[T180]Textbooks Online To Read

I'm constantly quizzed as to why I have so many web sites and sell so many of my Londons Times Cartoon products. "Why not just be a cartoonist," many ask. That's a good question, though, at the risk of sounding cynical, the mortgage must be paid. So I start with something with which they can identify.

We want to make money. Ok, ok, that is western education school of thought. Of course we want to make money. But that is a very tiny part of the bigger picture.

Humor domination of the world wide web is a good start. Ok, a little joke, but that does not mean it cannot be a goal. I know it is arrogant but it is so, and why lie? I am told that in any given year there are approximately 10,000 cartoons on the Internet and out of those 10k cartoons only about 5 or so last longer than a year. This is our tenth year and to be honest, we didn't even start to monetize the site with stores until 14 months ago; and even think about Google Adwords until a few years ago? Why? Because we really looked at the entire thing as a hobby and my creative team was entirely voluntary. Then we started selling. Then manufacturing came. Then we were suddenly a business. It all took a life of its own.

Our main site, Londons Times Cartoons remains free. We want to always keep it that way; as, with 8500 original cartoons, mostly in color, we look at it as a cyber-museum of sorts, and to make it a membership site, as we once thought about doing, to us, would dampen the spirit of the whole idea of it. Why pay for the opportunity to have a good laugh (we hope, anyway).

Learning what sells in a marketplace that is untapped is not the easiest thing in the world. Nobody really knows in the cartoon world except other cartoonists and their licensing people. So one has to run down to Barnes and Nobles and find out what is selling well. And it turns out it's not just t-shirts and coffee mugs anymore.

Some of the larger sellers are t-shirts, coasters, sweats, hoodies, aprons, clocks, infant wear, thongs, maternity dresses (yes, really), men's women's and kids tops and baseball jerseys, tote bags and a number of other items that have surprised me.

Testing the market on the Internet is a little different than testing it in real life. In the blink of an eye, a popular blog may recommend something or trash it and you never know if your store is included in the inferno. Best to have several just in case.

Still, why so many stores you might ask? Many real life shoppers prefer botique shops to large mall stores. I am one of them. Sometimes I want to get in and get out, fast. That is why the niche botique stores in addition to the large online mall type stores. I like to give the customers a choice.

If they seek a funny valentine's gift, they are more likely to visit our thong store, AThongInMyHeart.Com, rather than RickLondonCollection.com or Ricklondonwear.com simply because they don't have to wade through other items and can find exactly what they want click, buy, and have it at their door within a few days. (or if outside the U.S. within a week or two). Not too bad a deal, and the prices are excellent.

The same is true for tshirts, beer steins, day planners, greeting cards and other such online shopping stores in which we have narrowed it down to niche marketing. We do not charge any more for products that are in those stores, that are also in our larger stores, we simply offer an alternative quicker convenient buying method for those who do not want to spend all day on the Internet.

Whether buying or selling, we are just laying out common sense guidelines that might work for you. There are many other ways to "do it right". All of this depends on your style of both shopping or buying. In any case, every time you create a transactin on the web, jobs are created and you are saving time and usually money. It's good business.

We enjoy watching the analytics from sites that measure rankings and such and see how each site is doing. Generally they remain popular and gain in popularity as the days go by (thanks to you) and it keeps us in creative mode.

Are you an addicted cyber-shopper like me? I enjoy it so much mainly because it is so nice to find items that are difficult if not impossible to find in real shopping malls, you may enjoy comparison shopping channels like Shop.com, Bizrate, Shopzilla, etc. I enjoy using those for home entertainment, computer equipment etc. But they really are not made for the niche shopper looking for that original unique product that can only be bought at one store (and possibly its affiliate stores at similar pricing).

My tendency is to investigate products at Ebay, Shopping.com etc. regularly, to see if a particular online store has items featured there. I check their rankings on Ebay particularly if they are. For instance, 3drose, our manufacturer, sells our products on Ebay, Shop.com, Amazon.com and various other shopping channels. I check their ratings. We are fortunate with 3drose. They have a 99.4% positive feedback rating with almost 12,000 transactions, being one of Ebay's oldest and largest power-sellers. This helps with automatic quality-contol. The marketplace will give positive or negative feedback based on their experiences.