world cup 2010

If you need the perfect excuse to watch the World Cup in peace from frowning partners, then this is the perfect opportunity

You now have the chance to win some money.

There is no greater feeling, that being part of such a fantastic event, as the World Cup, than knowing you also have the chance to win a prize.

The World Cup comes around once every 4 years, and this time is being held in South Africa, in what promises to be a great sporting spectacle

For full and exciting details on how you can win £200, please visit the dropshippingforum below:

http://www.dropshippingforum.co.uk/dropship/viewtopic.php?f=194&t=1724

Now, not only can you watch the fantastic game of football, and this year’s World Cup, but you can now participate

If you have any experience, or expertise in this industry and would be interested in writing a review or posting, on a particular subject, then please get in touch.

From marketing, ecommerce, dropship, dropshipping, wholesalers, Google, search engines, blogs, or indeed anything you feel could be of benefit to our very many subscribers that you have used, and will help our viewers and subscribers, please let us know. Our dropship blog now has very many valued followers, who we feel would also be interested in alternative views.

The owners of this blog, have been in the dropshipping/ecommerce industry for many years, and have vast experience in most associated areas, although as mentioned, we do, from time to time,  allow guest writers to make contributions.

If you are a business owner, and you can write a beneficial article on a related subject, which is not a blatant ‘plug’ from a competitor, then we can look to publish your writing in return for a valued link on the blog page.

All interested parties can use the contact us link at the top of the page, where all will be reviewed.

Thank you.

The DropshipBlog Team.

A survey commissioned by Click&Buy (provide online payment solutions) has turned up some interesting stats about shoppers.

Here are some interesting stats to emerge from the survey:

• 50% of shoppers don’t complete the transaction if their preferred method of payment isn’t available
• 40% would feel more comfortable with a retailer who offers a range of payment methods
• 36% will shop more online than on the High Street in 2009 than 2008
• 54% are concerned about security risks from entering credit card details online

I’ve banged on a few times in the past about increasing customer confidence, these stats are further proof their is a need for owners of ecommerce stores to pay real attention to these issues.

If you aren’t yet subscribed it is a great way to instantly find out about new articles, it is completely free and you can unsubscribe at any time. Read the subscribe page for instructions.

Our Top 10 Ecommerce Posts

Despite the economic gloom I believe it is important to keep investing for your business to survive and be strong for when the economy recovers.

Just before the new content swamps the old posts I thought it would be cool to post the Top 10 Posts I’ve made on this blog so if your new round here you won’t have missed anything. I’ve concluded these posts are the best by looking at amount of traffic, comments, length of post and quality of content.

Here is the Top 10 in no particular order:

• Chinavasion review – a review of an electronics dropshipper
• eBay alternatives – increase sales and profits by selling via other platforms
• UK dropship list – a list of major UK dropshippers
• 7 ways not to promote – avoid these promotion methods
• How to value a website – not sure the value of a website you want to buy?
• Measure conversion rates – help to set yourself targets
• Customer confidence, increase sales – improve your customers confidence in you
• Promote with press releases – 2 different ways to use press release
• Ideal time to invest – now is a great time to put your money in
• Spot a scam – how to tell if a website is a scammer

You will have noticed none of the latest posts are included in the list, this is because they have only been published a few weeks so total traffic hasn’t reached the same level as the older posts. To read the latest posts please visit our Blog Home.

Subscribe So You Don’t Miss A Thing!

You can subscribe for free to our blog. You can subscribe be e-mail or RSS. By subscribing you receive a message with the new content, so you never miss a thing! To learn more or subscribe please read our subscribe info page.

Stand Out By Being Different

This week I thought I would try some different on this blog, so this post isn’t going to be like any other I’ve done on the blog before. Will you like it? I’m not really sure! So here we go……

This post is broken down into three parts. Part one is ’Blog Links In May’, Part two is ’Updates To DH’ and part three is ‘What’s Next’.

Blog Links In May
There are quite a lot of blogs I am either subscribed to or have in my favourites. Some of the info on the blogs I think would be great for my readers as well. So here is a round up of blog posts in May I recommend reading.

• GetElastic posted on strategies for split testing ads. For those spending money on PPC marketing it is well worth a read.
• MotiveTechnology made a post about why all retailers should blog.
• Scott from SelfMadeMinds made an interesting post about an exchange of emails creating a contract, worth noting if you are currently trying to buy a new website.
• Darren from Sootle posted about google crawl rates dropping which may mean getting high in the SERPs may take slightly longer when tweaking your site for SEO.

Updates To DH
The sister site of this blog DropshipHelp.co.uk has had a major revamp including a whole new design, new content in the members area and a change of the navigation in the members area. The site has over 5,800 verified members so if you aren’t one then you can join today for free!

What’s Next?
Now the DropshipHelp site is done I thought I would look forward to what’s next for this blog. I have a plenty of posts planned, if I had more time I would two per week but I need to work on developing my own retail websites (although blogging is much more fun!). If you want to contribute to the blog then I do welcome guest post bloggers. In return for your trouble you will get a link to your website and raise your own profile. If you want to discuss doing a blog post please contact me.

New Design

First Visit?
If this is your first visit then welcome, the best way to navigate is via the categories box on the right hand side. If you like the content so far don’t forget to subscribe to the feed!

Been Here Before
If you are a regular I hope you like the new design. I’m about to make a new post (a proper one, not just an update like this) so watch out for that in a little while.

The Year Ahead

Here is a breakdown of who is behind DropshipBlog.co.uk and what the future is for the weblog, after all why should you bother adding it to your favourites/bookmark accounts/rss readers and revisiting if the site is not going anywhere!

• Who Run’s The Blog?

My name is Chris and I’m from the West Mids in England. I currently run a small portfolio of websites which target a variety of niches including stock photography, British comedy & English football. I recently acquired two premium .CO.UK domains which I’m about to start developing, the idea is that once well established they will dropship products to UK customers.

• Dropshipping Connections

I also run DropshipHelp.co.uk, this is a free dropship membership service which currently has over 5,000 verified members. New features are currently being developed for the site including a ‘timeline’ feature which gives info on upcoming dropship content and events. As I said above I’m also developing two premium domains into websites with the view to dropship products from the sites in the future. I don’t run or have any direct connections with companies that dropship physical products.

• When?

This blog was set-up in November 2007. DropshipHelp.co.uk was established in August 2006.

• Why Dropshipping?

I think dropshipping is a great way to sell products online. As with anything it has its negative points, but the positives outweigh the negatives. As the industry continues to grow in size and more people get involved this means more ideas and forward thinking businesses helping to remove some of the negative parts of dropshipping. Now is a great time to get involved with the dropshipping industry.

• The Future

The future of dropshipping looks good, this blog is still young and with quality content there is no reason it can’t be around for a long time to come. If the traffic & reader base continues to grow then eventually I would like to have guest bloggers and maybe other permanent bloggers. I already run a small group of established websites and know what makes a good website so with a bit of luck this blog will be worth your time every visit you make!

• Contribute to The Blog / Subscribe

If you know of any great dropship resources, have related info or want to write a guest post please get in touch with me, the address is on the contact page. If you like the content on the blog you can add the site to your faves or subscribe to the RSS feed using the tools at the top of the sidebar on every page. 

RSS is a format for delivering regularly changing web content. Using RSS feeds you can regularly stay informed on the latest content added to a blog or news website. Including DropshipBlog.co.uk (our feed).

Why Use RSS?

• The main benefit is saving time, using an RSS reader you can instantly see all the new stories/posts added to the websites you are subscribed to instead of visiting each site.
• Your privacy is more secure, you don’t have to give out an email to subscribe to an RSS feed like you do for a newsletter. 

What Do I Need?

• A feed reader or news aggregator, there are many free ones to use. I use the one built in to Windows Vista which adds a gadget to your sidebar displaying the latest stories (see pic). Another popular one is Google Reader.
• News feed, visit your favourites blogs and find there RSS feed (usually a square orange button), you can see ours at the top of the right sidebar located on every page.

Video

Here is a video explaining about RSS and how to subscribe in a reader.

This post was written with help from The Power Of RSS blog post.

Thanks for visiting our new blog about dropshipping in the UK. This weblog has been set-up after the success of our DropshipHelp.co.uk service, the dropship industry is clearly growing but there still isn’t a quality blog dedicated to dropshipping – so we are aiming to change that.

This blog will talk about dropshipping and running an online business. As well as general tips and posts on topical news we are also aiming to review the services and products that companies provide. Our target is to publish one post per week, which must be unique, on topic and good quality. So don’t forget to subscribe to our feed!