Homestead Priorities Must Come First

I have come to a decision today. Actually I have been thinking about it for days now. I am going to stop selling online. Today I am taking off many of the books I have listed in my Bonanza booth. The reason isn't so much that sales are slow, though they are. It is just that I am spreading myself too thin. I have way too many things to take care of on a daily basis. Packaging up things and getting them in the mailbox is just one too many things for me to deal with.

Spring cleaning and planting is coming up and that is really more important to me than spending time trying to get people to buy my items. One thing I don't want to cut back on is writing my blogs and working on my book. So the place I have to cut back on is the area of selling. Selling is not as easy as everyone thinks. They think you just list them and wait. But there is a lot more to it than that. It takes a lot of time, effort and hard work.

Books are hard to sell. Once you cover the Bonanza fee, the Paypal fee, the postage, the envelope you pack it in, the ink and paper for printing the label, and then you try to make something on the sale. Profit! Profit you ask? Well Amazon has almost every book you can list and their sellers usually sell them for a penny or not much more. So how can I compete with them? They win.

I am more concerned with our homestead chores to tell you the truth. This year I am going to be doubling our garden production as well as foraging for wild foods and medicines. Planning on stocking up on lots of food since the price of food is going up and up. So I hope to be doing a lot of canning, dehydrating and storing fresh.

Plus I am planning on spending time with my horses this year. Especially taking Tawny out of the paddock and doing things with her. She needs my attention.

Working on the pantry and root cellar and helping my husband get them in place and usable. The same with my upstairs.

So I will be cutting out the unproductive parts of my life. Selling just happens to be the first. Otherwise, I will be here writing my blogs just like usual.

Copyright © 2011 Kathleen G. Lupole
All Photographs Copyright © 2011 Kathleen G. Lupole

Running Your Own Business From Home

Photo Source: Jon Sullivan

I have written on here before about my business of selling used books online at Bonanza. In my post, Selling On Bonanzle, I told you all about it. The last few weeks I have been busy accumulating more books to sell. I love books and more times than not, I look at the book as I am listing it and end up reading it. The other night I read a book all the way through because I could not stand to list it and have someone buy before I finished it. I pick up these books at used book stores, thrift shops, garage sales, freecycle,craigslist, anywhere I can find them.

You may not think it is worth the effort. But every little penny counts in this day and age. Bonanza was originally called Bonanzle and they changed their name recently. It takes some getting used to. After having basically sold mostly on eBay in the past years, this site is a welcome change. For one thing, the other sellers are helpful and are not rude to you if you ask a question. The discussion boards on eBay can get VERY nasty at times! Anyway, I am not writing this to compare the two sites or to convince you to sell on either one. I want to share my ideas to make a living from home.

I have listed many of my own books, deciding it is time to rid myself of too many books among other items. Many times I have held onto something out of sentimental value. They are just things. So onto my quest of living the good..........but, simple life! I am thinking about taking the guitar strings out of the Bonanza booth and opening a booth just for them. It would be easier. The nice thing about Bonanza is that you can do that. Doesn't cost you any more money!

Of course, this is mainly a side line for me. Selling guitar strings on my two main sites is really my business. I have had one of the sites up since 2002 selling my husband's music CD. On that site, Larry Gene Music, I also sell my eBooks, but the guitar strings are the main thing. I tried other things, but this is now my niche. I have another site that is only about guitar strings and that is String Baby. All these little ways to make money, add up to what is called, "many streams of income". I am sure you have heard that mentioned online before. That is the way you can work at home and not have all your eggs in one basket.

My sales have been slow, but I have started getting more. My bill at Bonanza is not killing me like it did at eBay and at Amazon. So I can list my books and let them sit until they sell. I will keep listing as I know, the more you list the more you sell. That is the the golden rule of selling online. So leave me a comment if you work from home. I am interested in home based businesses, and if you have many streams of income too. Many times you may not even know you are doing that. But if you are gaining income from more than one source, that is exactly what you are doing! Time to network together!

Copyright © 2010  Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2010  Kathleen G. Lupole unless otherwise stated.