Published by admin on 3rd December 2008
A UPC code (short for Universal Product Code) is the series of numbers and barcode that you see on all the items you buy in the stores - clothes, electronics, CDs and DVDs and just about every other type of merchandise except for books and fresh produce in the supermarket. UPC codes are very important to retailers as they are all programmed into their master computers to handle inventory tracking and of course the pricing for the register computers at checkout time.
They are so important to retailers that you cannot sell a product into a retail market without having a UPC code for it. That means that no distributors or retailers will be interested in carrying your product. Even many online retailers - like Amazon.com - require UPC codes for the products that they sell in their store - both for items they sell directly and items sold by marketplace sellers. (In Amazon’s case they provide an additional purpose over and above the inventory use so common to UPC codes. In Amazon, they are used to guarantee that marketplace sellers are correctly representing their products for sale as the UPC code must be matched against Amazon’s internal database to list a product. There are exceptions to this rule on Amazon but for most merchandise, you will need a UPC code to sell it on Amazon.) Read the rest of this entry »
Published by admin on 2nd December 2008
When working with the public domain, it is often desirable to create information products that are text or text/image based. These products can be used as giveaways, promotional materials for other products, as bonuses for other products that you sell or as full blown products that you sell by themselves.
There are many ways to distribute such product. They can be physically printed into reports, spiral bound manuals, books, pamphlets, etc. Or they can be digitally delivered by html web pages, ebook compilers, Microsoft Word or other specific program format or my favorite - a PDF file. Read the rest of this entry »
Published by admin on 2nd December 2008
On every product Amazon sells, they have a sales rank number. This number gives information on how that product is selling at this instance in time in a specific product category. That means that there are many products that are rated number 1 and so on in the Amazon catalog. In fact, there is a number 1 seller for each category.
From Amazon’s help files: Read the rest of this entry »
Published by admin on 28th November 2008
When selling a product, a lot of people make the mistake of developing their product first, and then trying to find a market for it. This is the wrong way to do it. We as product developers often think our ideas are worth a fortune, invest time and energy creating them and when we release them, we are shocked that no one is lining up to buy them.
That is because the process of developing a product and then finding people to buy it does not work (or if it does, it is very costly to create a market.) The process for successful product developers is the reverse of this. Successful product developers first find a market that spends money, then find out what they have a burning desire for and then create a product to fill that burning desire.
That sounds a bit hard. After all, how do you figure out what people want?
Read the rest of this entry »
Published by admin on 26th November 2008
Many times when searching for materials to use in your products, you will find something called a Creative Commons license associated with the item. A Creative Commons license defines the rights the owner of the intellectual property is granting. This licensing system is a great way to demystify how an entity can use a particular work.
In your search for public domain materials, you will often come across Creative Common licenses. When you do, you should explore the rights conveyed in the license as they may allow you to use the work under certain defined conditions. Read the rest of this entry »
Published by admin on 25th November 2008
NASA - in partnership with archive.org - has built a huge archive of images and film clips covering the vast breath of NASA multimedia.
The archive is located at http://www.nasaimages.org and is a dream for public domain product developers interested in space and NASA imagery. Rather than hunt around at 10’s of NASA websites, it is all combined in one easy to search space. Read the rest of this entry »
Published by admin on 25th November 2008
The greatest digital resource for public domain books is archive.org. In their archive, they have more than 1 million books scanned and accessible in digital format. Most of the books are in the public domain but some have license restrictions stating that you cannot use them commercially. But with a million books to work with, there is always plenty of source material for your projects.
The books are presented in a variety of formats (although not all books are in all formats.) The formats are described below. Read the rest of this entry »
Published by admin on 21st November 2008
With eBay undergoing its most dramatic transofrmation since its inception, many sellers are looking at Amazon as a potential marketplace for their goods. There are many good reasons to look at Amazon. It is a large marketplace, larger than eBay. Its customers are less bargain sensitive than eBay customers. And Amazon handles all the payment processing so there are never any issues about a winner making a payment.
But Amazon is not the same marketplace as eBay. And just as there are specific steps to take to be a success on eBay, there are specific steps that need to be taken on Amazon. Read the rest of this entry »
Published by admin on 20th November 2008
Now that winter is coming to the northern hemisphere, fishermen of all stripes (except for ice fishermen) are getting ready for that long winter break. That means cleaning and packing their gear in anticipation of the first blush of spring, making sure their fishing magazine subscriptions are up to date and that they still have the fishing channels on their televisions.
And for the more enthusiastic fishermen, it means a winter of research and planning for new techniques to help them catch the big one. That will include reading about the latest gizmos that are on the market and reminiscing about days gone by, days when they went fishing with their fathers with nothing more than a simple pole and natural baits - like worms, crickets and other homemade concoctions. Read the rest of this entry »
Published by admin on 18th November 2008
eBay is a great marketplace for buyers and sellers. While I don’t remember my first purchase on eBay, I do remember my first sale… a Brother thermal paper fax machine I no longer needed. That was in 1997.
Since that time, I’ve purchased hundreds of items on eBay and sold 10’s of thousands of items under various user ids. Some were hobby related and some were business related. And I still buy and sell there today.
But what used to be lots of fun has lately become a bit of a chore. Read the rest of this entry »
