The traffic volatility of a start-up blog
July 20, 2006 | Filed Under rich on eBay, learning from failure, Start ups, How to create a successful blog, Practical tips | 1 Comment
This is the stats over unique visitors to this blog the last month. The big spikes are due to the post about the “from mailroom clerk to CEO game from 1982.” This post was submitted by myself to fark, reddit, digg, shoutwire, joystiq and other PR & buzz sites and received some attention. If you think you have a post that will be of interest to such sites I see no problem in submitting them.
Not all hot tips from you to other sites are successfull though. My idea about selling 100 signed copies of a celebrity author’s book on eBay did not catch on. I sent some e-mails around promoting it, but no success. It was criticized for it’s unethical flavour and blatant use of child labour. It was so bad that it did not even generate a single spark of controversy.
Make some money on Sunday’s World Cup final
July 6, 2006 | Filed Under Start ups, rich on eBay, Entrepreneurship, Practical tips, Business Opportunities, Money making as young | Leave a Comment
I surf around the money making sites of the blogosphere and found this little piece of gold: sell shirts that you make at a CafePress store on eBay.
Sunday is world cup final. Italy - France. Using this scheme you can make some money on Sunday. After the match is over you can sell shirts with the following slogans, sold on eBay (depending on the match incidents):
Italy - France: 2-1
Thierre Henry and Cristiano Ronaldo: The jokes of the Premiership.
It was not offside!
I am sure you can come up with your own suggestions.
Money making idea: Authors sign their books, you sell them on eBay for a nasty profit
July 3, 2006 | Filed Under rich on eBay, Entrepreneurship, Practical tips, Business Opportunities | 2 Comments
We know that books that famous people have signed fetch good prices on eBay. They know that if you come to their book signing with more than 2-3 books, something fishy is going on and they will be unwilling to sign it. Or, a more common hurdle, the book shop are restricting the amount of books you can buy. For example: “Max 2 signed copies per person.”
Here are the 4 steps you need to go through to cash in on the demand for signed books.
Step 1: A celebrity is visiting
Read the local papers and ask the local book stores about upcoming “book signing events.” When a famous writer/person is coming to town to sign copies of his/her latest book or autobiography, you better be prepared.
Step 2: Buy 100 copies of the book
Buy the book in advance through various stores in your community or online.
Step 3: Recruit 100 teenagers/children
Oh, the delight of using child labour. Recruit young people through your local school or sports club. Give them one copy each and tell them to go to the local shopping mall at the time of the book signing to get it signed.
Agree to give them $10 when they return to you with the book signed.
Step 4: Cash in
Now is the time to go to eBay and start selling the product. If you indeed did this with 100 books it will be wise to not put everything up for sale at the same time, slowly milk the cow to limit supply.
This scheme should have the potential to give you several 100% ROI. I have only tested it myself on a limited scale(4 books!). Add your comments, I am happy to receive input from others on the feasibility of the idea.
The essence of e-books: “How to get rich on eBay”
July 2, 2006 | Filed Under rich on eBay, essence of e-books, Entrepreneurship, Practical tips | 1 Comment
After buying and reading 2 “get rich on eBay” e-books I am a bit disappointed. In order to save you money and time, I have made an executive summary.
Save $10-75 by getting the e-book insight for free. Here’s the information you will be getting from “rich on eBay e-books:”
Rich on eBay chapter 1: Mental prepareness crap + money
A few pages are dedicated to being prepared to get started and having money to invest.
Rich on eBay chapter 2: The links
You will get links to portals where Chinese manufacturers advertise their products. Two sites that are likely to be featured are http://www.alibaba.com/ and http://www.globalsources.com/ .
Rich on eBay chapter 3: How to interact with manufacturers
A few examples of how to write an e-mail asking for price of the products. Remember to finish off by “Yours Sincerely”
Rich on eBay chapter 4: How to sell your products
If you are honest you will get good feedback ratings on e-bay. Feedback ratings secures trust between seller and buyer.
What you will not get by reading a rich on eBay book:
No one will tell you which products to sell. All the information is about the little bits surrounding the sale. You got to come up with the idea of a good product by yourself.