Wednesday, December 3, 2008

CASH IN by Reselling Event Tickets!!













How to Profit Reselling Event Tickets

Tickets to the hottest events usually sell out really fast, usually on the first day. The key to getting highly profitable tickets are to get them either on the first day or before the first day of sale, also known as pre-sale tickets. This can all be done from the comfort of your home. I will explain how you can get access to pre-sale tickets and give you a list of sites that offer pre-sale codes on occasion, and most importantly how to turn those sold-out event tickets into COLD HARD CASH!!


If you are just starting off with re-selling event tickets I suggest that you start selling tickets of events that take place in your own city, to ensure general knowledge/background of the city and venue. Once you get the hand of it you can start buying tickets in other cities.


Before purchasing any event tickets you need to research a few key elements to ensure maximum profitability.

The two things to Research before purchasing tickets: Supply & Demand
  • Supply: The size of the event's venue (1,500 seats? 15,000 seats?)


  • Demand: Popularity of the event or performer

The Supply of the event - The supply of the event's venue is an important factor. You need to first determine how many tickets will be available, the more/tickets available the lower the profitability will be. The lower the seats/tickets available the more the profitability for each ticket will be. Another factor in supply is how many times that event will run, for example it comedian Dave Chappelle comes to Town and they schedule two shows and each show has 15,000 seats available you want to make sure the demand is there. If a big name act comes to town and there is only one show available more than likely you can count on the show selling out. Use your judgement. It usually comes down to using common sense.

The Demand of the event - Study the demand of the event that is going to take place, whether it's a sports event, like an NBA Basketball game or whether it's a rock concert like U2, you can determine if the event will sellout based on a few key factors, the advertising/publicity of the event, the talk around town, radio announcements, study the trend of past performances or games. Let me give you an example, let's say for instance you live in Minneapolis and the Timberwolves are having a great season and they're starting to pick up popularity. You notice that the last game was sold out, that's great news, based on previous experience once a game sells out the games following it usually follow the same trend, so buy tickets for those upcoming games. If they end up going into the playoffs, you're almost guaranteed a sell-out. If your team ends up going to the finals, buy as many tickets as you can, from my past experience they have always sold out. To get a more accurate analysis of whether a performer will sell out or not, visit their official website and check out their past performances. If it's a sports event check out their official website or the league's website such as NBA.com.

I know this was pretty basic or maybe even lame to most of you, but now you understand the principles of supply and demand in the ticket reselling business...now, where to get these tickets.

Where to buy tickets

Ticketmaster.com is the number one source for purchasing tickets off the Internet. This is the main source in which resellers purchase their tickets. There is one other option to Ticketmaster.com and that is going to the actual (physical) box office of the venue.

There is one trick of the trade I will now discuss that will allow you to purchase the tickets before the general public can purchase them. Only a select few with pre-sale codes will be able to purchase pre-sale tickets.

Where to buy pre-sale tickets

Buying pre-sale tickets for the most part is done on Ticketmaster.com but it requires a pre-sale code. Getting access to the pre-sale codes is the tricky part...here are a few sites that I personally use to get my pre-sale codes:

Fatwallet - http://www.fatwallet.com/search/results.php?query=presale+codes&collection=forums&sort=date

...this is the section of the forum dedicated to the discussion of pre-sale codes to events ranging from baseball games to popular concerts. This is a great source for pre-sale codes from all across the nation. Incidentally, Fatwallet is a great bargain hunting website centering around a set of forums that allow users to publish deals and rebate offers on a comprehensive range of products and services...check it out!

TalkTix.com - This is another discussion forum where professional and nonprofessional ticket brokers come to discuss pre-sale codes and give the heads up on the hottest tickets. Also, in depth discussion of what to buy and what not to buy....very informative site!

Sign up on the artist's and Radio Station's mailing list/fan club - Most artist's have official websites and on their websites they may have fan clubs or mailing lists. Be sure to sign up for those as a lot of times they give you access to the pre-sale codes before the general public.

Now that you have some great tickets....let's make some quick cash!

Two methods of re-selling tickets: Craigslist.org and eBay.com

As you probably already know, craigslist.org is a great place for buying and selling on the Internet, there are absolutely no fees! Because craigslist is local, I have found great success in selling just about anything there. Many savvy ticket buyers will usually check either on craigslist or eBay. It is also easy to meet up with your buyers and do the exchange. I have found that tickets sell better than anything else because you actually meet face to face which brings a sense of trust to the buyer. Ebay is also a great place for selling event tickets, they have a dedicated section for selling event tickets. Because of eBay's massive popularity, the number of people searching for tickets on a given event is worldwide. You can easily list your tickets and find buyers for them. It is important that you have good feedback because people are very skeptical when it comes to buying event tickets. There has been a lot of bad press about fraudulent tickets, having good feedback will send the message to the buyer that you are a legitimate seller and you will not and do not sell fraudulent tickets.

Also you should realize that Ticketmaster offers two forms of tickets when you're making you purchase, a"physical ticket" (one that is mailed to you and actually sent to a physical address) and "ticketfast tickets", (one that is sent via email immediately after making your purchase) you can print these tickets from home and walk right up to the ticket booth of the concert.

I recommend using "ticketfast tickets" not only is it quick and convenient but it's easier to send a ling when reselling. If you're re-selling the tickets on craigslist.org, simply print it up and when you meet them give it to them. If you're re-selling the tickets on eBay, simply send them a copy of the link to print up the tickets themselves.

I hope this information useful and as ALWAYS, it's FREE!

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Scriptlance - Professional Freelance Website Designers...Leave it to the Pro's!

Outsource your projects to thousands of programmers at ScriptLance.com

Scriptlance is a website which connects Professional Freelance website designers, programmers, graphic designers, software developers, search engine specialists and writers with business owners, entrepreneurs and people like you and I.

Whenever I need a website to be designed or programmed (and I just don't have time to do it myself or it's much too complicated), I go to Scriptlance.

I have found so many highly professional, talented programmers and designers to build/develop automated sites for me that I'll probably use them quite a bit in the near future.

It's free to post projects, which specify:
  • your website design and or programming needs

  • your approximate budget for the entire project

  • approximate time you would like it completed
Then Freelancers will place bids - offering you their services for a certain price and tell you they can complete the project within a day, 3 days, a week, etc. depending on the complexity of the project. They may place messages on a message board for you and you can correspond before choosing a person. Check out their feedback rating before choosing as well. But, I have found that some Scriptlance "Newbies" will complete your site design/project for practically nothing because they are starting out and want feedback. It's worth a try. You do not pay until you are satisfied. You can deposit your money via Paypal into Scriptlance's secure account area.

You can ESCROW the payment to the programmer and you do not need to release the payment to the programmer until you are completely satisfied with the end result. That way you are protected all the way around.

Also, if you are really tight on money and you have a great idea that you think might make you thousands of dollars, just post the project and see how much the bids are. Scriptlance has been a lifesaver for me. I am a creative person with new ideas all the time but website designer guru, I am not.

When I first started working online I stumbled upon Scriptlance. I didn't have a lot of money but from my experience offline marketing, I had a great idea for a website that I thought for sure would be my personal "cash machine." I wanted my site to be completely automated so I didn't have to do ANYTHING at all but check my daily earnings. After posting the project and waiting a few hours I checked and there were several bids; all of which were about $3,500. I did not have the money so I sent messages to all the bidders thanking them for their bids but letting them know I could not afford it - and asked them if they would be interested in sharing the proceeds of the sales with me indefinitely for creating this website for FREE.

Someone may very well be willing to create something for you for Free in exchange for a percentage of the profits. I think it's a great deal - for me there was no way I would have been able to afford that. I created a contract and within two weeks the website was completed and up and running. If you are going to do something like that just be sure that you have all your bases covered and a really thorough contract.


Important Note: Make sure that you say you also need the site Search Engine Optimized when you post a project. One site I had designed and programmed through Scriptlance reach the top of Yahoo within two months for many of its key phrases, so this is very important.

Check out Scriptlance TODAY!


Outsource your programming projects at ScriptLance.com

Thursday, March 20, 2008

FREE Website Set Up in Minutes

Before I knew much about marketing and affiliates online I had absolutely NO interest in BLOGS. But, Blogs are extremely profitable. First of all it is free to have as many blogs as you like...about as many different topics as you like. Just go to http://www.blogger.com/ and within minutes you can have your own website online. YES, it is your own website. The domain name may be something like, http://www.yoursite.blogspot.com/., and you can use that or purchase a domain name and then Forward and Mask it to a different domain name which you purchased.



When you first go to create your blog make sure your tittle has STRONG keywords. If your site is about Turkey Stuffing Recipes then I recommend you look that topic up on different search engines to see your competitors site titles. Choose something a little different that will stand out because that is what will appear as your site tittle on the search engine. If you want to make money, here are a few ideas: Think about what holidays are coming up. If Thanksgiving is in a month or so away you can search on Google to look for very specific things relating to Thanksgiving. For example, look up "turkey stuffing recipes" and see how many ads show up. It really doesn't matter how many appear because if you add enough posts, links and back links to your blog site then you will gain the search engine placement needed.



Blogger.com has a great feature which allows you to add Google AdSense ads to your blog. It pretty much inserts it for you to fit the theme of your blogger site and colors. If you make your blog all about Turkey stuffing recipes and put a huge AdSense Ad right on the top of the page and content below....many people may click on it. I'm surprised sometimes how many people click on my AdSense ads on my websites. Each click = money.



The only way that you will gain a high placement on the search engines is by updating your website or blogsite daily with new content and also by getting as many back links as possible. Back links are INCREDIBLY important to increase your search engine placement....especially on Google.com. You can have a site ranking of number one on Yahoo or MSN but have no raking in Google because you need to create lots of high-quality back links. What are back links? Back links are created when other website online add your link to their website. If their website has a PR ranking on Google of 3 or higher out of 10 then it will most likely increase your search engine placement.



Once you have your BLOG you can make money from it many different ways. You could use it only for targeting specific topics such as the Turkey Stuffing Recipe example...use it to sell a specific product. Or, you can use it to promote your affiliates. You can write reviews about affiliate products. I've seen many, many blogs which are "make money online" reviews for different products. If it has a high enough placement, grabs the attention of the reader then the reader clicks on the affiliate link and purchase it....then you're making money.



Whatever you do....remember that after each time you post your BLOG, go to http://pingomatic.com to Ping the blog to dozens of online news venues. It basically submits your blog all over the place online to help its search engine position and HIGHLY INCREASE VISIBILITY.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

How To Profit From Slickdeals.net



Slickdeals.net is a site dedicated to providing some of the best deals on products and services on and off the net. It is self proclaimed as "The most frequently updated and complete deal site on the web!" Slickdeals provides coupons, discount, freebies and more on products ranging from airline tickets to video games. They even have deals on services such as inexpensive car rentals and floral delivery, they truly have it all. I have used this site frequently, usually spending about fifteen to twenty minutes browsing the forum looking at some of the newly listed deals. I used to do a lot of buying through this site a few years back so today I will be telling you how to turn the deals found on slickdeals.net into cold hard cash!!
The entire slickdeals site is great but today I will be concentrating on one particular section. This section is in the Forum and is tittled "Hot Deals" as indicated above. Here's the home page of http://www.slickdeals.net/, click on the "Forums" link to enter the "Hot Deals" section. In here you will find posts from users all across the U.S. posting deals, coupons, rebates, discounts, etc. on all types of products and services.

Turn These Bargains Into Cash!!!
Here is just one example of the many deals that I have converted into cash using the "Hot Deals" section on Slickdeals.net. In the "Hot Deals" section I found a deal on PUR Water Filter Systems, the posting said "Big Lots is having a sale on Filter Systems, only $9.99." So I looked into it and did some research on eBay. When researching on eBay use the "completed items" search function to locate the exact product and price it's going for. Here I noticed the Systems were selling on eBay for $20 each, that would be a $10 profit on each filter for an easy flip. I then noticed further down in the posting on slickdeals.net that the system came with two extra filters, the filters on eBay were selling on average of $10 each! So....let's add it up. $20 for each system sold on eBay, plus $10x2 for the filters...that comes out to a $30 profit on each system sold!!!
I immediately went to a couple Big Lots and bought out all the their Systems...150 in all! I later went and listed them on eBay and made over $3,000 with this deal.
Remember, research on eBay first! Use the "completed items" search function...I cannot stress this enough. This function will show you the current market value and will give you an idea of how much you will be making. Good Luck!


Saturday, January 26, 2008

Swipe Your Way To Copywriting Success

Anyone who has been involved in marketing, online or off, for any length of time knows that creating a swipe file is a huge help when it comes to designing your own marketing campaigns. For those who don't know, a swipe file is a file or collection of tabloid, magazine ads, direct mail pieces, headlines, techniques, etc. Essentially, whenever you see an example of great marketing you add it to your marketing collection. What is great marketing?...that's the tricky part. Fortunately, there's about a billion books on the subject. Remember, a swipe file is where you go for inspiration when you create your own campaigns... not to copy them, just to learn from them and create your own messages.

Before the Internet, a swipe file would contain a bunch of direct mail marketing pieces, newspaper ads, postcards, etc. I have boxes and boxes of newspaper, direct mail pieces and magazine ads that added tremendously to my successful advertising campaigns. Today you can still have a file folder full of those kinds of things, but you should also consider starting a digital collection where you can put great examples of email marketing, ezine ads, headlines, digital sales letters, etc.

Check out these hard to find ads from the "all time greats" and add them to your swipe file.
http://www.hardtofindads.com/home