In Chapter Five I introduced my site http://www.bathbombs.org to everyone including my beta testers. I answered the most commonly asked questions about the site. Since that time we have been working diligently to get the site ready for our marketing. Here are a few things we’ve been working on.
The Project Chapter 6 - Moving Along
Credit Card Processing: We found that because we have so many sites linked into one PayPal Account that we were unable to keep track of things the way we like. Because of this we have created an account at eAuthorize and are using a local processing company to set-up our payment system. This should add a level of accountability and professionalism to this project. You can only go so far with PayPal.
Accounting: Typically all my web projects fall under a particular section of my main companies financial records. During this project it has become evident that we needed to change our procedures. So we opened a new online account with QuickBooks solely for this project. This will be tied into our bank account and our order processing system allowing us to have accurate detailed financial records with the click of a button.
Product: When we first designed this site we uploaded all of our suppliers products. Now that we have completed our marketing plan we’ve found that many of the products can not provide a profitable margin based on anticipated conversion (sales costs). This initially caused a problem and almost derailed the entire project. After close analysis we did find that instead of selling individual items we can easily group them into three or seven unit packs. This created a new product line with 90% of the items costing over $12.00 which is a our break even sale point.
Logo: We contracted with a new developer as we feel this site will need a more brandable logo then most of our other sites. The new logo will be posted in the next chapter.
SEO: We did start our content development and link building strategy. We are currently going slow with this as the site is not completely ready to start taking sales.
So as the project moves along we wanted to outline some of the issues that we have faced. In our attempt to write a detailed guide to starting a drop shipping business we have to be sure to tell you each and every time we run into a problem. This will help you to better structure you plan to avoid many of the problems on your own. If you are interested in keeping up to date with our drop shipping project you can subscribe below.
SEO Consultant Roger Bryan