Garage Sales

Michelle Thomas asked:


There is a difference between selling your own products online and selling affiliate products where you earn commissions for sales. Which is the best way forward for someone wanting to set up their own home business online?

Here are some benefits and downfalls of each type of online selling which can help you decide which is the best way to make money on the internet.

Selling your own products

You can sell whatever products you want in any niche you want. You can sell e books, software, scripts online which takes away the hassle of having to post the items to the buyer

You can start your own online shop selling arts and crafts products you make yourself, clothes, jewelry, books, household goods or anything you decide

The Benefits of Selling Something That is Entirely Yours



You can set your own price

Have an online store or mall

Create on and offline marketing materials

Sell discount products

Giveaway free products for promotional and advertising purposes

Sell items you have made or created yourself

Advertise your own business this way by adding extra promotional material like catalogues leaflets and savings coupons to the buyer’s package



 

The Downfalls of Selling Your Own Products on and Offline



Relying on postal and courier services

Trusting buyer’s word they will pay

Starting your own business and marketing everything yourself online

Having to keep invoices, receipts and do all the posting and packing

No online support or technical help

Running your own website without much knowledge of the internet of HTML



 

Selling affiliate products for Commissions

You can also join online affiliate programs and sell products or other services for online merchants. You will be able to make money by getting leads, website visits and by selling the products. The commission varies with each program and with some you can even build your own sales team and make extra money from the revenue they make

The Pros of Selling Affiliate Products



All marketing and advertising material is provided free of charge

Online technical support and often a free affiliate website

An affiliate URL which take you directly to the merchant’s website

Bonus commissions, incentives and extra performance payouts

Part of an online community

Can build your own sales team to make you more money

No post and packing charges or order forms to fill, the affiliate website does it all for you



 

The Downfalls of Online Affiliate Programs



You can lose sales if your affiliate link is hijacked

You only get a percent of your sales

Sometimes the affiliate program closes down suddenly and you lose referrals and money

Some affiliate urls are not search engine friendly which means you have to do a lot of indirect advertising

Can be hard to promote affiliate websites as your link will always redirect to the merchant’s site

The affiliate program may ban you and close your account if you do not keep to their terms and conditions

Your referred members and sales team may decide to cancel their membership losing you revenue



 

If you look at each of the reasons for the 2 different types of online sales you can go through them and look at ways to overcome any difficulties. Internet Marketing Gurus have covered all these points and have found out easy ways to market any product online. The knowledge they have is easily available to the newbie online seller. It can be hard to sell products online but some marketing experts make $100 000’s every single year just by creating their own products and selling them online or by selling for other merchants.

It is up to you to decide how you are going to make money online and start up your own home business. You can do either, sell your own products or someone else’s but which ever one you decide to do it is a good idea to go over the ways in which you can market the products you are selling over the web first and find easy solutions to any problems you may have that could lead to a loss in sales.

For more information on selling products online, affiliate programs you can join for free and lots of advertising and marketing tips and resources visit my blog Mailboxmoney. To see a blog which is used to promote affiliate products and how it works visit Cybershopping



KENDALL

Kirsten Whittaker asked:


A steel garage is a perfect addition to any home. Steel garage doubles as a shelter for your vehicle, storage for tools and equipment, and can even serve as a working space for a do-it-yourselfer. Steel garages have become a favorite among savvy homeowners, as they are flexible, easy to build and very affordable. With a steel garage, you can store one vehicle or even a truck or a boat, even though you cannot accommodate a guest apartment or an office there. In any case, you can always choose a garage building plan that suits your needs without sacrificing space or look of your property.

When built according to garage building plans, a steel garage can cost you up to 40% less than conventional garages. With a steel garage, you can add a roof of your choice, install the doors and windows right where you want them, and of course, you can pick materials you can afford.

When picking a garage building plan, you must decide what your family needs. Would that be a two-car garage or a simple tool shed? With a clear idea in mind, take a look at your property and find a suitable space. You need to make sure that the garage has an accessible driveway and connection to the house for water and electricity. Avoid damp areas, if your property has them. To find the balance in form and function, you can add a steel garage to the side of your house. In fact, most garages today are attached to the house. Check your building permits and local building codes to make sure you don’t violate any of them.

Steel garages are fairly easy to assemble, but even with the simplest plan, you need to consider if you have enough time and expertise to build the garage by yourself, or maybe you need to hire a contractor to finish the job. As for the tools, most of them you might already have. If not, you can always rent them instead of buying. The garage building plan will list all the tools you need. Expert constructors recommend having all tools on site before beginning construction.

Steel garage building begins with precise marking of the excavation area. Most likely you will need a contractor to excavate the area and build the garage foundation with anchor bolts enclosed.

When the foundation is ready, you can raise walls. Before lifting the steel sheets into place, make sure the bottom is correctly positioned. At this stage ensure you have some help with lifting and holding the wall in place while fixing it in.

The roof must be built immediately after you have finished constructing the walls to avoid any weather damage inside the steel garage. Roof trusses will sustain loads only when they are vertical. Carefully lift the trusses and set them in place. Now you are ready to add roof sheathing. Polyurethane or particleboard is the most common material.

Steel garage building plans allow you to build exactly the garage you have in mind to fit in perfectly in whatever style home you have. Best of all, complete steel garage building plans are available for any project with blueprints and detailed walkthrough for every stage of the construction.



CHRISTIAN

Simply Self Storage asked:


Usually one knows pretty far in advance when they plan to have a garage sale or a yard sale. Maybe it is something that you do on an annual basis. During the course of the year many people may drop off things that they think will suit the upcoming sale or maybe you run across things here and there that could be sold. Some people see things in other people’s trash and grab it real quick with the future garage sale in mind.

While this is all a great idea, the problem is likely that you are accumulating this stuff all around your house. It might be jamming your garage, maybe it is filling your basement, and maybe your yard looks like a salvage yard but whatever the case may be there is no reason to continue on like this. If you rent a mini storage unit near your home (there are plenty) not only can you eliminate all of the build up around and in your home by dropping it off at the storage unit but you can also use the unit for preparation when the time comes nearer for the sale.

If you are very organized then as you drop off the stuff to the unit you will categorize it so it is somewhat easier to deal with later on but for those that are not so tidy, the unit itself will make a big difference in the end and in maintaining your sanity. The nest time your sister drops off a bag of clothes that her children have out grown, it’s off to the unit rather than on your living room floor for days before it gets hauled to the garage or the basement. Plus, consider that you need to keep your garage as accessible as possible as that will be the place to be once your sale is up and running.

If possible, place things in tote according to category, separate clothing at least by gender and separate kids clothes from adults. When it comes time for pricing it will be a lot easier. The cost for a small mini unit is very lean so just reimburse you at the sale. Often there is more than one person conducting or participating in the garage sale, if that is the case split the cost.

When the time gets nearer to the actual event you can use the storage unit and a work station for pricing and setting everything up then all you will have to do is move it to your garage and there will be tables and racks just waiting to accept it in the most organized manner possible. The stuff will be priced and all set to go. More importantly, you didn’t have to run around your house trying to get it all together.

A yard sale is a great way to purge space taking items that you no longer need, but someone else may need, and at the same time earn some cash. For the yard sale to be successful, it needs to be organized well. Start sorting. Organize your yard sale in the same way you look for things in a department store and sort your items by category, i.e. kitchen items, appliances, linens, household items such as lamps, throw pillows, clothes, luggage, sporting goods, auto, etc.

Without being organized with a defined goal and plan intact, you will likely not be very successful. That is one of the main reasons that renting the storage unit is so great! It is a work station away from home, your own little private space to set up your sale. Advertise your sale in the newspaper, on the internet, use flyers and get the word out. Make sure you know how much lead time you need to place an ad. The day of the sale, make sure you start early! Yard sale shoppers are early birds and will sometimes line up a good half hour or more before your advertised sale time.

This will be no problem for you because you will have set everything up the day before when you visited the storage unit. At this point you should have cleared out the unit and fulfilled your contract so that what is not sold must either be donated or tossed. The purpose of the storage unit is only to get you organized in the preparation and success of your upcoming sale. The idea is not to keep adding stuff throughout the year anticipating selling it the following year.



AUBREY