Building a Side Hustle around BookTrakker.
BookTrakker is a powerful bookselling software tool for enabling BookSellers to maintain an inventory of books and manage online listings effectively, and this applies to both a full-time operation as well as a side gig for someone looking for extra income, security, or a fun way to earn money while avoiding boredom.
Income levels ranging from a few hundred a month to a full-time salary are possible, all depending on how much effort you put in. It can take a few months to reach this point as it requires a certain amount of inventory, but once you reach a few thousand books of decent quality, it is easy to bring in some extra money on a reliable basis. The general consensus for how many listings are required for a full-time income is that it begins to become possible to go full-time once you have more than 8,000 books listed, depending on the nature of the subject matter.
Books are readily available through a variety of sources, and there are plenty of listing sites available to sell through. Once a sale is made, the work consists of properly packing the book and getting it to the Post Office or whatever carrier you prefer.
Obtaining books is a fun way to spend an afternoon, and it is under your control as you choose when and where to look for new books.Books can often be obtained for very low cost per book, if not for free, so the profit levels can be quite significant, which is a major factor in making this a viable option for a reliable revenue stream.
How to get started
There are several steps needed to begin selling books, either full time or as a side hustle. It is important to get a Business License so you can sell on sites that require some level of business presence, and you need to determine where you will store your Inventory.
Once you know where you will store your Inventory, you need to get your first batch of books to enter into BookTrakker, which will need to be installed on your computer.
To get started, navigate to https://www.booktrakker.net, download the Installer and complete the setup process, you will be ready to enter books into BookTrakker in preparation for Listing.
Next you need to identify where you want to sell your books. Good options to start with are Amazon, Ebay, ABE Books, Biblio, and similar listing sites. If you want to set up your own Online Bookstore, you can use a site like Chrislands or Bibliopolis, who offer BookSeller centric options, or Shopify if you want a general-purpose site.
Finally, you need to identify sources for books. This can range from your local Goodwill or similar thrift store to Estate Sales or Library sales along with a variety of other options.
Another great way to get started is to use a local Social Media site like NextDoor to put a post up asking for Book Donations. Many people have books they want to dispose of, and by offering to take them away you may find a good source of books for little to no cost.
In some areas Recycling Centers allow purchase of books at very low prices or even free in some cases, so look around to see what is available in your area.
Once you are up and running
After BookTrakker is set up with the listing sites you want to use and you have become familiar with the basic operations, the work level involves identifying sources of books as mentioned above, the process of getting the books from the source to your location and then processing them as you enter them into BookTrakker.
The many tools provided are designed to facilitate this process, including the ability to look up data by scanning ISBNs with a bar code reader, research tools for determining the best price, Image Management tools to help obtain images to show with the listings, a simple process for uploading modified and new books along with removing sold books, and a system for monitoring sales while the Seller is away from the Computer to ensure that the books are removed from all sites once sold to prevent duplicate sales.
It is important to develop a reliable source of books using a combination of what was described above. No single source will always be viable, so it is important to get to know your area and the resources.
What can this grow into?
Once you are up and running you can decide whether to keep it as a side hustle or to make it a full-time operation. The nature of bookselling allows this migration to be managed well and safely such that you can get started on the side and go full time once you have confidence that it is sustainable, or you can keep it as a side gig to maintain income security in these rough times.
Next Steps
Getting Started with BookTrakker
If this is something that sounds interesting, the next steps are to download and install BookTrakker from our site at https://www.booktrakker.net and begin to identify sources of books. The rest falls out from there as described above.
Feel free to reach out to us at support@booktrakker.com and we will be happy to help you understand how BookTrakker can get your books onto ebay and thus add significantly to your bottom line!
Online Instructions for listing on ebay or Amazon with BookTrakker:
Robust Selling Tools Make Bookselling More Productive and EnjoyableBookTrakker has hundreds of happy Sellers that have been using our tools for more than 20 years to maximize their productivity and make Bookselling even more enjoyable than it otherwise would be.
Please use our Contact Us form to inquire about how BookTrakker can take your Bookselling Business to the next level while increasing your satisfaction and enjoyment!