When it comes to video consoles and games it seems to me that there will be no end to that craze about PlayStation, Nintendo, Xbox. Just have a look at the popularity of these three terms over years.

I think it should be illustrated compared to some other popular search term, say, GPS systems (if you have a habit of keeping an eye on popular Amazon products you know that GPS is always on the list of bestsellers.

The product is popular with kids, teenagers and grownups of both genders - video consoles and games target the entire Planet population!

If we approach this fact from home based drop ship business angle we will think in terms of dropshipping both video consoles and video games

Dropship distributor I would look for partnering with should be in business for some time. Huge demand is balanced with huge offer in video games industry – so it is naive to expect to be one of the few players in the niche. The market changes fast with new video games released each month – with dozens of successful releases there are thousands of failures and it is of crucial importance to know and be able to offer those few popular video games.

Where should you start your dropship merchant partner search? Wholesale dropship directory is the first place to turn to. First check these places where you are certain to find a few (not one) verified video game dropshippers:

• Worldwidebrands
• Salehoo
• Doba
• Shopster

If you can’t afford $50-100.00 investment into your home based drop ship business you can do Google research for free lists and verify found dropship merchants yourself.

A few advantages that the above listed drop ship directories provide:

• user’s community where you can find reviews of wholesale dropshippers,
• in-built market research tool that should help you to identify more hot market products to dropship,
• free 7-day trial;
• 100% refund in case you are unhappy with what you get for your money
• find more benefits of getting access to one or a few drop ship sourcing directories

What are the ways to succeed in drop shipping? There should be a few crucial elements or indicators that you should focus on to be successful with this home business opportunity. Let’s try to define them - feel free to add more in the comments as I am sure I will miss some.

PRODUCTS. We need hot products in high demand, products that are perfect for online sales. It is not a problem to define what popular online sellers are (electronics is the first off head example), but it is a hard task to spot the products that are great for online promotion and still you can be competitive with thousands of online sellers pushing the same products – merchants, their affiliates, their dropship affiliates.

Tools are a must to facilitate your research:

Google Trends
eBay Pulse
Amazon top sellers
Shopping.com top searches

A few more sophisticated:

Instant Market Research
Hot eBay Products Tool

DROPSHIP MERCHANTS. Every merchant is interested to grow their sales incl. through dropship affiliates. But not every merchant fits our criteria. As a dropshipper, you need a reliable, verified dropshipping merchant with competitive prices, likely to stay in business for years. This partnership is of great importance to define your succeeding in dropshipping.

You have a choice to find your business partner:

• Research Google or another search engine and contact those potential dropshippers that ‘lool like’ real and trustable.
• Research local merchants and set up relations locally.
• Check the lists of verified dropship merchants and get a lot of extras (merchant reviews, free dropship training, free research tools and more)

MARKETING TOOLS. What are your ways to promote your hot products supplied by a reliable dropshipper?
First turn to some platforms/ e-commerce sites that allow you for some rent fee get a piece of their traffic. The most valuable thing about joining eBay for sellers is its spontaneous traffic that you get to your listings. It is the easiest and fastest way to make sure you did the right choice with the product category and dropshipper.

Everything works as expected? And you see good potential of growth? It is time to launch your website and promote it. Now it costs much lower than in the past. GoDaddy’s coupon search and a 7-dollar domain, 3-4 dollar monthly hosting plan, eLance or SitePoint marketplace for fast and professional web store development based on some open source software.

Next steps take patience, time and money. You need to promote your online store using keyword research, PPC, SEO (link building, content development), e-mail marketing, on-site tweaking (professional design, information architecture, usability), analytics…

EXPERIENCE. If you are completely new to online business and Internet marketing – you have a long road to go. All those stories about easy Internet money are the invention of those ‘make money fast’ products owners. Your own experience is invaluable, but it is recommended to learn from other’s mistakes. Our dropship case studies divided into product categories should be your inspiration and valuable tip sources:

Anime Dropshippers
Apparel Dropshippers
Auto Parts Dropshippers
Baby Products Dropshippers
Basket Dropshippers
Beauty Products Dropshippers
Books Dropshippers
Cell Phones Dropshippers
Computers Dropshippers
Electronics Dropshippers
Food Dropshippers
Furniture Dropshippers
GPS Dropshippers
Handbag Dropshippers
etc…

The last, but not the least thing I would like to add - there are more factors that define your success or failure in dropshipping - hard work, patience, some luck… And you should remember of that.

eBay sellers have a choice of product sourcing that depends on their revenue intentions and goals:

• sell on eBay your unneeded home stuff
• sell on eBay products you buy at garage, yard and other sales
• sell on eBay products you buy wholesale from eBay & other wholesale sources incl. directly from China
• sell on eBay items you get from VERIFIED dropshippers – expect to get big ticket items to sell on eBay from this source.

I have capitalized the word ‘verified’ as it is the most important thing to pay attention to while selecting your product sourcing partner Just go to Google and enter any product you need a dropshipping supplier of – you will get hundreds if not thousands of merchant listings, but 99% are crap – overpriced, poor dropship affiliate support, out of the business already etc…

And you need a reliable, active dropshipper with competitive prices – otherwise your plans to make money on eBay selling products there are destined to fail from the start.

Online market gets highly competitive. A few years back there were 1-2 top players – providers of verified dropshippers and wholesalers lists. Now I personally know of 8-10. But I will list (in no particular order) four – reliable companies that stay in this business long enough to understand what eBay sellers and drosphip affiliates really need:

1. Doba

- eBay Certified Service Providers: one of 30 companies that are eBay certified
- Inc. 500 List company – among the fastest growing private companies in the US
- Selection of over 1 200 000 products
- Free trial
- Free eBay training
- A few level program – for eBay beginners and advanced sellers

Learn more…

2. Salehoo

- Over 8 000 pre-screened suppliers for any product category
- Supplier list includes wholesalers, dropshippers, manufacturers, etc.
- Over 65 000 happy customers
- Lots of free guides – get as a bonus with their database access

Learn more…

3. Worldwidebrands

- Oldest and top dropship market player
- Over 8 000 000 wholesale products
- Instant Market Research tool to spot top products to sell online
- Free training (about 20 videos and 20 e-books)

Learn more…

4. Dropshipping Wholesalers

- Cheapest list of verified dropshippers
- Over 500 000 products to dropship from top brands
- Selected product suppliers from China
- Free education e-books

Learn more…