by admin on November 19, 2008
Found an interesting article and thought I’d make a note of it here. Simple and effective way to make money on eBay by selling stuff from your local Wal-Mart. Who would have thought of that?
What I found most interesting is the idea of selling a product that everyone is familiar with here and doesn’t really care too much about. An example they gave is to sell sports memorabilia that is local to your college or professional football team, etc. There are fans all over the world that will likely buy from you.
Search on other eBay sites such as eBay UK to see what’s hot. A good example they gave was that you can make about $20 or more profit selling the Fisher Price Kid Tough Digital Camera. What popular food items are sold in America that might sell well in other countries?
Anyway, take a look at the article and see what you think: How to Make Money on eBay Selling Wal-Mart Items.
by admin on November 14, 2008
Sometimes when your brain isn’t working at full speed it’s good to turn to other sources for business and money making ideas. Here are a few starting points if you’re in a creative slump. Hopefully one will lead you in the right direction:
Springwise: New business ideas for entrepreneurial minds.
Entrepreneur.com Business Idea Center - 970 businesses you can start today.
Cool Business Ideas - New Business Ideas, Innovations and Opportunities Around The World.
IdeaCafe.com - Small business ideas for starting a business, marketing, work at home and more.
BizyMoms - Business Ideas, forum and more for work at home moms
by admin on November 10, 2008
by admin on November 10, 2008
How to Choose an Affiliate Program to Promote: Before joining any affiliate program, be sure to ask que.. http://tinyurl.com/5hh5z5
by admin on November 10, 2008
How to Make 41K a Month Setting up a LOCAL Affiliate Program: Note: This is not a newbie strategy.. http://tinyurl.com/6d4ftw
by admin on November 8, 2008
I just bought an interesting book today titled “Why We Buy - The Science of Shopping” by Paco Underhill. Just started reading it and an interesting part is where he talks about trackers - people hired to literally follow shoppers around and study every detail of their shopping experience… from the moment they walk in the door to the moment they leave the store.
I think I’m going to try this on my own sometime soon. Probably would work best at Wal-Mart or the mall on a Saturday. Should be interesting to see how long I can do it without getting busted.
I never thought about trackers before, but this makes me think this is another reason why there are security cameras all over Wal-Mart. They are probably more interested in studying buying habits than preventing shoplifting. I wouldn’t doubt if they purposely make it look like they are trying to protect themselves. People might get annoyed if they knew the real purpose was to study them. 
by admin on November 2, 2008
I logged into Twitter the other day and noticed something interesting on their sidebar located on the Twitter Search service. On the lower right side of the screen it says “nifty queries”. One query was “cool filter:links“. This query brings up tweets containing links people thought were cool and posted on Twitter.
I took this a step further and did this query: “bought filter:links“. This shows stuff that people have bought recently and are likely bragging about it on Twitter. Or, perhaps they are not happy with their purchase? Regardless, it can give you an idea of what people are buying out there.
What other queries could you try that might lead you to a good money making or business idea? Here are a few to start with. If you find some interesting queries, please feel free to leave them in the comments below:
Ideas: idea
Business idea: business idea
Money Making Ideas: money making idea
Sold: “sold filter:links“
by admin on October 28, 2008
A sort of little known tool that you can use to do market research is Google Insights. With Google Insights you can take a sneak peek into the Google search engine and see what people are searching for all over the world.
Search worldwide or narrow your search to the United States or other country. You can even narrow your results to a specific state or a city within a state. You can also show results within a certain date. Want to get really crazy? Filter results in one of many different categories including: Food & Drink, Books, Games, Health, Shopping, Travel and many more.
Here’s an example search for iPhone in the U.S. in the year 2008. As of this writing, it appears the District of Columbia brings in the most searches for iPhone. After you start your search you can click on an interactive map to show search data from a specific state. Go to a specific state and it will show which cities are the most popular for your search request. Google Insights will also show related top searches and rising searches.
Play around with it a bit and you will soon see how useful it can become. What money making and business ideas can you get from Google Insights? Find any trends that could be turned into a money maker. Try adding a search term and you can compare two or more terms to see which is more popular.
This is also useful to see where you might want to focus your advertising budget. Do a search for something like Omaha Steak and you’ll see the state of Nebraska has the most searches for those keywords.
Want to see what people are buying? Use the keyword “buy” and then chose a category to search within in the filter section. I searched for “buy” and narrowed it down under the “Alcoholic Beverages” category and a top result is “buy hops”. There…. now you have a lead to a potential money making business idea.
Play around with it and let me know if you have any tips or tricks. I’d love to hear them. Please leave a comment with your Google Insights tips and tricks. For further reading, read: Finding Niche Markets with Google Insights.
by admin on October 23, 2008
Hello everyone! To start off with, this is going to be a blog for myself first to help me increase my income. Things have been pretty bleak for the last few months due to the economy, job layoffs, stock market crash, etc. If you have worked online long enough, you know the Internet is a fiercly competitive place and extremely volatile. If you don’t adapt, you’re gonna die.
I’ve found that one of the quickest ways to solve a problem is to blog about it. Not sure what it is, but there’s something about writing about something that seems to crystalize your goals faster. So, I’m going to use this blog to write my tips, techniques, thoughts and other stuff that will hopefully increase my income. If all goes well, maybe this blog will start receiving traffic and I will be able to convert that into extra money.
So, enough of the B.S. One thing I’ve done recently is to use 3″ x 5″ index cards to write all of my money making and business ideas. I’ve got around 200 of them by now. Too many? Well, maybe… but I once heard or read that it takes a lot of ideas to get one good idea. I think this is a good strategy…. come up with as many ideas as you can and sift through them later… weeding out the stupid ones.
By using 3″ x 5″ index cards, you can easily shuffle your ideas around, make stacks with your best ideas and categorize them if you like. I’ve tried using lists on my computer or web based services like NetVibes, but there’s something overwhelming when you stare at a list with a couple hundred ideas. I’ve also tried using notebooks with dividers and this works well too. I guess whatever works best for you is the way to go.
You only need one good idea to make a fortune! Write every idea that comes to mind no matter how silly it may seem. One crazy idea might lead to a really good idea later. Keep a few index cards and a pen with you so you can write your ideas down when they come to you. If you have an iPhone, use the built in notepad to keep your ideas.
Take time once a month or so and set aside time to brainstorm. I recommend ONLY taking a pen and notepad with you to a coffee shop, library or other quiet spot with as few distractions as possible. Don’t bring your laptop and turn off your cell phone. You’ll be amazed at how many ideas you can come up with using these two simple things.
