Import/Export Websites

There are a million and one ways to make money as a web writer.

Obviously you can hire your services out to clients, or you can write for yourself by starting your own Money-Making Website. You can create and sell your own products or sell someone else’s products. You can even combine two or three methods to make money.

That’s what I’ve done with my new business. I created a hybrid of the import/export business and a Money-Making Website and I use my web-writing skills to attract traffic and grow my site.

Let’s take a closer look …

What is an import/export business?

In an import/export business, you import products that are in high demand and then sell them to someone else who is willing to pay more — or you export them, depending on your business model.

Here is a partial list of current high-demand products:

• Business equipment
• Toys
• Automobiles
• DVDs
• Jeans
• T-shirts
• Designer clothes and handbags
• Safety vests
• Cosmetics and toiletries
• Herbs
• and thousands more products!

Ten years ago, this kind of business would have been nearly impossible for someone like you and me. However, there are now hundreds of websites and resources you can use to start an import/export business from the comfort of your home.

There are a few things to consider when it comes to starting an import/export business …

They typically take a large financial investment to get started. Your initial investment must cover the cost of goods (in large bulk quantities), of transporting the goods, and of storing the goods until your buyer buys them or until you sell them piece-by-piece.

If you intend to sell on a wholesale basis, you can take your profit, turn around and import another shipment of goods quickly, and make more money each time.

How is this different from a Money-Making Website?

The benefits are nearly identical …

You can be your own boss, work your own hours, have unlimited profit potential, and use your web-writing skills.

But, the typical goal of a Money-Making Website is to sell affiliate products through your ability to generate content and traffic. This way, you have a very low start-up cost. To get started, all you need is a domain name, website hosting, and time.

You build the site, add content, find someone else’s product to promote, and generate traffic. Then, when a customer comes to your site and purchases the affiliate product you promote, you get a commission or a cut of the sale.

The Money-Making Website is basically a lead generator that sends potential buyers to an online store to make their purchase. With a Money-Making Website, you never have to handle stock, ship products, or deal with customer support, but you get a cut of the profit on the sales you help to trigger. You are like a salesperson getting a commission without doing any of the labor involved in making or delivering the products.

The import/export business, on the other hand, is a wholesaler of goods.

Taking Advantage of the Best of Both Worlds

What I have done with ComfyEarrings.com is a hybrid of the two strategies.

I’m using the import/export model to import the product I created.

And then, I use information I learned in the Money-Making Website program to build my traffic strategy: to write 100+ pages of content about earrings, earring sensitivity, and earring allergies that will bring free traffic to my website. And, that traffic should generate sales of my product.

Here are the reasons I decided to merge both methods, rather than choosing just one:

1. I had an invention I wanted to get into the world: “The most comfortable earrings on Earth.”
2. The import/export program gave me all the information I needed to locate someone who could manufacture my product just the way I wanted it.
3. I had already completed the Money-Making Website program and saw the potential for tons of free traffic by creating pages of content for my site.
4. I knew the traffic I generated would help me sell the volume of earrings I’d have to order through the manufacturing company.

Now, let’s look at how you can do this, too …

Step 1: Figure out what you’ll sell.

I stumbled onto my product idea by solving a problem that has bothered me for years.

Earrings were just plain torture for me to wear. They poked and squeezed and my ears would be irritated and throbbing within a few hours. But I loved earrings and tried often to find a pair that wouldn’t hurt my ears or poke my neck.

Finally, I came up with a solution to make earrings comfortable. And, thanks to the import/export business program, I found a manufacturer who could make them the way I specified.

To find your own idea, look for solutions to problems in your daily life. A simple solution might seem almost too simple, but getting your product or invention off the ground will be easier if you don’t have to involve engineers and product developers.

An even easier way to get started is to sell a product that already exists.

For example, my husband really likes LED lights, but if you buy them at the store, they’re really expensive compared to standard light bulbs. He was able to find a supplier using the import/export business model and soon he may set up his own business selling LED lights.

In Step 3, I’ll explain how to look up manufacturers and browse their products, but first …

Step 2: Test your idea's profitability.

Before you buy a bulk order of anything, you want to know you’ll actually be able to sell it.

To test my idea’s profitably, I ordered the smallest quantity I could (we’ll get to “how to import” in just a minute).

Then, I wore them and passed about half out to my friends and family. I asked what they thought, if they would buy them, and what they would consider paying. (Be sure to gather testimonials at this stage.)

I also looked at other products on the market to see how well they were selling and at what price points.

Once I had positive feedback from my friends and family, I set up a website to test strangers’ opinions by selling the other half of my first imported order.