How I Found My First Niche and Made My First REAL Money On eBay!

Yesterday I told you how I got started on eBay and how I finally figured out

You can make money from
eBay if you know how!

where in the heck I went wrong.  

If you want to really get the lowdown on how all that happened, you can go back and read the previous post here:

eBay!- How I Made My First REAL Money on the Internet!

The Reason Why eBay Is so Easy to Make Money From…

eBay was instrumental in my getting started in Internet marketing, because it had so much going for it.

For one thing, you could know absolutely nothing about building a website and still be able to set up a site on eBay in a reasonable amount of time.  Since I already had some HTML experience to begin with, eBay was an absolute snap. 

All I had to do was take pictures of the products I wanted to sell, make a brief write up about them, and boom! -- I was in business.

The other wonderful part about selling things on eBay, was the fact that you got TARGETED TRAFFIC to your products.  If you had a website, you had to somehow drive traffic to your site that wanted what you had to offer.

For people just starting out, that meant shelling money out on ads, which sometimes required lots and lots of money.

With eBay, all you had to do was put your item on the auction block in the category that was relevant.  Once you did that it was duck-soup getting people that were in your target market bidding on your stuff.

Finding My Niche and Making Money…Finally

So after a few bad attempts at selling random stuff on eBay, my wife and I decided to go into the embroidery business together.  And as I mentioned in my last post, I threw a rather wide net and started making any kind of embroidered item that I thought people wanted.

Once again the old marketing adage, “Marketing to everyone is marketing to no one.”

So, my feeble attempts at making any kind of good money fell flat. 

Our Master-Blaster Hat

It wasn’t until I came across the idea to mix two of my passions together that I got the idea to mix embroidery with music.  I created Ellistrations music apparel.

I made all of the digitized designs myself.  Hats for every type of musical instrument you could think of.  Trombone hats, shirts, and jackets.  Trumpet apparel, etc. 

And I must have been some sort of pioneer in the niche, because at the start, people were fighting over my stuff. 

I remember designing an oboe hat and putting it up on eBay.  It had a cool design with an oboe crossed in front of it and it said, “Double Reed Disaster” in the design.

Two or three women started bidding on it and it quickly escalated to $65.  Man, I was elated.  After wholesale the hat only ran me about $6.00 total and I didn’t pay shipping because I had already included it in the price.  So, I made about $60 on just one hat.  

We even sold flute purses!

I started to make other hats and shirts as well. Sax hats, trombone shirts, bassoon jackets and every other piece of apparel and musical instrument I could think of.

 

I digitized my own designs and came up with my own catchy slogans and ideas.  Flute shirts that said “Fluteaholic”, Bagpipe hats that said “Piping Hot”, and tuba hats that said, “Blastissiomo Con Forte” on them. (That phrase is kind of a joke with brass players.  It means blow the *$%@ out of the instrument as loud as you can.)

How I Expanded on My eBay Business

I quickly recognized that there was real market for this music apparel stuff, so I created the Ellistrations website.

Since I’m cheap as they come, I decided to get the cheapest hosting plan I could find and build the site myself.  I needed a merchant account, but during the year 2000 merchant accounts ran about $500 just to get started.

I searched the web extensively and found two alternatives: PayPal and another site called 2Checkout.  Since PayPal had not evolved to a full blown merchant service yet, I needed a way for people to pay by credit card if they wanted to. 

That’s where 2Checkout came in.   

This site would process credit card orders for you without the commitment or outlay of cash that you needed to get started.

It merely took a percentage (2.5%) of each of your sales.  All you had to do was go to the 2Checkout site, type up the prices and label the merchandise, copy and paste the code into your website and you could take credit card orders!

It was perfect for a cheapskate lie Moi.  (That’s French, I think.)

A Huge Lesson in Internet Marketing From the Trenches

Everything was going real well, I was making sales from putting my stuff up on eBay and then directing those happy customers to my website and making sales there. 

It worked perfectly.  I was in business and making money doing something I loved.  

That is... for about a year…

For some reason, I started losing sales on eBay; sales just weren’t coming in as fast as they were before, and I was starting to feel the pinch. I did some investigating, reading and searching. 

Turns out I had made a big miscalculation.  You see in business, if your idea is can easily be replicated, you’ll have competition sooner or later. (Watch Shark Tank if you don’t believe me.)

I started searching eBay and found out that other businesses were duplicating me with much slicker marketing and material as well.  They weren’t making high quality embroidered apparel, they were cranking out silkscreen designs of all sorts.

Anyone can duplicate your business...
if you aren't careful!

Pretty soon, I had at least 20 other businesses competing with the same types of ideas as mine.  It didn’t take long before burn out and long hours multitasking took their toll on me. 

So, I made as much money as I could, socked the money in the bank and sold my machine. 

Turns out that I made quite a bit of money from my little venture, better than I had expected, actually.

But the BIG IDEA I learned from this was: If your business is easily replicated by others, you’ll have loads of competition.  

The key to creating a unique, hard to replicate business is to figure out a way to make it so complex, it will be difficult for other businesses to follow.

So I was pretty much out of the online embroidery business.

However, while running my business I discovered an easy way to make money that was so lucrative, and easy to create, it blew my mind.  This is an idea ANYONE can do if they put the time and effort into it.

However, I’ll tell you more about it in my next post.

Until we meet again…

To Your Success!

Mark “Elmo” Ellis

"When it Comes to High-Response Copy - I've Got Your Back!"

www.MarkEllisCopy.com

(859) 797-9560

elmo033057@gmail.com

eBay! - How I Made My First REAL Money on the Internet!

In my last three posts I asked for readers of this blog to send in their stories on how you made your first money on the Internet.

I must admit, you’re a stubborn bunch.  I had three responses from readers that basically sent me one or two short sentences that I had to expand upon in order to make it interesting.

You can read those posts here if you so desire: 

1. Anyone Can UseThis Simple Technique to Get Started Making Money on the Internet Immediately!

2. How I used eBay!to Make My First Real Money On The Internet!

3. We Need You! HowDid You Make Your First Dollar On The Internet?

In case you’re holding out on me, or are too constipated to get out of your recliner to write it up, my offer still stands.  You can send me your story on how you made your first bucks on the Internet here:

Elmo033057@gmail.com

This offer will stay open until the hot, bad place freezes.

How I Made Some Real Money on eBay!

It’s relatively easy to make a little money on a venue like eBay! But it’s a real challenge to make substantial amounts of cash there, and it requires quite a bit of work.

The way I happened to make money on the auction site was labor intensive.  Actually, anyone that is making good money from an Internet venture will tell you, the same thing: It's a lot of work. 

My wife and I have had a few sewing businesses over the year.  She is quite amazing and has made everything from quilts to canvas covers on the backs of trucks.  I did the marketing, she did the sewing. 

With an embroidery digitizing program any things is possible!

However, she knew how much I like doing graphic arts, so she started showing me embroidery that people were making using computer driven embroidery machines.  I was amazed at how beautiful you could make items using a single head machine.

The other part that I thought was cool,  was that you had to use a digitizing program that was similar to a graphics program to create the designs.  

So, with a little prodding, we decided to get the machine, digitizing program and go into the embroidery business.

However, the embroidery machine start up ran us around $12,000 for the machine, software computers, etc.  We had that money saved up so we didn’t have to get a loan or anything.  ($12,000 to start up regular bricks and mortar business is still dirt cheap, so don’t start accusing me of not being thrifty!  Ha ha!)

Why the Internet Is THE Place To Start a Business and Why I’d NEVER Go On Shark Tank

No, You're Dead to ME!!!!

As you already know from reading this blog, I don’t like going into debt to run a business because I’m too cheap.  As a matter of fact, you’d never see me on Shark Tank begging those folks to go into business with me because I just don’t want the debt and I hate owing people money.

My way of thinking is I don’t want the heavy pressure and stress that’s associated with borrowing money like that.  I’m always trying to think of other ways out of that situation.

The real value of Shark Tank isn’t the money, it’s the Sharks themselves and their connections.  Getting the opportunity to work with them would be the real value.  However, there is a cheaper way to find out how they do business and that’s read and study their books.

Almost every one of them have written books and blogs, made videos, given interviews and all you need to know is in the library on the Internet just sitting there for free waiting for you to read.  Not only do you have their resources, but you also have access to every single entrepreneur’s mind that is significant. 

How to drive your librarian crazy...

If you don’t see their books in your local library, then get on Amazon and buy their books used. 

Why?  Because it’s cheap that’s why! 

The reason why I’m mentioning the fact that I’m cheap here, is because when my wife and I started to scope out places to rent for our embroidery business, we were freaked out by the cost of renting a space. 

The mall in Lexington was only a few short blocks from our house, so we thought we’d rent a kiosk there.  However, the kiosk spaces were renting at $3000 a month, and during the months of October through December the rental went up to $5000 a month. 

So, in my estimation, many of the kiosk businesses at the mall were LOSERS!  I can’t figure out how the people that sell the little painted crabs that crawl around inside little glass cages make any money at all.  You’d have to sell a ton of those things just to break even!

The idea of all of that money being shelled out JUST to get started horrified me!

My Dirt Cheap Solution

Since I had already built websites and done some Internet marketing on my own, I put our single head embroidery machine into our finished basement and started the business there.  I figured out every cheap way I could to get website hosting, a merchant account and a domain. 

Back in those days, merchant accounts weren’t cheap like they are now, but they were a heck of a lot cheaper than renting a space at the stinkin' mall!

 Not only that, but all I had to do in the morning was get up and go to work.  No commute, no spending money on gas, and no rental fees.

Cheap-cheap-cheap!

I didn’t have to worry about when I had to lock up and go home either.  If I wanted to digitize a design and test it, all I had to do is create the design and run it through my machine because everything was right there for me to work with.  It didn't matter if it was 12:00 noon or 12:00 midnight.

eBay! –The Launching Pad for My Business!

Once I got my Website built, I knew I needed to pull in initial sales, however when you build a brand new website, it takes a while to get indexed by the search engines.  So, for the first few months you are pretty much invisible on the Internet.

It turns out that eBay! was my solution. 

I got an account with eBay!, plugged in all of the information I needed to start selling and proceeded to begin to make money.

Well, yeah I made money, but it wasn't much.  Since I’d never sold more than a few eBooks online, I really didn't have much Internet marketing experience to ride on. I threw my embroidery business out there without a clue as to what my niche market was, what my Unique Selling Proposition (USP) was or anything.  

Unfortunately no marketing plan = no business.

I remember some guy ordering a gardening hat from me.  I think I made $2.00.

So, I started reading.  A lot.  I got every eBook and Internet marketing book I could think of and I found a niche I was passionate about – musical instrument apparel.  

This turned out to be a nice niche for me since I liked the graphic aspect of creating my own digitized – embroidered designs as well as my passion for music.

Thus, Ellistrations Music Apparel was born!

So, in my next blog post I’ll tell you how I sold a $3.00 dollar hat for almost $60.00...

Until then, 

To Your Success!

Mark “Elmo” Ellis

"When it Comes to High-Response Copy - I've Got Your Back!"

www.MarkEllisCopy.com

(859) 797-9560

elmo033057@gmail.com

P.S.  If you really want to get started making money lightning fast on eBay! check out this video:

How I used eBay! to Make My First Real Money On The Internet!

My Personal eBay! Story...

You've got to know what'll sell on eBay! if you
really want to make some money!

In case you've missed my last several posts, I’m conducting an experiment wherein I post several ideas that entrepreneurs send me on how they made their first money on the Internet.

The interesting thing is,  I have received only a few of these ideas from readers even though I've offered to post names and place web addresses with links next to the articles.   A few of you have sent in articles, but did not want to have their website information published, which is OK by me. 

I did have one really good tip sent to me by a guy named Jon that told me that he made his first money on eBay, buying and selling stuff that he found at yard sales.

Since he really didn't write much, and since I too used eBay a lot to make my first bucks on the Internet, I thought I’d expand on that and tell you about how I got down and dirty in the trenches with eBay. 

But, before I go down that road…

I just want to take a second and throw out the offer once again, for those of you interested in sharing your experiences on how you made your first money on the Internet. 

Please send your stories and ideas to: elmo033057@gmail.com or write your ideas and place them in a comment box.  It’s just that simple.  

I’ll give you full credit and place your name, business or whatever you want on my blog, to include your URL and a link to your site.

How I Made $20,000 on eBay!

OK this idea of using eBay to make money took quite a bit of work, but it basically forced me to try to learn how to do things on the Internet.  While $20,000 may look like quite a chunk of change, it was actually more money than that, and it was over a period of years I made money on eBay!  But as I said, it was really my first money that I made on the Internet, as far as I can remember.

It was about 1995 or 1996 that I got involved with eBay, and I just want to reiterate, it was a lot of work.  The first thing I tried to do was go around to yard sales, buy junk and try to sell it on eBay. 

I had heard at work that there were people going around making big bucks by going to yard sales, buying ties, shirts, or whatever and then selling them on the world’s greatest auction site.  

So off I went, hitting every yard sale I could buying things that I thought people would want. 

Unfortunately, I wound up with a garage full of junk. Some of the stuff I placed up on auction sold for a mere pittance and once I paid the shipping, I was the loser.

Clorox Bottles - The Turning Point!

But as I have stated before on this blog, your successes come from failing.  So, I kept at it.  I learned pretty quickly that you needed to have a way to check the

prices of things before you bought them.  However, this was before the Internet was on your cell phone, so I had to have another plan.

I had my slave…er…son sit at home next to his computer, and I took my cell phone with me.

Whenever I wanted to know what something was selling for I would call him up and ask him to look on eBay to see what the prices of particular items went for.

Hey, ya learn fast when you lose money.

So, my wife and I stopped at some lady’s house who was selling glass Clorox bottles.  Now, I was born in the late 50’s and as far back as I could remember, my mother always had to white plastic Clorox bottles, so I knew that these had to be antique.  I know that certain glass bottles can go for quite a bit of money, and these were in mint-perfect condition.

So, I asked the woman running the yard sale what she was selling them for. 

“$20.00.” She announced for everyone in the garage to hear.

They're $20.00!

I asked her where she got them from, and she told me they had been passed on for years in her family.  She also told me that glass collectors love those things. 

When I inquired why she wasn't trying to sell them to glass collectors and really cash in on the glass bottle bonanza, she told me that as soon as the yard sale was over her son was going to take them and do just that.

“Yeah,” she said chewing on a piece of beef jerky, “he’s gonna sell them to an antique dealer we know for $60.00 apiece.”

“Oh, really?” I said, dialing my son.

To cut a long story short,  it turns out there were loads and loads of them on eBay, in mint perfect condition starting at $4.00 apiece. So I skipped out of that yard sale thinking about a sign I saw in a library as a kid.

"Knowledge is power."

After that I usually checked things put before I bought them, and over time I knew which of the items were real hot sellers.

The Certain Things Sell Better Lesson

I remember going to a yard sale and some young guy (obviously pretty successful from the looks of his house) had a  brand new cell phone in a box.  When I asked him why he was selling it, he said,

"I signed up for a plan with the cell phone company and they hacked me off, so I cancelled the contract with them. Since that phone will only work with that particular company, I'm selling it."

He originally wanted 20.00 for the phone, but I offered him $5.00.  Since I hit him with this price right before he shut down his yard sale for the day, he decided to let it go.  I made $65.00 off of that brand new phone on eBay!

Knowing your market is kinda important 

So, if you know what the market on eBay! is looking for, you can still make money.  However, you have to consider the cost.  

• The cost of gas driving around

• The cost of time.  This method is pretty time consuming.  Not only do you have to drive around to all of the yard sales, but you have to consider the time you have to take packing this stuff up and then standing in line at the post office.

• The cost in shipping the items to the people that are buying them.  You don't want to charge too much, but at the same time, you don't want to under charge so that you're losing money either.  

• You'll need to spend even more time and money on eBay! itself.  eBay! does charge for placing items on it's auction site, and you'll have to take pictures of your items and upload them as well as write a real good description of the item.

The Lessons I Learned From This...

This isn't a real good way of making money on eBay!  

When I consider the time, money and effort I put into it, I was a loser.  However, as I said before knowledge is power, and I quickly learned how to put items up on eBay! and how the whole process worked.  

That set me up for making an actual income that was worth working on the "World's Greatest Auction Site" which I'll share with you in my next post.

Just a reminder, if anyone want wants to send me their story of how they made their first money on the Internet, please send it to:  elmo033057@gmail.com  

I'll be happy to give you full credit, place a link to your site and help you in any way I can.

To Your Success!

Mark “Elmo” Ellis

"When it Comes to High-Response Copy - I've Got Your Back!"

www.MarkEllisCopy.com

(859) 797-9560

elmo033057@gmail.com