I'm gunna be rich beyond my wildest dreams

[LifeChoices]

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.

 

[LifeChoices]

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/

 

[danbradster]

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.

 

[BradK]

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

 

[LifeChoices]

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.

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.

 

[Tink]

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.

 

[trainspotter]

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

 

[Tyler Durden]

If you need a Sydney seller, let me know

 

[LifeChoices]

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.

 

[skc]

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.

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.

 

[LifeChoices]

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

Thanks for that comment Mike.

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.

 

[LifeChoices]

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.

 

[keroppi]

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?

 

[danbradster]

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.

 

[gav]

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!

 

[fatmango]

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

 

[danbradster]

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.

 

[xyzedarteerf]

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.

 

[xyzedarteerf]

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.

Dude pls fix the website it covering the ordering tab.

 

[LifeChoices]

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.

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.

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.