Multiple streams of income provides needed security in a fickle consumer led business. A certain business principle in any successful business is diversification. Market diversification should part of the plan. The market diversification step is that period when the product is modified to meet new market opportunities or when new products are developed to meet existing market demand.
Technically we’re not diversifying for the market but the reach to the market. We look at multiple ways to bring revenue and seize every opportunity that makes financial sense.
Objective: The objective of the market diversification step is to address changing market conditions.
Always a step that needs to be looked at frequently. We watch trends and dips not to get knee jerking like eBay does with its constant changes but to keep a thumb on the pulse of what is working and how you can increase the bottom line.
Here’s a portion of a newsletter I was reading which succinctly says what I have been thinking since, well, for several years really
“These changes do remind us though, that putting all your inventory in just one place is risky. Just like investing, it is important to diversify. If you sell collectibles, start looking into sites like Rubylane.com. If you have crafts, check out Etsy.com. And if you sell what I like to call commodity items (like me) it’s time to start expanding into Amazon.com.” CloverCity (Cindy Shebley)
Now, more than ever, in this unstable economy and especially online where many venues are completely in command, we want to try to get as many income streams as possible. Income streams or what I like to think as income ‘rivers’ is diversification. Thankfully in the age of internet commerce it is relatively easy to go in multiple selling directions on multiple venues.
The group I lead is called eBay_establishings, but we aren’t eBay_everything. I believe eBay has opened the door of opportunity to online commerce for many people who would have never tried to sell a thing online. eBay is a great venue for hand holding and helping you to take that step into online selling. It is the perfect place to establish or begin your business online. I won’t, however, tell you to leave eBay as long as it is making you money. Why leave if the river is still flowing?
Adding onto your opportunity through diversification is a very smart move. You can sell in almost as many categories as you do on eBay on Amazon. If you can’t sell your particular item on Amazon there are so many other places that may accomodate such as iOffer, Etsy, RubyLane and certainly your own website.
Are you diversifying? Where do you offer your wares outside of eBay? Any special places not too many folks sell on can certainly be of value to sellers. Feel free to post links to your off eBay venues especially the often overlooked ones like RubyLane or Etsy. I’d love to get some dialog started on your experiences with the other places you sell on.
To Your Online Success
PS Remember to have fun while you’re doing all of this!
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I found that when I started a nosedive in my sales at my ebay store, that a newer venue, ecrater.com was another source for sales. In one year I built up my sales there to more than I was making my last full year on ebay, which I have pretty much left for good. I couldn’t afford to sell on ebay anymore due to the fees, but ecrater has no fees. It is a good place for a seller to get their feet wet so to speak, while learning how to list items effectively, make use of key words, meta tags, and learn how to market and promote their prodect. While some new sellers seem to have trouble getting going, most of the ‘problems’ can be directly attributed to their own work or lack of work. But for those who are careful to understand that selling on line involves work just like any other venue, they can succeed. You just don’t have to pay to get that experience.
I was reading one of your other posts about selling on line and one of the things that popped in my head is that selling on line takes away some of the negatives that people applying for jobs run into, no one cares about your weight or if your clothes are right, etc. In this sense the internet is blind to race, creed, color, physical disabilities. Each person gets out of it what they are willing to put into it. But you have to be willing to work just like any other job to get to where you want to go.