This is the third in my series on How to Make Money Online.
In the first installment How to Make Money Online with a Virtual Store, I covered how this is probably the FIRST thing you think of when you hear the term “make money online”. Instead of paying rent on a brick and mortar building, one simply sets up a website and begins selling products.
In the second installment of the series, I covered how if you’ve got the talent to create an easy to navigate website that gets a lot of traffic, you may choose to become a virtual merchant. As a virtual merchant, you charge other retailers monthly fees (or per-transaction fees) for the opportunity to market their products on your site.
How to Make Money Online as a Virtual Matchmaker
Back in the 1990’s, it was all the craze… virtual matchmakers flourished matching buyers and sellers online - until the dot com crash. Many virtual matchmakers didn’t survive, but a few did and there’s still a need to connect buyers and sellers.
The most successful company currently making money online as a virtual matchmaker is eBay. The auction giant essentially acts as a middle mane, connecting buyers and sellers via online auctions. eBay makes their money by charging the seller a fee.
Other virtual marketplaces simply charge buyers and sellers monthly fees for easy access to each other. Most virtual matchmaking sites target a niche market like Mfg.com which matches equipment manufactures with smaller component suppliers. Another example of a company playing virtual matchmaker is eLance.
From Guru.com to SelfImprovement.com, there are a number of businesses making money online by connecting buyers and sellers.
Transparency is the way of web 2.0 so to find success as a virtual matchmaker, be sure to find a way to offer users a way to rate others on the site.
It’s also important to note that if you decide to pursue the online auction route, you’ll need more sophisticated software than just an E-junkie account.
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