Personally delivered to you by Steve Lindhorst, author of
"Selling on 'the River', "The Niche Book", and
"Amazon - The Quick & Dirty Guide."
You have no idea how good it feels to hear that many of you are selling well on Amazon. Many are using FBA, and I hope more of you will look into that. On Amazon, as with eBay in the earlier days, summer is a slow time. So if you're doing just "okay" in the summer, my bet is fall and winter will be great!
On to the newsletter...
In This Issue
- Amazon Takes Another Bite Out of eBay
- Leftover Gold - The Quick & Dirty Guide II
- An Invitation for You...to Earn More Money
1. Amazon Takes Another Bite Out of eBay
eBay's latest earnings report shows they are depending heavily on PayPal for good news.
The fact is, one of the few remaining reasons I venture into the eBay world is to create a shipping label through PayPal. Many people use PayPal to create shipping labels for their Amazon orders. They have asked when Amazon would offer a shipping solution - and their prayers have finally been answered.
A little over a week ago, Amazon announced the launch of the Amazon Marketplace Shipping Service.
Using this new service you can purchase USPS postage directly through your Manage Orders pages. To start the process of buying postage for an order, click the Buy Postage button under the order's Product Details section. For more information, click any of the "Learn more" links you see along the way, or go directly to this Help page.
Many eBay sellers enjoyed the tools eBay provided to make selling easier. It was a little disappointing to find that Amazon did not have those tools (but the fact that we actually had orders made the situation bearable.) Now Amazon is catching up.
Skip McGrath commented on the growth of Amazon in his July 28, 2010 newsletter:
Amazon’s net sales jumped 41% to $6.57 Billion. Net income increased 45% to $207 million. Amazon said third-party (that’s you and me) and retail sales are growing rapidly. Business is so good Amazon will build thirteen new fulfillment centers. Amazon also reported that FBA – Fulfillment By Amazon (see next article for more on this) is growing rapidly and necessitates opening several new warehouse fulfillment centers.
How about eBay? Well eBay grew, but not that much. Revenue rose 6% to $2.2 billion. eBay's net profit was $412 million, or 31 cents per share, compared with $327 million, or 25 cents per share, a year ago. But most of that growth in profits came from PayPal not eBay. eBay reported that PayPal is adding over 1 million new customers a month –much of the growth coming from overseas.
It makes me feel bad that eBay squandered the devotion of thousands of loyal sellers. On the other hand, it makes me happy to see many of them have found a new home with Amazon. For now at least, it seems Amazon is welcoming third-party sellers with open arms.
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2. Leftover Gold - The Quick & Dirty Guide II
A couple of weeks ago, I released my new ebook, Amazon: The Quick & Dirty Guide II - Leftover Gold. It has been received very well. After reading it, Adam Bertram, who has been a big inspiration for me as a bookseller, emailed me and said:
Excellent eBook, Steve. It takes a lot to hold my attention and this eBook did all the way through. This is one of the best written and entertaining eBooks on the subject I've read so far.
This ebook is not a revision of the first Quick & Dirty Guide, it goes into a new direction. There are items besides books that do quite well on Amazon. And these are items that other sellers pass up every day. The goal of this ebook is to teach you to spot valuable products that other sellers miss, or ignore. It doesn't just dwell on thrift stores, but even shows how you can get really profitable items at retail stores. It also discusses salvage grocery stores. Never heard of them? Well, here's a sample of what I found in my local salvage grocery store:
These items are currently selling on Amazon for $10-$22. I paid $3 for each item. The woman at the counter asked what I was going to do with all of these things, I said, "I just know a lot of people." I bought everything the store had of some items, and as much as I could of the others. I'll go back for the rest this week. (I only had about $80 with me at the time.)
The bottom line is, someone decided these brand new products were not cut out for their store. They are "leftovers." But there are still people willing to pay good money for them. I'll get the difference. I figure my $80 will turn into about $500 within a short time, thanks to Amazon FBA.
If you haven't gotten your copy of the Quick & Dirty Guide II - Leftover Gold, you can still get it for less than $20 as long as the initial offer lasts. Get it today and start digging!
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3. An Invitation for You...to Earn More Money
Believe it or not, I'm not real comfortable promoting myself or my products. I'm always flattered when I get a compliment on something I've created. Many readers have asked for links so they could promote my products. Maybe it's the A.D.D., who knows? but I never had a very good place for people to go and find what I have for sale.
Finally, there is a single place you can go to become an affiliate and promote my ebooks to your own email list. I've set up an affiliate center so you can sign up, create links, and eventually maybe even participate in contests to see who sells the most.
For every ebook you sell as an affiliate, you'll earn 50% commission. Go sign up - it's pretty painless and you can earn some money by bugging your friends to buy an ebook and start selling on Amazon!
You can sign up and get the links at: http://www.genuineseller.com/affiliate-signup.html
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Thanks for reading! I look forward to hearing from you.
Steve
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