Monetizer's 5 Tips for an eBay Business

As mentioned before, The Monetizer recently started another part time internet income venture, the almighty eBay business. Many individuals have turned trash into treasures as they've scoured garage sales, yard sales and thrift stores. My experiences have been interesting so far, and I feel that if you truly commit to this sort of part time business it can be fun and rewarding. I'd like to share 10 things I've learned so far that may help you in your own eBay venture.

1) Best deals come from yard sales - I've had more success so far buying items from yard sales and garage sales to resell on eBay. I also read about a lady called the Queen of eBay sales who once bought a yard sale item for just $2 and sold it for over $2,000!! It's amazing that people are willing to part with items for the prices they are, but there are many people who just need money badly right now. For example, picking up a portable DVD player for $5 at a yard sale, and it turned into a $40 sale on eBay. Most of my best deals have been items I purchased for under $5 at garage/yard sales. Make sure you have specific items you target...

2) Know what to buy - The biggest personal investment you can make into this business is constantly being up-to-date and knowledgeable about what sells. After your rounds at the yard sales and thrift shops you'll remember items you considered buying. Look them up on eBay when you get back home. See if you missed a blockbuster deal and start to learn what's selling. For example, many yard sales list in their classified ads "childrens toys" or "DVD's". There's also some great blogs out there which suggest items to buy from thrift stores and places like Dollar stores or Wal Mart. Knowing what's hot on eBay or familiarizing yourself with these categories will go a long way.

3) Buy what you know - This is very similar to blogging in that if you focus on buying items that you know about, you will tend to enjoy your business more, and in turn enjoy greater success. At one yard sale, a woman was selling probably about 100 different DVD's. The Monetizer enjoys movies and was able to select 15 of the hotter titles she had (action, drama movies from the past few years) for just $5. That $5 purchase turned into another $40 sale on eBay. You can already see the potential profit if you do your homework and buy what you know.

4) Handle shipping from home - One way to greatly save yourself money and make sure you're not losing money on shipping charges, is to invest in a postage scale. The Monetizer bought one soon into this business venture from Amazon.com for just $25, and it's worked quite well. It's already allowed me to save on several shipping jobs. Knowing what your items weigh with packaging is key to pricing the auctions right. You can also order free priority mail boxes, print USPS (or UPS) postage online and have the mail carrier pick up your packages. All of these things save you time and money with your business. You can also set a flat rate shipping charge and should you get lucky, your winning buyer is from a close by state meaning you can either refund the extra shipping money, or you've made a little extra!

Another tip is to utilize the flat rate boxes from USPS, as they can save you money on shipping heavy items. The charges on these are about $9 and $12 to ship as much as you can fit in them. There's also been important recent changes made to eBay shipping. For items such as books, DVD's and other media eBay has a maximum shipping charge you can charge ($3 or $4). I was able to slyly change a category to "Toys" just by adding a toy to the auction, therefore allowing Priority shipping. Keep this in mind before you try to sell. Also, I strongly recommend using the shipping insurance option on your auctions for items that are breakable. It goes a long way to protect your customer's purchase and your eBay reputation!

5) Reinvest in the business - The biggest goal is always to grow the income and profits of the eBay business. Warren Buffett gave the advice that reinvesting profits into your business is one of the most important things you can do to help it grow. So that means if you've made $20 off your latest eBay sales, take that money back out the next weekend to more garage and yard sales. Set yourself an item budget in the beginning or else you might buy just 1 item you think is great for $20 and end up not selling it. That's a quick way to diminish your profits and your eBay business! Also, consider buying necessary items for shipping or your business. Examples are the postage scale, bubble wrap, packing tape and books to educate yourself on eBay selling.

Once again, I guarantee that an eBay business can be profitable for you, but you have to put in the effort and not give up quickly. If you start it on a part time weekend basis, take it slowly. Do your research, find ways to save on shipping costs and keep reinvesting in the business to make it thrive!

(Bonus tip: Find freebies to sell to offset your eBay and Paypal costs. These can be things like new gift items you received that you don't really want, coupons you get in the mail, or free sample products. These days people buy just about anything on eBay so look it up, you may be surprised!)

Vote in the 2008 Presidential Election!

(image source: Google.com)

This is a friendly Public Service Announcement from The Monetizer. Today is November 4, 2008 and we all know what that means...time to vote! Google's got the spirit as you can see, so make sure to get up, get out and vote today!

You may ask what this has to do with making money. One of the biggest issues many people are focused on is the poor economy. There's been rising prices at the gas pumps and grocery stores, less opportunities for work, companies needing bailouts and families in need of money. So if nothing else the economy is great motivation to go cast your vote! The next president faces a tough challenge with all that the nation faces. Let's hope the right man for the job wins this!

Just to give some voting day humor, check out the official page for the Rabbit Hash Mayor Election. You'll find the candidates quite humorous in their official election!

Have a great day, and may the best man win the presidential race in 2008!

Google Feeds the Monetizer Ad Treats

Happy belated Halloween! Hopefully you all received nice 20's, 50's and crisp 100 dollar bills in your trick or treat bags last night! The Monetizer didn't receive candy, but Google recently provided The Monetizer with a nice additional treat, another way to make money online! It took about a month or two before Google transferred over my various blog feeds from Feedburner's site. Feedburner is now integrated with the Google Adsense Feeds, where I have set up several of my feeds with Adsense and am implementing tests.



As seen in the picture above, the Adsense feed ads can be adjusted just like regular Adsense code. You're allowed to choose text/image, just text or just image ads for your blog. You can arrange color schemes of your choosing, and set how many ads are seen on your feeds (every feed, every 2nd item, every 3rd, etc). It's a nifty little setup. If you haven't transferred your feeds over yet, give it a shot, as I've already seen some profit from it. To get started you'll need to log into your Google Adsense, go up to "Manage Ads" and select the Feeds tab or link. There should be a link on the next page which you can click to "migrate feeds" from Feedburner. Google is now in control of Feedburner (as they are of most online stuff), and you simply supply your Feedburner login info to migrate all of your feeds into the new Google Adsense setup. It may take several weeks or month for the migration so get to it early!

Once you're migrated, any Feedburner feeds will have a new feed URL which will now have "googleproxy" in it's URL, rather than Feedburner. This new URL won't automatically be updated if you've manually added it to spots on your blog or blog entries. For example, if you've put a link on your blog sidebar to allow Feedburner RSS subscription, it will most likely need to be changed now to the new URL address. And you may need to update other widgets on your blog that use the feed link such as the buttons that allow people to choose their reader. (If someone has had a different experience with this, please comment below). The good news is that when you log into your Feedburner account, they will have your new RSS feed links correctly listed. So the Google + Feedburner connection seems to be paying off and going smoothly.

I referred to the great John Chow's feeds and have mimicked his Feed ad style. Currently Chow uses the basic blue URL links, a light gray border around his items, and allows both text and image ads to run above each of his feed items. Give it a try yourself, or if you have been using Adsense feeds, drop a comment to let me know of your experiences or findings.

I also want to give a nod to John Cow who presents a great way to find "golden nugget" search terms for your blog or website using Google Insights tool. Check out Cow's blog entry to find Search Keyword Gold! It's a great technique for creating blog entries that will bring in more traffic!

How to Find Legitimate Work at Home Jobs

A July 10th, 2008 Wall Street Journal article examines the concept of working at home, during these tough economic times with high gas prices, job losses and credit crunches. The article cautions those looking for cushy jobs where they can earn a regular salary from home, saying that many of the work-at-home opportunities are for mundane, difficult tasks that other people would find tough. An example is telemarketing, transcribing inaudible MP3 files from meetings, or hours of tedious data entry.

Another caution is that you often receive spam emails or see sites advertising simple data entry for thousands of dollars salary a week. Be warned that these need to be treaded cautiously and can be scams. The WSJ article provides some great resources on freelance type jobs such as virtual assistant or travel agents. The three sites listed below will help you identify if a job you've found online for working from home is legit or not.

3 Sites to Use to Find Legitimate Work-at-Home Jobs:

bbonline.org - Click on "For Consumers"

WomenForHire.com - offers resources/ideas on working from home.

FTC.gov - In the search box enter "work at home scam".

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Websites for Legitimate Work-at-Home Jobs: The following websites were all profiled in the WSJ article. As always read the details and find print on any opportunity you get involved with. These all appear to be legitimate companies which hire freelancers for clients, post job listings, and provide work at home opportunities.

Arise.com - 8,000 home business owners as agents, with plans to add another 4,000 by year's end.

AlpineAccess.com - 7,500 home agents, hiring at least 2,500 more by December 08'.

Elance.com and oDesk.com - Link clients with freelancers from around the world. Freelancers can take skills tests on the site and have results posted. The sites also work on commission, taking 4 to 10% of the freelancer's fees. A college student dropped out of school realizing he could make up to $60,000 doing computer programming on a freelance basis through oDesk.com.

LiveOps.com - Has 20,000 home agents who work on at least a part time basis each week.

Sologig.com - A work at home posting site with screened free-lance opportunities.

TeamDoubleClick.com - Offers $10 to $20 an hour for "Virtual Assistants", who perform the tasks of Administrative Assistants, but from home.

VirtualAssistants.com - For $14.95 a month get screened job postings for at home work.

WestCorp (west.com) - Has 15,000 at home agents and is currently expanding.

(Info source: Wall Street Journal "Nice Work If You Can Get It: We Sites for At-Home Jobs" - WSJ 07/10/08)

Note: Another great site to check out is WAHM.com which provides info on work-at-home job opportunities, points out scams and much more!

Keep this work out home sites in mind and you just might be working from the comfort of your aeron chair in your own home office...That's the American dream right?