Category Archives: TypoHound

Make money by flipping eBay items that had typos

When I assumed ownership of TypoHound in 2006, other tire kickers around during the site sale had no idea it had the potential to be as popular as it is today. A few came out of the woodwork to diss it even. Although I knew it was a good idea with a memorable name, I didn’t realize it would go so far either.

Another thing that continues to surprise me is it’s many uses, which are limited only by the imagination.

To the uninitiated, the concept behind the site may seem strange or confusing.

Since eBay is all about search, for the seller, one small mistake in an auction listing title can mean the difference from an item selling well below it’s value or at fair market price.

Those that take the time to get a feel for what TypoHound can do, have a rare opportunity to move it all to the next level.

One can go beyond bargain hunting, and enter the realm of achieving sizable profits.

Here’s how it is possible.

In 2009 I wrote about a collector that won an eBay auction for a rare bottle of Allsopp’s Arctic Ale for only $304 because there was a typo in the name. He listed the item later, on the same site, and it made him $500,000!

More recently, I stumbled across an article about a woman who used TypoHound to flip a Burberry jacket on eBay. It was certainly well worth the effort for Marianne. She made $230.

Burberry-coat

Marianne’s Price: $175
eBay Sale Price: $405
Profit Before Fees: $230

Sure, it’s not jaw dropping like the Allsopp’s story, but it sets a more realistic goal for those willing to take a small risk and try their hand at flipping items.

If you have extensive knowledge about a particular type of item, you’d be crazy not to try this!

Yep, it turns out TypoHound is also a viable tool for business!

Find Hidden Deals on eBay now!

TypoHound: Kim Komando’s cool site of the day

kim-komando

It’s been nearly three years since I last posted. Now that’s a commitment to slack. So here I am typing at 2 a.m., sipping on limoncello.

In March 2010, TypoHound was named Kim Komando’s cool site of the day and quite possibly discussed on her show. For those unfamiliar, she is best known for her American talk radio program based on the intricacies of computers, the Web, and electronics.

Her weekend program reached a weekly cume of 2.25 million back in 2006. Komando.com is no slouch either. It’s ranking is 1,817 in the U.S. according to Alexa.

Kim’s coverage created a major spike in traffic on TypoHound, if only for a few days. For that I am extremely grateful. More than anything it’s wonderful to know it’s a tool people find useful and perhaps even clever.

This is what Kim had to say about TypoHound:

eBay is one of the most popular destinations for bargain hunters. You can find pretty much anything. Of course, the deals would be better without all the competition.

Alas, other people are vying for the same products you are. That drives up prices. Fortunately, great deals are just a spelling error away.

Sellers misspell product names all the time. They might leave out a letter, or include an extra one. These misspelled products often don’t show up under a normal search.

That’s the point behind TypoHound. Simply enter the correct name of the product. TypoHound generates a list of common spelling errors for that product name.

Click the provided link to search eBay with the misspelled words. You can find some excellent hidden deals. From there, you can use the site as you normally would. You just might be spending less.

www.typohound.com

At times it’s difficult to explain what TypoHound does without confusing the bejesus out of people. Kim reaches an older audience with a basic command of the Internet, so she is used to emphasizing clarity. She did a commendable job.

Find Hidden Deals on eBay now!

What ever happened to Yahoo The 9?

The 9 was a daily video compilation, or vlog, on Yahoo! featuring the nine top “web finds” of the day. It was launched on Yahoo!’s homepage (and Yahoo! TV) on July 10, 2006. The show, hosted by Maria Sansone, followed a similar format to pop culture list shows on cable TV.

What set The 9 apart was, although it had a candy-coated exterior with a pretty, bubbly girl hosting it, underneath it all it was a show for web geeks. The nameless, faceless Yahoo staff members scoured the internet, looking for sites with new, innovative ideas. They also let you in on what they thought was funny online. Often this would be a goofy flavor-of-the-month Youtube video. To keep things light the host threw in the occasional football reference in an attempted to keep general audiences appeased.

Another interesting inclusion was the Pepsi Tenth – a feature where viewers could submit websites that the producers of The 9 missed. The next day, one (sometimes more) of the nine websites was a “Pepsi Tenth” site.

typohound on the 9I hadn’t heard about The 9 until July 27, 2006. A massive surge of traffic was coming from a Yahoo page. When I checked it out I was of course thrilled. There Maria was, touting the site I had worked so hard to promote. Although, I had done a lot to get the word out that month, I was still surprised that the producers of The 9 even found my modest site, TypoHound.

It turned out that they likely found about it on i-am-bored.com. The staff at Yahoo frequented this site looking for ideas. When I submitted TypoHound to i-am-bored.com, I didn’t expect much. It ended up receiving tons of hits and comments, many positive, many negative and the site became a hot topic.

The 9 was canned on March 31st, 2008. You can still visit the site but the only thing they have left up is the phrase: “The 9 has left the building.”

A Yahoo representative provided this comment: “‘The 9’ was a groundbreaking and successful Internet show, and we learned a great deal from it. Over the past two years that we have produced ‘The 9,’ our content strategy and business has evolved. We are turning our focus to more contextually relevant programs that complement our site offerings. For example, ‘Primetime in No Time,’ leverages the ‘recap’ format of ‘The 9,’ highlights TV programming from the night before, and lives on the Yahoo TV site.”

Sure, that is fine. What baffles me is why they put all that work into the show and then removed all the content and videos when it was cancelled. Would it hurt Yahoo to provide an archive?

Bring back this page, Yahoo. I’d like to see Maria talk about searching for David Hasselhoff items with TypoHound one more time.
http://9.yahoo.com/2006/07/27

yahoothe9_540x377