Ten Niche Items That You Could Be Selling Online

I get a lot of questions from sellers wanting to know what they should be selling. Two good places to find the best things to sell are eBay and Amazon.com.

Both of these sites are giants in the online retelling world. You can buy wholesale and in quantity on both eBay and Amazon.com.

What follows are ten niches that you could be selling right now;

• 1. Cellphones - Cellphones are the number one consumer electronics item out there. They are bought and sold world wide and even children own cellphones.


• 2. Bluetooth headsets - With the recent increase of laws making hands free driving a must, bluetooths will only continue to be popular.


• 3. Bike Frames - The profit margins on bikes will surprise you. Go to eBay and look at what bikes are being sold for.


• 4. Military Collectibles - Military collectibles is an area that has a long and interesting history. These collectibles go all the way back to the beginning of the last centry.


• 5. MP3 players (iPods) - Mp3 players are also one of the must haves for the average consumer of electronics. The demand for the new models ensures that this niche will be popular for years to come.


• 6. Autos - Autos like cellphones is an area of sells where everyone can be your customer, because almost everyone has an auto. So the ability to sell makes this an area that if you are a serious seller you will want to consider.


• 7. Entertainment Memorabilia - Entertainment memorabilia is an area that resist down turns in the economy and other glitches that cause other niches to loose their popularity. Even during down turns we need to escape into the world of entertainment. This makes this area of sells very attractive.


• 8. Sports Gear (Golf, football, basketball, soccer) - Like entertainment, sports is an area of escape. And even when we cut back in other areas we still need the escape and inspiration that sports offer. Not to mention the health benefits of using sports gear.


• 9. Blue ray DVDs - Blue Ray DVDs are also a new area that if you start selling you can expect that there will be years of stable sales growth. This is one of the features that all online sellers should be looking for.


• 10. Video Games - Video games like cellphones, blue ray dvds and other consumer electronics are growing a rate that offers a very good chance to generate a stable income into the future.

The above list contains items that will give you a good profit margin and allow you to make money. I also hope that it makes you think about what niches that you come up with yourself. The whole point of this post is to get online sellers to think about what they themselves like to sell and what items have to potential to generate the best sells for them.

Book for Online Sellers; The New Rules of Marketing and PR

Here is a book with a long name, the full name of the book is; The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly.

In this book the author argues that the old rules of marketing have changed with the new media. As can be seen with what is happening with old media like newspapers, magazines, radio, and even TV, there are new opportunities for the new media formats like blogs, online news releases, podcasting viral marketing and other online media

The book takes the position that the transition from old media to new media is a good thing for online sellers who know how to use it. The new media offers more integrity and information that helps to produce quality content for less, as opposed to to the one-sided expensive old media marketing methods.

The book provides the technical novice a thoughtful and accessible guide to cutting-edge media arenas and formats such as RSS, vodcasts and viral marketing, without neglecting the fact that technological wizardry can't substitute for a well-thought out marketing program. It emphasizes fundamentals like defining one's audience.

3 easy ways to botch your online sales

Some online sellers go through the year waiting for their peak sales period. If something goes wrong during this time it could do a lot of damage to their online business if not end it all together.

There are some lessons that others have learned over the years that can help an online seller avoid some costly mistakes. Not just during their times of peak sales, but all through the year.

On of the biggest problems that online sellers can have is processing payments.

Mistake No. 1: Not knowing your limits.

Think about what will happen if you get more purchases than you planed for. Do you have credit card processing in place? Do you have enough stock? Do you have enough shipping material? What are the limits of your business? Know these, and you will be able to avoid trouble before it starts.

How long does it take you to restock items? How long does it take you to get shipments out. What is the max. number of shipments you can do in a day, a week, a month. These are limits that you need to know.

And also consider what you will do when you reach these limits. How will you limit the damage to your business. Reaching any of these limits does not have to mean the end. It just may mean that you go to plan "B". That is if you have a plan "B".

So the first lesson is to know you limits and have a back up plan. Constantly your sells so that you understand how close to you limits you are. If there is a problem you will want to know about it early so that you can put plan "B" into action.

Mistake No. 2: Not watching the home front.

It is good to have a plan "B" but to know when plan "B" is needed you have to be able to detect when there is a problem. You need to have in place some type of early warning system.

The best way to sure you have a good early warning system is to consistently monitor what is going on with your business. I can not tell you how ofter to monitor your online sales. It may be enough to do a weekly report, or in many cases you will want to look at things daily. Probably what will work best is to have a series of checks, dailies, weekly, and monthly checks that let you know when problems are popping up.

Never thing that everything is OK, check to make sure that it is. Because you have not had any problems recently does not mean that there are not some lurking just out of sight.

Keep an eye on your personnel, your hardware, and software. If your online sells operations is large enough that you have people working for you then build in a system of checks and balances. Always have people check each other, one person does a task and another one goes behind them and checks it.

Maintain your hardware systems and make sure they are being used properly and that you are maintaining them. You don't want to have hardware problems when your sales are at their highest point.

Also make sure that your software is used properly and that it is maintained current. Don't let the lack of an upgrade or patch stop you from preforming some critical function at a critical time.

Have all service contracts for repairs and support that you need, when you need it. That way your hardware, software and the home front of your business will be monitored and repaired when needed.

Mistake No. 3: Not keeping tabs on your online selling sites.

You would probably surprised how may times a site goes down or there are problems with the site and the online seller does not recognize that there is a problem until it is too late.

In this time of great change in the online selling world it kind of goes with saying that you need to monitor you site. But what I am really talking about is the working of the site. The way listings are done, how feedback is given, what are the fees for listing items, these kind of things change all the time.

You have to know how your site is operating and if some of the changes are affecting your sales, the amount of traffic and other factors that determine how successful you are.

In the case where you sell on multiple selling sites this even more important. There are times when these type of changes can make it better for you to place inventory on one site and not the other. And know the changes the various sites are going through will help you make these kinds of decisions.

This also ties into the other two items, by monitoring how your site is working you are kind of keeping your eyes on the other concerns as well. Monitoring will also allow you to catch glitches and other unexpected problems.