Many people think it’s difficult to find good wholesalers online. That’s why there is a thriving niche in the “wholesale directories” business. I assure you, finding quality wholesalers online is not that hard, but takes some effort. Don’t spend tens to hundreds of dollars buying directories or lists that in many cases are outdated.

Drop Shipping

Finding good drop shippers can be a challenge. That’s because a basic search for “drop shippers” will land you pages and pages of sites trying to sell you directories, not the website of quality manufacturers. Here are some tips for finding a good company that drop ship.

1. Once you find the product you want to sell, figure out what trade journals go with your industry. Believe me, every industry has some sort of trade magazine. These magazines are often free for those in the industry, and are packed full of manufacturers and suppliers who advertise in them. Some trade magazine sites will even have a searchable directory online.

2. Figure out what annual trade show is the biggest for your industry. Yes, every industry has some sort of annual conference or trade show. You don’t need to attend the show, just find a list of those who are exhibiting at the show (always available on the trade show’s website). You now how a list of companies in the industry, many of which should be manufacturers. Then, you have to pick up the phone or Google each one to find the ones that drop ship.

Buying in Bulk

Buying in bulk has become very easy online. There are a slew of good sites that list bulk wholesale lots for sale. Check out Liquidation.com which is an auction style site that sells bulk lots of everything! Also, I recently discovered Surplus.net which allows companies who sell bulk lots to advertise their listings.

Problems with buying bulk: Most bulk lots are sold “as is where is”, which is a nice way of saying, we’re not responsible for the condition of what we’re sending you! Keep in mind that a lot of bulk lots are “shelf pulls” or overstock. This means that the merchandise was sitting on a shelf and never sold. You may also find “returns” which carry the most risk. This is simply a bulk lot of merchandise that was returned to the store. You may get some good stuff in the lot, but chances are a lot of it is broken…. that’s why it was returned. The best way to avoid getting something you didn’t want is to talk to the supplier first. Surplus.net gives you the contact information so you can develop a relationship with the supplier before making a purchase.

I have to admit I was curious. I wanted to get the text message when Obama announced his VP choice. So, I went to the website for the first time. After realizing that I will probably get Obama-Spam for the next three months, I decided not to sign up. When I went to back out of the screen (using the back button in IE 7) I couldn’t get past the index page. HOW ANNOYING! I hate when websites do this, and have never understood the benefit.

Don’t ever force your visitors to stay on the webpage, even if you’re running for president. Actually, especially if you’re running for president. Perhaps this should be a campaign issue?

PS. this is NOT meant to be political at all. I just thought it was amusing.

It’s surprising that such a good tool is not easy to find on the Google Analytics website, especially when it makes measuring online campaigns so darn easy!

For those of you that use Google Analytics there is a tagging feature that allows you to create unique URL’s for all of your campaigns. It gives you the ability to tag every and all links in an email campaign, or even in your PPC efforts. Obviously, Google Analytics is integrated with Google Adwords (if you have your accounts integrated), so you can easily measure these campaigns. However, this tagging tool is especially helpful if you’re participating in other PPC efforts, yes there’s more than just Google Adwords!

Anyway, this tool allows you to enter your campaign information and then produce a unique URL with the tracking data integrated. It will give you a much more accurate picture of what your advertising and emailing is doing for you.

It can be a little tricky to setup at first, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll be tagging everything!

Check it out.

When I first started using Google Adwords years ago, I always had trouble thinking of good keywords to try. It is a great place to test the effectiveness of keywords, before you invest in optimizing your site with the. Then, shortly after, Adwords added a suggestion tool to their PPC admin area. I thought this was great! Now Google was telling me what the most popular keywords are, basically taking all of the need for research away!

 WRONG!

Google is not offering their Keyword Suggestion tool so you find new relevant keywords to use. Google is simply showing you the most popular keywords that other merchants are bidding on. There is a HUGE difference.

The Google Keyword Suggestion tool is telling you what other keywords are popular with other advertisers, NOT with searchers. So, what you’re doing by selecting these “popular” keywords is raising the CPC of the keyword, because more advertisers are going after it!

When setting up your Google Adwords account be sure to do your own independent keyword research. Don’t follow the crowd, and pay more for the privilege.

CHEAP PLUG

Check out my new ebook “101 Ways To Improve Your Online Store“! It’s full of tips and tricks to improve all areas of your website, from SEO to PPC, Product pager design, and customer service. It’s all in there.