adsense3: декабря 2007

Why It's a BAD Idea To Promote Hot Selling Products on eBay

Do a quick search on Google, Yahoo, or your favorite auction resource site, and you'll quickly discover there are several software programs targeted to vendors who want to promote hot selling products on eBay.

The infatuation with hot selling products exists because sellers believe if you target items that have a robust sales pattern, you'll have a better chance at profiting on eBay. This is both true and false.

Yes... hot selling products can improve your bottom line. But unfortunately by the time the average eBay seller (a) realizes what the hot selling products are, (b) purchases stock to sell on eBay, and (c) actually puts the items up for sale, the demand is already being met by other eBay sellers who probably started the hot selling product trend some time ago.

Not only that, with thousands of people also having access to the same hot selling product lists, you'll have to contend with other eBay vendors who have the exact same ideas that you do. So you'll be up against the original sellers who are currently feeding the demand, AND doing the tango with newer sellers who have jumped on the same hot selling product bandwagon that you did.

Okay maybe this won't happen to you.

But suppose it does.

What if competition becomes so great that prices start dipping below the wholesale cost that you paid for the item? (It happens all the time on eBay.) And what if you lose $100, $200, or even $1,000 on inventory that you thought would be flying off the shelf? Suddenly that hot selling item is looking rather cold sitting in your garage collecting dust.

So if not hot selling products on eBay, then what?

Do what the majority of PowerSellers do. Sell what you want, instead of what's hot. Repeat after me, "Every day ordinary items sell extremely well on eBay... Every day ordinary items sell extremely well on eBay... Every day ordinary items sell extremely well on eBay." Allow this to become your mantra, because it is very much true.

I know this from first-hand experience as I analyze top sellers instead of hot products. And my research has continuously shown me that mediocre products don't necessarily translate into mediocre sales.

For instance, there's a seller right now who clears about $1,000-$2,000 a week selling magnets. And that's AFTER eBay and PayPal fee's. Another seller promotes homemade CD's to a specific audience and clears $900-$2,000 a week. A few sellers make $500-$700+ a week - after expenses - promoting public domain information. And the cool thing about public domain information is that anybody can sell it because it's free. So that's pure profit by selling something they never paid for. Talk about the ultimate arbitrage opportunity!

The ultimate key in succeeding no matter what product you end up selling, is to build a successful strategy. To figure out 'how' to profitably market what you have, instead of chasing after the next great thing. Because once you have the strategy part down, you can sell anything on eBay and make it a hot seller to your bank account.

The Perfect Home Business For Moms!

The important role that women play as a wife and mother at home can not be overemphasized. They organize home life to ensure things run smoothly. From cleaning the home, making the meals, taking care of the children, and running a host of other important errands and tasks. For a wife and mother who works outside the home these tasks can take on the organization skills of Super Woman. And, while some women are content to take on the daunting challenges of career woman, wife and mother, others would prefer to work at home.

Looking for a work at home business can be a task in itself. We often need to search through several opportunities before we settle on one that has possibilities and appeals to us. One Work at Home Business that has worked out very well for me is eBay. eBay recently reported $14.87 billion in annual merchandise sales with over 100 million members. 400,000 of these are making their living from eBay. Why? Because a Work at Home Business using eBay is so easy to operate and maintain.

Since technology has become much simpler over recent years, learning curves have become less severe than they once were This has made operating a computer easier than ever. With this, people have been flocking to the Internet and eBay to create a Business of their own. The main draw of working online is that you can Work at Home. No long commutes to work. No 9 to 5 either, your hours can be flexible so you can still enjoy time with your family.

eBay lends it self perfectly as a Work At Home Business. There are no special skills required other than the confidence that you can be successful with an online business regardless of your business, computer or Internet experience and skills. What skills? you ask. Well, just very basic skills. The ability to surf the web, read and send emails, create auction pages (webpages) and upload them. And most importantly and ability to learn and the want to succeed.

The easiest way to start your Online Auction Business would be to use Dropshippers. The great thing about Dropshipping, as outlined in my book "eBay Marketing Wholesale SourcePak", is that it will allow you to operate a Home Based Business as an Internet Marketer with out ever worrying about storage of inventory, packaging of inventory, or even shipping of that inventory. The Dropship supplier will look after all of that for you. And even greater still is the fact that your auction business will cost you very little to get started The fact is, most Dropshippers charge you nothing to become a member to sell their products. While others may charge just a nominal administration fee. Plus, you
can list your item on eBay for approximately .35 cents. So, as you can see your eBay Auction Business will cost you very little to get started. With such a low financial risk the only thing you have to lose is a bit of your time.

How does one put together eBay and Dropshipping? It's really very simple. First, browse eBay to see what kind of product(s) you would like to sell. Then sign up as a member with eBay. Once you have decided on a product(s),locate a Dropshipper for that product(s). Sign up with that Dropshipper and then place an auction on eBay for the item.. Once your auction is over and you have a buyer for the product email your Dropshipper the required information. The Dropshipper will ship the product directly to your customer as though it came from you. Then the Dropshipper will charge your account the wholesale price for that product. The difference between the wholesale price and your retail price is pure profit!

To run a successful eBay Business you will need to sell what the public wants to buy. Always research any product before you decide to sell it. Make sure it is popular and you can get it at a great price. If you have something worth selling, you are bound to find someone on eBay who wants to buy it..

Happy Selling!

When AdSense Goes AWOL

No matter how hard you work to optimize your page, there are going to be times when Google just can’t figure out which AdSense ad to deliver, so it defaults to delivering a PSA (Public Service Ad) instead.

Now I don’t have any problem with charities, but I give to the ones that I choose to give to. Since I don’t have a non-profit license of my own, the goal of my web site is to make money and I depend on Google AdSense revenues to help pay my bills. Someday I want it to fund my retirement as well, so I can’t afford to have non-revenue PSAs showing up on my site.

The good news is the Google understands the human’s basic greedy nature, so it provides us with an alternative to donating our precious web real estate to charitable organizations. That alternative is known as AdSense Alternate Ads.

As strange as it seems, this feature allows you to let Google competitors into your site. Don’t worry, Google is allowing it with their eyes wide open. They even tell you how to set up the alternate ad code to work on your site and they let you do it right in your AdSense control panel.

Once you add the code to your site, Google will pull ads from whatever service you defined rather than serve a PSA. Google will do that even if those ads are coming from Yahoo, or Overture, or your grandmother’s attic.

This goes a long way towards ensuring that you never lose an opportunity to monetize a visitor’s time spent on your site. How nice it is of Google to gives us that opportunity.

Who do you choose?

Ah, now that’s the big question. Most people head straight for Overture or Yahoo, but there are other fish in the sea worth considering. In fact, some of these fish make their living almost solely by serving replacement ads for PSAs. Run this search (http://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official_s&hl=en&q=google+psa+alternatives&btnG=Google+Search) on Google and you’ll have plenty of options to choose from.

Why bother?

Sometimes Google doesn’t have any ads in its inventory to match your site’s keywords. Sometimes Google gets confused and can’t figure out which ads to deliver, so it grabs a PSA ad.

Google also has a not-so-readily-available list of what it calls “stop words”. When the Google AdSense spiders detect these words on your page they automatically trigger PSAs. Some of the more commonly known words include severe profanity (think: George Carlin’s 7 Words You Can’t Say on T.V), as well as other words which may very be quite legitimate for your site such as pharmaceutical, drugs, death, dying, abortion, and the list goes on and on. At least we THINK that it goes on and on but no one really knows for sure outside of a trusted few Google staffers.

But no matter what the reason, you don’t want non-revenue ads running on your site. There’s no excuse when Google makes it so easy to keep the revenue flowing.

Traffic Arbitrage- The new kid on the block

A near risk-free and immediate way to create residual income [part one}

The Internet is a dynamic and ever evolving market place. It is full of promises and opportunities. It has the potential to turn people's fortunes around in very short orders. If you have been on the net for any reasonable length of time, such names as Yanik silver, John Reese, late Cory Rudl, Mike Filsame, Simon Garbowski and Mark Joyner to name just a handful, would not be unfamiliar to you. And if you are not familiar with these names, do not worry about it, you will soon be. These are regular folks that have leveraged the power of technology- the Internet to change their fortunes.

Apart from the big wigs, there are smaller folks out there who are raking in bundles of dollars everyday, using one or a combination of the various opportunities and income models the Internet has to offer. These income models range from Affiliate marketing, Resell rights, and Downline builders, to Auctiions, Dropships, Permission marketing, Google Adsene and now Traffic arbitrage.

Of all the income models, I like Traffic Arbitrage the most. It is simple, easy and can be implemented in very little time, even by those who know nothing about doing business on the Internet, once they get the hang of it. Making it even easier, is James Jones using his new Traffic Arbitrage page builder at Click Profit Pro.

Traffic Arbitrage? I am glad you noticed. Yes, Traffic Arbitrage! I would not say "Google Traffic Arbitrage" as many would, because Traffic Arbitrage goes beyond Google. Google is mighty and powerful, but if I could achieve the same results using cheaper search engines, why not. It does not always have to be Google. The cheaper the Cost Per Click, CPC, the better for our purpose. Remember, we are not looking for FREE traffic. We are buying traffic in one market to be sold in another market. And targetted traffic is targetted traffic whether it is coming from Kanoodle or from Google. However, for our purpose, we are using Google Adwords and Adsense.

But what is Traffic Arbitrage? Coming from education, I am sold on the idea of breaking concepts down to their component parts. To answer that question, let's look at the definition of Arbitrage. According to the Encarta World English Dictionary, Arbitrage is "The simultaneous buying and selling of the same negotiables or commodities in different markets in order to make an immediate and riskless profit".

Looking at our keyword phrase, and the Encarta definition, it is clear that the commodity of our trade is internet or web traffic. Also looking more closely at our Encarta definition, three operative phrases emerge, namely: simultaneous buying and selling, different markets, and immediate and riskless profit. Now, I do not know about you, but of all the three operative phrasology, I like the last best: immediate and riskless profit. Wow!

Immediate and Riskless! I am SOLD. Going, going and gone.

I don't know about you, but I do not know any businesses where you can make immediate and riskless profit, other than Traffic Arbitrage. Even in Traffic Arbitrage, there is a miniscle element of risk. Very minute. I just have to be hornest with you.But in the real sense of it, the profits can be immediate and near riskless.

How does Traffic Arbitrage work? I am glad you asked. It is simple once you understand it. And good a thing, it is not rocket science. If I do it, anyone one can do it PERIOD. It is as easy as that.

Now Google in her never ending wisdom, created two very compelling and successful campaign platforms- Adsense and AdWords. On the one hand, Adsense offers advertisers a way to reach deeper into their market without breaking their bank, by having Google place their campaigns on participating sites with content related to advertisers products and services. It also allows content creators a way to make a little money for making their webpage available for dispaly of these adsense ads. The advertiser wins because he is getting perfectly target traffic and deeper market penetration, and the content creator wins because he is making a little money doing what he loves to do.

On the other hand, AdWords offer advertisers a quick and cost effective way to drive immediate and targetted traffic to their sites. Like Adsense, Adwords are on a Cost Per Click basis, but unlike Adsense, they appear only on search displays on Google. The advertiser bids for a position on Google search results, and when a searcher clicks on the advertiser's ads, he the advertiser is charged the bid value of his campaign.

In part two of this two part series on Traffic Arbitrage, will look at the process of setting up a Google Adsense account and Adword account. We will also bring the components together to demonstrate how this genius technique can be use time and again to create residual income.

What Does It Take to Make Money Online?

What a loaded question! Let’s narrow that down a bit and take it from the perspective of someone who wants to work from home and make money online in a home business. That will make it an easier question to answer.

Let’s assume you’ve never had a website, don’t know how to get a merchant account, don’t know html, and are pretty much stuck with being an expert on sending and receiving email.

What’s there for you to do online to make money? Lots, in fact! These days are not at all like a couple of years ago or even six months ago. If I only had all the opportunities to make money online when I started marketing!

Here is a list of things you can do with just a website and a hosting account today:

Sell affiliate products (products like reports, ebooks, hard goods of every conceivable make, model, size, shape and function, and much, much more).
Sell services (do you know how big a business being a Virtual Assistant is these days? It’s quite amazing what you can do for people without ever meeting them face-to-face, anywhere in the world!)
Online auctions (Ebay has made thousands and thousands of people full-time incomes from auctioning collectibles, antiques, and even brand new equipment and gadgets of all imaginable types. You name it, it has been sold on Ebay!)
Membership sites: Know of any groups of people that would love to get insider information on virtually any topic? You could make money online with a membership site!

The list is a long one and one I am not prepared to detail here. You have found your way onto the net and if you have been surfing for very long at all you know it is a gigantic super shopping mall. Who to you think is making the most money online? Aside from big corporations, most of the web is made up of sites put up by little businesses people work from home.

I sell information and I love it. Most of the products I sell are other merchants’ products. I just drive traffic to my site, provide information, and point to relevant products related to the information I provide people looking for a way to make money online. I love helping people make their first few sales.

After that, they are always hooked and cannot do enough to learn everything there is to know about how to make money online. Many people I have worked with now have a couple to several websites selling everything from reports to hard goods that can be shipped direct to their customers. Most people start out to make money online as affiliates of
certain products or authors. This is a great way to get your feet wet and learn what making money online is all about. People then either work to create their own products (which they get 100% of the profits from) or expand their website into other related niches.

Tools for Online Tracking

In order to determine which advertising and marketing efforts are effective you must have ways to measure the results of those efforts. Alerts and instant notifications can be instrumental in monitoring search engine position, trademarked terms, monitoring competitors and staying abreast of online occurrences. And, of course, the notification can be used for "ego searches".

Ego Searches
What is an ego search? Find out where your name or company is mentioned, view forum posts or online articles that mention your name or company.

Trademarks
The best offense is a good defense. By monitoring newsgroups or search engines for trademarked terms, you often head off a future conflict. As a trademark owner, it is your responsibility to actively protect your mark. Otherwise, you could lose your trademark rights. Monitoring tools send immediate notification should any suspected trademark infringements occur.

Search Position
Statistics show that more than 85% of Internet users find web sites with the help of the search engines. Therefore, a website's search engine position is crucial to its success. Prudent webmasters regularly check their search engine position. Monitoring fluctuations and re-indexing of major search engines affects keyword terms and phrases. Monitoring of positions will alert webmasters to any shifts before sales decline.

Competitor Watch
Monitoring newsgroups for mentions of competitors may allow you opportunities to chime in and offer an alternative solution in a helpful, friendly way. Knowing exactly what your online competitors are doing provides a competitive edge that can be used to your advantage.

Website Downtime
Accessibility is the most critical measure of your website's performance. If customers can't access your site, they can't shop; and if they can't shop, they can't buy. More important, your business could gain a bad reputation among your customers, which translates into negative word of mouth and even worse, if you're highly visible, negative press. So regardless of what else you monitor, you want to monitor websites for downtime.

Take a look at the various tools available and how they can be used to keep you current on relevant issues.

WebAlerts - Recieve email updates of the latest relevant Google results based on your choice of query or topic. Alerts can be sent based on information in Google News, Google Searches or both.
http://www.google.com/webalerts

PubSub - PubSub matches your requests against new information as it appears real time. Searches can be categorized to search, blog entries, SEC/EDGAR Filings, press releases, news group posts or flight delays.
http://www.pubsub.com

Ego Alerts - Google news search turned into an RSS feed.
http://www.justinpfister.com/gnewsfeed.php

Ebay Alerts - Ebay Alerts monitoring will create an RSS feed to monitor Ebay auctions for specific keywords or phrases. When a new item that contains those keywords is added to Ebay you will receive notification via your RSS feed!
http://www.freebiddingtools.com

Amazon Alerts - Generate a URL which you can use to automatically search Amazon.com with your favorite RSS news reader. It will automatically update you when new items meet your search criteria. I personally use it to look for new books on topics I'm interested in, and I have the defaults set to do the same, but you can adjust it to search any of Amazon's stores. You can also adjust the search order and what kind of items you wish to search.
http://www.oxus.net/amazon

Internet Seer - InternetSeer remotely monitors your website to insure that your site is available 24/7. If InternetSeer is unable to reach your site, we will send you an immediate e-mail alert that your site is unreachable.
http://www.internetseer.com

NetNewsTracker - NetNews Tracker is a clipping service for Usenet newsgroups. Newstracker searches newsgroups twice daily for any specified words or phrases and delivers alerts via e-mail. Newstracker can be used to monitor newsgroups for names, company names, products, URLs, or any other topic of interest.
http://www.netnewstracker.com

Other Suggested Resources -
Monitoring Tools - Monitoring Tools is a directory of online monitoring tools and applications
http://www.monitoring-tools.net

Monitoring Software - Monitoring Software is a collection of downloadable monitoring software solutions.
http://www.monitoring-software.net

Google Adsense Page Positioning

Correct positioning of your Google adsense ads can make or break your success with the Google adsense program. Why is this true? Some studies suggest that eye positioning on website gravitate to particular sections of web pages. And if you don’t have the necessary ads in these positions you will not get the clicks.

I talked to countless people that have great traffic, some with 300 to 1000 new visitors a day that say that they only make approx. at max $10 to $20 dollars a month on the adsense program. What a shame. But when I look at their websites the ads are either buried in wording that no one usually pays attention to or the ads are located in positions that just don’t call any attention to their presence.

So were the best locations for you Google adsense ads. Well, I have found the number one best place for the ads are near or in proximity to your main menu. Why near your main menu. Because you know that visitors eyes will and always look for the menu structure of your website. So the common places for placement should be to the top right, the very top under your menu, or the top left. These are the most common locations for you main menu.

But what about the color scheme of the Google adsense ads? Yes, color is very important. You have to make the ads looks as seamless as possible. Here is an example on one of my website http://www.pottery-barn-outlet.com. Here I decided to position the ads at the very top right under my main menu. In direct eye contact. Also, remove the borders; just these two changes will increase your adsense proceeds one hundred percent.

By using these tactics I was able to increase my adsense click through rate significantly depending on traffic level and people's interest.

Take my advice and give it try. I believe you will see a change and hopefully make adsense a more pleasurable experience.

Google Adsense Page Positioning

Make Money Blogging

You have created a blog and your blog is dedicated to a niche industry. Have you ever thought that the blog could make money for you? We would look here in this article, ways and means, to make money blogging. Lets first have a look at what are the prerequisites for a blog needed to make money:

1. Blog needs to be dedicated to a niche market.
2. Updated regularly.
3. Enough back links (Don't worry for it. Directory submission would be enough to begin with)
4. Good blog host or application (blogger, Xanga or typepad recommended), and
5. High quality articles or news items supported with images.

Get the above criteria in place and Hurrah... You are ready to Make Money Blogging.

Top 5 Ways to Make Money Blogging

Lets now take a look at top 5 ways using which you could make money blogging:

1. Google Adsense
Google Adsense delivers text and image ads to the authorized websites/blogs depending on the content of the website. Small code is required to be pasted at proper locations on a webpage and Google automatically recognizes the page. Google shares the revenue it gets from the advertisers whenever a visitor clicks on these ads.

Google bills advertisers on price per click basis (PPC). Advertisers are required to pay only when any visitor clicks on their ads. They bid against each other for the keywords in order to receive better placement and thus prices for each keyword differ from one another. It is better to choose keywords for your blog which pays high $ per click.

2. Amazon
Amazon Associate program is another important way to make money blogging. The Amazon Associate program gives opportunity to website/blog publishers to promote any product from its inventory by adding a predefined code to their website/blog, which, when clicked by a visitor, takes them to the relevant product page. Once the visitor buys the product, the blog owner will be compensated with a commission.

3. Blogads
You can use Blogads as an effective tool to have a better control over the advertisers in your blogs. You can analyze and compare your profits with any one of your online agencies. Blogads can be simply specified as an advertising service used for the web logs or blogs. From the total money generated by Blogads, it retains 20% of it and the remaining money is paid to you through PayPal or checks.

Alternative Services:

• Crispads is another useful network focused on the blogs. You can put your advertisements in their blogs using Crispads. You can move through their RSS/ATOM feeds that help in generating revenues.
• Tagword – It is similar to Blogads. It makes you select the ads and their price.

Users can place their text-based ads in the site within minutes and the ads will be displayed instantly on the website.

4. Affiliate Programs
Your affiliate programs can help you earn a lot of money for selected products and services. Lot of websites offers you to become affiliate members. These affiliate programs can provide a better reach and an in-depth exposure to the products. The commissions for the sales differ according to the quality of the product, sales and marketing strategy involved. You can gather information related to the commissions by looking into the catalogues of Link Share and Commission junctions.

5. Text Links
Text links has emerged out to be the best form of moneymaking source that you can use instead of cluttering or crowding the page with ads. You don’t have to make these text links prominent within your website. This link can act as an extra value to your site and will also help to promote the rankings of other sites. In most of the cases you will find these text links placed in the bottom of the web pages. The best part of this strategy is that the publishers send and accept links as the market continues to grow.

The Top Ten eBay Buyer Personalities

In my years of selling on eBay I have come across all sorts of people. For the most part these people have been very nice and easy to deal with. Having said that, there are always a small percentage, like in any business online or offline, who you'll have some degree of problem with. As explained in my book "eBay Marketing Wholesale SourcePak" you will need to be as polite as you possibly can and have a little patience when dealing with these people. Below you will find my Top Ten List of eBay Buyer Personalities and how to handle them.

10 - The Manipulator
There will be times when you have an auction end with no bids. When this happens watch out for the Manipulator. This is an individual who will email you once you auction ends wanting to purchase your item off eBay at a ridiculously low price. He/she will often try to manipulate you into believing the product will not sell but he/she will be glad to take it off your hands. Forget about them! Do Not sell the item to them. Instead relist the item for auction on eBay with a new headline. If he/she wants it bad enough, they will have to get the item through your auction. And trust me 99% of the time your item will sell.

9 - The Impatient Buyer
This is someone who has won your auction today and is wondering why it wasn't shipped yesterday. This individual wants what was purchased fast, real fast. Just have patience, be polite and explain your shipping process to him/her. Getting the product out quickly with a thank you note for purchasing will give you a happy customer.

8 - The Disappointed Buyer
There are some people you just can not please, not even if you were to stand on your head. They will be disappointed no matter what you do. Sometimes these people can be down right rude and take up a lot of your time. Learn to recognize this type of person and don't get caught up in an on slot of emails. Remember that time is money, and once you have done all you can do to rectify their problem move on. If the emails continue simply ignore them.

7 - The Invisible Buyer
This is someone who has won your auction but you never hear from them. Ever! They pay you right on time without any problems. So you send the product they won off to them. And that's it! They do not leave feedback, and do not return any emails. They just disappear into thin air. If you send a couple of follow up emails asking if they received their item and requesting positive feedback and you get no response, just forget them and move on.

6 - The Interrogator
This individual could drive you crazy. It's not their fault, they just have questions. Lots of Questions! For these people even if every question imaginable is answered in your auction description, they'll still manage to find a reason to email you a question. Be weary of this type of individual they can, and will waste a lot of your time if you let them. On your first email to them be polite answer their question then refer them back to your auction description telling them all the answers are there. Suggest they read it again. Don't get caught up in email after email. Always remember that time is money, and if you've done your auction description correctly there should be no questions left to ask. Your auction surfer should be ready to make a bid.

5 - The Late Payer
This customer has no clue about deadlines and they really don't seem to care about them either. Their attitude is you'll get paid when I am ready to pay you. You will need to set guidelines for when payment is due. If payment is not received you may choose to give your buyer one extension. Be specific giving him/her a date as to when the balance is due. Also tell them if payment is not received by that date you will have no other choice but to relist the item for auction. Sometimes a month or so down the road you'll end up getting a check in the mail from this person with a note as to why they were late. Simply return the payment with an explanation that the item was re-listed as he/she failed to meet the payment deadline and it has been sold to someone else.

4 - The Deadbeat
There is no buyer more irritating than the one who is always telling you the check is in the mail. Of course the check never arrives. Unfortunately there is not much you can do about this. Like above give them a deadline and if they don't make it relist the item for auction again.

3 - The "I'm Sooo Confused" Buyer
This customer does want to buy from you. Really, they do! If they could only figure out how! How to bid, how to pay, how to... All this high tech computer stuff is just way to confusing for them. Have patience and be polite. Explain what they should do next. If you find no matter how you explain things it just doesn't register with them, suggest they read over eBay's tutorials. Remember your time is money and you can only spend so much time with any potential customer before you must move on.

2 - The Spender
This individual can spend a lot of money with you. And often will return as a repeat buyer usually purchasing a little of everything you have up for auction. This person will also spend $100.00 in merchandise in order to save $10.00 on shipping. Bless him/her!

1 - The Perfect Customer
This individual is simply a Happy Person. He/she has won your auction and they are just ecstatic about it. The great thing about this type of buyer is if you run into a problem they are always understanding and easy to deal with. If looked after correctly, very often these people will become a customer for life. Now, don't we wish all customers were like this.

So, there you have it. The Top Ten eBay Buyer Personalities. If you already sell on eBay I'm sure you will recognize some of these personality traits in your own customers. If you're just getting started with your eBay Auction Business no doubt you'll be running into these people soon. Whatever personality your day brings you, always be patience, polite and just have fun with it.

How to Help Google Make up its Mind

As an AdSense sponsoring web site, your goal is to have contextually relevant ads displayed whenever a visitor comes to your site. That’s the goal, and it sounds simple enough, but sometimes it seems that Google is bent on not cooperating with you in the least.

If there are times when your web site is displaying apparently random ads which have no relevance to your site at all or worse, it’s displaying non-revenue Public Service Ads (PSA), then that’s a sign that you need to work harder to help Google make up its mind.

Google uses a pretty effective set of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools to sniff the content on your site so it can serve up the most relevant ads out of its extensive inventory. However, since no humans are involved in this process, it’s actually pretty easy to lead the poor spider down the wrong path.

It’s not enough to simply depend upon your site’s keywords to pull the right ads from Google; you have to pay attention to the context in which the key words are used as well or you could get some surprises.

For example, suppose that you have some text on your page that reads “I love Guns ‘N Roses”. There is a good chance that you will either end up with PSAs, because “Guns” is a known Google “stop” word that triggers PSAs, or ads from 1-800-Flowers thanks to the key word “Roses”. But if you modify your content slightly to have it read something like “I love the heavy metal and hard rock bands like Guns ‘N Roses”, then you should start pulling ads that match your site’s theme.

The words “heavy metal” and “hard rock” are called supporting keywords. Their job is to help define the context that the actual key word is being used in.

When the Google spiders are fed both supporting and actual key words they are better able to make the right decisions on your behalf.

The position of your key words also plays a part in pulling the right ads. Words that are closer to the top of the page have more “weight” than those that appear farther down. Tags are also important. H1 and H 2 tags have a higher precedence over P tags, and B tags are significant as well.

The key to getting the right ads to appear on your site is to fine-tune the supporting key words and tweak your tags until you are seeing what you want to see.

Once you reach that goal, you can read our article on Smart Ways to Attract Higher Paying AdSense Ads, and Tips for Maximizing Your Google AdSense Revenues for even better results.

Sometimes it seems that the Google spider is doing all it can to not get along with you. The next time you have that thought, stop to consider the possibility that the Google spider is having the same thoughts about you!

BLOG:PING:OPT-IN:SIG FILE:EZINE!

In the beginning…

I recently started my own “money-making, home business” which I signed up to with the understanding that I was going to earn money for doing nothing. Others (affiliates) were going to pay me commission for referring new sign-ups to their sites. This sounded like a fantastic opportunity to make lots of money without really selling anything. No stocks holding, postage etc.

My signup included (among other items) a guide which covers 30 days. I also had to sign-up to 5 online marketing sites (you receive the enrolment fee back in no time) and join a web-hosting company.

Massive amounts of information are fed to you but in an absorbable manner. It was very exiting. I would liken this information to reading a suspense novel…can’t wait to see what happens next!

Anyway this article is not meant to be about that…it’s meant to cover some of the terminology and their definitions, some of which I had never heard before.

AdSense

AdSense is a fast and easy way for website publishers of all sizes to display relevant ads on their website's content pages and earn money. Because the ads are related to what your visitors are looking for on your site — or matched to the characteristics and interests of the visitors your content attracts — you'll finally have a way to both monetise and enhance your content pages.
It's also a way for website publishers to provide web and site search to their visitors, and to earn money by displaying ads on the search results pages.

Adwords

With AdWords you create your own ads, choose keywords to help us match your ads to your audience and pay only when someone clicks on them.

Affiliate

A person, organization, or establishment associated with another as a subordinate, subsidiary, or member: network affiliates.

Auto-Responder

This is a clever marketing tool. It automates your emails and follows-up on potential clients after they have signed up to your newsletter etc.

Blog

An online diary or personal chronological log of thoughts published on a Web page; also called Weblog, Web log. Typically updated daily, blogs often reflect the personality of the author. It is a shortened form of Weblog.

Ezine

A magazine that is published electronically, especially on the Internet.

Keyword

A word used as a reference point for finding other words or information. See Adwords.

Off-line Marketing

As an example, advertising in newspapers, radio and television. Using the phone as a off-line marketing tool has also become very popular.

On-line Marketing

Advertising using the internet, examples may include…email, banners, popups etc.

Opt-In/Opt-out Subscribers

This is when you choose you receive newsletters etc. via email. Example:

By doing this you opt-in to an email mailing list. These lists are sold over the internet by various marketing companies. Most emails sent via the opt-in method also have an opt-out choice. Use this when you no longer wish to receive email from the marketer. When you have no choice it is referred to as SPAM.

Ping

A protocol that sends a message to another computer and waits for acknowledgment, often used to check if another computer on a network is reachable.
You need to use ping your blog to get it online. (easy as pie)

Sig File

A block of text at the end of a message identifying the sender and providing additional information for instance, web/e-mail address.

Solo Ad

This is advertising via email attached to an ezine. This is only one ad (as apposed to many small ads from various companies), thus giving you maximum exposure.

Viral Marketing

This works similar to a virus but instead of being destructive it encourages people to pass along a marketing message

Starting an Ebay Business --- An Online Business Model that Works

THE REALITIES OF AN INTERNET BUSINESS

Millions of people are still coming online each year, and many of those people come to the Internet with dreams of making their financial dreams come true.

The truth is that building a website to sell products and services is not the easiest way to make a living online. A lot of specific knowledge or money will be required to be successful with a standard website.

You must acquire skills --- or pay someone who already possesses those skills --- in the following areas:

пїЅ Graphic design
пїЅ Copywriting
пїЅ HTML design
пїЅ Perl or PHP programming
пїЅ Database programming
пїЅ Marketing research
пїЅ Promotions

When this is understood, most people throw their hands up in frustration and walk away from their entrepreneurial desires.

Maybe cash is the problem; maybe the desire is just lacking.

If you have reached this point yourself let me offer one piece of advice...

DON'T THROW AWAY YOUR DREAMS JUST YET

More people than I can count are making a successful living online, and none of them own their own website or send a single commercial email to anyone.

How is this possible?

Two words, "Ebay auctions."

EBAY MAKES IT EASY

Ebay covers all of the difficult technical issues. And more importantly, Ebay already has floods of visitors eager to purchase your wares.

Ebay has provided everything you need to operate a successful business online with three exceptions:

1. Products to sell
2. Time to list the products in the Ebay database
3. Cash to acquire the products

CHOOSING THE KINDS OF PRODUCTS

Before choosing your products, you should ask yourself what you enjoy the most. You may enjoy cats, NASCAR or even antiques. You should select products consistent with what you enjoy for two reasons.

First, you bring to your presentation a real appreciation for the products your are offering.

Secondly, a job you hate is one you will quit. A job you enjoy doing will be one that you will want to keep forever. If you are starting your own business, the hope is that you will be doing it for a very long time.

I personally know people who have generated a nice living on Ebay selling cat-related items, NASCAR memorabilia and antiques.

FINDING THE ACTUAL PRODUCTS TO SELL

I recommend against diving in and spending thousands of dollars buying products that you may or may not be able to sell.

A drop-shipper is a middleman who is willing to permit you to buy an individual product, and then they will put your business name on the return address of the product package and handle the actual delivery for you.

By utilizing a drop-shipper, you can speed product delivery to the client without risking your own cash to keep a product in inventory.

If you are lost as to how to find a drop-shipper, consider subscribing to the drop-shippers directory:

http://thePhantomWriters.com/drop_shippers_directory.html

Through this site, you can get all of the information you need to find drop-shippers from which you can order over 500,000 products from over 1,000 brand names.

LEARNING TO LIST YOUR PRODUCTS AT EBAY

Learning to use Ebay is pretty easy and straightforward. Ebay has put forward a lot of effort to help people to become successful. For example, Ebay has an entire area of their site devoted to the online entrepreneur.

To get an overview of all of the services and tools that Ebay provides to sellers, you may visit:

http://pages.ebay.com/services/index.html

Ebay also delivers courses and strategies to help you to be more successful:

http://pages.ebay.com/sellercentral/index.html

THE IMPORTANCE OF CASH FLOW TO YOUR SUCCESS

Ebay provides tools for both buyers and sellers to rate one another. The speed of delivery is one of the most important factors that sellers are rated on. By providing quick delivery, your buyers will give you a good rating --- and more shoppers will bid on your products.

Ebay recently purchased PayPal.com to help facilitate purchases for their buyers and sellers, and they have integrated the two systems together.

Unfortunately, getting the money from your PayPal account to your personal account generally takes four days. Even with a merchant account, the time gap is nearly the same. This time gap expands the turn-around between the transaction and delivery of the product unless you take action to speed the process.

If you were doing high volume, you would want to minimize the handling of a transaction to reduce the chance for a foul-up and to increase your ratings within the Ebay system.

But how can this be accomplished?

MANAGING CASH FLOW

While you could rely upon credit cards to get the job done, it is not something I would recommend. Paying credit card interest rates to process your customer's purchase, is an unnecessary burden.

Instead, put a sum of money into a dedicated bank account with a debit card attached to it. When you verify a transaction has been credited to your PayPal account, then use your debit card to immediately process the order with your drop-shipper.

But, how can you do it this way on a tight budget?

THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO THE RESCUE

Let me ask you this. Do you have a 401(k) account?

Experts advise that you not touch your retirement savings for anything other than retirement income. That is good advice. Fortunately, it is possible under special circumstances to acquire loans against your 401(k) accounts.

Beginning in 2002, even the self-employed small business owner with no employees could open his or her own 401(k), called a solo-owner 401(k), and borrow from it just as employees with big companies can.

Weigh this option against the others available to you. It only makes sense to take out a loan rather than to take a hit in heavy taxes and penalties for drawing your retirement money early. Seriously, consider taking advantage of our historically low interest rates to meet your cash flow needs.

To learn more about creating and borrowing from a solo-owner 401(k), please visit:

http://www.investsafe.com

IN CONCLUSION

It is wise to choose your new business venture based on a model that has proven itself over the long-term. Ebay has been proving its concept since 1995; helping thousands of people build a successful and very profitable business.

The time to act is now. Choose the product line that will give you the most satisfaction and then get busy. Your success awaits you.

How can you make money out of your site with no product, no affiliate program, no services and no idea of how to sell :

This was the question my copywriter asked me at one of our meetings about joint ventures on the web. What follows is the question and answers as best as I can remember them. Just to let you know he was making money 24 hours later…

Question: How do you make money out of your site with no product, no affiliate program, no services and no idea of how to sell…

Answer: Easy use Adsense.

Question: But what is Adsense.

Answer: Adsense is the other side of Google's Adwords. These are little three line text adverts that companies use to get targeted traffic to their websites.

Question: But how does it work.

Answer: Simple. Your Website is Internet real estate. The more your website is vested the more valuable the real estate. Just like a piece of real estate you can sell bits off. In this case it is the same as you putting up an advertising billboard on your property. You rent this to a company; in this case Google and they put their ads on it.

Question. OK But how do I get paid

Answer: You get paid every time somebody goes to your site and clicks on one of the ads. Simple enough. (In fact very sophisticated from a technical and marketing point of view but that is getting off the subject.)

Question. How much do I get paid?

Answer. Well here is a thing; you will probably not be able to work out exactly how much you get paid for any one ad that changes ad to ad. But after a few days of running this system you can probably work out how much you are getting per page per day.

Question. How much are you getting?

Answer. I am not allowed to tell you because I have signed a contract with Google that tells me that I am not allowed to say. However, I can tell you that to get to a stage where you get up to $1 per page per page is not impossible, but if you work on $0.30 per page per day, for a well-visited site you could be very happy.

Question. OK but $0.30 per page per day is not a lot.

Answer. No not if you only have 5 pages. But even that would cover the cost of a web site. Have a look below at the figures.

5 page web site at $0.30 per page per day

5 x 0.30 x 365 days = $547.50 per Year

10 page web site at $0.30 per page per day

10 x 0.30 x 365 = $1095.00 per Year

25 page site at $0.30 per page per day

25 x 0.30 x 365 = $2,737.50 per Year

50 page site at $0.30 per page per day

50 x 0.30 x 365 = $5,475.00 per Year

OK We are not talking retiring owning your own island and helicopter. But if you said well I think I could put up one page a day for every day of the year. Have 50 pages per web site. That’s means 7 web sites with 50 pages each and 15 day off.

365 divided by 50 = 7 and 15 over.

That would give you 7 sites at $5,475.00 per year or $38,325.00 in annual income after all the pages were finished. Now does that sound interesting. And all you have had to do is write 200 words per day. Just to let you know this article is so far 543 words.

Even if it is only half that is $19,162.50 per year. That is the repayments on an interest only loan at 5% of just under $400,000.

Question. Why not just have one big website?

Answer. It is better to build a number of columns to hold up a building. Better to diversify and survive.

Question. OK if this is so good why isn’t everybody doing it?

Answer. Many reasons, some people make more out of selling their own products, some do not know about it, some are just too purest. In the end who cares; if you quest is to make some money. There is nothing bad here. In fact there is only good.

Question. What do you mean there is only good.

Answer. Well let’s think. Somebody has got to your site because they have either searched for you on a search engine or somebody has referred them. They will only visit your site if they are interested in what you have. The ads that google put up on their billboard on your site are targeted to what your site is about. Therefore your visitors not only get to see your info but they get to see other offerings. If they are interested they click on the ad. Now look what has happened here. You have made money because somebody has paid to put an ad on your site. The user has clicked on the ad because they are interested in the subject and ad. The advertiser gets a warm lead. Google make a slice as the middleman and can continue to run their excellent service. So everybody wins. And it only costs people pennies.

Question. OK I’m sold what do I do now.

Answer. Simple go to www.google.com/adsense download all the info on setting up and account, the details what specifications your site must meet. Basically, no competitive ads, not profanity, must be a reasonable site with good navigation and no to many spelling mistakes.

The just get going.

Question. Are there ways that I can maximize the adverts and make more money?

Answer. Yes there are. But that is not for this article.

For further information come back to this web site for the next article – Now to maximize your adsense review stream.

3 Unusual Formats For Auctions on eBay

eBay users are accustomed to only two "standard" formats for
sales on eBay: either the 'regular' auction which involves
bidding and waiting; and the Buy It Now, which is an instant
purchase.

But there are three other formats that are less well known.

1. Live Auctions

Before eBay, the traditional auction included live bodies in
chairs and an auctioneer up front (talking so fast he was
frequently unintelligible). Any buyer can still participate
in these live auctions via eBay. Live auctions are a hybrid
- a buyer is 'sort of' present in a live setting yet is at
home using an Internet connection.

The products for sale are usually expensive and unusual.
There are such items as expensive and unique coins, Asian
art, native American artifacts, incredible jewelry, costly
furniture, memorabilia from major sports stars and even
history. Today, for instance, there are documents signed by
John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, James Madison and Ulysses
Grant (he confides that he was strenuously opposed to the
"wicked" war with Mexico).

If you choose to participate in a live auction, be certain
that you register first because you can't just drop in on a
whim.

You can find all the details here:
http://www.ebayliveauctions.com

2. Private Auctions

Private auctions are similar to the typical auction that
we're all familiar with except for one detail - the
identities of the bidders are kept secret. Only the seller
has access to the names.

Why would anyone create a private auction? It's usually for
one of three reasons:

* The item is quite expensive and buyers might be
uncomfortable having others know they can afford such
merchandise. Their concern about their financial status is
most likely misplaced because it is quite possible to
distance yourself from eBay contact information, but much of
selling is about perception.

* The buyers might be embarrassed by the nature of the
merchandise.

* Some sellers habitually use private auctions to make it
harder for their competition to snoop on them.

3. Restricted Access Auctions

This is usually for sales of "adult" items. The main purpose
is to prevent children from seeing this kind of merchandise,
and is similar to having covers on racy magazines at store
checkouts.

To bid on these items, the buyer must:

* Be 18 years old

* Must have supplied credit card information to eBay.The
theory is that no one under 18 can get a credit card and
therefore cannot get into these sections.

* Agree that he is voluntarily accessing restricted access
auctions

In addition, restricted auctions are excluded from the
Featured pages. So if you are a seller using this format,
your listing will be harder to find.

Even though they are less well known, these three formats
for auctions on eBay still account for tens of millions of
dollars in sales each year. If they suit your business
model, you might consider them.

The No-Work, Money-Making Website

While growing up on the farm in North Carolina, I loved gardening. There was something magical about planting a dollar's worth of seeds, watching them germinate, and then feeding the family for a entire season with my efforts.

The only part I didn't enjoy was the weeding and cultivating. That was the WORK! So I was thrilled when I discovered "The Ruth Stout No Work Garden Book." That book taught me how to get all of those great vegetables with no weeding, very little cultivating, and little watering. It really did teach you how to garden with literally no work.

Twenty year later, I discovered just as fertile a garden on the Internet. With practically no investment other than my time, I could put up a website, nurture it, build traffic to it, and in time, harvest lots of sales from it.

Just like with the vegetable garden, there was a lot of maintenance required if you wanted a good harvest.

The site needed to be constantly updated so that the search engines "learned" that they should visit this "fresh" site often.

The site needed to have lots of keyword rich webpages so that it would rank high for relevant keywords, and attract organic search engine traffic. Since I was taught that "content is king" that meant the more content-rich, tightly-focused webpages you had, the better. The content-rich pages meant you could make sales, get new subscribers, and even earn pay-per-click revenue from programs such as Google AdSense.

The only problem with the above model is... it's a lot of WORK.

Then I discovered, "The No-work, Money-making Website. It wasn't completely no work, but it was probably 1/10th the work that I had been doing.

The no-work website encompasses building a content-rich website using automated tools. These tools allow you to gather relevant content (articles, RSS feeds, etc.) from all over the Internet and then instantly generate hundreds ... even thousands of content rich webpages in minutes.

The no-work website encompasses using other tools to automatically update your site, so that each time the search engine spiders visit, they notice new content. Noticing new content on each visit, the search engine spiders make a note to visit more often.

Now here's where this gets really powerful...

As these search engine spiders visit more often, they don't just crawl your current no-work, money-making site. They also follow links to other sites you want to get indexed. So now you can put up your no-work site, teach the search engines to come back often, and then go on to build other sites knowing that getting them indexed is as simple as linking to them from your old sites. It really is that easy :-)

By now you're probably asking what are some of these magic tools I use to build these amazing, no-work sites that literally takes on a life of their own.

Here's are just a few of the tools I personally use:

1) Blogs. Blogs hosted on Blogger.com get noticed very quickly by Google because Google owns Blogger.com By pinging blog directories (and Yahoo using your "My Yahoo" page) lots of other sites take notice of your blog. They visit your blog and follow links to other target sites.

2) I'm a charter member of Content Desk. Content Desk has a tool that allows me to query databases containing tens of thousands of articles (based upon keywords). I can automatically sort the list of articles that is returned based upon keyword density, or a number of other criteria. Then, I can have the software itself create webpages for me using a template I've designed using the template tool built right into Content Desk.

Content Desk is probably my favorite tool because I can, quite literally, add hundreds of article pages to my sites in minutes. My templates also include ads for a "pet" product and/or Google AdSense. I can add content-rich, relevant, very nice-looking pages to my sites in minute, and then move on to the next project, knowing that these pages WILL make me money.

Content Desk limited its charter membership to a total of only 400 members, and that quickly sold out. However, since it's a monthly membership, not all members renew and there are probably some openings. To check on openings, simply visit:
http://WillieCrawford.com/content-desk.html

After arriving at the site, click on the "Charter Membership" link in the upper left menu bar. This will tell you if there are any current openings.

3) RSS Feeds. By incorporating RSS feeds into your webpages, you can set them up so that the content is constantly updated. This gives your visitors something fresh to read each time they visit. This gives the search engines fresh content each time that they visit ... and trains them to visit often.

Content Desk incorporates a feature that works very similar to regular RSS feeds EXCEPT that it doesn't send your website traffic away. With a normal RSS feed, the content automatically added to your site contains links inviting your visitors to click away. It allows you to automatically update your pages, but it also siphons off traffic. Content Desk does this in a way that automatically updates your site without sending your visitors away.

4) Traffic On Steroids. This is another system for automatically updating/changing content on your site. Traffic On Steroids actually takes a core database of articles/content that you set up and then rotates it in your target webpages. The net effect is that each time a visitor (or search engine) visits a page, the page is different. This is very effective at training the search engines to come back often... and increasing your pages' ranking. Incorporate Google AdSense into these pages and you have another hands-off money magnet.

You can also incorporate a product data-feed into your page using Secret Money Generator and have pages that are constantly updates AND have a catalog of products built in that all pay you an affiliate commission. Secret Money Generator is at:
http://WillieCrawford.com/money-secret.html

You can check out Traffic On Steroids at
http://WillieCrawford.com/traffic-on-steroids.html

I've just shared with you a few of the dozens of tools I use to create nearly-hands-off websites. I do still look at some of them from time to time to see if I can make them perform better. However, you could LITERALLY never touch many of your sites created with these tools for years... and you'd still have a nice revenue stream from them.

It’s all about working smarter, not harder. It's all about using technology to leverage your time.

Contextual Ad Networks...The Baby Boom Is Upon Us

No, this baby boom will certainly not swamp the Social Security
system (sort of a bad joke for those that live in the United
States, but many other countries...most notably Japan...have an
even more acute problem), but this baby boom is revolutionizing
the way that pay per click advertising is being spread across the
Internet.

One of the early participants in this pay per click baby boom was
Google, with its AdSense program. With this program, Google
shares pay per click revenue with a huge number of individual
partner websites that carry a few pay per click ads that are
distributed by Google. In essence, this creates a whole bunch of
little pay per click locations (websites) throughout the Internet
and hence the term "pay per click baby boom".

Conceptually, programs like AdSense are similar to what the
computer hardware folks refer to a distributed processing.
Instead of trying to draw everyone to a large pay per click
search engine site, little groups of pay per click ads are spread
widely across thousands of locations (websites) all over the
Internet.

Actually, this distributed processing or propagation technique is
not limited to pay per click advertising. For example, Amazon
uses a similar arrangement (called Amazon Associates) to sell the
products it carries on amazon.com and ClickBank has a sales
program called CBAdwords which operates in a similar fashion.

According my trusty Ouija board, it seems likely that most
commercial hubs on the Internet will be shifting to this
propagation concept as time progresses...all of those individual
partner websites that carry the message/proposition will
constitute the vast army of worker ants that keep the queen ant
alive and healthy.

From a pay per click marketing perspective, these programs make
brilliant use of leverage while providing highly targeted
prospects for the paying advertiser.

There are, of course, some interesting things that occur as a
result of all of this stuff. For example, consider what I call
the "cross fertilization effect": Suppose a person goes to
yahoo.com and performs a search that leads them to one of my
websites that happens carry Google AdSense ads and that visitor
then clicks on one of those ads...the net result is that Yahoo
natural search provided Google pay per click with some revenue!
Aren't these fun times that we're living in?

As these programs continue to proliferate, the individual
webmaster needs to exercise a little restraint and avoid the
temptation to go overboard by plastering these ads all over your
website and thereby diluting your own primary message/proposition
and confusing your hard earned visitor. When properly used,
these ads are just ancillary or complementary content that you
are providing to enhance the information and opportunities that
you are providing to your visitor...if something happens to
strike a responsive chord with your visitor, you might make a
little pay per click money.

If properly used, these propagation programs can result in the
classical "win-win" situation. However, if you over do it, this
can quickly turn into a loss for you (the individual webmaster)
and a win for your pay per click partners that are distributing
the ads. As in many things, moderation is important.

The dynamic search engine marketing industry continues to evolve
as users began to take advantage of the steady stream of new
features, tools and innovations provided by the ever increasing
number of search engines offering quality search results (it's
not all about Google anymore). The evolutionary time line for
Internet marketing continues to run at warp speed.

An example of previous evolutionary periods (which by now may
almost seem prehistoric) would be the emergence of pay-per-click
advertising and the cooresponding rise of search-marketing firms
specializing in AdWords and Overture. As long as there are methods
for finding and retrieving information in digital databases by
using keywords or similar attributes, there will be a
search-marketing industry. How that industry operates in the
future depends on how the search engines operate and how consumer
tendencies evolve.

It's a constant sea of change, but the good things just keep on
getting better! Stay alert, and light on your feet, and the
opportunities will just keep on coming your way.

The above are just some observations from "the peanut gallery",
but I don't think I'm far off the mark about where things are
heading. With that, I'm off the soapbox and wishing you
success in whatever you do online!

The Ebay Revolution - A Beginners Guide

With E bay being one of the most searched for terms on the internet today,[ approx 24 million people last month], it is hardly suprising that more and more everyday people are turning away from the 9-5 job scene, and looking at the income opportunities that this hugely popular forum has to offer.

So just what are the benefits of starting your own E bay business, as opposed to the more traditional self employment options, such as buying a business, or becoming a franchisee?

Well the first and most obvious benefit is the financial one, you can start an E bay business on a shoestring, whereas buying a franchise or setting up on your own will in all probability cost you 10s of thousands of dollars.
Secondly, the element of risk is fairly negligible with an E bay business [ as long as you don’t invest hugely in stock before you have properly researched the market]

Thirdly you can start up in your spare time, without having to “give up your day job”. This allows you to test the water, and see if you actually enjoy running your own business, before you actually take the plunge.For many people Ebay is simply a profitable and fun sideline or hobby, and that’s fine, but you need to make the choice if it’s a hobby you want or a business.If you make the decision that its to be a business,then you need to keep professional records, pay tax etc.

Another beauty of running an online business is that you can do your business activities when it suits you.You can organise your auctions at 2 am if you so choose, and people will still be looking at what you have to offer!

A final benefit,[ and this list is by no means exhaustive ] is that unlike a traditional business, your marketplace is unlimited, you can sell your product anywhere in the world, you have a potential marketplace of millions upon millions of buyers

The most common question for many people is “ how do I get started ?”. The first step if you haven’t already done it, is to get on Ebay and have a look around. Ebay itself offers great informative resources and tours for the uninitiated. Have a look at some auctions in progress, see how people list and display their products, bid for something you would like [you have to join first, but Ebay makes this a very user friendly process] Have a look round your home for unwanted items, run some auctions of your own, its fun, and you’ve nothing to loose but your junk. This is a great way of dipping your toes in the auction pond.

So, after having done this you decide that you would like to get serious about building an E bay business, what should you do first? Here is a shortlist of some basic first steps.

1. Choose your product- Everything from baseball cards to luxury homes is for sale on Ebay.Research possible product choices by looking at what your competition is doing.If you have a particular area of expertise, or a passion which others share, choose your product accordingly. TIP- A great research tool is available at www.overture.com . Its called the keyword selector tool, and it enables you to check how many times a certain word or phrase has been searched for on the internet in the previous month ie rolex watch. If few people have been looking for what you want to sell, chances are it will be a non starter on Ebay.[ at the time of writing this tool can be used by anyone free of charge, though this may well change] On the other hand if your product is frequently searched for, you may be onto a winner.

2. Don’t sell poor quality products.There is nothing more disappointing than receiving a purchase only to find it is inferior quality junk. Ebay has an excellent feedback system, which it uses to rate traders.This feedback is available to both buyers and sellers, so if you get negative feedback, this can seriously jeopardise your Ebay reputation permanently

3. Start small. Unless you are utterly confident in your product, and in a very secure position financially, start things off on a small scale, and increase your spending only as your results justify this.

4. Test, Test, Test- Try different products and combinations of products to see what works best, and always use photos,as many people buy what they see not what they read.

5. Commit from the start to offering exceptional service. Treat others as you would like to be treated, and you will soon get a reputation as a trader to be trusted, and from whom you can buy with confidence.

6. Don’t always try to make a large profit. Many of the powersellers on Ebay make small but consistent profits,and run a lot of auctions! Always ensure that you cover shipping costs, and any costs incurred in running your auction.

7. Many of E bays top sellers sell other peoples products which they neither stock or in most cases even see, through a process called ‘dropshipping’. A dropshipper is a wholesaler, who also takes care of all the product shipping details on your behalf.There are many dropship companies who tailor their services around the Ebay auction scene, and who can provide you with quality products, at very competitive prices shipped directly to your buyers [ if you plan to be in Ebay for the long haul, it is well worth giving this option serious consideration, as you really need to have a steady reliable source of cheap quality products.

Easy Steps To Hands Off Passive Income

So you want to increase your Adsense income? Log into your Adsense account, and look at your last month's stats. There are three key areas that contribute to your earnings: Impressions, Clickthroughs and Effective CPM. Improving your stats in any, or preferably, all of these three key areas will increase your Adsense earnings.

Impressions

Impressions are the number of times your webpages with Adsense ads have been viewed. You can increase Impressions by increasing traffic (preferably targeted traffic) to your webpages. Some of the best ways to increase targeted traffic to your webpages include:

-create more webpages, with relevant, focused content
-create more links to your webpages
-list your website/s under relevant categories in more directories
-set up a directory of relevant sites on your website and accept relevant
reciprocal links
-write relevant articles, with your site information in the 'resource box' at the end of each article, and submit them to article directories
-advertise with pay per click search engines like Google's Adwords. www.Miva.com (formerly www.FindWhat.com, www.YahooMarketing.com (formerly Overture) and 100's of others. When of the best places for pay per click info is www.payperclicksearchengines.com with a descriptive list of 659 search engines.

Clickthroughs

Clickthroughs are the percentage of viewers who click on your Adsense ads. You can increase Clickthroughs by increasing the relevance of Adsense ads on your site, and by tweaking the format and placing of your ads.

Although you can't dictate which Adsense ads show on your site, you can
influence the relevance of the ads by maintaining a tightly focused website. If every page on your site focuses tightly on the site topic, its more likely that the Adsense ads will too. For example, if every page of your site is about fishing, and the word 'fishing' appears several times on every page, its likely that your Adsense ads will relate to fishing.

The best way to tweak your ad format and placement is to invest in an Adsense Tracker, and test, test, test! People who have done this tend to suggest that the best format is the large rectangle, with background and border the same color as the page behind it, so that the ad blends into the page. The best placement is towards the center or top left of the first screen of the page. Try these suggestions first, and then track and test, to be sure of what works best for your pages.

Effective CPM

Effective CPM is a measure of your average earnings, per thousand clicks. You can increase your Effective CPM by selecting topics that attract high bids from Adsense advertisers, and building pages and whole websites on higher paying topics.

Although Google doesn't release information on Adsense bids, you can get a good idea of the top paying topics by looking at information on Adwords bids, or, for that matter, bids on pay-per-click search engines like Overture. There are a number of keyword research tools available, both free and paid, that can help you find high paying topics.

The Formula

So now you have the basics of increasing your Adsense income. Its a deceptively simple formula:

-Build pages and websites on high paying topics for the best Effective CPM.
-Format and place your Adsense ads for maximum Clickthroughs.
-Promote your sites to drive targeted traffic to your Adsense webpages for maximum impressions.

eBay Auction Descriptions That REALLY Sell!

Headline That Attracts
The first thing you need to do is attract people to your auction. The more the merrier. Yes?

You need two main ingredients. Keyword and big benefit.

Your keyword will be the main word that people will search on to find your item. But you need a big benefit aswell to ensure they select YOUR auction and not someone elses.

Powerful Opening Paragraph
Then you need a very strong powerful paragraph to get someone interested enough to read the rest of your auction. And if you make sure it really gets their heart beating faster they're almost guaranteed to buy. They way to do this is by getting them to see themselves already owning your item. Getting them to test drive it, if you like.

Testimonials
If you can, try to get testimonials from people who've owned this item. They could either be a past customer of yours or someone writing about very something similar to your item. If they happen to be famous, well!

Testimonials are other people selling your item. It's very powerful and it creates belief in the quality of what your offering.

List Of What You Get
If this is done right it should sell your item on it's own power.

Everybody likes lists because it's easy to see what you get. Make sure you've got one in every auction. And I don't mean a list of boring features like...

22ct gold
Water resistant
Sekonda make

I mean a list of the benefits...

Look good with this prestigious 22ct gold watch
Don't worry if it's get wet it's water resistant
Know you've always got the right time (Sekonda is accurate)

A benefit is what a feature does for someone. Try to find as many of these as possible. There are certain techniques which are BRILLIANT at finding out the benefits in any item that REALLY SELL! One that I show in my book is particularly effective and quick at this task.

Fantastic Offer Only A Moron Could Refuse
Try to make what you offer your customer well worth the price you're offering. Again, there are ways of making your offer irresistable by adding to it.

Motivating Call To Action
This is where most people fail. They just describe their item and that's it. Sorry! If you want people to bid you've got to write a motivating short paragraph at the end. Tell them why they should buy.

There you have it. Good luck!

USP on eBay

If you have dabbled at all in the world of Internet marketing, you may have heard the term "unique selling proposition" or USP. USP is a technique that Internet marketers use to set themselves apart from the competition. Internet marketing is highly competitive and highly saturated. In order to be successful, it is vital that the Internet marketer present himself as being unique and different from his competitors especially when many of them are selling the same products.

It is also just as vital to have a unique selling proposition on Ebay. I am amazed at the number of Ebay sellers that are either unaware or just don't care about the importance of having a unique selling proposition. A case in point: A while back, I was researching some products on Ebay from a wholesale company called B&F System. B&F System is a wholesale only company that carries a variety of brand name products. One of the brands they carry is called Maxam. I came across several Maxam leather jackets on Ebay while searching ended auctions. Now here's the kicker. About a dozen or so of these leather jacket auctions were exactly the same. They all used the same image of a guy modeling the jacket that was captured from the B&F website. They even used the exact ad copy used by B&F!

What was the result? Only one of the sellers was able sell any jackets. The top bid was only $26. And since he purchased the jackets from B&F for $20, he made about $5.00 profit after Ebay fees. That's a slim profit for an item that normally retails for $95.

Always keep in mind that the amount of effort you put fourth on you auctions will be in direct proportion to the amount of return you get from your auctions. The sellers who put up the jacket auctions put fourth little effort by using stock photos and ad copy from the B&F website, and therefore received little or no sales from their auctions. The sellers in this case might think that using stock photos makes their auctions look more professional. It's just the opposite. These auctions look very amateurish. Using a picture of someone modeling a garment will not entice people to bid on your auction. Using three or four high quality pictures of the actual item along with a detailed description will entice people to bid. Remember that buying apparel off the internet is not like buying music CD's or software. You don't need to worry if a CD will fit. You don't need to see multiple pictures of a box of software to know what you'll be getting. However, when selling apparel, good quality pictures and a detailed description are vital. You should use a good quality digital camera to take pictures of the item from different angles. If you're selling jackets or coats, include a picture of the lining as well. In your description, don't just say it's a large size. Give measurements of the garment including overall length, sleeve length and chest size. If you're going to specialize in apparel, it would be a good idea to purchase a form or clothing dummy to model your apparel. Doing these things will go a long way in setting you apart from the competition and establishing a "unique selling proposition."

What ever you're thinking about selling, always look at your competition and think about how to set yourself apart. Remember that unless you're selling antiques on Ebay, there's always someone else who's trying to sell the same thing you're selling. Establishing your USP will put you on the road to Ebay success.

9 Reasons To Do Joint Venture Deals On eBay

eBay is THE most popular home business in the USA, but it's not without its problems. Many have tried to succeed but have failed due to confusion over what products to sell, giant numbers of competitors, copy and picture theft from other sellers and eBay and Paypal that eat into profits.

One way to avoid this swamp, though, is to do a Joint Venture with established eBay sellers. This allows a JV partner to build her own mailing list and sell products off eBay.

There are multiple advantages to this way of doing business on eBay:

1. The biggest uncertainty for would-be eBay sellers is what products to sell. Sometimes vendors risk large sums of money on untried products, only to lose their investment, become sour and give up. With a Joint Venture there is no risk except for a few hours of time.

2. Since there are no auctions listed on eBay, no one can steal copy or pictures from JV sellers - because there is nothing to copy. In effect, we become invisible - no one even knows we exist and this hidden aspect has many advantages.

3. eBay JVs are usually done with a digital product that can be instantly downloaded. This is great for any entrepreneur because inexpensive autoresponders mean that her entire business is handled via autopilot. Contrast this with the usual way of doing business on eBay which involves mailing dozens, hundreds or even thousands of boxes.

4. eBay and Paypal have lots of rules. It's easy to break some unwittingly, and even the most honest seller does so from time to time. A JV merchant isn't answerable to eBay, however, but only to her customers.

5. A JV seller never directly lists on eBay, thus avoiding eBay and Paypal fees.

6. Successful Powersellers have large numbers of customers and there are lots of administrative details involved. Implementing a sales system can cost time and money because without attention to detail packages won't be mailed in a timely fashion, payments won't be accurate, items will be sent to the wrong buyers, and so on. A JV partner eliminates all of that because all transactions can be funneled through a hands-off system.

7. eBay selling lives or dies through the 'feedback' system. Negative feedback can kill sales instantly and lack of feedback causes buyers to hesitite and choose other sellers. Feedback is totally irrelevant to a Joint Venture seller because she is using the reputation of carefully chosen other sellers. She knows in advance that their feedback is high quality or she doesn't do deals with them.

8. Inexperienced sellers sometimes drag wiser merchants into price wars. In a panic over sales, they foolishly slash prices, beginning a chain reaction that results in bare bones bids that allow no one to make any money. A Joint Venture seller floats serenely above such hiccups in the marketplace.

9. Best of all, a JV seller doesn't settle for a one time sale. She concentrates her efforts on a mailing list of happy customers that she can sell to again and again and again. In this way, not only is she ensuring repeate profits, but she gets paid for creating this list, rather than having to pay someone else for names.

With its 147,000,000 registered users, eBay is the best source of targeted, Net-savvy buyers on the web. By putting together Joint Venture deals with established sellers, anyone can add large numbers of qualified buyers to their database efficiently and inexpensively.

At Home Internet Jobs, Who Said It Was Easy?

I’m sure you’ve heard it all before, build a website and people will come. But if you’ve built a money-making website, that’s not what you want to hear. After all, you picked one of these at home internet jobs, because you want to be financially independent and your own boss.

Here’s one alternative from the many home internet jobs you’ve surely read on the net. Join an affiliate or partnership or referral program. Study these three alternatives, to help you maximize your profit streams.

1. Exclusive retailer. There are many online malls; they offer a comprehensive range of products and services. Concentrate on supplying the needs of a narrower market segment. You’ll be unique and sought out.

2. Join the more profitable affiliate program. Although there are literally
hundreds you can join, take your time. Read the FAQ section. Check out their products. If the products and services they offer are ones you look for, there’s a good chance that you’ll earn as an affiliate.

Other factors you may want to think about. Are the commissions high enough, that you’ll turn a profit? Remember you’ll need to set up your own website, and secure advertising money. Choose to join an affiliate program whose products are mid range and will sell it self with little effort.

3. Create a website that focuses on your passion. Although the focus is on the range of products that the affiliate program has, that’s not the only thing you offer. Give advice that is contextual to the products. Maybe you could write about the history of the products, or the processes involved in manufacturers. You could write about the celebrities who use this. Build a website that’s full of contents that your customers can use to better their lives. You’ll win their trust. They’ll soon become your most loyal customers.

Here’s one home internet job opportunity you may not have thought of. It’s a profitable and excellent venue to a steady stream of profits.

Be an online retailer of e-books with the reseller or reprint rights. Here’s one of the many ways you can do it. Offer a one time entry fee for the subscriber, it can be $20.00 a year or life time subscription fee. The subscriber will have the right to download any e-book from in your library. Some of the more successful business models target niche markets. You can be a retailer of e-books that specialize on the recipes of different countries. Wouldn’t that be fun? You can commission e-books or buy from known e-book authors. Read the e-books to be sure you’re selling the real deal.

What are the benefits you received from reading that e-Book you just purchased? Right an article or review explaining the benefits and then get that article or review published and placed in front of the eyes of your best prospects.

Be a dropper shipper and establish your storefront at EBay or the competitor Yahoo auctions. EBay’s traffic alone runs to approximately 800,000 visitors daily. It’s the worlds’ best online auction, and you wont’ go wrong.

Now what’s a dropshipping business? It’s a business model where you put products on a website or through EBay. You take the orders they come and pass these on to the dropship supplier, who ships this to your buyers.

Another way of putting it is, you’re the middleman, and you take the orders via Paypal, credit card or fax.

All the home internet jobs here will net you profit. All you need is a computer, internet access and basic knowledge about your pc and the net.

The Top Ten Antique Categories on eBay!

Knowledge is Power! And this statement could not be more true when it comes to selling on eBay. As explained in my book "eBay Marketing Wholesale SourcePak" being successful on eBay all depends on being in the right place, at the right time, with the right product. For example, did you know one of the most popular categories on eBay for buying and selling is the Antiques Category. That's right! People flock to eBay to locate treasures from the past. But what if we could know exactly what they are looking for? Just what kind of Antiques? Well I can help! Below you will find the Top Ten Picks of Antique Categories (at the time of this writing) as per eBay.

10 - Lace and Crochet Trim

9 - Medical Antiques

8 - Wood Picture Frames

7 - Knobs and Handles

6 - Linen Samplers

5 - Mixed Material: Picture Frames

4 - Roman Antiquities

3 - Silver Napkin Rings

2 - Locks and Keys

And the Number 1 Antique Category for "Hot Items" is...

Weathervanes and Lightning Rods.

There you have it! The Top Ten Picks of Antique Categories where potential bidders are surfing to find all those treasures from times gone by. If you sell Antiques on eBay, finding items that fit into one or more of the above categories will see your number of bids increase substantially. Always remember to do your research before listing any item for auction. Know what categories are "Hot!" Do a price analysis of your product. Know what the item costs you and what you can potentially sell it for. Then sit back and watch the bidding heat up!

Beware: The Dangers of Selling on eBay 101

It's obvious that eBay provides internet users with an online flea market where buyers and sellers from around the world meet to conduct trade.

However, like most traders who are faced with an innovation of this sort, the first question will always be: It is safe?

The answer is yes, but devious scammers seem to be plotting daily to forward their dastardly schemes and take advantage of eBay's power.

So, what is the user's recourse? The users of eBay must learn to gather information and take meticulous care in dealing on eBay. Only then can they be less gullible to scammers.

A common consensus is that bidders are often scammed by sellers. But it is possible for things to be the other way around.

Here is a list of the common problems sellers encounter and the means to handle them.

Fake Escrow Services

A winning bidder may request that an escrow service be used to assure both parties of a fair transaction. Unfortunately, the seller is sometimes duped into using a fake escrow system.

To avoid this situation, the seller must always verify the authenticity of an escrow service. eBay recommends the use of escrow.com. If the bidder insists on his or her escrow service, chances are, that person is a scammer.

Victims of this fraud find it difficult to reclaim their items. They may, however, appeal to the legal system afforded by the state they live in. They must also contact eBay regarding the matter for any assistance they may be willing to offer.

Deadbeat Bidders

Deadbeat bidders (a winning bidder who doesn't pay for an item at the auction's close) are more common on eBay. If the winner of your auction does not pay, you may leave that person a negative feedback.

As for the listing fees the seller shells out, eBay lays out a four step procedure that sellers can use to potentially recover lost selling fees. If sellers complete the process to eBay's satisfaction, they will receive a Final Value Fee credit and a re-list credit. Filing out an Unpaid Item dispute is the first step toward eBay reimbursing such fees. A person can report an unpaid item up to 45 days after an auction's close.

Trade Dispute

This occurs when the seller and bidder disagree on some terms of the sale. This may also happen if there is a purported violation of any of these agreements.

If communication between both parties does not help, they may consider availing of a third-party dispute resolution outfit to help. SquareTrade.com is one of these outfits that eBay recommends.

An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure

A seller's life may be made terrible because of the constant scamming attacks unscrupulous individuals undertake. But, with proper information and care, he or she can continue trading on eBay with relative safety.

Payment Methods on eBay

Gone are the days when only cash (or cattle in some cases) was the only accepted mode of payment for trades. As the concept of trading evolved, so did the means of paying for items.

Today's electronic world pushes the envelop further. With the advent of online trading systems such as eBay, many new forms of payment have flourished.

First of all, on eBay, the mode of payment depends on the agreement between the buyer and the seller. Most often, the seller will specify his or her desired payment method. In these cases, the seller often has primacy in the decisions regarding payment modes. However, the buyer may still communicate with the seller regarding a viable alternative if it suits both parties.

The following is a list of common eBay payment modes.

Cash On Delivery

Cash is, after all, still cash. This payment method can be done through a third party courier system or by the buyer and seller meeting each other at an agreed place. The advantage of a cash transaction is that the exchange of the item for payment is done in the presence of the buyer and the seller (or the seller's representative). However, some people will not accept the risk present when two strangers meet.

Personal Check

One popular method of payment is personal check. Writing checks is easy and safe. However, many sellers do not like accepting check because they are easy to cancel.

PayPal

PayPal is the payment of choice on eBay. In fact, eBay owns PayPal.

Using PayPal is easy, convenient, and relatively safe. PayPal acts as like an internet 'wire transfer.'

After signing-up for PayPal, one may send cash to anyone with an email address using the PayPal system. PayPal also has security features that safeguard against fraud in case there is a dispute between the seller and the buyer. This system is best for transactions up to $1000.

Escrow.com

Escrow.com is the payment of choice for purchases over $500. Escrow.com holds the buyer's money from the seller until the seller delivers the item. Only then will the funds be released to the seller. This system makes for a very safe, although highly procedural transaction.

Wire Transfer

This is the payment of choice for countries that do not carry the PayPal service. Wire transfers are risky because the buyer usually has to wire over the funds before the seller sends the items. The chance for non-delivery of items is high.

Other Payment Systems

The number of third party payment services is steadily on the rise. Their systems for payment vary. However, to be successful they must be convenient to use and safe as well.

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