New Year Plans 2014 And End Of Year Review 2013
Once more we start a New Year we look forward to the plans ahead and with it the inevitable review of the previous year and plans. When you look back it is often sobering to see what you have achieved or have failed to achieve, so here goes.
There has been a BIG spectre haunting me and unlike Scrooge this one did not arrive just before christmas it has been in residence for a long time. It is my long trumpeted, long awaited but not delivered Kindle training course. I never delivered this, I have been unhappy with a lot of the content, I have tinkered with it, messed with it and also left it alone (for too long).
But, I have finally realised what I was unhappy about and with a renewed vigour have created a Kindle course that I am not just happy with but also proud of, so look for that in early 2014.
I have not as yet updated my eBay course Plugin Auction Profits or my 12 Roads to Success course as I was wanting to do in 2013. But, I have the new versions in outline form and intend to move these to there own membership sites with the addition of some new materials. There will also be some additional content available as an optional additions to the product.
I have also been experimenting with Optimise Press 2 as the membership platform for my Kindle course. I find OP 2 both easy to use and infuriating in equal measure, on bad days it is seems more like Optimise Depress.
I am unsure as to whether I will continue to use this after I have used up my 3 licence quota, so stay tuned.
A great positive in 2013 was joining the team at Marketing Mini Classes, I knew everyone personally and I am delighted to be working with Steve, Mandy and Barry. Look for some more classes from me in 2014.
So to 2014, here’s the broad plan.
To release 3 products this year
To update and upgrade my Plugin Auction Profits and 12 Roads to Success to membership status.
To add to my Kindle book portfolio by at least one book per month
To buy myself a Mac computer and publish content to Apple iBooks
To extend my existing POD ventures
To build a more extensive and responsive marketing list
And above all to provide excellent value to all my subscribers and customers
Phew just looking at that list is scary! But these business goal should go someway to helping me achieve my personal goals.
What are your plans? Leave a comment below and share your plans.
So it only remains for me to wish you the compliments of the season and wish you success in all your ventures in 2014.
Oh and remember its good to share so please share this!
eBay Opportunities Don’t Come Any Easier Than This!
As you may know my background is in selling on eBay so I am always looking for those little eBay opportunities that are easy to run and bring in cash on a regular basis. Today I have a great little opportunity that I want to tell you about.
It’s called Easy Auction Income
If your inbox is anything like mine you see new products being launched on a regular basis, some are really good and some promise the earth and give you gravel…
…you know the kind where you get to the end and have to purchase again to get to the juice, or you get so far into it and find you need to attend the local college to understand the jargon, all been there right!
Well today I want to tell you about Easy Auction Income, which doesn’t only talk about the juice it shows you in fine detail exactly what you need to do to succeed.
The product has been created by Steve King and Barry Wells, both of whom are long term eBay sellers, who have joined forces on eBay and started selling Photo Prints with almost instant success.
After the first 30 days they were able to transfer £350 ($500 approx.) to their bank, 30 days! And yes, they display proof of that…. as well as the following 2 months.
You see these guys have only been doing this for just 90 days but with their combined knowledge they’ve hit on a winning formula and are now ready to share…
Easy Auction Income is a complete Video Coaching Program showing you how these guys source and sell their Photo Prints on eBay. In fact you’ll actually be looking over their shoulders as they take care of their business on eBay.
These guys are showing you everything they apply to their process and leave nothing out of the equation, the videos include:
• An Introduction to the coaching program with some details of how these guys came up with the idea and started making money with it.
• What tool you’re going to need to get started, many of which you’ll probably have on your PC already.
• Where to find the pictures that you’re going to be selling, remember these guys are already selling them.
• How and where to source the materials you’ll need to dispatch your items and make them look as professional as possible to impress your customers.
• How to start creating listing on eBay with tips on titles and descriptions, categories and the timing of your listings. They’re also including some listing templates to improve your presentations and show you some of their own.
• The art of communication and how to keep your customer in the loop every step of the way, which can be automated so you do not have to send them individual emails.
• How to take care in the presentation and packaging of the items sold so when the customers receive them there’s a wow factor that instantly impresses them and removes the chances of complaints.
• The importance of positive feedback and how to generate a high feedback score that will help you as a seller. As well as some neat tricks for avoiding negative feedback and how to deal with it with you need to.
• How to generate repeat business and bring your customers back time after time, with a really simple trick that these guys are using themselves.
This isn’t one of those over hyped eBay products that lead you to spending lots of money to get started; in fact this is the exact opposite as your outlay is very small and you only produce your prints once you made a sale.
You see the best part of all this is I know Steve and Barry personally having worked with them on different projects since 2009, I know that this opportunity is solid gold.
This really is the complete package that will have you earning an extra income with ease.
Check it out by clicking the Graphic
Or Click HERE
I highly recommend that you grab Easy Auction Income and start making some money from the comfort of home.
Its good to share, please share this post
How Quickly Can You Start In A New Niche?
How many niches do you work in? Most people work in just one or two and others seem to work in multiple niches. Those niches may be in Internet Marketing, eBay, Amazon or even offline.
Here is a little niche that I have just started to work in. I have always been interested in astronomy have bought my first real telescope when I was 15. I always wanted to do something in this hobby niche so I have decided to have a go, and record my progress as I developed this new area which would make a good case study even if I were only moderately successful.
The whole niche involves the building of a website http://thenightskyonline.com/ which I have started to construct. The idea is to do this on an absolute shoestring. I have used a free theme and if you visit the site, it is clearly in the early stages of construction. I intend to build a marketing list in this niche and the first step is this little book which I have just published.
Click the links to check out the listings
Amazon US
Amazon UK
This was entirely written by me, it is enrolled in KDP select for at least 90 days, the idea is that I can give this away for free on 5 days of my choice during the enrolled period. I am offering some excellent free software with this book. This is provided via a link in the book that takes you to a download page HERE.
On the download page is another freebie which you can only get by subscribing to my list.
Here is how I produced the book, the content was entirely written from my own knowledge in about 8 hours. All the illustrations were from the public domain and can be used for free, they all came from wiki commons (there are many other places I could have got free content but in this instance I found all I needed there), total time approx 2 hours.
Compiling the book using my own kindle template approx 2 hours
The free software is also public domain and consists of two program’s, downloading, zipping and uploading to my own web space approx 1 hour.
Compiling the download page again approx 45 mins. Writing Kindle listing and uploading 30 mins.
The point being that all this could easily be done in one weekend at a fairly leisurely pace. The hardest part was really just getting started on it. I broke the book down into sections and wrote each section as the fancy took me.
Now before anyone says I couldn’t do that! If you have a hobby, interest or a passion for something then you can just as easily do what I have done.
Oh yes and the cost? £5 for the royaly free image I used to produce the cover 20 mins, which again was done with free software, real budget product production, just 15 hours max. The amazing thing is it took Amazon less than 6 hours from me submitting it to them publishing it.
To Have And To Have Not! When Free Is Not the Best Option
What do we understand by free? Well we can look up any number of dictionary definitions but the common understanding is that it is something that we can obtain for nothing.
The Internet is full of free stuff even the biggest companies are at it and that includes Google. You see there are many free tools and services that you can use from Google. Maps, keyword, tools, docs, hangouts the list is extensive and of course Blogger the free blogging platform.
With Blogger you can have a free blog at no cost and blog to your hearts content. BUT what is often forgotten is that you don’t own the blog, let me repeat you don’t own the blog. Google do and they can take away your plaything at a moments notice.
Surely you don’t think that it can happen to you? That’s what a lot of people thought until this week when they received an e-mail from Google.
Important Update to Adult Content Policy on Blogger
You are receiving this message because you are the admin of a blog hosted on Blogger which is identified to have Adult content.
And it went on to say that any blogs linking to Adult websites or attempting to monetize adult material on Blogger will be deleted on June 30th. Whilst we would all applaud the stand against distasteful material on the web, there are many Blogger sites that are used by authors of Erotica in order to promote their books, how many will fall foul of this change to the Terms of Service and who will make the decision, three good men and true?
We have seen this before with the Amazon slap of a few years ago which wiped out thousands of accounts over night. Or, the changes to eBay policies which had nearly ruined my own eBay business on 3 occasions.
These wide scale changes are rarely done with the discretion that needs to be exercised and there is frequently no redress, no real appeal only a standard response from a corporate employee towing the party line. In other words once it’s gone it’s gone.
There is now wide scale panic with users of Blogger to protect their content which often amounts to years of work. There are choices; you can get a free blog from wordpress.com. WordPress is the mostly widely used blogging and content management platform in the world and it’s free!
Woe that word free again……. Once bitten twice shy. Better still have your own WordPress blog where you own the domain and the blog in other words it’s yours, you own it. You will still have to make sure that you comply with the Terms of Service of your hosting provider and there is a cost implication.
You will need a hosting package about 4 dollars a month and a domain name about $11 a year. But you will own the blog. The thing that will put a lot of people off is learning WordPress having spent the time to learn Blogger.
Here is the answer your complete guide to building and installing your own WordPress blog in double quick time.
Don’t put your blog at risk protect your content today here is your escape plan. You can even import your Blogger content into a new WordPress blog here is a video that will show you how to export your Blogger content.
Please share this information you never know what is next.
The Apprentice: Bitter Anyone?
Tonight’s apprentice task was one very close to my heart. The candidates must invent a new flavoured beer, but is there trouble brewing…..You bet, another shambolic performance from both teams in trying to find a flavour for there own beer. Chocolate and orange or rhubarb (no custard) the teams had to choose a stock beer for flavouring and locations to sell to the public and trade.
The girls wasted two barrels of good pop as they could not work out ratios! Perhaps the rhubarb went to their heads. As ever the candidates were falling out like cats in a bag. Choice of location, a beer festival for the girls in a pub and the boys at a proper beer festival where the most expensive, so in the afternoon go to central London and drop the prices, makes sense, not in my books.
Best laugh of the night was the boys turning up to a specialist beer pub with no sample and no pump disc! A sniff of the bottle was offered, as unbelievable as this sounds it was true.
After the inquest in the board room Lord Sugar came up with the most predictable (and accurate comment) “couldn’t organise a piss up in a brewery.” Tim Stillwell the drinks specialist was fired but it was close, Francesca MacDuff-Varley could have easily gone as she was responsible for the wastage at the brewery.
Next weeks task should be interesting as the teams are to design and market flat pack furniture. If MFI was thought to be Made For Idiots should next weeks items be known as MBI Made By Idiots?
Bitter anyone?
The Apprentice Is Back! But Would You Go Into Business With This Lot?
Well here it is at last! How much have we missed the massive ego’s, the bitching and backstabbing, the fights as each of the candidates tries to win funding from Lord Sugar as their business partner. It’s been away for far too long. So the rollercoaster started tonight.
In the first episode the 16 “brightest” (god help us) business brains in Britain tackled the first task to sell a container load of assorted goods including water, bubble wrap, toilet rolls, coats, mugs, lucky cats etc….
The two team leaders Jaz and Jason sounding like a early eighties failed boy band, took charge. Jazz like a demented cheer leader, full of fake enthusiasm, and high octane motivational sound bites took charge, if that is what you would call it. The girls lost and Jaz was fired.
So in the end were we disappointed? Not a bit of it! There is plenty of mileage in this new series to eliminate the truly unsuitable and the complete inadequate. No front runners as yet, but plenty of cannon fodder!
Want more? You bet!!!!
Product Creation: A Day At The Office
Firstly a question, where do you work best?
Mostly I work at home in my office, but just occasionally I like to expand my horizons a bit and become more flexible inn my working practices. On these days I prefer to work in one of the many office spaces that are available to me in the fair city of Liverpool. I think these are also known as pubs?
My current “office” (where I wrote this) is known as Bier and is an excellent venue with its selection of quality ales and imported beer it comes highly recommended, (but not on a Saturday night when the worlds worst DJ excels in driving away good custom after attempting first to burst their ear drums).
But is beer and work a good combination?
In my case yes, for me it’s liberating to be away from home with the frequent distractions and constant pinging of the email. Warning me of yet another cannot do without thingumy is for sale and if I don’t buy it now at a massive discount it may be gone forever, it just destroys the erm, what’s it called? Oh yes concentration.
I never take a laptop, or a netbook and the IPad is still where I left it, just me a writing pad a pen and a pint.
Productive, well I have in the past hour, written the copy for my eBay listing of “War of the Worlds.”
Brainstormed a selection of books for Kindle, Written a description and planned the eBay listing of some software products I am going to sell.
Come up with three new product ideas, and written this blog post.
So a fruitful day all round, plus I managed to save 2 pence in real money due to the reduction in excise duty on beer by our chancellor in the latest budget. Thanks George, what ever will I spend it on?
So it only remains for me to ask. How do you like to work?
The Easiest eBay Start-Up Ever?
One of the major problems with selling on eBay is the money you need to spend to invest in stock to resell before you even make a sale.
No matter how much you research your market there is always the possibility that some of the products you buy to resell will be complete turkeys, even if someone else is selling the same product successfully and at a higher price.
After all isn’t the idea of selling on eBay to make money and not to lose it? So here is an opportunity to make start with NO cash at all.
These are products that are available free, you only pay a tiny fee to list the product. This idea may never make you a full time income but it does have the following advantages.
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The products are FREE
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The listing fees are very small
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There are many thousands of these products for you to choose from
I am talking here of using Public Domain (PD) materials or in other word products whose copyright have expired, or are free of any copyright restrictions.
The big boom market is in Audio Books at the moment, the Kindle Fire, Ipad, Ipod and other portable devices that can play MP3 files have fuelled the demand. This creates a business opportunity for us to tap into.
Here are just a few examples of sellers reselling materials in the Public Domain.
Look at the sales numbers 197!
What about radio shows or TV shows or even films in the public domain
Plus it does not stop with audio books, there is a big demand for e-books in different formats for the e-reader market:
Don’t forget video
Any one of these or a similar product will give you a good start plus this is all done on a shoestring, the downside is that selling prices are generally low but apart from the disk, postage and a small eBay fee the rest is yours.
So how do you start in the public domain? Well here is a freebie to get you started, it is by Steve Poke, and as far as PD is concerned he really knows how to make this work as a business.
DOWNLOAD YOUR COPY HERE
Is this one of the easiest start-ups ever? I think so.
If you have found this interesting remember It’s good to share. Please leave a comment.
Want more? Keep checking back for updates.
Who Says You Cannot Use PLR Material For Kindle Content!
Well Kindle do for starters and that has led to a lot of Kindle accounts being blocked or terminated the Kindle slap or in other words they upset the 800lb Gorilla that is Amazon.
Here is the problem too many people were using PLR content the wrong way. PLR or (Private Label Rights) materials are freely available at very modest prices or even free, the whole idea of PLR materials is to use it as a starting point, a kind of check list to build the content for your own unique book.
Now the quality of PLR varies enormously from the excellent to and let me be blunt here… complete crap. The temptation of just uploading the PLR content as is was just too much of a temptation for far too many people. You see lots of other people had exactly the same idea (and the same PLR) and the market became flooded with large amounts of books which were exactly the same.
The content appeared time and time again with different titles, articles just mixed around instead of being re-written, this was tarnishing Amazons image and the 800lb Gorilla that is Amazon was most displeased. Instead of wielding a scalpel to the problem they wielded a sledge hammer.
So you can’t use PLR right? Wrong, I have just published a book on allergy relief on Kindle using a collection of PLR materials. It is approved, published and is selling. How did I do it? I simply did exactly what you are supposed to do, I significantly differentiated my content from the source material therefore ending up with a unique offering.
In other words, I completely rewrote the PLR articles, I edited sections out of the original and I added bits in from my own research. As an experiment I also created a Facebook page, and added a QR Code to the book. The great thing is I can use this new content or the original PLR articles and sell it elsewhere such as eBay and other eBook websites.
I did all this as to show how easy it was to produce your own Kindle content as part of the training in my new Kindle training course that I am producing and which is near completion to show that you can use PLR material but only if you do it the right way.
So here is the challenge, most of us have tons of PLR materials gathering digital dust on our hard drive, could we not use that to start our own Kindle business? Or, if the PLR materials you have are of a poor quality then why not check out PLR Monthly?
Stiil rebuilding my blog everyone so keep coming back for changes… Rob