First of all, what’s an RSS feed?

Wikipedia says:

“RSS is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines, and podcasts. An RSS document (which is called a “feed” or “web feed” or “channel”) contains either a summary of content from an associated web site or the full text. RSS makes it possible for people to keep up with web sites in an automated manner that can be piped into special programs or filtered displays.”

The major features of RSS feeds:

• RSS feeds update automatically. Once a new blog entry is published all the subscribed clients receive the update.
• In comparison to mail campaigns it is much cheaper as you don’t have to deals with black lists and spam filters
• An RSS feed is 100% optional choice. The subscribers are really interested in the information you provide. In order to read the updates the feeds are submitted to special reader services which are able to translate the RSS code into decipherable entries. You see that if a person is not interested in your services he/she wouldn’t bother spending time and effort subscribing to RSS feeds

Bill Flitter, of Pheedo.com, speaks about the future of RSS feeds:

“RSS becomes a little bit easier, I think we’ll see a huge surge in its use.” A number of Internet Browsers (like Firefox, Safari and Opera) are already RSS-enabled and the others will be soon.

Owing to the simplicity of RSS campaigns they are destined to gain popularity in the near future. Flitter continues:

“I think we’ll see… individual subscriptions increase so you can send information that’s more relevant to that end user… like Tivo for the web.”

Another option that is still to come is the ability to manipulate and customize the feeds. You will be able to make your feed stand out in the crowd by giving it exclusive appearance and other features.

Can RSS feeds help an eBiz?

RSS feeds can be used to send:

• Newsletters
• product promos
• blogs
• special offers

RSS feeds are universal for all the types of blog software (Type Pad, Word Press, Movable Type). All software solutions allow RSS feeds. So now the only thing you need to do is keep the content on your pages fresh, relevant and interesting so that the visitors would like to get the latest updates.

The first and the foremost thing about eBay business is getting this business rolled. Despite the fact that the modern technology made online selling as fast and as simple as never before, a lot of new retailers find the process frustrating. Most of them give up during the very first stage of selling a product - Sell Your Item form.

Make it Simple

A number of guys faced this kind of problem when they decided to sell snow tires on eBay. They just didn’t know how to list the item, so they came together and gave it a serious thinking:

“Wouldn’t it be neat if you could have expert assistance you could call and they could run you through it…and if you didn’t like to be on your computer, you could do it on your phone.”

The service provided by Recellers is the following: you just need a camera or a camera phone. You make a shot of the object you want to sell and send this photo to Recellers. In a matter of minutes they call you and give useful guidance on how to list the item on eBay. They will do everything for you: go to eBay and fill in the entire Sell Your Item form.

Getting Wonderful Deals

The experts of the service will help you in every possible way: they will give you step-by-step guidance and even advice you on the best methods of shipping goods. They will help you answer the following questions:

• What keywords should I use for this of that item?
• What is the best title?
• What should a description feature?
• Should I bold the product?
• What is my most effective pricing tactics?
• What is the best time for the auction?
• In which category should I list the item?

Plummer (the founder of Recellers) continues:

“Market research showed that you could get more money if you could drive more buyers that were looking for an item, and have a true auction, rather than a few people that were just half interested, or stumbled across your listing.”

This is the way you can list the items. But before selling products you need to get them somewhere. I suggest using the wholesale supplier database created by dropshiparea. It features the trusted and checked suppliers that will enable you to have everything you need in stock all the time and never be bothered of running out of supplies.

Being an online retailer requires a good command of the industry, the insights of it. But where can one learn about that stuff? One of the best solutions is reading industry publications. This source can help you learn how to market the products and make up the product lines according to your customers’ requirements.

Some words about Trade publications

First of all, what’s a trade publication? According to Lisa Suttora (WhatDoISell.com), it is:

“A trade publication is a magazine, newspaper, or even email newsletter that is written specifically for industry insiders.”

A trade magazine supplies you with a great amount of extremely important information:

• Product lines that are being sold
• The ways of successful marketing of the products you are dealing in
• Reports on what is selling good at the moment and what is likely to be popular in the near future
• All the upcoming industry events
• Contact Information of suppliers (as you already know this information as well as the choice of the right wholesale suppliers can be crucial for you business)
• The new products the manufacturers are likely to come up with
• All the latest trends and tendencies in the industry

Rely on your knowledge

No matter what industry you are into, each has its own publications which are as a rule available only to subscribers. Some of these subscriptions come for free, others cost money. But even if you pay a monthly fee you can still save a lot of money by learning from others’ mistakes instead of doing your own ones. In order to find these industry publications you can run a Google search under “trade publication” or “trade magazine.”

Does it really give me a competitive edge?

Of course if does! Reading such publications ones gains valuable knowledge on the structure of his business and his/her sourcing choices become more conscious than blind. You can learn all the latest trends beforehand and thus have a competitive edge over your competitors.

Perfect Product Sourcing

Trade publications help you make the product lines more versatile. The give you a clue on how to make the selling strategies and tactics more effective.

Suttora continues:

“You’ve got to look at all the ideas available for different kinds of products to sell. You can’t do that in a vacuum—you need a system to help you have creative ideas.”