How Mail Order Works

Mail order skills are best built up over time through experience. This is what makes it an ideal part-time home business, one that has no limit once you find a niche. Taken seriously, it can offer the potential for financial independence.

Here are the basic steps:

Pick a product: Experts recommend you start with one or two products and expand from there. These should be things you can't just get anywhere. For ideas, see our mail order ideas section.

Begin by finding out what's in the market already, perhaps ordering a few catalogs. Chances are that the products you see advertised are the kind that are working for someone. There's no harm in copying success to start out.

Target your audience: Place ads in relevant publications. This can be places like the classified sections of Ladies Home Journal or Popular Mechanics, but these days can also include internet advertising on EBay, targeted websites, or advertising programs like Google's AdWords. By starting out part-time, you'll have time to experiment to find good ads.

Receive Orders: This could be via PO mail box, or via email. Either way, pick a company name that will make the experience more personal for the shopper.

Ship Product: Plan on spending a day a week on this part of your business. If it's your own product, such as a "How To" booklet, you'll mail it yourself. If you use drop-shippers, you send them your order and your shipping label. They do all the work, you just get the orders to them.

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