Language of Roses 
Garden of Quotes
For those of you not familiar with Ebay. You can sign up for free and list items for sale on auction or use the buy now feature. You can sell anything like your crafts or things you find from a local flea market. I've also noticed a lot of things thrown to the curb in my area and next to dumpsters if you have the time you could go around picking up these things to sell. If you are renting and have no space for items rent a cheap storage space. Your auction should include a picture because your item will sell better. If you already have a computer I suggest getting a digital camera you can start small with a cheap one for about $30 at one of the discount chains. You also need to have a printer if you don't have one. Be sure to keep records of your sales. Use the about me feature on ebay to write a little message about yourself. When people walk into a store and are greeted nicely and they start to like you they are more likely to visit your store again. Remember to add a link to your webpage on the about me page. There are other auction sites too, I'm just unfamiliar with them. The reason I say ebay is because it's the largest and probably the most popular. If you want to try another one it's your auction.
Learn to make a web page. There are several free tutorials on the internet. Search for "HTML tutorial" or "free HTML tutorial". Some free homesites have features that allow you to build a page without HTML knowledge too, but if you are serious you should learn the basics.
When you have made your web site you need to submit it to search engines. A lot of search engines are charging for submission to their search engines. There are still a few that are free to submit to; I recommend using them. Google, Scrub the Web, All the Web, Entire web, Surf Gopher, Yahoo Directory, National Directory to name a few. There are other ways to get hits on your site too. Like a small ad in the local newspaper. Signing online guestbooks. Put a link to your site in your email signiture. Get into a webring.
Find free graphic sets that will allow you to use them for commercial business. They are hard to find sometimes, but they are out there.
Sign up for PayPal so you don't have to wait for checks to clear. It's free to sign up. They take a small fee for people sending money to you, but your money also earns interest and also you can get 1% cash back when you sign up as paypal preferred and use your paypal card at merchants. They also have a feature where you can add a shopping cart to your web page. When you have some of your things listed on ebay and some listed on your site the people who will purchase from your site will eliminate the cost of posting an auction. You will build a customer base through ebay.
When you get your business going good now is the time to invest further. Buy a shipping scale so you can calculate shipping cost at home. The USPS has a calculator for shipping cost using zip codes. This means you don't have to run back and forth to the post office.
Get a better digital camera for your pictures and possibly a good photo editing program.
An all in one machine with fax, copying, printing, and scanning. Depending on the age of your computer and how well you do, you might be interested in buying a new computer.
At this point you may even consider registering as a business and getting a sales tax number. Purchasing a domain, purchasing server space for your site, and hiring someone to make your sites graphics.
There are a few other sites that offer information of this subject. These are worth looking at if you are interested in starting an online business.
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