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

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.

I wish I could just say, "that's my income" and that would answer it. But a lot of people don't understand that cartooning is a business and it does not just mean, ink on pad sent to newspapers anymore. In fact, publishing does not hold a candle to the licensing of products. Even though I know from looking at competition, we price our products fairly, we sell a lot of different products, and, by pricing low and selling a lot, like Wal-mart, though admittedly not as big, we make more money than if we marked items way up. Word gets around if one carries quality products at reasonable prices...and fast.

Humor domination of the world wide web is a good start. Ok, a little joke, but that does not mean it cannot be a goal. I know it is arrogant but it is so, and why lie? 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 my creative team was entirely voluntary. Then we started selling. Then manufacturing came. Then we were suddenly a business. It all took a life of its own.

Though all our sites are free to visit, even the stores, our Londons Times Cartoon site is non-monetized except for the few Google Adsense ads. We did that on purpose. We built the largest offbeat cartoon site on the Internet and promised access to all cartoons for our fans. We've kept that promise for ten years, no membership, no credit card, just good laughs, and never a fee. Why? Laughing is more fun when it is free. You may think it might not be as funny with no charge. Not to worry, our stores make a profit and we keep the prices low. 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 get out of breath from a great belly-laugh

It was not easy deciding as to which type products to sell. So we started with about a hundred different items and narrowed it down to the top-50 or so.

Some of the larger sellers are t-shirts, 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 a number of other items that have surprised me.

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.

Why do we do it that way instead of packing everything into one store? A number of reasons. A lot of people don't want to go to a large department store, for instance, for one or two items that for which they are looking.

If they seek a funny valentine's gift, they are more likely to visit our thong store, AThongInMyHeart.Com, rather than 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 if outside the U.S. within a week or two). Not too bad a deal, and the prices are excellent.

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.

Just because we do it this way, does not mean it is "the way" to do it. There are so many other ways to sell oneFs wares on the Internet, and money need not be the only motivator.

We enjoy watching the analytics from 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 in creative mode.

Are you an addicted cyber-shopper like me? I enjoy it so much mainly 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, Bizrate, Shopzilla, etc. I enjoy using those for home entertainment, computer equipment etc. But they really are not made for the niche shopper looking for that original unique product that can only be bought at one store (and possibly its affiliate stores at similar pricing).

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

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

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