Even though my family are extremely supportive, they are not as motivated about my business as I am which is understandable. Of course they want me to be and depend on me to some extent be successful. And it took me years of basically saying’ you watch I know what to do now to make money online’.

Then there was another learning curve and yet another and another..

And you know what..

It never ends!

If you are inclined to learn and implement..

Learning is a never ending process. You can always learn and apply more. But there comes a time when you have to stop kidding yourself and actually implement what you have learned already and start enjoying the journey.

It’s a known fact that most people who buy books don’t read them all. People who like to read probably buy more books than they have time to read. And others may not always read a full book.

People who do read books and learn something new, probably never take action on what gained from the book. The knowledge is stored but never acted upon and most books are left to gather dust and usually forgotten about.

This is a generalization of course.

But the fact is that to enter ANY market you have to implement. You need to take action and you need to have something unique. Even if you take action and you don’t know if the action you are taking is the right one, taking some action is better than taking no action.

If you do actually take action and follow through you are probably 90% ahead of everyone else, because based on the 80/20 rule, most people simply don’t take action.

Compare this to learning to drive a car. You can read the books, watch videos and be an ‘armchair expert’, but you won’t actually learn to be an expert driver let alone a competent driver unless you actually get behind the wheel and do something.

So whether it’s selling on eBay, Amazon, through ecommerce channels or through other channels and in any market, you need to walk before you can run and actually do start doing something. I’m sure you’ll agree you can learn basics but you can’t become an expert or even proficient unless you start doing something and actually start ‘trying’ stuff.

Here’s something else I hear often..

“If every market is already too competitive then why even bother trying”.

Here’s why..

Take music for example..

I’m kind of eclectic so I tend to like all kinds of different music. But what if every musician out there said..

“I’m not going to write or release a new song because there are already too many musicians in the world and the market is already flooded with music”.

Of course that wouldn’t happen, because in reality there are so many different kinds of music styles and unlimited possibilities for new music to be created and people who like ‘creating’ and ‘adding value’ do it because it’s in their blood.

I have always said that the key to winning is having something different to offer. You don’t have to be radically different, you just need to be at the least fractionally different. Just different enough so that you, your music or your products are unique.

The same can be said for any market you enter on the internet. Be unique and make your products stand out – they only have to be slightly different to existing products to be unique enough to be winning products in their own right. This actually works better in competitive markets.

The good news is that it doesn’t take long to discover new ideas and strategies once you immerse yourself in a market.

What can you do to make your products that little bit different and what actions you will you commit to this week and actually complete..

It would be interesting to know!

The 1000 mile high view (ever felt negligible)

When the company you work for tells you – you need to focus – you need to shape up – you need to do more, if only the person telling you that knew the insignificance of what they are telling you in respect to the big picture…

Here’s the big picture..

I’ve always been fascinated with the stars. I can remember for my 5^th birthday  my older cousin handed me a gift I still cherish today (over 25yrs later). That gift was a book of the universe.

The book was an unusual oblong shaped hard-backed book with a glossy cover. As a five year old I had never seen such an orgy of colors enclosed within the high gloss pages. I didn’t understand the words in that book at 5 years old but there was something about those pictures in the book that got me looking at that book every day.

High gloss real life photos of the galaxies in our universe – it was like seeing multicolored candy-floss twisted together against the unknown blackness. It was fascinating.

I still have the book today. Only half of the book is words and the rest is high definition glossy images of the stars and galaxies. I didn’t read a single word in that book and it is the book I remember the most in my whole life.

If you are ever having a bad day, just remember the 1000 mile high view is a very different picture.

Watch this video I found on you tube…

Now you’ve watched this video, can you see how insignificant things can seem.

Instead of ‘having to be’ the stereotype family with spouse, two kids, house on mortgage, car, dog and career working for someone else. Why not work for yourself, start a business, work from home, spend time how YOU want to and do more of what YOU want to do.

If you know how to make money online and actually run an online business that creates income and wealth, you really are Special.

If you are selling or want to sell physical products online, the best place to start without doubt is to sell to an already established crowed of hungry buyers waiting for you at eBay.

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Get The Free Tutorial Videos.. “How To Find The Best Products To Sell On eBay & Buy Those Exact Products At Wholesale Prices To Make Huge Profits” + “How To Find Hot eBay Products Mini Course” By email >> Click For More Info <<

I want to ask you a question;  Do you use markdown manager in eBay stores to create promotional discounts and sell more items?

SALE! SALE! SALE!

Have you ever walked into a shop and seen something that you might be interested in buying thats on sale? Don’t kid yourself. Those words are not there because the vendor wants to do you a favour, they are there to make you think you are getting a bargain. I’m sure you will have seen this being used in the high street shops and in TV advertising. It’s a marketing tactic.. And it works!
Even if you are wise to this pricing trick (and most aren’t), the fact that the brain has already initiated a thought process about it, the potential buyer is still affected by the offer of a discount and the thought that they might be getting a real bargain. Ultimately it gives the vendor or seller the advantage to sell the product.

I did a test..

In one of my eBay accounts I used eBay’s markdown manager within eBay stores to create a 20% discount sale that lasted one week for selected products . The following week I created another sale with a 15% discount and another sale again the following week with a 10% discount.
Here are the results of how many sales were made on those discounted items and the overall profit made on the accumulated sales for each week..
(These items were priced between 10-20usd each and the market is competitive on price.  I also used 40% as an average to calculate the profit value)

Week 1 – 20% discount sale – Items sold 60 revenue  $827.30  Profit $330.92

Week 2 – 15% discount sale – Items sold 55 revenue $659.28   Profit $263.71

Week 3 – 10% discount sale – Items sold 30 revenue $540.63   Profit $216.25

Week 4 –         (No sale)          – Items sold 27 revenue  $512.29  Profit $204.91

As you can see, even though the items sold during the discount sales generated less revenue individually, overall many more sales were made during the discount sales. Now, this may work better in a highly competitive eBay category where many sellers are selling the exact same item and the difference in price attracts more buyers. If you are selleing products on eBay in a highly competitive market and can afford to reduce the price slightly for a short period of time, this marketing tactic is certainly worth trying.
Another benefit is higher search standing after the sale has ended. Because the eBay listing made more sales during the discount sale week, the sales history will be much higher for the following weeks best match search standing. Your listing will have been moved higher up the search results, even though the sale has ended and your listing has reverted back to a full price. To get you’re listing even higher up the eBay best match search rankings and without discounting your items (in fact you can charge even more) take a look at my eBay Best Match Boost Listing Strategy tutorials

Here’s how to create a mark down discount sale in 5 simple steps..

1. Goto Manage My Store in eBay and click the ‘Mark Down Manager’ link

2.In Mark Down Manager click ‘Create Sale’

3. Give the sale a title, chose the start and finish date and the type of sale you want to run, for example a 20% discount

4. Select the eBay listing you want to apply the sale to. At this point, you can also chose to email your ebay list subscribers to alert them to the sale. Then click ‘create your sale’.

5. And thats how to create your eBay sale with Mark Down Manager, easy!

This is how an eBay listing looks to the buyer. Notice the sale icon over the product photo showing the amount of discount and the original price has a strikethrough, with the new discounted price underneath.

Depending on the type of products you are selling, I would certainly experiment with this simple marketing strategy tool that has worked in all types of marketing for centuries, and it can work for your eBay listing too.

ebay markdown manager

What do you think?  Have you had similar experiences with Mark Down Manager?  Have you had the time to try?  Please let me know in your comments below, I’m really curious.

Get The Free Tutorial Videos.. “How To Find The Best Products To Sell On eBay & Buy Those Exact Products  At Wholesale Prices To Make Huge Profits” + “How To Find Hot eBay Products Mini Course” By email >> Click For More Info <<