Fazzles Creative Living Newsletter Archive
 

Creative Living - Home, Business and Family...

Welcome to the 12th Edition of "Creative Living."

Thursday, August 7, 2003

Hi ryan!

Last issue I had problems mailing to those of you on aol.
This time, I am sending from a different email. I hope that
does not confuse you.  It's still Creative Living!

In this issue we have:

 1.) Article:  Starting an EBay Business
 2.) Hot Craft Tip:
 3.) Recipe:
 4.) On Parenting: -
 5.) Home Tool Tips:
 6.) Car Tool Tips
 7.) Tasteful Joke
 8.) Reader's Questions:
 9.) Editor's Word Pick
10.) Last Minute Reminders
11.) Inspirational Quote

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Starting an Ebay Business - An Online Business Model
that Works

THE REALITIES OF AN INTERNET BUSINESS

Millions of people are still coming online each year, and many
of those people come to the Internet with dreams of making their
financial dreams come true.

The truth is that building a website to sell products and
services is not the easiest way to make a living online. A lot
of specific knowledge or money will be required to be successful
with a standard website.

You must acquire skills --- or pay someone who already
possesses those skills --- in the following areas:

· Graphic design
· Copywriting
· HTML design
· Perl or PHP programming
· Database programming
· Marketing research
· Promotions


When this is understood, most people throw their hands up in
frustration and walk away from their entrepreneurial desires.

Maybe cash is the problem; maybe the desire is just lacking.

If you have reached this point yourself let me offer one piece
of advice...


DON'T THROW AWAY YOUR DREAMS JUST YET

More people than I can count are making a successful living
online, and none of them own their own website or send a single
commercial email to anyone.

How is this possible?

Two words, *Ebay auctions.*


EBAY MAKES IT EASY

Ebay covers all of the difficult technical issues. And more
importantly, Ebay already has floods of visitors eager to
purchase your wares.

Ebay has provided everything you need to operate a successful
business online with three exceptions:

1. Products to sell
2. Time to list the products in the Ebay database
3. Cash to acquire the products


CHOOSING THE KINDS OF PRODUCTS

Before choosing your products, you should ask yourself what you
enjoy the most. You may enjoy cats, NASCAR or even antiques.
You should select products consistent with what you enjoy for
two reasons.

First, you bring to your presentation a real appreciation for
the products your are offering.

Secondly, a job you hate is one you will quit. A job you enjoy
doing will be one that you will want to keep forever. If you
are starting your own business, the hope is that you will be
doing it for a very long time.

I personally know people who have generated a nice living on
Ebay selling cat-related items, NASCAR memorabilia and antiques.


FINDING THE ACTUAL PRODUCTS TO SELL

I recommend against diving in and spending thousands of dollars
buying products that you may or may not be able to sell.

A drop-shipper is a middleman who is willing to permit you to
buy an individual product, and then they will put your business
name on the return address of the product package and handle
the actual delivery for you.

By utilizing a drop-shipper, you can speed product delivery to
the client without risking your own cash to keep a product in
inventory.

If you are lost as to how to find a drop-shipper, consider
subscribing to the drop-shippers directory:

 http://thePhantomWriters.com/drop-shippers_directory.html

Through this site, you can get all of the information you need
to find drop-shippers from which you can order over 500,000
products from over 1,000 brand names.


LEARNING TO LIST YOUR PRODUCTS AT EBAY

Learning to use Ebay is pretty easy and straightforward. Ebay
has put forward a lot of effort to help people to become
successful. For example, Ebay has an entire area of their site
devoted to the online entrepreneur.

To get an overview of all of the services and tools that Ebay
provides to sellers, you may visit:

 http://pages.ebay.com/services/index.html

Ebay also delivers courses and strategies to help you to be
more successful:

 http://pages.ebay.com/sellercentral/index.html


THE IMPORTANCE OF CASH FLOW TO YOUR SUCCESS

Ebay provides tools for both buyers and sellers to rate one
another. The speed of delivery is one of the most important
factors that sellers are rated on. By providing quick delivery,
your buyers will give you a good rating --- and more shoppers
will bid on your products.

Ebay recently purchased PayPal.com to help facilitate purchases
for their buyers and sellers, and they have integrated the two
systems together.

Unfortunately, getting the money from your PayPal account to
your personal account generally takes four days. Even with a
merchant account, the time gap is nearly the same. This time gap
expands the turn-around between the transaction and delivery of
the product unless you take action to speed the process.

If you were doing high volume, you would want to minimize the
handling of a transaction to reduce the chance for a foul-up
and to increase your ratings within the Ebay system.

But how can this be accomplished?


MANAGING CASH FLOW

While you could rely upon credit cards to get the job done, it
is not something I would recommend. Paying credit card interest
rates to process your customer's purchase, is an unnecessary
burden.

Instead, put a sum of money into a dedicated bank account with
a debit card attached to it. When you verify a transaction has
been credited to your PayPal account, then use your debit card
to immediately process the order with your drop-shipper.

But, how can you do it this way on a tight budget?


THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO THE RESCUE

Let me ask you this. Do you have a 401(k) account?

Experts advise that you not touch your retirement savings for
anything other than retirement income. That is good advice.
Fortunately, it is possible under special circumstances to
acquire loans against your 401(k) accounts.

Beginning in 2002, even the self-employed small business owner
with no employees could open his or her own 401(k), called a
solo-owner 401(k), and borrow from it just as employees with
big companies can.

Weigh this option against the others available to you. It only
makes sense to take out a loan rather than to take a hit in
heavy taxes and penalties for drawing your retirement money
early. Seriously, consider taking advantage of our historically
low interest rates to meet your cash flow needs.

To learn more about creating and borrowing from a solo-owner
401(k), please visit:

 http://www.investsafe.com


IN CONCLUSION

It is wise to choose your new business venture based on a model
that has proven itself over the long-term. Ebay has been proving
its concept since 1995; helping thousands of people build a
successful and very profitable business.

The time to act is now. Choose the product line that will give
you the most satisfaction and then get busy. Your success awaits
you.

Written by Bill Platt

Bill Platt owns The Phantom Writers, a company committed to
helping people to establish an Internet presence & promote
their businesses through the use of Free-Reprint Articles and
Press Releases. Articles are distributed to 6,000+ publishers
& webmasters as part of the package. http://thePhantomWriters.com
Do you write your own articles? Let us distribute them for you.

********************************************************
Craft Tip:

When doing projects such as stuff with glue guns, and
glitter, consider putting your project supplies on an old
cookie sheet.
It keeps things from falling, and is easy to store and
bring out again with your work.

~~~~~~~~~~~
Recipe:
~~~~~~~~

SLOW COOKERY RECIPE
Crockpot Lasagna

1 lb. ground beef
1 onion, chopped
1/8 tsp. garlic powder
2-15 oz. cans tomato sauce
1-6 oz. can tomato paste
1-1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. dried oregano
1-12 oz. carton cottage cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
12 oz. lasagna noodles, uncooked
12 oz. shredded mozzarella cheese

Brown ground beef and onion in skillet. Add garlic
powder, tomato sauce, tomato paste, salt and oregano.
Cook long enough to get it warm.

Spoon a layer of meat sauce onto the bottom of the
crockpot. Add a double layer of uncooked lasagna
noodles (break to fit) and top with cheeses. Repeat with
sauce, noodles and cheeses until all are used up.

Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours.

Serves 10.

Submitted by:
Nancy Webster
Kanaloa LLC
http://www.kan2.com
mailto:2nan@kan2.com
~~~~~~~~~~~
Weight Loss Tip:
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Drink water.  Anytime you start searching the
refrigerator, just stop and drink water.  Wait and
see if that helps.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Safety Tip:

Summer Safety Tips
http://www.aap.org/advocacy/archives/summertips.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~
Parent Tip:
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Many people tend to compare kids such as: their speech,
and their weight. Is little Johnny doing things as fast
as little Priscilla?
Children grow at different speeds. One child may
roll over early, and talk late, while another talks early
but isn't very coordinated yet. The funny thing is they
all tend to catch up with each other.

Though, I personally trained my kids early,
mostly because that was my preference, and I
didn't like spending money on diapers (back
then, for me, it was a big consideration)

It has come to my attention that parents should
have the right to change diapers for as long
as they want and not worry about what others are
saying.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Household Tip:
~~~~~~~~~~~~
I had a friend over the other day. I was cleaning
peelings off my counter......  I did my usual, brought
out garbage can, pushed the stuff into the can and
then swiftly wiped my counter.
"Wow, my friend said. "That's clever."
Well, I had no idea that other people did not do
this.  So, have added it in for a tip.

************************
Car Tip -
You should not drive when you are sleepy.

One truck driver said that a sure way to stay
awake is to open your window, put a 100 dollar
bill in your hand and put your hand with that money
out your window.  Hmmmm

If you are drowsy, protect yourself, your passengers
and other drivers on the road - get off the road until
you are rested. Nothing is more important than your
life.

~~~~~~~~~~~
Tasteful Joke
~~~~~~~~~~~~
A customer was continually bothering the waiter in a
restaurant. First, he asked that the air conditioning be
turned up because he was too cold, then he asked that
it be turned down because he was too hot, and so it
went for about a half an hour.

Surprisingly, the waiter was very patient. He walked back
and forth and never once got angry. Finally, a second
customer asked the waiter why he didn't throw out the pest.

"Oh, I don't care," said the waiter with a smile. "We don't
even have an air conditioner."


********************
Editor's Word Tip on Commonly Misspelled Words
~~~~~~~~~~~~
awful
exciting
meticulous

*************

If you have a question that pertains to this
newsletter, please hit reply and send it in.
If you have some advice in any category to offer,
please hit reply and send it in. If you have any hot
craft tips or an article, we are interested
in those too!  And recipes, and anything else you
would like to share.

Inspirational Quote:

"A bank is a place that will lend you money if you can
prove that you don't need it."
    
Bob Hope, quoted in Life in the Crystal Palace by
Alan Harrington

(I will miss Bob Hope, what a remarkable man he was)

Congratulations are in order for Ryan, co-owner of this
newsletter.

New Baby for Ryan and Jan
owners of www.wrapcandy.com
Born July 29th, 2003
Devin James Sawyer
http://www.tipsfortop.com/devinjames2days.jpg
~~~~

I have just read the most inspiring book, written
by Mike Litman. My mind has been going like
crazy.
"Conversations with Millionaires"
What Millionaires Do to Get Rich
That You Never Learned in School.
I could not put it down. It's Powerful.
Check it out now!

http://www.tipsfortop.com/inspiring.htm
   
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thank you for being my reader!

Teresa King

Creative Home Living
is sponsored by
http://www.tipsfortop.com
eBooks and Marketing
and by
http://www.candykit.com
Personalize Candy Bar Wrappers
for Fun or profit with Ryan Sawyer

If you would like to recommend this newsletter to a friend,
please do so. The best way is to write them and tell them
where they can sign up. http://www.fazzles.com

 

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