Ninety Nine Ways » Market Place

Etsy – The Place To Sell Handmade Crafts

Gerri — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 22:00:17 +0000

Some of you may be good with your hands or are bond to know people who are good at making all sorts of weird and wonderful arts and crafts. Some of you may want to sell your items but hit a snag when it comes to where to sell. Etsy is an online handmade goods marketplace that connects makers and buyers and way of turning a hobby into revenue earner.

Etsy lets you sell handmade items that you have made yourself, vintage items (by that they mean 20 years or older) and crafting supplies. The process of selling items works just like any other good online marketplace where you list your items, wait for people to buy them, get paid and then ship the items off to the buyers.

They charge a 20c listing fee per item but that allows you to list your item for four months which should give plenty of time to attract a number of potential buyers. Sellers have the option of being paid for their items via Paypal, cheque, money order or any other method not listed on the site that they would prefer. Once a sale has been completed, Etsy charges a fee of 3.5% of the sale price.

All in all, it looks like a good place where people can sell their handmade things to a global community. There is no harm in giving them a try and if that fails, you could always try the likes of (if you haven’t already done so) and other marketplaces I will write about in future posts.

Earn Money Selling Your Lecture Notes & Study Guides

Gerri — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 18:56:03 +0000

Being a university student all over again, I felt the need to look around for something that could work for college/university students. That being said, I happened to come across a couple of services where students can sell their lecture notes and study guides.

Notehall.com and ShareNotes.com are two such services that operate in pretty much the same way. They provide a platform where students can get their hands on course material for a nominal fee. To be able to provide this service, they need to get their hands on relevant material that they get from students and pay them for it.

Notehall.com pays out $1 per study guide and $0.25 per lecture note downloaded. They also have a referral programme where you can earn money by referring friends to them. Students earning money with them are paid out via cheque or PayPal.

ShareNotes.com charges a 10% commission on every sale which means you get to keep 90%. To add to what they pay for notes, they give members rewards points for completing certain tasks such as downloading notes, posting notes and referring friends. Rewards points can be redeemed for items such as iPods and gift vouchers.

If you are a good student that takes good notes then you really don’t have anything to lose. If you have sellable material you don’t have to do much work apart from signing up and uploading your material.

Not every single college will be listed in their databases and one service may work better than the other for person to person. As time goes by they will add more and more schools but at the moment a number of people will be able to enjoy their services. The only thing that sucks for someone like me is that they are limited to the US. Maybe one day they will make their way to this part of the world?

Using Your Frequent Flyer Points/Miles to Save Money

Gerri — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 11:55:43 +0000

A few years ago I used to travel to North America or Europe and on the odd occasion home (Zimbabwe) at least once or twice a year. Living in New Zealand, that meant spending a lot of time on planes and covering huge distances. It only made sense for me to sign up to a frequent flyer program and with the destinations that I travelled to the most, the Qantas Frequent Flyer programme was the best programme for me to join.

Over the years I accumulated a lot of frequent flyer points which I eventually redeemed and got a few reward flights for my wife and I. I still had quite a few points left over after that my wife and I used them to get a few things for our baby girl. By converting our frequent flyer points to gift cards from various stores, we were able to get a few things for our daughter without having to shell out the hundreds of dollars that we would have otherwise had to pay.

What I am getting at with all of this is that it may be a good idea to consider using your frequent flyer points to save yourself a bit of money. You may have frequent flyer points sitting in an account somewhere and some which may even have an expiry date. If you are not going to redeem them for award flights you may be able to use them to get gift cards or make purchases with the points directly from the particular frequent flyer store (if they have one). If the particular program you are part of does not have such programmes available for you to take advantage of, Points.com may just be your answer.

About Points.com

It is a site that brings a certain flexibility to points from various programs and gives it users a range of options for what to do with their points.

They allows users to:
- Trade points and miles with other people on GPX (Global Points Exchange)
- Exchange points and miles between your programs
- Buy points or miles so that you reach the required level to get the flight or reward you want
- Share points between the same programs with family or friends
- Redeem your points for gift cards from more than 200 retailers and restaurants

It’s free to join and really doesn’t hurt to give them a go. You would be surprised just how much you may get out of becoming a member.

Save With Microsoft Live Search Cashback

Gerri — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 06:59:00 +0000

A fair number of us make a lot our purchases online not only because it is convenient but because of all the deals that you can get your hands on online. If you delve deeper into getting the best deal possible you will find that you can in fact get more of a deal on what you already thought was a good deal. Microsoft Live Search Cashback is one of those places where you can make the most of online savings.

Microsoft Live Search cashback saves you money by giving you cashback savings based on a percentage of the product price for items that you find via Live Search. Cashback deals have a coin icon next to them. If you are looking for deals on specific items, you can search them out at the Live Search cashback site.

After you have found and made a qualifying purchase, the cashback percentage saving of the purchase price is credited to your cashback account. These deposits are listed as pending for up to 60 days after which you can get your cold hard cash. A number of eBay items are included in the cashback scheme and you could get up to 25% off purchases which will save you even more on something you may already be getting at a bargain price (some eBay purchases, if paid for via PayPal are eligible for and immediate reward that is deposited straight back into your PayPal account).

Funds in your cashback account can be withdrawn once the available balance is over $5. You can choose to be paid out via PayPal, direct debit or cheque. Savings are however limited to $2,500 every calendar year but even if you do reach that limit, that is an extra $2,500 in your pocket. The service is free to use and is only available to US residents.

Yes, this may be a ploy to get more people to use Live Search instead of other search engines such as Google, Yahoo but hey if you can save up to $2,500 per year by using Live now and then, what do you have to lose?

Make Money as a Skype Prime Advisor

Gerri — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 12:18:00 +0000

Skype has an advice and services directory where users can get advice by voice or video over Skype Prime. It gives those who have a bit of expertise in areas such as Relationship advice and Counseling, Computer and Internet, Business and Personal finance and other areas a way of making some extra money by helping people out.

How it works is that people call you for advice on whatever it is they may need help in and you charge them for your services per minute or per call. According to the Service Provider Agreement, call charge limits must be set as follows:

“The permitted limits for the fee shall be between 0.1 EUR or 0.15 USD and 2 EUR or 2.5 USD (excl. 15% VAT) per minute and between 0.1 EUR or 0.15 USD and 10 EUR or 12 USD (excl. 15% VAT) per call”

Getting setup is simple and straight forward. First and foremost, to become an adviser you have to be over 18 and be qualified in the service you intend on providing. If you do qualify as an adviser it is a matter of following these few steps to get setup:

Download Skype
Set up a PayPal account (to get paid)
Open Skype, go to Account > Earn money with Skype Prime and follow the instructions
Name your service and how much you wish to charge
Create a directory listing

Once you are set up and good to go you don’t just start making money for the first minute of the first call. You will have to prove yourself as an adviser because calls start off free and charging doesn’t start until the caller has given the okay to start charging. Skype takes 30% of your earnings as commission and the rest is yours less any refunds, charge backs or taxes that may apply. Earnings are paid into your PayPal account about 120 days after the call. This I see as one drawback with the service because it is a bit of a while to wait. Skype puts it down to that being how long it takes them to make sure there is no fraudulent activity. I hope this wait period reduces over time. None-the-less, it is another way through which some of you can make a bit of extra money by doing something you are good at and may already do on a daily basis without being paid for it.

Webmaster-Talk and EarnersForum Merger and $25,000

Gerri — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 15:53:00 +0000

Forums are good place to meet people who have similar interests to you. They are also a place where you can learn a thing or two about an area of interest or where you can make a contribution and establish yourself as an expert in the area. EarnersForum.com recently merged into Webmaster-Talk.com to create a forum where members have discussions on a number of webmaster and site monetization related topics. Besides the discussion threads there are other sections within the site. My favourite ones are the marketplace and articles sections. The Marketplace is a place where you can buy or sell domain names, websites, advertising space, templates and the list goes on. So this opens up another avenue through which you can make some money. The articles section has a few good reads on a number of topics which include affiliate marketing, web design, content creation and monetization.

Besides being a place where you could get a few tips on webmaster and monetization related topics Webmaster-Talk is a place where you can network with like minded individuals. An added advantage with forums (if you play your cards right) is that they could drive a good amount of traffic to your site(s) which is something that all site owners want.

To celebrate the merger, they are holding a contest with the following up for grabs:

1. A beautiful new Macbook Air laptop from Clickbooth – Make Money! valued at $1,800.00!

2. A Professional version Shopping Cart solution from Interspire valued at $995.00!

3. $500 cash in a Max Bounty affiliate network account awaits you!

4. Another $500 in the form of a Text Link Ads gift certificate should help with your marketing efforts!

5. How about another Apple product, the iPod Touch from Rocket Profit….wow!

6. Another $250 cash in a Pepperjam Network account will make you smile! Register Here for Pepperjam Network.

7. Sure would be nice to have some custom T-shirts printed for your headline website, right? Well, Ndesigns is going to do that for you! This is 24 Custom Printed Shirts (color T’s, 3-4 color printing, one-sided).

8. The hottest new camera for blogging, The Flip, is provided by AdValiant!

9. Speaking of blogs, the MOST AMAZING paid theme ever is now yours from Revolution Theme and it isn’t just one, but the complete multi-pack!

10. To help you relax that hard working brain of yours, we close the package out with a Nintendo DS Lite from RevResponse!

11. 3 Free months of Aaron Wall’s SEO Training can only be good for business!

The contest runs until midnight May 13th and then 5 winners will receive a prize pack comprising of all of the above items. So head on over to Webmaster-Talk for a few tips and tricks to make your online journey more pleasurable.

Create your profile. Explore ZaaBiz’ network. Gain new business contacts. Generate more business in Australia and New Zealand.

Buy and Sell on Facebook with RadicalBuy

Gerri — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 23:54:00 +0000

RadicalBuy opens up another avenue through which you can sell items on Facebook. Their widget allows you to list items for sale on your profile with the option of pushing your listings to Facebook’s marketplace for free which gives it exposure to the millions of Facebook’s users. A nice feature with their service is that even if you don’t have anything to sell, RadicalBuy allows users to sell items for others and get paid at a commission rate set by the original seller.

Putting up listings is pretty simple and only takes a few minutes. You just need to put in the basic information that you put in when selling anything and you can upload up to six photos per item. As you would expect, there are fees associated with using their service and in this case they are final value fees. The final value fee is based on a tiered structure which is as follows:
0-25.00 = 5%.
25.00 – 1000.00 = 5% for the first $25 + 3% of remaining value balance.
1000.00 + = 5% for the first $25 + 3% for the 25-1000.00 plus 1.5% of remaining value.

Checkout is handled between the buyer and the seller and payment methods are dependent upon what payment type the seller accepts. Sellers can choose from various payment options which include PayPal, Google Checkout, cash or credit card. I see PayPal as being an easy option. Since you are carrying out the transaction via Facebook you could add PayPal’s Request Money Application to streamline the process of sending and receiving payments.

At present you can also add the widget to your MySpace page or your website and in the near future you will be able to put it on just about any site. If you are on Facebook and have a few items to sell it wouldn’t hurt to try it out. Even if you don’t have anything to sell, you could just act as an affiliate and sell other peoples items for a commission.

Here is a video that shows how it all works:

Get More Out of Your Online Auctions

Gerri — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 23:57:00 +0000

If you are selling items in online auctions you are most probably looking out for ways to maximize your sales. I have sold a number of items on eBay! and as I have gone along I have picked up and put in place some simple and effective methods that have lead to increases in the final sale price. The aim of the game is to attract buyers, increase sales and final sale prices. You may have the art of selling online (or think you have it) down pat but there is always a thing or two you can learn to make you even more successful. Here is a list of simple and effective steps you can put in place to help you get there:

1. Low Price, No Reserve Auctions – you will encourage bidding by setting a low starting bid with no reserve. Buyers are more likely to bid on an item that has bids on it already and you will maximize on your profits.

2. Reasonable Shipping Rates – having reasonable shipping and handling rates make your listings more attractive to buyers. If you can ship an item for free without eating into your profits, it will work even better for you.

3. Accept Online Payments – believe it or not, there are still some people selling online who do not accept online payments. Online payments make life easy for buyers and they are more likely to bid on items where online payments are accepted. This makes life easy for them and for you as you can be paid immediately. PayPal is one of the most widely used forms of payment and they offer both parties protection.

4. A Descriptive Title – the title is an essential part of the listing. It is one way in which your listing is found through searches. It should be concise and include good keywords. Make sure there are no spelling mistakes as it could result in your listing not having as much exposure as it could get.

5. Detailed Item Description – the description can make or break you. You should put in as much relevant information as you can and make sure it is well organized. The more information you provide, the more likely you are to get bids on your item.

Take a look at this post to see the effect of not paying attention to points 4 and 5: The POWER of eBay Misspelt Items

6. Photos – photos say it better than words. Photos in a listing are sure to increase the final sale price. You should take good clear photos and if practical, from a variety of angles.

7. Communication – everyone appreciates good communication. It starts with clearly stating you policies e.g. return policies and any terms and conditions. If you are asked a question by a potential bidder, respond to their queries promptly and if it is a question other people may asked, display the Q & A on the listing.

8. Offer Bundled Packages – combine your products with relevant accessories at a reduced price or as a freebie. Buyers are more likely to bid on your items if they are getting a bonus out of it.

9. Cater to Buyers Worldwide – some sellers only cater to people within their geographical region. If your listings are open to a worldwide audience you will potential have more bidders and a higher sale price.

Buy and Sell with Entrecard Credits

Gerri — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 12:30:00 +0000

Entrecard credits are fast becoming a virtual currency within the blogosphere. Focial is just one of the sites where credits are being auctioned off and now you can buy and sell with your credits and it’s all legal. Chris at Focial got in touch with Entrecard who have allowed him to use this new payment gateway on the auction site.

Entrecard is a good way of getting traffic to your site and a number of people already have the widget up on their blog and it has been working well for them. Credits can be obtained in a number of ways and some people have a stack of credits that they don’t know what to do with which they could use a virtual currency.

Some people have even gone as far as to sell credits. A question I have is how much credits are worth in real dollars? I bid a bit of research and found that at the end of last year, sitecash put up an auction on eBay! for 50 credits which ended with a winning bid of $1.25. Could this be indicative of how much they are worth in real dollars?

Amazon Associates Program

Gerri — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 14:30:00 +0000

The Associates Program allows you place links for Amazon products on your site. As an associate you can earn up to 10% of the revenue generated from your referrals. The percentage you earn is dependant on whether or not you are on the Performance Fee Structure or the Classic Fee Structure with the Performance Fee Structure with a referral rate of 4% to 10%.

Right from sign up whilst your application is pending approval you are given the option to start using Product Links, aStore and Omakase Links. Product Links allow you to link to Amazon products. The aStore option gives you the ability to create an online store to be embedded within or linked to your site. Omakase Links show items that your visitors are likely to buy based on Amazon’s understanding of your site, the user, and the page itself. Once your application has been approved you will have full access to the Associates program.

There have been some recent developments to their program which include Amazon MP3 and Context Links. Amazon MP3 offers the largest selection of DRM free MP3 downloads which means they can be played on any device. This is something that is sure to go down well with a lot of consumers. I see them giving iTunes a run for their money. Most of the songs are priced from 89 cents to 99 cents. Up until 31 December 2007 Associates are eligible to earn 20% on all MP3 referrals. From 1 January 2008 the referral fees will be 10%. (Note: Amazon MP3 is currently only available to US customers)
Context Links Beta identifies and automatically links relevant phrases within your content to Amazon products.

Payments are sent out monthly with Amazon offering three payment options:
1. Amazon.com gift certificate/card ($10.00 minimum earnings)
2. Direct deposit ($10.00 minimum earnings)
3. Cheque ($100.00 minimum earnings. Note a $15 processing fee will be applied to all Associates with US addresses when choosing this option.)

A number of sites out there are already displaying Associate links. If you have not yet signed up it might be worth a try.