Let’s put the cart before the horse:  For the past seven years I have used PayPal to process sales on my website.  I have known for a long time that I was getting what online marketers call Shopping Cart Abandonment.  How did I know this?  Well when I look at my Hitslink analysis program it might show that 17 people hit my Order Page while only 4 or 5 hit my Thank You Page (Where you end up after you pay).

Over time I was seeing abandonment rates of over 50% consistently and often as high as 60% to 70% some of the time.  I always assumed there was something wrong with my order page and I was constantly redesigning and tweaking it.

For the past two years my webmaster has been trying to talk me into trying a shopping cart program called 1Shopingcart.  I finally gave in last April –and wow am I glad I did.

We still use PayPal to process the payments, but now instead of my customers going to PayPal when they pay, they stay on my site on pages that I control. And the results?  My abandonment rate has dropped below 35% and my sales increased overnight by 20% to 30%.

There was another huge benefit as well. Those of you who were in my old affiliate program might remember that we switched lately.  The old program was run by MyAp and was costing me around $500 a month.  Now I have an affilaite program built in to 1Shoppingcart that only costs me about $60 a month –a savings of $440.

1Shoppingcart also has a built-in email program that captures the name of every customer and can also capture names from an opt-in form.  I currently use Aweber for my newsletter email program and am very happy with them.  If all you want is an email list program they are simply the best and the lowest cost.  But if I were just starting out I would probably use the program built into 1Shoppingcart. It comes free with the shopping cart.

1Shoppingcart also works for information sellers. If you sell digital products, they have a secure delivery solution for those too. If you have bought an eBook on my website then you have used 1Shoppingcart

Web Builder

My favorite web builder is fast becoming xSitePro.  This company has been around for a long time and they are very well respected in the industry. They offer a complete “build-it-yourself” website solution that assumes you know absolutely nothing about building websites.

Their designs work for any kind of website, from simple niche affiliate websites, to complex product sales websites. Their training and support are legendary in the industry.

So whether you want to build your first website or you want a fast economical system for constructing multiple websites, check out xSitePro.  If you would like to see xSitePro in action, here is a link to a really cool free webinar.

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Ten, Little Known, Highly Profitable Niche Markets Hiding on eBay.  Anyone can make money with even one of these markets, but you get all ten to try.

John Reese has  just released a series of eye-opening videos that reveals the “$2 Per Hour” Power Formula.  This simple and inexpensive formula is the closely-guarded secret responsible for BIG TIME online money-making.

There are four videos in the series. Two of them are up now to watch and the other two will be released over the next week.  Even if you don’t want to buy the program that John is eventually selling, believe me, watching the videos will open your eyes to a new way of doing things.

Here is the link to the first two free videos.

In this series you’re going to learn…

• How to turn 5 hours worth of effort into over 100 hours of results using this simple trick.
• The magical “not-an-iPad” device that turns ideas into auto-pilot cash flow.
• How the wildly successful “Blue Man Group” revolutionized the entertainment industry with this unheard of strategy.
• Why brainstorming new ideas is where all the money gets made and how to spend your time mostly doing that.
• Dissecting the “Big Six” online money-making models to show you how the right system can maximize income potential.And much, much more!

Just click here to watch the first two videos

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The Complete eBay Marketing System is a printed instruction manual that will teach you all aspects of selling on eBay and running a full-time eBay business

Great Magicians master the craft of misdirection. They create a diversion with their right hand while the left hand is doing the real work. It seems our congress has studied the craft of magic too.  Everyone pays attention to the big bills while hundreds of small –yet critically important bills are being crafted out of sight –and with no debate.

Lobbyists from firms such as Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Target and the National Retail Federation are throwing millions of dollars at House and Senate members to draft a series of bills that will force every internet retailer –large and small, to collect and pay sales tax in all 50 states. The pressure is not only coming from the retailers, but from state governments too who need the revenue.

Such a bill would kill millions of eBay and Amazon sellers and any small business that sells online. There are over 6 million people who make all or part of their income from online activities and they represent a huge chunk of the economy.  And many of these companies employ people. All of these sellers will be affected. Such a bill would cost millions of job losses by small business.

If you sell on eBay, can you imagine how much work it would be to collect and pay sales tax in all the different states.  Just registering for a sales tax number in all of the states would take weeks of work and cost thousands of dollars in fees.

These bills are being crafted and debated now. eBay, Amazon and other big online companies are lobbying against them, but they are outnumbered.  But its not hopeless. Lobbyists may have the money, but we have the votes. And congress does listen when they get emails and phone calls.

Just go to: https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml to email your congress person and senator. If you don’t make some noise then this is coming.  Be polite – but tell them NO TAX ON INTERNET SELLERS!

See Also

• Learn How To Make Money With an eBay Consignment Business
  Complete business manual with forms, advertisements, contracts and everything you need to start an online consignment business

I first published How to Create and Sell Information Products on eBay, Amazon and The Internet two years ago. The first edition was limited to selling information products on eBay. When the second edition was released, I added information to help sellers sell via websites and in this edition we have added Amazon, including selling products into the new Kindle marketplace.

The first two editions were delivered in a clamshell binder with a printed manual and the bonus materials on three CDs.  With this edition, we are now delivering the entire package as a download from the web. Although I have always been partial to printed works (call me old fashion), this method has several advantages:

• New lower cost: The savings in printing and production cost have allowed my to lower the price by $30
• Immediate delivery: Once your credit card or PayPal payment is processed you will be directed to a page where you can download the product and all of the bonuses instantly
• Printable: Our downloads are set to allow printing if you want to read it later –or just print out the parts you need
• Instantly updatable: Lets face it. eBay is always changing their policies and the internet is evolving constantly. With this system I can instantly update the version so all purchasers have the latest infomation and prior purchasers can download the latest issue.

When I first started publishing, there was a large market that preferred printed products. However as the web has grown in acceptance and there are more security controls available, more and more people are comfortable with downloading products.

The Information Market is Still Growing

I like to call “information” the perfect product. You own it and control it. Once you create your product (eBook, video, audio recording, etc) you have an unlimited supply and you control the costs. It used to be that when people mentioned “info product” they were pretty much talking about eBooks.  But today the market includes much much more. In How to Create and Sell Information Products on eBay, Amazon and The Internet we show to how to create, sell and deliver a wide variety of info products including:

• eBooks
• videos
• webinars
• membership sites
• digital photography including photo collections
• public domain producs and collections
• audio files including music, lectures and courses
• and more

How to Create and Sell Information Products on eBay, Amazon and The Internet is available now for immediate delivery –updated and at a new lower price.

If you still want the old printed proudct, I do have a few left for sale on eBay –but they are at the old higher price. Here is the link to the listing on eBay.

See Also

• The Complete eBay Marketing System – Learn how to sell on eBay from a Power Seller who sells on eBay every day
  Complete printed insruction manula shows how to start and run a profitable eBay business

Some of you may have missed the announcement, but a few months ago I started a new company aimed at the Senior market.  We publish books, articles and newsletters that are designed to help seniors make, save and invest money to insure a great retirement. We call our publishing company, The Official Geezer Guides. Although we are aiming at the senior market, don’t worry if you are not there yet our books can help anyone.

We have just published our latest title, The Official Geezer Guide to Making Money on Craigslist by Richard Geasey.  Richard is one of our stable of Geezer Guide authors.

Craigslist is best known for selling physical products and services -but there are other ways to make money on Craigslist without a product. We will show you three ways to do this -but you have to do it right.   Break some simple rules and Craigslist will block your ads.

Some more of what you will learn in The Official Geezer Guide to Making Money With Craigslist:

• What sells on Craigslist -and what doesn’t
• Where to find products to sell on Craigslist
• How to use Craigslist to sell even if you don’t have a product
• How to accept credit cards without a merchant credit card account
• Learning the best times and days to post your item for sale
• How to write a killer, attention grabbing title for your postings
• The key elements you need to have in all your titles
• How to price your items
• How to use Craigslist to build a profitable mailing list
• How to use the new netSpray selling service on Craigslist
• How to protect your identity on Craigslist
• How to start an event ticket business on Craigslist
• How to start a Craigslist consignment business

We have several other titles in the Geezer series including books about making money on Amazon, creating ebooks and a great overall training manual for anyone who wants to start an online business.

See Also

• Learn How To Sell on eBay with The Complete eBay Marketing System
  Complete PRINTED business manual by an eBay PowerSeller who sells on eBay every day takes you step by step through starting and running a profitable eBay business.

The Official Geezer Guide is my new website dedicated to helping seniors and retired folks living on a fixed income find no-scam ways to supplement their income and earn additional money.

The latest book from Official Geezer Guides is The Official Geezer Guide to Creating and Selling eBooks ~ A step-by-step guide to making money with eBooks, by Julie A. Fast.

Julie is a proficient and highly profitable eBook writer. She has written and sold five different eBooks and now she shares her knowledge with you. 

Julie Fast started selling eBooks before people knew what they were in 2002, and sold copies the very first day she had them available on her website. She still makes her living selling eBooks from her website. Now she’s written the complete guide that walks you through the steps of creating eBooks for profit. She shares exactly how you can make money year after year with eBooks, and you don’t even have to be a writer!

When Julie began her eBook website, the eBook market was brand new and only a handful of people even knew what an eBook was and even fewer had any idea how to research a topic, create an eBook, set up a website for sales or market an e product.

She admits now that she really didn’t know what she was doing in the beginning either, but she taught herself using the ideas you can read about in the book.

Things have really changed since those days but Julie has stayed way ahead of the curve and will teach you how you can too!

The Official Geezer Guide to Creating and Selling eBooks is available now from the Geezer Guide website at www.officialgeezerguide.com. We also have two other titles available:

The Official Geezer Guide to Starting and Online Business by me (Skip McGrath) and

The Official Geezer Guide to Selling on Amazon by Steve Lindhorst

See Also

• The Insider Secrets to Selling on eBay by Derek Gehl
  Two Volume Printed Manuals with CDs and Videos takes you step by step to set up and make money with an eBay niche business

This week is the official launch of the Official Geezer Guide Website.  I have been working on this project in secret for several months.  The Official Geezer Guide is an information website aimed at helping seniors, retired and about-to-retire folks learn about ways to make money online in a scam-free environment.

Besides reviewing and recommending various online business training programs, we will also publish a free monthly newsletter and publish The Official Geezer Guide line of books and training courses.

Our first two books available now are:

The Official Geezer Guide to Starting an Online Business from Home by me (Skip McGrath)

The Official Geezer Guide to Selling on Amazon, by Steve Lindhorst.

We have two more titles in the works that should be available later this week:

The Official Geezer Guide to Selling on Craigslist by Richard Geasey

The Official Geezer Guide to Creating and Selling eBooks by Julie A. Fast

For the next few months we will be rolling out several more titles including a new book I am working on for Geezers who want to sell on eBay and books about making money with blogs, Google AdSense and content-rich niche websites.

We are also planning a series of webinars and monthly conference calls and eventually we hope to put together an annual Geezer Get-together.

I have already had several questions from people who have visited the site asking me if they have to be a geezer to buy from the site, or why we are selling to the senior market.  The answer to the first question is easy –we don’t discriminate. Anyone can buy our books.  As for the second question, the Geezer Guide concept grew out of the realities of the market.  The baby-boom generation is starting to retire.  Today there are 14,000 people who retire every day.  By 2010 that number will jump to 20,000.  Those are staggering numbers and a natural market for anyone who wants to target it. And a large percentage of those folks do not have enough money for a comfortable retirement and will need to make some extra money.

There is a giant myth out there that old folks don’t know how to use computers. This may be true of my mother who is in her late 80s and retired many years ago, but most people who have recently retired, or will retire soon, are highly computer literate.

Some of you may just use a computer to search the web, shop, share photos with the kids and send email. But, others are quite skilled -having come from jobs in the tech world where they used a computer daily. Whichever description fits you, as long as you have some basic computer skill then our business guides, methods and systems for making money online will work for you.

So if you are already a geezer or think you might be one soon, I hope you will take a look at The Official Geezer Guide website and see if there is anything there that might help you.  We have a free monthly newsletter loaded with money-making tips and scam alerts to avoid and tons of free articles to advise readers about many online business opportunities and other ways to make and save money during your retirement.

See Also

• How To Make Extra Money Selling Used Books on eBay, Amazon and The Internet
  The used book market is growing and used books are easy to find and sell. This is one of the easiest and lowest-risk online business opportunities.

Martin Hurley has been making money online selling his digital photos for years. He has just published a great little eBook that he is selling for $7.00 that shows how you can do this too.  And best of all you don’t have to be a professional photographer. There is even a market for pretty simple photos and photo products such as tee shirts, coffee mugs and other merchandise.

Normally books like this go for much more money. What Martin is doing is selling this book as a promotion for his digital photo tool kit which is complete information, tools and systems to totally automate this business.  I bought both and they are a pretty good deal.  This isn’t some get-rich-quick scheme, you will have to do a bit of work, but the coolest part is that it is a bit of fun too.

Check out The Mini Guide to Using eBay and Cafe Press to Sell Your Digital Photos

Even if you decide not to get the complete digital photo tool kit, this little eBook is a great value at $7.00.

See Also

• Free eBook – Ten things an eBay Seller Can do To Get Their Mojo Back
  Great little free eBook for my readers from eBay University Instructor Steve Lindhorst

I am not sure if there is anything we can do about this, but you may want to try and write your congress person anyway. If you don’t, it is looking pretty certain that the new congress will pass a law in 2009 that will force all online sellers from you and me to Amazon and eBay to collect sales tax on all transactions and pay the tax to the 49 states that require it.  As a seller this means that the burden of collecting the tax will fall on you and you will have to keep records of all sales and then file the paperwork and write a check to each state where you sold something.

Here is a link to an article about the sales tax that everyone should read. If this passes it will drive hundreds of thousands of small sellers out of business.

http://www.forbes.com/2008/11/13/online-taxes-revenue-tech-internet-cx_ew_1113tax.html?partner=yahootix

See Also

• How To Make Good Money Selling Used Books on eBay, Amazon and The Internet
  Complete training program shows how almost anyone can enter this low cost, low risk business to make extra money quickly

A lot of folks think the slowdown is due to the changes on eBay –and some of it could be, but in fact I usually see this every year. Business should pickup in late August as the back-to-school season starts and then continue strong through the Fall if this year follows past patterns.  Although, the economy is weaker this year and consumer spending is slowing –so you just can’t be sure.

For a long time now I have advised eBay sellers not to put all their eggs in one basket and I still advise this. If you are just starting out on eBay I wouldn’t go running off doing different things yet –take the time to master eBay first before you branch out.  Trying to do too many different things at once is a real recipe for frustration and disaster.  But if you do need to make a little extra money, here is something you should look at.  My friend Avril Harper has just created a great little package you may want to look at.

A Complete Newbies’ Guide to Making Money at ClickBank

For years I’ve been writing and publishing about eBay, selling on eBay, and in my spare time I promote other people’s products at ClickBank.

Selling other people’s products at ClickBank is perhaps the easiest and fastest earning of all the businesses I currently run; there are so many excellent products to choose from, most with top notch sales letters that convert like crazy into sales earning you up to 75% the price of those products.

In all honesty I don’t earn that much at Clickbank –but I also don’t spend much time on it.  Typically I work just a few hours a week promoting Clickbank sales as the vast majority of my time is spent writing and selling on eBay.

If you’re a complete newbie, this book’s written just for you, it starts by showing you how to open a ClickBank account and takes you, step by step, through the various steps involved in making a good income on ClickBank.

Avril’s book even shows you how to create and upload a really professional looking web site using nothing but ‘Microsoft Word’ and I promise you, if you follow the simple instructions involved, YOU WILL be able to upload a web site in less than one hour.

And if you don’t like the book, you don’t have to keep it. Avril offers all her customers a sixty day money back guarantee. She even shows you how much she earned in the past few weeks in one of her own ClickBank accounts.

I am pretty experienced working with Clickbank products –but I must say even i learned a bunch of new stuff and the bonus materials that come with Avril’s book gave me a ton of new ideas and resources that I can use.

As i said at the beginning, promoting Clickbank sales is not for everyone, but if A Complete Newbies’ Guide to Making Money at ClickBank will work for you it is a great way to supplement your eBay and website income.

Best of all, Avril gives very good support with her products. If you do email her and don’t get a quick answer, be a little patient. She is physically located in the UK and about 8 time zones away. Best of all her book works fine internationally –it not written for the UK but it works fine there too for my international readers.

See Also

• Are You Struggling to Figure Out What to Sell on eBay. Ten eBay Niche Businesses That Anyone Can Do may be the answer.
  Business guide lays out ten simple, little known, yet highly profitable eBay businesses that (almost) anyone can do.