Posted by M.S. on August 13, 2009
In this economic slowdown, would you like to make extra money or build a business selling on the Internet?
Take a look at the 10 simple steps to improve your chances of making money selling on eBay!
I have learned these techniques as a successful eBay Powerseller, selling on eBay since 1998, and I now have over 4,000 positive feedbacks.
Now, I am trained by eBay as an Education Specialist & I can help you be successful on eBay too!
The Top Ten Things You Can do to be Successful on eBay!
1. Research the item: Be sure you know everything you can about the item you are listing, so you can accurately describe it and determine an approximate value. Research the item by doing a Google search.
2. Start with a low starting price. I always start with a $9.99 starting price and have a no reserve auction. This means the item will sell to the highest bidder. Low starting prices encourages participation and bidding. You can protect yourself with a reserve auction for a valuable piece.
3. End auctions on Sunday evenings. I always start my auctions on a Sunday evening around 9 pm Eastern time. (That is 6 pm West Coast time.) That way, the auction will end 7 days later at the same time. That is prime time for people to be on their computers and bidding! eBay traffic proves that’s a great time!
4. Include Important Keywords in the Title. Did you know that your title is critically important to your eBay listing & is the main way people will find your item? For that reason, research all the important words that people associate with this item. Look at other eBay listings to see keywords others have included in their auction listings for similar items.
5. Write a catchy description and include all details. Write as if you were writing an ad—because you are! The description & photos are the only way buyers can learn about the item & decide to buy. Include all flaws or damage about the item. People get very upset & leave negative feedback if you are not honest about the condition.
6. Take great photos. Great photos in good lighting is crucial! Include as many photos as you need to show all the features of the item. Take close ups of significant features of the piece. Make it easy for prospective buyers to get excited about your item! Then they will bid more!
7. Keep Shipping Costs Low or Free. Set shipping prices low. Use the Paypal shipping feature that allows you to print US Post Office labels from home with free delivery confirmation included. The mail carrier picks them up from you for FREE- so no more trips to the post office.
8. Be available during the auction to answer questions. Check your e-mail often throughout the day and evening. People will have questions & they expect timely responses, so answer them promptly.
9. Ship the items as soon as you are paid. I love accepting Paypal, since they handle the entire financial portion of the transaction. Once a payment is in your Paypal account, you can ship, since it is considered cleared. Buyers LOVE it when you ship quickly. That helps encourage positive feedback!
10. Be generous with positive feedback. I leave glowing positive feedback as soon as I ship the item to a buyer. This sets a pleasant tone & the buyer is in a positive frame of mind when they receive their item. Then, they are much more likely to leave me positive feedback!
Go to InternetAuctionDiva.com for a schedule of eBay classes starting soon, so you can begin making money on the Internet!
Be sure to check out my blog posts on TheDealDivas on the Charlotte Observer’s online website for lots of frugal tips and easy ways to save & make lots of money!
Posted by M.S. on June 4, 2009
If there were 8 simple rules you could follow that would help you build a fortune and a satisfying life, would you be interested to learn about them?
Just in time for Summer reading, I recently came across a very inspiring book written by Dwight R Lee and Richard B McKenzie called “Getting Rich in America“.
I highly recommend this book because the focus of the book is on “ordinary people” like you and me, people of modest means and talents and how they “made it” through simple steps taken without sacrificing their quality of life.
I believe wholeheartedly in the idea that if you want to accomplish something, model someone that has already done it. This book uses real life examples of people that have accumulated enough money to be financially independent and tells you how to do that too!
They went from Frugal to Rich!
Here are the 8 Simple Rules featured in the book:
1. Think of America as the Land of Choices
2. Take Compound Interest Seriously
3. Resist Temptation
4. Get a Good Education
5. Get Married and Stay Married
6. Take Care of Yourself
7. Take Prudent Risks
8. Strive for Balance
The quote from Ben Franklin at the front of the book explains it well. “The way to wealth is as plain as the way to market. It depends chiefly on 2 words, industry and frugality: that is neither waste time nor money, but make the best use of both. Without industry and frugality, nothing will do; and with them-everything!”
So basically, that means work hard and be frugal! If you save your money and invest, it will build wealth!
Look at these thought provoking questions the authors pose to help you on your way to getting rich!
Buy it used on Amazon.com or request it for FREE at your local library!
It is well worth your time!
Posted by M.S. on June 2, 2009
Have you been looking for a way to raise some extra cash? You have come to the right place!
Let me give you a heads up on several categories where eBay is offering discounted listing fees right now! You can make some money while you work from home!
Starting today and going through June 15, Fixed Price Insertion Fees on eBay will be just 5¢ for golf clubs, cameras, cell phones and other similar type items.
All listings must be created with the Product Details feature (Pre-filled Item Information). Product Details automatically fills in your listing with the item information and a stock photo. How much easier can you get?
Don’t have any of those items laying around? Go to some yard sales! I see this kind of stuff there all the time!
Another fabulous deal on right now is for collectible books. From May 27 – June 9th, you can list books for in the categories of Books—Antiquarian & Collectible and Antiques—Books & Manuscripts. This promotion is good for both Auction-style and Fixed Price listings.
eBay Motors is having a listing sale from June 1 through June 8, Insertion Fees in select Parts & Accessories categories. These listing fees will be just 35¢
Included are Fixed Price and Auction style listings in Apparel and Merchandise, ATV Parts, Aviation Parts, Boat Parts, Motorcycle Parts, Personal Watercraft Parts, and Other Vehicle Parts.
The sooner you list some items to sell on eBay, the sooner you will be making some money!
Get Going!
Posted by M.S. on May 26, 2009
If you could pick up a prescription and get a $25 gift card for FREE at the same time, would you be interested? Would you like drugstores to be fighting for your business and giving you more FREE $25 cards? That’s what happened to me and I’ll tell you how you can do this too!
Recently I saw a sign in the window of a local Rite Aid drugstore that said you could get a FREE $25 gift card for any transferred prescription. The pharmacist told me I just needed to give them the prescription number and location of the pharmacy that had my prescription–and they would handle the rest.
I gave them my info and later picked up my prescription and got my FREE $25 Rite Aid Gift card! That gives me FREE MONEY, so I can invest that money instead!
Actually, you can transfer up to 4 prescriptions and receive a total of $100 worth of FREE Gift Cards! What a deal!
A week later, out of the blue, I received a $25 check from Walgreens in the mail that I could redeem if I transferred a prescription to them! I believe that was in response to my transferring a prescription away from their store.
Being a person that always loves FREE MONEY, I did just that! I now have $50 worth of FREE gift cards I can use to buy anything I want. The cards do have some restrictions. You cannot use the gift cards to pay for prescriptions or co-pays, stamps, tobacco, and other items.
But–anything else in the store you need including cosmetics, household supplies, even food you get for FREE!
I took the $50 I would have spent on these drugstore items and I invested it in the Vanguard S&P 500 Index Fund–to make myself MORE MONEY!
Use this calculator to see how that $50 will grow over time and how it will help you build wealth! Every little bit helps!
Posted by M.S. on May 13, 2009
Want to pay off debt and start to accumulate savings, but you don’t know where to start? Let me tell you about the technique we used many years ago when we wanted to save for our first piece of real estate.
Determine the exact amount of money you want to accumulate per month. Earn that extra money and along with your reduced expenses, pay off debt, then start SAVING and Investing it. Then, Get Rich!
There are so many ways to increase your income that you might not have considered! Keep an open mind!
My Absolute Favorite: Sell on eBay www. eBay.com There is a market for practically everything on eBay! Clear out your closets, go to Spring yard sales, or offer to sell things for other people and make a commission! I will talk much more in depth about this in future posts and give you tons of ideas to get maximum money for your items.
Check out Amazon. com to see how easy it is to sell current books, tapes and DVDs. Amazon.com
You don’t even need to take pictures or write descriptions! Simply enter the name of the item you want to list and Amazon will bring up all the information. Along the right hand column, look for More Buying Choices. Below that it says “Sell Yours Here”. Click that and fill out your info–and the item is listed!
Are you crafty or artistic? Check out www.Etsy.com This website allows anyone to sell their handmade items! I know 2 gals that are making great money by selling their handmade yoga bags, totes, and clothing!
The beauty of the Internet is that you can make money online with NO childcare costs!
Learn how to do something that other people want to know about–then teach others how to do it!! Call community colleges and continuing education departments at local universities, as well as senior centers! That’s what I did after becoming a successful eBay Powerseller! Now, I am trained by eBay & teach folks how to become successful sellers on eBay!
I wanted a website and didn’t want to spend thousands of dollars to get one, so I took training and learned how to build my own FREE website. Now, I teach other people how to build their own Free websites!
There are teachers for everything from painting to auto mechanics to cake decorating. Anything you can think of could be offered as a class! Learn something!
An added bonus of my teaching gigs is I get a gift certificate from the school that allows me to take 2 FREE classes each year! I receive that just because I am a teacher!! How awesome is that? Ask your school- maybe they offer teachers free tuition too! What a great way to learn more skills to make you extra money–at NO cost to you!
Take look at this fabulous list of 52 other ways to make extra money. 52 Ways to Make Extra Money
Now–get going!
Posted by M.S. on May 11, 2009
According to recent news reports, the average American family has credit card debt of over $8,000. You will NEVER get wealthy carrying this kind of debt, because your money is going to paying off your past rather than building your future! Let’s create a plan to get rid of it NOW.
Did you know that when you have this type of debt, the magic of compound interest is working against you, rather than for you? Face it, you are making the credit card companies rich–not yourself! That should the incentive to get moving on this!
Start to turn things around right now and gain some financial peace of mind.
First and most importantly, STOP using your credit cards now! Don’t make things any worse than they already are! The next step is to determine what money is coming in and what is going out each month. Where do you stand on both sides of that equation?
Let’s look at the income side of things. How much do you have coming in each month? Add up all salary and wages, child support and any other income you receive.
Then, determine what you have going out each month. Be honest! In order to see exactly what you owe, add up all credit card bills and the all bills paid through your checkbook. Once you you know exactly what is coming in and what is going out, you can develop a spending plan. If you find you are spending more than you have coming in, you are not alone! It is reported that over 40% of American families spend more than they earn each month!
Once you know exactly where you stand, you can focus on the 2 basic sources for the cash you need to pay off debt: spend less of what you currently earn or make more money. We’ll examine the ways to do both of those in Part 2.
Posted by M.S. on May 9, 2009
When our children were born and people wanted to get a gift for the baby, we asked everyone to give the baby the gift of money that we would invest for them.
We knew the immense power compound interest would have over time and wanted our offspring to take advantage of that fabulous wealth builder. Most people honored our wishes! We set up a stock index mutual fund along with a general stock mutual fund for each child and start investing.
When the children were old enough to start working, we wanted to really encourage their frugal living and investing, so we made them an offer they could not refuse! We said for every dollar they contributed to their savings, we would match it–so they would double the amount of money they had to invest!
We set up a spreadsheet that we reviewed with them periodically to demonstrate how much richer they were getting. They became much more enthusiastic about saving their hard earned money after they started to see how their investments were earning them “free money” they didn’t have to earn by working.
On the day our children graduated from college, we switched the entire portfolio into their name! They EACH had a nest egg of over $25,000 to begin their adult lives at 22 years of age!
That’s a whole lot better than a bunch of smashed up old toys and NO money!
Wouldn’t that be a fabulous graduation present for your child too?
Posted by M.S. on May 2, 2009
Were you aware that your credit score is very important to your financial health? Did you know that the better your credit score is, the lower the interest rate when you borrow money?
A credit score is simply a number that represents the risk of lending to someone and is primarily based on credit report information, gathered from credit bureaus.
These days, it is common for mobile phone companies, insurance companies, car dealers, landlords, and even employers to run a credit check to see your credit score. If you pay your bills on time, and pay back money that you have borrowed, lenders see that you are a better risk, so they will give you a lower rate to borrow money. Employers know that people who don’t pay their bills are generally less reliable workers too.
As the the current economic situation has worsened, the Federal Reserve has made decisions that have lowered mortgage rates- especially for people with excellent credit scores, like us. The days of anything goes in mortgage lending are over, and now banks only want to deal with people they know will pay back their loans. As a matter of fact– mortgage lenders WANT to do business with people with great credit! So, protect your credit rating!
We decided to investigate refinancing a rental property and were stunned to learn we could refinance the loan at an amazingly low rate of 4.99%! The best part is the payment will stay fixed at that low rate for 30 years, although we plan to pay it off faster than that, while hopefully the rents will increase over time, along with the value of the property. Same property, same basic loan amount, different payment.
Lowering the rate saved us almost $ 100 a month on the mortgage payment, which we will apply directly to the principal each month.
In essence–that is free money!
Take a look at How Refinancing Would Give You Free Money
Posted by M.S. on April 30, 2009
Would it surprise you to know that 1.3 million people, just like you, are making a living selling on eBay? Over $100,000 worth of sales are made on eBay every minute. That’s over $ 50 billion in sales on eBay every year!
One of the things I love the most about selling on eBay for Moms (and Dads) is that it allows you to work at home and earn extra income while caring for your children with NO childcare costs.
Not to mention the time you save on commuting and NO expensive work clothes! Think of the money you will save on gas costs, too. The reduced stress of all that juggling is priceless!
An eBay business is a perfect way to increase your income with essentially no investment! There is no factory to build, no staff to be hired! You can earn money and build wealth without any risk.
Are you ready to tap into the over 90 million people registered on eBay in 38 countries? You have access to ALL of them from the comfort of your own home! Try getting that many people to buy your products locally!
When I started selling on eBay in 1998, my husband was skeptical that other people would want this “junk” I had accumulated. As the money started rolling in- he became a believer!
Today, you can sell virtually anything on eBay and tap into the wealth of the world’s largest auction marketplace!
Take a look at the Hottest Selling items on eBay right now. Maybe you have some of them in your closet, just waiting to be turned into cash!
Click Here to See What’s Hot on eBay Right Now
Posted by M.S. on April 29, 2009
Worried about losing your job? The recent economic slowdown reminded me of a time in the 80’s when we experienced a big recession. At the time, I was working as a marketing manager at a small manufacturing company in the Midwest. I saw jobs were being consolidated at my company causing layoffs, and I did not want to become a statistic.
I figured if I could determine a way to make myself more valuable to the company, I would be much less likely to lose my job. I devised a plan that would not only save my job, but also give me a 30% raise at the same time! I will tell you how I did it –so you can do it too!
There was a person working at the company doing some purchasing and pricing, whose job I knew I was capable of handling, along with my other regular job responsibilities. I decided to tell the company owner, who was my boss, that I would be willing to do ALL her work, along with mine, for ONLY an additional 30% of the pay she had been receiving.
The company would be saving 70% of her salary, plus they would save ALL the taxes and health benefits they paid having her as an employee. What a deal!
I had my “sales pitch” and all the details in order when went I talked with my boss. He was delighted to save all that extra money and liked my take charge attitude. He immediately said Sure! and I got my 30% raise and she was shown the door.
I felt kind of bad for her until I realized, one of us was going to be let go and she could have taken the initiative and come up with the same idea herself. But she didn’t and I DID!
I knew it was a risk approaching my boss with this idea, but I figured if it benefited him, he would go along with it and he id!
Maybe this idea would pay off for you at your company! Think about it!
