It's Fair Week For Me & A Challenge For You

As you can guess by the title of this post the fair is coming to town this week! My oldest boy is just this year old enough that he can go on rides all by himself, which is good since Momma get's motion sickness to much to go on rides. Of course with the fair comes the parade, the rodeo (yeah, I'm in the "country"), and a bunch more stuff. It means sno cones and funnel cakes with roasted corn, silly games, and looking at the 4H kid's animals. It also means that I'm taking a break this week!

When I came back to online selling and blogging and this entire world, I had a serious thought session on what was important to me, and what I wanted this online business to mean to me. While money is of course a high priority, it's not at the top. Family is number one, specifically being Momma. Next is being honest and true to self, with my readers, my customers and of course with myself. So, that all being said, it's important that I take this week to spend that time with my family. To watch him go on rides, take pictures, share a funnel cake, and make something even more important than money this week, memories.

Does all this mean I won't work on anything at all this week? Of course not, I've got a new ebook to read, Arbitrage by Chris Green to read (I've seen it recommended so many times I finally got it), I have one item I sourced off Ebay that arrived that I need to enter into my FBA inventory, I need to mail stuff, etc. etc. I'm just not going to set any hard goals and just go with the flow of the week.

So, why did I even bother to write a post? For a couple reasons actually. First, I wanted it out there that I didn't space off doing my goals post this week. I want it known that I am choosing to have no business goals this week. Secondly, I want to point out that knowing what you want from your business is the FIRST thing you should do. Again, I'm not talking money here. I'm talking about what YOU want, it could be to stay home with your kids, have the freedom to travel the world, be able to become debt free, heck, whatever burning desire you have. It must be important, truly important, because when the rough times come, and they will, that goal is the one that will get you through. It's your piece of driftwood in a rough ocean, just hang onto it and keep on going. Eventually things settle down, and you get through the bad weather.

Once you know that goal, then it's easier to move on to the more concrete goals. That's when you get into the nitty gritty of how much money do you want to make, how many hours can/will you spend working on it, so on and so forth. Both the personal and the business goals are vitally important to you, and both are what will help you pull ahead of the rest. So what's the challenge?

I challenge you to sit down and think. Honestly sit and evaluate, WHY do you want to do this? What is it that you want the money that you will make to do for you? Find the one goal that is the most important and write it down! Then, write down how you can accomplish that goal. If you want to take your kids to Disney World every year, and pay cash to do it, break it down. How much to go, what do you need, how will you earn the money, etc. If you want to stay home, how much do you need to earn to accomplish that? What are your bills, how about insurance, paying your own taxes, etc. It doesn't matter at this point if everything you write down is 100% accurate, just make your best educated guess and move on from there. Here you have the beginnings of your business plan.

My goal is $20 a day so I can do more things with my kids and family. Go to the zoo, the water park, take a weekend trip to a larger town for some museums and parks. Order take out pizza every once in a while when I don't feel like cooking. Little things, but it's often the little things that mean the most to us. Eventually, I would like to replace my income solely with my online endeavors, but that's a long term goal. I know my why. So now you need to find yours, and when you do you can really start planning for your future.

Exploring Bonanza - The Good and The Bad.... So Far

I will be perfectly honest with you and tell you that I have accomplished very little this week! However, I have been messing around on Bonanza more, clicking links, doing some searches, and so on. While I still find their site slightly baffling to navigate if you are looking for any kind of help, I have found quite a few more things out. I'm starting to become a little more comfortable with the website itself, and there are some things I found I liked, some I didn't, and some I just don't really "get".

• They have this strange reward system called Tokens. You get these tokens by logging in, 10 each day you do AND go to the rewards page to get them, and other different ways. You can also help organize and sort items on the site, and you can get coins for creating interesting and visually pleasing lists. I also received some because I earned a "badge" on their site. You can redeem these tokens for $$ off your fees and other rewards. It will take a lot of tokens though to get any reward that's really meaningful, so I'm not really to excited about this perk(?) of theirs.
• I mentioned lists above, and I'll go into them a little more. If you've ever made a list on Etsy it's much the same way. Find items you want or are interested in and group them together by a list. You name your list, add a description and add items. They can also be a great way for an item to be featured for other buyers if your item is featured in a popular list. 
• I also found, not easily enough in my mind, a straightforward answer on their fees and such. As I mentioned in an older post there are no insertion fees, meaning you pay nothing to list your item. If/when your item sells it is a FV fee of 3.5% for a sale under $500 and $17.50 + 1.5% of the amount over $500 if the sale is greater than $500. FV stands for Final Value, and that just means the amount the item sold for, so if an item sold for $9.99 you would get charged a fee of 3.5% of that, or at least .50.There is a minimum fee of at least .50 and a maximum fee of $250. You can also pay for advertising, but I haven't delved much more into that yet, so I'll hold off talking about that just yet. Here's a link to their pricing page:    http://www.bonanza.com/site_help/general/pricing
• I also realized that if you click on the links to the left of the page, and then click on more links as you narrow down what you're looking for you can (kind of) find answers to a lot of your questions. You can ask questions, or leave a comment, underneath something the site creators have said, and it looks like they answer. Still, I find it a bit convoluted and not enough of a seller community atmosphere.
• Pricing research on Bonanza is much like Ebay, you can see what has sold through completed listings. However, if you find a shop you are wanting to analyze you cannot see what their individual sales have been that I have found yet. 

So this is what I've found so far. There is still more that I need to find out and experiment with. I kind of want to do a couple lists just to see how easy or hard it is to earn Tokens that way, and I definitely need to explore this advertising thing more as well. Over all the site is very user friendly and designed nicely I feel. I don't think a buyer would have a hard time figuring the site out, which is good. As a seller though........ I am extremely disappointed with their site. I really feel an active and dedicated forum for sellers to communicate and help one another out would do this site a world of good. Better sellers means better sales. It is a young site, relatively speaking, and I can see how they might not have any of that in place just yet, but hopefully they will. 

I believe I'll have to do a few experiments with the site to fully make up my mind, but again, I do like the site overall. I like how they seem to have blended different aspects of Ebay and Etsy and made them into one site. Being a frequent visitor of both those sites did make it easier for me to navigate around Bonanza, so hopefully other buyers will feel the same. It's still a hopeful contender for another income stream, and I'll be keeping an eye on this one even more now. 

Weekly Goals

Another week gone, and 7 days farther into my $20 a day experiment. It's been a rough week, the summer always is for us, at least financially. It's hard to think of anything else but the bills that need paid, or the AC that broke, or the myriad other stresses we have on a day to day basis, but I am learning to work through them and keep moving foward. I've been doing much better with the blog. My main goal has been to add at least one article that adds value, how to's, reviews, etc. and one personal type post, like my weekly goals. If I can improve on my blog then I know I can continue to improve on my other endeavors as well.

I did read some more of my ebooks, and delved quite a bit deeper into at least one of the websites that I found. It's called FBA Mastery and it mainly focuses on selling books on Amazon FBA and it is packed with great tips for them, but there are some good articles on there for other media options as well. Including CDs, DVDs, VHS, and Vinyl records, it's opened my eyes to a few options in media that I will keep in mind. Just follow the link below to check it out yourself if you are interested.

www.fbamastery.com

As far as listing and inventory I made some headway, but I have not finished. I have two items currently listed on Bonanza, and I did get everything entered into Amazon FBA inventory that I bought at Kmart the other week, but of course there is more for me to do. I still want to list a lot more on Bonanza, but I lost my notebook that had all my product information I had written down so I need to redo that, and then begin listing again. I also have some bundles I would like to create, that I specifically bought products for, that I need to make for Amazon FBA. All this lead right into what my goals for the next week will be.

Weekly Goals

• Create my bundles for Amazon FBA.
• Purchase UPC labels for my bundles
• Write a post about creating bundles for FBA
• Redo my information booklet for things to sell on Bonanza
• List more items on Bonanza
• Write another post for the blog

I guess I'm feeling optimistic this week since I seem to have a pretty busy list for my week. Not to mention I'm working extra hours this week, so we'll see how it goes. I would like to get all this done, and I'll never get better about it unless I push myself a little more every week. I'm nervous about the bundles thing, as it's kind of complicated, but I'm ready to move into it. Back to school and holiday season is just revving up and I have got to get in gear!

How to List An Item On Bonanza

Alright, so I'm working on listing my five items for Bonanza, and while I'm doing it I thought I would go through how their listing system works. I'll also compare it to Ebay's as there are some things I feel the streamlined a little better, and some things I don't like as much.

Before you can list an item for sale, or begin to build our "booth" as they call it, you must create an account with Bonanza. It's a pretty easy step, and free to boot. However, when you create our booth, you will need a credit/debit card to activate it. As I've mentioned before there is no upfront fees, such as a listing fee or anything, only a final value fee taken when the item is sold. It's more a precautionary measure on their part, that if a person doesn't pay their fees they have their card information to collect their portion if needed. Ebay does much the same thing with PayPal account, so it doesn't personally bother me much at all.

        * Tip - If you make your PayPal account a business account you can apply for a debit card that is attached to your account. I suggest this strongly if you are going to be regularly selling on Ebay, plus you could use that card to link to your Bonanza account if you are uncomfortable using your personal checking account. 

Listing an Item For Sale

• In the upper left hand corner of the page you will see Sell on Bonanza, if you hover over that with your cursor a menu will drop down, choose Add or Edit Item if you are listing a new item. You can also Import your listings from Amazon and Ebay, manage your inventory and more from here.
• Next you'll click on the Add Item button, it's large, square and has a big + in the middle :)
• The next page is pretty straightforward. You do your entire listing on this one page, instead of multiple pages like Ebay. Enter your product Title, add photos, choose your items category OR let the "guess" for you with the click of a button, describe your product, enter product quantity, price and shipping charges. 
• Once you are finished entering all the information just click the big green List Your Item button at the bottom and you are done. 

It really is quite simple, and I dare say it's a bit simpler than Ebay even. For one thing you stay on one page the entire time to complete your entire listing, whereas with Ebay you go through multiple pages before you are done. Not that it's a huge inconvenience, but if you have a slower computer (like mine) it is an extra time suck waiting on the pages to load. I also really like that if you have multiples of an item, say you really liked blue polos, and had three of the exact same shirt (or whatever) you could make one listing, but say that you had 3 available. 

I also like, and dislike the Booth part of selling on their site. I like that it's like  store, and buyers can come browse all my products and prices at once. I feel that this encourages a buyer to make multiple purchases rather than just one. The feel of the store is similar to Etsy, with the layout of the page to you writing in your "booths" policies and such. What I don't like about all this, is that this isn't really an auction site. You set a price for your item, and then you can check a box that says that the price is "negotiable" which of course mean it's going to go down. No one negotiates the price higher, so we know it means down. A lot of times I like to list my items somewhere in the middle of what they've sold for and what they are currently listed against, using an auction format. This way I know I'm going to make money, but the potential for a larger profit through a bidding war is possible. That's just not how you do it on Bonanza though, and it will take some adjusting on my part. 

So far I've listed a few products, and I do find the listing process itself very easy and user friendly. The site itself however is still a bit of a mystery to me. It seems to be hard to find much information, which I never like with a website, and there is no community forum for buyers/sellers to communicate with one another and help each other out. I still haven't committed fully to using them, but I do need to make myself more comfortable with the rest of the site so that I can accurately decide yay or nay on them. Not to mention write some more blog posts about their service as I couldn't find many when I was looking just a few weeks earlier. 

If you've sold, or tried to sell on Bonanza and would like to leave a comment and let me know what you thought/think about it!

Weekly Goals

Another week has passed and as usual I did not accomplish everything I set out to do. I spent a lot of this past week unplugged from the internet and the computer since it was my "vacation". By vacation I mean that I spent most days catching up on errands and tasks that needed done and maybe relaxed a couple hours here and there lol. I've just come to the conclusion that as a parent I will never have a relaxing vacation for at least another 18 years, but it was still nice to be home for a week.

I did manage to get another blog post written, and I have the pictures and outline for another to be written later this week. I also read some of the books/blogs that I found for some research, but again, I spent much time off my computer, so not a bunch. I did not watch any of the Amazon videos for sellers on Youtube, and I did not do a thing with Bonanaza. I did however do some more work with my FBA business, and it's really got me excited to move forward.

One of my days off I went to town 40 miles away and went shopping, mostly groceries, and I stopped in at the Kmart. Now, I don't really shop there much, mostly because it's on the opposite side of town from the rest of the stores I go to. This week I was enticed in because they were doubling coupons, clear up to doubling a $2 coupon to $4, and while I've never mentioned this before I am a "couponer". Please don't judge me by the show though if you've ever seen it! Most of us are actually quite sane and do not hoard ;) Long story short I found that their clearance toys were an extra 50% off. So I bought paid around $30 for $75 worth of toys. I also found one home decor item on clearance for $3.50. I spent some time entering the items into my inventory and comparing selling prices, and while my profit for most items is only around $3-$6 each it is a step forward and I'm learning. That was last week, so let's move on to this week.

Goals

1. Finish my research that's left from last week.
2. Getting some photos into some of my older posts on this blog.
3. One more blog post.
4. Enter in everything I have for Amazon's FBA
5. Create 5 Listings on Bonanza

Nothing to exciting, but a lot of this stuff is time consuming. I also found quite a few children's books lying around the house that we don't read that are basically new, so I'm going to add them to my Amazon FBA inventory. I don't expect a lot of profit, but it gets them out of my house and puts a little money in my pocket to buy more inventory. Especially with back to school and the holiday seasons starting it's time to start pushing myself to source more and more inventory and get stuff done!

Tips For Buying and Selling Clothes On Ebay

For a little while when I first started selling on Ebay I tried selling clothes on Ebay. Selling clothes on Ebay can be a lucrative little side business, IF you have an idea what you are doing. I thought there wouldn't be  whole lot to it, and I thought it would be easy. It's not, and I wish I would have done a little research before I started because it would've helped me not make a few mistakes. So, to help out my readers I'm doing this post with the tips and tricks I learned when I did it.

Buying Clothes To Sell

• Always, always check the condition of the clothing carefully- You're looking for tears, rips, thin spots, stains, a funny smell, etc. Anything that can lower the value of the item, or make it unsellable. Once, I bought a bag of jeans from a girl off a Facebook selling group. They were all (supposedly) BKE brand in good condition. She said they had "slight" wear at the bottom, but believe it or not that's not a huge deterrent when selling jeans if it's not to bad. For $5 a pair I told her I would take the lot of them. When she delivered the jeans to me I was extremely busy and didn't look at the jeans, as you can guess they were terrible condition, the knees were tore out, the bottoms were awful and one was NOT BKE brand. So always be sure to look the clothing over.
• Name brand, Name brand, Name brand - If you are buying used clothes to resell for a decent profit then name brand is really only way to make money. Which leads into the next tip.
• Stay current on hot styles and brands - When I started I knew of one hot brand thanks to a friend of mine, but I didn't know many others. When I got some jeans from Goodwill I bought a couple pairs that had been a hot brand when I was highschool, but in the 15 years since I had graduated things had changed (duh!) and they weren't that big anymore.
• Look for Character clothes for children - Brand name is big with kids and baby clothes, but know that clothing with popular characters, think Spiderman and Legos right now, are good sellers as well.
• Maternity clothes sell - Brand seems to matter much less when it comes to Maternity clothes. Mothers to be are looking for a good deal on clothes that they will likely only use for a few months at most. So value over brand seems to be the name of the game for Maternity.
• Larger sizes sell well - Think 2XL and up, even XL. I think there are a couple reasons for this: 1. Larger sizes cost more money and 2. Larger sizes don't seem to have the selection in stores as other sizes. So these items sell well on Ebay, even without a brand name attached to them.

Selling Clothes On Ebay

• Be honest - If your clothing item has any tears or stains and you can't/won't fix it, then be sure to take pictures of it and include them in your listing photos as well as your description. You'll still get the occasional buyer that doesn't read the listing, or look at all the photos that will want to return the item because of it, but cover yourself with Ebay and make sure it's in the listing.
• Include measurements as well as size - We all know that different brands have different sizes, especially with women's clothing. Taking a few basic measurements can help your listing sell better, faster and for more money. If you're unsure what measurements to take do a quick google search and you'll find what you should get (and how) for the pieces you are selling
• Have the size in the Listing Title - People often search for what they are looking for by Brand AND Size, so be sure it's in there. People are lazy, if it's not obvious what size an item is from the listing they'll likely scroll past rather than open the listing to see. I know I have before when shopping on Ebay.
• Verify that it's not a fake - If you're buying high end stuff, think Gucci, Dolce and Cabbana, etc. be sure you verify it's real and not a fake. If you are caught selling fakes, even if you didn't know, they will pull the listing and possibly suspend your sellers account. There are websites that can help you verify your pieces as well the Clothing section in the Ebay forums for sellers are often helpful for that as well.
• Research selling price and Shipping price - Know how much your item is selling for new, and research on Ebay what it's selling for. While you're looking at those listings be sure to check how much people are charging for shipping to get an idea what to charge until you get the hang of it.
• Take great photos - People can't try your clothes on, or touch them, so be sure your photos really highlight everything about your item. Catch any details and extra stitching, buttons etc. with your photos. Make sure the clothes are not wrinkled and are clean. Also use a neutral background, and NOT your floor. A white door, or lay down a white sheet on the floor and take the photos.
• Make a lot listing of your leftovers - Say you just bought a huge bag of clothes because it was cheap and there were enough good pieces that it was worth it. Now you're left with extras, just make a lot listing of all those extras, group by size and season, and list. It's more to get those items out the door than make a lot of money.
• Have a detailed listing - Make sure you list what kind of material it is, does it have a sheen, does it have gathering, a-line skirt, etc, etc. Again, they can't try your clothes on, so be sure to try and include everything that you would look at if you were at a store deciding to buy the piece. I know one brand of scrubs I sold always tended to run smaller with their sizes, so I always made sure to include that in my listings, adding that I always had to buy a size larger in their brand than I did with other brands.

Selling clothes on Ebay really can net you a good profit, especially if you live in an area where you can easily find cheap name brand clothing. However, I quit selling because it didn't work for me. The extra time for measurements and such didn't fit into my schedule well at all. I also noticed that there seemed to be more buyers that complained about my items and returned them then with anything else I sold. Not really surprising, we've all bought something at the store without trying it one, got home, tried it on and hated it, returning it to the store later. Selling clothes online is really no different. It is something to keep in mind though. 

So that's all for this post, until next time!

Weekly Goals = Research, Research, Research

So, I've been slacking on my weekly goals recently. Copping out in a way as I've been feeling down and discouraged lately so I haven't been pushing myself like I should be. Sometimes though, I just have to step away for a moment and get my fire back, then I'm ready to go again. Sometimes you just have to keep telling yourself that you're almost there and not to stop now.

Reading a book called Think Rich I read a story in which a man the author was interviewing went somewhere to look for gold at a time that a lot of people were striking it rich with gold in that area (this book is kind of old). He had a plot of land, he bought the equipment, and he started to drill, dig, whatever you do to get gold. Eventually, after not finding any he gave up and sold his land and equipment to another person. This person contacted some specialist and they advised the fellow to dig, drill (whatever) merely 3 ft to the side. Yeah, you guessed it, that guy found gold, and a lot of it. Made him rich! So the moral of this story (yes I do love Fables, but this one is true) is not to give up to easily as you may only be 3 feet from gold. That and to consult experts! Which is what I have been working on myself recently.

It was the fourth of July weekend, and with that weekend came some great deals on a few info products I've been wanting on selling on FBA. I've also been watching more Youtube videos, finding more blogs, and just reading up in general more on Amazon FBA. Consulting my experts if you will. Even with all the research I've already done though, there's still a lot more to do. So this leads me to my next set off weekly goals:

• Read all the ebooks and blogs that I've found over the past weekend and really dig in more on research.
• Watch Amazon's Youtube videos for sellers (you must be an Amazon seller to view these videos)
• Decide what I will be sending in for my 1st Amazon FBA shipment and begin to get it read. 
• List at least 5 items with Bonanza and really dig around the website a little more to get a better feeling for it. 
• At least 1 blog post.

As you can see it's a list that kind of heavy on research. Researching Amazon FBA, and researching a little more on Bonanza. Listing the items with Bonanza is basically a bit of research, and hopefully a step towards sales, but mostly it's to help me get acquainted with listing and selling on their site. Hopefully I'll remember to get a few good screen shots of the listing process for Bonanza and get a blog post together on how it works and what I thought of it. I have this week off from work, and while that sounds like I should be able to accomplish more, it's actually kind of the opposite. Mostly because there are so many plans already made for my time, and there is so much to be caught up on around my home that it won't leave much "leisure" time for reading and researching. 

So there's my plan, and I'm going to try and stick to it. I think I've messed around long enough as far as the Amazon FBA stuff goes. After this weeks research it's going to be do or die time, so I just need a good swift kick to the butt. Good thing this blog is here to help organize my thoughts and get them out there. Until next time, have a green day.

Potential Income Stream, Selling On Bonanza

While scanning through a facebook group that is geared towards online selling I stumbled across a post talking about a website called bonanza.com that was an alternative to selling on Ebay. Now, this isn't the first time I've seen people talk about different sites to sell on and usually I merely pass them by. Why? Because Ebay is a Goliath, and at this point there is no David to take them down. This time I was intrigued for a few reasons, which we'll talk about.

First it caught my eye because the person commenting was having a positive experience with the site, and a couple other comments had good things to say as well. Next it caught my interest because you can import your listings from Amazon and Ebay as well. Which the seller was saying they had sold some Add-on items from Amazon through Bonanza. Ok, that was enough to get me intrigued. Reading through all the comments it seemed as if about half the people like it, and about half either hated it, or felt it was a waste of time for a small amount of sales. Reading through different forums, blogs, and review sites that pretty much seems to be the consensus. About 50/50 on whether or not people like it. After reading all this and playing around on their website I've decided that I'm going to give it a try, and here's why:

1. Being restricted to just 5 items a month through Ebay makes it hard to get rid of the things I already have around the house. This gives me another venue to (hopefully) sell a few items.
2. I don't have anything listed with Amazon FBA yet, so basically I've been relying on Ebay, which has proven to be a mistake now that they've cut down on how many items I can list.
3. It's mistake to have all your eggs in one (or even just two) baskets, especially in the online world.
4. There are NO insertion fees, and I'm only charged a final value fee of 16% I believe. 

I seriously have a bunch of stuff just sitting around my house right now that I can't rid of. It won't sell at garage sales, or it would sell to cheaply, it doesn't qualify for FBA or I bought it specifically to sell on FBA. Being stuck at just five listings on Ebay means I will continue to have this stuff forever! So if I can manage even a couple extra sales a month with Bonanza then it's that much more stuff out of house, and money in my pocket. 

Relying on only one income stream, whether offline or online is risky and a terrible idea. What if you lose your job tomorrow? What if Ebay says forget and shuts me down period? What if Amazon changes their rules, and I miss something, and my account gets shutdown? All these things and more can and do happen, every day in fact. Just the other day I read an article where a guy had a successful ebay business, but then others caught on and began to undercut him in price, eventually forcing him to quit because he wasn't making enough money (which also points to why you must always adapt to changes!). Next he re-built a similar (again, not much adapting and changing) business but through Amazon FBA. Next thing he knows, BAM, he's hit with a claim of selling fraudulent merchandise, his seller account is closed, his inventory is stuck at Amazon, and eventually he was sued over the matter. Moral of the story: Never rely on merely ONE venue of selling/making money AND always be aware of changes (especially online) and adapt and change with them.

Another reason I liked this venue is because of the NO insertion fees. This means I can list 20 items (or more) and not be billed a penny by Bonanza until an item sells. Virtually it is risk free for me to try. The traffic for Bonanza is not huge, especially compared to giants like Ebay and Amazon, but it has shown a small and steady increase over the past few years, so that is promising. Going on their site it seems to be a cross between Etsy and Ebay in it's design and set up. 

So far I have not listed anything, or bought anything. Mostly I've done some research on a few items, seen what HAS been selling, and just exploring. As I begin to use the site and put some listings and such up I will write a few more companion articles to this one on the experience. Again, I'm not expecting a bunch of sales or profit through them, but any little bit helps, and I feel better knowing that I'm not just sticking with one or two venues to profit from.

June Earnings and Plans

This is only the second month of me keeping track of what I earned for the month, and this month had a few setbacks for me. If it hadn't been for a large sale, that at this point I can only repeat once, this month would've been a huge bust. I only had two sales streams this month, selling my textbooks back and Ebay. If you read previous posts you know that my Ebay account has some strict restrictions on it now, and I just have to work within those for now.

Those restrictions have forced me to take a hard look at what I'm doing and what my plan is. I did talk earlier in a post about how I needed to start focusing harder on Amazon FBA and less on Ebay, and I guess my hand has been forced on that issue! I'm only allowed to sell 5 items a month now, hopefully not forever, but for now those are my restrictions and I must work within them. This is also forcing me to really choose what I'm listing and try to sell those higher priced items I have. So here's my plan, slightly revised and rethought over.

I will take 100% of my Ebay earnings and put them towards my Amazon FBA program. This includes supplies for shipping/packing, and shipping fees as well buying stock to send in. The back to school and holiday season is fast approaching and I need to try and have as much in my Amazon store as possible. From everything I'm reading and hearing on the web the holiday season is HUGE, and everyone is saying start preparing for it NOW! So, that's what I'm going to do. I'm also going to try and start focusing on items that are appropriate for the holidays. Halloween costumes, and accessories, Christmas gifts, and holiday baking and cooking supplies and food. Another side effect of my new limits on Ebay is that I'm looking at more items around my home as potential Amazon items rather than Ebay items. I have a ton of children's books sitting around my house. Most are in excellent condition as we read more on the Kindle than anything else now. I also have a ton of books that I read, again in great condition (other than I dog ear my pages) that I can get rid of now that I have digital versions. After all books, and especially children's books, are a gift item as well, and it's honestly than them sitting in a box never being read or used. Now, on to my earnings this month.

June Earnings

Selling my Textbooks - $312 (I got an 5% when I sold them with a promo code AND another 5% when I complained about how long it was taking, since it was longer than they had advertised. That is factored into that total.
Ebay Sales - $62.46

June Fees & Expenses

Shipping Costs - $39.10
Shipping Collected - $16 (subtract this number from the above number)
Total Shipping OOP - $23.10
Ebay fees - $13.04
Scotty Peeler (needed for removing labels) - $5.50 purchased off Ebay with free shipping
Shrink Wrap Bags, various sizes (for Packaging Amazon FBA products) - $7.29 with free shipping off Ebay
Total - $48.93

Total Earned after fees and expenses - $325.53 

Most of the book money went towards bills that were due at the time, and the little bit I had left from Ebay I know I spent on gas for my vehicle one day. Again, not close to the $600+ that would actually be if I earned $20 a day, but I'm getting there. I really feel that July will be a slim month, and with me funneling 100% of what I do earn back into this it will hurt to not keep it. I feel it'll be worth it though, if I can sacrifice now, and delay putting the money in my pocket it'll pay off in the long run. Sacrifice now so I won't have to later. Besides, how awesome will it be to some extra money during the holiday season?!