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29 High-Potential Passive Income Ideas to Build Wealth in 2025
Passive income streams offer a pathway to financial freedom, allowing you to earn money with minimal ongoing effort.
How to Pay Taxes for US Online eCommerce Sellers
Calling all US sellers... have you been paying your taxes?
Hopefully, it won't come as news to you that when you are making money—whether it's on eBay, another auction site, or even at a flea market—you should be paying taxes. Too many sellers simply ignore the fact that they owe the IRS a percentage of their profits. To help prevent you from getting in trouble with Uncle Sam, I've put together this comprehensive guide to paying taxes in the US.
Do I Need to Pay Tax on My Online Income?
Yes. It's really quite simple—if you sell anything on eBay and make a profit, you need to pay tax. Also, remember that it is against the law to not report all income to the IRS.
To determine whether you have made a profit, calculate the total revenue from all your sales for the tax year, and then subtract all operating expenses. Your operating expenses include
How to Create a Competitive Analysis (and SWOT) for Your eCommerce & Dropshipping Business
How do businesses do competitive analysis for eCommerce and dropshipping?
? Quick Answer: Competitive analysis for eCommerce and dropshipping involves looking into competitors’ products and marketing strategies, evaluating their SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats), and using this critical data to improve your own.
Building a successful eCommerce and dropshipping business is easier said than done. There’s lots to think of—juggling the in’s and out’s of inventory, marketing, logistics, shipping, and customer service can be very overwhelming.
It certainly doesn’t help that the industry is booming, and there is so much competition across seemingly any niche. And as Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War” says—know thy enemy.
This means prioritizing competitive analysis as a critical e
Supplier Relationship Management: Everything You Need to Know for 2025
Supplier relationship management is an essential element of growth and success for your ecommerce business. To ensure efficiency in your operations, you must develop a mutually beneficial partnership with suppliers.
Starting an Online Business: The Ultimate Checklist
To start an online business, you must perform market research, create a detailed business plan, and set up legal, administrative, and online payment processes.
How to Start a Dropshipping Business in 7 Easy Steps
First: A little background on drop shipping
The idea of drop shipping is that a wholesale drop shipper (the supplier) offers you the option of selling products without buying them first. They also act as service providers who prevent you from having to:
Store items
Package and ship items
Risk money on items when you aren't sure about how they will sell
But they don't do all that for free! When you buy from a wholesaler offering drop shipping services, they add a fee to cover the costs involved with offering this service. This is usually US$2-US$5 per item, which means you must be careful when you think about the products you want to drop ship, as there are some items which are much more suitable for drop shipping than others. We suggest going for:
Deep niches such as rear brake lights for late model Honda Civics
Items with low-volume sell-through rates and high profit
30 of the Best Low Cost, High Profit Products
“Margin” is the difference between the wholesale cost of an item and the price your store sells it for (which, in turn, pays for all your business’s expenses).
Essentially, your profit margin is like the emperor for your eCommerce store. Higher margins allow your business to be profitable. Smaller margins make you crash and burn.
Think about it like this: You can’t run an empire with a weak ruler.
But you can’t mark up your products without paying attention to what the market will bear. After all, if your prices are too high, you won’t make any sales!
So, how do you easily build your eCommerce empire? By selling low cost products with high profit margins, of course!
It’s time to look at the 30 best low cost products with high profit margins you can start selling today. Let’s go!
30 Low Cost Products With High Profit Margins
1. Jewel
8 Best Practices for Managing eCommerce Returns & Keeping Customers Happy
Managing eCommerce returns effectively is an important aspect of running an online store. As well as keeping customers happy, it helps build trust and protect your store's reputation.
How to Write an eCommerce Business Plan + 3 High Profit Ideas
Creating an eCommerce business plan is an essential step that no one should ever skip. It will help you identify your goals, define your target audience, and develop a strategy to meet your objectives.
How Much Does an eCommerce Website Actually Cost in 2025? (Full Breakdown)
The exact amount varies depending on the nature and scale of your business. At a minimum, you can start your own eCommerce website for less than $100 or hire a professional agency for around $10,000.
10 Costly Dropshipping Mistakes to Avoid When You’re Starting Out
Dropshipping is often seen as a fail-safe business model and a sure-fire way of making money online.
But the reality is that everyone makes mistakes along the way - and some of them can be costly.
Mistakes are inevitable when you try something new, but you shouldn’t let that stop you.
The good thing is, you can learn from other people’s mistakes to avoid repeating them yourself.
That’s what I did when I started my first dropshipping store.
I was experimenting with dropshipping as a way of making a bit of extra holiday money next to my 9-5 job.
So I didn’t have the time to make the common mistakes that everyone makes when they’re starting out.
I needed my drop
How to Sell Online
The beginners' guide to starting a business selling things online
How to Find Your Target Audience For Your eCommerce Website
With the exception of Amazon, which sells everything from 3-liter bottles of cat shampoo to state-of-the-art 3D printers, and a few online department stores, eCommerce sites are typically quite niche oriented. They succeed because they’ve identified a gap in the market for a specific product or idea, and they market themselves as leaders in the provision of these niche items or services. Therefore, attracting the right audience—an audience with the same niche interest—is vital, and a failure to locate and captivate this audience will undoubtedly make it more challenging to thrive.
Why Define Your Audience?
Quite simply, it is impossible to market your products and services effectively unless you know who you’re marketing them to. There is no such thing as average marketing for the average Joe; every single advertisement, article or social media post
22 Free Business Name Generators for Founders (Best of 2025)
Coming up with a unique brand name for your business is no easy task.
Your brand name needs to embody your core values as well as your distinguishing characteristics. While also conveying what it is that you sell.
And of course, we all want our name to sound cool!
Luckily, we don’t have to be creative geniuses to come up with a decent brand name. All we need is a business name generator.
In this article, you’ll learn...
Let’s get started!
What is a business name generator?
Business name generators, in short, are software that create unique business names for your business by combining different words and phrases, spitting out new unique words, or some combination of the two.
There are dozens of name generator tools out there. And we’ve compiled the best ones here in this very article! But first...
How to choose and name a new business
10 Proven Strategies to Grow Your eCommerce Business During a Recession
Everyone seems to be talking about a global recession.
So how likely is a financial downturn?
Well, research firm The Conference Board predicts a 96% likelihood of a US recession within the next 12 months.
It seems inevitable that the economy will soon be limping around like a three-legged donkey trying to win the Kentucky Derby. And that means people will have less money to spend, some will lose their jobs, and many businesses will struggle.
But it doesn’t have to include you.
If you take the right steps now, you can thrive during the recession and grow your eCommerce business faster than ever.
In this guide, we’re going to explore the impact on eCommerce during recession and how you can prof
How to start a B2B eCommerce business in 2025
74% of B2B buyers report researching at least half of their purchases online. This is because most B2B buyers are millennials who already prefer shopping online. They have high standards set by the prominent leaders of consumer eCommerce.
But how do you get started in B2B eCommerce? How do you provide the convenience and smoothness of online shopping to the complex B2B sales cycles?
In this guide, we’ll go over how B2B eCommerce works and how to set up your platform. Let’s dive in.
What is B2B eCommerce?
Let’s get on the same page with the definitions.
Business-to-business (B2B) eCommerce is an online business model that involves selling products and services between two businesses. B2B transactions usually boast big order values, high-profit margins, and complex processes.
As opposed to the B2C, the B2B sales cycles are usually long and involve more t
What is a MOQ?
MOQ is an acronym which stands for minimum order quantity, and refers to the minimum amount that can be ordered from a supplier. For example, if a supplier advertises a MOQ of 1,000 units, you must be able to purchase at least 1,000 units to be able to deal with that supplier. MOQ's will either be quoted in dollars or in units. Sometimes MOQ is also referred to as MQO, or minimum quantity order.
Why suppliers have MOQs
Wholesale suppliers usually operate on very low profit margins which means they rely heavily on bulk-buying customers to make a profit. Although new business owners can sometimes find the large investment necessary to meet the MOQ difficult, ultimately it's necessary to get the best wholesale prices available.
Some suppliers do not have a MOQ, which is very useful for new sellers who can only afford to buy say, 100 units; but often this means that you
Hobbies that Make Money - How to Earn $50k/Year Selling Crafts on Etsy
Hobbies that Make Money - How to Earn $50k/Year Selling Crafts on Etsy
If you’re looking for an easy way to start making money online, look no further than your favourite hobby.
There are thousands of people around the world who have turned their hobbies into successful online businesses.
These people have become so influential in the business world that a new word has been coined to describe them: Hobbypreneurs.
Selling crafts on Etsy, a global marketplace for unique and creative goods, is a popular and simple way of making money from your hobby.
The website currently has 1.9 million active sellers and and 31.7m active buyers, so it’s a little bigger than your typical weekend craft market.
Etsy is a popular outlet for artsy, creative types who make handcrafted or artisanal products. It’s also a top pick for profitability after giants Amazon and eB
How to Build a Website
We’ve had lots of SaleHoo members asking us how to set up their own website recently. An ecommerce website of your own gives you freedom to advertise and link to your listings; control over costs, listing format and duration; and greater flexibility with branding. The best part is that buyers tend to pay more when buying directly from your website just because they are removed from competing offers on eBay!
Sow how can you get your own website up and running? Check out our 5 step guide for the easy way...
5 Steps to Your Own Website
There’s a lot to cover, but this should give you a broad idea of what is involved in setting up a site.
1. Site Design
Are you going to design the site yourself or have someone else do it?
DIY – This gives you greatest control, but you’ll need experience in graphic design to create anything but the most basic of pages. Popular web desig
Everything You Need to Know About Paying Dropshipping Taxes
How to Handle Dropshipping Taxes
The True Cost of Drop Shipping: 27 Top Questions Answered!
At a glance: How much does it cost to start a dropshipping business?
$173 U.S. Dollars at least
Breakdown:
Website platform and hosting (such as Shopify)
$29 per month
Domain name
$9 per year
Auto importing product app (such as SaleHoo Dropship)
$27 per month
Product samples
$8 (depending on product)
Budget for ads (optional)
$100
At first glance, dropshipping looks like a foolproof business model. Dropshippers don’t keep inventory and they don’t pay for the products they sell until a customer has already bought them. All you have to do is set up your listing, mark up your prices and collect your profits, right?
Not quite! Dropshipping is a great way to start making money online, but it’s not always easy when it comes to balancing costs
What are the best eCommerce business models in 2025?
How to find the right business model and start making money online
What eCommerce business model is best for you?
The most important two words in that question are: For you.
There’s a range of ways to structure an online business - dropshipping, Amazon FBA, your own online store, to name a few - but there is no best way to do it.
However, it’s highly likely that there is an eCommerce business model that’s best for you.
Best for your level of experience. Best for your budget. Best for the amount of time you have. Best for your risk tolerance.
Choosing the best eCommerce business model for you is the single most important factor in your long-term success.
You can choose a great product, source a reliable supplier, and use smart marketing tactics. But without the right foundation for your business, you’re going to face an uphill battle.
When is the Right Time to Set Up an eBay Store?
When is the right time to set up an eBay store?
The right time to set up an eBay store is when you're consistently generating a good volume of sales each month and find yourself frequently listing new products. If you're looking to build a recognizable brand, need better tools to manage your inventory, or want to save on fees, an eBay store is a good option. If your online selling is becoming more than just a hobby and you're ready to take it to the next level, it's time to set up a store.
For most people, starting an eBay business is very exciting. The desire to have a successful, thriving business and make lots of money right away can be overwhelming.
This makes some new sellers go a bit overboard in the beginning.
One of the primary ways new sellers often take on too much is by opening an eBay store as soon as they start selling on the platform.
This
63 Business Coaches Give the Most Underrated Advice for eCommerce Entrepreneurs
Starting an eCommerce business can be tricky if you get off on the wrong foot. Focus too much on the wrong area and you waste a bunch of time that could have been spent somewhere else. So what exactly should you do? What are some tidbits that can lead you in the right direction? Fortunately, you’ve stumbled upon this article where we’ve asked business coaches and influencers around the world what their most underrated business advice is for new entrepreneurs trying to get into the eCommerce game
11 Ways to Stay Motivated with Your Side Business When You Have a 9-5
Got a side hustle? You're not alone. Around a quarter of Brits, a third of New Zealanders, and nearly half of Australians and Americans over 18 reportedly have a side hustle in addition to a full-time job.
How to Make the Most of Home Business Opportunities
Many people express the desire to run their own business at some point. For most, however, it often remains a pipe dream for a variety of reasons, usually financial. Of those who do make the leap, nearly 70 percent are home-based because there are so many work from home opportunities these days. Of the successful home-based businesses 3 years and older, 59 percent continue to be home-based because there are many obvious advantages to this method of operating.
However, just because a business is doing well doesn't mean that it's reaching its full potential. Many entrepreneurs just go so far and then stop just short of bringing it to the next level. Sometimes it's fear of upsetting the apple cart; most times it's just laziness. Presuming that you already have an ongoing business, such as a dropshipping operation, you can probably do much better with a little more effort.
Today, we'll find out how you can make the most of home business opportunities; you might be surprised at the results.
How to Get a US Reseller Permit/Resale Certificate (Sales Tax ID)
A reseller's permit (or resale license) is required for US-based sellers in order to avoid paying sales tax on items you are going to resell.To get a reseller's license you first have to enroll with your state tax department, which involves getting a Sales Tax ID number.
