Archive for January, 2009

Free Helpful Tips - How To Make Money Online

Friday, January 16th, 2009

My name is Jenny, and I am a real person! I have a husband, we’ve been happily married for 5 years, and married for a total of 8 years (hehehe… I’m funny!) We have 2 beautiful children, ages 2 and 5. I’d like to share with you how possible it is to make money online.

I want you to know that you can make real money online. Believe me. I’ve tried everything, and I’ve finally found it. MyInstantBiz

How did we get here? 18 months ago, my family and I were living pretty well. My hubby had knee surgery, and was out of work (he was a foreman of a factory) for 6 weeks. It was only supposed to be 3, but due to complications it was 6. The day he went back to work, he had a KILLER headache. Insert a bunch of bad luck, stumbling blocks, and srt-backs here…

My point… he lost his job. So now we were stuck.

He could only find part time work.

Then I got sick… very sick. Spent the entire month of December 2007 in the hospital…

My husband and I and our children were in poverty from than on. We had to find something. He was working part time, and odd jobs when he could find them. I was spending our savings on internet jobs… It’s a bad thing when I am the most gullible person for MILES!! I signed up for pretty much everything I saw… and made just enough (eventually) to make back half of the money I spent making all these dumb choices.

Flash forward to a while ago…

I stumbled upon MIB from a safe list. I read the entire site and guide (step-by-step guide), re-read it, and decided to sign up… only because of the 100% absolutely ZERO risk 30 day trial. I didn’t have to enter any payment info, and I didn’t have to start up anything. Everything was set up for me. All I had to do was surf.

I am now a proud, actual success story! I have officially made money from this program! I do have to work… I surf a few hours a day… and I’m PROUD to say:

I am a member of MIB - My Instant Biz.

I am making money. Real money. I’m in it for the long haul… this program isn’t going under anytime soon!

Stop the non-sense, check this out, and you can really start making money too!!!

Our family has had our fair share (and them some!) of hard times. There are very few things that we haven’t been through. Sickness, near-death, poverty, happy, sad, loss, you name it.

I’m here to say that we will persevere! And… now we’ll have the money to do what we want to do! We’ve always wanted to buy the duplex we’re living in and make it into a single family dwelling. It looks like that will be in our near future! My husband wants to go back to college and get his RN… he’s already started the application process!

I’m hoping that you will take your opportunity, and get your very own MIB. You ARE worth reaching your dreams, and this will HELP that happen!!

And if you know how to make money with adsense - this will help to make extra money, and there is no extra money in this world.

How to Get Started as a Copywriter

Wednesday, January 14th, 2009

How to Get Started as a Copywriter

Copywriting is a highly lucrative career. There are few extremely talented copywriters, and those can make up into the six digit yearly figures. People usually find that freelance copywriting is much more lucrative than working for a single employer onsite. Copywriting is a unique skill vital to any business, whether it is online or off. A good, talented copywriter can increase a business’s sales substantially. Most business owners understand that without outstanding, unique, and interesting web content, there is a good chance that they will either lose otherwise paying customers, or their business will fail entirely. This is especially true if it is a solely online venture. Getting started in copywriting can be slow. You will need patience, persistence, and a strong determination.

5 Steps to Becoming a Successful Copywriter

1. Study those who are already where you want to be - the masters. Some names of successful copywriters are Caples, Schwab, Oglivy, Nicholas, Vitale, Keith Voiles, Kennedy, Abraham, Cossman, Bly, Carlton, Bencivenga, and Schwartz. Type in any of those names in your search engine along with the word “copywriter” and you should find some good, useful studying material.

2. Create a portfolio. Yes, you can do this without any real clients. Write your own advertisements, newsletter articles, web content, reports, press releases, etc. Make up a variety of samples so potential clients can see what you are capable of doing for them.

You can also volunteer to write for your church, a friend, nonprofit organization, local business, etc. to gain experience.

3. Get testimonials from your clients. Other potential clients will be put at ease when they see that you have worked for another and they were pleased with your work.

4. Find other copywriters on forums, or discussion boards. Having a place to go to ask questions and share concerns is priceless. You can relate to others who have been in your place, or meet other beginners and share your experiences. Freelancing can be an isolating career path to choose, but having an online community of writers to go to when you need help, or just to vent can help in a very big way.

5. Be persistent no matter what. You will have your trials and tribulations. No one succeeds without first failing, sometimes many times over. It will take a lot of time to become the successful copywriter you want to be, but you must keep at it. Keep pushing yourself to improve your craft and never stop or slow down. Take on those projects that intimidate you. You will never know your limits unless you test them constantly.

Other Tips:

* Locate websites with horrible copy. Rewrite their content, and send the owner a short (2-3 sentences) paragraph of your revisions. Offer to sell them the full content for a price. You can do this with other poorly written copy, such as ads in magazines or newspapers.

There is an abundance of information for beginning copywriters out there. Check your local library for some helpful books, or search the web for more information on getting started in copywriting.

Resources:

http://www.michelfortin.com/breaking-this-copywriting-rule-boosts-profits/

http://ezinearticles.com/?Copywriting-Tips—Getting-Your-Very-First-Copywriting-Gig&id=1165863

http://www.excessvoice.com/copywriter-jobs.htm

Straight Talk On Finding Freelance Online Writing Jobs

Sunday, January 11th, 2009

Cash Jobs in Online Freelance Writing

The economy just isn’t too good right now and many of you are looking for ways to make some side cash to make your monthly bills. One of the best ways to do that is to earn money freelance writing, editing or designing. The problem is that most of you think you should get free access to freelance jobs, and that is just not the case. Follow along…

As someone who makes nearly $1,200 per month writing freelance articles, I can tell you that there is no “free” place to find cash jobs in freelance. I don’t care what people tell you, there is no free ride when it comes to getting freelance writing and editing jobs.

The reason for this is simple: The business that wants your freelance help is willing to pay a service to list their available job. In turn, the service charges you, the freelancer, a fee to get a look at, and apply for these jobs. The fact that both you and the employer are paying to use the service, helps to increase the level of quality on both sides.

If the business pays to list their freelance cash job, you must pay to get access to it. This ensures quality and seriousness all the way around. Remember, anything that is free is taken for granted or taken advantage of.

In addition, if I really wanted to get freelance work done that I didn’t so much care about quality, I’d just hire someone in India or China to produce work writing in “Engrish.” But when I want quality, I go American and I pay for it.

Bottom line with freelance writing jobs for Americans: If you want to be a quality freelancer and get paid for it, you will have to pay a small membership fee in order to have access to the jobs. Think of it like buying a newspaper and finding the job listings in it. You had to pay for the paper, and the employers had to pay for the listing. Same thing.

With that in mind, there is really only one place that I recommend my readers go to for freelance writing opportunities and that is Go Freelance. They have the best listings available and the sign up to get access is less than $10.

If you are serious about earning cash on the side doing freelance work, Sign Up For Go Freelance Here.

Get Helpful Tips About How To Make Money Online - The Top 3 Ways

Saturday, January 10th, 2009

If you were to count the ways to make money online, you’d be at a loss. I don’t think 4 limbs would suffice. Lame jokes aside, there are, seriously, countless ways to make a living - even a fortune - on the Internet. The rules and principles that govern money-making in the real world apply just as much online as they do offline.

Some money making tactics take money to make money. Of course, the trick is to make an extra dollar or more for every dollar you invest into any money-making activity. And you’d want to squeeze out as much profits as you can out of that dollar you’re going to invest. This is just business common sense.

However this assumes that you need to begin with money if you hope to make any money. But there are several free ways to make money online as well. In this article we shall go through the top 3 ways to make money online.

1. Trading Your Time and Your Skills For Money As A Freelancer.

Perhaps the easiest, fastest and most straightforward way to begin making money online is to offer your services to other webmasters, online business owners and internet marketers. If you have a particularly strong skill set – such as writing, designing webpages, copywriting, producing videos, editing audios, creating graphics, etc. – then you can find people who will be more than happy to pay for your services.

You can go to the freelancing networks that would charge you to bid on projects (such as Guru, eLance or ScriptLance) but you can save your money. You’ll probably be better off going to specific webmaster forums and advertising your services in your signature file. To get started you could even offer to do your maiden projects dirt cheap or for free just to get a couple of references.

One important tip to take note of if you choose to take this path is that when you are starting out on your virgin projects, even if you get very little (or no) money (at all), make sure you get the testimonials of your clients. Store your clients’ rave reviews so that this can serve as your portfolio of customer satisfaction and would give social proof that your work is of a high standard of quality.

2. Endorsing Other People’s Products For A Commission As An Affiliate.

There are dozens of affiliate networks you can sign up with to become an affiliate for potentially thousands upon thousands of products sold online, it’s almost as if the internet is conspiring to make you rich.

Clickbank is a popular choice and probably one of the easiest to sign up with. Your earnings are paid out by cheque twice a month, provided you have fulfilled some criteria (no worries, you don’t have to jump through hoops of fire to get your first payday). PayDotCom is ideal if you prefer to be paid via PayPal instead of waiting for the bank to clear your commission cheques (it could take weeks especially if you live outside America). Both Clickbank and PayDotCom also offer affiliates the opportunity to earn some passive income from the monthly recurring billing products they list in their marketplaces.

If you’re looking to broaden your product line beyond merely selling information products, Commission Junction is the No. 1 network to be signed up with. Not only can you sign up with programs that pay you for referring sales, you can make some quick bucks out of the numerous CPA (Cost Per Action) programs available. CPA means you don’t need to make people buy products for you to get paid. All you need to do is to persuade people to sign up for some free offers, subscribe to a newsletter or download a software for free, in order for you to earn a commission.

There are 2 sub-paths you can take within the affiliate marketing path - the Anonymous route, and what I call the “Oprah Winfrey” route.

For the Anonymous option, you can employ any number of tactics to promote your affiliated products - pay per clicks, article marketing, search engine optimization, email marketing, etc. This route may be able to allow you to make money faster if you do the tactics right but may not last in the long term unless you consistently maintain your marketing momentum. Taking this option allows you to explore as many niche markets as you want.

The “Oprah Winfrey” option involves building an authoritative reputation amongst your target market, branding yourself and building trust with your potential customers. This obviously takes time to build but pays off handsomely in the long run. Taking this option might prove difficult for you if you wish to explore different niches as generally affiliates who market with authority usually focus on products that serve only 1 target market.

3. Create Your Own Product and Sell a Billion Copies.

The third way to make money online is to create your own masterpiece and sell it to the world. Most people would say that it is the hardest amongst the 3 ways but I beg to differ. I made my first dollar online (US$17.00 to be exact, back in those days when US$1.00 equalled $1.70 in Singaporean dollars and Paypal was not that popular amongst internet marketers) selling my own information product.

Where there is a demand, there is money to be made. P T Barnum reportedly said there’s a customer born every minute, but how do you know what these customers want to buy? The secret to untold wealth and riches selling your own products online (even offline) is to know exactly what your potential customers are going through in terms of pain, frustration, problems, challenges, etc.

What is the one thing that is hindering them from achieving their goals? What is the stumbling block that they are encountering? How can you simplify their lives?

Before you go on to create products that would solve these people’s problems and sell a million copies, you must be able to answer the above questions and more. In brief, creating great products simply means being able to solve people’s problems quickly and easily.

Of course, there are many types of products you can sell online, just as there are many solutions to any one problem. But let me simplify it for you further and categorise the kinds of products you can create into 2 -

1. Teaching people how to fish
2. Giving them the fish

Most information products would fall into the 1st category. Information products can be of many kinds as well - ebooks, audios, videos, tutorials, even live seminars and workshops. Depending upon the amount and value of content you put into these information products, you can charge anywhere from dirt cheap to exorbitant prices for your information products.

Software, tools, systems and services fall into the 2nd category. Here, you go beyond teaching people how to do whatever it is that they want to learn to accomplish, and actually go do it for them. In this category, you can charge either a recurring monthly fee or a handsome one-time amount for the tool or service you’re offering that is going to solve their problems for them.

Now that you have been exposed to the top main 3 ways to make money online, there is actually one more important lesson that you have to take away from reading this - there is actually one thing in common amongst the 3 ways to make money online which, if you don’t fully understand and apply it, you won’t make that much money on the internet.

What is it?

You have to understand that business is about making money - yes - but beyond that it is about exchanging value. Ideally, for every $1 a person gives you, you give him $1 worth of value in return (be it via information, a service or a tool). But this is not a zero sum game because the value you create and exchange for money is something intangible and cannot really be absolutely quantified in dollars.

Ironically, it is when you give just a little more than what you are paid for, that is when you start to make even more money than if you were to just trade a dollar for a dollar’s worth of value.

Find out the information about make money with adsense - this will help you to make money with Google.

How to Be a Quiz Whiz

Saturday, January 10th, 2009

How to Be a Quiz Whiz

* Are you keen to break into the world of writing?
* Are you a writer who is keen to crack new markets?
* Do you enjoy doing quizzes?

If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then you may be able to make it as a quiz writer.

What Type of Subjects Make Suitable Quiz Material?

Health, finance, personality, relationships, careers, trivia, and technology tend to be popular subjects.

Getting Ideas

You can get ideas for quizzes from newspapers, newsgroups and forums, press releases, gossip columns, popular culture, entertainment news, developments in health and technology, web sites and TV shows.

Getting Started

Is there a magazine or web site that you’d like to write for? Does the editor like quizzes? Have a look at a few back issues to find out. If the magazine has run quizzes in the past, study them carefully. Calculate the number of words used and propose something of a similar length. Establish whether the quizzes used tend to be multiple choice, true or false, or a combination and how the scoring details are conveyed. Are the quizzes humorous and/or do they seek to inform? Do they test the reader’s knowledge or act as self-assessment tools? What style are the quizzes written in? Is it a style that you feel capable of and comfortable adopting?

Based on your research decide what you want your quiz to do. Do you want to educate the reader, entertain them or both? Whatever your aim, you need to make the quiz fun otherwise the reader will feel as if they are back at school doing homework. Decide what format you are going to use. You want your quiz to be long enough to achieve your aim, but not so long that readers lose interest. Can you do this and stick to the usual number of questions for quizzes in that magazine?

Research your Subject

Unless you’re an expert in the area your quiz covers you may need to improve your knowledge of the subject before creating the quiz just as you would any other article.

Come Up With the Quiz Questions (and Answers!)

Once you’ve done your research it’s time to write your quiz. Make sure your questions are clear, relevant, and easy to understand. Keep them short and to the point. If you are writing a multiple choice, keep the number of choices to a minimum. Often a choice of 3 or 4 options is all that is required - anything more is usually too much unless you are writing an exam paper. A good way to come up with a structure for your quiz is to think of how you would write about the topic as an article and come up with 10 points you’d make. Then turn those points into questions.

Make sure that your answers are not too easy if you are compiling a quiz designed to test the readers’ knowledge otherwise they may feel cheated. At the same time, don’t make it too hard. No one wants to feel like a dunce!

If you are writing a quiz that invites the reader to find out about themselves (e.g., “what’s your investment style?”), the easiest way to write the answers is so that all “A” answers correspond to one category, all “B” answers correspond to another category, and so on. Or, you can assign points to answers (1 point for every A, 2 points for every B, etc.) and have readers tally their scores after taking the quiz.

Write the Introduction

Usually quizzes begin with a brief introduction, then they segue into a series of question. An introduction is not always needed sometimes a compelling title is all you need.

Write the Key or Explanation

The key is the most important part because this is where you actually provide the information that the reader wants. If the quiz is designed to educate readers about a particular topic (such as healthy eating for pregnancy), your key should give not only the right answer but explain why it’s correct. If it’s a self-assessment test like “What’s your Relationship Style?” you’ll want to include specific advice and tips geared to each type. Ensure that your copy is clean, clear and concise. Keeping to a limited word count can be challenging but is a valuable skill for any writer to acquire.

To test your quiz before turning it in, ask a friend or family member to give it a trial run. If your quiz does what you want it to do and you’ve done your proofreading, grammar and spell-checking etc., you’re ready to submit your quiz and get to work on your next quiz-worthy topic, which brings me back to? pitching your quiz.

Pitching to Editors

Draft a one page query letter just like you would for any other feature article. You need to grab the editor’s attention with your opener, keep it with the outline of your idea and provide examples and statistics if appropriate. Tell the editor how your quiz relates to a medical breakthrough, piece of research or study or a recent news item if it does. Make it clear why the quiz will make a good piece for the editor’s publication and why the readers will find it valuable. If you see your quiz fitting into a specific section of the magazine then tell the editor which section and propose a word length similar to the quizzes that have already appeared in that section. This shows the editor that you are familiar with the publication and are well-placed to write your quiz in the appropriate style. If you have any clips enclose them - especially if they are quizzes.

Resources:

http://www.homeworking.com/library/write2.htm

http://www.poewar.com/how-to-write-a-query-letter/

http://www.writing-world.com/basics/query.shtml

See Spot Stay

Tuesday, January 6th, 2009

See Spot Stay

‘Rufus the Doofus’ that is what the kids nicknamed our dog. He was an adorable beagle and yes, he was a bit goofy. However, we should have named him Houdini. I’m sure he broke every world record on escaping from any enclosed area. Eventually we found a new home for Rufus, with a family who had a lot more patience than we did. However, they had help from a little something else.

The new family had invisible fencing installed in their yard. The bad little beagle couldn’t see the enclosure, which calmed his stir-crazy nature. With proper training, their new family member felt right at home and stayed there.

Pet containment services are a quickly growing field. Due to the original patent expiring in 1991, several companies have now developed their own technology to help frustrated pet owners. In addition, many new housing developments have fencing limitations or restrictions. This market is a wide-open field for an outgoing person who enjoys the outdoors.

The hidden fence consists of an electrical line buried a few inches underground around a perimeter and a transmitter connected to the dog’s collar. If he tries to cross the line, he receives a light shock as a reminder to stay home.

To start an invisible fencing business, check with various companies to choose the best product for you. Become an expert on the product. Use your acquired knowledge, professionalism, and compassion towards animals to make the sale. The real money comes with the installation. You will have to invest in the right kind of equipment for installing the underground wire, but you really should be able to make a good profit by charging $8 to $10 per square yard. For greatest effectiveness and humane treatment of animals, some pet training with the system is required. By offering this service too, you will be a one-stop shop for pet owners.

Newspaper and yellow pages ads as well as direct mail and flyers are great to get the word out about your business. Becoming friends with local veterinarians is also a good idea. Even landscaping companies or homeowners associations might offer referrals.

By opening a pet containment business, you will be jumping into a fairly new, fast growing market. Stay organized, energized, and in no time you will be off and running- that is more than you can say for Rufus.

Resources:

http://www.invisiblefence.com/

http://www.mightypets.com/

http://www.petsafe.net/fencing/wireless.php?c=29&xc=16

Free Guide to Ebay Real Estate

Sunday, January 4th, 2009

The Internet has revolutionized the way potential homebuyers approach how they buy and sell real estate. In fact, according to the National Association of Realtors, over 80 percent of all buyers use the Internet as their first resource in searching for a house . And, over 30 percent of all houses purchased were first seen on the Internet. Among the many reasons for this trend include the fact that there is so much great information available on the web, there are a gazillions websites listing houses for sale and also the aging of the Generation X’ers, to the point where they are becoming house buyers (the Gen X’ers are very Internet savvy and prefer to do their research online).

I really became interested in buying and selling houses online in the summer of 2005 when I had a few investment properties to sell. The traditional means of hiring a real estate agent to list, then sell the homes really didn’t appeal to me for a couple of reasons. One, I didn’t want to pay a realtor commission as it would cut into my profit margins. Two, I’m kind of a do it yourself person that always has to try something first. So I looked for ways to sell houses using the Internet.

My search for ways to sell houses on the Internet soon took me to ebay real estate. After all, You can sell almost anything on eBay! eBay is the world’s leading marketplace for online goods and services so I was really curious as to how their real estate business was doing, especially considering what they had been able to accomplish in other areas. A person only has to look at one example of what eBay has done to revolutionize buying and selling. In the past few years have you ever looked at eBay to buy a car? If you had, you would have seen that in the year 2000 eBay had a small auto marketplace. Now fast forward to today and eBay Motors dominates the used car marketplace and is the country’s biggest car dealer! Hmmm…now take the above fact and do you think perhaps eBay Real Estate is similar today to where eBay Motors was in 2000? Was eBay poised to accomplish that same feat in Real Estate?

It seemed at the time that selling houses on eBay was really catching on and that it was where the action was in real estate. In mid 2006, eBay seemed like it was going to be a real winner for providing home sellers, investors and real estate agents an inexpensive and effective venue for buying and selling home, commercial properties, timeshares, land, and even mobile homes. The mid 2006 eBay real estate listings were as follows:

- Approximately 4650 Properties were Selling on eBay every month

- Average Listings on any Given Day included:

- 1300 Residential houses
- 350 Commercial
- 100 Manufactured Homes
- 1100 Timeshares
- 1500 Land Parcels

Given the above numbers it seemed like there was a good base of homes being sold on eBay as well as timeshares and land.

So I plowed ahead and tried selling houses on eBay - two in Las Vegas, two in Washington and a couple of preconstruction houses in Florida . I met with mixed success, but more on these deals in a later article.

Now it is early 2009 and I wanted to check back in to see if the real estate business on eBay had picked up any in the two plus years since I had last checked their stats. Here is what I found:

- 520 Residential houses
- 140 Commercial
- 65 Manufactured Homes
- 1277 Timeshares
- 1006 Land Parcels
- 68 Other

The fact that the number of house listings, auctions and classified ads on eBay had declined really surprised. The number of timeshares for sale on eBay had certainly increased, but everything else went down. Why? Initially, I can only think of two reasons why eBay’s real estate business is down. One - the housing market is so bad right now that no one is trying to sell because of the belief there are no buyers. Two - eBay real estate really has not caught on as a place to buy and sell real estate. There can be many reasons contributing to issue number two such as competition for Craigslist (which is free), sellers have had poor success in the past trying to use eBay real estate and maybe all the bad press about online real estate scams have people scared off.

I am curious as to why eBay’s real estate business is down in numbers and I am curious as to what eBay will have to do to gain momentum in this market niche. Do you think sell a house on ebay will grow and prosper? Do you think real estate on ebay has a chance against all the other Internet competition?

If you want to sell real estate from your personal site - you will need targeted traffic for this site. You can get free traffic here.

Learn To Make Money With Auto-responders

Sunday, January 4th, 2009

If you’ve ever dealt with an online company or subscribed to an e-zine or other service on the Internet before, you’ve more than likely received an email from an autoresponder. Although you may not have realized it at the time, it was probably an email letting you know that the individual you were trying to reach isn’t available. Even though it appears that someone else sent the message, it was indeed sent from an autoresponder. Did you also know that the person behind it was more-than-likely earning money from it as well?

Although autoresponders are great for letting others know that you are away, they are even more valuable when used as a marketing tool. If you’ve thought about selling products or services online or if you already own your own company, you could greatly benefit from autoresponders. In the world of Internet marketing – few tools and programs can compete with an autoresponder.

As many Internet marketers already know, autoresponders are a great way to put your business on autopilot and multiply yourself. With an autoresponder, simply set up your preset messages, and select the schedule that each individual message will go out. When messages go out is entirely up to you, you can send them out on a daily, weekly, or even monthly basis. You can also use as many messages as you want, and know without a shadow of a doubt that they will go out to those on your customer list when they are supposed to.

Best of all, you don’t even have to touch it and the profits will roll in. This will save you a lot of time, as your autoresponder will handle virtually all of your email tasks. It will follow up with your customers as well, saving you a lot of time there. If you had to follow up with each and every one of your customers yourself, it could cost a lot of time that you could easily be using for other things – even spending time with your family.

Even if your business doesn’t have a lot of site visitors now, an autoresponder can still help you out. Even though you may not think so, it can do a world of wonders. No matter how many visitors you have, you should always strive to capture all the opt-ins that you can. The best way to do this is by providing high quality products and services that will keep your visitors intrigued. If you keep them intrigued, they will gladly sign up to your list with their email address and their name, so that you can contact them with future offers. Even though may be starting out small, your opt-in list can get really big before you know it.

Once your list has grown, it will easily become one of the most valued assets of your entire company. In order for your list to grow, you’ll need to answer emails about your products, services, company, and what you can do for your customers. You don’t need to spend all day doing this anymore, as you can leave everything to your autoresponder. Your autoresponder can answer all of your email questions and give customers what they want – which will help your company grow.

Almost all autoresponders will enable you to send broadcast messages to your entire client list among other things. They will also let you stay in touch with your customers and establish relationships that will keep your customers coming back. No matter how big or how small your company may be – an autoresponder is one investment that you is more than worth your money.

The Internet Is A Goldmine

Friday, January 2nd, 2009

I never realized selling online was so trouble-free until about 6 months ago. I was just trying to sell my old baseball cards online and was shocked to discover how much people would pay. The bids reached to the hundreds so I was able to earn more than a month’s worth of salary just within a single transaction. I guess that’s how I ended up losing my job and going full time into internet marketing.

Being Flexible

The good thing about working online is that you are your own boss and your time is yours alone. You cannot, however, blame anyone else for losses and problems. The internet has become a separate world on its own where people would conversebusiness, set up companies and sell anything from flasks to mens wallets.

I suggest anyone who intends to work online to be open to different types of opportunities. Every transaction is unique and the method of earning is quite different compared to business transactions in real time. Some of the biggest billionaires in the world actually got their fortune through computers. You can cut time in half by staying flexible. You do not have to belong to a single type of industry.

Search engines are available just so you can get the information you need at the right time to make the best sale. I have practisedselling golf clubs, mp3 players and even women’s clothes and seem like I know everything about them by reading info online and typing in the details and description.

Styles of Selling Online

Learn how to expand your network by joining online forums and discussion boards. You can get a lot of tips from the experts. Incorporate the different techniques that will make your page or web site very attractive to potentialcustomers such as putting quality photos, writing short descriptive articles and describing the quality, make, source and price. Make sure you update the items and information regularly. Respond to questions and concerns immediately and offer other informativedevices to make their stay enjoyable.

You might want to invest in professional help to ensure that the site is helpful to all incoming visitors. Navigation should be easy so you can successfully lead customers into making purchases. For example, if you’re selling an engraved money clip, compriseall the details and map out the path until the sale is completed.

Affiliate Marketing

You can also work with affiliates or be an affiliate marketer yourself to boost income. These individuals are highly skilled in leading the right customers to your domain. Just make sure that they representyour product or service the best way possible.

Offer training courses and other materials to appear very credible. In the long run, you will find that they also employ the same strategies such as exchanging links, writing articles or putting up single-page web sites. I have successfully sold hundreds of attractive mens wallets through effectiveaffiliate marketing.

If you intend to join a program, assess the company background first and ask for referrals to determine if you are truly interested in selling their goods. You will better make sales if you are actually interested in the product you’re representing. I join 2 to 3 good companies at a time to appreciablyboost income.

Sell Rare Books

Thursday, January 1st, 2009

Sell Rare Books

There are many book lovers out there and most of them collect books. On the other hand, some may just want to find a certain book that their parents or grandparents had read to them, or one that a relative wrote long ago. If you can find these books for them, whatever the reason, you are in business. Charge your customers 20% above the cost of the book, with a minimum of $20. This is your “finder’s fee.” Your service will make many people very happy!

Specializing in finding these specific books for your customers could be a great ‘business idea’ to get started in. This type of business should especially appeal to a book lover. If you can find these wanted books for your customers, whatever their reason for wanting a certain book, or books, you are in business.

Many people that are not skilled in finding things on the Internet will especially want to use your service. Yes, there are still a lot of people that do not know how to find things on the Internet! The Internet will be one of the best sources for you to use in finding some of these hard-to-find books, even books that have been out of print for decades. At the end of this article, you will see a list of just a few sources that you can use on the Internet.

Other places to find these older books are; used bookstores, estate sales, garage or yard sales, thrift stores, libraries (they have regular sales of books not kept), auctions, etc. It takes a keen eye sometimes in finding some of these books, but be persistent.

Because there are many book lovers out there and scores of them collect books, you should have a very successful business. Finding customers will be work once you have established reliable sources for your book finding. Advertise in local newspapers and magazines if you can. Try to pick a unique business name that represents the aim of your business too. Place your business in the yellow pages also if you can. You might also check with your local libraries and see if you can post a flyer with your business information on it, for those book loving people that are searching for a specific book to buy.

Charge your customers 20% above the cost of the book, with a minimum of $20. This is your “finder’s fee.” This should cover the cost of your efforts to locate the books your customers are looking for.

After you have been in business for a while you may notice a trend with some books that people are searching for, pick these up whenever you get a chance, knowing that you will have a customer asking for it in the future. You may find that you will need to maintain an extra room set aside just for storing certain popular books that you have found in your searches. Because your commodity is books, you will need to keep them stored in a dry, safe place and try to keep them in an easy to find organized fashion. Maintaining your stock in this way will make your business more enjoyable and you will have less hassle finding the books your customers are looking for. When you see the joy on people’s faces when they are able to own a book they have been looking for many years for, you will love the business you are in!

If you decide to open a business like this on the Internet, be sure to ship the books insured and always wrap them in a way that shows that the book is of great value. This will usually include tissue paper and possibly extra cardboard to maintain the shape of the book. Don’t just throw the books in an envelope and ship them. You really want your customers to enjoy receiving their sought-after book and feel like they paid for an exclusive service that they may want to use again in the future.

Resources:

http://www.bookfinder.com/

http://www.alibris.com/

http://www.abebooks.com

http://www.amazon.com

http://www.ebay.com