What is Poshmark?

It’s an app and website that allows you to buy and sell clothes, accessories, shoes, and other items directly from the platform. All you need is a phone to get started!

What Poshmark is not?

It is not a platform where you can take a quick sloppy photo, upload it to the app, and forget about it. You can definitely do this, but you’re not going to turn a large profit by doing that method. Which is why you need to keep reading to learn my tips and tricks to increase your sales and improve the visibility of your items to your future customers!

For new users, sign up for Poshmark using my code “SNOWBALLIN” to earn a $5 credit!

Take good photos  

The number one secret to selling on Poshmark is to take quality photos of the items that you’re selling. If you can, I highly recommend modeling the items on yourself, or someone else, to show what the item actually looks like on the body. Clothes on a hanger can sometimes be deceiving and less appealing to the eye. The clothes that you are selling no longer fit you? No worries, you can definitely use a mannequin to elevate that problem.

When you’re taking the photos of the items, take the photos in a well-lit area that allows for the true colors and condition of the item to show through. You’ll also want to be consistent in how you take your photos for your account and upload as many photos that you think is necessary for someone looking to purchase from you. Poshmark allows up to 8 photos per listing so you have enough space to capture any details you want to show, including any damage, stains, sizing tag, etc.

Join Posh Parties

Posh parties are destinated virtual shopping events that happen two to three times a day that allow you to share your pieces with other members who are online at the time. These are a great way to gain more exposure for your items by a larger audience, so you’ll want to participate as often as you can. Some of the parties do have themes or rules to follow, such as “Best of Pants Party” or “Nike, Adidas, and Under Armour Party”.

Sell high quality or popular brands

People gravitate towards brands and companies that they are already familiar with, which is why this tip is hidden secret to selling on Poshmark. If you have more high-quality or popular brands that you are selling to sell, definitely do so! More well-known brands get more searches on the platform which typically means more people are looking for the item that you’re selling.

But on the flip side, you can definitely sell other less popular brands on Poshmark, but it may take a little more time to sell than your other items. Don’t get discouraged by this information! Just keep a mix of both in your closet to get the best of both worlds!

Shipping

One of the many conveniences of Poshmark is that they handle the process of shipping for you. When an item sells from your closet, you will get an email with a shipping label to print. All that you have to do is package the item in an appropriately sized priority mailbox (free from USPS), slap a shipping label on the box, and drop the package off at the post office. Boom, easy-peasy!

Go the extra mile for your customers by packaging your items with a handwritten thank you note and some tissue paper. You can even add beauty samples if you’re the person that always has extra stuff lying around. While you don’t have to go above and beyond for your customers, I promise you it’s the little touches that will keep bringing customers back to your Poshmark closet.

Post regularly

Another hidden secret to selling on Poshmark is to post regularly and increments. When I first started my closet, I would post everything all at once and overload my followers with new items. But I actually noticed a big difference in my sales and engagement when I posted new items on a weekly basis in small groups, instead of everything all at once.

By posting increments, you’ll constantly have new items listed to your closet. This technique will also train your customers to continuingly checking your closet for new pieces on a weekly basis.

Use descriptive titles and descriptions

When a customer is looking through Poshmark for a particular item, they are not typing in “red top” or “lace shorts”. They will be looking for an exact name or brand for whatever item that they are looking for, which means your titles and description need to include keywords. Keywords could be the exact name of the item you’re selling if you can find it online or descriptive terms to share what the item is. For an example if I was selling a pair of Adidas slides, I would use the title “Adidas Adilette Slides – (Color)”. By using that title, I not only show up in searches for Adidas slides but also if someone was looking for a particular color.

In your description, you’ll want to make sure to include condition, sizing, measurements (if necessary), material of the item, and anything else that you think may be important for the buyer to know. This is the spot where you want to be as descriptive as you can! Don’t leave anything out!

Price & Accepting Offers

Pricing your items is totally up to you, but I would highly recommend doing some research on what other sellers are pricing their items. You’ll want to consider how much the item originally cost as well as how much time and effort it takes you to list items and take them to the post office. Just like a yard sale, I would recommend pricing your items at a higher price than you necessarily want to allow for customers to negotiate the price with you.

There’s an option on each listing to “make an offer”, which is 100% always going to be lower than what you were originally asking. Now if the offer is obnoxiously low, then you can definitely “counter offer” to a price more reasonable or “decline” the offer all together. But you may lose the sale like I have because you wanted to gain a few extra dollars from an item!

Price Drop

One of the new features that Poshmark added was the ability to do a price drop. On your listings, there is a button that allows a “Price Drop” to  “Offer to Likers (private), which gives the people that liked the item a special discount on the price and shipping costs. The shipping through Poshmark is $7.11 and is something that the customer has to pay to purchase your item (aka which is pretty steep!). Giving them a discount on the item itself and shipping will help push them to buy your item!

Offer a bundle discount  

If a customer likes a few items from your closet, they can actually buy all of the items together in a bundle and only have to pay for shipping once. One of the hidden secrets of selling on Poshmark is to offer a bundle discount for those customers who like more than 1 item from your closet. Under your profile, click on “My Seller Tools”, then click on “My Seller Discounts”. This is where you can decide what discount you will offer to your customers if they buy more than 1 item. You can do up to 30% off and change the minimum items up to 7, if you would like.

Utilize the vacation hold

If you’re going to be traveling out of town for a few days, then you’ll definitely want to utilize this hidden tool in the Poshmark app. If you click on “My Seller Tools”, you’ll use a button for “Vacation Hold”. This will allow you to set a start and end date for when you’ll be out of town, which makes your items temporally unavailable for purchase. Poshmark likes to see items shipped within 2 business days but you have up to 7 days to mail out your items. People like to receive their purchases quickly so if you’re going to be out of town for more than a few days, then go ahead and use the “Vacation Hold” to avoid any issues.

Strive for 5-star reviews

Remember when I talked about shipping and packaging earlier? After the customer receives their item in the mail, they can leave you a review about their experience shopping from your closet. The goal is to strive for 5-star reviews because other customers can read your reviews, which may determine whether or not they purchase from your closet. Plus you want everyone to have a great experience shopping with you!

To improve your reviews, you’ll want to make sure that you are:

• shipping quickly (preferably within 2 business days)
• you fully disclose about any damage to the item in your closet
• personalize the package with tissue paper and a cute note

Be active and respond quickly

Another tip to selling on Poshmark is to be consistently active on the app and to answer any questions quickly. Future customers can actually see the last time you were active on the app by looking under your profile. By no means am I saying that you need to be on the app every minute of the day, but I do highly recommend checking in once or twice a day. This way you can answer any questions quickly, re-share your items to your audience, and share other seller’s items too.

Be patient

Some items in your closet will sell within a few days of you posting the item, but others may take longer. You really won’t have a way of knowing what item will sell quickly versus something else. Be patient and work hard to make your listings look appealing to any future customers. If you love the tips outline in this guide, then you shouldn’t have any issues making your first sale!

I know this was a long post, but hopefully you found it helpful and insightful about how to make some extra money on Poshmark. I’ve been using Poshmark since 2014 and have always had a great experience using the platform, which is why I highly recommend it. Sign up for Poshmark with my code “SNOWBALLIN” to earn $5 for free! If you need more ideas about how to make some extra money, then definitely check out this post on the Rover app and this post that shares 5 more ways to make money from home.

This post was originally published in May 2017 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

The post The Hidden Secrets of Selling on Poshmark appeared first on Uniquely Mickie.

But when you’re in college, time is precious, and you have to work smarter, not harder to get everything that you want. I have not done every side hustle on this list, but I have tried a few that have helped me make money on the side. Most of them also work around your schedule and you end up having a lot of freedom to do as you wish.

Sell Your Old Clothes on Poshmark

Poshmark is my tried and true way of making money in college. I get to clean out my closet and make some money off of the pieces that are collecting dust in my closet. What’s not to lose? Poshmark is an app that is used by millions of users in the US to buy or sell used or new clothing, shoes, and accessories. All that you have to do is sign up for an account, take pictures of the item that you want to sell, post the item to the app, and voila! You’re on your way to your first sale.

Now in reality, there’s a little more skill set involved to make a ton of money on Poshmark, which I outlined in more detail in this blog post. But the great thing about Poshmark is that it doesn’t take a lot of effort to get started or to maintain. So far, I’ve made over $2,000 on Poshmark with my guide, which is insane for a college student!

What I like to do is every few months, I try on everything in my closet and see what pieces that either no longer fit me or haven’t been worn in that time frame. Whatever doesn’t make the “keep” pile gets uploaded to Poshmark to hopefully sell for profit. This way I keep a clean closet and a steady supply of pieces to sell in my Poshmark closet. When you sign up for Poshmark, use the invite code “SNOWBALLIN” to earn $5 off your first order!

Dogsit or Dogwalk on Rover

My second favorite way to make money in college is by dog sitting and dog walking in my area. I used to use the Rover app a lot more often before I rescued my own dog in college, and it’s super simple to get started. I have another post that outlines in more detail how to get started so check it out. But basically, Rover is an app that is used by thousands of people in the US to buy and sell pet services. It’s basically way for people to find dog sitters and dog walkers in their neighborhood the modern way. You won’t need to make paper flyers and to pass them around to your neighbors for this gig!

To get started, simply make an account, complete a background check and an informational course, and boom! You’re ready to start walking. Now I do recommend getting friends and family to write testimonies, at the beginning, for you that way people can read about your abilities and skillsets before booking you for the first time. 

In the Rover app or website, you get the option to choose your availability, your dog or cat preferences, and type of services that you’re going to be offering. You can offer more than one type of services and can choose your own rates for each service but make them competitive to be booked more regularly.  Use the code “MAKAELA20” to get $20 off your first booking or first gig on Rover!

Start a Money-Making Blog

While starting a blog is definitely not a get-rich quick scheme, it’s a great way to make some extra money if you’re willing to put the time and effort into it. Most bloggers make the majority of their income from sponsored posts, affiliate links, and by selling their own products. For me, blogging has allowed me to cut back some of my hours at work and meet some really dope people in the field.

For those that are interested in learning more about how to start a blog and some other blogging tips, then check out these posts below for more details:

• How to Start a Profitable Blog
• Blogging Basics 101: All About WordPress
• The True Story About How to Make Money Blogging
• 8 Blogging Tools that I Can’t Live Without
• Why I Invested in Convertkit vs Mailchimp When I Was Earning $0 From My Blog

Become a Human Guinea Pig

You’d be surprised about how much money you can make by being a human guinea pig for a research project in your area. No seriously! I’ve only done low ball research studies for organizations on campus that paid $25-50 per study, but there are bigger studies out there that’ll pay you $500 and up for being a human guinea pig. One of my friends from pharmacy school got paid $600 to be a part of a sleep study, and she was able to sleep at home in her own bed!

At any given time, there are multiple medical research studies happening around the US, and they are always looking for participants to get involved. You do not have to be sick or have a specific illness to get started or to earn money from this gig. All research projects require a baseline group to use against the actual sick participants, which means anyone can get involved! The pay for the studies and the requirement levels depends on what type of research the company is doing, how invasive the study is, and the time commitment required.

These are the best resources to look for research opportunities in your area:

• ClinicalTrials.gov
• Local Clinics, Universities, or Research Hospitals
• Covance Clinical Trails 

Become a Virtual Assistant

If you are professional, organized, and have great time management skills, then becoming a virtual assistant would be the perfect side hustle for you! Virtual assistants help bloggers, artists, and other professional people with any tasks that they simply don’t have time for. It could be as simple as answering emails and making phone calls to more complex tasks, like graphic designs or writing blog posts.

When you’re looking up job opportunities, look for the ones that say remote location. This way you can find gigs that allow you to work from home. Some virtual assistant jobs will require you to be available at certain times of the day while others will let you work whenever you’re free. Before applying for a position, make sure you read the fine details to make sure you know what you’re getting yourself into and what the client is expecting from you before you begin your new gig as a VA.

Interested in becoming a Virtual Assistant? Check out these links to get started:

• Indeed
• Upwork
• Remote
• FlexJobs

Do you have any tips on how to make money quickly as a college student? Leave them in the comments below so that we can all stop being “broke college students”! 

You may also like: How I Saved $2,000 in College, How to Build Credit as a College Student, and  9 Skills Every College Student Should Master Before Graduation

The post 5 Creative Ways for College Students to Make Money appeared first on Uniquely Mickie.