I thought I’d share an interesting video I watched this morning about behavioral economics. Before you click onto another site, hear me out. This guy is funny, and illustrates how our mind often makes irrational decisions based on the choices offered. It’s less than 20 minutes and well worth the time. Who knows? It could save you an irrational decision! Of course, the intention is to help you market your business more …uh, irrationally?

A little background:

I found this video on a highly informative website, Mark Flavin’s Internet Marketing Blog. He offers a decent “best traffic tips” download free (for the price of your email address, of course) which is very worthwhile.

TED, in case you haven’t discovered this as a resource for your homeschool high school, is a library of the best speeches (majority under 30 minutes – which is well over the average American’s attention span!). You can do a search for the subject at hand, or use it to help with form, etc in your own “speech class”! Check out TED, “Ideas Worth Spreading”.

While anyone could guess that ABC’s new show, Shark Tank, is part reality, part Hollywood, it holds a great deal of fodder for discussion. If you aren’t familiar with this entrepreneurial reality show, it’s based on everyday entrepreneurs approaching a panel of shark-like potential investors with their ideas. I love watching it just to hear some of the ideas that are presented and the way they go about it. Who knows, you might see an idea you’ve been thinking about!

If you do see an idea that you’ve been considering, listen carefully to the investor’s responses, but please don’t think that is how it is in the real world. Most investors are only interested in one thing (profit), but are not as cruel as you will see on Shark Tank. What you will learn are what investors are really looking at when an idea is presented to them. Old as well as young entrepreneurs can learn a great deal by watching this show.

Another learning resource you’ll like is the “Free Stuff” offered on the Shark Tank’s website. If you are teaching your teens business currently, there is an excellent Investment Glossary of Terms as well as a list of 150 of the best headlines ever. There’s many other goodies there, too, so it’s worth checking out even if you don’t watch the show.

I’m figuring that most of you would know this, but I received a letter in the mail today and thought I’d mention it just in case. This letter was from “Website Registration Services” and they picked up an expired domain of mine (or so I thought) that I didn’t want anymore and sent me a very official letter “offering” me their great service.(!)  This service would register my domain for me for only $70/year . . . but wait! I can sign up for 2 years and pay $130, saving a whole $10! Uh, did I mention that the domain only cost me $8.99/year through One & One Hosting – AND normally renew automatically each year at that price?

At first, I thought this domain had already expired and this company has purchased it in hopes it was it an oversight on my part to renew it. That would be rather crafty, yet a rotten way to make a living. However, on further investigation, this particular domain doesn’t even expire until Jan 18. So I still own it – AND – ordinarily would auto-renew with One & One, but I had pre-set it to allow it to expire. I have over 30 domains and it was an idea that didn’t work out. You see, when I have an idea, I’ll buy the domain for $6-$9 and work on it when I have time (in theory). This just happened to be one that I didn’t want anymore.

However, if this had been one of my primary domains and I didn’t know any better, it may have been a different story. Unfortunately, there are many companies out there ready to pounce on unsuspecting clients. It takes awhile to learn all there is to know about how all this online stuff works, so don’t feel bad if you’ve actually fallen for one of these “opportunities”.  I think it’s Dave Ramsey that calls the money we spend on mistakes like this “Stupid Tax”.

Have you ever gotten letters like this that almost … or did… fool you? Always get your domains from a reputable hosting company (we list our favorites at Homeschool-Entrepreneur.com/gettingonline )-but NEVER pay more than $10 or $15 for one. There is no reason to – really. Go Daddy is arguably the most popular domain registrar, but I can’t handle their -shall I say ‘provocative’ -  advertising. Not family friendly in our home.  I use One & One and really find it easy to track and manage several domains at once with their easy to use interface. Anyone have a favorite domain hosting company?

A Lesson For Discussion:

Just a side note: In all fairness, “Website Registration Services” isn’t really an actual scam as far as I know, just a deviate way to do business. It could also be a great mini-entrepreneurial lesson to discuss with your youth, not just as a lesson in critical thinking, but as a lesson in ethical practices. “Website Registration Services” are doing nothing dishonest (I hope). However, are they not exploiting people’s lack of knowledge? You decide, and create a lesson for your future entrepreneurs to take with them throughout life.

Selling used books on Amazon isn’t the money maker it was a few years ago. When we first started listing used books on Amazon in 1999, you didn’t need a large inventory of books to make a nice part time income. Now, there are so many sellers selling GOOD books for a penny it’s difficult to find many books to really make it worth your time.

That doesn’t apply to selling textbooks though! There is a great deal to be made selling used textbooks online. Many students still haven’t realized the benefits of selling their last semester’s textbooks online rather than selling them back to their school’s bookstore for much less than they could sell them for themselves. Then there are those that want to keep their textbooks for whatever reason, not thinking about how quickly the information is outdated. They may not be aware of how much they can sell them for, even if they didn’t pay full price for them.

My son goes to a private college and many of the students there don’t care about keeping their textbooks OR selling them. My son and his roommate made several hundred dollars last year just selling textbooks offered on a giveaway table at school. If you or someone you know is a student at a college, there are many places to find used textbooks that still have significant value, some close to $100 or more. I’ve even seen tents set up around our community college with the sign “We Buy Your Textbooks”. There is a way to look up what a textbook is currently worth and can be reasonably certain it will sell for.

HOW And WHERE To Sell Used Textbooks:

There are a few ‘tricks of the trade’, but it’s really quite easy to sell textbooks online. Amazon is the venue of choice, offering you traffic that can’t be matched. However, you will pay the highest fees selling on Amazon. Half.com, an Ebay company, is different from selling on Ebay directly. Their fees aren’t much less, but you do save a little on fees. You will not receive the traffic you’ll find on Amazon. (You will find the best prices on textbooks on Half.com is you’re purchasing them, though!) If you are an experienced Ebay seller, many find Ebay to be the most profitable – but the lowest rate of sales.

Selling a book on Amazon is as easy as clicking on “Sell Your Stuff” and following the prompts. Making a reasonable business out of doing this takes a little training which fortunately is free for the study on Amazon and other major sellers.

Amazon’s Webinar On Selling Textbooks is FREE

Amazon offers a great deal of help for their online sellers, and is offering a webinar Wednesday at 10 am, Jan 13th specifically to help textbook sellers. You can find information on this webinar, and details and fees for selling any book in Amazon’s Marketplace. Books aren’t the only item you could sell on Amazon, you can sell unwanted CD’s, DVD’s, videos games and much, much more.

There are several books (available on Amazon, of course!) that will help you get started selling online, but always check the copyright date. Selling online has changed dramatically in the last five years, even the last few years, so be sure it’s offering you very current information. It’s very easy to sell a book on Amazon, but difficult to make a decent income doing so. It is possible to make a healthy income selling used books online, and is an excellent home business for homeschoolers. The hardest, and most important, activity is finding the right books to sell. Excellent customer service is also critical.

Click here to find information on selling textbooks on Amazon and their webinar this week: https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200270440

Details and where to start selling books on Amazon: http://www.amazonservices.com/content/sell-on-amazon.htm?ld=AZFSSOA

Christine Miller has written a good book recently on selling books on Amazon for stay-at-home moms. Anyone that needs to make money on a crazy schedule at home will find this book useful, not just SAHM’s! Check out  How to Sell Books on Amazon: The Stay-at-Home Mom’s Secret Guide to Selling Used Books on Amazon

Caught playing games with his nieces!

I found this list of 14 games on Sparkplugging, a website that you’ll find more great information about starting a home business. Started by Wendy Piersall, it was originally a website just for moms starting a business, but when she realized that the bulk of her readers were men, she changed her look to accommodate everyone.

These 14 educational games are classics, and I’ve talked about several of them before. Since many of you are still looking for Christmas presents for your children that will last longer than a day, I thought you’d like a list to take to the store. I’m a big believer in incorporating educational games into the school routine, and games about business were always big at our house!

A heads up on the game, The Sims 2: Open For Business, it’s an expansion pack, with a “T” rating. When we bought this game we were really excited, yet learned to read the fine print BEFORE I leave the store from now on.  I was so glad when my game-savvy older son informed his not-so-game-savvy mom that you need the original Sims 2 game to play this particular “expansion pack” (I had no idea what that meant, but it wasn’t clear on the package to someone like me that you needed something else to make this game work!).

Thankfully, we had not opened the game yet and were able to return it. Maybe we’ll tackle the entire set next year . . . although I also noticed (again, after the fact) that there was a “T” rating, which included the warning of “Crude humor, sexual themes, violence” – so maybe NOT.

Many of the games referred to are available as a download, at a much more reasonable price than most of the board games this year. There are many business-type games you can try over at Gamehouse (one of the few game sites of this type that Cnet deems safe) and they can be purchased to keep for as little as $6.99.   Signing up for the free trial allows you to try any of their games for 60 minutes, and as a thank you for trying them out, they give you one full featured game to keep. Of course, they hope that you continue paying the monthly fee, and we did do that last year for a few months and came away with several games that my younger son still plays. Jane’s Hotel and Diner Dash are two of his favorites, but there are many more sophisticated business related games available there. Most of the “tycoon” games are available, and I really liked being able to try many of the games online without having to download them onto our computer first.

While you’re over at Sparkplugging, be sure to sign up for their  FREE 21-Page Internet Business Idea Guide. We plan on covering the ‘how-to’ of many of those ideas next year. Make 2010 your year to finally get that online business started!

Read all 14 games at http://www.sparkplugging.com/sparkplug-ceo/14-educational-games-to-teach-your-kids-about-business/

Answer 3 quick survey questions for Wendy and get her ” Top Ten Marketing Mistakes Made by Home Business Entrepreneurs!” That’s something we SHOULD cover next year! Can you tell I have big plans for next year?

Do any of you have a game you’ve found that has good “business educational” value? Would love to hear!