Among the many other things I am working on, I am slipping in a few listings on eBay to get my feet wet in that marketplace again. This past weekend, my wife and I scoured the house for stuff we do not need any more to post on the online auction site. Most of it is junk that I will probably just throw out, but I do have some items that I am going to list for sure. I also have a bunch of Pokemon cards and some sports collectibles that I can get rid of, though I really have no idea what they are worth. What better way to find out than to list them on eBay for $0.99? You can find my listing by searching for username “auctionready” on eBay or by clicking here:
http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZauctionready

In the past, I did a lot of research on being an eBay seller and even looked into opening a drop off store for people to consign their items through me. After I did my research on that business, I decided it would not be a good idea due to low net profits and large time commitments and overhead. Turns out I was right because a lot of companies are closing up shop. Franchises are folding too and leaving their franchisees hanging.

Of course, all of that is due to eBay’s mis-guided focus on their core assets. They seem to be focusing much more on the buyer and they make it harder and harder to be a seller. Many, many long time powersellers have left ebay completely or at least lowered the amount of items they list there. EBay continually raises their selling fees and makes it harder and harder for businesses to make a decent profit selling through their site. At least it seems that way on the surface. I am not a full-time eBay sell by any stretch, but if I were, I do know how I would work their site. It all revolves around using several ways to make money online. You NEED to have more than one things going on to make it big online. You NEED to have your own store and drive people to it using tools like eBay and the other auction sites, and many other online services as well.

The money from a customer is not in the one time eBay sale. You MUST know the lifetime value of a customer to your business. If you sell random junk on eBay, you are not a professional seller running a business, you are an eBayer. Nothing wrong with that, but if you want next level income, you need to have a plan. For example…

You decide to be in the music business. You find various music related merchandise to sell through your online store. You do some research and find out what people are searching for (keyword research) and build your site accordingly. You offer many things including instruments, sheet music, accessories, how-to books, computer software, etc. You find the itmes that sell well on eBay and offer them to generate business and get a customer. Then comes the profitable part – FOLLOW UP!

Once you have a customer, you need a plan for following up with them. If you never contact them again after you ship your item, you are throwing BIG money out the window. You MUST follow up. Send them a newsletter. A helpful email from time to time. Send them notices of any sales or promotions you may be having. Be in front of them at all times and you WILL make more sales. Of course, this all assumes you provide good service too. Be there for them whenever they need something else and you will reap the rewards.

I have BIG NEWS to share with YOU…

http://May1st2007.com/?x=1189901 The BIG NEWS: Internet Marketing pioneer Rick Raddatz is launching five major new marketing services in 2007.

Cost: Free

This is your last chance!!

Well things are all set with Schefren and Strategic Profits. I got my second refund with no issues at all. It is nice to have a company handle things properly and do what is right without making the customer fight for it. Like I said, I love Shefren’s program but I just cannot handle it right now. If you would like more info on him and what he teaches, the following link will take you to his FREE page where you can download his materials and watch his movies at no cost:

==> http://schefren.infusionsoft.com/go/vault/bizdream

Very good stuff. I actually got a lot out of the free materials before I signed up with them. His subscription materials are even better if you can handle it. Now on to the rest of my day. I will be organizing my office and writing up a 30 day action plan.

 

I have decided to drop the Rich Schefren program. The materials are very good but I just can’t justify the cost and time requirements at this time. Perhaps in the future but not now.

Now the fun begins with refund requests so we’ll see how they handle that. When I first signed up with them, they said there was a 30 day guarantee. I signed up on 2/12 and they didn’t even have the site up and running until early March. I requested the refund on 3/29. I was then charged a second time on 4/3. I received a refund on one month’s payment on 4/6.

So now I was charged for two months and refunded for one month. I have requested a refund on the second month now as well.

It has been over three weeks since my last post and I wanted to give a very quick update on things that are going on with me lately.

1. I just got back from Houston, TX where I learned about a strategy for investing in real estate that will change the way I do things around here dramatically. It is actually a proprietary system developed by a 25 year investing veteran who does 3-5 deals per month averaging about $10k to $15k per deal. And he does it without using his own money or credit and through realtors and mortgage brokers all above board and fully disclosed to all parties. And he takes it easy too. Pretty cool. So, I will be working on that. I’ll keep you posted.

2. Consolidated Solutions Group continues to take off like gangbusters. I am working on putting more tools together for my team to help them as I start to add their services into my business model as well. I now have 2,874 members in my group, which really blows me away considering i only have 77 personally sponsored. It goes to show that it is not about quantity when building a team, it is about quality. You could have 50 people on a baseball team, but if they all sucked, they would lose every game. I’d take 9 good players any day.

3. I joined Rich Schefren’s Business Growth Systems coaching program last month and absolutely love it so far. This guy is the cat’s meow when it comes to running a business. I wish I could spend a month going through all his materials but there is just so much knowledge pouring out I can’t keep up.

Here out up a special page called “The Vault” where all of his FREE materials ae posted. Here is the link if you haven’t been there yet.

==> http://schefren.infusionsoft.com/go/vault/bizdream

I guess the only compaint I could have is that there is so much to take in that it gets overwhelming. His videos are awesome but they are like 2 hrs long each!

I need to get back to work. Make it a great day!

Okay, so you want to start an online business. You’ve been looking for something that works for you. Here is the best source for REAL dropshippers and wholesale products anywhere online. Chris Malta has been featured all over the web for his work researching and screening sources for products to sell online.

Check out this free video to learn more about OneSource and Worldwide Brands.

So yesterday I was doing more research into affiliate marketing and came across a couple sites that I’d like to talk about. First was a company called http://www.pipelineprofits.com/. I think I found a link there on someone’s blog but I can’t recall who. Anyway, they do not appear to be taking any more clients at this time, but they have these videos on their site that really blew me away.

They use coregistration services and backend systems to follow up with the leads and they apparently make a ton of money. Sounds interesting but would definitely take some planning and investment before doing a rollout. I signed up for the “waiting list” and got an email that led me to another site called Strategic Profits. This company is all about using systems and processes to run an actual business as opposed to running a website and being self-employed. Again, very impressive video available at the site like the first company. They are having a live webinar tomorrow at 1:00pm US Eastern. Register at their site. They also have a free report called the Internet Manifesto which is a summary of what’s in the video.

Its all very good stuff that I will be looking into more as I try to build my internet business. The things I’m doing now are nice, but I don’t believe any of them are seven figure businesses that can run without my presence. Possibly CSG but they are way too young a company to assume they will be around long term.

I have looking into affiliate marketing for some time now but have yet to start building a real business out of it. Well this coming year is the time. Every time I think about having dozens of websites setup that will continually generate income for me for the rest of my life I get very excited. Then I think about writing all the articles I will need and I stop dead in my tracks. What is the big deal? I can write pretty well and I can certainly gather information well. Why am I making it so hard? I can even outsource the entire thing so I don’t know what the problem is. I also run into problems trying to decide on a topic. Again, what’s the big deal? Pick something and get started. Add topics as you go.

The income potential for afiiliate marketers is enormous to say the least. I had a successful site that promoted generic viagra a few years back (www.viagravalue.com) and didn’t really have a clue what I was doing but the site still brought in well over $100k in its most profitable year. How did I do it? How can I do it again? We’ll see in 2007. The plan is in the works. I have been looking into things and will be getting started soon.