The only difficult and possibly expensive thing about putting up your own retail website is getting the site made.
If you start out having it done by a professional, you might be creating premature expenses that could find you running low on cash when you really need it.
So probably, to make money on your first retail website, you might want to DIY it.
There are some programs available for doing this.
When you site is all ready to make money, you can do either or both of two things; apply as an agent for dropshipping outfits and/or join affiliate programs.
Basically there isn't much difference between the two income schemes.
The long and the short of it is that you will make money with products that you don't physically have and that you won't have to ship yourself.
If you want to make money on branded products, you might consider joining Commission Junction.
For e-books on just about any topic in the world, you should register with Clickbank's affiliate program.
If what you would like to sell are home wares, dining equipment, and toys with no emphasis on brand names, you are better off dealing with wholesalers who allow dropshipping their products.
When deciding on which products to make money on, remember that the less varied your lines are, the more specific your targeted visitors will be and the more options these potential clients will have to choose from.
There will also be a possibly greater chance that some of them will actually transact with you.
Choosing a specific product line will also allow you to set the motif of your website to something appropriate for your clients.
Besides that, this will also make it easier for you to outline your business policies since you will make money with a limited range of items.
You might want to know which products to make money on by visiting article submission sites and reading some articles about a specific product or service.
These articles will usually have reader statistics somewhere on the page.
The more readers, the more popular the product.
Note that you can't really directly gauge the popularity of products from search engines.
Search engines list down people who are offering something on their sites.
Article directories show you the number of people who are interested and are potential buyers.
After you have done your homework on product popularity, you can proceed to acquire them from your sources.
Products which are dropshipped will be bought directly from your site.
After you make money from the buyer, you have to pay the mother company the price they gave you for the product.
This will be less than the price you sold it for.
The mother company then takes care of shipping.
With affiliate products, your buyer will be redirected to the owner's site, but your name will be attached to the sale so that the mother company knows they owe you a commission.
As you can see to make money with a retail website isn't really that hard if you do the proper research for sell-able products and you consistently think about the interests and convenience of your clients first before the profit you will be making.