90,000 Wholesale products in one place!

I know a LOT of people have asked me lately about setting up ecommerce stores and the biggest question (after "what store do I use?") is "where do I get products?" Well, thanks to a tip from Lynn Terry at Self Starters Weekly Tips, I have another potential answer for you!

Doba is a service that consolidates 16 different drop shipment, whole sale sources into one searchable database. For a monthly membership fee, you can access these products, descriptions, images and prices, and add them to your store. Then, as your site makes orders, you purchase them through the drop shopper and they send the product to your customers. This is typically how many Ebay and other ecommerce shops work - the hard part, always, is finding good, reliable drop shipping sources with wholesale prices that also allow for profit.

I love that this system has a one week free trial so you can sign up and go exploring the available products. Although I don't currently have a store myself, I had a great time "pretending" as I researched this for my readers. For starters, I found clothing, camping supplies, crafts, consumer electronics, fragrances, supplements, computers - quite a plethora of available products to sell.

The cost for membership ranges from $29.95 to $39.95 per month. The basic membership lets you have access to everything while the extra cost per month includes a tool for exporting your search results in a format that is easier to import into a shopping cart. Unless you're starting very small and are willing to do a lot of cut and paste, the added price sounded worth it for the ease of use.

If you're into Ebay, this service is particularly wonderful - because it also includes a "push to Ebay" feature where you can quickly offer products in your Ebay Store. For every product you can see the whole sale cost and the number in stock, thus deciding whether you want to list something on your store which might be in danger of selling out. The system stores information on what orders you've placed within its 16 drop ship sources, and you can review history and reports. Another great feature of the Doba service is there is a WM University built in which has training and tutorials on selling online, having an ebay store, and goodies like "99 Tips for Buying & Selling on eBay."

I don't currently have a store to put products in so I reluctantly cancelled, but my 7 day free trial certainly gave me a lot to think about for the future. If you're already or thinking about selling online, selling products through Ebay or seeking new sources for drop shipped products, I can certainly recommend this as a worthwhile service to explore!

September News & Views

What a month! The moment Labor Day was over, things got really crazy around here and I've been flying ever since. I'm working with a new start up based in Minnesota on an ecommerce business. This has involved naming the business, and designing a logo - and now working on the web site - I'm loving it but I won't tell you more than that til its ready to unveil. I also had a fantastic call from a retired professor in Texas who is a personal historian, and we are now working together to create her brand and web presence for her new business. Another new client, who I first spoke with last spring, was ready to start work on her web site for a local kids directory. The site my programmer and I are building for the Albany Autism chapter is going well and we'll unveiling that this Fall. Making it even more delicious, I passed my revenue goal for all of 2005, in the beginning of the third quarter.

So, everything is wild and bouncy around here, and life is good. I look forward to sharing my strategies and the elements of the marketing plan that made all this good stuff happen, with you!

Apogee PM Site wins recognition!

The web site that I helped design and build for Apogee Project Management has won recognition from the much respect marketing expert Robert Middleton of Action Plan Marketing, this week. The site tied for 2nd place in the contest, which judged 58 sites built within a 2 month period awesome info product, The Web Site Toolkit.

I'd like to tell you a little bit about the product that was used in planning this site and why it works so well for SOHO It Goes.

Robert Middleton said, in his announcement "The design area was probably the most challenging. Some did their own design, some used templates or do-it-yourself online tools and some hired designers.

What really hit home with me was how important the overall design and text formatting is to an effective site. If the design is bad and the text poorly laid out, it literally pushes the visitor away from the page.

But good design pulls you in and makes you want to explore. Add to that good "what's-in-it-for-me content" and you have a web site that people will not only read, they'll take action to find out more about your services. "

The Web Site Toolkit provides easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions to developing action oriented, "what's-in-it-for-me content". Middleton specializes in marketing for Independent Professionals, which is the majority of my clientele. I have found that my clients who have purchased this product, and then come to SOHO It Goes (or do so on my recommendation) are SO incredibly prepared, have such "well thought out" marketing driven content, that our projects are a breeze - and the end results, fabulous. It's a beautiful fit for what I provide because NO ONE knows a business and its intent like the owner, and although I CAN help them myself, The Web Site Toolkit is often an ideal planning process for my clients.

Having worked now with a number of Action Plan clients, I have seen how the process works and can highly recommend it. Of course, I've also recommended the Action Plan Marketing Info Guru's Manual for many years, on the basis that it provides the perfect plan and structure for what I ultimately help my clients design and implement, as well. I often say "If I had time to write The Book... it would look like THAT on over there" and seriously, it is so incredibly well done that I am perfectly content just referring my clients to it. Then, with a much much better idea of what needs to be done, SOHO It Goes can help them make that big impression and increase their reach.

Win, win for all!