This week we've been learning about sourcing products for selling in an online shop. We looked at the differences between affiliate marketing and drop shipping, and analyzed the benefits of each method.
Affiliate marketing is a very popular option for bloggers. It's easy to add affiliate links to posts, review products that are useful in our homes, and make a little bit of money on the side. But it's also a hassle.
Every blog post that might contain an affiliate link needs to be marked so that readers know we make money when they click it. There are loads of different affiliate platforms, which means multiple accounts to try and bring in a small commission. Keeping track of that with my ADHD just feels like a nightmare. This is why I haven't yet set up to do any kind of consistent affiliate marketing.
Drop shipping is another option for selling products online. I would find wholesaler businesses, create a shop on the website, and list the products on my shop at a markup, and when the order comes through the wholesale supplier would send out the product.
This is appealing for a few reasons. A) no inventory for me to keep track of. B) shipping is taken care of by someone else. C) all I have to do is ensure that my shop stays up-to-date with the inventory that the wholesale supplier has in stock. Though there are some drawbacks.
The biggest is handling returns. If the supplier doesn't handle returns personally, then I would need to cover the costs of shipping to return the product and send out a new one.
That being said, I am partial to the idea of drop shipping products that I personally recommend and find to be useful. Since I do need to find a way to keep The Homeschoolery self sustaining this seems like an ideal option. Leave a comment below if you would like to see us start to keep recommended products in stock!
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