Amazons A-Store

Another free e-store comes to us from the trusted Amazon.com, but can they live up to expectations? Well, in my opinion they're fairly good but still lack some of the features we really want and need in an e-store. So lets get down to the good and the bad.

The Good:

1. It's A free service, no risk involved.
2. Easy to jump right in and use.
3. Choose from any of Amazon's wide selection of products.
4. Bonus commissions on some items.
   
5. Ability to add categories, subcategories, about page, and a link back to your main site.
6. Last but certainly not least, Amazon is a big name that people can trust and feel secure shopping with.
   

The Bad:

1. Not very customizable.
2. No option to edit meta tags etc, for search engine optimization.
3. Using the product search engine to add products to your store can be a hassle. Often showing unrelated items in your search.

View an example home business a-store


Overall I like it a lot. I'm certain Amazon could do better however, but e-stores are not their main focus, so we'll just have to wait and see about that. It's still a nice service, free, and easy to use. So give it a shot and come back and tell me about it.

You can sign up for an a-store here

Zlio.com Online E-stores.

One of the first opportunities I learned about was Zlio, Zlio gives you an e-store and allows you to add products of your choosing to it. Any sales you make in your e-store earn you a commission based on a percentage of what their affiliate pays Zlio. With commissions ranging from a meager 1% up to 20% depending on the merchant you make a sale for.

The Good:

1. It's free, you cant beat free.
2. Fairly easy to understand and jump right in.
   
3. There's a lot of products to chose from, from many different retailers.
4. They are continually working to improve the Zlio shops and they offer little tips and help for your site.

The Bad:

1. Zlio's product search engine is absolutely horrible, finding the type of products you want to have in your store is a real chore as you'll be wading through lots of items you don't want.
2. As you're wading you'll probably notice Zlio seems to lag, more often than not.
   
3. Limited customization options.
   
4. Big ugly "ZlioShop Powered by Zlio" banner on all your pages. Which I feel makes the site look unprofessional.
   
5. For whatever reason once I signed up they've been sending me newsletters in French, really annoying.

Overall they are on the right track, but still have a long way to go. Like I said though it's free so give it a shot if you want. You can sign up here (referral link) or go to Zlio.com

To view an example visit the Online Business Shop

Who doesn't want to be a millionaire?

Yes I've been bitten too. The online business bug, the lure of "easy" cash right from your own home computer. Who wouldn't want to work for themselves, be there own boss, and most of all be proud of their job?

The problem is it's not "easy cash". It's a business and a business takes work, but the process of even finding out the how's of online business can be very daunting, with wild tales of 6 figure incomes in under a month in fantastic work at home opportunities ...bleh.

If it's too good to be true, it probably is. However that doesn't mean there isn't legitimate opportunites for average joe or jane. Just remember that anything worthwhile is going to require effort.

I hope you'll join me as I research what opportunities are available, and maybe we can learn from each other.