I am currently running a wordpress blog called tech-tutorial.com and I am thinking about adding a store to the site. I would like to sell computer supply's, but I don't know what would be better trying to do dropshipping or an affiliate program. If you have experience with this please let me know your opinion. Also what eCommerce solution would you recommend Ex: Zen Cart, osCommerce etc..... Thank you, TheFlu http://Tech-Tutorial.com
Create online stores in minutes. Just two steps to create your store. No hosting is required. This is a SAAS version from ZS Cart. There is a 30 days free trial. Try that and proceed further.
That is not what I am looking for I have my own server and I want to host the store so that I am in full control of the store.
Yep, drop shipping is the way to go. I have a few emails floating around with good ones I think. Someone asked me about this the other day. I will try to hunt them down. Nigel
Dropshipping is the way to go in the long run, it will require larger investments however; both in time and money. Did you do market research and budget planning? The thing is that computer supply industry is very competitive and one without a starting base will hardly survive. Maybe you could start out with an affiliate program first and see how it goes. This way you will have some experience on how to market your products as well as some starting budget. Later on you could move on into dropshipping.
Magento is a superstar nowadays. Rich set of features, superior SEO, advanced reporting system. Obvious choice for your eCommerce business. Also they have a lot of ready to go magento templates and free magento templates It will allow you to jump start your business in a day!
Look into Opencart it's free and opensource and I doubt they will strip out features like magento did to it's community version...
Magento is definitely the Daddy but needs some getting used to. OpenCart is a lot more user friendly. As you are already using WordPress, you can always opt for an eCommerce plugin which is the easiest solution of the 3.
As you have mentioned in your inquiry, you own a wordpress blog. If you have the fantastico installed on your server where the wordpress account can be found, then you can also instantly add a ZenCart. It's manageable to use it on a wordpress blog. Drop shipping is a good idea, since there will be less inventory for you and low risk in terms of shedding out capital for the business. Good luck with your business idea!
use opencart it's really easy for the admin user and for your customers, also the development team always release new versions of opencart which is a big bonus, also it's easy to get add-ons as it's on their site which the community makes and shares
I there a way to make the store and drop shipping all automatic? So the only thing i would have to do is reply to customers and add products. With a drop shipping do you pay them each time a product is ordered or monthly? Is there a way to make the store pay the drop shipper?
You can actually use feeds from dropshippers with various carts now at which point everything is automated. I did something for someone a few months ago that auto populated all the products and updated prices on the fly as well as stock, etc. That is clearly the way to go if you don't have products or services to sell already. Nigel
Off the top of my head you can use cre-loaded, magento, zencart and so on..... SEE: http://inventorysource.com/ http://www.datafeedr.com/ will parse affiliate feeds into wordpress but that is a slightly different animal. hope that helps, Nigel