Eating And Thriving On-line

    



    


The Internet SHOULD be "the place to shop" for low-carb dieters, diabetics, celiacs, and anyone else on a special diet. The posted prices are well below those in retail stores, the variety is greater, you are dealing with firms whose specialty is dealing with your need, and the products for sale are described fully in type that is designed to be read (isn't that a pleasant contrast to the packages you see in your local store.)
The bad news, of course, is the shipping charge that is attached to every order. Shortly after being diagnosed with celiac disease, I ordered a box of breakfast cereal ($4.00) on-line and paid a $7.00 shipping charge. I learned from the experience that $11.00 box of cereal.
My solution stems from the fact that the cost of shipping items drops dramatically with the size of the total order. For example, the Gluten-Free Pantry charges $6.85 to ship a single but will ship $499.00 worth of merchandise for less than twice that much. At Bob's Red Mill, the shipping charge depends on the weight of the total shipment and depends on where you live, but in my particular ZIP code, a single item ships for $7.39. A 34 pound shipment would cost $13.43. You can probably find similar examples by browsing through the web sites you would like to patronize.
The strategy is to order as much as you can in a single shipment. Don't throw money away, of course, but do everything that you can to increase the size of the order and thereby decrease the cost of shipping each individual items. Work with people who share your diet. The only requirement is that the entire order be sent to the same place and paid for with the same credit card.
Good luck. Eat well. Obviously, internet shopping is easier for persons who are ordering big-ticket items where the shipping cost is largely insignificant. But the system I have just described works.
Paul Colligan is the webmaster at sugar-and-gluten-free.com, a site that employs the shopping system described in this article. Contact him at paul@sugar-and-gluten-free.com to share ideas.
I learned internet shopping out of necessity. I live in a small city and have a very restricted diet not to mention a retiree's budget. I established http://www.sugar-and-gluten-free.com to help others do the same.


    
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Easy Money On Ebay?

    



    

Ebay was only two years old when I discovered it.
A friend I worked with was also starting to sell on Ebay at about the same time, and we exchanged ideas and experiences constantly. Since we were already working together on our Ebay ventures, we decided to combine our resources into one company and grow it while we were still both working our regular job. We found our niche selling technical books and manuals as our little company began to grow and prosper. Our co-workers at the company we worked at during the day came to consider us the "Ebay Experts". We were answering questions about online auctions on a daily basis, but one coworker had the same comment every day.
"Hey, show me how to make easy money on Ebay!" he would ask. It became a standing joke between My partner and I that usually came up around two or three in the morning during a marathon packing or email answering session. One of us would look at the other and mutter in a disgusted tone "Yea, Easy money on Ebay.."
In January of 2002, we had more sales, and more auctions running than ever before. We were looking at 100 to 150 auctions a day closing, and enjoying a sell-through rate of close to 75%. Our shelves were piled high with books and manuals, the shipping area was well stocked with supplies, and we were ready for long hours of fulfilling our orders.
Then, as if fate stepped in to see just what we were made of, a huge ice storm hit our part of Oklahoma taking out large sections the electrical grid. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that online businesses can do without many things, but electricity is NOT on that list! On the third day of the blackout, we were able to learn from the radio (battery powered) that it wasn't just our area, but over HALF the state of Oklahoma. Worse yet, the damage was so extensive it was going to be at least TWO WEEKS before power was restored! A quick calculation and we almost panicked. We would have over two THOUSAND AUCTIONS END, and no way to contact the bidders! If we didn't keep up with the sales, payments, and shipping on a daily basis, we were in deep trouble... We couldn't imagine what a mess it would be in TWO WEEKS!
The fourth day into the blackout, I made an executive decision. I grabbed the company checkbook, and headed for our closest Lowe's Home Improvement center (about 70 miles away..). The little roadtrip turned into quite the adventure. Strange thing about a massive blackout is gas stations can't pump gas without electricity, and you are burning gas while you are driving around looking for a gas station that was open for business. I was running on luck and fumes before I finally found a station and filled up. With a full tank of gas, I made it to Lowe's and purchased a generator. We assembled the generator in record time, put oil in the engine and then realized... Uh Oh, we need gas for the generator. No local gas stations were open for business, and we didn't want to risk another road trip. Using an old trick I hadn't used since I was growing up on a farm, we were able to get enough gas out of my pickup truck to fuel up the generator.
The little generator fired up on the first pull, and with the help of a few extension cords and power strips, we had a computer network up and running at My partners house. It was then we made another interesting discovery. Cable internet connections do not work without electricity. I had a DSL internet connection at my house, so off we go with a partially charged battery in my laptop to test my internet connection. SUCCESS! DSL works off the phone line power so it was still functional. We made a quick drive back to My partners house to tear down the computer network and load the generator, then back to my house to set it all up again. At 4:30 the next morning We had the network online and a couple of lamps for light. We were self-contained, and open for business. Now we could get to work, and so we did, for the next straight 48 hours. We had a pickup truck load of packages ready for the post office when it hit us, "Is the post office open?". A quick phone call ( by the way, cell phones and cordless phones are useless during a blackout. The simplest plug-it-in-the-wall phones work great.) found us with another problem. Our local post office was closed (no electricity there either.) They did tell us the regional USPS hub had power, and was open 24/7. The bad news is, the regional hub was 75 miles away in Oklahoma City!
Meanwhile, back at the fuel issue... We were relieved to discover that two local gas stations had rented generators and were open for business. We gassed up and headed for Oklahoma City. With the load of packages on the way to customers and most of the other urgent tasks completed, we took a much needed break. We shut down the network and use the generator to power an electric griddle and make a hot meal. The little generator wouldn't power both at the same time without throwing it's breaker.
For the next two weeks, that poor little generator ran constantly keeping the computers running and the shipments going out, the questions answered, and our customers happy. Every other day I would make the 150 mile round trip to the USPS hub in Oklahoma City, stopping on the way back to fill the gas containers for the generator, and fuel up the truck for the next trip.
One evening we took a short break, and stepped outside for a breath of fresh air. We noticed something different.... THE STREET LIGHTS WERE ON! I ran inside and tried the lights... ELECTRICITY!
I went next door and asked my neighbor how long the power had been back on. "Oh, about four or five hours..". We had been so wrapped up working in our self-contained office, we hadn't realized the power had come back on!With our ordeal behind us, we couldn't resist the temptation to elebrate with a cold beer and a toast...
"Here's to "easy money" on Ebay!"
KL Bohn is an Industrial Engineer with a passion for technology and especially Ebay.
Ebay was only two years old when I discovered it quite by accident. 7 1/2 years, and over 85,000 transactions later I'm still hooked on Ebay as a seller, buyer, and shareholder.
    




    
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Earn Money Now From Selling Childrens Items On Ebay

    



    

Kids Items You Can Sell
Clothes, toys and videos are good money makers on eBay.
Go to eBay and look up a "lot" of size six girl's cloths. You will find they are expensive! The average price for a lot of 20good conditioned clothes is about $35.00.
When your kids grow out of their seasonal clothes do not throw them out. Bundle them into different lots by category. For example bundle girls dresses separate from girls play clothes, but only do that if you have at least six of each different type.
Lots of any item sell better than single items unless the item is unique or high priced. For example, a hand embroidered dress that you paid a lot for would sell better by itself instead of bundled with other basic dresses.
The next item to lookup on eBay is toys. Most toys in good condition will sell for a lot of money. One idea that works well is to buy hot items in October at Wal-Mart or Toys-R-Us and sell them on eBay. Busy people are willing to pay extra for the convenience of getting the items delivered to their home. For example, last year a Mega Power Ranger came out in stores around October and sold at Wal-Mart for about $45.00. The same item sold on eBay for up to $65.00 plus shipping. The Yellow Power Rangeris yet another example where the store price was about $6.00,while the same item was selling on eBay for about $20.00.
Have your children ever received duplicate birthday or Christmas presents? You can sell those on eBay also. Look at the eBay listings for items of interest to see if selling on eBay is worth more than returning the item to the store.
Kid's videos and DVDs are also good money-makers. Bundle about three of these together, and you can usually make about$7.00-$12.00 per bundle. Bundle more and the money goes up. Disney movies in hard cases can go for a higher amount. This also works for other types of movies as well.
Save those McDonalds toys. Some Kids Meals toys sell high. Take the new Star Wars toys from Burger King...very collectible. You will find them selling on eBay from $1.00 to $5.00, not including shipping.
Ebay has a whole section devoted to dolls and bears. If your daughter doesn't want her collectible dolls anymore sell them on eBay.
Kids Crafts You Can Sell
Around the holidays, especially, have your children place their hand in paint and make a print on some quality paper. Add a holiday related poem and you have a great craft to sell on eBay.
Have your kids make gift jars with ready made mixes. For example, hot chocolate mixes in a jar with a plastic spoon tied to it with a ribbon. Dip the end of the spoon with white chocolate.
Baby Items You Can Sell
Used baby items are very profitable. Baby items cost a lot of money, especially in their first year. Any "gently" used items are generally good sellers on eBay.
If you have baby coupons that you will never use, sell them on eBay! Left over diapers and formula sell well also. A lot of 35used cloth diapers usually sells for around $38.00 plus shipping. Four Fuzzi Bunz diapers (cloth diapers with hemp inserts) can sell for as much as $40.00.
There you have it. Plenty of ideas for selling those leftover kids items on eBay...and you can even make a nice profit while you are at it!
Simon Weaver can help YOU start your own profitable business on the Internet within the next 24 hours! To learn more, visit:http://www.YourOwnFreeBusiness.com/pips.html


    


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Earn Money Now From Selling Childrens Items On Ebay

Kids Items You Can Sell
Clothes, toys and videos are good money makers on eBay.
Go to eBay and look up a "lot" of size six girl's cloths. You will find they are expensive! The average price for a lot of 20good conditioned clothes is about $35.00.
When your kids grow out of their seasonal clothes do not throw them out. Bundle them into different lots by category. For example bundle girls dresses separate from girls play clothes, but only do that if you have at least six of each different type.
Lots of any item sell better than single items unless the item is unique or high priced. For example, a hand embroidered dress that you paid a lot for would sell better by itself instead of bundled with other basic dresses.
The next item to lookup on eBay is toys. Most toys in good condition will sell for a lot of money. One idea that works well is to buy hot items in October at Wal-Mart or Toys-R-Us and sell them on eBay. Busy people are willing to pay extra for the convenience of getting the items delivered to their home. For example, last year a Mega Power Ranger came out in stores around October and sold at Wal-Mart for about $45.00. The same item sold on eBay for up to $65.00 plus shipping. The Yellow Power Rangeris yet another example where the store price was about $6.00,while the same item was selling on eBay for about $20.00.
Have your children ever received duplicate birthday or Christmas presents? You can sell those on eBay also. Look at the eBay listings for items of interest to see if selling on eBay is worth more than returning the item to the store.
Kid's videos and DVDs are also good money-makers. Bundle about three of these together, and you can usually make about$7.00-$12.00 per bundle. Bundle more and the money goes up. Disney movies in hard cases can go for a higher amount. This also works for other types of movies as well.
Save those McDonalds toys. Some Kids Meals toys sell high. Take the new Star Wars toys from Burger King...very collectible. You will find them selling on eBay from $1.00 to $5.00, not including shipping.
Ebay has a whole section devoted to dolls and bears. If your daughter doesn't want her collectible dolls anymore sell them on eBay.
Kids Crafts You Can Sell
Around the holidays, especially, have your children place their hand in paint and make a print on some quality paper. Add a holiday related poem and you have a great craft to sell on eBay.
Have your kids make gift jars with ready made mixes. For example, hot chocolate mixes in a jar with a plastic spoon tied to it with a ribbon. Dip the end of the spoon with white chocolate.
Baby Items You Can Sell
Used baby items are very profitable. Baby items cost a lot of money, especially in their first year. Any "gently" used items are generally good sellers on eBay.
If you have baby coupons that you will never use, sell them on eBay! Left over diapers and formula sell well also. A lot of 35used cloth diapers usually sells for around $38.00 plus shipping. Four Fuzzi Bunz diapers (cloth diapers with hemp inserts) can sell for as much as $40.00.
There you have it. Plenty of ideas for selling those leftover kids items on eBay...and you can even make a nice profit while you are at it!
Simon Weaver can help YOU start your own profitable business on the Internet within the next 24 hours! To learn more, visit:http://www.YourOwnFreeBusiness.com/pips.html