Today's helpful comment of the day is posted by Kitty Daniel

The following is what she commented:

Hi ,

I think that your advice were good and it allows others who may wanna open a blogshop just thinking that is easy money to think again and at the same time set it as a platform for they can get to understand what it takes to open a blogshop.

But personally , I think that what takes to attract people to your blog is that the items being sold in your blog must be unique.

Because as we can see by clicking randomly at any blogshop , with 70% and above blogshops are actually selling similar things and what may make thing worst is that those items can easily be purchased in places like bugis. so being a consumer, why would i wanna wait and purchase online as since i can just simply get it within reach and even cheaper?

So if possible, blogshop owner should source stocks at different places. Thus the items being sold in their blogs will be unique.

Secondly. I think the price of the items is also another factor that blogshop owner should look into. as we must understand that online shopping has become a growing trend that as young as 13 years old are shopping online. so the price of the items should be set at afforable/reasonable price thus more people can affort and will think of buying :)

But ultimately, I believe opening blogshop is not all about earning big or small money, but also about the passion , attitude and the heart to serve :)

Hopefully , my comment will help.

http://kittydaniel.blogspot.com/


Kitty Daniel pointed out one of the most important factor that MAKES or BREAKS a BlogShop, we will elaborate more on that later after we go through some of the other points she has talked about.

Kitty Daniel mentioned was that BlogShop should try their best to sell unique and different products from the other BlogShops. She pointed out that many people actually bought their stocks from the same supplier, which results in all the different BlogShops selling the same thing.

This results in the market from being over saturated and thus the competition of selling this products would be really high. Fighting in highly competitive market is difficult really difficult for BlogShop owners because it would lead to price wars, whereby everyone is trying to cut the retail price so as to attract more customers.

Most of the time, price war would lead to the BlogShop owners to earn REALLY pathetic profits after taking into consideration the cost of postage and the transport fee to the post office. In the end, the BlogShop owners would be left with a profit of a few cents per piece sold =(

Getting a unique product to sell is a much better idea because you are able to earn a alot more profit from selling it. For example, If I was the only person selling mini skirt in the market right now, I can charge my mini skirt at at any price I want (As long as it is reasonable) and there will still be people willing to buy it from me. This is because if customers do not buy the mini skirt from me, they are unable to get it anywhere else!

One good way to find unique products is to actually take a walk down to wholesale places whereby wholesalers sell a whole range of stuff. You can find all kinds of wierd stuff from electronic clocks all the way to female clothings. Hillstreet Road and Cityplaza(near palar lebar mrt) are pretty good places for you to find unique stuff to sell.

DO NOT, I REPEAT do not try to buy stuff from online wholesalers because you do not know how many people they are supplying their stuff too! You would be in big trouble if the wholesaler of yours is supplying to 5-10 other different BlogShops!

Remember that in the earlier part of the post, i mentioned that Kitty Daniel pointed out one of the most important factor of owning a successful BlogShop? Well scroll up to read the message left by Kitty Daniel again and try to figure out which is the phrase that impacted me the most..

Can you guess it correctly?

I can bet that most of you successful Blogshop owners out there would be able to point out the sentence..

"But ultimately, I believe opening blogshop is not all about earning big or small money, but also about the passion , attitude and the heart to serve"

Tons of people out there started their Blogs/ BlogShop as a passion, just something that they would like to do in their spare time. At the start, it doesn't matter whether many people read their blog or whether anybody buys anything from their BlogShop. It was all about the fun factor initially.

It doesn't matter whether they had to spend the whole day advertising for their BlogShop, or whether they have to burn the midnight oil to type out a really interesting BlogPost. To them, it was something that they liked doing, and they would not mind doing it. I bet most of you guys have been through this stage before. It was a wonderful feeling, owning an online business, being your own boss.

However, as time goes by and they become slightly more popular blogging (or they start earning a little more money in their blogshops) successes starts to mess around in their head. They start think of ways whereby they can start earning more money through their blogs. Whenever they update their blog or blogshop, they no longer felt the thrill that they use to have. Instead, they are constantly thinking of ways they can gain more traffic, earn more money from their products or how they can earn more money from their advertisers.

The fun-filled activity of updating your Blog/BlogShop, suddenly becomes dreaded work instead.

The love and passion for their blog is no longer there. All the blog/blogshop means to them now is just a mere cash making machine that churns out cash for them and they will see it as a chore to actually update their Blog/BlogShop.

Once you reach this stage, you maybe highly successful in terms of income wise, but right in your heart, you would start feeling that you detest the tedious job of constantly updating your blog. As your passion for your blog/blogshop becomes more and more faint, you would start hating your blog/blogshop..more and more..

I hope that you guys do not let this happen to you, and always remember the reason why you first started your BlogShop. Money maybe a indication of success for your BlogShop, but without passion, your Blog/BlogShop would not last for long.

I sincerely believe in the following quote I watched on the Apprentice:

"The only way to become truly rich, is to help others become rich"
-Donald Trump

Therefore if you feel that the content in this Blog can help your Friends and Families earn more money through the internet, I sincerely hope that you can will be kind enough and share this with them by linking http://www.BlogShopHelp.com to your blog!

As usual, do leave a comment if you feel that you have anything to comment about this article! I believe wholeheartedly that everybody should have the ability to speak their mind, so that we will be able to learn from each other =)

Many of my friends who own BlogShops used complain to me on how hard it is to get customers to buy stuff from them. They go on and on describing how good and effective their product is or how cheap they are actually selling their stuff, yet they are still only able to make limited number of sales from their BlogShops!


They do not understand how I am able to make an additional estimated $4000 from my Clothing BlogShop monthly, yet they are not even able to make a measly $500 a month! They think that just because we are selling the same stuff, they are able to achieve the same success as I did.

Many of them tried all kinds of stuff to get people to buy from their BlogShops. They try selling their blouses at 40% off the retail prices (such as places like Hula and Co or TopShop) yet people would still rather buy from the retail outlets as compared to buying from them.

Some even tried going around pasting paper advertisement over their HDB flats so that more people will visit their BlogShops! Haha!

So, what makes my BlogShop so much more successful as compared to theirs?

In fact, I would say that my BlogShop looks exactly the same as theirs, just that I was able to create more credibility in my BlogShop.

Think of it this way, even if we are credible and honest BlogShop owners, there are so many scam websites over the internet that causes people to be more wary when they make purchases online. Many of them are afraid that that their money might get cheated away, so they would rather not spend a single dime even when they find something they really like online.

In fact, during a recent survey conducted through my Facebook list, over 55% of my (250) friends claims that they do not make online purchases because they may get involved in online fraud.

Therefore, if you are able to show that you are a credible person and that you are setting up an honest business, more people would be willing to buy from you! Setting up a shop online is not always about having better products or having a cheaper price (although they are important factors) but it is also about how credible your BlogShop looks.

SO tell me Clemence.. How do i improve the credibility of my BlogShop?

1. Set up a About Us page so that visitors are able to know what kind of a person you are. When you have a credible profile up, and you are able to show people that you are actually real( I know this sounds lame), more people would trust and buy from you. One method is to actually leave your facebook/friendster link on your BlogShop.
2. Link your BlogShop to different Blog directories. This shows that your blog is actually authorized by all the Blog Directories.
3. Try to sound more professional in your BlogShop and try not to use lame jargon ( like using 'euu' instead of you or using 'Ah lian' language)
4. Leave testimonials of satisfied customers so that people are able to see that you are an honest and reliable BlogShop owner. If non of your customers actually left any comment, try emailing them and asking them for one.( You would be surprise how many people are willing to do it)
5. Leave your picture in your BlogShop( People tend to be more trusting when they see the picture of the person)
6. Visitors are rightly skeptical of unsubstantiated claims. If you make a claim (”best value,” “most reliable,” etc.), prove it. Proving what you say will build credibility.

Alright here are some of the ways I use to create credibility in my BlogShop. I know that there are many other methods out there that successful BlogShop owners have employed.

Therefore, I would like to request that if you have any methods on improving credibility of your Blogshop, do leave a comment and share it with others!

(If you manage to give a really good suggestion, I would even consider putting your BlogShop link at the right side of my blog.)