Park your garage sales on the Internet
By: Donald Lee

You have been planning your garage sale for weeks now. Your garage, as well as you whole home, is stuffed with old records, books, clothing, vacuum sweepers, and other odds and ends that you have no use for anymore. Instead of just tossing your clutter into the neighborhood landfill, you’ve decided to hold one of the most time-honored traditions in civilization-the garage (or yard) sale. It can be a thankless task, becoming a pawnbroker for a day, but there’s definitely good money in it-if you know how and, more importantly, where to organize your garage sale.

First, of course, you need to get your sales items together. Garage sales are a great way to recycle stuff that you no longer have room for. You’d be surprised what doodads and miscellany your neighbors will want-musty books, old silver wear, framed photos of long-lost third cousins, and other unmentionables that you’ve had no use for since who knows when. Even more surprising, your neighbors are willing to shell out cold hard cash for these items. That makes your garage sale a win-win proposition for you.

Come to think of it, though, a garage sale at your home can be a real chore. It takes a Herculean effort to collect and organize every last little thing you want to sell. Then you have to tag each item and keep track of it in a hardcopy log. To ensure that your neighbors show up with cash in hand, you must create, print up, and pay for flyers, which need to be distributed on telephone poles and supermarket message boards across the region. The work can seem endless and your chances of making a profit slim.

Don’t get me wrong. Your garage sale was a great idea, but as you can see, there are many limitations to holding one at your house the old-fashioned way. Get with the times. The garage sale has evolved thanks to the multitude of Web sites that allow you to sell your goods online. People are selling more stuff than ever on the Internet because of the convenience of Web classified sites.

The Internet holds several crucial advantages over selling your stuff the outdated way. When you compare these benefits to the problems with home-based garage sales, you’ll see the difference:

ONLINE: Your items are available for purchase for an unlimited time, until they sell.
AT HOME: Your items are available until you call it quits for the night.

ONLINE: Rain, sleet, or snow, your sales aren’t affected in the least.
AT HOME: Better have a rain date or a very big umbrella.

ONLINE: No need to constantly watch over your goods or interact with uninterested customers. Just wait until a customer contacts you by e-mail when they are ready to purchase.
AT HOME: Be prepared for countless hours of staring down the street for customers to appear. When they do arrive, be prepared for too many questions but too few purchases.

ONLINE: Advertise for free to your friends and neighbors over e-mail.
AT HOME: Shell out money for flyers, after which you can get to know all of the telephone poles in your neighborhood.

ONLINE: Spend your weekends the way they were meant to be: relaxing and enjoying your time with friends and family.
AT HOME: Spend your weekend waking up early, buying and distributing flyers, lugging boxes, and waiting for customers.

As you can see, it’s not an even match. An online garage sale wins hands down.

Now that you’re actually excited to get started with your garage sale, you should know that there is one caveat. As easy as it may seem, your online garage sale will be even easier if you choose the right classified site.

Your best bet is to do your research and find classified sites with the most features and benefits, such as
(1) No sign-up, registration, or transaction fees.
(2) Free ad listing with text description and pictures.
(3) Long-term ad posting and free renewals.
(4) Easy, accurate, electronic, and automatic record keeping.

The best classified sites have these incredible features and then some. Not only will you be able to clean out your home’s clutter with the help of these classified sites. Your garage sale will also park a profit in your pocket.

Author Bio
Donald Lee is the public relations manager for Buysellcommunity.com. Buysellcommunity provides free classified listing services for individuals and businesses to market their products and services online. For global and localized classifieds, please visit http://www.buysellcommunity.com  - Free Buy & Sell Classifieds

Article Source: http://www.ArticleGeek.com

“Four Deadly Mistakes To Avoid Before You Start Your Own Business” Now, more than ever seniors are looking for a legitimate home business opportunity. On the internet there seems to literally be a business opportunity everywhere you turn. What 99% of people don’t realize is that, YES, there is a ton of money to be made online IF you know where to look. I want to share with you a few secrets and tips to avoid before you start your own business.

Naturally, when it comes to a home based business there are common mistakes that people make and common misconceptions that people have when getting involved with internet marketing.

Mistake #1

Don’t rush into it. Do your own research. You might have heard a speaker or a friend mention how great an opportunity is, and how he or she raked in great money. Sometimes we get carried away in the success stories of others that we forget to get the details of how the success was achieved. You get details simply by asking questions. For example. How much work is needed? What methods were used? Was it done online or offline? How many partners did he or she have? What is there background? Is any coaching offered? Is skill or experience needed? How can your experiences be applied in a situation to help you be successful as well? Now, normally, these are great questions to ask, because some people have more business experience than others, or some have developed some special skills that have helped them succeed. But the internet will ask none of these questions. The internet only cares what you do.

Mistake #2

Don’t be taken by the “easy money myth”. There is no such thing as easy money in most cases. I personally believe that something that is not worked for is not worth having, and would most likely not last. People who are looking for a home based business opportunity in the belief that it could be a way to make easy money are definitely going to be disappointed. Once they realize the real work they have to put into it, they quit before they discover that there really is a massive amount of money to be made online. But there is no such thing as a web site that will do everything for you and all you need to do is sit back, pay a monthly fee, and collect the money. However, if you take the time and are willing to learn how it’s done, it can be done and in a much shorter time period than you though possible. We’re only talking months and not the years it could take doing it any other way.

Mistake#3

Don’t have an employee mindset. Be an entrepreneur. Once you’ve found the home based business opportunity that you like, you have to treat it like a real business. Just because it is based at home doesn’t mean it is any less of a business. About 46% of all small businesses out there today are home based. Many people who get into home based businesses forget this aspect of it. Most of us know that when running a business it takes work and time. Since you are your own boss in a home based business it is a must that you set rules, hours, guidelines, schedules. Plan the time you will spend on your business. The benefit with a home based business opportunity is you set your time. But you have to be willing to put in some hours each day, if you want to have a successful business. Don’t make the mistake of thinking like an employee, you are now the business owner, the boss. You must adopt the attitude that “if it is to be it’s up to me”. If you do this, it will be.

Mistake #4

Don’t quit. A majority of people who look for a home based business opportunity are perhaps looking for a get rich quick scheme. A Legitimate home based business opportunity doesn’t provide any get rich quick ploys or methods. As I mentioned earlier, they are to be treated like an actual business. Those who view a home based opportunity as a get rich quick thing usually end up quitting it in a few weeks because there expectations were surrounded by instant gratification. These people never last, after a few weeks even a few days in the business and no money is made, they get discouraged and throw in the towel. Quitting so quickly could mean losing out big time.

Remember what we talked about earlier about the right mindset., You must be willing to work through this phase of your business plan. A home based business opportunity provides an avenue for the working man or woman to spend more time at home with family and friends while generating great income. You are living in a period where opportunities are ever increasing. You are in an internet gold rush. It’s only a matter of time before others discover that there is major cash to be made online.

If you are facing a layoff at work or getting close to retirement and have not saved enough to maintain your standard of living, a small home based business could be the answer you need to help fund that retirement or lessen the blow of a layoff. If a small business is your solution, do your research and do it right the first time. You must know something about marketing. There is no way around it. Without marketing, there are no sales, without sales there is no business

I am a senior citizen learning this thing called internet marketing. Being a senior I did not want to spend a ton of time and money doing so. I looked for a process to learn the right way to market on the internet the first time without the need to go through all that trial and error usually associated with starting a business.

Thank You Gerald Lewis

This article courtesy of SiteProNews.com