eAction

I promised to keep you posted on my progress with eBay selling, didn’t I?

I’ve finished reading that book, Make your Net Auction Sell, and think I grasp the basic principles. But right now I’m allowing myself some time to research and watch some auctions so I see it in action before I leap in.

Right now I have some practical items to watch. My Dad, aged 89, has taken up a new hobby. He’s making cross necklaces out of horseshoe nails. You have no idea how hard they are to find locally, which is odd because we live in the central prairies of Canada. However, I can find them on eBay, and in checking out other links and doing Google searches, I can compare wholesale prices with the auctions, and get quite an education in the process.

Another one I’m watching is aloe vera plants. I have about 60 containers full, most of them with more than one plant. One large bucket has at least 23 plants as of my last count. I keep running out of containers, and
haven’t the heart to throw them out. Especially since Dad and I eat the gel from a stem or two nearly every day. But I do think I could spare some to sell - only thing is, I’m still trying to figure out how best to pack them for shipping.

Meantime, I’ve shifted my surfing programs to a bare maintenance effort. Got to make time for this newer venture. If need be, I’ll give that up. For now I’m just trying to keep from getting bumped.

You’ve heard me say this before, but I’ll say it again today; it’s all a question of how you use your time. You get to decide how to spend it.

Have you ever bought or sold on eBay?

Recently I had a visit from a young wife and mother, whose only training is in nail-care, and her toddler keeps her on the run most of the day, but she and her sister, a hairdresser, are buying supplies wholesale because they are professionals, and re-selling them on eBay, making sometimes $300 a day!

I’ve bought an ink cartridge and a software package on eBay auction, but have put off trying to sell stuff because I thought I was too busy. This week I’ve been thinking that it’s time to research this and perhaps give up something that is not paying off well, so I’ll have time to give to this new venture.

Now my list of what I could sell is rather eclectic; hand-made family history books, e-book editions of my novel, a very original rag doll in a mink stole, Dad’s spinning wheel, aloe vera plants, and so on.

I’m still in the early stage of considering this– however, I’ve sure learned a LOT just today! There are people who make a career of this; imagine!

Of course, I’ll keep you posted!

ENCOURAGEMENT

When I came online in early 1999, I was astonished to see how many sites were offering free-bies. My first impression was that there must be a lot of Christians who were living by the Biblical rule to give rather than to grab.

Gradually I learned that it was a marketing ploy to draw in people new to the net, who were afraid to spend money on strangers. Dr. Ken Evoy said the time would come in just a few years, when people would be more used to business online, and the site owners would start charging for any information or service they offered.

Sure enough, that’s been happening. Taking payment has become downright easy, and with a million new people going online almost every day, the more seasoned ones are spending as freely as they do in their local convenience corner store down the street.

But there’s another shift happening. I’ve just read Doug Williams’ email to TsunamiGOLD members, where he points out that although ponzi schemes and scam operators have proliferated in the last few years, skinning baby boomers and seniors alive, governments are clamping down, and following paper trails. Even if you have fallen for such a scam unwittingly, YOU could have your bank account frozen in one of these sweep-to-destroy missions!

Web hosts are clamping down too, and turning in people who have web pages extolling certain “programs” of shady practises.

Let me just encourage you, even if your intuition is very reliable, do due diligent research BEFORE you sign up with a money-making program. Make sure it is legal, and honest. When in doubt, ASK around first and do some online searching for both negative and positive feedback. Delay in signing up, until you are sure!

Remember, you have the power of choice; responsibility is stuck to it, like the other side of a coin.

Want to use my list of bookmarks for checking on things?
http://BouquetofEnterprises.biz/E/F/CheckOutStuff.shtml

Flash News: Buy a SiteBuildIt! package and get a second one for just $100 more! This special ends in two days. Only until May 1!
SiteBuildIt!

Doug Williams is handing out big prizes too at the Hot Conference sessions until May 3, but it’s in a tie-breaker stage right now between two winners.
http://www.moneylegs.com/cgi-bin/refer.cgi?3936&page=BHGringnew
Tell them I invited you - I think that gets me a prize too!

If you’re smart, you’ll READ the ezines from the CEOs of the programs you belong to, and try to read them as they arrive. That’s where you learn about contests and can get the earliest start. It makes a huge difference.

I have been playing here with a different Profit vs. Loss Balance sheet. Sort of bending a metaphor to suit my business image here. Only it wanders off when we get too detailed.

In 1996 I wrote a poem called, Ha, They Think I´m Poor! in which I compared my spiritual liabilities to my assets. Some stanzas are dated. (I was house-bound in caring for Mom), but I think I will quote it to make
this a lighter issue than the last few have been.

This can be an encouragement to you if you are tired just now, of always having to do without, or being compared to others who seem to have it so easy in life.

Remember the valuables you have that are not money. Back up and see the big, panoramic picture of your life.

See? You have so accomplished something of value! It is just not the way most people look at their possessions in this way. Please do it though - to keep your life in perspective.

Note: I have just added a RealYou Quiz to my site;
http://BouquetofEnterprises.biz/E/F/RealYou-quiz.shtml

ENCOURAGEMENT ~ Your Vast Stock of Seeds

In spring our thoughts soon turn to sowing seeds in our garden - at least our house. Maybe you’ve never cared for mucking about in soil, and fussing over seeds or seedlings.

Okay. So there’s a cleaner kind of seed to work with too. You can sow these any time of the year, but now we’re moving from the visible that you handle with your fingers to the spiritual - things that happen between people.

“Something you have been given will create anything else you have been promised.” (Mike Murdock).

[see Feature Article; Your Vast Stock of Seeds]

Another Whew! I’ve been busy night!

But oh, it feels good to be productive, doesn’t it?

I’ve worked steadily at least an hour a day for the last two weeks, to get this series of web page articles written and polished to show what I see as the best business models online, and how to go about getting started in them.

This is especially geared for those who are quite new to doing business online, and although they have pure motives, they are not necessarily sure where to start or how to avoid treachery.

I put in an extra busy evening tonight to polish all the pages I had started, and make one more, so now I can give you links to six or seven pages.

My dilemma now is to know how to share this with you in the best way. whether to divide it into chunks for this new blog of mine, or just to provide links.

Because of the lengths of these pages (copy writing gurus say long pages are okay, if you need them!) I tend to think I’ll just list the links.

Let’s do it this way. . . I’ll give you the links with a brief summary, so you can tell which ones you would like to go read. If you aren’t able to get online, just let me know, and I’ll zap the contents of those pages off to you.

[Go to Feature Article: How to Start an Online Business]