Winning the (r) Google AdSense War Some owners of content sites are earning four and even five-figure incomes per month selling "nothing." They're doing this by selling their targeted traffic to other websites through Google's AdSense program.
If you're not familiar with (r)AdSense, it's where (r)Google pays website owners ("publishers") to run ads on their sites. Google accepts paid ads from advertisers, and then shares this revenue with the publishers who allow these ads to be displayed on their sites. They pay based upon clicks generated from the publishers' sites.
Many publishers have discovered that running Google AdSense ads is more lucrative, and less trouble, than marketing their own products or services. So an entire industry has sprang up around monetizing websites using AdSense and other pay-per-click programs.
The "industry" is mature enough that seminars are even held that teach how to best monetize your content sites. I'll be attending a seminar, in New Orleans, Louisiana, on September 9th - 11th, 2005, that has this very focus. You can read more about it at: http://WillieCrawford.com/new-orleans-seminar.html
Since MOST people I've communicated with aren't earning four or five-figure incomes per month, let's examine how you increase your chances of earning these amounts.
First of all, your website has to be on a topic (a niche) where people are spending lots of money. There are niches where advertisers often spend $40 - $50 per click... just to get visitors to their websites. Obviously, these visitors buy "things" on these websites that make it worthwhile to pay that much for the traffic.
In case you're wondering what keywords any "sane" marketer would spend $50 on a single click for, read on...
Certain visitors to websites, that later convert to customers, could literally be worth thousands, even millions, to marketers. These marketers know the lifetime value of their visitors, and have the conversion rates calculated! Markets where customers can be this lucrative include legal/lawsuits, medical, higher education, real estate, new and used vehicles, investments, travel, and products offering residual income. There are many others.
I actually have a list of over 9000 keywords that I consult when building a new site, or optimizing an existing site. Doesn't it makes perfect sense to create sites that attract visitors with a high value-per-visitor?
You can grab a copy of my list along with a few personal notes on how to monetize these high-value keywords at: http://9000TopPayingKeywords.com
The keywords on the list above range from 93 cents to $108 per click. There ARE higher priced keywords but you probably don't want to focus on them since the competition can be incredibly cutthroat. There are niches where your competitors will actually sabotage your efforts. Money does that to some people :-)
It makes economic sense to build a site around topics where people are actually spending money already.
It makes sense to target a market where people have money to spend - and they expect to spend it on products similar to yours. In that sense, you can even set up site designed to generate traffic for governmental agencies, foundations, charities, etc. It's all about getting in front of the traffic and then re-directing that traffic to those willing to pay for it.
When setting up content sites, it's important that you not violate the terms-of-service at the pay-per-click management firm that you plan on using. For example, Google actually tells you that you should not build sites just for their AdSense program. Yet, they need sites to display their customers' ads in order for their program to work.
It's a delicate balancing act. Google wants to deliver relevant clicks to their customers. They know that traffic coming from "junky" or "spammy" sites may not convert as well for their customers. This would lower their customers ROI, and lead to many unhappy customers. This would drive Google's customers to their ever-growing competitors.
Google wants webmasters that have quality, targeted traffic to run AdSense Ads. When you set up a free blog on Google's Blogger.com they even have the AdSense invitation "programmed" into the signup process.
So how DO you win the Google AdSense War and get your share of that multi-billion dollar advertisers' revenue stream? You build high-quality content sites that focus on niches where people are spending money. It's as simple as that. You let those already doing it teach you what works best - it's a easy as that!
luni, 8 aprilie 2013
Why It's a BAD Idea To Promote Hot Selling Products on eBay
Why It's a BAD Idea To Promote Hot Selling Products on eBay Copyright 2005 Alexis Dawes
Do a quick search on Google, Yahoo, or your favorite auction resource site, and you'll quickly discover there are several software programs targeted to vendors who want to promote hot selling products on eBay.
The infatuation with hot selling products exists because sellers believe if you target items that have a robust sales pattern, you'll have a better chance at profiting on eBay. This is both true and false.
Yes... hot selling products can improve your bottom line. But unfortunately by the time the average eBay seller (a) realizes what the hot selling products are, (b) purchases stock to sell on eBay, and (c) actually puts the items up for sale, the demand is already being met by other eBay sellers who probably started the hot selling product trend some time ago.
Not only that, with thousands of people also having access to the same hot selling product lists, you'll have to contend with other eBay vendors who have the exact same ideas that you do. So you'll be up against the original sellers who are currently feeding the demand, AND doing the tango with newer sellers who have jumped on the same hot selling product bandwagon that you did.
Okay maybe this won't happen to you.
But suppose it does.
What if competition becomes so great that prices start dipping below the wholesale cost that you paid for the item? (It happens all the time on eBay.) And what if you lose $100, $200, or even $1,000 on inventory that you thought would be flying off the shelf? Suddenly that hot selling item is looking rather cold sitting in your garage collecting dust.
So if not hot selling products on eBay, then what?
Do what the majority of PowerSellers do. Sell what you want, instead of what's hot. Repeat after me, "Every day ordinary items sell extremely well on eBay... Every day ordinary items sell extremely well on eBay... Every day ordinary items sell extremely well on eBay." Allow this to become your mantra, because it is very much true.
I know this from first-hand experience as I analyze top sellers instead of hot products. And my research has continuously shown me that mediocre products don't necessarily translate into mediocre sales.
For instance, there's a seller right now who clears about $1,000-$2,000 a week selling magnets. And that's AFTER eBay and PayPal fee's. Another seller promotes homemade CD's to a specific audience and clears $900-$2,000 a week. A few sellers make $500-$700+ a week - after expenses - promoting public domain information. And the cool thing about public domain information is that anybody can sell it because it's free. So that's pure profit by selling something they never paid for. Talk about the ultimate arbitrage opportunity!
The ultimate key in succeeding no matter what product you end up selling, is to build a successful strategy. To figure out 'how' to profitably market what you have, instead of chasing after the next great thing. Because once you have the strategy part down, you can sell anything on eBay and make it a hot seller to your bank account.
Do a quick search on Google, Yahoo, or your favorite auction resource site, and you'll quickly discover there are several software programs targeted to vendors who want to promote hot selling products on eBay.
The infatuation with hot selling products exists because sellers believe if you target items that have a robust sales pattern, you'll have a better chance at profiting on eBay. This is both true and false.
Yes... hot selling products can improve your bottom line. But unfortunately by the time the average eBay seller (a) realizes what the hot selling products are, (b) purchases stock to sell on eBay, and (c) actually puts the items up for sale, the demand is already being met by other eBay sellers who probably started the hot selling product trend some time ago.
Not only that, with thousands of people also having access to the same hot selling product lists, you'll have to contend with other eBay vendors who have the exact same ideas that you do. So you'll be up against the original sellers who are currently feeding the demand, AND doing the tango with newer sellers who have jumped on the same hot selling product bandwagon that you did.
Okay maybe this won't happen to you.
But suppose it does.
What if competition becomes so great that prices start dipping below the wholesale cost that you paid for the item? (It happens all the time on eBay.) And what if you lose $100, $200, or even $1,000 on inventory that you thought would be flying off the shelf? Suddenly that hot selling item is looking rather cold sitting in your garage collecting dust.
So if not hot selling products on eBay, then what?
Do what the majority of PowerSellers do. Sell what you want, instead of what's hot. Repeat after me, "Every day ordinary items sell extremely well on eBay... Every day ordinary items sell extremely well on eBay... Every day ordinary items sell extremely well on eBay." Allow this to become your mantra, because it is very much true.
I know this from first-hand experience as I analyze top sellers instead of hot products. And my research has continuously shown me that mediocre products don't necessarily translate into mediocre sales.
For instance, there's a seller right now who clears about $1,000-$2,000 a week selling magnets. And that's AFTER eBay and PayPal fee's. Another seller promotes homemade CD's to a specific audience and clears $900-$2,000 a week. A few sellers make $500-$700+ a week - after expenses - promoting public domain information. And the cool thing about public domain information is that anybody can sell it because it's free. So that's pure profit by selling something they never paid for. Talk about the ultimate arbitrage opportunity!
The ultimate key in succeeding no matter what product you end up selling, is to build a successful strategy. To figure out 'how' to profitably market what you have, instead of chasing after the next great thing. Because once you have the strategy part down, you can sell anything on eBay and make it a hot seller to your bank account.
Where's the best place to put Google Adsense Ads?
Where's the best place to put Google Adsense Ads? Why, on your web pages of course. Ok, just kidding. The real question should be: "Is there really any truth to the rumors that where you place those Google AdSense ads can actually improve response?" According to my best information, the answer to that question is: Yes.
Google's own AdSense experts say that that there is a direct correlation between the placement of the AdSense ads and the resulting clickthrough.
When ads are placed in "content zones", rather than in "advertising zones", response rates on Google AdWords goes up. There are also indications showing that ads appearing on the right side of the page get clicked more than ads appearing on the left side.
Advertising analysts with degrees in human behavior and psychology have spent thousands of man-years (people-years?) studying how people read printed and Internet content and what it takes to get them to respond to ads. While some of these studies are proprietary, or are only available to anyone with $10,000 or more to spend on a copy, other studies have been made public and can be read by anyone who is interested.
Google themselves has released some relevant information which is focused directly on increasing your Google AdSense response. You can read their findings here (https://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/static.py?page=tips.html).
Of course, all of the studies in the world aren't worth a hill of beans if the findings don't work on your web site. That's why it is important to test, test and test again. Experiment with your Google AdSense placement and track the results over a period of time. Google provides response tracking tools in your AdSense control panel. Learn how to use them. As you begin to see what may be only subtle differences in response, you'll be able to determine what works best for your particular site. But don't get complacent. What's working for you now might not work next month if you change your site design or content.
One of the most important factors in determining placement of your ads is the type of content that your site delivers. If you are primarily an e-commerce site, and you have a lot of pictures and ad copy for your own products competing for attention against AdSense ads, then it is going to be a particularly tough challenge getting any kind of decent Google AdSense clickthrough. It is situations like this that require very thorough testing and a lot of trial and error.
Blogs seem to have a lot of success generating high response rates to Google AdSense listings. Perhaps it's because blog readers realize that ad revenue is the only way that their favorite blogmaster can keep the lights on, so the readers think of clicking on ads as a way to make a donation.
Regardless of what the experts say, your best bet is to tailor your Google AdSense ad placement to what your own experience shows works best for you. In the end, you're the only expert who matters.
Google's own AdSense experts say that that there is a direct correlation between the placement of the AdSense ads and the resulting clickthrough.
When ads are placed in "content zones", rather than in "advertising zones", response rates on Google AdWords goes up. There are also indications showing that ads appearing on the right side of the page get clicked more than ads appearing on the left side.
Advertising analysts with degrees in human behavior and psychology have spent thousands of man-years (people-years?) studying how people read printed and Internet content and what it takes to get them to respond to ads. While some of these studies are proprietary, or are only available to anyone with $10,000 or more to spend on a copy, other studies have been made public and can be read by anyone who is interested.
Google themselves has released some relevant information which is focused directly on increasing your Google AdSense response. You can read their findings here (https://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/static.py?page=tips.html).
Of course, all of the studies in the world aren't worth a hill of beans if the findings don't work on your web site. That's why it is important to test, test and test again. Experiment with your Google AdSense placement and track the results over a period of time. Google provides response tracking tools in your AdSense control panel. Learn how to use them. As you begin to see what may be only subtle differences in response, you'll be able to determine what works best for your particular site. But don't get complacent. What's working for you now might not work next month if you change your site design or content.
One of the most important factors in determining placement of your ads is the type of content that your site delivers. If you are primarily an e-commerce site, and you have a lot of pictures and ad copy for your own products competing for attention against AdSense ads, then it is going to be a particularly tough challenge getting any kind of decent Google AdSense clickthrough. It is situations like this that require very thorough testing and a lot of trial and error.
Blogs seem to have a lot of success generating high response rates to Google AdSense listings. Perhaps it's because blog readers realize that ad revenue is the only way that their favorite blogmaster can keep the lights on, so the readers think of clicking on ads as a way to make a donation.
Regardless of what the experts say, your best bet is to tailor your Google AdSense ad placement to what your own experience shows works best for you. In the end, you're the only expert who matters.
When Scintilating Near Nudity On eBay Pays You Well !
When Scintilating Near Nudity On eBay Pays You Well ! A little ole lady hits it big on the red light district on eBay
It may cause undue stress in their marriage unfortunate as that is. The fact that she cant remember where the other four are or the suspicion that they were broken by her husband - perhaps a remiss act, while washing dishes, that was hidden in the trash can long ago. But, regardless, the where abouts of the other four had been a contentious debate in the household ever since - well ever since that truly ugly Tiki cup sold on eBay last night for $118.00 and the backup bidder bought the other for $115.00. Yes, Miss Penny, aka, pennycopper22 (87) made one of those great sales on eBay that you hear about and wonder what on earth is this? The next Beanie Baby craze? So where are the other four Tiki mugs she just knows they had at one time?
Click on image to see in full view
Yes, another Seller hit pay dirt on Ebay. Well, it was a sale. And a good one. With a probable investment of a quarter at a yard sale too many years ago to recall - this was a good "sale" and even better in todays depressed market. It actually sold - unlike a lot of other items out there in auctionland at the present time.
Miss Penny has been on my Appraisals and Expert Help group for several years now. We have never met. But that does not stop a good online friendship forming. Somewhere along the way she got the eBay 'bug' and got to selling a few things here and there. Actually, she has been selling on eBay for five years now - how time flies when your having fun. Mostly Wedgwood, she loves Wedgewood. But also has an interest in Jasperware and Pfaltzgraff Pottery, Travel, and Cooking. She has expanded her repertoire of computer skills to include her own website, Penny's Pantry . Not bad for a little ole lady - its amazing how this eBay bugs heightens the desire to succeed in a world before unknown. Now Penny is expanding her horizons and she is going to be in charge of the CSV uploads and downloads on iCell.biz - currently she is working on the O-SAN.net - The Open-Source Auction Network files, Auction Site Alliance Program , and the Auction Network USA. Who would have thought that two little ole fuddy duddy's like Penny and I would be working on facilitating our sales thru channeled auction communities and optimized search engines all those years ago when we were using on the wall wooden crank telephones on party lines?
Penny is of a generation, like I, that had not even heard of computers in school, let alone college. But here she is, all these years later in retirement, and out pandering on eBay. Oh what would Miss Daisy Mae have to say about that at the afternoon tea parties of ages gone bye. But its the odds and ends on eBay that bring strife to this household in this modern age - just where are those other four cups with a naked nymph on them anyway?
As the listing prices rose on eBay Penny expanded her horizons to include: iCell.biz, BidChaser.com, eBuysUSA.com, Bidville.com, iOffer.com, OldandSold.com. To some degree of success, she has listed on all hoping to find a niche where the listing costs are within the confines of the price of the product, where she has customer support, and she does not have to be a rocket scientist to figure out the billing each month.
But last night, yes, last night, she hit pay dirt. Well it would be paydirt if she could remember where those other four mugs are. The search is on. The cupboards are being searched high and low and it just has to be the hubby - yes he must have put them somewhere obscure. How tough is it to find four very dusty Tiki mugs resplendent with a naked lady on them - all the while of dubious quality china. Yes, a little ole lady hit paydirt on the red light district of eBay last night. Did anyone notice? Surely you did not miss this hotly contested little item? But where are those other four mugs - that is the four hundred dollar question today?
When is 'Spying on Your Competition' a Complete Waste of Time?
When is 'Spying on Your Competition' a Complete Waste of Time? Copyright 2005 Ron Hutton
Your brain screams "Gimme Fast", "Gimme Easy", "Do it for me automatically"! So when you see the headline that reads...
"Imagine Spying On Your Competition To Build A Massive Targeted Keyword List Of 3000 Or More Keywords On Auto-Pilot... In 10 Minutes Or Less And Skyrocket Your Adsense Profits Quickly And Easily"
You think "Hmmmm. Sounds good. Looks intriguing..."
"Never Build Another Keyword List The Slow And Hard Way!"
Gosh. Is it possible?
"You must understand that this is a numbers game."
O.K. Now tell me something not quite so obvious.
The above headlines and subheadlines are quoted directly from a sales letter for a relatively new piece of software (no names will be mentioned here) that's intended to eliminate all the "hard work" of doing keyword research. It sounds exciting. No more tedious keyword research. Yes! I find life is so much more enjoyable when I don't have to engage my brain.
Don't pull out your credit card just yet.
With this particular product there's no need to review the entire sales letter to find out what else the software will do for you. It's all nicely summarized in the very first headline.
The sales letter includes a link to view a nice video presentation demonstrating how the software works, and it certainly appears to do exactly what the author says it will. I have no doubt that the program delivers on all of the promises of the sales letter, but what exactly are you getting?
Let's go back to the headline again...
"Imagine Spying On Your Competition To Build A Massive Targeted Keyword List Of 3000 Or More Keywords On Auto-Pilot... In 10 Minutes Or Less And Skyrocket Your Adsense Profits Quickly And Easily"
Again, I may be tempted to plop down one cool C Note, but what's wrong with this picture?
What doesn't this software tell you?
1) Keyword search frequency.
2) The amount of competition for any keyword.
3) Keyword bid cost in Google Adwords and/or the approximate Adsense value.
When you take the approach of "spying on your competition", be very careful not to give your competition too much credit for having done their homework. Maybe they did. Maybe they didn't.
If you generate a "highly targeted" keyword list of 3,000 keywords and you don't know the search frequency, the amount of competition for any of the keywords, the Adword bid cost or the approximate Adsense value, what do you do from there?
ANSWER: Start over.
Some marketers like to say that Wordtracker is just "So Expensive"! Have you seen the price of a "Value Meal" at McDonald's lately? "SuperSize It" and you've spent about the same amount of money that it would cost to gain access to Wordtracker for a day. As of the writing of this article, a one-day subscription to Wordtracker costs $7.65.
If you've never used Wordtracker before, you can easily learn all of the "how to's" in a few hours by using their tutorials, which are very well done. Now you still have 20 hours to do intelligent keyword research. You'll have the answers to the important questions that you really should be asking, and you'll have spent a whopping $7.65. Now that's an outstanding value.
Just because someone creates a software application that "automates" the work for you doesn't necessarily mean that the information you'll generate is worth anything.
Would you rather have...
- A big fat hairy list of 3,000 keywords with no real useful information about any of them.
OR
- A truly valuable list of keywords with the search frequency and amount of competition for each and every keyword.
Choose the latter.
Begin with the end in mind. Formulate a plan. Think through your entire project and strategize.
When you learn how to use Wordtracker efficiently, you'll be able to research 10 niche markets in a day without breaking a sweat.
When it comes to keyword research, there are some shortcuts that you can take by using services like Wordtracker and even some very good software programs, but don't give in to the temptation to shift the gray matter into idle.
There are effective ways to build content sites and there are other "click a button and build a bazillion page site" methods. The shelf life of the latter is getting shorter every week.
In the words of the great Aretha Franklin, "Think. Thinka-think."
Your brain screams "Gimme Fast", "Gimme Easy", "Do it for me automatically"! So when you see the headline that reads...
"Imagine Spying On Your Competition To Build A Massive Targeted Keyword List Of 3000 Or More Keywords On Auto-Pilot... In 10 Minutes Or Less And Skyrocket Your Adsense Profits Quickly And Easily"
You think "Hmmmm. Sounds good. Looks intriguing..."
"Never Build Another Keyword List The Slow And Hard Way!"
Gosh. Is it possible?
"You must understand that this is a numbers game."
O.K. Now tell me something not quite so obvious.
The above headlines and subheadlines are quoted directly from a sales letter for a relatively new piece of software (no names will be mentioned here) that's intended to eliminate all the "hard work" of doing keyword research. It sounds exciting. No more tedious keyword research. Yes! I find life is so much more enjoyable when I don't have to engage my brain.
Don't pull out your credit card just yet.
With this particular product there's no need to review the entire sales letter to find out what else the software will do for you. It's all nicely summarized in the very first headline.
The sales letter includes a link to view a nice video presentation demonstrating how the software works, and it certainly appears to do exactly what the author says it will. I have no doubt that the program delivers on all of the promises of the sales letter, but what exactly are you getting?
Let's go back to the headline again...
"Imagine Spying On Your Competition To Build A Massive Targeted Keyword List Of 3000 Or More Keywords On Auto-Pilot... In 10 Minutes Or Less And Skyrocket Your Adsense Profits Quickly And Easily"
Again, I may be tempted to plop down one cool C Note, but what's wrong with this picture?
What doesn't this software tell you?
1) Keyword search frequency.
2) The amount of competition for any keyword.
3) Keyword bid cost in Google Adwords and/or the approximate Adsense value.
When you take the approach of "spying on your competition", be very careful not to give your competition too much credit for having done their homework. Maybe they did. Maybe they didn't.
If you generate a "highly targeted" keyword list of 3,000 keywords and you don't know the search frequency, the amount of competition for any of the keywords, the Adword bid cost or the approximate Adsense value, what do you do from there?
ANSWER: Start over.
Some marketers like to say that Wordtracker is just "So Expensive"! Have you seen the price of a "Value Meal" at McDonald's lately? "SuperSize It" and you've spent about the same amount of money that it would cost to gain access to Wordtracker for a day. As of the writing of this article, a one-day subscription to Wordtracker costs $7.65.
If you've never used Wordtracker before, you can easily learn all of the "how to's" in a few hours by using their tutorials, which are very well done. Now you still have 20 hours to do intelligent keyword research. You'll have the answers to the important questions that you really should be asking, and you'll have spent a whopping $7.65. Now that's an outstanding value.
Just because someone creates a software application that "automates" the work for you doesn't necessarily mean that the information you'll generate is worth anything.
Would you rather have...
- A big fat hairy list of 3,000 keywords with no real useful information about any of them.
OR
- A truly valuable list of keywords with the search frequency and amount of competition for each and every keyword.
Choose the latter.
Begin with the end in mind. Formulate a plan. Think through your entire project and strategize.
When you learn how to use Wordtracker efficiently, you'll be able to research 10 niche markets in a day without breaking a sweat.
When it comes to keyword research, there are some shortcuts that you can take by using services like Wordtracker and even some very good software programs, but don't give in to the temptation to shift the gray matter into idle.
There are effective ways to build content sites and there are other "click a button and build a bazillion page site" methods. The shelf life of the latter is getting shorter every week.
In the words of the great Aretha Franklin, "Think. Thinka-think."
When AdSense Goes AWOL
When AdSense Goes AWOL No matter how hard you work to optimize your page, there are going to be times when Google just can't figure out which AdSense ad to deliver, so it defaults to delivering a PSA (Public Service Ad) instead.
Now I don't have any problem with charities, but I give to the ones that I choose to give to. Since I don't have a non-profit license of my own, the goal of my web site is to make money and I depend on Google AdSense revenues to help pay my bills. Someday I want it to fund my retirement as well, so I can't afford to have non-revenue PSAs showing up on my site.
The good news is the Google understands the human's basic greedy nature, so it provides us with an alternative to donating our precious web real estate to charitable organizations. That alternative is known as AdSense Alternate Ads.
As strange as it seems, this feature allows you to let Google competitors into your site. Don't worry, Google is allowing it with their eyes wide open. They even tell you how to set up the alternate ad code to work on your site and they let you do it right in your AdSense control panel.
Once you add the code to your site, Google will pull ads from whatever service you defined rather than serve a PSA. Google will do that even if those ads are coming from Yahoo, or Overture, or your grandmother's attic.
This goes a long way towards ensuring that you never lose an opportunity to monetize a visitor's time spent on your site. How nice it is of Google to gives us that opportunity.
Who do you choose?
Ah, now that's the big question. Most people head straight for Overture or Yahoo, but there are other fish in the sea worth considering. In fact, some of these fish make their living almost solely by serving replacement ads for PSAs. Run this search (http://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official_s&hl=en&q=google+psa+alternatives&btnG=Google+Search) on Google and you'll have plenty of options to choose from.
Why bother?
Sometimes Google doesn't have any ads in its inventory to match your site's keywords. Sometimes Google gets confused and can't figure out which ads to deliver, so it grabs a PSA ad.
Google also has a not-so-readily-available list of what it calls "stop words". When the Google AdSense spiders detect these words on your page they automatically trigger PSAs. Some of the more commonly known words include severe profanity (think: George Carlin's 7 Words You Can't Say on T.V), as well as other words which may very be quite legitimate for your site such as pharmaceutical, drugs, death, dying, abortion, and the list goes on and on. At least we THINK that it goes on and on but no one really knows for sure outside of a trusted few Google staffers.
But no matter what the reason, you don't want non-revenue ads running on your site. There's no excuse when Google makes it so easy to keep the revenue flowing.
Now I don't have any problem with charities, but I give to the ones that I choose to give to. Since I don't have a non-profit license of my own, the goal of my web site is to make money and I depend on Google AdSense revenues to help pay my bills. Someday I want it to fund my retirement as well, so I can't afford to have non-revenue PSAs showing up on my site.
The good news is the Google understands the human's basic greedy nature, so it provides us with an alternative to donating our precious web real estate to charitable organizations. That alternative is known as AdSense Alternate Ads.
As strange as it seems, this feature allows you to let Google competitors into your site. Don't worry, Google is allowing it with their eyes wide open. They even tell you how to set up the alternate ad code to work on your site and they let you do it right in your AdSense control panel.
Once you add the code to your site, Google will pull ads from whatever service you defined rather than serve a PSA. Google will do that even if those ads are coming from Yahoo, or Overture, or your grandmother's attic.
This goes a long way towards ensuring that you never lose an opportunity to monetize a visitor's time spent on your site. How nice it is of Google to gives us that opportunity.
Who do you choose?
Ah, now that's the big question. Most people head straight for Overture or Yahoo, but there are other fish in the sea worth considering. In fact, some of these fish make their living almost solely by serving replacement ads for PSAs. Run this search (http://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official_s&hl=en&q=google+psa+alternatives&btnG=Google+Search) on Google and you'll have plenty of options to choose from.
Why bother?
Sometimes Google doesn't have any ads in its inventory to match your site's keywords. Sometimes Google gets confused and can't figure out which ads to deliver, so it grabs a PSA ad.
Google also has a not-so-readily-available list of what it calls "stop words". When the Google AdSense spiders detect these words on your page they automatically trigger PSAs. Some of the more commonly known words include severe profanity (think: George Carlin's 7 Words You Can't Say on T.V), as well as other words which may very be quite legitimate for your site such as pharmaceutical, drugs, death, dying, abortion, and the list goes on and on. At least we THINK that it goes on and on but no one really knows for sure outside of a trusted few Google staffers.
But no matter what the reason, you don't want non-revenue ads running on your site. There's no excuse when Google makes it so easy to keep the revenue flowing.
Whats Google AdSense?
Whats Google AdSense? AdSense may be one of the fastest and easiest ways to monetize traffic to your web site whether you have products or services for sale or you simply provide free content to your visitors.
Simply stated, Google AdSense enables website operators to place some code on their site that connects to Google's ad server content database and pulls keyword-relevant advertising onto the web pages. The webmaster gets paid a percentage of the fee that Google receives from the advertiser every time a visitor clicks on an ad. There is no charge for the webmaster to participate in AdSense. All costs are covered by the advertiser who participates in the AdSense sister program called AdWords.
Google's sends out digital "robots" which use proprietary algorithms to parse the host web page and analyze the content in an effort to determine what keywords are relevant. It reports its findings back to Google's ad server which then serves ads matching those keywords. Given that the entire process is automated, the "ad robots" do a pretty good job of getting the advertising content right most of the time.
The History of Google AdSense
Google AdSense has its roots in the old "Google Content-Targeted Advertising" program which they introduced back in March of 2003. Although this program was similar in concept to AdSense, there was no automated way of participating. Each webmaster negotiated a deal directly with Google, and websites that served less than 20 million page views per month were not welcome to participate.
As Google grew, they began to see how much money they were leaving on the table by excluding the smaller sites, which greatly outnumbered the sites serving over 20 million hits that were willing to serve other people's ads. Their answer to that problem was AdSense which has no minimum traffic requirements and is open to all sites meeting Google's content and decency requirements.
How much can you make running Google AdSense?
The answer to that question depends upon three factors:
1. How much traffic your site draws
2.How many visitors click on your ads
3.How much those ads pay per generated click
With some ads paying as much as $5 or more, it's possible that you can generate a serious income with AdSense. There are relatively well documented cases of some people earning as much as $500 per DAY and more. Numbers like that are rare exceptions however. Even so, there is no reason why you can't earn somewhere around $1,000 per month, or more, once you get the hang of it.
How to get started using Google AdSense
Make a visit to Google's AdSense Site (https://www.google.com/adsense/) and sign up. Make sure that you read their Acceptable Use Policy and that you follow their content requirements. Google has their own "AdSense Police" who will have no problem booting you out of the program if you fail to walk the line.
Using Google AdSense on your site is like collecting free money. There's no reason not to do it and potentially thousands of dollars worth of reasons to do it.
Simply stated, Google AdSense enables website operators to place some code on their site that connects to Google's ad server content database and pulls keyword-relevant advertising onto the web pages. The webmaster gets paid a percentage of the fee that Google receives from the advertiser every time a visitor clicks on an ad. There is no charge for the webmaster to participate in AdSense. All costs are covered by the advertiser who participates in the AdSense sister program called AdWords.
Google's sends out digital "robots" which use proprietary algorithms to parse the host web page and analyze the content in an effort to determine what keywords are relevant. It reports its findings back to Google's ad server which then serves ads matching those keywords. Given that the entire process is automated, the "ad robots" do a pretty good job of getting the advertising content right most of the time.
The History of Google AdSense
Google AdSense has its roots in the old "Google Content-Targeted Advertising" program which they introduced back in March of 2003. Although this program was similar in concept to AdSense, there was no automated way of participating. Each webmaster negotiated a deal directly with Google, and websites that served less than 20 million page views per month were not welcome to participate.
As Google grew, they began to see how much money they were leaving on the table by excluding the smaller sites, which greatly outnumbered the sites serving over 20 million hits that were willing to serve other people's ads. Their answer to that problem was AdSense which has no minimum traffic requirements and is open to all sites meeting Google's content and decency requirements.
How much can you make running Google AdSense?
The answer to that question depends upon three factors:
1. How much traffic your site draws
2.How many visitors click on your ads
3.How much those ads pay per generated click
With some ads paying as much as $5 or more, it's possible that you can generate a serious income with AdSense. There are relatively well documented cases of some people earning as much as $500 per DAY and more. Numbers like that are rare exceptions however. Even so, there is no reason why you can't earn somewhere around $1,000 per month, or more, once you get the hang of it.
How to get started using Google AdSense
Make a visit to Google's AdSense Site (https://www.google.com/adsense/) and sign up. Make sure that you read their Acceptable Use Policy and that you follow their content requirements. Google has their own "AdSense Police" who will have no problem booting you out of the program if you fail to walk the line.
Using Google AdSense on your site is like collecting free money. There's no reason not to do it and potentially thousands of dollars worth of reasons to do it.
What Your Momma Never Told You About Online Press Releases
What Your Momma Never Told You About Online Press Releases Copyright 2005 Keith Baxter
If you market ANYTHING online, you need to send out an online press release. They are easy to write and can potentially bring you much desired media publicity... which, in most cases, will increase sales.
But that's not what this article is about.
I'm going to show you how using low cost online press release services will get your sites indexed into the major search engines fast.
The Strategy:
Write a simple online press release and submit it to Prweb.com.
When writing your press release, be sure to add include your URL at least twice on the body of the release with your primary keyword as anchor text, and then once again in your signature.
Sounds simple, huh? It is... but I'm going to break it down into 9 easy as taking candy from a baby steps.
The How To:
1. Write your press release. There's software available which is intuitive to use and will guide you through the proper process
2. Once written, double-check it for errors.
3. Register for an account on Prweb.com.
4. Once registered, you will automatically be logged in. Now click 'Submit News Release'.
5. Input your release into the appropriate fields.
6. Click 'Save Press Release'.
7. You will be taken to page offering upgrades. While not necessary, you will gain MAXIMUM benefit using the $80 submission service. I want to stress again that this is entirely optional and NOT necessary. I personally use the $10 option.
8. If you choose any of the paid services, input your credit card information, then hit continue.
9. Once payment is processed, you're done!
If you want to categorize your submitted releases, you can do that on the page following payment acceptance.
When I implemented this strategy, I had Inktomi visit my site within 2 days, then Google and MSN within a week after that.
This service not only distributes your message to the media, but provides additional links back to your site and is regularly crawled by all major search engines.
If you market ANYTHING online, you need to send out an online press release. They are easy to write and can potentially bring you much desired media publicity... which, in most cases, will increase sales.
But that's not what this article is about.
I'm going to show you how using low cost online press release services will get your sites indexed into the major search engines fast.
The Strategy:
Write a simple online press release and submit it to Prweb.com.
When writing your press release, be sure to add include your URL at least twice on the body of the release with your primary keyword as anchor text, and then once again in your signature.
Sounds simple, huh? It is... but I'm going to break it down into 9 easy as taking candy from a baby steps.
The How To:
1. Write your press release. There's software available which is intuitive to use and will guide you through the proper process
2. Once written, double-check it for errors.
3. Register for an account on Prweb.com.
4. Once registered, you will automatically be logged in. Now click 'Submit News Release'.
5. Input your release into the appropriate fields.
6. Click 'Save Press Release'.
7. You will be taken to page offering upgrades. While not necessary, you will gain MAXIMUM benefit using the $80 submission service. I want to stress again that this is entirely optional and NOT necessary. I personally use the $10 option.
8. If you choose any of the paid services, input your credit card information, then hit continue.
9. Once payment is processed, you're done!
If you want to categorize your submitted releases, you can do that on the page following payment acceptance.
When I implemented this strategy, I had Inktomi visit my site within 2 days, then Google and MSN within a week after that.
This service not only distributes your message to the media, but provides additional links back to your site and is regularly crawled by all major search engines.
What Does It Take to Make Money Online?
What Does It Take to Make Money Online? Copyright 2004 Darrell Knox
What a loaded question! Let's narrow that down a bit and take it from the perspective of someone who wants to work from home and make money online in a home business. That will make it an easier question to answer.
Let's assume you've never had a website, don't know how to get a merchant account, don't know html, and are pretty much stuck with being an expert on sending and receiving email.
What's there for you to do online to make money? Lots, in fact! These days are not at all like a couple of years ago or even six months ago. If I only had all the opportunities to make money online when I started marketing!
Here is a list of things you can do with just a website and a hosting account today:
Sell affiliate products (products like reports, ebooks, hard goods of every conceivable make, model, size, shape and function, and much, much more).
Sell services (do you know how big a business being a Virtual Assistant is these days? It's quite amazing what you can do for people without ever meeting them face-to-face, anywhere in the world!)
Online auctions (Ebay has made thousands and thousands of people full-time incomes from auctioning collectibles, antiques, and even brand new equipment and gadgets of all imaginable types. You name it, it has been sold on Ebay!)
Membership sites: Know of any groups of people that would love to get insider information on virtually any topic? You could make money online with a membership site!
The list is a long one and one I am not prepared to detail here. You have found your way onto the net and if you have been surfing for very long at all you know it is a gigantic super shopping mall. Who to you think is making the most money online? Aside from big corporations, most of the web is made up of sites put up by little businesses people work from home.
I sell information and I love it. Most of the products I sell are other merchants' products. I just drive traffic to my site, provide information, and point to relevant products related to the information I provide people looking for a way to make money online. I love helping people make their first few sales.
After that, they are always hooked and cannot do enough to learn everything there is to know about how to make money online. Many people I have worked with now have a couple to several websites selling everything from reports to hard goods that can be shipped direct to their customers. Most people start out to make money online as affiliates of
certain products or authors. This is a great way to get your feet wet and learn what making money online is all about. People then either work to create their own products (which they get 100% of the profits from) or expand their website into other related niches.
What a loaded question! Let's narrow that down a bit and take it from the perspective of someone who wants to work from home and make money online in a home business. That will make it an easier question to answer.
Let's assume you've never had a website, don't know how to get a merchant account, don't know html, and are pretty much stuck with being an expert on sending and receiving email.
What's there for you to do online to make money? Lots, in fact! These days are not at all like a couple of years ago or even six months ago. If I only had all the opportunities to make money online when I started marketing!
Here is a list of things you can do with just a website and a hosting account today:
Sell affiliate products (products like reports, ebooks, hard goods of every conceivable make, model, size, shape and function, and much, much more).
Sell services (do you know how big a business being a Virtual Assistant is these days? It's quite amazing what you can do for people without ever meeting them face-to-face, anywhere in the world!)
Online auctions (Ebay has made thousands and thousands of people full-time incomes from auctioning collectibles, antiques, and even brand new equipment and gadgets of all imaginable types. You name it, it has been sold on Ebay!)
Membership sites: Know of any groups of people that would love to get insider information on virtually any topic? You could make money online with a membership site!
The list is a long one and one I am not prepared to detail here. You have found your way onto the net and if you have been surfing for very long at all you know it is a gigantic super shopping mall. Who to you think is making the most money online? Aside from big corporations, most of the web is made up of sites put up by little businesses people work from home.
I sell information and I love it. Most of the products I sell are other merchants' products. I just drive traffic to my site, provide information, and point to relevant products related to the information I provide people looking for a way to make money online. I love helping people make their first few sales.
After that, they are always hooked and cannot do enough to learn everything there is to know about how to make money online. Many people I have worked with now have a couple to several websites selling everything from reports to hard goods that can be shipped direct to their customers. Most people start out to make money online as affiliates of
certain products or authors. This is a great way to get your feet wet and learn what making money online is all about. People then either work to create their own products (which they get 100% of the profits from) or expand their website into other related niches.
What Does it Take to Make Money Online?
What Does it Take to Make Money Online? What a loaded question! Let's narrow that down a bit and take it from the perspective of someone who wants to work from home and make money online in a home business. That will make it an easier question to answer.
Let's assume you've never had a website, don't know how to get a merchant account, don't know html, and are pretty much stuck with being an expert on sending and receiving email.
What's there for you to do online to make money? Lots, in fact! These days are not at all like a couple of years ago or even six months ago. If I only had all the opportunities to make money online when I started marketing!
Here is a list of things you can do with just a website and a hosting account today:
Sell affiliate products (products like reports, ebooks, hard goods of every conceivable make, model, size, shape and function, and much, much more). Sell services (do you know how big a business being a Virtual Assistant is these days? It's quite amazing what you can do for people without ever meeting them face-to-face, anywhere in the world!) Online auctions (Ebay has made thousands and thousands of people full-time incomes from auctioning collectibles, antiques, and even brand new equipment and gadgets of all imaginable types. You name it, it has been sold on Ebay!) Membership sites: Know of any groups of people that would love to get insider information on virtually any topic? You could make money online with a membership site!
The list is a long one and one I am not prepared to detail here. You have found your way onto the net and if you have been surfing for very long at all you know it is a gigantic super shopping mall. Who to you think is making the most money online? Aside from big corporations, most of the web is made up of sites put up by little businesses people work from home.
I sell information and I love it. Most of the products I sell are other merchants' products. I just drive traffic to my site, provide information, and point to relevant products related to the information I provide people looking for a way to make money online. I love helping people make their first few sales.
After that, they are always hooked and cannot do enough to learn everything there is to know about how to make money online. Many people I have worked with now have a couple to several websites selling everything from reports to hard goods that can be shipped direct to their customers. Most people start out to make money online as affiliates of certain products or authors. This is a great way to get your feet wet and learn what making money online is all about. People then either work to create their own products (which they get 100% of the profits from) or expand their website into other related niches.
Let's assume you've never had a website, don't know how to get a merchant account, don't know html, and are pretty much stuck with being an expert on sending and receiving email.
What's there for you to do online to make money? Lots, in fact! These days are not at all like a couple of years ago or even six months ago. If I only had all the opportunities to make money online when I started marketing!
Here is a list of things you can do with just a website and a hosting account today:
Sell affiliate products (products like reports, ebooks, hard goods of every conceivable make, model, size, shape and function, and much, much more). Sell services (do you know how big a business being a Virtual Assistant is these days? It's quite amazing what you can do for people without ever meeting them face-to-face, anywhere in the world!) Online auctions (Ebay has made thousands and thousands of people full-time incomes from auctioning collectibles, antiques, and even brand new equipment and gadgets of all imaginable types. You name it, it has been sold on Ebay!) Membership sites: Know of any groups of people that would love to get insider information on virtually any topic? You could make money online with a membership site!
The list is a long one and one I am not prepared to detail here. You have found your way onto the net and if you have been surfing for very long at all you know it is a gigantic super shopping mall. Who to you think is making the most money online? Aside from big corporations, most of the web is made up of sites put up by little businesses people work from home.
I sell information and I love it. Most of the products I sell are other merchants' products. I just drive traffic to my site, provide information, and point to relevant products related to the information I provide people looking for a way to make money online. I love helping people make their first few sales.
After that, they are always hooked and cannot do enough to learn everything there is to know about how to make money online. Many people I have worked with now have a couple to several websites selling everything from reports to hard goods that can be shipped direct to their customers. Most people start out to make money online as affiliates of certain products or authors. This is a great way to get your feet wet and learn what making money online is all about. People then either work to create their own products (which they get 100% of the profits from) or expand their website into other related niches.
We Are Right In The Middle Of A Pay Per Click Baby Boom
We Are Right In The Middle Of A Pay Per Click Baby Boom By Kirk Bannerman
No, this baby boom will certainly not swamp the Social Security
system (sort of a bad joke for those that live in the United
States, but many other countries...most notably Japan...have an
even more acute problem), but this baby boom is revolutionizing
the way that pay per click advertising is being spread across the
Internet.
One of the early participants in this pay per click baby boom was
Google, with its AdSense program. With this program, Google
shares pay per click revenue with a huge number of individual
partner websites that carry a few pay per click ads that are
distributed by Google. In essence, this creates a whole bunch of
little pay per click locations (websites) throughout the Internet
and hence the term "pay per click baby boom".
Conceptually, programs like AdSense are similar to what the
computer hardware folks refer to a distributed processing.
Instead of trying to draw everyone to a large pay per click
search engine site, little groups of pay per click ads are spread
widely across thousands of locations (websites) all over the
Internet.
Actually, this distributed processing or propagation technique is
not limited to pay per click advertising. For example, Amazon
uses a similar arrangement (called Amazon Associates) to sell the
products it carries on amazon.com and ClickBank has a sales
program called CBAdwords which operates in a similar fashion.
According my trusty Ouija board, it seems likely that most
commercial hubs on the Internet will be shifting to this
propagation concept as time progresses...all of those individual
partner websites that carry the message/proposition will
constitute the vast army of worker ants that keep the queen ant
alive and healthy.
From a pay per click marketing perspective, these programs make
brilliant use of leverage while providing highly targeted
prospects for the paying advertiser.
There are, of course, some interesting things that occur as a
result of all of this stuff. For example, consider what I call
the "cross fertilization effect": Suppose a person goes to
yahoo.com and performs a search that leads them to one of my
websites that happens carry Google AdSense ads and that visitor
then clicks on one of those ads...the net result is that Yahoo
natural search provided Google pay per click with some revenue!
Aren't these fun times that we're living in?
As these programs continue to proliferate, the individual
webmaster needs to exercise a little restraint and avoid the
temptation to go overboard by plastering these ads all over your
website and thereby diluting your own primary message/proposition
and confusing your hard earned visitor. When properly used,
these ads are just ancillary or complementary content that you
are providing to enhance the information and opportunities that
you are providing to your visitor...if something happens to
strike a responsive chord with your visitor, you might make a
little pay per click money.
If properly used, these propagation programs can result in the
classical "win-win" situation. However, if you over do it, this
can quickly turn into a loss for you (the individual webmaster)
and a win for your pay per click partners that are distributing
the ads. As in many things, moderation is important.
It's a constant sea of change, but the good things just keep on
getting better! Stay alert, and light on your feet, and the
opportunities will just keep on coming your way.
The above are just some observations from "the peanut gallery",
but I don't think I'm far off the mark about where things are
heading. With that, I'm off the soapbox and wishing you
success in whatever you do online!
No, this baby boom will certainly not swamp the Social Security
system (sort of a bad joke for those that live in the United
States, but many other countries...most notably Japan...have an
even more acute problem), but this baby boom is revolutionizing
the way that pay per click advertising is being spread across the
Internet.
One of the early participants in this pay per click baby boom was
Google, with its AdSense program. With this program, Google
shares pay per click revenue with a huge number of individual
partner websites that carry a few pay per click ads that are
distributed by Google. In essence, this creates a whole bunch of
little pay per click locations (websites) throughout the Internet
and hence the term "pay per click baby boom".
Conceptually, programs like AdSense are similar to what the
computer hardware folks refer to a distributed processing.
Instead of trying to draw everyone to a large pay per click
search engine site, little groups of pay per click ads are spread
widely across thousands of locations (websites) all over the
Internet.
Actually, this distributed processing or propagation technique is
not limited to pay per click advertising. For example, Amazon
uses a similar arrangement (called Amazon Associates) to sell the
products it carries on amazon.com and ClickBank has a sales
program called CBAdwords which operates in a similar fashion.
According my trusty Ouija board, it seems likely that most
commercial hubs on the Internet will be shifting to this
propagation concept as time progresses...all of those individual
partner websites that carry the message/proposition will
constitute the vast army of worker ants that keep the queen ant
alive and healthy.
From a pay per click marketing perspective, these programs make
brilliant use of leverage while providing highly targeted
prospects for the paying advertiser.
There are, of course, some interesting things that occur as a
result of all of this stuff. For example, consider what I call
the "cross fertilization effect": Suppose a person goes to
yahoo.com and performs a search that leads them to one of my
websites that happens carry Google AdSense ads and that visitor
then clicks on one of those ads...the net result is that Yahoo
natural search provided Google pay per click with some revenue!
Aren't these fun times that we're living in?
As these programs continue to proliferate, the individual
webmaster needs to exercise a little restraint and avoid the
temptation to go overboard by plastering these ads all over your
website and thereby diluting your own primary message/proposition
and confusing your hard earned visitor. When properly used,
these ads are just ancillary or complementary content that you
are providing to enhance the information and opportunities that
you are providing to your visitor...if something happens to
strike a responsive chord with your visitor, you might make a
little pay per click money.
If properly used, these propagation programs can result in the
classical "win-win" situation. However, if you over do it, this
can quickly turn into a loss for you (the individual webmaster)
and a win for your pay per click partners that are distributing
the ads. As in many things, moderation is important.
It's a constant sea of change, but the good things just keep on
getting better! Stay alert, and light on your feet, and the
opportunities will just keep on coming your way.
The above are just some observations from "the peanut gallery",
but I don't think I'm far off the mark about where things are
heading. With that, I'm off the soapbox and wishing you
success in whatever you do online!
USP on eBay
USP on eBay If you have dabbled at all in the world of Internet marketing, you may have heard the term "unique selling proposition" or USP. USP is a technique that Internet marketers use to set themselves apart from the competition. Internet marketing is highly competitive and highly saturated. In order to be successful, it is vital that the Internet marketer present himself as being unique and different from his competitors especially when many of them are selling the same products.
It is also just as vital to have a unique selling proposition on Ebay. I am amazed at the number of Ebay sellers that are either unaware or just don't care about the importance of having a unique selling proposition. A case in point: A while back, I was researching some products on Ebay from a wholesale company called B&F System. B&F System is a wholesale only company that carries a variety of brand name products. One of the brands they carry is called Maxam. I came across several Maxam leather jackets on Ebay while searching ended auctions. Now here's the kicker. About a dozen or so of these leather jacket auctions were exactly the same. They all used the same image of a guy modeling the jacket that was captured from the B&F website. They even used the exact ad copy used by B&F!
What was the result? Only one of the sellers was able sell any jackets. The top bid was only $26. And since he purchased the jackets from B&F for $20, he made about $5.00 profit after Ebay fees. That's a slim profit for an item that normally retails for $95.
Always keep in mind that the amount of effort you put fourth on you auctions will be in direct proportion to the amount of return you get from your auctions. The sellers who put up the jacket auctions put fourth little effort by using stock photos and ad copy from the B&F website, and therefore received little or no sales from their auctions. The sellers in this case might think that using stock photos makes their auctions look more professional. It's just the opposite. These auctions look very amateurish. Using a picture of someone modeling a garment will not entice people to bid on your auction. Using three or four high quality pictures of the actual item along with a detailed description will entice people to bid. Remember that buying apparel off the internet is not like buying music CD's or software. You don't need to worry if a CD will fit. You don't need to see multiple pictures of a box of software to know what you'll be getting. However, when selling apparel, good quality pictures and a detailed description are vital. You should use a good quality digital camera to take pictures of the item from different angles. If you're selling jackets or coats, include a picture of the lining as well. In your description, don't just say it's a large size. Give measurements of the garment including overall length, sleeve length and chest size. If you're going to specialize in apparel, it would be a good idea to purchase a form or clothing dummy to model your apparel. Doing these things will go a long way in setting you apart from the competition and establishing a "unique selling proposition."
What ever you're thinking about selling, always look at your competition and think about how to set yourself apart. Remember that unless you're selling antiques on Ebay, there's always someone else who's trying to sell the same thing you're selling. Establishing your USP will put you on the road to Ebay success.
It is also just as vital to have a unique selling proposition on Ebay. I am amazed at the number of Ebay sellers that are either unaware or just don't care about the importance of having a unique selling proposition. A case in point: A while back, I was researching some products on Ebay from a wholesale company called B&F System. B&F System is a wholesale only company that carries a variety of brand name products. One of the brands they carry is called Maxam. I came across several Maxam leather jackets on Ebay while searching ended auctions. Now here's the kicker. About a dozen or so of these leather jacket auctions were exactly the same. They all used the same image of a guy modeling the jacket that was captured from the B&F website. They even used the exact ad copy used by B&F!
What was the result? Only one of the sellers was able sell any jackets. The top bid was only $26. And since he purchased the jackets from B&F for $20, he made about $5.00 profit after Ebay fees. That's a slim profit for an item that normally retails for $95.
Always keep in mind that the amount of effort you put fourth on you auctions will be in direct proportion to the amount of return you get from your auctions. The sellers who put up the jacket auctions put fourth little effort by using stock photos and ad copy from the B&F website, and therefore received little or no sales from their auctions. The sellers in this case might think that using stock photos makes their auctions look more professional. It's just the opposite. These auctions look very amateurish. Using a picture of someone modeling a garment will not entice people to bid on your auction. Using three or four high quality pictures of the actual item along with a detailed description will entice people to bid. Remember that buying apparel off the internet is not like buying music CD's or software. You don't need to worry if a CD will fit. You don't need to see multiple pictures of a box of software to know what you'll be getting. However, when selling apparel, good quality pictures and a detailed description are vital. You should use a good quality digital camera to take pictures of the item from different angles. If you're selling jackets or coats, include a picture of the lining as well. In your description, don't just say it's a large size. Give measurements of the garment including overall length, sleeve length and chest size. If you're going to specialize in apparel, it would be a good idea to purchase a form or clothing dummy to model your apparel. Doing these things will go a long way in setting you apart from the competition and establishing a "unique selling proposition."
What ever you're thinking about selling, always look at your competition and think about how to set yourself apart. Remember that unless you're selling antiques on Ebay, there's always someone else who's trying to sell the same thing you're selling. Establishing your USP will put you on the road to Ebay success.
Used Cars For Sale On eBay
Used Cars For Sale On eBay There are thousands of used cars for sale on eBay every
single day. In fact, eBay Motors is the most profitable
sales division on eBay and naturally there are many
entrepreneurs who are interested in jumping into this
market. For instance, eBay claims it sells an SUV every nine
seconds and is the biggest online car dealer in America,
exceeding the traditional car companies. In fact, there are
15 million cars sold over the Internet each year - and
growing.
The recent rapid growth of the consignment business model
has made the used car market even more enticing. Many
sellers are able to sell cars they have never even seen and
with no more risk than the cost of the auction listing. Some
negotiators even persuade the car owner to pay for the ad,
thereby risking no more than their time.
The biggest single issue for this business model is the
trust of prospective buyers. After all, paying thousands or
tens of thousands of dollars for a car sight unseen is an
awesome leap of faith. Even buying for a plane ticket to go
see a car before paying causes buyers to be uncomfortable.
The best way sellers can overcome this fear is to use an
escrow service. The one chosen by eBay is Escrow.com, which
handles eBay auctions in the US and Canada.
An escrow service acts as a neutral third party. In an
exchange of merchandise, the buyer sends his money to
Escrow.com and the seller ships the product to the buyer.
The buyer usually has two days to inspect his purchase, and
if he is happy, he notifies the excrow company who releases
the money to the seller, minus its fee. If the buyer is
dissatisfied, he returns the undamaged merchandise to the
seller, and after the seller receives his merchandise back
(in satisfactory condition), the escrow company returns the
buyer's money. Thus both sides in the transaction are
protected. The buyer almost always pays the fees for this,
although sometimes buyer and seller split the cost.
Escrow.com has created its "Vehicle Services Division"
specifically for dealing with the used cars, trucks, SUVs
and almost anything else with wheels and a motor. The buyer
can have a 160 point inspection performed before agreeing to
the purchase. This is an inexpensive service and certainly
will save the buyer any headaches.
* The buyer pays a $125 fee that is non-refundable
* The seller is contacted and the inspection is carried out
* The buyer receives a report
* The buyer chooses to go ahead with the purchase - or not
Another choice for the buyer is to deposit his payment with
Escrow.com and then take delivery of the vehicle. The
seller ships the car after he knows the money is secure with
the escrow company. The seller must provide tracking
information, which is verified by Escrow.com.
The buyer has between one and 30 days to thoroughly inspect
his new purchase (the period is negotiated between the two
parties ahead of time). If this time expires and the escrow
company has not heard from the buyer, it assumes he is happy
and gives the purchase price to the seller.
The buyer may return his vehicle if he isn't happy and
sometimes buyers and sellers work out partial payment
agreements, the buyer being satisfied with some parts of the
transaction, but not with others. If a dispute arises, it is
settled by the American Arbitration Association.
The fee for this service is:
* $0 - $7,500 = value of vehicle: $125
* $7,500.01 to $15,000: $170
* $15,000.01 to $30,000: $200
* $30,000.01 to $50,000: $275
* $50,000+ = 6% of the value
Once both parties have agreed, the title transfer process
begins and Escrow.com will guarantee this too, for a fee of
$95. Title transfers are handled by Centerpoint Diversified
Services which works in all 50 states. The fee, naturally,
doesn't include any transfer costs - it is only insurance
that the title will be expedited to the satisfaction of both
parties.
Escrow.com also offers a service that will ship cars almost
anywhere in the world and will gather an auto history report
to inform sellers if their new chariot has been salvaged or
stolen, suffered flood or hail damage, been in a fire or
accident, has had an odometer rollback or has been used as a
police car, a rental or a taxi.
Anyone considering offering used cars for sale on eBay would
be well advised to thoroughly learn the services available
through Escrow.com and offer those to prospective buyers.
The trust factor will skyrocket and your chances of
completing sales will dramatically increase.
single day. In fact, eBay Motors is the most profitable
sales division on eBay and naturally there are many
entrepreneurs who are interested in jumping into this
market. For instance, eBay claims it sells an SUV every nine
seconds and is the biggest online car dealer in America,
exceeding the traditional car companies. In fact, there are
15 million cars sold over the Internet each year - and
growing.
The recent rapid growth of the consignment business model
has made the used car market even more enticing. Many
sellers are able to sell cars they have never even seen and
with no more risk than the cost of the auction listing. Some
negotiators even persuade the car owner to pay for the ad,
thereby risking no more than their time.
The biggest single issue for this business model is the
trust of prospective buyers. After all, paying thousands or
tens of thousands of dollars for a car sight unseen is an
awesome leap of faith. Even buying for a plane ticket to go
see a car before paying causes buyers to be uncomfortable.
The best way sellers can overcome this fear is to use an
escrow service. The one chosen by eBay is Escrow.com, which
handles eBay auctions in the US and Canada.
An escrow service acts as a neutral third party. In an
exchange of merchandise, the buyer sends his money to
Escrow.com and the seller ships the product to the buyer.
The buyer usually has two days to inspect his purchase, and
if he is happy, he notifies the excrow company who releases
the money to the seller, minus its fee. If the buyer is
dissatisfied, he returns the undamaged merchandise to the
seller, and after the seller receives his merchandise back
(in satisfactory condition), the escrow company returns the
buyer's money. Thus both sides in the transaction are
protected. The buyer almost always pays the fees for this,
although sometimes buyer and seller split the cost.
Escrow.com has created its "Vehicle Services Division"
specifically for dealing with the used cars, trucks, SUVs
and almost anything else with wheels and a motor. The buyer
can have a 160 point inspection performed before agreeing to
the purchase. This is an inexpensive service and certainly
will save the buyer any headaches.
* The buyer pays a $125 fee that is non-refundable
* The seller is contacted and the inspection is carried out
* The buyer receives a report
* The buyer chooses to go ahead with the purchase - or not
Another choice for the buyer is to deposit his payment with
Escrow.com and then take delivery of the vehicle. The
seller ships the car after he knows the money is secure with
the escrow company. The seller must provide tracking
information, which is verified by Escrow.com.
The buyer has between one and 30 days to thoroughly inspect
his new purchase (the period is negotiated between the two
parties ahead of time). If this time expires and the escrow
company has not heard from the buyer, it assumes he is happy
and gives the purchase price to the seller.
The buyer may return his vehicle if he isn't happy and
sometimes buyers and sellers work out partial payment
agreements, the buyer being satisfied with some parts of the
transaction, but not with others. If a dispute arises, it is
settled by the American Arbitration Association.
The fee for this service is:
* $0 - $7,500 = value of vehicle: $125
* $7,500.01 to $15,000: $170
* $15,000.01 to $30,000: $200
* $30,000.01 to $50,000: $275
* $50,000+ = 6% of the value
Once both parties have agreed, the title transfer process
begins and Escrow.com will guarantee this too, for a fee of
$95. Title transfers are handled by Centerpoint Diversified
Services which works in all 50 states. The fee, naturally,
doesn't include any transfer costs - it is only insurance
that the title will be expedited to the satisfaction of both
parties.
Escrow.com also offers a service that will ship cars almost
anywhere in the world and will gather an auto history report
to inform sellers if their new chariot has been salvaged or
stolen, suffered flood or hail damage, been in a fire or
accident, has had an odometer rollback or has been used as a
police car, a rental or a taxi.
Anyone considering offering used cars for sale on eBay would
be well advised to thoroughly learn the services available
through Escrow.com and offer those to prospective buyers.
The trust factor will skyrocket and your chances of
completing sales will dramatically increase.
Turning online purchases into profit.
Turning online purchases into profit. Copyright 2005 Michael Lever
Dear internet marketer,
I have some advice for improving your bottom line, whatever that may be.
It could be many things ranging from improving website traffic to increasing sales or even just expanding your mailing list.
But whatever your bottom line is, you have two choices when setting out to achieve it.
Your first choice is to employ an assortment of free traffic, sales, or opt-in subscriber generating techniques.
These can be effective but generally take time and results are usually slow.
Most people adopting solely this choice end up failing and frustrated. But at least they haven't lost their pants in the process.
The second choice you have is to pay for services designed to improve your bottom line. This will almost certainly speed things up and improve the results you achieve both short and long term.
If you find yourself choosing this second option, make sure you can measure quantitative results as you need to know what ROI (return on investment) is being achieved for each paid service.
Most of you are probably a combination of both choices. And if you're anything like me, you probably started using free techniques before moving to paid alternatives.
Enough beating about the bush.
What's my advice? Simply this.
If you pay for any form of online advertising or promotion, do yourself a big favour and explore services designed to assist this process without attempting to influence your decision-making in any way.
Affiliate directories and Customer Acquisition Exchanges also known as "Customer Reciprocation" are 2 such services.
These are really an extension or improved version of link exchanges as they can provide paying customers instead of potential traffic generation (leads, click-throughs, or visitors).
It's that simple. These paying customers earn you sales or commission, depending whether they purchase your own products or products from your affiliated merchants.
So what are you waiting for?
Each time you purchase online and don't take my advice, you're missing out on paying customers willing to purchase through your own referral URLs.
Choose wisely and turn your online purchases into profit.
Side note - I've mentioned thus far your online advertising and promotion purchase intentions but did you know that all online purchases you make can gain you paying customers?
That's because customer reciprocation services incorporate unrestricted global shopping directories.
A comparison with Ebay makes interesting reading.
Whereas Ebay matches buyers and sellers of products through an auction process, customer reciprocation services match buyers and sellers through referral URLs via their own exchange engines.
In effect, they work like limited versions of Ebay.
The exchange process can only be completed for people who promote product using referral URLs.
However, they expand on the Ebay model in the sense that with Ebay, sellers can only offer their own product whereas sellers are able to offer both their own product and those of other merchants through the use of customer reciprocation services.
Regards
Michael Lever
Dear internet marketer,
I have some advice for improving your bottom line, whatever that may be.
It could be many things ranging from improving website traffic to increasing sales or even just expanding your mailing list.
But whatever your bottom line is, you have two choices when setting out to achieve it.
Your first choice is to employ an assortment of free traffic, sales, or opt-in subscriber generating techniques.
These can be effective but generally take time and results are usually slow.
Most people adopting solely this choice end up failing and frustrated. But at least they haven't lost their pants in the process.
The second choice you have is to pay for services designed to improve your bottom line. This will almost certainly speed things up and improve the results you achieve both short and long term.
If you find yourself choosing this second option, make sure you can measure quantitative results as you need to know what ROI (return on investment) is being achieved for each paid service.
Most of you are probably a combination of both choices. And if you're anything like me, you probably started using free techniques before moving to paid alternatives.
Enough beating about the bush.
What's my advice? Simply this.
If you pay for any form of online advertising or promotion, do yourself a big favour and explore services designed to assist this process without attempting to influence your decision-making in any way.
Affiliate directories and Customer Acquisition Exchanges also known as "Customer Reciprocation" are 2 such services.
These are really an extension or improved version of link exchanges as they can provide paying customers instead of potential traffic generation (leads, click-throughs, or visitors).
It's that simple. These paying customers earn you sales or commission, depending whether they purchase your own products or products from your affiliated merchants.
So what are you waiting for?
Each time you purchase online and don't take my advice, you're missing out on paying customers willing to purchase through your own referral URLs.
Choose wisely and turn your online purchases into profit.
Side note - I've mentioned thus far your online advertising and promotion purchase intentions but did you know that all online purchases you make can gain you paying customers?
That's because customer reciprocation services incorporate unrestricted global shopping directories.
A comparison with Ebay makes interesting reading.
Whereas Ebay matches buyers and sellers of products through an auction process, customer reciprocation services match buyers and sellers through referral URLs via their own exchange engines.
In effect, they work like limited versions of Ebay.
The exchange process can only be completed for people who promote product using referral URLs.
However, they expand on the Ebay model in the sense that with Ebay, sellers can only offer their own product whereas sellers are able to offer both their own product and those of other merchants through the use of customer reciprocation services.
Regards
Michael Lever
Treble your Adsense Income in 60 MInutes
Treble your Adsense Income in 60 MInutes Google's Adsense is one of the most powerful weapons in website publisher's arsenal. It enables you to monetize your sites easily and if used properly can generate a very healthy income. However, if you're not using it properly and maximizing the income you squeeze from it, your leaving money on the table - something we all hate doing.
Boosting your return from Adsense can be done very easily and quickly, and you'll be amazed by the results.
I ran Adsense on my sites for over a year before I discovered these techniques, and like many people, I though I was doing pretty well. My clickthrough rates and CPM figures were very healthy, and I didn't honestly think that they could be improved a great deal. How wrong I was. Immediately after I implemented a few quick changes my clickthrough rate more than doubled, and by doing some fine tuning I manged to get nearly three times as many people to click on the ads as had been previously doing so.
The first technique is one that was 'discovered' by the amazingly helpful Debs, on SiteSell's SBI! forums. When I read it originally, it made sense and I decided to goive it a go, but I wasn't prepared for the immediate impact it would have on my income. It involves making only a few simple changes to the format and positioning of your Adsense ads.
Firstly, forget about using banners or skyscrapers. These ad formats are almost universally ignored by surfers. Why? Because we've all been conditioned to recognise a skyscraper or banner as an advert and as these adverts are rarely of any interest, we ignore them. What's needed is a way of integrating Adsense ads into the editorial on your site as seamlessly as possible. To do this you need to do three things:
1. Use the 250 x 250 rectangle format 2. Make the background color of the ad the same as the background color of your site, or as close to it as possible. 3. Make the ads borderless by setting the border color to be the same as the background color of the ad.
These changes can be made by logging into your Adsense account and creating a custom format. Just select the 250 x 250 ad format, and create a custom color palette. Use the color picker to pick the coor you want. The Javascript is automatically generated at the foot of the page, ready for you to copy and paste into the pages on your site.
Now, you need to position your ads where surfers are most likely to click on them. Research using retina scanning technology has shown that the place that surfers tend to look at first and most often is the top left. I don't know the reasons for this, perhaps it's because that's where we're used to seeing the most useful search engine results (at the top of the rankings) and search engines are the sites we most often visit, so we automatically look at the same place on other sites.
Whatever the reasoning, as soon as I made the above changes to my Adsense ads, clickthrough rates doubled, immediately.
The second technique is much newer and one which is entirely based on my own experience. Google has recently added a new type of Adsense format, called Adlinks. This displays a series of links on your page in the same style of Ad unit as regular Adsense ads. When a user clicks a link they are taken to a page of adverts that resembles regular Google search results. As a publisher, you are paid every time a user clicks one of those ads.
Adventurous soul that I am, I jumped in with both feet and started to trial Adlinks on my most visited pages as soon as it was launched. I'm using the four links in a square box format, positioned top left of my page content. After a few weeks of running Adlinks alongside regular Adsense ads, it's clear that the return on Adlinks is about a fifth to a quarter higher than regular ads. There's no clear reason for this but one explanation may lie in the fact that clicking on an Adlink takes the user to page of 'results'. When a user clicks on one of these, you are paid for the click. If the user finds what they want, great, if not, it seems that they hit the Back button on their browser and try again, just as you would for normal search engine results. Then they click on another result, and you get paid again. So it's possible to be paid more than once from the same Adlink click. Now, this reasoning is speculative, but it does make perfect sense in the light of my Adlinks results.
Finally, Adsense has some excellent tracking statistics that allow you to track your results across a number of sites on a site by site, page by page, or just about any other basis you choose. This is a very powerful tool and you should use it to find out which ads are performing best for you and fine tune your Adsense and Adlink ads accordingly.
So you see, by spending an hour or so of your time making a few adjustments to the Adsense ads on your sites, you can very quickly treble your Adsense income. Give it a go, you'll be amazed by the results.
Boosting your return from Adsense can be done very easily and quickly, and you'll be amazed by the results.
I ran Adsense on my sites for over a year before I discovered these techniques, and like many people, I though I was doing pretty well. My clickthrough rates and CPM figures were very healthy, and I didn't honestly think that they could be improved a great deal. How wrong I was. Immediately after I implemented a few quick changes my clickthrough rate more than doubled, and by doing some fine tuning I manged to get nearly three times as many people to click on the ads as had been previously doing so.
The first technique is one that was 'discovered' by the amazingly helpful Debs, on SiteSell's SBI! forums. When I read it originally, it made sense and I decided to goive it a go, but I wasn't prepared for the immediate impact it would have on my income. It involves making only a few simple changes to the format and positioning of your Adsense ads.
Firstly, forget about using banners or skyscrapers. These ad formats are almost universally ignored by surfers. Why? Because we've all been conditioned to recognise a skyscraper or banner as an advert and as these adverts are rarely of any interest, we ignore them. What's needed is a way of integrating Adsense ads into the editorial on your site as seamlessly as possible. To do this you need to do three things:
1. Use the 250 x 250 rectangle format 2. Make the background color of the ad the same as the background color of your site, or as close to it as possible. 3. Make the ads borderless by setting the border color to be the same as the background color of the ad.
These changes can be made by logging into your Adsense account and creating a custom format. Just select the 250 x 250 ad format, and create a custom color palette. Use the color picker to pick the coor you want. The Javascript is automatically generated at the foot of the page, ready for you to copy and paste into the pages on your site.
Now, you need to position your ads where surfers are most likely to click on them. Research using retina scanning technology has shown that the place that surfers tend to look at first and most often is the top left. I don't know the reasons for this, perhaps it's because that's where we're used to seeing the most useful search engine results (at the top of the rankings) and search engines are the sites we most often visit, so we automatically look at the same place on other sites.
Whatever the reasoning, as soon as I made the above changes to my Adsense ads, clickthrough rates doubled, immediately.
The second technique is much newer and one which is entirely based on my own experience. Google has recently added a new type of Adsense format, called Adlinks. This displays a series of links on your page in the same style of Ad unit as regular Adsense ads. When a user clicks a link they are taken to a page of adverts that resembles regular Google search results. As a publisher, you are paid every time a user clicks one of those ads.
Adventurous soul that I am, I jumped in with both feet and started to trial Adlinks on my most visited pages as soon as it was launched. I'm using the four links in a square box format, positioned top left of my page content. After a few weeks of running Adlinks alongside regular Adsense ads, it's clear that the return on Adlinks is about a fifth to a quarter higher than regular ads. There's no clear reason for this but one explanation may lie in the fact that clicking on an Adlink takes the user to page of 'results'. When a user clicks on one of these, you are paid for the click. If the user finds what they want, great, if not, it seems that they hit the Back button on their browser and try again, just as you would for normal search engine results. Then they click on another result, and you get paid again. So it's possible to be paid more than once from the same Adlink click. Now, this reasoning is speculative, but it does make perfect sense in the light of my Adlinks results.
Finally, Adsense has some excellent tracking statistics that allow you to track your results across a number of sites on a site by site, page by page, or just about any other basis you choose. This is a very powerful tool and you should use it to find out which ads are performing best for you and fine tune your Adsense and Adlink ads accordingly.
So you see, by spending an hour or so of your time making a few adjustments to the Adsense ads on your sites, you can very quickly treble your Adsense income. Give it a go, you'll be amazed by the results.
Traffic Arbitrage- The new kid on the block
Traffic Arbitrage- The new kid on the block A near risk-free and immediate way to create residual income [part one}
The Internet is a dynamic and ever evolving market place. It is full of promises and opportunities. It has the potential to turn people's fortunes around in very short orders. If you have been on the net for any reasonable length of time, such names as Yanik silver, John Reese, late Cory Rudl, Mike Filsame, Simon Garbowski and Mark Joyner to name just a handful, would not be unfamiliar to you. And if you are not familiar with these names, do not worry about it, you will soon be. These are regular folks that have leveraged the power of technology- the Internet to change their fortunes.
Apart from the big wigs, there are smaller folks out there who are raking in bundles of dollars everyday, using one or a combination of the various opportunities and income models the Internet has to offer. These income models range from Affiliate marketing, Resell rights, and Downline builders, to Auctiions, Dropships, Permission marketing, Google Adsene and now Traffic arbitrage.
Of all the income models, I like Traffic Arbitrage the most. It is simple, easy and can be implemented in very little time, even by those who know nothing about doing business on the Internet, once they get the hang of it. Making it even easier, is James Jones using his new Traffic Arbitrage page builder at Click Profit Pro.
Traffic Arbitrage? I am glad you noticed. Yes, Traffic Arbitrage! I would not say "Google Traffic Arbitrage" as many would, because Traffic Arbitrage goes beyond Google. Google is mighty and powerful, but if I could achieve the same results using cheaper search engines, why not. It does not always have to be Google. The cheaper the Cost Per Click, CPC, the better for our purpose. Remember, we are not looking for FREE traffic. We are buying traffic in one market to be sold in another market. And targetted traffic is targetted traffic whether it is coming from Kanoodle or from Google. However, for our purpose, we are using Google Adwords and Adsense.
But what is Traffic Arbitrage? Coming from education, I am sold on the idea of breaking concepts down to their component parts. To answer that question, let's look at the definition of Arbitrage. According to the Encarta World English Dictionary, Arbitrage is "The simultaneous buying and selling of the same negotiables or commodities in different markets in order to make an immediate and riskless profit".
Looking at our keyword phrase, and the Encarta definition, it is clear that the commodity of our trade is internet or web traffic. Also looking more closely at our Encarta definition, three operative phrases emerge, namely: simultaneous buying and selling, different markets, and immediate and riskless profit. Now, I do not know about you, but of all the three operative phrasology, I like the last best: immediate and riskless profit. Wow!
Immediate and Riskless! I am SOLD. Going, going and gone.
I don't know about you, but I do not know any businesses where you can make immediate and riskless profit, other than Traffic Arbitrage. Even in Traffic Arbitrage, there is a miniscle element of risk. Very minute. I just have to be hornest with you.But in the real sense of it, the profits can be immediate and near riskless.
How does Traffic Arbitrage work? I am glad you asked. It is simple once you understand it. And good a thing, it is not rocket science. If I do it, anyone one can do it PERIOD. It is as easy as that.
Now Google in her never ending wisdom, created two very compelling and successful campaign platforms- Adsense and AdWords. On the one hand, Adsense offers advertisers a way to reach deeper into their market without breaking their bank, by having Google place their campaigns on participating sites with content related to advertisers products and services. It also allows content creators a way to make a little money for making their webpage available for dispaly of these adsense ads. The advertiser wins because he is getting perfectly target traffic and deeper market penetration, and the content creator wins because he is making a little money doing what he loves to do.
On the other hand, AdWords offer advertisers a quick and cost effective way to drive immediate and targetted traffic to their sites. Like Adsense, Adwords are on a Cost Per Click basis, but unlike Adsense, they appear only on search displays on Google. The advertiser bids for a position on Google search results, and when a searcher clicks on the advertiser's ads, he the advertiser is charged the bid value of his campaign.
In part two of this two part series on Traffic Arbitrage, will look at the process of setting up a Google Adsense account and Adword account. We will also bring the components together to demonstrate how this genius technique can be use time and again to create residual income.
The Internet is a dynamic and ever evolving market place. It is full of promises and opportunities. It has the potential to turn people's fortunes around in very short orders. If you have been on the net for any reasonable length of time, such names as Yanik silver, John Reese, late Cory Rudl, Mike Filsame, Simon Garbowski and Mark Joyner to name just a handful, would not be unfamiliar to you. And if you are not familiar with these names, do not worry about it, you will soon be. These are regular folks that have leveraged the power of technology- the Internet to change their fortunes.
Apart from the big wigs, there are smaller folks out there who are raking in bundles of dollars everyday, using one or a combination of the various opportunities and income models the Internet has to offer. These income models range from Affiliate marketing, Resell rights, and Downline builders, to Auctiions, Dropships, Permission marketing, Google Adsene and now Traffic arbitrage.
Of all the income models, I like Traffic Arbitrage the most. It is simple, easy and can be implemented in very little time, even by those who know nothing about doing business on the Internet, once they get the hang of it. Making it even easier, is James Jones using his new Traffic Arbitrage page builder at Click Profit Pro.
Traffic Arbitrage? I am glad you noticed. Yes, Traffic Arbitrage! I would not say "Google Traffic Arbitrage" as many would, because Traffic Arbitrage goes beyond Google. Google is mighty and powerful, but if I could achieve the same results using cheaper search engines, why not. It does not always have to be Google. The cheaper the Cost Per Click, CPC, the better for our purpose. Remember, we are not looking for FREE traffic. We are buying traffic in one market to be sold in another market. And targetted traffic is targetted traffic whether it is coming from Kanoodle or from Google. However, for our purpose, we are using Google Adwords and Adsense.
But what is Traffic Arbitrage? Coming from education, I am sold on the idea of breaking concepts down to their component parts. To answer that question, let's look at the definition of Arbitrage. According to the Encarta World English Dictionary, Arbitrage is "The simultaneous buying and selling of the same negotiables or commodities in different markets in order to make an immediate and riskless profit".
Looking at our keyword phrase, and the Encarta definition, it is clear that the commodity of our trade is internet or web traffic. Also looking more closely at our Encarta definition, three operative phrases emerge, namely: simultaneous buying and selling, different markets, and immediate and riskless profit. Now, I do not know about you, but of all the three operative phrasology, I like the last best: immediate and riskless profit. Wow!
Immediate and Riskless! I am SOLD. Going, going and gone.
I don't know about you, but I do not know any businesses where you can make immediate and riskless profit, other than Traffic Arbitrage. Even in Traffic Arbitrage, there is a miniscle element of risk. Very minute. I just have to be hornest with you.But in the real sense of it, the profits can be immediate and near riskless.
How does Traffic Arbitrage work? I am glad you asked. It is simple once you understand it. And good a thing, it is not rocket science. If I do it, anyone one can do it PERIOD. It is as easy as that.
Now Google in her never ending wisdom, created two very compelling and successful campaign platforms- Adsense and AdWords. On the one hand, Adsense offers advertisers a way to reach deeper into their market without breaking their bank, by having Google place their campaigns on participating sites with content related to advertisers products and services. It also allows content creators a way to make a little money for making their webpage available for dispaly of these adsense ads. The advertiser wins because he is getting perfectly target traffic and deeper market penetration, and the content creator wins because he is making a little money doing what he loves to do.
On the other hand, AdWords offer advertisers a quick and cost effective way to drive immediate and targetted traffic to their sites. Like Adsense, Adwords are on a Cost Per Click basis, but unlike Adsense, they appear only on search displays on Google. The advertiser bids for a position on Google search results, and when a searcher clicks on the advertiser's ads, he the advertiser is charged the bid value of his campaign.
In part two of this two part series on Traffic Arbitrage, will look at the process of setting up a Google Adsense account and Adword account. We will also bring the components together to demonstrate how this genius technique can be use time and again to create residual income.
Top Ten Buyer Searches For Fine Jewelry on eBay!
Top Ten Buyer Searches For Fine Jewelry on eBay! Are you looking for "Hot Items" to sell on your eBay Auction? Are you having trouble deciding on a category? Being an active eBayer, I am often asked about what products to sell. As explained in my book "eBay Marketing Wholesale SourcePak" finding the right product in the right category is cruical.
Many people ask me whether jewelry is a good item to sell on their eBay auction. My opinion is yes, it can be. For the most part jewelry is easy to package and easy to ship. And provided you have done your research first, you should be able to make a good profit selling it. One of the points you will need to research before adding any jewelry to your eBay auction is, what are eBay shoppers looking for in the jewelry niche? Knowing this will help you to decide just what type of jewelry you could include in your auctions. Below you will find Top Ten Buyer Searches for Fine Jewelry (at the time of this writing) as per eBay
10 - Earrings
9 - Turquoise
8 - Sterling Silver
7 - Cameo
6 - Italian Charms
5 - Vintage
4 - Gold
3 - Diamond Rings
2 - Designer Jewelry
And the number 1 jewelry search at the time of this writing is...
Italian Charm Watches.
By knowing what people are searching for you will have a better insight of what items are popular, and what items should sell well on your auctions. If you decide to sell jewelry on eBay, finding items that fit into one or more of the above categories will see your number of bids increase substantially. Always remember to do your research before listing any item for auction. Know what categories are "Hot!" Do a price analysis of your product. Know what the item costs you and what you can potentially sell it for. Then sit back and watch the bidding heat up!
Happy Selling!
Joe Clare
Many people ask me whether jewelry is a good item to sell on their eBay auction. My opinion is yes, it can be. For the most part jewelry is easy to package and easy to ship. And provided you have done your research first, you should be able to make a good profit selling it. One of the points you will need to research before adding any jewelry to your eBay auction is, what are eBay shoppers looking for in the jewelry niche? Knowing this will help you to decide just what type of jewelry you could include in your auctions. Below you will find Top Ten Buyer Searches for Fine Jewelry (at the time of this writing) as per eBay
10 - Earrings
9 - Turquoise
8 - Sterling Silver
7 - Cameo
6 - Italian Charms
5 - Vintage
4 - Gold
3 - Diamond Rings
2 - Designer Jewelry
And the number 1 jewelry search at the time of this writing is...
Italian Charm Watches.
By knowing what people are searching for you will have a better insight of what items are popular, and what items should sell well on your auctions. If you decide to sell jewelry on eBay, finding items that fit into one or more of the above categories will see your number of bids increase substantially. Always remember to do your research before listing any item for auction. Know what categories are "Hot!" Do a price analysis of your product. Know what the item costs you and what you can potentially sell it for. Then sit back and watch the bidding heat up!
Happy Selling!
Joe Clare
Tools for Online Tracking
Tools for Online Tracking Copyright 2005 Sharon Housley
In order to determine which advertising and marketing efforts are effective you must have ways to measure the results of those efforts. Alerts and instant notifications can be instrumental in monitoring search engine position, trademarked terms, monitoring competitors and staying abreast of online occurrences. And, of course, the notification can be used for "ego searches".
Ego Searches
What is an ego search? Find out where your name or company is mentioned, view forum posts or online articles that mention your name or company.
Trademarks
The best offense is a good defense. By monitoring newsgroups or search engines for trademarked terms, you often head off a future conflict. As a trademark owner, it is your responsibility to actively protect your mark. Otherwise, you could lose your trademark rights. Monitoring tools send immediate notification should any suspected trademark infringements occur.
Search Position
Statistics show that more than 85% of Internet users find web sites with the help of the search engines. Therefore, a website's search engine position is crucial to its success. Prudent webmasters regularly check their search engine position. Monitoring fluctuations and re-indexing of major search engines affects keyword terms and phrases. Monitoring of positions will alert webmasters to any shifts before sales decline.
Competitor Watch
Monitoring newsgroups for mentions of competitors may allow you opportunities to chime in and offer an alternative solution in a helpful, friendly way. Knowing exactly what your online competitors are doing provides a competitive edge that can be used to your advantage.
Website Downtime
Accessibility is the most critical measure of your website's performance. If customers can't access your site, they can't shop; and if they can't shop, they can't buy. More important, your business could gain a bad reputation among your customers, which translates into negative word of mouth and even worse, if you're highly visible, negative press. So regardless of what else you monitor, you want to monitor websites for downtime.
Take a look at the various tools available and how they can be used to keep you current on relevant issues.
WebAlerts - Recieve email updates of the latest relevant Google results based on your choice of query or topic. Alerts can be sent based on information in Google News, Google Searches or both.
http://www.google.com/webalerts
PubSub - PubSub matches your requests against new information as it appears real time. Searches can be categorized to search, blog entries, SEC/EDGAR Filings, press releases, news group posts or flight delays.
http://www.pubsub.com
Ego Alerts - Google news search turned into an RSS feed.
http://www.justinpfister.com/gnewsfeed.php
Ebay Alerts - Ebay Alerts monitoring will create an RSS feed to monitor Ebay auctions for specific keywords or phrases. When a new item that contains those keywords is added to Ebay you will receive notification via your RSS feed!
http://www.freebiddingtools.com
Amazon Alerts - Generate a URL which you can use to automatically search Amazon.com with your favorite RSS news reader. It will automatically update you when new items meet your search criteria. I personally use it to look for new books on topics I'm interested in, and I have the defaults set to do the same, but you can adjust it to search any of Amazon's stores. You can also adjust the search order and what kind of items you wish to search.
http://www.oxus.net/amazon
Internet Seer - InternetSeer remotely monitors your website to insure that your site is available 24/7. If InternetSeer is unable to reach your site, we will send you an immediate e-mail alert that your site is unreachable.
http://www.internetseer.com
NetNewsTracker - NetNews Tracker is a clipping service for Usenet newsgroups. Newstracker searches newsgroups twice daily for any specified words or phrases and delivers alerts via e-mail. Newstracker can be used to monitor newsgroups for names, company names, products, URLs, or any other topic of interest.
http://www.netnewstracker.com
Other Suggested Resources -
Monitoring Tools - Monitoring Tools is a directory of online monitoring tools and applications
http://www.monitoring-tools.net
Monitoring Software - Monitoring Software is a collection of downloadable monitoring software solutions.
http://www.monitoring-software.net
In order to determine which advertising and marketing efforts are effective you must have ways to measure the results of those efforts. Alerts and instant notifications can be instrumental in monitoring search engine position, trademarked terms, monitoring competitors and staying abreast of online occurrences. And, of course, the notification can be used for "ego searches".
Ego Searches
What is an ego search? Find out where your name or company is mentioned, view forum posts or online articles that mention your name or company.
Trademarks
The best offense is a good defense. By monitoring newsgroups or search engines for trademarked terms, you often head off a future conflict. As a trademark owner, it is your responsibility to actively protect your mark. Otherwise, you could lose your trademark rights. Monitoring tools send immediate notification should any suspected trademark infringements occur.
Search Position
Statistics show that more than 85% of Internet users find web sites with the help of the search engines. Therefore, a website's search engine position is crucial to its success. Prudent webmasters regularly check their search engine position. Monitoring fluctuations and re-indexing of major search engines affects keyword terms and phrases. Monitoring of positions will alert webmasters to any shifts before sales decline.
Competitor Watch
Monitoring newsgroups for mentions of competitors may allow you opportunities to chime in and offer an alternative solution in a helpful, friendly way. Knowing exactly what your online competitors are doing provides a competitive edge that can be used to your advantage.
Website Downtime
Accessibility is the most critical measure of your website's performance. If customers can't access your site, they can't shop; and if they can't shop, they can't buy. More important, your business could gain a bad reputation among your customers, which translates into negative word of mouth and even worse, if you're highly visible, negative press. So regardless of what else you monitor, you want to monitor websites for downtime.
Take a look at the various tools available and how they can be used to keep you current on relevant issues.
WebAlerts - Recieve email updates of the latest relevant Google results based on your choice of query or topic. Alerts can be sent based on information in Google News, Google Searches or both.
http://www.google.com/webalerts
PubSub - PubSub matches your requests against new information as it appears real time. Searches can be categorized to search, blog entries, SEC/EDGAR Filings, press releases, news group posts or flight delays.
http://www.pubsub.com
Ego Alerts - Google news search turned into an RSS feed.
http://www.justinpfister.com/gnewsfeed.php
Ebay Alerts - Ebay Alerts monitoring will create an RSS feed to monitor Ebay auctions for specific keywords or phrases. When a new item that contains those keywords is added to Ebay you will receive notification via your RSS feed!
http://www.freebiddingtools.com
Amazon Alerts - Generate a URL which you can use to automatically search Amazon.com with your favorite RSS news reader. It will automatically update you when new items meet your search criteria. I personally use it to look for new books on topics I'm interested in, and I have the defaults set to do the same, but you can adjust it to search any of Amazon's stores. You can also adjust the search order and what kind of items you wish to search.
http://www.oxus.net/amazon
Internet Seer - InternetSeer remotely monitors your website to insure that your site is available 24/7. If InternetSeer is unable to reach your site, we will send you an immediate e-mail alert that your site is unreachable.
http://www.internetseer.com
NetNewsTracker - NetNews Tracker is a clipping service for Usenet newsgroups. Newstracker searches newsgroups twice daily for any specified words or phrases and delivers alerts via e-mail. Newstracker can be used to monitor newsgroups for names, company names, products, URLs, or any other topic of interest.
http://www.netnewstracker.com
Other Suggested Resources -
Monitoring Tools - Monitoring Tools is a directory of online monitoring tools and applications
http://www.monitoring-tools.net
Monitoring Software - Monitoring Software is a collection of downloadable monitoring software solutions.
http://www.monitoring-software.net
Tips for maximizing Your Google AdSense Revenues
Tips for maximizing Your Google AdSense Revenues Despite what you may hear, the Google AdSense program is not for everyone. There are some types of web sites that do poorly no matter how hard the owners try, and there are others that should be doing well but the webmaster simply isn't putting in the effort to make things happen.
Here are some tips to make AdSense work better for you. If you do them all and you're still not having any luck, then you just might be running one of those sites that don't make money
1. Determine if your visitors are "in the mood"
Like I mentioned at the top of this article, some web sites just don't work with pay-per-click programs.
The best performing sites fall into one of these categories:
- Sites where users go and expect to buy something while they are there. E-commerce sites fit the bill here..
- Sites where users go to find specific information on something that they want to buy now. Music and video review sites, vacation information sites, resume building sites, etc. You don't have to actually be selling these types of things; your site can just be a mecca for information pertaining to these things. Then, when the visitor comes to read your content, they are more likely to click on your ads.
- Sites where people who have disposable income and a credit card like to visit. This includes sites with money management, investing and lifestyle content.
- Sites that draw a large amount of new users every day. Free coupon sites and "How to" sites are good examples.
- Sites where people go who expect to read ads. Classified ads and shopping comparison sites fit into this category.
2. Make sure that your visitors don't feel that you just want to grab their money
Give them plenty of relevant and well-written content. If writing isn't your best skill then hire someone to do it for you. Good content brings steady traffic and steady traffic pays the bills.
3. Play by the rules
Google has some very specific Terms of Service (https://www.google.com/adsense/policies) for participating in their AdSense program. Learn those rules and follow them so you don't lose all of your investment by getting shut out.
4. Use the tools that Google gives you
Google gives you tools for determining the best keywords for your site, measuring ad performance, and setting up different ad "channels" for fine-tuning ad results. These guys and girls are the 800 lb. Gorillas in the Pay-Per-Click market. They didn't build these tools just to keep their programmers busy. Take advantage of their knowledge for they are very big and you are not!
5. Tweak, fine-tune and then tweak again
You should never be happy with your AdSense performance. If it's good, then you need to make it great. If it's great then you need to make it amazing. If it's amazing then you need to take it to the UPS club. The UPS club? Google sends all checks over $10,000 per month to the webmaster via UPS overnight delivery. Now there's a club that I wouldn't mind belonging to.
6. Get more traffic
No matter how much traffic you have, you need more. More eyeballs translate to more clicks. Even if you're only pulling a 2% click-through. That's a lot of clicks when you have thousands of visitors each day.
7. Experiment with new keywords
New keywords can bring new ads and new eyeballs along with it. Set up some new pages on your site and experiment with different content. Once you get something that's working then refer back to Tip # 5.
You can see results in near real time when you use Google's AdWords. Don't be afraid to be different. If something that everyone else is doing doesn't work for you, then invent something that does work and get it on your site.
Here are some tips to make AdSense work better for you. If you do them all and you're still not having any luck, then you just might be running one of those sites that don't make money
1. Determine if your visitors are "in the mood"
Like I mentioned at the top of this article, some web sites just don't work with pay-per-click programs.
The best performing sites fall into one of these categories:
- Sites where users go and expect to buy something while they are there. E-commerce sites fit the bill here..
- Sites where users go to find specific information on something that they want to buy now. Music and video review sites, vacation information sites, resume building sites, etc. You don't have to actually be selling these types of things; your site can just be a mecca for information pertaining to these things. Then, when the visitor comes to read your content, they are more likely to click on your ads.
- Sites where people who have disposable income and a credit card like to visit. This includes sites with money management, investing and lifestyle content.
- Sites that draw a large amount of new users every day. Free coupon sites and "How to" sites are good examples.
- Sites where people go who expect to read ads. Classified ads and shopping comparison sites fit into this category.
2. Make sure that your visitors don't feel that you just want to grab their money
Give them plenty of relevant and well-written content. If writing isn't your best skill then hire someone to do it for you. Good content brings steady traffic and steady traffic pays the bills.
3. Play by the rules
Google has some very specific Terms of Service (https://www.google.com/adsense/policies) for participating in their AdSense program. Learn those rules and follow them so you don't lose all of your investment by getting shut out.
4. Use the tools that Google gives you
Google gives you tools for determining the best keywords for your site, measuring ad performance, and setting up different ad "channels" for fine-tuning ad results. These guys and girls are the 800 lb. Gorillas in the Pay-Per-Click market. They didn't build these tools just to keep their programmers busy. Take advantage of their knowledge for they are very big and you are not!
5. Tweak, fine-tune and then tweak again
You should never be happy with your AdSense performance. If it's good, then you need to make it great. If it's great then you need to make it amazing. If it's amazing then you need to take it to the UPS club. The UPS club? Google sends all checks over $10,000 per month to the webmaster via UPS overnight delivery. Now there's a club that I wouldn't mind belonging to.
6. Get more traffic
No matter how much traffic you have, you need more. More eyeballs translate to more clicks. Even if you're only pulling a 2% click-through. That's a lot of clicks when you have thousands of visitors each day.
7. Experiment with new keywords
New keywords can bring new ads and new eyeballs along with it. Set up some new pages on your site and experiment with different content. Once you get something that's working then refer back to Tip # 5.
You can see results in near real time when you use Google's AdWords. Don't be afraid to be different. If something that everyone else is doing doesn't work for you, then invent something that does work and get it on your site.
The Top Ten Tips For Auction Success!
The Top Ten Tips For Auction Success! If you were to look through eBay, or any other online auction site for that matter, you would find that many people make some very basic mistakes. And, they repeat these mistakes over and over again. As indicated in my book "eBay Marketing Wholesale SourcePak" with a little common sense these mistakes are completely preventable. So to prevent you from making these very same mistakes I have put together the Top Ten Tips For Auction Success.
10. Shipping
Always state what your shipping price will be. And, Do Not try to rip off your buyers by inflating the shipping price to increase your profit. Believe it or not, people do have a fair idea of what shipping costs should be. If they feel you are inflating your shipping price they will not bid on your item and may not look at any of your other auctions either from fear of being ripped off.
9. Customer Support
You must respond to all emails regarding your auctions. Yes, responding to emails is time consuming. But, if you don't, that potential bidder will look else ware for the product and you will have lost yourself a customer.
8. Reserve Price
Do your research on the price for your item. If you must use a reserve price keep it real. If you over price your item you will not get as many bids. And, while all good marketers know there is a time and place for the Reserve Auction, you may actually get more bids using no reserve pricing at all. Do your research to help you make this decision.
7. Item Condition
You must let bidders know what condition your item is in. Is it new and in it's packaging, or used but like new condition. Does it have any imperfections they should be made aware of.. A potential bidders will want to know what condition your item is in before making any bids.
6. Terms
This could come under the heading Customer Service. If you have terms on your auction page that read something like this "Not Responsible For Item Once Shipped" or "Item Sold As Is" you will lessen the number of bidders for that auction. Be a responsible eBayer, have insurance on the item that your buyer can purchase. And be sure to have some sort of guarantee on your products.
5. Feedback
One of the most important parts of your eBay Business. Feedback is a method eBay uses to allow buyers and sellers to record their experiences with each other. Then, others can check out the feedback of any eBayer they wish to deal with, to see if there has been any negative comments left. Therefore, it is extremely important to keep your feedback rating positive.
4. Auction Start/Close Time
You must plan your auction start/close time around the bidders you wish to attract to your auction. If the product you are selling appeals to the working woman, the best time to start/end your auction would be in the evening or on the weekend. Always create a profile on your product and what group of the population you are selling to.
3. Item Description
Not enough information or too much rambling of information will discourage people from bidding. So too will to many typos. Your item description must be clean and concise. Succinctly provide all the information required to describe the item sufficiently and create buyer interest.
2. Image
You need to use an image on your auction page. Remember a picture is worth a 1000 words! Potential bidders will want to see what the item looks like before they make a bid. With digital cameras, being so affordable these days adding a image to your auction page is easier then ever. But, make sure the image is clear and well lit to show it's detail or any imperfections it may have. Also, keep the image at a reasonable pixel size so your auction page doesn't take to long to load.
1. Headlines
This is the most important issue for getting more bidders to your auction page. You must include words that people will search on eBay. And, you must make your headline enticing, so potential bidders will click it. If you are selling an antique make-up table a headline saying old vanity table would not pull in a lot of bidders. But, if you said something like "Vintage Vanity Table - Mint Condition - Collectors Item" not only would you get more potential bidders to view your auction, you would also be using words people would search eBay for. Your auction title would appear in searches for Vintage, Vanity Tables, Collectors Items. Therefore, allowing even more potential bidders to see your headline.
Happy Selling!
Joe Clare
10. Shipping
Always state what your shipping price will be. And, Do Not try to rip off your buyers by inflating the shipping price to increase your profit. Believe it or not, people do have a fair idea of what shipping costs should be. If they feel you are inflating your shipping price they will not bid on your item and may not look at any of your other auctions either from fear of being ripped off.
9. Customer Support
You must respond to all emails regarding your auctions. Yes, responding to emails is time consuming. But, if you don't, that potential bidder will look else ware for the product and you will have lost yourself a customer.
8. Reserve Price
Do your research on the price for your item. If you must use a reserve price keep it real. If you over price your item you will not get as many bids. And, while all good marketers know there is a time and place for the Reserve Auction, you may actually get more bids using no reserve pricing at all. Do your research to help you make this decision.
7. Item Condition
You must let bidders know what condition your item is in. Is it new and in it's packaging, or used but like new condition. Does it have any imperfections they should be made aware of.. A potential bidders will want to know what condition your item is in before making any bids.
6. Terms
This could come under the heading Customer Service. If you have terms on your auction page that read something like this "Not Responsible For Item Once Shipped" or "Item Sold As Is" you will lessen the number of bidders for that auction. Be a responsible eBayer, have insurance on the item that your buyer can purchase. And be sure to have some sort of guarantee on your products.
5. Feedback
One of the most important parts of your eBay Business. Feedback is a method eBay uses to allow buyers and sellers to record their experiences with each other. Then, others can check out the feedback of any eBayer they wish to deal with, to see if there has been any negative comments left. Therefore, it is extremely important to keep your feedback rating positive.
4. Auction Start/Close Time
You must plan your auction start/close time around the bidders you wish to attract to your auction. If the product you are selling appeals to the working woman, the best time to start/end your auction would be in the evening or on the weekend. Always create a profile on your product and what group of the population you are selling to.
3. Item Description
Not enough information or too much rambling of information will discourage people from bidding. So too will to many typos. Your item description must be clean and concise. Succinctly provide all the information required to describe the item sufficiently and create buyer interest.
2. Image
You need to use an image on your auction page. Remember a picture is worth a 1000 words! Potential bidders will want to see what the item looks like before they make a bid. With digital cameras, being so affordable these days adding a image to your auction page is easier then ever. But, make sure the image is clear and well lit to show it's detail or any imperfections it may have. Also, keep the image at a reasonable pixel size so your auction page doesn't take to long to load.
1. Headlines
This is the most important issue for getting more bidders to your auction page. You must include words that people will search on eBay. And, you must make your headline enticing, so potential bidders will click it. If you are selling an antique make-up table a headline saying old vanity table would not pull in a lot of bidders. But, if you said something like "Vintage Vanity Table - Mint Condition - Collectors Item" not only would you get more potential bidders to view your auction, you would also be using words people would search eBay for. Your auction title would appear in searches for Vintage, Vanity Tables, Collectors Items. Therefore, allowing even more potential bidders to see your headline.
Happy Selling!
Joe Clare
The Top Ten eBay Buyer Personalities
The Top Ten eBay Buyer Personalities In my years of selling on eBay I have come across all sorts of people. For the most part these people have been very nice and easy to deal with. Having said that, there are always a small percentage, like in any business online or offline, who you'll have some degree of problem with. As explained in my book "eBay Marketing Wholesale SourcePak" you will need to be as polite as you possibly can and have a little patience when dealing with these people. Below you will find my Top Ten List of eBay Buyer Personalities and how to handle them.
10 - The Manipulator
There will be times when you have an auction end with no bids. When this happens watch out for the Manipulator. This is an individual who will email you once you auction ends wanting to purchase your item off eBay at a ridiculously low price. He/she will often try to manipulate you into believing the product will not sell but he/she will be glad to take it off your hands. Forget about them! Do Not sell the item to them. Instead relist the item for auction on eBay with a new headline. If he/she wants it bad enough, they will have to get the item through your auction. And trust me 99% of the time your item will sell.
9 - The Impatient Buyer
This is someone who has won your auction today and is wondering why it wasn't shipped yesterday. This individual wants what was purchased fast, real fast. Just have patience, be polite and explain your shipping process to him/her. Getting the product out quickly with a thank you note for purchasing will give you a happy customer.
8 - The Disappointed Buyer
There are some people you just can not please, not even if you were to stand on your head. They will be disappointed no matter what you do. Sometimes these people can be down right rude and take up a lot of your time. Learn to recognize this type of person and don't get caught up in an on slot of emails. Remember that time is money, and once you have done all you can do to rectify their problem move on. If the emails continue simply ignore them.
7 - The Invisible Buyer
This is someone who has won your auction but you never hear from them. Ever! They pay you right on time without any problems. So you send the product they won off to them. And that's it! They do not leave feedback, and do not return any emails. They just disappear into thin air. If you send a couple of follow up emails asking if they received their item and requesting positive feedback and you get no response, just forget them and move on.
6 - The Interrogator
This individual could drive you crazy. It's not their fault, they just have questions. Lots of Questions! For these people even if every question imaginable is answered in your auction description, they'll still manage to find a reason to email you a question. Be weary of this type of individual they can, and will waste a lot of your time if you let them. On your first email to them be polite answer their question then refer them back to your auction description telling them all the answers are there. Suggest they read it again. Don't get caught up in email after email. Always remember that time is money, and if you've done your auction description correctly there should be no questions left to ask. Your auction surfer should be ready to make a bid.
5 - The Late Payer
This customer has no clue about deadlines and they really don't seem to care about them either. Their attitude is you'll get paid when I am ready to pay you. You will need to set guidelines for when payment is due. If payment is not received you may choose to give your buyer one extension. Be specific giving him/her a date as to when the balance is due. Also tell them if payment is not received by that date you will have no other choice but to relist the item for auction. Sometimes a month or so down the road you'll end up getting a check in the mail from this person with a note as to why they were late. Simply return the payment with an explanation that the item was re-listed as he/she failed to meet the payment deadline and it has been sold to someone else.
4 - The Deadbeat
There is no buyer more irritating than the one who is always telling you the check is in the mail. Of course the check never arrives. Unfortunately there is not much you can do about this. Like above give them a deadline and if they don't make it relist the item for auction again.
3 - The "I'm Sooo Confused" Buyer
This customer does want to buy from you. Really, they do! If they could only figure out how! How to bid, how to pay, how to... All this high tech computer stuff is just way to confusing for them. Have patience and be polite. Explain what they should do next. If you find no matter how you explain things it just doesn't register with them, suggest they read over eBay's tutorials. Remember your time is money and you can only spend so much time with any potential customer before you must move on.
2 - The Spender
This individual can spend a lot of money with you. And often will return as a repeat buyer usually purchasing a little of everything you have up for auction. This person will also spend $100.00 in merchandise in order to save $10.00 on shipping. Bless him/her!
1 - The Perfect Customer
This individual is simply a Happy Person. He/she has won your auction and they are just ecstatic about it. The great thing about this type of buyer is if you run into a problem they are always understanding and easy to deal with. If looked after correctly, very often these people will become a customer for life. Now, don't we wish all customers were like this.
So, there you have it. The Top Ten eBay Buyer Personalities. If you already sell on eBay I'm sure you will recognize some of these personality traits in your own customers. If you're just getting started with your eBay Auction Business no doubt you'll be running into these people soon. Whatever personality your day brings you, always be patience, polite and just have fun with it.
Happy Selling!
Joe Clare
10 - The Manipulator
There will be times when you have an auction end with no bids. When this happens watch out for the Manipulator. This is an individual who will email you once you auction ends wanting to purchase your item off eBay at a ridiculously low price. He/she will often try to manipulate you into believing the product will not sell but he/she will be glad to take it off your hands. Forget about them! Do Not sell the item to them. Instead relist the item for auction on eBay with a new headline. If he/she wants it bad enough, they will have to get the item through your auction. And trust me 99% of the time your item will sell.
9 - The Impatient Buyer
This is someone who has won your auction today and is wondering why it wasn't shipped yesterday. This individual wants what was purchased fast, real fast. Just have patience, be polite and explain your shipping process to him/her. Getting the product out quickly with a thank you note for purchasing will give you a happy customer.
8 - The Disappointed Buyer
There are some people you just can not please, not even if you were to stand on your head. They will be disappointed no matter what you do. Sometimes these people can be down right rude and take up a lot of your time. Learn to recognize this type of person and don't get caught up in an on slot of emails. Remember that time is money, and once you have done all you can do to rectify their problem move on. If the emails continue simply ignore them.
7 - The Invisible Buyer
This is someone who has won your auction but you never hear from them. Ever! They pay you right on time without any problems. So you send the product they won off to them. And that's it! They do not leave feedback, and do not return any emails. They just disappear into thin air. If you send a couple of follow up emails asking if they received their item and requesting positive feedback and you get no response, just forget them and move on.
6 - The Interrogator
This individual could drive you crazy. It's not their fault, they just have questions. Lots of Questions! For these people even if every question imaginable is answered in your auction description, they'll still manage to find a reason to email you a question. Be weary of this type of individual they can, and will waste a lot of your time if you let them. On your first email to them be polite answer their question then refer them back to your auction description telling them all the answers are there. Suggest they read it again. Don't get caught up in email after email. Always remember that time is money, and if you've done your auction description correctly there should be no questions left to ask. Your auction surfer should be ready to make a bid.
5 - The Late Payer
This customer has no clue about deadlines and they really don't seem to care about them either. Their attitude is you'll get paid when I am ready to pay you. You will need to set guidelines for when payment is due. If payment is not received you may choose to give your buyer one extension. Be specific giving him/her a date as to when the balance is due. Also tell them if payment is not received by that date you will have no other choice but to relist the item for auction. Sometimes a month or so down the road you'll end up getting a check in the mail from this person with a note as to why they were late. Simply return the payment with an explanation that the item was re-listed as he/she failed to meet the payment deadline and it has been sold to someone else.
4 - The Deadbeat
There is no buyer more irritating than the one who is always telling you the check is in the mail. Of course the check never arrives. Unfortunately there is not much you can do about this. Like above give them a deadline and if they don't make it relist the item for auction again.
3 - The "I'm Sooo Confused" Buyer
This customer does want to buy from you. Really, they do! If they could only figure out how! How to bid, how to pay, how to... All this high tech computer stuff is just way to confusing for them. Have patience and be polite. Explain what they should do next. If you find no matter how you explain things it just doesn't register with them, suggest they read over eBay's tutorials. Remember your time is money and you can only spend so much time with any potential customer before you must move on.
2 - The Spender
This individual can spend a lot of money with you. And often will return as a repeat buyer usually purchasing a little of everything you have up for auction. This person will also spend $100.00 in merchandise in order to save $10.00 on shipping. Bless him/her!
1 - The Perfect Customer
This individual is simply a Happy Person. He/she has won your auction and they are just ecstatic about it. The great thing about this type of buyer is if you run into a problem they are always understanding and easy to deal with. If looked after correctly, very often these people will become a customer for life. Now, don't we wish all customers were like this.
So, there you have it. The Top Ten eBay Buyer Personalities. If you already sell on eBay I'm sure you will recognize some of these personality traits in your own customers. If you're just getting started with your eBay Auction Business no doubt you'll be running into these people soon. Whatever personality your day brings you, always be patience, polite and just have fun with it.
Happy Selling!
Joe Clare
The Top Ten Antique Categories on eBay!
The Top Ten Antique Categories on eBay! Knowledge is Power! And this statement could not be more true when it comes to selling on eBay. As explained in my book "eBay Marketing Wholesale SourcePak" being successful on eBay all depends on being in the right place, at the right time, with the right product. For example, did you know one of the most popular categories on eBay for buying and selling is the Antiques Category. That's right! People flock to eBay to locate treasures from the past. But what if we could know exactly what they are looking for? Just what kind of Antiques? Well I can help! Below you will find the Top Ten Picks of Antique Categories (at the time of this writing) as per eBay.
10 - Lace and Crochet Trim
9 - Medical Antiques
8 - Wood Picture Frames
7 - Knobs and Handles
6 - Linen Samplers
5 - Mixed Material: Picture Frames
4 - Roman Antiquities
3 - Silver Napkin Rings
2 - Locks and Keys
And the Number 1 Antique Category for "Hot Items" is...
Weathervanes and Lightning Rods.
There you have it! The Top Ten Picks of Antique Categories where potential bidders are surfing to find all those treasures from times gone by. If you sell Antiques on eBay, finding items that fit into one or more of the above categories will see your number of bids increase substantially. Always remember to do your research before listing any item for auction. Know what categories are "Hot!" Do a price analysis of your product. Know what the item costs you and what you can potentially sell it for. Then sit back and watch the bidding heat up!
Happy Selling!
Joe Clare
10 - Lace and Crochet Trim
9 - Medical Antiques
8 - Wood Picture Frames
7 - Knobs and Handles
6 - Linen Samplers
5 - Mixed Material: Picture Frames
4 - Roman Antiquities
3 - Silver Napkin Rings
2 - Locks and Keys
And the Number 1 Antique Category for "Hot Items" is...
Weathervanes and Lightning Rods.
There you have it! The Top Ten Picks of Antique Categories where potential bidders are surfing to find all those treasures from times gone by. If you sell Antiques on eBay, finding items that fit into one or more of the above categories will see your number of bids increase substantially. Always remember to do your research before listing any item for auction. Know what categories are "Hot!" Do a price analysis of your product. Know what the item costs you and what you can potentially sell it for. Then sit back and watch the bidding heat up!
Happy Selling!
Joe Clare
The Secret Power of an eBay Auction Title
The Secret Power of an eBay Auction Title I get frequent emails from my newsletter readers wondering why their eBay auctions aren't working.
You might have the most brilliant auction description page with a fantastic set of pictures offering a superb item at an incredible price. But the page counter shows after seven days of your auction that it's only been seen by 3 people. Has that happened to any of your auctions?
If it has, I always start at the same point. The auction title.
In 99% of cases, the reason for low viewing figures is that your auction title isn't smart enough.
Here are a few facts. At the end of this small list you'll understand the secret power of eBay auction titles:
a) 79 million times each day buyers use eBay's search box to locate items in which they are interested.
b) eBay's standard search system takes the search words keyed in, and compares them with the titles in its database of 10 million auctions. (Note it doesn't compare them with sub-titles, nor auction descriptions)
c) If an auction title doesn't contain the words keyed into the search box, the auction won't get returned in the search list. And that's another of the 79 million searches you've missed out on!
d) If an auction isn't returned in a search list, it can't be clicked on to have the auction description viewed.
So, the whole of eBay's default search system relies on matching keywords with auction titles. And that's the secret power of auction titles. If your title contains words which the buyer searches upon, your auction will be returned time and again in search return lists.
Actually, that's not quite everything. Let's say you want to create a new auction. Your auction title has three functions:
1) To contain keywords. (Number one on this list for the reason you now know!)
2) To persuade buyers to click through to your auction description page
3) To convey what the item is
To decide on the keywords to use, you have to think like a buyer. What words would be used by a person interested in searching for an item like yours? At this stage, just list them. Don't put the words into a sentence yet. Spend as long as you like on this exercise. The more effective you are with this, the less likely you are to have one of those sleepy auctions that rarely gets a visitor.
Having listed as many keywords as you can think of, you have to decide which are the strongest. Remember, you only have 55 precious characters for your auction title.
Taking your best keywords, you now create your auction title. It's not an English exam, so it doesn't matter if it doesn't scan like a sentence.
You can add a power word or two if you've space. By this I mean words like stunning, limited edition, unique, rare, new, one-off, exclusive, distinctive, dramatic etc. These are words which can influence buyers to click through to your auction description. They won't be searched on by buyers, so use them sparingly. For the same reason, I don't advocate the use of "clever" words like l@@k or w0w!
Finally, do the words in your title convey what the item is? If so, that's it. You've created a powerful and compelling auction title. And your title will appear more often in search return lists. And, as you know, that's the key!
If you can get your auction to appear more frequently in search return lists, more buyers will view your auction description page. The more people that visit your auction description page, the more likely you are to make a sale at an acceptable price.
Now you know the secret power, why not create a new title today for one of your auctions? If you do, believe me you'll get your fair share of the 79 million eBay daily searchers.
Good luck in all your eBay selling.
You might have the most brilliant auction description page with a fantastic set of pictures offering a superb item at an incredible price. But the page counter shows after seven days of your auction that it's only been seen by 3 people. Has that happened to any of your auctions?
If it has, I always start at the same point. The auction title.
In 99% of cases, the reason for low viewing figures is that your auction title isn't smart enough.
Here are a few facts. At the end of this small list you'll understand the secret power of eBay auction titles:
a) 79 million times each day buyers use eBay's search box to locate items in which they are interested.
b) eBay's standard search system takes the search words keyed in, and compares them with the titles in its database of 10 million auctions. (Note it doesn't compare them with sub-titles, nor auction descriptions)
c) If an auction title doesn't contain the words keyed into the search box, the auction won't get returned in the search list. And that's another of the 79 million searches you've missed out on!
d) If an auction isn't returned in a search list, it can't be clicked on to have the auction description viewed.
So, the whole of eBay's default search system relies on matching keywords with auction titles. And that's the secret power of auction titles. If your title contains words which the buyer searches upon, your auction will be returned time and again in search return lists.
Actually, that's not quite everything. Let's say you want to create a new auction. Your auction title has three functions:
1) To contain keywords. (Number one on this list for the reason you now know!)
2) To persuade buyers to click through to your auction description page
3) To convey what the item is
To decide on the keywords to use, you have to think like a buyer. What words would be used by a person interested in searching for an item like yours? At this stage, just list them. Don't put the words into a sentence yet. Spend as long as you like on this exercise. The more effective you are with this, the less likely you are to have one of those sleepy auctions that rarely gets a visitor.
Having listed as many keywords as you can think of, you have to decide which are the strongest. Remember, you only have 55 precious characters for your auction title.
Taking your best keywords, you now create your auction title. It's not an English exam, so it doesn't matter if it doesn't scan like a sentence.
You can add a power word or two if you've space. By this I mean words like stunning, limited edition, unique, rare, new, one-off, exclusive, distinctive, dramatic etc. These are words which can influence buyers to click through to your auction description. They won't be searched on by buyers, so use them sparingly. For the same reason, I don't advocate the use of "clever" words like l@@k or w0w!
Finally, do the words in your title convey what the item is? If so, that's it. You've created a powerful and compelling auction title. And your title will appear more often in search return lists. And, as you know, that's the key!
If you can get your auction to appear more frequently in search return lists, more buyers will view your auction description page. The more people that visit your auction description page, the more likely you are to make a sale at an acceptable price.
Now you know the secret power, why not create a new title today for one of your auctions? If you do, believe me you'll get your fair share of the 79 million eBay daily searchers.
Good luck in all your eBay selling.
The Real Secret To Finding Hot Niche Markets!
The Real Secret To Finding Hot Niche Markets! Finding a niche market is simple. Finding a PROFITABLE niche market is a little harder, but it's still easy once you know what you are doing. Otherwise, you will end up like 90% of the other niche marketers out there who spend weeks or months on a niche market only to find out there is no money to be made there.
Luckily I will reveal the secrets to finding a profitable niche market later in this article.
There are literally hundreds of ways to find niche markets. You can spend your time searching for popular keywords using tools such as Wordtracker, or you can walk around your local bookstore looking for common book topics. I've tried both of
these options when I first got started in niche marketing, and let me tell you, I lost the most money when I picked a topic that way. Why? Well, it's simple. Just because people are searching for a keyword or phrase online or because there are a bunch of hard copy books on a topic, it doesn't mean those markets will buy your products online.
Have you ever heard the advice "Target a niche market you are passionate about"? What a bunch of garbage that piece of advice is. It doesn't matter how passionate you are about a topic, if
people in that market don't buy products online, YOU WILL FAIL and fail miserably.
Here are 2 ways to find cash generating, starving niche markets that you have probably never seen before...
1) Ebay - the unlimited supply of niches. Everyone has heard of ebay, but few people think to go to ebay to find a niche
market. You would have to be crazy NOT to use ebay to find a market. This is one of the only places you can go and see exactly
what people are buying in real time. Here is how you do it.
First, go to ebay's main page at www.ebay.com. At the bottom of the left column of links, click on the link that says "All Categories". When you get to the next page, click on the link at
the bottom right of the categories that says "See All Categories".
What you have just done is list every product currently for sale on ebay, but even more importantly, you can see HOW
MANY products are for sale in each category. There are literally thousands of categories of niche topics right in front of your eyes, and you can see how popular each one is in just a couple clicks.
I just clicked "See all Antiques categories..." and I uncovered several hundred niche markets within the antiques category.
This is what niche marketing is all about. The category "Antiques" alone is too broad. If you go after this one, you will
fail, however if you go after a sub niche such as "Asian antique bowls" or "Antique sterling silver flatware", you greatly
increase your success rate.
Then, go to http://pages.ebay.com/sellercentral/whatshot.html and see just how flaming hot they are.
2) The next way to find a popular niche market is by going to the website www.meetup.com. From the homepage, there
is a link that says "Browse All Interests". The website will then
list hundreds of topics in which people signed up to be a part of a group. It also lists how many people joined each group,
or "niche market" if you will. Who would have thought there would be a group of over a thousand people crazy about
scooters? I found this niche market under the automotive category.
Using these two methods, you should be able to uncover hundreds of niche topics to begin targeting immediately. Once
you find a niche market you want to build your business around, the next step would be to learn how to develop products
these markets will knock each other over trying to buy.
Luckily I will reveal the secrets to finding a profitable niche market later in this article.
There are literally hundreds of ways to find niche markets. You can spend your time searching for popular keywords using tools such as Wordtracker, or you can walk around your local bookstore looking for common book topics. I've tried both of
these options when I first got started in niche marketing, and let me tell you, I lost the most money when I picked a topic that way. Why? Well, it's simple. Just because people are searching for a keyword or phrase online or because there are a bunch of hard copy books on a topic, it doesn't mean those markets will buy your products online.
Have you ever heard the advice "Target a niche market you are passionate about"? What a bunch of garbage that piece of advice is. It doesn't matter how passionate you are about a topic, if
people in that market don't buy products online, YOU WILL FAIL and fail miserably.
Here are 2 ways to find cash generating, starving niche markets that you have probably never seen before...
1) Ebay - the unlimited supply of niches. Everyone has heard of ebay, but few people think to go to ebay to find a niche
market. You would have to be crazy NOT to use ebay to find a market. This is one of the only places you can go and see exactly
what people are buying in real time. Here is how you do it.
First, go to ebay's main page at www.ebay.com. At the bottom of the left column of links, click on the link that says "All Categories". When you get to the next page, click on the link at
the bottom right of the categories that says "See All Categories".
What you have just done is list every product currently for sale on ebay, but even more importantly, you can see HOW
MANY products are for sale in each category. There are literally thousands of categories of niche topics right in front of your eyes, and you can see how popular each one is in just a couple clicks.
I just clicked "See all Antiques categories..." and I uncovered several hundred niche markets within the antiques category.
This is what niche marketing is all about. The category "Antiques" alone is too broad. If you go after this one, you will
fail, however if you go after a sub niche such as "Asian antique bowls" or "Antique sterling silver flatware", you greatly
increase your success rate.
Then, go to http://pages.ebay.com/sellercentral/whatshot.html and see just how flaming hot they are.
2) The next way to find a popular niche market is by going to the website www.meetup.com. From the homepage, there
is a link that says "Browse All Interests". The website will then
list hundreds of topics in which people signed up to be a part of a group. It also lists how many people joined each group,
or "niche market" if you will. Who would have thought there would be a group of over a thousand people crazy about
scooters? I found this niche market under the automotive category.
Using these two methods, you should be able to uncover hundreds of niche topics to begin targeting immediately. Once
you find a niche market you want to build your business around, the next step would be to learn how to develop products
these markets will knock each other over trying to buy.
The power of dogs
The power of dogs Well first of all I was always a cat owner, till my husband bought our first Chihuahua (Stitch) in 2002, Stitch was about 6 weeks old and was generally purchased for our children and it stud that was till he was about 5 months or so. Then I started to notice that he was starting to favor me and follow me around more and more everyday, one day I hid from him and watched him run up and down the hallway from the crack in the bedroom door, until he found me and it just melted my heart, my cats never did that and after that he became ALL MINE Stitch stole my heart. Around a month later my mother handed down her old sewing machine to me, I tried making everything that came to mind but nothing ever turned out perfect, but I kept sewing anyways.
Shortly after I got my sewing machine my sister in-law gave me a little dog shirt that she had found on clearance at Walmart and I looked at this little thing and said " this would be a piece of cake to make" and that very night I began working on little shirts for Stitch. It was a very exciting challenge and the results were outstanding! Stitch always had a new shirt for every occasion, then one day that same sister in-law told me that I should try selling my dog shirts on eBay. So about a month later I did as a matter of fact it I listed my first item on my birthday, at that time dog clothes on eBay was only about 3 pages long so no matter what I listed, it always sold. Stitch became my right hand man, and tested and modeled all of my creations and never complained. We had such a close bond that I understood him and knew what he wanted by just looking at him and he always understood what I told him and sometimes it would just blow me away.
None of my items would sell for over about $10 but that was a lot for me and I was proud, eventually I started making dog dresses, it took some fine tuning but I finally got the pattern right. So as the months passed Stitch became my best friend, my companion and a very close member of my family, we were inseparable and I never left him home. Meanwhile had found success on eBay but the dog clothes section was starting to grow more every week, competition was getting rough and some of my listings were ending without bids. I started to be more creative and put more effort into my clothes and do a lot of research on what kind of dog clothes people were looking for so I started to study websites that sold small dog clothes and found out that dog clothes like mine were selling for twice as much without the haste of re-listing and fees.
I started thinking about opening up my own website and started out with the free 2 page ones and I did get a purchase or two from my eBay customers but at that time I was also selling my shirts for a frugal $6. I did get tired of only having 2 pages for my clothes, I wanted to be more professional, since I was making extra money from eBay so I invested it into a real website, It did take a lot of work to build and even now I'm still spending many hours a week on my current site but it's worth it.
I finally had my first real website and shortly realized that traffic doesn't come automatically so here I go again, doing hours of research on website promotion till I found and hired a company to submit my site to a certain number of search engines for about $40 a month, I thought that's all I would need but I was so wrong. I finally found Overture, signed up and before I new it, I was doubling the income that I was making on eBay WITHOUT THE FEES, I canceled the monthly submissions. In 2004 I learned of Adwords, signed up and started to triple and sometimes quadruple my income in a day and haven't sold on eBay since.
I owe it all to Stitch without him, none of this would have ever materialized, he played so many vital roles in this business and ultimately changed my life, without Stitch there would be no Princess Petwear.
Stitch passed away on 12-23-04 at 3 years old and I have yet to stop crying over his memories.
Its 2005 now and the dog clothes selection on eBay is now up to 50 pages long, I now work for my business 40+ a week and consider myself a work-at-home-mom with 4 kids, ages 13, 11, 7, 2. I still miss my Stitch, I always catch myself daydreaming of him remembering how soft his fur was and how I loved to rub my check against his face, I also find myself reminiscing on how would baby talk him and shower him with kisses and hugs, then I wipe the tears from my face and get back to work.
Shortly after I got my sewing machine my sister in-law gave me a little dog shirt that she had found on clearance at Walmart and I looked at this little thing and said " this would be a piece of cake to make" and that very night I began working on little shirts for Stitch. It was a very exciting challenge and the results were outstanding! Stitch always had a new shirt for every occasion, then one day that same sister in-law told me that I should try selling my dog shirts on eBay. So about a month later I did as a matter of fact it I listed my first item on my birthday, at that time dog clothes on eBay was only about 3 pages long so no matter what I listed, it always sold. Stitch became my right hand man, and tested and modeled all of my creations and never complained. We had such a close bond that I understood him and knew what he wanted by just looking at him and he always understood what I told him and sometimes it would just blow me away.
None of my items would sell for over about $10 but that was a lot for me and I was proud, eventually I started making dog dresses, it took some fine tuning but I finally got the pattern right. So as the months passed Stitch became my best friend, my companion and a very close member of my family, we were inseparable and I never left him home. Meanwhile had found success on eBay but the dog clothes section was starting to grow more every week, competition was getting rough and some of my listings were ending without bids. I started to be more creative and put more effort into my clothes and do a lot of research on what kind of dog clothes people were looking for so I started to study websites that sold small dog clothes and found out that dog clothes like mine were selling for twice as much without the haste of re-listing and fees.
I started thinking about opening up my own website and started out with the free 2 page ones and I did get a purchase or two from my eBay customers but at that time I was also selling my shirts for a frugal $6. I did get tired of only having 2 pages for my clothes, I wanted to be more professional, since I was making extra money from eBay so I invested it into a real website, It did take a lot of work to build and even now I'm still spending many hours a week on my current site but it's worth it.
I finally had my first real website and shortly realized that traffic doesn't come automatically so here I go again, doing hours of research on website promotion till I found and hired a company to submit my site to a certain number of search engines for about $40 a month, I thought that's all I would need but I was so wrong. I finally found Overture, signed up and before I new it, I was doubling the income that I was making on eBay WITHOUT THE FEES, I canceled the monthly submissions. In 2004 I learned of Adwords, signed up and started to triple and sometimes quadruple my income in a day and haven't sold on eBay since.
I owe it all to Stitch without him, none of this would have ever materialized, he played so many vital roles in this business and ultimately changed my life, without Stitch there would be no Princess Petwear.
Stitch passed away on 12-23-04 at 3 years old and I have yet to stop crying over his memories.
Its 2005 now and the dog clothes selection on eBay is now up to 50 pages long, I now work for my business 40+ a week and consider myself a work-at-home-mom with 4 kids, ages 13, 11, 7, 2. I still miss my Stitch, I always catch myself daydreaming of him remembering how soft his fur was and how I loved to rub my check against his face, I also find myself reminiscing on how would baby talk him and shower him with kisses and hugs, then I wipe the tears from my face and get back to work.
The Perfect Home Business For Moms!
The Perfect Home Business For Moms! The important role that women play as a wife and mother at home can not be overemphasized. They organize home life to ensure things run smoothly. From cleaning the home, making the meals, taking care of the children, and running a host of other important errands and tasks. For a wife and mother who works outside the home these tasks can take on the organization skills of Super Woman. And, while some women are content to take on the daunting challenges of career woman, wife and mother, others would prefer to work at home.
Looking for a work at home business can be a task in itself. We often need to search through several opportunities before we settle on one that has possibilities and appeals to us. One Work at Home Business that has worked out very well for me is eBay. eBay recently reported $14.87 billion in annual merchandise sales with over 100 million members. 400,000 of these are making their living from eBay. Why? Because a Work at Home Business using eBay is so easy to operate and maintain.
Since technology has become much simpler over recent years, learning curves have become less severe than they once were This has made operating a computer easier than ever. With this, people have been flocking to the Internet and eBay to create a Business of their own. The main draw of working online is that you can Work at Home. No long commutes to work. No 9 to 5 either, your hours can be flexible so you can still enjoy time with your family.
eBay lends it self perfectly as a Work At Home Business. There are no special skills required other than the confidence that you can be successful with an online business regardless of your business, computer or Internet experience and skills. What skills? you ask. Well, just very basic skills. The ability to surf the web, read and send emails, create auction pages (webpages) and upload them. And most importantly and ability to learn and the want to succeed.
The easiest way to start your Online Auction Business would be to use Dropshippers. The great thing about Dropshipping, as outlined in my book "eBay Marketing Wholesale SourcePak", is that it will allow you to operate a Home Based Business as an Internet Marketer with out ever worrying about storage of inventory, packaging of inventory, or even shipping of that inventory. The Dropship supplier will look after all of that for you. And even greater still is the fact that your auction business will cost you very little to get started The fact is, most Dropshippers charge you nothing to become a member to sell their products. While others may charge just a nominal administration fee. Plus, you
can list your item on eBay for approximately .35 cents. So, as you can see your eBay Auction Business will cost you very little to get started. With such a low financial risk the only thing you have to lose is a bit of your time.
How does one put together eBay and Dropshipping? It's really very simple. First, browse eBay to see what kind of product(s) you would like to sell. Then sign up as a member with eBay. Once you have decided on a product(s),locate a Dropshipper for that product(s). Sign up with that Dropshipper and then place an auction on eBay for the item.. Once your auction is over and you have a buyer for the product email your Dropshipper the required information. The Dropshipper will ship the product directly to your customer as though it came from you. Then the Dropshipper will charge your account the wholesale price for that product. The difference between the wholesale price and your retail price is pure profit!
To run a successful eBay Business you will need to sell what the public wants to buy. Always research any product before you decide to sell it. Make sure it is popular and you can get it at a great price. If you have something worth selling, you are bound to find someone on eBay who wants to buy it..
Happy Selling!
Joe Clare
Looking for a work at home business can be a task in itself. We often need to search through several opportunities before we settle on one that has possibilities and appeals to us. One Work at Home Business that has worked out very well for me is eBay. eBay recently reported $14.87 billion in annual merchandise sales with over 100 million members. 400,000 of these are making their living from eBay. Why? Because a Work at Home Business using eBay is so easy to operate and maintain.
Since technology has become much simpler over recent years, learning curves have become less severe than they once were This has made operating a computer easier than ever. With this, people have been flocking to the Internet and eBay to create a Business of their own. The main draw of working online is that you can Work at Home. No long commutes to work. No 9 to 5 either, your hours can be flexible so you can still enjoy time with your family.
eBay lends it self perfectly as a Work At Home Business. There are no special skills required other than the confidence that you can be successful with an online business regardless of your business, computer or Internet experience and skills. What skills? you ask. Well, just very basic skills. The ability to surf the web, read and send emails, create auction pages (webpages) and upload them. And most importantly and ability to learn and the want to succeed.
The easiest way to start your Online Auction Business would be to use Dropshippers. The great thing about Dropshipping, as outlined in my book "eBay Marketing Wholesale SourcePak", is that it will allow you to operate a Home Based Business as an Internet Marketer with out ever worrying about storage of inventory, packaging of inventory, or even shipping of that inventory. The Dropship supplier will look after all of that for you. And even greater still is the fact that your auction business will cost you very little to get started The fact is, most Dropshippers charge you nothing to become a member to sell their products. While others may charge just a nominal administration fee. Plus, you
can list your item on eBay for approximately .35 cents. So, as you can see your eBay Auction Business will cost you very little to get started. With such a low financial risk the only thing you have to lose is a bit of your time.
How does one put together eBay and Dropshipping? It's really very simple. First, browse eBay to see what kind of product(s) you would like to sell. Then sign up as a member with eBay. Once you have decided on a product(s),locate a Dropshipper for that product(s). Sign up with that Dropshipper and then place an auction on eBay for the item.. Once your auction is over and you have a buyer for the product email your Dropshipper the required information. The Dropshipper will ship the product directly to your customer as though it came from you. Then the Dropshipper will charge your account the wholesale price for that product. The difference between the wholesale price and your retail price is pure profit!
To run a successful eBay Business you will need to sell what the public wants to buy. Always research any product before you decide to sell it. Make sure it is popular and you can get it at a great price. If you have something worth selling, you are bound to find someone on eBay who wants to buy it..
Happy Selling!
Joe Clare
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