Local Meet Up Review
Last night I went to my first meet up for internet marketers in the Lehigh Valley. Although 9 people were scheduled to show up, only 4 of us actually made it. It would’ve been great if everyone who promised to show up actually did; it was still cool.
All of the other guys were either currently selling on eBay or used to sell on ebay. I was the only one doing affiliate marketing. One of the guys, Tony, really impressed me. He spends 60-70 hours per week working on eBay and sells a ton of shit. And Tony is a smart guy. He thinks outside the box and has figured out a lot of ways to get things to sell on eBay. He’s currently a trading assistant. Basically, he charges people 30-35% of the final selling price to list their items on eBay and get it sold. Once their item is sold, he sends them a check.
He gets customers/things to sell by:
- Purchasing leads of people who would like to sell their items on eBay. He’s currently paying some kid in India $10-15 per lead.
- Buying things at garage sales. He usually tells the seller to contact him at the end of the day with all the unsold items and makes a deal. Sometimes he gets the items free, and other times, a deal is brokered on the spot.
- Liquidating used/return merchandise from local retailers. He likes to target small local chains, maybe 5 or 6 stores.
- Using Amazon.com as a drop shipper. When drop shipping was discussed, Tony said that “the only reliable drop shipper I use is Amazon”. I don’t know if he uses Amazon to send directly to the buyer or if he sends the item to himself first, and then ships it to the buyer.
Nobody at the meeting really did affiliate marketing. A few said they had in the past, and that they no longer did it because it was so time consuming. I thought it was the other way around. Affiliate marketing is less time consuming than selling on eBay. I don’t have to worry about shipping, packaging, and stocking items.
In the end, the meeting was very fun. I got to meet some new people and ate some ok food. I will go a few more meetings to see if any other affiliate marketers join.
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As for eBay, I’ve dumped a few things on there w/ an affiliate marketing twist. In my description, there are thumbnails of the product. Click on a thumbnail & it’s taken to a larger photo (hosted at my website). Click on the large photo & you’re returned to the auction listing, via my affiliate link. (Note: your affiliate link cannot appear on eBay, so you have to send the user to another site, first).
Doing this earned me a few more bucks than the auction itself, and actually made up for the fact that I was selling “junk” (in my eyes).
Some of my closed auctions are still getting traffic & generating clicks (and sales, therefore commissions) weeks later!