Taking Your Business to the Next Level
Do Not Limit Your Business Potential by Limiting Your Payments
It is well recognized in business circles that the easier you make it for someone to pay for something the more likely they are to buy it. This relies on the “don’t make me think” mentality that most consumers operate under. People don’t want to solve a puzzle in order to purchase something. They just want to purchase it.
I first realized many of the difficulties people had with online forms of payment when I was selling on eBay years ago. Since then I have worked hard to understand how to make money online, internet marketing, SEO and all the other factors that can make or break a business.
With one of my latest ventures I finally decided it was time to step it up and play with the big boys, no more PayPal only payments. I now have my very own merchant account, which allows me to provide all the common merchant services you find on other sites to my customers. This means I am now a fully functional, credit card processing machine… or at least my website is.
My merchant account allows me to take orders and accept credit cards right through my website, which is much more convenient to people than sending PayPal payments to an email address. I never realized how easy it is to get setup for credit card processing, but now that I am, I wish I had done it sooner.
The company I went through is called Merchant Advisors and offers great service because you can actually sign up for a free merchant account if you are unsure that you want to commit to a service.
Always remember that online business is about ease of use, convenience, and creating easy conversions for your visitors. Accepting numerous forms of payment makes it easy for your customers, which will make it easier for you to succeed as a business.
The Key to a Successful Web Business is Internet Marketing
Internet Marketing is Important if you want to Succeed
A lot of my friends have been asking me lately how they can make extra money through a web based business. I have been making money online for several months now, and everyone I talk to is very impressed by how quickly I have turned a hobby into a money making venture.
Currently I am running numerous websites that all bring in regular monthly income. I have had people tell me that this is the best way to go because all the money adds up quickly. Well it does, and it doesn’t.
The most important thing I have learned from maintaining all these sites is that you can have a hundred websites and they won’t make you a penny if people don’t know they exist. Enter Internet Marketing.
Internet Marketing is one of the most critical considerations people need to make when trying to make money online with a web based business. Whether you are trying to make money online by blogging, or selling widgets you need to get exposure to make the most of the time you invest into your business.
Now because making money online can be time consuming in itself, sometimes there is not always time to learn all the latest and greatest internet marketing techniques. This is where internet marketing consultants come in.
Because it is simply not realistic to control every facet of your online business, it can be very helpful to work with an Internet Marketing Consultant to make sure you are making the most of all the opportunities available to your company.
There are many internet marketing consulting companies out there so always make sure to check reviews, and ask some questions before jumping into an agreement with someone.
One site I always come back to as a valuable resource is Danny Demichele’s website which offers great tips and news on internet marketing. Even if you are not working directly with Danny his site offers valuable information to help you safe guard your online business. If you have questions that are not covered on his site you can always hire Danny to get the answers to all your questions.
It still amazes me how many people who are trying to make a living online over look the importance of a good internet marketing campaign. Knowing this you already have an advantage over those who are going to cross their fingers and hope that Google finds them in the sea of millions of websites.
Saving For the Future is About More Than Just Oil
What is Your Plan to Safe Guard Your Life Goals?
I have been thinking about this a lot lately. It has probably been apparent from reading some of my previous posts. I am very excited about the prospect of alternative fuel vehicles, but also things as simple as saving money on clothes and other daily needs.
In the past few weeks I have been mulling over a lot of things relating to this. How secure is my job? Were can I cut expenses in my home, and life. How can I make extra streams of income? Is my home secure? These are all important questions people should be asking themselves in light of the current economy in our country.
Lately I have been digging around for different ways to manage money. I have come across some good resources which help you to save more money, but looking at all these questions has made me realize I do not have a clear vision of what might come in the long term.
Now none of us can know what to expect down the road, but there are things we can do to try and prepare for the future. In addition to saving money, having a survival plan in the back of our minds is very important. I found a great resource at Bills.com when I was researching long term financial plans on Google.
I stumbled across their Bills IQ test which is actually pretty cool. It is a quick test that you can do in about 3 minutes that rates your financial knowledge on things like Credit counseling, Budgeting and Planning for the Future. I took the test and scored a 91% A, and most of my suspicions were confirmed when I scored the lowest on the “Life Plan” section. I definitely need to start looking toward the future.
I also realized that most my short term financial decisions are pretty good. I think having recently purchased a house, and paying close attention to the news and economy has really helped me focus on good short term planning.
The main thing I’ve learned,
Is to look to the Future.
Long term can start now.
I think people should really start looking toward the future. I see too many people I know squandering money day after day as though they just need to make it to the end of the month. The things I have learned lately makes me realize that planning for the unknown is just another important part of life. Regardless of what it relates to.
How to Make Money Online with FREE Gift Cards
Saving Money by Shopping with Free Gift Cards
For my second article about creative ways to make money online we are going to be talking about how to make / save money by shopping with FREE gift cards. Now I know what you are all thinking, oh great, some scam article about gift cards.
Not at all. This is a method my fiancée has perfected to the point where in the past month she has got us about $300 in free stuff using gift cards.
As I mentioned in my first guide I am writing these articles to be straight to the point so that they do not require any technical savvy, so that way everyone can benefit from them.
The free gift card method is VERY easy to use and just requires you to keep your eyes open, get yourself in the right places at the right times (for some of them) and be creative with the ways you purchase things.
How Do I Get Free Gift Cards?
That’s a great question. As a matter of fact when my fiancée started doing this I asked her the exact same thing. One day I started noticing all this new stuff sitting around the house. The family room had been re-decorated, there was a digital picture frame on an end table, she had 3 new kitchen appliances, a bunch of stuff from Home Depot, etc.
I asked her where she had got all this extra money and she told me she bought it all with free gift cards. I responded to her “woot?”.
She went on to tell me about 3 methods she had been using in the past 2 weeks to get free gift cards.
I am going to outline each of her methods below so that anyone can benefit from her techniques because I was so amazed she had come up with something so crafty.
Method #1 – Shopping Receipts & Surveys
She told me that her first method was getting gift cards by filling out surveys mentioned on receipts she had received when she went out shopping. One great example of this is Target.
She had been shopping at Target and when she came home she was looking over her receipt. She is in marketing, so she tends to pay more attention to the small print than most people and she said after she finished checking the receipt she noticed a blurb on the back (in small print) about taking an online survey.
For completing the survey she would receive a $25 dollar gift certificate to Target. She went online expecting to waste half an hour and end up with nothing, or to get spammed from hundreds of mailing lists.
To her surprise she was not even required to enter an email address and was done with the survey 5 minutes later. I was standing there watching and laughed when I noticed it said “please allow 4-6 weeks for shipping”. I told her that was the catch right there.
Well 3 days later she came into the kitchen laughing at me and waving around her $25 dollar gift card that had arrived in the mail that day.
After this she started checking her receipts much closer, because she started seeing all sorts of promotional opportunities on them. Whether it was for gift cards or online discounts she noticed a lot of the major label stores out there were always running some sort of promotion or competition if you just knew where to look.
With this in thought in mind she pointed out she could even use receipts from friends because you were usually just required to enter a code from the receipt itself.
She pointed out that major label stores do this because it is cheaper than hiring a marketing firm to do these surveys for them and providing a gift card to their store ensures return business from that customer.
Well I could really care less about why they did it. We had just bought a house in the last few months, and we would need to go to Target anyway, so having free money to spend there was a huge bonus!
She continued to check receipts for a few weeks and managed to accumulate about $150 in free gift cards or promotions that we were able to use at stores we needed to shop at anyway. She told me the key was always reading the fine print and knowing where to look after having come across a couple of promotions.
Her advice was to always check the small print on the bottom and backs of receipts to find great promotional offers or contests. Because they are all through well known stores there was less worry about getting spammed, after signing up for these promotions.
The second method is more hit or miss but also provided free gift certificates that saved us some money.
Method #2 – In-Store Surveys and Promotions
The next time she came across free gift card opportunities she was out shopping with her mother. They were at another big label store and were stopped by a person asking if they would be willing to take a customer satisfaction survey. They offered her and her mother a $10 gift card each for taking a 5 minute in store survey.
Now this method may be harder to come across but she let me know that she has had pretty good luck with it by going to the mall to do her shopping. Especially on the weekends. In some cases there was nothing offered to her for taking the survey so she simply asked “What do I get for taking the survey” and all of a sudden gift cards were being offered. It’s funny how simply asking “what do I get” turns a marketing group from offering nothing, to giving you free stuff.
Once again she completed the surveys and was handed free gift cards on the spot. In the past month she has completed 3 different surveys like this, totaling about $35 in free gift cards.
The last method and probably the best to use has netted her around $300 in free gift cards and items. I wanted to save this one for last as it was the most creative and also the best method that she has come up with.
Method #4 – Credit Card Reward Points & Gift Cards
Now I know right off the bat here people are thinking “oh great credit cards and APR catches”. Let me stop you right there. This technique is probably the best I have seen and at most will cost you about a dollar or two in interest a month, while getting you hundreds of dollars worth of free gift cards.
In fact, let me mention that using this method has worked SO well for the both of us, that we have never paid more than a couple dollars in interest a month, and each have a credit rating of 800+ (The max is 850 if you are not familiar with credit ratings)
The key to getting free gift cards for credit card purchases is having a credit card with a great rewards program and always paying for stuff from your “savings”.
Now let me clarify what I mean by that. You will purchase almost everything you buy with your credit card, but when purchasing items you can only spend what you have money in your savings account to cover. You NEVER borrow!
Doing this will ensure that you are paying hardly anything in interest rates because you are constantly paying off your credit card. When I was initially building credit I used to only pay my credit card off once a month. Now I pay my credit card off whenever I have a balance on it.
The key here is having the discipline not to borrow money. Because that will defeat the whole purpose of this.
A great example of how this works is we were planning a vacation to Disney World in Orlando, Florida. We had been saving for two years and knew how much the trip was going to cost. We had saved up a few thousand dollars, but took our credit cards on the trip instead of debit / check cards.
The credit cards we had, gave you rewards points for almost every type of purchase you made and even more for things like gas, food, hotels, etc. (Depending on the company and the card). We spent quiet a bit of money on the trip, but as soon as we got home a week later we completely payed off the balance on these cards with the money we had saved up for the vacation.
Even so, we had still made all the purchases on these cards, most of which provided us with rewards points. When we got back and paid off the cards my fiancée went to the credit card website and started filling out the gift card forms to turn our points into free money.
Once again it said “please allow 4 to 6 weeks for shipping”. In less than a week we received about $250 in Gift Cards, along with another $150 dollars worth of free merchandise from remaining points. (ones that could not be redeemed for Gift Cards). Needless to say the gift cards helped out a lot with things around the new house, and all the free stuff was great too! My favorite is the 7″ digital picture frame we received.
Overview
That sums up the three main methods my fiancée uses to get us free gift cards. She has a knack for saving us money and this is one of her many ways.
I will try to list anything else she shows me in a follow-up guide. As I have said before I am trying to write some practical “how to make money” guides for people. These are not “get rich quick” schemes or “how to make millions”. They are habits that if practiced regularly, can not only save you a fortune, they can provide a lot of free spending money that can help out around the house.
Please check back for my future guides on practical ways to make money. If you liked this article please leave me a comment with a suggestions with feedback for future articles.
Thanks again for checking out Pseudorant! We appreciate the support!
Practical Ways to Make Money Online by Selling on eBay
Making Money Selling Products on eBay and the Internet
Todays guide is going to be a little different. I want to talk a little about different ways that people use the internet to make money.
This is going to be different than a lot of those other guides out there because I am not going to tell you to “buy my book” nor will I try to convince someone of a sure fire offer (MLM) that is really just a bogus way to make someone else money.
For this guide we are going to take a look at several different “proven” methods people use to make money online. These may not teach you “how to make millions” but they will definitely help provide more stability in the current economic climate of the US.
There are many common ways that people make money online. They do not require you to be a technical genius and they do not require you to give up all your free time to make them happen.
As I started writing this guide I realized I could offer a lot more value to the readers by breaking it into sections so I could go into detail on each area. Todays section of the guide will be making money by selling on eBay.
eBay
eBay is an online auction website that allows users to buy and sell items by creating auctions for users to browse. Users can search for items they would like to buy, which helps narrow down markets when looking for collectible or hard to find items.
There are several good ways to make money online with eBay. I am going to cover some of the most common methods that I have personally used and that I know work well.
Sell Junk
The most common method is finding junk in your basement or storage areas that someone else may be very interested in. Remember the old saying “One man’s trash is another mans treasure”. This is doubly true for eBay because of the large market of buyers it opens you up to.
Imagine if you could specify what you were looking for at a garage sale and then be directed to the exact house that has that item. Well eBay is kind of like that, in that it offers exposure to niche sales areas that might not have been available otherwise.
Selling junk is pretty straight forward so I am not going to cover the details. The basics are you find some old stuff you don’t want, sell it on eBay and make an extra buck here and there.
The next method is a much better way to make money and can be a lot more fun for the seller.
Sell Collectibles
Another common method for making money on eBay is selling collectibles. I used to do this a couple years ago and made a lot of extra money by selling collectible Toys. The recommendation to sellers when working with collectibles is pick something that you know, or have a passion for. This way you can get really knowledgeable on what you sell.
Toys were a really good area for me because I grew up in the 1980’s. This gave me a lot of insight into collectible toys from this era including G.I. Joe, He-man, Thundercats, M.U.S.C.L.E and more. Two common methods I used to gather my inventory were going to garage sales, and buying on eBay.
I used to get a lot of my inventory by going to garage sales all summer long and digging through peoples toy bins. It’s amazing how many mothers sell of their kids old toys when they go off to college. I would offer these moms about 20 dollars for a full bin of toys (once I knew it had valuable pieces I wanted) and they were just happy to see someone take their “garbage” off their hands. It’s funny that I could go home, clean up these toys, match them with sets I had already collected, and sell them for 5 times what I paid for them.
Another great way to get inventory if you are too tired to get up early and go to garage sales is to look for these same types of sales on eBay. That’s right! You can buy stuff and resell it on eBay and make a killing also. This has become harder to do in the past few years because people have started to catch on to this idea and are doing it themselves.
Basically you are looking for that same mom who sold off her sons toys at the garage sale but this time she is doing it on eBay. She is very easy to spot because she usually has an account with about 50-150 feedback, doesn’t list in detail what is included in the “toy lot” (because she doesn’t know what she has) and is running other auctions for plates, clothes, baby stuff and a lot of other junk you would see at a garage sale. Even better is she will sometimes even put a “buy it now” on the auction and you can scoop it up for next to nothing.
This worked out great for me a couple times. One time I came across a G.I. Joe lot and bought it for $50. I got the toys in the mail, unpacked them and took new / better pictures, and re-listed them that same day. I was able to resell the same lot of toys for $150 dollars having done nothing more than take new pictures and market the auction better.
The methods I am listing apply to any type of collectibles you would like to sell. Whether it’s toys, jewelry, or antiques these methods still apply. Other great resources to gather inventory include “Goodwill”, “St. Vincents” small antique or toy stores, estate sales, offering to clear junk out of someones basement if you can keep the stuff they don’t want, dumpster diving, etc.
Dumpster Diving
Dumpster diving? Eww gross. Hold on just one second, it’s better than you think.
Dumpster diving is checking trash on the curb and in dumpsters for anything valuable that can be resold. This may sound gross but if you know the right techniques to use it can be very clean and profitable.
The city I live in is a college town, and because of this each year there is a college move out day. This is known as “Dumpster Diving” day. Me and my friends will go downtown and check dumpsters outside dorms and frat houses and are amazed, because instead of trash you find all the stuff that some kids parents bought for them that they were too lazy to move when leaving for the summer.
This has included bikes, complete dish ware sets, radios, stereos, DVD players, light fixtures, furniture, and even an arsenal of Super Soaker’s. 90% of these items were in perfect condition and were VERY easy to resell. I would make a couple hundred dollars every year when Dumpster Diving day rolled around.
Another way to ensure your getting “clean” inventory is by checking dumpsters behind retail stores. Depending on where you go this can be frowned upon so just be polite if you are asked to leave. A retail dumpster can be considered private property so don’t preach to anyone about trash being public domain.
I have found that some of the best dumpsters are not behind Best Buys or Circuit City. (As most people would think) The reason being is anything that is supposed to get thrown out that is valuable, is taken by employees. (And these dumpsters are usually locked.) The best dumpsters are located behind “Office Supply Stores”. Let me tell you why.
Office supply stores carry a lot of merchandise that is similar to Best Buy or other electronics stores. Because of this they can end up throwing out some great stuff. Two prime examples are magazines and software. Both magazines and software have expiration dates and once they have passed the stores are instructed to throw them away to make room for the new stock. This stuff goes straight in the dumpster.
I had had very good luck reselling 1 month old magazine lots for $20-30 dollars. I have also had GREAT luck reselling retail boxed software and usually make a ton off this. Other things you may find are furniture that was “slightly” damaged in the store, office supplies, briefcases, luggage, and all sorts of stuff a business would love to buy on eBay to save a fortune on.
Be creative and think about the types of stores that might be good to check. Always be polite about dumpster diving and if you are asked to leave then do so. But as I said before “One mans trash is another mans treasure”. This proves that is true.
Clearance Racks
Another great method for getting inventory for eBay is climbing out of the dumpster and going into the store. Now it’s almost impossible to make any money by buying something in a retail store and re-listing it on eBay. (Although one method works well that I will mention next.) But you can always look for clearance racks. Depending on how well a store is run the clearance rack can contain a veritable load of crap, but in some cases it can be pure gold!
Once example of a poorly managed store is “Staples” office supply store. They are terrible with their inventory, and stuff gets damaged there all the time. Because of this, there is a lot of great stuff that ends up on clearance. I once found a pile of leather wallets, business cards holders, cell phone cases, and PDA protectors that were selling for .50 cents each there. I bought every single one and walked out with 2 bags full of genuine Samsonite leather goods, which cost me about $25 dollars total.
I re-listed these same items on eBay starting at $4.99 a piece. Almost every one sold for $9.99 or more including the $2-3 dollars I made off handling fees (in my shipping costs). In total I made about $150-200 dollars off all the items. This is a great example of clearance gold mines at retail stores.
Exclusive or Promotional Items
The other method I mentioned that actually works well can sometimes be frowned upon because it creates competition for goods that would otherwise not be a problem. Some people consider this bad etiquette, but it is exactly what manufacturers do when they market an item. The people have just learned these practices and now engage in them also.
The technique I am referring to is buying items that you know “are” or “will be” in demand, and then reselling them on eBay. Or sitting on the item until the demand is realized and then reselling it on eBay. A classic example of this was all the craziness that surround the “Tickle Me Elmo Doll” phenomenon. Fast forward to current day and I’ll outline a current example of this that still works.
(As I mentioned before I am writing this guide to provide valuable, real life information for people. Because of this I am giving up a great secret money maker I use from time to time when I need extra cash, especially around the holidays.)
A current version of this technique that still works is buying toy “exclusive” releases and then selling them on eBay. Toys R’ Us is well known for their exclusive toy lines on things ranging from Transformers, to G.I. Joes and Barbie. I used to go to Toys R’ Us about once a week and buy an exclusive toy/s. I would then go home and check on eBay to see if many people were selling them. If they were (which was often the case) I would sit on the toy for a couple weeks.
Once this time had passed, all the people selling on eBay had cleared out their stock and Toy’s R’ Us was pretty much sold out around the country. This is when I would finally list the toy. Now two factors applied to why my auction would do so well. Number one, no one on eBay was selling this item anymore so there was no competition. Number 2 was that while some Toys R’ Us stores might still have that item, places like California and New York had been sold out for a long time so parents in these areas would pay out the nose to get there kid the latest and greatest *whatever* to keep them from crying until the end of time.
Like a lot of the stuff I am listing this method can be applied to any type of “Exclusive” or “Promotional” items.
The last method I would like to talk about is selling Information Products on eBay.
Information Products
Now this can be the hardest, or easiest method to making money on eBay depending on your frame of mind and motivation. Information products are basically anything that provides a consumer with valuable needed information.
You could look at this blog as a type of information product as it offers valuable advice about numerous topics. I do the blog for free because I enjoy writing but I have sold information products on eBay in the past, and if done right it can make you a lot of money,
The reason it can make you good money is because information products do not cost you money, only time. If you have a free weekend consider sitting down and writing an article about something you know. Once this has been done, that one article can be reproduced as many times as needed for anyone who wants to buy it.
This is how software companies make their money. A lot of time and effort goes into R&D to create the software but once that has been done they just copy a CD several million times over and sell a 5 cent plastic disk for $50 to 400 dollars.
The great thing about information products is you don’t even need to provide a disk. Sometimes it can be a good idea to do so because customers like receiving a physical product, but in other cases customer’s are in a hurry to receive the information they need, so they are happy to have it emailed to them.
In the cases where you do ship items I usually charge anywhere from $2-4 dollars because the customer is forcing me to package something and go down to the post office. It requires extra time and energy on my part not to mention fuel costs lately, but if they are fine with the shipping cost I will do that for them. This way I also make an extra $2-3 bucks on shipping.
The key to selling an information product on eBay is defining a need for a certain type of information and meeting that need. If you are the first to come out with a great idea and can market it before anyone else you stand to make the bulk of the profit. Once other people see what you are doing they are going to copy you but by this time you should have already made enough money on your first info product to move onto the next new thing, and let the copy cats fight over the few remaining potential buyers.
One great example of a “hot” info product was whoever first started selling the “cheat code” CD’s on ebay. Someone just put together a list with thousands of cheat codes for video games and sold a ton of these CDs. It was so successful for the first couple people that did this, that it has become one of the most widely “copied” info products sold on eBay.
I have found that real guides about how to do things offer more value to people. Your range of potential buyers may be smaller but those who are interested in your product are usually willing to pay a little bit more to get it.
For information products there is no guaranteed way to do business. That is why I mentioned this can either be the hardest or easiest area to approach depending on how to look at things. It can be very frustrating if you have never done it before, but at the same time it can be very rewarding if you do it right and figure out the keys to making consistent money with it.
If I had any concrete methods I would list them here for you, but as with any type of information or technology the “hot” topics are constantly changing. The best thing you can do is keep your ear to the ground and try to spot the next big thing on the horizon.
Overview
Well I hope you enjoyed my first “How to Make Money Online” guide. As I mentioned above this guide is geared to be more practical so that anyone can benefit from it. I don’t think being tech savvy should be a requirement for helping people to make ends meet.
I will be posting some follow-up guides along these lines since this guide focused mostly on how to find things to sell on eBay. Keep in mind that these methods would apply to any type of online store or website that you need to create an inventory for. This is also true for information products that can be sold through hundreds of websites.
If you have read the blog, you will know I like to write my articles for everyone in terms we can all understand. The methods I have listed here are pretty easy but can make you a good secondary income if you pursue them as though it was a part time job.
With the current economy in the US we are all looking for how to make an extra buck, and I wish people would write more guides with practical methods for doing this instead of writing crap about “How to Make MILLIONS with Your Blog” because no one has actually done this.
Look at some of the A List blogs out there. While these guys do make a lot of money, they themselves will tell “it’s hard work” and “not anyone can do it”. If you have the dedication and follow through, that may be something you want to pursue. If you are like most people out there and just need to pay the bills I will try to share insights I have had over the past several years of working with computers and making money online to give you ideas of things you can actually do with very little technical knowledge.
Keep an eye out for my follow-up articles for how to make money online. I would be very interested in receiving feedback, comments, and questions in regard to this particular article to help me offer even more valuable advice in my next guide in this series.
Once again thank you very much for visiting Pseudorant. I really appreciate the support and have noticed an increase in traffic everyday. It makes me very happy to see that there is an interest in the articles we are doing. Please let me know if there is anything you would like to see on the site, and we will try our best to make it happen. Have a great weekend!
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