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elfin8er
Hear me out. This isn't another one of those "help me earn money to buy myself a new computer". My main reasoning for doing something like this, is for the experience. I wouldn't even care if I didn't make anything. As long as I'm not losing a ton of money. I've already built two computers, and fixed/upgraded several others. Just yesterday, I successfully replaced an iPhone 5 screen, which was pretty exciting for me. Also, since I'm homeschooled, if I work on things like this for enough hours, it can count as an elective.
My first thought was having a typical repair service. However, this makes me a little nervous. Since I'm doing this to get experienced, there may be times where I'd be unsuccessful repairing the device, or may end up breaking the device even more. I'd much rather waste my own time and money than ruin someone else's property.
Fixing an iPhone screen was relatively easy, so I thought I could buy broken phones off of ebay and craigslist, and resell them for profit. I think the hardest part would be reselling the phones once they're repaired. I've seen "buy it now" iPhone 5's on ebay for around 80 bucks. Screen's run at 20-30 bucks. Looking at past ebay sales, I could sell the phone for around 180-200 to compete with other sellers, and still make a profit. That's a 70-90 dollar profit right there. Not to bad. However, it doesn't seem like there are enough cheap cracked phones to sustain anything.
My last idea was to sell built computers. This seems really risky though. Most gamers would prefer to just buy their own computers. Everybody else who doesn't really care what's inside their computer, would probably rather just go out and buy their own computer from an OEM.
I should also mention that I have considered going to a local repair shop to see if they could train me. However, I already have a job and school on top of that. This is something I'd need to do in my freetime, especially since I may not make a huge profit.
Thank you everybody for your suggestions
My first thought was having a typical repair service. However, this makes me a little nervous. Since I'm doing this to get experienced, there may be times where I'd be unsuccessful repairing the device, or may end up breaking the device even more. I'd much rather waste my own time and money than ruin someone else's property.
Fixing an iPhone screen was relatively easy, so I thought I could buy broken phones off of ebay and craigslist, and resell them for profit. I think the hardest part would be reselling the phones once they're repaired. I've seen "buy it now" iPhone 5's on ebay for around 80 bucks. Screen's run at 20-30 bucks. Looking at past ebay sales, I could sell the phone for around 180-200 to compete with other sellers, and still make a profit. That's a 70-90 dollar profit right there. Not to bad. However, it doesn't seem like there are enough cheap cracked phones to sustain anything.
My last idea was to sell built computers. This seems really risky though. Most gamers would prefer to just buy their own computers. Everybody else who doesn't really care what's inside their computer, would probably rather just go out and buy their own computer from an OEM.
I should also mention that I have considered going to a local repair shop to see if they could train me. However, I already have a job and school on top of that. This is something I'd need to do in my freetime, especially since I may not make a huge profit.
Thank you everybody for your suggestions
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[deleted]
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Again, it's something I may want to consider if my goal is to make money. I just want to gain more experience in the hardware field at the moment.
Maybe I should be asking my question a bit differently...
Maybe I should be asking my question a bit differently...
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Still looking for a few more options. Preferably one that deals with hardware rather than software.
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Look into forum developing. (MyBB)
Be in charge of a community of any type of forum you make. I saw you aren't a artistic/design type person. Forum developing goes both ways, working with the coding, and working with the design. You would fit the coding side. Why become a forum developer?
1) You can use google adsense, or viglink for monetizing. Have VIP groups, and a donation page/tab.
2) You choose what goes and what doesn't
3) You can get as creative as you want, you are not limited.
4) You can create a community of gaming, web development, forum development, music, anything.
If you have questions on it feel free to message me. I've been a forum developer for a few years and have worked with the best designers and developers in the MyBB community.
Be in charge of a community of any type of forum you make. I saw you aren't a artistic/design type person. Forum developing goes both ways, working with the coding, and working with the design. You would fit the coding side. Why become a forum developer?
1) You can use google adsense, or viglink for monetizing. Have VIP groups, and a donation page/tab.
2) You choose what goes and what doesn't
3) You can get as creative as you want, you are not limited.
4) You can create a community of gaming, web development, forum development, music, anything.
If you have questions on it feel free to message me. I've been a forum developer for a few years and have worked with the best designers and developers in the MyBB community.
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Start investing, a small amount of money can go a long way.
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ImABigBoyNowuse a lot of ad fly links. They get u money
I've actually done a bit of this. Made over 20 bucks from one link. I don't really have anything to put on the other end of them though. Also, the reason I want to do this is for experience, and adfly doesn't really give me that...
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If you're going to start something up yourself, you need to be decently experienced (basically, you have to guarantee that you won't screw it up more than it already is). Based off of what you said, I highly recommend waiting on starting up a small company until you have a 100% feeling that you can fix anything you get, or at least the knowledge to know where to look for 'how to fix it'.
Start doing tech work for the schools around your district, ask around your families group of friends, look for free work that counts as experience, not profit. If you mess up in one of these situations, you won't be shunned or sued or something of that sort. Once you're very sure you can deal with almost anything, then start thinking about a business and charging money.
However the iPhone idea was good. There are websites for broken phones, you know, not that I know any.
Start doing tech work for the schools around your district, ask around your families group of friends, look for free work that counts as experience, not profit. If you mess up in one of these situations, you won't be shunned or sued or something of that sort. Once you're very sure you can deal with almost anything, then start thinking about a business and charging money.
However the iPhone idea was good. There are websites for broken phones, you know, not that I know any.
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Doing tech work specifically for other people still makes me nervous. Even if it's not for money. Just the thought of breaking something makes me cringe. I'd much rather use my own money to buy broken devices. At least to start. Perhaps you could share with me some of these websites with broken phones? Ebay and Craigslist don't seem to have a ton (though still a few).
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My bad. Thought you were being sarcastic or something xD
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elfin8erHear me out. This isn't another one of those "help me earn money to buy myself a new computer". My main reasoning for doing something like this, is for the experience. I wouldn't even care if I didn't make anything. As long as I'm not losing a ton of money. I've already built two computers, and fixed/upgraded several others. Just yesterday, I successfully replaced an iPhone 5 screen, which was pretty exciting for me. Also, since I'm homeschooled, if I work on things like this for enough hours, it can count as an elective.
My first thought was having a typical repair service. However, this makes me a little nervous. Since I'm doing this to get experienced, there may be times where I'd be unsuccessful repairing the device, or may end up breaking the device even more. I'd much rather waste my own time and money than ruin someone else's property.
Fixing an iPhone screen was relatively easy, so I thought I could buy broken phones off of ebay and craigslist, and resell them for profit. I think the hardest part would be reselling the phones once they're repaired. I've seen "buy it now" iPhone 5's on ebay for around 80 bucks. Screen's run at 20-30 bucks. Looking at past ebay sales, I could sell the phone for around 180-200 to compete with other sellers, and still make a profit. That's a 70-90 dollar profit right there. Not to bad. However, it doesn't seem like there are enough cheap cracked phones to sustain anything.
My last idea was to sell built computers. This seems really risky though. Most gamers would prefer to just buy their own computers. Everybody else who doesn't really care what's inside their computer, would probably rather just go out and buy their own computer from an OEM.
I should also mention that I have considered going to a local repair shop to see if they could train me. However, I already have a job and school on top of that. This is something I'd need to do in my freetime, especially since I may not make a huge profit.
Thank you everybody for your suggestions
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I've thought about web design too. I just don't think it's right for me. I just don't have any artistic skill, and I believe that's a big part of web design. Being able to tell which colors go together and what-not. Along with that, having the graphics that would be needed for backgrounds, banners and such. I just don't think that's my kind of thing.
Also, again, since this is to gain experience, I'm not sure how good of an idea it is to try and get customers yet. I feel like it'd be better to work with somebody else who is very experienced, then work on my own for now.
Also, again, since this is to gain experience, I'm not sure how good of an idea it is to try and get customers yet. I feel like it'd be better to work with somebody else who is very experienced, then work on my own for now.
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