If you're reading this chances are you've come across my youtube channel where I talk all about how utilizing the dollar auction method has totally revolutionized my life and the lives of other moms.
It's the ultimate how to make money online solution that has lead to not only me making money online daily, but the opportunity for also saving money simultaneously with just a laptop or phone, internet access, a Paypal and Facebook account.
This has easily been one of the top 3 jobs and ideas I have ever had. Services I needed for myself that became a company I own and a dependable paycheck that i make 100% from home almost overnight. In the long run this has become a service people who deal in Facebook sales groups have come to depend on.
If you didn't come across this on Youtube you might have been where I was a few short years ago and desperately looking for a way to make solid increasing income online without spending a bunch of money in upfront costs or having to purchase a bunch of inventory to get started.
If you decide to keep reading, Im going to teach you a foolproof method on how to do just that. A method that has revolutionized my work life balance, my budget and of course my bank account. an opportunity to earn money, shop online at a discount, get a daily direct deposit, reach your savings goals and even start putting money into the vacation you have been dreaming about.
Let's talk about how a local online dollar auction works, why it's the best online income source for moms and of course how to set one up for yourself.
Before we get started on that, it'll probably help if I explain a little bit more about how I even came across this business model.
About 4 years ago now I was experiencing a divorce and deciding how me and my two boys were going to move forward as a three-pack. I'm solely responsible for both of my boys and that means getting all of the school supplies, all of the school clothes, all of the Christmas presents, all of the food we eat, filling the emergency fund, paying for the cell phone plan and buying the cell phones, making sure they each have a savings account and everything in between.
I realized, I needed to find a way to make ends meet and save money in a way that was flexible for my already hectic schedule and I needed to find that way fast. I couldn't afford any sort of down payment to get started and definitely didn't have any advertising revenue or even a savings account. Just a debit card with very little to spend.
That's when the idea of starting my own local online dollar auction sprang to life!
A local online dollar auction is a concept I'd seen work well in other places but just at a smaller scale and so I wondered, could I use this method to get the necessities that me and my boys needed quickly and create a local method for friends and neighbors to take advantage of as well?
So I launched my online dollar auction out of pure necessity with the simple idea that people would post items for a starting bid of $1 in an online Facebook group.
Now, initially this was just about meeting my family's needs. I had no intention of turning this into a business. But soon, I realized, I wasn't the only person in the boat of needing extra dollars at the end of each month and didn't want to rely on a credit card to do that. My community was absolutely packed with people looking to declutter, find great deals and of course looking to make some extra cash from the site.
Within just a few months, I had thousands of people buying and selling on a daily basis in my local online dollar auction group. What was interesting about that is most of them seemed to see this as a new concept so it wasn't something they were familiar with but they immediately recognized itas an opportunity for their benefit. Although we attracted several resellers who saw a benefit in unloading items quickly without the shipping hassle, others we exited to post things from around their homes that were already paid for and collecting dust.
For example: One of my first members had just lost her husband and was looking for a way to sell some of the things he left behind without having to pay someone to haul it to the dump. On her first auction, she posted a bunch of tools and within 48 hours made a tidy sum of $80.
People were finding items at the prices they could afford and sellers were making profits that were changing their lives. We even had one member be able to buy a house this year just off the moneyshe made selling things in my dollar auction. Another member has had to wait over two years to buy a car because she was not able to finance (amongst other restrictions) the one she wanted and had even resorted to putting out a link to receive donations. Within her first two months selling items around her hours she was able to buy the car with cash.
But group growth wasn't just measured in numbers either. It was about impact! Parents were able to find the things they needed for their kids, people were finding financial freedom and our community was growing stronger together. I watched as people turned their clutter into cash and their hobbies into profitable online ventures.
And that's when I realized, this was more than just a way to to make a quick buck. This was an actual business that I could run to support my family and help other people to be able to support their families all while making our community better.
So how does a dollar auction work?
Well, think of it kind of like a digital yard sale where everyone's invited to buy, sell and connect all from the comfort of their own homes. Everything's done through a simple bidding system where all auctions start at a minimum bid of $1. Whoever gets the winning bid at the end of the time frame is the winner of the auction. Pretty simple right? You won't need a bachelor's degree to figure out this set up.
The buyer and seller then agree on a time to meet and exchange both the product and the cash at the end. The buyer gets a price they're happy with, which is generally always much cheaper than what they could have gotten the same item for at a retail store and the seller gets to make money on something that was more than likely just collecting dust around their house anyway. But that's not all......
One of the best parts about running your own local online dollar auction is that it generates multiple streams of income just by having the one group. In fact, my own local dollar auction generates four additional streams of income right now, without me having to do any extra work, track any additional metrics, put up a sign advertising my auction or take on any additional users.
To be honest, it only takes me a couple of hours to manage the group in total on a daily basis using my group website and the Facebook group.... but we'll talk more about that later.
First, let's take a deeper look at how a dollar auction actually works and how you can start building yours even if you have have no business experience at all. Honestly, you don't need to know much about technology or building websites either.
Step 1: Setting up your platform
The first step to getting started on establishing your local online dollar auction is setting up a platform. In my case, that was a Facebook group.
Facebook groups are super accessible and very straightforward to manage. This group will be the place where your members are hosted on a daily basis and the place where they will post, bid and interact daily. People will immediately see the draw to make money and save money all from home and quickly.
Step 2: Establishing Rules
Once your group is all set up, you'll need to establish some basic rules such as:
Auction duration
Payment methods accepted and
Bidding increments
You'll also want to make sure that transparency and trust are always at the forefront of your auction group. This allows people to feel comfortable daily, as well as, incentivize current members to do your marketing for you.
Once trust is established, current members will begin to invite people they know, like and trust to also participate in the group and will often even give the new members group details to help them be successful.
Step 3: Starting the Auction
Now this is really where the fun begins. Members are able to begin posting items they want to sell, as well as bidding on items they want to buy.
Minimum opening bid is just $1. While a $1 may seem low, keep in mind it's $1's that eventually equal millions.
Items posted could really be anything from kids toys to household goods to crafts or things you sell in your small business. The key here is to make sure everybody realizes that they really only have to post a minimum opening bid of $1 and go up by dollar increments (or more) which creates a ton of excitement and keeps people super engaged every day.
Step 4: The Bidding Process
The next step is where members really start getting going on bidding. Bidding usually goes up in $1 or $2 increments but if somebody really wants an item they're bidding on, they're welcome to bid as much as they would like as long as it's in a whole dollar increments.
You also want to make sure that you establish an end time for the auctions so that people are able to keep things moving. In my auction that's a 48 hour time limit. Writing auction rules ensures a streamlined process.
Step 5: The Exchange Process
At the end of the auction, after a winner is announced, it's time to exchange the item for cash.In my auction, people generally use porch pickup to keep things easy, accessible and moving forward. That's the beauty of a local online dollar auction, it basically works like eBay but you get to completely bypass things like fees, expensive shipping costs and items not selling for a long period of time.
Step 6: Community Engagement
Another one of the most beautiful parts of your dollar auction is the community. This isn't just a place to buy and sell products, members really get to know each other and often help each other out by offering items they know someone else will need .
Members also spend a lot of time supporting local businesses and crafters. You could kind of think about it like your local flea market, except without the hassle of walking up and down aisles or digging through a bunch of piles of stuff.
Step 7: Additional Income Streams
The last and most incredible benefit of setting up your own local online dollar auction is the additional income streams.
Apart from the auction itself, you can establish membership tiers for group members who want more out of the group like featured posts or an opportunity to sell more items at a time. In fact, I make over $2,000 a month just in membership fees alone which means I didn't have to buy or sell anything that month to make that profit.
Additionally, local businesses are going to begin to see your group as a great place to connect with committed local buyers and so they're going to want to advertise in your group which gives you the opportunity to establish sponsorship fees and advertisement fees specific for local businesses.
In Essence, a local, online dollar auction is more than just an auction, it's a community hub, a place for great deals and a place to establish financial empowerment.
It's completely changed my life as well as the lives of people who participate in my dollar auction and others I've helped in other communities to set their dollar auctions up.
Now you're probably thinking, "Mack, this sounds awesome and everything but just how much time is this going to take me and of course how much money do I have to have to get going?"
So, the beauty is, you can set a local online dollar auction up free on Facebook and it only takes a couple hours a day to manage. The best part is, once your membership starts to grow you can even hire a virtual assistant to manage the day-to-day making this a true passive income stream for you.
To this day, I'm still making passive income running my own local dollar auction and the best thing is, this all started out of necessity and a passion project for myself and I'm now able to help other moms do exactly the same thing I did to take back my time and be 100% present for my kids.
Now, there are a few more important parts to running a successful local online dollar auction like:
You need to find an effective way to attract members daily to join your group. Members are the absolute lifeblood of the dollar auction community you're creating so you need to find an attractive method to bring them in and keep them happy while they're there.
Adding the additional step by step things you can do to really make your auction take off would be a lot to squeeze into this piece so if you want an in-depth, step-by-step guide on how to get started on creating your own local online dollar auction and making anywhere from $1k to $3k a month in passive income as a stay at home mom, check out the full tutorial I made here where I show you exactly how to do that.