Homeschool Entrepreneur - -learning and earning as a family

Watch Out For Domain Registration Scams-or, A Lesson For Discussion

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.

How To Sell Textbooks On Amazon

Bookstore 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

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14 Best Games To Educate Your Children About Business

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!

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4 Things I Learned From The 2012 Craze

time2 I’ve always loved disaster movies, and every time I watch one it seems I go into my ‘disaster-preparedness’ mode. It may have started with my obsessive fascination with the tornado scene in my childhood favorite, The Wizard of Oz, (second only to The Sound of Music) or the memories of my mother’s reactions during the Cuban Missile Crisis . . . or it could be a calling I’ve ignored. OK, I’m over-analyzing again, not to mention really veering off topic, but watching the recent documentaries on the 2012 hype, I’m confident it’s all more of the same.

What is the 2012 concern?

In case you haven’t heard the details on what the 2012 hype is all about, and what the newly released movie, 2012 will define for most (unfortunately), here are the basics:

-It all started with the fact that the Mayan calendar ends on December 21, 2012.

-The winter solstice sun will align with the earth, moon and the Milky Way-which supposedly hasn’t happened in 26,000 years.(fact not verified)

These “facts”, along with a myriad of prophecies that could be interpreted many ways, there are more theories materializing daily as to how the world will end on that day. Most of them think it involves the end of the world as we know it.

First of all, as a Christian, the Bible is very specific about no one knowing the exact time of the end of the world. One interesting fact that The History Channel pointed out in their examination of this craze is that 2012 does happen to fall in a time of a heightened solar activity cycle. Solar flares are a real threat to the satellites (communications) and our power grids. (Watch the special to learn the details) Evidently, solar flare activity is much more of a real-time threat than anything.

Of course, it’s only a threat to those completely dependent on electricity. If you are Amish, or live off the grid, it won’t affect you aside from the crazies that might target you in a national disaster. A large part of the problem is that our power grids are so interconnected, if one area goes down, it affects far more than just that area (again, watch the History Channel special-it’s been playing on the History Channel often or watch it in it’s entirety at Google Video). I don’t agree or believe most of what was said, but it’s fascinating and will hold your interest-unless you’re prone to fear.

So, what should we learn, or deduce from all this? I came away with these 4 things:

1. We should be right with God – and no one really knows the length of their days.

2. Spend more time living life-enjoying family, or just enjoying each day as a gift. As the saying goes: “Live every day as your last, but plan as if you will live forever”.

More practically:

3. Get off the grid - it would seem a logical endeavor to create more localized power centers. I’ve read about people that have built mini solar and/or wind “power plants” that can power their own house and several others. I’m really ignorant how all that works, but those of you that live in the country and / or live off the land, seem to be on the right track. If you are at least set up to survive without power, (ok, not such an easy undertaking) you have a better chance. At the very least, we should also all be basically prepared for a local disaster. Having 3 months of food and water on hand is just common sense, with all that has happened in the last few years.

And entrepreneurially:

4. Start an emergency preparedness business or blog! You had to know that was coming . . .

What do you think about all this 2012 stuff? Do you do anything to prepare yourself and your family for emergencies? Like what?

Remember, all comments are entered into a monthly drawing for a free book! So I thought I’d give you something to talk about….>>details

3 Money Lessons Your Kids Should Know

collegegirl Investopedia is an outstanding website for your older teen if they are interested in anything to do with finance. Even if they’re NOT interested, starting them out with their own stock portfolio and $100,000 to play with might get them interested! Of course, if you don’t have $100,000 to let them play with, then maybe Investopedia’s Stock Simulator will have to do.

My middle son was not interested in anything except soccer during high soccer ball school, especially not finance. We were racking our brains to come up with anything he might want to do or have an aptitude in besides soccer. So, purely by chance as a school project, I required that he start a portfolio on Investopedia’s Stock Simulator. The rest is history. With very little help from us, he found he had a real knack for making money, so much so he was invited to join one of the ‘elite’ groups in the simulator – and was hooked on finance. Six years later, he’s on track to graduate this Spring with a degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Finance. His plan is to enter grad school next fall-same subject. Who’d a thunk?

All that to recommend the source our title, 3 Money Lessons Your Kids Should Know. The quality of financial information on that site is some of the best found online. In this article, the 3 main points are refreshingly unique as opposed to the majority of diluted advice directed to parents for their kid’s money mentoring.

Taking into consideration that teaching guidance principles versus rules works much better and adapts well with the wide variety of circumstances in families.

Here are the three key concepts in a nutshell:

Think of money as stored work. Most kids have no concept of money and what it takes to get it. Put it in terms of labor, like, “Would you trade a weekend of work for that toy?”.
Money is time. Similar to the concept above, but instead of working with money that has already been earned, you are looking at money that could be earned – or not earned and the results.
Money has a life of it’s own. Explaining to your children what money does while it’s just ‘sitting around’. Read the article.

If any of this has confused you, that’s good, only because I want you read the entire article and check out the website. I think you’ll be glad you did. Open an Investopedia stock account while you’re there – it’s a good time to start, since most stocks can only go up from here (in theory…). Keep in mind you will be asked to sign up for a myriad of items, none of which are necessary for using the simulator.

Other articles there that might interest you:

5 Money Skills To Teach Your Kids

Talking About Money When Times Are Tough

Help Your Kids Understand Money

9 Green Careers With High Pay