Working from my cabin in TN.

Ok, I know, we all just have to face the fact that I am not blogging that much anymore.  I am vacationing in TN with the family and trying to limit my computer time.  Since the blog is more for fun than for profit I have to keep my time on the blog site to a minimum.

Yes, I am still an eBay seller!  Things are going well.  Still doing the Drop Shipping Sucks stuff.  All is well.  In fact, even though I STILL have my day job the eBay sales have allowed us to take this little vacation.

I have come to the conclusion that eBay is not going to make me rich or even able to retire.  I am doing well, but the stability still isn’t 100% there.  But this is very good for now.  Doing eBay is fun and if it earns me nothing more than a couple of vacations and some extra spending $$ each year, I can live with that!

Long time since I blogged or was on eBay!

I have been out of town for a while helping some friends with some tough issues they were facing.  Not only have I not been blogging, I have not been eBay selling either.

I hope to post some updates soon for my handful of readers.  I am jumping back onto eBay now!

50% Off on eBay Fees

This is just a quick note to let my readers know that eBay is currently offering 50% off on 1 and 3 day auction listings. This means that as an eBay seller you will pay 50% less on your listing fees. This can be a big savings especially if you have some large ticket items.

I recently came across some wireless microphones that sell for quite a bit and was planning on waiting until May to list them but I think I will give them a shot this week.

Quick Note: Take my eBay Dropshipping Poll

IF you look to the left of this page you will see a poll.  I am interested in knowing if you have made money using dropshipping on eBay.  So you know, I plan to share my findings with Christopher Benard!

So far the vote is 6 to 1.  1 person has done it!!  I wish they would share their secrets with me.  That is a hint.

Record eBay Sales on Monday!

I am writing this with a bit of unabashed glee!  On Monday, my sales generated me an all-time high in profits.  It’s not close.  Monday blew every previous day of eBay sales out of the water with a one day profit of over $630!!!

I do have to brag a little.

My closest day before Monday was in early June when I had a day which netted me $212.14 exactly.  That was a great day.  But this Monday was even better.

The main difference though was that my previous high eBay sales profit record was set amond many items, over 10, while this Monday only 4 sales were made. 

I was lucky enough, or should I say skilled enough, to find a product that sold for $540 more than what I purchased it for less than a week earlier.

What did I sell you ask?  A “Professional Audio Mixer”.  I am not even sure what it is still.  I know it is used by DJs and recording studios.  I bought it at a government sale which I found through the Better Sources software I have been raving about.

I got it at $120 above the minimum bid of $100, so I paid $220 for it.  But as Chris suggests, I had researched it before I bought it.  Really I researched it while I was buying it.

This was a big purchase for me so I was nervous although confident.  I really did not want to muck things up and lose $200+ on a single item.  Believe it or not, I still do have some stinkers from time to time!

That didn’t happen so today is a celebration!  I am going to take my Wife out for a nice dinner and perhaps catch Step Brothers at the movie theatre.  It looked kinda funny to us and we haven’t seen a comedy lately.  We did catch The Dark Knight and I enjoyed it for the most part, but I am ready to see something a bit more funny and a bit less dark.

Then I will come home and start looking for more products to sell.  More days like Monday and I will quite my real job!

Wish me luck.

Wahooo! That eBay Wholesale Product Tool is Out!

Ok, it is like 5:00 in the morning.  I just woke up to some news that is going to make you very happy.  That product finding tool that I wrote about in the blog recently and that I have had the privilage of beta testing has been released.

Unfortunately for me, there is no affiliate program yet so I will not be able to make a commission if you go there and order.  But since I got the software for free I guess I will not pout too bad.  But if you want to wait to order it until you can use my affiliate link I will not complain either. 

The site is www.bettersources.com which is kind of weird because that is the name of his guide that he sells at his drop shipping sucks site (that one IS an affiliate link).

If you want a really cool way to find products to sell then I do recommend you give it a try.  Maybe do me a favor and when you order send an email to Chris and tell him that you found out about the site from my blog.  Who knows, when he makes his affiliate program maybe I will get the credit.

Well, I have to get to work.  Yeah, I know, I still haven’t quit my day job.  I am doing well on eBay but it is not stable enough yet for me to do it full time.  I agree with all the comments I got that I need to have at least 5 – 6 months worth of bills in savings.

Enjoy Chris’ new software.  Wish me luck!

Buyer’s Remorse? Naah. But I am no longer using WorldWide Brands for eBay.

In my last post I mentioned that I got some software from Christopher Bernard the guy behind the Dropshipping Sucks website.  This software allows me to find products on different wholesalers and other places with great speed and ease.  It also allows me to research products which I must admit I have not done yet.

I love the software.  It is very cool and I find myself using it even to find products I buy for myself.  It is just very good at finding products for cheap.

However, there has been one downside.  A little while ago I bit the $299 bullet and invested in a company called WorldWide Brands.  I was and am still happy with it as clearly a lot of thought and time has gone into the development of their product.  I am just not using it anymore due to my using Chris’ software.

I read through the user agreement and I cannot resell my login to anyone else.  So I guess I am stuck with something that I no longer use.  I will not call it a $299 mistake because as I said, before I got this software I was using WorldWide Brands somewhat to find products for my eBay sales.

On that note, I do seem to have peeked somewhat.  I am consistantly selling and making money on eBay but I do not seem to be able to take it to the next level.  I am almost certianly going to try selling elsewhere maybe on Amazon or on my own website.  Yikes!  I would have to build a website!

I suppose it is goodbye forever to my $299 but I have benefitted from the experience.  Now I must get back to eBay.  And, unfortunately, to my real job which I STILL have.

Wish me luck!

I am in eBay paradise thanks to the “tool”!

Last Thursday I got a surprise email from Chris Bernard.  He is the author of the Drop Shipping Sucks guide I always praise.  And it seems like my public praise has paid off big time.

Chris is releasing a new product finding tool to supplement to his guide and I get to be a beta tester.  I have never been a beta tester for anything before, so I didn’t know what exactly I was supposed to be looking for but I will tell you right now that once this tool is released it will make finding products to sell on eBay a breeze.

When I run the tool, a tool which apparently has no name yet because Chris keeps calling it “my tool”, I am taken into something that looks like my web browser.  It isn’t pretty, just a basic looking web browser.

But at the top, there are all these types of searches I can do to find products to sell.  I just enter what I want to find and click the search button and I see the products and can order them.  It is really cool!

If I want a plasma tv to sell, which is a bit out of my league still, I just enter plasma tv into the search box and I can find plasma tvs all over from wholesalers, and importers, and even drop shippers which is really surprising.  The tool does reccommend you not use the drop shippers when I click on them though.

Anyway, I just wanted to post to let Chris and other people know that this tool is really amazing.  I like it better than my World Wide Brands membership and I got this for free.

Chris, this is awesome.  You have done it again!  How much is this going to cost?  I am hoping you will have an affiliate program for this too as I want to be able to refer people to this the same way I refer people to your guide.

Now, back to my eBay business.  Wish me luck guys!

Starting Another New Blog – eBay Not Included!

This past week I started a new blog.  One not about eBay believe it or not!  One that will just be about whatever I feel like writing about but, unlike here, I will get to keep the advertising revenue generated from my blog!  So, I can write about anything and make money with google and with affiliate links.

eBay is going very well for me still but in a recent update of Chris’ “Drop Shipping Sucks” guide I read that you can get a free blog, just like this one, at www.tangents.org and you can set it up and keep all of the revenue!

So, since I am now living the eBay dream in my free time I (ok, WHAT free time) I would like to write about something else.  I was going to do it here but when I read about www.tangents.org it was like Chris had read my mind!!  I can keep my own ad revenue.

Here is how I did it.

I went to tangents.org and chose the option to setup a blog.  I followed the instructions and then clicked my email to activate the blog.  WARNING: The email from the website (Tangents) was in my SPAM folder so I would check there if you do not see the activation email right away.

Then, once your blog is setup.  Go to http://www.google.com/adsense and setup a (free) adsense account.After you create your account you can click the “My Account” tab near the top of the page on Google.  Near the bottom of the account page you will see a header “Property Information” followed by your “AdSense for Content:” code.  This might begin ca- or pub- followed by numbers.

Copy this entire code by highlighting it and clicking CTRL+C or right click your mouse and choose “Copy”.

Then, login to your blog at tangents.org. Once in your blog admin area you will see a link titled “Options”. Click this link and in the sublinks you will see one that reads “Adsense”; click that one.

Leave the ad network as “AdSense” and then enter the code you copied where it says “Adsense ID” — to do this press CTRL+P or right click the mouse and choose “Paste”.

Next go to the ads formats section. You can choose any you like but I prefer the following: 468×60.

Leave the color stuff alone unless you want to change how the ads look.

Then set the number of ads to show per page which is the first number setting. 3 – 4 is good. Then set the number per post, I like 1 – 2 there. Lastly, check the box that reads “Insert google_adtest=”on”; when I’m looking at my own blog.”.  I also set the ads to “Center” or they looked weird to me.

This way if you click on an ad on your blog Google doesn’t think you’re trying to cheat the system. Then, click “Save”.

Now, you should see adsense ads appear on your blog posts and you’re earning passive income! The adsense will earn you very small amounts of money; do not get frustrated. It is cumulative, so you will earn more money with every blog post over time.

Good luck!

 

EBAY IS NOT ALONE: Where besides eBay?

I am doing well.  So well in fact that I want to do better. 

Ebay sales are making me enough money to pay a few bills but I am still so far away from quitting my real job that I am getting anxious to accelerate the process.  My thought is this; start selling somewhere other than eBay.

No, I am not going to stop selling on eBay.  It is going well.  But, as Chris says in his guide, this stuff works on Amazon.com and other websites as well.  So the only question is where.

I do not know much about amazon and I know nothing about starting my own website.  Chris’s guide also mentions I can create a free blog at www.tangents.org like I have here but there I will get to keep the adsense profits and can also include affiliate links.  I can include affiliate links here too of course but I do not keep any adsense revenue.  I am going to ask Chris if there is an easy way to add products to that Tangents site as well as then that can serve as my website since it is free.

If you have any suggestions please leave a comment.  I am looking at Amazon.Com, CraigsList.com, Tangents.Org, and a few others.  I have heard Craig’s List is good but I am not sure how it works.  Less than I know about Amazon even.

Wish me luck!!