One of the questions I get from students and people just making enquiries, is “I Need Money Fast” will eBay etc give me monet at the end of week. Now while we know this is possible and can prove it time after time, there is no guarantee. How many times, have we listed something expecting it to sell like it always does and it just sits there doing nothing. So hand on heart I could not say yes to that question. But then they say so it does’t work then does it. You just need to smile and explain to them that it does and then show them it takes time to build your new business up.

But what about that question I Need Money Fast well in the past I have said give it time, but recently I have re-visted that question and asked myself is there another way I can tell them to help them out. Yes they could get a loan, but that is not a good idea or very fair to them. And then it struck me………………………………………………………..

If they need fast money and they were willing to work there was another way that would put money in their pockets the day they wanted it, and to be fair again this works for anyone. So what was this idea, well like I said it takes work, but at the end of the day, you will be rewarded with money in your pocket.

@ Washing Cars – I know not a posh job, but if you were prepared to work hard you could put some serious money in your pocket and at the end of the week be a happy person and with very little outlay

@ Baby sitting – Yes work, some late nights, but money in your pocket

@ Window cleaning – Again people want windows cleaned, with people eager to hand you money.

I know this is a far cry from Internet Marketing and eBay, but if you Need Fast Money there is no better way.

Welcome back to this mini series called “The Power Of Articles”. By now I hope you have written a few articles and feel happy with them. You are now ready to submit them, one of the best places to submit them to is ezinearticles.com. This is the leading article directory and contains thousands of articles on hundreds of niches.

Before you go ahead and submit you will need to sign up, this a free process and should not take you many minutes. Once you have joined can I suggest, that you go and take a look at some of the articles in the same niche as you are writing, this is to give you a feel for what other people are writing, and will show you if you are thinking along the same lines. But please never copy articles that others have written, but you can use them to give you ideas.

So when you are ready to see “The Power Of Articles” in action, follow the simple guide lines and submit that first article. Now a word of warning here, ezinearticles use real people to look at your rticles and it can take upto a week for them to go live, but as you submit more, and more the waiting time does get shorter. Now they do a paid service as well which offer faster submission times but to start with just stick with the free program.

Also I need to warn you, the first few articles may be rejected but the editor who rejected them will tell you why, follow what they say, and they will be accepted next time round, it is a learn process, one that is fun, for you will see, the power of articles in every day action as each one you write drives more traffic to your websites.

Once you have mastered ezinearticles there are many more directories you can submit to, but for now just stick with ezinearticles, and over the next week or so, I will put out a list of the top directories that do work and will produce “The Power Of Articles” in your business. Good Luck and have fun.

If you are an online seller or Internet Marketer, in the past one of the major draw backs is the fact that your life worked around computers and being connected to the internet. Over time we went from dial up modems, to cable and broadband, then there was WiFi so we could work around our homes or in the garden if the weather was nice enough, life was good.

Over time we had WiFi connections in hotels so if we had to be away from from home we could still work when in a hotel, then it hapened Costa Coffee, and other cafe’s offered us free WiFi, Macdonalds followed so whilst we were eating our food we could surf the Internet, then local pub’s got in on the act so whilst you had a pint you go go on the internet – this Wifi proved a big hit with the pub quiz fans !!!

But there was still a major problem for the people who were online sellers and internet marketers, yes we had all these WiFi places where we could surf the internet, our laptops had longer battery life thanks to modern day inventions, but……………………… our files and stuff were all stored on our main computer at home. Yes we had portable disk drives and flash drives, but these would not always have the files we needed then and there.

Then came Cloud Computing or as I like to call it Up In The Clouds. Companies such as Amazon, Google, and a range of other companies now offer free or cheap file storage up in the clouds (remote servers). These allow you to keep a back up away from where you work and off your computer. This Cloud Storage is good as you always have a back up in case the worst should happen, but it also allows you to access files anywhere in the world where you can access a computer and the Internet.

It will do automatic back up’s thus if you work from a main computer say at home and then a laptop when out of the office, you can update a file on your laptop and as long as you have internet connection, next time you access the file from your desktop computer the new updated file will be there.

So please take a go and get Up In The Clouds and will suddenly find a new freedom in your business.

If you have been around the world of Internet Marketing for sometime you will have heard people talk about articles and the power of articles, when used to promote their business. To start this kind of series off I just want to talk to you about the power of articles and how they can build your business.

Article Marketing has been around well before the internet was ever thought of, it is nothing new, and if you think back over the years, how often have you read in a magazine or newspaper and article about some product or subject and thought to yourself that is what I have been looking for, or that article has just helped me make my mind up about buying that product.

Articles are written by all types of people and from all walks of life, but there is one thing in common between all these article writers. They are writing out of an expierience they have had, or from knowedge they have gained. So does this mean you can only write in areas you know…………… ? Well the answer to that is yes and no. Yes you do need to know about the niche or subject you are writing about, but the other side of the coin is. You need to know how to write so people and can understand and then do some research, and soon you will be able to write articles on almost any subject.

Articles are not meant to be long, the ideal length is between 250 – 500 words, by sticking to this length you can give people the bare bones on the title and then if you know more you can write a series of articles. Also if you keep your articles to this length, other people can use them in their own publications for free……………. yes free.

Let me show you a quick example on how the The Power Of Articles can work – You come up with a title, then you write a 250 – 500 word article using the keyword you are writing about. The you submit them to sites such as ezinearticle or goarticles, these article directories will then publish them all for free. Now here is where the Power of articles comes in. On the bottom of all your articles is a bio box this tells people who you are and has a link to your website.

When people publish your article online or offline, they have to include your bio and link. So let us say that an article you wrote is chosen by several online publishers and they have a readership of 250,000 suddenly your article is appearing in front of all these people and if you wrote a good one, some will click on your link to your website and some will buy. Now just think if you wrote just one article a week, after a year that is 52 articles………………….. That is the Power Of Articles.

Other other posts I wll cover more helpful hints and tips on how to use articles in your marketing and I hope show you the Power Of Articles.

Let me ask you a question……………. A baby is born, now does the Mum expect her few hour baby to eat a full roast dinner and walk round the house and garden, hours after they wee born ? No

A puppy or kitten is born and they have their eyes closed tight fr around 10 days, again do they eat real food and runs around ?… No !!!

A child grows and learns and they move from milk, onto sieved food, then toto soft food then onto proper food. They learn to crawl, then take those small baby steps and then they learn to walk and run. The same goes for their learning they take small steps all the time.

So……………………………………….. Why do we expect our own business to go from a standing start to making millions in a few days. I am afraid it is going to take weeks and even years of hard work, some failures and some successes, but with each failure you will learn what not to do, and move one step ahead to having a successful business.

As in life, you might get some early successes but please do not expect these and if these happen in your early days of business it is like the icing on the cake. Building you online or offline business will take time, but that is part of the fun of having a business. Yes it takes time, but hey just think a few years down the road you can look back at those early days, and you will be able to say to yourself and others I have done it, I have built my own successful business, yes it took me time and energy, but I have won and now I am free. So it is worth it to take the time to build a successful business.

If you have been selling and marketing online for more than a few months, a serious question to ask is “Where Do You Make Your money ? ” It is a question that you need to ask yourself almost on a daily basis. But if not daily on a very regular basis. You need to keep your mind and eyes open to new opportunities as to where you can sell your items.

Yes you maybe selling solely on eBay at the moment, but is eBay the only place you can sell, there are many other places, such as : eBay, Amazon, etsy, Bonazle and several niche sites. What you must do is your homework and you must never dilute your time and resources. You need to stick to what works for you.

But there is another way to look at that question “Where do you make your money” ? Well how often have you sat down and looked at your figures and information from your business. Have you looked at the different income streams you have, if you do you may find a few that you did not know you had, but they are bringing you in a nice income.

Also once you starting looking at where your money comes from you can start to work out on how you can either increase some areas, or at times you may need to stop a part of the business as it is losing money. Over the next few weeks, spend some time and take a look at where you really make your money, it may surprise you.

When ever you are running websites, blogs, e-commerce platforms such as eBay, Amazon, Etsy and you play around with the templates please take some time and check them in the main web browsers such as :-

FireFox

I.E. (last few builds)

Chrome

Safari

Now while I have always known this, and 75% of the time do test either that day or other the next few days when I launch a new site and blog I have never ever seen or had a problem. Maybe this was because someone was looking after me, or the fact that I stuck to the industry standards, I do not know.

The other day I was just “Chatting” to someone of FaceBook, and she was saying that her sales had gone down over the past few months, so I asked her for her URL. The site was on eBay, I was using Firefox. The site loaded and I could see she had a custom made template on a basic store. I scrolled down and oh dear, it was real bad.

I told her so, she just laughed and said no I am wrong her site looked great. At this point you have to think, well maybe she likes all the black swearls and stuff, you could not read anything the links were all hidden by these black things. It did look good but it was too much.

I asked her what browser she used she did not know – So my mind went into over drive- I checked Chrome looked real bad. Then I opened I.E. and it looked beautiful. It was well laid out. I told her this and she contacted her web designer.

At present I am not going to share the site, it is not fair on the person concerned. But please if you use templates, do blogs, use different web browsers, see how things look and at times you will be shocked. Also while we are on this subject it is well worth your while to check your web stats, and see what browsers people are using, and then build your sites around these, and make sure they look great.

It takes up no extra space on your hard drive to use different web browsers, and again you may be shocked to find out some sites do not work in some browsers, so if you have ever wondered while a site looks real funny in your favourite browsers, check it in another and you may find it looks good in one of the others. Again this is because people have not done their homework, and checked all browsers.

I was sitting at my computer ready to listen to one of my coaching calls from the great Janelle Elms (OSI Rock Stars) and while I was waiting I was jotting some notes down on a blog post I was working on for my site, and nothing was coming. I clicked through a few of my favourite sites to see if I could get some ideas, but sadly I had a block.

Anyway the call started and I was getting ready to take notes……………………….. Then it happened Janelle went quiet, for a second I thought she was just thinking and waiting as she had asked us a question, but the pause got longer and longer and it was then a small window popped up and said the call had stopped. Within minutes Facebook confirmed this, Janelle had lost all her power in her home.

It was then a light bulb went on in my head, and my article was starting to take shape………………. “Do You Have A Backup Plan“. If we run a business from home either part-time or full-time do we have a back up plan if things like the power goes down, we have a flood, we are taken ill, a loved one or we are in hospital, what would happen to our business?

So let me ask you “Do you have a backup plan” for your business, to help you out here are a few suggestions I came up with as I was writing this article -

@ The power goes down – You could use your battery on your laptop till it dies, but would you have internet connection ? Well to solve this here are a few ideas. Go to your local Library and use their computers and internet, you could put your laptop in your bag and head for starbucks, Costa Coffeee or any of the other places that have free wifi and work away, and if you ask nicely they may let you use some power too. Of course you need to find one that does have power.

@ Have a list of other Post Offices in your area in case your local one is shut one day.

@ Have a list of other delivery firms in case your normal one lets you down

@ Have all your passwords on an excel sheet or Google docs and give a business friend the link, just in case you are unable to access your computer for sometime. By doing this people will be able to help you out if need be.

@ Also keep extra stock of packing items and again have a few sources where you can get these in case your friendly normal one is unable to deliver or help you.

I hope these few tips will help you work out a Backup plan for your business.

One of the questions I am asked time over time by people both new sellers and those who have been selling on eBay for years, is “Do You List In The Summer Holidays ?” Now I know there are several schools of thoughts out there and neither one is right or wrong, but through this article I would like to layout some thoughts and ideas so that you can make up your own mind and what works best for you the seller. But before we get in to the main part of today’s article let me paint a picture.

The children have all broken up for their summer holidays, it wonderful weather outside, your planned holiday is a few weeks away, so today you decide it is picnic time. The children are got into the car and you drive to your favourite supermarket, as you approach the car park is empty and then you see a big sign saying “Due to summer holidays we are closed – see you in September”, You turn around and go the supermarket down the road, that is open and has some wonderful picnic food, that you buy. September comes and you never return to your favourite supermarket, because the second one you found sells all you need, and offers great customer service. Supermarkets do not shut, during summer holidays and other holiday periods, they are busy places, they run promotions, and their sales stay steady.

The same can apply to your eBay / Amazon business, if you are running a store and have a large amount of product within the store you might loose business if you close it for a few weeks. The human race are very funny people, say you sell clothing, and you have a large amount of repeat buyers who buy large amounts from you, and then one time one of these buyers would come along to buy a dress for a wedding, and you are closed for two weeks, will they wait ? Maybe some will, but most people need the dress for the weekend, so sadly they will go else where and find what they want often cheaper and with the same customer service that you offer, will they return when you come off your holidays ? Some will, the others you will have lost.

Ok people need holiday’s, so what can be done -

1. Well not go away – but that may not be a good answer

2. Another suggestion could be, ask a family member or friend to come in and run the business for you while you are away. This could be run the whole show, or if you wanted once a day you could check you eBay account and then email them over all the order details so they can ship and pack.

3. Use a fulfilment service such as Amazons FBA – (Yes even though you may not sell on Amazon you can use their FBA – and again when you sell on eBay, just email Amazon the shipping details and you never have to touch the stock – but you would need to make sure you have the right profit margins to do this as their prices for non Amazon items are a bit higher)

4. Use a drop-shipper

5. If the items are small and light, take them with you !!!!!! Works for some people.

At the end of the day it is up to you and your business, but if I was you, I would think very carefully about closing your shop when you go away on holiday as it could cost you a lot of business. Happy Listing and happy Selling

Please post your ideas and tips people – Thanks

When people think about making money on line with business models such as eBay, Amazon and the other e-commerce platforms out there, quite often they just think they need to buy low and sell high. Well that is very true and you can make a good income by doing that. But as with most things in life, you need to take a step back and think out side the box. Sit down, take a note pad and pen and start to make a list on all the different areas you could make an income from e-commerce, without selling any product.

To start you on your way, let me introduce you to “Make Money By Teaching Others About eBay” Yes you heard right you can make a very good full or part-time income by teaching other people and businesses how they can make money by selling on sites such as eBay. So how do you get started on the road to make money by teaching others about eBay ?

There are many different models that you can take hold and make your own, but one of the easiest to put into action is to offer a free one hour talk to local charity groups such as Lion Clubs, Rotary Clubs, Church Groups etc. When you give these talks you can either use the eBay Education Specialist teaching aids (To use these you need to go to the eBay Education Specialist program on eBay and pay a fee and take an exam), or if you feel at ease you can make your own PowerPoint slides or go live to the site and talk people through how to sign up for an account.

Now you may have spotted a weak link in this formula of make money by teaching others about eBay. How can you make money by giving free talks. Well when you give a free talk you will have those people who need some on to one teaching and for this you charge an hourly fee. You will have others ask you to sell items for them, for which you charge a commission.

As you feel more at home with giving these talks, you could run day long classes and charge people say $100.00 for a day to come and hear how they can make money on eBay. And again you will have people want you to sell items and have on to one teaching at the end of the day.

One last area you can make  money by teaching others about eBay, is set up a simple web page and handout and have web links to all the sites you talk about during your course, and of course all these web links will be your affiliate links and if people sign up to these services you will earn a commission.

Hope this short article on how to make money on eBay by teaching others has helped you learn that you can earn money. out side of selling items on sites such as eBay