# I'm gunna be rich beyond my wildest dreams



## LifeChoices (31 October 2011)

They say you only get one good idea in your lifetime. 

Tyler Durden inspired me with the idea on his moonlighting thread: https://www.aussiestockforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23666

Right now I'm in 'high level' negotiations with a respectable b2b wholesaler from Guangdong, China that I found browsing dhgate.com to buy 24 Air Rangers. It all looks legit, chris-shop is a gold seller!. Although these are not the original air swimmers - they are the next generation and offer more functions - like automatic swimming!!!

I bought one of these a couple of weeks ago and they are the greatest invention since the iphone 3G. Everyone I show wants one and I can't wait to get home from work and play with my inflatable shark.

My idea is to set up a stall in Chaddy or Southlands, fly a couple of them around and sell them to people panic buying in the lead up to xmas. If it's all too hard, I'll just go around party shops or sell them to peeps on aussiestockforums.com.au and ebay.

When I sell out - which I will - I'll just buy some more from Guangdong - there's gotta be a catch, cause it all sounds too easy.

it's going to cost me about $500 to start up this business. Watch our Gina Rihnehardt, i'm going to pip you to the post on the next BRW rich list with my range of inflatable novelty toys.


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## LifeChoices (8 November 2011)

Amazingly 24 of them arrived this morning.... And these are the new improved generation with auto swim function and rechargeable battery.

PM me if you want a shark or a clownfish?





As a special deal for astute aussiestockforum investors I'm selling em for $40.00 including registered post or $43 including express post to anywhere in Australia.

You won't be disappointed, unless you get drunk and fly them outside - like I did on the w/e.


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## tothemax6 (9 November 2011)

The helium bit is a bit of a pain tho.


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## skc (9 November 2011)

LifeChoices said:


> Amazingly 24 of them arrived this morning.... And these are the new improved generation with auto swim function and rechargeable battery.
> 
> PM me if you want a shark or a clownfish?
> 
> ...




What's so special about your deal?!

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/AIR-SWIM...Radio_Controlled_Vehicles&hash=item2eb8e4459f

How much is helium btw?


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## LifeChoices (9 November 2011)

skc said:


> What's so special about your deal?!
> 
> http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/AIR-SWIM...Radio_Controlled_Vehicles&hash=item2eb8e4459f
> 
> How much is helium btw?




Astute investors would have picked up the fact that I'm offering "Registered Post" as opposed to standard post and the fact that the ebay seller hasn't even got the air rangers in stock. 

I have the air rangers in stock and am offering a premium postage service.

I paid $7 for helium at my local party shop to fill it up.


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## LifeChoices (11 November 2011)

Well, it's been an amazing 2 days. Since they arrived my inbox has been flooded and friends of friends were buying them. I even had to pull my sales on ebay due to the demand.

The boxes are now empty and I'm completely sold out. These fish have just captured peoples imagination. 

On Thursday I noted they were voted the number 1 toy on AdWeek

http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/seasons-15-hottest-toys-watch-tv-ads-136314

Yesterday I purchased a domain name and put up a rough website: http://www.air-swimmer.com.au (stay tuned)

I've just ordered another 48 direct from Guangdong, China. If I keep going at this rate I'll be only too happy to bail out Italy.

Hey Tyler - I probably owe you a couple of bucks for inspiring me on this inflatable novelty toy journey.


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## prawn_86 (11 November 2011)

Well done LC.

OUt of interest do you have any plans for when/if competition starts undercutting you?


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## LifeChoices (11 November 2011)

prawn_86 said:


> Well done LC.
> 
> OUt of interest do you have any plans for when/if competition starts undercutting you?




It's already getting there.

What I've noticed is that there are lots of small timers like me in the market selling to friends of friends. No big retailers have got into it. There are that many different types available - right now its great business.

My bet is mid December it will be feverpitch and January the business will be dead.

Right now I'm only paying $19 a fish and selling them for $30 - $40, which is a very good ROI and it's keeping me in laughs and some expensive lunches at the "good place". It's been a very successful experiment and has opened my mind.

On another note - I should probably start a thread on this.....

You know on the back of cars people have these stickers representing their  family - anyone noticed this? Look around lots and lots of people have them stuck to their back windows - white decals/cartoon characters of their family members stuck to the back window.

A friend of mine told me today that the couple who designed these are from Braebrook Vic and have made squillians out of it. When I was in the US I even saw them there.

I'd like to find out more about it.


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## Julia (11 November 2011)

LifeChoices said:


> You know on the back of cars people have these stickers representing their  family - anyone noticed this? Look around lots and lots of people have them stuck to their back windows - white decals/cartoon characters of their family members stuck to the back window.
> 
> A friend of mine told me today that the couple who designed these are from Braebrook Vic and have made squillians out of it. When I was in the US I even saw them there.
> .



Congrats on your success so far, LC.  Whoever is marketing these stickers seems to be pretty well organised.

Personally, I can't quite see why you'd want to tell the world the make-up of your family, but I suppose it's an extension of the social media phenomenon of making every breath you take public.

Apparently these stickers really annoy some people.  I was reading at the weekend that the follow up is some pretty nasty similar product which depicts these families being hung on gallows.
http://www.familystickers.com/


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## LifeChoices (11 November 2011)

Julia said:


> Congrats on your success so far, LC.  Whoever is marketing these stickers seems to be pretty well organised.
> 
> Personally, I can't quite see why you'd want to tell the world the make-up of your family, but I suppose it's an extension of the social media phenomenon of making every breath you take public.
> 
> ...



In a million years I couldn't imagine sticking those things on the back of my car.

They kind of annoy me, but I'm more fascinated in how they managed to make their way into so many back windows of cars. I don't understand why so many people bothered to buy them and make the effort to stick them to the back of their rear window. I wouldn't know where to buy them, I've never seen them in any shops and have NFI where all these people get them from. It makes me feel like I've been asleep.

I'm from a marketing background and am just really interested in how this has become so mainstream.


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## tech/a (12 November 2011)

Hmmm
I like your thinking

*" Your Hired* "


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## danbradster (12 November 2011)

Julia said:


> Apparently these stickers really annoy some people.  I was reading at the weekend that the follow up is some pretty nasty similar product which depicts these families being hung on gallows.
> http://www.familystickers.com/









I don't know about the marketing of them.


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## Tyler Durden (12 November 2011)

LifeChoices said:


> Hey Tyler - I probably owe you a couple of bucks for inspiring me on this inflatable novelty toy journey.




Hey mate, you don't owe me anything, I am glad that my thread had such a positive effect on one person - that in itself means more than enough to me.

On a similar note, ever since that thread, I have decided to get into 'business' - you have obviously beaten me to it, but my ideas were somewhat similar (no, not inflatable sharks, as I didn't know about them). I am still in the early planning stages, but I am excited just thinking about it.

PS. Are you in Sydney?


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## LifeChoices (12 November 2011)

^^^no - Melbourne

I've been thinking about the next stage in this adventure and thought I may as well document it here.

I've ordered another 48. They arrive in about 9 days and I got them for about $19 each.

My plan now is to go grass roots. I've already sold them to close friends and work mates - many who bought 2 , one friend bought 9.

The website is crucial, I got the domain name www.air-swimmer.com.au and am building up the site, with the main focus being in order:
1. Design
2. Google ranking
3. Ability to take orders/contact us
4. FAQ
5. Social Media

I'm a web developer by trade so this is no big deal to me, and I see this project as a bit of a hobby to expand my skillset and my 'saleability' in the future. The domain name cost me $29:00

I think the pricing structure will be something like this - I will align the price at selling time using e-bay as a guide.

1 x $35 (plus postage)
2 x $30 (plus postage)
5 x $28 (plus postage)  

My campaign is going to be very ground roots, so I shouldn't have to post them interstate, or market on ebay just yet. The website will just sit there in the background, gathering rankings, and hopefully taking the odd orders.

There are peeps who missed out on the last batch so they are the first in line. I also plan to sell to neighbors at our xmas party. After that I'll put it up on my extinct facebbok page, where I have a couple of hundred people. I will also ask my daughter and son to put it up on their pages. 

I'm confident the 48 will sell - it would be great if I could move the lot of them in under a week.


The way I see it is I'm doing a community service, while lining my pockets. Hey, I didn't invent capitalism!


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## Julia (12 November 2011)

LifeChoices said:


> The website is crucial, I got the domain name www.air-swimmer.com.au and am building up the site, with the main focus being in order:



Is this site supposed to be fully functional at this stage, or not yet?  I clicked on the link and saw the fish floating about, watched by a dad and his son both wearing expressions of fixed joy.
No link to being able to order or any explanation of how the things worked.
Perhaps a work in progress?


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## LifeChoices (12 November 2011)

Julia said:


> Is this site supposed to be fully functional at this stage, or not yet?  I clicked on the link and saw the fish floating about, watched by a dad and his son both wearing expressions of fixed joy.
> No link to being able to order or any explanation of how the things worked.
> Perhaps a work in progress?




Give me a break, It's only been around 2 days. In that time I've done heaps - the difficult bits are done (deciding how the site will look and work)

Now I just have to implement it.  I need to get a suitable picture for a remote control, which will by my navigation with the following sections:

about
order now
faq
contact

May take me this week to get it functioning. Just in time for the next shipment. 

Until then it's just floating fish, a pretty sky, and an excited dad with his son in bottom left.


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## Julia (12 November 2011)

LifeChoices said:


> Give me a break, It's only been around 2 days. In that time I've done heaps - the difficult bits are done (deciding how the site will work)



Settle down, LC.  I just asked the question.  You have answered.  Thank you.
Good luck.


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## LifeChoices (12 November 2011)

Julia said:


> Settle down, LC.  I just asked the question.  You have answered.  Thank you.
> Good luck.




Sorry for getting so uptight Julia,

Things can get very stressful in the novelty inflatable toy industry. 

For example my distributor in China was trying to sell me these:





This is the sort of crap I have to deal with on a daily basis.


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## Garpal Gumnut (12 November 2011)

LifeChoices said:


> Sorry for getting so uptight Julia,
> 
> Things can get very stressful in the novelty inflatable toy industry.
> 
> ...




I can sell you some fish.

Inflated or inflatable.

gg


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## Julia (12 November 2011)

LifeChoices said:


> Sorry for getting so uptight Julia,
> 
> Things can get very stressful in the novelty inflatable toy industry.



No problem, LC.  I admire you for your initiative and look forward to seeing the finished website.




> For example my distributor in China was trying to sell me these:
> 
> View attachment 45162
> View attachment 45163
> ...



Actually, at the risk of being a contender for the "Tacky Award", I think those are pretty cute.  Maybe an altogether different market?  I wouldn't totally dismiss how much they could appeal to some people.  

A bit like garden gnomes:  so utterly awful, they're almost appealing.


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## LifeChoices (19 November 2011)

The novelty inflatable toy business is moving along almost to plan. I received 24 Sharks on Friday and the 24 Clownfish are in transit between HK and Australia, so I should receive them on Tuesday/Wednesday.

I also managed to build the website http://www.air-swimmer.com.au, which, took more time than expected and there are a few browser quirks to iron out. I hope you like it.

I also managed to get my website url and a pic of the Clownfish into a forthcoming edition of redmag - which is a magazine distributed by HockingStuart - a major real estate agent in Melbourne.

Obviously, as a special offer to ASF members you can buy one from me for $40 including postage.

You can bpay me and email, oliver@air-swimmer.com.au, your address and I'll send em out the next day. Alternatively  just type in "imstaying" into the promotion code box and pay using Bpay.


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## LifeChoices (19 November 2011)

I've been thinking about my sideline this evening, and I think the way to go, as I run out of friends, is to explore selling and advertising through popular new internet sales sites sprouting up such as:

http://www.groupon.com.au/
http://www.scoopon.com.au/
http://www.catchoftheday.com.au/


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## danbradster (20 November 2011)

LifeChoices said:


> I've been thinking about my sideline this evening, and I think the way to go, as I run out of friends, is to explore selling and advertising through popular new internet sales sites sprouting up such as:
> 
> http://www.groupon.com.au/
> http://www.scoopon.com.au/
> http://www.catchoftheday.com.au/




You have to pay them 50% commission of the advertised sale price, and the sale price should be a fair discount to RRP.  $40 usual price, minus 25% discount = $30, minus 50% commission = $15.  You're cost is above $15, right?

And you'd need potentially hundreds of fish in stock.


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## BradK (20 November 2011)

I love this thread... and the website.. Is it supposed to be a bit of fun? Or a serious money making venture??? I dont get it. I should. But I dont. 

Hahaha
Brad


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## LifeChoices (20 November 2011)

danbradster said:


> You have to pay them 50% commission of the advertised sale price, and the sale price should be a fair discount to RRP.  $40 usual price, minus 25% discount = $30, minus 50% commission = $15.  You're cost is above $15, right?
> 
> And you'd need potentially hundreds of fish in stock.




Thanks for that - quite interesting. Maybe something to consider closer to christmas.



BradK said:


> I love this thread... and the website.. Is it supposed to be a bit of fun? Or a serious money making venture??? I dont get it. I should. But I dont.
> 
> Hahaha
> Brad




Thanks, it started out as a bit of a joke, but the volume of sales encouraged me to take it much more seriously. I'm just going to try to milk the idea until Christmas and see how much I can make out of it - hey I didn't invent capitalism.


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## Tink (20 November 2011)

Good on you Lifechoices, and all the best.

You could even consider setting up at one of those market stalls in the future, not sure how much they charge for a day.


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## trainspotter (20 November 2011)

Great stuff Lifechoices !! Passive income from very little outlay ........ Genius level. :bier:


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## Tyler Durden (20 November 2011)

If you need a Sydney seller, let me know


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## LifeChoices (25 November 2011)

Tyler Durden said:


> If you need a Sydney seller, let me know




Sellers!!! are  you for real, I want buyers.

Seriously, this last week has been a bit of a roller coaster in the novelty inflatable toy industry.

I got hold of all my new stock on Monday and got the website up in running in time, with all the cool google analytics stuff etc. I've actually been quite ill so had to take some time off work, which gave me a bit of time to look at moving some fish.

I had a few pre orders, which I fulfilled and then put the notice up on my defunct facebook page, which resulted in a few more orders. I also noticed that the ebay prices and supplier prices had dropped a little and noticed more sellers have entered the market.

Because of a lack of sales, on Wednesday, I started to think about those coupon sites: I found a really great resource: http://www.allthedeals.com.au/deal-sites (great if your in the market for some dumb gifts for peeps, that will end up as landfill) and proceeded to ring them up seeing what the deal was. Almost all of them didn't get back to me, but a few smaller ones did. Their deals wern't great but I was also too late. Many others novelty inflatable toy marketers have entered the market. So, instead I put a few on ebay at a low price to see what would happen.

Today, I'm pretty happy.  I managed to sell another 8 or 9 to randoms - some managed to find my website and the five cheapies that I put on ebay sold in under 24 hours.

I did some calculations and I've still got around 24 left and have managed to break even on the whole venture. I was thinking about being greedy and buying some more, but my better half got to me.

I've decided instead that I'm just going to let the rest of my stock go organically, through my website, the efforts I've made promoting them, and my local contacts for the rest of December.

Oh, here's the website: www.air-swimmer.com.au - Shucks.... I'm kind of proud of it.

So have I ended up rich beyond my wildest dreams? No not really, but it's been a very worthwhile ongoing experience.


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## skc (25 November 2011)

LifeChoices said:


> Sellers!!! are  you for real, I want buyers.
> 
> Seriously, this last week has been a bit of a roller coaster in the novelty inflatable toy industry.
> 
> ...




Well done, Olly. Good reward for an enterprising idea. Remember Wal-Mart started as a corner store.

To get rid of the rest of the stock, I would go to your local shopping centre, set up a stand while flying a couple around. I bet you any money your stock of 24 will be sold out in one weekend, if not one afternoon. You can even take orders for pick up in two weeks time.

I have no idea how much the shopping centre will charge... but a small local one rather than a Westfield shouldn't be too expensive.


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## LifeChoices (25 November 2011)

skc said:


> Well done, Olly. Good reward for an enterprising idea. Remember Wal-Mart started as a corner store.




Thanks for that comment Mike.



skc said:


> To get rid of the rest of the stock, I would go to your local shopping centre, set up a stand while flying a couple around. I bet you any money your stock of 24 will be sold out in one weekend, if not one afternoon. You can even take orders for pick up in two weeks time.
> 
> I have no idea how much the shopping centre will charge... but a small local one rather than a Westfield shouldn't be too expensive.




I would prefer, and I've thought about this.... Why not just rock up to some fricken big westfield with a boot load of them and five assistant runners, fly them in their space, without authority, and get the runners to fill orders and steer panic xmas buyers to my booty in the carpark?

Obviously, this could only take place in the 24 hours of xmas eve.

I'd actually love to do this, but don't think I've got the balls to carry it out.


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## LifeChoices (25 November 2011)

A few more glasses of wine and my marketing ideas keep pouring out.

How about this one?





I print some stickers and place them wherever they fit in, around my local area.

I understand you probably don't get them. They are a qr code - you see them very rarely in Australia, but in the West Coast of US you see them all over the place in print media.

My target market is teens with too much time, too many gadgets, too much attitude,  who know they need to get a little organized for xmas to buy some more landfill for the next generation that will take their place.


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## keroppi (27 November 2011)

I have an e-commerce site too http://www.hipindustries.com selling men's bags and laptop bags.  Since setting up the store earlier this year, the bags have not moved as quickly as I originally hoped for and I am currently selling a couple a week.

I have about 200 odd bags that I want to move quickly.  Do you guys have any advice for me?


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## danbradster (27 November 2011)

keroppi said:


> I have an e-commerce site too http://www.hipindustries.com selling men's bags and laptop bags.  Since setting up the store earlier this year, the bags have not moved as quickly as I originally hoped for and I am currently selling a couple a week.
> 
> I have about 200 odd bags that I want to move quickly.  Do you guys have any advice for me?




The website looks professional.  If your pricing is supportive of advertising, then a high converting advertising campaign (Google Adwords keyword targeting) will be profitable if done effectively, and move the inventory much faster.


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## gav (27 November 2011)

Interesting read!  Thanks for sharing LifeChoices 

Did you have to set up an ABN, set money aside for tax, etc?

Not sure if it will be of interest, but have heard of Mixergy?  It's a website that interviews entrepreneurs (from small to very large).  Some of the interviews require premium membership, but there is also quite a few free ones.  It's quite interesting, and judging from this thread I'm sure you'd find the interviews entertaining, and you might learn a few things you can implement too.

I have a long commute for work (1hr 40mins driving per day), and I am sick of the mind-numbing radio stations every day.  A few weeks ago I started downloading Mixergy podcasts.  It makes my commute much more entertaining!


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## fatmango (30 November 2011)

and I go to school each day and be punished by negativity and inactivity - go you good thing!


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## danbradster (30 November 2011)

If it's of interest, I recently started in ecommerce too.  My experience before this is in online advertising for commission, so the ecommerce is an extension of my existing skills.  It's an experiment really, I'm trying this niche before I go into another higher profit margin ecommerce idea I have.

It's store supplies with a focus on jewellery stores.  I bought $5000 of stock from China and shipped it by ocean, almost 200 product in total and I am happy with the quality of 95% of them.  Taxes and port fees were crazy, adding about 50% to my product cost.

After about a week my pages started being indexed in Google and I had my first customer, then the next day I had my second customer, the following day had none, today I am getting ready to start advertising.  I am trying to get packaging and delivery running smoothly (and an employee to do that) then I will increase the advertising budget.

Analytics is going well, Pages Per Visitor is proving to be a good measure of traffic quality, most people who view 10+ pages convert into a customer so far.  1-2 page views means the visitor was not interested and untargeted, 5 PVs is decent, 10+ is good.

The website is http://www.directstoresupplies.com.au/ and I'm delivering Australia wide.  I still have to refine some of the prices.


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## xyzedarteerf (30 November 2011)

Can we make fighting fish to battle on air this would be cooler. 

It seems the Dad's are loving it more than the kids.


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## xyzedarteerf (30 November 2011)

LifeChoices said:


> The novelty inflatable toy business is moving along almost to plan. I received 24 Sharks on Friday and the 24 Clownfish are in transit between HK and Australia, so I should receive them on Tuesday/Wednesday.
> 
> I also managed to build the website http://www.air-swimmer.com.au, which, took more time than expected and there are a few browser quirks to iron out. I hope you like it.
> 
> ...




Dude pls fix the website it covering the ordering tab.


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## LifeChoices (1 December 2011)

keroppi said:


> I have an e-commerce site too http://www.hipindustries.com selling men's bags and laptop bags.  Since setting up the store earlier this year, the bags have not moved as quickly as I originally hoped for and I am currently selling a couple a week.
> 
> I have about 200 odd bags that I want to move quickly.  Do you guys have any advice for me?




If I wanted to move lots of items at a low price I would look at those deal sites that are conveniently listed here: http://www.allthedeals.com.au/deal-sites The ones I looked at didn't have any spots available for me prior to xmas and they do take quite hefty fees, but you pay for access to their large database of panic buyers.



danbradster said:


> If it's of interest, I recently started in ecommerce too.  My experience before this is in online advertising for commission, so the ecommerce is an extension of my existing skills.  It's an experiment really, I'm trying this niche before I go into another higher profit margin ecommerce idea I have.
> 
> It's store supplies with a focus on jewellery stores.  I bought $5000 of stock from China and shipped it by ocean, almost 200 product in total and I am happy with the quality of 95% of them.  Taxes and port fees were crazy, adding about 50% to my product cost.
> 
> ...




There has been something that I've enjoyed about selling online, and I will definitely do it again if I find the right niche. I think it's selling stuff while you are asleep or while at work that's appealing. I'm getting about 3 orders a day without really doing much now. The google analytics has been good to watch and I was similarly was amazed at how quickly google indexed my site. There are lots of tricks involved and it's a bit of black magic, but I think the main things to remember are descriptive urls, titles, and content loaded with key words while keeping the site up to date and relevant.


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## LifeChoices (1 December 2011)

xyzedarteerf said:


> Dude pls fix the website it covering the ordering tab.




I conveniently chose to ignore people looking at the site using netbooks or CRT's that still use 800 x 600 res - I didn't think those antiques are still in use.


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## prawn_86 (1 December 2011)

I run a couple of websites also mainly just as a hobby, they are service not sales based so as long as they cover costs i dont really care. If any ASF members want to advertise or swap links feel free to get in touch


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## LifeChoices (9 December 2011)

Last time I posted about this, I was just going to let the last of my order run it's course through my existing efforts.

Since then the inflatable novelty toy business has gone gang busters. To give you an example, I sold 15 toys today alone. I returned home with a big bundle of cash, which felt great.

I've ordered 2 more cartons since I last posted to meet the demand and the cartons just seem to empty within days of buying them.

The website that I built around a month ago is getting some good rankings on google, which is pretty much what I was hoping was going to happen. Along with word of mouth, the panic buying of Christmas this little experiment/hobby has done extremely well. Well beyond my expectations.

In terms of ROI it's the most successful project I've ever done.

There's also been some lessons learnt. I didn't like my experience selling on ebay and using paypal, while convenient for buyers its quite expensive. I will probably never use it again. I think it's far better to control the marketing/ordering process as much as you can yourself - rather than hand it over to another party to scrape profits on every sale for doing little and thwarting your efforts to make a buck.

On the upside, building the website and focusing on SEO and reading the wonderful statistics the free google analytics tools provide has been very rewarding.

I've got another two weeks to go and am confident I will sell all stock out in that period. It's certainly been a very nice background earner over the past month.


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## sptrawler (9 December 2011)

LifeChoices said:


> Last time I posted about this, I was just going to let the last of my order run it's course through my existing efforts.
> 
> Since then the inflatable novelty toy business has gone gang busters. To give you an example, I sold 15 toys today alone. I returned home with a big bundle of cash, which felt great.
> 
> ...




You have done really well, I saw them on the news in Perth, they said it was a big christmas hit. Funnily they put it on just after another shark sighting.


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## So_Cynical (24 December 2011)

There was a Chinese guy selling these at my local mall yesterday for $15 bucks...does this mean the bottom has fallen out of the inflatable novelty toy retailing industry.?


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## sptrawler (26 December 2011)

So_Cynical said:


> There was a Chinese guy selling these at my local mall yesterday for $15 bucks...does this mean the bottom has fallen out of the inflatable novelty toy retailing industry.?




No, the Chinese guy is selling cheap copies.LOL LOl LOL
Gerry Harvey is complaining about these cheap imports all the time, if you buy off LifeChoices you are sure to get the real McCoy.


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## Dowdy (27 December 2011)

sptrawler said:


> No, the Chinese guy is selling cheap copies.LOL LOl LOL
> Gerry Harvey is complaining about these cheap imports all the time, if you buy off LifeChoices you are sure to get the real McCoy.





That's sort of contradictory isn't it - a Chinese guy selling cheap copies of a Chinese toy? Chances are he probably bulk ordered 300-500 of them for a few bucks each.


I've been running my online store for a few year. I never do seasonal stuff. My products are the hardware sort - drawer runners, decking screws. The idea was to order products that don't go out of date - so I stay away from electronics or in-trend items.

When I first started out, I was getting MP3 players but they went out of date quickly so that's why I stuck to hardware.

My order and sales volume has been building up over the years. Started out as a past time/ hobby and now is my main source of income. My last order was $30,000 worth of stock.  I still work part time, as i'll get bored if I just stayed at home, but I earn more then the boss at work 

*
http://myworld.ebay.com.au/dowd_hardware*


I'm happy to answer any question regarding an online business but reading through this thread, I've discovered a few things myself.....


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## prawn_86 (27 December 2011)

To anyone who is importing, I work as an FX Broker for a large non-bank and can give you access to better exchange rates than what the banks offer. If you're buying more than $50k pa overseas then I can definitely help save you some $. Feel free to PM me with any questions.

I already have a couple clients here from ASF and they all seem happy with the rates and service


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## LostMyShirt (29 December 2011)

LC;

This may be a no brainer, and probably already in the works - but if you are worried about up and coming retail competition, then you should consider leveling up to a wholesaler/retailer.

The first things that came to mind when looking at this product as a target to wholesale were;

- Party shops
- Venues (clubs, childrens venues etc)

Personally I'd start by securing a decent price from the suppliers and making way to the city to meet with officials of large clubs. From there I would head to the RSL's and Pubs.

The only issue is the fact that stocking a customer is a one off. I think you know this already since your first few posts kind of suggested you are rushing in to cover the market before sales become stagnant due to competition etc.

Good luck dude. I do not see you getting stuck with stock at this time, so go hard and win.

BTW they are kinda fun. I'd spin out of I saw those on the club ceiling just hangin around


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## BradK (5 January 2012)

It seems  your shark has made front page headlines!!! 

http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-news/airline-pilot-startled-by-flying-shark-20120104-1pk9o.html


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## matty77 (5 January 2012)

The age as well..

http://www.theage.com.au/travel/tra...-startled-by-flying-shark-20120104-1pk9o.html

haha lol


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## Chasero (5 January 2012)

This toy sells at the local toys r us.

From 65 bucks to a "special" 48 bucks lol


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## DB008 (5 January 2012)

Looks like it might be on the mainstream news tonight too. Channel 7 just did a quick story on it (early arvo news).


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