My Mainzer Comic Cats postcard collection is a good example of a small speculation which hasn't worked out. As I mention in a post on my Mainzer Cat collection costs, values have declined and the cards are worth considerably less than I paid for them. In fact, they are so inexpensive individually it is hard to justify the time required to sell them.
However, I built a website about these vintage postcards at MainzerCats.com and it earn six or seven dollars a month. It's a very minimal site, most of the income comes from showing ongoing auctions for Mainzer cat postcards and collecting a commission when visitors buy something. However, since new card images are not being created, the contents are mostly static and take very little time to maintain.
The income from the Mainzer Cat website could be improved. Below are some of the techniques internet marketing experts have suggested.
- Use Ebay as a marketing tool rather than as only as a sales venue. Write your ME page to link to your website. Keep a few auctions with low prices going at all times. Tell visitors to look at your site for more postcards. The auctions are primarily a traffic building activity; profit is secondary.
- Put a shopping cart on the website and make it easy for casual sales for buyers who want a particular card without waiting for an auction. Charge a little more for website sales, realizing you will not have to pay any fees.
- Get permission to keep buyers email addresses and send them an occasional news update.
- Add links to places like Amazon which show products in which your visitors might be interested and which will pay a commission.
- Find other ways to sell the cards. Perhaps they could be framed. Maybe it would be fun to have a birthday club for kids and mail them one card a month for a year.
- Build the "authority" and traffic of the website until it is attractive to advertisers. High volume postcard sellers would be likely prospects.
I'll have to see which, if any, seem worthwhile.
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