Affiliate Marketing For Anyone

The Online Seller's News, October 28, 2010, Volume 10, No. 18

Tips, Tools, News and Resources for eBay, Amazon and independent Online Sellers ~ Published Twice Monthly since 1999
by: Skip McGrath

In This Issue:

Musings from eBay and beyond

1. Affiliate Marketing For Anyone
2. What The New PayPal Reporting Rules Will Mean For Your eBay Business
3. A Rare Opportunity For Personal Coaching with Me
4. Vendor Review – Bongo International
5. What I am Selling on eBay This Holiday Season
6. New Wholesale Sources for eBay, Amazon & Online Sellers

"Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence.
Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent.
Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.
Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.
Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan "press on" has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race." ~ Calvin Coolidge

Musings from eBay and beyond

In the last issue I mentioned Jenni Hunt’s Toy Guide for those of you looking to make some extra money for the holidays. If you haven’t bought it, then you only have a few more days until there are no more. Jennie decided to limit the sales this year as last year too many people bought it and ruined the market for some of the toys. Click here to read about the Holiday Toy Guide. I have been recommending this to my readers for the past 5 years and its one of the best values to be found today in a moneymaking product.

Last year my friend Jim Cockrum came out with a special niche eBay course that around a hundred sellers took advantage of. Jim has decided to reopen the course once again –and like last time it will be limited to the first 100 people because we don’t want to saturate or crash the market. Here is the note I got from Jim:

The most successful eBay niche course I've ever taught IS BACK! I estimate that over one hundred students are actively having success with this course several months after I first introduced it.

We show you exactly WHAT TO BUY, WHERE TO FIND IT, and HOW TO SELL IT for predictable profits in a virtually "saturation proof" market. Your suppliers and customers will both love you! It's nearly the perfect business model.

We had pulled the course from circulation for a while, but the dust has now settled and we are letting a few more people in on this mega-niche. Now is the PERFECT time to get in on this.

Many of our most successful students are now adding their own strategies and tactics to the discussion area for this course. It's a 'local based' niche concept so we can all openly share and grow our businesses together. This is mind blowing stuff and it's a big part of my eBay/Amazon strategy as well.

NOTE: This particular course only applies to U.S. based readers of this newsletter.

Click here to learn more

Lets get started with this month’s articles:

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1. Affiliate Marketing For Anyone

I get a lot of questions about affiliate marketing as many people see it as an easy way to make money online. It can be if you know how to do it right. A lot of people join affiliate programs and just think they can put a link in their email signature or do a blog post and the money will come rolling in, but it seldom works that way.

To make money with affiliate programs you need four things:

• Relevant content

• Eyeballs (i.e. Traffic)

• Credibility (Credible reason for them to click on the link)

• Solid Offer (An affiliate offer that converts)

If any one of these is missing you are just wasting your time. So lets look at each one, and then I have a free eBook that will give you a whole course in affiliate marketing.

Relevant content – If you write a blog about travel and you are recommending Omaha Steaks or a great place to get a mortgage loan, then your content is not relevant. Stick to the topic of your blog and only recommend offers that relate to your content.

Eyeballs – You need traffic to sell anything online. If you have a website or a blog or a newsletter with very little traffic it will be very difficult to make money in affiliate marketing. Typical affiliate sales offers have a conversion rate of about 1%, so you would need 1000 readers to make just 10 sales.

Credibility – When someone is reading your article or post or your newsletter you must be give a credible reason for someone to click on a link you recommend. That means you must have personal credibility and you must write in a credible fashion that is believable. Making wild claims about a product seldom work, whereas stating facts and describing reasonable benefits usually does.

Solid Offer – When you pick affiliate programs to promote you want to have some idea of how well the offer converts. This is easy to do with most affiliate management companies such as Commission Junction as they rank their offers by how well they convert. If you have all three things above and your offers are not converting, then you want to pick another offer.

If you want to learn how to earn with affiliate marketing, I have two things for you and both are free. The first is an article I wrote called Ten Tips for Successful Affiliate Marketing. The second item is a free eBook called The Affiliate Masters Course.

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2. What The New PayPal Reporting Rules Will Mean For Your eBay Business

This is a guest article by Diane Kennedy who wrote Tax Loopholes for eBay Sellers. I first met Diane when we had a booth near us at eBay Live. As you may have heard PayPal now has to report your payments to the IRS starting in 2011. Diane explains what this will mean for eBay and online sellers who use PayPal. At the end of the article is a link where you can subscribe to Diane’s free newsletter.

Starting January 2011, Pay Pal will be required to issue a Form 1099-K for any person or business that receives over $20,000 in one year and has more than 200 sales. PayPal will be required to send out form 1099K to all sellers who have over $20,000 in gross receipts and have more than 200 transactions with PayPal.

What does this mean for you business?

There are a number of items to note in this new rule:

1. You are going to be required to provide either your EIN (employer identification number) or Social Security number to PayPal.

Action Item #1: Apply for an EIN if you don’t have one already. You don’t want your Social Security number floating around PayPal and who knows where else. You can get your own EIN by filing Form SS-4 with the IRS or by going online to the IRS website at http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=102767,00.html to apply online.

1. You will get a Form 1099-K if you have gross receipts, without any deduction taken for credits, returns, chargebacks or fees, over $20,000 AND you have over 200 transactions in the year.

1. This requirement isn’t just for PayPal. It’s also applicable to any other third party collector such as merchant service providers and debit cards.

If you’ve been reporting your online sales as a business all along, you won’t have a lot of changes. Just make sure the Form 1099-K you receive is accurate and reflects what you’re reporting for your business. On the other hand, if you haven’t been reporting your sales, it’s time to step up and declare your activities as a business. You’ll end up paying less tax when you do!

Diane Kennedy, CPA is the best selling author of “Loopholes of the Rich”, “Real Estate Loopholes”, “Tax Loopholes for eBay Sellers” and 5 other books. You can find more tax saving ideas at www.USTaxAid.com.

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3. A Rare Opportunity For Personal Coaching with Me

I am very excited to put up for auction on eBay a one-on-one coaching and training opportunity that has actually been 6 years in the making and has never been done before….Until Now.

Before you look at my eBay listing to see what will be provided let me first tell you that I have been providing coaching and training successfully for almost 6 years so I am not new to coaching and how it should be done the right way with integrity.

You may have heard a lot about Internet coaching. If you have, it’s probably not good. Unfortunately there are a lot of “fast buck operators” selling coaching opportunities. Most of these are canned programs and the coaches are often generalists with no specific experience. And, most of them are outside contractors who work for any coaching company that will hire them. One day they are teaching eBay and the next day they are teaching real estate or stock picking --unfortunately they are rarely good at any of those things.

The reason I started doing coaching was NOT because I was looking for a way to make more easy money like a lot of the “Fast Buck Operators” out there that you see pushing a “coaching program” that in 99.9% of most cases falls short of expectations and results. I started doing coaching because I had so many requests and emails from my valued clients and subscribers asking ME to coach them. With my already busy schedule I did not see how I could possibly make the time that is required to really do it right myself. So about 6 years ago I started my own coaching program on a very small scale to keep the quality of the coaching & tools high end and have built it up to a top quality finely tuned coaching machine that is getting very solid results right now.

We are currently the only coaching company in the world (That we know of) that offers one-on-one coaching and training with real eBay Gold PowerSellers and even a Titanium PowerSeller that just last month did $132,000.00 in sales on eBay and is in the top 10 eBay sellers in the world.

My coaches are published authors and real business owners that I know for a fact are having real tangible success making money online outside of coaching my clients.

This is a pretty big package and includes coaching with me and with my PowerSeller coaches as well as some essential training materials and equipment you will need to be successful.

I am putting this up on eBay starting at 99-cents. The Winner will get the program at the final bid price. And I will make one second-chance offer to the second highest bidder. That’s it –only two people will get this program. So click here to see the listing on eBay and to bid on the auction.

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4. Vendor Review – Bongo International

Does International Shipping Makes Sense for eBay Sellers?

Selling internationally can often be more profitable than domestic sales. But you have to know what you are doing. Do it right and the perks outweigh the downfalls. Some of the benefits are:

• Expanding your client base,

• greater brand recognition,

• increased profits of 2-5%

You can realize these benefits simply by offering it as an option on eBay listings and stores. These are just a few of the reasons why international shipping is a recommended endeavor for any size ecommerce store.

The fact that it can be a complex undertaking is one of the main reasons that smaller-mid size companies shy away from the possibilities. Fraud, inflated shipping costs, extended shipping time frames, complicated paperwork, and stringent customs restrictions are just a few of the complexities that cripple the international order process for eBay sellers.

But you can get help by using a forwarding company such as Bongo International. Bongo International is the fastest growing international ecommerce solution designed to help US-based merchants expand their business to the global market. Their modular approach enables them to create a custom international solution for each US retailer. Services include fraud guarantees, logistics, compliance, product classification, and duty and tax calculation among many others. Bongo International solutions are used by more than 1,200 US retail websites.

Incorporating international shipping is a great way to expand your business, especially in a fledging economy. A solution that can provide peace of mind to any ecommerce site owner or eBay seller, is working with a company that provides international solutions.

When businesses utilize a forwarding company, they get the benefits of outsourcing the hardships of international shipping:

• Multi-lingual customer support for overseas buyers

• Complete execution of the process including receiving, inspecting, packing, and consolidating

• Customs paperwork

• Transit management

• Follow-up through delivery of the item(s).

Find out more at www.BongoUS.com/business.

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5. What I am Selling on eBay This Holiday Season

If you have bought my books, or you follow this newsletter, then you know I am a fan of niche marketing. One of the best places I recommend to find niche wholesale sources are wholesale trade shows and wholesale gift and merchandise markets that are located in most large cities.

A few weeks ago Karen and I visited the Pacific Market Center, a wholesale gift mart located in the industrial section of Seattle. We have been working on the niche of unusual or unique kitchen gadgets and products for the past year or so. So our goal was to find some new products that hopefully not everyone else had –or at least not too many sellers had. And I think we were successful.

Here are some of the things we found.  We usedYouTube videos that show the product working for most of the listings.

Champagne Opener	Flavor Shaker	Garlic Slice N Press
Bodum Universal Knife Block	Ultra Safe Mandoline	Spice & Oil Infuser Cruet
Bodum French Coffee Press	Jaacard Ceramic Knives w/ Lifetime Grarantee	Guy Fieri Knife Set

The new items on the first row are from a company in the UK and are designed by one of the UK’s most popular TV chefs, Jamie Oliver who is just now starting to be known in the US. We have been selling the two-piece set of Guy Fieri knives for a while at a nice profit, but he now came out with a 4-pc set that we hope to do well with.

Others may be selling these products at prices lower than I sell them for, yet we have no trouble selling at our price. So you shouldn’t be in a hurry to cut your prices if someone is trying to compete with you. First of all not everyone clicks around looking for the lowest price. A lot of people just don’t have the time and when they see an item they want they just buy it. And your image is important. We have good feedback, good photos and good descriptions. In the long run that matters a lot.

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6. New Wholesale Sources for eBay, Amazon & Online Sellers

I have arranged for my readers to get a free subscription to Web Wholesaler --the magazine for online sellers that teaches you about the wholesale industry and how it works, and connects you to wholesale sources who want to work with eBay and online sellers. Here is the link.

I have mentioned Trademark Commerce before, but I keep getting requests for reliable drop shippers and I often refer people to them. Unlike many of the large general dropshippers, Trademark Commerce actually has the actual products in stock in their warehouse. They offer a web site setup deal but I wouldn’t waste my time with that. But they are a good source for eBay or Amazon sellers.

Tech Liquidators is the liquidation arm of Best Buy and Deal Tree. You bid on items just like eBay. They sell some things in small quantities, but most are by the pallet or truckload.

Gl & W is a company that puts on wholesale trade shows for the gem and lapidary industry. You can register and then find a show coming near you.

Electronic cigarettes are hot products. Premium Electronic is a wholesaler of a very good line.

BirdDog Distributing is a wholesale distributor of decorative LED rope lights

All time Trading is a closeout distributor. Most of their items are cheap dollar store stuff that isn’t suitable for eBay. However you could make up small wholesale lots of the lower cost items and sell them that way. And if you look there are some higher priced items on the site as well.

The Closeout Store is another closeout dealer that is used to working with small buyers.

Master Cutlery is a large distributor of knives including high-quality chef’s knives. You will have to register first to get pricing.

Great Lakes Wholesale is a wholesale distributor of pet items, holiday and seasonal gifts and décor.

Empire Discount sells a wide range of toys. Their minimum order is only $100

That’s it for now. See you again in a couple of weeks.

Skip McGrath
The Online Seller's News

P.S. If you missed the last issue, click here to read it.

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