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Do You Shop Or Sell Products Online? A Must-read

Author: RickLondon
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I doubt a day does not go by that I'm not asked, "Rick, why so many products, why so many stores? (We have 9 stores). There are a number of answers to that question, but I will start with the obvious.

At the risk of sounding like the elderly professor in the Xerox commercial regarding publishing is not done much because it costs "MONEY", that is the first answer that comes to mind. We like making moolah. But that is our cynical side. We also like making people happy. No, really.

We want to dominate the cartoon world on the Internet. Ok. That sounds a bit arrogant but it is true. I am told that in any given year there are approximately 10,000 cartoons on the Internet and out of those 10k cartoons only about 5 or so last longer than a year. This is our tenth year and to be honest, we didn't even start to monetize the site with stores until 14 months ago; and even think about Google Adwords until a few years ago? Why? Because we really looked at the entire thing as a hobby and everyone was pitching in during our spare time. Suddenly we looked up and we had very high ratings, masses of visitors and people telling us, "Figure out a way to make money on this site".

Our main site, Londons Times Cartoons remains free. We want to always keep it that way; as, with 8500 original cartoons, mostly in color, we look at it as a cyber-museum of sorts, and to make it a membership site, as we once thought about doing, to us, would dampen the spirit of the whole idea of it. Why pay for the opportunity to have a good laugh (we hope, anyway).

We have looked at all the available merchandise on which to manufacturer our cartoon images, and stuck with about 60 different items.

Reliable items that move rapidly include day planners, tank tops coasters, sweats, hoodies, aprons, clocks, infant wear, thongs, maternity dresses (yes, really), men's women's and kids tops and baseball jerseys, tote bags and even key chains and tote bags.

Testing the market on the Internet is a little different than testing it in real life. In the blink of an eye, a popular blog may recommend something or trash it and you never know if your store is included in the inferno. Best to have several just in case.

Still, why so many stores you might ask? Many real life shoppers prefer botique shops to large mall stores. I am one of them. Sometimes I want to get in and get out, fast. That is why the niche botique stores in addition to the large online mall type stores. I like to give the customers a choice.

AThongInMyHeart.Com, our cartoon thong an boxer short store lures a large number of romantic shoppers who want something *really* different. Though they can get the same items at the same price at our mall stores, RickLondonCollection.com or Ricklondonwear.com simply because they don't have to wade through other items and can find exactly what they want click, buy, and have it at their door within a few days or overseas in about a few weeks. In any of the stores, they know they will get a good deal, and a funny quality product.

The same is true for hoodies, mouse pads, greeting cards, mugs and steins, and other such online shopping stores in which we have narrowed it down to niche marketing. We do not charge any more for products that are in those stores, that are also in our larger stores, we simply offer an alternative quicker convenient buying method for those who do not want to "go shopping" but have a general or exact idea of the item for which they are seeking.

Whether buying or selling, we are just laying out common sense guidelines that might work for you. There are many other ways to "do it right". All of this depends on your style of both shopping or buying. In any case, every time you create a transactin on the web, jobs are created and you are saving time and usually money. It's good business.

The Londons Times Cartoon team enjoys following the stastics sites that measure rankings and such and see how each site is doing. Generally they remain popular and gain in popularity as the days go by (thanks to you) and it keeps us motivated to keep us productive and working for you.

Do you enjoy online shopping as much as I do? I love it because it is so nice to find items that are difficult if not impossible to find in real shopping malls, you may enjoy comparison shopping channels like Shop.com, Google Base and other shopping channels. I enjoy using those for home entertainment, computer equipment etc. But they really are not made for the niche shopper looking for that one-of-a-kind product that can only be bought in one store (and its affiliate stores) priced identically.

I visit Ebay, Amazon.com, etc. daily to see ifa particular online store has items featured there. I check their rankings on Ebay particularly if they are. For instance, 3drose, our manufacturer, sells our products on Ebay, Shop.com, Amazon.com and various other shopping channels. I check their ratings. We are fortunate with 3drose. They have a 99.4% positive feedback rating with almost 12,000 transactions, being one of Ebay's oldest and largest power-sellers. This helps us, of course, as we want the quality of our products to be the best.

About the Author

Cartoon creator Rick London started as a cartoonist and it was "only a hobby. Now he has 9 e-stores of comic gifts including the award-winning Rick London Collection Rated Funniest Cartoon Gifts & T Shirts On The Net Rick London Collection