Archive for June 14th, 2007
14
Personally I am not making $5000 per month (not that $5000 per month is major money…) I used to make $5000 per month when I was selling my software products; but I came to discover that software sales is not a good business for someone with an anxiety problem who is running a business solo. Once you start to make sales, you also have to deal with customers and it gets overwhelming trying to wear the hat of product developer, sales person, customer service representative, accountant, legal aide etc. I couldn’t cope so I gave it all up for blogging.
I can tell you this much, blogging is not a sure way of making $5000 per month. It’s possible, but it isn’t as easy as you might be tempted to think based on what you hear about people making millions of dollars blogging.
If you want to make $5000 per month you have to think in terms of selling something tangible. It’s your surest road to making money, selling a product or a service. I was selling my dating script for $95 per license. That meant I needed to sell just over 50 licenses per month to accumulate $5000. I didn’t always manage to sell 50 licenses per month, but there were occasions when I reached that number.
There are number of ways you can arrive at $5000 selling a product or service. You could sell a product for $100, in which case you need to sell 50 to make $5000; you could sell a product for $200 in which case you need to sell 25 to accumulate $5000; you could sell a product for $500 in which case you would need to sell 10 units to accumulate $5000. Obviously the fewer you "have to" sell to reach your goal the better. The problem there is that the fewer you sell, the more you have to charge per unit in order to reach your income goal. And none of this takes into account the cost you pay to obtain the product, whether it’s something you pay to manufacture or something you buy directly from the manufacturer. Obviously these are factors that will play into the pricing of your product; but this is not meant to be an in-depth how-to for setting up a business that makes at least $5000 per month. I would certainly not be the person to write such a how-to-guide. This is more just a random piece that aims to show mathematically how you can make $5000 per month selling a product or service.
Obviously whatever you sell needs to be worth what you’re charging for it. Don’t try to rip people off. Every time you’re tempted remind yourself how little you would appreciate it if someone tried to rip you off. And also keep in mind that honesty gets you more sales while dishonesty eventually puts you out of business and possibly in jail.
What can you sell for $500 that people actually buy?
The key is being able to acquire these goods at prices that allow you to sell them well below retail and still make a profit.
Where to sell?
Ebay
Local flea market
Your own online store
Craigslist
Local Internet classifieds
Local newspaper classifieds