Some people ask me what exactly do I do on the Internet because every time they see me I am involved with either helping someone with a project or doing my own thing. Over the years, I have been involved with so many different Internet companies so I thought I might share my online experience with my readers. If you are serious about making money via the Internet, realize its going to take some determination, sacrifice, money, and a whole lot of prayer! I have been challenged in everything I have ever done on the Internet. If it isn't the negative comments its the lack of cash. My daily goals have been derailed many times due to broken links, my children interrupting me, the phone ringing, noises outside, sleep, hunger -- you name it! But come hell and high water, so the old adage goes, I keep going! So here are 14 experiences of mine selling via the Internet for almost a decade(2001 to 2009)Prior to 2001, I offered offline writing, desktop publishing and typing services and sold housewares at flea markets in Pennsylvania and Ohio. Okay, here goes:
1. My fever for Internet selling, all started with a classified ad looking for
Avon sales reps located in the Penny saver. The year was 2001. The woman who signed me up said I could have my own website through Avon -- I was all over it! I had only been dabbling with
eBay at the time.
2. I saw an infomercial the same year for people interested in selling novelty items. The company was
SMC I would take my catalogs to the workplace, order products and sell them or get others to sell for me, and post fliers in the community promoting SMC products. Around the same time, I saw ads online for eBay and thought maybe this would be a good starting place to get my feet wet. Boy was it ever! I literally prayed for knowledge on what to sell out of my home and everything I touched turned into cash! Those were the days, but the long hours...whew! There were many days I didn't go to bed until 4a.m. I had just had a baby back then. So I had two little boys in my care and they were very needy. I eventually added
Half, (eBay's affiliate) and
Amazon.com to my growing Internet ventures. There were other small things I dabbled in at the time like businesses that gave you free websites and others that sold oils and natural remedies and health drinks. All of which didn't live up to the hype.
3. While eBay, Half and Amazon seemed to be picking up some momentum some time around 2002, I was introduced to
Prepaid Legal. I didn't take that business seriously since it just didn't appeal to me especially since the one who introduced me to it was my husband and he was looking for me to work the business. He didn't seem that enthused back then, so I thought, "Why should I?" I had enough on my plate, so that venture fell by the wayside. With my long hours day and night working my businesses, eventually my computer would no longer be any use to me, so I got another one and became an affiliate for the computer company that I bought my computer from. I would post fliers around the neighborhood including my link code so that the company would discount my computer for every sale. Once the computer was paid off, I stopped promoting them especially when they seemed to forget to give me a credit for my sales and I would have to call to remind them.
4. A friend of mine wanted me to start going to meetings with her for Petra Lingerie during late 2002 early 2003. I thought, "Well this is a good opportunity to promote
Lucky Heart Cosmetics," the alternative to Avon for women of color. I wasn't enthused about booking home parties. Neither was I interested in making new friends. I had two little friends (my sons at home) that kept me active enough and an eBay business that kept me up late at night.
5. Things were getting to be challenging for my Avon business in 2003, because I was losing clientele in my apartment complex of 729 tenants due to my customers not paying their rent on time. It seemed that they could have the money to pay for Avon and SMC novelty gifts, but no money to pay rent. I tried to get some involved with my business affiliations, but they weren't interested.
6. The same year, my sister was on fire for a business dealing with nutritional supplements and chemical free cleaning products. That business was
Melaleuca. I kind of fell into that business, because my mother invited us all to the house and then surprise! A white lady shows up talking about the Melaleuca opportunity. I didn't know how to feel about the business at the time. It sounded nice, but there was no love.
7. I joined Melaleuca, but it was short-lived because I didn't appreciate having to get customers to give up their credit card information so that they would have automatic shipments that they would later cancel; therefore affecting my bottom line numbers.
8. By 2004, I had dropped all those businesses because I had to work too hard for pennies on the dollar. I was ready to make some serious cash and joined a business through a so-called friend called
ACN. I name her a "so-called friend" because as quick as I invested $500 into the business, I didn't hear from her or see her. Meanwhile, I was left with a few brochures and a video tape, I was on my own, that is if I decided to commit to weekly meetings, "I think not!" I wasn't about to fork over more cash during those meetings for sales tools, seminars, etc. When I couldn't even see results with traditional means of advertising.
9. I would abandon all Internet and offline sales until 2006, I was pregnant with my third son and desperate for cash. It had been over five years since having a little one and I noticed quickly how much the price had changed on baby stuff. I had also noticed how much eBay had changed too. Just about every market I could imagine was saturated with everyone's stuff! Even the wholesale distributors were in competition with their own clients! I decided to explore something called affiliate marketing which basically promoted others goods and services using a link that affiliates you with the company. When someone buys through that link, similar to that computer flier I spoke about earlier with my own code, you make a profit. However, even with some of these businesses, people will rob you of your profits. Here is one of the ebooks
Click Here I am selling about making money online. I created my first website
How to Books Online the same year which I have since abandoned.
10. While posting links everywhere I could, I came across SFI. This was a business that provided health and nutrition items, home business tools, magazines, and other useful items. I decided to give them a try because of how easy the business was to join and the fact it was free -- that is until I found out that this business wouldn't provide any real profit unless of course you signed up for their monthly billing/ automated shipment program (sound familiar?)! If you didn't want to do that you had to try to convince others to buy from you each month.
11. While struggling with SFI, I decided to return to my first loves eBay, Half and Amazon. So I searched around my household in 2007, 2008, and 2009 seeking things I could sell just like the golden days. While my listings were up on the various sites, I returned to writing (something I did on and off for years as a hobby since I was 9 years old. I received my first dollars for my writings in 1993 while providing a typing service for people back in Pittsburgh, PA.) I decided to get serious about my writings in 2007 after submitting many of my past writings to Associated Content, Constant-Content and later
Triond, Ehow, Poetry Poem, and Helium.
In recent months, I came across
Demand Studios another site that pays for content. However, I was very disappointed to see that for hours of work, these sites would only pay at best $5 for suggested titles and $15 for assigned titles for a professional writer's work. I began to venture off on my own only submitting on occasion. I started creating my own
blogs and submitting to my own sites as the spirit moves.
12. During 2007, I had ran out of stuff to sell, so I connected with a few wholesale distributors. They were small mom and pop types. Some prices were indeed wholesale while others were not which didn't constitute a true wholesale business (they didn't even ask for business licenses!? Not only that, they charged a fee? Since when do stores charge you a fee just for partnering with them?) I decided to get my business license in 2008 in California (I had others in Pennsylvania and Ohio) and hoped that future searches would lead me to true wholesalers. Well it did, but those companies were not delivering unless businesses could meet their minimum. So back to the small mom and pop businesses who call themselves wholesale distributors. Bummer!
13. I filed my taxes, as I did in the past, only to find that many times I actually didn't come out ahead like I originally thought, if anything, I lost money trying so many things. For instance, I was sold on the hype about buying traffic. So I got involved with pay per click and was disappointed when I found that I had joined a site that hadn't stopped people from clicking on keyword sites even after I requested they do so. Almost a day later, they finally stopped it, but told me about the malfunction at the site. I learned the hard way that when you get involved with pay per click you almost have to babysit your page and try method after method until it yields the result you want.
14. In conclusion, I have stuck with writing and selling on the popular sites and creating
books. These seem to be the only things online that have worked for me. Oh and by the way, I recently signed up with
AccountNow, this company pays a small stipend for referrals in case you are interested. However, you will have to sign up first just click the link I provided. This is a great company for those of you who no longer want to deal with banks.
To be continued...
