Do you remember that I blogged about focus groups a few days ago?

I was contacted by a reader who said that there was nothing doing in their area.  They had the idea of setting up their own, local focus group.  That sounds like a great plan.  Run for local businesses it could be a valuable resource and beneficial to all concerned.  A quick check on Amazon and I found “Doing Focus Groups” by Rosalind Barbour among other books that may well be worth studying.

I also found one article on the web that recommended running a focus group about your website.  That sounds quite scary to me but it could provide some interesting feedback.  Maybe one day, maybe……..

Save on every eBay purchase!

Kick it Back is a great site that I have been using for a while.  The basic idea is that for every purchase you make on eBay through Kick It Back earns you a rebate of 1%.  If you buy something for $100 you earn $1 into your Kick It Back account.  The whole system is transparrent.  You log onto Kick It Back and go through to eBay, it is seemless.  After the purchase 1% of the price is added to your account.  Each month the money is sent to your Paypal account, as long as the balance is over $5.  You can even request the money whenever you want.

So you save on purchases for doing nothing, but it gets better!  If you refer your friends not only will they save on their purchases but you will also get a small percentage.  They save and you earn!

I have looked at this site looking for the flaws (I am a suspicious so and so) and can not find any.  The only slight downside is that Kick It Back can not work with sniper tools.  The reason is that KIB works from your browser and so can not track your bids from an auction sniping tool. 

Check out Kit It Back now, go on you know it makes sense (and cents) Earn money back when buying on eBay

Perhaps the easiest way to make money online is to sell on eBay.

There are dozens of books about selling on eBay.  Are they worth buying?  None that I have read have been worth the price.

What is the problem with them?  There are a few issues.

Firstly, they are too basic.  Is it really worth £9.99 (US$ 5) to learn how to sign up on eBay?  Of course not, eBay does not hide that information, eBay wants you to sign up. 

Secondly, they are out of date.  Unless published within the last year they will not cover the new feedback rules.  The importance of feedback has increased enormously.  These books will not be up to date with the rules, sellers now ignore feedback at their peril.  They will also not cover the new search rules, or the new pricing and store changes that come into effect on 24th September.

They may say that they can tell you how to write powerful titles for your listings, but then so does eBay, or give you some very sound advice.  Remember, eBay wants you to be successful when selling.  They make money when we sell, and sell consistantly.  You do not need to spend money on the basics.

The only eBay guide that I read regularly is Jim Cockrum’s, a free newsletter packed with good down to earth advice ( as you would expect from the writer of the Internet’s best selling eBay The Silent Salesman).  You can sign up for the free newsletter here.

EBay is great, you can start by de-cluttering to see if you enjoy the process, there is no point in doing something you hate.  If you find that eBay is for you then you can spread your wings slowly.  That is how I started, and now I am a powerseller spending about 3 hours a week and earning a net profit of £400 per month on average. 

If you want to make money on the internet then eBay is almost the perfect place to start.  I will be putting up a free guide to signing up and starting on eBay soon, honest.

Those fine people at Amazon have produced another money making opportunity for us.

Amazon Turk has been set up to allow companies and individuals to be put in contact with people to undertake some of those tasks that computers can not.  These tasks involve things like reviewing pieces of text to gauge comprehension and understanding.  In other words how well designed and written is the text or page.  Some tasks ask for reviews, articles and comments, all the things best done by human beings.  For each task you are paid.

I doubt whether you can make a living from Amazon Turk.  However, rather than just sitting infront of the TV Amazon Turk offers an interesting and productive alternative.

Is it possible to make money online taking surveys?

You have probably seen adverts that say that it is possible to make money simply by filling out some surveys on line.  In the name of research I will give this a try and let you know how I get on.  Please tell me of your experiences.

My first thought is that this is too good to be true.  My second is whether it is possible to make enough to make the time spent worthwhile.   I am also sceptical about sites that demand a signing on fee.  I am sure that it is possible to find the companies that want people to take surveys without going through a middle man.  However, the time taken to do so may make the ease of using a site such as Paid Surveys UK worthwhile.

Watch this space.

Working from home requires somewhere to work, that is obvious, but what does that really mean?  My thoughts have turned to this as I am in the process of moving my office.  I have outgrown the third bedroom in our house.  We are decorating the attic room and I will be moving up there within a week or two.

Just what is necessary when starting out?  There are some basics.  You need a PC, desk, telephone line, printer, paper and consumables. 

My problem is that the number of files and the amount of stock has also grown.  I began by selling Zippo lighters on eBay.  They are a good thing to sell as they are small and fast moving.  This means that I can hold relatively small amount of stock and replace them as I need them.  This is called just in time replenishment.  If I know that I will sell 5 of a particular style of Zippo a week then I will order 15 at a time and reorder when I am down to 10 as the time lag from ordering to receipt is 2 weeks.  That way I always have stock but never too much.  The other benefit is that my money is not tied up in unsold stock.

Selling on Amazon has brought a different problem.  The stock is bigger (books) and slower moving.  I have had some books for 3 months.  They are selling but they are on the shelves for longer than the Zippos.  As an example, I bought ‘Kinski Uncut’ the autobiography of Klaus Kinski (a wonderful actor) a couple of months ago for £1.  Last week I sold it for £37.  It was worth having it on the shelf for that length of time.  The problem is space.  I am selling about 30 books a week and have a stock of 650 that are listed on Amazon.  I have to replace the ones sold and I anticipate the stock growing to about 1000 within a few months.

When starting a home business ensure that the space for your setup will be sufficient for your needs now and for the foreseeable future but keep everything under review.

I will be returning to this the theme of home office organisation over the coming weeks, just once I have finnished painting the attic room…………….

What is it with those sales pages?  You know the ones I am talking about they are all the same;

1. They make HUGE claims. (Make $9,997 while you sleep, tomorrow, without doing any work!)  I would believe a lower figure, I would believe it if the ad said that I would have to do some work.  I would believe it if the advert said that it would take some time to build a business.  I just want to make an honest living, not take over the world.
2. Why is the price hidden at the bottom of the page?  Are they ashamed of asking for it?  I want to know the cost,  I never read all the garbage in the adverts anyway.
3. Money back guarantees are a good thing.  However, if the advertiser is a crook then the guarantee is not worth anything.  If I have not heard of the advertiser before why should I be reassured by a guarantee?  Include a guarantee in your adverts if you like, just do not think that a pretty seal on a web-page is going to make me buy.

Mainly, my beef is that the adverts are just so damn long!  Do the advertisers think that the longer the page the more chance of wearing me down into buying?  Am I the only person who would react better to a short, concise, and honest sales pitch?  I hope not.