A Low-Cost and Profitable Business Idea

One of my goals in 2012 is to show you How to Start and Run your own business AND especially How to Market and Sell your Products and Services to your target customers – overall I want to help you succeed in Business.

One of the ways I plan to do this is to through this Business Start-Up and Marketing Ideas Newsletter, give you Business Start-Up as well as great and relevant marketing ideas (as seen in my last newsletter article) for your Business.

And so this week, we will be looking at a Low-cost, Easy to start-up and Profitable Business Idea – How to Start a Business Selling Books Online

So here are 7 Steps to Starting a Business Selling Books Online:

1 .Business / Company Structure – Decide if you want to start your Business as a sole trader (A Business that is not registered), limited company or a partnership.  It is advisable to start as a sole trader and then register the business as it gets larger.

2. Where will you source your products, that is, where will you get FREE or low-priced Books to sell? Your old books, books for sale at libraries, car boot sales, flea markets, universities, friends and family.

3. Another option is dropshipping. In this case you will find book dropshippers online who you can market their books. When books are sold, the dropshipper sends the items straight to the customer and not you. You get paid for your sale.

You can find Book Dropshippers by searching for "book drop shipping" on Google.

4. Where will you sell your books – My first recommendation is to sell your books on Amazon. This is because  you only get to pay Amazon a percentage of the income from your sale when the book has been sold and all you need to list a book is the ISBN Number or title of the book.

The second place you can sell your books is on eBay. Unlike Amazon, with eBay you will need to pay to list your books.

The Third place is on your own website. You will need a domain name, hosting for your website and a website or blog in order to do this.

Lastly, you can also sell your books on other websites where used books are sold, an example is alibris.com

You will need to create accounts with Amazon and eBay to sell books on this site.

5. To Market your Books, Blog or write articles about your books and post this on social media network such as facebook (Make sure you include a link to where your listed books can be purchased).

 

You could also create a "book lovers" group or page, and if you have a niche within "online book selling" such as Business or Christian Books, make sure your articles are topics that are relevant to your niche.

6. Another way to Market your books is to advertise them in your newsletter and on your blog / website. To create a Newsletter, you will need an Email Marketing Tool such as Aweber or Constant Contact

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7.  Make sure you Keep your accounts diligently. This will help You track which books sell well, which books don't, what marketing channels are effective as well as what your costs and profits are. Knowing this statistics will help you make informed decisions about your online bookstore business.