Will eBay's Rule Changes Hurt Moneymakers?

A powerseller is one of those elite salespeople on eBay who is able to produce at least $1,000 in income from sales a month. Many of these sellers got started just like you or I do on the auction site; by selling simple "trash" from around the house that others viewed as treasure. They developed a knack for online sales, and eventually it grew into a beautiful business, usually a niche they specialized in. Collectibles, antiques, sports memorabilia, kitchen items, electronics, you name it..they all have a home and potential market on eBay.

Fast forward to present day, where the World Wide Web is no longer a secret place to sell things or make money. Let's face it everyone's doing it. (just scan through the 1,500 or so Make Money blogs on Entrecard). eBay of course being the thriving business model it is, has decided to put some interesting new changes into effect, which can hurt sellers' profits considerably. These changes involve acceptable payment types and shipping caps.

First off, eBay will soon restrict payment options to Paypal and a few other online pay sites like Paypal. This means the check or money order option is no more. While you and I may have Paypal accounts, there's a large percentage of online surfers who don't want anything to do with it. They've been scared by the horror stories of scams where Credit card info is stolen, etc. To compound matters for sellers though, Paypal pulls a fee out of whatever money you receive in a sale. A check or money order didn't do that to a seller. Mark one down in favor of eBay.

eBay will also be cracking down hard on its shipping pricing by sellers. When The Monetizer was putting a few items up for sale recently, a nice red Warning box popped up. It was a friendly, yet assertive way of eBay telling me they will be "capping" shipping prices. For example, I was charging $4.75 which is the lowest Priority mail charge these days. eBay informed me that $3.00 would be their cap price and I should consider instituting it ahead of the change. Ha! Well, mark two down for eBay.

Folks, The Monetizer is far from a complainer and I understand that the main objective for a business is to make money and be profitable. However, eBay must understand that it's the buyers and sellers who have made their business the success that it is. When eBay starts restricting the buyers and sellers, they may seriously jeapordize the original online business model which made them great. Even so, let me take this in a positive direction: It will be those sellers who can find clever ways to adapt with a changing eBay, that will continue to enjoy success.

All this said, stay tuned Monetizer fans as I will be presenting a 5 part series on How to Make Money Selling on eBay! (no joke!)

Gather.com Unveils Paypal Option

If you like social media and money, you'll love Gather. For months I've been a fan of this fun and easy to use site..actually, it's over a year now that the Monetizer has participated. The website Gather.com is a place where people share their original articles, images and videos with the rest of the members. It's free to use, and you earn yourself points for comments given and received, content uploads and more. Your points add up to give you a choice of various rewards, ranging from $10 Borders Gift cards, to higher priced cards from Amazon, Gap, Starbucks, Target, Macy's and Omaha Steaks. There was also a cash program available to members who managed to achieve 3000 points in a single month. A tough feat to accomplish, but doable if you put in the time. Many members spent long hours on the site to earn some extra cash.

Last night, Gather shut down its site for about 4 hours to produce some great new changes to the site. Upon log in, The Monetizer immediately headed to the rewards section to discover they've added some great new options. Now you can select Dunkin Donuts and CVS gift cards. Not only that, but now you can also choose a "Paypal money" option after earning at least 1,565 points. For that many points you'll be sent $25 to your Paypal account. 6000 points gets you a cool $100 sent to Paypal.

Here's a bit more about it from their FAQ:

Anyone with an email address can send or receive secure online payments via PayPal. If you have an existing PayPal account, you can use that address to receive Gather payments. You'll receive an email from PayPal notifying you that you have money waiting. If you don't already have an account set up, you'll need to create one either now or at that time. To create a PayPal account now, click here.

You should expect to receive your PayPal payment confirmation within 21 days (most likely much sooner) of your request date. If you haven't received your PayPal payment within that time period, please get in touch with us using our Contact Member Support form.

Not too shabby for a free site where you can also promote your website, blog or product, within limits...

Check it out at Gather.com for more info or to join the website!

Adsense is Ready to Feed...

Well almost...Google Adsense has added even more ways to profit from its highly-used monetization service! Now Adsense can be integrated into your blog or website's feeds. Upon logging into my Adsense account I discovered you have to wait in order to use this new monetization strategy. You do have an option to burn a brand new feed, but if you're already using a service like Feedburner, you don't want to lose subscribers if the transfer goes awry.

A note from Google states:

Google will soon provide a self-service process to migrate from an account on the original FeedBurner website to a Google Account. We have temporarily paused processing of new manual migration requests; we are working doggedly through the initial queue of requests and will re-open account migration services as soon as the first batch is completed.

(If you have already submitted a migration request, please look for an email response from Google once your migration has completed).

This is still great news as it adds more potential for profit off your blog! The Monetizer had experimented with Bidvertiser's feed system but experienced very little in profit. I'm expecting better things to come now that Google can integrate its ads into some of my blog feeds. One blog enjoys a subscriber base of close to 500 readers! Imagine the possibilities!

You can stay updated with Google's progress and their new feed Ads by logging into your Adsense account, choose "Adsense Setup" and go from there!

Widgetbucks Pays as Promised!

Anyone currently running Widgetbucks on your blogs or websites? If so I'd like to assure you that Mpire, the company behind the Widget does pay up! Their FAQ states payments are made to Paypal within 45 days of the last day of the month you clear $50 total. I cleared that in June, and like clockwork Widgetbucks payed me August 15th.

An extra $54 isn't too shabby for blog income, but it takes quite a bit of traffic to generate. Now my decision will be do I continue running the widgets, or remove them and try a new advertiser? The Widgets have been known to slow down site performance a bit. There's plenty of options out there to replace the ads with as well.

Additionally, the Monetizer continues to wait for Ximmy.com to get their act together. After an effort to promote their site and earn referrals, I still wait for a payment, months later. If anyone out there has heard from them or seen a payment, feel free to comment!

(Note: For everyone using Paypal, consider ordering the Paypal Debit/Credit card if you don't already own one. You can then apply for the 1% cash back opportunity and every time you purchase with the card, you receive money back. Granted, it's 1% but it all adds up!)

Is There a Formula for Success?

Many books have been written upon the topic of "Success" and just what it takes to achieve it. Everyone from philosophers to authors to presidents and athletes have published their own take on "what it takes". But there seems to be some recurring themes going on amongst all the works that people can take away and perhaps translate to their own success.

1 - Have a vision - Whether it be creating your own successful business, making a certain sports team, graduating college, getting the perfect job, dating a supermodel or whatever, the goal must be clear and in mind. Without a goal, what are you really working to be successful at? Make sure to define the goal, even write it down and keep it around in sight.

2 - Use visualization techniques - Athletes, businessmen and many others who have achieved success seem to use this technique alot. It's the idea of taking that vision or goal from step 1 and seeing yourself as "already there". Believe you've achieved it already and imagine how you feel, what it looks like. This makes movement towards that goal even more easier because it's fixed in your mind.

3 - Stay positive - Keeping the right mental attitude is the absolute key to success in life. While some try to argue that "oh he's just lucky" or "all millionaires inherited their money", the real key is that people who make it are those who keep a positive mindframe. You have to learn to bend with adversity and overcome it. Learn from it, and you'll continue to grow in leaps and bounds. Stay positive at all times as you work towards your vision.

4 - Be a constant learner - Constant learning is also essential to your success. Whether it means continuing to read blogs about making money, or devoting an hour a day to reading success and personal development books, you've got to continue to expand your ideas. Reading is probably the best way to do this, but a lot of success books also suggest the idea of finding a mentor to guide you towards your vision.

5 - Be a giver - Successful people learn that giving back is probably the greatest benefit of their success. It's not the money or the toys you buy, or the home you live in, but more so the ability to help out others. It's a satisfying end to all that hard work of achieving your vision.

Now these above principles are 5 very simple techniques to guide yourselves down the paths of success. The Monetizer never purports to be the guru or all knowing source on success, but believes these 5 concepts continue to show up in much of the literature written on the subject. You can find more within various books, but the 5 above seem to be the most common and widely used practices. Start applying them today and see yourself soar!

Feel free to add your own ideas below of the principles necessary to achieve success.

Also check out a great list of 50 Success Classic books to start on your journey!