Couple Money » Entrepreneurship

Earning More Money By Selling on eBay

Elle — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 13:07:05 +0000

This post is a part of Women’s Money Week 2012, where bloggers are sharing experiences, ideas, and information that will help women speak up about money, take control of their finances, and reshape their financial futures. For more posts about entrepreneurship, see womensmoneyweek.com.

I Don’t Have Time for a Second Job!

When I was thinking of ideas on how to earn more money, I started looking at some older posts to see what worked for readers. I also wanted to find something that could generate income without requiring a lot of time. Not everyone can get a second for various reason, so I need to find something that
could be done from home.

One money earning idea that has worked is selling your stuff. Instead of focusing on Craigslist or yard sales, I’m using eBay. It’s possible to make a bit of money on the site; my sister did quite well while in college as a seller.

How to Sell Your Stuff for More on eBay

Selling on eBay isn’t impossible. Selling on Ebay and making enough money to build an emergency fund, pay for a vacation, or pay down debt takes a bit of work. I’m sharing some tips on how you can get more money for your stuff.

Price to Sell

Go ahead and check out eBay and Google shopping to see what your stuff is actually worth. If you want to sell you have to have competitive prices. You don’t want to be a sentimental seller- if you have doubts about selling your stuff, then just keep it for now.

Sellers are conflicted about using a reserve price, but not having one helps you get your stuff out of your home, which may be reason enough. Less clutter and a bit more money can be a big boost.

Share Pictures That Sell

Don’t just take one picture of your item and think that will be enough. Make sure you take pictures that show the item in different angles, assuring buyers they’re getting a good deal. Take pictures in a well lit, clean room. Small details like that matter to buyers.

Describe It Effective

Don’t just give the basic information about your item(s). Make it appealing by being descriptive. Stuck on what to say? Check out the descriptions for competitive items from the power sellers.

Get inside the head of your potential buyers and think about what they would type in to find your item.

Thoughts on Selling on eBay

That’s just a few tips on selling on eBay. I’m going to interview my sister this week and I want to get answers to your eBay questions, so please leave them in the comment section. It’s possible to make a good bit of money -Donna Freedman from Frugal Cool was able to get $1,200 from selling one item on eBay!

I’d love to get more feedback from you guys! How many of you have sold eBay? What tips do you want to share?

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Unconventional Guide to Publishing

Elle — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 18:38:52 +0000

I went ahead and bought Chris’ Empire Building Kit when it first launched and found it incredibly helpful with optimizing some of my business. He’s just released a new one today and this time it’s aimed for those interested in getting their book published. He’s partnered up with David Fugate, a veteran literary agent who has sold 1,000+ books to dozens of publishers.

What’s Included in the Unconventional Guide to Publishing?

As with other unconventional guides, there is a ton of information and resources that not only give you an overview of the process, but actual guides to help, including:

supplemental interviews
recordings
transcripts
sample contracts & proposals
Q&A with various editors

There are 3 customized versions you can get the guides, depending on just beginning on your book or if you’re getting your book out sooner. No matter which one you select, each version includes the main PDF guide and FREE updates for life.

The Hemingway ($129)

For everyone ready to get on the fast track to publishing their book… now. Get this one if you don’t want to waste any time.

The Monster PDF Guide. A huge, 45,000 word report written by master agent David Fugate, chock-full of sound advice on how to make your book a success.
Video interview on Book Marketing with Jonathan Fields. The bestselling author of Uncertainty (Portfolio 2011), Jonathan is also the founder of Tribal Author, a community that helps authors develop careers that lead to multiple book deals.
An extended audio interview with Chris Guillebeau on community building and how it relates to publishing. Learn how Chris pursues both traditional publishing and self-publishing to grow his audience and reach different kinds of readers.
Three 25-minute MP3 audio interviews with editors from Crown, Hudson Street Press and Little, Brown about what they’re looking for from aspiring authors.
PLUS! An additional interview with David Fugate explaining the book proposal process and why traditional books will continue to thrive
Detailed transcripts of all interviews and audio sessions

Special Deal

For the first three days, there are three special rewards for early birds:

25% Discount on the Hemingway (Get it for $97 instead of 129)
Extended Q&A conference call with David Fugate, veteran literary agent
Chris Guillebeau will personally review your community-building plan

To take advantage of the deal, use this link when you buy the guide. The deal ends midnight PST on Friday, January 13th, 2012.

The Austen ($79)

This version is designed to help you get your book proposal accepted and get you started on writing your book.

The Monster PDF Guide. A huge, 45,000 word report written by master agent David Fugate, chock-full of sound advice on how to make your book a success.
An extended audio interview with Chris Guillebeau on community building and how it relates to publishing. Learn how Chris pursues both traditional publishing and self-publishing to grow his audience and reach different kinds of readers.
Three 25-minute MP3 audio interviews with editors from Crown, Hudson Street Press and Little, Brown about what they’re looking for from aspiring authors.
Detailed transcripts of all interviews and audio sessions

Click here if The Austen version suits your writing and publishing needs.

The Fitzgerald ($58)

For those starting out on the idea for their book and want a frugal option, this guide will give you the information to let you test the waters.

The Monster PDF Guide. A huge, 45,000 word report written by master agent David Fugate, chock-full of sound advice on how to make your book a success.

Three 25-minute MP3 audio interviews with editors from Crown, Hudson Street Press and Little, Brown about what they’re looking for from aspiring authors.
Detailed transcripts of all interviews and audio sessions

Click here if The Fitzgerald version suits your publishing needs.

Whatever you choose, I wish you the best on your publishing dreams!

Thoughts on the Unconventional Guide to Publishing

How many of you are interested in becoming an author? If you’re curious about starting a business, but you know publishing is not for you, please check out the complete list of all his guides on his site.

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How to Check Out a Business or Company to Avoid Getting Scammed or Ripped Off

guest poster — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 13:04:10 +0000

Here is a guide to help try to avoid being cheated or scammed by a business or company and check out or evaluate a company for free before you decide to pay them money for services.

Over the years a common theme has emerged where people feel they are scammed by a company or taken advantage of and it appears they have not checked them out before giving up their hard earned money for services. Here is my guide on what to do to help you from being a victim.

Checking out a company or business before you pay them a lot of money is smart and prudent. It can help keep you from being ripped off.

The largest issue I see when people are in trouble and looking for help is they tend to run to the first company that claims they can help them and they suspend commonsense or prudent measures and hope the company will perform the services they claim to be able to. It isn’t till later that people find out that the claims made may not have been true and then they are left in a worse spot and struggle trying to get their money back.

How to Check Out a Company or Business

There is no one surefire way to checkout a company so feel free to add additional suggestions in the comments below. Here is what I suggest doing.

What is the Company Address? Ask the company to provide the physical street address where they are located if you were to visit them. Many companies hide behind a mail drop or postal center address.
While it is true that some startup companies do legitimately use these mail centers to receive mail, it is also true that may fly-by-night outfits use them as well to shield themselves. They will close the mailbox and move on to the next thing.

If a company is not substantial enough or can’t provide you with a physical street address then you may want to consider if they are going to be around if a problem occurs.

If they do give you a physical street address with a suite number, do a Google search for that address and suite number. Many of those turn out to be virtual office spaces. They look like legitimate addresses but a little checking will show you they are just a fancier version of the mail drop mask.

You might want to suggest you are going to be in the area and you’d like to drop in unannounced at their address. If they try to talk you out of that, that might make you wonder why.

You can use the street address to take a look at it from the street using Google Maps. That can be extremely enlightening.
Is the Company Registered? It’s easy to check to see if a company is licensed these days. A simple google search for ‘[state] corporation search’ will typically get you the link for the state you are searching so you can do a quick search of the the state records to see if they are registered.
You will want to check the state in which they say they are located and your state. It is surprising the number of companies that are not licensed to conduct business in their own state. While a company may be operated as a sole-proprietorship and may not be a registered corporation or LLC with the state, that will at least give you a good idea how big they are and if they claim to be a “corporation, nonprofit, or LLC” they should be registered.
Is the Company Licensed? If the company is selling you some sort of financial service or debt help, the chances are that their state and your state require some sort of licensing. This is true for both for-profit and nonprofit organizations.
If a company is selling you debt help or a loan, they most likely should hold a state license or be exempt from licensing. Ask them for their licensing information to be able to provide a service. If they claim they are not required to be licensed, you can use the free debt relief compliance module to check if that is true.
Recognize the Role of the Person is You Are Talking To. Typically the person you are talking to on the phone is either paid a commission or evaluated on one thing, making sales. The intentional or unintentional effort of a representative is to persuade you to use they services and enroll as a client with them. Don’t feel pushed. You need to understand the representative may say a lot of things that don’t wind up being supported in writing. They may engage in puffery or misrepresentation to get you to pay them money for services.
If a company is attempting to sell you services and using the telephone, they must comply with the FTC Telemarketing Sales Rule.
Ask the Company to Put Their Performance Claims in Writing. If a representative is willing to tell you they have a great success rate for the services they are selling, then they should not hesitate to share that data with you. In fact the Federal Trade Commission has some very clear guidance about how a company should do that.
May I base my advertising claims on the experiences of some previous customers?

Yes, but your sample must be representative of the entire relevant population of your past customers. To accomplish this you must, among other things, use appropriate sampling techniques, proper statistical analysis, and safeguards for reducing bias and random error. You canâ€™t cherry-pick the most successful examples to inflate your results.

If you advertise or represent that your customers will save a certain amount of money or reduce their debt by a certain percentage â€“ for example, â€œWe can settle your debts for 40% to 60%â€ â€“ your statements must be truthful, and you must have objective proof to back them up. Your claims must accurately reflect the results youâ€™ve achieved for previous customers. Itâ€™s important to consider the message your claims convey. Under the law, the FTC looks at claims from the point of view of reasonable consumers. Therefore, what matters isnâ€™t the literal accuracy of the words you use, but rather your proof to support the â€œnet impressionâ€ your message conveys. For example, claiming that your past customers have achieved â€œup to 60% savingsâ€ is likely to convey to new customers that they, too, will get savings of around 60%. If you donâ€™t have solid proof to back that up, the claim is deceptive.

Here are several important requirements for making sure your savings claims are truthful and not deceptive:
1. State the savings based on the customerâ€™s debt when he or she signs up for the program. You may not inflate savings figures or percentages by including interest and fees the credit card company adds after a customer signs up for your program.
  
  Example 8: Andy signs up with a debt relief service offered by Company H, owing $10,000 on his credit card. One year later, following negotiations with the credit card company, Company H negotiates a settlement allowing Andy to pay $6,000 to resolve the debt. However, since Andy enrolled, the credit card company has charged him interest and late fees totaling $2,000, so that Andy now owes $12,000. By getting a settlement for $6,000, Company H has saved Andy $4,000 ($10,000 minus $6,000) or 40% of the debt at the time of enrollment. It would be deceptive for Company H to claim to have saved Andy $6,000 ($12,000 minus $6,000) or 50% of his debt.
2. Include the impact of your fees on the claimed savings. You may not inflate your savings claims by excluding the fees your customers paid you.
  
  Example 9: Betty owes $10,000 on her credit card, and signs up with Company Jâ€™s debt relief service. Company J gets a settlement allowing Betty to pay $5,000 to resolve the debt. However, at the time of settlement, Company J charges Betty a $1,000 fee for its work. It would be deceptive for Company J to claim to have saved Betty $5,000 â€“ or 50% of her debt â€“ because Betty also had to pay $1,000 in fees. Instead, Company J may truthfully state Bettyâ€™s savings as $4,000 ($5,000 minus $1,000) or 40% of Bettyâ€™s debt.
3. In calculating the results youâ€™ve achieved over time, you must include customers who dropped out or otherwise failed to complete the program. Donâ€™t base your savings claims only on customers who successfully completed your program.
  
  Example 10: Company K had 10 customers signed up for its service. Each one had $10,000 in unpaid credit card debt for a total of $100,000. Five of the customers completed the program, and each saved $5,000 â€“ for a total savings of $25,000. The remaining five customers dropped out of the program, each one still owing the $10,000 they owed when they signed up with the program. Taken together, Company K has saved its customers $25,000 â€“ or 25% â€“ of the total $100,000 debt they had when they signed up with the program. It would be deceptive for Company K to exclude the drop-outs and claim that it saved its customers 50% of their debt.
4. Include all debts enrolled by your customers, not only those that have been settled successfully. In calculating your savings claim, you may not exclude accounts you failed to settle, even if the failure was due to customers dropping out of your service.
  
  Example 11: Company L has 10 customers, and each of them enrolls two $1,000 debts in the program â€“ totaling 20 debts or $20,000. Company L is able to settle 10 of the 20 debts, each for $500. However, it was unable to settle the remaining 10 debts before those customers either completed or dropped out of the program. Thus, Company L has saved its 10 customers $5,000 or 25% of their debts in the program. It would be deceptive for Company L to exclude the 10 accounts that werenâ€™t settled and claim a savings rate of 50%.
While the FTC examples apply specifically to debt settlement companies, the examples can also be used as guidance for other debt help. For example, the success rate of a mortgage modification or credit counseling program.

Nearly all credit counseling programs will not put their performance numbers or success rates in writing. That should certainly make you wonder why.

Here is a good example of a credit counseling group that does put their performance measurements in writing and you can use that to evaluate what you should expect from other credit counseling groups.

For example, if a company is trying to sell you mortgage modification help for thousands of dollars, certainly they should be willing to provide you with documentation to show how successful they have been. And even supply performance data with your specific large lender should be on file. If they are unwilling or unable to provide you with such data, that should make you hesitant.

Remember, their data must show the performance of all clients enrolled, not just successful clients.
Check With the Attorney General Office. You can find the current Attorney Generals’ listed here. The links to their websites will be there as well. You can contact the Attorney General office in your state and their state to inquire if there are any complaints on file. The Attorney General office may also be able to help you determine if the company should be licensed to provide the services they are selling you and check if the company is licensed.
Check With the BBB. Don’t even get me started on the BBB. While there have been some valid criticisms of the BBB, they still remain a well recognized repository of complaints and company information. You can search a company here.
A BBB rating is not in and of itself the singular clue you should check. I think the companies response to previous complaints is more important. Check to see if previous complaints resolved satisfactorily? Does the company have complaints they’ve never responded to? For me, that’s more disturbing.

Also look for how many recent complaints the company may have and the type of complaints. If they are complaints about the product or service that should be a big red flag for you.
Search GetOutOfDebt.org. If the company is going to sell you debt relief assistance and people have had a problem with them in the past, they may have already appeared on the GetOutOfDebt.org website in either an article, reader question or a consumer complaint. The search box for the site should be somewhere up near the top right.
Is a Lawyer Selling You Financial Help Services? If you are being asked to pay a large amount of money for financial help services like mortgage modification or debt help by a lawyer, it is only prudent to find another attorney licensed in your state and pay for a second opinion, first.
A second opinion will allow you to get a better idea if the claims being made to you are realistic and reasonable. There should be no problem in any attorney being comfortable with their claims when reviewed by another attorney licensed in their state. Think about it like this, do doctors complain when you as for a second opinion about a medical condition? No.

You can also check to see if the attorney is licensed to provide legal service by going to the website for the Bar association in the state.
You MUST Read and Understand the Contract Before You Sign It. Long legal agreements are boring to read. That’s a fact. The average person easily gets lost in all the tiny print and legalese. That’s normal. But you need to understand that the contract you are signing is what you are agreeing to, not what the representative told you on the phone.
I’ve seen plenty of contracts that say No Refund even though the representative told them there was. I’ve also seen plenty of contracts that make you agree that there are no guarantees or ask you to waive some of your rights away. And then there are the contracts that even say that everything you were told on the phone is not valid.

If you are being asked to agree to pages and pages of text, you must understand the agreement is written to protect the person selling you the services, not you. You absolutely must understand what you are agreeing to before you sign the document. If you don’t understand, ask for clarification in writing or take the contract to a lawyer licensed in your state and ask for a second opinion. Consumer advocacy lawyers can be located through NACA.net.
Print Out The Company Web Pages. If you feel you are going to use the services of a particular company and you have relied on statements on their website or their website as a whole, print out those pages and keep them in a safe place. They will come in handy if you have a problem with them in the future. Also, save every email the company sends you and print all documents they send you and keep all that information is a safe place you can get to it if a problem arises.
Do a Web Search. Before you do anything, do a search of the web for consumer complaints. You can search by company name and also search for their phone number.
Individual consumer complaints may not be real, valid or accurate but it won’t take long for you to recognize a pattern of complaints. It’s the overall pattern that creates a red flag for me.

For example, not every customer is going to be happy. That’s a fact. But it’s how the company handles those customers that’s more important for me. I even wrote a guide on companies can handle upset customers and it’s a good guide on what you should look for and expect from a good company. Read How to Handle a Consumer Complaint Like a Pro And Come Out Smelling Like a Rose.

What I have observed is online consumer complaints that are then followed by glowing comments. People that are unhappy, complain and shout. People that are happy may post some comments on review sites but they don’t typically run around responding to every unhappy complaint. That’s the mark of someone trying to neutralize complaints, not respond to them.

In my opinion, ideally what you want is a company that will work hard to resolve any issue that might arise, not get upset over it and attack.

Use the complaints you may find online and the responses as an example of the integrity and professionalism of the company.

That should be an excellent start for you to check out a company or business before hiring them. If you follow my advice above you will have done more than 98% of people do before hiring a company.

The information you learn will help you to make a well informed decision if the company is right for you.

@GetOutOfDebtGuy

Author: This article was contributed by GetOutOfDebt.org, a site that provides free help for people looking for advice on how to get out of debt or getting out of debt.

Source: How to Check Out a Business or Company to Avoid Getting Scammed or Ripped Off

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50/50 Challenge Winner

Elle — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 13:51:05 +0000

50/50 Challenge – So Much Support

Thank you for your help this weekend. When I started planning the 50/50 Challenge I knew that there would be a few great challengers. I was ecstatic to see that I was right; in fact I underestimated how well you did. Many of you shared your goals and progress through out th month of November.

I was especially touched by the support given by family and friends of the finalists. You have some incredible people behind you. I can see why the finalists went as far as they did. I wish everyone the best!

Congrats to Julie!

After tallying up all the votes, I’m happy to announce that 50/50 Challenge winner is Julie Anthony Murphy! Her husband spread the word about the contest and her friends stopped by to share their votes. I hope she gets to enjoy the Kindle Fire. From what I’ve heard it’s a incredibly handy tool and fun item. Please share your review Julie with us!

I also want to give a shout out to Darris’ son for leaving his vote for his mom. I think that was sweet and it’s great to see a family supporting one another.

Thoughts on the 50/50 Challenge

I hope everyone socked away a little bit of money from the challenge. Once everything comes in, I’ll be donating a portion of my earnings to Charity: Water. They give 100% of your donations to water projects around the world.

I’m also making a deposit into the car replacement fund. Based on some research I’ve done this weekend, we’ll be needing to build the fund up a bit more.

What will you be doing with the money saved/earned in November?

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50/50 Week #4 Recap and Review

Elle — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 13:43:06 +0000

We’re continuing the 50/50 Challenge and it’s time for me to share my own progress.

Money Earning and Savings Tips this Week

This week we continued with 4 more tips to help you save and earn a bit of money on the side.

We had two guest posts as we went out of town to hang with family and friends. I’m recharged and ready to finish out this month with a big bang.

My Progress

This week I’ll switch it up and share my progress with the Challenge this month. If you remember, I announced that my goal is $1,000. My plan was that half would be from cutting expenses and the other half would be more income from work. The good news is that I made my goal with earning more (in fact I may make almost $1,000 extra this month). The bad news is that I haven’t reached my savings goal. Yet. I still have 2 days to get it done, so I’ll be working today and tomorrow on finding some money.

Picking the 50/50 Finalists

Now that we’re in the last week, I wanted to remind everyone how the winner will be picked for the 50/50 Challenge. As a reminder the prize for the 50/50 challenge is the new Kindle Fire. This is a big challenge to undertake and I think it deserves a fun prize.

For those not familiar with the Kindle Fire, here are some features:

7″ vibrant color touchscreen
Over 100,000 movies and TV shows re available to stream or download, purchase or rent
Kindle Fire gives you free storage for all your Amazon digital content in the Amazon Cloud
Battery Life: Up to 8 hours of continuous reading or 7.5 hours of video playback

The contest ends November 30, 2011 (11:59 PM Eastern), so please post any progress and updates you’d like me to consider before then. I’ll be drawing the finalists on December 1, 2011 and will contact them. That’s why I need a valid email so I can contact you if you’re one of the finalists.

I’ll post the finalists here on Couple Money once all the finalists have confirmed their emails and Couple Money readers will then have until December 4, 2011 (11:59 PM Eastern) to choose their winner. If you’re a finalists, try to rally your friends to come over here and choose you when the entries are open. Spread the word on Facebook and Twitter if you want.

I’ll contact the winner and send them their prize. The Kindle Fire is for US Residents only. For Canadian and other international readers I will offer $199 via Paypal only. You must have an account with Paypal or you will be disqualified. You must be 18 or over to qualify for the prize.

So far, I’m already looking at some great challengers that all deserve to win.

Progress on the 50/50 Challenge

How are you doing with the 50/50 Challenge? Are you ahead or behind your schedule? What area(s) do you need help with? Do you have a question or topic that you’d like me to cover this week?

Photo Credit: Alan Cleaver

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