Cash Cow

For those that are confused by this post then please be. Its not eBay related !

Here is a report on how my $48 sites are going. Back early March 2007, I purchased 100 sites from Claycomm (Neil) in the hope that it would give me some nice income. If these sites did what I hoped they would do (make around $50 a year per site) then I would purchase a shit load more of them. Here is a link to the thread (Digital Point Forums) where I purchased them from. The $48 Dollar Site.

The sites finally got online from around the 15th March so I will start the reports from the Week Ending Sunday 25th March ! If I am a bit slack then please give me a kick up the arse to hurry up and give you some reports.

W/E - 25th March, 07

I got one solitary impression for the week. Couldn’t expect any more as sites hadn’t had a chance to be indexed.

1 - Impression (Woohoo)

0 - Clicks

$0

W/E - 1st April, 07

Woah…things a little different this week. Some activity after the first week. Looks like some indexing is going on !

18 - Impressions

2 - Clicks

$0.41

W/E - 8th April, 07

OK. Now I am starting to feel the love. Some serious activity happening in week 3. Nothing to allow me to take the next step and purchase some more sites, BUT I can see some potential here. The CTR made me a little nervous this week. Just hopes it goes down hehehe.

66 - Impressions

35 - Clicks

$3.29

Still a fair way off my target of about $80 - $90 per week from these sites but it is a start.

W/E 15th April, 07

Things are starting to move on up in the world of AdSense. Everything increased this week. Impressions, clicks (only just) and of course dollars !

113 - Impressions

37 - Clicks

$5.70

W/E 22nd April, 07

The growth in clicks and impressions has started to level out. Similar to last week but nevertheless there was growth this week. Things creeping up.

131 - Impressions

34 - Clicks

$6.39

W/E 29th April, 07

Back down to earth a little this week. Things have truly leveled out now and I even noticed a small dip in my stats. I guess this should be expected. We cant expect for there never to be a downturn. Despite this read stats below.

121 - Impressions

33 - Clicks

$5.83

Conclusion, after about 6 weeks which included downloading files then uploading sites the sites have made $21.62. To be fair I would say the first 2 weeks shouldnt be counted therefore 4 weeks = $21.62 becomes about $5.40 per week. Still about $80 off my weekly target.

Realistically, I will give it a good 2-3 months before I make my judgment. So far the product is as promised and the support has been excellent despite the high level of interest from DP members.

Stay tuned for my next installment which will be next monday….ish.

Well how do I ?

The hardest part for me believe it or not is the sourcing of items to sell. I don’t have one particular type of product that I like to sell. It all comes down to how much I can get it for in the outside world. For example, earlier on this year I purchased a box of draft beer keg couplers and taps. There must have been something like 30 items in the box. I bought it off a guy at a market in Balmain for $30 as he was trying to get rid of it. I sold 2 taps in one lot from the box for $37.02. I aready made my money back with about $7 profit. I have a whole lot of other items from the box which I will be selling over the next few months. Any money I make from selling items from the box will be 100% profit (minus listing fee’s and selling fee’s of course).

(Click Here to see the beer taps I sold)

Aside from the Bric-a-Brac markets I like to visit -

Garage Sales (Australian - Where people have a clearance sale of all their personal belongings on their front lawn). The idea of these things are for people to get rid of stuff. Dont be shy to bargain either.

$1 Shops - Usually items from these shops have come direct from China and have come in abundance. Spend $5 - $10 buying a few items so you can test out by selling on eBay. I guarantee that if you purchase smartly then you will make profit. Even if you find an item that consistently makes you $5 profitl, all you have to do is list whole lot of them at a time. Beware not to list too many at once and flood the market. If you list 5o items at once and there are only 20 people interested then you risk having all your items sell for $1 or not sell at all.

Council Disposal Pickups - Twice a year in Sydney, the council sends out notices for households to put items they want to throw away on their front lawns. A truck will come past a few weeks later and pickup these up on their way to the landfill. On the way home from work, I will usually pick up items that are still in good condition. ALL FOR FREE DONT FORGET ! Early last year I picked up a dog house in perfect condition as someone was throwing it out. I listed it the following week for 10 days. Believe it or not I got around $190 for it.

The last method mightn’t be for everyone but it is the best one because any money you make is 100% profit. Any combination of the above is great.

Just a few ideas that I have tried…….you should also try them !

Click here to Enlargen

It’s been an alright month for me so far. Nothing record breaking but enough to pay the bills………. and little more so to speak. I guess I have been a little busy with real-life work and my upcoming wedding and therefore haven’t been able to list as many items as I usually do. I have gotten to the stage where I simply don’t have enough hours in the day to list all the stuff I have. Maybe I should give up the day job and do eBay fulltime. LoL I have thought about it and will probably give it a go early next year after the wedding.

Still another 4-5 days to go until the end of April and I am on target for about $1200. Discipline is the key to keep the money rolling in. Once you learn how to source stuff and list items, then that completes only half the job. To keep a constant flow of money coming you have to stay focused and keep on listing and sourcing and replying to emails from prospective bidders. As items up for auction come to end, you must have the new batch ready to go.

Its an easy formula.

As with any online money making venture, you first must work out how to create $$$ then replicate that exact process many times over until you have enough to be happy. Thats what I am doing at the moment….though I am not 100% happy with the amount of money coming in at the moment….but at the same time I am not complaining.

Ok Ok….I couldnt wait any longer to write another post.

Today I have decided to write a post about the basic things you need to get started as a seller on eBay.

1. A computer and internet access. Nothing spectacular. Just something that can do the basics.

2. Go to the eBay website and kick off your career by registering an account here. You will require some bank details or a credit card when you register because there is a small fee that ebay charges you for each sale you make (we will go into that later).

3. Buy yourself a cheap digital camera. Probably something not older than a couple of years old with some decent megapixel action. These things are dirt cheap these days but its a must if you want to become a seller. Maybe you can buy one off eBay eheh ! Make sure the camera has a USB cable which connects to your computer. This will allow you to download pictures straight onto your computer from your camera in a few seconds. Most new cameras come with a USB cable.

4. Perhaps you might consider opening a Paypal account. This is free to do and its basically a way to accept payments from people who have bought your items. They charge you a tiny percentage but Paypal is widely recognised and trusted by most eBayers. You dont need it as you can choose to accept other payment methods like cirect deposit into your bank account, C.O.D. (cash on delivery), check/cheque or money order. I recommend Paypal as it increases the amount of people who would consider buying my items as its a secure payment method everyone trusts. The only thing that sucks is having to pay a small fee for each payment you recieve. Sign up here if you are interested.

And that pretty much about it. The hardest part is just configuring your eBay account to your specifications but even that isnt that hard.

The next step I guess is to begin the hunt for items to sell. Stay tuned for my next post.

Hi all and welcome.

This is my new blog about my experiences with eBay. My name is Dean Gallagher and I am from Sydney, Australia. I have been registered on eBay for over 3 years now. I have done alot of buying and selling over the years. Probably about 90% selling actually and the rest buying.

Basically, I will be spilling my guts about everything I know about eBay. I have made thousands of $$ over the years with eBay but this wont be one of these blogs that promises to make you rich by teaching you the top 10 secrets of eBay etc, it will be just me writing posts and rambling on about what I have done over the years to make a spare buck from eBay. If anyone has anything in particular that they want me to write about then post a request on this site….by all means !

Finally, eBay isnt a difficult thing to get the hang of and I am not promising to teach you things that only a few know. I hope this blog can become a one-stop place where people can come and learn more about the wonderful world of eBay !

Thanks again,

Dean !

p.s. My eBay account name is Action_Mcjackson. Search for it and see my items !