How to Save Money Shopping on the Internet

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1. 1
   Use sites that will offer you money back in the future such as Ebates. This site lets you sign up for free and save between 1% and 25% on loads and loads of online merchants. (The average savings is 2%-4%)\
2. 2
   Check out coupon sites like the ones listed under External Links to see if there are coupon codes available for the website you are trying to use. Unfortunately, many of the "offers" on these sites are just ads for various sales and specials and just lead you to a website rather than actually provide a code to save you money.
3. 3
   Check any Frequent Flyer Programs to see if they allow you to earn miles by shopping online.
4. 4
   Try searching for the product you are looking for on comparison sites such as Froogle (froogle.google.com) and Shopping.com, but beware that they do not check every site and will often show you results that do not actually lead to a product, and do not account for shipping charges, which can vary a lot between websites.
5. 5
   You may want to become a member of FreeShipping.com, which offers free shipping from over 1,000 online merchants. It also allows you to get complete price protection within 90 days and Double Warranty on anything you buy. After the trial, it is only $5.99 per month, billed annually. A pretty good deal!
6. 6
   Try ordering catalogs from Catalogs.com, as they sometimes offer exclusive offers that can be used online, as well as customer ID numbers which allow the companies to identify where you got them from which can yield discounts once in a while.
7. 7
   Consider investing in One time fee or low cost membership programs of various websites to see if you can offset the cost of the membership with saving. A good example of this is the BN Membership program, which for $25 bucks per year, gets you a 10% discount. This is great for avid book reader or movie watchers ( since the offer DVDs at great prices) or student who need lots of textbooks.
8. 8
   Always check eBay for the product(s) that you are looking for, as you can often find unbelievably good deals on new and mint condition stuff.
9. 9
   If you don't mind the extra work and separate bills, it is often a good idea to get the credit cards of various stores, sports teams, etc, because they often offer rewards for just signing up and even more rewards for spending as little as $25-$50. Of course, you can cancel if you don't want the extra bills and you can't use or don't want whatever long-term saving it may offer.
10. 10
    If the online retailer has a store near you, consider stopping by for the following reason. If you want something that is not in stock in the store, you can often order it from their website with free shipping. Sears goes even further as to allow customers to order anything from the website with no shipping charges. Of course, this kind of defeats the point of shopping online, but I thought I'd mention it.

Tips

• You might want to copy these steps to somewhere where you can check them before buying things online.
• Remember to take your time and don't skip steps that can save you money.
• From time to time many online retailers and stores offers existing customers and their affiliates coupon codes via e-mail that are valid toward discounts on certain products. In order to receive these coupon codes you must be a member of their mailing list or to receive even deeper discounts be a member of their affiliate program. You can save anywhere from 5-50% on thing you would buy anyway, so why pay more money.
• Find a site that has up-to-date coupons for various internet retails stores, preferably by catagory

Warnings

• Often Offers cannot be used together, so you often must choose the one that is best for you.
• Don't fall victim to impulse buys or things that look too good to be true.
• Don't buy things because of promises for rebates from shady or homemade looking websites.
• If you find a good deal on a website you've never seen before, make sure you can find a customer support phone number that works and an actual address and not just an email.

Things You'll Need

• A computer with Internet
• A credit card
• An address
• Money

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How to Package Books for Shipping

Although not necessarily the most fragile of objects that are shipped, books sent out for shipping still need to be packaged well in order to ensure that they undergo the whole shipping process with no damage. Merely using butcher paper and strapping tape are not good enough to package books, and neither are just padded envelopes (for hardcover books). Here's how to package books for shipping so they arrive in the same condition in which they were mailed.

 Clean the book.

• If the cover is uncoated paper, you may be able to use an eraser to remove some smudges, but be gentle.
• If the dust jacket or paper cover is glossy, you can take off dirt and stray marks by spraying a little Windex on a paper towel and gently wiping the cover. Be careful not to get Windex on the pages. Sometimes a slightly damp dishcloth is all you need. Give the book cover a moment to dry out before you wrap it.
• Lighter fluid can be used to remove stubborn stickers from glossy covers -- soak the sticker for 20 seconds or so and then peel it off -- but keep in mind that lighter fluid is harmful to skin. Use gloves when doing this step.
• • 
    
• 2
  Protect it from moisture. When the cover has dried, wrap the book(s) in some kind of plastic in case the box gets stuck under a drain spout at some point along the way. The plastic sleeves in which newspapers are delivered to homes are the right size for most books. Put the book in the bag, fold over the top of the bag, and seal it with packaging tape. Don't over-tape; use just enough to tape down the edges. It's a pain if the recipient has to cut off yards of tape to get to the book. Afterwards, wrap the book in bubble wrap for additional protection.
• 3
  Add any letter or card you want the recipient to get.
  
  
  • To qualify for the Media Mail rate, which is the best shipping rate the U.S. Post Office offers for books, don't add personal letters or non-book items, or you'll have to pay the higher Parcel Post or Priority rates. Mail a card by itself and tell the person that a book is coming separately. (The card almost always arrives first.)
  • If you didn't include a commercial packing slip, write a duplicate address label to include inside the box in case the original label is torn off or becomes otherwise unreadable.
    
• 4
  

  
  Consider sending a paperback book in a padded envelope. A box is still the best packaging container to use, especially if the book is valuable or sentimental to either you or the recipient. However, paperbacks don't have the overhanging covers and exposed corners that hardbacks do, so they travel better in envelopes than do hardcovers.
• 5
  Use a box that is larger than the book. For hardcovers, find a cardboard box that is a little larger than the book. If you don't mind paying the higher Priority Mail rate, you can use the Priority Mail boxes that the post office provides free (it's a service you get for paying more). But you cannot use these boxes and still get the cheaper Media Mail rate.
• 6
  Make a reused box look fresh. If you're reusing a box, you can make it look nice for the recipient by turning it inside out. Just find the spot where the box is glued together. Usually, it's just one seam. You can separate that seam with a butter knife, turn the box inside out, and retape that seam. Voilà! You have a nice, clean box. If you want to reuse a box but don't (or can't) turn it inside out, scribble through the old addresses, labels, and markings with a big marker, or put adhesive stickers over them.
• 7
  Tape the bottom. Don't fold the flaps of a box together so that you don't have to use tape when you're shipping books. Fold the small side flaps in, then close the large flaps so they meet perfectly and tape the seam with packaging tape or strapping tape. Leave plenty of overhang for the tape to go up the sides of the box, which makes it stronger. Taping the flaps of the box instead of folding provides additional security to the package, and keeps the box in better shape.
• 8
  Add packing material. Set the box right-side up, with the top open. Layer the inside bottom of the box with some packaging material -- packing peanuts, air bags, Styrofoam, crumpled plastic grocery bags, or crushed newspaper as a last resort (newspaper is relatively heavy and adds to the shipping cost).
• 9
  Fill in the box. Set the book (wrapped in multiple layers of plastic bubble wrap) on the layer of packing material. Fill in the space around the book with more packing material, then fill the box to the top. You want the book to stay firmly in the middle of the box and not slide around.
• 10
  Can the book still shift? The key is to close the flaps of the box when you finish packing, but don't seal it yet. Shake the box. If you can feel or hear rustling or movement, add more packing material until the box is packed just enough to prevent any movement within. This will protect the book from getting beaten up, no matter what your box goes through.
• 11
  Write the address on the top flap of the box before you tape it closed, or put on an address label. Look up the 9-digit zip code under 'Find a ZIP Code' on the US Postal Service website; this will speed your package along its way. Write in ballpoint pen so the address won't smear if it gets wet, then cover the address (or label) with clear packing tape.
• 12
  Tape the box closed. Tape the top seam with one long piece of tape, then put tape over all the side seams as well to strengthen the box.
• 13
  Take the package to the post office. If you want to see how smart you are, ask the clerk the difference between Media Mail and Priority Mail rates. Wow! If you qualify for Media Mail rates, you saved a lot of money!

Tips

• You want the book to arrive undamaged. Damage usually happens to the corners of the book, which can get bent (or "bumped," as they say in the book trade). The book should be packaged so that the cardboard box takes any damage, instead of the book itself.
  
  
• Many commercial bookstores have extra packing material that they will give you if you ask nicely. Ask for a lot, and keep the extra in a trash bag ready to pour into boxes when you need to ship something. Plastic bags from grocery stores crumpled up will cheaply fill the spaces.
• Sometimes with small books, the Priority Rate will be close to the Media Mail rate, and it will be worth it to upgrade to Priority. The book will arrive a lot sooner, thus with less time to be damaged in transit.
• Make sure to ask for a "zero postage strip" at the post office if you use stamps. This proves that you gave your book to a human and it won't get sent back to you for being over the weight limit.
• Download the USPS Shipping Assistant, which will allow you to print a barcoded shipping label from your computer. Shipping Assistant requires you to use Delivery Confirmation, but it only charges an additional 14¢ for this service (and it's free with priority mail). PayPal also has a nice shipping system.
• First class mail is good if you can afford it, but only works for lighter books.
• Know your postage rates; before you pack, use a postage rates comparison website like Current Postage Rates ,

Warnings

• If you sell books on the Internet, make sure the buyer has no complaint. It isn't the post office's fault if a book arrives damaged if the sender didn't package it properly. Media Mail shipping can take two weeks, which is two weeks for the package to be dropped, kicked, or stacked with dozens of other heavy boxes.
• If you have a preprinted adhesive address label with a bar code, you don't need to cover it with tape, which can make it more difficult to scan. But if your label was printed on plain white computer paper, it may tear in transit, so you should tape down the entire label, covering it with clear packing tape.
• You can request "delivery confirmation" for about 50¢ more if you ship from the post office, 14¢ more if you print a shipping label using the USPS Shipping Assistant, or free if you print your own Priority Mail label using the Shipping Assistant or Click-N-Ship. You get a receipt with a long number on it, which you can put into the "track and confirm" section of the post office website; you can also opt to get an email sent to you when the package is delivered. With delivery confirmation, if you sent something to your aunt, for instance, you can tell her when the package was delivered, and she can ask her family members what they did with it. Delivery confirmation also discourages dishonest people from pretending they never got the package.

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How to Start an Ebay Home Business

An eBay Home Business can make you a lot of money if you know how to do it!

Starting an eBay home business can be a very effective way of making money online, especially as eBay is a renowned and widely used online platform for auctions and currently has millions of daily visitors to sell to. Many people already do full time eBay selling for good money and so can you, if you just learn how to do it. In its essence, there's nothing magic about it, it's just buying and selling to make a profit.

1. Decide what to buy and sell.
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   • Find out what interests you: The most important step is to find out what you're interested in, because selling what you know will greatly facilitate the task of answering questions of potential buyers about your product. Just imagine you sold cellphones without knowing anything about them and someone asks you whether your cellphone has a 3 mega pixel or a 2 mega pixel camera, and you don't know what a mega pixel is, nor if your product has a camera! The potential buyer would most probably take you for a scam and never consider buying from you!
   • Find out what sells well: Selling Polaroid films now when nobody has the corresponding cameras anymore would probably not make you millions, instead of that, selling laptops, cellphones or cameras is a profitable business at this moment. But keep in mind that it can sometimes be more profitable to sell to a smaller market because generally there is not as much competition on these as for very big markets. For instance, if you sold iPhone's, you would have to get them at a very good price to stay competitive because everybody sells them nowadays. So maybe you should choose stuff that's not as hyped in the moment.
   • Consider the price range: Selling high-priced items generally allows you to get better profits because you add more value to your product as you would if you sold something that only costs a few bucks. Selling blank notebooks for 7$ when buying them at 5$ gives you 2$ profit each time, selling cellphone for 500$ which you bought at 400$ gives you 100$ profit each time, but keep in mind that in order to sell higher priced items, you need more capital to invest at the start, and you should know your turf because people are less likely to give 500$ to a nobody than giving 7$!
2. 2
   Get your products from wholesalers or drop shippers: This is a crucial part, because here is where your money has to be invested. Look on the web for drop shippers or wholesalers, people which sell you larger quantities of products at good prices, in order to buy something and resell it on eBay. Drop shippers are companies that you don't have to buy the products from, you just sent them a single order when somebody buys a product from you, and they sent it directly to your customer, without you ever seeing the product. This can greatly facilitate your work because there's less for you to worry about, as there is no shipping, etc, but sometimes this has turned out badly for some people, when the drop shipping company sent out the wrong product or something. Be informed exactly what it will cost you to get those products! (Ask about shipping or customs fees!)
3. 3
   Sell the articles on eBay: Be professional when doing so. Add many photos of the product, preferably ones that you took yourself with much detail. Write in the article description exactly what the product is and in what condition it is. If you sell stuff you already have at home, that's fine, but inform anybody who's looking to buy it if there are scratches or malfunctions, etc. Honesty is most important! And answer in time if you get a question from a buyer, because they're likely to look for someone else's offer if you're not fast enough.
4. 4
   Check your feedback: Always try to keep a good feedback, nothing is more important on eBay, so you should better give somebody a full refund if he returns your product, because one bad rating can ruin your business. Most people don't even consider buying from you if you have less than 98% good ratings! The customer is king! So do what it takes to keep him happy.

Tips

 

• always be transparent - describe exactly what it will cost your buyers and what they will get, how long the shipping will take, etc.
• give discounts for group shipping, so people are encouraged to buy more products from you
• inform yourself exactly about the reputation of a drop shipper/wholesaler if you want to buy from him, know what it'll cost you to get the product you want to sell
• use eBay Pulse to find out what sell well at the moment

 

 

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How to Sell on eBay

Selling on eBay is exactly like selling in any other marketplace, other than the barriers to entry are virtually non-existent. As Ken Rockwell says,

If you can make money selling items at the local flea market or swap meet, if you can make money running a retail or online store, if you can make money doing sales at any level, you have what it takes to succeed on eBay. If you lack these critical business and people skills, eBay isn't going to make it any easier.^[1]

Ignore anyone purporting to you that there is one "secret" that you have to know in order to make a fortune on eBay; most of selling on eBay is based on common sense, and the rest is knowing the right place to get your products from. Here, is a little to help you start on your way to becoming an eBay seller, whether you're a small home business, a big business, or just trying to sell some stuff you may have sitting around.

1. 1
   Sign in, if you haven't already. To create an eBay account, go to eBay's Main Page, then click on register at the very top of the page.
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2. 2
   Build your account. It's a very good idea to buy a few things and pay immediately so that you will get some feedback ratings. (Don't buy things to resell, just buy things you'd buy anyway.) This will give you experience with the site and start to build up your "site cred"; potential buyers may see a seller who has no feedback as a potential fly-by-night.
3. 3
   Research your market. Search eBay for items like those you want to sell. Read the listings. Take note of what sort of information or photos you find most helpful to you as a potential buyer. The same type of information will be helpful to your potential buyers. What makes you think a seller is trustworthy?
4. 4
   Assemble the information you will need to place the listing. Usually, this includes measuring the item, weighing the item so you can estimate shipping costs, and having your photos ready.
5. 5
   Take photographs of your item. Good photographs which clearly illustrate the item to be sold can make a listing; bad photographs are little better than no photographs at all. Get a cheap digital camera or a camera-phone if you don't have one already; no photograph at all will (especially for a new seller) lead some people to think that you don't own the item at all, or have something to hide.
   • 

     How not to do it. Are you selling a tachometer, or a screwdriver, or a plate with crumbs on it, or...
     Make your photographs useful. In preparation for taking the photo, place the item in area where there won't be a distracting background and get rid of any nearby clutter. A simple sheet of white paper may be used to provide a nice, neutral background for smaller items. Where possible, turn off your flash and use natural light; go outside, or take a photo by a window.
   • 

     Much better: a plain white sheet of paper, no clutter and some natural light are a great improvement.
     Get as many photographs as your buyers will need, and then some. Take photographs of your item from every angle that you think someone will find useful. Get photographs of any unusual feature, any defects, and so on. The extra confidence that this will give buyers is almost always (except on the lowest-valued items) worthwhile. Of course, some items only need one photo; use your judgment here.
   • Don't copy photographs from other listings or anywhere else on the Internet, ever. Apart from being dishonest and fraudulent, this will almost always be copyright infringement; nearly everything on the Internet, and elsewhere, is copyrighted, whether it has a copyright notice or not. Don't become a criminal through being too lazy to take a couple of photographs.
6. 6
   Log in and go to Sell either in My eBay or on the Main Page at the top.
7. 7
   Enter a title for your listing. The title is the front line in getting your auction noticed. A good title will not only give potential buyers enough information to know whether the listing is worth their time to look at, it will also attract people searching for your items.
   • Include all relevant words. Experienced buyers know to look for bargains from inexperienced sellers by browsing listings and looking for those with insufficient information in the title; for example, the title "Land Rover" instead of "Land Rover Series 2 SWB 88" 2.25 Petrol". Insufficient information in a title will attract a far smaller number of potential buyers and/or bidders; consequently such an item will either not sell, or go for a much lower price than it would otherwise.
   • As a corollary to the above, keep the words relevant. Exclude fluff such as "cool" "excellent", and the like. You have very little space, so use it for what people are searching for (you can be rather sure that nobody is going to be searching eBay for items titled "L@@K"). Use a subtitle for any information that you think people will neither be searching for nor want to see immediately (this costs more; depending on the value of your item it may not be worth it).
   • Include alternative spellings and phrasings if you have space. For example, if you're selling an iPod, put "MP3 player" in your title. However, eBay's search will automatically account for variant phrasings; it will also sometimes check category names in addition to the auction title. Do a search on specific terms and look at the titles of the auctions that come up.
   • Spell it correctly! This sounds basic, but many people find bargains (and many online tools make money on commissions) by routinely checking for mis-spelled auction titles. If your spelling sucks, use a dictionary.
8. 8
   Enter a description, after choosing a category.
   • Include any and all relevant information. This includes things like the manufacturer, compatibility (for items intended to be used with something else), size, weight, colour, condition, and so on. Err on the side of adding too much information rather than too little. A buyer can skim through information they do not need to know, but will likely hit the "back" button if they don't see the information they want; for this reason, it's best to put the most important information at or very near the beginning of the listing. Try not to make your listings into big bags of random figures; use the "feature-benefit" method beloved of marketing drones. "The camera comes with a big long lens which I don't know anything about" is bad. "The high-quality 80-200 zoom lens (feature) lets you take sports and wildlife shots like the pros (benefit)" is much better.
   • Keep the design simple, if you see the need to design a listing at all. Some sellers clutter their listings with unrelated elements that that it makes the listing itself more difficult to read; others (particularly eBay's standard listing designs, which cost money) look ugly and lead to two very different, clashing designs on the same page.
   • Be honest. Be clear about any defects in the item. Buyers will find this out anyway, so let them decide for themselves what is a significant problem and what is not. Remember, buyers cannot physically touch and examine your item. They are relying on the detail and accuracy of your listing to make the purchase. Not describing any significant faults (and your assessment of what is "significant" may not match with the buyers, or with what courts will decide) is fraud, and will likely lead to the buyer leaving bad feedback. You are just as liable for dishonesty as you would be with any other kind of sale. In short, "underpromise and oversell".^[2]
   • Keep a friendly tone. Many sellers seem to go to extra efforts to intimidate potential customers; they seem to think it's essential to leave several pages of threats (invariably in huge, coloured fonts) to report non-paying bidders, and so on. Don't do this! You wouldn't want to buy from a bricks-and-mortar store wherein the owner watched your every move and reminded you that you would have to pay for every item you looked at if you left the store with it. Nor would you want to shop at a store wherein the sales clerk complained about other customers. The Internet is no different; it is insulting to your potential buyers to treat them as potential thieves. If you must include additional information on your policies, ensure the length is shorter than your item description.
   • Check your spelling. This won't make up for a bad listing in other respects, but it still goes some way. Turn off your CRUISE CONTROL too; proper capitalisation and punctuation makes listings much easier to read.
9. 9
   Pick a selling format. You have two options; which you will pick depends on your personal preferences
   • The online auction. Despite this being somewhat de-emphasised by eBay recently,^[3] this is still enormously popular. Auctions are probably best for less common items, and when you're uncertain as to what price you should sell at.
   • Buy It Now items are fixed-price items. You might want to consider this for more common items; for example, new items which people need immediately are unlikely to attract many bids in an auction.
10. 10
    Set your price. If you are selling at auction, set this to the lowest price that you could ever imagine selling your item for. If you're brave, set it lower than this; lower starting bids attract more bidders and interest in your item, and may well result in your item selling for more. Avoid setting a reserve price. This is somewhat akin to a form of shill bidding, with bidders bidding against the seller himself. A reserve auction irritates some potential buyers because they have no idea what the seller wants, and may not bother bidding at all. If you're selling a fixed-price item, then use your judgment. You have little option but to undercut other sellers on eBay.
    
    Whatever you do, remember that there is no such thing as an item's "real value". Bear this in mind if you are thinking about setting a reserve price in an auction. If items really do have some Platonic dollar-value, it's irrelevant to the real world if nobody is willing to pay that for it. (And for many kinds of items, eBay is "the market", not just an entertaining side-show thereof.)
11. 11
    Continue to go through the options, and be sure to look everything over very carefully. There's a lot to look through and you'll want to make sure everything is correct. Make sure the item is sold at a reasonable price.
12. 12
    Double check everything before saving. Be sure that when you're done with everything at the end (you're at the overview page) to double check and press submit. If you don't press submit it won't be entered. You'll then get an e-mail confirming that your product was placed on eBay.
13. 13
    Answer questions from your buyers as the auction runs its course. Be prompt about it, and always be patient, clear, professional and friendly. Refuse offers to buy your item outside of eBay. This is against eBay policy, and gives you little or no comeback if the buyer refuses to pay.
14. 14
    Watch the auction. Once the item has been shipped, and they have left feedback for you, you should leave feedback for that person.
    
    

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Warnings buy n sell on ebay

• Do not sell illegal items. Doing so can bring heavy consequences upon you.
• A sale on eBay is as final as a contract anywhere else. If you commit to selling something at auction on eBay, then you can't change your mind because it didn't reach a price high enough.
• Negative feedback makes buyers mistrust you and makes sellers think twice about selling to you. Follow up any negative feedback with accurate facts. Do not call names.
• Be careful when sending feedback. You can be sued for making dishonest statements on the feedback page, so keep in mind that you are responsible for your remarks. Keep it honest and professional, and above all, don't make childish and angry remarks.
• Don't overcharge for shipping and handling. A reasonable amount for your materials and effort is okay, but buyers don't want to pay $15.00 for shipping and handling and then see on the postage label that it only cost you $3.85 for shipping.
• NEVER put the starting price lower than what you can afford to lose by selling it! You need to consider the fees eBay, Paypal (if you offer a PayPal payment) and shipping. It is entirely possible to lose money on an item if you put a starting price that is too low for you to at least break even if only one person bids on it.
• Be careful of selling overseas. Most items are perfectly fine, and can increase your bidding pool. However, what may be perfectly legal in the US may be illegal in New Zealand, Turkey, or Japan (or vice versa).

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Tips buy n sell on ebay

• Take advantage of free sales training. There are dozens of books on how to sell on eBay. You'll find at least one at your local public library.
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• Sell inexpensive items to build up your feedback first.
• You will have to ship the product out on your own, so you're going to have to add shipping into the price; there's a section where you set the shipping.
• You can always go back and edit it if you don't like something. Just go into "My eBay" and go from there.
• Try and have it so your auction ends on a Sunday. Avoid ending auctions on Friday or Saturday when people are not home to bid.
• Help keep the feedback system honest by only placing honest feedback and avoiding the "trading" of positive feedback. A seller should leave positive feedback if the buyer pays promptly. A buyer should leave positive feedback if the item arrives in a reasonable time and is as advertised. A seller who waits for a buyer to leave positive feedback is really trading feedback. Such a practice skews feedback ratings.
• People will look at things that have cheap or free shipping, so include the shipping price in the total price (or min bid) and people will be more inclined to buy. If you offer it, make sure they know that you're offering it.
• Packaging is also important. If items are fragile, improper packaging can result in broken items and unhappy customers! Also keep in mind the price you pay for shipping: the box, padding, etc., to decide on a reasonable price or add it to shipping and handling fees.
• Payment will be vital. PayPal is an extremely popular payment service on eBay, and as a seller, you will want to understand how it works and quite possibly sign up. Offering this service also may help attract buyers, because payment is instant and simple. Checks and money orders are also popular, but by nature take time. Also, be aware that payments from buyers by check does not necessarily mean they have sufficient funds! So consider what your comfort level is with these different payment types when you list your item.
• Look for the most popular auctions so you can be sure that the item you want to sell is in demand.

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What Are Pirated CDs, Copies CDs and Bootleg CDs?

Music that has been illegally copied onto a CD and sold as the copyrighted version are referred to as pirated, copies or bootleg CDs.

Sometimes the labels on such CDs and the CD covers are also counterfeit to make the product appear genuine. None of these terms (pirated, copied or bootlegged CDs) refer to physical CDs which have been stolen, but rather to the copyright in the music which has been illegally used.

Therefore it is the so-called “intellectual property” i.e. the music itself which has been stolen and NOT the physical CD.

Blank compact discs (CDs) are available extremely cheaply, for less than a dollar apiece. The technology for copying music onto CDs has become highly evolved and increasingly affordable.

It is possible to sell almost anything with a fair degree of anonymity online as well, from anywhere in the world. This makes a fertile environment for counterfeiters to copy and sell fake CDs.

You might argue that music-lovers benefit from this kind of activity but this is false. The criminals engaged in selling pirated CDs do not sell them much more cheaply than the originals.

In addition, the talented people who are responsible for creating the music – artistes, singers, producers – do not get paid their fair cut when you buy the CD. It is also false to assume that a CD bootlegger cannot make much of a business out of his or her activities.

Sometimes it is hard to tell if you are buying the genuine article or a pirated CD but there are a couple of pointers.

Is the CD properly sealed in plastic?
If it is not it could well be an illegal CD copy.
Does it have a printed, high-quality label?

A poor or partial label is probably the most obvious sign of a bootleg CD. Does the disc itself have an identifying label? If not it is certainly a pirated CD. You should look on the artiste’s website to see what the legal CD disc and cover look like and compare these with the article on sale.

Finally you should consider the marketing channel. Many sellers of counterfeit CDs reside in the Far East. Make an enquiry to the seller asking about the genuineness of the CD.

The reply, or a non-response, will tell you volumes about the product you are interested in. If there is no response at all, then definitely do not buy from that vendor. If there is a vague answer in bad grammar, do not answer.

You can always check the seller’s ratings by other buyers on eBay or other auction sites. They generally report if they received their merchandize and if the quality of the recording was professional or poor.

When in doubt, never order a CD online.

BACA SELANJUTNYA »»

Why Ebay Ban on Money Orders and Checks Is Really An Advantage To Buyers

eBay has recently declared that money orders and checks will no longer be accepted means of transactions.
Many customers have welcomed this change since these two methods have been known to cause a lot of trouble for many people. Below are some of the usual problems that people have experienced with these methods.
Really long waiting period for check and money order transactions
If you’ve previously used a money order or check to pay for an item you’ve bought, you might have experienced a very long wait before the item arrived on your doorstep.
This is because the person selling the item would have had to wait as well for your check to arrive to him.
This period gets even more extended when it comes to international transactions.
And after this period, the seller would have then had to wait for your check to get cleared by the bank. Only after the check gets cleared would the person be able to send you the items that you’ve bought.
Even if you don’t receive your item, you won’t be able to file a dispute
Because of the nature of money order transactions, there isn’t any paper trail involved. This means that it would be nearly impossible to prove that the money order you sent really did or did not arrive to its intended recipient. Filing a complaint and retrieving your money could be impossible as well.
Most of the scams or cases of items not received involved transactions using these payment methods. Currently, eBay allows filing of disputes for PayPal transactions as it is much easier to check if you have sent the payments and if the other party has received the payments.
Checks and money order transactions offer you no protection for bought items
eBay has a standard purchase protection program which entitles you to about two hundred dollars worth of protection.
However, to be eligible for this, you must have used PayPal to pay for your item. PayPal makes payments much more simple and PayPal also records whether or not you’ve paid for your item and whether or not the payment was received by the seller.
After you’ve opened a dispute with eBay, eBay can check the records to see if you’ve paid for it. eBay can then investigate on the dispute and check to see if you’re eligible for protection.
Money order and check payments are inconvenient for everyone involved.
Because you need to go to the post office to send these payments out, there is much inconvenience involved. However, electronic transactions like PayPal only need you to be in front of your computer to make quick and easy payments.
The status of your international payments can be very difficult to check
The lack of a credible paper trail means that you won’t know if your payment really is still on its way or if it has arrived already and the seller just isn’t sending you the item.
This could leave you confused about whether or not you should cancel the check you’ve signed.
You could also be unsure as to which steps should be taken in case a seller refuses to send you your bought item and you then wish to file a dispute.

BACA SELANJUTNYA »»

Best Way To Pack Your Items Before You Ship Them Off

Packaging materials comes in many different forms. It comes in all sizes and shapes. Once a sale is made and payment forwarded, we need to pack our items before posting them off to our customers. And it is our responsibility to make sure that the items arrived at the buyer’s doorstep one-piece and in original condition.
Packing supplies are used for optimizing the space while shipping or transporting items. Packaging is a technique to be skilled and also an art, yeah. Usually, we will try to leave a minimum space between the items and the box (or envelopes) to prevent the items from moving too much.
These are the most common kinds of packing materials:

• envelopes,
• padded envelopes,
• polymailers,
• boxes.

Which one should you use? Some items will required you to use additional materials like bubble wraps, bags and edge protectors.
Each and every type of these packing supplies has its own uses.
1. Boxes – for big or small items. Boxes are made out of hard papers, hard boards, metal sheets, plastic and fibers are available in the market. You can also pack small items in boxes, like cosmetics, computer accessories or other small electronic items. Use a wide tape to secure the openings of the boxes. For peace of mind, tapes all the edges too.

2. Envelopes – for light and small items normal envelopes would be sufficient. Items like stickers, small accessories, stamps and tiny craft items go well in envelopes. You save some postage by using the usual envelopes as they weight much less. You can buy bulk lot of plastic bag and bubble wraps, cut out a small piece, wrap the items and stuff them into normal envelopes. Caution though that normal envelopes tear easily, you should buy the thicker ones and at least put tapes on all 4 borders to frame the envelopes before posting.
3. Padded envelopes – If the items are to be handled little much care or require more transportation and handling, you can go with padded envelopes. They are slightly heavier and thick. Generally, books or digital products like CD, DVD etc can be packed in padded envelopes. Electronic items and medicines are always packed in bubble wraps, as these bubble wraps can protect the items from shocks, heat and light.
4. Polymailers - Polymailers are plastic-like envelopes. They are very light yet very durable. Most of them are even tear-proof! Polymailers are protected against tearing and decay. Clothings and fabrics goes well with polymailers. eBay is a good place to buy your polymailers in bulk and in wholesale prices.
Oh, I wrote about 9 Tips To Keep Your Postage Low a couple of days ago. If you missed it, click here to read it.

BACA SELANJUTNYA »»

The Best and Worst Of Dropshipping

Don’t you hate…
packing, sending, inventories and licking stamps? Dropshipping may be the solution for your eBay business. It is a great income opportunity that is somewhat “automatic”.
What?
Dropshipping is a method of selling and distributing goods where the supplier ships the product directly to the end user on the retailer’s behalf.

Pros
You don’t have to worry about storing inventories and packing supplies. And you don’t need to spend hours packing items and waiting at the post office. Instead, you can focus on marketing and bringing in new business.
Photos are also readied for you from the dropship supplier. You just need to post the items for sale on eBay or on your site. When someone placed an order with you, you send an order to the dropship supplier and tell him where to send the shipment to.
While the advantages of dropshipping seem like a dream come true to eBay sellers, it can be a disaster to join the dropshipping bandwagon in a rush without doing some homework.

Cons
I find it frustrted when some companies sell suppliers list for a fee, but their list is outdated and most of the phone numbers and links don’t even work. Other scammers pretend to be actual wholesalers, but they are really just middlemen who eat into your profits.
Then there are websites that promise an “all-in-one solution” for a monthly fee. They claim you can choose from their whole inventory of items to sell and dropship. But there is almost always hidden fees that make turning a profit next to impossible.
If you are are using a dropshipping service, keep in mind that what the dropshipper does will reflect directly on you. If a customer has a bad experience, leaves you a negative feedback, that will be on you 100%.
Then, items can go on backorder. If someone has already paid you for an item and you’re not able to place an order with the dropshipper in a good time frame, you will not look good. Same goes for items that are damaged during shipping.

Building a relationship with your dropshipper makes sense and is an absolute necessity. There are bound to be times where customer service issues arise. When that happens, you need to know that you have someone to go to for help. Ideally, you should have a dedicated service representative who knows you and understands your needs. Be wary of doing business with a company that provides little or no support. It may come back to haunt you in the end.
Dropshipping is great and trouble-free!
Despite several disadvantages, I certainly find dropshipping a great way sell physical products online, whether on eBay or on your own e-commerce site. You can avoid pitfalls and do it right by researching for everything you must know about dropshipping.
Worldwide Brands allows you to tap on making money with dropshipping. It contains everything you need to start your own online or eBay business today.
The best thing about dropshipping is I don’t have to keep up with inventories which is my all time weaknesses and finally I don’t have to hear naggings from family members to clean up the mess!
What about you? Have you tried dropshipping before? Or will that be your next model of business?

BACA SELANJUTNYA »»

10 Highly Profitable Niches on eBay That You Didn’t Know

Ever since I learnt from eBay support that having multiple IDs are officially not a sin on eBay, I decided to venture into another niche. So now, I am on the researching ground again, snooping around and delving into other people’s business to see what’s hot in there.

This is until I found “Ten Little-Known Highly Profitable Niche Markets on eBay” by eBay PowerSeller, Skip McGrath.
What Is Ten Little-Known Highly Profitable Niche Markets on eBay About?
Ten Little-Known Highly Profitable Niche Markets on eBay is about finding and exploiting, a small niche market. As we all know, you can’t possibly be selling product A-Z in your business. If you don’t have a niche and you do not know your target market, then please refrain from selling or starting anything online.
Inside, Skip McGrath gladly shows you ten different businesses you can start within a day or two of receiving the book.
More secrets after the jump.

Why Skip Mcgrath?

Skip Mcgrath is a also a full-time eBay Powerseller since 1999 and still selling on eBay. That is 8 years of eBay experiences! Everything Skip wrote about in his courses or books comes from personal practices.
Skip have been teaching readers like you and me on how to research, select and source wholesale products for their eBay business and web sites from the start in 1999. With over 7,000 readers, it can’t be wrong.
Is Ten Little-Known Highly Profitable Niche Markets on eBay For Me?
Frankly, if you want to sell on eBay, looking for a niche and researching, I would highly recommend you get this book because Skip Mcgrath’s books are always valuable unlike the scores of e-books you see out there. This is my second book with McGrath, the first was a 560 pages paperback.
If you already have a product and selling well on eBay, you may want to skip this, unless you wish to venture out and expand to other niches online, like me.
I spent a h*** lot of time researching on a niche when I started out on eBay and it took me at least 6 – 18 months, with trials and errors to recognize my niche. So, now I am not going to be that innocent again. I can buy time by spending some little amount of money on Skip Mcgrath’s book. I feel what Skip is giving is really affordable.

Skip Mcgrath’s book opens me up to a whole lot of opportunities and I didn’t even know you can make money from those niches. At a small price, I am able to know immediately what are some of the less known niches, that can make money on eBay, and with little competition.

BACA SELANJUTNYA »»

Chapter 1: Welcome to eBay and Tons of Income Opportunities!

If you've ever read an article about eBay, you will have seen the kinds of
incomes people make - it isn't unusual to hear of people making thousands of
dollars per month on eBay.
Next time you're on eBay, take a look at how many PowerSellers there are:
you'll find quite a few.
Now consider that every single one of one of them must be making at least
$1,000 per month, as that's eBay's requirement for becoming a PowerSeller.
· Silver PowerSellers make at least $3,000 each month,
· Gold PowerSellers make more than $10,000,
· Platinum PowerSellers make more than $25,000, and
· Titanium PowerSellers make at least a whopping $150,000 in sales every
month!

They Keep It Going!

The fact that these people exist gives you come idea of the income possibilities
here. Most of them never set out to even set up a business on eBay - they
simply started selling a few things, and then kept going.
There are plenty of people whose full-time job is selling things on eBay, and
some of them have been doing it for years now.
Can you imagine that? Once they've bought the stock, everything else is pretty
much pure profit for these people - they don't need to pay for any business
premises, staff, or anything else.
There are multi-million pound businesses making less in actual profit than eBay
PowerSellers do.

You don’t have to quit your job just yet!

Even if you don't want to quit your job and really go for it, you can still use eBay
to make a significant second income. You can pack up orders during the week
and take them down to the post office for delivery each Saturday.
There are few other things you could be doing with your spare time that have
anywhere near that kind of earning potential.
What's more, eBay doesn't care who you are, where you live, or what you look
like: some PowerSellers are very old, or very young. Some live out in the middle
of nowhere where selling on eBay is one of the few alternatives to farming or
being very poor.
eBay tears down the barriers to earning that the real world constantly puts up.
There's no job interview and no commuting involved - if you can post things, you
can do it.

Think of it this way

If you know where to get something reasonably cheaply that you could sell, then
you can sell it on eBay - and since you can always get discounts for bulk at
wholesale, that's not exactly difficult. (Tips: Look for Wholesales & Dropshippers
under Resources at the end of the book)
Buy a job lot of something in-demand in as low costs as you can, sell it on eBay,
and you're making money already, with no set-up costs.
If you want to dip your toe in the water before you commit to actually buying
anything, then you can just sell things that you've got lying around in the house.
Search through that cupboard of stuff you never use, and you'll probably find
you've got a few hundred dollars' worth of stuff lying around in there!
I know you have probably heard this a thousand times, but it’s true. In fact most
of eBay Powersellers started this way.
So you want to get started on eBay? Well, that's great! There are only a few little
things you need to learn to get started. Read on!

BACA SELANJUTNYA »»

Chapter 5: Is Your eBay Reputation Worth It?

Your eBay reputation is everything you are on eBay - without it, you're nothing.
Your reputation is worth as much as every sale you will ever make.
If you've ever bought anything on eBay (and the chances are you have), then
think about your own behaviour. Buying from a seller with a low feedback rating
makes you feel a little nervous and insecure,, aint’ it?
Buying from a PowerSeller with their reputation in the thousands doesn't require
any thought or fear - it feels just like buying from a shop.

A Bad Reputation Will Lose You Sales.

In fact, a bad reputation will lose you almost all your sales. If someone leaves
you negative feedback, you will feel the pain straight away, as that rating will go
right at the top of your user page for everyone to see.
Who's going to want to do business with you when they've just read that you
"took a month to deliver the item", or that you had "bad communication and sent
a damaged item"? The answer is no-one.
Your next few items will need to be very cheap things, just to push that negative
down the page. You might have to spend days or even weeks selling cheap stuff
to get enough positive feedback to make anyone deal with you again.
It's even worse if you consistently let buyers leave negative feedback - once you
get below 90% positive ratings, you might as well be invisible.


You Can't Just Open a New Account.

Besides eBay's rules about only having one account, there are far more
downsides than that to getting a new account. You literally have to start all over
again from scratch.
You won't be able to use all the different eBay features. Your existing customers
won't be able to find you any more. Your auctions will finish at a lower price
because of your low feedback rating.
Opening a new account is like moving to a new town to get away from a few
people who are spreading rumours about you: it's throwing out the baby with the
bathwater.

Your Reputation Gets You Sales.

When a PowerSeller tells me something, I tend to believe them. They can be
selling a pretty unlikely item, but if they guarantee it is what they say it is, then I
trust them - they're not going to risk their reputation, after all.
This is the power of a reputation: people know you want to keep it, and they
know you'll go to almost any lengths to do so.
It's worth the extra money to feel like the seller knows what they're doing, has
all their systems in place and will get me the item quickly and efficiently.
Here's a good read on How To Build Your First 100 eBay Feedbacks Quickly
ë
“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.”
-Bill Gates

BACA SELANJUTNYA »»

Need To Make Money Fast? 10 Quick and Easy Ways To Earn Extra Money Online

With the state of the economy these days along with the sky high price of Gas, groceries and other necessities of life, many people are finding that their money isn’t making it as far as it once did. So it’s not surprising that many people are turning to the Internet to make money fast. With Winter just around the corner, many people are worrying about how they will pay their Winter heating bill. Some have already been surprised by unexpected large energy bills. This leaves some families scrambling to find ways to make money fast in order to prevent something from going unpaid.

Here are quick and easy ways to make money on the Internet. Will you get rich? No. But you just might bring in a few hundred dollars a month and maybe keep your lights on this Winter!

Project Payday

If you can use a computer to surf the Internet, chances are good that you can use Project Payday to earn extra money on the Internet. It doesn’t require a lot of technical knowledge and it’s pretty darn quick and easy to use.

Project Payday is free to join and they have loads of free training Video’s to help you get started. Plus they also have a mentoring program where you’ll get hands on tutoring if you need it. I’d highly suggest you watch the video’s and even consider the mentoring program to maximize your potential income opportunities. You can expect to get offers in the $15 to $30 range. I’ve seen some as high as $50 though, but those are rare. Most people can do several offers a day once they get the hang of it and get their routine down and become familiar with how the system works. Click here to learn more about Project Payday.

Ebay

No article about making money online would be complete without mention of eBay. While it’s not as good as it once was for the person looking to make money fast on the Internet, it still allows many people to stay home and make a darn good income from selling goods online.

You can find goods to sell on eBay on Craigslist, Garage Sales, Big Box stores like Sam’s and Costco and in your own home. I bet most of us have stuff we haven’t used in months that could be auctioned off on eBay to make a quick dollar or two.

Time was once where you could go out and hit Garage sales and Estate auctions and bring the stuff back to your home, list it on eBay and make some good money. You can still do that, but the money isn’t as good as it once was because of the higher listing fees and many of the commercial companies drowning out the smaller individual auctions.

A way some people have started taking advantage of these changes at eBay is to start their own stores. ProStores is an eBay company that offers several packages that make it easy to get up and running with your very own ecommerce store. This is a great way to get started without having to know a lot about web programming and using a lot of different programs. Check it out here if this sounds like something you’d want to do —-> One Month Free Trial! ProStores – an eBay Company

Freelance Yourself

There are any number of places on the Internet where you can go and sign up as a freelance writer. Many people do not realize that there is a great demand for Writers due to the need for Content on the Internet. I myself buy a lot of articles written by several of these services. Businesses, Internet Marketers and mainstream sites like About.com all use freelance writers. The best part is, you don’t have to be an expert writer in most cases.

One of these services, Freelance Home Writers, is a membership site that you join to access databases of companies looking for writers. You then pick and choose which writing jobs you want and just pass over the ones you don’t want. Typically you’ll be writing Blog post and Content articles for Websites. However you can get the chance to write fiction and non-fiction story’s as well. They also have several other opportunities for you to make money on the Internet. That’s pretty good money for people who can turn out a few articles per day. Currently they’re running a $2.97 for a 7 day trial. This is cheap enough to get in and see the writing opportunities they have as well as the other programs to make money at home. Click Here to find out more about this opportunity.

Read Emails – Take Online Surveys – Product Evaluation

In my opinion, this isn’t as easy as Project Payday, but it’s real close. There are companies that receive thousands of emails every day that need to be read. Obviously the CEO or other employees can’t spend every day reading emails, so they outsource this.

There are several companies where they outsource this type of work as well as other tedious, time consuming chores such as product testing and evaluation, online surveys, online mystery shopping and others. Send Earnings is one such company that other companies outsource to. Consumers such as you sign up and are normally paid on a per assignment completed basis. The pay varies by what type of assignment you choose. You choose where you want to make money. Click Here to learn more or to sign up for this opportunity. It’s FREE to join and you can get started making money online very quickly.

Etsy

Do you create crafts? Etsy is a huge online marketplace where people sell their crafts. Since it draws people looking for handmade products or craft supplies, Sellers find it more profitable for many crafts than eBay.

My Wife and Mother-In-Law have sold many items on Etsy including quilts and hand sewn dolls. They received pretty respectable prices for their items, much more than what they received on eBay for items of similar nature.

As I guy, I have to admit there are some pretty interesting handmade crafts on that site. Some will make you scratch you head and wonder how anyone could make such a thing! If you have some crafts laying around you could get rid of, or if you could make some up quickly, then this might be the outlet for you to make money fast.

Craigslist

I love Craigslist! Mostly for the cool stuff I buy off of it in my local area. But Craigslist can also be a Goldmine if you’ll put the time into it. I call the method I use to make money from Craigslist “Craigslist Arbitrage” because this is how it works.

I scan the Free section of Craigslist looking for valuable things people are giving away. If you live near a large Metro area, you’ll simply be amazed at what others will give away just to get rid of it. You need to be quick, because others are doing the same thing you are! Once you pick up your Freebies, turn around and put them back on Craigslist for sale at a below market price. Chances are they’ll go quick and you’ll have made some quick cash.

I first learned of this when we were moving and I was trying to score free moving boxes. I was constantly amazed at how quick they would go until someone told me people do nothing more than drive around grabbing up free boxes and turning around and selling them for $1 or more per box. The same goes for Furniture, electronics and other items. You need to be sitting at your computer refreshing the FREE page often. You can also find great deals in other areas of Craigslist so don’t just spend all your time in the FREE section.

Sell Ebooks

Do you have a particular skill or knowledge? Maybe Award winning recipes? Special technique for training dogs? Then write an ebook. Don’t care or don’t think you have the skills to write an ebook? Then find a freelancer at one of the places mentioned above. Don’t think your idea will sell? You’d be surprised! I’ve heard of one gentleman who does quite well ($500+ per month) selling an ebook on raising Tomatoes. Nuff said!

But if none of these thrill you, then there are places like ClickBank where you can become an affiliate and sell ebooks, software and other products. Some of these can be rebranded for yourself. If you find some that have Master Resell Rights, you can sell them on eBay, Craigslist or set up a PayPal order page and advertise your products. (if you sell them on ebay, they have to be in a digital form. Ebay does not allow electronic downloads any longer) There are hundreds of ways to drive traffic to your sales page so don’t get stuck in a rut! Get yourself a network of sites specific to each product and promote the crap out of it to bring in some quick money.

Become a Go To Guru

Getting back to those special skills or knowledge you have, have you ever thought about becoming a Consultant? Everywhere you look these days, there are consultants for this and that. Consultants for organizing a home, creating a baby’s room, throwing wedding showers and the list goes on.

You’d be surprised at how much people will pay for information that they need and need quick! Show your community that you’re an expert in your field and they’ll beat a path to your door.

One great thing about this business is that it’s easy and inexpensive to start. You can do it part time, in the Evenings or on weekends right from your home. Over time you may find your “part time” job is making more money than your “real” job!

Have Camera, Will Take Photo’s

Do you like taking pictures with your digital camera? Have you thought about selling them but thought you weren’t good enough because you’re not a “professional”? Have to fear. Many people make extra money fast by selling their pictures online.

Websites like BigStockPhoto, ShutterStock, Fotolia and others pay you each time one of your photo’s are downloaded. Many of these sites pay anywhere from 25 cents per photo downloaded to a percentage of the commission on specialty photo’s.

Photographers who do this type of work are called Stock Photographers and the Photo’s they take are known as micro stock. It’s the same kind of pictures you’ll see on this site. Although 25 cents per photo doesn’t sound like much (some sites pay more), consider that you may have thousands of photo’s uploaded. One of the best know Stock Photographers is pulling down $300 or more a day from just one of the Stock Photography websites!

Another huge advantage of taking stock photography is that your photo’s keep making you money over and over and over. One of the best residual income generators on the Web. Not only is this making money fast, it’s making money fast again and again!

Small Business Web Design

With all the WYSIWYG web generation software out there today, just about anyone can make a website. Plus with programs like WordPress and Premium Themes, building an attractive and functional website is easier than ever.

There are Small Businesses everywhere looking for simple and functional sites. Many believe they have to spend thousands on a website. If you can go in and show them that they can have a eye appealing website that is functional and brings in customers for a few hundred bucks, they’ll be telling everyone they know.

I know one lady who makes these type of websites for small businesses and she does very well. They’re simple 5 to 10 page websites built on CSS or WordPress and I believe she charges for the most high end site is around $700. She says her bread and butter websites are the $300 to $500 websites and she has a waiting list! Small businesses need great deals on quality products. Give them a well constructed, functional website and you’ll have Customers for life. Plus, she also gets to do all their updating as they grow! Talk about a business model that makes money fast!

There you have it. 10 ways to make money fast. They’re quick and easy ways to earn extra money online plus you don’t have to be highly skilled or put up a lot of money. What more could a person want in work at home business?

BACA SELANJUTNYA »»

Ron Popeil – Lessons Learned From The Master of Marketing

Ron Popeil. If you asked the average person who Ron Popeil was, chances are they couldn’t tell you. Ask the average consumer if they’ve heard of the Showtime Rotesseri or the Veg-O-Matic and more than likely they’ll tell you “YES” and probably even remember many of the sales pitches like; “Set it and Forget It” or “...wait, there’s more“. Ask anyone in marketing or advertising who Ron Popeil is and it’s likely they’ll tell you he’s the man who revolutionized marketing products on TV.

Ron Popeil did his first TV ad in 1956 with the Chop-O-Matic (later renamed to the Veg-O-Matic). If you watch that TV ad and his latest ads for the Showtime Rotesseri, you’ll see little has changed in his pitch. Why change what works?

I can remember as a kid watching his TV ads for the Veg-O-Matic and Dial-O-Matic and asking my mom to buy them. I have no idea why I wanted her to, but I do remember I was captivated by his ads!

At a recent live show on QVC, Ron Popeil sold 1 million dollars worth of Showtime Rotesseri’s in one hour at a price of $127 per unit. You do the math. Love him or hate him, this man can sell and has the art of pitching to crowds down to an art.

Side Rant: There are times when I do nothing but watch infomercials on TV with a notepad, taking notes on the sales pitches. QVC is my favorite. I’d love to spend time behind the scenes watching what goes on. Their high-tech control room can correlate the pitch the salesperson is giving to the phone calls coming in. They can tell instantly which keywords trigger phone calls or which product scenes trigger calls. That would be one a great learning opportunity!

Back to Ron Popeil though.

Mr. Popeil learned early on in his career as a pitchman in the Chicago street markets how to sell to crowds. The lessons he learned long ago selling Kitchen gadgets that his dad had invented to crowds on the streets of Chicago still work in marketing today. They’re not lessons you’d use in a Business to Business type climate, but if you have a product or service to sell the general public, you’d do well to follow Mr. Popeils lessons.

Here are lessons we can learn from Ron Popeil about direct marketing to the masses.

* Have Passion for what you’re selling – This is a tried and true lesson but I’m still amazed at how many people change their affiliate products as often as they change their underwear. To be successful selling anything, you need passion. If you have a genuine passion for what you’re selling, the selling will be the easy part. That also goes for you small business owners! If what you’re doing doesn’t excite you, then find something that does, then you’ll be successful!
* Make the Prodcut the Star of What You’re Selling – I know this may shock some of you, but “it’s” not about you, it’s about your product. Ron Popeil knew people were going to buy his products because they solved a problem for the consumer or made their life easier. Just watch one of his Infomercials. You’ll rarelly see Ron, but you’ll see the prodcut in action, over and over. You’ll see the product solving the problems of the consumers and making their life easier. At the end of the day, that’s what people want and are willing to pay for.
* Timing Is Everything – Ever see Ron Popeil pitch a product? Most of us have. Have you ever diagnosed his sales pitch? I have as many others have done also. He shows you all the wonderful features and benfits you get from his products and how much better you’ll life will be with his products. By the time he’s halfway through his pitch, you’re begging for a phone number and price. That’s his timimg. He never tells you the price until he’s at least halfway through the show. Ever wonder why all those landing pages for eBooks never tell you they’re $97 in the first sentence, instead of making you wait till the end? Now you know. Play up the benefits and features first. Hook ‘em, then you can land ‘em!
* Don’t forget the backend! If you ever called in and ordered a product of Ron’s, you know they’re not going to let you go without trying to sell you something to go along with your order. Whether it’s a 4 way Ravioli maker for his Pasta Machine or a specialized rack for the Showtime Rotesseri, they’re going to push you to buy something else! There are a lot of people who make more on their back end sales than the do with their main product…that’s a nice problem to have!
* Markets Exist, Don’t Try Creating One – Ron never created a market for his products. All of his products were invented because he saw a need and tried to fill that need. Take his Showtime Rotesseri for example. He said he would see a line at the Suupermarket of people lined up to buy the Rotesseri Chickens. Then at Costco there was another line for people to buy Rotesseri Chickens. The light went on in Ron’s head. He started shopping around to see what was available to the market. What he saw was either too pricey or not compatible for the average Family kitchen. The rest is history! Find the market, don’t try creating it!
* Persistance Pays Off – You’ve heard it before, but Ron success is the perfect example of how persistance pays off, time and time again. He had a unfortunate childhood that he could have used as an excuse for failure (as seems to be the norm today) but instead, Ron Popeil put this behind him and kept pitching his products. He’s had a failure or two, the Garbage compactor that is also a stool is one of them. (personally, I thought it was a Genuis idea, even tried to get Mom and Dad to buy one) Ron Popeil is the perfect example of “when life gives you lemons, make lemonaide”.

Whether you’re starting your own work from home business, small business, large corporation or an Online business, Ron Popeils lessons virtually guarantee you success if you do your part.

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How To Get Adsense Showing Relevant High Paying Ads

Adsense can be like the Golden Child we all dream of having. It will mind our every wish and will try hard to meet our every expectation.

On the other hand, it can be like the red-headed rebel step child all of us fear. It won’t behave at all, sending us such un-relevant, low paying ads that we wonder if it’s not some bad joke someone is playing on us.

Before you undertake any Adsense tweaking in your Blog, make sure you know how to add your Adsense Publisher ID to your Adsense Ready WordPress Theme if you’re using one.

Well, I’m not Nanny 911, but I’ve had a few of those unruly Adsense children. Heare are a few tips to make that misbehaving Adsense child of yours behave. Follow along.

1. Make Your Site ‘Adsense Friendly’ - Your site design can play a big part in the way your Adsense ads behave. Just as with any small child, keep things that you don’t want Adsense to play with out of reach. Don’t go putting images that have nothing to do with our content near Adsense ads. The same goes with unrelated text. You don’t want Adsense reading garbage. Only related content, images and other files should be near your Adsense baby.

2. Make a Section for Adsense To Play In – Try and restrict where Adsense plays. You wouldn’t want you baby wandering all over the house and you don’t want Adsense wandering all over your site. Use ‘Target Sectioning’ to control Adsense if it’s throwing some goofball ads back.

Section targeting consist of using some HTML tags to “section off” areas of content you want your Adsense to read and pull relevant ads from. Google says they can’t guarantee that the Adsense ads show will be relevant if you use ‘section targeting’, but if Adsense is not showing relevant ads already, you have little to lose by using ‘section targeting’.

You use section targeting by picking some content and using the HTML tags to “suggest” to your Adsense ads to pick the relevant information for the contextual ads from this ‘section of content’ you’ve chosen. Make sure it’s a section with lots of content. Don’t try to ‘target section’ just a paragraph or two.

Use the following code to ‘target section’.





Obviously, the goes at the start of the section you want to target and the goes at the end.

The code for your Adsense page might look something like this:

Section Targeting My Content to get Adsense’s Attention



This is a section of content in my new spiffy blog. This is a section of content that I want Google Adsense to pull contextual ads from. Blah, blah, blah, blah.






You can also tell Google Adsense what areas YOU DO NOT want to be read by Adsense by using(weight=ignore) in the starting tag, like this;



Google says it may take 1 to 2 weeks for ads from the sectioned areas to show up, so be patient. Remember, the don’t guarantee nothing!

3. Other tricks to reign in an unruly Adsense chid – Use title tags in all your links.

* Add title tags to your links – The title tags go into your link structure like this My Spiffy New Blog

* Add title tags to your images – Be sure to add a relevant title to your images like this . Adsense sometimes uses this title to decide what ads to show. Adding a relevant title to your images will also help SEO your page.

I have a 7 year old Real Estate site as the website for my B&M business. On some of the pages I could never get Adsense to show ads that were relevant to the content on the pages until I changed my title tags on links.

On a few rare occassions, Adsense actually followed and read the title of the page where the link was pointed!

Here are more Adsense tips:

* Use descriptive tags - You should also carefully consider what is inside your

,

and

tags. Adsense will sometimes pull info from there as well.

* Use relevant names for your images - Another area I’ve seen Adsense use to pull information from is the names of images. I always try to make sure that my images have names that reflect the content on the page. If I have a web page on Big Blue Widgets, then any image I might have will probably have names with ‘blue’, ‘big’ and ‘widgets’ in them.

* Use descriptive Meta Keywords and Meta Descriptions – I’ve also seen Adsense pull information from your and , so make sure both of those tags, (generally located in a header.php file if you’re running a blog, or at the top of an HTML page), reflect information about the content page and information you want Adsense to pull ads from.

* Use Bold and Italics for relevant keywords – If you’re still not getting the results you want, try Bolding and Italicizing keywords inside the ’section targeted’ area.

There’s only so much we can do with Adsense if it doesn’t want to behave. There are coding tricks to use that will force Adsense to display very specific ads, but messing with the Adsense code is against the TOS and can get your account banned so I’ll not even post those here.

The above tricks and tactics have made my Adsense Ads show relevant ads about 98% of the time. That’s about as close as I can hope with any contextual advertising, so I’ll take it.
Remember, you don’t have to put up with Adsense ads that misbehave. These tricks above should get them walking the line. Just give it a week or two and you should be fine!

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How To Out Rank Your Competitors In Google

Now before I go off explaining this technique, let me say that this works best with average to low volume keywords. Sure, it will work with more popular keywords, but you’ll have to be pretty good, patient and lucky to out rank Darren Rowse at Problogger.net for the keyword term “Make Money Online“.

To make this easier, I suggest using the Firefox browser with the SEO Extension. You can do this without the extension, but you’ll save a lot of time if you’ll use Firefox with the SEO Extension.

It also goes without mentioning that your page should be SEO optimized in order for this to work. I’m also going to assume that your domain has some age on it. Don’t bother trying to outrank an authority site that has been in the SERPS for years with your new domain. Google loves old domains!

Let’s get started. For this example, let’s say your site sells beer glasses. Your main keyword then would be “beer glasses”.

Step 1 would be to use a keyword density tool like the one from Aaron at SEObook.com to make sure you keyword density is between 1.5 and 3.5%. This is the range that I’ve used over the years. By the way, the top site listed below for “beer glasses” has a keyword density of 2.78%. That’s great.

A couple warnings are in store here.

First, do not OVER OPTIMIZE your pages. You can be penalized by Google for doing this. This is why I keep my keyword density to between 1.5 and 3.5%. It’s been my experience that anything much over 4% and the Search Engines look down on you for keyword stuffing.

Also, when you keyword stuff a page, it doesn’t sound natural and can turn your visitors off.

Step 2 would be to visit the Keyword Suggest Tool to see how often the word “beer glasses” is searched for.

In the photo below, we see that “beer glasses” was searched for 5399 times in one month. To get a ball park figure for Google rankings, you’d multiply that by 10x and come up with a number like 53,990. Not bad, in fact, it’s just what we’re looking for.

keyword suggestion tool

I want you to also look down this keyword list at other possible keyword terms. If I was selling beer glasses, what I would do is make a specific page on my site for every keyword on this list that was related to my business. For example, by looking at the above keyword list, I’d have pages on my site titled; German Beer Glasses, Pint Beer Glasses, Belgium Beer Glasses, Antique and Collectible Beer Steins and Glasses, Beer Steins and Glasses, etc, etc. (as long as you actually sold such products)

Next, go to Google and pull up the keyword “beer glasses” and see who your top competitors are for that keyword phrase.

top keywords

The above photo will resemble the SERPS when you type “beer glasses” into the Google search box.

This is a list of your top competitors. This list may change slightly over time, but it’s a good point to start.

Now, click on the first website.

When you get there, there’ll be two ways to find out who’s linking to this site. One is with the Firefox SEO extension. The picture below is what you’ll see when using the Firefox SEO Extension.

firefox seo extension

Use the pull down menu in the upper left, scroll down to Show Backward Links > Domain > Google. When a new tab opens, you should see a page of all the other websites that are linking to this site. It should look like the picture below. Notice this site has 27 other sites linking back to it.

google backlinks

You’ll notice some of these are blogs, which is good for you. In my opinion, blog owners are more likely to give you a backlink. Your next chore is to contact each Webmaster of those sites and try to get a link on their site back to yours. You only need one link on each of those sites.

Browse through the pages of those sights and see if you can find your keyword “beer glasses”. When you find it, if it’s on a high PR page, ask the Webmaster of that site if he’ll make the keyword phrase “beer glasses” a link and point it toward your site. This is called anchor text. Anchor text linked back to your site is much more powerful than www.yourdomainname.com type of link.

When you’ve contacted all the sites that link to the Website in the #1 position, go to the website in the #2 position and start the backlink finding process all over again. Wash, rinse, repeat. Eventually you’ll have lots of links pointing back to your blog or website, hopefully 30 or more from relevant sites and you should make a move on the #1 position for the search term “beer glasses”.

If you don’t have the Firefox SEO Extension, you can go to Google and type in link:www.competitorswebsite.com to see all the pages linking back. You can then start the process of contacting the Webmasters of these sites and asking for a link.

I’ve used this tactic ever since 2001 when I made my first Real Estate related website. This tactic worked as good back then as it does today, it’s just a tad bit harder to out rank your competitors in Goole today with all the highly competitive keyword terms, but it can be done if you’ll stay persistant with building backlinks.

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