Reselling is at the base of our entire sales economy. Think about that for a moment. How many people do you know that actually sell products made by their own hands? In most cases, you purchase your products from someone who has bought them from someone else with the intent of reselling them for a profit. In the world of online marketing, though, resale and reseller rights take on a special meaning and it's one that can make you a healthy living.

What is Reseller Marketing?

Reselling is the business of purchasing a product that you can then sell over and over for 100% of the profit. The typical resale product is intellectual property - articles, e-books and downloadable software. Once you've acquired resale rights (also called reseller rights), you're free to sell the words over and over, with no royalties or residuals paid to the original maker of the property.

In other words, if you purchase the resale rights to an e-book about body language for $225, you are then free to sell that content over and over to others. If you sell each copy for $10, then you'll be making a $5 profit on your investment when you sell your 23rd copy - and $10 pure profit for every e-book that you sell after that.

How to Get Started with a Reseller Business

1. Acquire reseller rights to a product.
The single most important aspect of your business - aside from your own work and skills, of course - is the product that you choose to sell. I strongly recommend starting small - no more than five products so that you can focus your attention on marketing each one successfully. There are a number of different avenues for finding products to resell, from scouring the web to find the cream of the crop to commissioning a writer or programmer to create one just for you.

Be clear exactly what rights you are purchasing. Reseller rights give you the right to sell the product and keep 100% of the profit. Master reseller rights give you the right to sell the product AND resell your reseller rights.

2. Create a showcase to sell your product.
Some products meant for resale will come packaged with sales copy, including email text, copy for a web site - even the HTML for a sales website. Whether it does or not, you'll need a showcase for your product - a website that includes a compelling sales letter, testimonials and whatever it takes to move people to purchase the product you're selling, and a business web hosting account with SSL for order transactions.

If you've done affiliate marketing, this may all sound familiar. In fact, the principals are very similar - except that you'll get the full profit on what you sell rather than a percentage of the sale.

3. Get yourself set up with a payment method to collect payment.
You'll need a merchant account in order to accept credit cards for your merchandise. Some of those that will bill for you include:

2checkout (www.2checkout.com)

Paypal (www.paypal.com)

CCBill (www.ccbill.com - for credit cards and EFTs)

ePassporte (www.epassporte.com)

Stormpay (www.stormpay.com)

Greenzap (www.greenzap.com)

4. Get out there and market your product.
It's nave to think that all you have to do is put your web site up and people will beat a path over the information highway. You'll need to do some serious marketing. Search engines, article directories, forum posing, emailed newsletters and affiliate marketing will all help you to launch your new business with a bang.