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Hi all,
I've been working for a fairly successful eCommerce business (even though almost 50% of our sales are direct results of our phone salesmen) for almost 2 years now. I've learned a lot from an SEO / Marketing perspective, and I already have a great technical background in web hosting and the like. So naturally, I've been considering starting an eCommerce website of my own, but I'm not the kind of person to go into these things blind.
I know eCommerce isn't exactly a new market. It seems to me that the market is filled up fairly well and even the niches are pretty well served. With already established supersites like Amazon and eBay, I have no expectations of becoming a millionaire. Some extra cash flow would be nice though.
So basically, here are some questions:
What can one expect as far as the level of difficulty for generating sales goes? If I do everything right and have decent optimization, when should I start to see some turnaround?
Is a discrete website better than an eBay or Amazon store, or no? Is both always better? If I only wanted to do one, which would I choose?
How much rides on the type of product that you carry? Can I make money selling anything or is it highly dependent on the product? How do most people get their product? I know of one method already from my time at my job, and was wondering if there are any other common ones.
What am I looking at as far as capital? Assume I can get webspace for free (I can), and I use a free cart system - or build the site from scratch myself.
Any information would be greatly appreciated.
Last edited by nrgetik; 07-11-2008 at 02:48 PM..
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