Sunday, November 2, 2008

why i enjoy christian science.

Okay, this blog post is going to be a bit different. I don't know why I feel the need to write about it, but I do so I'm going to write about it. Recently, I've been reading Mary Baker Eddy's book "Science and Health", as well as the 500 watching points and her book where the title is something like miscellanious.

[sorry if my typing is weird, but the a key is not working so i have to press extra hard and it is disrupting my flow of writing :-[ }

I used to not know what christian science was or confused it with scientology. but christian science basically states that if God is the creator, then nothing God creates could be bad, because a good God sees no value in disease, badness, and if we are his creations, we should have a good life.

Okay, that is not eloquently put at all. I am still grasping at the meaning, trying to understand it. I am trying to heal using Christian Science -- I have tried using lots of energy therapy, like EFT, and other stuff. But it was too hard/wasn't working. one thing i hated about EFT [www.emofree.com] is that it started out like 'oh, this is therapy you can do yourself! It's free and you can heal from whatever problems you are experiencing"

Well, that only lasted a short time. Eventually, EFT "practitioners" came out in droves, sensing an ability to be opportunists, and started spouting jargon like "The reason you are not healing is because you have deeply rooted issues that you CAN NOT uncover yourself!! So hire me for 75 dollars an hour and I will help you find the ROOT CaUSE of your problem!"

So, I adopted that mindset of, well, this is too hard to do because I won't be able to figure out the root cause that is buried under so many years of other memories. It was very discouraging.

On the other hand, Christian Science is like...God will take care of everything. I like that better, and my life has improved. I feel more focused on positive things knowing that negative things aren't worth thinking about because they...don't exist. Yep, they don't. It makes so much sense to me.

afraid to sell on ebay?

I was talking to a friend today about the success I've had recently selling on Ebay. Although i have no plans to sell forever on ebay, i have been enjoying it with a few exceptions. However, when i was telling her about it...she said she had wanted to try selling, but was afraid.

afraid? to sell on ebay?

I asked her why, and then I remembered I too was once afraid of selling on ebay. first of all, let's be honest -- the site is not that well organized and it takes awhile to figure it out. second of all, if you have never shipped through the mail before, you might be intimidated or afraid to go to the post office, embarressed that someone would out you were selling on ebay [yes, it does happen -- people are ashamed to admit they sell on ebay lol], and so on.

For situations like this, I have prepared five major points about overcoming your fear of selling on ebay.

1. Search then Copy: First, just start with ONE item you have in your house that you wish to sell. I would strongly advise you do something that is easily shippable like a book, magazine, or CD -- we can do harder stuff later. Next, search for your item under the advanced search > completed search listing. try to find one identical to yours -- then click watch the item. now that by watching you have essentially saved it so you can keep an eye on it, look at how they are advertising it. does the price seem fair to you? how have they described the item? what are they charging for shipping? how have they photographed the item. if you think they have done a good enough job, i suggest just copying everything they did -- take your own picture though, because they legally own the image. but kind of copy how they described the item, how much they're starting the price for, and so on.

2. Buy supplies ahead of time: you need to know what you plan on selling ahead of time so you can buy the proper shipping materials. I recommend you first start out selling books, magazines, and cds -- things that are easily shipped -- and the appropriate shipping materials are also easily found at staples, office depot, cvs, rite-aid, and so on. I highly recommend you buy more higher-end shipping supplies, at least initially. You want your buyers to know that you are a high quality seller, so splurge and get higher priced shipping envelopes -- those brown envelopes with bubble-wrap already in them. I have heard of people stuffing enveloeps full of newspaper as bubble-wrap, turning priority boxes inside out -- do NOT do that. The buyer is never happy [not to mention using priority boxes/envelopes for things other than PRIORITY items is illegal and wastes tax payer money]. you just want to represent yourself as a smart, intelligent, "together" seller.

What you need to buy:
1. packing tape
2. high-quality envelopes

ok, those are my tips for now. ... i will post the other 3 later :)

love this list.

this is more here for my own reference, but for those of you interested in internet business, please read the following link:
http://you-v.com/2008/11/02/new-to-affiliate-marketing-11-crucial-things-you-must-know-before-getting-started/

basically he talks about what you want to do...i want to do something creative with my life, and i regard internet as the new frontier of creativity. working in an office job for 8 hours a day is truly a horrible thing and i will not subject myself to that.

commenting.

Commenting is so important....please comment on my blog.

http://employmentmoney.blogspot.com/2008/10/get-free-traffic-by-blog-commenting.html

Photobucket

making money from photos?

http://blogs.photopreneur.com/52-ways-to-monetize-your-photos

awesome link. we're so lucky that there are so many ways to make money online, amirite? LOL!

i'm just posting this here more as a reminder than anything else. i will include a fun picture i made though!!! LOL!

Important Reminders for Ebay Success

I have been selling on Ebay for about over a year, and I have found some great tips through experience (and have not read these on the web) concerning what to sell, how to sell it, and how to make sure you get return business.

1. Don't spend extra time customizing your Ebay seller page, adding graphics, etc.
I see a lot of sellers with customized graphics trying to give the idea that their Ebay site is an actual store, or pretending it's special or something. Buyers don't really care. All buyers look at is 1) the item that you are selling that they are interested in, and 2) your feedback. When I see other sellers with tons of graphics about "Ami's Store -- supporting my 5 kids through selling on Ebay!" it reeks of desperation and probably hurts their profits. Ebay buyers REALLY don't want to know about you, why you are selling. Just show the product and have good feedback.

2. When sending items through the mail, ALWAYS include the last four digits of the zip code: Yes, this will take an extra 3 minutes to go to the www.usps.com site and type in the address to get the zip code, but this step is SOOO neccesary. It takes about 5 minutes and gets the package there to your customer oftentimes a week earlier than normal. Most of my good feedback has been about quick shipping -- this definitely adds to the quickness of thigns being shipped quickly.

3. SHIP AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE. Okay, this tip is sooo important. When someone buys something from you and have paid, you should RACE as fast as you can to get it wrapped and in place to be shipped (your car, a box you take to the post office, whatever). Even if it isn't going to be taken physically to the post office until the morning, you need to wrap the package. if you do not do it immediately, you will have the tendency to say like "oh, i can do it tomorrow -- i'm too tired now'. suprisingly, a large number of people procrastinate wrapping the item, which lengthens the time in which the buyer will receive the item. get into the habit of as soon as you receive the money in your paypal, RACE to wrap the packge.

4. Always wrap professionally. Never hand-write your return address or the address of the person to whom you are sending it.

5. Never try to make money off of shipping. If anything, reduce your shipping costs to slightly less than you would usually charge and increase the starting bid to offset any loss. People hate paying a lot for shipping and if your shipping seems too high, people will ignore your listing.

Okay, that's it for now. Tell me what you think and be sure to add tips in the comments section. I may do other blogs talking about how I've made thousands selling VERY random yet profitable things!!! LOL