Making Money with Free Articles and Clickbank

The Online Seller's News, December, 2011, Volume 11, No. 24

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

In This Issue:

Musings from eBay, Amazon, and beyond

1. Making Money with Free Articles and Clickbank
2. Amazon $5-OFF Promotion Good for Us, But Angers Retailers
3. Niche of The Month Used Designer Clothing
4. New Wholesale Sources for eBay & Amazon Sellers

"Christmas is a necessity. There has to be at least one day of the year to remind us that we're here for something else beside ourselves." ~ Eric Sevareid

Musings from eBay, Amazon, and beyond

This is our only issue for December, so it's a bit long. You may wish to read it over a couple of sessions --coffee or eggnog, optional.

Let me take this time to wish all of my readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy Hanukah. You have no idea how important you are and how much Karen and I appreciate each and every one of you. I hope all of you find joy in the holiday season and get to spend quality time with close friends and family. May Peace be your gift at Christmas and your blessing all year through!

Worldwide Brands contacted me the other day about setting up the same discount for my readers as they did two years ago. If you use this link, you will get $50 off of the price. http://www.worldwidebrands.com/seasonsgreetings

They also offer a payment plan but please note that the $50 discount does not apply to the payment plan.

That link is right to the shopping cart. If you want to read about Worldwide Brands or see their video, click here first but don't forget to go back to the above link before you purchase if you want the discount.

I have been a member of Worldwide Brands for seven years and still use them all the time to source wholesale products. Yes it's a little expensive, but it's a one-time, lifetime membership fee. When you look at the cost over 5 or 10 years, it's very affordable and remember find just one source of profitable products and it will pay for the membership over and over.

Kindle Fire Update

Still not sure how this is going to work out as Amazon is still shipping the Kindle Fires, but everything points to them running out in a few days. Nevertheless they have started selling on eBay for small profits. Here are some recent sales:

There are tons of them listed on eBay at a wide range of prices. The sell-through rate is pretty low right now, but I suspect that will pick up as we near Christmas so those of us who bought Kindle's for resale should see some results soon but boy has this been a nail biter.

We all know that Christmas is the season when you buy this year's gifts with next year's money. The holiday selling season is now in full swing. By the time you read this there won't be that many shopping days left.

I was watching my sales on Black Friday and there wasn't much coming in and I thought, Wow, maybe it won't be a great holiday season after all! Then on Saturday my sales exploded. My Amazon sales are still running way ahead of eBay. The first two weeks of December we had 232 sales on Amazon and only 22 sales on eBay. We now have more merchandise on Amazon than we do on eBay so that accounts for some of it but even the identical items we have on both sites are selling more slowly on eBay than Amazon. It looks like Amazon is really cleaning eBay's clock this year. I had hoped that eBay's ad campaign would turn things around for them, but apparently not.

About 1/2 of the items we are selling on Amazon are things we bought from Costco, Toys-R-Us online (Clearance tab) and from Big Lots.

If you want to see how we are winning on Amazon, Jim Cockrum and I partnered up on The Proven Amazon Course and Jim recently lowered the price by $100. This course really works and it has generated more positive feedback than any product I have sold over the years. We call it the proven course because it has been proven to work.

Back in October, I introduced my readers to a new project from Janelle Elms called The Home Run Guide and a few hundred readers took advantage of it. The Home Run Guide is a compilation of dozens of highly profitable niche markets that work on eBay (and to some extent on Amazon also).

One of my regular features is called: Niche of the Month. So I contacted Janelle and asked if we could take a few niches from the book and run them as my Niche of The Month. Not only did Janelle agree, but she made a special offer to my readers. Janelle has reduced The Home Run Guide, price by $25. But you have to use this coupon code to get your $25 discount Skipsniche

eBay may be struggling with new merchandise sales, but the used goods niche markets on eBay are as strong as ever.

Our first Niche of the Month is from Kelli Shaw. Here is what Kelli says about herself:

Jim and I are the owners of Dream Adventures, an established online retailer specializing in authentic designer handbags, clothing and accessories. Dream Adventures provides fashion-minded women an online shopping adventure! We have been recognized by eBay as Power Sellers and as Top Rated Sellers, which means that we meet eBay's strict requirements of providing the best buying experience for our customers. You can join Dream Adventures on Facebook to learn more.

Kelli's niche is all about selling used designer clothing. The actual article is too long to fit in the newsletter, so I had to shorten it a bit, but you can read the full 7-page article in The Home Run Guide.

I just finished reading LIFE Guide to Digital Photography: Everything You Need to Shoot Like the Pros. This is a fabulous book for both the beginner and intermediate photographer and really great at helping you take great photos for your eBay, Amazon and website listings. It would also make a super Christmas present for anyone you know who owns a digital camera.

Lets get started with this month's articles:

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1. Making Money with Free Articles and Clickbank

Affiliate marketing is somewhat controversial. As I mentioned in my last issue, the best way to do affiliate marketing is if you have a list of subscribers or a blog or website with traffic and a following. But there are other ways. One person who has mastered this is Avril Harper. Avril is one of my British friends. But, although she works from the UK, she markets into the US and Canada and her system works very well. Avril has come out with a new book that describes her system, which uses article marketing to promote sales on the Clickbank Affiliate Marketplace.

I know most of you are aware of how affiliate marketing works, but I also get a lot of questions from readers who are new to it. So I asked Avril to write up an article that explains both the basics of how affiliate marketing works with Clickbank and how her system works. You can read about it at www.affiliatewizardry.com.

Affiliate Marketing by Avril Harper

Add a heaping helping of enthusiasm, plus ten dollars or so, and you have all the ingredients necessary for starting one of countless income streams of the kind we'll talk about today.

The ten dollars goes to buying a domain name, the enthusiasm goes into setting up your first income stream, the other things you need are:

• Other people's products.
• Other people's websites.
• Other people's marketing materials.

And you're ready to go!

This idea is based on affiliate marketing, where you're selling other people's products for a share of the proceeds on every sale.

Affiliate marketing is big business, really big business, and the only problem you're likely to have is deciding what to promote. That's because there are literally millions of very different goods and services for you to sell as an affiliate, from personal goods such as designer clothing and fast cars, to everyday basics like food and drink, music CDs and health products, vintage collectibles and eBooks.

It's eBooks we'll focus on now and, like affiliate products in general, you're never going to run out of quality products generating up to seventy-five per cent commission for you on every sale. So on something priced thirty dollars, you'll pocket a little under twenty dollars on every sale, the shortfall representing a tiny share going to the affiliate company managing the sale between product owner and affiliate.

But $30 for an eBook, that's small beer compared to eBooks and downloadable courses and membership sites priced in hundreds of dollars and generating double or triple figure commissions for you.

Where do you find these products? At ClickBank of course.

ClickBank offers thousands of different digital products for you to promote and usually marketing materials to simplify the task, leaving you with nothing to do but promote your chosen products.

How is it done?

Well typically the affiliate sets up a website where he'll write about the product or pay someone to write an article about the subject of the eBook he's promoting, and maybe he'll include images showing what the book looks like. Finally he'll hyperlink his ClickBank affiliate URL - called a 'Hoplink' - behind a short string of text saying something like 'Click Here for More Information'.

And that is it, easy-peasy!

But what if you can't write product reviews or articles, what if you don't have money to commission someone to write them for you, what if you can't create and upload a website, what if 'hyperlink' sounds like foreign language to you?

What do you do?

Well first of all you buy a domain name based on the title or subject of the eBook you're promoting, then you use a process called 'forwarding' to take people who key your domain name into their browser direct to the sales page for the product you're promoting, without you ever having to create or upload your own website. Forwarding takes about thirty seconds and creates an appearance far more professional than most websites created by newbies.

So two minutes to buy a domain name, one minute maximum to forward your affiliate link to the sales page for your chosen ClickBank product, now all you have to do is find buyers!

How?

You could pay for them, using Google AdWords for example, or by placing classified ads in offline newspapers and magazines, but that can be expensive, and there's no saying it will work.

Compare the cost and risk involved for most forms of marketing, to another that costs nothing and involves very little effort, as well as giving you free access to some of the world's most experienced marketers and copywriters.

Where will you find these professionals willing to work for you completely free of charge?

From the public domain of course, and in particular from articles that no longer have copyright protection! The public domain is a mammoth depository of high quality articles for you to copy and use to promote your chosen products at ClickBank, but with one proviso, being you have to make a few changes to those articles to allow them access to one of the most heavily visited websites from which the bulk of your buyers will come. That location is Ezine Articles, it's a directory where people like you and I can place our articles with a link back to our own promotions, in this case the domain name hosting our ClickBank URL.

Like most article directories, Ezine Articles does not accept public domain articles, or their private label rights equivalent, and that's why you have to rewrite articles taken from the public domain but just sufficiently to make them unrecognizable from their original form.

It's not difficult, it doesn't take long, and once done you upload your articles to an online directory, there are hundreds to choose from but Ezine Articles is most affiliates' first choice.

Then you wait for people to read your articles and click on the link to your domain name, and expect at least three or four out of every one hundred readers to purchase your recommended product and send money rolling into your bank account.

And that is it, job done, but if you want a more detailed guide to how to make money without your own products, without your own website, without creating your own marketing materials, then there's a book you might like to read. It's available, unsurprisingly from ClickBank, and it's called 'How to Use Modern Day, High Quality, Top Notch, Ready-Made Articles from The Public Domain to Promote ClickBank Products as an Affiliate' and you can read all about it at: www.affiliatewizardry.com

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2. Amazon $5-OFF Promotion Good for Us, But Angers Retailers

If you have the Amazon Price Check application on your smart phone or iPad, you may have noticed something if you used it recently. When you check a price, there is link that comes up that says Save 5% up to $5.00 if you buy this item now on Amazon.

The Price Check application for Mac iOS and Android lets mobile users scan barcodes and compare prices with Amazon's own, but with an offer to give discounts for items checked when bought through Amazon. The original promotion was limited to two days December 9^th and 10^th. It's not clear if Amazon plans to extend the promotion beyond that. Additionally the promotion only applies to the electronics, toys, music, sporting goods and DVD categories. Users are limited to $15 in savings. An added benefit to Amazon is that it gets pricing research in return.

Retailers are outraged at how the retail giant is undercutting them right during the holidays, when sales revenues can make or break business. Even the Congress has gotten involved. Senator Diane Feinstein wrote a letter to Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos, demanding they kill the app and threatening congressional action if he doesn't. So far Bezos is holding firm.

The Retail Industry Leaders Association issued a statement criticizing Amazon for cutthroat competition.

By continuing to evade collecting state sales taxes, Amazon's exploitation of a pre-Internet tax loophole is resulting in a 6-10 percent perceived price advantage over their competitors on Main Street Amazon's aggressive promotion of its Price Check App shows the lengths they are willing to go to exploit this tax loophole, and is a stark reminder of why Congress needs to act to protect retailers on Main Street.

Retail organizations say that essentially Amazon is using their stores as free showroom space. Brick and mortar stores still have the advantage of offering items in an instant. But with shipping costs and delivery times shrinking, and services such as Amazon Prime (free 2-day shipping), big online retailers like Amazon have the advantage.

Of course while these retailers grouse, they forget to mention that most of them also sell online. Even small retailers sell online many of them use eBay and Amazon to supplement their in-store sales

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3. Niche of The Month Used Designer Clothing

BUYING USED CLOTHING FROM GARAGE SALES AND THRIFT STORES CAN BE A profitable niche to sell in on eBay or other online venues. The key to making a profit on the items you buy is making sure you know what to look for amidst the tens of thousands of articles of clothing that are presented in front of you.

How do we decide what to buy? I hope this article explains our thought process and helps you with your buying decisions.

Brands

For an item of used clothing to resell and turn a profit, one of the most important qualities is the brand name. The brand name is what will draw people into your online listing; it is what people will search for. For example, not too many people search blue shirt on eBay; but many people will search Eileen Fisher shirt. The brand drives the people to your listings and because of that it is advised you navigate towards high-end designer brand names. Think of the high-end stores at the mall and the brands you see there. How expensive the item was originally is a big factor in the final price you can realize on eBay. If you are not a fashionista and not familiar with the high-end designer brands, we suggest you visit the stores with a notepad and jot down the high-end labels. Or, go to their websites and make a note of the brands. Use this list as a reference when you are shopping garage sales and thrift stores so you know what to buy.

Do not waste your time and money on buying cheap name brand clothing, just because you think something is pretty or cute. Off brands or low-end brands do not resell well. If you can find the piece of clothing at Wal-Mart, Target, K-Mart or the like, it's better to skip it and move on. It takes the same amount of effort to list a Ralph Lauren sweater as it does one from Target, and the Ralph Lauren will sell and will most likely make you money.

Exceptions include themed items like holiday sweaters, cat themed items and the like but I would still recommend you stay away from items you can pick up at discount stores.

Also watch out for boutique brand names. These clothing brands are a bit harder to learn as they tend to pop up within a specialized market of shoppers and are not as widely publicized as the designer labels inside of a department store. As you sell more designer clothing and research the clothing niche you will learn the brand names that are valuable. Keep adding names to the list we mentioned above so you can quickly pull it out and identify if something is hot or not. Search the completed listings on eBay and watch for the brand names that sell well. Changing the search results to sort by, price, highest first is a quick way to see what has brought in the best resale prices.

One example of a profitable boutique name brand is the women's clothing brand Blue Fish.

Their clothing is sold online and has a very unique look. Most people, unless you know the brand, don't realize its resale value. We were fortunate enough to stop at a garage sale where the owner had over ten pieces of Blue Fish clothing for sale. It was late in the day, but the items were still there because people didn't realize how valuable they were. Since the sale had just a few hours left the owner was willing to bargain on the prices and we scored the entire lot for about $40. Each piece sold for between $25 to $125, so it was a worthwhile garage sale stop.

Condition

Condition is very important when you are buying clothing to resell. Potential customers will want to know how the item was previously cared for and how it looks. You will have customers questioning the condition of the garment so it is best to know what to watch for before you decide to buy an item.

Check for stains and spots. Items should be clean and spot free for the highest resale profit. Check the garment under good lighting (which may require you to take it outside the garage at a garage sale) for marks. If an item is machine washable and it has a spot that you think you may be able to get out, it may be worth it to purchase the item. I always think about the brand name and how much I may be able to get for the item and then take into consideration the hassle factor of having to wash the item at home.

Is the fabric pilled? Look under the arms, at the bottom of the sleeves, on the front chest and at the waist for signs of pilling. Some pilling can be removed from knits with a shaver, but not always. Unless it is a very good brand name, I do not purchase items that are pilled.

Are all the buttons or snaps present? If a button is missing, look inside the side seam to see if the manufacturer included a spare button. If they did and you can sew on the new button, buy the item. If not, pass it by unless it is a very good brand name, in which case you could buy all new buttons at a fabric supply store and replace all the buttons. Snaps are difficult to repair and replace; generally, skip items with broken snaps.

If the item has elastic at the waist make sure it is in good condition. Look at the collar and underarm area for staining. Often times, stains in these areas are impossible to remove, so I would not buy an item with this type of staining.

Make sure the zipper, if there is one, works freely.

Check the hemline on slacks, skirts and dresses to make sure it is not coming away. Repairing a hem isn't difficult if you can sew, but if you cannot then you should not buy the item if it has a hem issue.

Type of Clothing to Buy

When you are looking at an item of clothing and thinking about whether you should buy it or not, you'll want to keep in mind is how easy it will be for people to shop for online. The simpler it is for the customer to envision if the garment will fit, the better your chance of making the sale. For instance, a T- shirt in your size will most likely fit you but a pair of jeans in your usual size may or may not fit. This is especially true for women's clothing. If an item is tricky to shop for in a department store, it is trickier to shop for online and thus your pool of potential shoppers is smaller for some items than others.

Here are tips for the types of clothing to buy, starting with my favorite on down.

• Shirts are easy to measure, easy to photograph and easy to resell. Most people are comfortable enough with their personal size to feel confident that a medium (for example) will fit.
• Sweaters are much like shirts in as far as they tend to fit people as sized.
• Women's blazers and jackets are easy to measure and photograph and people that tend to be partial to certain brand names know if blazers and jackets by that brand will fit. Take for instance Talbots clothing. Many women buy Talbots clothing because their items tend to have a universal fit. A size 10 will typically fit like a size 10 across the board be it a shirt, sweater, blazer or dress.
• Skirts are plentiful, and those with elastic waists especially are forgiving so that women feel confident that they will fit if they buy them online.
• Pants and jeans are my least favorite item to buy for resale because the fit is so complex. You will need to specify the style of the pant (relaxed, pleated, etc.), the cut (boot cut, skinny, etc.), the rise (low rise, mid-rise, classic rise, etc.), the pant leg style (straight leg, flare, tapered, etc.), the wash, the waistband (elastic, button fly, zip fly, etc.) and more. Unless it is a high-end designer brand, I would suggest you stay away from pants and jeans to resell. If you choose to sell pants and jeans, be prepared to provide many details to your potential customers.

Designer Clothing You Should Always Buy

Here is a list of brand names and items that I would suggest you look for:

My Home Run

A recent score from a thrift store is a dress by Diane von Furstenberg. We paid $1 for the dress at a thrift store during their five items for $5 once-a-month special. The dress sold for $150. I bought it because of the brand name, and it was in great shape. It looked like the kind of dress you splurge on for a special occasion and wear one time.

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4. New Wholesale Sources for eBay & Amazon Sellers

Well the holiday selling season is almost over, so now is the time to look for merchandise to sell throughout the year. Keep your eyes open for things that might sell for Valentine's Day and Mother's Day the next two big selling seasons on the horizon. Also, watch the liquidators for lots of good merchandise that they get after the holidays. In January we are going to do a special article and wholesale sourcing issue of liquidators. In the meantime here are a few regular wholesale sources and a couple of liquidators to get you started.

The Pocket Smart String is a measuring calculator will amaze you with its innovative easy to use and accurate digital measuring tape string. I first told my readers about this product a couple of years ago. I bought a few and tried to sell them. They sold but slowly. However this product has finally caught on and now might be a good time to try them. When you get to the website, just email them for wholesale information.

Precision Products sells thousands of small tools and tool sets. They include specialized tools for jewelry makers, craft tools, medical tools and more. This is a great niche and lends itself to bundling to come up with products with little or no competition.

Sale Stores is a liquidator of appliances, Computer Hardware & Supplies, Consumer Electronics, Phones and Communications Equipment, Extended Warranties, Furniture, Luggage & Cases, Office Equipment & Supplies, Projectors & Cases, Security Systems, Tools, Watches, and much more.

Wholesale Case Lots is another liquidator of general merchandise that sells in case sized lots. Many large liquidators only sell by the pallet so Wholesale Case Lots is better for the small seller.

Gioielli of Italy offers fashion jewelry including but not limited to, Italian Charms and bracelets, Laser charms, custom laser charms and bracelet designs, sliding stainless steel charms for bracelets and anklets, stainless steel bracelets and necklaces like the Pandora bracelet all at wholesale prices. Of their hot new products from Italy this year are cell phone charms.

HannahD-Online is a family owned and operated wholesaler of a wide range of fashion handbags, jewelry, & accessories.

World Wise Imports is a distributor of classic games: Chess, Checkers, Backgammon, Go. Publisher of Curses and How to Host a Murder. And they offer a drop shipping program.

Sports Brand Inc. Sells the original barbeque brand tailgate tool that lets you sear your team loyalty into almost anything you cook or grill.

Unilution Inc. is a direct importer and wholesaler for electronic gadgets including: digital cameras, electronic Sudoku games, Bluetooth headsets, sexy lingerie and more. We provide unbeatable prices and quality.

Dead Sea Spa Care sells a line of spa and cosmetic products made from water from the Dead Sea. Compared to the 3% salt content of ordinary seawater, researchers claim that the Dead Sea water contains 32% salts with relatively high concentration of 21 minerals such as magnesium, calcium, bromide and potassium. Europeans travel to the Dead Sea in large numbers to bathe in the local spas and to buy these products.

Aira Cosmetics sells a broad line of cosmetic and spa products. Some of it is pretty avant-garde, but they have some pretty normal stuff as well.

Annie Beauty sells a nice line of beautician's supplies hair products and small hair appliances.

Well that is it for 2011. I'll see you next in January 2012. Once again I hope all of my readers have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. See you in January!

Skip McGrath
The Online Seller's News

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

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