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Today's Feature Article

5 Handy Tips to help you start an eBay business
Jason James

If you want to start an eBay business then it is vital to keep in mind that it is no different than the responsibilities of embarking on any other type of business. Sure you may be able to work from home, in your underwear, and never leave the couch; but it takes a little more than hopping on your computer to start an eBay business.

In today's article we will go over 5 important tips that you can use to help get you moving to start an eBay business.

1. Create an office space or special room inside of your house or apartment for your eBay business. If you want to start an eBay business and make it successful then you are going to want to be able to focus and concentrate on your eBay goals. There is no better way to do this than to have your own office.

2. Write an eBay business plan. This is an important step when you start an eBay business and is most often overlooked by many new online eBay sellers. It is imperative that you put one together, even if your business plan is created on napkins! You will have to include a mission statement, a vision of your goals, your eBay profit and loss estimates, etc.

3. Create a checklist of which items you will need to set up your eBay campaign. Obviously, when you want to start an eBay business you will need to get your products listed and in view of others. Your checklist will include having a photo taken of your item, resizing and cropping your photo, creating your title and description of the eBay auction, and of course - answering your bidder questions when available.

4. Decide on what you are going to sell on eBay. You cannot start an eBay business without a product. This choice is personal. You can find eBay products to sell from a wide range of sources. There are a few books on the subject of finding products to sell when you start an eBay business. One of the most popular items to sell are Antiques.

5. Learn to budget your time as efficiently as possible. Start an eBay business with extreme time precision. In other words, if you have 5 hours a day to devote to making money on eBay then do not waste any time browsing through message groups, emailing your friends, or pondering an idea too much. Get out, find your product, and start your eBay campaigns NOW!

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Jason James is a 10 year Internet marketing veteran and an eBay Power Seller of 4 years. His website "The Auction Resource Network" reveals his inside secrets, tips, and sources that help him pocket over $10,000 per month on eBay. His proven step-by- step system shows even users with little or no business experience how they too can make huge profits selling products at online auctions. Claim Your Free eBook: "Top 10 eBay Secrets for Successful Selling" below: http://www.thecassiopeia.com/top10ebaysecrets.html

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Today's Motivational Reading

3 Powerful Tips to Help You Have Your Best Year Ever
Rene Godefroy

Here are 3 powerful steps you can take to free yourself from frustration and to start enjoying the good life so many are enjoying right now:

1) Know "where you are." Have you ever been lost in a residential area and no one was around to ask for directions? Now if you are somewhat familiar with the area, it’s easy to just turn around here and there and find your way back. But the worst part about being lost is when we are lost and we haven't a clue where we are.

So, where exactly are you on your journey now? Do you know exactly how much money you owe? And how many assets you have? What are your strengths? And what are your weaknesses? Here’s a good exercise to help you know "where you are":

Draw a map of your life and make every square a city. Name each square with an aspect of your life. One city can be your family, friends, knowledge of your field, spirituality, work, charity, financial, etc. Then rate each city from one to ten. Ten means you are doing extremely well, and one means it needs immediate help.

What I just shared with you is like having a balance sheet for your life. Put all your weaknesses on one side and your strengths on the other side. Put your strengths to work and strengthen your weaknesses. You can read more books, go back to school or find a mentor.

Perhaps you can learn 50 to 100 power words this year in order to get a verbal advantage. Whatever you do, keep in mind that a better year begins with a better you. The readers of No Condition is Permanent know about this.

2) Do an inventory of friends. That’s right. Make a list of who your friends are, and how they relate to the direction your life is going in. When companies want to increase their revenue, they get rid of unnecessary employees or ones that are holding them back. So when you are ready to increase your worth, you need to get rid of unnecessary friends. I am talking about those that only cause you grief and are a pain in the "you know what."

If you want to accomplish great things, you need to surround yourself with great people or people who have accomplished great things. You might say, “well, how do I find these great achievers you are talking about?” If you own a copy of No Condition is Permanent, refer to it for the answer.

You and I know fully well that some so-called friends are not worth the aggravation. They are draining, and they sap the life out of you. Consider this: Small people are always talking about things, but great people talk about ideas and concepts. Do you find yourself mentally stimulated when you are with your friends? If you are not, then you should be.

3) Quit killing time. Have you ever heard people say, “I'm just killing time.” Those people should be on death row for first degree murder. If they only realized how precious time really is. I have a wealthy friend who once told me that he can make millions of dollars any time he wants. He can purchase more homes, cars, and other luxuries. But the only thing he can never buy himself is more time.

His point is that he values his time more than his money. Wow! People who have little regard for time always find themselves engaging in activities that have nothing to do with improving their lives or that of those around them. They are routine people. They just do the same old things; they are just going through the daily motions. They love to shoot the breeze and just chill.

Listen, you are entering a new year, and you are not getting any younger. You may have lost so many opportunities. As a reader of my newsletter, you are important to me. I can’t stand by and watch you squander your time and procrastinate. That’s why I am encouraging you to find out "where you are" and start taking action to change your life. Take my advice. Inventory your friends and stop killing time.

I wish you incredible success!

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Rene Godefroy is the best-selling author of No Condition Is Permanent and a highly sought-after motivational speaker. For more information go to motivational keynote speaker http://www.villagehero.com/

Today's Subscriber Article

The Only 5 Things You Can Sell
Palyn Peterson

So, you want to start an Internet store do you? What is it you are going to sell? This really is the first thing to tackle, because without any products your store will fail, guaranteed. All jokes aside, let me share some insight on this broad topic.

First, do you have anything to offer that you can make? Crafts, exotic bird houses, jewelry, doll houses? Most people will answer "No" to this one, but that is ok! Lots of options are still available. In fact, most online stores do not create their own products.

Affiliate programs are another great choice. An affiliate program is when a company gives you commission to sell their products. You direct customers to their website, and that is it. You don't manage inventory, the sale or shipping. Some companies may provide web space and site creation support, but be careful about going that route -- they may want to charge you setup fees and maybe a membership fee. If the affiliate program is worth it, it will most likely be free. Here are other points to pay attention to:

• 1. How much commission you will receive with each sale. 5%-10% is on the low side. Try to stick with companies that will pay you 20%-35%. I've even come across some affiliate programs that pay as much as 50%.

• 2. Read the affiliate agreement. Some companies state you can only sell their products on your website, and no one else's. If this works for you, great. If not, be sure to read the agreement and make sure this is not the case.

• 3. What the pay out amounts are. Know how much you need to make before a check is cut and mailed to you.

• 4. Do you receive support? Many companies offer their affiliates marketing material to help sell products. This could include website content, pictures, banners, cut-and- paste emails, and classified ads.

Some people pull in many thousands of dollars a month with affiliate programs, they can work, but remember to be careful! There are many wolves in sheep clothing just waiting to take your setup fee and monthly payments just to leave you without support and no sales. If affiliate programs interest you, there are a number of good affiliate program directories. Here are a few:

1. http://www.affiliatesdirectory.com
2. http://www.associateprograms.com
3. http://www.affiliatematch.com

Next, a very popular and incredibly practical choice is drop shipping. Drop shipping is when a wholesale distributor maintains the product inventory, you create a store selling those products and take customer's orders at retail prices. You then turn around and send the customer's order to the wholesale distributor who ships the products to your customer, often with your company name on the package.

The customer receives their products not knowing that you are running the business with no inventory and from the comfort of your home. And no inventory means you only spend money when you are making money. In other words, you only spend money buying products at wholesale when you are just going to turn around and charge retail price to a customer. How great is that? This is one of the most popular methods of running a retail business on the internet, and for good reason!

The great majority of wholesale distributors will ask you for your TAX ID number when creating an account. Your TAX ID number can be found on your sales tax license if you have one, or usually your social security number will suffice if you do not have a license. For free information on getting a sales tax license, visit this page by clicking here!

When searching for wholesale distributors, be careful because there are a lot of companies out there that will drop ship products and claim to be wholesale distributors when they really aren't! They will take your order just to turn around and order from the real wholesaler. This should spell L-O-S-S to you. What's happening is that you are buying the product at a price marked up from the actual wholesale price, and then you'll need to mark it up even further when selling it to your customer. There is a big slice of the profit pie that you aren't getting!

Most distributors that offer thousands of different products in a number of different categories are usually that type of operation. Also, if the distributor wants to charge you a subscription fee, that should set an alarm off in your head. Occasionally the wholesale distributor will charge a per- drop-ship fee, and maybe have a minimum order requirement (either in quantity or dollar amount). A FEW (and I say few) legit wholesale distributors will charge a setup fee (one wholesale distributor I worked required that the first order be $200 or more), but I have NEVER come across a legit wholesale distributor that charges a subscription fee.

If you are having trouble deciding what products to sell, try this: go shopping! Don't actually buy anything (if you don't want to, at least), just look around and see what products interest you.

Do you see a site that you think you could do better? Are you a sports fan? Sell sports equipment or memorabilia! Do you enjoy pool? Sell billiard supplies! Enjoy gardening, or interior decorating? Sell products for those!

A word of advice though, the computer component market is crammed. You will have more competition there than with most other products.

Information products are a fabulous option as well. Not only can they easily be created by you, they are even easier to distribute because they can simply be emailed to your customers.

Can you fix cars? Write a maintenance tips manual. Write an eBook on saving money around the household. Write a manual on how to negotiate with car dealers. Maybe you know how to make the cue ball jump across a pool table over what would have been an obstacle. I sure don't, and I wouldn't mind finding out!

Basically, the question is "What do you know?" Don't underestimate yourself either! A great way to get started is to use the mind-map technique. This technique allows you to jot down ideas that relate to a core idea and build a skeleton of subjects that are all associated with each other. After only a short time doing this, you should have more than enough subjects to piece together a good eBook. For more information on mind-maps, visit these resources:

1. Pete Russell's MindMap 2. Shared Visions 3. Net Share

If you look long enough, or are just plain lucky, you will eventually come across someone selling the complete rights to a product. You can buy it from them and resell it for as much as you want, as often as you want, and retain 100% of the profits. These deals are few and far between, and can usually cost quite a bit. But do keep your eyes open for them, it may be just what you are looking for.

Hopefully a number of product ideas have sparked as you were reading this article. As you can see, there are a lot of very good options available to you. Review all of them and choose the best one, or ones, for your business situation.

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Palyn Peterson publishes the acclaimed Advanced Internet Marketing News. A professional newsletter with a refreshing perspective and a strong focus on no-cost techniques. FREE Tips, Tricks, Tools, Resources, eBooks, and More!
http://www.FutureInternetMarketing.com

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