If you've decided to sell your products offline then you already know the conventional ways of doing so (store front, classified ads, mail order, etc.). But what if you wanted to sell your products online? What are your options then? I'm glad you asked because that is foing to be today's topic - "Selling Online".

There are four basic ways to sell your products online and they range from free and inexpensive to expensive and very expensive. Making a decision on which way to go is totally up to you and has a lot to do with your personal tastes, how many products you plan on carrying as well as what type of budget you are working with. Some people feel an elaborate expensive site is the way to go while others choose using a Myspace page or a blog.

As you can see, for the time being we went with a blog based store. In our particular case it had nothing to do with budget. We just needed a way for our less tech savvy employees to list products and post articles without a large learning curve. By doing so, this not only freed us up from posting updates and listing products so that we could spend more time finding new products for our customers but also gives us time to train our employees on using our upcoming site. Most of our employees were bloggers already anyway so it was kind of a no brainer for us to go this route. Your reasons for choosing a certain type of site may be much different than ours so choose what works for you.




Using Myspace for your online store is great for individuals and companies on a budget. Although this is a great free option, we recommend that you customize your Myspace page yourself or have it done by a professional. There are two reasons for wanting to have your Myspace page customized. They are as follows:

1. It helps build and reinforce your brand. You want people to think of your company when they see your logo or even your color scheme. Branding is very important in building a business.
2. You want to appear as professional as possible. A customized page shows potential clients or customers that you are not only confident in your brand and you're willing to invest in it but also shows them that you take business seriously.

It's like the old saying goes - "A business with no sign is a sign of no business". So for better earning ability and more respect, if you plan on using Myspace for your online store it is essential that you follow this step to the T.

People choose Myspace to host their online stores not just because it is free and customizable or for it's ease of use but because their page becomes part of an online community which makes it easy for others to find and even share it with their friends. Being part of an online community is a great way to go simply because all you have to do is make some friends with interest similar to the products you sell and then your business takes on a life of it's own. You can also send emails through the system, chat live with friends on your Myspace buddy list and even leave comments on their page witch others will see. Myspace is not just a great platform for hosting your store but a great marketing tool as well.

The procedure for actually sellinig a product on a blog or Myspace is pretty much the same. Simply sign up for a Paypal account, go to Merchant Services and create buttons for each product you want to sell. Copy the provided code and paster it into your page where you want the button to appear and you're done. A video detailing the procedure can be viewed below.



These two options are the most expensive simply because tbey require hosted webspace, a domain name, someone to set things up and a webmaster for making updates. However, the stores are much more flexible and offers a set of tools and options not covered when you are simple using Paypal button. These stores are made to handle large product list as well manage members and more. If money is no object, this is the way to go.