Learning Curve

The learning curve is ferocious. I don't think you need to know all about it before you just jump in with both feet. Lots of ideas continue to flash through my brain. I think the first venue might be to be an "expert" in antiques. At least on the level of a Picker. It seems there is going to be a show about antique pickers on the Discovery Channel and I ought to be ready to jump on that bandwagon as it comes whizzing by. There are 519 listings in my store, mostly from SMC, but no traffic and no sales yet.

Doldrums

It's Christmastime. So much effort goes in to the holiday season that there is little time for entrepreneurial efforts. I am reviewing all the recent downloads I bought to see how to do online marketing, but frankly, it seems you need everything in place before any of it is worthwhile. A little disheartening, but maybe after New Years we can get a fresh start!

Honeymoon and Buzz Saw

I am still in the "honeymoon" period: I stay awake at night thinking/planning/rushing through ideas. At 4 in the morning you can have the most sensational ideas--ones that no one has ever thought up before. At 7 in the morning you realize how dumb that idea was!

At the same time, I am doing tons of research on this business method and feel a bit like I just ran into a buzz saw. There are so many parts that it is difficult to imagine how to put it all together into a coherent whole. My thought is to learn as I go and "just start"--this blog is a part of that.

One useful piece of information I did glean today is that there is little point in going with Google Adsense until your site gets at least 500 to 1000 visitors a day. (or was it week?) Anyhow, we can put that up on the shelf for now.

I downloaded the power point presentations of Mike Filsaime and have begun to work through them. They hit just the highlights of his seminars but perhaps there is a nugget or two there. I am also staring at one of those ad pages by Matthew Meyer. It's really slick and he's offering a slew of e-books and, more importantly, software that purports to help you get up and running in a jiff. He wants $67.00 and offers an 8 week money back guarantee. I probably will get it and let you know what I think. Before I pay up, however, I am going to print out his Ad page with all pertinent information so I can get my money back as well as putting the cut-off date on my calendar--which I have to remember to begin looking at daily!

TheThing About Ebay

When I first started on Ebay, you could sell almost anything for big bucks. It was new and people used to go wild, racking up huge debts buying ridiculous things they didn't need. Now it is much harder to do well there. If you can buy something cheap enough at a yard sale and interesting enough for someone to pay big bucks for it and if it is not too heavy or fragile....go for it. One of our early sales was a RedWing vase. Pretty rare and we got $200 for it, but the packing was poor and it broke on the way. Guess who was out $200 (hint: it wasn't the buyer!)

A bit about SMC and dropshippers.

There are websites all over everywhere that want to sell you lists of dropshippers who will let you sell their products on Ebay and they will ship to the buyer for you. It seems most of those sites are a scam. (Who'd of guessed?) Charles Malta seems to have a system that gives you access to honest dropshippers which would allow you to sell any of millions of great Ebay type items. Of course, it will cost money to join him. I have decided to wait until my current enterprises earn enough to pay his fees, but I did bookmark his page.

SMC has over 3000 things for you to sell. They are very efficient and have been around for a while. Happy Days Dad hawks it on the TV. You do have to pay a fee to join, and you have to pay for catalogs if you want them. The merchandise is ok and sometimes pretty neat. (I seem to be my own best customer!) You can see their stuff, or some of it, in my store. The thing is, on Ebay, everyone and his sister is trying to sell the same exact thing. Try searching for Corn Husk Nesting Baskets and see what comes up. The market is flooded.

Where I've been so far

>I sold antiques and collectibles for years in Wisconsin at auctions, in antique malls, and when it first started, on Ebay. We have moved away from Wisconsin now and live in the Caribbean. One day, I will be too old or too lazy to work at a "real" job, so I decided to get the internet to work for me.

I still sell on Ebay from time to time. Last year I sold a penny from 1784 for over $2000! But the whole Ebay thing has changed alot. It takes a great deal more effort to be successful on Ebay. So I am branching out and I wanted you to be able to see how it really goes. I figure if you see what I did and how successful it was (or not) you will be able to save yourself alot of time in your own entrepreneurial efforts.

Right now, I am building and online store which you can look at if you will. I'm still putting items on at this point and haven't sold anything yet. Most of the items come from SMC in California and the profit margin is huge, but everybody and his brother is trying to sell SMC stuff. I think it's all in the presentation. More on that later.

The plan for the site is to add local crafts and art from around the Caribbean and as I do, I can decrease the SMC footprint in the store. I am also paying someone else to list items: $1.00 per listing, which saves me tons of time and helps someone else earn money.

So this is the beginning stage. Let's see where it goes.