Being an avid subscriber of The Drop Ship Source Directory, people contact me all the time with that famous question: “What wholesale product should I sell on the Internet?  Since I’ve been selling wholesale products online, I’ve gone through various stages in terms of choosing what exactly to sell and why.

Now, I can’t look beyond into the horizon and tell you what product lines are going to sell, because it’s not that easy.  However, I will give you some tips and mistakes that any legitimate home based business usually makes when drop shipping.

Way too many folks think the following:

·         The want to sell things they love.

·         They want to sell wholesale products they that they have experience with

·         They want to sell that “Awesome” thing

·         They want to sell what “Everyone Else is Selling”

Does the above sound like you?? Sound familiar??  You may not know it, but you’re jumping into a bandwagon where thousands if not millions of people are already doing the same thing.

·         I get this type of email all the time:

“Hey Joe, man I want to sell some electronics, probably IPODS because everybody wants those.  I’ll make tons of money, what do I do now??”  -JoJo the Hypo

Usually I’ll follow up with this question: “What else do you want to sell?”  And you know what, I’ll never get a response because this person is too near-sighted to know what mistake he’s making.  He wants to sell what he thinks is cool and awesome, and I bet he owns an IPOD.

The big problem with this is huge market share, over supply, experience threshold, and horrible price warring.  Let’s talk about all four.

1) Market Share – Do you know how many IPODS are out there?? Millions and millions of people are selling them.  Why would you want to come out the drop shipping gate competing with millions of people?

2) Over Supply – IPODS are generally electronics are everywhere.  Electronics is one of the categories that falls into the “I want to sell what’s awesome” approach.  Thousands of websites sell electronics, go ahead and check EBay.  I bet you could never count the number of electronics being sold there.

3) and 4) Experience Threshold/ Price Warring – If you’re just starting out selling wholesale products online, you are going to be learning the jacks of the trade as you go.  You don’t want to start out price warring with thousands of other sellers on the Internet.  If the guy I mentioned above starts selling IPODS, I guarantee that no matter how low he lists his price, someone out there will find his price and beat it.  Just don’t do that to yourself.

Plus, if JoJo the Hypo just focuses on IPODS, his near-sighted approach will only set him back in the long run.  Why? because when selling wholesale products online, you need to generalize a bit more with your product market.  If you want to sell just leather jackets, you should also sell other lines of clothing as well because that’s what works.

Ever heard of Ronald Reagan??  Some people don’t know that he was once an actor before he became President back in the day.  What would have happened if he didn’t veer into politics at one point during his acting career??  He wouldn’t have been President of the United States.  Point here is for you to think more than just “IPODS”, or “Footballs.”  You need to take more of a far-sighted approach to selling wholesale products online in order to be truly successful.

·         Some people want to sell wholesale products in which they know a little information about.

 “Hey Joe;

I’m an avid snowboarder, I love to snowboard and I have been doing it since birth.  I think this would be the wholesale product line that would work for me.  What do you think??”  MikeG

MikeG wants to sell something he knows a lot about and that could be both good and handicapping.  If he only sticks with snowboarding products, he’s less likely to ever try something new.  He feels nice and secure selling snowboards and whatever, but he may not find a wholesale product supplier that he likes and one that will drop ship for him.

-What to keep in mind here this, if you can’t find a wholesale product supplier for your product line, you have to be able to venture out of your safety net.  You have to be willing to learn about other things so you can get into many different types of product areas that SELL!!  Yes, you should sell things that SELL!!  You want to make money right??

·        Some people want to sell only “The Most Awesome Products”

“Hi

I want to sell some cool DVD Players and maybe some Plasma Screen Televisions.  I own both and think they’re sweet...”    - CoolManFrank

Did I mention to you above that you shouldn’t sell electronics??  Electronics, Electronics, man I get those emails weekly.  You know why??  It’s the technological market, the next generation of stuff and everyone wants to have a legitimate home based business that stocks those sweet products. 

Just like I told you before, you’ll be price warring with thousands of people if you try to sell DVD Players or any type of electronics for that matter.  You’ll have newbies lowering their prices just to “Get that Sale,” and they might even lose money in the process.   Just do yourself a favor and stay away from that idea totally.

REVIEW

1) Sell wholesale products that only a few people want and not many people Supply.

2) Don’t try and sell the next, best things – specifically electronics.

3) Think outside the Box, think Weird or even Crazy.  You know what I sold once??  Carnivorous Plants.  Yes, I sold Carnivorous Plants on the Internet to people across the US.  I made a pretty handsome profit in doing so.

Just think about wholesale product searching this way. If you were at a school fair and saw three booths selling Cotton Candy, would you open a fourth Cotton Candy booth??  No Way! you’re in business and want to make money.  You would probably open a Popcorn booth or one selling Hot Dogs.

Drop Shipping wholesale products online takes a little research, because you don’t want to sell the top twenty things other people are also selling on the Internet.  Don’t be just another bee in the beehive, go venture out and start your own nest and grow it with variety.

If everyone wants Cotton Candy, don’t sell Cotton Candy  J.