The Myths and Misconceptions of Managing a Web Store

Category: Jobs, Work, Careers

There are so many myths and misconceptions when it comes managing a shop on the web. Those web sellers are making a lot of money aren't they? Especially since every single pez dispense and collectible widget they sell goes for a ridiculous amount of money. Perhaps sometimes that is true but it is not a constant. I saw a widget on the web just like one I have and they are getting X many dollars for it. Usually they are just asking that many dollars, and not necessarily getting.

Question, if you visit a web store, or any store for that matter, and everything is priced too high, do you buy anything? Do you visit that store again, tell your friends about it, or bookmark it in your favorites folder and keep going back. Yea I don't either. I'm gone in a few seconds. But, if I find someplace that has great deals or at least fair prices on the types of stuff that I like, I visit often and most likely, some of those items are now mine being used everyday, or they are now prominently displayed in one of my many collections. Forget all of the extreme cases and just offer great products at a good price and provide great service. The averages will play out if you can roll through many items. You may have products that are actually worth quite a bit of cash in some instances. But usually a product is only worth what you can get for it somewhat fast, and often. Clogging up a store with overpriced items may make a sale now and then, it also might send your valuable customer traffic right out the door. If you are going to have any type of store you will need traffic. Don't scare them off with ridiculous prices.

There are those who have become very successful doing business on the web. With a lot of effort and work you can too. The majority of sellers most likely fall into the basic category of simply relocating a few items for the joy of collecting, or un collecting what they have accumulated and enjoyed over the years. They may just enjoy the green cycle of giving an item a second life by getting it into a new owners hands. The bottom line is that it is just like any other career or hobby. You have to love what you are doing and be able to do it well or it is not worth it.

We have all heard the old adage "Don't quit your day job." If you plan to sell on the web and are lucky enough to still have a day job, don't quit! It can take years to get established and have the proverbial ball fully up in play. Sure it can be done faster than that. Then you will only need a lot of time (and a lot of money to survive) while you get that ball rolling. Still, you may put in all of your efforts, and more than a few of your very favorite dollars, only to discover that your ball does not roll at all. If that has ever happened to you, you may have something even more valuable in your corner, experience!

There are so many resources available today for on line sellers. Many are free so don't spend any money yet. I will be talking about some of the free resources for web stores in the weeks to come and will try stay on the basics at first. It can and will get much more complicated as I blog on, but stay with me even if some of the tech stuff seems insurmountable. It is not. There are many sites that can help explain some of the details much better than I can, so I will be linking you to many of those.

If you like selling and enjoy working hard at it, the web is the place for you. Read everything you can and then take it for what it's worth. If what you read sounds too techie and you think you don't understand it don't worry. It is all pretty basic stuff once you start delving into it. Like with most things, large groups of basic steps only seem complicated until you start to break them down step by step.

There is always something new to learn or a new way to do things. Probably the most important is this one, if a group or business tells you that you have to pay them in order to have any results for your store, vote for them by hitting that little red X in your upper right browser and move on. All the info and most of the tools you will need are free out there somewhere, and I will be linking you up to a few of the ones that I like.

Enjoy! And many happy web sales to you. Joe - Gr8dayze