Work At Home Business Ideas

Course Notes

as PDF file

Displaying your wares

Public auction or sale sites

eBay: http://www.ebay.com
Sell almost anything legal

• How to sign up
• Help page on how to get started selling
• “Sell Your Item” page
• Turbo Lister page

Amazon http://www.amazon.ca

Sell books, CDs, DVDs

• Amazon.ca “Seller Quick-Start” page
• How to sign up (Uses your regular Amazon.ca buyers account sign-in)

Register for Amazon Payments

• US site lets you sell many other items as well as books, CDs, DVDs BUT you have to have a US-based credit card and US-based phone number to use it, so not useful for most Canadians.

Online storefront services

Free

VStore

http://www.vstore.ca/

Demo screenshots

http://www.vstore.ca/screen.php

Low-cost

eBay Store

http://pages.ebay.com/storefronts/start.html

US$15.95 / month for basic store, plus selling fees

Details

http://pages.ebay.com/storefronts/subscriptions.html

Yahoo Store

http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/ecommerce/plans.php

US$39.95/month for basic store

$50 setup fee, 1.5% transaction fee

Homestead

http://www.homestead.com/

4.95 / month, extra fees for transactions

Uses Paypal shopping cart

Product-specific multi-seller sites

Bricklink – LEGO sets and pieces

http://www.bricklink.com

Just Beads – Beads

http://www.justbeads.com

Etsy – handmade arts and crafts

http://www.etsy.com/

Your own site

Roll-your-own

Fairly complex and not recommended for a first attempt

http://www.lionsgatemodels.com

Requires:

Domain name

Hosting

mid-to-advanced HTML skills

Website building/HTML editing software (eg Frontpage, Dreamweaver)

Shopping cart (Paypal)

Payment processor (Paypal)

Shopping Cart / Storefront-building software

Examples

MonsterCommerce $49.95/month

http://www.monstercommerce.com/ecommerce_shopping_cart_pricing_small_business.asp

Clicshop $59.95 / month (Canada-specific shipping)

http://www.clicshop.com/En/pricing.html

Zoombuy

Local, service of Community Futures

http://www.zoombuy.net/

Services:

http://www.zoombuy.net/experimental/joinzoombuy.html

Getting paid

Shopping carts

Only useful if you already have a website and want to integrate sales into it

Free

Paypal

http://www.paypal.com

Google “free shopping cart” at http://www.google.com to see plenty of examples

Usually require server access to install scripts etc

Paid

Sometimes standalone, sometimes part of a complete store builder

Canada Cart

http://www.canadacart.ca/info/Products/SE/index.html

Many others available

Taking credit cards

Excellent comparison article on true merchant accounts vs third party processors

http://www.sitepoint.com/article/merchant-account-review

Direct side-by-side comparison

http://www.neowave.com.my/0doc/WorldPay-Paypal-2Checkout-comparison.pdf

Paypal cheaper than pretty much anything else until you get way up in volume, or have specific international payment needs.

Payment services

Paypal

https://www.paypal.com/

Merchant Services info

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_wp-standard-overview-outside

Must have a premium/business account to accept CC payments, not just personal account.

ONLY lets you accept CC payments online, not via phone, mail or in person.

Google checkout

not yet available in Canada – keep an eye on it

http://checkout.google.com/support/sell/bin/answer.py?answer=42871

2Checkout

http://www.2checkout.com/community/

Worldpay

http://www.worldpay.com/usa/

Details

http://www.worldpay.com/usa/sme/datasheet.php?page=ds_worlddirect

Scams and frauds

Paypal Seller protection tips

http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/gen/fraud-tips-sellers-outside

FBI Internet Fraud info

http://www.fbi.gov/majcases/fraud/internetschemes.htm

SafeCanada.ca Internet Safety

http://www.safecanada.ca/topic_e.asp?category=3

Cashiers Check scam

Buyer (often in West Africa) overpays for item using a forged cashiers check, asks you to refund the balance, or use the balance to buy eg cellphones and send them.

Payment turns out to be bogus

http://www.snopes.com/crime/fraud/cashier.asp

Card Not Present scam

Large orders are placed over the phone or internet using a stolen or fraudulent credit card number, sometimes spread over several cards, often to a Nigerian address.

http://www.snopes.com/crime/fraud/cnp.asp

Delivering to the Customer

Downloadable products

Best if it’s integrated into your payment system so download is automatic

Paypal standard doesn’t do this

Need an add-on service

Payloadz

http://express.payloadz.com

Free up to $100/month

Above that eg $29/month up to $1000

https://www.payloadz.com/account/levels.asp

StreamingDelivery

http://www.streamingdelivery.com/pricing.asp

Free up to $50/month

Above that eg $24/month up to $1000

Various scripts and programs which install on your server are also available but need more advanced skills –

Search for “paypal download script” or “Paypal download server” at http://www.google.com

ClickBank

http://www.clickbank.com/index.html

Handles all payment acceptance

Charges $1 + 7.5% transaction fee

Clickbank affiliates promote your products and bring you customers for a cut of the selling price

Suitable for one-at-a-time products, no shopping cart

Publisher FAQ: http://www.clickbank.com/publisher_faq.html

Physical products

Drop-shipping

Drop shipping is when a customer orders from you, you send the order to the manufacturer and they send the order directly to the customer. No product inventory, no packing, no shipping.

Overview articles

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drop_shipping

http://onlinebusiness.about.com/od/startingup/a/dropshipping.htm

Suppliers

http://www.worldwidebrands.com/

Your own products

Shipping

Canada Post Venture 1 program

http://www.canadapost.ca/business/intsol/sb/ventureone/default-e.asp?source=home

How to get started

Research

Check out the BC govt sponsored eBC site

http://www.e-bc.ca/pages/home.php

Read eCommerce newsletters and blogs for a few months to get RECENT information (info gets outdated fast)

Web Marketing Today

http://www.wilsonweb.com/