StillMa

As I stated a few days ago, I've been working on breaking up my blog into several different topic specific blogs.  This project, when completed, should benefit my production of web-based passive income.

Last Friday, the daily newspaper posted the URL to this blog as a place to read my posts about our town, Tarboro NC.  That will be true for a few more days, but I'm already working on setting up a new blog specifically for the topics 1) Tarboro and 2) Small Town Revitalization.  When I'm certain of the new URL I'll post it here and make it easy to find from my other websites.

Speaking of other websites . . . I have several. Each one serves a purpose of its own and is necessary for my "Master Plan" .

This site, www.stillma.com will eventually be limited to the topic for which it was created, Creating a Fabulous Life through Personal Growth.  That topic in itself is large enough to offer an interesting mix of subtopics from the Laws of the Universe, to Eating Healthy Foods, to ideas for creating income.

My business websites, www.wholesalenc.com and www.barnonline.com will have an interconnected blog where I can post all of my helpful and pseudo-helpful business advice. These two sites have many static pages optimized for the search engines and are already the core of my passice income through Google Adsense. The Unusual Shoppe's website will promote the store with future improvements added for topics involving collectibles and links to Tarboro websites (mine and others). 

All of my Tarboro projects will each have a website and they will link together enhancing each other's web presence and strength in the rankings. 

My old stand-by website, named for a mail-order catalog business I had in the early 1980s, www.GoodMorningFarm.com will be the "umbrella" site that will link these and any future offspring sites together.  There is still a lot of creating and linking to do, but the finished product should be terrific, easily manageable and very profitable. 

Curt has taken time away from his postage stamp collection to list items on Ebay.  I'm not certain what got him motivated in that direction but he's been busy for nearly a week. 

The first items listed were specialized mechanics tools that he's had for over 20 years and will most likely never use again.  He carefully took digital photos, boxed and weighed the items to calculate shipping costs and wrote detailed descriptions of sizes, brands, and important details.   He waited a day or two and when he saw that people were watching his listings and bidding, he was inspired to list more items.  He currently has 107 items listed.

We've both sold on Ebay in the past and found out some important facts.  It is very time consuming, so select items with a potential selling price that will compensate (at least) for time spent.  It is best to sell items that you either don't care about or that you didn't pay much for.  Sentimental value does not sell high on ebay.  Good pictures are very important. Good descriptions are even more important.  The title you choose for a listing affects how many potential buyers see it, as does the listing category you choose.

Pre-packing the items to determine actual shipping weight is a good idea ONLY if you're certain you've answered any possible questions in your listing description.  A question from a potential buyer can make you unpackage and repackage several times if you are not careful.  An unanswered question, on the other hand can lead to lower bids or an unhappy buyer.

Although in our wholesale business we do not add a handling fee, for Ebay listings we do.  Behind the scenes expenses add up quickly and if you don't pay attention to this fact you may end up losing money by selling on ebay.  Packing materials cost money. You can get free priority mail boxes, tape and labels from the post office, and use recycled materials for padding and protection.  For larger or heavier items (over 4 pounds) we ship UPS because the rates are lower. We buy ALL of the packing materials used. Ka-ching ka-ching!  Then, of course, there are Ebay fees to consider (listing fees,  selling fees, storefront fees) and Paypal fees on top of that.  We usually add  a handling fee per listing of $2 to $5 depending on the size and weight of the package.  By adding the amount into the shipping calculator in each listing, customers can know what the shipping & handling fees are before they bid.   A small handling fee is understood and accepted by educated ebay shoppers, just  don't try to make a profit from shipping costs. You know what I mean. There are some sellers that think the way to sell on Ebay is to price all items at 99¢ and then require a shipping cost of $27.50, $35.00, $86.00.   Most savvy shoppers will slide right by those listings leaving Ebay new-comers to be duped by the scam.   This high shipping practice is against Ebay policy (they lose money on listing fees) but apparently it is difficult to enforce. 

Curt's auction listings will "begin to end" this evening. It will be interesting to see if all of his time and effort paid off.

When I'm not obsessing about everything else, I obsess about creating passive income on the web. 

My Google Adsense provides random inspiration mixed with curiosity and concern as the income it produces fluctuates from $3.23 one day to $10.85 the next.  There does not yet seem to be a level of consistency for me to learn  and reproduce.   Even the number of page views varies drastically from day to day.  Yesterday, the popular page by far was my static page for the keywords "wholesale fleamarket",  today that page is way down the list for views and has ZERO clicks.

Curt kids me about checking the stats as often as I do, but I'm learning from them.  I don't just check to see how much money the ads are bringing in, I'm checking to see which pages are being viewed and which pages are getting the most click-throughs.  I'm a bit frustrated that a true hypothesis can't be made. An important information factor is not available to me. I have no way of knowing which specific ads are getting the actual clicks.  Google places the ads randomly on my pages. They are matched by subject matter, but different ads are randomly displayed each time the page is viewed. Some ads inspire click-throughs more than others and I haven't determined if there is a way to track which ones are being displayed.

Once I have that figured out I'll be better prepared to calculate potential clicks and income from any given page.

The page tweaking that I've been doing is actually just the initial phase of a major web overhaul.  Although I have a variety of topics that I like to blog about, I believe, for passive income's sake, that it would be best if my blog (s) is more topic specific.  So, I plan to split up the blog into two (or more) blogs.

My plan is to devote this blog entirely to matters of personal growth and The Law of Attraction, which of course also includes the sub-topics of health, wealth, happiness, etc. .   I believe that it's much better for web placement and for Google ads if the topics discussed within the blog have some continuity. 

My other existing sites will have blogs of their own, with their own topics of discussion.  For example, I will move my discussing of Tarboro issues to a blog on The Unusual Shoppe's website.  There I will also discuss collectibles and selling stuff on Ebay. Shared between BARNonline and WholesaleNC will be a blog for discussing wholesale, retail and small business advice. 

My mind often tangles two or more subjects together and on the occasion when that occurs, I'll just copy the blog entry into more that one blog OR link back and forth between them.

None of this blog separation work has begun yet as I am still in tweak-mode and it appears that I have enough web tweaking to do to keep me busy for a few days.  I may be imagining it, but I think I can already see improvement as a result of the pages completed.   Here's why I'm thinking this ... yesterday, ALL day, there were 463 page impressions (from all of my pages with ads) and 22 click throughs (that earned me money).  Today, and it's only 7:30pm , the page impressions are at 361 (update: by end of day 488) and the click throughs are at 21 (update: 29) . So we've had about 100 less visits to the pages, so far, but almost the same number of click throughs.  With 4 1/2 hours left of today, the 21 clicks have already paid me $5.88 (update: $7.58) . 

I realize that I'm putting quite a few hours into this "passive income" project,  but it's like gardening using the Bio-dynamic French Intensive method in raised beds with successive plantings.  At the beginning there is a LOT of work to be done, but after the beds are made and the plants established, maintenance is minimal and you reap the harvest in ABUNDANCE!! 

Getting the word out is key to any endeavor. Whether you're promoting an event, a business or an entire town if folks don't know then the response is "nil".

I came up with (what I think is) an ingenious idea to promote Tarboro and all businesses in Tarboro without costing a penny.  I've set up a  shop on Cafe Press that will offer T-shirts and other merchandise to promote the town, town events and businesses in the town.  To be included, all a business has to do is provide me with a logo and I'll upload it to the online store.

A customized tote bag like the one shown here sells for $13.99 (+S & H) and a basic T-shirt goes for $14.99 (+S & H).   There are many items to choose from including hooded sweatshirts , baby clothes and coffee mugs.   It's not a money-making opportunity. The money goes to Cafe Press, but the good thing is that folks can buy your advertising "stuff" at no cost to you.  You don't need to hire a printer and pay for the stuff up front hoping to cover your costs.  There is no cost.   Ingenious , huh?

A similar idea could be used to actually raise money for an event.  We simply up the price of the merchandise and the profits from each sale will go to the event fund.

So far, the only items in the Tarboro Tees store are those that I've added, but as more people know, more people will go.  To shop now visit: www.cafepress.com/tarboro