Archive for March, 2008

Remember When Ebay Did This For America? I felt Proud to be an Ebay member back then. Fees were little to none. Ebay and the users were making great money.Hi everyone, I hope your weekend was fun. Sorry I didn’t blog much this weekend. I am getting over a cold. As you might know, ebay announced that you can no longer offer digital media as a download in your auctions or store. You can however offer it in the classified ads section. But this does little to no good. This is another reason people seem to be fleeing from ebay and on to other auction marketplaces. Ebay is raising the fees and giving us less ways to make money there. I have to admit. I am even thinking about packing my bags. What’s worse is, most of the fee changes don’t go in to affect until tomorrow, April 1st.

I was on the ebay message boards today. I visit the message boards often. The hottest subject right now is, all the powersellers that have already left ebay to move on to another auction place. Back in February the big sellers boycotted ebay for a week. There is a huge list of people that are upset about all the recent changes and are leaving no matter what. I am stuck on the fence on this one. I still make great money on ebay, no matter how high the fees go. But, to take more money out of my pocket, tacking on more restrictions, and giving us less, is really starting to tick me off.

I don’t mean to sound like a cry baby. I have been selling on ebay since 1997 and in the past 4 years it has really got out of hand. All you old school sellers know what I am talking about. The overhead of running a website is little to none. Give us a better experience instead of stealing our freedom of the real ebay experience. I don’t care if ebay restricts certain items to change with the times, that’s fine. But, their rules and price hikes are worse than the tax hikes in Massachusetts. They are all uncalled for and not needed.

What positive changes are ever going to come from raising auction and final value fees? The big retail companies are going to move in. They already have. Who do you think sells brand new cell phones, video game consoles, and brand name clothing on ebay at prices that beat all the other competition? Its the retail stores. You can only buy these items at real wholesale prices from the manufacturer. You need a brick and mortar retail store to do so. The manufacturer also tells the retail store to only sell at MSRP. Which means, home businesses can’t get these items for real wholesale prices. But that’s a whole other story.

Home business owners are the only reason ebay got where they are today. We started it all. Now ebay has decided to change direction in such, that home business owners can’t make a living there anymore. There was a time that home business owners could make a substantial living on ebay. Ebay has become this big over publicized monster. New users never get what they wanted because it’s over hyped.

New members sign up everyday with the wrong knowledge of “It’s easy to make money on ebay”. That’s not true at all anymore. I feel bad for new users that fall for this trap and list 100 items off the bat, thinking they will all sell. You need to know tricks and tips to make your items sell on ebay now-a-days. If you are new to ebay, don’t plan on making fast money. You need to learn the ropes first. You can’t just jump in to it.

You need to do extensive research and have the knowledge to keep a float and still make money on ebay. I have basically become an ebay tutor in the past few years. I teach people how they can make money on ebay. But I also stress to them, it is not as easy as it used to be. I just don’t like where ebay is going with all the new changes in our pockets. They can do whatever they like to rules and the way ebay is run. But stop taking from our pockets ebay.

I have already expanded to Amazon and a half dozen other good marketplaces around the web in the past few years. I don’t see more business coming from any one of them. But as a whole, that other part of my business is making more money than ebay. That tells me that: I could leave ebay and it won’t effect me in a bad way. Get going everyone. Go expand your business, so ebay isn’t the only way you make money online.

I have said this before and I will say it again. Something bigger and better always comes along. Ebay is just making it easier for the competition to take over. Look around people. Right now, there are plenty of options besides ebay. I am not saying leave ebay(unless you want to). But at least branch off, in to other auction marketplaces. The worst that can happen is; you might make more money.

Thanks for reading my blog everyone. See you tomorrow.

LP@thehomedropshipguide.com

A small cell of the notorious fake check scamming ring from Nigeria were caught this week. I am sure some of you have been victims or almost victims to this popular scam ring. The scam would involve a seller and a buyer. The seller is the victim and buyer is the scammer. The buyer sends you a check as payment for an item you sold. You deposit the check in your bank. You think “all is well” because the money clears. Until about 30 days later when your bank finds the error. Then your bank accuses you of depositing or cashing a fake check.

That’s right, what a terrible thing to do to someone. There have been cases of people selling cars or property and falling for this scam. I read about someone who lost fifty thousand dollars from this scam. Listen to this;

This land lord put a property up for rent in a classified ad. The buyer(scammer) wanted to supposedly rent property. They told the landlord they were moving from the UK to the USA. They told them that their company was paying them fifty thousand dollars to relocate(this is normal for re-locations). So nothing out of the ordinary the land lord goes along with it. The landlord was told they would receive a relocation check for fifty thousand dollars. When the check came they were asked to cash it and send twenty five thousand dollars to their decorator(so they could decorate the apartment before they flew in). They were also told to take the other twenty five thousand dollars to keep as the first years rent upfront. So the landlord goes to the bank. The bank excepts the check and he takes out twenty five thousand for himself and the other twenty five thousand to the decorator. Guess what? The decorator is the scammer also. You send the money to the decorator and think all is well. About thirty days later you get a phone call from the bank telling you that you have 24 hours to pay back fifty thousand dollars or they report you to the FBI for fake check scamming.

Believe it or not, people fall for this scam everyday. Just remember, nobody is going to give you more money than you have coming to you. That should bring up red flag number one. The second problem is; they want you to send a quantity of money to some you don’t know, that isn’t even involved in the trade. These are the 2 signs of someone trying to scam you.

The second way this scam could go is the most popular one. It goes like this: You put an item up for sale and get a replay like;

Hi my name is so and so from (another country) and was interested in your item. Is it still for sale? I want to buy something for my friend in your country. He also needs extra money for (an excuse). If I send you (amount of money) more than the item is worth; can you send it to my friend in your country along with the item? You think okay, I can send it along with the item anyway. You deposit or cash the check and send the person your item and extra money. The bank picks up on the error about 30 days later when nothing can be done. Now the person gets away with your money and the item. You owe the bank money for the fake check also. You lose three times. Your item, extra money, and full amount of check.

Another popular Nigerian scam goes like this. Its a little different and doesn’t involve a check.

Hi my name is so and so from (another country) I have a large quantity of money(usually in tens of millions) that I can’t touch unless we pay (another large quantity of money, usually in the hundreds of thousands) for lawyers fees. If you help we will send you (another large quantity of money, usually millions). Don’t ever fall for this scam. I can’t believe people have fallen for it. The government say over 100 million dollars has been stolen from this scam in the USA alone. So, someone is falling for it.

Nobody can be sure this ring has been stopped with this bust in New Hampshire. It is believed that there are thousands of people involved all around the world. One thing is for sure. The ring has scammed billions of dollars from people all around the world. There seems to be this same exact check scam going on all around the world right now. Its sad when people have to resort to this kind of thing. This ring in New Hampshire that was caught is a small part of this enormous scam ring from Nigeria. But they were responsible for an estimated 5-10 million dollars scammed from people. And there were only two people involved in this small cell of the ring. To think there are thousands of people involved in this scam and what huge amount of damage only two people caused. I can’t even fathom what the rest of the ring is pulling in.

Just remember the 2 warning signs of the Nigerian check scam.

1. Nobody sends you more money than the item costs.

2. Nobody is going to ask you to send money to someone you don’t even know. Especially if they aren’t even involved in the transaction.

If anyone has questions let me know. I would hate to see anyone fall for this.

Hi everyone, I hope you are doing well. Today I figured I would tell you about something fun to do this Weekend. Skillground has announced today that it has added Toca Race Driver 3 to its list of game titles you can play for free. As some of you know, I love video games. Especially sports and racing games. They keep the blood flowing. You can sign up and try skillground for free. You can win money if your skills are good enough.

Skillground is known for UTour golf. It has become huge this past few months. But now that they have finally added Toca to their game line-up; they are sure to become more popular to skill video gamers. You can play in one on one matches against someone else. You can play in tournaments for bragging rights as well as money. You can play in a team game. Or just practice by yourself until you think you are good enough to play against someone.

It’s a lot of fun at Skillground lately. They also have some first person shooters. Warpath and Close Quarters Conflict are not as popular as they used to be. But you can still win money playing them. Skillground also has a cool kung fu game that you can play against others. It reminds me of mortal combat.

Right now Skillground has a few tournaments you can play for money and win big. They have over $500.00 total pot for one of the Toca tournaments going on right now. Utour’s prize pot is over $500.00 on one of the tournaments also. You can play free games for bragging rights or put up your own money to win more in certain tournaments. Lots of people play at Skillground so there is always a fun time to have.

Skillground also has built-in chat rooms to match up with opponents. It’s a very social place. You can even chat with players during the game. Go to meet friends that play video games from around the world. This weekend Skillground is having a Skills Challenge Weekend. Players will compete in putting and driving contests in Utour golf for cash prizes. You can find details about this weekends contest right here.

Go have some fun for an hour. Everyone needs a break. It’s so much fun when you can play against someone and communicate with them at the same time. There is nothing like online gaming. Skillground is the best of both worlds because you can win money.

Give Skillground a try. Sign up for a free account and play.

See you all tomorrow. Thanks for reading.

Hi everyone, I hope things are going well for you. Have you tried expanding your business to Craigslist yet? I know this may be old news to most of you. Not everyone knows the advantages of craigslist yet. I have been experimenting with craigslist for a couple of years. I used to sell something here and there. The past year, Craigslist has become so popular, sales have shot through the roof. Now, I sell almost every item I post on craigslist.

The best advantage of Craigslist is; IT IS TOTALLY FREE. You don’t get charged any fees to list something. There are not final value fees cutting into your profit. You don’t have to worry about paying fees if your item doesn’t sell. Craigslist gets about the same traffic as myspace and yahoo. So sales are very good. Prices stay about as low as ebay prices.

You can find some really good deals on Craigslist also. If you want to buy on Craigslist to resell somewhere, you could make some really good money. Just to give you an example; not too long ago, I bought a used Dell XPS laptop for four hundred dollars on Craigslist and resold it on ebay for over eight hundred dollars.

Another thing I love about craigslist is: most of your customers are local. I use this to my advantage and sell my large items on Craigslist. I save big-time on shipping costs and so do my customers. Since you are local, it makes selling something in the same day you posted it a regular occurrence. Most items sell within the first hour or two of you posting it. If you are willing to ship the item, you can expand around craigslist and post in other city and state listings.

One more advantage that Craigslist holds above every marketplaces head is; Craigslist is usually first come first serve. That means, when you see something you like you can email that person to tell them you want it now. Most times, the seller(like my self) will leave their phone number. Just call the number and make arrangements to meet up and make the transaction. Or in a rare occasion the buyer will want you to ship the item. No more being outbid on a good deal.

For the most part, I definitely recommend Craigslist to sell your items. It has really turned around for the better in the past year or so. If you are thinking about expanding your business without the worry of spending money, then Craigslist is the place. Give it a try, it’s totally free.

Craigslist has given me something to do in my spare time. I find myself and friends taking short trips around town selling items from customers on Craigslist. I have 5 corner stores and 3 police precincts where I live and they make great meeting places. Being in the city has it’s advantages. Craigslist isn’t for everyone. Most people may be scarred to go and meet up with people they don’t know. Just try and be smart about it. Always meet in a public place where people are around.

If anyone has questions about Craigslist let me know. Thanks for reading. See you tomorrow.

LP@thehomedropshipguide.com

Hi everyone, I got a lot of feedback from last night’s post. I am pretty sure I was able to answer everyone. If anyone else has questions about how to use clickbank let me know. Today, I will be giving you some really, juicy, money making information by using clickbank.com. The information I am giving you about clickbank is sold in ebooks around the internet for big money. Read it here for free.Promoting Clickbank products and writing articles about them; is what I will be telling you about today. If you don’t know what I mean about writing articles. Get yourself familiar with it before you read on. Here is a blog post I made about it. http://thehomedropshipguide.com/blog/article-marketing-brings-the-most-traffic-to-your-website/

Okay, now that you know what I mean about writing articles we can move on. Now, you are probably thinking, how do I combine clickbank and writing articles? Here is how you do it. Clickbank lets you promote any product they offer as long as you are a clickbank member. Just a reminder, it is absolutely free to become a clickbank member and promote clickbank products to get paid. All it costs is your time promoting the products.

Go to Clickbank marketplace and choose the products you would like to promote. Assuming you have signed up(free) for clickbank already, make sure you are signed in. Notice next to each product in the marketplace, you can see your designated affiliate link to promote the product with. Copy the link and save it somewhere. I will tell you why later.

Okay, now the writing part. Now go to one of the products homepages that you want to promote. Read about the product and get to know it. You are about to write an interesting article about this product. Do you think you can do it? It’s really easy once you start, believe me. Writing an article about someone else’s product is very easy. Just take information they give and tell everyone about it in your article. If you have tried the product, that is even better. You can be like me and only promote good products and services you have tried and recommend. If you can spice up your article without misrepresenting the product, then go for it(but you don’t need to). Simple is always better.

Now, remember that affiliate link you got on the Clickbank marketplace? You want to place the affiliate link at the bottom of your article. Now, post that article in as many places that will let you post your articles. The three places I told you about (ezine, goarticles, and idealmarketers)should be sufficient enough. They all get tons of traffic. But don’t let me stop you from posting it anywhere else.

The more places you post this article the more sales you will make. Clickbank gives you a commission for each product you sell for them. Try and sell the products that offer a 50% or higher commission per sale. Since most products sell for $50-$100 you should make some decent money.

Now, combine what I have told you and use it. Write articles for as many clickbank products as you can. Then post all your articles in every article submission website you want. If you advertise your articles you will make even more money. Advertise them everyday and you will be a professional affiliate in no time. It’s very possible and very easy to do. Working at home doesn’t feel so far away right now does it?

You can even send articles through social networks in an all out advertising campaign. You can find out how to advertise and market your articles in this blog post I made. http://thehomedropshipguide.com/blog/advertising-your-business-is-the-important-part/

Just remember, I tried to make this a brief post. If I didn’t explain something thoroughly enough, don’t be afraid to ask me. I have been doing very well with clickbank lately. I wouldn’t recommend it if it wasn’t working. And I don’t mind helping any of you. I know how tough it is to make extra money these days.

Thanks for reading my blog everyone. See you tomorrow.

Hi everyone, I hope you had a good weekend. Today, I am going to tell you how to make money with clickbank. Unless you have been asleep, I am sure you have heard of clickbank. Clickbank is a place where publishers can sell their books. It is also a place that you can make money from being an affiliate to promote ebooks of your choice. As you know, affiliate products are great to bring extra money into your website.

Clickbank.com is the worlds leading marketplace for digital products. Almost every ebook sold online has been sold through clickbank. It you have ever written an ebook, you could sell it on clickbank. I have 2 ebooks I have written, both which I sell through clickbank. All you do is sign up at clickbank.com and become a publisher. List your ebook landing page and thank you pages on clickbank. Every time someone purchases your ebook, they are brought to clickbanks checkout page. From there you can choose to pay by credit card, paypal, or echeck. Clickbank is a great way for anyone who likes to write ebooks to make money.

Publishers list all kinds of ebooks for sale on clickbank. All kinds of ebooks, from cooking books to how to make money ebooks. Clickbank is a great place to learn the ropes of being your own publisher and boss. Clickbank’s marketplace of ebooks has been known to help people retire and make a living at home. Everyone buys ebooks at one time or another. Information is like gold online. Especially if it is helping someone make money.

That’s fine, if you don’t like to write ebooks. You can make money on clickbank by becoming an affiliate to promote ebooks. You can actually sell the ebooks on on your own website for commission. Most sales on clickbank ebooks offer a 75% commission from each sale! Not bad for just being the middleman for a sale. Clickbank affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to make money on the web.

All you do is browse through clickbanks marketplace to find ebooks you would like to sell on your website. When you find the ebooks you want to sell, you list them on your website. Just put your affiliate link from the clickbank products onto your webpage. Then, when someone clicks the affiliate link on your website and purchases the ebook, you get a commission. Most ebooks on clickbank sell for $50-$100. At a seventy five percent commission on each book sold, you can see how much money there is to be made.

Clickbank is probably the best kept secret in the affiliate marketing world. Lots of affiliates know about clickbank. But, not many regular Joe’s know about clickbank. Clickbank is probably the best way to make money with your website by referring traffic. What can be better than making money from being a middleman and doing nothing except collecting checks? Signing up to be a clickbank affiliate is absolutely free. But, if you want to become a clickbank publisher also, you have to pay a one-time publisher fee of $49.95.

I have been using clickbank for about 5 months. They are a great service to sell your ebooks. And they are an even better service to make money from affiliate marketing. Give them a try if you are thinking about affiliate marketing on your website/s.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask me. Thanks for reading. See you all tomorrow.

LP@thehomedropshipguide.com

Hi everyone, Happy Easter!

I found a cool poem about Easter. If you know “T’was the Night before Christmas”, you should get a good laugh. See You Tomorrow.

T’was The Day Before Easter

By Tammy Fuller

T’was the day before Easter and all through the woods,
The bunnies were busy packing their goods.
The eggs were all colored so pretty and bright,
All things were “go” for the big, special night.

The baskets were waiting, all decorated with care,
In hopes that the Bunny soon would be there.
My little brother Sam was asleep in his bed,
While visions of Easter eggs rolled round his head.

And I in my pajamas with the cat on my lap,
I had just settled down for a quick little nap.
When outside the window I heard a great noise,
I sprang from my chair and jumped over some toys.

As quick as a flash to the window I flew,
I pulled up the shade and, OH, what a view.
The moon on the meadow cast a bright, golden glow,
And the wind blew the flowers to and then fro.

Then all of a sudden out of nowhere,
Came some lively bunnies, hopping here, hopping there!
Leading the group with ears long and funny
Was a plump all-white rabbit…
That’s right…The EASTER BUNNY!

The bunnies hopped past, one, two, three, four,
The rabbit called out and then there were more.
“Come, Peter! Come, Flopsy! Come, Benny! Come, Joe!
Now hop along! Hop along! Hop along! GO!”

So up on each doorstep, the bunnies did hop,
With baskets of eggs. (Let’s hope they don’t drop!)
Just at that moment, on the porch down below,
Came the stomping of feet; ‘Twas the rabbit I know!

As I stepped from my window I heard a loud sound.
Through the door came the rabbit with a leap and a bound.
He was furry and soft from his head to his feet.
To see him so close was really quite neat.

He was surrounded by eggs that had been carefully dyed.
Easter eggs galore he soon would hide.
His eyes were all twinkles, his nose was so pink,
And I can’t be too sure but I think he did wink.

He had a kind face and a big fluffy tail
That bobbed up and down like a boat with a sail.
A twitch of his nose and a flick of his ear
Was his way of saying, “You’ve nothing to fear.”

He uttered no sound as he hopped all about,
Hiding the eggs and leaving no doubt,
That the Easter Bunny had come like he does every year…
Bringing baskets of happiness to children so dear.

Happy Easter!!

Hi everyone, Spring is finally here and you can actually feel the difference outside. Not too hot, not too cold. As you know ebay changed their feedback system in February. Ebay’s new feedback system had a lot of people worrying about their good feedback ratings. So far, nothing major has changed. But I have noticed a lot of easier transactions lately. I am not really that worried about the rule that; sellers won’t be able to leave negative feedback for the buyers. All though this rule won’t go into effect until May.

If you are a good seller, don’t let this new rule bother you. After all, the buyer is the one taking the big chance. As ebay puts it, the buyer is sending money to a stranger. I back this up totally. The idea that buyers can leave negative and neutrals, but the sellers can’t is a great idea. It will really let the great sellers shine.

There are a lot of bogus sellers out there that leave retaliatory negatives. There are less buyers that do so. Sellers will reap the benefits of buyers that are suspended for bad behavior or trading practices. All negative and neutral feedback that suspended ebay members left for other users will be automatically removed. I love this idea. Too bad it won’t take place until May/June. But it’s worth the wait.

Everything I preach about having great customer service will really help you in the new ebay feedback system. Sellers that have great customer service and drive repeat customers are now rewarded. Instead of only receiving 1 total transaction on your score rating for repeat customers; you will be rewarded with each transaction from the same person. So your feedback is greatly affected in a good way when you drive repeat customers to your auctions/store. I love this new change also. Good sellers are usually the ones that drive repeat customers. There is a reason for it. Now we are rewarded for it.

Buyers will have a chance to leave honest opinions about their experience with the transaction. In the past buyers were scared to leave an honest opinion about the transaction in fear of receiving the all mighty retaliatory negative feedback. Now the sellers can’t leave a negative or neutral feedback at all. All buyers will be able to tell the good sellers from the bad. And the great sellers will reap all the benefits, as the buyer will more often buy from a seller with a better feedback rating. I know my customer service is good enough to go up against this new rule, so I am not going to worry about it. This rule won’t take effect until May. In the long run, buyers will more likely buy more, so the sellers will make more.

Plus, the big change of buyers not being able to leave a feedback until at least three days have gone by. This is another great rule change. New buyers not familiar with the ebay system; are notorious for leaving a negative feedback if you don’t reply to them in the first hour. I love this new rule.

I like all the new feedback changes. It is already affecting my ebay business in a positive way. Anyone not happy with the new ebay feedback system should step back and take another look at your customer service. That’s what it is all about. Be nice to your customers. Always answer their questions and emails. Above all, always be courteous as; the customer is always right.

Let me know if you have any questions.

LP@thehomedropshipguide.com

Hi everyone, I hope you’re doing good. I recently had someone ask me if they should have more than one drop ship/wholesale distributor for the products they sell. My answer is definitely yes. You should always have a back-up plan for no matter what you do. This includes, having more than one distributor for the products you sell.If something can go wrong, it probably will. Always try to plan ahead. Chances are, you will never need to use your back-up plan. But it’s a good idea to have one in place to use in case something ever goes wrong.

The most common thing that can go wrong in drop shipping is: You sell the item and your drop shipper has run out of stock. If you have another distributor that sells the same products you are saved. A good drop ship company will let you know when items are out of stock or discontinued. Most drop shippers want to know what their retailers are selling, so they can inform them of such changes.

Back in the day when there where only a few good drop shippers out there, the out of stock problem would happen a lot. As time went by things changed for the better as technology became our friend more and more. Back orders seemed to take half as much time. You could really tell that the drop shippers were making an effort for your customers. Having a good drop shipper is key to being informed about product updates.

Discontinued items can really hurt you also. Some products are only released for a few short weeks or months. Then the manufacturer notices glitches or product defects and the item is recalled or discontinued. So many times an item sells and makes really good money for you; then the manufacturer discontinues the product for whatever reasons.

Again, if you have a good drop shipper, they should keep you informed of any products that are discontinued. Having a back-up distributor can save you when a product is discontinued. The other distributors might have a few products left in stock. It might even be a good idea to buy all the remaining products in stock if it is a good seller. Since the products are no longer for sale through the manufacturer, it may be in high demand.

It is also your responsibility to always research and know what products are out of stock or discontinued. It’s nice to have your distributor keeping you informed of product changes. But don’t rely on them. At the end of the day, you are the one that has to relay bad news to your customers.

Thanks for reading my blog everyone. See you all tomorrow.

Hi everyone, I hope you are well. Ever wonder how you can bring traffic to your website? People always want to learn ways to drive more traffic to their website. Plant your seed into article marketing. If you write free articles on popular article websites, you can bring in thousands of customers to your website. Targeted customers who already want what you have to offer. There are tons of free article websites that have millions of readers. These article websites are free to sign up with. All you need is a little time to write some great articles. They are like online magazines of posts real people make. I will give you a list of a few websites you can post your articles for free and get tons of traffic.What you do is; sign up for an article website. Write an article about your website. Try and make the topic of your article an interesting subject about your product or service. Make sure you show expertise in your area on your article. At the bottom of your article leave a link to your website/s. Some article websites let you have an author Bio, just put your website information and link in there also. Now, whenever someone reads your article they will be referenced to your website/s link. People can even use the article on their own website with the promise that they do not modify it. That means, they can’t take your website information out. So your articles will spread like wildfire through the online world. And you will get thousands, if not millions of readers to your articles. Bloggers love to use professional looking articles for their blog.

Just remember, it sounds easy but it takes lots of time and dedication. I would say; you will have to write 3-5 articles a day, everyday, for about 3 months. Then you should be able to drop down to 2-3 articles a day. You keep this up as long as you want to advertise your website. You will start to see real results about 3-4 months into marketing with articles. You are planting a seed that will be potentially spread to millions of people reading your articles. Writing articles is the best way to market and advertise any website.

The best thing about writing articles for your website is; it is totally free. Any marketing and advertising company is doing the same when you pay them to advertise your website. They are writing articles on the same websites I am going to tell you about in this post. I am not saying they are ripping you off. Writing articles is not always easy. Paying someone to advertise your website usually works out great. But, it is very expensive. If you know how to advertise the same way they are advertising; why not do it yourself? Save yourself some money if you have the extra time. Write the articles yourself.

ezinearticles.com is probably the best place to post your free articles. There are millions of people that read articles on ezine everyday. Ezine is probably the most popular article website on the internet. This place is a goldmine of traffic to your website, just waiting to happen. Ezine has an author rating system. When you start writing you are a basic member. As you keep writing your articles, you will move up the ranks to become a basic plus member. Then, when you write 25+ articles they let you become a platinum member. The rank system gives each author recognition. Platinum members get to post an unlimited number of articles. One downfall is; ezine has strict rules on things like keywords.

goarticles.com is another great place to write articles. There are millions of readers on goarticles. You will get tons of traffic by writing articles there. They do not have a ranking system. Goarticles let you post an unlimited amount of articles as soon as you become a member. I like goarticles a little better than ezine. But ezine will bring you more traffic. Goarticles doesn’t have strict rules against posts such as keyword spamming. They are very tolerant and very user friendly.

ideamarketers.com is a great place to bring traffic in as well. They have millions of readers that will bring you in traffic. Not only can you write and post articles there; but you can expand your writing hobbies. You can hire ghostwriters to write if you don’t want to write yourself. You can even be a ghostwriter for someone elses website or blog. Ideamarketers is a great all around article writing website. There are tons of options to open your writing horizons there.

All three of these websites are totally free to use. Yes, there are other article websites out there. But, in my recommendation, these three will bring you the most targeted traffic. They have the most daily readers than any other article websites out there. Give them a try if you need targeted traffic to your website or blog.

If you have any questions, feel free to email me. Thanks for reading.

LP@thehomedropshipguide.com

Today I am going to give you some pointers to stay on track of your goals. I know, you are probably thinking, “oh-no”, here we go. But there are so many people who never set up goals to accomplish. They have a habit of going into things blindly without figuring out a game plan. They don’t have any guidelines set up to follow and they wonder why they fail. Keeping on track of your goals and staying motivated can really help you succeed in whatever you do. Anyone can work. But, are you good at what you do? Do you finish everything you were supposed to finish by the end of your work day?

Even if you are happy with your current income. You want to ensure your income and keep it rising over long term. You never know what the future holds. Long term goals should be mapped out. As you accomplish each long term goal, you should map out another goal to replace it. Your goals should be a never ending revolving door. Never settle for what you have now and you will always exceed your goals.

Here is a little trick to keep you motivated if you work at home. Make a checklist of all the things you need to accomplish today. Now, imagine you have a boss and he won’t let you go home until all your work is done for the day. Even if you just work part time on ebay. That little trick seems to work with me. Here are five pointers to keep you right on track of your goals.

Create more money streams. Don’t settle for one income stream. The more income streams you have coming in; the more chances you have to make money. Multiple income streams can be a huge success factor. Sure ebay is fine. But, what if you have a website also? You could have your website and still do ebay. In a years time of advertising your website everyday, you won’t need to rely on ebay. Your customer base from your website will rise. Yes, it takes time, but it’s well worth it. The point is, don’t just settle for one money maker.

Don’t always do it for the money. Money is a great motivator. But don’t make it your primary focus. Learning and gaining experience as you go can really be worth more than money. In the long run, experience will pay off by making you more money. So take it easy and do things right. Don’t worry, money will flow in if you keep at it everyday.

If you reach your goal plateau, make room for more. There is always room for improvement. That is what expanding is all about. Reaching goals can be a very difficult task. Map out your daily goals to reach your main goals over time. Then as you reach each main goal, expand your horizons and map out more goals you want to accomplish. The daily exercise of accomplishing goals will teach you how to crush your obstacles along with anything else standing in your way.

Pay close attention to fads and trends. Fads and trends come and go. If you go a years time without paying attention to what is trendy; you may hurt yourself and your business. Don’t get used to the same ‘ol, same ‘ol. It’s fine to get used to a certain trend, but it won’t be around forever. Familiar equals comfort zone. But don’t get comfortable with something that isn’t working as well anymore. Following trends and keeping with them is a great business advantage. You can actually steal customers away from your competition just by knowing what is hot right now.

Think outside the box. Lots of people get used to what is the norm. They seem to follow what everyone else is doing. Don’t worry about what everyone else is doing. Pay attention to detail and research everything you need. Chances are, your competition isn’t thinking outside the box. They are probably doing what everyone else is doing. Concentrate on going the other direction. Keep originality and simplicity your main concept. Don’t copy what other people are doing. It’s fine to check and see what your competition is doing. But don’t copy them. When you copy everyone else, you will be boring. Give your customers something they have never experienced before. That alone, will keep them coming back.

These are some great tips to keep you on track with all of your goals. Goals are easy to accomplish if you keep at it and don’t quit. It’s easy to let goals get the best of you & give up. The challenge is sticking with your goals and plans all the way through. Follow through and finish all your goals one at a time and you will be very successful.

Thanks for reading my blog everyone. Let me know if you have any questions.

LP@thehomedropshipguide.com

Hi everyone, I hope you had a fun weekend. Today I will be talking about tax write-offs/deductions. I did my taxes this weekend. I got to write-off a lot this year. It is possible to write-off anything you bought or used for business reasons. Anything from pencils to the car you drive. You may not get to write the whole sum of all your deductions. But you can check with your tax person and find out how much you can deduct.

If you work at home and use a computer you can write your computer off as a deduction, if you bought it in that tax year. There are tricks around everything. I am not an expert when it comes to taxes. I have a tax person for that. I give him the receipts of all the business related things I bought through the year. He adds them together and figures out how much I can write-off/deduct.

You can save a lot of money when you have tax deductions. All the printing paper you bought through year is paid for now. I look at it this way; If I have to pay for it now to get reimbursed later, I can spend more money on my business. We all know we like to save a few bucks. But knowing I can write most of it off the next tax year reassures me that I can spend a little more. After all, Uncle Sam wants to pay for it. Otherwise they wouldn’t allow business tax write-offs/deductions.

April 15th as you know, is the last day to file your taxes. I usually keep all my business receipts in a shoe box or two. Then I bring all the receipts to my tax guy. Having a shoe box for all the receipts makes things easier. I even rearrange the shoe box into sections with a cardboard separator. Anything to make it easier when the year is over. Believe me, you won’t remember all your deductions if you don’t keep track of them somehow. By the time tax day comes you’ll forget what you are trying to deduct.

If you don’t have a legal business you won’t be able to write as much off when tax time gets here. Some people just use their social security number for their tax number. This can get confusing when tax time comes. The IRS lets you write off things if you have a legal/registered business. Most things, such as mileage for your car, are not deductible if you use your social security number as your tax number. But if you have a fed tax ID you can write off as much as they will let you.

The IRS wants small business to succeed. They want you to add up all your business expenses so they can help you out and pay for some. In reality, they don’t give you any money. But your taxes will be cheaper because they deduct all your expenses and take it off the bill/taxes you owe them at the end of the year. We are lucky to have such a convenience. There are tons of business owners who don’t even know about tax write-offs/deductions. Don’t be left in the dark. Ask your tax person what you can write-off/deduct, courtesy of the IRS. You will be surprised what you can deduct from the taxes you owe the IRS.

Thanks for reading my blog everyone. See you tomorrow.

Hi everyone, I hope you are doing good. Recently I read a great article about people that are happy. Did you know 99.9% of people that are happy on a regular basis are very positive people? Also, did you know that 99.9% of unhappy people have very negative personalities? It’s true, having positive personality traits can make chemicals in the brain that make you happier.Endorphins in the brain react to each positive gesture and turn it into a happy feeling. Yes, your brain knows the difference between positive and negative. It also knows that positive energy needs happy feelings and negative energy needs angry feelings. They go hand and hand. Just like endorphins in the brain make a drug addict happier when they get their fix. It is the same endorphins that react to your positive attitude and give you a natural high. Happy is an emotion that your brain gets addicted to if you are positive all the time. The more you brain gets endorphins to make it happy, the more it will need that feeling. Therefor giving you happy personality traits.

When was the last time you saw a sport star that got happy when he was beat on the field by another player? Probably never…. When he got outdone on the field, you may notice them become angry about it. He may feel like he isn’t as good as the other player and that is a negative thought. Now he has talked his brain into believing he isn’t as good. This can all happen in a split second subliminal thought. Right away, the endorphins in his brain from being negative made him angry or upset. The player that beat him probably got a happy feeling or started smiling about it. Not because he made a good play, but because his brain received positive endorphins that made him happy. Those positive endorphins will guide him to believe he is better than that other player now. He may not get those endorphins through the rest of his sports career. But like a drug, he will get high off of positive energy long enough to finish the game. Most players have great games when these endorphins kick into the brain. Positive energy is a very powerful weapon.

Being positive as much as you can will actually expand your happy personality traits. Your brain will get addicted to the feeling of happiness because it is always being sent positive endorphins that cause you to be happy. The more positive chemicals that are sent to the brain, the more endorphins are being reached, and the more your brain needs to feel that way. Your brain is capable of being more addicted to happiness than heroin. Natural endorphins can over power any drug. Your brain is a very powerful tool.

That’s why if you are negative all the time, your brain will receive endorphins that will make you unhappy or grouchy all the time. You brain gets addicted to whatever endorphins are sent to it on a regular basis. That’s why people that are angry and grouchy seem to be like that all the time. They have actually caused their brain to be addicted to feeling grouchy and angry all the time.

There have been studies that show your brain only needs what you give it. If you are always feeding your brain positive thoughts, it will reward you with the feeling of happiness. Your brain will never crave endorphins from negative thoughts if you don’t show it how it feels to be negative. If your brain doesn’t crave negativity, you are less likely to feel unhappy in situations you should be happy about.

Ever notice how negative or crabby people don’t get happy, even when they should be? They are not trying to play it cool. Their brain is just used to being that way. They could win the lottery and seem like they don’t get happy. If they do react in happiness, they won’t get as happy about winning the lottery if their brain received that positve feeling a little more. It is normal to feel emotions. But when your brain gets an overload of one emotion it can be dangerous. Negative energy can throw all your other emotions off track. Your brain will actually get confused if it is not used to a certain emotion. Just like when people go into shock when they receive terrible news. Their brain wasn’t used to it. Their brain got confused because it wasn’t used to receiving the endorphins that created that feeling.

Negative personalities are catchy too. Be careful who you hang out with or listen too. It takes 100 positives to overcome one negative thought. So if you listen to a person full of negativity all day, they could bring you to a feeling of negativity until you get back into your groove. Angry people stay angry for a reason. The negativity has got a hold of them and now their brain is addicted to the feeling of negativity and grouchiness.

You know the story the little engine that could. Everyone had a negative energy about getting up the hill. Except the little engine that could. He told him self over and over that he could do it. I think I can, I think I can. Then when he got over the hill he said I thought I could, I thought I could. He actually told his brain he was capable of it and believed he could do it. When he made it up the hill, he rewarded his brain with the positive thought of, I thought I could. His brain got 2 totally different kinds of positive reinforcement endorphins. One set to tell him he was capable of it and another set to congratulate himself upon completing the task. Now his brain will more likely be positive toward the next impossible looking task.

It goes to show you that you can do anything you believe in. Lots of ancient civilizations strived to have mind over body. From martial arts to capitalism. Everyone that was successful though time did it because they believed they could do it. Bill Gates didn’t create Microsoft overnight, but he believed himself the whole time in creation. That made it a reachable and achievable task. Positive energy and constant positive endorphins to Bill’s brain got him where he is today. Bill taught himself to be very positive no matter what. If you ever met Bill Gates, you’ll notice he is a very happy person.

Everyone will be affected by negative energy and be angry or crabby from time to time. That’s a very natural human emotion. But it is not normal to be negative with every thought. Teach yourself to overcome obstacles with positive thought. You can make a huge difference in the outcome of your life. Every negative emotion needs to be over come by many positive ones. If you lose your job, your thoughts should not be, what do I do now? They should be, that’s okay, I can find another job as easy as I got this one.

Close your eyes, see it, and believe you can. Those are the three keys to being positive on a daily basis. Before you make each decision through the day, take a step back, to see and believe in it. Give your brain the endorphins it needs to accomplish tasks easier. Positive thoughts create happy ones. Positive thoughts create a happy future. A happy future is a successful one. Give it a try.

Thanks for reading my blog. See you all tomorrow.

LP@thehomedropshipguide.com

Hi everyone, I hope your doing good. Someone asked me last night if I thought it was a good idea for them to jump right into drop shipping with no prior experience. They implied that they were thinking about listing 30-50 items a night on ebay from their drop shippers catalog. This is a very bad idea. Rule number one: never go all out with anything you are not familiar with yet. Always start off slow.This person also said they are new to ebay. This is another no-no. If you don’t know the ins and outs on ebay, you will never make it by combining drop shipping and ebay. You are building a recipe for disaster. I would recommend doing 10-20 transactions on ebay before you go all out. Some people don’t fully get familiar with the way ebay works until their first 50 transactions or so. You could lose a lot of money in auction fees by inexperienced option choices in your auctions.

Get into drop shipping slowly. The competition is hard enough as it is. Rookies will find no success in drop shipping on ebay. Drop shipping on ebay is very competitive nowadays. You have to find a niche. Even when you find a niche, it could only last a few weeks or months. Make all the money you can from each niche until it’s not in demand anymore. Niches fade as time and fads change. You have to be very experienced in researching what is selling and what is not selling. Ebay is the best place to find out what items are hot. Even if you don’t sell on ebay. You can find lots of ways to find what items are hot on this blog post I made. http://thehomedropshipguide.com/blog/ebay-hot-items/

There is way more than just constant research to know when you start drop shipping. If you have made your mind up about drop shipping, take it in small to moderate steps. The only way to get experience with something is to do it. Hands-on is the best experience. People seem to learn things better when they actually do it. You can learn from your mistakes with hands on experience. You will also be able to understand directions when you have an idea of what is going on. Understanding and learning new skills always take practice. But when you are spending money to make money, you need to make as few mistakes a possible.

After you do your research and find a product with your drop shipper give it a try. But try to sell only one or maybe two items(one to two auctions) at a time. Follow through with the transactions and learn how things go with your drop shipper. Learn the process of drop shipping when someone wins an ebay auction. Once you learn the process of drop shipping you can start to expand to sell more items. But only if you feel comfortable that you know what you are doing and know the process.

When you sell one or two items at a time until you are used to things; you can benefit in many ways. You can test out each drop shipper to see how their service and products are compared to other drop shippers. You will learn the routine of being a retailer through a drop shipper. Experience will make you look more professional because you won’t make as many mistakes as a rookie drop shipper. I recommend signing up with a few drop shippers. Shop around for drop shippers. Every drop shippers prices will be different from another one. Some will have lower prices and other drop shippers prices will be very high. Don’t be afraid to shop around for drop shippers like you would shop around for a car.

Your customers want to deal with a professional, not some kid. They want a smooth transaction and a product that is, what you say it is. Remember, you can’t be professional about something you don’t know about. Do as much research as you can before you jump into drop shipping with both feet. Especially if you are new to ebay. Yes, ebay makes it very easy to make money. But you won’t make money with no experience.

If you already know ebay, I would still throw caution to drop shipping until you get to know the world of drop shipping. Some wholesale/drop shippers don’t care about your ebay customers or your ebay business. They just care about sales. But there are lots of wholesale/drop ship companies that care a lot about you and your customers. You just have to search until you find some that you like. Find a few drop shippers that understand and know that your customers mean more money for their business. They are usually not some fly-by-night companies. Fly-by-night drop shippers are the ones to watch out for. They are just out to make money.

When you are ready for drop shipping you will know it. Search for a few drop shippers to use. Don’t settle for just one drop shipper. What happens if one of your drop shippers is out of stock and you sell something? You need a back-up plan. The best back-up plan you can have with drop shipping; is having a few drop shippers for contacts. Using a few drop shippers that sell the same items can really help you. It will make price shopping a little easier for you also.

Make sure if you try drop shipping, you take it in baby steps. Drop shipping is not cut out for everyone. If you have any questions, feel free to email me.

Thanks for reading my blog everyone!

LP@thehomedropshipguide.com

Hi everyone, I hope you’re all doing great! I always get asked what the catch is, with this blog. They ask me questions like, “Is this a scam?” or “What company do you work for?” There is no scam and I don’t work for anyone except myself. I have been doing this blog for about six months now for the sole reason of helping people. It has become a friendly addiction to help people and I have been able to reach lots of people with this blog. When it comes to home business, not many know more than me, as I have been doing it for about 10 years now.

There is too much bogus information about home business on the internet from people that just copy and paste BS on their blog or website. They have no experience and just believe anything somebody says on a web page. So i figured, in my free time I can blog and help people.

But mainly, my goal with this blog is to steer people away from scams and bogus content. And at the same time I want to answer questions and help people. I hate get rich quick scams around the internet. Lots of people fall prey to them everyday and I am really sick of it. The thing I really hate about scams online are the ebooks that come along and say you can be rich overnight. That will never happen.

I have written a couple of ebooks to help people, just because of all the scams with ebooks out there. My ebooks do well, as they are special. I do not just sell an ebook to you. I back it up with my experience by helping along the way. That’s something nobody else is doing. Most people have never even used the information they sell as ebooks. It is usually just information they found online somewhere. I do charge money for my ebooks, as my customers get VIP service and work I can’t do for free. I do go the extra mile for people that buy my ebooks. When someone purchases an ebook they get 3(more if needed) months of tutoring from me. I offer unconditional help with things like researching and finding wholesalers you want, to showing you step by step anything you can’t figure out. I won’t advertise my ebooks on this post, as they do well already.

Who knows, maybe I can start a trend and experienced people will start writing ebooks and sell them along with experienced tutoring. Offer a money back guarantee and all the scam artists will be forced to do something else for a living. If you can’t help someone with questions about your ebook or how to do the subject in your ebook, you shouldn’t be allowed to sell it.

I do have a couple on blogs. Two blogs are for fun. I do use one blog to make money. I have advertisements and took some advice from the great John Chow among others. I don’t make much with the blog but that’s fine. It’s a learning experience and I am not in it for the money anyway. I want to help people learn how to make money at home. Even part time, anything extra helps. I know how it is to be scratching your head at home saying “how can I make money at home or online?” I was that person ten years ago.

I have been using ebay for about ten years. I met this great guy in 1998 who was always telling me how much money he made on ebay. He was nice enough to show me the ropes and get started on ebay. Maybe I got wanting to help people from him. Ebay was how I started making money from home online. I have expanded to many other marketplaces as auction marketplaces are my specialty. As you know, I do not list my auction marketplace ID’s anymore for sabatage reasons. Sad to say but, almost as soon as I started showing my auction id’s on my blogs(especially ebay) I noticed frantic fraud bidding and an avalanche of scam artists. So I don’t advertise my auctions or stores on my blogs anymore. They get enough exposure already on those marketplaces anyway. As you can tell, from the tips and information I give people on my blog; it’s not like I need the help when it comes to making money online.

For the past six months I have been teaching myself affiliate marketing. My goal is to get away from selling and live off of affiliate marketing instead (Don’t worry, I will always have my home business blogs. I think teaching people correct ways to bring in a little extra money at home is very important). I am finding out there is less work and stress involved with affiliate marketing. All you do is list a company link on one of your websites and when customers click that link you get paid in different ways; depending what that person does on that companies website. There are all kinds of tricks and tips to learn to be an affiliate marketing master. But that’s just like anything else. Practice makes perfect.

I would like to thank my friends around the net who have been kind enough to give me advice on how to market and advertise my websites. I get lots of great advice on young entreprenuer, a forum I visit to get and give home business advice. You see, I am using this kind of A&M knowledge to build experience of making and bringing traffic to my dream business website someday. Marketing and advertising is the most important part of having a website. If nobody knows you have a website, how can they visit it? Over the past six months I have become an advertising and marketing genius.

I think overall I will probaby stick with ebay through thick and thin until something else comes along better. Right now ebay has all marketplaces cornered. Ebay is pretty much the monopoly of auction marketplaces right now. There is too much money to be lost by taking ebay out of the equasion. History always repeats though. Someday something will come along bigger and better than ebay.

But I will always be here for my readers, I love to help people. I have developed quite a following with this blog and I thank you. Now I have found a new love for blogging. Helping people go hand and hand on my blogs. Anyone with questions about making money at home will not be ignored on my blog. In my years of helping people only one person has not been successful. And to tell you the truth, I don’t think they tried.

I do my best to post on my blogs everyday for you, although sometimes it’s just not possible. When I do post, it is usually answering someones question or giving information they asked about. I find answering my readers questions is most useful to everyone. I have been answering questions along with any tips or tricks I can give in a blog post. So, if you have any questions about making money at home, feel free to ask me. It doesn’t cost anything to ask me questions, don’t be shy:) I really am just someone who cares and wants to help you. Times are tough enough without trying to avoid scams too. I would hate to see anyone make a costly mistake they could have avoided. I have helped people from all around the world make money at home.

Thanks for reading my blog everyone. Have a great day!