What Do You Sell?

Link of the day - If You Sell Links On Your Site, I Will Buy Them Off You


http://www.somethingstore.com/

Back in the summer of 2007, Sami Bayrakci was surfing the Internet looking for a birthday present for a friend. After an hour of browsing, he decided it would be much nicer if somebody would just make the decision for him. The idea for SomethingStore.com was born: a customer would pay a flat price for an unknown item.

"I shared my idea with my friends," says Bayrakci, now 34. "Most of them thought it wouldn't work out -- nobody would pay for something they don't know."

But Bayrakci wanted to give it a try. After all, it wouldn't cost him a whole lot to get started. He invested $3,000 for supplies, designed his own simple website, and started off selling small, lightweight items, in order to keep shipping costs down. Fashion accessories available at liquidation prices were Bayrakci's best bet.

But he also threw in some expensive goods, like a digital camera and an iPod shuffle. The average price of all the goods had to be under $5, but Bayrakci needed to keep his customers curious and coming back for the thrill of the hunt.

Bayrakci sold about 1,000 "somethings" in each of his first few months. In its first full year, 2008, SomethingStore was profitable -- but demand fell during the recession, and 2009 wasn't so lucky. By 2010, SomethingStore was back in the black.

The key is that people are suckers for a surprise. "Curiosity gets the best of them," Bayrakci says. He keeps some pricey items in the mix: iPod touches, a Wii system, and even a Dell laptop that retails for $600.

"There is an anticipation of getting a really good bargain for $10," he says. There's that, plus -- who doesn't like getting a surprise in the mail?

For more unusual ways to make money, visit this site.

[Via - CNNMoney.Com]

The Million-Dollar Idea in Everyone: Easy New Ways to Make Money from Your Interests, Insights, and Inventions

IdeaSpotting: How to Find Your Next Great Idea

How to Make Millions with Your Ideas: An Entrepreneur's Guide by Dan S. Kennedy

101 Businesses You Can Start With Less Than One Thousand Dollars: For Stay-at-Home Moms & Dads

Make Your Ideas Mean Business

Link of the day - If You Sell Links On Your Site, I Will Buy Them Off You

Zip It Up.

Link of the day - If You Sell Links On Your Site, I Will Buy Them Off You


http://www.zipzshoes.com/

In 2004, John Stefani was at a family reunion barbeque when the conversation turned to the massive number of dirt-caked children's shoes flung around. John's dad Jerry commented on how cool it would be to have an interchangeable shoe -- one where you could mix tops with bottoms and throw the dirty piece in the wash.

The idea stuck. John and his siblings left musing about mix-and-match footwear. They sketched shoes held together with Velcro, buttons, clasps and pins. After fiddling around drawing various prototypes, Jerry had the eureka moment: a zipper!

It took five years of development and three prototype iterations to bring Zipz to market. "With boots and things, zippers are pretty common place," John says. "Tennis shoe factories are not used to working with zippers."

In 2010, Zipz' first year of sales, the company grossed $1 million. The shoes, which retail for $45 a pair, are available online and through boutique retailers. Distributed in 40 countries, the shoes have drawn particular interest in Europe, Japan, and the Middle East.

Foot Locker will start carrying the brand in April, and 2011 looks to be "a far better year," says John, the company's CEO.

For more unusual ways to make money, visit this site.

[Via - CNNMoney.Com]

The Million-Dollar Idea in Everyone: Easy New Ways to Make Money from Your Interests, Insights, and Inventions

IdeaSpotting: How to Find Your Next Great Idea

How to Make Millions with Your Ideas: An Entrepreneur's Guide by Dan S. Kennedy

101 Businesses You Can Start With Less Than One Thousand Dollars: For Stay-at-Home Moms & Dads

Make Your Ideas Mean Business

Link of the day - If You Sell Links On Your Site, I Will Buy Them Off You

Buried In Style

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http://www.couturecaskets.com/

"It was just a fluke, actually," Venus Smith says of how Couture Caskets got launched.

A few years back, Smith was in California visiting her brother, a mechanic who appreciates nice cars. They spotted a 1956 Thunderbird -- her brother's favorite.

"We went and sat down and ate some pizza and started talking, and I said, `Man, wouldn't you love to be buried in something like that?'"

That was it. A business was born.

"As soon as I said it, I knew it could be done," says Smith, 42. It took her two years to develop a prototype and get a trademark. Initially Smith wanted to build the caskets out of environmentally sound products, but she ran into too many barriers to making her Couture Caskets eco-friendly.

The company officially opened for business on Nov. 29, 2010. Smith works from home, but has to outsource a lot of the productions steps. She commutes from Pennsylvania to New Jersey to have the caskets painted.

Smith started with caskets for pets, but says her next step will be designer human caskets. She understands that for some, the notion is unsettling: "It is a fresh idea, but it still affects a lot of people in strange ways." Younger people seem to be more into the idea of a Couture Casket, Smith notes.

Thus far, she hasn't sold any caskets.

Retail prices for in-stock pet coffins -- ones shaped like a bone or a house -- start at $395. Custom-made pet caskets go for $995 on up. But that's a bargain compared to a human casket, which Smith expects to sell for a $9,995 entry-level price tag.

"I believe the idea is going to catapult once I have a human casket so that people can see the visual," says Smith, who is working on a Vintage 1966 Shelby Cobra. "Once it catches on, I think it will be like wildfire."

For more unusual ways to make money, visit this site.

[Via - CNNMoney.Com]

The Million-Dollar Idea in Everyone: Easy New Ways to Make Money from Your Interests, Insights, and Inventions

IdeaSpotting: How to Find Your Next Great Idea

How to Make Millions with Your Ideas: An Entrepreneur's Guide by Dan S. Kennedy

101 Businesses You Can Start With Less Than One Thousand Dollars: For Stay-at-Home Moms & Dads

Make Your Ideas Mean Business

Link of the day - If You Sell Links On Your Site, I Will Buy Them Off You

Nonconformist Subscription

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http://www.weeklyindie.com/

Curation and subscription services seem to be a match made in heaven, as we've already seen in examples purveying everything from art to beauty samples to women's panties. Now, whereas music services typically bombard users with millions of songs to choose from, WeeklyIndie has opted for a curated subscription model, delivering 10 hand-picked indie songs to subscribers each week.

New York-based WeeklyIndie invites independent artists to submit songs to its site, and it screens through thousands of such songs every week. After selecting the ones it likes, it signs distribution deals with the artists involved. Then WeeklyIndie sends out links to its worldwide base of subscribers to enable them to download the 10 chosen songs. Customer subscriptions cost USD 7 per month.

With benefits for consumers — who get help wading through the vast ocean of songs out there — and artists, who get well-deserved exposure and payment for their work, WeeklyIndie may just have hit upon a new model for music discovery. One to watch!

For more unusual ways to make money, visit this site.

[Via - Springwise]

The Million-Dollar Idea in Everyone: Easy New Ways to Make Money from Your Interests, Insights, and Inventions

IdeaSpotting: How to Find Your Next Great Idea

How to Make Millions with Your Ideas: An Entrepreneur's Guide by Dan S. Kennedy

101 Businesses You Can Start With Less Than One Thousand Dollars: For Stay-at-Home Moms & Dads

Make Your Ideas Mean Business

Link of the day - If You Sell Links On Your Site, I Will Buy Them Off You

Game Truck Success Story

Link of the day - If You Sell Links On Your Site, I Will Buy Them Off You


http://gametruckparty.com/

It was 2006 and Scott Novis was frustrated with the pizza arcade experience at his son's 4th birthday party. Children were running around unmonitored, and the games were boring and static; most of the kids had better games and graphics on their home game boxes than what was being offered at the party. So not long afterward, he went home and, in his garage, retrofitted a truck with gaming consoles, flat-screen monitors and cool interiors, creating the first GameTruck portable gaming party. He threw a birthday party for a friend and, soon, GameTruck was a thriving weekend business. Since then, the company has grown to nearly $2 million in revenue, and is thriving with nearly 40 trucks in 20 locations across the country and 12 employees in its home office. The company also offers franchise opportunities.

For more unusual ways to make money, visit this site.

[Via - Entrepreneur.Com]

The Million-Dollar Idea in Everyone: Easy New Ways to Make Money from Your Interests, Insights, and Inventions

IdeaSpotting: How to Find Your Next Great Idea

How to Make Millions with Your Ideas: An Entrepreneur's Guide by Dan S. Kennedy

101 Businesses You Can Start With Less Than One Thousand Dollars: For Stay-at-Home Moms & Dads

Make Your Ideas Mean Business

Link of the day - If You Sell Links On Your Site, I Will Buy Them Off You