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!
Remove the Welcome to the Frontpage in Joomla
How to Remove the “Welcome to the Frontpage” Title in Joomla
Hey everyone. Today has been crazy and hectic so I wanted to cover something easy, but it’s a question that gets asked a lot by those who are new to Joomla.
The question is “How do I remove the Welcome to the Frontpage message in Joomla.”
When you first setup Joomla, a lot of the time people will choose the option to have Joomla generate sample content so they have something to mess around with while they learn the program.
This is a good option if you are new because Joomla will create menus, and articles using all the different features available in the program. Because Joomla has generated all the content right from the get go there are some settings that can be hard to find if you are trying to modify existing menus and articles for your site.
The biggest question that people seem to ask when they are changing these pages is “How do I get the rid of the Welcome to the Frontpage message in Joomla”. This is actually pretty easy to do. It is just really hard to locate where this setting is in the program.
In Joomla all menus and articles have different sections where you can set parameters for that item. In this case the title that is being displayed on the main page is actually a parameter that has been set in a sub menu.
To find this setting and change it you need to do the following things:
Click on the “Menus” tab and select the “Home” menu.
Once you are in the Home menu edit screen, you will see some extra options for this menu to the right hand side.
Basic
Advanced
Component
System
Click on the System option and drop down menu will open up. One of the options in here is “Page Title” where you will see “Welcome to the Frontpage!”
Go ahead and change this to whatever you like, for example “Welcome to Pseudorant!”
You will also notice that there is an option to turn these titles off entirely if you do not want them to show up on the pages.
This seems like a really simple thing and it is, they just decided to put this in a really out of the way place in Joomla.
I hope this has helped some people if they are running into this with a new install of Joomla. Thanks for visiting Pseudorant, please check back soon for new articles!
How to Install Programs in Kubuntu Linux
Installing Applications on Kubuntu Linux – The “Easy” Way!
Hey all. Today’s guide is going to cover how to install programs in Kubuntu Linux. This is very important for someone who is new to the Linux operating system because it allows you to install the programs you need to work on your computer.
As I have mentioned before I am gearing this series of articles towards people who are new to Linux and need guides on how to perform basic functions. There are a lot of guides out there that cover the advanced features of Linux but not many that will walk people through the basic things they need to know to get started.
(This guide pertains to using Adept Manager in KDE on Kubuntu, this information will not apply to all versions of Linux)
For this guide we are going to be working with a program called “Adept Manager”. Now if you are new to Linux (like me) and you are coming over from a Windows System (like me) you are probably used to working with EXE setup packages and the “Add / Remove Programs” manager in control panel.
Adept Manager is similar to “Add / Remove Programs” in some respects and working with it can have the same feel, although Adept Manager actually gives you much more control over what applications you are installing or removing.
The first thing we need to do is open the program. It can be found by going to the following location:
K Menu > System > Adept Manager – Manage Packages
When you click on this program you will be prompted for your root password. Go ahead and enter your password and the program will open.
Once the program opens you will see a list of available software you can install onto your system. A really nice feature of Adept Manager is that is allows you to search for a program name, so instead of needing to scroll through the list you can use the “Search” feature at the top of the list.
For our example let’s install a program called “GIMP”. Gimp is an image manipulation program similar to Photoshop that allows to create and edit graphical image files on your system. This can be very handy for designing images for websites, editing digital camera pictures and just passing the time when you are bored.
Now let’s type “Gimp” into the search window at the top of Adept Manager. Once you have typed the program name Adept Manager is going to bring back any instance of the keyword in program titles and descriptions.
When Adept Manager is done searching you should see a list of several programs. The GIMP installer should be close to the top of this list of programs.
If you are unsure of what each item is your can check over to the right column where it will give you a description of what you are installing. In this case we are going to select the package that just says “Gimp” and you can see by reading the description that this is “The GNU Image Manipulation Program”
Once you click on the package name you will see two buttons, “Request Install” and “Details”. To install GIMP you will want to choose the “Request Install” button and then you will notice the information in the “Requested” column change, letting you know this program is going to be installed once you apply the changes.
Now would also be a good time to look at other packages and their descriptions to decide if you need install anything else that will go along with this program. For the sake of our example you should be okay by just selecting Gimp.
Once you have your programs selected you will want to go to the top of Adept Manager and choose the “Apply Changes” button. (with the green check mark)
When you click on the “Apply Changes” button you will see Adept Manager connect to the internet and download the program/s you requested. Once the files have downloaded Adept Manager will proceed to install them on your system. If you would like to see exactly what it is doing you can click on the “Details” button for more information on what is going on in the background.
Once the files have been download and installed Adept Manager will take you back to the programs screen, and you should now see the status of the program you selected set to “Installed” (displayed in green). Anything that is not on your system will reflect the status “Not Installed” (displayed in blue)
Once Adept Manager has finished installing the program you can go to your K Menu and check out the new software you installed. It will usually be organized under the appropriate menu for the type of application you choose. In this case since we chose a graphics manipulation program we would want to check under “Graphics”
K Menu > Graphics > GIMP
Now you can see that when you click on Gimp, the application opens and you can now use your new software.
Congratulations! You now know how to install programs in Linux (Kubuntu). There are actually other ways to install program in Linux by downloading Linux based versions of programs, or using command line methods but for the sake of simplicity this is the method we are going to cover today.
Now let’s say you accidentally installed a program you don’t need? Not a problem. Go back into Adept Manager, and removing the program can be done is much the same way as installing an application.
In Adept Manager do a search for the name of the program you want to remove and you should see it come up on the list of applications. You can verify if the program is actually installed on your system or not by checking the “Status” column. If the status is “Installed” you know that you have found the correct program.
Now click on the package name as if you were going to install it and you should see that one of the buttons now says “Request Removal” and you will see the status of the “Request” column change to “Remove”.
Once this has been done click the “Apply Changes” button at the top of Adept Manager. Now once again you will see a prompt that looks very similar to the installation procedure except this time once it finishes, the unwanted software should be removed from your system
Grats! You should now have a much better understanding of the main purpose of Adept Manager and how to install and remove programs from your Kubuntu, Linux system.
In this guide we have really only covered the basic functions within Adept Manager so feel free to explore and check out other options and menus that it offers you. The best way to learn about something is by exploring it, and since the purpose of these guides is about learning Linux this will provide you the most benefit.
As always thanks for checking out Pseudorant and please recommend us to your friends! We appreciate the support and having readers motivates us to strive to improve the site for everyone. Thanks again!
How to Install Windows on Linux
Setting up a Virtual Machine in Kubuntu
Todays guide is going to cover how to setup a Virtual Machine on Kubuntu so you can install Windows or any other operating system you prefer onto Linux.
The reason this may be useful is because sometimes new users to Linux can run into compatibility issues with certain programs, or may not be able to find a program that does what they need it to do.
A good example for me is that I have been a designer on Windows for so long I NEED to use Photoshop. GIMP is a nice program but I have 10+ years of training in Photoshop and I tend to use it on a daily basis.
This is a good example of where having a virtual machine is useful. Because I am new to Linux myself I can’t tell you if there is a version of Photoshop for Linux or not. But because I have already paid for my license I am going to continue to use this software for as long as possible to get my moneys worth.
So without further delay let’s discuss how to install Windows onto Kubuntu by creating a Virtual Machine.
…
The first thing you need to do is install “Virtualbox”. You can do this using “Adept Manager”.
K Menu > System > Adept Manager
Once you have Adept Manager open do a search for “Virtualbox”.
Once the program returns search results find:
“Virtualbox-OSE” and click on the program title.
This will open a drop down menu that has a button that says “Request Install”. Press this button. Repeat these steps for:
“Virtualbox-OSE-Modules-2.6.24.16-generic” and…
“Virtualbox-OSE-Modules-generic”
(I believe I needed to install these files in addition to Virtualbox to get the program to work.)
Once you have these three items selected click the “Apply Changes” button at the top of Adept Manager.
You will now see some installation screens while Adept Manager loads the applications onto your system. Adept Manager is an easy way to add and remove programs from Kubuntu.
Once Adept Manager finishes up you need to open Virtualbox. Go to:
K Menu > System > Virtualbox (which should now show up in this menu)
Now we will want to setup our new operating system in Virtualbox.
Click the “New” button in Virtualbox. This will open the new Virtual Machine dialog. Click “Next”.
Now type the name for the new Virtual Machine. I am going to use a name that will describe what we are installing, so I’ll pick “Windows XP”.
You can also select the OS type from a drop down menu below this. Choose your OS from the list.
The next screen will allow you to choose the amount of base memory you would like to assign to the virtual machine. Going with the default will probably be fine. I selected 256mb for Windows XP and it runs great on my old laptop in Virtualbox. (I believe the default was 196mb)
The next screen allows you to setup a virtual hard disk. Since we are setting up our first Virtual Machine we will select “New” which will open another dialog box.
In the “Create New Virtual Disk” wizard click “Next” to begin.
For our “Disk Image Type” let’s go with the “Dynamically Expanding Image” to make a more efficient use of our hard drive space. (Keep in mind I am doing this on a laptop so space in a factor)
Then select an image file name. I am going to name mine “Windows XP” so it matches the virtual machine name. Then select an image size.
Since you will be using the OS to work and test things you probably won’t be installing games or downloading so you shouldn’t need a really large disk size. (Unless you plan to do those things.)
For a Windows installation I would recommend between 4 to 6gb keeping Windows updates and service packs in mind.
Once you have selected a size, click “Next” this will take you to the final screen where you can click “Finish”. You have now setup a virtual hard disk and will be taken back to the previous setup dialog.
Click “Next” and then click “Finish”. You should now see the virtual machine you created appear on the left hand side of the screen.
There is one other thing we need to do before we can install our OS. We need to change account permissions to allow the virtual machine to operate properly.
Go to the “K Menu” > “System Settings” > “User Management” click on the button “Administrator Mode” in the lower right corner. Enter your root password.
Once you have done this double click on your user name and click the middle tab, “Privileges and Groups”. In the new menu you’ll see a menu to the right called “Secondary Group”, scroll all the way to the bottom of this menu.
Look for an option called “vboxusers” and make sure it is check marked, once you have done this click “OK” and close out of User Management.
Now go back to Virtualbox and insert the CD for the OS you are going to install. When you insert the disk Kubuntu may prompt you for what you would like to do. Ignore this and go back to Virtualbox.
Now on the information screen that is displayed on the right you should see some info about your virtual machine state. If you see nothing next to the “CD-Rom” section follow these steps before you start.
Make sure you have your Virtual Machine name highlighted and “right click” to bring up the menu. Select “Settings” from the top of the menu. In the settings window select “CD/DVD-Rom” from the left hand menu.
Under the CD/DVD-Rom select the “Mount CD/DVD Drive” option. You will now see other options become available.
Select “Host CD/DVD Drive”. (You may need to select the correct drive from the drop down menu if you have more than one drive in your system.)
Once you have done this click “OK”. You should now see your drive listed in the Virtual Machine information window.
Now make sure you have your Virtual Machine name highlighted and click the “Start” button at the top of Virtualbox.
You will now see a new window popup and virtual box should start the installation of your new OS. I am sure anyone installing XP onto their Kubuntu system is familiar with how to installation goes so I am not going to outline this part.
…
Congratulations! You have now setup your first Virtual Machine and are running Windows XP on Linux. Keep in mind that your Windows installation is full fledged and can do anything a normal Windows installation on a system can do.
Now that you are familiar with how to setup a virtual machine you can also play around and add other operating systems to your computer as you see fit. This is a really good way to experiment with other operating systems without having to commit to formating your current operating system.
I will post some follow-up articles when I find other cool things you can do with Virtualbox. If anyone has any suggestions or recommendations I would also be glad to see them in the comments.
Thanks again for checking out Pseudorant. Please tell your friends to checkout the site! I appreciate the support.
-
Buy a Review!
-
Sponsored Links
