How to Make $700 Per Month Like Max | Affiliate Marketing Plan Over The Shoulder Step By Step

How To Make $700 Per Month Like Max

So last Thursday we did Episode 3 of the Side Hustling series. We talked about Max, a Scottish dude who setup a quick blog about fish tanks, and forgot about it until he had a $200 check show up in the mail from the Amazon Associates Program.

I wanted to do a quick write-up and screencast showing anyone who isn't already an Amazon Associate or someone who isn't already into Affiliate Marketing the very basic steps in replicating this method.

Step 1

Sign-up for the Amazon Associates Program. I would recommend throwing up a quick blog with 5-10 posts prior to applying. If your completely new to blogging or have never built a site I'd recommend Blogger. It's free and very easy to use, and if you have a Google account or a Gmail account you already have a blogger account, just visit Blogger.Com. 

Step 2

Settle on a niche. If you're first getting started don't worry too much about keyword research and researching niches extensively. While niche is incredibly important, as a complete newbie what's even more important is just getting started, getting used to building sites, promoting things on social media, etc. 

Step 3

Setup or add content to a blog or website. Share your content on social media and create content for social media. Start building an e-mail list. Start making Youtube videos. 

There's a heck of a lot that goes  into this strategy. There's systems to automate these processes. There's analytics programs like LongTailPro, Terapeak, Jungle Scout and others that can help you do keyword research, find hot selling products to promote, etc 

At first just focus on creating quality content. Don't just copy and paste Amazon descriptions and specs and add a picture and call it a day. That adds no value. 

Price Point

Different people have different strategies when it comes to price point. Many people choose to focus on products which sell for at least $60. Other people do well with $8 Kindle downloads and cheaper products like lower end headphones while others choose to go for high end electronics or jewelry.

It's typically easier to get someone to spend $10 than it is $199, however with Amazon's relatively low commissions it takes a whole lot of small commissions on $10 items to add up to something big so if you work in a smaller niche or aren't driving that much traffic it may be worthwhile to focus on higher value items. Some people even focus on VERY high end items like patio gazebos, hot tubs, high end jewelry, etc. The commissions can be very large, but it's tough to make a sale. I can tell you from experience as someone who has ranked for the term "Rolex" in Google, VERY FEW people buy Rolex's on Amazon. Let's quickly take a look at the numbers.

Cheap Product $10                                 Mid Level Product $60                                High End $200

4% Commission = $0.40                         $2.40                                                            $8

To Make $100 You Would Need This Many Sales

2500 Sales                                                     41 Sales                                                      12.5 Sales

As you can see from the numbers above, it takes a heck of a lot more sales to equal $100 selling $10 products as it does $60 prodoucts, and even less with a $200 product. .

Some Misc Tips

• Add value, don't just post an Amazon title, description, and specs, that adds no value to the reader. Add some value, tell them why they should buy the product, do a tutorial, an unboxing, something. 
• Longform content not only helps shoppers and readers, but also search engines, it's viewed as quality content. Don't sell features, sell benefits, or don't sell at all. If I was trying to sell a Nutribullet I wouldn't talk about the blades and the motor, people don't care about that. I would post juicing recipes, weight loss stories, stories about healthy eating or Kale or something like that. Give people content that's informative or entertaining or provides some value and subtly mention products. 
• Focus on answering common asked questions in both social media and long form content. A bag for example, will it fit an ipad? A laptop? etc. 
• Use Pinterest, Instagram, Snapchat, and Periscope to show off products, show product photos, etc. They drive a lot of traffic and can be great for marketing purposes. 
• New products. When a completely new product comes out sometimes if your early to creating content you can rank fairly easily. Sure new hot products or trends can be competitive but it's an even playing ground. Your not trying to outrank someone with years in the niche and hundreds of articles. 

Types Of Ad Units

There's a couple types of ad units.

Links - Links are easy to create using the sitebar at the top of the screen. From any page on Amazon or any product you can create either an HTML icon or an affiliate link with the click of a button. You can even select to have the link shortened for you. You can create your own banners or icons for 

Native Ads - Native ads are a type of banner ad. They are dynamic in the sense wherever you place it it will automatically modify to fit that format as you can see from the example of hte ad being dragged from a header add to a skyscraper. 

CPM Ads- These are somewhat new. It may or may not be available to all affiliates. A while back when I was playing around with these they were slowly being rolled out in a beta test. These can run in conjunction with Amazon ads. 

Amazon Associates Isn't The Only Game In Town

Amazon's Affiliate program definitly has it's benefits. Amazon is a known and trusted site, customers don't think twice about making a purchase from there or about the return policy. This is a huge plus. 

Amazon also has almost every product under the sun meaning no mater what your niche, there are products to market. Even if not a physical product there's always a book or software.

While Amazon is good for the above reasons, it does have it's downsides. The biggest being the low commission rate, you can view the most recent updated rate schedule on the chart below...

New Amazon Commission Rates

Amazon also has a relatively short cookie period of 24 hours. That refers to how long after a reader/viewer clicks a link do you have until your no longer paid a commission for sending them over. While Ali Express is a session based cookie, Amazon at least gives you 24 hours. That said there are affiliate programs with 7 day cookies, 14 day cookies even  month long cookies are fairly common. The longer the cookie the more likely you are to convert. 

Other Affiliate Programs

When it comes to affiliate programs you have affiliate networks like CJ.Com which are a collection of hundreds or even thousands of affiliate programs from various niches. You can search by travel, 800 number, softwares, luggage, about any topic you could think of.

Then you also have affiliate programs run by companies or stores off their own site and they run and manage their own program. Big Box stores like Target, Walmart, Best Buy and others have affiliate programs. Smaller niche products often have their own affiliate programs. Even something like the Snoop Dogg Vaporizer Pens have an affiliate program that pays 15% if your into the weed or vape niche. 

These programs typically pay much higher commissions. For physical products 10%, 15% or even 25% isn't uncommon. For digital products 50% to 100% is common as there's no physical cost for making or manufacturing an item so commissions can be up to 100% if that program, course or software is a lead or an upsell product for a seller and they just want to hook the buyer. 

Additional Monetization Methods

While in Max's example he was affiliate marketing, we saw that later he changed  his site FishTankBank.Com to more of an ecommerce site. Whether he stocks or dropships those items we don't know. The point is you can grow an affiliate business into something else. 

If you discover a handful of affiliate products which sell consistantly you can turn into an ecommerce store, stock and sell those items yourself and make better margins than just affiliate marketing.

In the case of Max he could have started an online course or ebook or video series in which he teaches people how to setup their first fish tank. He could have sold ad space on his site to operators of aquarium ecommerce sites directly. 

Once you have an audience, it's very easy to find additional ways to monetize. 

How to Block Shopify Transactions Over a Certain Dollar Amount

How to Block Shopify Transactions Over a Certain Dollar Amount

To some people it may sound crazy to turn down a large order right. That's what we all want is large orders. 

That said some sellers do want to limit transactions on their Shopify store to a specific Dollar amount. This could be for a variety of reasons. Their payment processor could limit how much they can process per customer per day, they may wish to speak with customers placing larger orders, or some may even require ID and need that before processing, or some people may just be worried about chargebacks and want to limit the risk. 

Regardless of the reason, while Shopify itself doesn't allow you to do this, your payment processor, most likely Authorize.Net will allow you to do this. For those of you using Paypal, while I'm not going to show it in this tutorial you can also set a limit in Paypal as well. I'm not sure about Stripe.

So here's how you do this in Authorize.Net

1. Start by logging into Authorize.Net. From the homepage click the tools tab at the top.

2. Next click the "Fraud Detection Suite" tab at the left near the arrow. This will take you to your fraud detection suite.

3. Next click the "Amount Filter" tab near the arrow. This will take you to the amount filter where you can set a min or max order by Dollar amount you are willing to accept. 

4. Lastly set the limit amount for the highest Dollar amount transaction you are willing to accept. You can also set the filter actions to completely decline the transaction. To authorize the payment but not process and hold for your review. To authorize the transaction and hold for further review. And lastly for you to just allow it to go through. 

How To Effectively Drop Ship Ali Express Products To Your Shopify Customers

Dropshipping Ali Express Products Via Your Shopify Store

Hey guys, if you watch my Youtube Channel or read this blog you know in the past I've been less than supportive with plans for drop shipping, especially so using Ali Express, DHGate, or really any site out of the USA.

While I still maintain that buying and holding inventory is the most profitable way of engaging in e-commerce, I realize that some of you are not in the USA, some of you don't want to be tied down by an office location, and some of you just prefer not holding inventory.

For that reason we're doing a quick datasheet/methodology of how to get into dropshipping using a site like Ali Express or DHGate. 

This strategy is actually a colleague of mine's strategy who said I could share this with you. I've been meaning to put something together for a while as many of you have been asking me how to dropship using Ali Express.

One caveat I will put to this plan is do not try to use this on eBay or Amazon. For this to effectively work you will need to have your own website, personally I recommend using Shopify in general, and specifically for this method. 

Drop Shipping Ali Express Products To Your Shopify Store Customers

The problem with eBay and Amazon is buyers expect fast shipping and the liberal return policies make it too easy for a customer to do a return. Trying this method on eBay or Amazon would not only result in a huge number of returns, all of which are going to cost you money. Using this stragey on eBay and Amazon would also result in your account being suspended because buyer expect not only fast shipping, but the actual platform itself, ie eBay and Amazon expect tracking info to be uploaded in 24 hours which is not possible when using Ali Express.  

In the case study below the example used is t-shirts. Personally I would not recommend doing t-shirts. Reason being, the recent popularity of print on demand t-shirt companies out there such as TeeSpring, Amazon Merch, and dozens of others means that thousands of people just like yourself are all starting tee-shirt businesses, running facebook ads, and all competing for the same clients. If you want to do the t-shirt game I would recommend just setting up an account with a print on demand company and promoting your t-shirts that way. If you choose to use this Ali Express drop shipping method I would recommend finding another product to sell.
Oberlo has been around for a little bit, but not enough people are using it. I dropshipped before without Oberlo, and frankly it's an incredible time-saving product. 

Oberlo cuts the time required to setup your store down by 10+ hours easily. It allows you to import products to your store within seconds, and takes care of inventory/order management. It automates a lot of the tedious aspects to dropshipping. Setup is the most time-consuming part of dropshipping. Once it's setup, and your advertisements + affiliate network are set up, it's smooth sailing.

This is a quick step-by-step rundown, and is not exhaustive. If you have any questions, PM me or do a google search!

1. Product

The first stop obviously, is to pick a product. I picked clothing targeted towards students. There's a lot of information out there saying pick a product that you can sell for $20-$70, but as long as your margins are good, it doesn't really matter. My products cost me anywhere from $3-$10(including shipping), and I always make around a 50% margin. Just browse Amazon + Aliexpress, see which products have a lot of orders, five-star ratings, all that jazz and build a store based on that. Pick a theme and stick to it. I sell womens fashion, and unisex accessories; I didn't both with mens clothing as women do most online shopping.

You can really make a store selling anything. I've seen fishing lure stores, women's cosmetics, yoga mats, paper, pens. As long as you can target a certain niche with your advertisements, you'll be fine. The problem most people have, is that they pick a product but don't know how they'll target that niche.


2. Setup Shopify

Once you have your product idea, set up a shopify. They offer a free trial, so you can test your store for a few weeks before actually paying. My favourite theme for online stores is 'Venture', and it's free. It's very non-programmer friendly, and you can set up a store within a day no problem.

Note: If you're selling clothing, make sure you add a sizing chart in the product description; it seems simple, but for a week I completely forgot to add a sizing chart, and lost a bunch of sales because of it..Rookie mistake.

Shipping rates: I use $5 within the U.S, $8 to Canada, and $10 international - but feel free to adjust those depending on your products, audience, and discounts.

3. Sign up for Oberlo
On Shopify, click on 'Apps', and search for Oberlo. They offer a month-free trial, so again - it's fantastic for testing. Sign up takes one minute. It automatically connects to your shopify. Use Oberlo with Google Chrome (it's an extension).

4. Upload Products to Oberlo

If you're on aliexpress, make sure your Oberlo plugin is enabled. Sort your product category by orders (the most ordered products will appear first). Only choose products that are highlighted in green (an Oberlo feature), and are available to ship via 'epacket'. Epacket is a quicker, cheaper way to cheap that is offered between Oberlo/Aliexpress. It cuts shipping time down by 10-15 days in most cases.

To upload to Oberlo, you'll see a blue circle with a white price tag in the middle - press that, and your products are directly uploaded to Oberlo. Fill in your own product details, choose which pictures to use, set your price and then hit 'Push To Shop'. Make sure you choose a collection in Oberlo so your products upload properly (i.e Women's Shirts, Mens Shoes etc).

If you're doing clothing, don't upload every variant. I chose 2-3 for each product. Your goal is to not give the customer too many options...people get overwhelmed easily when it comes to online shopping.

When someone buys with Oberlo, you simply need to click 'Fulfill'. You can choose to automatically do that whenever someone buys a product, but it's a bit iffy if the variant is suddenly not available, so I choose to manually do it.

5. Setup Social Media (Facebook, Instagram), and offer (optional) product to Affiliates
Create a Facebook and Instagram account for your store. Fill it up with content, use related hashtags. You may think it's not worth it, but spending a couple of bucks to buy some followers is important; social proof is big in the eyes of buyers. The same product can be offered by two accounts, one with 100 followers and the other with 5k, it's obvious who they'll buy from.

Most of my sales came from affiliates. Contact people (in my case, babes) who are related to your product with a lot of followers. Offer them a % per sale (Affiliatily is an app on shopify for this). I offered 15% per sale, but you can do more or less depending on the price of your product. I messaged about 50 affiliates, 15 got back to me. I sent the product express, and within a week I was receiving sales from my affiliates.

Download any app for instagram that allows you to preload pictures. No use going on yourself every day to post a picture. Preload like 30 pictures with hashtags and you'll be good for a few weeks.

6. Run Facebook Ads + setup your facebook pixel.
Facebook ads are powerful. Take a week to test ads at $5/per day. Target based on your product. I targeted women who shopped online for clothing, so an example of interests I used were: Zara, forever21, H&M etc...And make sure that your picture in your advertisement is good quality (use an image resizer).

Set your ads up for conversions and clicks, then track using your facebook pixel, which can be easily setup to connect with Shopify. I'd even recommend using a google analytics account. Test for a days, check results. If people are getting to checkout but not buying, it may be your shipping is too expensive.

Discounts - 10% off, 15%, free shipping discounts all lead to a lot of sales. 10% off $20 isn't much, but people go crazy for discounts. I'm currently offering a 'Summer16' discount on all clothing which is for free shipping, and I've already receiving 200 orders with it this week alone.


7. Test, test, and test some more. 
If some products aren't selling - remove them. If you have a good theme, and a good target niche, you will sell products, so keep testing. Took me a week to figure out exactly what my target niche wanted.

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In the end, I really like dropshipping. I know this step-by-step guide isn't everything you need to know, but it's a general idea. On my journey to location independence I've tried a lot of things; and this is by far my favourite. It's scalable, automated and relatively easy to setup with little cost. It takes some time in the research-phase, but it's an easy business model to learn.

Once your store becomes profitable, you can easily sell it and start a new one. I run two stores at the moment, and while I can't replace my current income, it's getting there.

In general, the process is: Research > Set up Shopify/Oberlo > Promote > Scale > Automate.

WRAP UP

Okay, so you guys know I have been somewhat critical of drop shipping as a business plan. I'm not totally opposed to drop shipping, but I do find the way many people setup their drop ship business is half hazard, not well thought out, and is going to wind up creating many problems and monetary losses.

Drop Shipping if well thought out and well organized can be a viable business option. 

A couple of the biggest issues I had in the past with this business method is that I anticipated customers would be upset by the longer than usual shipping times since the items are comming from China. While you will get occasional inquiries, if your upfront about the shipping times on your site during checkout, it is what it is. I was also told by a few people using this method it's not really a big issue at all.

The other potential problem I noted with this type of business plan is returns. Since Ali Express typically either doesn't accept returns, or at the very least you having  to pay for return shipping to China makes it cost prohibitive, pretty much any item returned to you by a customer is going to be a loss. To recoup this loss try reselling the physical product your now stuck with on eBay or Amazon. That said, if you setup your margins correctly to the point where your at least making double your money, even if you have to send a replacement product, your still in the green.

For example, if I'm selling a tee shirt for $20 and it costs me $5, even if I had to send the customer 3 shirts because they complained they didn't fit, the cost to me is still only $15 where as I made $20 off the sale. 

If you guys have any questions, or if any of you using this method or a similar one want to chime in with any tips or advice feel free in the comments section below.  

Links:

Oberlo - https://www.oberlo.com/
Shopify - http://1.shopifytrack.com/aff_c?offer_id=2&aff_id=4171

Ali Express http://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/aiaqvbeaE

Image resizer - http://resizeimage.net/

Want To Start A T-Shirt Business? 5 Alternatives To TeeSpring & Amazon Merch

 Wanna Start A T-Shirt Company?

A tee-shirt business is a great way to break into e-commerce and making money online. With a plethora of options out there for on demand t-shirt printing, there's never been more options out there for you. Gone are the days of just Zazzle and Cafe Press, there's now a ton of options for custom printing of everything from T-Shirts to Shower Curtains.

If you watch my Youtube Channel, you know that I'm a huge fan of Amazon Merch. I think it's by far the best option for those of you wanting to start a t-shirt biz. That said Amazon Merch doesn't take on everyone, and it can take a while to get approved so in the meantime, if your looking to get started here's 5 alternates to TeeSpring and Amazon Merch for you to get started uploading your designs on.

ooShirts

ooShirts This site allows you to order custom printed shirts with full color printing, and as a nice perk has free shipping on any order regardless of size. The company also offers wholesale printing at discounted prices for those larger bulk orders.

Skreened

Sellers on Skreened are able to set the amount of commission they want to make on each design they've uploaded. Skreened handles the production of the shirts, the shipping, and the customer service. All you need to do is be creative and come up with the designs.

Printful

Printful Allows you to have orders from your store which can be hosted other places such as Shopify, which can then be automatically send to them. Printful will handle the production and shipping to your customers. You can also use the site to design and order your own shirts as well. If you ever see a small t-shirt shop on Shopify with a ton of designs and wonder how they can afford to hold such a large inventory, most likely they don't. Most likely they are partnered up with Printful or a company like them who integrates well into Shopify and will print shirts on demand for your customers.

Vacord Screen Printing

Vacord Screen Printing This site allows you to create, design, and order custom screen printed shirts, hookies, and other apparel items. Prices are determined based on the size of the order, the design, and the type of garment. One neat thing about this site is the shirts are actually screenprinted they claim, as opposed to just inkjetted on to the shirts. This if true leads to much better quality. Most print on demand sites don't actually do screenprinting.

Imprint

Imprint Like many of the other sites allow you to add your logo, design, or other graphics to things like t-shirts, sweatshirts, pins, buttons, banners and more.They also offer bulk discounts.

eBay Keyword Research Using Terapeak - Sell More Stuff On eBay

How To Rank eBay Listings On First Page

Though eBay is a shopping platform, and a selling platform, many people don't think of it as being a search engine as well. Sure eBay doesn't search the entire web, but it does search all products and items on the eBay site and ranks them based on what products and terms buyers are searching for.

By understanding what keywords buyers are searching for, we can make our listings more easily found by buyers, as well as we can kind of game the system in terms of eBay's search ranking algorithm and rank higher in searches by targeting the keywords buyers are searching for.

Terapeak has a number of tools which allow us to do this, but one of my favorites is the "SEO" tool.

As you can see above, that is what they Terapeak SEO tool looks like. Below we'll pull a search on a term. For this example we'll use the term or product "watermelon slicer". Let's see what it pulls up.

As you can see, not only does Terapeak show us a few similar items to the term were searching for. They also show us a list of some of the most popular and most common searched terms. Another cool feature is that it not only gives us keywords, but also gives us some context . As you can see for the word "steel", it refers to the material. Where we see the term "slicy" it tells us that it's a brand. This is helpful in understanding which terms of product specific and which are more general and could be used with any style or brand of watermelon slicer.

Now our goal when crafting an eBay listing is to use these keywords in our listing. We want to keep the title somewhat readable and not just a list of "stuffed" keywords which doesn't read well. while still managing to include as many keywords as possible.

This is how you use the Terapeak SEO Tool to craft well optimized SEO'd eBay listings. In a post to come later this week we'll be touching on how to use the keywords Terapeaks product research gives us to see which words are more important to ranking as seen below.

How to use other people's Content to Drive Traffic to your Site

How to drive traffic with other people's content

Whether your an affiliate marketer, a blogger, or involved in e-commerce, you need to be able to drive traffic in order to make money. Writing content can sometimes be very time consuming and at times you may even struggle finding ideas for content to write about.

A great shortcut and way to monetize other people's content legally is to embed Youtube videos into your blog post.

Now from an SEO or Search Engine Optimization standpoint, search engines cannot pickup or rank video content so a video in itself will not necessarily drive traffic. The video however is the basis for your content.

Oftentimes, when I'm struggling for idea for a blog post, or if I just don't have the time to make a post, I'll often embed a Youtube video into a post and add 300 to 500 words of content describing and summarizing the video as well as adding your opinion and a bit of commentary. This is what adds the SEO value to the post while the video itself will keep your audience engaged.f

Now keep in mind the downside of this is your promoting someone else's content. This isn't necessarily a bad thing as this can sometimes be seen by the person who's video your posting. They may like their content being shared and it could lead to some reciprical blog posting or vlogging.

The reason I say it's not as good to drive traffic to other people's content is say you have your own Youtube Channel. You may as well be driving traffic to your own content to get your own video views and minutes watched increased as well as increasing awareness of your brand.

Below's video isn't relevant to this post but is just an example of what I mean by embedding video into a blog post.

Terapeak NEW eBay SEO Feature - Find Keyword Ideas & New Product Ideas

Tereapeak NEW SEO Feature

Terapeak has always had great tools for comming up with well optimized eBay listings. recently however Terapeak has changed up their dashboard a bit and now has an "SEO" tab.

The SEO tab has  a neat tool which is somewhat similar to the Google Keyword Planner, formerly the Google Keyword Tool. What it does is when you type in a product name or keyword, it comes up with related and similar keywords. Not only that, it also shows you contextually what that keyword is related to.

For example if we were searching for Hoverboards, it may give us words like self, balance, scooter, blue, 2.

The word blue next to it may say (COLOR), the number 2 may say (wheels) next to it so we know contextually what these keyword suggestions mean and how to use them in our listings.

This is a very powerful tool in that it not only gives us the ability to find the best keywords for our eBay title and description but it also potentially can turn us onto entirely different product ideas. For example in this video when I search baby teether, it pulls up words like nursing and necklace. In addition to a baby teether you could potentially sell a nursing necklace or a rattle which is another word keyword that pops up.

Terapeak is a valuable tool for both eBay sellers, Amazon sellers, and even affiliate marketers operating on the eBay Partner Network.

If you have any questions or have some keywords or products you would like me to pull reports on feel free to either leave a comment below this article or in the Youtube video.
 

Should I Order from Ali Express or Alibaba? Which Is Right For You?

Are you interested in selling on eBay, Amazon, Amazon FBA, or setting up your own online Shopify Store? In either case in this post we will show you how to source products and how to know whether Alibaba or Ali Express is right for you.

Alibaba Bullet Points

• A B2B or business to business product sourcing platform that connects manufacturers and traders - mainly Chinese but some from various areas, with overseas buyers.
• No built-in shopping cart system as with Ali Express, eBay, Amazon, etc. The order terms are negotiated either through the built in chat system or e-mail. This can be a bit more confusing than Ali Express to new buyers. 
• No commissions or transaction fees are paid to Alibaba. Alibaba's main source of revenue is the membership fees as in "Gold Supplier" labels paid for by sellers. Alibaba goes to the step of verifying each supplier is a legally registered company. There is however no gurantee of the quality of their products. 
• Focuses on goods made to order, ie your items typically will not be made until after you have placed and paid for your order. They manufacture goods upon order to your specification.

Ali Express Bullet Points

• Ali Express technically is a B2C or business to consumer platform, however many re-sellers to use Ali Express for ordering wholesale supplies or items. Ali Express is very big in countries like Russia where eBay and Amazon do not operate. 
• Ali Express focuses on smaller volume orders of "ready made" or "ready to ship" goods as opposed to made to order. This may be more ideal for smaller businesses or new sellers who do not need to order hundreds of pieces of merchandise. Typically pricing will be a bit higher than Alibaba and most items are not available for OEM or private labeling.

Alibaba Versus Ali Express - The Breakdown

 

Minimum Order Quantity (MOQ)

 

Suppliers need to manufacture a certain number of units of an item before it becomes worthwhile for them to do and before they can turn a profit. The suppliers need to order a minimum amount of raw materials in order to be profitable which is why they require an MOQ from you the buyer. If you can't reach this MOQ many suppliers won't do business with you. That said many suppliers may quote an MOQ say 1,000 pieces, but if you negotiate with them and ask, they may be willing to supply an order of much less, sometimes even as low as 50 or 100 units.



Alibaba
Suppliers tend to have a relatively high MOQ requirement. The reason for this is they do not make and stock products, they make products to order which is why you're able to private label or add branding to your products, because they are not yet made. Typically an MOQ is valid for a specific product. For example if one suppliers has an MOQ of say 300 and makes wrist watches and bracelets and you want to order both items, you will need to meet the MOQ of 300 watches and 300 bracelets so a total of 600 units. Typically an MOQ cannot be split up between multiple products, even if the same supplier is providing them. Now nothing is written in stone, all suppliers are different and most are open to negotiation so this is just a generality but is true more often than not.



Ali Express
Most suppliers here offer an MOQ of as little as 1 unit. This is because though many re-sellers use Ali Express to source products, it's also a B2C or business to consumer model and most consumers do not need 5, 10, or 100 dash cams or anything else for that matter. Some suppliers do offer "lots" of larger quantities of units at a lower price point and many suppliers who offer individual products will also offer bulk discounts. Though Ali Express does have a shopping cart built in, if you're looking for larger quantities and lower pricing just ask, some suppliers may be willing to work with you. Though Alibaba is typically cheaper than Ali Express, there are some items I have found cheaper on Ali Express in small quantities of 10 unites where as an Alibaba suppliers wanted to charge me 0.10 cents more with a requirement I order 1,000 units so it's always good to check both sites. The benefit of Ali Express is you can order smaller quantities if you want to test out items before placing a large order or before private labeling your product.

Pricing - Alibaba vs. Ali Express

The price of a product is typically based upon two main factors, the quality of the product and the quantity of the product you want to order. Someone looking to import and re-sell products should understand these elements about Alibaba and Ali Express



Alibaba
There are no fixed prices. Sometimes prices are not listed at all and you need to contact a supplier. Other times a range is given of say $0.10 - $0.90. You send your product specifications ie color, dimensions, materials, certifications required, etc. You also name the delivery terms and the number of items you want to buy. The supplier will then get into contact with you with a price. Something like an electronics item like a Bluetooth Speaker for example can range from $2 to $200. The pricing will depend on the quality and standards you require. If you can meet the larger MOQ of a Alibaba suppliers you will get lower prices compared to if you were to order only 5 or 10 units from Ali Express suppliers. Typically Ali Express sellers are traders or re-sellers and not manufacturers themselves. Many people complain that even Alibaba itself has way too many re-sellers and traders as opposed to actual manufacturers. To truly get the best price you need to connect with a manufacturer and not a trader who is taking a cut for themselves.



Ali-Express
The supplier who is more often a trader than actually a manufacturer lists a product and prices for various quantities. Some will sell single items, some will sell single items offering a bulk discount on a certain Dollar amount spend or quantity ordered, and some will sell in "lots" of 5 or 10 units. Prices on Ali-Express tend to be higher compared to lower pricing for higher MOQ's with Alibaba. Typically Ali-Express prices are not up for negotiation and if they are, they typically will not move much on price.

Custom Designed Products / Private Labeling 

 

Many sellers may choose to create a brand, as opposed to just selling a no name generic product. Doing so creates a higher perceived value. People in the US like brand names, yes even if it's a brand you just made up that nobody has ever heard of. A brand can consist of a logo, a color scheme, a design, or simply putting  a name on a product. Some more experienced sellers may choose not just to brand or label their product, but to actually modify or develope a completely different product. This can be achieved relatively simply without having to hire CAD designers or anything simply by asking the manufacture to change the color of a piece, change an element such as adding a bezel to the end of a flashlight to turn an ordinary flashlight into a tactical flashlight for example.



Alibaba
Pretty much all suppliers can offer custom designs, product modifications, and logo printing. Developing a completely new product however isn't quite as simple to a new importer. You will need to have well made and well drafted product specs, product graphics ready to go in appropriate file type, and a clear idea of what you want. Other things you may need to know are material specifications, colors, product packaging and design, logos, and components.



Ali-Express
Products sold on Ali-Express are already manufactured and ready to be purchased. It's typically not possible to send just a few units back to a factory to be modified. Some Ali-Express sellers may be willing to add a logo if the product permits or if printing of such is easy. Ali-Express however is not the right choice if private labeling or customizing a product is your end goal.

Product Certifications

 

Some products such as plastics, electronics, and toys, among others, require standard product compliance. Different countries have different standards and different certificates. Many new importers and re-sellers assume that suppliers are compliant with these standards by default. This is not the case. Attempting to import products which are non-compliant can result in having your shipment seized by customs and returned, potentially leaving you out that money if you are not covered by Alibaba Trade Assurance or some other protective measure. Below is a list of examples of some common certifications.

• Electronics: CE, RoHS, EMC Class A and B
• Toys: EN71
• Plastics: REACH
• Fire retardant: FR B1 and B2

Alibaba
Because Alibaba is made to order and not already produced you can ask for your supplier to make the products compliant with certain countries certification standards. This is done by using certain materials and components required for compliance. If you are importing products into the USA make sure your products have the appropriate certifications. More often than not suppliers are used to importing into the USA, Canada, UK and EU, however you should always check and make sure their products and manufacturing processes are compliant.



Ali-Express
The products listed on Ali-Express have already been produced. It's a tossup whether products are made compliant to standards of the USA. Compliant products tend to be more expensive and would make the supplier less competitive to Russian, Latin American, and African buyers so always check. Ali-Express is very popular among buyers of these countries as eBay and Amazon don't always cater to these countries so Ali Express is often their go to shop and with those countries having less stringent certification standards the products are often made to those specifications.Not all products require certifications so for those types of products don't even worry about it.

Quality Issues & Risks

It can be risky importing products from outside of your home country. This is the case not only because of issues with quality but scams are rife as well. I've personally been conned out of $500 on three different occasions paying for samples via Western Union prior to this past Christmas season.



Alibaba
Not all Alibaba suppliers are qualified to accept and produce your order, especially if you want custom made products or products that meet certain certifications. Only certain factories are setup and approved to meet these certification requirements. You will need to invest lots of time into investigating suppliers and making sure they are indeed qualified to meet certain standards, as well as making sure they aren't going to scam you. Do a Google search on Supplier Blacklist and though this won't be 100% accurate, this will weed out the worst scammers. In terms of avoiding scams and making sure you get a quality product the more you know your product the better a position your in.



Ali Express
Ordering from Ali Express is much more straightforward than ordering from Alibaba. Quality is subjective and you should always order a sample before investing in a larger order. Recently I ordered some wooden baby teethers and the items were very poorly sanded. I either have to toss these, or buy a very fine grit sandpaper and do all the finishing work myself. Fortunately it was a small sample order but imagine having 1,000 units I have to hand sand myself, what a nightmare. In terms of quality, items which may be acceptable in South America or Africa, may not be acceptable in the United States for example. One great thing about Ali Express is products do have product reviews. Now oftentimes they are in Russian or very poorly worded English but at least you can get an idea of quality before ordering and weed out suppliers who have lots of negative feedback.

Lead Times - How Long To Make Your Items

When preparing to place an order there are 3 time type deadlines you should concern yourself with. These are...

1. Order preparations
2. Production time
3. Shipping time

Alibaba
It can  take weeks or even months before you've finally found the right supplier. Before you've confirmed your samples, negotiated your pricing, and have a signed and stamped sales agreement. You can speed up the process a bit by just asking a supplier to send over a digital invoice and you can go right ahead and transfer your money without all the other steps, but keep in mind you don't really know what your getting and this is much riskier. In some instances when getting your product to market ASAP, as in the case of fad products, this may be worth the gamble. Preparing an order can take from days to as long as 6 months. The larger the order as well as how complex the product is can make it take longer. Product time is much easier to predict as factories know how many units they can produce a day, a week, a month. Typically production time will take no longer than 30 days in total counting from day one when the supplier receives the payment. Oftentimes however this can be done in as little as a  week. How long the product will take to ship from China comes down to the mode of transportation. Air Freight normally will take about 5-7 days to arrive to the USA, while sea shipping a month or longer. Sea Shipping is much much cheaper. Just to give you an idea how much cheaper. Prior to Christmas I ordered 10 hoverboards from China. They cost $900 to ship and took almost 3 weeks. I later ordered some hoverboards by sea. I was able to ship up to 100 hoverboards which take up quite a bit of space for only $250 not acounting customs fees and freight forwarder fees. If your sourcing a large amount of products, or products which are larger and heavier in nature you'll definately want to ship by sea.



Ali Express
Since the products your ordering from Ali Express are already manufactured typically things will go a bit quicker. One small delay is oftentimes after processing your payment the shipper will wait 3, 5, or 7 days to ship. I believe this is due to making sure the credit card payment is completely processed. That said you do not need to worry about production times as the items are already produced. Because your sourcing from Ali Express and by definition sourcing smaller amounts of product, you're most likely wanting to ship by air. The one exception to this is with larger items. I recently was looking into shipping home decor lighting and they were larger heavier items made of cast iron. Shipping by air was cost prohibitive so even though I was only ordering 10 units as a sample, we still had to ship by sea to save money. Ali Express has the word "express" in it for a reason. Sure it's not as quick as 2 day Amazon Prime shipping but it's often a heck of a lot quicker than Alibaba.

Summary

I recommend Alibaba.com if…

• You can buy larger quantites ie a few hundred units of each product

• You want to private label your products or customize products already offered.

• You want to import products with your own logo print or custom product packaging

• Your products are very price sensitive

• You are importing electronics, toys, plastics or any other product to the EU or USA and therefore need to comply with certain certification standards (CE, FCC, etc.)

We recommend Aliexpress.com if…

• You buy 1 – 100 units per product or your a consumer wanting to buy products for yourself

• Custom design, logo printing and custom product packaging are not important to you (you can in some cases do this yourself once the products arrive to you in your home country ie customizing your own packaging while selling a product with no logo on it.)

• Your products are not that price sensitive

• The nature of your products don't require them to adhere to any certifications

• You need your products right away

Amazon FBA: Print Your Own FBA Labels PDF Template

Print Your Own Amazon FBA Suffocation Labels Below

If you're not a reader of my blog and a follower of my Youtube Channel I'm guessing you have an FBA Shipment to send in and have run out of suffocation labels or accidentally ordered polybags that didn't have the suffocation warning.


If you're a reader of my blog or a watcher of my Youtube Channel you're probably looking to learn more about FBA or how to send in shipments. Most Amazon items that aren't boxed are "polybags". Amazon requires any polybag with an opening 5" or larger must have a suffocation warning either on the bag, or a sticker applied to the bag.

Print Your Own Suffocation Labels For Amazon FBA

I typically order polybags where the suffocation warning is printed right on the bag itself, and personally I prefer it that way. One less step in the packing process and also no chance of it comming off like a sticker might.


When you're in a crunch however, you can always print your own suffocation labels on 30 up stickers that you probably have lying around your home or office. Below is a link to a PDF Document which contains suffocation labels which fit perfectly on a 30 up sticker sheet. You can print the labels yourself and apply them yourself.

PRINT AMAZON FBA SUFFOCATION LABELS ON 30 UP STICKERS

If you're wondering where to purchase 30 up lables, I typically buy these ones off of Amazon...

Are Products You Sell Considered "High Risk" To Merchant Processors?

High Risk Merchant Processing - Sure You Want To Get Into That Niche?

I've been spending a lot of time on Reddit lately and have seen a lot of questions being asked about starting businesses selling ejuice, vaporizers and vape accessories, water pipes, coin, and many other products that are considered "high risk" to merchant processors.


Most people are probably not even aware there are certain products and industries basically locked out of banking and credit card processing. We've all heard how Medical Marijuana dispenseries have trouble finding banking relationships and credit card processors, however many people don't realize that many seemingly normal and legal products are banned by nearly all credit card processors.



These items could be anything from vaporizers or any vaping accessories, anything collectible, autographed memorbilia be it sports or celebrity stuff, coins, currency, drones, any non-tanginble items; ie programs and ebooks, many services,


Most credit card processors, as well as third party aggregators like Paypal, Stripe, and others, have a long list of specific items and businesses which they won't allow to use their service. All of them also add a caveat about how they have the right to refuse or terminate any relationship they believe may tarnish their repuation. This essentially means, if they happen to not specifically call out your product or industry or business, that they can fall back on that "harm to them" which basically means at anytime they can decide to kill your payment processing for whatever reason they deem necessary.

Some Examples Of Merchant Providers Prohibited Categories

 

Paypal Prohibited Businesses and Products

Stripe Prohibited Busineses and Products

Square Prohibited Businesses and Products

First Data Prohibited Businesses and Products

Is It Worth Entering A High Risk Industry?

I think most people think hey, I'll start a business, signup for a merchant account and things will be all good. For 99% of merchants this is true but many industries named above have an uphill battle finding credit card processors.


These businesses may occasionally find someone to take them on and they may have processing for a matter of days, weeks, or even months; but eventually that dreaded call or e-mail will come telling you that they are terminating their relationship with you and your business; and you'll be left scrambling to find a way to accept credit card payments.


The reason for this post is to bring this lesser known issue to people's attention. I've been spending a lot of time in the "Ecommerce" subreddit lately and see a lot of people dabbling with the idea of certain industries considered "high risk". I write this not necessarily to discourage people from entering these industries but at the very least, know what you are getting into.


I personally have run a business and sold items considered "high risk". My items were legal and not even really in any way "shady", had nothing to do with vaping, drugs or anything even questionable in nature; however I later learned my products had a high risk of credit card chargebacks and it's basically been impossible to accept credit card payments.


I was with Paypal for over 4 years. I did over 2 Million a year in sales on Paypal. I paid Paypal over $80,000 a year in processing fees and they still dropped me like a bad habit. Due to my stellar seller performance and relationship with my account manager they were kind enough to give me 30 days notice to find a new processor but not a whole lot of good that did as there really are no other options.


I wound up trying a few high risk credit card merchants. Got scammed out of a few thousand dollars, got a merchant account outside of the USA and thought all was good. What nobody tells you is that if you use a foreign merchant account 99.9% of your transactions will be declined by your customers bank for being "suspicious transactions". In order to get the transaction to go through nearly EVERY customer of yours will have to call their bank, explain the purchase, and ask the bank to okay that purchase. A huge headache when your trying to run an ecommerce business.


Another thing is 99% of high risk merchant processors are scams. I personally was scammed out of about $3,000 by a scumbag named Tony from Bankcard Services out of Chicago and New York. I personally know people who have lost tens and even hundreds of thousands of Dollars from scammers in the high risk merchant processing industry. I've heard it said for every legitimate high risk merchant processor there's 1200 frauds.


If you're considering entering an industry which you believe may be considered high risk, find a merchant provider, and search their website to see if the items you sell fall within the terms of service. It's also a good idea to call the merchant before opening the account. Don't just talk to a sales rep as they want the sale and will lie to you and tell you it's okay, only to have you be shut down weeks later, as all new accounts are typically audited within the first 30 days. Ask to talk to compliance or a supervisor and make sure they are okay with your business and the products you sell.


This extensive list below are just some of the products and business categories which are pretty much locked out of accepting credit cards...

What Types Of Businesses & Products Are Considered High Risk?

Not ALL industries, but it definitely covers a large number of them.

• 1-800 type chat sites
• Airlines
• Airplane charters
• ALL sexual oriented or pornographic merchants: (i.e. companion or escort services, adult telephone conversations, adult book stores, dating services, online adult membership or matchmaker services, adult paraphernalia or toys.)
• Amazon, Yahoo or Google Stores
• Annual contracts
• Antiques
• Auctions
• Automotive brokers
• Bankruptcy attorneys
• Brokering
• “Business opportunities”
• Calling cards
• Casino, gambling or gaming
• Check cashing services
• Cigarette or electronic-cigarette sales or nicotine cartridges
• Coins, collectible currency or autographed collectibles
• Collection agencies
• Coupons or rewards-points program
• Credit or debt repair
• Credit counseling
• Credit protection
• Debt collection
• Direct selling
• Discount health – medical care programs
• Debt consolidation
• Drug paraphernalia
• eBay Store
• E-Books (copywrited material)
• Electronics
• Event ticket brokers (unlicensed – non registered (i.e. Stub Hub type merchants))
• Exporting services (non US based)
• Fantasy sports websites
• Federal Firearms License (FFL) dealers
• Finance broker, financial consulting or loan modification services
• Indirect financial consulting (i.e. How to Save Money by Lowering Your Electric Bill.)
• Financial planning, strategy or advising
• “Get rich quick” – books, programs, etc…
• High average tickets
• “How-To” type websites (i.e. “Learn How-To Make Money on The Internet”)
• Horoscopes, astrology or psychic services (i.e. fortune tellers)
• “Hype” products or services
• Hypnotists or self-hypnosis
• International merchants (non US based)
• International shipping, cargo or import/export
• Investment firms
• Investment strategy
• Investment books
• Lawyer referral services
• Life coaching
• Lingerie sales
• Lotteries
• Magazine sales and subscriptions
• Mail order
• Membership organizations (over 12 months)
• Merchants on the terminated merchant file (TMF list)
• Modeling agencies
• Multi-currencies
• Multi-level marketing (MLM)
• Music, movie, software downloads or uploads (ie. copywrited music, movies or software (i.e. Microsoft office))
• Non US citizens
• Off-shore corp. establishment services
• Pawn shops
• Poor credit
• Prepaid debit cards
• In-bound or outbound telemarketing services
• Real estate
• Replica handbags, watches, wallets, sunglasses etc… (knock-offs)
• Self defense, pepper spray, mace, etc.
• Seo services
• Social networking sites – Facebook, Twitter, MySpace etc…
• Sports forecasting or odds making/betting
• Talent agencies
• Telecommunications
• Telephone companies
• Telephone order
• Third-party processing, factoring merchants (i.e. payment processors, vacation rental brokers)
• Time-shares or time-shares advertising
• Tour operators
• Travel services
• Travel agencies
• Travel clubs
• Vacation planners
• Vacation rentals (unless property is owned by merchant)
• Vitamin and supplement sales – diet pills, prescription pills, health supplements, pharmacy
• Voip services
• Extended warranty companies
• Weapons of any kind – guns, knives, stun guns, or ammo. Includes any parts of weapons (i.e. butts, triggers, magazines, etc.)
• Vaporizers
• Coins
• Currency
• Vaping Accessories
• Water Pipes or Drug Paraphanalia

Hoverboards 101 Everything You Wanted To Know

Hoverboards are the hottest new thing online. Just check Google Trends and you'll see their explosion in popularity, or do a search on Youtube and you'll see almost every Hover Board video has view counts in the hundreds of thousands or even millions.

Whether your considering just buying one for yourself, marketing them or setting up a review site, or even getting into the hustle of selling them, you need to know about them, the various models, the differences between the models.

This video tells you everything you need to know about Hover Boards. Check out the videos below.

Things I've Learned In 15 1/2 Years On eBay - eBay Best Practices

Hey guys, as you know I'm always talking making money on eBay so it's only fitting we give some eBay tips and advice here.

Lately I've been pretty active on the eBay subreddit page and saw an interesting article written by a guy who echoes pretty much everything I feel is important to eBay selling. I'll post his tips below and also comment on them myself.

If you guys have any questions, need advice, need coaching or consulting on selling on eBay, starting an eBay business, etc drop a comment below and I'd be happy to respond or even do an article devoted to answering your question.

Things I've Learned After 15 Years on eBay

• Remember, ebay is skewed toward the buyer. As a seller you need to be extraordinarily careful.
  
  Definately this is true. It's important as an eBay seller to know eBay policies back and forth. By knowing eBay policies you will understand how they will rule in cases. There's no sense fighting an issue you know you will lose and you'll wind up losing and leaving a bad taste in the buyers mouth and potentially negatively affect your eBay account. Be prepared to take a loss, block that bidder and move on. It's incredibly important to know eBay policies and how your seller account is ranked or rated. 
  
• People who tell you that your shipping prices are "unreasonable" and cite one or more examples of items they've sold as "proof" of this will inevitably be problematic buyers. Don't reply to their messages, block them from bidding, and move on.
  
  Unfortunately most eBay buyers will purchase before bringing up that issue which leaves you having to bargain with them or cancel a sale which hurts your account. I agree eBay has more problematic buyers than Amazon and people will haggle, try to get free shipping upgrades and more. It's just the cost of doing business. I agree though, if  someone seems difficult from the start I prefer to block and not deal with them if possible. 
  
• As a seller, even though you might be technically right in a given dispute, it's usually not worth the effort to argue the point. As a buyer you have the ability to affect the seller through refunds (including return shipping) and negative feedback. As a seller you have the ability to affect the buyer...in absolutely no way whatsoever. Consider the potential outcome for any given dispute; is it worth the return shipping cost to avoid the aggravation of an irrationally pissed off buyer and negative feedback?
  
  Agree and disagree. Typically I will cave to a buyer because oftentimes even if eBay and Paypal don't side with them they will do a credit card chargeback and there's almost no fighting that. That said if I know 100% I'm right I'll stick to my guns, oftentimes though I cave to buyers even if I know they are lying or I'm being scammed. I probably lose about $3,000 a year to scammers and caving to buyers demands but I'm a high volume seller, eBay brings me traffic and makes me money so it's the cost of doing business. 
  
• Never sell anything outside of your home country.
  
  I agree, I don't sell outside the USA, not worth the headaches. That said some items go for much more money or sell much better outside the USA. With eBay's Global Shipping Program I've heard many good things. Basically you ship to Kentucky and eBay handles shipping internationally and the customs and all that junk you don't want to deal with. Some sellers may want to consider this. I don't but I don't agree with a blanket statement saying don't sell outside home country. 
  
• Never ship anything to any address other than their registered/verified eBay/PayPal address.
  
  True, 99% of the time this is a scam. There are legit reasons why someone wants something shipped elsewhere whether it's a gift or they want it delivered to their work and not home. That said if you ship elsewhere and buyer says they didn't reacieve you automatically lose. If buyers say I'm being difficult I refer them to eBay/Paypal policy. Amazon makes it easy to ship to different addresses so many legit buyers don't understand why this is a big deal but it is. 
  
• Never communicate outside of eBay's messaging system.
  
  Some people like to drive customers off eBay where they don't pay high fees but it is against eBay TOS and not only could it cause problems with your eBay account if eBay finds out but you lose buyer/seller protection by doing so. 
  
• Anyone who bids more than fair market value is either trying to scam you or using a shill account to overbid your item so that people will overlook it and bid on his (similar or identical) item. Cancel their bid, block them from bidding, and move on.
  
  Not really sure on this one. Not something I've ever run into. I see the logic behind this "strategy" however it hasn't been a problem for me personally and I have been on eBay for years and have never run into it. If someone bids $200 for an Xbox game it's probably a scam but it's tough determining what fair market value is, everyone values items differently, especially if the item is something unique and not something you can run out and buy at Walmart. 
  
• Everything you sell should have multiple pictures. Not only does this help your sale, but it also protects you against false claims. And make sure your description matches the pictures; use the phrase "see photo" after describing a specific issue with your item (scratch, blemish, etc).
  
  Agreed buyers want to see clear pictures. You didn't mention this but having maxed out pictures such as using all 12 slots eBay provides helps you in search. It also gives buyers more confidence in what they are buying as well as a better idea of  what they are buying which equals less returns. 
  
• Any bidder who created their account within the past few days is likely a scammer or shill. The likelihood of this is directly proportional to how desirable your item is. (Selling a used poncho? Probably not a scammer or shill. Selling an unlocked iPhone? Yeah...)
  
  New eBayers worry me but honestly everyone starts somewhere, everyone starts with 0 feedback at some point. Some people have never used eBay, see a Google Shopping ad for an item they want and create an eBay account to buy it. I do pretty much strictly buy it now listings so shill bidders isn't a problem, if someone wants to buy they pay immediately. I think your turning away good business by being scared of new eBayers. I am cautious but I sell to them. 
  
• Handle anyone with <10 feedback with extreme skepticism. Don't immediately assume they're a scammer, but do assume that they have no idea what they're doing.
  
  Again, not many people leave feedback so you could have 100 transactions under your belt and only have a feedback of 5 or 10. 0 Feedback makes me nervous but again, everyone starts somewhere. 
  
• Insure everything you ship for the full value of the item.
  
  Bad advice. Everyone should make up their own mind. Insurance is expensive. Honestly your better off occasionally paying out of pocket for a lost item as opposed to throwing away huge amounts of money on every item you sell. Should I really pay $2 to insure an item that costs $3? Plus post office is bad about paying those out. I never insure items, occasionally I take a loss but the amount I"d lose buying insurance on every package would far outweight a couple lost packages. 
  
• If you're offering local pickup, arrange to meet at a police station between you and your buyer's location. Show up early, go to the desk and tell the officer why you're there. Accept cash only; no in-advance PayPal payments (otherwise buyer can claim an "item not received" since you can't provide a tracking number). Use your cell phone camera to video record the transaction.
  
  Do Police Stations want people meeting up doing sales in their lobbies? Honestly it seems kind of silly to me. I get safety and all that but seems over the top. Meet in a well lit public place a Starbucks or something should be more than fine. Police Station seems a bit overboard. Honestly I have people come to my house but I have two big dogs and many guns so not really concerned about safety. My girlfiend doesn't like me having people to the house so if she's around I'll give them the address of a school behind my house and meet them there. That way I don't leave until they say they are there and then I head over so I don't waste my time. There's a lot of flakes who never show up or leave you waiting forever. 
  
• If you're doing a Buy It Now sale, enable "immediate payment required" — especially if you have a desirable item.
  
  On the eBay subreddit 99% of problems and scams could be stopped by doing this simple thing. There's no reason not to do it. 
  
• If you're selling something that you've modified, make it CRYSTAL CLEAR in your listing exactly what the mods are and how it affects the item. Want to sell a PS3 that's now running Linux? Great. Make sure everyone knows exactly what the PS3 can and cannot do, and how it differs from a stock PS3.
  
  Doesn't matter if it's modified or not, accurately describe in great detail every item you sell. Anything that may surprise a buyer or create a problem be sure to point out. If a pair of shoes your selling runs small for a size 10, mention that in the listing. 
  
• If you're selling clothes, take measurements of EVERY PART of each item. The sleeves are <x> long, the collar is <x> circumference, the legs are <x> long at the inseam, etc. Relying on the manufacturer's sizing info, particularly in the case of women's clothing, is a nightmare. You will get returns.
  
  
  I personally stay away from clothing listings because it probably has the most returns out of any category. People buy stuff to wear one time and return. People buy and don't really care about size as they can just return if it doesn't fit. This is good advice though, the better you can describe something the less likely returns are. 

Hover Boards A Hot Selling Product But Is It Worth The Risk?

 Hover Boards A Hot Selling Product

I work with a lot of eBay sellers, Amazon sellers, and e-Commerce business owners who hire me to help them find hot selling products as well as suppliers.

Recently one of the hottest new trends is "Hover Boards". Hover boards are very similar to a Segway which you are probably familiar with, however unlike the segway which has a handle for the rider, the hover boards are just a platform you stand on with no handle bars.

If you browse the internet you'll find hover boards ranging as low as $160 to as much as $1600. The crazy thing is all of these are essentially all the exact same item, comming from a handful of the same factories, in the same city, in China.

The ones at the higher end of the price are often "Private Labeled" or "White Labeled". All this means is that some buyers pay the factory an extra buck or two per board to print their name or logo o the board. This gives the impression of it being different from the rest and adds a perceived higher value. Many Amazon and eBay sellers do this same process with everything from phone cases to yoga mats, and many other products. At the end of the day however, that seller is selling a $160 board for $1600 and the only difference is the logo.

Getting back to these Hover Boards being hot selling items. They are the rage on Youtube with almost all the videos getting hundreds of thousands if not millions of views. Many of the Youtube pranksters are using these in their video. They are a hot selling item on eBay and Amazon and there is definately an opportunity to make money with these.

Personally I'm selling hover boards on Craigslist and I can't get them in fast enough to fill the demand. They also sell very well on both eBay and Amazon, however every one on both sites is being dropshipped from China which means the lead time is well over a month.  If someone were to actually stock these in the states and was able to ship out quickly and have them delivered quickly they could make a killing. Everone would order from the person with the shortest lead time as nobody wants to wait a month to get an item like this, they are anxious to get it. If you had these hover boards on Amazon FBA for Prime Shipping you would dominate the market. I would wager that you'd easily do a couple hundred thousand Dollars a month in sales on either platform, eBay or Amazon. 

The Risky Part Of Selling Hover Boards

Selling Hover Boards could be incredibly lucrative, but also very risky; and let me tell you why.

These Hover Boards are awesome, there's no denying that. The problem however is how well will they hold up? They are relatively new so they've only been in the states for a few months and there's been a very small number bought here in the states thus far so we really don't know how well they will hold up over time. If you read product reviews on Amazon or sites like Alibaba, DHGate, or AliExpress there's many rave reviews, however there are also plenty of reviews saying how it was awesome for a week or month; but then stopped working.

When you sell on a platform like eBay or Amazon, customers typically have anywhere from 90 days to as long as 6 months to file a claim against you for item not as described. Even if your selling on your own website customers can do a credit card chargeback for up to 6 months. If you sell someone a hover board and 5 months later it breaks, many people who dropped $500 or more on a hover board are going to file a credit card chargeback against you. You will inevidibly lose this dispute and you are out a hover board plus the money the customer had paid you. Now granted on the wholesale level these boards probably only cost you somewhere between $160 and $260 depending upon how good a price you negotiated and how many you ordered but a few chargebacks could add up pretty quickly. Not only do you have to worry about the hover boards holding up to normal use, but some customers who "abuse" them, or not follow instructions, and will still file chargebacks and want their money back.

Add to that, that though not likely, potentially someone who busts their head open riding a hover board may come after you to try to sue you. After looking at all these complications and risks of selling hover boards on eBay, Amazon, through a website, or even private labeling and wholesaling them, I've decided it's not something I want to venture into.

Hover Board Scooters

It is and would be EXTREMELY lucrative, but to me the risks outweigh the rewards. You have to judge for yourself whether you feel the same way; or if you'd like to make a go of starting a hover board business.

Now I should add, I do think buying hover boards wholesale and selling them on Craigslist for cash is not a bad business model. It's more time consuming and harder to scale than doing a similar thing online. You will also be limited regionally to people in your area since your not accepting cards and shipping, however as it's a cash transaction there's no credit card disputes or chargebacks to worry about.

That's that, just wanted to bring to your attention this new hot selling product and lucrative opportunity. It's up to you as to whether the risks outweigh the rewards or not. I'm curious to hear your guys opinions? Are you selling these online or do you plan to? What are the biggest challenges? What's your experience as far as how boards are holding up over time?