How To Build A Website 2018 | You Don’t Have To Be A Tech Geek

If you’re wondering about how to build a website (even for free), then this article will be helpful for you.

Have no idea where to start?  That’s perfectly normal, to be honest.

You’re not alone as for most people, building a website online is still a bit of a mystery.

For most people (including us a few years ago), creating a website is something that only IT geeks are capable of doing.

These coders lock themselves in basements, have no friends, and wear thick glasses. Right?

Right??

Well, that was the old school stereotype that most people had for coders (including us a few years ago when we struggled to get started – we confess!)

I’m not sure if it’s because of the media, movies, whatever. But that’s definitely not how a lot of websites are actually built nowadays, and that’s definitely not how coders behave!

You don’t need to be an IT geek to learn how to build a website from scratch today.

You don’t even need to know code (a bit will help, but not a necessity and it won’t hold you back), you don’t need to manage hosts / servers, and you don’t need to have a lot of money.

Here is a quick snapshot of some of the website builders nowadays that can help you build your website – without having to learn how to code or breaking your bank account.

How To Build A Website	Drag& Drop Website Builders
Recommendations	Wix.com Squarespace Weebly Jimdo

If you’re not familiar with them, keep reading and we’ll show you how to you can create a website in less than a day, and a list of basic items you need to get started.

And don’t worry, the surprising part is that entire process won’t cost you very much.

HOW A LOT OF WEBSITES ARE BUILT NOWADAYS

Technology has advanced tremendously over the past few years. The internet has grown faster than ever before.

Facebook has taken over, Google is king, and normal folks like yourself can build your own website for free.

More and more people are creating websites online as a way to express themselves and get in touch with others. Businesses cannot afford not to have websites as a way of reaching more potential customers.

If you want to build a business, or if you already have a business but haven’t built your website yet, you’re falling further and further behind.

But is building websites easy?  What is a good website builder? What do you need to get started? How much does it cost to build a website?

In the past? Very challenging.

Today? Not challenging or super expensive at all.

Think about it. Facebook made it easy for you to connect with hundreds, if not thousands of people. Smartphones make it easy for you to surf the web on a tiny device.

It’s not that hard to believe that building websites can also be easy, right?

There are a lot of website creators that have emerged over the past few years that enable you to build websites without knowing how to code.

They programmed the website building software so now you literally just have to use your mouse and drag a slideshow, a block of text, images, videos, into the website. You can then insert your own text, upload your own pictures, insert your own videos (such as YouTube), and click publish. That’s it.

Weebly.com (Click to see)

I know it sounds ridiculously easy.

After all, we’ve been taught that if something is too good to be true, it’s probably not, right?

Well, that’s a good rule of thumb, but not always the case.

In terms of learning how to build a website from scratch, this is definitely not the case.

For sure you will have to invest time into creating your own content and setting things up. But the days when only super tech geniuses can make websites are long gone.

Want to know why building websites is no longer hard or technically challenging – even for you? – See this discussion.

HOW TO BUILD A WEBSITE: YOUR STEP BY STEP GUIDE

Just to show you how easy it is to make a website I have listed the steps below:

1. Choose a website builder – you’ll want an ecommerce builder if you plan to sell online
2. Sign up for a free trial (or jump straight into a premium account!)
3. Think about & choose your domain name (aka your website address)
4. Choose a professional, ready-made template to customize
5. Customize your website design by dragging and dropping text & media
6. Preview & test your site to make sure it looks & works the way you want it to
7. Publish your site & share it with the world!

Follow the steps above and you’ll be online in no time at all!

CHECKLIST: WHAT YOU NEED TO BUILD A WEBSITE

Before we dive into what drag & drop website builders are all about, I know you’re just itching to know what exactly you need to make a website!

No – you don’t need to be good at coding, or math, or coming up with an exotic formula to send a rocket ship into space (though that would definitely help further science!)

Here are the 9 things you need to make a website:

1. Domain name
2. Business email address
3. Website building software
4. Website hosting
5. Website template design
6. Logo
7. Highly quality images
8. Image editor
9. Google Analytics

Keep in mind that these are just the basic items you need to create a website, and you can expand this list as you become more comfortable with the process.

It’s not that intimidating, right?

If you’re still a bit unsure whether you can do it, especially if you feel that you’re not the creative type (such as designing a logo, picking good pictures, etc), we have a dedicated, comprehensive “What You Need To Build A Website” guide that covers all of the checklist items above in detail.

The bottom line is – don’t let these thing intimidate you. Remember, technology nowadays makes it easier for you to build a website.

ARE ALL WEBSITE BUILDERS GOOD & EASY TO USE?

All website builders are built differently – each has its own pros and cons. Some are easier, some are more challenging.

I think the general guideline is that the more sophisticated and powerful the builder is, the higher the learning curve. That makes sense, right?

So for instance, WordPress is a very powerful website builder. It is flexible, advanced, and can almost be programmed to do almost anything you want as a website.

However, the learning curve to become proficient with using WordPress is rather steep. You will most likely have to invest quite a bit of time to learn how to use it well, and perhaps you will have to pay some freelancer or WordPress expert to help you set up your website.

Then there are WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get), drag and drop website builders. These are the ones that do not need you to know any code to get a website up and running in a little amount of time.

(The following promo video is from Squarespace – Click here to see Squarespace)

These builders are ideal for people who don’t have the time to learn code (life is busy, right?) or don’t have the budget to hire someone to help build a website.

It’s great for people who enjoy DIY (Do-It-Yourself).

WHAT ABOUT WEBSITE DESIGN AND TEMPLATES?  MY SITE HAS TO LOOK GOOD!

Website builders nowadays give you a really good selection of design templates to choose from.

Let’s face it, the majority of us don’t know how to design well, let alone coding up our own web design!

So what do website builders do?  They create design templates so you can use them for your website, allowing your site to look good.

Think about them as “clothes” for your website.  If you don’t like one set of clothes, just change to another one to give your website a completely different feel.

Click to see some beautiful free website templates for you to use

Almost all website builders give you these templates for free, and hands down, using these design templates will give your website the biggest visual impact in the least amount of time.

You don’t need to touch any codes whatsoever!

In fact, if you are just starting a new business, we HIGHLY recommend that you don’t bother with hiring a website designer – for good reasons (see our arguments here).

Drag & drop website builders (see our recommendations below) give you really good looking design templates to give you a head start already. There are more important things to focus on while your business is still young than hiring a professional (and potentially expensive) designer.

1) Collection of Free, Beautiful & Professional Templates For You – Click here to see

2) 3 Simple Criteria to Picking the Perfect Template For You (Tutorial) – Click to see

POPULAR DRAG & DROP WEBSITE BUILDERS

If you don’t want to learn how to code, or if you don’t have a large budget to hire freelancers to help you build a website from scratch, there are a few good website builders that you may want to test out to see if they can help you out.  You just might enjoy using them, too!

Here are a few website builders that we recommend to help you build a website:

• Wix.com – see our review
• Squarespace – see our review
• Weebly – see our review
• Jimdo – see our review

All of them have their own pros and cons, and some of them are better at certain things.

When we started making websites ourselves, we researched for days as it was hard to figure out which one best fit our needs.

There was so much information out there that it overloaded us, and pretty much paralyzed us in terms of choosing which website builder to use.

So we decided to test a lot of them. After investing hundreds of hours in using many different website builders ourselves (gosh those days were painful!), we’ve compiled a few different guides / resources so to help make your research (and life) a bit easier:

1) Website Builder Comparison Chart

2) Pros and Cons of Popular Website Builders

3) 9 Questions To Choosing the Right Website Builder

4) How to Build a Business Website in 5 Easy Steps

5) 3 Best Web Design Software to Help You Build Professional Looking Websites

6) Road Map To Building Your First Website (Infographic)

At the end of the day, there really isn’t a “one website builder fits all” type of solution.

We recommend that you narrow down your search to 2 or 3 website builders, and just invest a day to trying them out. It’s almost like shopping for a car (except MUCH cheaper). It makes a lot of sense to test drive a few of them just to see if they work out for you.

All of the website builders that we recommend are free to sign up, or at least they have a free trial period where you can give it a test drive.

WHAT ABOUT E-COMMERCE WEBSITE BUILDERS?

If you are thinking about building an online store, there are e-commerce website builders for you as well!

The best of the bunch that we recommend is Shopify if you need a very comprehensive e-commerce solution.

Their themes are great, and they have a very powerful App Store to add more powerful tools to your store.

Shopify is great if you have many products that you want to see online, or if you already have a physical store and you just want to start selling products online.

They have a Point of Sale system where you can take advantage of using iPads to run your physical store while having all the inventory, sales records, fully integrated with your online store. If you use Shopify, there is no need to separate both your online and offline store anymore.

If you don’t need too many advanced tools and only have a handful of products to sell, Wix, Squarespace, Weebly and Jimdo are also excellent candidates to consider. These are great e-commerce solutions if you are selling unique, boutique products, photographs, art, or just anything that are not mass produced.

1) List of E-Commerce Website Builders for You to Consider

2) Summary of Best E-Commerce Builders

WHAT ABOUT DOMAIN NAMES, HOSTING, SECURITY EMAILS?

One of the best things about these growing website builders is that they take care of a lot of your concerns so you can focus on just learning how to build a website, creating content and growing your website.

They provide all the hosting services for you so you don’t have to pay for it separately.

They also take care of all the security upgrades for the hosts so you don’t have to bother with all this techie stuff. They ensure that your website is always up and running, and doesn’t get hacked.

Hosting by Shopify for your Ecommerce Store (click to see more information)

As for domain names, you can either purchase your own custom domain name through the website builder, or you can purchase it on your own through registrars such as GoDaddy or NameCheap.

Some website builders such as Wix, Squarespace, Jimdo and Webs will give you a free custom domain name if you sign up to their premium plans.

Keeping your own domain name requires you to pay an annual fee and the yearly investment is roughly around $12 for most people. So signing up to their premium plans will save you the domain name fee, which will effectively lower your yearly investment in the website builder if you sign up to their premium plans.

Just bear in mind that when you purchase a domain name from a website builder or through separate registrars, you own the domain name and can take it to wherever you want.

This is a very common question we get (and certainly one of our own question when we first started as well!) so hope this clarifies things a bit for you.

Beginners Guide to Domain Names – learn how domain name works and what some issues you should be aware of that’s not commonly discussed.

A lot of you also wonder about how to get your own custom email address. Not all the website builders provide email services built into their platform.

If you see our comparison chart, you’ll see that Jimdo, GoDaddy and IM Creator provide email services if you subscribe to their premium plans.

If you decide to use the other website builders what don’t offer email services – fear not.  Google’s G Suite (using the friendly Gmail user interface) can also help you create your own email address for a few dollars a month.

In fact, Wix, Squarespace and Weebly all partnered up with Google to offer you this customized email addresses. Google’s G Suite email service is integrated with these website builders so setup is straightforward.

CONCLUSION – HOW TO BUILD A WEBSITE

Hopefully through this post, we’ve shown you that you don’t necessarily need to know how to code or become a tech guru in order to learn how to create a website.

Those “old school” barriers are now gone.  We certainly weren’t tech savvy when we first started out, so you don’t have to be either.

There are plenty of drag and drop website builders available in the market that literally allow you to drag content into a website, and publish it without touching any codes.

The learning curve of using these website builders is not too steep, but you do have to invest a day or so to test them out. Not a bad investment if you are serious about building and growing your own presence online for years to come!

Once you become comfortable with these builders, it doesn’t hurt to pick up some very basic coding knowledge so you can modify your website if you want. It’s not a must, but just something to consider if you want to have a bit more flexibility in terms of styling of your website.

Again, here are a few helpful links to get you started in comparing which website builder can help you get your website online!

Source:https://www.websitebuilderexpert.com/how-to-build-a-website-a/

How to Make Money with Bitcoin From How to Make Money with Bitcoin

Looking to earn some extra cash or build up your wealth portfolio? Bitcoin is a great option for doing so. When most people think of earning money through bitcoin, they think about mining and investing in the all-digital currency, but these days there are numerous other methods people can use to generate bitcoin and cash for themselves. Let’s go over some of the most well-known and reliable ways of making money with bitcoin.

The most effective way to make money with Bitcoin

One overlooked method to make money with Bitcoin is to build and manage your own Bitcoin faucet. You can earn anywhere between $50-$800 a month by running your own Bitcoin faucet. The process of running a faucet is pretty simple and it’s all explained in detail in this guide. By running your own Bitcoin faucet you will be paying out small amounts of Bitcoins to your users (automatically) but will be gaining much more revenue through ads you put on your site. Here’s how to get started with your own Bitcoin faucet.

Setting up your own Bitcoin website to generate a passive income

 One of the most under looked opportunities to make money with Bitcoin is probably to start your own Bitcoin information website. Unlike a faucet, this type of website will basically explain the basics of Bitcoin to new users, while making money from ads and affiliate offers. It takes a bit of time and a small amount of money to get started but in the long run will probably yield the best return on your investment. Here’s a video course explaining this whole process. A free PDF version of the course can be found here – My Dirty Little Bitcoin Secrets.

 Mini Earnings- A bit of your time, a bit of cash 

There are a wide range of websites that will pay you small amounts of money in exchange for completing certain tasks. Most of the time these so-called “faucets” involve looking at ads in one way or other. Basically, site owners get paid when people view and interact with ads. A few websites, such as bitcoin faucets, will share some of those earnings with their visitors. What you have to do to earn your bitcoins varies from website, to website. With some, you’ll kill aliens or feed animals, with others you’ll simply watch videos or click on ads. Be warned, however, some websites will infect you with malware and viruses.

 Writing- Turn your literary skills into cash 

The Internet is filled with endless forums and message boards, and this creates opportunities. These forums offer great opportunities to spread word about products and services, and some companies will even pay you to promote their products on these forums. Often, this involves little more than modifying your signature and putting an ad code into it. Other websites will pay you in bitcoin to write articles and blog posts. You could also set up your own blog, place ads on it, and get paid in bitcoin. If you happen to know another language you could also do some translation work for bitcoin. Either way, if you know how to write, you can earn bitcoin. Most opportunities are in English, but there are some opportunities in other languages.


 Selling products and services 

Remember, bitcoin is a currency. This means you can earn money off of selling just about every type of product and service simply by accepting bitcoin as payment. Even major websites, like Overstock.com, now accept bitcoin as payment. If you happen to be a top-notch marketer, or are good with arts and crafts (among many other things), you can sell your services and wares, and accept bitcoin in exchange. As with any other type of business you will have to get out there and market yourself and your products or services. If you’re already selling something, you should consider accepting bitcoin as payment, if you haven’t done so already. If you aren’t selling anything, now is a great time to look at the market to identify needs, and to find ways to meet those needs. Bitcoin offers a wide range of entrepreneurial opportunities for the bold and ambitious, and the all-digital currency makes conducting business around the world cheaper and easier.


Bitcoin mining- Mine your own wealth 

Bitcoin mining is arguably the oldest way to create wealth through bitcoin. Bitcoins are created through solving complex algorithms that create blocks that are added to the public ledger. The public ledger is the history of all transactions conducted through bitcoin. Long story short, miners basically build the public ledger and allow the whole bitcoin system to function. As they create new blocks, miners are rewarded with new bitcoins. This encourages more miners to get in on the action, which allows the bitcoin community to grow. Once upon a time, people could use their home PC to mine bitcoins, but over time mining has become more difficult as the algorithms have become more complex. Now, you’ll either have to buy a specially built mining rig, or join up with a bitcoin mining pool that harnesses the power of multiple computers. If you want to check out the profitability of Bitcoin mining today use a Bitcoin mining calculator.


Investing- Tap into bitcoin’s ever growing value 

Back in October bitcoins were selling for less than $250 dollars. As of writing this article, Bitcoins are selling for more than $450 dollars. If you had invested in bitcoin back in October, you would have nearly doubled your invest in the course of a few short months! Since bitcoin is limited in supply and production is tightly regulated through the algorithms themselves, bitcoin has numerous anti-inflationary considerations built it. This means that over time bitcoin should gain in value.


Gambling- If you got some luck you might make some money

 By now, you’re probably familiar with online casinos. They’re pretty straightforward. You play a game of luck, or skill-based game like poker, and if you win, you earn some money. Bitcoin makes it easy to gamble and you can earn some huge amounts of bitcoins if you score a major jackpot. Of course, when it comes to gambling the house always wins in the long run, so risks are high. Lending- Loan some bitcoins, earn some interest


Lending is perhaps the oldest way to use money to make money.

 Basically, you loan out money to a relevant party and they pay you back, with interest. Interest rates will vary with the risk involved. If you get collateral in exchange for your loan, interest rates will be low. No collateral means higher risks, but it also means higher interest rates.


Source: https://99bitcoins.com/how-to-make-money-with-bitcoin/#

Guide to Buying from Alibaba, importing from China and selling on Amazon

Now, when you know How to start Amazon FBA business and you already found your product it is a time to source a product and Alibaba is the right place for that. In this post I will share email templates, spreadsheets and tips on how to negotiate, haggle, communicate with suppliers and how to source your product from Alibaba. Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Buying from Alibaba, importing from China and selling on Amazon. Findnig right supplier on Alibaba is the secret to being successful in Amazon business. No-one here is going to divulge their exact source. It is your single most important asset when it comes to selling on Amazon FBA. You can have all the capital, know-how and resources in the world. But if you don’t have a source or a manufacturer, you are DEAD in the water. It’s the first step to a successful Amazon business, or ANY business really. A restaurant is nothing without recipes, a blog is nothing without writers and a tech company is nothing without its programmers and engineers. Same with FBA, if you don’t have a product to sell, you have no FBA business. In this post I’m gonna share spreadsheets, message templates and a strategy for calculating which supplier is best.

• Popular: How To Start An Amazon FBA Private Label Business

Things to know when buying from Alibaba and importing from china

Everything is negotiable with sellers from Alibaba. Do not exaggerate when negotiating with a seller, your goal should be to get a fair deal, not a good deal. You have to be careful though because if you keep pushing on price and they believe you won’t reorder without a lower price the factories WILL sacrifice quality to meet your price. If they are forced to lower a quote then they might use inferior materials and with the Chinese unless you’re strict and clear on what you want then quality could be a real issue. The best thing to do is to compare prices and to tell the supplier that there are other manufacturers offering this product at competitive prices. Quality and profit margin is more important than getting a good deal in my opinion. I learned not to push too much in price since I have had already quality problems. The key to avoiding this is to specify the quality you expect for the product, this is very important, size, color, materials, tolerances… with this information on the table, you can negotiate better prices. You don’t want to get a better price at the expense of lower quality. For small initial orders, I usually offer 60% of the first quoted price. In general, I get the best price after the 2nd reorder because by that time they feel that I will be a long term customer and I normally get 30% off of the initial quote. Try to find the original manufacturer instead of the many middle man companies there are out there. Unfortunately, in my experience this was pretty tough since there is not much info out there for most of the companies so one doesn’t know whom to trust. Once I got lucky ordering from Aliexpress and one of the products I purchased had the manufacturers information (Website, phone) inside of the packaging. I was able to negotiate a very significant reduction in price with the manufacturer (something like a 60% price reduction compared to Aliexpress, for an expensive $70 product. Do you use Aliexpress to test the Amazon market first? It is definitely possible, not the best course of action though. In order to find a niche that is good on aliexpress, you need to dig extremely deep and weird, and even then it’s a long shot. That’s why I always enter the market set up to succeed. If I’m ordering 15-20 units then that isn’t possible. That doesn’t give me enough units to do giveaways, get reviews, run PPC, get custom packaging made, and definitely doesn’t allow me to get to page 1. My entire plan is based on the fact I’m going to get page 1. And if I do make it to the page, I need to have enough stock. With 20 units, my hands are tied and I can’t be successful. If you still want to use Aliexpress, here is the spreadsheet you can use. Tip on finding original manufacturer. Use https://www.1688.com/ rather thanwww.alibaba.com, you will find mostly factories, and very few trading companies (because who the hell needs trading companies if it’s all domestic?). If you look at the pictures, they will have faded white words on there. Google it, then find the factory page, then find the phone number. Usually, it will be the factory.Knowing the real value – you should have quotes from multiple manufacturers before doing this. Otherwise, what are you basing your asking price off of? Also, factor in that they are also doing business. You can’t expect them to offer you a price at their cost. They also have to make a margin. Consider that the margin you allow for them can result in non-monetary perks/benefits down the road. A good manufacturer looks to create a relationship, not just a transaction.

How to avoid frauds scams when buying on Alibaba and importing from China?

Some people on Alibaba steals ideas, designs, and original pictures. Source: Imgur

Finding suppliers is easy, the hard part is finding Mr.Right. Keep in mind that there are suppliers on Alibaba who will try to scam your money so always be vigilant and trust your gut feeling when sourcing for suppliers on Alibaba. If you get scammed, it might completely discourage you from further dealings with foreign trade companies. Actually, fraud is something that everyone has heard about, even you just do business with local companies. It can never be completely eliminated, but it can be minimized. All you need to avoid fraud is a little precaution, observation, and knowledge. I have been using Alibaba for a while. There are 10 golden rules that I always follow when buying on Alibaba, although these methods don’t guarantee a 100% safe transaction.

1. Google the company which you are interested in and check their website. Does it look legit?. You can add the word “scam” to the search keywords. It is possible that past cases of fraud by that certain company have already been described on the Internet and listed in someone’s blacklist. If they are real companies, you can find their export records from many export data’s websites, such as: importgenius, tradesns, tradesparq, panjiva, etc.
2. Only buy from gold suppliers and look for suppliers with Trade Assurance
3. Shop around. Is one supplier way cheaper than everyone else? If so they should probably be avoided.
4. Pay attention to e-mail adresses. What is their email? Is it “@gmail” or “@companyname”? An e-mail sent from economicdevelopment@mail.com should make you think twice, as special economic zones don’t use free e-mail accounts…
5. See if they are professional. If they are real manufacturer, their quote is usually detailed and professional. Try to ask more professional questions. Think twice If their reply is not professional.
6. Onsite Check and Assessed Supplier are important, but not 100% necessary.
7. Always request a sample. Every sample I have received they have provided for free if I paid for shipping.
8. Before you have anything sent to you, ask for pictures. If what you get does not match up with the pictures, ask for a refund through PayPal using the pictures as evidence.
9. Ask for customer references. It is impolite to ask for customer references at the beginning, but after they quote, you can do it before you pay. To be on the safe side, you can contact the references to learn more about how they work.
10. Make a factory tour. If you have Chinese friends, you can ask them for help. You can pay them to visit their factory and take some videos for you. Of course if money allows, and the project is big, you can go to visit the factory in person.

Avoid buying and selling counterfeit products

Alibaba is not a legitimate source for branded products. Alibaba is meant for generic goods where you research to ensure that the item wasn’t patented by a brand already. It’s not a legitimate source to purchase branded inventory from because if you see something branded available on Alibaba that belongs to a national brand, these are counterfeit goods which could land you in jail if you decided to sell them. An example for people that may be confused out there and sourcing branded goods from Alibaba. This is an item on Amazon that sells for a lot of money.This is a counterfeit example of that item on Alibaba WHICH YOU SHOULD NOT PURCHASE TO SELL ON AMAZON!I feel like there are likely people out there that have gotten extremely confused from going through the “guru courses” teaching them to source from Alibaba and create their own private label product to sell on Amazon FBA. I am starting to see more and more people selling truly counterfeit goods and I hope you aren’t doing it because you’re confused. As an example, this is not a legitimate product to private label.That’s truly a knockoff of a LEGO product from a couple of years back. Even though you saw it available on Alibaba and you’re trying to sell it as your own brand, you are selling counterfeit items and infringing upon the Intellectual Property of LEGO. Although you’re getting sales now, you’ll likely find yourself in a huge lawsuit down the road. The same goes for items like this.Just because you’re putting your own brand name on the product doesn’t put you in the clear. You are purchasing counterfeited items where large worldwide brands hold the patents, trademarks and licensing to and trying to sell them under your own brand. You can’t just take an exact copy of an item from one of the major brands and try to private label it as your own, even if the original brand has discontinued the item. That’s illegal in the United States or anywhere else.

Even if you are not selling on Amazon you could and should use Jungle Scout to get product ideas. If the item is profitable on Amazon, it’ll be profitable outside of Amazon too. Here’s my Jungle Scout review

How should I pay for samples on Alibaba?

Use PayPal but send as goods and services…they’ll charge for the service fee but that’s ok. Use PayPal for payments up to around $2000, then start wiring from bank accounts. After multiple transactions ask if you can go back to PayPal and send money as friends to save money on fees on both sides. The sample should be the cost of your wholesale product + 25USD for the first kg and about 6.00 per kilo after. You should most likely be paying around 50.00 for this sample if it weighs under 5-6lbs.

Which Alibaba item is becoming saturated on Amazon?

An item that every second new seller recently tried to source on Alibaba.  A Newer version of the garlic press. A good place to look would be on a Facebook review groups. There you could see all the new stuff coming out and look for patterns.

How do you negotiate with a seller on Alibaba?

Contact minimum 10 suppliers with short, clear, specific, concise questions (Write short, clear, emails. The language barrier is very real). You can use this introduction email template:

Hi, My name is Peter Koch and I am the production manager for Seller At Heart, I need your help with the following. We would like to sell garlic press but we need the best possible price and MOQ information. I am happy to send you a picture as an example. We need a target price of $5 in order to make this order work. Please advise if you can make this happen. Please let me know prices for 200, 500, 750 and 1000 runs. Where in China are you located? Are you an agent, factory, or trading company? I need you to advise best possible price and also give me at least three other options of similar items that you have so that I can review them with my boss. Any qualities you can send us to pick from would also be helpful. Please send us quality standards. Also its company policy that we don’t pay for samples so I need to make sure you are able to provide me with samples. We need to check the quality of the product and make sure we are happy with the sample before we place an order. We are really looking to build stronger partnerships with new factories / and or agents. Thank you, Peter Koch

Or, you can use this template…

Dear, I hope you are having a great day? My name is Peter Koch and I am the buying manager of Seller At Heart. We are a Importer/Buying Office and are operating in the USA. I am writing to you today to inquire about the product I saw on your website. It is the garlic press that I am interested in. Could you please give me the following information: 1.Unit price based on 1000, 500 and 200 Pieces? 2.Minimum Order Quantity? 3.Production lead time? 4.Payment terms? 5.The type of samples you provide and shipping options (production / top of production)? I need you to give me at least three other options of similar items that you have so that I can review them with my boss. I would then evaluate and get back to you as soon as possible. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact me. Best regards, Peter Koch

After they respond you’ll send them 2nd email template….

Hey Lee, Thanks for your response. Just wanted to give you an insight to how we work. When working with a new supplier we need to build a relationship. Therefore; we do a test orders before scaling up. You have to understand if we buy 500 units and there are problems it affects the relationship with our clients. This is how we work:

1. We purchase 15-20 samples as a way to see the consistency of the production and pass onto our clients for initial orders from them.
2. We place a test order of 200-300 units to ensure everything is perfect.
3. We scale up and repeat order and grow our relationship.

I understand it becomes more difficult if we were making bespoke changes to the product or require special packaging. Please can you let me know the following:

1. Your best price for 15 – 20 samples to land at our address in the US by air?
2. Does your prices for the 500 include our logo and labelling?
3. What is the weight of the individual item with poly bag?

I look forward to your thoughts and feedback. Regards, Peter Koch

3rd email template for Alibaba suppliers…

Thanks for coming back to. I have attached our spreadsheet for remaining quote details. I have completed most of it, would you mind just filling the blanks please? Once I have all the information I can arrange meetings with my bosses to discuss further. I would like to thank you in advance for your time in dealing with my enquiry. I look forward to your thoughts and feedback. Regards, Peter Koch

When your suppliers all complete the spreadsheet you can then copy and paste into one and start the process of negotiating a better deal.   80-90% of suppliers will fill these out despite they get so many inquiries a day, and you think they wouldn’t bother going through all of that… The rest either resend their quote and add to the body of the email or they just add to the body of an email. You need to judge the rapport thing as going in the cold won’t help. If you are doing 15-20 suppliers it saves a whole heap of time. I can’t stress enough the cultural importance and shooting the breeze before going in on what you want. Be very polite and very professional at all times. It is an industry built on negotiating the penny of the pound. The bigger the order often lower the price. Like in all walks of life you have good honest people and emotionally bankrupt ones. Some will work off the basis of building longtime relationships and others just think of tomorrow. See it as a way to weed these out. The good thing about email is you can get feedback here or other places before you respond. My advice to you is to do what I did. I picked a product I had no interest in and spend time dealing with a load of suppliers right up to the point of agreeing on the first wave of terms. This was a great opportunity to see problems and get a grip on how it works. I learned lots from this and built out spreadsheet templates to speed everything up. I went through all the shipping process for quoting and snagged a load of issues there also. All very insightful. I still learning now  at first I danced around it with what if’s as it was daunting. I can’t recommend enough the process of just jumping in and doing it. Here one more product profitability spreadsheet you should use.

• New: Honest Jungle Scout Review From an Actual User

 When negotiating with a supplier on Alibaba to purchase a new product and import from China, what are some common additional questions you ask?

• what percentage of your exports go to the US (or wherever you’re importing in to). Important to understand if they have experience selling to your market
• do you understand FBA packaging requirements
• does the product meet the country’s certifications (if applicable)
• do you offer DDP parity
• what product is your factory best at producing?
• what is your turnaround time?
• what are your payment terms for new customers
• do you use SINOSURE service

In summary, there are a lot of sleazy suppliers on Alibaba, but there are also a lot of legit suppliers that would love to work with you. Do everything you can to protect yourself in case of a scam, but don’t let it paralyze you to the point that you are not willing to pull the trigger on anything. Good luck!

Source: https://selleratheart.com/buying-on-alibaba-and-selling-on-amazon/