Ebay - my niche

 Yes you read the title correctly, sell vintage games. Ebay is setup well for those of us willing to hunt down vintage items and advertise them for sale. Just think about the last time you were after that spare part for your old car, that old game you can’t buy in the shops anymore, or that teacup to match the one you just chipped in your old tea set. Where does your mind immediately wander to..... Ebay!

I am not a fashionable guy. I can’t spot vintage clothing. But I have found an Ebay niche in board games. In particular MB board games. Connect 4, Mouse Trap, Frustration, old style. I loved those games as a kid, and I want my kids to enjoy them too, in the same way I did. It’s funny but even new versions of the same game don’t cut it. And others seem to think the same too. 

As to where to find them. Charity shops. Remember you are going to sell with a postage cost of about £3, so you need to buy these games at a low price, say less than £2. Buy anything that is an old MB game. Then sell it auction style on eBay for 4.99 plus postage.

If you sell for 4.99 plus 3 pounds postage, your fees are about 80 pence, which combined with a 2 pound purchase price, and less the 3 pound postage, leaves about 2 pounds profit. Not a huge amount, but it is profit! Sell 5 games and get an extra tenner a week. Some things sell for more than others, so this really is your minimum profit. Another game that sells well is the original monopoly, the red one, for which I have made £10 profit once.

Doing this trains you to convert ebay from a means for getting rid of your own stuff, to a business opportunity. Over time you’ll try different collectibles and find your own niche, but vintage boards is a great starter!

Ebay - a nice little earner

 Let's talk about Ebay. By far the easiest way to start supplementing your income, but in my experience one of the harder money making schemes to keep running. So many different things are sold on Ebay, from drills through to collectables, it makes it a real challenge to decide what your niche market could be for making money through the Ebay machine.

However, let's be realistic. Ebay is drenched with companies trying to make money. Many are well established power sellers buying stock in bulk at good rates and able to completely out price new Ebay sellers such as ourselves in their market of operation. You will struggle to compete. So I am going to let you into a secret - go back to basics.

What was Ebay setup for originally? To sell your second hand goods. That pile of stuff in the corner of your living room you never managed to get rid of. The "one mans rubbish is another mans gold" stuff. This is where you need to begin. Rummage around your house and sell everything you don't need. Those old blue-rays you never watch, books you never read, even furniture (recommend you ask for buyer to collect to avoid hefty postage costs off putting off all but the most uninformed buyers). You are not trying to be a professional at this point, just get some stuff on and start selling. You will learn the process through experience. Just get your postage correct - tip number 1 :) you can actually lose money if you underestimate the postage! And remember, Ebay charge 10% of the sold price PLUS postage (so for a £10 sale with £5 postage you will lose £1.50 in Ebay costs not £1 - remember this). Advertise on Ebay using the auction option not 'buy it now'. Auctions attract more Ebayer attention, as the low starting price is at least initially attractive, and bidders get addicted to potential of 'winning' an auction. Selling your unused items at this stage is all about getting some money in the kitty to go and really start your Ebay adventure. You might make tens or even hundreds of pounds at this stage. Don't then go and spend it. Keep that money somewhere safe, as just like in the Richest Man in Babylon we will be turning this small sum of money into a larger sum by launching the next phase of Ebaying - buying stock to sell into a niche market well suited to the Ebay platform.

Ebay doesn't earn me a huge sum of money, but I do make regularly up to £50 a month selling unused items, which I think is pretty neat, and periodically throughout the year hit £100 a month. I will let you in on my niche Ebay market in my next blog post! 

Read more to learn more

 "The most important book you will ever read," I read, as I looked at the reviews for George S. Clason's The Richest Man in Babylon. I wasn't sure. How many times can you be told the same thing about saving money, cutting your expenses, getting into the 'frugal' habit. I didn't want to be frugal, I wanted to make money, be wealthy. A book of 144 pages is hardly going to stack up against some of the other monsters in the 'teach yourself wealth' category on Amazon, is it. What on Earth were those other blogs on about, "most important book you will ever read"?

If it wasn't for the price of £5.95 including delivery, I may have given it a miss. Thank goodness I didn't. This book will be the most important book you will ever read. It will be the most important book you ever re-read. In fact it might be the most important book you ever re-purchase if like me you lend your first copy to your brother and it doesn't find it's way back!

The Richest Man in Babylon is a guide to personal wealth. No that is unfair, it is the framework for personal wealth. That sounds more accurate. And it is written simply. George Clason was in no way attempting to produce a novel that would keep you busy for weeks whilst you sit on a sun lounger on a beach somewhere nice. This is a framework, a set of rules, that at 144 pages you will read in an evening. A mantra that at 144 pages is short enough to re-read, repeat to yourself, even digest piecemeal whilst you have a few minutes spare in the water closet.

Babylon it seems was a place of great wealth, wealth that had flowed from a desire of individuals to be wealthy, and willingness to learn the trade. I picked up this book with that burning desire, and the same willingness, and what I found was reassurance, that I was not obsessed but merely following some kind of historical journey, much like those in the book who seek the wisdom of Arkad, one of the richest men in Babylon.

What I like about this book is how quickly you become engaged with the short stories, but also how quickly and succinctly those short stories deliver you to a stone tablet of knowledge. In fact in the space of a single chapter you will come away with seven "cures" for lean purse, including not least the equivalent of budgeting as discussed in my previous blog post . In another chapter you learn quickly of the five rules of gold and the simple, realistic, goals that flow from them, allowing you to walk away from the Richest Man in Babylon and take action.

The books lays to waste certain fallacies regarding luck, rapid massive wealth, and the "I can't possible become wealthy" viewpoint. Instead it provides you with direction for how you can make small changes to your finances to steer your family towards a better financial standing. Take, for instance, the logic of "pay yourself first". Savings and investments for me were things to aim for at the end of the month, with the money I had left. Actually, what sense does this make? Why should I pay myself last with leftovers. I earned that money, it is going to me first! Immediately I put the Richest Man in Babylon down and looked at what I was saving at the end of each month. I added 10% and said I would pay into savings the new figure at the start of every month. Do you know what, it wasn't a problem at all, so the next month I added another 10%. Eventually I found a point where I did start to struggle to make it to the end of the month, so backed off the savings a little, but was still saving, at the start of every month, a darn sight more than I was when I was saving at the end of the month. Simple changes make a big difference.

This book will not give you detailed step by step approaches to setting up a business, making ebay work for you, how to find a good bank account, how to invest in stocks or property. It is at a higher level than that. If you can go with the story of Babylon, imagine stone tablets engraved with short lessons or rules for wealth, and that is what you get. It really does give you that framework, the feeling that if you follow the rules you can sleep easy your wealth will grow. Take time to establish a baseline before you move onto specific routes for wealth. The Richest Man in Babylon will certainly give you this.

     

Technorati

Technorati is, in its simplest form, an Internet search engine for searching blogs. Technorati looks at the tags authors place on their websites and uses them to categorize search results. So if you were to put lots of 'technology' related tags on your website or blog, it would be listed in the 'technology' section of Technorati.


So why is Technorati useful to you, as a blogger? Well it is the leading blog search engine and directory, so being listed on Technorati is one step towards a wider audience. The blog index is used by advertisers who 'want-in' on your discussions- so there is the possibility of attracting affiliate marketing contacts who have sought you out from the crowd, rather than vice-versa. Your 'impact' is quantified through 'Technorati Authority'. The more links (and other associated data) made to your blog, within a defined time period, the higher your ranking. Top ranking blogs get more attention from other bloggers and advertisers, and ultimately more hits for you. Technorati is a 'power site' with many links to and from it and a high Google ranking. The more links you make to Technorati through 'tags', the more attractive your blog will look to Google, and possibly, just possibly, the higher your search engine ranking on Google!

Technorati can be accessed by clicking here. Next time: What is Google Adsense?

If you cannot wait until next time, Click Here for more blogging advice.

Blogging to the Bank 3.0 - Honest Review

Blogging is not a new phenomenom. Do not be mistaken, blogging is continually developing but the idea of a weblog has been around for some time. Most people are using blogs to record their thoughts and their lives, like an online diary. However there are a few of us who has mastered the art of blogging and have use it as a route to wealth.

Somebody who has used blogging for this purpose is Rob Benwell. In 2006, after perfecting the art of blogging for some time (and becoming very rich, after all you would not tell of your exploits until you yourself were rich would you?) he decided to tell of his amazing achievements. Most importantly though, for us struggling bloggers, he revealed the tips and tricks that have earnt him a fortune. Hence Blogging to the Bank. As you might imagine as time passes old systems become obselete and new methods are required to keep bringing in income and to stay ahead of the market. This is where the subject of this review, Blogging to the Bank 3.0, comes into focus.

Perhaps we should start by understanding what drove Rob Benwell to his achievements and why he has been so successful.

In 2005 Rob was not making any money online, he was struggling and had recently dropped out of college. Not a good start and the debt was mounting. He was trying so many techniques from so many different Gurus that for effort, you would give him the Nobel Prize! After a while he began to doubt these 'Get Rich Quick' techniques and began using his own techniques, making money using simple blogs. In 2006 he shared this with the world and many people became rich from his logic. He still kept a few of his own secrets though to stay ahead of the competition gradually revealing more and more at conventions such as Yanik Silver's underground Seminar. The culmination of this period was Blogging to the Bank 2.0 which has been read by 50,000 people world-wide.

Now knowing the history of Rob Benwell we can assume that even then he kept some secrets which he has gradually drip fed to the blogging community on the following years. These new tips are what we call 'the icing on the cake' and set aside Rob's blogs from other bloggers work. Blogging to the Bank 3.0 is that latest, most up to date, easily digestible helping from Mr Benwell himself. It is full of great techniques that work online right now! Everything is explained in plain English with no buffering or gobble-de-gook. Just cold, hard facts! In all honesty I got the book in the afternoon and by the evening I was creating great, profitable blogs! Here is a great summary of Blogging to the Bank 3.0 I found on YouTube.



Blogging to the Bank 3.0 is a blueprint to Rob's blogging success. He even admits that he follows the exact route laid out in Blogging to the Bank 3.0 every time he creates a new blog! There is even an advanced section on Search Engine Optimization or SEO which is a new development in the Internet World.

The only negative I can find is some of his spelling/grammer could be improved but he is not entering a spelling contest, he wants to make you money!

If you want to make easy money online, with relatively small start-up fees then Blogging to the Bank 3.0 is your blueprint to blogging success.

Next Time: Blogging - Making It Pay

Blogging - Ten or So Sites You Need To Know

Whether you are already part of the blogging phenomenom that has spread across the World, or if you simply aspire to learn something about the online community, there is plenty of assistance available to you online to help you create or expand your online presence.

To get started online your could try hosting your site on Xanga or Blogger or the very popular Wordpress . All of these sites offer free blogging that can be set up quick and easily and are worldwide communities offering great blog exposure.

Myspace and Facebook are online social networking giants. As such, Google and other search engines love these sites offering great exposure for your blog. Just create your personal page and add links to your blog.

If you are reading this blog you are probably interested in making money online. Well there are numerous sites that help you do this. The first two I want to tell you about are ClickBank and Adsense. Both are affiliate programs whereby you advertise products from each site on your blog through link advertisements and banner advertisements created by the marketer. When a visitor to your site clicks on an advertisement he/she is redirected to the seller's site hosting the particular product. If a product is purchased you will receive a percentage of the profit.

To avoid some of the blogging pitfalls many unfortunately fall into you should try visiting some 'expert' blogger sites. Sites like Marketing Quickies and Blogging to the Bank both offer some great advice on blogging techniques.

You want to get as much traffic to your blog as is humanly possible. Without the traffic, there is no opportunity for income. I always quote a 1% rule as a lower bound for profits. If you have 1000 people visit your site a month you may have 10 person click on an advertisement. Of those 10 people only 10% may actually make a purchase, so you need 1000 unique visitors for just 1 purchase. This is extremist but a good path to follow as it is much better to underestimate things at this early age. Consider adding your blogs to blog directories like Blog Catalog and Yahoo. The same goes for the listings on Google.

Another mechanism for gaining essential exposure for your blog is through submitting your own articles to Ezine Articles. You offer your article up for free use by other bloggers but you can cunningly add your blog link to the end of the article such that it must be posted on all other sites where it is used. This gives you great and essential back links which Google loves!

A final site that is a must is Pro Blogger. This is a hub for blogging advice in an easy to digest format.

That should get you started for now. Good Luck!

Next Time: An Honest Review - Blogging to the Bank 3.0