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eBay Home Made Christmas Profit Plans
publication date: Nov 28, 2008
Hi
Just five weeks to go for Christmas Eve and still tons of time left to make money from eBay's burgeoning seasonal trade.
But you're going to need pockets full of money aren't you, and you need to take lots of risks, just to be sure you make a few thousand quid before the big day dawns? NOT! No, you don't need much cash, you don't have to take risks, you can actually create your own products or revamp already existing products and sell them fast and furiously starting today. You can even list products and take money before you actually create your own products, it's called 'bespoke' manufacturing, and there's no law against it as long as you are not making promises you can't keep. That's how tailors work, and cake decorators, wedding dress designers, artists, and many other professionals who take instructions and money before starting work on whatever someone orders. There are two things to know here about how to make easy cash in the run up to Christmas: 1) You can create products before listing them on eBay. 2) You can take orders for products which you will customize later or create to order. I could write a whole book about those two easy moneymakers, but I'll have to content myself with a few basic ideas in this week's eLetter, which I'll probably expand upon next year as a gift for our readers for Christmas 2009. Here we go then, ideas for you to make money starting today: Create products before listing them on eBay Those of you who read our main monthly newsletter will know I buy Victorian newspapers in year bound volumes which I dismantle and sell individually on eBay. Most individual newspapers go to people collecting or living in the topographical area depicted in articles from those early publications. Some individual newspapers fetch double or even triple or higher bidding numbers and fetch high prices; some newspapers attract no interest at all. But there's something I do to newspapers that don't sell which sometimes makes them worth much more than their counterparts that fetched high prices. This little trick works with any old publications, especially dated pre-1900. I don't use modern publications for this easy moneymaker and I also don't use publications that are not in the public domain. I recommend you also avoid publications that are copyright protected on the off-chance you encounter trademark or copyright issues or otherwise fall foul of image rights and privacy laws. Go for publications dated 1900 and earlier and you'll face few if any such problems. Now back to those Victorian newspapers and magazines which are packed with poems, prints, photographs, engravings, articles and more besides. Like many other people I often make £20 in just a few minutes by hand colouring and mounting a print from an old newspaper, notably of topographical locations or mass interests subjects like cats and dogs, trains and well known buildings. And we're not talking long or intricate tasks here, I'm talking five minutes at most, because all I usually do is lightly brush the print with pastel chalk to add just a touch of colour. Then I add a contrasting colour mount and list it on eBay. If you think the idea is far fetched, I'm going to hand colour and mount a few examples immediately I finish writing this eLetter and later today I'll upload them to one of my sites to show how they look. You can find them at: www.avril.org.uk/pictures.html. In a forthcoming eLetter I'll tell you how much those items fetch on eBay. More ideas for turning Victorian newspapers into cash on eBay:
Take orders for products which you will customize later or create to order While studying eBay today I spotted two great ideas for parents of babies about to experience their first Christmas.
I spotted several other high profit products hand made or customized for baby's first Christmas, including gift baskets, fabric photograph albums with baby's name embroidered to front, hand made bracelets with baby's name in letter charms, framed poems personalized with baby's name, Christmas tree ornaments with baby's name, and more besides. There's so much more you can do today to create or customize products that might sell by the boatload between now and Christmas. Just research eBay, as I did, and get your Christmas moneymaker up and running starting today. Use my ideas if you like, I'm going to be busy hand colouring prints which make fabulous Christmas gifts! Happy eBaying! Avril --------------------------------- eBay Blogs Increase Your eBay Home Business by Vickie Sayce If you are a stay at home parent trying to run a home eBay business on a budget, you are probably well aware of the high costs of marketing. When you are trying to promote your business, it can be hard to find methods that actually work without breaking the bank. Luckily for you, eBay has a few different marketing methods for you to use built right into their website - and they are completely free for you to use. After you have listed your items that you want to sell, head on over to the community section of eBay. There, you will be able to upload an avatar, create a short profile, and get an eBay blog started. The more you customize the options available to you, the more your blog will be exposed. Occasionally, eBay will feature a blog written by a community member just like you, and the featured blog always seem to have a custom avatar and a fully-filled out profile. Once you have gotten your blog up and running, start by talking about yourself and your home business. If you have never blogged before, this may prove to be a bit difficult. It doesn't have to be - just pretend that you are writing about your day or your life in a personal journal. Bear in mind that this personal journal could be potentially seen by millions of viewers, however, and don't divulge anything that you wouldn't want a complete stranger - or your mother - to know about. Then, you can start adding in information about your items that you are selling. Write a new blog post for each item you want to talk about. Instead of saying that you have it up for sale, give a bit of a review for the item. If you don't know anything about it, you can do some research online for some ideas. Talk about the good things the item has to offer, but write them from a consumer standpoint, not a salesman. If it's a product you know, use, and love, this shouldn't be hard at all. At the end of the blog, mention that the item is currently for sale right now in your eBay store or auctions. Also state the retail price, and the current price that you are offering the item for, and point out the money that buyers will save if they purchase the item from you. You can also add in any information about current sales or specials that you may be offering, a link to your about me page, or anything else you feel may be helpful to potential buyers. Blogs can be a fun way to connect with buyers, since you can talk about just about anything you want, and buyers and sellers alike can leave comments for you. It's a great way to give your potential bidders a way to connect with you that feels personal, and it's also promoting your business at the same time. What other method of marketing can do that? If you want to make money on eBay while still raising the kids, visit: http://AuctionPaydayKidsPlay.com to find out how. |
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