This 23-year-old gave up a corporate job to make $5,000 a month reselling thrift store clothes through an app | ||
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Back in 2012, when she was a student at the University of Arkansas, Alexandra Marquez downloaded the Poshmark app on a whim. She'd seen it mentioned on social media and was immediately intrigued by the concept. While it looks similar to Instagram, Poshmark allows you to sell clothing just like you would on eBay. "I was super addicted from the start," the 23-year-old says. "It was a great way to make money." Although many of Poshmark's 700,000 sellers use the app as a way to clean out their closets, Marquez had always been interested in running her own business. She began searching thrift stores for gently used items from department store brands and buying them to resell on the app. "I'm not going to lie, it was pretty challenging at first," she says. On average, she made $500 a month when she started out — not an insignificant amount, but not enough to live on, either. Initially, she didn't know which brands and styles would sell on the app, and which wouldn't, so she spent time studying what was popular. Then, she'd go out and buy those items. To get her listings noticed, she also focused on perfecting her photography skills. After a year and half, she became a suggested user on the app, meaning that all new users were invited to follow her. That exposure led to more sales, and she began making around $5,000 a month.
By then, she'd graduated from the University of Arkansas and taken a full-time job at a marketing company earning a $50,000 salary. But after a year, she left to focus on her clothing sales full time. "It was a great job, but I decided the corporate world wasn't for me," she explains. Now, she devotes three or four days of her week to shopping, with the goal of posting several new items every day. Local boutiques in Bentonville, Arkansas, where she lives, often sell their overstock to her at a discount. In addition to making regular visits to thrift stores, she also buys gently used clothing and accessories directly from women in her area. Most of the clothing and accessories she sells are priced from $40 to $250, and she determines her prices by seeing what similar items have sold for on the app. Besides buying clothing that she'll later resell at a profit, Marquez doesn't have many costs that go into her business. She doesn't have the overhead of a bricks and mortar store, and doesn't even need to have her own website. Poshmark covers the shipping costs and credit card fees for each transaction, so she just pays a commission on each sale: $2.95 for anything under $15, and 20% on anything over $15. After that, she's left with a take-home pay of around $5,000 per month. Though being self-employed gives her the flexibility to work from anywhere and choose her hours, she admits that she's constantly on the app, no matter where she goes or what time of day it is. "I look at my phone from the time that I wake up until the time that I go to bed … and sometimes also when I get up in the middle of the night." Typically, she lists around 75 new items each month, and ships out anywhere from 15 to 40 sold items each week. After her bills are paid, Marquez puts most of her extra money back into her business by buying more inventory to sell on the app. She doesn't live extravagantly, since her income isn't as predictable as it was in her corporate job, and she can't count on making the same amount of money each month. "The only downside is the unpredictability of sales," she says. Like any retail business, hers has seasonal fluctuations, and a slow month could mean she takes home $3,000 instead of $5,000. But for now, she's happy to trade some stability for the chance to be her own boss. SEE ALSO: 11 tips to start earning money doing what you love, from people who have done it Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: 70 people were injured while filming this movie with 100 untamed lions  | ||
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Elon Musk didn't like his kids' school, so he made his own small, secretive school without grade levels | ||
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Elon Musk didn't like his kids' school, so he started his own, the inventor and entrepreneur said in an interview on Beijing Television. The school is called Ad Astra — which means "To the stars" — and is small and relatively secretive. It doesn't have its own website or a social media presence. Christina Simon, who writes about private elementary schools in Los Angeles, has done some digging around Ad Astra. She says she's been in contact with a mother whose child attends Musk's school. The mother told Simon that the relatively new Ad Astra School is "very small and experimental," and caters to a small group of children whose parents are primarily SpaceX employees. Musk says in the interview that Ad Astra, which is a year old, currently has 14 kids and will increase to 20 in September. His grand vision for the school involves removing grade levels, so there's no distinction between students in 1st grade and 3rd. Musk is "making all the children go through the same grade at the same time, like an assembly line," he says in the interview. "Some people love English or languages. Some people love math. Some people love music. Different abilities, different times," he says. "It makes more sense to cater the education to match their aptitudes and abilities." Musk pulled his kids out of their school and even hired one of their teachers away to start Ad Astra. "I didn't see the regular schools doing the things I thought should be done," he says.
"It's important to teach problem solving, or teach to the problem and not the tools," Musk says. "Let's say you're trying to teach people about how engines work. A more traditional approach would be saying, 'we're going to teach all about screwdrivers and wrenches.' This is a very difficult way to do it." Instead, Musk says it makes more sense to give students an engine and then work to disassemble it. "How are we going to take it apart? You need a screwdriver. That's what the screwdriver is for," Musk explains. "And then a very important thing happens: The relevance of the tools becomes apparent." So far, Ad Astra "seems to be going pretty well," according to Musk. "The kids really love going to school." "I hated going to school when I was a kid," Musk told his interviewer. "It was torture." When Musk was a child living in Pretoria, South Africa, he was viciously bullied as a student. His classmates pushed him down a concrete stairwell. In one instance, he was beaten so badly that he needed to go to the hospital. Here's Musk recounting that horrific experience:
His difficult experiences both at home — where he had a strained relationship with his father — and at school would eventually lead Musk to leave South Africa for the United States. You can watch Musk's full video interview below. SEE ALSO: How Elon Musk schedules a typical week Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Elon Musk is terrified of what Larry Page is doing  | ||
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THE PROGRAMMATIC-ADVERTISING REPORT: Mobile, video, and real-time bidding drive growth in programmatic | ||
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The embrace of programmatic ad-buying tools is fueling a dramatic uptick in the share of digital ads sold through programmatic platforms, particularly those focused on real-time bidding or RTB. Total US programmatic ad revenue will top nearly $15 billion this year, according to BI Intelligence estimates. RTB, particularly mobile and video RTB, are spearheading growth. In this all-new in-depth research from BI Intelligence that updates our popular July 2014 report on programmatic, we find that the US digital-ad market will reach a programmatic "tipping-point": For the first time this year, programmatic transactions will be a majority (52%) of non-search digital-ad spend. We estimate 30.6% of total digital-ad spend will go to programmatic real-time bidding (RTB) platforms, and 21.7% will go to non-RTB programmatic. Access The Full 21-Page Report And Data Sets By Signing Up For A Trial Membership » Here are some of the key takeaways:
The report is full of charts, data, and case studies that can easily be downloaded and put to use. In full, the report:
To access the full report from BI Intelligence, sign up for a 14-day trial here. Members also gain access to new in-depth reports, hundreds of charts and datasets, as well as daily newsletters on the digital industry. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Forget Kim Kardashian — the 'butt selfie' queen of Instagram is a 21-year-old from Long Island  | ||
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The 31-year-old convicted of running a huge criminal website asks to be spared a life sentence | ||
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Ross Ulbricht, the mastermind behind the Web's most famous black market, has run out of options and is now pleading with a judge not to send him to prison for life, Bloomberg reports. Prosecutors said that Ulbricht was the "Dread Pirate Roberts," the person who ran the infamous online marketplace called Silk Road where people could buy just about anything, especially drugs. Ulbricht was convicted in February. And with sentencing scheduled for May 29, Ulbricht, 31, is now asking for mercy from the court. He sent a letter to the Manhattan federal judge asking to be spared the maximum penalty, life in prison, Bloomberg reports. In the letter he called Silk Road a "naive and costly idea." Prosecutors said Silk Road helped transact about $200 million worth of anonymous drug sales using the virtual currency bitcoin and that drugs bought from Silk Road were linked to six overdose deaths. Ulbricht's defense attorneys at first argued that Ulbricht was not Dread Pirate Roberts. After his conviction, they argued that Ulbricht should get a new trial because he wasn't allowed to review materials demonstrating his innocence, but a judge rejected the request for a new trial, calling evidence of Ulbricht's guilt "overwhelming." Then they argued that Silk Road made buying drugs safer. Although Silk Road is gone, there are other sites engaged in questionable online activities accessible through a part of the internet known as the "dark web" or "deep web." Ulbricht's sentence could serve as a warning to those others. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Watch these giant container ships collide near the Suez Canal  | ||
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Amazon is launching an Etsy killer (AMZN) | ||
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Amazon is introducing Amazon Handmade, a marketplace for handmade goods, aimed directly at competing with Etsy, the Wall Street Journal is reporting. The way that Amazon is recruiting sellers for Amazon Handmade is typically aggressive: Select Etsy sellers are receiving targeted emails urging them to come over to Amazon. "We’re offering artisans like you a first peek at Handmade, a new marketplace for handcrafted goods,” the emails say, per that Wall Street Journal report. The news comes just days after Etsy shares tanked 24% after reporting earnings — its first-ever earnings report as a public company — at a net loss of 84 cents per share. While Etsy has 20.8 million "active buyers," the company says, analysts believe its growth is hampered by the spread of mass manufactured and counterfeit goods, as well as items that infringe on intellectual property. Meanwhile, Amazon has a bunch of legs up over Etsy here, including access to its vast Amazon Prime shipping and distribution network and 278 million active accounts. One important thing we don't know yet: the commission structure for Amazon Homemade. Etsy takes 3.5% of the price and a flat 20 cents per listing, but Amazon charges its own 3rd-party sellers a 15% commission. If Amazon sticks to that structure, it'll have trouble luring Etsy sellers away. SEE ALSO: A Twitter cofounder's VC firm just raised a $123,456,789 fund to build 'world-positive' companies Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Jeff Bezos: Why I Always Tell Employees Not To Pat Themselves When Our Stock Is Up  | ||
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9 Facebook facts you weren’t aware of (FB) | ||
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But how much do you know about its actual users? Marketing firm Wishpond put together 40 of the latest facts and stats about Facebook. We’ve narrowed it down to 9 of the most interesting findings. Facebook isn't getting too old. 87% of the class of 2014 (high school) indicated they "still" use Facebook. Almost 70% of teens are also friends with their parents on Facebook. But Facebook may not be all that safe. 66% of teenage girls claim to have been bullied on Facebook. Facebook post interactions shot up more than 225% on the day a user changed their relationship status. But only 28% of newlyweds changed their Facebook status within hours of getting married. See the rest of the story at Business Insider  | ||
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With almost 1.5 billion monthly active users worldwide, Facebook is easily the world’s largest social media site. Why it totally makes sense for Snapchat to invest in shopping startup Spring | ||
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Snapchat is investing in shopping app Spring, according to Re/code. Spring is a mobile app like a virtual mall, where items from hundreds of brands can be purchased with a pre-uploaded credit card and a single button swipe. Neither Spring nor Snapchat would confirm the investment to me. (A Snapchat spokesperson rushed me off the phone, saying they needed to eat. A Spring spokesperson would only comment about the upcoming Rangers game.) But I don't think either company would let a rumor like that fly around if it wasn't true. So, operating under the assumption that Snapchat is investing in Spring, why might it do that? I have a working theory. It's not proven, but I've run it by a few industry insiders who think it's credible. The easy answer: Snapchat wants to dabble in social commerce, and it's cheaper to invest than to buySnapchat has purchased a few smaller startups, but this is the first we've heard about it making an investment in one. Scan.me is Snapchat's largest-known acquisition to date; the transaction was about $50 million in cash and stock. Even though Spring is less than a year old, Spring would cost significantly more than that to buy. It has raised more than $30 million to date and even though Snapchat has raised nearly $1 billion, it might not want to drop $100 million+ to buy a company it just wants to test out. An investment is a good way to experiment with ecommerce without diving all in. Some ecommerce initiatives from Snapchat are already known, like Snapcash, which lets friends exchange money via debit cards with each other in chats. Following and aiding Spring's progress could be another. The social e-commerce space is heating up: Facebook, Twitter and Google are all messing around with buy buttons, and Facebook hired David Marcus away from PayPal, which signals that payments could be in the company's future. Another idea: Snapchat wants to launch Discover, but for e-commerce brands and shoppingMore strategically, Snapchat could be gearing up for another big launch. Specifically, Snapchat could launch another channel like Discover, but for shopping. The channel could partner with a few select brands, like Discover does with Vice and ESPN, but instead of browsing top news stories you'd browse top products, like a mini virtual and social mall. And guess what Spring is? A mini virtual mall. Snapchat has been pretty pleased by its four-month-old Discover channel, which has been yielding millions of daily views for its 11 partnering media companies. It's not hard to imagine Snapchat launching other channels, like for shopping and maybe music, down the line. E-commerce may not be Snapchat's next big monetization push, but the company is in experimental mode, trying to figure out how to become a big revenue-generating business. And that means trying a bunch of things, maybe even something like Spring. I ran my new-shopping/Discover theory by Snapchat. I was told (jokingly), "If you want a job as a product manager we’d probably totally hire you." Then more seriously, "We’re not going to comment on Spring but what you said is not rooted in reality." "What do you mean by 'reality' specifically?" I asked. "All reality?" Then, I got a laugh. SEE ALSO: Snapchat is getting serious about advertising Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: It's dangerously easy to record Snapchats without the other person knowing  | ||
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Apple Pay is ringing in a new era of payment security | ||
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Apple Pay provides a sleek way for consumers to make payments with their iPhone, but perhaps the most innovative aspect of the payment feature — and its biggest potential value to consumers — is its security framework for preventing card fraud. While security remains one of the top reasons why consumers haven't adopted mobile payments, it's challenging to explain why one payments solution is more secure than another due to the complexity of payments security. In a new research from BI Intelligence we give an easy-to-understand breakdown of how Apple Pay security works and its implications for the payments ecosystem as Apple Pay and similar technologies become ubiquitous. Access The Research And Downloadable Infographics By Signing Up For A Trial Membership Today >> Here are some of the key takeaways:
To access the full report from BI Intelligence, sign up for a 14-day trial here. Members also gain access to new in-depth reports, hundreds of charts and datasets, as well as daily newsletters on the digital industry. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Iraq forces 'attack IS east of Ramadi' | ||
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Baghdad (AFP) - Iraqi forces retook territory from the Islamic State group east of Ramadi Saturday, in their first counterattack since the fall of the Anbar provincial capital a week ago, commanders said. The offensive targeted the Euphrates Valley town of Husaybah, an essential stepping stone for any assault on Ramadi. "Military operations to liberate Husaybah, seven kilometres (4.5 miles) east of Ramadi, have begun," a police colonel told AFP from the front. "So far, the Husaybah police station was liberated, as well as the area around it. The operation is making significant progress," he said on condition of anonymity because he is not authorised to speak to the press. The launch of offensive operations was confirmed by the leader of the main tribal force in the area, Sheikh Rafia Abdelkarim al-Fahdawi. "The operation to take back Husaybah has started, with wide participation from tribal fighters," the head of the Albu Fahd tribe told AFP. "The security forces are advancing and they already retook a wide area," he said. The police colonel said the operation involved local and federal police, the interior ministry's rapid intervention force, regular army troops, Popular Mobilisation (Hashed al-Shaabi) paramilitary forces and tribal fighters. IS fighters seized Ramadi in a deadly three day-blitz last week and tried to use its momentum to gain more ground east of the city.
Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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California beach town cleans up after pipeline rupture | ||
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Santa Barbara (United States) (AFP) - A small army of clean-up workers toiled Friday to scoop up crude oil deposits from a picturesque California beach, three days after a pipeline rupture unleashed thousands of gallons into the ocean. The scenic Refugio State Beach and its neighbor El Capitan would usually be swarming with tourists over America's Memorial Day weekend, but were closed until further notice following Tuesday's spill. Plastic bags filled with blackened sand piled up, and the stench of oil could be smelled from miles around. Workers had made significant progress on the beach but rocks remained coated in oil. "The beaches are starting to look a lot better than they did a couple of days ago, but still it will be a long process," said David Mosley, a Coastguard spokesman. "Something like that, it can take days or weeks to get back to pre-spill." Some 300 clean-up workers have been mobilized and new teams are still arriving. Their ranks are boosted by many volunteers, but these need equipment and to undergo a brief training session before they can get to work. Clean-up operations also aim to pump slicked oil from the ocean. About 105,000 gallons (40,000 liters) are estimated to have spilled. Only a portion of this made it to the sea, but this was enough to form an oil slick about nine miles (14 kilometers) long. Workers were also cleaning the hill overlooking Refugio beach, the site of the rupture. The leak affected a pipeline operated by Plains All America Pipeline. Patrick Hodgins, a senior director with the company, said it could take months to find out what happened to the two-foot (60 centimeter) wide pipeline which dates back to 1987.
- Cause still unknown -
Plains came under fire Friday when local media including the Los Angeles Times reported that it had 175 safety and maintenance infractions since 2006 -- more than three times the national average. During a press conference in Santa Barbara, Hodgins said that of these incidents, 20 were of leaks of less than one barrel of oil and many more less than five barrels. The health impacts of the spill are still unknown. People have varying levels of sensitivity to the smell, Mosley noted, and some would get skin irritation or headaches. Authorities are monitoring closely how the spill will impact the area's rich wildlife, which includes populations of sea lions, pelicans, dolphins and whales. Until now, the only animals to have been rescued are five pelicans, a young sea lion, a dolphin and two other marine mammals. Kyra Mills-Parker, deputy director of the network that rescues wild animals, noted the spill would have adverse impacts on wildlife that would be hard to document. Since the spill, lobsters, pelicans and other animals coated in oil were found along beaches. Fishing is prohibited until further notice in the area, even though authorities had not been immediately able to assess the spill's potential impact on the food chain. The cost to the local economy is also unknown. A spokeswoman from the Santa Barbara tourist office said there had not been any significant cancelations in the area's hotels. In the heart of this upscale ocean town about 100 miles northwest of Los Angeles, vacationers said they were not intending to swim. But not because of the spill. "The water is too cold for us," a German student said. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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German woman, 65 and mother of 13, has quadruplets | ||
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Berlin (AFP) - A 65-year-old German woman, who is already a mother of 13 children, has given birth to quadruplets after undergoing an artificial insemination procedure in Ukraine, RTL television reported early on Saturday. The three boys and one girl were born premature at 26 weeks in a Berlin hospital but have "good chances of surviving," the report said. The mother, Berlin resident Annegret Raunigk, is an English and Russian teacher close to retirement and in addition to her 13 children is grandmother to seven. She became pregnant after undergoing several artificial insemination procedures in Ukraine, said RTL, which has negotiated exclusive rights on the story. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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THE PROGRAMMATIC-ADVERTISING REPORT: Mobile, video, and real-time bidding drive growth in programmatic | ||
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The embrace of programmatic ad-buying tools is fueling a dramatic uptick in the share of digital ads sold through programmatic platforms, particularly those focused on real-time bidding or RTB. Total US programmatic ad revenue will top nearly $15 billion this year, according to BI Intelligence estimates. RTB, particularly mobile and video RTB, are spearheading growth. In this all-new in-depth research from BI Intelligence that updates our popular July 2014 report on programmatic, we find that the US digital-ad market will reach a programmatic "tipping-point": For the first time this year, programmatic transactions will be a majority (52%) of non-search digital-ad spend. We estimate 30.6% of total digital-ad spend will go to programmatic real-time bidding (RTB) platforms, and 21.7% will go to non-RTB programmatic. Access The Full 21-Page Report And Data Sets By Signing Up For A Trial Membership » Here are some of the key takeaways:
The report is full of charts, data, and case studies that can easily be downloaded and put to use. In full, the report:
To access the full report from BI Intelligence, sign up for a 14-day trial here. Members also gain access to new in-depth reports, hundreds of charts and datasets, as well as daily newsletters on the digital industry. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Forget Kim Kardashian — the 'butt selfie' queen of Instagram is a 21-year-old from Long Island  | ||
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