Putting Your Foot in the Online Sales Door, How To Start

This was my first ever Blog post written around 2012.

You will not get rich doing this...

But,    you can make more money implementing my plan, Selling Local, Getting Paid, than at your hourly paying job.

I  Guarantee it.  

By the end of this article, you will be ready to jump right into (2) TWO sales campaigns of your own. 

        There are millions of ideas to get rich quick, fast and  in a hurry. These sites are usually geared for info collection, ad clicking, gathering sales leads and/or tier selling of products without your blessing. They target you, your friends and anyone you may exchange contact information with. These are On_Grid_Transactions.        Sites that require you to go through them in order to market...well.. anything. You were given an opt-in form with lots of fine print but it seemed like a good deal, so you clicked it. It happens to the most careful of us. With very few exceptions, These people will take advantage of you! They have put the time into learning the in's and out's of WEB PRESCENCE and WEB SALES  and have a team of people at their disposal. Most of these people and their sites are predatory! 

    Be Very Careful From Whom You Take Advice!

     

       I'm not a computer expert, nor am I a sales expert. Not yet. But, I am an eBay Power Seller with my own store, I sell on Amazon, Etsy , and  many others, I learn more everyday and I am well on my way to a B.S. Degree (B.S. is a Science degree)  in Web Marketing. I have 4 websites and 3 blogs to my name within 8 months of owning my first computer. I learned the hard way, what pitfalls, scams and lies are out there. I make a point to network with those that know more than I do. The weaker I am on a particular area, the more resources I have. If you depend on a single source for this info, you are already screwed.  

         That being said, allow me to give you my background:  I'm a 38 year old with an IQ of 146 on a good day. I have spent an average of 24 hours a week, for 8 months on my computer( which I got for Christmas 2014) learning all I could from the information posted online. After 2 months of reading on the subject, I saw that no one was held accountable for what they published as truth.

 I developed a set of rules for myself to differentiate crap from reality. 

1. There are 20 ways to skin every cat on the internet.
2. Stay away from the top 5 or 10 search results on the first page. Sometimes they are marked as sponsored ads but sometimes they're not. These are not what you're looking for. They have usually paid for their position on the list or another conflict of interest.
3. Doublecheck everything you read online. If you are about to act upon something you have read, search it again using a different Search Engine. Google, Bing, Foxfire are popular but there are many more.Your content is being controlled. Double and triple search the content writer.
4. Search for "reviews of" Commercial ads are cleverly disguised as real articles. 

Laws and legislature will never keep up with the trends to part you from your money. Law is slow. 

       

      Conduct yourself online as if you are in the Atlanta terminal of Greyhound! Keep your wits, wallet and personal info close.

   

  Now, the positive side of things. I'm going to tell you 2 easy ways to make money online that seem to get overlooked or passed over because there is no way for a third party to make money off of you without actually working!

     eBay- You will have a hard time losing on eBay. This is the perfect place to sell your unwanted items and make a few bucks.      Everyone should begin here. You jump right in selling/buying and they do a great job of walking you through everything. After a month or two of that , you'll find that it works even better as a resell site for "pickers". If you run across an item with potential, you simply type it into eBay (they also have mobile apps) and see what it sold for last, time and day and the similar items that are listed for sale now.  It doesn't require a high IQ to take those 2 bits of information and decide whether or not money can be made off of the item, but also the best way to list it and optimize your sale. The link below is written by me on my main site. Read it.  

www.nocommondenominator.com.

http://nocommondenominator.com/2014/02/14/web-sales-101ebay/

       I made $5,800 and change  between July 2013 and January 2014. I didn't get rich but it's good money if you buy right. However, one thing that I've learned since then, is that the scale of your operation is equal to the level of scrutiny it receives. Selling used items is very hard due to customer complaints and eBay's loyalty belongs to the buyers Without a buyer, there would be no seller. I advise staying under the radar and selling maybe 20 to 25 items a month. I opened a store once I hit 40 items a month and although I was an above average power seller, I spent too much time putting out customer fires. I regret to say that eBay promised support of it's sellers but did not deliver. They will even lie. So why is eBay even on this list? Because eBay is less shady than others. It's market is also among the biggest in the world. Just stay under the radar! 

     

  Craigslist- This is harder for the analytic companies to metric out. Bad for them. Great for the beginner.

  The edge that experience takes in a market like eBay is nearly null and void in a Craigslist ad. This is all about finding the right product. I routinely buy things to sell locally on Craigslist. I will scour the Classifieds of another town, city or even state to buy low and move the ad/product to a better market for that particular item. But that aside, it's best used as a supplement to eBay for beginners. Shipping of an item is a huge hurdle and expense. A $3 motorcycle still has a $1500 shipping charge attached to it. Your good deal loses it's charm once shipping is added into the equation. DO NOT SELL LARGE ITEMS ON eBay! That's what Craigslist is for. Pickup or delivery. 

    

      Now that I've tossed it all out there, let me teach by scenario:

  2 items; a 18 speed bicycle and a Bicycle chain

   



    The bicycle goes onto Craigslist, not only your most local CL but look up the surrounding areas within 100 miles.Read the wanted's as well. If your local CL has plenty of bicycles you will have to sell cheap to sell fast, but if an area 50 miles out has 0 bicycles then place the ad with a higher price there first. I've had plenty of people drive 50 miles to pick up an item that I've priced correctly for their area.Weigh your options by knowing your options!

  Now that bicycle chain; search  eBay for the exact item you are trying to sell, now filter it to Sold Listings and Completed Listings. This will show when the item sold for how much and the way that the ad was written. READ IT! This is important. eBay sales rarely reach top dollar. eBay buyers are looking for huge discounts and usually find them but if you have cheap or THE NEWEST THING inventory.

   You will probably not get rich, but you can make great income by diversifying and using multiple methods at a time.

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