[photopress:rm_logo.gif,full,alignleft]I have been an eBay Powerseller since 2002. Like many other eBay Powersellers, I have so many stories about eBay and eBay customers. Many of you are tired of hearing these stories, but let me tell it again, eBay used to be so much profitable and fun. Just like any other company which grows too fast, eBay has lost some of the main points in its business model. They started caring less about the problems of the sellers (actually their customers). They have become more and more interested in increasing their quarterly profits.
This path has helped many eBay sellers to start their own websites, and sell through their own sites. By making international sellers job easier to sell at eBay USA, it has become almost impossible to compete for small home based US sellers. But we are talking about selling retail on eBay. I have also written about ebay affiliate marketing before.
I will talk about a different business model for eBay selling. Since eBay has become so big, and there are so many success stories out there, now so many people try to sell on eBay. But they have no clue how to find the real sources to buy. eBay has created a new platform called eBay Reseller Marketplace. You can sell wholesale direct to eBay Powersellers.
What are the advantages of eBay Reseller Marketplace?
- All the prospective customers are current powersellers (pre-qualified).
- You can make money without spending any money from your pocket (I’ll get into this little later).
- Your fees will be much less compared to regular eBay fees.
- You don’t have to deal with many retail customers, and make small profit. You can have large profits per month with dealing a few wholesale customers.
- If you keep your promise, and if your customers like your products, you will be having returning customers. Because they will want to buy more to resell retail.
How to make money at eBay Reseller Marketplace without spending any cash?
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“Update, November 23rd, 2009 – Facebook Advertising Platform is a great place to advertise your Facebook Applications. I have written a detailed article about Making Money with Facebook Ads. You might want to check it out also.”
Facebook is in our daily life. Most of my friends login to their facebook account more than their email accounts. I have been receiving tens of application invitations every day, and getting seriously tired of it. I was wondering about different monetization methods for Facebook applications and did some research.
I have found an online auction marketplace site to buy and sell Facebook Applications called APPMRKT. Even though this site is very new, there are already auctions running and people are paying some serious money for facebook applications.
Currently, most of the applications on facebook don’t make money, but a few of them have already started making money and bringing investors. There are 2 videos of Jason Bailey about monetizing facebook applications. I’m sure these will give you some ideas about the possibilities.
Monetizing Facebook Applications – Jason Bailey (part 1)
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I have recently written about creative link baiting. Being creative is great, but do you think there are limits?
I remember the day, when a hot blond girl auctioned advertising rights on her boobs on ebay. It was creative, close to the limit. But a guy named Joe is pushing the limits in creativity.
[photopress:geek.jpg,full,centered]When I checked Shoemoney to see the free friday t-shirt day, instead of a t-shirt, I’ve seen a guy with Shoemoney, Digitalpoint, and Grownupgeek websites’ names and logos tattooed on his arm.
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[photopress:meetup.gif,full,alignleft]It’s been a long time since I first wrote about Meetup Meetings. I’ve attended NYC Affiliate Marketing Meetup Meeting last night. I’ve been a member of meetup.com and have attended a number of meetings in business and IT topics. Yesterday, only 4 people showed up, including me and the organizer. This is the first time I have had a meetup meeting with a small group like this. Depending on your goal, meetup meeting can be very productive for you. You can generate lots of business, or at least do some networking, and exchange business cards.
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I have been busy working on my websites, reorganizing them, deciding which ones to sell, and which ones to keep. If you have a large network of websites, and if you haven’t worked on them for a while, it’s hard to get back in shape.
Setting goals with your online marketing plans is an important part of this game. Your goal may be net profit per monht, or getting a top 3 position for a specific keyword at google.
When I work on a website, I use two seperate spreadsheets. One for financial data, all the income and expenses, and another one for only SEO, SEM tracking purposes. I am too lazy to write a script to track everything in one interface, but it’s in my list.
When you set your goals for your online marketing plans, you will be achieving more. I may prepare some spreadsheet examples and post here, it may help some newbie webmasters who are starting their network of websites.
I am also doing a lot of experiments with affiliate marketing, and I will start sharing my experiences with you.
[photopress:fundinguniverse.gif,full,alignleft]Before the internet era, finding a VC or an angel investor for your business plan was hard. You needed a great business plan with an innovative product, and also connections to those VC (Venture Capital) companies.
With the starting of internet era, funding game has shifted from big projects to smaller ones. We have been hearing so many success stories of startup companies which started in the founders’ basements.
I have been following a startup called FundingUniverse.com and I believe they have achieved their goal. Funding Universe is a meeting place for investors and entrepreneurs. Currently, there are over 16.000 entrepreneurs and almost 5.000 business plans available for over 700 investors liking.
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[photopress:trademark_filing.jpg,full,alignleft]It doesn’t matter how small your business is. If you want to create your business name as a brand and invest in it, your first step should be to trademark it. As a small business consultant, I hear horror stories about trademark issues from business owners.
How To File A Trademark?
Assuming that you’ve done your research and the trademark you will be filing is not already registered, you will have 3 options.
1) Hire A Lawyer To File Your Trademark
A lawyer would charge you approximately $1,285.00 to create and file a trademark application. This amount may increase, but will not go below $1,000.00 . If you are very busy, and don’t have any time/staff to file the trademark, then this is your option.
2) File Your Trademark Through LegalZoom Online Service
When I started my first online business, I have asked a few friends about trademark filing, and one of my buddiest have recommended this website. You can File Your Trademark Online in 3 Easy Steps at LegalZoom.com and they charge only $159.00 for this service. It has all the information, tips and tricks which you need to know. They are reliable and very well known name in the industry. Their website claims that last year they have filed more trademarks than the 10 largest law firms combined in the US.
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[photopress:international_market_research.jpg,full,alignleft]Your business is growing, and the US market brings great profits, but remember there are so many countries out there with fast growing IT industries.
It doesn’t matter what your product is. You may have a very basic time sheet management software written by you or a potential CRM software or maybe a complete small business software. You might be selling 10x more to international markets if you have the accurate market research data and know which country/industry to focus first.
Many US based hardware suppliers are busy with dealing US market. Cheap hardware suppliers from China and other Asian companies have strict limitations getting into European and other world markets due to import restrictions. Therefore as a US based business, you will have a head start and will be able to make handsome profits by focusing international IT markets.
I will tell you, step by step, how to get your business into International IT Markets.
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Viral marketing, commonly being identified as the word-of-mouth on the Internet, is one of the economical advertising techniques where the promotion of any service or product takes place through the pre-existent social networks. It is a marketing technique being used by many affiliates in creating extensive mailing lists and generating a flow of customers for the sponsored affiliate programs. Fundamentally, there are two forms of viral marketing; Service-based and Incentive-based. Service-based viral marketing is described as the commercializing technique in which the consumer is required to spread the word about the company and its products while incentive-based marketing presents several inducements to the consumers such as cash or other rewards for their services’ promotion.
The best viral marketing is not just word-of-mouth, as some people carelessly assume. Nor is it multi-level marketing, where Juan sells to Alice and then gets a cut of whatever Alice sells to Fred. It is when users actively recruit other users, not for pay, but because they benefit from a larger user pool, just as virus DNA benefits from the spread of a virus.
—Esther Dyson
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Living in NYC, and being an entrepreneur myself, I work more than a regular employee. I do 90% of my shopping online and my main problem was ordering something online and getting it delivered to my apartment.
We don’t have a doorman at our apartment, and outside door is always locked. If my online order is being delivered by Fedex, DHL or UPS, there is a big chance that I will find a failed delivery attempt slip on my door. I don’t like getting my order delivered to my office, because I have to carry it back home. If it’s a small package, it may work, but if it’s a large one, it becomes a big hassle.
While trying to find a solution for this problem, I have found a website called Doormanonline.com , a New Jersey based service company delivering your packages afterhour or during the weekends. For now, they serve to New Jersey and expanding to New York Metro Area, and they have plannings expanding nationwide.
Their business model depends on a simple, but smart idea. Here’s how it works (from Doormanonline.com) :
How it works?
It’s simple! When you’re done with your online shopping, at the checkout specify the Doorman Online address as the shipping address and state c/o Doorman Online LLC, along with your own name as receiver’s name. Then go to our website, register your purchase and indicate the desired delivery time. We will inform you as soon as we get your package, confirm delivery time with you and deliver the package.
