* Is company a manufacturer or wholesaler? Some businesses offering drop shipping arrangements are resellers. They have set up accounts with drop shipping companies. You, in turn, will be reselling for them. You will make better profits if you set up your own drop shipping account directly with a supplier rather than with a reseller.

* Does drop shipper charge you an account setup fee or a monthly fee based on monthly traffic counts or some other criteria? Most (not all) companies charging a set up fee are resellers. If there is a set up fee, is it in exchange for a value-added service such as access to an admin web site or specially printed labels for your company's orders?

* What does company charge for shipping and handling? If cost is too high, your customers will abandon their shopping carts if they think expense is out of line.

Your Product Mix

A web site selling a narrowly defined range of products will be easier to administer, and easier to promote than a site containing an array of products. For example, a site selling lady's sportswear will be more attractive to search engines than a site selling men's, women's and children's clothing of all descriptions.

And finally, choose items that are neither too inexpensive nor too heavy. Experienced drop shippers say that products of over $20 and under 70 pounds work best. If you want to sell lower priced items, group them together in a package and sell package. The shipping costs will appear to be more reasonable. Alternatively, promote products that carry similar shipping costs, or that will not add to shipping cost.

And lastly, much success in your new business!

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Then you learn about secret marketing sites. Aha! That's where all good stuff is, you figure. So you pay your $60 lifetime access fee to two or three of really best secret sites, confident that you're entering an exclusive club just for those who are REALLY successful in their Internet businesses.

What you find, of course, is more of same stuff that you've already read, it's just that now it's all in one handy location.

=> Phase III - Paralysis by Analysis

You finally accept that you really do have all information there is to have sitting right there on your computer. You just have to use it.

Only problem is, it doesn't matter how much time you spend reading, rereading and absorbing all of information, fact is you still don't have a site, you still don't have a product and you still don't have a business so what are you reading all this Internet marketing stuff for?

You've reached point where you have so much information, all of it telling you to do something different, that you don't know where to start or in which direction to turn - paralysis by analysis, in other words.

=> Phase IV - The Dawning of Realization

So you take a step back (or have a dummy spit - whichever you prefer). Thoroughly fed up and disillusioned, you decide that this whole Internet business thing's nothing but a crock - a quagmire of false promises made by unscrupulous con artists out for a quick buck. There's just no way to make money on Internet. It's all a big con.

You go back to watching television in evenings and having actual conversations with family members. After a few days pass, though, what you read in those interminable Internet marketing ebooks and at those secret sites starts to germinate. Independent thought actually starts to flourish. Suddenly, you realize you were missing woods for trees.

You reluctantly accept there really is no business in a box. You're going to have to create it for yourself. You come to understand that only way to make money on Internet is to do *everything* you've been reading about. All of contradictory advice wasn't contradictory at all - it was cumulative! There IS no one way of doing this. You need a solid, content-intensive web site to attract visitors. You need an ezine to keep in touch with them. You need products to sell and quickly (affiliate programs! you astutely think to yourself). You need to create your own products. You need to market and to advertise. You need to get good search engine rankings. You need a lot of sites linking to yours. You need to write and publish articles to get your name out there.

All of things you've been reading about were true after all. You just have to do them *all*. The light has finally dawned.

=> Phase V - Where You Need To Be

In a sense, Phase V brings you right back to square one - how am I going to make money on Internet? But unlike Phase I, you now know what it's going to take.

What you need to do now is hardest work of all. You have to come up with a rock solid idea for your web site. Only when you have this can you begin to build your business. That's why you never got anywhere in Phase I. You went out looking for ways to make money with your computer but you had no context. What's point of signing up for and promoting affiliate programs when you don't even know if they're going to fit with your site? How are you supposed to think about writing information products if you have no idea of your subject?

Once you have your good idea, everything else falls into place. You can get to work creating your web site, publish your ezine, decide which affiliate programs to promote, create your own products and all that goes along with these things.

So, when you find yourself back at square one, don't despair, congratulate yourself! You're exactly where you need to be.

=> Phase VI - Just Do It

Now it's time for action. The past weeks and months have not been wasted. They've exposed you to all of things you need to do to establish and grow your online business. But at some point you have to stop reading and start doing. Only then does real learning begin.

That time is now.

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Elena Fawkner is editor of A Home-Based Business Online ... practical business ideas, opportunities and solutions for work-from-home entrepreneur. http://www.ahbbo.com

Elena Fawkner is editor of A Home-Based Business Online ... practical business ideas, opportunities and solutions for the work-from-home entrepreneur. http://www.ahbbo.com