photo credit: wonderlane
The following guest post is by Adam Bertram.
Everyone has read a book at one point in their life. If not, shame on you! Everyone is familiar with books and how they can benefit them. Books can teach, entertain, inspire and influence. Millions of people enjoy books everyday by checking them out from the library, purchasing them from a used bookstore, from a new bookstore or finally from the Internet. Books are part of the world culture and have been around for thousands of years. To keep up with the demand for books, publishers sprouted up and began pumping them out by the millions satisfying the consumer’s craving for information or entertainment. These books are then sold at bookstores like Borders or Barnes & Noble or on the Internet on platforms such as Amazon. Did you ever stop to think what happens to these books once they’ve worn off their “new” status and sentenced to now be a “used book”? The books don’t go away once they’ve been read once. They stick around for a long, long time either sitting on a bookshelf to be forgotten for many years or they turn around and end up back to one of the places to where they first were sold, on the Internet!
Used books are a big business on the Internet. Have you ever went to Amazon and went into the “Used & New” section to get a cheap price? That’s one of the places where they go! They go to people that decided to make some extra money or even a full time business selling used books online. According to the New York Times, just 4 years ago in 2005, the used book market was selling approximately $2.2 billion worth of used books. That’s a pretty large market and it’s one that an average person can get into with no education, no experience and hardly no initial capital at all.
A quick summary of what an online book-selling business is the simple activity of buying books low and selling high on the Internet. It is a very easy concept to learn and is also very easy to accomplish once one learns the ropes of the business. Essentially, anyone wanting to start an online book-selling business can do is first find sources of books that are bought at a cheap price. A few examples include large book sales, thrift stores, yard sales, etc. Books can be found anywhere and can usually be bought for close to nothing. Once the books are bought, they are then looked up on the Internet, typically Amazon, to see how much they are worth. If the seller feels like they can make a profit on the book, it is what’s called “listed” on the site which essentially makes it available for sale. This process is also usually absolutely free! Once the book sells, the seller is notified and the buyer typically pays the website that the book sold on which in turn pays the seller and the seller then ships the book to the buyer. It’s a very simple concept and can be a huge money-maker if taken to large quantities of books.
An online book-selling business can be considered a stay-at-home job and can be run from just about anywhere. You also have no short supply of inventory either! This business is a very rewarding business that can pay off big time if you put enough hard work into it. It can be done while still working a full time job or can completely replace a full time job very easily. It is a very flexible business that can grow as quickly or as slowly as you want and is very rewarding.
I’ve been an online bookseller for a little over 1 year and have easily grossed over $50,000 in sales working part time. It is a wonderful business to get into for stay-at-home moms as well as a source for secondary income or even can bring home a very nice full time income as you can see. If you have an entrepreneurial spirit and want to make some money working from the comfort of your home, selling books on the Internet is a great way to do that. I’m so thankful I started and I hope that you can too!
Adam Bertram is a full time tech consultant, part time online bookseller and avid online book-selling blogger. He has a blog at sellyourbooksonline.com that discusses all facets of the world of online book-selling and provides training material for others wanting to also start this lucrative business.