Here is an interesting business model combining a well populated Twitter profile with eBay’s affiliate program. The amount of leverage that a Twitter profile commands is determined by the same factors which determine the leverage of a RSS Feed or an email list, namely the size of your following and the focus of your niche.

For our example let’s consider the niche of high end men’s watches. So you build up a large profile on Twitter by tracking terms like “Rolex”, “Omega” and “Movado” and then adding as many of these enthusiasts as possible to your profile. (more…)

If you want to get rich you should seriously consider studying unconventional business models. Simply put, if everyone is doing it, it is probably not that profitable. By studying those in our field that are not following the crowd we can begin to gain inspiration for our own revolutionary ideas.

I realize some people may not want a “revolutionary idea” because such ideas carry with them a large deal of risk. However as marketing expert Seth Godin puts it in his wildly popular book Purple Cow, “Being safe is risky.” Taking risks whether they be in marketing or designing a business model can result in facial ticks, nervous tremors, sweaty palms and occasionally angina. These risks will not make your life more convenient in any way shape or form, but as we like to say here at Feedback Secrets, “convenience is expensive”.

So since we are a site that is interested in internet marketing, one of the best ways for us to get un-convenient is to study those in our industry who are using unorthodox business models of their own. The inspiration for this post comes from fellow internet marketer Michael Conquest. Michael informed me of a technique for making money with eBay that I had not heard of previously.

The technique revolves around making money as an eBay affiliate. The eBay affiliate network was previously maintained by a site called Commission Junction, however over the last few months eBay has been in the process of switching to its own in-house affiliate network. eBay’s new network is now online and working and you can find it here.

Obviously there’s more than one way to drive traffic as an eBay affiliate, but the method which was suggested to me was to search Craigslist.com for people looking to buy specific items. After compiling a list of potential buyers you could email them with the link to an eBay auction for the item they were looking for in hopes of collecting the affiliate commission. Of course you could also use this method to promote your own eBay auctions.

I am not suggesting that this method is a path to riches, or even that you should try such a method. What I am saying is that this is an excellent example of “thinking outside the box” when it comes to an eBay based business model. That is to say, when people think, “how could I make money on eBay” this strategy is probably not the first thing that comes to mind.

Seek out wacky and unorthodox businesses models and study them, the practice may well lead the creation of your own million dollar idea. For more information on Michael Conquest you can check out his site, ConquestEmpires.com.

Tags: eBay, Internet Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, eBay Affiliate Program, Craigslist, Unorthodox eBay

No, this is not the formula to turn lead into gold… then again maybe it is. There is a simple formula that everyone in internet marketing should know regarding how to monetize web traffic. Making money online all starts with web traffic. If you have any questions regarding how important web traffic is to your online business check out Myth #1 of our free ebook, “The eBay Myth”.

The traffic that you direct to your site is usually filtered through a “conversion piece” that exists on your website. This conversion piece could be “buy now” button on your site that allows them to purchase your own product or an affiliate product that you market. This product could be a physical product that gets shipped to your customer or it could be an electronic product such as an ebook that requires no physical shipping.

As an alternative to a physical or electronic product your chosen monetization channel might be ad-based. While there are many advertising networks as well as self managed web ads, Google AdSense is by far the most popular of the advertising networks. If you choose to go the ad-based route then a simple click on of your ads is a successful conversion. More…

The CNN Money article, “eBay backlash: 5 sellers who ditched it” by Stacy Cowley, tells the story of 5 online business owners, whose businesses seem to have stopped selling their merchandise on eBay. Some of these sellers seem to basing there current business model on marketing there own webpages while others appear to have transitioned to eBay alternatives such as Amazon.com, eCrater.com, and others.

The recent changes that eBay has announced regarding its fee structure and feedback system for the U.S. version of their site seem to be creating quite a stir among eBay sellers; it should be interesting to see how these changes play out. One of the positive themes that seems to be consistent in most of the companies profiled in the above mentioned article, is that they appear to be taking an active role in marketing their online business.

Whether these business owners were taking an active role in their marketing while they were still selling on eBay is difficult to determine from the article. Whatever the case may be, having such a hands on approach to marketing should only help their online success.

If you were to build a table, would you consider building one with only one leg? How about if you were building a business model, would you build a business model with only one leg? I think that the table analogy is a good one for business models. At some point the number of supports may become too many, but one is almost certainly too few.

People ask me,” can you make good money with an eBay business?” That question makes my cringe, just a little, every time I hear it. You see anyone who has an eBay business has an online business, since eBay transactions after all take place (at least in part) online.

So a much better question, in my opinion, would be…”can you make good money with an online business?” The problem with the first question is that it can cause a kind of tunnel vision that I find limiting. If you are thinking only in terms of eBay there is a potential danger of missing the bigger picture. More…

Pick a niche, any niche… let’s say cigars and cigar related accessories. Since according to eBay’s “Prohibited and Restricted Items – Overview” eBay does not allow the sale of tobacco products through the U.S. version of its site (except possibly for some special circumstances) you can sell cigar related accessories on eBay and reap a harvest of physical addresses. Every time you make a sale on eBay you will be gaining a prequalified lead. These buyers are prequalified because not only are they interested in cigars, they are interested enough to spend money!

Even if you make an average profit of zero dollars per sale from your eBay auctions you should be happy. With every sale you will be gaining something of significant value, something that will pay dividends in the future. As your direct mail list grows you will be building a gold mine for yourself that you can mine for years to come.

Drop Shipping is a business technique that is central to the business model of many successful eBay businesses. If you were to use a drop shipper then you would have an arrangement where you would act as a salesperson for a broker or preferably a wholesaler. You would be able to get “XYZ” product at a certain price. The idea would be to then turn around and sell “XYZ” on eBay or anywhere else at a price equal to your costs + a mark up for yourself.

Here is the great thing about drop shipping. You don’t need to have any inventory on hand. The theory is that the wholesaler / factory that you work with has an abundant supply that you could not exhaust, so you do not have to worry about running out. This is great because you don’t have to invest in or store any merchandise.

I know a lot of people who have tried to start businesses and been wiped out after they bough their initial inventory, and then were unable to move it. That is one of the great things about drop shippers; they allow you to test the waters of a particular niche without having to commit a large sum of money. The other great thing about drop shipping is that you don’t have do any SHIPPING! The wholesaler usually does it for you. You take in the payment from the customer and you take down his address, then you pay the wholesaler and give them the customers address and they ship it for you!!!

Here is one of the cons of drop shipping, usually factories want as many sales reps as possible so many times you will have competition. As we talked about in our last post perfect competition is bad for your business. This is where marketing comes in.

If you have your own customers and / or leads who you regularly communicate with then you can send them directly to your auctions. If your customers and leads trust you then chances are much higher that they will buy from you even if you are priced higher than your competition. This happens not only because they trust you but also because you can direct them strait to your auctions! This is much better for you than if they had searched eBay because had they done so there would be a much better chance of them seeing your competition in the search results page.

This is post just begins to touch on how marketing can help slay the perfect competition dragon. We will be continuing to analyze this topic in future posts.