Why this is not a "Get Rich Quick" scheme:
E-commerce site’s can be very profitable and rewarding,
but they are not a quick ticket to riches. They do require effort on your part.
People will e-mail you with product questions, want to return items, and you
will have to monitor your marketing. That does not mean it is not fun, exciting
and rewarding. It is a thrill watching the orders come in and well worth the
work. Plus, if you have too much trouble with a particular product, you can simply
sell something else.
On average, an e-commerce site takes about 4 hours a week to manage. If you decide to add a new product line, or put together a catalog, it is going to take additional time. Some weeks you will spend less than 4 hours, but you want to remember to keep the site fresh, and run specials, promotions, and other things to keep people coming back.
How much money can you make with an e-commerce site?
That is a tough question – kind of like asking how much money you can make with a general store. It depends on the amount of products you have, type of products you have, your margins, and the marketing you do. It is not unreasonable to expect $1,000 net income a month, even from a website with only a few products. You can generate thousands of dollars a month, but it boils down to the amount of effort you want to put into it. One month LancasterKnifeWorks.com generated over $9,000 profit. Don’t think for a minute that $9,000 a month is the limit – some people have made millions. Just remember that Cabela’s started out in a garage, selling mail order fishing lures. L.L. Bean was started by selling mail order hiking boots. And the Internet is the new era of mail order!