The Frugal Money Saver

I Am Trying To Visualize Success

2006-11-20T16:09:00.000-08:00

Each passing day has me looking at how I am succeeding and what I am failing at. I am trying to visualize success and what it will mean for my wife and I.

I have modest goals to start with. I can earn $100 a day selling one Ebay. I want to earn $100 a day through internet marketing. My best month in internet marketing so far was $10 a day. If I duplicate previous efforts I and copy that procedure over and over DAILY, I should be able to slowly increase my income up to that $100.

Of course I would rather RAPIDLY increase my income through IM. That is possible. The magical part of internet marketing income is that it keeps on going. I mean efforts today do not only pay you today, but it is ongoing. Todays efforts can keep paying you day after day and month after month. Ads or offers you create this month may still be earning an income next year at this time and the year after that.

If I sell an item on Ebay today and get paid today, that is the end of the story. I do not get paid again tomorrow for the same item. I can list another item just like the one I sold, but I cannot sell any item over and over again.

With internet marketing your are effectively selling the exact same item over and over and over again. I really like that kind of sale. Not only are you selling the same thing over and over, but it is on autopilot. While your are vacationing in Hawaii or Australia, your income keeps coming in without you.

Trying To Start New Income Program

2006-11-06T18:14:00.000-08:00

Does life get in your way? It sure gets in my way. I am trying to start a new income program and have been since the middle of last month. STUFF just keeps happening.

Today my Paypal account cancelled online subscriptions for no reason. WELL, they had a reason and an explanation, but it made no sense.

I am trying to use 1and1.com as a website host. They are good for a very simple website, but leave a lot to be desired. My whole program was being set up with them as a host. I wasted all weekend trying to overcome their unique way of doing things. Tomorrow I will find a new hosting service and start again.

The challenges that are thrown my way seem to be never ending, but I will overcome them all. I am absolutely determined to have a decent income from internet marketing within the next four months. I have the plans. I have the desire. I just need to persevere and ride with all that is happening and just wait out the problems.

I CAN DO THIS!

My plan is to earn a living wage from the internet other than our Ebay sales. I know it can be done. I have confidence I can do it. The time has come to FIGHT for what I know is possible.

I Am Ready To Begin

2006-10-30T09:26:00.000-08:00

Are you tired of being the last one paid every month? Is your pay a lot less than your landlords or mortgage companies? I sure am fed up with it.

I am tired of everyone being paid each month except US!! I am ready to begin a serious program of making money on the internet. As you know, if you have been following our adventure, we have a 6000 square foot warehouse of obsolete computers and electronic test equipment. We make our full time living selling on Ebay.

On April 27 we had to move out of living in our warehouse into a “real” home. Someone turned us in to the city for living here at the office. That meant we had to earn an extra $800 a month for a cheap place to live. The median rent in our area is $1400+ a month.

With $2184 warehouse rent, plus $800 a month house rent, we have a tough nut to crack on a moderately OK business. Add utilities, groceries, gasoline, insurance and other incidentals, we pay everyone but ourselves. We are at the warehouse a minimum of 12 hours a day, usually 7 days a week and we are NOT REAPING THE BENEFITS!

Sharon and I have decided to dump the warehouse. Exactly how and when is not decided, but it needs to be before the end of 2007, but it needs to be sooner. That is a coming decision.

I am ready to take up a challenge to earn $XX,XXX.XX in the next four months online. I will use methods other than selling on Ebay. I will have to sell on Ebay to pay the bills, but I am determined to make enough money to have some left over each month.

The details of what I am planning will be coming out soon. I do not have them all figured out, but they will be here. HERE? OK, I will publish my plans and ideas either in this blog or I will create a new one that I will link to from here.

Saving Your Sanity

2006-10-23T18:23:00.000-07:00

Do things pile up for you and sometimes you are fighting to save your sanity. That has been my last two days. My email was down and I make my living online. My landlord wants to inspect our warehouse for insurance purposes. I am slightly behind on my Ebay sales. YIKES! We need to buy a $1 million insurance policy to comply with our lease agreement.

OK, the answer for us is to hustle some sales on Ebay. Spend some extra hours each day doing more listing and dropping some prices to make more sales before the end of the month.

So, in April we had to increase our income by $800 a month to pay the rent for the house we were forced to move into. I told you we were living in our warehouse and someone turned us in to the city and we had to quit living here.

Ebay allowed us to earn that extra $800. Things have been somewhat tight since then, but we have made it every month. Now our expenses are going up again. We have to get more creative and make an even larger amount.

Thank goodness for the internet. It offers a lot of different opportunities to make some extra cash.

Working At Ebay Dreaming Of.......

2006-10-09T14:09:00.000-07:00

We are doing pretty good with the military surplus we bought. We have now tripled our money and still going good with 90% of the inventory left to sell.

I am working at Ebay and dreaming of internet marketing. I have been getting back to my IM reading and get excited about it every sentence I read. The problem is I am so busy making a living I do not have time to make any money.

Last time I told you about the blog a guy wrote about making $15,000 in 30 days. Did you read it? That certainly is an intriguing concept. AND that is just one idea on making money on the internet. Suppose you did not make $15,000 in a month, but could make $3,000 instead or even $1,000. That sure would be a nice start toward building a business that could become a full time.

Making money is all about learning a trade. In the case of internet marketing, it is no different. The biggest difficulty I have found is applying what I have learned. I do a lot of things right, but do not do everything that is needed.

One thing is seems is important is creating a newsletter that you mail out at least once a week. The purpose is to have a LIST of people who learn to trust and respect you. When you offer a product they would be interested in there is a good chance they will buy through your links.

An even more important part of having a newsletter is the fact that most people who come to your site will never be back. They will forget to bookmark your site. They will bookmark it, but never look at their bookmarks. Getting a person to subscribe to you newsletter means that you will be reminding them that you exist on a regular basis.

This is my problem. I have never created a newsletter. I keep thinking that if I do not have enough to say in blogs, how will I have enough to say in newsletters. HEY! I have often found that when I DECIDE to do something, that I can actually do it.

I Love Ebay Sales...BUT

2006-10-02T14:51:00.000-07:00

Sharon and I had to increase our income by $800 a month when the city made us move out of our warehouse and rent a “real” place to live. Selling on Ebay solve the problem. I love Ebay sales, but we have to work too many hours to make a living. I have been reading the Ebay sales course I often talk about and it has helped get that extra $800. The problem it we are over working and under playing.

All work and no play makes Bob a dull boy.

It is time to get back to the course and do some more reading and take us up to the next level in our Ebay sales. We need to get ahead enough to relax more.

We just bought a bunch of military surplus from a “lost their home” sale. The guy bought tons of surplus and then had to give it all up to the new buyers of his home. So far we have made 2 1/2 times what we paid for the stuff. This is really helping, but it needs to be increased and changed.

Also I have just been reading a very interesting blog on an internet marketeer who tried to make $15,000 in thirty days and failed. He only made about $11,000. Check it out at $15,000 Challenge This really has me thinking about internet marketing again. If he could make $11,000 why couldn’t I make $1,000 in thirty days with a new project?

This guy is already an expert and knows all the right things to do, but what if someone were to copy the style of what he did. OK, you need to read his blog and go to the site he created and go to his MySpace.com postings.

The first thing you might comment on is that he created a site as if he were a SHE. (read the blog) Ghost writers take on all sorts of identities. Years ago my cousin wrote a romance novel. When it was published it was not under here name, but a name I had never heard before. The president does not write his own speeches. So, take that part of his creation and what his site is about before passing judgement.

judgment on that part of what he has done.

I found this blog a little late to follow it, but now that the challenge is over, it is easy to follow the whole process in minutes instead of a whole month.

Trying To Keep Up

2006-09-26T08:13:00.000-07:00

Yes, I forgot the blog yesterday. I am trying to keep up with all the work here and feel overwhelmed at times. We just bought a few cargo van loads of military surplus equipment. The two days I paid attention to how long it took to load and unload were 11 hours one day and 12 hours the next. There is so much to sort and then list on Ebay, I do not know where to start.

Because we have many items that are the same, selling them will be a lot easier. With duplicate items, you only have to write the description once. Then all you have to do is relist the item. This is one of the things that makes Ebay profitable. If you have a lot of auctions running an item you have more than one of.

Not only is selling easier, if you have more than one, Ebay has a “Second Chance Offer” for bidders who did not win the auction. The way it works is: Say you get 6 bidders on you auction that started at $9.99 and the winning bidder was at $42.00, that to bidder gets the item. However, you can offer any of the other bidders a “second chance” to have the same item at whatever their maximum bid was.

For example:
$42.00 Top Bidder This bidder pays you $42.00
$41.00 2nd You make a second chance offer and this bidder accepts and pays you $41.00
$38.00 3rd You make the same offer and this bidder declines the offer since they are not obligated to buy
$27.00 4th This bidder accepts your offer and you get another $27
$12.00 5th This bid is too low so you do not offer make a second chance offer
$9.99 6th This bid is also too low.

In this example of “Second Chance Offers” you made 3 sales in one auction. You only paid to list the item once, but got 3 sales. You do have to pay the final value fee for each sale, but not the listing fee.

Buy Low Sell High

2006-09-18T10:36:00.000-07:00

I am sure you have heard that to make money selling, “Buy low, sell high”. This is how you make money on Ebay. If you buy from a wholesaler and everyone else is buying from the same wholesaler, only the person with the highest dollar order will get the best price from that wholesaler.

What that means to you is that if four Ebay sellers find the same Widget at a wholesaler, the one who buys 100 pieces will get a better price than the person who buys only 10 pieces. Unless you have an exclusive contract on an item it is hard to be competitive and make much when others are trying to undercut your prices.

If a local store is going out of business and has that same widget, you will get a much better price than buying them wholesale. Over stock and distressed merchandise bought locally will usually give you a better price than any wholesaler can.

This past week I got a call from a person who bought a house to come see if any of the huge amount of stuff would be of interest to me. The previous owner used to go to military surplus sales and buy, buy, buy. The problem is he apparently was just a collector of junk and never sold anything. He just kept piling it higher and deeper.

I bought a moderate amount of NOS, “New Old Stock” New stuff that is 10 years old or more. One lot of stuff had 16 military test equipment cases. I bought them and some other things for only $200. So far a single case that I gutted to sell the parts has brought $189. There are still parts from that one case to sell and I have 15 more cases.

This is the type of deal where you make your best money. Buying things that someone needs to get out of their house, out of their business or out of storage.

If you watch you local paper and let people know you are interested in any excess or close out merchandise, you may find a gold mine of stuff you can sell on Ebay.

Internet Marketing Verses Ebay Sales

2006-09-11T13:27:00.000-07:00

There are a many decisions we all have to make. Right now Sharon and I are trying to decide what is best for us. It comes down to internet marketing verses Ebay sales.

Ebay sales are immediate. You either sell something or not within 3 to 7 days (1–10 but 1 & 10 are less often used). You have cash NOW. With most sales you are paid online within 24 hours of the end of an auction.

The problem with Ebay is you have to have an ongoing supply of things to sell. You have to keep buying more inventory to keep up with your sales. This can easily be accomplished by buying at auctions, close out sales, distressed inventory, excess store inventory and many other sources. However, it is an ongoing thing that you must stay on top of every week.

Internet marketing on the other hand is slower to get started. Slower to have a living wage with and slower to build your reputation. It is almost impossible for most people to create a website today and have $100 or more cash in the bank in 3 to 7 days.

HOWEVER, once you start generating income online using internet marketing, you can put it on autopilot and resell the same digital product over and over without the need to keep buying inventory. There are a lot of ways to have an online income with IM and once created, it self perpetuates and the income keeps coming in month after month with only slight work on your part.

So, this is my delimma. I easily make my rent and pay the bills with Ebay, but as I look at next week and the week after that is becomes a vicious cycle. Sure we make a living selling on Ebay, but the little money we make with our internet marketing requires almost no effort. Our IM income stays between $125 and $300 a month without doing much.

The problem is I am slow to get that up to $500 or $1000 a month because all of my time is spent on Ebay make money today. IM makes money for tomorrow, but does not usually pay today’s bills. A few people can make a living with internet marketing in a month or two, but they seem to be the exception instead of the rule.

Learning To Blog

2006-09-04T12:14:00.000-07:00

Today is Labor Day and Sharon and I are still at home. This is the first time we have stayed home since we moved in at the end of April.

Today I am learning to blog. Yes, you heard me, “Learning to blog”. Yes, I write three blogs, but they are not what blogs should be. They are not targeted to a specific audience. They are more like “brain dumps” where I just talk about what I am interested in at the moment.

According to this book I am reading, this is not the way to write a blog. You need to have a targeted topic and you need to stick fairly close to the topic.

This blog is titled “Frugal Living” and as part of frugal living, I talk about making money to supplement the frugal lifestyle. Actually lately that is all I have talked about. Making money selling on Ebay and my desire to get farther into Internet Markenting.

Blogging is another form of IM (internet marketing). You can make an income with a blog. This is what I am reading about right now. So far the course is very good. I will give you more details once I have read through it completely.

I Would Have Begged

2006-08-28T10:14:00.000-07:00

Today I want to give you an insight into where you may be. This is where I am and I am seeing things differently from yesterday.

Yesterday, I was listening to a Tony Robbins motivational tape and I had to stop and listen to the section over and over. It just hit home about what we are doing and where we are going in our business.

Basically it said, “What is most important to me? Why do I want to do it, instead of why do I have to do it. I love what I am doing right now. There was a time in my life when I would have begged to have this opportunity. The thing I am calling stress; the thing I think is so urgent, I do not have to do it, I want to do it. You have gone from stress to fulfillment with one little adjustment of you attitude”

Years ago I worked for a company. I had a REAL J-O-B. I hated it. Every Monday I complained that the weekend was too short. Every Wednesday I was glad it was “HUMP DAY” and the week was half over over hump. Every Friday was TGIF or “Thank Goodness It’s Friday”. I never had enough vacation and the vacations I took were too short.

All during that time I wanted a business of my own. I wanted to break out of working for someone else. I wrote goals of being my own boss. I joined Amway in hopes of making it, but never did. I borrow money against my house to go into a therapy business and it failed. I borrowed more to buy and sell used test equipment and it never made a lot of money, but I still do it. All of this while I held down that full time J-O-B.

In 1995 I was down sized after 20 years with a company. I tried to get a job but but could only get entry level wages. The company I worked for was 10 years behind in its technology. I started selling my test equipment full time. It did not make a lot of money. In fact it made so little we lost our house, car and all of our credit.

In 1998 I discovered selling on Ebay. Ebay took us from dead broke to “affluent” in 2 months. Ebay took us from DEAD BROKE to paying cash for $1000 in dental work in less than two months. We got current on our “pink notice” utility bills. The public storage units we had were almost ready to be auctioned off for non-payment of the rent. We paid those off too.

Ebay brought us a lot of good in the mean time. We even moved from the hot inland rental place we had (the landlord doubled the rent) to the beach. This was all because of selling used test equipment and then used computer equipment on Ebay.

That brings us to today. We are sitting in a warehouse of “junk” that we are making enough to get by with, but not enough to be “affluent” again. The big problem is our attitude about all of our old inventory. We are stagnating.

Then along comes Tony Robbins saying, “There was a time in my life when I would have begged to have this opportunity”. WOW! Back when I had a J-O-B, I would have died to be in this warehouse with its junk inventory. I would have loved to be “stuck” with all this obsolete stuff that is really a gold mine and a stepping off point to much bigger and better things.

Make one little mental adjustment and your entire situation changes. Nothing really changes except your attitude. Success is not what you do, it is what you think about what you are doing. Could this week be the week we turn our business around again? Stay tuned!

New ideas and less pressure

2006-08-21T09:05:00.000-07:00

Writing the blog only once a week for a while is leading to new ideas and less pressure. I want this blog to have some meaning and substance and am thinking of ways to do that. A daily journal of my life and my efforts to make money is fine, but it needs to have more than that.

I think that backing off is clearing my mind and giving me some breathing space. The blog was not going anywhere in the past. I want it to be worth reading, so I will keep thinking of ways to give it a jump start with decent content on a regular basis. Until then the entries will be short.

This blog started out being about frugal living, but I wanted to change it to making money online so you do not have to live quite a frugally. I have lot of ideas, but just not how to implement them.

My success will depend on my attitude

If you surveyed 50 people asking each their definition of success, chances are you would receive fifty different answers. Even so, there are certain steps everyone must follow in order to be successful. One of the most important is - staying motivated.

Do you have a new job? Have you started your own business? Are you in the process of earning a degree? Do you have the desire to lose weight? If one of these scenarios are a recent event in your life, you are probably still excited about the opportunity. That also probably means you are motivated, as well. Excitement and motivation, often work hand in hand.

But, how do you stay motivated after several weeks or months have gone by? How do you maintain the same level of excitement that you had when you began your new adventure?

There are many things you can do to stay motivated. It is important to set aside a few minutes or more, each day, in an effort to keep your motivation level at its highest. There will be days that you may feel less motivated then usual. Let's face it; we all have a bad day now and then. So, by doing all that you can to maintain a positive attitude, your "down days" will probably be few and far between.

Read a book. There are hundreds of books that have been written on the topic of motivation. Visit your local bookstore or library and browse the shelves. Ask the clerk or librarian for author and title recommendations. Both will be happy to help you.

If you have a busy schedule, don't despair. Set aside 15 or 20 minutes each day. Even if you only read a few pages, during that time, it WILL help to keep you motivated. I do it and can attest to the fact that it really DOES work! Right now I am spending some time when we get home and when I get up reading internet marketing material.

If you are in the process of achieving a goal such as weight loss or top salesperson, make a "dream board". A dream board is a poster, of sorts. If a trimmer figure is your goal, cut out pictures of the new wardrobe you will someday buy.

If you dream of out-selling your peers, find pictures of your dream home or vacation destination... of the new car you would LOVE to drive. Make a collage with these pictures and hand it somewhere where you will see it each day.

There are many other things you can do to stay motivated. Believe in yourself. Stay healthy. Maintain a positive attitude.

You will be amazed at what you can achieve! This is the process Sharon and I are going through now.

Giving Up Blogging Daily

2006-08-16T09:54:00.000-07:00

I have not been giving much useful information in our blog lately. I keep talking about the same thing over and over again. Daily entries are getting too boring. I am giving up blogging daily. From now on I will put in a weekly blog entry on Monday.

When I am really into new ideas and can offer more than repeats of the same old thing, I will update more often.

On that note, I will say goodbye for this week.

Motivated To Move Forward

2006-08-15T13:42:00.000-07:00

Last night I was about to head for bed when I saw one of my internet marketing books on the table. I picked it up and read for the next hour. I am getting more motivated to move forward with IM. I have always believed in it, but find things that slow me down.

Lately I have been going home at 7:30 to 9:00 and watching some TV for an hour or two before going to bed. That is going to stop. I need to go home and read and study internet marketing.

Right now we are living month to month. What is more important, watching telvision or studying something that may increase our income? That is a no brainer.

Decisions to go with the flow are easy. A little TV after a long day of work is a reward for all that work. Take the easy way out and relax. When you are on top of the world financially, maybe that is not such a bad use of time. When you really need to increase your income to make you life better, it is time to evaluate what you can do to change.

For Sharon and I the answer is to sell on Ebay during the day and study internet marketing at night. Once I am back to understanding what I need to do, and it should not take more than a week more, I need to activate some IM plans.

IM plans? OK, that could be a simple as adding a few pages to my existing websites or even creating completely new sites. It could be using Adsense to generate income through ads. It can also be selling digital products from ebooks to computer programs.

Getting More Done

2006-08-14T11:19:00.000-07:00

I am not sure what the secret is to getting more done. We are at the warehouse 12 hours a day and do not seem to accomplish as much as should be done in that period of time. Two people is 24 man-hours … OK, person-hours … I am older and still not into all of this politically correctness yet. OR, can we still genericly call it “man-hours”?

Sharon and I are really in need of a total overhaul of our system. We need a more efficient use of our time. Maybe answering or even looking at email at certain times of the day. Nothing happens at 8 o’clock, then 9 o’clock then 10 o’clock and so on during the day that could not be taken care of with two or three email checks.

Streamlining the business would slowly make our 12 hour days 10 hour days. It would free up time from making money to learning how to make money. It could change our business from Ebay to internet marketing.

If I keep repeating the same thing, it is because we become what we focus on most of the time. It we focus on being organized we will have to become more organized. Actually that is happening slowly but surely. We have become somewhat more organized, but we have a long way to go.

Efficient use of time is one of the essentials of a successful business. Effective use of time goes hand and hand with efficiency. Effective use of time includes down time and days off to recharge your batteries.

Are you working toward a goal you would like to achieve this year? Are you looking at your time schedule and how you can cram all the things you need to do into the time available to you? Have you given up an hour or more of TV yet? Have you spent more time with your family? Think about you time use and how you can be effective and efficient.

Married 40 Years

2006-08-13T13:38:00.000-07:00

Sharon and I have now been married 40 years as of August 12th. That is why there was no blog entry yesterday. My love and I just did not work yesterday. We were here at the office long enough to feed our two cats and check email. Writing in the blog did not entry my head.

It is wonderful having someone you are committed to and in love with. My very best friend is also my lover and and my wife. It does not get any better than that.

OK, now my best friend and I have to get down to some serious business so that our next 40 years are more affluent than our last 40. We were walking in the park beside our harbor this morning. As we watched the sailboats and yachts we were say that we really need to revamp our business model.

Although what we are doing is paying the bills, it is not creating a comfortable lifestyle for us. We HAVE TO work every day. Yes, we want to work and have no desire to quit working, but we do not want to HAVE TO work. There is big difference.

The current income we are generating just meets our monthly needs with little left over. That means we HAVE TO work to stay even with the board. A slight glitch somewhere means we could be in trouble.

It is time we sit down together and come up with some new ways to make Ebay pay for us, pay better that is. We also need to get back to actively doing internet marketing. I have begun refreshing my memory on IM by reading some of the manuals I have purchased online.

Getting Back To Internet Marketing

2006-08-11T11:35:00.000-07:00

Sharon and I have decided it is time to get back to internet marketing. This warehouse is overwhelming with all of its old, obsolete inventory. IM offers a fresh way to generate income that does not require 6000 square feet of space.

Part of the process will be deciding where we would like to live. If you have a strong enough reason to do something, you are more motivated to do what is necessary to accomplish your goals.

We want to get rid of our inventory and move out of this warehouse. We would still have to store a lot of things. We have my parents estate and our belongings that are boxed and stored here. We will have to find a place to put all of that and then dispose of it also.

Getting rid of what you do not want to make room for what you do want is an important part of moving on. We have to continue selling our stuff on Ebay. It is how we are currently paying the bills. You do what you have to do, but you make plans to change as you go.

Hopefully this blog will change in the days ahead. It is possible I will move it to my own server instead of hosting it on blogger.com. They are in control if I have it there. If I am changing it to another location, I will let you know at least a week in advance so you can bookmark the new location.

To do the move maybe I will just leave this blog up here and continue it at the new place. That makes more sense.

Making Enough Is NOT Enough

2006-08-10T10:10:00.000-07:00

Are you just paying the bills every month? Do you live from paycheck to paycheck? Making enough is not enough. If all you are doing is making enough to get by, then you are in danger. The danger is financial ruin. One problem could sink your financial ship. A layoff or “down-sizing” as they call it now could mean you could lose your house, your car and your credit.

These are the things I think about in our position. If I were to get sick or incapacitated for a couple week or a month or more, we would be in deep trouble. Maybe you can relate to this too. I hope not.

Many opportunities are available to both you and me if we will only look for them, pursue them and actively and consistently work toward making an opportunity a reality.

Sharon and I are looking at more options right now. Internet marketing is one that is high on our priority list. Part of that is dumping this warehouse so we can concentrate on that. We cannot do this instantly. It will take a lot of thought and planning. It is one idea we have. It will take careful consideration and planning.

Our idea of dumping the warehouse and all of its contents is a radical move. Sometimes it takes drastic measure to effect change. We need to convince ourselves that this is a good idea. Then we need to make a plan to do it if it really makes sense.

Looking For Opportunities

2006-08-09T10:41:00.000-07:00

Do you often see an opportunity and NOT take advantage of it. Are there ideas in your head that you just know would pay off, but you do not seem to find the time or way to implement them. Sharon and I are alway looking for opportunities to improve our situation, but often we cannot see the forest for the trees and miss out on so much.

Opportunity is all around us. Selling on Ebay is an opportunity. Internet marketing is another opportunity. Both are easily available to most people. Even I am not taking full advantage of either chance to improve out position in life. There is so much I put aside until tomorrow.

Sometimes we are so busing making a living that we forget to make a life too. We are so busy trying to pay the bills we do not see the opportunity to make more than enough to pay the bills. Then when we do see the way, we turn and go the other direction.

Are you guilty of ignoring opportunity? I know I am. I am slow to get an activity going. I can easily be side tracked, but when I am finally force to make a decision, I can do it. I should not have to be force to make a living. I should look forward to it and go at it with gusto.

That is what writing this blog is all about for me. Putting on “paper” all of the things I see in my life that could help me, and maybe you, see some answers to the challenges we face each day.

Wasting Precious Time

2006-08-08T08:35:00.000-07:00

We already work a long day. We arrive at the warehouse between 7 and 7:30 a.m. We almost never leave before 8 p.m. and usually it is later. HOWEVER, lately I feel that we are wasting precious time after we leave here. I go home and sit in front of the TV for an hour to an hour and a half.

If you are not where you need to be financially, you need to take better care of your time. If you could learn a new trade in the time you waste on other things. If you could spend quality time with your family (TV is not quality time) it would be time well spent. The thing is, if you are just barely paying the bills, that’s us, you need to devote all of your time to fixing that problem.

Sharon and I are slipping when it comes to doing a full days work. We spend too much time during the day doing non-productive things. Checking the news online at CNN, playing a game of solitaire or Majong. All of this is robbing us of the income we need to be comfortably ahead.

Often we are just going around in circles doing busy work that helps organized part of the warehouse or gets some other “important” but not essential task done. Some time spent organizing and house keeping is necessary, but when we spend two days organizing and not selling, we do not make any money for that time.

It is time for us to re-evaluate out time management. It is time to use all of our time to the maximum so we can free time for more leisure in the future. Short term sacrifice often can lead to long term benefit.

Selling Small Items

2006-08-07T13:02:00.000-07:00

Our Ebay sales include large and heavy items as well as light weight small items. We sure prefer the smaller items. Often the little things sell for more than the big things and are easier to handle. We sure wish we had lots of little things instead of so many large items in our inventory.

Another thing about big items is that we have to buy boxes to pack them in. As a business we cannot just hope we can get free boxes somewhere. We have to purchase the correct sizes. Boxes take up space and money. We have a fair amount tied up in boxes. When we buy boxes the come in bundles of 10 to 25 boxes. Larger box sizes have fewer boxes in a bundle.

Small items usually ship in FREE U.S. Post Office Priority Mail boxes. Today Sharon called in an order of boxes to the Post Office. They will be delivered for free. The boxes and delivery are free for any quantity. She also picked up 10 boxes 24x24x16 inches at our box supplier. Those cost $29.70 for 10 boxes.

We pass on the cost of packing materials to our customers. They are added on to the cost of the auction, not included in the price of an item. We do not get complaints about the added cost of packing materials which we charge $2.00 up to $20.00. People accept the extra fee as part of the cost of getting their item to them safely.

So, we charge the price of the item, plus the cost of packing materials, plus the cost of shipping the item and we add sales tax for those who buy and live in California.

Taking Time Off

2006-08-06T10:33:00.000-07:00

Sharon and I work 7 days a week unless there is some event we are attending. Friday we went to the county fair, but we started the day at work. Yesterday we took off early to see a concert, SHeDAISY a female country group.

In addition to few days off we normally put in a 12 hour day at the warehouse. So, now you are wondering about us. It is not as bad as working a 40 hour week for a company. I am 100% happier working long hours for myself than I ever was working for a company. I never dread Mondays and I do not look forward to Friday.

We can take off a day or two if we want. This past month was more difficult to take time off, but we did get a little off.

Since we had to find a place to live the extra $800 a month rent cuts into our ability to take time off, but that is OK too. We are making it thanks to the internet. Ebay and internet marketing pay the bills. As you know it is mainly Ebay making the money at this time.

The work we are doing is paying off more and more. We are getting all of our priorities in place. We are becoming clearer on what we need to do each day and each week.

Right now I keep a running total on our bills and income in a Excel spreadsheet. I stay right on top of our finances on a regular basis. Toward the end of the month it is on a daily basis.

Often people get into financial trouble because they do not know where there money goes. A $3.75 latte everyday. is just over $86 a month based on 23 work days buying one. At the end of the month when you struggle over some of your bills, think about what daily habits you have that might be making you sweat the payments. $86 a month is surely enough to pay one of your bills.

Making Money At The Fair

2006-08-05T11:35:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went to the county fair. We were making money at the fair. Well, not actually at the fair, but while we were there, the money kept coming in. A few dollars from internet marketing and a day’s pay from our Ebay sales that go on whether we watch them or not.

I like work that pays even when you are not working. This is particularly true of IM money. It just goes on and on with no extra effort. Of course you do need to make some effort to increase it and period website maintenance to keep the income level up.

Ebay is a great way to make money but it required continuous and ongoing effort to keep new items listed, unsold items relisted and sold items shipped. You cannot go away for a three week vacation when you sell on Ebay unless you plan very carefully in advance. You have to quit selling before you leave. You have to be sure all auctions are paid before leave. You have to plan on at least 4 weeks of down time to get 3 weeks off. One week to get all you auctions closed. Then when you get back you still have another wait to get your auctions back up and running before any income can come in.

People on Ebay are not all that forgiving if do not ship their item very quickly. With mail order we are used to 3 or more weeks shipping time. On Ebay people expect to pay for their item and have it within a week. If it takes too long for them to get an item they may give you negative feedback which makes your Ebay reputation a little “dark”.

Taking The Day Off

2006-08-04T09:11:00.000-07:00

We are going to the county fair today, so we are taking the day off. Well, most of the day. We have started here at the office since the fair does not open until 11.

Our finances are running so close that we almost skipped the fair. We have a target amount we need to make each month and we were wondering whether we would hit that target. The answer to that delimma is to get ahead enough so it does not matter if we are a little behind one month. Having a reserve to fall back on gives you some breathing room.

If your bills are being paid “just on time” every month and you do not have a little set aside for those tight times, maybe it is time you thought about an at home business selling on Ebay or doing internet marketing. Remember, we make a full time living using only the computer. We do not advertise or sell out of our warehouse to locals. All of our income is generated selling on Ebay, which is our current main source of income. A small amount, $150 to $300, a month comes from internet marketing.

It is possible to make money online. You just have to jump in and try it. It is an inexpensive way to try to make some extra cash in your own business.

Making Room To Make Money

2006-08-03T16:53:00.000-07:00

One of the big problems we have is lack of space in this 6000 square foot warehouse. We are now making room to make money. We have to be able to move around if we plan to make more with less effort. For the last two days we have been making big changes in the main floor area.

Clutter is on of our biggest problems. We do not have shelving so our inventory is stacked. Because of this it gets disorganized easily. That has to change.

You need a work area to work. I do not care if you are balancing your check book or shipping Ebay sales items, you need a good place to work. We have been without that for a long time. That is about to change.

I think any change that is drastic will help our situation. A major change may be what you need too. Think about it. What can you do to bring about a really positive change. Maybe you are like us and have a cluttered spare room or garage. Just by freeing up that space you may free up you life and be able to see things you did not see in the past. I do not mean physical things, I mean opportunities and possibilities.

A Day Of Listing

2006-08-02T10:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a full day of listing auctions on Ebay. We did a lot of work, but at this moment none of those auctions have bids. That is discouraging. Many people wait until the last seconds to bid on auctions so they aren’t raising the price as they keep bidding. We can still sell the items at the last minute, but it always makes you wonder.

Some people place a bid right away and usually if we have something that is very desirable someone will place a bid in the first 24 hours. People have different bidding strategies on Ebay.

Last second bidding is called “Sniping”. You snipe a bid by waiting until the last possible second to place the highest amount you are willing to bid on an auction. People with high speed connections often have win a bid by placing their bid in the last 5 seconds of an auction. They never bid until the very last. Other bidders are often surprised when they do not win the auction because someone sniped the auction in the last seconds.

Another strategy is to place a minimum bid in the very beginning of an auction. If no one else bids, you win. If the item regularly shows up on Ebay, you do not care if you win or lose. You are counting on winning a few auctions at a very good price.

Some bid early and then do not bid again until the very end. The are a bidder, but ignore further bidding until they snipe the auction in the last seconds.

The advantage of sniping is that you are not bidding against yourself. If someone else really wants what is offered and the two of you get into a bidding war, you can really raise the price fast. If you wait until the last seconds and place a bid that is a high as you are willing to go on the item, you have a good chance of winning.

Sniping requires you to bid reasonably on an item. If an item regularly sells for $30 and is currently at $15 and you snipe at the last minute for $18, you probably will not get it. Someone else will snipe it for $28 or an amount close to what the item normally sells for.

Today Is 50% Off Ebay Listing Day

2006-08-01T16:53:00.000-07:00

Sharon and I are quite busy today as today is 50% off Ebay listing day. With a 50% discount we are trying to get as much listed a possible. That is why we are late.

This will just be a short note since we still have quite a bit of time left to work and save money.

We are just at the edge of being even with the board this month. One day I see us paying all the bills with money to spare and the next I wonder if we will make it. This is a real roller coaster ride.

I know a lot of people go through this financial maze every month. This is why I am determined to make a better online living and as quickly as I can.

Fast Days And Slow Days

2006-07-31T11:59:00.000-07:00

Our Ebay sales listings depend on what we are selling. We have fast days and slow days of listing. The easy money on Ebay is listing things quickly that sell for higher dollar amounts. OK, higher dollar for me is $20 and above. For some that is $200 and above. It all depends on what you are selling.

Test and evaluate. Re-test and re-evaluate. Find out what works and keep it. Find out what does not work and dump it. I have items I paid way too much for and I may end up donating to a charitable organization or just dumping. Try this, try that and see what works for you. In business you will have winners and losers. PLUS, your winners may only pay off for a short time and then die.

Regardless of whether you sell on Ebay, do internet marketing or have a brick and mortar business, you have to pay attention to what works and what does not work. This has been my problem in the past. I would fly by the seat of my pants and hope what I was doing was going to work. To a degree I am still doing that.

Business really needs careful planning to be successful in the long run.

Ebay Sales Made Easy

2006-07-30T12:26:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I discovered something that I knew all the time. If you sell an item that you can quickly write up the description by changing the template just slightly for each item, you can get a lot of items listed for sale in a fairly short time.

I have some old electronic test equipment service manuals that often sell for $19.99 and more. I listed about twenty in just a few hours instead of spending all day listing only about 8 items. Each manual was unique, but all I had to do was change the title and the picture for each new ad. It went very fast.

Old post cards would probably be almost as quick. Some of those sell for good money on Ebay. We have 100 or so old post cards I should list in the near future.

Some of my $20 items are way to labor intensive. Electronic items that need to be tested. Multiple pictures from different angles to show what it is and the quality. Simple things, like the manuals I just listed, make life a lot easier and listing a lot faster.

My business has been selling used test equipment and used computer equipment since 1987. I have done it part time and now full time. I am almost hard wired into this type of sales. They are difficult and slow. My old equipment does not bring top dollar. Better equipment means more money, but you have to have a few thousand dollars to go to auctions and get anything worth your time.

I need to rethink my business plan and come of with new ideas.

Getting More Done

2006-07-29T15:13:00.000-07:00

Becasue we focus on it daily, we are getting more done. I am not saying every day is as productive as it could be, but we are steadily improving. What you focus on most of the time is the direction you are drawn into. It is interesting that the same time I used to waste is now generating income.

Do you believe you could focus regularly on a goal of your own? If so, the longer you keep that goal in front of you, the more likely you are to reach each.

Time is a precious comodity that requires careful consideration. Focus on the use of your time for you future well being and achievement and your life will improve. You see it in action with Sharon and I. We have had to focus to make ends meet. As soon as we concentrated our efforts on a project, it became reality.

Maybe you are already doing something. It could be a business or going to school. How could you make it better? What areas need more of your attention so you can improve your activities?

Caught UP!

2006-07-28T09:38:00.000-07:00

We are caught up with the bills that are not all due until the 7th of next month. Both of our rents are covered. Ebay is working its magic on our finances. We are getting slightly ahead financially. This is a good feeling.

Do you listen to what I am saying and think about it in relation to your situation? Could you do the same as we are doing and earn extra income? This is the reason I am writing about all of our challenges and solutions. I want to let you know that it can be done. We do not have to be internet gurus to make money online. We just have to apply ourselves and work toward a goal.

Selling on Ebay is what is saving us and it is easy to do. Our strategy is to list items at higher prices and if they do not sell list them lower. I listed a microscope at $199.99 and it did not sell. I relisted it at $99.99 and it sold. It may have sold at $199 after being listed a couple more times, but you never know.

I have a number of things that we will now drop the price of. There is no sense in keeping relisting and relisting things that are not selling at the asking price. LOWER THE PRICE and move the merchandise. Stores do it all the time and call it a SALE.

All of what I have is old inventory and I can sell it an any price and make a profit. When it was purchase, we bought our inventory in lots. Each lot had a few pieces we really wanted and made our money on. Everything else was just gravy. We are now selling off that gravy. It is not as valuable as the things we really bought the lot for, but they are sure paying the bills.

Almost There

2006-07-27T09:09:00.000-07:00

I have told you we need to generate extra income because of moving from our warehouse into a house. We almost there again this month. We have meet the added expense and have a small surplus. Ebay is doing this for us.

Have you looked into selling on Ebay yet? Are you signed up yet? I want you to know that there is extra money to be had from the comfort of your own home. Ebay, internet marketing and probably hundreds of other legitimate businesses. Take a look at one that appeals to you. Give it a try. Maybe you can increase you income to a point you would like to see.

Gasoline prices are way high. Many electric bills will be outrageous because of all the heat we are having. It is getting to the point that even those with very good jobs are feeling the financial pinch our times are dealing us. Today is the time to look into way to increase you income, not tomorrow when it may be too late.

Sharon and are are hustling more and more. We are giving up free time for security. We have been forced to work harder and now it is becoming a habit. What a great habit. It is getting easier now. I have been having trouble staying focused, but suddenly it seems as if things are clearer. I can get more done in a day than I was.

WOW! If this keeps up, we may just get far enough ahead to relax more. I want you to have some freedom too. Take advantage of opportunities around you. Do not put them off until……. UNTIL WHAT? So often we wait and procrastinate and say, “Tomorrow”. Tomorrow is here and it is time to get going.

Heat Waves And Making Money

2006-07-26T08:43:00.000-07:00

Do you realize that a heat wave and making money can be related? Sure. That excessive heat causes excessive electric bills. If you have a power outage it gets very uncomfortable. If you are making enough money, this becomes an inconvenience when you have to move into an air conditioned motel for a few days while power is restored.

There are so many reasons to think about how to generate income in addition to what you normally earn. A part time business at home just makes sense.

I am starting to get back to internet marketing. I am reading a some IM material to get my motivational juices flowing again. I am looking into what I should be doing to increase my current IM income. My IM efforts had completely stopped when I had to move out of the warehouse and into a real “place to live”. It is time to get back to internet marketing.

With all I need to do, I did NOTHING yesterday. Nothing means not one thing that generated income. I did things that might make money, but nothing that will directly and immediately make money. See, I an not on top of this game yet. I still have things to overcome to make my game plan work.

I tell you these things because I know that many people go through the same things I do. They have great intentions, but fall short of their goals. The key is to realize this and just keep on keeping on. The great thing about success is that when you stop moving toward it, the only thing you need to do is take another step in that direct and you are back on track. Even if you have to start over every day, as long as you do start again and take that next step each time, you will be closer to your goals at the end of the month.

Never give up. Even as you backslide and do not work toward your dreams for days or weeks, NEVER GIVE UP. Just start again and again and again if you need to. Do whatever it takes for however long it takes, but do it.

Getting Caught Up

2006-07-25T17:33:00.000-07:00

We are at the point I balance out finances daily. We are getting caught up. We now need to get ahead enough to be a month ahead then two and so on until be have a six month cushion. For rent alone that is just under $18,000 and the sure is not chump change. We had better get a better plan if we want to get to that point.

Sharon and I do our best when we have at least a slight plan working for us. We do our worst when we are just winging it hoping for the best. Does that tell you something? It SHOULD tell us something. We need a more regular plan.

It might even be worth it to devote a day to planning. Stay home for a day and sit at the dining room table and come of with some strategic plans to move us ahead at be faster and better rate. We also need to get internet marketing back into the mix. I have done no IM related work in the 3 months since we had to find another place to live. That is way too long to neglect any aspect of a business.

Today we went to the movies. The before 6:00 p.m. price is only $2 per person at the second run theater. These days, wait two weeks after a show comes out and it is in the second run theaters. OH, our tickets today were free. We won them from a local radio station. That is our second free movie this week, compliment of our local oldies radio station.

Why Earn Extra Money?

2006-07-24T14:12:00.000-07:00

There are time in life when things go wrong. You need some extra cash to get through a tough time. This is why I am so interested in creating an ongoing income using internet marketing. Ebay is the initial income generator, but IM is my goal.

What brings this up? No, we did not have something go wrong. My son did. His car died. This happened after the transmission went out on his other car. He has a pregnant wife and no car. At this time Sharon and I cannot help them financially. We gave him the car that just died instead of selling it for our own profit.

So, what might go wrong in anyone’s life? Car trouble you cannot afford to fix? Illness? Accident? The list is enormous. We need to think about preparing today for things that happen tomorrow. With luck all our preparation will be for is a Hawaiian vacation or cruise to the Bahamas. However it would be nice to know you can generate and extra income from home that may just save you down the road some time.

I see so many times that I would like to help others. Those in my family and people I do not even know. Small things and large. That is the magic of money. It can solve a lot of people’s immediate problems. If you have extra, you can be part of helping those in need. In my instance, a rental car until my son’s is fixed.

There are a lot of reason to get farther ahead than you are today. If you can find one important enough, it may be just the driving force that moves you forward.

Working Too Many Hours

2006-07-23T08:18:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I wonder why we are not farther ahead financially. We are working too many hours and yet do not have the rewards to show for all the time two people spend working. It is getting to be time to sit down and figure out a more effective way to utilize our time. Sometimes it is difficult to see far enough ahead when you are struggling to meet expenses.

It is sort of like the guy I was telling you about yesterday. We are so deep into our own situation we do not see the obvious answers that are right in front of our face. Again, “You cannot see for forest for the trees”. Answers are all around us, but we look beyond them for answers and do not see those excellent ones staring us in the face.

This is apparently common all over. People have opportunities and they cannot see them. Not all are financial. Some are opportunities to spend some time in the park or at the lake. We are too busy or too focused on other things to see the potential around us. Potential that is in easy grasp.

An answer that would improve my life or your life is available right now, today. We really need to look harder to see what that answer is. This is my dilemma of the day. I need a better answer than the one I have. Maybe it need to ask a better question to get a better answer. I do not know the question. Maybe instead of, “How can I pay the bills”, I should be asking, “How can I help others pay their bills”. I do not know.

Ther Is An Old Saying........

2006-07-22T12:56:00.000-07:00

Today we stopped at a moving sale on the way to the office. The guy was selling every thing cheap. Soon he has to move out of the house and into his car. Yes, his car. Was was in an auto accident a while back and cannot work in his normal field of work do to back injuries. Shortly he will be homeless with $135 a month income and food stamps. This reminds me of an old saying, “But for the grace of God go I”. Whether you are religious or not is not the issue. You could say, “But for good circumstances go I”.

You never know when an accident, an illness or downsizing in your industry will put you in this man’s circumstances. Nature can create hurricane, floods, fires, tornadoes or fallen trees. There are hundreds of variables in life that can negatively affect us. We just never know what tomorrow is going to bring.

Because life is so uncertain, I believe that internet marketing is an excellent insurance policy. Get started today and create websites that generate income. Learn to make more money from each site with various techniques taught in different courses. If you keep your full time job and work at creating an internet business for the next five years, think of what you might accomplish.

Sharon and I earn $125 to $300 a month from our internet marketing efforts. For the last 3 months we have not been working at IM at all, but the money keeps coming in.

If the man we talked to today had started some sort of internet marketing business a year or two ago and had ONLY our limited amount of money coming in, it would be double what his income is and would get him more food, more gas and a better chance to move on.

Listing A Lot On Ebay

2006-07-21T09:54:00.000-07:00

Currently we have 237 auctions running on Ebay. We are listing a lot. With the 20 cent listing for yesterday and today we are doing even more. I am also dropping prices. Not enough of those 237 items are selling.

If, after this round of auctions closes, a lot of our listings have not sold, I think I will just drop prices WAY DOWN and let the bidders decide what any item might be worth. Move inventory and make room for more. It is about the old saying, “Get rid of what you do not want to make room for what you do want”.

As with any product sales business, so items are good sellers and others are not. Liquidation sales for the slow sellers is always a good idea. I need to pay attention to that advice and get rid of slow sellers more quickly.

This is all part of what a business plan should have in it. I had not really thought about it much until this Ebay discount listing sale. It got me thinking that now was a good time to list a number of things for only 20 cents at a lower price than usual.

Taking Advantage Of Ebay

2006-07-20T09:04:00.000-07:00

Today and tomorrow Ebay is offering 20 cent listing fees. One can save quite a bit by taking advantage of Ebay discount days. The best discount they offer is money off the actual listing fee. They offer other discounts, but I normally do not use most of their other bells and whistles so I never take advantage of them.

One problem with other discounts is they are usually ongoing. For instance if you choose to decorate you page with Ebay graphics and they cost 50 cents (I do not know how much they cost, this is just an example) but are offer today only for 10 cents. WOW! Great deal. However if you item does not sell and you renew the auction and forget to cancel the graphics, you will be charged the full 50 cents this time. If you are running a lot of auctions this could add up quickly.

So, for me the extras are seldom worth the price because a large percentage of my auctions do not sell the first time around. This means I have to either renew and pay the price or spend a lot of time cancelling the option in every auction I relist.

Getting More Done

2006-07-19T09:02:00.000-07:00

Making money all all about getting more done. The more you do working for yourself, the more opportunity there is to make more money. That is what being in business for yourself is all about. So, how do you become more productive? We are finding that for us more hours is the only way we are getting farther ahead than last month.

Of course you cannot spend every hour of every day working all of your life. A spurt of “overtime” and long hours is fine, but working smarter is the only real answer. Outsource some work. Delegate some. Get more done by doing less now productive work. Make more money by working less a low paying activities.

Sharon and I are really looking at what we are doing and how we can improve every aspect of our business. It really sucks to work all day and at the end of the day make less than a fast food counter person. We have very good times, but we also have days on end where we are not making what we should.

It pays to evaluate your life and every aspect of it periodically. Should you change this or improve that. Maybe going back to school would help bring about a change you need.

All I talk about is our businesa and what we are doing. I hope you see this as a way of telling you to also look at your life and what you can do to improve. I know that if Sharon and I can change our lives, you can too.

Looking At Our System

2006-07-18T09:27:00.000-07:00

We are paying the bills, but not getting ahead. We are looking at our system of doing things so we can rectify this situation. I still believe that internet marketing will do it in the long run, but we need immediate income and Ebay is the way we know how to get that. Sharon and I need to evaluate our sales and see if there is a better way to market our wares on Ebay.

Obviously, listing more items every day will increase our income. That means more work and longer days, if longer days is possible. We are already here at the warehouse 12 to 14 hours a day.

So, we need to think about lowering prices and sell a larger volume. We need to think about raising prices so the perceived value of what we sell is higher. We need look into selling lots instead of single items. There are a lot of options we can evaluate and try.

The problem is that when you are up against the wall just paying the bills, you do not have confidence to experiment with things that might not work. However, innovation and change are what make businesses grow. What a delima.

Part of the reason we are not doing internet marketing is about what I just said. It is scary to try to get by on the unknown when you have a know method of generating income. Oh, I know quite a bit about IM, but not enough to feel confident enough to try to make a living at it. I need to slowly work my way into making more at IM, at little at a time.

Life is full of so many challenges that is is always interesting.

Ebay Is Slowing Down

2006-07-17T11:24:00.000-07:00

Our sales are slow. Ebay is slowing down for us, or is it US that is the problem. Maybe we are slowing down too much. Too much time thinking instead of doing. I think that is it.

It takes consitent effort to achieve any goal. Working for yourself proves this month after month. The more consistent your efforts, the better the reward. This is the magic of working in your own business. Your income in proportional to your effort.

When you have a J-O-B, you get paid the same whether you work hard all day or goof off all day. When you are self employed, a day of hard work usually gives you good results and a day goofing off means little income. So, every day you put extra effort into your endeavors means your are working toward an overall higher income level.

This should tell me to work all day I am at work. I still need more discipline to do that. Sharon and I are getting better each week, but we still are not do all we could.

Because we do not work all day, we have to put in longer hours. If we worked smarter and actually did productive work while we are at the warehouse, we could probably cut a couple hours off of our work day.

Winning And Losing

2006-07-16T10:52:00.000-07:00

We are currently paying the bills, but at times I feel like we are winning and losing at the same time. We are winning the week to week struggle, but we are losing the overall battle. If all we do is stay even with the board, I do not call that winning. Maybe we are not losing, but it sure seems like it is a stalemate.

Do not get me wrong. We have come a long way in the last two months or so. We have increased our income enough to rent a place to live other than this warehouse. On the surface we are doing OK. However, OK is not really good enough for anyone. If all you are doing financially is, “OK”, it is time to start some serious thinking about how you will change that.

Sharon and I are working too hard for the amount of money we make. We should be working this hard and making more. It is really time to start re-evaluating our process and seeing how we can streamline it. Being in business for yourself is a never ending process of change. You have to change and adapt as the marketplace changes.

Adapting is not what we do best, but it is time to learn how to see changes that need to be made and implement them. Seeing what needs to be done and doing it are often two different challenges. Seeing is easy. Doing takes more effort.

We do not need to spend more time working. We are already at work 12 hours a day, minimum. It is time to become more effective and spend more time actually doing productive work.

Missed You Again!

2006-07-15T11:15:00.000-07:00

I got so busy yesterday that I missed you again. I completely forgot to write the day’s blog even though I had written, “BLOG” on a piece of paper next to my keyboard.

When I get involved in work, everything else is forgotten. I have a one track mind when I am focused on work. If I was as effective as I am focused, we would be on easy street very quickly. I really need to learn to work smarter instead of harder.

With Ebay, selling is labor intensive. You have to either sell a few high dollar item, which I do not have a lot of or you have to sell lots of low dollar items. I have a warehouse full of low dollar items.

Actually most of my problem is a mental block regarding the low dollar items. In the past I had a lot of high dollar inventory and more coming in all the time. Selling on Ebay was easy. Now, I do not have much incoming inventory and am selling off all the low dollar stuff we got with the more valuable things.

We got a small check from LinkShare, one of the internet marketing affiliate programs we belong to. This was based on worked we did more than 2 months ago, or possibly even last year. That is why I like IM. You keep getting paid. I really have to make the time to get back to internet marketing.

Getting More Done

2006-07-13T08:19:00.000-07:00

We are getting into a place in our business where we need to be getting more done in less time. We put in way to many hours to make a minimal amount of money. Oh, we make over $3000 a month, but our rent and business utilities are also over $3000 a month.

Effective use of our time is evasive. I have studied my time. I have read about time management and listened to time management tapes. I am still not very effective in my use of time.

A lot of the problem is I still do not have clearly defined goals. I do not have the right plan in place. Every time I make a new plan, I get off track. I hope this does not sound familiar in your life too.

So often we make plans and then sit on the sidelines to watch the plans become reality. The longer we watch, the less happens. It is so frustrating to watch a carefully devised idea and not see it work. OH, WAIT! We are not supposed to watch, we are supposed to participate.

A plan is only as good as the action that is taken once the plan is in place. This is one of my shortcomings. I do not seem to follow through effectively.

So, tell me why it is that so many people do not follow through on their plans and dreams? What is it that holds us back and lets us settle for far less than we could have? Find an answer to that and your life will change.

I Need To Jump Start Our Business

2006-07-12T08:23:00.000-07:00

We are doing fair with our Ebay sales. They are paying the bills, so far. However, I need to jump start our business and get it really going full speed.

Do you ever watch you spending on a daily basis. That is where Sharon and I are right now. We are having to check out balances almost daily. We are not behind, but we have to be careful or we could easily let some purchase or another crash our finances.

I know many out there are much worse off than we are. We do not have any imminent problems. We just have the potential to encounter financial difficulties if we are not careful or if something happens stops us from working. Regardless of where we are, it is time to increase our output and create a more comfortable living.

Join us in our quest for a better life. Make some plans. Think about what you would like to do and where you would like to go. Let’s move forward together. Find your own area of interest and actively go after it.

Every free country offers more opportunity today than at any time in the past. We have more resources than ever before. With the internet it is possible research any subject from the comport of you home. Make your own decisions that now is your time too. We can do this together, apart and in separate ways.

My point in this blog is to inspire you, but it is also to inspire me. You cannot write about success and moving forward every day without it rubbing off and becoming part of your life and mind set.

Planning Is Everything

2006-07-11T09:02:00.000-07:00

I have been moving along at a moderate pace, but I do not have a plan of action. Planning is everything when you are trying to build a business. I have a business selling on Ebay and I am trying to build it better. I need to sit down and rethink my business plan. I need to evaluate what I am doing.

Right now, I am jumping from from one thing to another without an organized idea of where I really want to go. I need to get back to reading the Ebay course I bought. It has made part of my Ebay business better, I need to make it better yet.

Last night we worked later and when I got home instead of turning on the TV, I read some internet marketing material. Every time I read about IM, I get excited. I really believe internet marketing is where our income will come from in the future. I hope to get us back up to speed financially and transition from Ebay sales to IM solely.

It is time to give up the TV. As you know, when we moved into the new house, all our utilities were included in the rent including free cable TV. What a problem that can be. For two months I have watched more TV than I have in the last two years. It is time to give up the tube again and use that time for study.

Times like these get me all excited and turned on to the possibilities before me. There are so many opportunities on the internet it is amazing.

Missing In Action

2006-07-10T09:27:00.000-07:00

Can you believe that I was missing in action yesterday? Actually I was right here at the office. I just forgot the blog. I cannot even blame it on being too busy. I just plain forgot AGAIN!

Yesterday was another goof off day. We went to the Farmer’s Market for some fresh produce. That was the about all we accomplished. The rest of the day was spent here at the warehouse, but it was far from productive.

Consistency is one of the keys to success. It is also one of greatest challenges. If we would work at a steadier pace and consistent output, we could probably make more money and get more time off. It just does not make sense to spend all this time at “work” and not work.

This is one of the things that anyone trying to make a living by being self employed must come to grips with. Being at work is not the same as working. I try to convince myself that a minimum quantity of work is better than nothing, but I still often get nothing.

Yes, we are making more, but we could make even more and solve a lot of problems financially if we would just stay at it for the entire time we are at work. If I was an employer employing me, I do not think I would be pleased with my productivity. In fact, I would probably have a talk with me and let me know my job was on the line if I did not improve.

WOW! Am I that bad off? I think it is time to start really evaluating what is going on. We had a good spurt of work to meet the new rent, but we are slacking off. I really think we could “work” fewer hours if we could work more effectively.

Selling On Ebay Vs Internet Marketing

2006-07-08T17:25:00.000-07:00

I keep thinking about what we are doing finacially. Selling on Ebay verses Internet Marketing is always on my mind. I work long hours to sell on Ebay and I make money. I do not work as hard at IM, but am not making the money I need to yet. What a delima. I would really prefer to devote my time to internet marketing.

Since we moved into the new house (rental), we have been quitting work earlier and going home and WATCHING TV. What a waste. I was telling Sharon today that we need to quit doing that. An extra two hours a day working at IM instead of watching TV sure would not hurt and it might be just what we need to move forward.

It feels good to quit early. We get to the warehouse about 7 a.m. and leave about 7:30 p.m. That is already a long enough day, but TV at the end is not getting us anywhere. We are thinking of staying here at the office until 9:30 each day.

There are sacrafices you have to make to achieve anything. To paint the house you have to give up a few weekend or evenings. To get a degree or even learn a new trade, you have to take the time to go to school. It means giving up something for something else you percieve as being better.

We are at that point right now. We need to give up our spare time today to be able to have a much spare time as we want tomorrow. The harder we work today the sooner we can get rid of this warehouse and all of the equipment.

Getting More Done

2006-07-07T08:33:00.000-07:00

Although we still have unproductive days, we are getting more done in spite of it. The more we concentrate on getting ahead, the more we are able to actually do it. When our focus is on work, it goes well. I am pleased with the progress we are making.

There is a saying that says, “If you believe you can or you believe you cannot, you are right”. Belief is a key factor in moving forward in life. When we needed an increase in income we believed we could do it and it actually happened. Strong enough reasons to succeed and a belief in you abilities are part of the key to success in whatever you want to achieve.

I hope that my ramblings and comments help spark an idea in you. In a free country you are limited only by your own decisions to succeed, to win and to move ahead in your life. My wish is that some small part of your success will have been sparked by something I may have said or will say in the future. Some times all it takes is seeing something in writing and then relating to it.

Life is funny with all of its various coincidences. Last night I was checking my online banking with PayPal. I owe Ebay $356.58 in fees for last month. (Yes, it was worth it.) If Ebay had taken the payment out last night, I would have had a balance of $356.56 in that account. Only a two cent difference.

Another coincidence, there are the same number of letters in my wife’s full name as there are in my full name. There are the same number of letters in my each of my son’s full names.

OH, if you have a PayPal account and get their debit card, you can earn 1.5% back on any purchase made with their card. I have often uploaded money to PayPal just to use the debit card to get the refund for grocery shopping and other purchases. This is especially nice if you are buying an expensive item like a camera or other high dollar item.

Getting Ahead And Wondering

2006-07-06T18:52:00.000-07:00

Are we really ahead. We are getting ahead and wondering if it really is true. Just about the time ends meet, someone moves the ends. More yearly bills are due this month. Just when we thought we were ahead, we fell a little behind.

It really is time to hustle and make a better living. That is why the blog is late today. I was so busy working, I forgot all about it until now. It is 6:40 p.m. as I am writing.

There are a number of blogs, forums and newsletters that talk about all the money some are making in internet marketing. It sure seems like an easier way to make a living than selling on Ebay. Ebay selling for us is a lot of work. Ebay sales mean long days for Sharon and I. We are not the most brilliant Ebay sellers, so we have to work a little harder than some.

Of course, we do make a fair amount of money and we do not not have to work as hard as others. I guess it all balances out. It is just that days like today make me feel like I am just a machine. I need a balance that allows more down time from the work.

Do not get me wrong. I love the work that we are doing. I am more relaxed than I ever was with a J-O-B. It is just that I wish I could get a little more time off. It is 6:45 p.m now and I am still at the warehouse working.

Even long hours are OK, but I would like to shorten them sometime in the relatively near future.

Helping Others Will Help Yourself

2006-07-05T09:14:00.000-07:00

We went to my son’s home for the 4th Of July. He bought a home about five years ago. He is having some financial problems. I would like to help him out. Helping others will help yourself. If I work harder at what I am doing I can give him some help for a few months.

If I work hard and smart enough to help my son, that will help my wife and I also. We will have to streamline our operation. We will have to do things more efficiently. By making a plan to help our son through a tough time, we will also we helping build our business quicker.

Do you see what you could do with an additional source of income. Maybe you do not need it that much, but it might be a worthwhile goal to generate enough money to help others. You could help your children, grandchildren or other relatives. You could help your church or other organization you belong to. You could donate to local charities. There are a lot of good reasons to develop an additional income in your spare time.

Sharon and I are about to embark on a personal plan to increase our income again. We just increase it enough to cover the new rent. We now want to accelerate our plans and get this business making even more money. We have a reason. We have to ability. It is time to act. It is time to do what we know we can do.

How about you? Want to join us? Sit down, make some plans and see what you can come up with. I will give you our ideas. With them, you may come up with ones of your own.

Happy 4th Of July

2006-07-04T17:48:00.000-07:00

I hope you all had a safe holiday and will have a great evening of friends and fireworks. We just got home from my son’s home where we enjoyed a couple of days with him, his lovely wife and our beautiful two year old granddaughter.

This is just a short note and I will “see” you all tomorrow.

Days Off

2006-07-03T08:26:00.000-07:00

When you work for yourself, days off are often few and far between. If you are a small business, you often work long hours and 6 or 7 days a week to make you business work.

Of course long hours are optional. It all depends on how much money you need to make. It depends on how fast you want your business to grow. It also depends on how much money you want to earn. As your business grows and you earn more you may be able to take more time off, or you may end up spending more time working.

Work is only W-O-R-K if you believe it is. Sharon and I enjoy what we do. We wonder what we would do if we had too much time off. We feel fullfilled when we are working.

There is not a lot I can think of we would be doing if we were not working. Sit around and vegetate. Watch hours of TV. I am not sure I could handle not having an obligation I needed to attend to every day.

However, we are taking two days off for the Fourth OF July. We will visit my son and his family. They live 157 miles from us. It will be a fun two days.

Ebay Works Wonders

2006-07-02T19:10:00.000-07:00

It is only the second of the month and already we have the rent for all of this month. Ebay works wonders when you work at Ebay. I am amazed at how fast we are getting ahead selling on Ebay. Our monthly rent between the warehouse and house is $2984. On top of that we have to live. Ebay is paying our way.

Do you have money needs. I keep telling you that you should try Ebay. If nothing you tried to auction sold, you might lose $50 or $100 in a month. Nothing selling is unlikely. What if you made some decent money? What would that do for your finances. If you have been following this blog, you know it has just done wonders for our financial situation in just over two months.

Today I need to back up my computer. Do you keep a regular backup of your computer? A lot of people lose data and family pictures because they do not back up their computer regularly. I am lax at times, but it is an important part of owning a computer. If you are in business, you could lose a lot of your business to a computer crash or virus. Join me and back up your computer today.

Organizing The Warehouse

2006-07-01T16:36:00.000-07:00

Part of making money is being organized. Today we spent all day organizing the warehouse more. When we got done and looked at what we had done, I felt like we had moved backwards. We lost space instead of gaining it. Boxes I had piled high were not piled as high so they took up more floor space.

All of this effort is in hopes of finding more of the “good stuff” that brings more money on Ebay. I do not think we found many quality items, but we found a lot of STUFF that will sell.

This will be a short blog. I am tired and getting close to going home. It is 4:30 and we have put in a long day. It seems longer than our 12 hour days.

Getting Ahead Is A Good Feeling

2006-06-30T10:24:00.000-07:00

When you are getting to to bottom of the financial barrel, getting ahead is a good feeling. We are moving forward at a faster pace now. We are not getting rich, but we have a tiny bit of breathing room. Ebay is doing this for us AGAIN. Selling on Ebay has improved our finances a number of times.

I wonder why we have not stayed totally consistent selling on Ebay. If we had kept our Ebay sales up all along, we would not even be having this conversation now. However, because we slacked off, our finances dropped to a critical level.

Tell me, why do we do these things to ourselves? It is amazing that we lft life slip by us when all the time we have the power to make life better and better. Instead we just drift along aimlessly and let life dictate our situation to us.

WOW! We have so much available. The free world offers us more opportunities for success than have ever existed and we settle for less than we could have.

OK! Money does not buy happiness, but from experience I can tell you it buys a lot more happiness than poverty. Money is a tool and like any tool can be used creatively or destructively. Your use of this tool called money is your choice. You can build up your life with it or you can tear down your life with it.

I think it is time for all of us to decide to make the best use of our personal resources and create a life style we would like to become accustomed to.

Getting Ahead Is A Good Feeling

2006-06-30T10:23:00.000-07:00

WOW! We have so much available. The free world offers us more opportunities for success than have ever existed and we settle for less than we could have.

I think it is time for all of us to decide to make the best use of our personal resources and create a life style we would like to become accustomed to.

Goofing Off Too Much

2006-06-29T09:03:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was almost a total loss. We are goofing off too much. We went to lunch had a long nap. Did nothing productive to speak of. I cannot afford too many days like that.

I wonder if it is a problem with being caught up financially. Could it be that in my subconscious I “THINK” I am OK, it I can relax. That is not a good idea. The time to relax is when you have vanquished the wolves, not when they have only moved out of sight.

Today, Sharon and I need to get busy again and be as productive as we can. Actually if we would be over productive on some days, normally productive most of the time, then off days would not matter as much.

Our Ebay business is a numbers game. The more items we list the better chance we have of making more money. If we miss a day listing, there is no way to make it up. We cannot save time in a bottle. We cannot capture yesterday and use it today.

Each day any of us put off until tomorrow what we could do today, we lose precious time. Time is the one thing we cannot get more of. When we squander time we squander our lives.

What decisions have you been putting off? Could you easily do some things you have been putting off?

Ahead Of The Game

2006-06-28T18:07:00.000-07:00

Our rent month starts on the 7th of the month. We are already caught of to that financial deadline and working toward a surplus. At this point we are still not putting all the effort we could into our business. We are still goofing off a lot. Today, is an example. We got two or threes hours of work and accomplished nothing the rest of the day.

The exciting part of all of this is that we are getting ahead of the game. Not a lot, but enough for me to start thinking of going back to working on internet marketing.

I hope you are listening to what is going on in our lives here. We have gone from a very tight situation to one that is only a little tight. Of course it could go any way depending on us and unforeseen circumstances. We are living month to month without a cushion to fall back on. It is time to build that cushion.

How often do you look at your financial situation and wish it were better? Could you use some extra money to help you get through the month, put kids in pre-school or college, or just get a little savings going. I talk about how we are making money. I hope something I say inspires you to take action and improve your life too.

Doing Well On Ebay

2006-06-27T09:03:00.000-07:00

We continue to be doing well on Ebay. Our sales are up and our attitudes are too. Could Ebay sales be for you too? If you made one $10 sale a day for only five days a week is $216.50 a month. Would over $200 a month help your budget?

Of course you never list items on Ebay for $10. You list them for $9.99. Why? Because Ebay charges you $0.35 to list a $9.99 auction and $0.60 to list a $10 auction. Just one penny difference can cost you 25 cents extra. Not much you say? That can add up over the course of a year. The extra you pay for not knowing what you are doing could pay for a nice weekend get-away.

This is one of the reasons I recommend the course you see in the right column of the blog. It gives you a lot of tips, hints and ideas for selling on Ebay. The course can save you a lot of money and it can make you a lot of money.

Regardless of what you choose, it would pay to discover new ways to generate income for your future. Go back to school. Sell on Ebay. Do some internet marketing. Join your brother-in-law in business. With ever increasing prices and threats of price increases, you need to think of where you will be in five or ten years.

To Busy To Think

2006-06-26T08:38:00.000-07:00

Did you miss me yesterday? Sometimes I get too busy to think. When that happens I forget things, like the blog. I got going yesterday and completely forgot to write the blog. Yes, we were here at the warehouse working, but when I get going, I have a one track mind.

Are there times you get so involved that other things just disappear from your mind? Is this a good thing or not? Sometimes intense focus is good, but it can lead to small problems, like forgetting the blog.

Working on selling on Ebay is sure getting in the way of working at internet marketing. I have to make money quickly to pay the monthly bills and Ebay is doing that, but it is not leaving time for other things. I still need to get more organized so I can devote time to all of my projects.

Life sure gets in the way sometimes. You have grand plans, but things come up and plans get moved, changed and often cancelled. Life keeps going but not in the way we envisioned it. The thing to do it create a new vision. That is what Sharon and I keep trying to do. We envision better times with a different income focus.

It all takes planning. We are getting a little lax in our planning. We are working and not thinking ahead. Back when I was writing plans down it was easier to see where we were headed. Now, we are just working and all I see ahead is work. It is time to start making some more definite plans.

Plans lead to organization. Organization leads to time management which gives you a better grasp of you entire situation. Sharon and I are on a roller coaster ride. At times we have plans and at time we are just going whatever direction the day takes us. We truly need to get back to making more define plans. Weekly quotas. Daily activity lists. All of the things that it takes to make a more successful business.

Getting Ready To Get Back to IM

2006-06-24T17:59:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking more and more about internet marketing. I a getting ready to get back to IM. Right now our IM income varies from about $150 to $225 a month for doing nothing. This comes from work done in the past. It is sort of “residual income”.

The time has come to start increasing that again. I have had to work hard selling on Ebay to meet our expenses, but we are even with the board and I could take a couple hours a day and devote them to working on websites and internet marketing income.

Sharon and I have been talking about this. With IM we have the product in our heads and simply have to use the computer to get it to market. With Ebay we have to keep coming up with more things to sell (we have plenty at the moment). The problem with our Ebay sales is we do not have a consistent high dollar product we are selling. Our income depends on long days of hard work to make a living.

We do not mind long days and hard work, but once a day is done selling on Ebay, that is it. One shot, one payment. Tomorrow we have to start over again and then again and again and again. With internet marketing the work we do today keeps paying month after month. That $200 I talked about above is work done months ago and some a few years ago. The income keeps coming in even when we are not working.

This is the reason I believe it is time to start working at internet marketing more seriously and develop it into our primary source of income.

Getting More Is Hard Work

2006-06-23T14:54:00.000-07:00

From the time I got to the warehouse until lunch time (2 o’clock) I have been working. Getting more is hard work. Getting more could be, more time, more money, more freedom. Each takes hard work and dedication.

Working harder has opened my eyes to the possibilities around me today. I have a lot of potential right now that has always been here, but I just had not looked for until recently.

Do you have possibilities in your life that are staring you in the face, but you do not see their full potential? Could you be just like Sharon and I, sitting on a modest amount of wealth and not even know it?

It took a shock to our finances for us to realize what we have going for us. I hope you can find your potential before it is forced upon you. Look around your life and see where you can improve it today, tomorrow and next week.

There are so many opportunities available today that it is a shame we are not more tuned into all the possibilities around us.

We Are Expecting A Heat Wave

2006-06-22T08:39:00.000-07:00

According to the radio we are expecting a heat wave this weekend. Our beach temperatures will get into the 80s. Inland the temperatures may get into the 100s. I am sure happy we live near the beach and have the ocean cooling our area.

Work is a roller coaster ride for us. We are high and working hard one day and dipping down doing nothing the next. I still cannot seem to get my mind wrapped around the proper work ethic for a self employed entrepreneur. Success requires consistent effort. Our efforts are not all they could be. We are paying the bills, but it is time to do more than that.

It is time to get ahead of the bills and get some cushion to fall back on when we hit some slow times. Since we do not qualify for credit at this time, it is essential that we create our own savings that we can depend on to meet unexpected expenses.

So far we have met an unexpected expense, the new $800 a month in rent. However, we still need to increase our income more. Because we do not have benefits, vacation or sick time, we need to depend solely on what we produce. Luckily the internet has offered us a means of generating more income by simply applying ourselves to a task.

Are you willing to work some long hours to get a business going? Are you ready to take a look at where you are today and where you would like to be tomorrow? I have talked about our methods. What is your’s going to be?

Summer Is Officially Here

2006-06-21T10:38:00.000-07:00

If you look out our door it is overcast and the weather is cool. Looking at the calendar over my desk, Summer is officially here, but here on the coast of California, it does not feel like it. I remember the hot days of summer. There are no such days here. Our heat waves are in the 80s and if it really gets hot we will get a couple days in the 90s.

Credit can be a problem if you do not have any. When I was down sized and lost our house and all our credit that put us in the “unwelcome” category for many things. I just tried to get a WalMart Credit card thinking that would be easier than a major national card like Visa or Mastercard. Wrong! My credit has been clear for over 7 years but I apparently have a low credit score so do not even qualify for a Wally World card.

I really do not want credit cards again, but I would like to establish credit again. I understand the employers even do credit checks on people these day. Home rental requires a credit check when dealing with a broker. Luckily we rented our new place from a private party who was not worried about a credit check.

When your financial world collapses around you, it takes time and knowledge to get your credit rating back. I will have to do an internet search to see what “techniques” have to be used to re-establish a credit rating. Obviously a WalMart card will not due it since I do not qualify.

This is an excellent reason to look farther into making money online with your own business. If you have a steady ongoing income from something like internet marketing credit will not be quite as important as it might be.

Non Smoking Beaches

2006-06-20T09:12:00.000-07:00

I used to be a smoker. I quit in 1976. I am glad I no longer smoke. When I started smoking I could buy a carton of cigarettes for $1.25. When I quit they were about $3.65 a carton.

Here in California it is against the law to smoke in restaurant and bars. You have to go outside to smoke. OUTSIDE, well it seems outside if not OK either in some places. We have non smoking beaches and other public places. Check out this article Non Smoking Beaches. Los Angeles is doing the same at parks and beaches Los Angeles Smoking Ban.

So what has this to do with making money? Well, this is the Frugal Money Save Blog. It is about being frugal and saving money. In California, this would be a great time to quit smoking. Maybe your state too. With the price of cigarettes, you can spend a small fortune on the habit. When it cost me less than 4 cents to have a smoke, that was not too bad, but at 40 cents each time you light up it getting expensive.

I used to smoke a pack to two packs a day. With a habit like that today, and the money spent I could make a car payment or take a yearly vacation to some nice warm place.

Life is about priorities. How much you want one thing over another. It is also about decisions. Are you willing to make a decision to make more money so can can afford more of the things you want in life?

Getting More Organized

2006-06-19T13:35:00.000-07:00

Ever since we had to move out of the warehouse as our home, we have been getting more organized. It does not seem like it at times, but it is happening more and more in little ways and some big ways.

We now have a monthly e-waste (electronic waste) recycling program in our community. We can get rid of a ton of of computer equipment that takes up more space than it is worth. Getting rid of things will get us even more organized. It will make room in the warehouse.

More room in the warehouse means our minds will even be able to get structured regarding our business. Sharon and I are looking forward to many things and it is all thanks to some jerk who thought he could make trouble for us for turning us in to the city for living at our warehouse.

You may get tired of hearing about us, the city and this guy. We never get tired of it. We are so excited about all the changes taking place in our lives it is amazing. Every day gets us more excited than the day before. Life is good.

One Day Rolling. Next Day Stopped

2006-06-18T14:31:00.000-07:00

It seems that we still are working at working. One day we are rolling along getting things done and the next day we are stopped. Once we get stopped it lasts a day or two. We are in the stopped mode at the moment. For the last two and a half days we have not accomplished anything.

Some may say we deserve time off. Others might say we cannot work all the time. When things are a little tight, you need to work at full capacity every day until you are caught up and then enough ahead to actually take time off instead of just goof off.

We are even with the board right now. We are not behind or ahead financially. This is not the best position to be in. One little glitch and our situation crumbles around us. That is a scary position to be in. It pays to have at least a small cushion to fall back on.

If you can plan effectively, you can overcome what we are encountering. When we have better plans and goals, it has been easier for us to move forward. Immediately after having to earn more for the extra rent, we really hustled to get ahead and it worked very well. Now we are becoming less motivated.

I am not sure what is our problem, but I see and read about similar situations all the time. People do what they have to for as long as they have to and then slack off. What if each of us could keep a good momentum going always. Think of the things we could accomplish. Think of the time we could gain for work and fun.

I Need A Product Source

2006-06-17T09:37:00.000-07:00

As I sell off “junk” from the warehouse, I find things to sell every day. The problem is it is such a variety and labor intensive to test electronic equipment. I need a product source of items that are smaller, consistently profitable and easier to pack. I think as our sales increase and we have extra money I will start looking for sources.

Companies have excess stock, close outs, seconds and many other things that a phone call might discover. To sell competitively on Ebay you need to buy below wholesale. You need the competitive edge. It will probably take me a month or so to get “investment capital” but I am patient.

A large part of my inventory is one of a kind items or obsolete computer related. Some old computers and peripherals are worth enough to make them worth while testing, but I have so much it is hard to figure out what is worth it and what is not.

This is why I really like the idea of internet marketing. It is not a matter of searching out inventory. It is simply creating it or having someone create it for you. A lot easier process. I just need to figure out how to make more profitable more quickly.

Our Income Is Increasing

2006-06-16T08:44:00.000-07:00

It is amazing that when you make a REAL decision to accomplish something, suddenly what was impossible is now happening. Our income is increasing steadily. We have both of our rents in the bank right now. We cannot coast the rest of the month because that will be eaten by various bills. All of this is because we had to make a decision to increase our income.

How can you do the same? Just start planning on things you want to do and have and stick to it. Make plans. Re-make them. Study them and work at them. If you have been reading this blog a while you know that is what Sharon and I have been doing for quite a while.

When it really got down to having to generate more income, we had a foundation laid to work on. I seriously think you should start thinking about how to increase your wealth. Maybe internet marketing. Maybe selling on Ebay. Maybe starting some other business that you know will make you more financially independent.

Many of of work for years just getting by. That is so ridiculous, when with some extra effort we could easily surpass our present level of income and gain personal and financial freedom.

If nothing else, we could gain a cushion to fall back on when things got tight. If gas went up, we could relax more if we had money banked to cover emergencies. Wouldn’t it be better to spend a little extra income on gas instead of cutting back on food to pay for gasoline.

There has never been a better time to get started than today. Sit down, make some plans and see what you can come up with.

I Forgot

2006-06-15T18:46:00.000-07:00

It is 6:35 p.m. and I forgot the blog again today. I am really late. I just got so busy I completely forgot. That is a good thing and that is a bad thing. It is good I am busy, but it is bad that I am forgetting my obligations.

You may wonder, “What obligation”. I have made an obligation to myself to post to two blogs a day, every day. It is a commitment to help me improve my writing and to get into the habit of daily work at a project.

Do my blogs make a bunch of money? NO! They make very little. That is not really my objective at this time. I need to start somewhere and writing daily is that “somewhere”.

Each day that I am consistent is another day moving closer to the success I desire. I do not have to make big progress. I just need to make small amounts of daily progress. “It all counts”. Each little bit adds onto the rest and in the end it will all total up to more than I know.

You to can make a little progress each day. Read a little today. Apply that knowledge tomorrow. Learn something, apply something and move forward. Sometimes it will not even seem like you are moving, but each bit of activity counts. It all counts.

Solving The TV Problem

2006-06-14T10:40:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking about the time we have been wasting watching whatever is on the TV when we get home at night. I am solving the TV problem by simply staying at the office later. Instead of going home at 8 or 8:30 we are going home between 9 to 9:30. We get home too late to watch the tube and get a good nights sleep.

We get to the warehouse about 6:45 to 7:15 every day. As you can see we put in a long day. However, it is not like working at a “real job”. I actually enjoy the fact that I have a place to stay occupied and productive. The long day is more like having fun than work. It is sort of like playing all day at a hobby we enjoy and having the side benefit of being paid for it.

Being home at a “normal time” doe not really appeal to me. What would I do all evening from 4:30 or 5 o’clock until bedtime. I know! Watch TV. I think our time at our warehouse is a lot more rewarding. More rewarding financially, mentally and spiritually.

Doing what you enjoy or find rewarding is an important part of living. Unfortunately we sell ourselves short and spend years at un-rewarding jobs. I spent 20 years at a job that was OK to start but I learned to dislike as the years passed. I hated Mondays, and praised Fridays.

Now I can work 7 days a week and not get tired of what I do. Yes, sometimes I get frustrated and wonder what to do next. Often I wonder if we will pay the bills, but it is still a good overall feeling.

This is what working for yourself can mean. Happiness! We have been selling used stuff since I was down sized in May of 1995. There have been tough times and good times, but in the big picture it has all been pretty darn good.

On Target With Ebay

2006-06-13T10:24:00.000-07:00

Since we have actively started working again, we are on target with Ebay sales. We are making enough to pay the bills with a little left over. We are getting more organized and our business is making more sense.

When you apply yourself to anything it starts slowly and gets better as time goes by. That is what is happening to Sharon and me. Ever since we had to make more money we have made the money, but more than that we are getting our act together and moving forward in other areas of our business and lives.

I am starting to look at internet marketing again. IM is the way of our future. I see great opportunity in IM. I look at what others have done and am inspired. I am not talking about the ones making the BIG money, but the people who have quit their full time jobs and are making a living at internet marketing.

You can read success stories in various forums on the internet. It makes you wander, “If they can do it, why can’t I”? I think it all comes down to, “JUST DO IT”. If it does not work, then just do it again and again until it does work. Learn from you successes and your mistakes.

Indideous Monster

2006-06-12T07:44:00.000-07:00

Sharon and I have had the television turned off for two years. In that time we may have watched a total of 20 hours at the very most. The new house we have has free cable TV included as well as all other utilitiies paid. This is a BIG problem. TV is an insidious monster. It devours time and energy.

We get home between 8 and 9 o’clock p.m. these days. I turn on the TV. UH OH! Last night we went to bed at 12:30. Four and a half hours of TV just to watch something.

Yes, I “enjoyed” myself, but TV is like a drug. It does not matter how bad it is you enjoy watching it. I can see where we are going to have to go into a different mode and develop a different attitude about TV watching.

The problem is I “enjoy” watching TV. However, when the program is over I usually only feel as if I have killed some time and not really gained anything. Staying up until after midnight and getting up as 6 a.m. means I cannot even call it relaxation.

I can see where it would be very easy to get totally hooked on television. With a 42” or 52 inch TV and hundreds of channels to choose from. Even if there is nothing good on there is always something slightly interesting on. That is scary. Between video games, surfing the net and TV a person could retreat into their own little world of nothingness.

This will really affect a person who is trying to start an online business and has limited time to do so. Well, put it off tonight, my favorite show is on. Put it off tomorrow it is my wife’s favorite program. Put off working the next night to watch the kids favorite program with them. Today, that is “quality time” with the children.

OK, with this in mind I declare that I will stop watching the TV every night for no reason. There will have to be a REALLY good show to even turn it on. I will have books to read, internet marketing material to study and just relax with a beer and NOT TURN ON THE TV.

So, with that said, my new neighbor in the house said, “Bob and Sharon, I have just about every recently movie released on DVD. I buy them all the time. You can borrow any you would like.” UH OH again! Can you imagine having movies only a few steps from you front door. No rental. Free access any time you want them. An I thought TV watching was a problem.

Getting Organized

2006-06-11T15:35:00.000-07:00

We have so much junk (inventory) strewn all over the place it is hard to work. Friday afternoon and yesterday we spent getting organized. We put up shelving and cleaned out the office. The shelves are filling up with boxes of stuff to sell or being sold. I am trying to put things we are about to sell on the shelves, or things that we have already listed. This way our sales items will be more organized as we go.

As we change our operation a little at a time I can see the results changing too. Of course we did a massive change to meet the extra $800 rent we had to come up with, but I think it is the little changes we make that will really start moving up toward a more successful business. Remember, “It all counts”.

There is not a lot we can do that we had not thought of doing in the past. We just procrastinated and did not get the things done. Sometimes we are our own worst enemy. We know what to do. We know how to do it. We are capable of doing it. We just do not do it. It makes no sense.

Of course a lot of things we do in life do not make a lot of sense. I think schools miss the mark by not teaching common sense as well as readin’, ritin’ and ‘rithmatic. I know that with a little more common sense and an organized plan we we be better off than we are.

Thinking success is an important part of common sense. We have to think we can do a task and believe in ourselves up front. Believing is half of the battle. Suddenly when we believed we could earn an extra $800, it happened. Common sense says we could have had that extra money any time we had decided too. We could have been enjoying its benefits for a long time instead of only recently.

Keeping Money Available For Refunds

2006-06-10T13:17:00.000-07:00

When selling on Ebay, you need to keep some money in your accounts for refunds. Some are legitimate refunds and others are not. I have had two request in the last week for refunds. One changed their mind. The other is returning just over $200 in precision tools he says are bad.

The first bought three items and said one of the three was the wrong part. Earlier he said he needed four of that part. He asked for his part, another part or a refund. He said I sent him another brand of the same type item with the same part number, but the part was wrong. When I said the other company did not make that model part, he said he did not want to argue, gave me positive feedback and did not want to pursue his $50+ refund. I think I was being scammed. This guy said he did not have a camera to take a picture of the supposed wrong part so I could see what he was talking about.

On the second refund, I think I may be being scammed again. The guys says the parts are bad. There is not much to go wrong and I tested them before being shipped. Some people exchange their bad part for your good part. They use your part to repair their part and ask for a refund. Sometimes they damage your part and claim you shipped a bad part.

You can protect yourself from scammers who do switch part, claim damage or otherwise claim you item is not what they expected and return a different or damaged item. One way is to mark everything you sell with invisible ink pens. We had some that whet dry. I just ordered more on Ebay.

Another way to protect yourself from scammers is to take detailed pictures of your items, especially scratches, flaws or other marks that identify your item. Save these pictures full size. Use copies of the pictures in your auctions.

If you list a $10 item that sells for $100 or $500 (yes, it happens more often than you think) and did not take extra pictures, take a few before you pack the item.

Since 1998 we have had a number of people ask for refunds that were obviously trying to scam us. So, an ounce of prevention can help prevent being ripped off by dishonest buyers. HEY! Most buyers are honest and you will have very few problems, but a few try to take advantage of you.

Ebay Doing Better & Better

2006-06-09T08:09:00.000-07:00

Every day our Ebay sales are getting better. Yesterday Ebay had 20 cent listing day. All listings were 20 cents. I listed and relisted a lot of auctions and saved quite a bit of money. Right now we have 174 auctions up and running. I would really like to have that up to 300 or more.

Like I have said, it is all a numbers games. The more you do, the more sales you make, the more money you make. With 300 auctions the odd are greater that income will exceed needs. HOWEVER, I would really love to be just running 20 or 30 high dollar auctions. 300 $10 auctions is $3000. 30 $100 auction is the same $3000, but requires a lot less work.

Of course, where reality hits the road, you have to do what you have to. One day I may have consistently have more of those $100 items. I really need to get back to reading the Ebay course I have told you about. It talks a lot about making more money. I have been so busy making a living that I have not had much time for reading and study.

Regardless of what you or I do, constancy and continuous effort will make us winners in the end. Every day we put forth effort, we will be rewarded. Of course our efforts make us money, but more than that they create a mental attitude about work and being able to work effectively. We learn, “I can do it”. Success is its own reward.

Getting Better Accidently

2006-06-08T09:11:00.000-07:00

Our sales are up, but are we getting better accidently? Yesterday I sold one item for $300 that I had listed for $20 on Ebay. I hoped for more than $20, but did not expect over $100. Mind you, I am not complaining.

Maybe this is just the law of averages working in my favor. If you throw enough mud at a wall some is bound to stick. Or, if you put up enough auctions some are bound to do well. Maybe it is not an accident, but merely working, working working and having the payoff. Lots of our auctions end with no sale.

I guess a with many things it is simply a numbers game. If you put in enough effort you will eventually start getting a better and better return.

When I write all of this, I hope you are thinking of it relationship to what you might be able to do. I talk about ME, but this is really about YOU and what you might be able to do. I hope to give you a little inspiration by telling you what I am doing and you can see that making money online may not be simple, but you can do it.

HEY! I just paid my business rent on the 6th, it is due on the 7th. We have been working hard enough that I could pay it again today if I had to. This is the magic of internet marketing and selling online. When push comes to shove, you can increase you income with some hard work and consistent effort.

My effort has not been as consistent as it should be. I still get bogged down, slowed down and unproductive. Imagine where one could go it the worked all the time they were at work (for themselves).

Still Having Trouble Deciding What To Sell

2006-06-07T17:48:00.000-07:00

We are late today because our blog host, Blogger.com was having problems

Everyday I go out into our warehouse of old and obsolete equipment trying to figure our what to sell next. I am still having trouble deciding what to sell next. We have many items that are worth over $50 each, but it is finding them and actually figuring out that they have value.

Like I have said, listing a $50 or $10 item takes about the same amount of time. Sometimes the cheaper items take longer. Selling four $50 items means I get a fair days pay after expenses. Selling four $10 items means I have a long way to go to pay the bills. Selling on Ebay is a full day’s work.

I do not mind a full day’s work, but I would rather not have to work quite so hard to make a living. This is why my mind keeps going back to Internet Marketing. IM just makes sense. No heavy lifting. No dirty shirts. DIRTY SHIRTS? When you go through things that have been stored in a warehouse for quite a while, you get a lot of dusty dirt all over your clothes, hair and face, so yes, dirty shirts.

IM is a much cleaner and back saving way to make money. Ebay is fast money and pays our bills but I still am looking forward to the day I can build our “IM Empire” to the point it pays the bills on its own.

Another problem I am having is room to put items I pull. I really need to put up more shelves. I have shelves to install, it is just making room for them. I do not have the floor space to put up even one shelf without doing some major rearranging. I think that is a job I will have to do in the near future, rearrange for shelves.

Time To Evaluate Where We Are

2006-06-06T10:44:00.000-07:00

Our Ebay sales are up, our bills are paid and business is doing pretty well. It is time to evaluate where we are and where we are going. I mean, sit down and write up what is going on in our business. Make a plan for the coming days, weeks and months based on where we have been in the last month.

Because we are paying the bills and actually getting ahead, I am going to start getting back to internet marketing. IM is really what I would prefer doing. It takes as much time initially, but it is not as labor intensive as lifting, sorting and dealing with physical inventory. Right now we are shipping 35 pound boxes with computers in them. WORK! Physical work.

I keep saying this, but I just cannot get over much better off we are now. Ever since the jerk turned us into the city for living at our warehouse, life has improve 100% over what is was. We are living in a nice house. We are making more than we have for a long time and it is getting better every day. It just amazes me what Sharon and I have done once our backs were up against the wall and we had to move forward.

We have listened to motivational tapes. Written plans and tried to move forward. It took some petty person turning us in to the city to turn our fortunes around. We were forced to work. I do not quite understand that. We we WANTING to improve and did not make that much progress. When we HAD TO change, it happened almost instantly.

I guess the saying, “Necessity is the mother of invention” applies to many areas.

It All Counts

2006-06-05T11:25:00.000-07:00

Every thing you do counts toward where you will be in a year or five years. It all counts, regardless of whether it moves you forward or if it moves you backwards. It all counts. Everything you do or do not do adds up. This cumulative effect can take you to the heights or depths of life.

This is why we just keep working and moving forward as much a possible. Every internet marketing book I read counts. Every auction I list on Ebay for $3 or $100 counts. Every extra minute I spend working instead of day dreaming counts. My positive thoughts count. Unfortunately my negative thoughts count to. They count against me and take away from the good I might otherwise have had.

What is possible. Is it possible for you to own a multi-million dollar company in five years. Do you think you could actually be the president of a large corporation. OK, how about a 14 year old developing a multi-million dollar corporation. At 14 a boy started a website. Now as a 19 year old college student he runs his own corporation. See the video story at http://cnn.com It is in the “WATCH FREE VIDEO in the center column just below the main news story headlines. Watch the video, “Making millions between classes”.

In the next five years, what could you or I do. This was a student with homework, not a full time entrepreneur. If a 14 year old with some help from his dad could do this, what could you do? What could I do? A very interesting question.

Yes, the boy had a dad already in the business to help him. You or I can find help if we search for it. The kid probably got some financial help from his dad, it did not say. He got some help learning to import items. Again, something anyone can learn to do. He started small with only a few items and grew one or two or so items at a time. Everything counts.

Making Money When You Are Gone

2006-06-04T09:34:00.000-07:00

We took a day off yesterday for our granddaughter’s second birthday party. We were making money when we were gone from the office. Ebay sales and payments keep on going even when you are not working. It is a good feeling to come back to work and see money has been deposited into your accounts while you away having fun.

This happens with Ebay but only if you keep adding new auctions. This also happens with internet marketing, but you could go a away for a month and the not add any new content and the money would still keep coming in. You do have to maintain websites periodically to keep them at peek production, but a month vacation will not affect you income that much. Even a couple months away from work would not have that much of an adverse affect on internet marketing sales in may areas.

It is Sunday! What are we doing working? We work seven days a week unless we are going out camping or to a birthday party or other event. We are free to take off any day of the week we want, but when we do not have a reason to take off we need to work.

Some of you may wonder about us working so much. Actually I cannot complain. We enjoy what we do. We are free to take off any time we want, if we want. We are improving our own business and will reap all the rewards. It is not like going to the office and working for someone else.

It is hard to explain how rewarding work can be when you work for yourself. You can build something, tear is town, rebuild it and improve it any way you see fit. It is a good feeling.

Ebay Is Pulling Its Weight

2006-06-03T07:25:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was one of the best days we have had on Ebay. We have had a number of better days in the past, but this one was excellent. If we could keep half that going daily we would be making a good living. Ebay is an interesting place. Find a product line that sells halfway well and you will make some decent money. Ebay is pulling its weight and getting our finances back up.

The funny thing about what we are selling is that it is what we put aside in the past and did not try to sell since we thought we had better stuff. This old stuff is holding its own against the best we have had.

So, what did I tell you? I said the jerk who turned us in to the city for living at our warehouse did us a favor. Actually it was a HUGE favor. We are doing better than we have in a long time. We are looking at our business more seriously than we had in the recent past. We are on a roll.

All it takes to get ahead is a decision to do it. It is a shame we are often forced to make those decisions. If we would just make them on our own we could get ahead a lot faster and a lot sooner. What if we had started working this hard a year ago. We might we taking it a lot easier and only working a 5 day week instead of 7.

Well, we work 7 days a week unless we go camping, which is about once a month for two days. Or we go to an event, like our granddaughter’s birthday parts, TODAY!

Lucky! Ebay Problem Fixed Quickly

2006-06-02T08:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we were very lucky. The Ebay problem was fixed very quickly. It is possible that we might not have noticed that Camaro in our auctions for days. Once my auctions are up I do not check all of them regularly. That could have gone on for days instead of hours.

OH, the Camaro probably did not really exist. These scammers sell high priced items for low prices to “suckers” who think they are getting a real steal. What happens is the scammer gets a down payment of $2000 or $5000 and then are never heard from again. I am still amazed that as scam savvy as I am, I let someone get into my account.

If I can get sucked into revealing my password with a phony email, there must be a lot of less savvy people regularly getting taken by these low lifes. I did not lose anything except a little time taking care of the problem. I was lucky. I could have lost all my running auctions and had a big problem with my account for a long time.

Again, my advice is NEVER click a link in an email and go to a site and enter a password or other personal information. ALWAYS, go to the site yourself, using a bookmark or FAVORITES link. This way you will always know you are on a legitimate site.

We are having to work harder and smarter now. Luckily the smarter part is starting to click in and it is getting easier to make the extra money on Ebay. It is amazing what you can do when you have to. The question is, “why do we wait until we HAVE TO to take action”? What if we started ahead of time and created the lifestyle and income we wanted and need. What if we prepared for problems in advance.

HMMMmmmmmmm! These are the things we are never taught in school. We learn all the academic stuff, but are never taught about living. We are never taught about dealing with life and how to overcome problems before they start.

Ebay Caution Today

2006-06-01T09:53:00.000-07:00

Today I got an email asking about my Camaro on Ebay. I got another email from reader Doug asking when I got a Camaro. I DO NOT have a Camaro. Someone put that auction on Ebay using my account. YIKES!

I am sophisticated when it comes to phishing or spoof email. Those are emails trying to get your personal information. I get DAILY spoof emails trying to get my Paypal and Ebay account information. I have seen them all. I never respond. These type emails also come from your bank or other financial institution. They are phony emails trying to steal your identity.

OK, how did this happen to me if I am so knowledgeable? I think I may have clicked one of those emails and logged into my Ebay account, which was actually a phony Ebay site made to look like Ebay.

As a seller on Ebay I get email questions from people. They use the Ebay system to contact me. I get an email from Ebay with a RESPOND NOW button embedded in the email. I often click that button to answer their questions. The questions are always about an item I am selling. A phished email is usually about an bogus item.

If these scammers are getting smarter and using my actual auction information and asking a question about my item, I might click the RESPOND NOW button and log into my account (actually not my account) and answer. BINGO! They win! They just got my user ID and password.

So, smart as I think am when it comes to scammers, I may have been caught by one. They are getting better and better at their phony emails.

The answer is, if you ever get an email from your bank, credit card company, Ebay, Paypal or any other place you have a password, DO NOT use any link in the email to go to the site you need to log into. Go to you browser, Internet Explorer, Netscape, Firefox, or whatever browser you use and type in the address (URL) for the business you want to go to (use one of your Favorites or Bookmark links, it is the same thing).

If I want to answer a question on one of my auctions I can log into http://ebay.com by typing that into the IE address window. I can then log into my account and see the email question in my Ebay account.

Remember, this is not only an Ebay and Paypal problem. Phishing or Spoof or Phony emails are sent for every bank and financial institution around

Here is an article about a 14 year old Nigerian millionaire who sends phony email for a living. http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=2504

Thinking Of Internet Marketing

2006-05-31T07:45:00.000-07:00

I am really working hard and long hours to make a living selling on Ebay. I dropped all my other income generating efforts because I need money TODAY! I am thinking of internet marketing more and more. I may still have to work long hours, but without having to deal with physical products.

Our problem is selecting what to sell. We have a warehouse full of obsolete computers and test equipment. Many pieces are worth $100, $200, $300 and maybe more. It is a guessing game to figure out which ones are worth the higher amounts of money. Most things we have are worth $10 or $20.

The day is very long trying to make an income of $100 by selling $10 items. Every item does not sell. You may have to list 20 or 30 items at $10 to make $100. That is a lot of work. That is why I look for the higher dollar items. It takes as long to sell a $100 item as it does a $10 item.

So, internet marketing is looking more attractive all the time. I am going to have to get back to it and devote a few hours a day to developing my online presence more.

Do not get me wrong. I love Ebay and all it does in a short period of time. It is fast money when we need to pay the bills. I just have never developed it into a huge business. I think I was following the wrong business model for Ebay for many years.

Work Is Good For The Soul

2006-05-30T08:22:00.000-07:00

I am not one who could lay on a beach soaking up the sun every day. I need mental activity to keep me going. I really think that work is good for the soul and inner spirit. We work long hours and I do not mind it. Time off is good, but it is nice to come back to focused activity the generates an income.

Since we had to move I have not done anything with internet marketing. My full thrust has been at selling on Ebay. We are almost at the point where I can start getting back to IM. That extra $800 a month we need is slightly hard to do, but is happening. As we get it zeroed in and can constantly generate that extra, plus a cushion, “just in case”, I will get back to IM.

Actually I am thinking of setting up the laptop at home to work at IM after we quit here. Remember, we arrive at the warehouse between 6:45 and 7:15 every day. We leave between 8:30 and 10:00. We put in a long day here. So trying to do IM at home will be a challenge.

Even the long hours do not feel all that bad. It does not wear me out like overtime at a real job used to do. I can work longer and harder for myself and feel energized. It is a mental thing I guess.

Due to all the bills and expenses other than rent, we are just on the edge of paying all the bills on time. I thought we had both rents covered, but the utilities came due. The car needed an oil change, etc etc. I am almost sure all bills will be paid on time, but it is a squeaker this month.

Holiday Pay? What Is That?

2006-05-29T09:41:00.000-07:00

They say today is Memorial Day, a national holiday. If you work a holiday you get holiday pay. What is that? Working for ourselves means we do not get holiday pay, sick days, paid vacations or any of the benefits related to working for a company. At times I miss those things, but most of the time I never even think about them.

We may have less money than when I worked at a J-O-B, but we are certainly happier not having an employer. The stress level is lower. I do not hate Mondays or look forward to Friday. We work when we have to and enjoy the process. Sure we would love more time off and three week vacations, but they come at a price.

My work is so relaxing that when I got down sized, I quit eating TUMS. When the city said we could not live at the warehouse any longer, Sharon bought me a three pack of TUMS just in case. They are still sitting on a shelf UNOPENED. When I worked for a company, antacids were a regular part of my diet. No more.

Yes, we work a lot and the pay is not as much as we would like, but we sure are happier. I hope to change the “less pay” problem in the coming months.

Keeping Going

2006-05-28T09:37:00.000-07:00

Sharon and I are having to work harder and longer and keeping going at a good pace is a challenge. We are figuring it out, but it takes a lot of energy to get it right.

Imagine you just added an $800 dollar monthly bill to your already overloaded budget. How would you deal with it? That is what we are doing. I keep talking about this because I want to give you a real life example of what working at home with an online business can do for you.

Of course, if we just jumped in and tried to get going up to speed making an extra $800 a month it would have probably been a lot harder. We already had the Ebay experience in place. We already have a beginning internet marketing business in place. This makes it a lot easier to increase our income to meet this unexpected expense.

Do you see where is might be a great benefit to you to have something started and making at least a small amount of money as you gain experience? Maybe your car will die or you will need a new roof on your house. We often have unexpected expenses we have to meet. If you begin now with some online enterprise, you may find you have the extra money and can actually generate more if needed.

You have to get going now so you are ready tomorrow. I have given you some good ideas in the past. I have recommended some of the courses and tools I am actually using. Think about it. Look into it and see what you would be interested in as an online business you could do part time.

Working Harder Now

2006-05-27T09:16:00.000-07:00

Since we had to rent a place to live and our expenses are $800 a month more now, we are working harder now than we have for a long time. In the long run this will work fine, but right now it is too much work. Long hours and more stress.

We are pretty much set for this month, but if we relax even a little we may fall behind. It is interesting to see how we have managed to up our income overnight, but it sure is hard work.

The good thing about making money online and working for yourself, it is possible to increase you income overnight. We did, you could! Sharon and I had to instantly create and extra $800 a month to cover our bills. The internet made it possible for us to do it. What other type of work lets you set you income?

HMMmmmmmmm! If we can increase our income by $800, why not $1000 or $1600? Is that possible? Why not? HEY! Why don’t you join us and start your own online enterprise and put a lot of effort into it and see if you can make your income go up?

If you were doing this part time just to get a business going, you would not be pressed like we were to immediately make more. You could work at it steadily and not have to worry about making money or not making money. You could put a business in place so that if the time came you needed to have extra income you would already have the structure in place to do it. Think about it.

Time To Work Harder

2006-05-26T09:02:00.000-07:00

We are slipping a little. The bills are paid right now but it is time to work harder so they will be paid for the coming months also. We also need to start working smarter so we can put in less hours to make the same amount of money. This is a balancing act that must be done carefully.

Our two days off were fantastic. It was great to get away for a little while. We work 7 days a week except when we go out in the motorhome or if there is a granddaughters birthday or something similar. Sharon and I do not have the best business going, so we have to work harder at it. We have taught people Ebay who have surpassed us in their ability to make money. We have introduced others to Google Adsense and they are far ahead of us with internet marketing.

I know what to do. I am good at what I do, but I do not do exactly what I should. Do not ask me why. I just do not seem to put all my effort into the right place when I work. I do what has to be done, but not as effectively as I could. When I get all of this figured out I should make a lot of money.

So, in the mean time I need to work hard, think smart and see how I can improve every aspect of our business. I have not been writing down goals, business plans or other daily written activities lately. Maybe it is time to get back to it. It is easier to see what you are going to do when it is on paper instead of in your head. It is also easier to “remember” to do everything that is written down that it is try to remember things you never write down.

It Is Hard To Camp And Work

2006-05-25T16:53:00.000-07:00

I thought about doing some small work related things for the two days we were camping. It is hard to camp and work. Fun gets in the way and we never get to the work part. The blog is as close to work as we come.

The two days have been fantastic. A getaway at the beach is always fun. Seals, dolphins, fossils in the rocks on the beach. “Friends” we never met before camped around us. It is all good.

We left the campground at noon, checkout time, but we are now parked along the ocean and will be here until after dinner. That is a good thing about camping close to home. We do not have to be in any hurry to get back.

Since we have been gone two days, I am sure there will be work to catch up on when we return. People will have paid for auctions and things will need to be packed to ship.

Going away is one problem selling on Ebay it is hard to take care of business when you are not there. Yes, I can go online with my laptop, but all I can do is communicate. I can not fill orders or take care of the details of running a business that deals in physical products.

This is one reason I REALLY want to get internet marketing going stronger. You can do IM anywhere in the world you have a computer and internet connection. No physical products to ship. Banking money is all done online. A debit cards gets you cash from any ATM. The money is paid and you can get it in any place or country you visit.

Taking Work With You

2006-05-24T10:16:00.000-07:00

Working for yourself and selling on Ebay can get complicated. It often means taking work with you on a trip or vacation. Today before we headed out camping, I had to go online and take care of some auctions that ended. People on Ebay get impatient if you do not respond to them right away. They want questions answered. They want to know if you received a payment they just sent.

Right now we are in our motorhome overlooking the Pacific Ocean. We are about an hour north of Los Angeles. Life is good and this is the life. Around lunch time we will drive another mile down the road to the campground right on the beach. We will spend one night.

Tomorrow when we leave the campground at checkout time, we will drive back up here and park by the ocean again. We will stay until after dinner.

Beach campgrounds are now full on the weekends and especially holiday weekends, like the one coming up, Memorial Day. This why working for ourselves works so well for us. We can take your “weekend” in the middle of the week and avoid the crowds. There are a lot of advantages to working for yourself.

Gathering Momentum

2006-05-23T08:36:00.000-07:00

Each day moves us forward in our quest for a living income and more. We are gathering momentum and making a lot of progress. The biggest thing is that we are working more consistently now. When you work for yourself consistency is very important. When you work on a job, maybe you can goof off a lot, not get caught and get a way with it for a week, a month or longer. When you work for yourself, you HAVE TO work when you work.

Sharon and I have been self employed since 1995, when I got downsized. Nice term, “downsized”. I guess it sound nicer than “laid off”. We have sold used electronic equipment all this time. It has been good at time and bad at times. Ebay made it much better and more consistent, but it still had big ups and downs.

How well you succeed depend on how dedicated you are to your business. When we had our down times, I flowed with the lowered income instead of aggressively trying to increase it back to where it should have been. This is a problem in you own business. You control the income. Work hard or work smart and reap the rewards.

Making More Money Because.......

2006-05-22T08:20:00.000-07:00

We spent the weekend sorting and organizing the warehouse. I seriously think we will be making more money because of this new found motivation to work.

Not only did we organized boxes and inventory, but we found old obsolete items that are still very valuable. It is interesting to see all the stuff I never tried to sell before and how it is now a good part of our income. We are not buying new inventory yet. We are cruising along on all of our old obsolete stock and it is working our just fine so far.

My hope is that by the time we run out of enough stuff to pay the monthly bills with some left over, I will have developed the internet marketing part of the business to the level that we will not need much more inventory to make a decent living.

This is an ongoing business process and it will be very interesting to see how far and how fast we can move forward. At the moment things are going quite well with Ebay sales. Next is getting the internet marketing sales up. I am not as interested in IM at the moment because for me, the income comes slowly. Ebay it is FAST. However, as I have told you in the past, I believe that IM is the long term answer to generating an ongoing income.

Getting Organized

2006-05-21T16:17:00.000-07:00

This weekend Sharon and I have been spending time getting organized. Well, we have been working in the warehouse getting things where they should be instead of all over the place. The more we straighten things out the easier it will be to make more money. We will be able to get to things and find things easier.

I think there are a lot of areas of life that would run more smoothly if things were more organized. Not only physically organized, but mentally organized as well. When things are a logical order, it sure is easier to work or think or even play.

Ever since we were forced to find a new place to live we have been getting more organized. I am sure the person who reported us to the city would cringe if they knew how big a favor they did us. I will never tell. LOL (laughing out loud). I just love a good secret and this one is a really doozy. Of course you know, but you are are my friend.

Ebay Is Doing Great

2006-05-20T12:09:00.000-07:00

We are caught up on our current bills and have the rent for the first of the month. Ebay is doing great and treating us good. Ebay has always come through for us when we applied ourselves fully.

The problem now is that I am chomping at the bit to get back into internet marketing. Ebay pays today’s bills. I am sure IM will pay tomorrow’s. Right now I am having to spend my time selling on Ebay because that is where the money is for us and we have to pay the monthly expenses. IM is slower for us to get going.

If you read us regularly, you know the city forced us to quit living in our warehouse after someone turned us in. We believe the problem came from our next door business. SO WHAT! This has been the best thing to happen to Sharon and I for a long time. We are on a roll. We are making money. We have a nice place to live and go home to. It is getting better all the time.

Since this happened we are starting to get our warehouse more organized. We call is “Chaos”. It is more like a public storage space with stuff piled and stuffed in than a business warehouse. We are slowly changing that. It will not happen overnight, but the jerk who turned us in did us a favor in so many ways it is hard to count them.

Next week we will be taking a couple days off in the middle of the week to go camping at the beach. I know, it is a hard job, but someone has to do it. Besides, after all of this we deserve a couple days off. We normally work 7 days a week unless we go camping.

The funny thing is I would rather work 7 days and long hours for myself than I would for a boss. 40 hours a week with two day off and having a boss would not be for me any longer.

The 25 Cent Theory

2006-05-19T08:17:00.000-07:00

You probably have encounter a number of pyramid schemes in your life. Does the 25 cent theory I gave you yesterday sound like one? It does to me in a way, but in another way it makes a lot of sense. Increase the value of your internet marketing websites by 25 cents each day you work on them and in a years time make a decent way. Spent more time or more years and create an excellent income.

The catch is that each days work may not generate 25 cents right away. A website has to be found by search engines. It has to ranked fairly high to be found. You need to do SEO (search engine optimization) for every page you create. You may have to use PPC (pay per click) advertising to attract customers to your site.

Part of the magic of IM (internet marketing) is that what you do today keeps on earning tomorrow, next month and next year. When you create a single 25 cent source of income it will keep paying day after day. This is what makes this 25 cent idea possible.

IM requires continuous and ongoing input to your websites. Search engines like seeing fresh content on a regular basis. Could you create fresh content regularly? Is it possible that each time you created content it would be worth 25 cents a day. Like I showed you yesterday, after 365 days of creating 25 cents income you monthly income reaches $2737.50. That is $32,850 a year before taxes. It is like making $15.79 an hour 8 hours a day, 5 days a week for 52 weeks.

I know that is barely a living wage some places, but what if that were your part time income? It would be a nice start toward a full time job working from home. It would also be a GREAT full time income for some people who are struggling in low paying jobs.

So, THINK 25 CENTS!

A Revelation

2006-05-18T07:38:00.000-07:00

Do you sometimes lie in bed at night or wake up in the morning with a revelation? An idea just pops into your head and it makes a lot of sense. Maybe it even solves a problem or answers a question you have had for a while. Last night was like that for me.

Ebay and internet marketing are a numbers game. The more content, auctions or webpage, you have the better chance you have of making money. The idea that came to me deals with progressions. The progressive increase in INCOME! I like that. This may seem to simplistic and it may take more than one year.

What is my idea? With internet marketing, create enough content each day to make 25 cents. Because IM creates income that keep on coming in day after day month after month, you are generating 25 cents a day more in income by adding more and more content to your website(s).

Do you see what I am saying? For example you have Adsense ads on three pages of content on your website. These three pages generate 25 cents each day. Tomorrow you create three more pages that generate 25 cents income a day. Repeat this process day after day on a continuing basis.

Now, do this for a straight year or a total of 365 days. 365 days could be spread over 4 years. So, you increase you income by 25 cents times 365 days equals $91.25 a day at the end of 365 days. First day you make 25 cents, second day 50 cents, third day 75 cents, fourth day $1.00 etc for 365 days. At day 365 you income will be up to $91.25 a day.

$91.25 a day times 30 days in a month equals $2737.50 a month income. If you could make that 50 cents a day instead of 25 cents you would have a monthly income of $5475.

So you use a program like Keyword Elite and pick keywords that pay more than others. You optimize your pages for those words and try getting higher income per click. (I assume you know what Google Adsense is).

Yes, I know you can make anything look good with numbers. I also know that every three pages you create will not make 25 cents a day. Many pages make nothing for a long time. Until search engines find you site and list it well, you income from websites is very low. However if you had a 3 or 5 year plan to accomplish this 365 days of effort it just might make a big difference in your life.

If you worked only every third day, it would take 3 years to do the 365 days of work. It might take another year of adding more work and waiting for search engines to find you so more visitors could find you. Could you use an extra $2700 a month.

This was my revelation in the night. I think I am going to go back to studying my Adword book by Perry Marshall and my Derek Gehl (Corey Rudl — RIP). I have the 2004 version of the course below. Derek just released the 2006 version. It is the most complete course for the best price I have.

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