You MUST do this before starting an online business.

Want to make money on the internet?

Yeah? Cool.

Would you like to know how to do it?

Well… I’ll tell you right now.

You need people to buy stuff from you.

(More specifically… you need enough people to buy enough stuff from you at high enough prices.)

So why aren’t people buying your stuff?

Well… for many of you, it’s because you don’t yet have any stuff to sell. You don’t yet have a business.

We should probably do something about that.

I want you to have all the awesome things that you think having a successful business will give you.

I want you to work towards something you feel is important. I want you to feel free to spend as much time as you like with friends and family. I want you to wake up and smile. I want your world to be full of sunbeams and gold. I want you to have the life of your dreams.

Look. You’re obviously reading this blog for a reason.

Maybe it’s because you dig really bad jokes. Maybe it’s because you have a crush on my cartoon avatar on Twitter…

…But most likely it’s because you’ve thought about creating your own business. You’ve thought about making a change.

So why haven’t you done it?

Here’s what some people said:

• I don’t know what to do. I don’t really have any obvious area of expertise.
• I can’t think of anything original.
• I have tons of ideas. Some of them are good and some of them totally suck. But I can’t tell the difference.
• I’m scared. I don’t want to waste money on a bad idea.
• I’m terrified it won’t work out.

I understand all these concerns.

I have friends who have plowed years of effort and thousands upon thousands of dollars into businesses that failed.

And this makes me sad because, in many of these cases, all of this stress and worry and wasted time and effort could easily have been avoided with a small amount of simple market testing.

There is no reason at all why you should spend your precious time and money on projects that will not serve the best interests of you and your family…

…if you you focus on the right things.

The internet is a pretty predictable place, you see. And I’ve created a simple set of tests that will allow you to determine how likely an online business idea is to be profitable.

I run through a few of the concepts in the video below.

…but I want to give you more.

I’m all about over-delivery.

I’m serious about the sunbeams and gold.

I’m going to give you a complete Market Testing Kit for small online businesses.

It shows you step by step how to determine if there are enough people who want to buy enough stuff for enough money. You can do this without spending any money at all.

I also show you how you can actually make money as you test your business idea, without even creating a product or service yourself.

There’s videos and worksheets and checklists. There’s lightning bolt flow diagrams galore.

But I already have an online business. Will this help me?

This is will be of great value to anyone who does business on the internet, or wants to get started.

This is for you if you’re:

• thinking of starting a small online business, but have no idea how to do it.
• looking to move into another market
• an established business owner who can’t quite attract the number of customers you’d like
• looking to narrow your target market
• looking to widen your target market

Okay. So obviously this is brilliant. How do I get it?

Well it’s not quite ready yet…

This is a good thing because it allows you to get on board early and help influence the direction and content of the product.

And because I have favorites, you’ll get the opportunity to buy it at a significant discount when it’s released…

…if you sign-up to my advance notice email list.

So… if you think this rocks and you’re interested in finding out more, then please add your name and email address below and click submit.

Shortly afterwards you’ll receive an email asking you to click a link to confirm. Do this and you’re registered and good to go.

I like a clean inbox as much as you do. I won’t use your email address for anything other than information about this product. And I won’t do that very often.

Thanks for your help and support!

JJ Jalopy.

P.S. Did you remember to enter your email address? No? Why are you being silly? This is awesome.

P.P.S. The first person to sign-up after I publish this gets a poem written especially for them and published in my next post. (Likely Haiku or Limerick.)

P.P.P.S. This is a different list to the V.I.P. list that my newsletter goes to. (I know that not all of you lovely V.I.P.s will be into this, you see.)

P.P.P.P.S. Mrs. Jalopy appears in some of the videos and she’s really pretty.

Wet People WANT to be Sold Dry Cleaning

Surprise! It’s me!

Yes. I realize that, as surprises go, my re-appearance on my own blog is not going to rival any of the really big ones, like Scary Spice making babies with Eddie Murphy or Ellen getting hitched to that bird from Ally McBeal, but I have been away a little while and I’ve missed you.

That’s why I brought you cake.

So what’s up? How’ve you been?

I see the talented and beautiful Coach Kalpna has been taking good care of you in my absence.

(And if you missed it, you’ll probably want to read her wonderfully-crafted article on how to screw up your personal branding. Then, after you’re suitably impressed with that then you’ll might want to read this article about dealing with worry on her blog.)

Now, in my absence, thousands of emails arrived in my email box in the past week.* And it has been the same question every time. Rabid fans, hungry for some JJ wisdom, have been asking this question in droves. It’s the same question I get every thursday night when chess club overruns and I return home at three in the morning in a drunken stupor with an octopus around my neck…**

Where on earth have you been, JJ?

I’ve been up a mountain.***

That’s right.

Sometimes a man needs to climb a mountain.

As it happens, that man was not me but a friend. Sometimes an unforeseen emotional and spiritual crisis strikes and the only logical course of action is to embark upon an ill-prepared camping trip up a mountain in the Lake District.

If this here blog were more literary in nature then I would wax poetic about the rugged landscapes, the waterfalls, the lakes, the mists encircling the mountain tops…

But I like to talk about learning here. So please allow me to describe…

Three lessons learned atop an English mountain in the rain

1. The only Zen you’ll find on the Top of the mountain is the Zen you bring up there

Okay. This isn’t exactly a learning of my own.

It’s a quote I lifted from Robert M. Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. (Great book, by the way.)

Makes me sound wise though, I reckon.

Next…

2. When your Dad tells you “Look Son. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about hiking it’s to put all your belongings in a bin bag (refuse sack) inside your rucksack if it starts raining, otherwise all your stuff will get wet, and not having dry stuff to put on when you’re wet isn’t much fun” and you think “that’s a good idea, but I probably won’t do it because it sounds like a lot of effort and my stuff probably won’t get THAT wet” then you really should ignore that thought and just do what your Dad suggested anyway, otherwise you’ll end up with a load of wet stuff that makes you feel sad.

Which brings us onto…

3. When someone limps into your hotel, soaking wet, carrying a rucksack with tent attached, they probably won’t mind being sold to.

This is the bit in which I appear less than heroic. But also the bit in which I make a semi-relevant point about marketing.

As it turns out, you see, it wasn’t really camping weather. If the wind had abated awhile then we might have had a fighting chance of getting the tent up, but it wouldn’t have stayed attached to the ground for long.

At least that’s the story I told myself as I craved a nice warm bath and a beer in the hotel in the nearby village.

So, with tent on back, we headed back down the mountain in the pouring rain towards the village.

Now it also turns out that my left knee isn’t really a walking-down-mountains kind of knee. In fact, it’s more of a crunch-and-grind-and-make-me-grimace-and-scream-with-every-step kind of knee. (Yes, I am a true athlete.)

So when I arrived at the hotel in agony, cold and soaking wet, I would have gladly liquidated the children’s college  fund (if such a thing were to exist) to pay for a room in that hotel.

The receptionist was an angel. She reassured me that:

“Yes, I do indeed have rooms free. And here’s a room key. Why don’t you go have a nice warm bath and then we can check you in properly when you’re warm and relaxed? And if you leave your rucksack here we can get your clothes dried for you and up to your room within the hour. And would you like a table for dinner? You don’t look like you want to be walking very far.”

I happily said Yes to all of the above and gladly paid an extortionate amount of money for the service, but I would never have asked for it because my focus was simply on sliding into that lovely warm bath water.

Sometimes someone wants what you provide so much that they are thankful when you try to sell it to them. This is especially true when they haven’t yet realized that they would want it.

This might be worth thinking about next time you worry about “up-selling” or being “a pushy salesperson”.

Just sayin’.

JJ Jalopy.

* This might not, you know, actually be true.

** This entire paragraph may exist only because I think I’m funny and not, in fact, as a result of its resemblance to the truth.

*** This bit, and the rest of the post, really is true. Honest.

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How to Destroy Your Brand!

Hey! I’m on sabbatical up a mountain. I’ll be back in a couple of days. In the meantime, here’s a guest post from my beloved Mrs. Jalopy. It’s brilliant. Make sure you let her know!

Hi there, Kalpna here – you know, Coach Kalpna (if you don’t know, come and see me here!)

I’m a big fan of JJ Jalopy and when he asked if I would guest write a blog post I went through a flurry of emotions. First there was the flattery – little me being asked to write on such a cool blog? Yes please! Then there was that feeling that I just couldn’t do it. For one, what would I write about, what would people think, what if I didn’t add any value? Argh.

There’s a lot to tackle there, but today I’m not going to write about confidence boosters or how best to write a blog. That’s not really my job and in all fairness, I’d probably not be able to give the sort of constructive and loving advice that JJ provides in his oh-so-humorous style. Instead I’m going to share with you a story that gave me some learning.

I attend a fair few of these networking events and Coaching for Coaches days. I get to hang out with some people from my profession and we exchange stories and lessons and generally help each other out. I went to a full day seminar a few months ago. There were coaching professionals from all spheres of coaching. I met a lovely lady who helps people with their lives and their wardrobes – I think she probably has friends who are color therapists. I met a man who taught me that although men have more neurons in their brains than women but that women’s brains are able to make a larger amount of connections along nerve cells than men. Apparently this information could help change the face of coaching between the sexes. It was fascinating and mind boggling all at the same time!

What I was really looking forward to was hearing from a smartly dressed lady who was going to talk about brand identity. I’d been given a glossy brochure beforehand showing her immaculately dressed with a smiling, friendly face and a few perfectly scripted words about her, her company and her specialism. I couldn’t help but think, “Wow, what a great brand she is for herself!” I’m not ashamed to say that I was feeling like I was going to meet someone with a celebrity status.

So with a bounce in my step and with high expectations I entered the lecture theatre. Within minutes the lady within the pages of my brochure was stood in the auditorium talking about brand identity. She talked about the importance of a brand particularly when you are your own brand – which is the case for the majority of coaches. Everything that she said was spot on. I learnt the importance of nurturing your brand and being the brand and conducting yourself to support your brand in every single interaction. She was good. I liked it. I knew she was on to something. And in my eyes she had credibility. She was walking the walk and talking the talk.

Much like JJ’s friend Dave, the guy who doesn’t buy life coaching, I need convincing before buying into something – whether that be a physical purchase or just buying into a theory or idea. This lady was oozing credibility, she appeared trustworthy and was adding real value to me. What’s not to like? If she’d been selling something, I’d have bought it right then and there!

On my way out of the auditorium I couldn’t help but join the small group of people waiting to talk to her. I just wanted to give my thanks (and, OK, the celebrity stalker in me really wanted to meet her!). She engaged herself in a couple of brief conversations with the waiting people and finally turned to me, to look right through me whilst handing me her business card. Not one word, no eye contact, no acknowledgement. She just turned to talk to someone else.

In that moment the immaculate, friendly image I had of her disappeared with a poof. All the good feelings I had about her vanished. Her brand essence disintegrated in my mind. I felt cheated and a little bit stupid.

I walked away thinking that she was a bit of a fake.

OK, I admit, that’s a strong reaction to have to something that might have a really simple explanation (maybe she needed the loo, maybe she was hungry, maybe she was in a rush, maybe she didn’t like the look of me…) But rejection can hurt, and our opinions can only be built on the information we have available. Your customers are likely no more compassionate in this regard.

As JJ would say, her incongruence was the smelly carpet in her branding.

What is yours?

Marketing for Granola Eating Airy Fairy Woo Woo Hippie Types

A friend of mine is a color therapist.

What on earth is that? You’d be entitled to ask.

And, to be honest, I don’t really know.

It’s some kind of holistic therapy involving waving specifically colored silks over the patient’s body or directing colored light onto the body with the aid of a light box and some colored lenses.

So, yeah, its a bit out there.

An aside: For those of you willing to write this off as a total waste of time, remember that a very important part of the therapy process is the care and attention that the therapist pays the client. So yeah – the light stuff is obviously a load of hooey, but that doesn’t mean that the therapy as a whole has no merit.

Now, the main problem that a color therapist has with marketing her services is the same one that a Law of Attraction Coach or a more esoteric alternative Life Coach would have.

I call it…

The “What The $&@£ Is That?!” factor

If you own a business that makes people ask What The $&@£ is That? then you’re going to want to work a little harder to overcome the immediate objections a potential customer might have.

Remember Dave, the guy who doesn’t buy life coaching?

Dave’s main concerns are:

• He doesn’t want to look stupid
• He doesn’t want to other people to think he’s stupid
• He doesn’t want to waste money.

These concerns shout even louder in the mind of the person considering color therapy or anything involving past lives, aliens, wind chimes or touchy feely magical stuff  (The “Law” of Attraction.)

So what’s the antidote to all this doubt?

Bucket Loads of Social Proof

That’s right. Social Proof.

LOTS of it.

You want to overwhelm your potential customer with evidence that:

• lots of other people do it
• lots of other people have had great results with it
• other people are proud to talk about it
• other people were skeptical but took a chance and were happy with it
• their friends won’t think they’re weird if they do it
• it is acknowledged and accepted as okay by the mainstream.

So…

You want loads of testimonials from real, live people from different walks of life.

You want testimonials from people who were really skeptical but ended up getting a lot out of your service.

Ideally you’ll have been mentioned in the mainstream media and not just Granola Times. You want to make this obvious to your potential customer.

You want to a collect bucket load of evidence that your service is legitimate, accepted and valued by other people.

Got that?

Good. Now we’re at square one and we can start talking about the benefits…

See you soon!

JJ Jalopy.

Have you got a crazy woo woo business? Cool. Tell me all about it in the comments. You crazy hippie freak.

Small Business Therapy #5 – What if I’m a massive success and I can’t cope?!

This is the fifth article in our small business therapy series. Today we’re talking about the fear of success.

Blimey! It’s that time of the week already!

Relax. Pour yourself a glass of your favorite drink. It’s time to talk about our issues. You and me. In a non-creepy, constructive kind of way, without a sleazy old therapist in site.

So… Fox News get in touch with you.

They’ve invited you to talk as an expert in your field.

How do you feel?

Excited?

Yeah! Why not?! You’re going to be on the telly!

In fact, for two minutes you’re going to be the most important thing on there! They’ll probably give you free tea and biscuits. You’ll meet famous people and stuff!

It’s going to be great for business too. You’ll write about it on your website or in your newsletters. You can put a little “Featured on Fox News” icon on your website. Admittedly it’s Fox News, rather than a proper News network, but it’ll increase your perceived credibility no end.

Flattered?

Yeah. Damn right.

It’s a pretty hefty shot of validation really, isn’t it?

They want little old you to talk on their big telly box program. They could have chosen Paula Abdul, David Hasselhoff or the guy from the Will It Blend videos. But they chose You; the obvious expert in your field. Give yourself some recognition. You did well.

Panicked?

Umm… Yeah. Most likely.

We’re all scared a lot of the time. You’re likely no exception.

So let me ask you… What scares you about this?

I’m scared of being on TV.

Go on…

I’m scared that I won’t have anything to say.

I’m scared that my face will go all red and I’ll look stupid.

I’m scared that I’ll fall over my words and people will think I’m dumb.

I’m scared that everyone will realize I’m a total amateur.

I’m scared that it’ll go brilliantly and I’ll be in massive demand. I’m scared that everything is moving too quickly and I won’t be able to cope.

Good. Phew. You’re human. I was worried for a second.

We start to freak out when we imagine things happening that we don’t like.

Often we imagine things going really really well for us; so well, in fact, that we won’t be able to cope. We imagine attention and glory coming our way. And then we imagine royally screwing it all up – in front of a ton of people.

We tell ourselves that we aren’t ready for success. We resist success because we think it will cause us pain.

And that’s okay. It’s okay to feel like this.

But it’s not very helpful.

So what can you do about it?

1. Realize that you’re not alone.

Everyone is scared.

Talk to anyone who has achieved any degree of success and they’ll tell you that they were initially terrified by the idea of doing something different. Dig a little deeper and you’ll find that they still get scared, even now.

It gets easier, they’ll say, but it never truly goes away.

You might choose to label it excitement or anticipation, rather than fear, but the feeling will be there. The butterflies aren’t going to go away.

When you’re paralyzed by fear you might look at other people getting by and think you’re the only one that’s scared.

The truth is that what you’re feeling is no different than what anyone else is feeling. There are a whole load of terrified people out there, acting in spite of the butterflies in their stomach.

The secret is that, once you’ve done something once, it’s not quite so scary the second time around.

The New is always a little scary.

But it can also exciting, exhilarating and rewarding. And you’d do well to tell this story to yourself occasionally when you start imagining the one in which everything goes wrong.

2. Realize that no-one is paying you a whole lot of attention.

So there are all these people running around, freaking out and going about their business.

And there are a whole load of other people, sitting on the coach, drinking wine and wishing they could summon the will to make something happen.

There are the people moaning about their neighbor mowing the lawn in the early hours of the morning.

And the people secretly worrying about their partner’s infidelity…

Do you think these people are concerned about you?

Of course not. Most people are too busy dealing with their own stuff to really pay you too much attention.

Try to remember this when you worry about not living up to people’s expectations.

The truth is that they probably don’t have them. And they probably don’t care.

The people that actually are paying attention will be supportive. The ones that aren’t don’t matter so much…

3. Know what you want.

The journey is going to be hard sometimes, so it helps if you know where you’re going and why you want to get there.

Keep the end in mind. It’ll help you get the strength to push through the challenges as they come.

4. Prepare. Consciously increase your confidence.

When you’re scared of success you’re likely to resist that which is in your best interest.

You might choose not to promote or market yourself as effectively as you could because you don’t feel ready for the attention this will bring.

The key is to be pro-active about this. You might want to make a plan to take action to increase your confidence alongside your other efforts.

If you’re a life coach, you’ll gain confidence by coaching. Do it for free if you have to. And do a lot of it.

If you’re a public speaker, you’ll gain confidence by speaking in public.

Make a plan to get the exposure you need to grow your confidence, at a rate that is comfortable for you. This is as important as anything else you do within your business.

What does your plan look like?

Good luck.

JJ Jalopy.

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Does Your Carpet Smell of Wee?

There’s a pub nearby that serves fantastic Thai food.

It’s mouthwateringly delicious.

It’s the best lunch in the area by a country mile.

But I don’t eat lunch there anymore.

And neither, it appears, does anyone else.

Why?

Because the pub is dirty, untidy and the carpet smells of wee.

What is the smelly carpet in your business?

Maybe you’re so used to the smell that you can’t recognize it. So ask a trusted friend. And listen.

JJ Jalopy.

It’s my birthday today!

We’ve just finished the chocolate cake and we’ll be firing up the barbecue soon. Cheers!

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Why Dave Doesn’t Buy Life Coaching

How the devil are you?

It’s been a while, hasn’t it?!

I’ve been busy doing….you know, stuff. You still love me, don’t you?

Phew.

I must admit I was a little worried.

Right… so what are we going to talk about today?

We’re going to talk about Dave.

Who is Dave, you say.

Dave is This Dude. He’s in a bit of a rut.

Dave is married to a lovely girl named Judy. Dave loves Judy and Judy loves Dave. But they rarely keep the neighbors awake at night anymore.

Dave is an accountant. He’s a big important one and he wears a suit to work everyday. He’s handsomely paid. His wage easily pays the bills as well as satisfying his desires for shiny red sports cars, Judy’s expensive taste in shoes and bags, and the kids’ vodka habit.

Unfortunately, Dave’s job bores him to tears.

Dave reads self-development books, reads through the exercises, thinks it would be a good idea to do them…

…then opens a Bud and sits down in front the football.

He wonders why he feels so pulled towards the sofa.

And he decides he could do with a partner in his effort to improve his life. He decides he could do with a supportive kick-up the butt. His thinks about the life coaching sales letter you dropped through his door.

Life Coaching could be just thing I need to help me get out of this rut, Dave thinks.

So he pulls your sales letter out of the trash, brushes off the old banana skin, and re-reads your letter.

It’s a good letter.

Dave feels understood. He feels hopeful. He feels like you could be the one to help pull him out of his rut.

He grabs the phone and starts to dial your number…

…and then he stops.

Why does he stop?

What makes Dave, hungry for your life coaching expertise, put the phone down and switch on America’s Top Model.

Fear.

That’s what.

Fear of what, you say?

Many things, my fine friend. Let’s address a few of them.

Dave doesn’t want to feel dumb.

Dave bought a new cellphone last month.

It’s a great phone. He can order pizzas on it with one flick of the finger. He can read www.jjjalopy.com on it on the way into work. That’s how good it is.

The salesperson told Dave that he’d need insurance.

Dave didn’t want insurance. He had heard that cellphone provider insurance is a rip off.

I don’t want insurance, said Dave.

No, you’ll definitely need insurance, said the salesperson. It covers you for everything under the sun. And you never know, do you? Here, I’ve added it onto the contract. You’ll need it, but you can cancel it in a month if you change your mind.

Dave didn’t argue.

But when he got home he felt dumb. He felt betrayed. He felt like he’d been sold.

Every time Dave has an experience like this, his mistrust grows.

When Dave reaches for the phone he thinks about how dumb he’s going to feel when he falls for that trick again.

And we all like feeling dumb, don’t we?

Yep. That’s my point.

Dave doesn’t want other people to think he’s dumb

A couple of years ago Dave got involved in a get-rich-quick style multi level marketing scheme.

He was pretty excited about it all and eager to offer “investment opportunities” and packs of overpriced vitamins to his friends and family.

This is a scummy pyramid scheme, his friends said.

No, this is different, he replied. This is a genuine investment opportunity. Look at this glossy brochure. Look at these graphs. Look at these testimonials. Look at these income projections.

It was a scummy pyramid scheme.

Dave felt like an idiot again. His friends were happy to confirm this assessment.

When Dave reaches for the phone, he thinks about his friends at the pub telling him that life coaching is a waste of money. He thinks about his friends telling him that life coaching is for wimps and hippies.

Who cares what they think? Dave says to himself.

But the truth is that he does care. And he’d love to be able to trust his instincts on this, but he doesn’t. He puts down the phone.

Dave doesn’t want to waste money.

Dave has bought a lot of rubbish in the past.

It didn’t seem rubbish in the shop but it certainly did once he’d got it home.

Dave doubts his judgement a little bit more every time this happens.

When Dave reaches for the phone, he thinks about all the bad purchasing decisions he’s made in the past. He puts down the phone.

….

Oh dear.

It appears that Dave had been kicked around a fair bit by unscrupulous business folk in his time.

This means that you are going to have to work extra hard to gain his trust. If you give Dave any reason to mistrust you, however small it may be, then the game is over.

So how do you get Dave to buy?

Here’s how…

Address his concerns

At the very least, you’ll want to bring his attention to each of these concerns and provide reassurance on each point.

Prove your trustworthiness

Be human. Include a photo on your sales letter and/or website. Tell stories from your own personal experience. Tell Dave you share the same concerns that he might have. Make it clear that you treat your clients or customers with the utmost of respect.

Establish credibility

Include testimonials from real people with real names, real faces and real businesses. Tell him with whom you’ve worked previously. Show him any qualifications you might have, awards you’ve won, or relevant impressive achievements.

Provide value

Is there anything you could help Dave out with right now? Perhaps you could include some valuable self-development tips in your sales letter or website?

What can you do to demonstrate that you can help Dave without any financial commitment on his part?

Start a conversation

It’s likely that you’ve done all of the above but Dave still isn’t ready to splash out just yet. He wants your coaching, but he still has doubts and he needs more reassurance.

Make it easy for Dave to keep in touch with you.

Put your phone number, website URL, Facebook or Twitter details on all your communication, online and off.

Provide regular useful relevant helpful content on your website and other media. Demonstrate your brand identity, trustworthiness and credibility in everything you write. Make it easy for Dave to learn from you, and to learn what a fine trustworthy person you are.

Make it easy for Dave to give you a way to keep in touch with him

In ideal world you want to collect Dave’s contact details so you can keep in touch with him and ensure that this conversation happens.

So make it easy for Dave to give you his email address, home address or phone number. Make it easy for Dave to subscribe to your blog, follow you on Twitter or be your Facebook buddy. Maybe you could bribe him – in an ethical way, of course – by offering him some free stuff if he gives you his details?

Got that?

Good. Now it’s up to you to carry on the conversation and demonstrate your trustworthiness and credibility.

Dave is most of your customers. How are you going to reassure him?

JJ Jalopy.

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5 easy ways to make money RIGHT NOW!

Sometimes you need money right now.

Maybe you’ve spent all your savings, used up all your credit and you’re about to get evicted from your home if you don’t make payment in the next two weeks?

Maybe you’d just feel a whole lot better if you had a bit more cash right now?

Either way… here are some short term strategies for make money very quickly.

These are not sustainable business models. They are quick short-term strategies to get you out of a hole.

I hope you don’t need them!

1. Sell stuff on eBay

You’ll probably have heard of this enormously popular auction site.

eBay brings together buyers and sellers, makes the transaction nice and easy, and takes a cut of each transaction for its trouble.

They make a big song and dance of the fact that you have thousands of dollars of unwanted stuff lying around the house that you could sell on eBay.

It’s probably worth finding out whether or not they’re right.

Have a root around your house.

See what you can find.

You could probably live without that fancy stereo system that you haven’t figured out how to connect together after your last house move.

And you’ve always hated that colored glass kingfisher.

So you’ve gathered together some stuff to sell. Now all you need to do is sell it.

But first you need…

An eBay profile with positive feedback

People on the internet are untrustworthy.

A lot of people share this belief. And for good reason.

Unless you have a documented track record of Not Ripping People Off, you’re probably going to find it hard to persuade people to give you money over the internet.

It’s very very difficult to sell anything on eBay if you don’t have positive feedback as a trustworthy eBay buyer and seller.

So how do you get good feedback?

Here’s a few suggestions:

“Borrow” a friend’s profile.

Know a good friend with an impressive eBay profile?

Cool. Ask your friend to submit your listing for you.

This isn’t a long term solution, but we’re after quick money here.

Buy a load of really cheap stuff

eBay doesn’t make it immediately obvious whether your feedback relates to buying or selling things.

You can therefore build up an impressive eBay profile by buying a lot of really cheap stuff. After a couple of weeks, you’ll be good to go.

Use an eBay listing service

There are a number of companies that will do all the work for you. You drop of your stuff and they will take the photographs, write a great advert and sell your stuff using their super-feedback-powered Power Seller Profiles. The only downside is that they take a significant percentage of the sale price for their efforts.

Got the profile? Great now we need to photograph the stuff and write the listing.

My advice?

Get a book from the library about selling on eBay

Selling stuff on eBay isn’t rocket science but there are better and worse ways to go about it.

eBay has been around for a long time so there is a lot of good advice out there. Go to the library and get out a couple of books. Don’t buy a dubious internet information product when you could get something better for free at the library.

It’s going to take some time, but that’s probably one thing you have quite a lot of right now.

Do this okay and you’re almost certain to get money.

Do it badly and you probably still will – just not quite as much…

Next idea…

2. Buy stuff cheaply and sell it on for a higher price somewhere else

I’ve identified an awesome business model.

It goes like this:

1. Buy things cheaply
2. Sell the same stuff for more money somewhere else.

Yes. I am a genius.

Right now, though, we’re after a quick turnaround. And, as you might have only a few hundred dollars left on your credit card, we want to be sure that there’s a hungry market for the stuff you’re going to sell.

So you’re going to want to do some market research.

Have a look on free classified ad websites like Craigslist. Items on these sites usually sell for higher prices than you can pick them up on eBay or in clearance sales. Find out what’s popular and appears to be selling well.

Then try to pick these items up cheaper on eBay, at clearance sales or other marketplaces.

This one can be easy if you have a hobby you know about which you know an insane and unhealthy amount.

Next idea…

3. Sell old books on Amazon

You almost certainly have a number of books sitting around at home that you’re never going to read again.

Amazon makes it really easy to sell this stuff without having to write an advert or really put in any work whatsoever.

It really takes no time at all.

Go to their website to find out more. Just be careful that you don’t lose money on postage and packaging costs.

Next idea…

4. Sell your services

What useful things could you do for people in exchange for cash?

Can you:

• write or edit articles?
• help people tidy organize their office?
• create or customize websites?
• do graphic design?
• do coding (computer programing)?
• mow the lawn?
• trim hedges?
• babysit?

The list is endless…

Now is the time to get in touch with all the people you know, tell them what you’re doing and tell them you’re offering large discount based on your current circumstances.

Put an advert up on Craigslist too whilst you’re at it.

Next idea…

5. Sell websites

If you do business on the internet you might have a few half-finished or otherwise neglected websites hanging around.

Did you know that you can sell these for cash, especially if they specifically target a well-chosen keyword or two and a high Adsense pay per click price (read this article on niche websites if this makes no sense right now.)

Search for “Website Flipping” for more on this strategy.

Don’t worry. You’re going to be okay.

JJ Jalopy.