Fund Your Travels by Earning Money on The Road # 7

Posted on April 3, 2019 by Travel Happy

Seventh in a series of how to fund your travels.

Most people would love to travel, but where would they get the money?

Amazon FBA
Seventh in a series of how to fund your travels.

AMAZON FBA (FULFILLMENT BY AMAZON)

For most, this is probably the best way to make a good income but with that comes a lot of work. It’s no different than any other legitimate job or business in that regard. Once I got my eBay business up and running, I began selling online with this program about 10 years ago and did quite well, but frankly, got to the point I did not like handling products. I’m at that age where I’m retired and don’t have to work, it was a way to keep busy, learn a new business and enjoy myself in the process. After a while, I realized I was just not as motivated as I once was about earning extra money. I think a lot of us go through that.

I wasn’t traveling much then, so having a lot of product around was not an issue as I had plenty of room for storage. But when I got the itch to travel, I basically put this business on the back burner as I did not want to be burdened down carrying product around with me. I am still active with Amazon FBA, but not nearly to the extent I once was. I am a PRO Seller on Amazon and one of the many benefits of being a PRO Seller is, I get to take advantage of Amazon’s UPS rates. UPS is a major partner of Amazon and therefore when selling on FBA, my shipping rates are much cheaper than with other logistic companies such as FedEx, DHL or the US Postal Service. UPS Stores are an online seller’s best friend. Look around, they’re everywhere; you’ll find UPS Stores in every town and city. So when shipping product to Amazon, I box my items, take them to a UPS Store and ship them to Amazon. Amazon receives my boxes; unpacks them, sorts them, lists my items on their platform, sells them, ships them, and handles all the customer service including any returns. They then deduct their fees and electronically deposit proceeds directly to my bank account. How great is that?

All this makes selling on Amazon’s platform quite easy. The drawback to this program for one who enjoys traveling, is dealing with products. I just don’t have the room in my van to buy and store a lot of product.

I’ve met folks on the road that travel constantly and who make well over 6 figures a year as part-time sellers using Amazon’s FBA program. But… they have large Class A motor homes that they live and travel the country in. These huge motor homes have plenty of space for storing product that they pick up primarily from garage and yard sales, flea markets and retail arbitrage while traveling.

I touched on Amazon in an earlier post regarding selling T-shirts online. In my opinion, Amazon’s “Merch By Amazon” is one of the best programs available anywhere for one to start a business with no upfront money and earn an awesome income. See my earlier post – Merch By Amazon for details.

NOTE: This post is not about the ‘details’ of selling on any of these platforms, but to show you there’s a way to make money on or off the road. If you’re interested in details, please contact me.

“If you liked this post, please follow me. I’ll be bringing you more good quality content in the weeks to come.”

Until next time…

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Fund Your Travels by Earning Money on The Road #6

Posted on April 2, 2019 by Travel Happy
Sixth in a series of how to fund your travels.

eBAY is one of the Internet’s early platforms that anyone can set up an account on and begin selling. I’ve been selling on eBay for years and the only issue I have with this platform is handling products which can become a problem if you’re on the road a lot.

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The seller has to procure goods, take photos of goods they want to sell, list the items, write a description and when a sale is made, pack that item and ship it to the buyer. It’s an easy way to make extra money or even a full time income, but as you can probably tell by now, I’m just not crazy about handling products.

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I used to sell a ton of books through eBay, but that required a lot of driving around to used book stores, Goodwill, thrift shops, library sales and the like and rummaging through hundreds of books trying to determine if a book was profitable. Books are also quite heavy and can be costly to ship. I made some good money, but I spent a lot of time in book stores to make that money.

NOTE: This post is not about the ‘details’ of selling on any of these platforms, but to show you there’s a way to make money on or off the road. If you’re interested in details, please contact me.

“If you liked this post, please follow me. I’ll be bringing you more good quality content in the weeks to come.”

Until next time…

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Fund Your Travels by Earning Money on The Road #5

Posted on March 24, 2019 by Travel Happy

This Amazon program is awesome!

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It affords anyone the opportunity to sell “print on demand” T-Shirts, hoodies, long-sleeved T-shirts, etc as well as some other items such as Pop-Sockets on their platform.

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This program truly is a great opportunity for anyone who wants to sell online. You can sell shirts (and other items) with no upfront money. You could easily start a very lucrative business with this model. One simply uploads a T-Shirt design and Amazon does the rest. No cost at all to the seller. Your shirt will be printed and shipped usually within a day or so of receiving an order. Not only that, but Prime shipping is free! This can be a single shirt or multiple shirts.

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This is a great way to design and sell shirts. Amazon has made a significant investment in printing machines which cost in the neighborhood of $500,000.00 each and they have a warehouse the size of a football field housing these huge printing machines which are the size of a car and takes several people to operate. And, Amazon lets us use their machines at no cost to print and sell T-Shirts. You set your own price as to what you want to sell the shirts for. The only stipulation to pricing is that you make at least 1 cent profit. Therefore, if you were so inclined, you could design and sell shirts to groups such as Little League, bowling leagues, church groups, etc. for just a penny over cost.

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How great is that? Amazon lists these shirts and products on their site and another benefit is these items qualify for Prime Shipping. Amazon takes care of everything such as listing the items, selling them, shipping them and collecting the money and if there’s a customer service issue, Amazon takes care of that as well. Amazon then sends my profit to my bank account. It doesn’t get any better than that. I’ve been selling T-shirts with this program almost since it’s inception.

Again, this is an excellent way to make money on the road as all you need is an Internet connection and a good design.

Source: Some of the photos in this blog are provided courtesy of pixabay.com.

NOTE: This post is not about the ‘details’ of selling on any of these platforms, but to show you there’s a way to make money on or off the road. If you’re interested in details, please contact me.

“If you liked this article, please follow me. I’ll be bringing you more good quality content in the weeks to come.”

Until next time…

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Fund Your Travels by Earning Money on The Road #4

Posted on March 22, 2019 by Travel Happy

Fourth in a series of how to fund your travels.

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An ETSY Store is an excellent way to earn money, from the road or from your home. Because I travel a lot, I really like this platform as it allows me to set up my store, then all I need is my laptop and Smart Phone. I have no worries about handling product or anything labor intensive. I set up my store, design and list my products and have a POD (Print On Demand) company that’s also partnered with Etsy, fulfill my orders. Etsy then sends my profit directly into my bank account. It doesn’t get any better than that.

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Anyone can open an Etsy Store and there’s no cost to set up a store. Once it’s set up and you begin stocking it with items to sell, you’ll pay a 20 cent fee to list an item and of course there’s final fees once you sell something. I design my mugs on a platform by the name of Printify and then list them on Etsy. Printify is partnered with and is integrated with Etsy, so once a sale is made on Etsy, Printify will print the mug and ship it to my customer. It’s a seamless operation and Etsy takes care of everything for me including collecting the money and electronically depositing funds into my bank account. The beauty is, I don’t have any inventory and I only pay for the mugs once they are sold. At this time, I only design and sell coffee mugs (but I’m not limited to coffee mugs because Printify has an entire range of products including all sorts of apparel that can be printed on ). I have no upfront costs, no money tied up and I never have to touch anything but my laptop computer or my iPhone. I’ve only recently begun selling on Etsy, but the prospects are unlimited. To give you an idea, here’s the link to my Etsy Store.

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www.etsy.com/shop/checkmymugs

NOTE: This post is not about the ‘details’ of selling on any of these platforms, but to show you there’s a way to make money on or off the road. If you’re interested in details, please contact me.

“If you liked this article, please follow me. I’ll be bringing you more good quality content in the weeks to come.”

Until next time…

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Fund Your Travels by Earning Money on The Road #3

Posted on March 21, 2019 by Travel Happy
Third in a series of how to fund your travels.

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Online Arbitrage is another way to make money on the road or from your home office. Simply defined it’s finding products online with the specific aim of exploiting a price mismatch between two market places, so you can resell them at a profit. I personally don’t do a lot of this. I mention it because it is a proven and viable source of income.

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NOTE: This post is not about the ‘details’ of selling on any of these platforms, but to show you there’s a way to make money on or off the road. If you’re interested in details, please contact me.

“If you liked this post, please follow me. I’ll be bringing you more good quality content in the weeks to come.”

Until next time…

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Fund Your Travels by Earning Money on The Road #2

Posted on March 18, 2019 by Travel Happy

RETAIL ARBITRAGE

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Retail Arbitrage is an excellent way to make money on the road or from your home office or commercial office, especially for beginners. Retail Arbitrage is simply finding items on retail store shelves that you can flip and sell for a profit online, on such platforms as Amazon, eBay, Craigslist etc. If I happen to be in a store, such as a Walmart or Target, I’ll spend some time looking for close-outs that I might be able to flip for a nice profit.

I have an Amazon scanner app on my iPhone that I can scan a barcode with and the results of that scan will tell me if that item is profitable. Therefore, I don’t waste time or money on something that might not be profitable.

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I personally don’t do a lot of this, because I don’t want to get bogged down with anything labor intensive while on the road, plus I don’t have a lot of room in my van to carry too many items. But this is a proven way to make a great part-time or even a full-time income.

NOTE: This post is not about the ‘details’ of selling on any of these platforms, but to show you there’s a way to make money on or off the road. If you’re interested in details, please contact me.

“If you liked this post, please follow me. I’ll be bringing you more good quality content in the weeks to come.”

Until next time…

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Fund Your Travels by Earning Money on The Road #1

Posted on March 18, 2019 by Travel Happy
FLEA MARKETS & GARAGE SALES
NOTE:  This is the first of several posts in a series of how to earn money on the road to fund your travels.

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Rarely do I ever have a schedule to keep while feeding my desire to travel. I enjoy traveling in my converted van, visiting and photographing historic landmarks, National Parks and the like.

So how do I fund all this?

There are many way and I’ll cover some (that work for me) in the next few posts.

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If I happen upon a flea market or sizable yard sale in my travels, and if I’m in the mood, I will stop and have a look. Most people go to flea markets and yard sales to look for a needed item or just browse and while away time. I’ve learned that flea markets and yard sales can be gold mines. I go to them to see what I can pick up for a few bucks and then flip it on eBay or Amazon for 80-100 bucks.

NOTE: This post is not about the ‘details’ of selling on any of these platforms, but to show you there’s a way to make money on or off the road. If you’re interested in details, please contact me.

“If you liked this post, please follow me. I’ll be bringing you more good quality content in the weeks to come.”

Until next time…

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Can You Identify These Old Adobe Ruins?

Posted on March 6, 2019 by Travel Happy
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Old Adobe Ruins

While out camping and exploring the Sonoran Desert in Arizona recently, I came upon these old adobe ruins. It’s things like this that keep me intrigued with our American history. Could they be the remains of an old Army Post? An old settlement compound? Perhaps the holes running horizontally along the top of the structure could be gun ports for use in fending off an enemy?

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Old Adobe Ruins

“If you liked this post, please follow me. I’ll be bringing you more good quality and interesting content in the weeks to come.”

Until next time…

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On My Way To…

Posted on March 2, 2019 by Travel Happy

… the Sonoran Desert in southwest Arizona for some sun and warmth while the east coast shivers under the remnants of the Polar Vortex.

Please follow me. I’ll be bringing you more good quality and interesting content in the weeks to come.”

Until next time…

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While Visiting Arizona, I Ended up in Prison

Posted on March 1, 2019 by Travel Happy
The Sonoran Desert of southwest Arizona is a big draw for thousands of “snow birds” from the frozen north during the winter months. They come in all types, sizes and colors of RV’s and tents to enjoy the warmth and sun and camp in the desert on BLM Land for free.

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Entrance to Yuma Prison Cemetery

I spent some time there as well in January and February and made some new friends. I also went across the border into Los Algodones, Mexico and had my teeth cleaned. There are dozens of dental and vision clinics there and hundreds of Americans and Canadians walk across the border daily for cheap, professional dental and vision care. Additionally, you can pick up prescription drugs there for a fraction of what it would cost you in the U.S. I had family and friends asking if I felt safe. I can tell you, I felt as safe there as anywhere in the U.S.A. There is a large police presence as well as private security. In fact, I asked the U.S. trained dentist who cleaned my teeth, if Los Algodones was safe. She said it like this: Los Algodones is a very safe place. All the businesses in Los Algodones rely primarily on Americans and Canadians for their livelihood. If this were not a safe place, Americans and Canadians would discontinue coming here, so we as a community insist on and work hard to insure that Los Algodones remains a safe place to visit.

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Yuma Prison Cemetery

Since Yuma, Arizona is just across the border from Los Algodones, I toured the city and found the old “Yuma Territorial Prison.” The prison opened On July 1, 1876 and was active for 33 years. 104 of the prisoners who lost their lives to disease, accidents, murder, suicide and escape attempts, are buried in the prison cemetery.

If you saw the movie; 3:10 to Yuma, it was about a prisoner being transported to this prison.

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Yuma Prison Plaque with names of inmates

“If you liked this article, please follow me. I’ll be bringing you more good quality content in the weeks to come.”

Until next time…

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