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Archive for April, 2008
Hi everyone, I hope your week is going well. Yesterday, I told you an update way to post pictures in your ebay auctions. Today, I will be telling you about ways to make your pictures sell your items better. This may be old news to some of you. Having effective and clear photographs can sell your items better, especially on ebay. Most of the tips I give you will help you take better pictures with more sales.
First off, no auction should be without a gallery picture. A gallery picture is the little picture next to the title on the category screen. The customer can see your product before they even click onto the auction. A gallery photo attracts more people to click on your auction. I am not just saying that either. Through the years I have tested this and a gallery picture brings more than twice the traffic to your items, than an auction without a gallery picture.
Try and use a white or clean background for your picture. A white background is best. I have seen hardwood and clean countertops work well also. The clean or white background can really bring the best picture possible. A white or clean background for your picture makes it look more professional. It also avoids showing people your messy house, lol.
As I mentioned yesterday; host the picture yourself and use and HTML code to put unlimited pictures in your auctions. Adjust the size of each picture accordingly to fit your auction template. Try and place each picture in the text where it belongs. For instance, if you were selling a car and talking about the interior, post a picture of the interior where you are talking about it. It’s a little trick to keep people interested.
Make sure your pictures are the highest in quality. Even if your digital camera card is only 32mb. Crank up the graphics to the highest. If your camera has extra quality options, set them to max. Use that 32mb card to take pictures of each item you have. I used to get 16 pictures with a 32mb card full graphics. It may be different now.
Focus is another important factor that people seem to take in to account. Unless you have a top of the line digital camera, I suggest using manual focus. If the picture is out of focus or blurry the customer will be less likely to buy your item, compared to someone who has the same item with a clear picture. This is especially true for used items.
Unless you are drop shipping, always use your own picture. Don’t use pictures you find on the internet or manufacturer pictures. Some of them are copyrighted and you can get in to trouble.
Try and take the picture from a slight angle to show and control depth perception. Angled depth is more attractive to the eye than a straight on picture. Use 2 or 3 light sources or angles. Two lights from left and right seem to work best for me. Sunlight is a bad light source unless you are outside.
People like to know you have the item in hand. A good way to prove you have the item is to take a Picture with item and your ebay ID in front of it. I like to take a white piece of paper and write my auction ID on it. Then I stick the paper with my ebay ID in front of the item I am selling. This shows that I have the item in my possession. This is a new security measure I picked up a couple of years back. It kind of reassures the customer I really have the item. It came in handy when I had some Playstation 3’s last year.
Use these tips to make your pictures better. I guarantee that you will increase your sales if you aren’t already using these tips. Let me know if you have any questions.
Hi everyone and thank you for reading. Today, I will be updating a post I made a while back with better information. Photobucket doesn’t seem to work well with ebay anymore. The post will be about adding unlimited pictures to your ebay auctions for free. If you don’t have a good place to host pictures this post will help you.
First, you need a place that will host pictures for you. I recommend Geocities as they are free and very user friendly. They have been around forever and aren’t going anywhere. You don’t have to worry about the companies advertisment name through your picture for using their services to host your pictures. You don’t have to worry about the host leaving and closing shop. Here is how you can get free, unlimited pictures in all your ebay auctions.
* Sign up for a free geocities account or use your existing yahoo name and password to sign in.
* Now go to the Geocities control panel.
* Click onto the manage tab.
* Click the easy upload button under File Management Tools.
* Click the browse button to find the pictures on your computer.
* Click upload files button.
* Goto the file manager and open it.
* Click the view button next to the picture you uploaded. This is the web address your picture is located at until you delete the picture from your file manager.
* Now put that web address in to this HTML code. <center><IMG SRC=”http://www. place your picture web address here” HEIGHT=72 WIDTH=72></center>
Adjust the size by changing the numbers around.
* Place this code into your ebay auction description for HTML.
If you use this HTML code, you will be able to place as many pictures as you want in your ebay auctions. Free of charge. Ebay charges you for what geocities is doing for free, “hosting your picture”.
Ebays fees are high enough. Take a stand and stop paying ebay to host extra pictures for your auctions.
You have complete control over all of the files and pictures you upload on Geocities. Just go to your file manager to change anything. If anyone has questions, feel free to email me.
Hi everyone, I hope your weekend went well. Today I am going to tell you about Vzaar. Vzaar is a free program that lets you add video of the product you are selling. This is great if you have to prove something is in working condition. It seems video has become a big part of our lives online. Having video footage of the product you are selling can skyrocket your sales.
Vzaar is not needed if you are selling a brand new product still in the package. But it works great for selling everything like cars and computers. I have been noticing a lot of sellers that specialize in selling used cars on ebay have been using Vzaar. I actually found Vzaar when I was car shopping on ebay a short while back.
Vzaar actually came up with a great idea to add video to your about me page. Social marketplaces are really starting to take over. Having a video on your about me page could make your profile seem more professional and trustworthy. They actually claim you will get a good sales increase by inserting video to your auctions and about me page. I can definitely see the advantage.
Think about how big of an advantage you have adding pictures to your auctions; compared to someone who doesn’t use pictures. It’s pretty much the same with video. You will have a huge technology advantage over your competition that isn’t using video.
My big thing through the years is to change with the times. Most businesses fail because they don’t change with technology. Use as much technology as you can. The best way to get the upper hand on your competition is to have more than they offer. Most companies won’t move on with the times and will fade away. Take your chances with any new technology that will make things easier or more customer friendly.
Vzaar is very user friendly. All you do is record the video you want with a camcorder, digital camera, or cell phone. Then you upload the video onto vzaar. Then you tell Vzaar what auction you want to put your video in your ebay account. It’s really that simple.
That big advantage I see having video over just photos is; You can prove that the used item you are selling is in good working order. In most cases the video speaks for itself and you don’t even have to read the description in the auction. You are making it easier for the customer to make a decision about buying from you.
Some people and companies have even taken their ebay charity auctions a step up in the right direction. Instead of typing out a long description of what the winner gets, they make a video and explain/show you what you are going to get if you are the winner of the auction. Videos in your auctions or websites could be a way of the future. I really see so many advantages to putting a video in your ebay auctions.
If you think you are going to use more than 30 videos a month, you will need to upgrade your free account. If the videos are helping you sell big money items, I would suggest upgrading to a premium account. Packages cost $10-$20 per month. This is not needed unless the videos are selling your products though.
You don’t need to use vzaar if you are selling plain, non-moving items. For example, you might not want to waste your video on an autograph picture. But, you might want to use video in your auctions to sell a used television or monitor while it is working. Vzaar is made to capture used items while in working condition. It’s a great idea. Give vzaar a try it’s free to use.
Thanks for reading my blog everyone.
Hi everyone, I hope your weekend was a good one. I have been doing some research on good marketplaces lately. Today I signed up for Facebook’s marketplace. Yes, facebook has a marketplace. Facebook marketplace is not an auction marketplace but its better. It actually seems pretty good for free. I am going to use them for a few weeks. I let you know all about the results when I get a better idea on how things work.
I really like it. Facebook marketplace is very simple and very user friendly. It reminds me of craigslist classifieds. It keeps track of the most local items so you can buy from a person who lives near you. The best thing about this is; you know the person is less likely to be a scammer if you can see a profile of them. Facebook is kind of like myspace only better. It’s a social network where you find and make friends. It’s a great idea and I love it.
I have been a facebook user from the start. I find the experience a much better one, over other social networks. Since facebook recently added a marketplace it will become a lot more popular. There are millions of members that use facebook, so sales should be good! I can’t wait to see the results.
Facebook picked the perfect time to make this transition. Ebay has been losing sellers left and right because of recent high fee increases. Many auction marketplaces have already benefited from this increase of ebay sellers leaving. Facebook is just another kid on the block. Don’t underestimate Facebook. They have huge potential in this new social marketplace they have created.
Social marketplaces might be the way to go in the future. So many con-artists have popped up all over the internet. Being able to see a persons profile and background can feel a lot safer when money is involved. A profile with a picture can make the transaction a lot safer and more trustworthy. You can decipher someone’s personality and what you might expect if you choose to buy from them. It’s almost like feedback only better. I would feel a lot safer dealing from a guy that has a picture of him and his 3 kids; instead of some kid that has a party picture for the profile. Get my drift? You can get a better feel of what this person is really like. And maybe draw a judge of character from it.
You can also choose if you want to buy from someone other far away instead of locally. You get lots of different options that may fit different people’s needs. Facebook is not limited like craigslist or any other classified marketplace I have ever seen before. The communication seems to be a lot better than craigslist. You can message a person and get an immediate response from the seller if you have any questions.
You can barter your services locally. You can also find barter services locally. You can advertise if you have housing for sale or rent. You can also find a huge variety of places to live or move to, if you are looking. All in all facebook has just enough, but not too much like other classified websites or marketplaces.
You can find local jobs. This is another good one just because you already have a profile. The job can look at your profile before they consider you for a job. You can even post yourself in the “looking for work” section. I think this is a great opportunity for any young adults trying to get a good job. I predict that facebook will have lots of followers now that they have their own marketplace.
Facebook doesn’t seem to have any strict listing rules except for the obvious. You can check out listing rules and guidelines here. The rules are very basic and to the point.
Facebook seems to be a great addition to anyone looking to get a few extra sales everyday. Give them a try if you are looking for an extra boost. They are totally free. You have nothing to lose except a little time investment. Let me know if you have any questions.
See you tomorrow and thanks for reading! LP@thehomedropshipguide.com
Hi everyone, what a beautiful day it is outside today. I always get people asking me about companies that hire you to work at home. Let me tell you, there aren’t many trustworthy companies that want you to work from home for them. I will tell you about a couple of really goods ones later in this post. The fact of the matter is; most work at home jobs are complete scams or rip-offs.
Make sure you do a complete background check on any company claiming you can work at home for them. Remember, any company that wants you to pay money upfront to work for them is a scam. Don’t ever give money upfront for any kind on employment.
There are a lot of companies out there that need virtual assistants. Lots of new companies would rather have virtual assistants than live telephone operators. There are people right now making a living from being a part time virtual assistant. If you think you have a knack for talking to people over the phone, then you might want to look into being a virtual assistant.
Liveops.com is a big company in the virtual assistant world. They hire virtual assistants all the time. Right on their homepage they advertise jobs for being an agent. You can make your own hours. You can take vacations whenever you want. Most people make more money part time being a virtual assistant than a full time job. They pay really well and they are a very legitimate company. Just sit at your computer and answer the phone.
teamdoubleclick.com is another great place to work at home. They have over 40,000 virtual assistants employed by them. They advertise virtual assistant jobs right on their homepage also. Most moms and disabled people benefit from working at home. But, now with a recession among us, everyone could use a little extra money. And heck, if we can work at home, that’s all the better. Teamdoubleclick is a very well known virtual assistant company. They are great to work for and I highly recommend them.
I am sure there are lots more virtual assistant companies out there. But, I have used both of these companies and can highly recommend them. If you do a search for work at home jobs; you find more scams than real jobs. It’s so sad that people have to take advantage of others to get a foot up in this world. Be really careful of all the work at home scams people. I have seen them all, so if you have any questionable ones just ask me.
Let me know if anyone has questions. See you all tomorrow.
Hi everyone and happy Friday. This week went by so slow for me. Someone asked me why I don’t post on Thursdays anymore. I have been teaching someone locally how to start a business on Thursdays. So, I have been taking them off. When things aren’t so hectic for me on Thursdays, I will start posting again.
Today, I am going to give you some pointers on how to protect yourself against job scams. I heard about one of my local friends getting scammed this week. I didn’t get a chance to warn her because she never told me about it. She fell for a popular job scam. The sad thing is; these scams are everywhere, even your local paper. Nobody seems to care if they advertise a scam in their paper or website anymore, as long as the scammer pays for the ad.
Anyway, here is how this job scam works. You see an ad in the paper or online that says you can make big money if you work for them. You contact them and find out they want money up front to teach you a specific trade or skill ($100 or more). In return they will hire you “if you qualify” and you will make lots of money.
Sounds okay, doesn’t it? Not really, read between the lines on this one. Yes, they grab you with the part; you will make lots of money. Heck, you to pay to go to college right? You make lots of money when you get out of college. This must be the same. It’s not the same. This is what is really happening.
They know you’re hard up for money. They take full advantage of the situation by throwing big sums of money at you. The possibility that anyone can make more money than they already do can make them blind to the obvious.
So, you pay the fee to get into the employment with the new company. The new company then sends you a course through the mail. You need to get a certain grade on the course to qualify. The questions are very hard or in some case can be very easy. You send your course/test back into the company.
They send you a return letter or phone call informing you that you do not qualify for the job. Even if you get 100% of the questions right, you won’t get a job. But if you spend more money, they tell you they can guarantee you a job. It’s an on-going scam. Don’t fall for this one.
In some cases the workplace (scammer) doesn’t even give you a test or course. They take your money and call it an application fee. Then they go on to tell you they can guarantee you a job if you take a course……For more money. There are other types of jobs scams also.
Here are some tips to help you stay away from these and other popular job scams.
1. Exaggerated claims, you will make lots of money, retire early, be a millionaire overnight. Any of these things are the first warning that it’s a scam. The truth is, you have to work hard be rich. Someday you won’t have to work as hard. But, nothing will make you rich overnight, unless you won the lottery.
2. Never pay money to apply for a job. The only kinds of jobs that ask for money up-front are scams. A real job place wouldn’t need to charge you money to work for them. This one is a no-brainer. A real workplace would probably give you a sign-on bonus if anything. Never give money up-front for a job. Even if it is a work-at-home job.
3. Always ask questions first. This is the one people seem to skip. Ask as many questions as you can about the job. Make a list of all the questions you have and ask them. If they can’t answer your questions with a straight answer they aren’t the right place for you. Make sure they can answer all your questions and you are satisfied they are for real.
4. Watch out for professional websites. I am not saying, that all professional websites are scams. I am saying, scam artists are really good at putting up professional looking websites. Just because the website looks professional doesn’t always mean it’s a safe place. Scam artists are good at what they do. Don’t underestimate them.
5. New companies that haven’t been around long. This are another thing that makes it an obvious scam. Scam artists stay with a company for an average of 2-4 months. It’s just enough time for them to steal from hundreds or thousands of people and get away. They move their location and start another scam. This cycle keeps repeating until they are caught or retire with your money.
6. Always look at http://welcome.bbb.org/ to do a background check on the company. The Better Business Bureau is the best source to do any background research on a company. It will tell you how long they have been around and their reputation. If the business is even registered at all.
These are some straight forward tips to help everyone stay away from these new job scams. They are popping up everywhere and they need to be stopped. If everyone stays aware and stops responding to these types of job ads; maybe the scammers will give up and leave.
Let me know if you have any questions. I would hate to see any of my readers to fall for this type of scam.
Thanks for reading, see you tomorrow!
Hi everyone, I hope your week is going well. It got really hot out the past few days. Last week we averaged 45 degrees during the day. This week we are averaging over 70 and today was 86 degrees. I’ll tell ya, the weather was never this weird when I was a kid. And I am from New England, so I am use to drastic changes in the weather.
I recently had someone ask me if they should buy from a liquidation or closeout wholesaler, instead of a wholesale distributor. I say whatever fits your needs. If you have room to store large quantities of goods; you are better off buying bulk loads from a liquidator or closeout wholesaler. If you have the money to buy large amounts of goods up front, you should buy from a liquidation wholesaler. Most people starting a business don’t have this kind of money.
Liquidation and closeout wholesalers usually have older models and products. If you want to buy brand new goods I would recommend not buying from a liquidation or closeout wholesaler. But, if you don’t mind purchasing older goods you can go with a liquidator. Some liquidators or closeout wholesalers sell damaged or used goods. Be very careful and read the description of what you are buying before you purchase.
Buying bulk from a liquidator or closeout wholesaler will make you lots of profit. Usually these goods are sold in a pallet for more than half off regular price. Then you can resell them for full retail price and make a killing. Try and find products that are still popular sellers. Stay away from things that used to be popular and are not anymore. Look for products that are still in demand.
Buying from a liquidation wholesaler can lead to problems if you are not prepared. Make sure you are two steps ahead and pay attention to every detail. Some companies try to word a description so you think you are getting more than you really do. Pay attention to delivery instruction especially.
Some companies have a checkpoint (middleman) that will touch the goods on their way to you. The middleman will get a small percentage of the goods to move them along to you. Don’t be alarmed, a point of origin checkpoint is a regular thing when it comes to bulk or pallet loads of goods. A middleman is never a good thing. But it’s very normal with large quantities of product.
A real wholesale distributor won’t have any middlemen. That’s the big difference between wholesale distributors and liquidation and closeout wholesalers. But just remember, a wholesale distributor with middlemen is a bad thing. While middlemen for liquidation and closeout wholesalers are not a bad thing.
I really enjoyed it when I used to buy from liquidation.com. I found some great deals on pallet loads of goods. There are lots of places you can buy wholesale from liquidators. Here are a few good ones;
http://www.4sgm.com/ This is a great place that seems to have everything. I found this place on a website a year back and have used them ever since. They even have a $0.55 per item section in their catalog.
http://www.dollaritem.com/ This place is great. They have tons of cheap items that sell great. They even have a $0.59 and under section in their catalogs.
http://www.viatrading.com/ This is another cool surplus company. They have everything and their list is always changing as they sell a lot.
Besides liquidation.com, I think these three are the best out there. If anyone knows of others, feel free to let us know. If you are looking into liquidation or closeout wholesalers make sure you know all the rules in your city. Some cities do not allow you to store large quantities of items without a permit to do so. You probably need a warehouse or storage area in order to bypass a permit/s. But check your local laws first.
Good luck shopping everyone. Liquidation wholesalers can make you lots of rollover profit.
If you have any questions, just ask me. Thanks for reading my blog everyone!
Hi everyone, I hope everything is good. I would like to thank everyone for entering my contest the other day. I would also like to congratulate Staci from New York. She is the winner of my contest. I will do my best to have this contest at least once a month. Sorry about springing the contest at the last minute. I want to give my readers the best chance to win and 24 hour contests (without notice) will make the odds better for you all. So, keep coming back if you want a chance for me to teach you how to work at home.
Today, I want to tell you about the importance and advantages of making multiple streams of income. The best thing about having multiple streams of income is: you always have money coming in from somewhere. Having a steady stream of income produced by multiple sources can really keep you afloat. Especially, if you are just starting out. Everyone knows how discouraging it can be to make no money.
Don’t count on making a million dollars overnight. Try to concentrate on building one thing at a time. Another words, take baby steps towards your multiple streams of income. Build each empire and get it going. Then start another empire, build it, and get it going. Start again. It’s a very simple formula that works great.
Even if your multiple stream incomes right now are your 9-5 job and 1 small source online. That’s a great start. Most people don’t even have that much to start. That’s a perfect foundation to build on. That shows that you already have online experience and are willing to take on extra. If you don’t have any online experience in making money yet, your journey will be a bit longer. That should be pretty obvious. But you wouldn’t believe how many people get a computer and think they can make a million dollars overnight.
A great advantage to having multiple streams of income is; You can help supply money to new projects from your other income sources. You don’t have to take money out of your own pocket to start a business that might fail. Get it yet? In the business world, you want to always put money back into the business. So, as you make money and get used to your daily tasks; as with anything else, things become easier. You will probably want to take in more money and have the extra time. Your daily tasks are easier because they have become a habit. Your previous source of income should help to fund the new project you want to take on. If you keep this system going, you can have dozens of projects making money for you while one project pays for a new project.
Let’s say you want to start a new project to start affiliate marketing now. You also have a full time job and ebay on the side. So, let your ebay income help the new project get going. When that new project starts bringing in money; Start using your ebay money as profit again, and make the new project fund another new project. Keep this cycle going to produce multiple streams of income.
You have to put money in to your business if you want it to grow. Most people just keep dumping money into the same business. The sad part is, the business is dead or close to dying. Spread yourself out. Some things that you wouldn’t even guess bring in more money than others. You have to experiment and find out what works with you.
Try this little system out and expand your business in to multiple streams of income. If you have any questions let me know. I would love to help.
LP@thehomedropshipguide.com
Hi everyone, and happy Monday to you. Thank you for entering my contest yesterday. The contest is still going on until 12pm eastern time today. So enter if you haven’t already.
Only a few people entered so far, so you have a great chance to win. I get hundreds of visitors to my blogs everyday. Don’t be shy people:) I know I just sprung the contest on you all. But, that was the whole purpose; to give back to my regular readers.
Today, I am going to tell you; why you should stay away from popular or general items to sell. The products that make you the most profit margins, are not always the best products to sell. Those types of products always seem to have more competition. And what’s worse is; the competition is usually charging a way lower price than you can afford to sell the same product.
Popular products like I-pods and cell phones are not very good money makers. Especially if you are selling on ebay. Because everyone and their mother are selling I-pods and cell phones on ebay already. That means more competition and lower prices than you can afford. Stay away from popular or general products that bring lots of profit.
Think outside the box. Think small profit, lots of sales. I would rather sell 100 items a day and make 1 dollar profit on each item; than sell one item and only 20 dollars profit a day. Think small items that people need. Think about the things you use on an everyday basis. Think about products you like, use, or need. Do you really need an I-pod or do you want to sell them because they are popular?
You have to be smart and think 3 steps ahead if you are going to get into sales online. Make things as easy as possible for you at all times. Don’t struggle by doing research on niches that might work. Use your head, stop for a few minutes and think of products you need on an everyday basis. Necessities usually sell better than luxuries online.
Necessity may be different for different people though. For example, a headset and microphone may not be a necessity to most people. But, to a tele-communications expert, it would be a necessity. Think about what products would sell and would have little to no competition. I always say sell accessories for popular items. To this day, that little strategy works great.
Even little things like cool drinking cups sell great. You can make some good money if you sell a lot of them. Today, I want you to sit back and think about all the things you use on a daily basis. I bet if you did some research on those items, you would find the sellers, sell a lot of them. They might not make a lot of money per sale. But, like I said earlier: if they sell one hundred items a day with one dollar profit on each, that’s a one hundred dollar day. When I first started selling online; a hundred dollar day was a great day.
Think about it. The most popular and obvious Niche is not always the best niche. Too many complications arise when you have 3000 other sellers trying to out-do your starting price. You need to find a new ways to get away from that kind of competition. Think about the things you buy most, besides food and clothing. I bet you could open a floodgate of new possibilities if you really think about it. Everyday items sell remarkably great compared to a new television or surround theatre system.
I probably sell everyday items 1000 to 1 compared to big luxury items. People buy what they need. Once you realize that, you can make sales happen with a more positive outcome. Stop selling items just because they have a big profit margin. Start selling items that you know will sell. Give these little insights a try. They have worked great for me through the years.
Thanks for reading everyone. Let me know if you have any questions. See you tomorrow.
Hi everyone, I hope this makes your weekend. I know I have a lot of readers now. So, I wanted to give something back. I am going to give one lucky reader, two of my e-guides with 3 months of tutoring to get you started. I give people 3 months of tutoring because this is usually how long it takes the average person to catch on to everything and be comfortable with doing things on your own. I am basically setting you up to be self employed for the rest of your life. Keep reading if you want to learn more.
Details: This contest will last for 24 hours. It will end on April 21st at 12:00pm(noon) eastern time.
To enter the contest; comment on this blog post.
I will pick a winner the old fashioned way. All names will go in to a hat and I will have a friend (not involved with contest) pull the lucky winner. I will Congratulate the winner on April 22nd in a blog post. The winner of the contest will get the following:
Winner receives-
Both of my e-guides. The Home Drop Ship Guide and The Auction Power Guide
**3 Months of Tutoring From Me!**
My help will include research that you can’t do on your own. (Finding Wholesalers/Drop shippers/Hot items/Explaining the tricks and tips/anything you need)
Any questions you have will be answered so you head in the right direction.
Special Note: The subject matter doesn’t have to apply to my e-books. I can teach you how to market and advertise, affiliate marketing, build/host your own website, make money by writing your own e-books, blogging, anything that has to do with home business online.
Note: No e-book can tell you everything you need to know. That’s why my e-books are sold with tutoring along the way. I can back up what I say. I don’t just sell you an e-book. I help you, until you are ready to do things on your own.
I just want to give something back to my readers. Hopefully I will gain a few readers from this contest also. Yes, I am really giving both e-books (not just one) and my help along the way for 3 months.
Besides, where else will you get an experienced individual like me, to help you for free? Let alone, for 3 months.
Thanks for entering the contest everyone! Good luck!
Note: Don’t be alarmed if you don’t see your comment right away. I have to approve it. Don’t worry, all comments to enter the contest will be approved.
If you have any questions, email me LP@thehomedropshipguide.com
Hi everyone, I hope your weekend is going well. I am celebrating my birthday tonight. I will be back tomorrow with a juicy post for you all.
Take care!
Hi everyone, I hope you are doing well. Recently, someone asked me if they should have their own website. They went on to me that they didn’t see the benefits of having a website, since they already have an ebay store. I am not going to tell anyone not to have an ebay store. But never limit yourself to that ebay store. You are at a disadvantage by having a store on some else’s domain.
If you own your own website and domain name you will be under control of everything you can do. There will be no limitations to what you can do on your own website. As long as you stay within your host’s rules, you can do virtually anything with your own website. You are not allowed to advertise or make money with affiliate marketing on your ebay store. But, with your own website you can advertise, use affiliate marketing, ad paid links, anything you want. You can make some great money on your own website, without just selling the merchandise you offer.
If you have your own website, you can choose your domain name. If your business is called Joes donuts; You can see if joesdonuts.com is available. If it’s not available, you have lots of other choices (joedonuts.net, .org, .us, .biz, lots more). Some people even get creative and add a 0 to all the letter o’s. It’s always a good idea to get the same domain name as your business name. This way, if someone wants to find your business; tell them joesdonuts.com & “replace the o’s with zeros”. It’s a new trend that has caught on in the Ebonics era.
You can change the look and feel with your own domain. You can have the freedom to use a website template or build your own website. If you don’t know how to build a website, you can find free website templates all around the internet. Or you can find a good web designer to build you a customer website to fit your business. You don’t have to worry about auction fees. You can list as many items on your website as you want for free. Most hosts charge you by the month. The average monthly fee is $4.99 for bottom end. About $49.99 a month for really good service.
I recommend using godaddy or yahoo for your host. Godaddy is my favorite because they are cheaper. I pay $52.00 for the entire year on each of my websites. You need some ftp uploading experience to use godaddy. I would say you have to be a novice to advanced to go with godaddy as your host. If you have ever uploaded anything you should be okay. Godaddy offers some great customer service if you get stuck. Plus they have some good tutorials if you are unsure about anything. Another thing I like about godaddy is; you can choose a Linux or Windows based host. I have been using godaddy for a while now and couldn’t be happier with them. Believe me; I have tried just about everyone out there.
Another host I recommend is yahoo. Yahoo is $29.00 and up per month for web hosting. Every once and a while you can catch a discounted price. When I used yahoo, they gave me the first 3 months for $19.99 and $39.99 each month after that. They have a beginner based system. You don’t need any web design experience to have a yahoo merchant account. They make it pretty easy to create your own customer website. They even give you a yahoo web builder tool that lets you build websites with Photoshop quality. The customer service was okay. I seemed to get bounced around if I called or emailed them about a question or problem I had. I am a bugger about customer service. And yahoo didn’t impress me much in that department. But, all in all they offer a great service and better than most of the competition out there.
Ebay won’t be around forever. If they aren’t around anymore, you will need an immediate back-up plan. But if you already have a well established website, you won’t need to worry. It can take 6 months to a year in order to receive consistent traffic and sales to your website. If you start building now, you won’t have to worry about rushing in to building a website in a frenzied panic later. Don’t put all your eggs in to one basket. Expand your business all over the net, not just on ebay. The more places you sell, the more sales you will make. Don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise.
I recommend having your own website domain over some free website also. If you have a free website, you will be stuck with unwanted advertisements and limitations to what you can do. You may be stuck with a web domain name that has nothing to do with your business name (joeshmoesfreewebsitehosting.joesdonuts.com). Another problem with a free website is the size of your domain name. Chances are your domain will be too big for anyone to remember and re-visit. Free websites bring little to no sales because they look very unprofessional.
The only down side to having a website is; all the time you have to dedicate to bring traffic. Advertising is very important when you have a website. You can find out how to advertise your website on a blog post I made here. Those techniques are the same ways that any marketing company would market your business for money. It’s very time consuming to launch an advertising campaign for your website. It’s really easy, but takes a ton of time out of your life. You could hire someone to market your website. But, that can cost thousands of dollars. I look at it this way; I know what those companies are going to do in order to market my website. So, I use those techniques and save myself thousands of dollars.
If anyone has any questions at all, feel free to email me. Thanks for reading and see you all tomorrow.
Hey everyone, I hope all is well. A family member of mine lost her job from a lay-off today. I am going to teach her how to make money from home. It’s a sad day in American history when someone working at a company for 26 years just gets laid-off without warning. Not even a day notice to prepare for the decision. It was finish your day if you want, but we can’t use you here anymore. Might as well say, “don’t let the door hit you on the way out”. Where I come from, you give seniority some respect. At least throw them a party after 26 years, right?
Well, the recession in America, is definitely here without question. Our money is worth didly-squat to other major countries around the world right now. The exchange rate if you leave the country is terrible now. I remember going to Canada or other parts of the world and my money be worth around double or more. Things have changed drastically in the past 5 years for the worse. Seems like the only way to hold a job these days; is to work for a gas or oil company.
* Cut down on your extravagant lifestyle. Stop spending money on things you want. Start spending money on things you absolutely need. Save the rest. I know this sounds easy, but it isn’t. That means, everything from the extra pay channels on cable, to that morning coffee you buy. Start watching less T.V. and make your own coffee in the morning. Bag a lunch. That alone, could save you a few hundred dollars every month. Two dollars for that coffee in the morning times 30 days in a month. That is $60.00 for coffee you could save every month. Think about all the things you don’t’ need and can cut out. Make some adjustments to your daily life. Times are getting tough.
* Don’t use those credit cards! Stop wasting your money. The interest rates on almost everyone’s credit cards are ridiculous. Why pay interest on your own money? I never got it. I had credit cards in the past. I find no need for them anymore. For years I have stayed away from credit cards. I use my bank debit/card. It is a gold visa card and the money comes right from my band account. I can use it like a credit card all around the world. I never pay interest. If I don’t have the money, I can’t spend it. The temptation is so much less if it’s your own money and not borrowed money from the credit card companies. That’s all a credit card company is to me; A high priced loan shark.
Some people pay off the same credit card debt their whole lives. The credit card hole is awful. Get out as soon as you can. If you do have credit cards, stop using them. Pay them off and KEEP THEM. It’s important not to shut down your credit card account down if you have had it for a long time. That long term credit card is good for your credit score. Don’t use it at all and keep it. If you pay it off and get rid of it; the long term plus towards your credit score will be erased, in turn lowering your credit scores. I speak from experience.
It’s a whole other story if you know you are spending your money and not the credit card company’s money. Your spending habits will immediately change for the better, I guarantee it.
* Take on another job or money maker. If you work a regular job, take on a part time job. Even if you sell an item or two a night on ebay. Start something on the side to help out. Get a laid back part time job somewhere. Think about things you are good at doing. I bet you could make some money with your talents if you really think. Give it a try. The least that could happen is; you get an extra hobby that makes money.
* Invest some money in different places if you can. I’m not saying to gamble your money away. There are tons of ways you could safely invest small amounts of money. IRA’s are a great way to save some money and get back a lot. I recommend a Roth IRA if you go with an IRA. Roth IRA’s are tax free when you take your money out. Regular IRA’s tax you on money you withdraw. Start putting extra money in to your 401k plan. Or start a 401k plan if you don’t have one already. I am sure your bank, could give you some really good Credit of Deposit rates. You can put a small amount of money into these types of programs. You don’t need to be a millionaire. I don’t recommend getting into the stock market, unless you know all about it already.
Save all that money you don’t spend. In some cases I have saved people thousands of dollars every month by these same tips. You never know when you will need this money. Refer to this money as your back-up/emergency fund. Don’t spend it on anything except necessities. Bills, loans, rent/mortgage, car funds etc. And only use the fund when you can’t pay those things normally. Like a real emergency. Don’t look at that money as extra. Put it to the side and ignore. Keep saving it and it will grow. Someday you may need it for something major. If you own a house and make $2000.00 a month; a good cushion would be $24,000.00 on top of that. Expensive problems seem to happen at the worst times.
Thanks for reading everyone. See you tomorrow.
If you sell on ebay; The best way to check the starting prices would be advanced search. Then you can choose to look at all auctions going right now and what auctions have ended also. You can choose completed items to see what the best selling price was. This is usually the best way to check what price is good to start at.
Just click onto advanced search next to the search bar on ebay’s homepage. Now you will see a screen that brings you to advanced auction search.
Here is what I do; Write down the prices of the last ten sales that ended and sold at 8pm eastern time. Now, add them all up and divide by 10. This is the average selling price. Now you have a price to start your item. Sometimes this number won’t jive. But, use your own judgment, as this method works great 95% of the time. I try and make the average price, my buy it now price. Start the auction with a little lower price (at your discretion) than your buy it now price.
Recently I noticed the times people buy things on ebay have changed a little. On weekdays 6-10pm eastern time is the optimal time you want your auction to end. On the weekends the best time goes to 6-12pm eastern. (this is the most common time of day people buy things on ebay right now). So, I recommend you using this time frame for your auctions to end. Notice the times have changed dramatically since last October. Here is a post I made back in October about selling times.
If you don’t sell on ebay: I would recommend doing a search in Google and find and average that way. Take the first ten stores to you find selling the same product you want to sell. Add up their prices, divide by ten and you will get an average price to sell your item. Don’t set your price to high. You don’t want to be the highest price out there, just because other stores sell it for that much. Use your head; lower your price if you can and take their customers away.
There are 2 different price groups. One price group is called custom products. Custom products are ones that you or someone else have created. It wasn’t mass-produced by a manufacturer. Custom items are not usually found online. So putting an average price can be a lot harder. I would even put rare items into a custom price category. Custom price items generally sell for good money. Custom items are usually hard to find items, so people will want to pay more for them. I recommend making your own custom product. Custom price items are really good money makers. Ebay is a great place to showcase a custom item and make good money.
The second price category is called manufactured products. These are products that are mass-produced. They are usually made in a huge manufacturing plant. They usually come with a pretty box to dress it up. Manufactured products are generally very easy to set a starting price. You can usually find these items everywhere online. The problem with these types of items is; the products are usually in high demand and there is lots of competition selling the same products. The product to profit ratio will be a lot lower than a custom product, especially on ebay. You have to do lots of research to find the perfect product for the perfect price to buy at, so you can sell it at a low competitive price.
I hope this explains how you can price your items more accurately. I have been using this little system for years now and it works like a charm. Thanks for reading my blog everyone. Let me know if you have any questions. See you tomorrow.
Hi everyone, I hope your weekend was full of greatness! It rained all weekend. But you can finally feel the warmth in the air. I love the spring time because it promotes growth. Speaking of that, I will keep tonight’s post kind of short, because I am re-designing one of my blog websites. I was getting so sick of the winter. I really do love the cold weather and changing seasons. But, sometimes I wish we had an off and on switch, lol. Our winter climate here in New England can last 5-7 months on average.
I don’t want to bore you with talking about the weather. Yesterday, I promised you a few places to buy good products for cheap money. The three places I am going to tell you about can make you lots of turn around profit if you are planning to re-sell the goods. Even, if you want to buy someone a gift cheaper than retail. And you don’t need a business license or any tax id’s to buy from these companies.
I get a lot of people asking me if I know any places to buy wholesale without a business license or tax ID’s numbers. I don’t recommend buying from places like Doba or Simplx. Their supposed wholesale prices are not real wholesale prices. You can’t legally buy wholesale without a tax Id or business license. But there are ways around it. You can buy from surplus auction websites. There are tons or surplus and auction surplus websites around the internet. Airport surplus auctions happen all the time on ebay. Just do a search for the airports name and look them up on ebay. Major airports around the USA post surplus auctions on ebay. All the things they confiscate are usually new items. Some items are still in the box.
Here are the three places that will change the way you buy things to re-sell; if you don’t have a business license or tax Id numbers. You can find cheaper prices than ebay on these websites. That means you can re-sell most of this stuff on ebay and other auction marketplaces.
1. Samsclubauctions - auctions.Samsclub.com is a great place to buy quality goods at wholesale prices or cheaper. I know, I have said don’t sign up for places that make you pay a membership fee. But, Sam’s club auctions will pay for itself in your first purchase. If your workplace is already a member of Sam’s club, you can join for free. Or you can pay $30-$100 a year for several different services. Sam’s club auctions are set up very professionally. Just to give you an example of the prices you will get. It’s not unusual for 50″ HD Plasma Televisions to sell for $800.00 or less. Samsung, Hitachi, Pioneer, Panasonic, all kinds of name brands.
2. Dellauction - Dellauction.com is a great place to buy computers to resell on ebay. It’s common to see brand new and refurbished computers selling for under $200.00. The good items sell for well under MSRP. This is as close to wholesale as you will find for computers and peripherals. Give them a try; you will make some great money reselling the goods you buy there.
3. Onsale - Onsale.com is a great place to find brand new electronics for huge discounts. You may not find wholesale prices at onsale.com; but you will find some great discounts. You can make some really good profit if you plan to re-sell. Or if you want to pick up a gift for yourself or someone else. Check them out if you get a chance.
Thanks for reading everyone. I should be done with the new blog design in the next few days. Don’t be alarmed if you see some weird colors on the website. It may take me a few days to experiment with the colors. See you tomorrow.