Need some help starting out

My wife and I are looking to start our on online business the 2 we can think of is

1. Forums site
a. how to we create traffic to site
b. Do we need to pay Mods to look over the site
c. How do we get people there to help each other out
d. How do we make money with adsence etc.
e. who to use to create and maintain site

2. Ebay store
a. how to find wholesale
b. what to sell
c. how to get people to see your store.

Wife and i have twins and are looking for extra income while see can work from home.
I see alot of stuff but don't want to get scammed like ebaycrusher etc..
any help would be great thanks

 

Maybe set up an e-commerce website and start selling?

To answer your questions...

1. Forums site
a. how to we create traffic to site
either word of mouth, posting on forums to announce your new website, or to advertise on other websites related to your forum topic.

b. Do we need to pay Mods to look over the site
no, and you really shouldn't. Why not mod it yourself? I understand you have 2 kids, but when your just starting out having mods won't really help if there isn't much traffic.

c. How do we get people there to help each other out
Find the right type of people! check out answer to "A"

d. How do we make money with adsence etc.
pretty much the more traffic you have, the more clicks you will get (generally speaking). The money will go into you paypal account I believe. I also suggest possibly setting up an advertising system where you can sell a banner for X amount/month.

e. who to use to create and maintain site
For the forum I would go with Vbulletin. It it a little pricey, but its the best forum software out there in my own opinion. As for finding someone to set it up, I could do it or anyone on here who has some design and coding knowledge.


I also forgot, but I heard something about ebay becoming too much of a hassle now with all their fee's. I would recommend an e-commerce store, X-Cart is a favorite software of mine. Then, you really have to start thinking of WHAT you want to sell. It doesn't HAVE to be wholesale. I used to run an online retro video game store. I would go to local garage sales on the weekend and hunt down deals. I would eventually find rare games that were being sold for $2-3 and then resold for $20 or more. If you want wholesale, I HIGHLY SUGGEST check this out http://www.tradekey.com/

 

e-commerce website and start selling we are having a hard time thinking what to sell.

I came up with a forum cause I go to them all of the time I just don't know if there is any money in them and how to get it started.

 

I have some different ideas, and links to tutorials in the sig.

They may not be for everyone, but hopefully they will get you and the wife's noodle cooking on some ways to look at things. Including not just the idea, but the traffic and other pieces needed.

Good luck.

 

Thinking of what to sell is very hard, trust me. It took me forever to figure out what I wanted to do (which lead to retro gaming sales. Not a whole lot of money to be made though). I chose it, because I found it to be very exciting since I like gaming and there really wasn't any GOOD websites out there. Try and think of things you enjoy.

How about coffee beans? Any sort of wholesale business will have some start-up costs. Most in the $X,XXX to very low $XX,XXX.

For forums, try and keep it local maybe? There is a website around here for single moms that was always advertised on the radio. They had good advertising, because since everything was local, they had more people willing to spend money advertising on that website. You could possibly start a website for new parents. It could be a forum/ecommerce site selling your kids outgrown clothes, old toys, strollers once they dont need them, ect.

 

Forums are... I don't want to say easy, but they are easy to think about. They require a lot of work but there really isn't any secret to them as long as you're willing to invest the time researching and writing.

All you really have to do is (once you have the base site set up) make the forum look popular. Most forums fail because... well.. who wants to ask a question in a place they wont get an answer?

Sign up as like 30 different people and create some fake discussions. Use slang, abbreviations, typos, smiles, 2 line replies, replies that simply say "thanks, that helped", and etc just like we would here. But, make sure to also give a useful answer. Remember, forums usually aren't a professional place. The more professional the writing, the faker the posts will look.

As for to monetize it, I think DigitalPoint has the best setup for forum adsense adding it directly in the posts. My eyes don't usually wander to the top of the page and yours probably don't either so keep that in mind. The trick is to put the ads where the people are looking, not to hide them somewhere "out of the way".

Getting them popular is not that hard. Just find answers to questions people have in other forms, blogs, videos, or whatever. Answer it briefly and say something like "they talk more about it on this site". You should also learn a little about social bookmarking and other web 2.0 elements like Twitter.


On another note, I'd STRONGLY recommend staying AWAY from eBay. Why? Two reasons. First of all, they always trust the buyers. A lot of sellers have problems with buyers that report them to PayPal or eBay saying they got sent an empty box. Their money will be refunded, and you might potentially get banned. I'm not saying it happens more than not, but it could be a big blow to a small business especially if you are just starting it.

The other reason to stay away is that eBay is pretty much dominated by everyone else. Trying to sell a product at a cheaper price than everyone else is virtually impossible. Thanks to all of the micro-categories that eBay has, big businesses have a list of almost every possible product that can be sold on eBay. The research has already been done and a lot of very expensive (+$100) items are being sold for profits of less than $5. I guess you could say it kind of evens itself out.

The only real profitable thing one could do with eBay would be to open up one of those "we sell your stuff on eBay" stores that sell other peoples used junk for whatever they can get for it and take a commission. However, if your aiming at an online business and already have a job then that is probably not for you.

If you really have your heart set on selling a product though, look into affiliate marketing. The information on this forum is not exactly the best, but it could help get you started. Honestly, I think some of the people exaggerate a little on what they make. Stay away from sites like Clickbank and try to find yourself a private affiliate program with a reputable company. Also, try to sell a product that is physical, not digital. It is hard to put a value on something digital. The only real honest way to do this is by flipping websites, but that can take quite a long time to learn.

I hope that gives you a good starting point.