Erik’s Blog: Board Shorts and Business Suits

I bought the latest issue of Forbes Magazine which is their special Billionaires Issue. I figured the list would be a couple hundred people long but come to find out there are 793 people in the world with over a billion dollars in assets. $1,000,000,000, now that’s a lot of money. United States leads the world with the most billionaires at 371 with Germany coming a distant second at 55, followed by Russia and Japan with 33 and 27 people respectively.

There were 102 more billionaires than last year with countries like India and China adding 10 and 6 new billionaires due to huge gains in stock markets and outsourcing. Millionaires are becoming old hat around the world. It’s just not the same when thousands around the US become millionaires yearly.

Here is a list of the top 25 Richest People in the World.

1. Bill Gates $50
2. Warren Buffet $42
3. Carlos Slim Helu $30
4. Ingvar Kamprad $28
5. Lakshmi Mittal $23.5
6. Paul Allen $22
7. Bernard Arnault $21.5
8. Prince Alwaleed $20
9. Kenneth Thomson $19.6
10. Li Ka-Shing $18.8
11. Roman Abramovich $18.2
12. Michael Dell $17.1
13. Karl Albrecht $17
14. Sheldon Adelson $16.1
15. Larry Ellison $16
15. Liliane Bettencourt $16
17. Christy Walton $15.9
17. Jim Walton $15.9
19. S Robson Walton $15.8
20. Alice Walton $15.7
21. Helen Walton $15.6
22. Theo Albrecht $17.0
23. Amancio Ortega $14.8
24. Steven Ballmer $13.6
25. R, T & W Kwok $11.6

Two other notables are Sergey Brin and Larry page or Google coming in at 26 and 27 respectively with $12.9 and $12.8. Dollars are in Billion of Dollars. Good Luck all you chasing the dream.

Are becoming an entrepreneur? I am not sure if I ever wasn’t (?) an entrepreneur but the last 2 months have put my creative juices into overdrive. 2005 saw me buying and selling surfboards through Craigslist, selling silver bullion on ebay, and starting to use google adsense as a primer into online advertising. In 2006 I hope to expand on the knowledge I gained from those 3 experiences and march ever closer towards my goal of becoming a millionaire in only a few years.

In order to get there I strongly believe you need to surround yourself with people who are willing to share your excitement with whatever you are trying to accomplish. I have been feeding my drive through reading blogs like Yaro’s and Steve Pavlina’s, but more importantly through my friends. Within the last month 3 people close to me have begun entrepreneurial endeavours of their own. Cesar, Kevin and Courtney, and my brother have all jumped in, feet first, to the world of online entrepreneurship.

Cesar, for starters, has been mentioned several times within this blog. A former co-worker, he is in the transition stage of moving from Honolulu, Hawaii where he had a steady job as an engineer, to L.A., where he plans to stay job free for as long as possible. Check out his blog at FleetheCube.com where he discusses how he is becoming an online entrepreneur. His current projects are working on domain state, building content based niche web pages, and thinking or more creative ways to park his domain state like his page BuyiPodVideo.com.

Kevin and Courtney - Kevin is my old college roommate who lives in Chi-town with his fiance (Courtney). He an I have big plans for the future, involving business ventures, but for now we are learning what we can with our respective jobs; he trades options on the CBOT and I am an engineer at a BioTech. He and his fiance have also been developing a great little product that I think will be a huge hit, especially here in Hawaii. The basic idea behind it is a pillow you can take to the beach that breathes and is comfortable. The real design is in the pillow case which is removable for use with your favorite pillow. I won’t try and describe it much more, I just direct you over to their great site at Sandillow.com. He is on his way learning about the ins and outs of both product design and marketing.

Lastly my brother, Jeremy. He has really jumped into the online business world and is taking on multiple projects at once. He is currently investing a lot of time into managing product sales on eBay, trying to find his market and make a name for himself. Check his products out at his eBay site. Along with that he is developing several other sites with great potential. Jeremy has a very creative side which he is trying to explore and capitalize on. There will definitely be more to write about in the not so distant future. I have also joined forces with him and we have come up with a great online venture we hope to publish and promote within the next month or so. Stay tuned for more on that.

These 3 people are just a sample of those I love to surround myself with. People not afraid to take the risks associated with entrepreneurship. All of us want financial independence and the ability to be our own bosses. Go check out all their sites and help support their projects. Spread the word even. As for what you should do after that… Find some people with similar goals and feed off of each others drive. Knowing someone close to you is trying their hardest will only make you want to succeed more.

Aloha,
Erik
2006 is the year of the online entrepreneurs

Ever typed in a domain name cold turkey wondering where it will lead to? I have and supposedly thousands upon thousands of people do it everyday. When you’ve type in one of these common everyday used words you have probably ended up at some site resembling a normal search results page like that from Google or Yahoo. What you might not know is that all the links on those pages are paid advertisers going through a central advertising agency. The type of traffic these websites make money from is mainly type-in traffic like I just explained.

Like real estate domain state is all about location. A good type-in domain name can be like having a pizza joint on the main road through a college campus. That company could make the worst pizza around but they still manage to make some money by offering the service at the right location. Words like candy and cellphones can have huge amounts of traffic and be listed on page 3000 of Google. Having a huge network of links is also a bit like having a good location. Getting your links on high traffic sites can be difficult but if you do, just driving traffic to your site can be enough to make a few dollars a day on those that click through your ads. These ads are usually provided by hosting services like Sedo.com or Google’s DomainPark. They get all they advertisers, set up your page, and all you do is forward the domain to them. End of Month, Receive Check.

The more difficult way to increase the value of your domain name but having the most potential to earn income is to build a content rich site. Once you have people visiting through search engines you can add some ads here and there or use affiliate linking to generate click-through income. This last group would be more like your sky rise apartments, hotels, health clubs, or malls. The more revenue you can generate from providing one of these services the more the property is worth.

Ultimately you can keep your domain names and or content rich sites to earn a passive income stream. Or you can get in the market of buying and selling domain state just like a real estate developer would buy and sell properties. This is just what a growing number of people are doing. There are some out there who have domain portfolios which include over 300,000 domains names, with countless others having several thousand. (If you can’t find what you’re looking for at Netfirms or GoDaddy chances are one of these people has what you’re looking for. Sure they’ll part with it. For a price.) In an article published in Business 2.0 about domainers and specifically one domainer with a portfolio of 101 names. One of these was cellphones.com. A simple site parked not fancy graphics or content, just ads. It generated at the time $1300 a day average. His portfolio was purchased for $3.6 million. Yes, 3.6 million dollars. If the site keeps up, which undoubtedly it will, the purchasing company will be able to break even on just that site along in 8 years. Try that on 3.6 million dollar home, hotel, or mall property.

I currently own 15 domain names and am trying to grow my portfolio weekly. I am also developing some of the sites, this one included, while keeping track of any type in traffic should I plan to sell off the domains later. Most I will try and develop with content or services as I see this to be the most profitable long term passive income stream. I can reinvest whatever I make in other ventures as they arise. I will keep you posted as to my progress and any publishing of the sites I may do. One I will have up by the end of the month.

There are still many domain names out there and many more to come. Take for instance avian flu. Not even on the map before this year. Whoever snatched that domain name up is probably making a pretty penny as you read this article. As new words are developed so will follow type-in traffic. Don’t forget the developing of content rich or service providing sites that will make a name for themselves and become standard everyday lingo. Look at how well blogs such as Gizmodo and Engadget are doing.

Who knew what a google was before Google came along?

If you liked this read you may also like:

How to Increase Traffic to your site within the first 2 weeks
Becoming a Millionaire
Wrap Text Around AdSense or Chitika ads

Sorry to those of you who have been regularly following me. I have had some problems with my WordPress software which is helping me create this blog. I have been spending some time figuring that out. With a little help from a friend I am back up running at full speed. Also….

I recently embarked into a partnership with a friend of mine. We are working towards a service involving podcast transcription and have been very excited about the possibilities. The project is evolving as we go along and opening a lot of dialogue between the two of us. We both have great ideas for services and business models and both come into the partnership with different ways of conveying our ideas.

At first I was put off by some of our exchanges. I am not saying I am not open to teamwork. I have played on teams my whole life, worked at team oriented jobs, and started other “projects” which I guess you could call businesses with others. I have of course had team members that I didn’t see eye to eye with, and definitely members that I couldn’t stand working with. But in a team setting with more than two people I was able to turn to the others to help and tune the bad apple out. When you form a partnership, two members, that’s all there is. You can’t turn to the next guy for some sympathy.

This type of situation forces you to adapt and learn. If you don’t your project or business will deteriorate into nothing. Now sometimes the partner you are working with will be just unbearable and you won’t be able to work out a dynamic no matter how hard you try. If you feel you have done all you can don’t be afraid to move on. New opportunities will arise even if you feel this was the one, don’t waste your time. Other times you will come across a business partner that is open to free exchange of dialogue even if you yourself are the difficult one.

This is the case with my current business partner. At first I was not too into the open dialogue thing. I am one of those people who gets really excited about an idea and then just go, go, goes. I figure I’ll work out the details as I go along and mistakes are just minor bumps in the road. My partner on the other hand is someone who thinks through things in a way that sees a lot of the problem areas before they occur. To me it felt like he was shooting down my ideas. This obviously frustrated me a bit. The problem was I was getting too defensive and not seeing the comments for what they were, good ‘ole fashion product development.

Not wanting to give up on the idea we kept talking things out. This is a key step, if both parties are still excited about the venture keep the dialogue going even if it creates more tension. We did this and eventually my issues with the situation were brought onto the table. Really it wasn’t a big deal but it was a huge step in my learning to develop close business partnerships. My friend pointed out that we just didn’t have a good business dynamic yet because we were still learning each others styles. This was spot on. I tended to be overly enthusiastic to the point where I could have made a turd in a box look like a saleable item, whereas my partner was looking at each crazy idea we were developing with an open mind, thinking of both the positives and the negatives.

Once I was able to see that these idea exchange conversations were leading to more concrete and realistic ideas specific to what the market needed I then realized this type of business partnership had great potential. We have since been able to explore several business models related to podcast transcription as well as several general service models within this realm. We are both hopeful for our business. We also feel the same way about using it as a learning experience even if it fails miserably.

Conclusion
What I really want to get across is that with any team or partnership you start, not just businesses, you need to step back and see what each member is contributing to the team. Once you do this you can then see how each person’s styles have the ability to complement yours and those around you. From here idea exchanges will not be tense situations but rather rapid brainstorms which compound to more brainstorms and so on and so forth. Only progress can come from these situations, be it successful or unsuccessful.

Stay tuned for more on the podcast transcription service. We are close to a launch date and will have more information soon.

Surfing is synonymous with Hawaii. People visiting, vacationing, or moving here usually want to give it a try. Once those people moving to the islands are hooked they will want to buy a board. Most won’t wait around or learn where a deal is, they want it now and will spend upwards of $400 for a used board. When they move they’ll end up selling the board for a loss last minute because they forgot about it and need to unload it fast.

It took me a while to notice that there was an opportunity here to make money. I was like those people I mentioned. I bought my board for $350 as soon as I could. This is still a good price for a board but not as good as if I would have known where to look and waited it out. Once I realized this and got done kicking myself I woke up and took it for what it was. A learning experience that I could make money off of. Buy a good used that is popular in the area then resell it for more to those who don’t know where the deals are.

Now this type of business can apply to many different places selling many different things. Take for instance college campuses. Every fall new people move into college towns all across the nation and every summer they move out. People sell, give and trash all types of things that could be collected and stored for a few months just to be turned over to those incoming freshman for a profit. I am sure there are many more situations where people sell things last minute for a loss ,you just have to start looking around you.

The example I have implemented myself is buying and selling surfboards. Take what you will from it and apply or improve the methods that I have used. Giving it a try will allow you to become good at selling things which in business is half the battle.

1. What to Sell
2. Where to Buy
3. Negotiating - Part I
4. Advertising the Goods
5. Negotiating - Part II
6. Improving Profits

1. What to sell

Like any business you need to make a profit. For used goods you should be looking for something which people sell last minute for a loss and that those coming in usually buy used at a higher price. For me it was surfboards. Everyone moving into Waikiki is looking to buy a board. Everyone moving out is usually selling a board. Those moving in buy it cause they love it after their first try or because they want to fit in. I was lucky and found a product that people want right away and can’t really drive a few extra miles to get a better deal (being on an island and all).

Most people, like me, are too impatient to wait around for a lower priced board. The only other way they can surf is to pay a $10 rental fee. Within 10 days of surfing they could make up for the $100 difference if they just payed it now or so I assume the mentality goes.

Waikiki is also close to the University of Hawaii. There are a lot of students moving back to the mainland that will take a big loss just to cover a last night out of partying with friends. Look around your area. Colleges are great places to find deals and to find that good that you can make a profit from. Just be observant and I bet you’ll see something to you can make a dollar on.

2. Where to Buy

My surfboard selling business got started because I saw an advertisement for a few at my condo’s posting board. If you live in an apartment or condo you probably already know that these are great places to find deals. If you don’t live in one start wandering into the lobby’s of those nearby. You’re bound to find a deal sooner or later. just keep looking.

The next obvious place is the classifieds. Although the classifieds in your local newspaper are a good source, chances are they aren’t free and people need to charge a little more to cover the cost of the ad. The classifieds I am talking about are those in the backs of free newspapers like college newspapers, local freebies, and the current events papers. These always have deals because people can post for free and don’t feel they have to overcharge in case they don’t get a lot of takers.

Online. Craigslist. This is a nationwide online classifieds service that is free, easy to use, and wonderful. If you haven’t been there, GO!. You’ll find tons of stuff you never thought you needed. The sections are divided by major metro areas so search the one that’s closest to you. I actually bought most of the boards on craigslist and then just resold them on craigslist a week or two later for a profit (often for $50-$100 more than I payed!)

There are of course many online classifieds all over. Just google classifieds and your city or metro area name. You’ll find something.

3. Negotiating - Part I

There are two things you have to think about for the buying part of your negotiation.

First is that you have to go in thinking about what you can sell the product for. For me I had price breaks in my head for several sizes of boards, 6′-7′, 8′-9′, then 9′ and over. I also had prices for the different board shapes. This is where I would start then if I already saw a picture of it and new the condition the price would be pretty much set before I even started talking with the person. If I didn’t know the condition I would do some quick thinking while I was first looking at it. In order to know what you can sell your product for you have to have a pretty good idea what people will pay. Look around at the ranges for what people are buying and selling, see what has been in the classifieds for longer and what has been in shorter. When something isn’t posted very long it is either a great product or the price was way too low and more profit could have been made. The time will vary depending on what you are selling. For surfboards 3 days was usually a long time for me to see a board on craigslist.

Second you need to realize that the people you are buying from are usually in a hurry to sell. This is good for you, it gives you room to squeak out a little more profit. If you see a great deal don’t start too far below the asking price but still ask less, most people post for higher than they are willing to sell. If you go too low though you may offend the seller and they won’t deal with you. Start reasonable and work your way back towards the asking price. If the seller is really looking to get rid of it and you gave a reasonable price you’ll more than likely complete the deal without much negotiation at all.

4. Advertising the Goods

Where to advertise is simple. Post in the same places I described above in where to buy. You may need to wait a week or so between when you posted and when you bought, but more than likely no one will remember the previous post that you bought from, especially if there wasn’t a picture.

When you advertise include a picture! People want to see what your are selling. Even if the board looked junky I would post a picture on craigslist. People respected the honesty and if the price was respectable called anyway. When describing the board I also tried to add in where you could use it, who the board would be geared to, and tried to make it comical as well. People like humor and will be more open to contacting you if they know right off the bat that you aren’t grumpy.

5. Negotiating - Part II

Now you must resell the product. In my case within hours of posting a surfboard on craigslist I would get a call or an email. Usually these were just people trying to get a feel for how used the board really was, but often there were people who would setup a time to meet right away. When selling things through classifieds out of your residence you have to be open to other peoples schedules. Try and be as accommodating as possible, this will open you up to being nice and people will be more willing to pay what you asked.

When you meet them be honest about what you are selling. For me I sometimes would stretch the truth about how many times I used it but found it easier to just let them know I liked to buy boards, use them and sell them. Most of the time if you found the right product to sell no one will care that you are acting more like a middle man.

Finally be set on your price. If you have a product like the surfboard that a lot of people are willing to pay quite a bit for you don’t have to be that flexible in your price. My guess is you already have had a few people want to meet you and you can tell the person you are currently negotiating with that you have someone else interested. This is usually a great way to weed out those people that really want something from those just looking for a deal (or looking to do the same thing you are).

Remember that sometimes you just can’t sell the product and you may need to take a loss. Use it as a learning experience and don’t make the same mistake twice.

6. Improving Profits

Improving profits is usually done on the buying side of things. Keeping an eye out for a deal is the best way I found to improve profits when reselling goods. A lot of times I was able to wait someone out and not call right when I saw the posting. Yes I lost a few deals but I was also able to get some great deals as well that made me $150 profit in best case scenarios.

Getting more people interested. Posting in as many free places as you can is a great way to get people interested. The more people that see your ad, the more people that will call you, the more people you can say, “Sorry, I don’t want to take less right now because I have so and so stopping by later.” Saying this will cause some to call your bluff, but if you aren’t bluffing then the joke is on them.

Mostly have fun, what fun are profits if you don’t enjoy the selling.

I hope you have learned a little bit about starting an on-the-side resale business and maybe even something about becoming a good salesperson. Even if you are like me and only able to sell surfboards for a little while (craigslist has become a hit and usually there aren’t boards for less than $350 any more) you will get to learn sales and improve your skills as a business person.

As I write this the price for gold is at $493.00 per ounce while silver is at $8.15 per ounce. Gold’s up nearly $200 from 5 years ago and silver up nearly $4. With the economy shaky and the dollar sinking the year 2000 couldn’t have been a better time to invest in precious metals. If you’re like I was you are probably are thinking, aren’t gold and silver bars for royalty? The answer is no. You can probably walk down to your local pawn shop or jewelery shop and chances are good they have some bullion for sale. Bullion is the term used for precious metals in bar or coin form. Common sizes are 1, 10, and 100 ounces.

Now rather than going to the store right now and easier way might be to look on the internet. eBay has hundreds of people selling bullion, the only problem is once all is said and done with shipping you end up paying $4-$5 an oz over spot for silver and $20-$30 per oz over spot for gold. Spot is the current price or market price for the metal. The good thing about eBay is you can buy in low quantities.

The other online source for bullion is buying direct from the mint or from a reseller. The problem here is you end up having to buy at least 50 and sometimes 100 bars or coins to keep the price reasonable. On the plus side these places sell at about $0.40 over spot for silver and $10 over spot for gold.

You may have already seen it by now but doing the math shows selling bullion on eBay has the potential to make for a decent profit margin. Now you may be asking, If you are able to buy down the street or online for cheaper then sell it on eBay for a profit why isn’t everyone doing this? Well, not everyone can buy larger quantities or have stores which sell bars down the street from them. And quite frankly I don’t think everyone knows that this exists. There are a lot of ways to make money on eBay but selling silver bullion doesn’t cross my mind first. If you have a source near you can probably start with as little as $20-$50 like I did. If you don’t and have $500 to $1000 you can start no problem and get the profits going faster.

In my experience I have found that for silver bullion you make between $2 and $5 and oz profit. This all depends on whether you sell them in singles or multiples and how much you charge for shipping and handling. I get into this later and explain the different combinations. With gold there is the potential to make a lot more profit, possibly $100 per sale. The downside is that there aren’t as many people on eBay looking to spend $500 repeatedly. (Later I also talk about combining shipping and getting people to buy more)

I have sold a few bars online, mainly silver, and made money on all of them. The reason for me stopping is because living on Hawaii I have but one shop that sells bullion and they ran out quickly. I would have been able to buy online but shipping from some of these mints to Hawaii can be extremely expensive and cut into profits. Apparently they all think Hawaii is a different country. However on the mainland or anywhere else you can find bars to buy, this would be an absolute gold mine (excuse the pun).

I have found a way that I know will make money for someone out there if they only knew how to go about it. Like any repeat selling on eBay you must become good at selling. The good thing about silver bars is you are unlikely to loose money selling on eBay because with precious metals the market doesn’t tend to make big swings in a day. You should be able to get rid of the remaining bullion you own if the market goes south.

I have collected some tips to get you started. The follow are things I learned and how they can get you on your way to making a million dollars.

1. Finding a Bullion Source
2. Gold or Silver, 1 oz. or 100 oz.
3. Setting up an eBay and Paypal account
4. Posting your Silver or Gold
5. Shipping
6. Optimizing Profits

1. Finding a Bullion Source

Local source
I was able to find a good (short-term) source for silver bullion right down the road from where I work. It is a jewelery store that buys old jewelery and other precious metals and then resells them along with their own jewelery supply. You probably have one of these stores near you. Check in your local yellow pages or check online.

Local Jewelery Store - Most of jewelery stores will give you a fair market price of $0.40 to $0.70 per oz over spot on silver and $5-$10 per oz over spot on gold. The only problem is that unless they get a steady supply from a mint you will probably buy all of their bullion fairly quickly. If you do find a good store to deal with ask them if they will buy the bullion and that you will pay a fair market price for it. Sometimes they can get it through sources that otherwise wouldn’t deal with the public and get it for a better price.

Pawn Shop - Expensive. These places are all about a profit. I have never bought gold or silver from one and not sure if I ever will. If you can find an owner that will part with their bullion for cheap more power to you. I just wouldn’t spend a lot of time searching one out.

Online Source
Buying bullion online is really easy to do and can be the most cost effective if you buy in large quantities. You can either go directly through a mint or through reseller. Buying directly through the mint is the best idea. Their prices are around $0.70 over spot for silver and $7 for gold. If you buy from a reseller you’ll get a larger variety of bars but you will also end up paying more for each. Sometimes the variety will land you a couple bars that you can sell for more but the cost difference might be too much for it to be worth it.

Online Mints:
Northwest Territorial Mint - if you look on eBay this is where a large number of the bars come from. I never bought from them but if you do I don’t think you will have any problem selling them off.
The US Mint - the us mint sells a lot of rounds and not as many bars. For some reason the rounds don’t sell as high as the bullion bars on eBay.
The Perth Mint - In Australia this mint has some interesting pieces that might be worth something on eBay

I would also search out some phone numbers for mints online. You could just call them out of the blue and see what their prices are.

Online Resellers:
There are countless numbers of these, if you Google gold or silver bullion you’ll see what I mean. Some of the ones I reviewed and looked at going through are:
California Numismatic Investments - If you want to to buy a lot of gold or silver from a lot of places this seems like a great place to buy from. They have a variety of Mints and a variety of sizes.
Goldline - Sells pretty cheaply if you buy in bulk, down to $0.35 over spot for silver!
Bullion Direct - This place has everything you would ever need. Their prices can be a bit steep sometimes but they’ll have deals you just have to keep going back.

2. Gold or Silver, 1 oz or 100 oz?
Next you have to decide if you should sell gold or silver and what size you should sell. My personal experience is in the silver market. Unless you have a lot of money silver is going to be the easiest way to go. At current market price you can buy 100 bars for less than $1000.00 and make a decent profit. As I stated before for every 100 silver bars you sell you will probably make $200-$400. There are ways to make more you just have to optimize your process. Gold tends to be harder to sell and there aren’t as many people buying large quantities online. However, the profits are a lot greater. For 1 oz you could make $40 to as much as $100 profit. The only problem is if you notice the people that are bidding on it they are usually the same 30 or 40 people. This is a much smaller market to corner. Silver has a lot of people all going after bars from a few eBay dealers.

Which do you sell 1, 5, 10, or 100 oz? These are the most common sizes of silver bars. In my experience your profits can be greater with 1 oz. bars. The reason for this is because you can sell them in lots of 1 or more. I found that selling silver bars in lots of 3 brought the greatest profits. People routinely are buying three bars for $35 or more plus paying $7.95 shipping. Doing the math; let’s say each bar you bought was worst case $0.70 over spot so you’re at $8.85 X 3 = $26.55. Then shipping supplies $1 and shipping with insurance $3, your total cost is $30.55, worst case. Now if you sold the 3 for $42.95 that would produce a profit of $12.40. Not bad considering you can sell them with a 3 day auction on eBay and you can comfortably have 10-20 auctions up at any given time. (There are bullion sellers that have 40+ auctions up at any one time)

The 5 oz bars and up are good to get a variety out there but they don’t offer as much flexibility in your sale price. I never tried this but I am sure there is a way to optimize profits here and find a great market for larger silver bars.

3. Setting up an eBay and Paypal Account
Setting up an eBay and Paypal account is pretty easy. Just go to eBay and follow the instructions then go to Paypal and do the same. If you need further instructions on how to create and use eBay try this site.

4. Posting your Silver or Gold
Picture, you need a picture. You shouldn’t post anything on eBay without a picture, and definitely not bullion. People who are buying it need to know that it isn’t tarnished or damaged. Most buyers also want the silver to come in a protective case. Protective cases usually mean that the silver hasn’t been scratched which could cause it to loose value from a loss of metal. Here are some examples of the pictures that I have posted.

Use different combinations of pictures and see what works best for you.

Make the pictures show how shiny the silver is. If you bought good silver this shouldn’t be a problem. You also need to remember to try and show the name of the mint the bars came from and also the serial number. Silver bars usually have a serial number on them so show this and try and mention it in the text section of your post.

I would keep the category as silver bullion but there is some cross referencing you can do that might optimize profits. Look around and see where others are posting.

5. Shipping
Ship priority mail. It’s the cheapest. Also you don’t need anything fancy, just ship in a bubble envelope and wrap your bullion in newspaper. You may start getting fancy with custom labels that promote your new bullion eBay store but this isn’t needed. Also make sure to ship with insurance and include this in the price. It isn’t that expensive and most people want it. Plus it saves you from fraudulent buyers claiming to never have gotten their product.

Use US Postal Service online. You can print labels right from your own printer and have your mail person pick the packages up. You can do it all while sitting on the couch watching TV. This is the easiest method and most cost effective. You can estimate weight or buy a scale. Each piece is 1 oz and the envelope will weigh less than half and ounce.

6. Optimizing Profits
The following are tips I used to make the most selling silver on eBay.

1. Offer multiple item shipping discounts for items bought within a certain time period. This entices a lot of people to bid on that extra piece of silver they might not have otherwise bid on. If they win, fine just drop the extra bullion in their envelope and be done. If they don’t that’s fine too, they just helped up the price of your bullion.

2. Multiple bar sales! Sell single 1 oz bars but don’t over do it. Profits can be greater when you sell in multiples. I have seen bids exceed $5 per oz over current spot on auctions containing 7 bars. That’s a $30 profit (after you deduct what you payed over spot) before you even include shipping and handling.

3. Don’t make your money on shipping. Too often I see people charge double what it actually costs to ship. Why? As a consumer I just search for a different vendor and I expect you would too. Charge a fair shipping and handling fee. Remember that it takes time to package and ship the product so you don’t want to under charge. The US Postal Service has everything online now so you can weigh your items, create a label and print your postage right online with your own printer. You can also have them pick it up from your house at no extra charge! People know this and will pick out a shipping fraud when they see one.

4. See what people are buying. Sometimes a certain mint or Assayer’s bars will be going for more than others on eBay. I am not sure as to the reason because I am not a collector. If you know, then you might have an advantage and can see it before another seller does. If not don’t worry. Just keep an eye out for what other people are selling and their final sale price. When one bar type sells for more try and get your hands on it. Doing so could mean some extra profits for a small bit of research.

There you have it. That’s how I started a business on eBay. Pretty simple and s I mentioned the process can be refined a little more for greater profits. Just stick with it and you could easily be making an extra $500 a week from an eBay business.

Did you know that in 2004 there were 8.2 million households in the US that had a net worth of a million dollars or more excluding their primary residence? Well neither did I. But msn.com knew. 8.2 million households. If we figure that each household has two income earners that means there are now 4.1 million people equivalents that are millionaires. That comes out to an average of 82,000 per state. This means the chances are good that you will drive past or walk past a millionaire (or millionaire couple) every couple of weeks if not days. Chances are probably good that you already know a millionaire.

So I bet you’re thinking to yourself, if there are that many people out there that are millionaires why aren’t I? Well I have been asking myself that question for the past couple of years. When I was a freshman in college I stated the goal that I would become a millionaire by the time I was 27. Well I have now just turned 24 and I am in debt. Big time. Approximately $90,000 in debt. $88K of which is due to undergraduate student loans and $2K of which is due to credit card debt. The circumstances are too long winded to discuss how I got myself into such debt as an undergraduate but it mainly deals with 4 things:

1. Not preparing enough to get scholarships (I come from a middle class Caucasian family, not too many scholarships out there for us)
2. Making the decision to go to an out-of-state college
3. Getting cancer
4. Not earning enough during school to help pay off loans

Let me first state that I wouldn’t complain about any of the decisions I made. I enjoy where I’m at, I am still with the reason I went out of state, and I have learned a lot from cancer.

Ideas that may work for you

Getting past that lets get down to how we are going to make a million dollars in three years. Since moving to Hawaii I have sold silver bars on eBay, I have resold surfboards, and I am currently starting web pages. Selling silver bars on eBay is a good racket if you have a good source for silver. If you can find a place where you can buy 1 oz silver bullion bars at $0.75 or less over spot (the current market price of silver) you can resell the bars on eBay for $1-$5 dollars over spot and then, as some do, even make money on the shipping and handling. Now if the market crashes in a two day time and you have a lot of silver on hand your SOL. However, look at the prices for that last 20 years, pretty steady with trends up and down. If you see it trending down and are worried, post a lot. If you don’t believe me go to eBay and check out the prices.

Next up is selling surfboards. I began buying surfboards because I saw a good deal one day on craigslist and decided I could try it for a week then sell it and make money. Turns out I made $100 on the first board I sold. Within three months I had bought, tried, and sold 15 boards and made $1200. Bad thing was people started catching on to craigslist and would sell them for a price where I could only net a $10-$30 profit. A lot of work for such a little profit. If you live in an area where people move in and out a lot I suggest finding a product that can only be used there, checking the classifieds, or craigslist, and buying and reselling. You sell in the same classifieds you bought from!

These are the only two businesses I have tried to start since moving to Hawaii. The bullion business slowed because I had no easy way of getting silver bars. The other, as explained.

These two businesses are great but they don’t accomplish one main thing. Earning passive income, letting my money work for me. When I was in college a roommate of mine told me of this book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad. I didn’t read it until this year and I had to kick myself at all the ideas I could have come up with in college to make money.

Within the book, Rich Dad Poor Dad the author Robert Kiyosaki explains how the rich have their money work for them while the poor work for their money. Interesting concept and it can be as simple as putting your money in a savings account. The way Robert Kiyosaki makes his money work for him is through real estate. He buys a house, apartment, or complex and then rents it out. This way someone else is paying his mortgage payments and possibly generating a small stream of cash while he waits for the property to increase in value. Even if it doesn’t increase he makes money from the principle payments every month.

Now this is no big secret, people have been making money off real estate for quite a while but it’s the idea behind the example. The author says his Rich Dad tells him to use his mind to make money then let the money make him money. (If you don’t have the book, get it. It’s cheap and a quick read. I have already bought a copy for my brother.)

How do you use your mind to make money? Simple you think of ideas. Just look around you at what you use every day. What could be improved? What could be easier to obtain? What service have you always wanted, chances are so does someone else.

How I’m going to make a million dollars

Although I don’t have the how down just yet I am much more motivated to get there after realizing I am just 3 years shy of my goal. My current venture is in designing web pages an finding a way to use them to make it for me. This has both aspects talked of in the Rich Dad, Poor Dad book. First off I will be using my mind to generate useful content and then having that useful content generate money for me. Did you know there are people out there making $5K to $10K a month just through advertising on their websites! I know this is not the case for everyone out there but why not me? I won’t know unless I try.

This whole idea behind generating income through a website is nothing new. I have actually tried before although it was furthest from a try. I started a website for about 10 days and had no useful content what-so-ever. Then for the past year I have been discussing with people the possibility of starting a few sites here and there but nothing came of it. Then my girlfriend and I were discussing a new site idea and the very next day one of my co-workers showed me a site called The Million Dollar Experiment. That was it, that night I signed with a hosting service and was on my way. Within a night I had a site up and running. I signed up through Netfirms who has a great service that generates web pages for you. It’s a blogging service called WordPress and is easier than ever to use.

So here it is, making a million dollars is added to the list. In the beginning I realize that things are going to be slow. The process of getting people to come to your site is tough and you need to be persistent with writing good useful content and getting your search rank up. Of course I am wondering are people going to want to read something about trying to become good a things, or everything for that matter. Won’t know unless I try. Stick with me as I try new things and learn the easiest ways to do this.