attend trade shows, read industry publications, purchase information on your niche. This alone could cost you several  thousand dollars a year. You may attend the Sporting Goods Trade Show a couple times a year, subscribe to a couple sporting goods industry publications and consumer publications. You may make a few other buying trips during the year to source inventory.

4. Google loves themed, quality sites. This means a niche site with content, audio, video and products all geared toward achieving the same objective.  Want to sell products in the juggling niche? Your site must not only have products, but also content to go with it.  If you have a site that is not niche focused, creating a quality, themed site is impossible to do.

5. Become a destination site online. As a small to medium-sized business, you need to be a go-to destination in your site  in your niche. A well optimized site, featuring the products and services that people want is the path to becoming a destination site online.  If I’m a customer looking for a unique prom dress, I want to browse a site that specializes in prom dresses, with a depth of selection and a knowledgeable customer service staff.  If I’m shopping an eBay store for a prom dress, I don’t want to be looking at running shoes and circular saws being displayed next to the pink frilly prom desk I’m looking at.

6. Branding for the big bucks. Focusing on a niche enables you to build a brand. Your logo, the look and feel of your store and website, your blog, all play an important role in building your brand online. In my upcoming blog series, I’ll show you some examples of online sellers who have built a strong brand  – brands which is now getting people to sit up and take notice!

7. The number of hours you have in each day are limited, with a niche focus you leverage those hours. The Law of Attraction says “What you focus on expands.”  Lisa’s Law of Action says “What you take action expands.”  And the way to leverage your actions is to get more than one benefit from that action.  For example, let’s say that you’re selling info products in the sizzling hot niche, in-city vegetable gardening.  You write the eBook (or have it written), create some article marketing articles, identify your niche keywords and put together your Keyword Bank™ – you can now leverage all these actions into more advertising and marketing.  The article marketing articles are now re-purposed as blog posts or tweets, your keywords are used to optimized your sales page, and the associated products you are selling on eBay. And your eBook becomes a stand-alone product or a bonus for the physical products you sell or your new home study course.

In the span of two days, you’ve leveraged the actions you’ve taken in one niche.

And of course, once you get the system down for monetizing one niche, then it’s lather, rinse, repeat for the next one!

Ask Yourself Today.  “What is my niche?”

How about you? “What niche do you currently sell in?”  or “What niche will you focus on?” The answer to that question is key to your next steps.

Throughout this blog series, I’ll be showcasing businesses who are monetizing in several different niche markets.

Coming up first in our series…

1. From the Variety Store Model to Rapid Niche Success we’ll look at an entrepreneur from Australia who started selling in the variety store model on eBay, but whose business really took off when he started focusing on a niche.

- Lisa