Selling online
Use a social page, direct messages and marketplaces to sell to strangers: post content that shows the result, answer messages like a shop counter, count the marketplace fee in your margin, and give people reasons to trust you.
CONTENT
Show the result, not just the product
A feed of product photos with 'DM for price' asks strangers to do all the work. Content that sells shows your offer from lesson 7 happening: the product in use, a before and after, how it's made, a real customer's message, an answer to a question people keep asking. Most posts should be useful or interesting on their own; some should clearly ask for the order.
Hoda sells handmade bags. Instead of another bag on a white table, she posts a 20-second video of what fits inside one: laptop, water bottle, lunch box. It answers the question buyers were asking her in messages.
Five kinds of post that work for small sellers
- In use: the product or service doing its job in real life.
- Before and after: the room, the photo, the hem, the garden.
- Behind the scenes: how you make it, pack it or fix it.
- Answers: one common question per post: price, size, delivery, care.
- Customer words: a real message or photo, shared with their permission.
Check yourself
Hoda's page has 40 posts, all bag photos on a white table, each captioned 'DM for price'. Visitors like the photos but rarely message. What change is most likely to bring orders?
- Keep the same style of photo but post twice as often, every single day
- Show prices, and post the bags in real use, answering common questions
- Buy a few thousand followers so the page looks popular
- Run a big giveaway where people must follow the page and tag ten friends to enter
Show the answer
Show prices, and post the bags in real use, answering common questions
Yes. A hidden price and no sense of how the bag fits a real day leave strangers with questions they won't bother to ask. Show the result, show the price, remove the effort.
DIRECT MESSAGES
Your inbox is the shop counter
Online, the direct message is where the sale actually happens. Treat it like a counter with a customer standing at it: reply quickly, answer the exact question, give the price, and offer one clear next step (how to pay, when it arrives). A buyer who waits a day has often already bought somewhere else.
Save ready answers for the questions you get every day (price list, sizes, delivery times, how to pay) so a good reply takes seconds, then add one personal line.
Same question, two replies
Loses the sale
Next day: 'Hi, which one?' The customer has to explain again, then wait again for a price, then ask how to pay.
Makes the sale easy
Within the hour: 'Hi Sara! The green tote is 45, in stock. It arrives in 2–3 days. Shall I reserve it for you? I'll send payment details.'
Check yourself
Hesam's posts are excellent, so it doesn't matter much that he only answers direct messages once a day, late at night.
Show the answer
False
False. Good posts bring people to the counter; the reply is where they decide. Someone asking a price is ready to buy now, and a buyer left waiting until midnight has often ordered from someone else. Two or three short checks a day, with saved answers, costs little and keeps those sales.
Marketplace or your own page?
Marketplace
Buyers are already there, searching. Payment, delivery and reviews are often built in, which helps strangers trust a new seller. The cost: a fee on each sale, your listing sits next to cheaper ones, the rules can change, and the customer relationship belongs mostly to the platform.
Your own page
No fee per sale, your own style, and you can talk to customers again later. The cost: nobody comes unless you bring them, through content, outreach and referrals. You handle payment, delivery and trust yourself.
Hoda's bag, sold two ways
Price 50
Cost to make and pack 30
Own page: profit = 50 - 30 = 20
Marketplace: fee = 10% x 50 = 5
profit = 50 - 30 - 5 = 15
Margin, own page: 20 / 50Own page 40% margin, marketplace 30% margin.
The fee takes a quarter of her profit on each bag (5 of 20).The 10% is just this example; fees differ between platforms and categories, so check the real one. A marketplace can still be worth it if it brings sales she wouldn't get otherwise. Just price with the fee in, as in lesson 5.
Check yourself
Reza sells a lamp for 40 on a marketplace. It costs him 22 to make and ship, and the marketplace takes 15% of the price. What is his profit margin on each lamp?
- 45%, since 40 − 22 = 18, and 18 is 45% of the price of 40
- 15%, the same as the fee
- 30%: fee 6, so profit is 12, which is 30% of 40
- 55%, since his cost is 22 out of 40
Show the answer
30%: fee 6, so profit is 12, which is 30% of 40
Right. 15% of 40 = 6. Profit = 40 − 22 − 6 = 12. Margin = 12 ÷ 40 = 30%. Forgetting the fee would have made him think he earns half as much again.
TRUST
Trust signals
A stranger online is asking one silent question: will I actually get what I pay for? Trust signals answer it before they ask: real photos of your real work, a clear price, how and when delivery happens, what you do if something is wrong, a way to reach you, and honest words from past customers. Small, boring and consistent beats flashy.
One line in Hoda's bio did a lot: 'Ships in 2 days. Wrong colour or damaged? Send a photo and I'll replace it.'
Check yourself
Does each one build trust or damage it?
- A clear line on what happens if the item arrives damaged
- Photos borrowed from another seller's page
- A real customer's message, shared with her permission
- Prices shown in every post
- Reviews written by friends pretending to be customers
- Replying to a complaint politely in public and fixing it
Show the answer
Builds trust: A clear line on what happens if the item arrives damaged, A real customer's message, shared with her permission, Prices shown in every post, Replying to a complaint politely in public and fixing it
Damages trust: Photos borrowed from another seller's page, Reviews written by friends pretending to be customers
Check yourself
Match each problem to the fix
Show the answer
- Lots of likes, few messages → Show prices and the product in real use
- Many messages, few sales → Reply faster with the price and one next step
- Strangers hesitate to pay a new seller → Add delivery details, a returns line and real customer words
- Marketplace sales look good but the money is thin → Put the fee into the price and check the margin
Lesson recap
- Post content that shows your offer happening: in use, before and after, answers, customer words.
- Treat direct messages as the shop counter: fast, exact, price, one next step.
- A marketplace brings searching buyers but takes a fee; put the fee into your margin maths.
- Trust signals (real photos, clear price, delivery and returns, honest reviews) answer the stranger's silent question.
- Keep your customer list and a second channel, in case one platform changes.