auctions

So, Can You Really Sell EBooks On EBay And Make Cold Hard Cash?

2007-10-04T03:22:00.000-07:00

So, Can You Really Sell EBooks On EBay And Make Cold Hard Cash?

Selling eBooks on eBay, and making any worthwhile profit from doing so, is becoming more and more difficult.

Gone are the days when you could sell someone else's books on eBay, and it's becoming considerably more difficult to sell ebooks that you might have written yourself or via Public Domain Publications.

Many people seem to think that ebooks should be freely available (because so many good ones are)and there are some excellent ebooks for sale on ebay but rarely do they sell for more than a few pennies.

So purchase ebooks from eBay by all means, there's just no money in trying to sell ebooks on eBay.

There's also the problem of who owns the copyright to the ebook you are trying to sell. This has become so much of a headache that eBay has come up with it's own policy to try and deal with this situation.

HERE'S AN EXCEPT FROM EBAY'S VERO POLICY.

* eBay's Verified Rights Owner (VeRO) Program

* eBay's VeRO Program was developed to facilitate cooperation between eBay and rights owners protecting their intellectual property rights.

* Highlights of the program include:

* Expeditious removal of listings reported to eBay by over 5,000 intellectual property rights owners

* Specific, detailed warnings designed to deter the listing of potentially infringing items before a listing is posted on eBay

* Voluntary daily monitoring and removal by eBay of listings offering potentially counterfeit or otherwise infringing items

* Voluntary daily monitoring and removal by eBay of listings that violate eBay policies designed to prevent the listing of infringing items on eBay

* Ability to save searches and have the results emailed to you through Favorite Searches

* Suspension of repeat offenders

* Continuing efforts to identify and prevent previously suspended users from reregistering for eBay

* Cooperation with rights owners seeking personal information on alleged infringers.

* However, because eBay is not an expert in your intellectual property rights, and cannot verify that sellers have the right to sell the millions of items they post on eBay each day, we need your help in identifying listings which do not appear on their face to infringe your rights.

To read the policy in it's entirety go to:-

http://pages.ebay.com/help/confidence/ia/protecting_intellectual_property.html

KEEP IT SIMPLE AND STRAIGHTFORWARD

Now there is a way around this that is easier to achieve than most people believe.

The easiest way of making sure that you don't fall foul of eBay's VeRo Policy is:

* Create The Products Yourself

The easiest way of overcoming peoples beliefs that your ebook should be freely availablen is.

* Don't have your ebook look like an ebook!

So when is an ebook not an ebook?

When it is perceived by the visitors to your eBay Sales Page as something else.

For example, if you bundled together your ebook with a printed version of the book, and or an Audio CD or Video DVD, your product would have a much higher perceived value.

SO.

* You create a printed version of your ebook contained in a nicely printed folder.

* You take a digital photograph of the cover of your printed version, surrounded by the audio CD and or Video DVD and use this as your Gallery Picture when you start to create your purchase It Now, eBay auction page.

* You use the same picture or pictures throughout your eBay Auction sales page.

People are used to seeing software generated ebook covers on eBay but by using the above method your product will not be perceived as an ebook.

* In your sales page include the information that the entire package can be digitally downloaded by the customer if they wish.

Do this and you will be one of the very few sellers on eBay using this technique and take my word for it, this technique is very powerful indeed.

Now this might sound like a lot of work or seem over complicated, yet when you come to think of it, most PCs and Laptops come complete with hardware and software for creating Audio CDs and DVDs? and if you don't have this kind of equipment you can get it on eBay relatively cheaply.

SO HOW DO YOU DO IT?

With this technology it is fairly simple to create Audio CDs and Video DVDs.

* You could record or have somebody else record your ebook onto Audio CD or DVD and provide it as an audio product within your product bundle. Many people find it easier to learn by "listening" than by reading.

* If the subject matter of your book included information on how to use a particular type of software for example, you could use a video capture program such as "Camtasia" to capture the sequence of steps that would need to be gone through in order to use the software effectively.

* If your ebook covered a practical subject like gardening for instance you could use a Camcorder to take actual "videos" of the various aspects of gardening, copy them to DVD and make it part of your "bundle". Many people find it easier to learn by "seeing" than by reading or listening.

Remember that your product bundle can be downloaded by your customer (assuming you have set your product up this way) but don't be afraid to provide them with the printed version of your book along with the Audio and Video DVDs if that's what they prefer.

Your ebook presented in this way will represent a much higher value than the traditional way of selling ebooks on eBay and therefore you can ask a much higher price than you would otherwise.

If all this sounds a little daunting to you I suggest that you carry out some research into what you've read here. More information on how to create Books and Videos to sell on eBay can be found at the end of this article.

Earn Money Now from Selling Childrens Items on Ebay

2007-10-04T03:21:00.002-07:00

Earn Money Now from Selling Childrens Items on Ebay

Kids Items You Can Sell

Clothes, toys and videos are good money makers on eBay.

Go to eBay and look up a "lot" of size six girl's cloths. You will find they are expensive! The average price for a lot of 20 good conditioned clothes is about $35.00.

When your kids grow out of their seasonal clothes do not throw them out. Bundle them into different lots by category. For example bundle girls dresses separate from girls play clothes, but only do that if you have at least six of each different type.

Lots of any item sell better than single items unless the item is unique or high priced. For example, a hand embroidered dress that you paid a lot for would sell better by itself instead of bundled with other basic dresses.

The next item to lookup on eBay is toys. Most toys in good condition will sell for a lot of money. One idea that works well is to buy hot items in October at Wal-Mart or Toys-R-Us and sell them on eBay. Busy people are willing to pay extra for the convenience of getting the items delivered to their home. For example, last year a Mega Power Ranger came out in stores around October and sold at Wal-Mart for about $45.00. The same item sold on eBay for up to $65.00 plus shipping. The Yellow Power Ranger is yet another example where the store price was about $6.00, while the same item was selling on eBay for about $20.00.

Have your children ever received duplicate birthday or Christmas presents? You can sell those on eBay also. Look at the eBay listings for items of interest to see if selling on eBay is worth more than returning the item to the store.

Kid's videos and DVDs are also good money-makers. Bundle about three of these together, and you can usually make about $7.00-$12.00 per bundle. Bundle more and the money goes up. Disney movies in hard cases can go for a higher amount. This also works for other types of movies as well.

Save those McDonalds toys. Some Kids Meals toys sell high. Take the new Star Wars toys from Burger King...very collectible. You will find them selling on eBay from $1.00 to $5.00, not including shipping.

Ebay has a whole section devoted to dolls and bears. If your daughter doesn't want her collectible dolls anymore sell them on eBay.

Kids Crafts You Can Sell

Around the holidays, especially, have your children place their hand in paint and make a print on some quality paper. Add a holiday related poem and you have a great craft to sell on eBay.

Have your kids make gift jars with ready made mixes. For example, hot chocolate mixes in a jar with a plastic spoon tied to it with a ribbon. Dip the end of the spoon with white chocolate.

Baby Items You Can Sell

Used baby items are very profitable. Baby items cost a lot of money, especially in their first year. Any "gently" used items are generally good sellers on eBay.

If you have baby coupons that you will never use, sell them on eBay! Left over diapers and formula sell well also. A lot of 35 used cloth diapers usually sells for around $38.00 plus shipping. Four Fuzzi Bunz diapers (cloth diapers with hemp inserts) can sell for as much as $40.00.

There you have it. Plenty of ideas for selling those leftover kids items on eBay...and you can even make a nice profit while you are at it!

Hurricane Katrina Donations Could be Many Millions More - EBay Sellers Try in Vain to Help

2007-10-04T03:21:00.001-07:00

Hurricane Katrina Donations Could be Many Millions More - EBay Sellers Try in Vain to Help

Yesterday I saw a mention in someone's email ezine about a kind person who had an eBay auction with the proceeds going 100% to help victims of the horrible Hurricane Katrina.

It struck a chord with me because I had wanted to set up something similar, but found that the "eBay Giving Works" charity program seems to be terribly flawed for us small sellers. I had researched it the day before, eBay goes through Mission Fish to handle the administrative tasks and distribution.

Here in a nutshell is how I understand it works. You set up an eBay auction and pledge a percentage of the proceeds to go to a charity. You pick the one you like. If the auction sells, the buyer pays you, and Mission Fish charges your credit card, taking out $3.00 per transaction for their fees, plus 3% to cover credit card fees. That's reasonable, they need to cover their overhead and payroll expenses. Then Mission Fish sends the balance to the charity.

The minimum donation per item has to be $10.00. Again, so far so good, I can understand that.

Now, I noticed in the auction that I visited that the seller had set up a dutch auction, with 1000 "lots" available, each for $1.00 each, with the proceeds going 100% to her favorite charity that would get food to the Katrina victims. I was about to place a bid for several $1.00 lots (a dutch auction lets you "win" as many of the item as you like, all at the same price).

Then it hit me, why couldn't I do the same kind of dutch auction, maybe she had found the way to get around the $10.00 per item restriction, and found that it was a minimum $10.00 per auction. It would only make sense that it would work that way, since Mission Fish charges the seller's credit card, if all 1000 lots sold, that would be $1000 for the charity, Mission Fish would take $3.00 plus 3%, the seller would collect (hopefully) the $1000 from the buyers, and all she would be on the hook for would be the eBay fees. Those fees, plus her hard work, would be her personal contribution.

So I went back to eBay and Mission Fish and researched the deal again. I found out that sure enough, in a multiple item auction, Mission Fish requires a $10.00 donation from the seller for EVERY ITEM that sells in a multiple-item auction (dutch auction).

So, if the seller had 1000 lots at $1.00 each, and they all sold, Mission Fish would have charged her credit card on file for $10.00 for each lot, a total of $10,000.00! And they would have taken their $3.00 + 3% fee for each of those 1000 lots, more than $3,000.00 for their trouble!

At that point, I realized the seller either had deep pockets and was matching contributions 10 to 1, or she misunderstood what would happen to her. I sent her an email, and to end a long story, she indeed misunderstood, was obviously fairly upset at the prospect of paying $10,000, and ended the auction early.

Now, I'd like my readers to do one of two things. If you think that eBay and Mission Fish are mishandling the charity program, as I do, please contact one or both and point them to this blog entry, or just write your own letter with your thoughts.

You can contact Mission Fish here:
http://www.missionfish.org/Help/contactus.jsp

eBay is always more difficult to contact, but you can try starting here:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/contact_us/_base/index.html

The other thing you could do is support the eBay seller's cause, she had to end the auction but she took the trouble to set up a web page for donations, you can access and support it here:
http://www.flipidy.com/secondharvest.htm

Perhaps with enough pressure on Mission Fish, they'll get together with eBay and allow dutch auctions to be counted as a single donation, instead of multiple individual items, and encourage more charity in the future.

For those with homes, families, relatives or friends in the devasted area, my hearts and prayers go out to you. I hope this information will in some small way help someone somewhere.

EBay Feedback, 5 Key Things All EBayers Should Know

2007-10-04T03:20:00.002-07:00

EBay Feedback, 5 Key Things All EBayers Should Know

eBay's user feedback system is one of the site's most important components. Without the conscientious comments recorded by both buyers and sellers, there would be no way for anyone to build up a trustworthy reputation in the nearly anonymous realm of cyberspace. And without a good measure of trust among users, eBay would be a difficult, if not impossible, environment in which to safely conduct business.

By learning how eBay's feedback system works you can use it to your advantage. Understanding the numbers and feedback comments will go a long way toward making the online trading venue a safer place for you and your pocketbook.

1. How Feedback Works

The eBay feedback system operates in a straightforward manner. Every time you complete a transaction as either a buyer or a seller, you leave feedback for the other party. This feedback is made up of a score of +1, 0, or -1, as well as a one-line comment that sums up how smoothly -- or how poorly --- the process was completed.

A +1 means that you were happy with the way the transaction ended. A 0 score is neutral, meaning you weren't particularly pleased with the efforts of the other person, but you didn't feel taken, either. A -1 indicates that you were unhappy with the transaction as a whole. In addition to the numbered score, you can submit a short comment that explains the reason for your score.

As you browse the scores and comments on eBay, you'll see the vast majority of member scores are positive, and most have form-letter comments that indicate an effortless transaction. Neutral scores are relatively rare. Negative comments are more common than neutral ones.

eBay users often don't realize the importance of the feedback system in terms of establishing a good reputation. Not only do users benefit from garnering a lopsided positive-feedback-to-negative-feedback ratio, but they reap rewards by advancing upward through the various star symbols used to designate successful users.

2. You are a Star

The star symbols displayed next to a username show, at a glance, how many transactions the user has completed with positive feedback. With fewer than 10 feedbacks, users remain starless. With 10 to 49 positive scores, users will receive a yellow star.

There are many other star symbols, but as an example, after an eBay user snags anywhere from 500 to 999 positive scores, will get a purple star. Once a user moves into the stratosphere of eBay, she'll receive a shooting star that indicates she's gathered more than 10,000 positive scores. eBay sellers who reach this level of activity indicate that when they achieve a new star status, their number of sales increases, often dramatically, especially when it's paired with an excellent feedback rating.

3. Feedback is Forever

One of the reasons feedback is so important, and so potent, is that once you've left a comment, you can't go back and edit it later. That means your comments, both positive and negative, say online for all eyes to see, for as long as that member is active on eBay.

eBay does reserve the right to remove inappropriate comments, such as those that use racist or overtly sexual wording, or those that include hyperlinks. however, eBay does not typically delete most other comments, even those that seem unfair or unjust.

When both the buyer and seller agree to retract feedback, there is a procedure called Mutual Feedback Withdrawal, but this option's effect is limited. If two parties initially had a disagreement about a transaction, but they'd like to change the score they left for the other person, they can do this feature. This removes the score from both parties' feedback rating, however, it does not delete the comments that were left, which often makes this option less effective, especially when those comments were damaging to a reputation. You can start a Mutual Feedback Withdrawal request within 30 days of either party leaving feedback or within 90 days after the transaction, whichever is later. To start the process, enter the item number into the online Mutual Feedback Withdrawal form in the Feedback Forum.

4. The Negative Curse

Negative feedback, or "negs" in eBay-speak, is something to avoid because negs are a virtual curse for buyers and sellers. Serious eBay users evade bad feedback as best they can, and those who depend on eBay for a substantial portion of their livelihood will stop at almost nothing to keep these marks from marring their online reputation.

One of the primary reasons for preventing negative feedback, of course, is that a buyer who's browsing for a product is likely to skip a seller who has more than a couple of recent negative comments.

When you leave feedback for an eBay user, he has the option of responding in kind, os his comments land on your profile. If you leave a nasty remark accusing a seller of extremely slow shipping, you'll likely see an indignant comment denying any wrongdoing in your own profile, even if your claim was true.

This kind of retaliatory feedback is the reason most users think twice before leaving negative comments, even if that comment is true. One user posts a negative comment for another party, and as an act of revenge, the slighted party leaves a neg for the first user - in many cases, the retaliatory feedback has no grounds in truth and is intended only to punish on member for leaving a read mark on another user's profile.

Retaliatory feedback is a problem because negative feedback of any kind carries real weight. Not every buyer or seller takes the time to investigate negative feedback, preferring instead to find another user who doesn't have recent angry comments directed at him.

On the other hand, the good news is that one or two negative comments aren't the kiss of death. The more positive feedback comments you have, the more unlikely it is that a negative score or two will cause you problems. Remember this as you deal with other users on the site, but also remember the feedback system doesn't work unless you're honest about transactions.

5. Final Feedback

eBay's feedback system has its share of flaws, but for building trust and creating a safer buying and selling environment, it's indispensable. however, to make the system work best, you'll have to learn to read comments appropriately to get a better idea of how to discern trustworthy users from online swindlers.

Do your research on the items you want to buy and check the feedback of buyers and sellers before you commit to dealing with them. The effort will help you avoid financially draining scams, give you peace of mind, and make eBay a much more productive place for you to do business.

About Adam

Selling on eBay and the Internet is still a relatively a new phenomenon with unprecedented opportunity. Adam Ginsberg, recently featured on NBC's Today Show is an author and educator and has built a small fortune selling on eBay. As an early Internet pioneer, Adam discovered a system for generating wealth - through the power of the eBay marketplace.

Boosting Your EBay Auction Profits: Just Add Audio

2007-10-04T03:20:00.001-07:00

Boosting Your EBay Auction Profits: Just Add Audio

According to a recent report, adding audio to your eBay auctions could increase bids by as much as 22% over auctions without audio.

A recent trend showing up on a lot of websites is the addition of an audio clip. The clip is a personal message by the author or the website owner encouraging you to take advantage of what they offer.

The psychology behind this technique is really Marketing 101. It's called personalization. An audio clip added to your eBay auction allows you to personally tell the potential bidder about the product. Using your own voice allows you to make contact with the bidder on a personal level that written words cannot. Because, that's what your eBay auction really is...It's just a long written classified ad asking the bidder to make an offer to purchase your item.

Prior to the advent of the telephone the only reliable way to communicate long distance was by writing letters. It was not unusual back then for lovers to write each other daily or weekly. The decline of letter writing is a well documented event that coincides with the advent of the telephone.

With audio you can describe the item, tell the bidder why you are selling it or even communicate with them about your refund policy or provide your contact information. The possibilities are almost unlimited as a way to establish a rapport with the bidder.

But, the most important reason to add audio clips is that it makes it easy to convey excitement and invoke emotion, giving you a really powerful selling-edge.

How to add audio to a web site:

The simplest way is to upload a .wav or Mp3 file to a website and provide a link to the file. When the bidder clicks on the link his or her computer will automatically recognize the file and play it with the audio player on the bidders computer.

There are some drawbacks to this method. If the bidder's computer doesn't recognize the file it won't play. The overall effect is not as professional as it could be and it distracts the bidder. If you are a reasonably tech savvy type you can easily deal with the drawbacks of this approach.

For the rest of us, there are a number of software solutions and websites that will simplify the task of adding audio to our eBay auctions.

5 Ways to Drive Traffic Away from Your EBay Auction

2007-10-04T03:19:00.001-07:00

5 Ways to Drive Traffic Away from Your EBay Auction

eBay is a one-stop solution to any one who wants to make money online. Whether you just selling a few unwanted items from around your house or your want to develop a work from home business, eBay removes many of the obstacles for you. Not many other websites can help you drive targeted traffic towards your sales, process the order on your behalf and accept payment though paypal. All you need to do then is dispatch the item to your winning bidder.

And let's not forget the biggest advantage over selling on eBay. The majority of users have money in their hand just waiting to find the right item.

So if eBays so great why would you want to drive traffic AWAY from your auctions?

Well there are a few reasons why you'd be better off selling from your own website, rather than though eBay. Firstly & most importantly, think of all the listing fees & final value fees you could save if everything you sold on eBay you could sell on your own website. Personally it would save me thousands of dollars per year alone in listing fees.

Secondly, you'll be protecting yourself from eBay policy change. Imagine you were selling thousands of ebooks weekly and then suddenly eBay policy changed to prevent any ebook listings.

Overnight your business would simply disappear & your income would vanish. It's the same with listing fees - A sudden hike in fees could wipe out your business & profit overnight.

With any business, especially an online one you need to safeguard yourself against measures that are out of your control. So by driving traffic away from your auctions to your own website you'll slowly start building up an alternative source of revenue. The following methods can be used on eBay. Some are on the borderline of eBay policy & you should check out any policy violation before using them. Saying that, a huge proportion of sellers use these on a daily basis.

1) Image Hosting

All the best sellers have auction templates developed to maintain a professional listing. And of course those sellers ALWAYS use images or graphics to accurately show the condition of the items their offering.

eBay itself allows you to upload the images to their servers, other commercial & free services are available. However really you want to store any images on your own server. Not only will search engine robots follow the links from your listings to your site (helping in improved visibility in any search engines), but many browsers will show the address of where the images are loading from in the status bar - For instance "Loading Image From http://www.visitmyshop.com" or "Waiting For http://www.visitmyshop.com". This is a great way for your visitors to see to become familiar with your site.

2) Feedback

Many sellers include their own website in the feedback comments they use. Strictly it is against eBay policy but many Powersellers use comments like "Thanks for your custom from http://www.Visitmyshop.com" as standard. This is perhaps one of the widely violated policies on eBay. I've never known of anyone receive a warning for this policy, but use it with caution as you could be the first.

3) Email Address.

eBay allows your listings to contain one email link address, in addition to the "Ask The Seller A Question Link" they already provide. Use the opportunity to show the an email account associated with your domain name for example sales@visitmyshop.com. The only condition about showing your email address is the one shown must also be your registered email account with eBay. Before you list it, make sure they match up.

4) About Me Page

eBay actually allows you to link to your own website from your About Me page, as long as the actual page does not directly offer to sell items. Therefore make it an information or about us page that you link to, BUT one where visitors can easily navigate to your catalog of items for sale. Additionally drive traffic to your About Me Page by including a link on every listings, for example "Click here to learn about me". An average basic shop on eBay will get over 1500 item views within a month. If you can drive just a small proportion of these to your about me page & then to your site you'll certainly see a difference in your non-eBay sales.

5) User Id

While eBay does not allow your user id to be that of an website, you should have it as closely to resembling your site name as possible. You CAN NOT attach .com, -com or *com to the end of your user id - this is strictly against eBay policy. However nothing would stop your id being VisitMyShop. The idea is to get your eBay visitors comfortable with dealing with you away from eBay.

I hope these tips help you drive traffic away from your auctions towards your site & lessens eBays grip on your business. Remember, Ignorance is not an excuse eBay accept if you do violate their policy. While you initially get a warning for policy violation continuous offences may result in your account being suspended. Having said that, eBay mostly rely on policing from other users to enforce their policy so as long as no reports you should be in the clear.

EBay Income Possibilities

2007-10-04T03:18:00.002-07:00

EBay Income Possibilities

If you've ever read an article about eBay, you will have seen the kinds of incomes people make - it isn't unusual to hear of people making thousands of dollars per month on eBay.

Next time you're on eBay, take a look at how many PowerSellers there are: you'll find quite a few. Now consider that every single one of one of them must be making at least $1,000 per month, as that's eBay's requirement for becoming a PowerSeller. Silver PowerSellers make at least $3,000 each month, while Gold PowerSellers make more than $10,000, and the Platinum level is $25,000. The top ranking is Titanium PowerSeller, and to qualify you must make at least $150,000 in sales every month!

The fact that these people exist gives you come idea of the income possibilities here. Most of them never set out to even set up a business on eBay - they simply started selling a few things, and then kept going. There are plenty of people whose full-time job is selling things on eBay, and some of them have been doing it for years now. Can you imagine that? Once they've bought the stock, everything else is pretty much pure profit for these people - they don't need to pay for any business premises, staff, or anything else. There are multi-million pound businesses making less in actual profit than eBay PowerSellers do.

Even if you don't want to quit your job and really go for it, you can still use eBay to make a significant second income. You can pack up orders during the week and take them down to the post office for delivery each Saturday. There are few other things you could be doing with your spare time that have anywhere near that kind of earning potential.

What's more, eBay doesn't care who you are, where you live, or what you look like: some PowerSellers are very old, or very young. Some live out in the middle of nowhere where selling on eBay is one of the few alternatives to farming or being very poor. eBay tears down the barriers to earning that the real world constantly puts up. There's no job interview and no commuting involved - if you can post things, you can do it.

Put it this way: if you know where to get something reasonably cheaply that you could sell, then you can sell it on eBay - and since you can always get discounts for bulk at wholesale, that's not exactly difficult. Buy a job lot of something in-demand cheaply, sell it on eBay, and you're making money already, with no set-up costs.

If you want to dip your toe in the water before you commit to actually buying anything, then you can just sell things that you've got lying around in the house. Search through that cupboard of stuff you never use, and you'll probably find you've got a few hundred dollars' worth of stuff lying around in there! This is the power of eBay: there is always someone who wants what you're selling, whatever it might be, and since they've come looking for you, you don't even need to do anything to get them to buy it.

5 Secrets To Make A Killing on EBay

2007-10-04T03:18:00.001-07:00

5 Secrets To Make A Killing on EBay

Secret #1: Find a 'real' wholesale and drop ship company

Do you know what one of the biggest problem is to be successful on eBay? 'What should I sell"? I can tell you, I get many emails per day from eBay sellers, asking me what they can sell. Let me explain this more in detail.

Let's take John and David for example. Both are sellers and try to make money on eBay. Let's start with John. He mainly gets his items from garage sales. So, every Saturday morning he gets up very early, hops into his car and drives around the neighbourhood to check out the garage sales. So he went last Saturday. John did not buy anything on the first two garage sales, but on his third garage sale, he found a little treasure. An old book from 1897 - for a bargain price of $10. Bingo! John was proud! 'I can sell this for huge profit', he thought and he went home. He took his digital camera and he made a high quality digital photo. It took quite some time but finally he was happy with the result. Then he had to upload this picture to his computer and he spent some time writing the sales copy. Late Saturday afternoon finally he was finished and launched this book onto eBay. 7-10 days later his item got sold for $75!! John is excited. He packs the item, labels it with the buyers address and then he drives to the nearest post office. Oh no, what a long line. After 15 min of waiting he could finally post this item to his customer! Wow, a lot of work for $65 profit? Don't you think?

Let's look at David. He usually gets up very late - usually at Saturday around lunchtime. He is still in his pyjamas and he makes himself a nice cup of coffee and gets onto the Internet. He logs into his drop ship account and browses through some hot selling product. 'Yes, I can sell that" - A nice laptop for a bargain price of $550 (wholesale price). But David does not have to pay upfront for this item, so he just downloads the professional digital photos offered by his drop ship company to his computer. "Oh wait"; David has just discovered that this drop ship company has also a 'ready-to-use' auction sales letter available. That's really cool ?and David copies and pastes the source code of this letter into his eBay listing and he launches his auction. A Dutch auction, since the drop ship company announced that they have more than one of this laptop currently available. Great, David could sell 6 laptops. He hits the submit button for this Dutch auction of 6 laptops and enjoys his coffee (which is still hot by the way). After 7-10 days David has sold all 6 laptops for $830 each. All what David does is the following: He waits until he gets the payment from his 6 customers in his paypal account, sends the address of the customers together with 6 x $550 (wholesale price) to his drop sip company via paypal. He has made pure profit of 6 x $280 = $1,680 in about 25 min of work - total. That's why David is a smarter eBay seller than John. I think the idea is clear ?drop shipping can be the answer to your problem what to sell on eBay and it can saves you a lot of time too. No packing, posting etc.

Secret #2: Have a professional auction listing

A professional eBay auction site is like your business card. If you are serious selling on eBay you should show your potential customers that you are a professional seller and that you are selling high quality products. Please, don't just upload a photo and type the text in the description box. Do your homework and learn some HTML. Look around there are many professional tutorials and ebooks around helping you in that matter. It's definitely worth it. And you'll be surprised, because if your auction listing looks nice and professional potential buyers stay longer on your site and usually it's more likely that they place a bid.

Secret #3: The money is in the follow up

"Yes, I've heard this before", you may say. But, this is a very important aspect of your successful eBay career: Follow up with your customers. Send them an email ~10 days after they have purchased the product and ask them how they are going with the product and if everything is all right. Invite them to have a look at your other auctions. (You have to be careful though not offending anyone, but if the products are related and you ask how they went with the product, that's fine). I never got complaints by doing that and your customers are happy to get some "insider tips". You'll be amazed how many customers will buy from you again, since they value you as a seller. Keep in mind that it is easier to keep an existing customer, instead of getting a new customer. You could also send them a thank you gift in form of a downloadable digital information product. That's easy for you and they get some valuable information. You'll see that your existing customers will be very thankful and they feel good that they have bought from you and will do again in the future.

Secret #4: Sell internationally

This aspect is often neglected by many eBay sellers: Sell internationally! First, check with your drop ship company in which countries they are shipping and how much postage they charge to send the item overseas. If you have sort out these details, you can go ahead and list your item internationally. You'll be surprised how many more items you are selling when the potential buyers see: Ship worldwide. Don't miss this opportunity or you are leaving big bucks on the table.

Secret #5: Be creative - Be different

How do you think your listing will be stand out from the crowd? Good question isn't it. In my 4 years of being an active Power Seller, I have tried and tested a lot. First have the photo in the gallery; it just costs a bit more to list but these additional cents are well spend. A recent study has shown that people almost ignore listing without a picture in the gallery. So that's mandatory! The next step is your title. Do you know that only the title is spidered by eBay when potential customers are searching for specific products? So, you have to make sure that your title includes as much keywords as possible. But be careful here, eBay does not like "keyword stuffing". So, be creative and come up with 2-3 different titles for the same item. Try them all and you'll see what works best.

12 Items You CANT Sell On EBay

2007-10-04T03:17:00.001-07:00

12 Items You CANT Sell On EBay

Millions of would-be entrepreneurs want to sell things on ebay. eBay is the #1 home-business opportunity in the world right now, so it's natural that many are eager to find highly profitable items for re-sale on eBay. However, it's important to know that there are certain items that can't be sold. Here are a dozen of them ...

Some items are copyright infringement and can actually land a seller in federal prison:

1. Knock offs of music, TV shows or movies. The "bootleg" movies, for example, are often made by guys who sneak a movie camera into a newly-released movie where presumably, they crouch behind a seat and make a crummy copy. There is a large production of these counterfeit items in Asia where US laws have no power.

2. Software and computer games can likewise be copied and their sale is illegal by all US laws.

Naturally, the items above may be sold if you have a copy that you purchased legitimately and no longer want.

3. The so-called "replica" market for handbags, designer sunglasses and clothing is definitely forbidden although these items are often sold in physical stores around the US. Ironically, when attending eBay Live In New Orleans in 2004, we found a store in one of their famous markets selling replica purses that were not allowed on eBay.

4. Lazy and less-than-honest sellers often steal copyrighted material from other sellers. This has happened to me many times and eBay has a program called VERO (Verified Rights Owner) that will remove offending auctions, although there seems to be no penalty attached to the seller, which is unfortunate.

5. Alcoholic beverage sales are not allowed although a beverage "container', especially those of wine, may be sold for its value.

6. Cigarettes, cigars, smokeless tobacco or coupons for such items are not permitted on eBay.com.

The Ebay rules for collectible tobacco and alcohol containers are the same:

* The value of the item is in the collectible packaging, not in the wine/tobacco itself.

* The listing description should state that the package has not been opened, but that the twine/tobacco within is not for consumption.

* The collectible tobacco packaging must not be available at any retail outlet, and packaging must have a value that substantially exceeds the current retail price of that wine/tobacco product in the package.

* Sellers must take steps to ensure that the buyer of these collectibles is at least 18 years of age

7. Firearms are strictly regulated by US law and may not be sold on eBay.

8. Satellite and cable TV descramblers are forbidden by the Federal Trade Commission.

9. Animals and wildlife products may not be sold, which includes stuffed birds and pelts from endangered species. There are limited sales of ivory, tortoise shell, marine products and other items relating to animals. This area is quite complex and any would-be seller needs to thoroughly understand the various laws before getting involved in these sales.

10. Event tickets have state-by-state laws that make their sale complex. Some states, for instance, forbid anyone to make more than a few dollars in profit (or no profit at all) on the resale of tickets. For instance, Florida law states that tickets can be resold at no more than face value plus $1. In such states, these regulations apply only to buyers and sellers located in the same state as the actual event, meaning if a seller lives in Florida, he can't profit from ticket sales to Florida events. However, if he lives in any of the other 39 states, this restriction doesn't apply.

11. Listing a catalog of items that a seller offers for sale is forbidden. The only catalogs legally sold on eBay are collectible kinds, such as an old Sears Roebuck or Montgomery Wards catalog that is memorabilia and doesn't offer current merchandise for sale.

12. Raffles and prizes are 100% prohibited. According to eBay, such promotions are highly regulated and may be unlawful in many states.

There are other kinds of merchandise that a seller may not sell on eBay, so carefully check eBay rules before listing anything. It's much better to know the rules in advance of spending money that can't be recouped.

Used Cars For Sale On EBay

2007-10-04T03:16:00.000-07:00

Used Cars For Sale On EBay

There are thousands of used cars for sale on eBay every single day. In fact, eBay Motors is the most profitable sales division on eBay and naturally there are many entrepreneurs who are interested in jumping into this market. For instance, eBay claims it sells an SUV every nine seconds and is the biggest online car dealer in America, exceeding the traditional car companies. In fact, there are 15 million cars sold over the Internet each year - and growing.

The recent rapid growth of the consignment business model has made the used car market even more enticing. Many sellers are able to sell cars they have never even seen and with no more risk than the cost of the auction listing. Some negotiators even persuade the car owner to pay for the ad, thereby risking no more than their time.

The biggest single issue for this business model is the trust of prospective buyers. After all, paying thousands or tens of thousands of dollars for a car sight unseen is an awesome leap of faith. Even buying for a plane ticket to go see a car before paying causes buyers to be uncomfortable.

The best way sellers can overcome this fear is to use an escrow service. eBay has a preferred service, and it's easiest to use that one.

An escrow service acts as a neutral third party. In an exchange of merchandise, the buyer sends his money to the escrow service and the seller ships the product to the buyer. The buyer usually has two days to inspect his purchase, and if he is happy, he notifies the escrow company who releases the money to the seller, minus its fee. If the buyer is dissatisfied, he returns the undamaged merchandise to the seller, and after the seller receives his merchandise back (in satisfactory condition), the escrow service returns the buyer's money. Thus both sides in the transaction are protected. The buyer almost always pays the fees for this, although sometimes buyer and seller split the cost.

eBay's offers a "Vehicle Services Division" specifically for dealing with the used cars, trucks, SUVs and almost anything else with wheels and a motor. The buyer can request a 160 point inspection performed before agreeing to the purchase. This is an inexpensive service and certainly will save the purchaser many headaches.

* The buyer pays a $125 fee that is non-refundable
* The seller is contacted and the inspection is carried outv * The buyer receives a reportv * The buyer chooses to go ahead with the purchase - or not

Another choice for the buyer is to deposit his payment with the escrow service and then take delivery of the vehicle. The seller ships the car after he knows the money his secure. The seller must provide tracking information, which is then verified.

The buyer has between one and 30 days to thoroughly inspect his new purchase (the period is negotiated between the two parties ahead of time). If this time expires and the escrow company has not heard from the buyer, it assumes he is happy and gives the purchase price to the seller.

The buyer may return his vehicle if he isn't happy and sometimes buyers and sellers work out partial payment agreements, the buyer being satisfied with some parts of the transaction, but not with others. If a dispute arises, it is settled by the American Arbitration Association.

The fee for this service is:

* $0 - $7,500 = value of vehicle: $125
* $7,500.01 to $15,000: $170
* $15,000.01 to $30,000: $200
* $30,000.01 to $50,000: $275
* $50,000+ = 6% of the value

Once both parties have agreed, the title transfer process begins and the escrow service will guarantee this too, for a fee of $95. The fee, naturally, doesn't include any transfer costs - it is only insurance that the title will be expedited to the satisfaction of both parties.

eBay's escrow service also offers a service that will ship cars almost anywhere in the world and will gather an auto history report to inform sellers if their new chariot has been salvaged or stolen, suffered flood or hail damage, been in a fire or accident, has had an odometer rollback or has been used as a police car, a rental or a taxi.

Anyone considering offering used cars for sale on eBay would be well advised to thoroughly learn the escrow services available and offer those to prospective buyers. The trust factor will skyrocket and your chances of completing sales will dramatically increase.

The Top Ten Tips For Auction Success!

2007-10-04T03:15:00.002-07:00

The Top Ten Tips For Auction Success!

If you were to look through eBay, or any other online auction site for that matter, you would find that many people make some very basic mistakes. And, they repeat these mistakes over and over again. As indicated in my book "eBay Marketing Wholesale SourcePak" with a little common sense these mistakes are completely preventable. So to prevent you from making these very same mistakes I have put together the Top Ten Tips For Auction Success.

10. Shipping
Always state what your shipping price will be. And, Do Not try to rip off your buyers by inflating the shipping price to increase your profit. Believe it or not, people do have a fair idea of what shipping costs should be. If they feel you are inflating your shipping price they will not bid on your item and may not look at any of your other auctions either from fear of being ripped off.

9. Customer Support
You must respond to all emails regarding your auctions. Yes, responding to emails is time consuming. But, if you don't, that potential bidder will look else ware for the product and you will have lost yourself a customer.

8. Reserve Price
Do your research on the price for your item. If you must use a reserve price keep it real. If you over price your item you will not get as many bids. And, while all good marketers know there is a time and place for the Reserve Auction, you may actually get more bids using no reserve pricing at all. Do your research to help you make this decision.

7. Item Condition
You must let bidders know what condition your item is in. Is it new and in it's packaging, or used but like new condition. Does it have any imperfections they should be made aware of. A potential bidders will want to know what condition your item is in before making any bids.

6. Terms
This could come under the heading Customer Service. If you have terms on your auction page that read something like this "Not Responsible For Item Once Shipped" or "Item Sold As Is" you will get less bidders for that auction. Be a responsible eBayer, have insurance on the item that your buyer can purchase. And be sure to have some sort of guarantee on your products.

5. Feedback
One of the most important parts of your eBay Business. Feedback is a method eBay uses to allow buyers and sellers to record their experiences with each other. Then, others can check out the feedback of any eBayer they wish to deal with, to see if there has been any negative comments left. Therefore, it is extremely important to keep your feedback rating positive.

4. Auction Start/Close Time
You must plan your auction start/close time around the bidders you wish to attract to your auction. If the product you are selling appeals to the working woman, the best time to start/end your auction would be in the evening or on the weekend. Always create a profile on your product and what group of the population you are selling to.

3. Item Description
Not enough information or too much rambling of information will discourage people from bidding. So too will to many typos. Your item description must be clean and concise. Succinctly provide all the information required to describe the item sufficiently and create buyer interest.

2. Image
You need to use an image on your auction page. Remember a picture is worth a 1000 words! Potential bidders will want to see what the item looks like before they make a bid. With digital cameras, being so affordable these days adding a image to your auction page is easier then ever. But, make sure the image is clear and well lit to show it's detail or any imperfections it may have. Also, keep the image at a reasonable pixel size so your auction page doesn't take to long to load.

1. Headlines
This is the most important issue for getting more bidders to your auction page. You must include words that people will search on eBay. And, you must make your headline enticing, so potential bidders will click it. If you are selling an antique make-up table a headline saying old vanity table would not pull in a lot of bidders. But, if you said something like "Vintage Vanity Table - Mint Condition - Collectors Item" not only would you get more potential bidders to view your auction, you would also be using words people would search eBay for. Your auction title would appear in searches for Vintage, Vanity Tables, Collectors Items. Therefore, allowing even more potential bidders to see your headline.

7 Great Reasons Why You Should Start an EBay Business Today

2007-10-04T03:15:00.001-07:00

7 Great Reasons Why You Should Start an EBay Business Today

EBay is a great part or full time business. An Ebay Business can be used as a way to promote your Online Home Based Business. An Ebay Business is a great resource for your Brick and Mortar Store Front. Here are 7 ways anyone can benefit from owning and Operating an Ebay Business

1 - Promote Other Business

Many people with online or offline Businesses sell on Ebay. Ebay is one of the most Popular web pages on the Internet. By having frequent EBay auctions you can build traffic to your online or offline brick and Mortar Store.

2 - Get Family Involved

What a great way to get your spouse and children involved in your business. Is there a great Copy writer or web Design Guru in your family put them to work. Teach your children the value of the Dollar and give them valuable life skills by involving them in your E-Bay Business

3 - Earn an Extra Income

You can earn few extra dollars on Ebay for that Dream Vacation, Luxary Car Payment or even just fun money. However You can also earn a very comfortable living on Ebay the choice is yours.

4 - Build a Spam Free E-Mail List

Everyone who buys from you on Ebay has to supply you their E-mail Address. Since you now have an established business relationship with them, any E-Mail you send them is not SPAM, until they request removal from your list.

5 - Brand Yourself

What better way to brand your name and company name then on one of the most popular and reputable web sites in the world.

6 - Establish Your Credibility

Ebay Positive feedback tells the world you kept your promise and it is safe to do business with you. Ebay Positive feedback are often the best testimonials you will ever receive.

7 - Clearance Sales

Do you own a store. Sell your overstock, off season or damaged and returned items on Ebay. Thinking of having a Garage sale, why not sell some or all of those garaged Sale items on E-Bay instead!

10 Tips to Starting a Financially Successful Ebay Business Startting Right Now

2007-10-04T03:14:00.000-07:00

10 Tips to Starting a Financially Successful Ebay Business Startting Right Now

Ebay is Perhaps the easiest and fastest way to start a home based online business. Here are 10 Tips to starting a Successful Ebay Business

1 - Become an Ebay Shopper

Buy a Few things on Ebay. Learn your way around. Pay for your winning Bids Promptly and get positive Feedback

2 - Register as a Reseller

Go to the EBay Web Page and Register as a Reseller

3 - Take a Class

Ebay Offers online Classes starting at $19.95 and up http://pages.ebay.com/education/ebayuniversityonline/

Ebay also Offers Classes in a Live Seminar Format http://pages.ebay.com/university/

4 - Practice

Find something around the house you no longer want. Some Old Jewelery, a Game your child outgrew, that Gown you bought on sale and never wore, the Special addition Rubik's Cube. One man's junk is another man's Treasure.

5 - What to Sell

Sell something you enjoy. If you enjoy what you are doing you more then likely will be more successful. Sell what you know. If you couldn't spot a Rolex from a Timex you don't want to be selling watches.

6 - Create Your Ad

Use Keyword rich text in your ads so they will be picked up by search engines. Make sure your text is people Friendly and People Readable

7 - Picture

You need a Picture with your ad. If you are serious about selling on Ebay you will need a good Digital Camera, Don't skimp. A 4 Mega Pixal camera is Good a 5 Mega Pixal Camera is Better. All things being Equal between 2 Ads the one with the best pictures will get the Best Bids.

8 - Payment Options

It is always best to have lot's of Payment Options, Paypal, Credit Cards, Money Orders. If 2 Auctions are the same the one with the most flexible payment options will get the best bids

9 - Shipping

Make sure you pack your items well. Research shipping options and pricing and list them in your Auction, Offer insurance as an Option and charge the actual cost.

10 - Feedback

Always give your Buyers Feedback especially if it is positive. After you give positive feedback request positive feedback in return.

Good Luck and Happy Ebaying

Buying & Selling Gently Used Baby Clothing, Strollers, Toys, and Other Baby Items & Products on eBay

2007-10-04T03:13:00.002-07:00

Buying & Selling Gently Used Baby Clothing, Strollers, Toys, and Other Baby Items & Products on eBay

Need Extra Money? Buy and Sell Your Gently Used Baby Clothing, Car Seats, Strollers, Toys, Books and Products on eBay!

Hi Moms,

So, you had your precious baby, and you couldn't resist -- all of those cute and beautiful baby dresses, rompers, suits, jean sets, christening gowns, onesies and unique designer baby clothes (like Tommy Hilfiger) that called to you when you were in the Gap, Old Navy, Osh Kosh or Little Me. Not to mention the countless baby clothes that relatives gave you that weren't quite your style, or too big or too small for your baby and still have the price tags on them, never worn.

Well, if you have these baby clothes taking up lots of space in various closets and dressers around the house and thought you would just have to take a loss on these baby items, think again! There is a thriving used baby goods market on eBay, the world's biggest yard sale, garage sale and online auction. If you've got a used baby item, chances are you can sell it on eBay. There are sections on eBay for used baby boy and baby girl clothing for each stage of your baby's life -- 0-3 months, 3-6 months, 6-9 months, 12 months, 18 months, 24 months, 2T, 3T, 4T, and 5T. Not only that, but you can also sell your maternity clothes on eBay too!

Have an old car seat, stroller, old or antique baby toys that aren't being used anymore? Have unused diapers, baby bottles, breast pumps or baby toys that have not been used? You can also sell these items on eBay. I have even seen listings for unused leftover birth announcements! I'm telling you, if you've got it, you can sell it on eBay.

Best of all, the process for listing your baby items is easy. All you need to do is sign up to be a seller (it's free), take photos of your items and post them, write a description and you're in business.

Now that we've talked about the benefits of selling your baby clothes online, let's talk about the other side of the coin, buying gently used baby clothes and baby items online. Just as you are selling nice gently used baby clothes, other moms around the country are selling their baby clothes and baby items at bargain prices. Since babies and kids grow so quickly, buying used baby clothes and even used car seats, high chairs and strollers can be a great way to get nice beautiful clothes and baby accessories and save money at the same time. Buying used baby items is just as simple as selling them, if not simpler. Just sign up as a buyer (its free also), search eBay for the baby item you would like and place a bid. Don't want to wait for an auction to end or really want that baby item you see? Search eBay for items with the "Buy It Now" logo and you can just select the baby item and pay for it outright. It's just that simple.

Ready to start buying or selling or even just want to see what's online? Even if you don't want to bid on, buy or sell anything now, you can register on eBay for free (it only takes 2 minutes) so when you want to sell in the future, you'll be all set! The registration process is quick and easy. Visit selling-on-ebay.htm (or click on the link at the end of this article) for more details.

7 Steps to Easier EBay Shipping

2007-10-04T03:13:00.001-07:00

7 Steps to Easier EBay Shipping

If you're like me, you probably hate packing and shipping the things you sell on eBay.

Don't get me wrong, I love selling on eBay. I just don't like the shipping part. I find it monotonous to hunt for boxes, wrap the items, drive back and forth from the post office, and all the other steps involved in shipping.

Then there's the waiting for the buyer to receive the item. Has it arrived yet? Did it get damaged in shipping?

It took me a lot of trial and error to figure them out, but the following 7 steps will help make your job easier when it comes to shipping, as well as get rid of the stress of waiting for the item to be delivered to the buyer.

1. Professional Wrapping

When you wrap your item(s), wrap it professionally in nice, clean tissue paper. If breakable, be sure the item is wrapped with bubble wrap as well. Include a business card with your website information, name, address, or a printed statement showing the item(s) name, item(s) number, price paid, and a small hand-written note thanking the buyer for their purchase.

2. Insurance

Insurance is usually a good idea but in general, it should be an optional feature, with the decision left to the buyer. Remember two important things about insurance. First, insurance is VERY inexpensive. Therefore, in your description, you should state how much insurance would cost and recommend it. Second, you should also state in the description that if insurance is not purchased, you are not responsible for lost or damaged items.

3. Weighing

In order to provide accurate details and help in determining shipping costs, you need to know exact weights. The best option, which will save you many unnecessary trips to the post office, is to purchase a inexpensive quality scale for weighing your packages.

4. Postage

Instead of always running out of stamps or having to run to the post office to ship a smaller item, fill out the information located at stamps.com where you can print stamps directly from your home computer.

5. Post Office Freebies

If you use the Priority Mail option through your post office, they will provide all your supplies for free. This includes boxes, labels, and tape. Best of all, they deliver all these supplies directly to your door. Get them at your local post office or go to USPS.com request mailing supplies.

6. Ship-To Locations

Be sure to consider where you will ship to carefully. You will have buyers from around the world but you can limit where you will ship. Some people prefer to ship to the US, Canada, and European countries while others ship anywhere. The option is completely yours but keep in mind that there are some differences in how you wrap the package, the currency exchanges, and communication barriers between you and the buyer.

7. Delivery Confirmation

Unfortunately, some buyers will try to say they paid for an item but never received the auction item(s). When shipping, you should consider using delivery confirmation. This service is generally inexpensive and can end up saving you a ton, especially if the item(s) is higher priced.

Do yourself a favor and put these tips into action - you'll save yourself both time and hassles. Use the time you save to get more listings up, and watch your eBay income grow.

Top Secret Ebay Powerseller Technique: Classifieds Produce Auction Power

2007-10-04T03:12:00.002-07:00

Top Secret Ebay Powerseller Technique: Classifieds Produce Auction Power

I was browsing through all of the classified sections, and stumbled on Wanted to Buy. I noticed that people were placing ads for items they wanted to purchase. Great! I could do this! The whole eBay market place was a complete turnaround from normal retail where you spend a huge amount of money to bring a customer to a brick and mortar store. The buyers are always there, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. You just have to get the product at a good price.

Before I even place an ad in the local paper I will use the eBay search tab to see if there is any demand for the product I am targeting. I purchased some used dss satellite receiver equipment from a local garage sale for $10/each. I went to eBay and typed in the make and model number. This looked good! The search indicated that the receivers alone went for $60 to $90, depending on the make and model. I then checked completed auctions for dss satellite equipment. I saw that the remote controls were selling for $15-$19, and then I saw people sell the access cards separately for $90-$185 . That meant that I could make up to $250 per complete system.

Jackpot! - I was really excited!! I placed a classified ad in the Wanted to Buy section stating "Cash for used DSS satellite equipment". I ran the ad every Sunday, and would average 6-8 calls per week. This resulted in 5 satellite systems I could break down into components with an average of $200 profit on each system. Utilizing ads is a great way to get a steady stream of hot products to sell on eBay. Many of my students have implemented this technique for a great monthly revenue stream.

I was very successful using this approach, and I didn't have to go to the garage sales, etc to find product. With a $9 ad, people would call me wanting to sell their items. Now, that is a great system!

Another classified ad success story, and there are many: Sue E from Montana used one of the eBay hot products categories I supplied - VHS Concert Videos. She placed a $9 classified ad in the Wanted to Buy section listing "Cash paid for VHS Concert Videos". Sue's average cost for the tapes is $4, and she normally is able to buy several. The selling price for each tape ranges between $29-$89 on eBay depending on the artist. Wow! Sue is a stay at home mom with three kids. She spends a few hours a week doing this and brings in $300-$500 per month.

3 Unusual Formats For Auctions on EBay

2007-10-04T03:12:00.001-07:00

3 Unusual Formats For Auctions on EBay

eBay users are accustomed to only two "standard" formats for sales on eBay: either the 'regular' auction which involves bidding and waiting; and the Buy It Now, which is an instant purchase.

But there are three other formats that are less well known.

1. Live Auctions

Before eBay, the traditional auction included live bodies in chairs and an auctioneer up front (talking so fast he was frequently unintelligible). Any buyer can still participate in these live auctions via eBay. Live auctions are a hybrid - a buyer is 'sort of' present in a live setting yet is at home using an Internet connection.

The products for sale are usually expensive and unusual. There are such items as expensive and unique coins, Asian art, native American artifacts, incredible jewelry, costly furniture, memorabilia from major sports stars and even history. Today, for instance, there are documents signed by John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, James Madison and Ulysses Grant (he confides that he was strenuously opposed to the "wicked" war with Mexico).

If you choose to participate in a live auction, be certain that you register first because you can't just drop in on a whim.

You can find all the details here: http://www.ebayliveauctions.com

2. Private Auctions

Private auctions are similar to the typical auction that we're all familiar with except for one detail - the identities of the bidders are kept secret. Only the seller has access to the names.

Why would anyone create a private auction? It's usually for one of three reasons:

* The item is quite expensive and buyers might be uncomfortable having others know they can afford such merchandise. Their concern about their financial status is most likely misplaced because it is quite possible to distance yourself from eBay contact information, but much of selling is about perception.

* The buyers might be embarrassed by the nature of the merchandise.

* Some sellers habitually use private auctions to make it harder for their competition to snoop on them.

3. Restricted Access Auctions

This is usually for sales of "adult" items. The main purpose is to prevent children from seeing this kind of merchandise, and is similar to having covers on racy magazines at store checkouts.

To bid on these items, the buyer must:

* Be 18 years old

* Must have supplied credit card information to eBay.The theory is that no one under 18 can get a credit card and therefore cannot get into these sections.

* Agree that he is voluntarily accessing restricted access auctions

In addition, restricted auctions are excluded from the Featured pages. So if you are a seller using this format, your listing will be harder to find.

Even though they are less well known, these three formats for auctions on eBay still account for tens of millions of dollars in sales each year. If they suit your business model, you might consider them.

Make Money on eBay the EASY way!

2007-10-04T03:11:00.002-07:00

Make Money on eBay the EASY way!

Probably just like you, I had an overwhelming desire to spend more time with my family and friends, doing the things that are important to me and living a comfortable lifestyle without financial worries ? and yes, less time working to pay for it!!!

So with my quest to find financial freedom, I "googled" my way through searches looking for ideas on how I could fulfil this desire with minimum effort and expense. After all, I wanted to make money not spend it! I had aspirations of making wad loads of cash so my family & I could truly enjoy the pleasures of life - together.

Now I've been involved with eBay for a number of years and enjoyed the success and extra incidental profits from selling our own surplus & bought items but never really considered that we could substantially make money on eBay alone. So when I stumbled across some websites claiming to be able to do just that, I was intrigued.

This could very well be the best home business money making opportunity to have evolved in the past 50 years ... possibly ever! eBay is one of the fastest growing companies in history. This in itself presents the opportunity for anyone to step right into a massive marketplace of over 47 million enthusiastic buyers and make money on eBay. With this kind of unlimited exposure for under a dollar, I thought ANYONE can launch a profitable home based business starting from scratch! So why not me?

Greatly excited by what I had discovered, I began to see my enjoyment for eBay as no longer a hobby but an amazing opportunity to fulfil our dreams and accomplish them with something I actually love to do ? eBay!!!

Ok, so I settled by what means I wanted to achieve success but how would I go from being an occasional seller to being a high profit powerseller making serious money on eBay? I needed more information but I really did not want to pay for it.

You see, I was a "freebie seeker". I was prepared to scour the vastness of the internet to find the "secrets of success" without monetary expense. Ironically though, I ended up spending all that "precious time" I was trying to save, searching and implementing instead. Hundreds of others had quit their jobs and were making a killing with their own home based business and so I was driven to find out how they did it - website after website after website, day after day after day ? before I knew it, I'd spent a couple of months day and night trying desperately to piece it all together.

What was I thinking?! ? Wasn't the whole idea that I wanted to spend less time working and more time with my loved ones enjoying life!!! .. SO what happened?

I lost the plot! Along the way I saw a number of quality informative websites offering all the "secrets" for a reasonable cost that I could access instantly but I fooled myself into thinking I could find out all this information easily and without spending a dime. I continued to muffle my way through copious amounts of information and found bits and pieces, tips and suggestions for making money on eBay I thought I could use, but for the record, I made many mistakes along the way which cost me even more precious time.

So what have I learned? Well, actually I've learnt a great deal about how to make money on eBay but I've also gotten wiser! No longer am I prepared to sacrifice my precious commodity of time for the sake of saving a small amount of money (which incidentally, I would make back promptly by following the expert's examples). If I find a resource I truly believe will be of benefit, I will happily purchase it to instantly get the information I need and make it work for me pronto.

My recommendation to you is to forget the notion of relying solely on freebie information and learn firsthand from the experts who have tweaked their knowledge & wealth with years of experience and tried and tested practices who are ready to reveal their eBay secrets to success.

With so many interested people, it's no wonder many eBayers make their living from home by buying & selling items on eBay. An instant home business is right at your fingertips because eBay is the easiest way to start making money immediately from your own home! This is a real business opportunity but the level of success you achieve will be determined by learning the secrets & sources of those making a killing on eBay ... The eBay Experts!

Don't make the same mistakes I made ? There are many shady guides on making money on eBay, most of them written by people who don't make money on eBay themselves. They're basically book reports (knock-offs or just plain plagiarisms) of the few legitimate "goldmine" guides out there. Now much wiser and finally privy to these expert's secrets, we've put together a list of resources at our website that we consider are the *best* and are bestsellers - separating the wheat from the chaff.

You don't have to reinvent the wheel. The key is to copy what is already working. Find out what IS working for these experts and copy what they do. It's amazing that more people are not already doing this.

~ Are you ready? ... You really could be the next "eBay Success Story".

5 Sure-Fire Ways to Make More Money on EBay

2007-10-04T03:11:00.001-07:00

5 Sure-Fire Ways to Make More Money on EBay

Have you ever dealt with a salesperson or a waiter who gave you unbelievably good service? How about someone who didn't seem to care about you one bit?

Which of those people would you go back to the next time you needed to make another purchase or eat another meal?

I'm willing to bet you would go back to the business or person who gave you great service. Have you ever considered that this same principle applies to your eBay sales?

One of the easiest ways to get more sales on eBay is to make every buyer think "Wow, I've never had such a good experience buying on eBay!"

Once someone has bought from you and had a good experience, they're much more likely to buy from you again. They already know they can trust you, you ship quickly, your descriptions are clear and honest, and all the other things buyers wonder about when dealing with an unknown seller.

Use the following 5 tips and watch your repeat business go through the roof...

1. Quick Response

When you have an item listed on eBay and a potential buyer contacts you with a question, respond quickly. It's important, and actually critical to your success to check your email several times a day. Answering a question quickly could be the difference between you getting the sale or the buyer going elsewhere.

2. Accurate Listings

When you list your items on eBay, write an accurate description. You don't have to write long paragraphs or rambling information, but provide exact measurements, colors, condition, etc. Be honest and precise when it comes to your description.

3. Buyer Contact

Once your items have sold, be responsive to the buyer. Contact them as quickly as possible after the auction has ended, thank them for their purchase and provide the required information for payment.

4. Sending Items

In your description, provide accurate details regarding shipment. Make sure the items are sent within the time you stated. In many cases, people purchase something for a specific purpose and if you don't ship it when stated, not only do you mess up their schedule but you have probably lost a customer and opened the door for negative feedback.

5. Shipping & Handling

You should always charge actual shipping costs, or at most a little extra to cover the cost of your shipping materials. There are a number of shipping calculators that can be added to your description so people can calculate their own shipping. Another option is to state that you will provide actual shipping at the end of the auction, based on the destination. Overcharging your customers for shipping and handling is frowned upon and will often result in unhappy customers.

It's always a good idea to include a thank-you note with every item that you ship. It can be on a business card or something larger, whatever you prefer.

Of course your thank-you note will also include the address to your eBay listings and a friendly reminder for your customer to check back regularly for more of your great deals and exceptional customer service...

How To Find Tons of Hot Items Selling On EBay ...In Less Than 10 Minutes

2007-10-04T03:10:00.000-07:00

How To Find Tons of Hot Items Selling On EBay ...In Less Than 10 Minutes

There are many ways to start a home business online, and few are easier than eBay - the world's largest online auction site. However, there is one critical condition - you have to know what to sell and how to sell it. That is exactly what David Guindon's software program Hot Item Finder claims to do.

After purchasing the software, I had huge hopes of it delivering on it's promise of finding hot items on eBay. Though there were times when certain features would not work, I found Dave to be quick to not only fix the problem but also offer a new updated release for everyone. In fact free updates for life is one of the major benefits to Hot Item Finder.

You may not have heard of David Guindon. Currently working on a master's degree in electrical engineering, he developed Hot Item Finder to aid his own eBay research. Since then he's gone on to earn a reputation for quality and creativity.

Hot Item Finder makes doing research on eBay a snap by allowing you to search for products by keyword or category and then filter the search based on the number of bids, the current price, and more. But what I especially like is the category search by completed listings. I can pick a category, tell the software that I want auctions already completed with 20 or more bids and voila! I have a hot list of products I know are selling as well as links to the completed auctions so I can see what makes them sell so well.

Dave promises on his website that you can "find all the hot items on eBay in minutes." Well, it may take just a little longer than "minutes" but I created lists of products amazingly fast.

I will say, it took me a few tries to get the hang of the software, but after playing around with it I was moving around like a pro. I have no doubt that anyone, regardless of experience, can use Hot Item Finder to it's fullest potential and find out exactly what to sell and what to steer clear of.

I think the filtering feature is what really makes Hot Item Finder powerful. Frankly, you can find all the same information on eBay, but that can be very tedious and labor-intensive. Simply being able to filter out items based on bids and selling price is a huge time-saver. This software tells you what's selling, for how much and what people are willing to bid. It's fantastic marketing intelligence. I used it to auction 18 items. All 18 sold with double-digit bids and closed within 5% of my target price range. I was hooked.

One improvement I think that can be made, however, is somehow listing the starting bid along with the closing bid. This way, as a seller you can quickly see how effective some listing strategies are over others. But who's being picky?

Finding the right products to sell on eBay is obviously critical to success. Sifting through thousands of auctions at eBay to find a few winners can be overwhelming and possibly discouraging. Hot Item Finder makes the job the proverbial "piece of cake" - and does it with style. You can check it out by going to . Overall, I have to say that Hot Item Finder is an absolute MUST GET.

Hopefully one day, Dave will figure out a way to make Hot Item Finder even more explosive by somehow including other auction sites such as Yahoo Auctions and Amazon Auctions. Until then, Hot Item Finder more than fits the bill.

The International Affiliate Program of EBay

2007-10-04T03:09:00.002-07:00

The International Affiliate Program of EBay

eBay trades in more than 33 international countries with over 157 registered users worldwide with 75 million based in the USA and 10 million in the UK.

eBay's affiliate program must be the mother of all affiliate programs as far as size and potential scope for earning an income through promoting other peoples items. Essentially this is what the program is, an affiliate program which works no differently to any other affiliate program.

The only thing that is slightly different is the angle of things. Normally a company offers a product for sale and you sign up to their affiliate program to promote the item for which you get paid a commission for each sale.

Essentially eBay's affiliate program is no different except that with eBay, instead of having one or two items to promote you actually have 55 million items to choose from at any one time as this is the number of auctions running on eBay continuously.

So, the trick of this game and to make some money out of it is to choose the category that you wish to promote, maybe you belong to a forum that deals in antiques for example. With eBay's affiliate tool box you can set your affiliate link to send your targeted visitors from the forum you post in to the top level category, and second level category or even a specific item.

There are easy and simple ways on which to create your affiliate link to take visitors to any category or indeed any specific page on any eBay worldwide site.

To secret to making money out of this is, as always, a targeted audience. No one is going to follow a link that leads them to a product page which is of no interest to them but by offering antique collectors a link directly to a page full of items that are of interest to them or indeed a specific item then you are more likely to get more click through. All the visitor needs to so then to earn you money is to either place a bid, use the buy it now option or the bigger money maker, register with eBay before they can bid or buy.

eBay pays varying commissions according to the number of people that join, bid or buy in a one month period. They also pay different amounts according to the country of the affiliate program you are promoting. The UK and USA has some big differences in price structure and volumes.

As you can see, making an income from eBay's affiliate program is not hard or really any different from any other affiliate program except that it's actually easier.

Making Money On EBay Can Be So Simple, Just Let Somebody Else Do All The Hard Work For You

2007-10-04T03:09:00.001-07:00

Making Money On EBay Can Be So Simple, Just Let Somebody Else Do All The Hard Work For You

OK, so you've been bitten by the eBay bug!

You've ransacked the attic, the basement and every other room in your home to find things to sell on eBay.

When friends and neighbors ask you where everything has gone, you tell them that you're going for the "Minimalist Look".

You've attended every Yard Sale in the area and some a lot further away.

Now your garage is so full of junk your thinking of having a yard sale of your own, but whats the point, you'd only buy it all yourself to sell on eBay.

You love eBay and you're determined to make a good living from it.

So things will have to change.

You've sold all of your unwanted belongings.

Visiting Yard Sales is taking up all of your spare time and your income from eBay does not match the effort you're putting in.

What you really need is someone who will:-

Give you access to a product that has a good profit margin.

Stock that product for you.

Mail the product to your customer when you make a sale.

Sounds like a tall order doesn't it?

Yet this exactly what you get when you use a wholesaler who also dropships.

Dropshipping

So what exactly is Dropshipping?

Dropshipping is a way of selling and distributing products whereby the supplier of the product (the dropshipper)sends the goods directly to the end user (your customer) on the retailers behalf (thats you).

OK. So instead of constantly trying to find items from yard sales etc you simply study a list of Dropshippers and decide what product or products you would like to sell on eBay.

Quite often the Dropshipper will supply you with all the sales material you need to create your eBay Gallery Picture and eBay Sales Page.

The dropshipper stocks the product so you don't have to.

You put your chosen product up for sale on eBay, somebody buys it and eBay provides you with the buyers name and address. Now you simply contact your dropshipper and give them the name and address of your customer and the details of the product they have bought and the dropshipper will deliver it to them.

At this point you pay the dropshipper for the product.

The great thing here is that you got payed by your customer before you had to pay the dropshipper.

So your customer pays you the retail price for your product, you pay the dropshipper the wholesale price and you keep the difference as your profit in addition to saving time and effort.

Dropship Directories

Go to your favourite search engine and type in Dropship Directories and you will find that there are dozens and dozens of them to choose from.

A word of warning here. Most of these directories are a waste of time, a waste of money or both.

Quite often what you will receive, should you buy one these directories, is a list of "Middlemen" not true wholesalers.

I don't need to emphasise that you will make more money if you by direct from the wholesaler.

My first recommendation is to thoroughly check out any Dropshipping source that you might be interested in.

For example.

Can you find the product cheaper via another Dropshipper?

Are their postage and packing charges reasonable?

Do they carry ample stock of your particular choice of product/s? (There's nothing worse than selling an item only to find that your Dropshipper is out of stock and you are unable to provide your customer with the product they have paid for).

My second recommendation would be to check out the Dropshipping Companies at:-

http://www.worldwidebrands.com

To sum up.

Don't Stock It.

Don't Mail It.

Don't Pay For It, Untill You Have Been Paid.

Leave it to the Dropshippers to do that for you!

So the next time you're looking for something to sell on eBay, give some thought to using Dropshipping as a way of making you're eBay experience a whole lot easier and a whole lot more profitable.

Why Its a BAD Idea To Promote Hot Selling Products on eBay

2007-10-04T03:08:00.000-07:00

Why Its a BAD Idea To Promote Hot Selling Products on eBay

Do a quick search on Google, Yahoo, or your favorite auction resource site, and you'll quickly discover there are several software programs targeted to vendors who want to promote hot selling products on eBay.

The infatuation with hot selling products exists because sellers believe if you target items that have a robust sales pattern, you'll have a better chance at profiting on eBay. This is both true and false.

Yes... hot selling products can improve your bottom line. But unfortunately by the time the average eBay seller (a) realizes what the hot selling products are, (b) purchases stock to sell on eBay, and (c) actually puts the items up for sale, the demand is already being met by other eBay sellers who probably started the hot selling product trend some time ago.

Not only that, with thousands of people also having access to the same hot selling product lists, you'll have to contend with other eBay vendors who have the exact same ideas that you do. So you'll be up against the original sellers who are currently feeding the demand, AND doing the tango with newer sellers who have jumped on the same hot selling product bandwagon that you did.

Okay maybe this won't happen to you.

But suppose it does.

What if competition becomes so great that prices start dipping below the wholesale cost that you paid for the item? (It happens all the time on eBay.) And what if you lose $100, $200, or even $1,000 on inventory that you thought would be flying off the shelf? Suddenly that hot selling item is looking rather cold sitting in your garage collecting dust.

So if not hot selling products on eBay, then what?

Do what the majority of PowerSellers do. Sell what you want, instead of what's hot. Repeat after me, "Every day ordinary items sell extremely well on eBay... Every day ordinary items sell extremely well on eBay... Every day ordinary items sell extremely well on eBay." Allow this to become your mantra, because it is very much true.

I know this from first-hand experience as I analyze top sellers instead of hot products. And my research has continuously shown me that mediocre products don't necessarily translate into mediocre sales.

For instance, there's a seller right now who clears about $1,000-$2,000 a week selling magnets. And that's AFTER eBay and PayPal fee's. Another seller promotes homemade CD's to a specific audience and clears $900-$2,000 a week. A few sellers make $500-$700+ a week - after expenses - promoting public domain information. And the cool thing about public domain information is that anybody can sell it because it's free. So that's pure profit by selling something they never paid for. Talk about the ultimate arbitrage opportunity!

The ultimate key in succeeding no matter what product you end up selling, is to build a successful strategy. To figure out 'how' to profitably market what you have, instead of chasing after the next great thing. Because once you have the strategy part down, you can sell anything on eBay and make it a hot seller to your bank account.

6 Reasons Why an eBay Business is the Easiest and Safest Home Business to Start

2007-10-04T03:07:00.002-07:00

6 Reasons Why an eBay Business is the Easiest and Safest Home Business to Start

Calling internet auctions an "Entrepreneur's Dream" isn't poetic license or part of the get-rich-quick rhetoric. Net auctions are the simplest, easiest way on this planet for the little guy to make money.

1. NOT the typical business startup

First, the would-be entrepreneur decides on a product or service. He begs, borrows or steals the money to bring his dream into reality. Then, he faces "The Great Uncertainty" - "Where are my customers going to come from?"

With an Internet auction, your customers are already there and they will come to you! Someone else has very obligingly created an entire marketing structure for us. We need to do nothing to find, literally, MILLIONS of customers.

You don't have to go looking for musicians to buy your guitars, gamers for your games, Mothers for your kids' clothes, or collectors to buy your cars. They will come to you!

2. Start up costs? None. Zero. Zip. Nada.

Can you name any other business that has no start up costs?

Entrepreneur magazine claims that the average franchise costs $70,000! Whoa! And when you buy your franchise, what do you get with it? Oh, employees, rent, government regulations, incredible paperwork, the constant threat of lawsuits, grinding responsibility and twelve hour days. Auction sellers have no overhead, no utilities, no employees, no employee taxes and no rent.

3. Risk? What risk?

There is NO financial risk for start-up!

It is cheap, cheap, cheap to start an auction business! You never have to worry about employees, rent, costly technology or any of the other expenses that suck up the money of an netrepreneur. Somebody else has already created the system and taken all the risk.

Having an eBay consignment business, you list other people's things. Therefore, you have no merchandise costs.

Or if you decide to list cars on eBay motors for car dealers and private parties, you simply are listing vehicles they already own. Still, no upfront costs that must come out of your pocket!

Compare the cost of traditional business expenses with that of your new eBay business and there is no comparison.

The two tools that you absolutely must have to sell on eBay are a computer and access to the Internet. A digital camera helps too.

Everyone has stuff to sell, your clients will be very easy to find and unlimited.

4. It is simple to learn!

You can start your new business one day and the next, your first item can be already listed.

5. The amount of time you spend is entirely up to YOU.

You can spend an 3 hours a week... or ten hours a day... on your auction business. Your level of involvement is your decision.

Increase your level of involvement whenever you want to. Your choice. No desperation. No risk.

6. There is the FUN FACTOR (the best part)!

An eBay consignment business or eBay motors dealer assistant business lets you follow your passion, meet new people and be entertained -- all while you are "working."

Don't miss out on the greatest money-making opportunity in history. There absolutely is no easier and safer way to make money. While you read these words, someone is making money on auctions. Why aren't you?

Five Tested Ways To Find The Perfect Drop Shipper

2007-10-04T03:07:00.001-07:00

Five Tested Ways To Find The Perfect Drop Shipper

You've heard about it many times in recent months. Being the business-minded person that you are, you most probably got curious and did a few research of your own. But resources seem to be few, and what meager data you've found made you wonder even more?

Is drop shipping a fact or a myth?

I can't blame you. There are quite a lot of reasons why information about drop shipping haven't fully invaded the internet marketing scene. The few sites that promise to teach you about this novel concept are usually full of crap. Often, they don't even know the difference between a drop ship and a mother ship. They'd rather capitalize on the growing curiosity about the subject, and make a quick buck at your expense. But don't let this discourage you.

Drop shipping is real, and it's here, and it has made a number of people rich.

Those who know speak of it in hushed tones because it is a rewarding secret that they would rather keep within their circles.

Case in point: Visit an internet marketing discussion board. Look for a thread about drop shipping. You will find many posts there, but none would reveal the contact information for any drop shipper.

Why is this so?

Drop shipping is a very lucrative option. You don't have to make any financial investments. You don't have to secure a warehouse to store your products. You don't even have to worry about your buyer's location and how to ship what you're selling to his doorsteps. Drop shippers will take care of those problems.

All you have to do is to market the drop shipper's products. Sell it for a retail price, with a markup of your choice. Then, once a customer buys what you offered, you'll just simply pay the drop shipper the wholesale price of the product, and he'll take care of the rest, including shipping. There will be no middleman, thus assuring you of maximum profit.

And yes, there's no such thing as a minimum purchase.

The only problem really is: How do you find a drop shipper? Many offer their functions, but once you review their terms and conditions, you'd discover that their services hardly qualify as drop shipping.

So how do you find drop shippers? Better yet, how do you find the drop shipper that would be perfect for your needs? Here are some techniques that will surely help you in your crusade.

1. Try product sourcing first. The common mistake of people looking for drop shippers is that they're not concerned about what products they'll sell.

This shouldn't be the case. Remember, we cannot sell what we don't believe in. We just can't rely solely on what the drop shipper, if ever we find one, has to offer. We should at least have an idea of what we want to sell. Such would most certainly narrow down our search.

2. Avoid an agent.

The purpose of establishing a direct contact with a drop shipper, aside from the convenience and the win-win situation it entails, is to keep the price as low as possible. An agent, or a middleman, who would offer you means of contacting a drop shipper, would be detrimental to keeping the cost low.

Most certainly, the agent would receive a commission from your sales. This would inflate your retail price, making your offers less attractive.

3. Penetrate the circle. As mentioned earlier, people who know about drop shippers operate like a secret fraternity of marketers. Squeezing information out of them would be impossible. Well, almost impossible.

Remember the saying "if you can't beat them, join them?" This holds much truth in your search for the perfect drop shipper. Be on the lookout for someone who should know about drop shipping. Perhaps, he could be a drop shipper in disguise himself. Befriend him first before asking for his services. Chances are he'll be the first one who'll open up about his secret.

4. Know where to look. You can't find any leads on drop shippers in an online dating site, that's for sure. Try lurking in online discussion boards, particularly those which are dedicated to internet marketing.

It would be quite easy to distinguish the people who know what they're talking about from mere loudmouths. Once you've pinpointed these people, send them a friendly private message where you'll ask for help regarding a topic that is not related to drop shipping.

Thank them for their time once they reply, and assure them that you'll be there when they would ever need help. You'll be surprised how effective this method is!

5. Try credible online resources. There are indeed online sites that offer comprehensive directories of bona fide drop shippers worldwide.

This is an excellent recourse for anyone who wishes to engage such service. There is a downside, however. All, and I do mean ALL, of these reliable resources demand a membership fee. The rates range from $50 to $200. Yes, that's a clear indication of the general interest on drop shipping these days.

8 Collectible Dolls That Sell Well on eBay

2007-10-04T03:06:00.000-07:00

8 Collectible Dolls That Sell Well on eBay

From the beginning, eBay's primary growth came from the collectibles market. There are two basic models for eBay sales:

1. Currently available consumers goods. This is a price- driven model, and although smart sellers can earn above- average prices, buyers are there looking for a bargain and price is the #1 consideration.

2. Other buyers are collectors, looking for one-of-a-kind unique items that they can't locate elsewhere. Here, price isn't as important as it is with consumer goods. The power of this market is obvious because, before eBay and the Internet, most collectors were confined to a local market.

Dolls have always been big sellers as eBay collectibles and eight of them are especially strong sellers:

1. The Cabbage Patch Kids began in 1978 and are never "sold". They are 'born' at Babyland General Hospital in Cleveland, Georgia and proud parents pay an 'adoption fee'. The Cabbage Patch Kids were one of the greatest toy phenomenons of the later 20th century. At one time, it was a common sight to see grown women shopping and lunching with their babies in hand. In restaurants, the Kids had their own chairs and were always appropriately dressed for the weather.

2. Precious Moments began in the early 1970s when creator Sam Butcher began drawing the endearing teardrop-eye children as gifts for family and friends. Today Sam's Precious Moments artwork is among the most recognized in the world, and eBay prices reflect this popularity.

3. Madame Alexander dolls were created in 1923. These beloved dolls range from Charlie Brown to babies and children to elegant dressed women to glamorous and famous women like Greta Garbo and Judy Garland. With all the varieties of costumes, a single doll can be a 1920s flapper as easily as a member of the court of Louis XIV.

4. Lee Middleton dolls, according to legend, are so real in appearance that grown men sent for a rescue squad to save "the baby" from a locked car! Mistaken identity is supposedly a frequent occurrence and the dolls have been counted as "passengers" on airplanes and rescued from store countertops to prevent the 'baby' from falling. As one happy owner says, "These dolls are so lifelike it's uncanny."

5. American Girl dolls are loved by millions of little girls (and grown ups, too!) They are not only from different times and places, but are ethnically diverse: Felicity from colonial Virginia; Josephina from the 1830's in New Mexico; Kirsten is "a pioneer girl of strength and spirit growing up in Minnesota in 1854"; Addy is alive in the 186o's, having escaped from slavery with her mother; Samantha is "a bright Victorian girl living with her wealthy grandmother in 1904"; Kit is growing up in 193os, during America's Great Depression; Molly lives in the 1940's while her dad is away at war; Kaya is a Nez Perce Indian living in the northwest.

6. Hasbro dolls are one of the products of the gigantic Hasbro company, who claim to have been making toys for eight generations, including famous games like Monopoly, Scrabble and Clue.

7. Bratz dolls, unlike older dolls like Madame Alexander and Cabbage Patch Kids, have no long history as favorite toys or collectibles. Nevertheless, their price has astonished eBay sellers and the Bratz collection was one of the 'super hits' of the 2003 holiday season and sales have been strong ever since.

8. And, no surprise, Barbie is the best-selling doll on eBay. Since Mattel has recently announced that Ken and Barbie will no longer be an "item", dolls from the 'good old days' when the name "Barbie" was rarely heard without 'Ken', will inevitably become more valuable.

Anyone who loves and understands the doll market, can do very well selling dolls on eBay. They've been strong sellers for the 10 years eBay has been in existence and are almost certain to remain popular for years to come.

Royal Memorabilia -Smart Trading and Fake Dodging

2007-10-04T03:05:00.002-07:00

Royal Memorabilia -Smart Trading and Fake Dodging

This is my second article about trading royal memorabilia on eBay and other online auctions. We're going to explore just what items are really tradable, how and where to find your stock and mention some definite pitfalls to avoid.

As you already know, a vast range of products has been produced to commemorate royalty. You could decide to specialise in silver, plates, dolls, stamps, books, coins, jewellery, postcards, mugs, tea towels, glass, tins / boxes for confectionery, photographs, T-shirts, paintings, newspapers, videos, royal trading cards and I'm sure you can also think of other categories. The list is extensive.

The more popular items have been produced in great numbers, so they're often easy to find and moderately priced. This means that you can quickly create a varied assortment of collectibles without having to spend too much. But in the long run, the most desirable and highest appreciating items have tended to be pottery/china, tins/boxes and glassware.

You need to be selective about what you trade. Items decorated with a royal portrait are more likely to attract good buyer interest than those without. If there is also an inscription, giving the name, date, special occasion etc, then this will also improve its saleability.

Remember too that the more substantial and permanent the item, the better chance it has of selling. Generally, items of pottery, china, glass are more sought after then say cloth or paper items such as photographs and autographs.

If you can, try to deal with memorabilia that already has a 'second chance' profit factor. For example, a Wedgwood or Royal Worcester commemorative plate or mug is already valuable purely from a manufacturers' viewpoint. The royal connection can simply add that extra icing on the profit cake!

So, where do we source our royal memorabilia?

For a start, have a good look around your own home. You might get a pleasant surprise at just what you can find. Charles and Diana items from 1981 are now beginning to rise in value and most of us bought something to commemorate this royal event. So check your cupboards, attic and garden shed.

Also, ask your friends and relatives if they have any items they want to sell. You could buy them for resale or consider selling them on their behalf through your online auction account. If nothing else, you can gain some valuable selling experience and a 'feel' for this market.

It's also a good idea to have a search around eBay itself and other auction sites for items. You can buy on one site, hopefully at a bargain price, and then relist on another and make a quick profit.

I've found that British royal items tend to sell better on eBay.com but for slightly less on eBay.co.uk. Using the other national sites tends to produce a poor response with very few bids.

If you have decided to trade in the more expensive, quality items (fine china, food boxes, glass etc) then offline auctions and antique shops can be a good source for stock. Offline auctions would be my preference as you have more chance of a bargain. A good antique dealer tends to know the value of his stock so the opportunity for buying at the 'right' price is more limited.

The saying 'Knowledge is Power' is definitely true in your stock hunting. It's always preferable to specialise, so that when an item appears in an offline auction, you have a realistic idea of what it's worth. You can then use your in depth knowledge to buy at the best price and then make a good profit from your online sale.

Of course, don't forget your local junk shops, jumble sales, car boot sales, garage sales and charity shops in your search for stock. Bargains can still be found especially items relating to the present British Queen and the late Princess Diana. I recently bought a biscuit tin with a lid portrait of Prince Philip for just a £1 in a charity shop. It dated from around 1955 and I sold it for a very nice profit. Bargains are still to be found out there.

And a good tip when trading royal collectibles is to choose an area that is interesting and appeals to you. You can very quickly become an 'expert' in your own field and easily spot potential when trawling the junk and second hand shops. If you buy interesting items in good condition then a profitable sale is almost guaranteed.

Are there items you should definitely watch out for?

Memorabilia associated with King George III and the early reign of Queen Victoria are valuable if you can find them. Only a few items were produced to commemorate Victoria's coronation and the royal births. Not many have survived so prices can be high. A Queen Victoria coronation mug can easily demand £800 plus depending upon condition. So keep your eyes open!

Is there a down side in dealing in royal memorabilia?

Well, if you decide to get involved, you must be aware that there are many fakes and reproductions. This is especially true of the more impermanent items such as letters, cards, photographs and autographs. Items related to Princess Diana are a particular favourite of the unscrupulous forger and she is reported to be the 'most faked' royal ever with large quantities of bogus letters, autographs and signed photographs in existence.

So how can you safeguard against being duped?

Knowledge, research and common sense are your best defence. In the case of autographs, you can easily compare signatures and similar items with each other. Printed signatures are easily spotted, as they are sharp and distinct. Real signatures will often 'bleed' - the ink runs slightly from the stroke of the pen. This certainly helps you to check whether that royal signature is genuine or just a facsimile.

As a general rule, take care when you buy and do your homework if you intend to spend a lot of money. And the legal maxim -'Buyer Beware' - just about sums up the attitude you should adopt when searching for your royal items.

In my final article about royal memorabilia, I will be discussing the importance of selecting the right category for your listing so that you get the best prices for your items. And I'll also mention several useful websites to help you become more effective as a royal memorabilia trader.

Until then, wishing you every success.

With 30 years of business experience, online auctions and information marketing have now become my passion. I'm still learning and happy to help others if I can.

Search... Search... Search Your Way To eBay Cash!

2007-10-04T03:05:00.001-07:00

Search... Search... Search Your Way To eBay Cash!

One of the most valuable things in life is the ability to learn a skill. One of my dad's favorite sayings was "You can give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, or you can teach a man to fish and he will never go hungry." This can be applied to searching on eBay.

The main things I search for when I am mining Internet gold is by Product Title or Listing as it is called; but you need to remember that we always want to view Completed Auctions. It doesn't matter if a computer is listed at $1, and there are 2 days left...that information doesn't help us. We need cold, hard facts of what that computer sold for, how much it sold for and who bought it; and this is available to you on Completed Auctions. Many times when I search by a product and see that it is a hot seller, I will then check for the top sellers of that product. Then I check the sellers other auctions.

Very Important - Successful eBay Sellers Are Just That For A Reason! They know the tricks and techniques that get those sales. View all the items and incorporate your own ideas to make your sales successful. Don't reinvent the wheel. Your goal is to Make Fast Cash! Clone what works, and integrate them with your own ideas. Use the following guidelines as an aid in your search:

1. When do the "hot sellers list?

2. What starting prices do they use?

3. What is the wording in their ads?

4. What is the duration of their auctions ( 3, 5 or 7 day auctions)

Eliminate trial and error. Concentrate on successful power sellers. With all of this information at your fingertips you need to realize that you don't need to be an expert in any product you want to sell. Focus on hot, selling products and the techniques the top eBay sellers use to sell them.

Game Theory, Nobel Prize, & Auctions - Auction Primer Series - Part 1

2007-10-04T03:03:00.000-07:00

Game Theory, Nobel Prize, & Auctions - Auction Primer Series - Part 1

William Vickrey, highly regarded as the founder of auction theory, was an economics professor at Columbia University when he published two papers outlining his views on auctions:

"Counterspeculation, Auctions, and Competitive Sealed Tenders", 1961, Journal of Finance

"Auction and Bidding Games", 1962, Recent Advances in Game Theory

In 1996 he received a Nobel Prize "for fundamental contributions to the economic theory of incentives under asymmetric information." It's important to understand that asymmetric information is an essential component of auctions, where potential buyers have varying levels of knowledge about the value of the item.

Although Vickrey considered his work on auctions as "one of my digressions into abstract economics, at best of minor significance in terms of human welfare", to those of us who work with online auctions, much of what he outlined is useful to understanding our marketplace.

Vickrey identified 4 general types of auctions:

English
Dutch
First-price sealed bid
Second-price sealed bid

English Auctions
The most common type of auction is the English Auction, although it may also be known as an ascending price auction. In ascending price auctions each subsequent bid is higher than the previous one. This is the most popular type of auction for single items.

Although traditional ascending price auctions use a "soft close" format - where bidding continues until a final bid is placed, the majority of today's on-line auction sites use the "hard close" format - also known as a 'time interval" auction having a set time limit, regardless of ongoing bidding. It's important to note that in a "soft close" format, bid snipping, that is bidding during the last few seconds or minutes on an item, is eliminated since the auction stays open as long as bids are being made.

In an attempt to minimize bid snipping and provide more of a "soft close" characteristic to their "hard close" auctions, eBay allows bidders to use "proxy bidding". In proxy bidding, a bidder enters the highest price they are willing to pay for an item when they first bid. The bid begins at the lowest possible level and increases automatically only if their original lowest bid has been beaten. For more in-depth information on the "proxy bidding capability on eBay go here.

Amazon.com currently offers a feature for their auctions called "Going, Going, Gone." The Going, Going, Gone" feature extends the end of an auction for 10 minutes if a bid is placed effectively creating a "soft close". For more information on the "Going, Going, Gone" feature on Amazon go here.

From the buyers standpoint a "hard close" format is preferable since they may be able to make a final bid before others can react, possibly winning the auction at a lower price.

For sellers, a "soft close" format provides an opportunity to realize the maximum price for an item by removing the time restrictions for an auction. As long as bidders are bidding the auction remains open.

Dutch Auctions
As you may have guessed, the concept of the Dutch auction originates in the Netherlands. Unlike English auctions which utilize ascending price methods, Dutch auctions are descending price auctions and are commonly used when multiples of the same items are to be auctioned. In a Dutch auction the bidding starts at a relatively high price which is driven progressively downward by bids.

As an example of a Dutch auction let's say you had 10 items you wanted to sell for $20 each.

Bidder A bids $18 for 6 items
Bidder B bids $17 for 5 items
The final result is:
Bidder A would receive 6 items for $17 each
Bidder B would receive 4 items for $17 each

Please note that most Dutch auctions allow bidders to refuse an order for a lesser number of items than what they bid on. A "soft" or "hard close" format may be used in Dutch auctions although the most common is the "hard close".

First-price Sealed Bid Auctions
Sealed bid auctions differ from the English and Dutch in as much as the bids are not announced to other bidders. The individual bid is only know to the bidder and the seller. This type of auction may be either buyer-bid, where the highest bidder wins the item and pays the amount of their bid, or seller-bid, where the lowest bidder sells the item and is paid the amount of the bid. This form of auction is common for construction contracting, military procurement, foreign exchanges, and other types of goods.

Second-price Sealed Bid Auctions
Another common name for second-price sealed bid auctions is Vickrey auctions (named after William Vickrey) There is a slight variation to the first-price auction for Vickery auctions. In a buyer-bid auction the highest bidder buys the item and pays the amount of the second highest bid. Or in a seller-bid auction, the lowest bidder sells the item and is paid the amount of the second lowest bid.

The above descriptions provide a general overview of the most popular auction types in use today. Depending on the auction website these general categories may include a number of variations and options such as reserve pricing, open or closed venue, multiple items, fixed price and lot listings to mention a few. Before entering any particular type of auctions make sure you study and understand the rules for that specific type of auction, as the rules may vary from website to website.

Affordable Online Car Auctions

2007-10-04T03:02:00.002-07:00

Affordable Online Car Auctions

Still hunting for the car of your dreams? Public car auctions online are becoming a happy hunting ground for car aficionados for they bring you a huge selection of affordable cars in various models at unbelievable prices.

With online car auctions you can buy a new car at prices, which are quite less than the manufacturer's price in the retail showroom. You can buy a car at price that you can afford. Automobile auctions have car prices which are among the most affordable and there are all kinds of options available to suit every kind of budget.

For instance, you can find all kinds of auto auctions online - from recreational vehicle auctions to buying used cars on line. Buying used cars online is a win-win situation for you for you can find cars that are practically new in their look and feel but have prices far less than the new ones. Some of the vehicles listed in internet vehicle auctions are still under factory warranty.

Internet auto auctions is open to the people residing anywhere. Online auto bidding auctions include quality vehicles, used luxury and economy cars and even for car parts and accessories.

Buying car of your dreams at affordable prices gives you immense joy. To make your dream a reality, all you have to do is review all the listed cars in the internet vehicle auctions sites. Most online car auctions try their best to ensure that the cars, which are listed for online public auto auctions are high-quality, well-maintained vehicles. You can decide how much you would like to spend after referring to the catalogues, which have a huge selection of cars in different categories.

But always keep in the mind that our public car auctions online do not give you a GUARANTEE or imply a WARRANTY of any type, kind, or nature on any purchase so make sure you know what you are bidding on.

This is a wholesale exchange between, you, the buyer, and the seller, this is not a retail used car showroom. Please make certain that you are comfortable buying in the "AS IS/Where IS" arena - you will be held financially responsible for any bids tendered.

If you are on the hunt to buy your dream car, visit Auctions4Wheels.com for some truly affordable online car auctions. Registration is FREE with this auction site. You can choose to place a bid and if successful you will receive a confirmation message. If your bid fails to outbid the current high bidder you will be offered the option to place a higher bid.

Tips on How to Profit from eBay Buy It Now Auction Listings

2007-10-04T03:02:00.001-07:00

Tips on How to Profit from eBay Buy It Now Auction Listings

eBay is an online auction site so it stands to reason that most users will tend to auction off their items aiming to get a high price.

The problem with auctioning items is that eBay can be a very fickle place, one week an item may sell for hundreds of pounds but the next week the same item may sell for pennies.

Your success rate on eBay is affected by the number of people who are willing, and able, to bid large amounts on your items. If the buyers can't, for some reason, bid high amounts on one particular auction, you run the risk of losing money.

There is no way of telling when an item will sell for a high amount. If there was, there would be many more very successful eBayers out there.

One way you can almost guarantee you will sell an item for a good price is to use a Buy It Now (BIN) listing.

In order to use BINs successfully, you have to get the price right. Too high and it will not sell. Too low and it will be bought almost immediately, probably by a competitor who will relist it to try and profit from your mistake.

So, how can you use a BIN listing to profit?

If you've got a good idea how much the item is worth, list it for that price as a BIN. If you don't know how much it is worth, try searching for it in the Completed Listings searches.

In my case, I was quite successful selling DVDs with BIN listings. I simply searched for the DVD I was selling in the completed listings section, sorted by Highest Price and then listed my item at the highest price I could find which had sold.

At times, I also added a little more to the price. Why? Because the great benefit of BIN listings is that impatient buyers can get them almost immediately without having to wait for an auction to end and without running the risk of losing out to another bidder.

If you cannot find the item in the completed listings section or it is very rare and you are unsure of the value, list the item with a very high (almost ridiculous) price. Any potential buyers will find the item, provided you have listed it correctly.

Let the listing run for the full 10 days; it is a very good idea to always use 10 day BIN listings as you pay the same price as a 1, 3, 5 or 7 day listing and get more coverage.

If the item doesn't sell, don't be tempted to drop the price or auction it off. Too many people do this and lose money. Remember, patience is a virtue.

Instead, list it again but this time add more text to the description telling viewers that you are open to offers. You may well find that someone will contact you through the "Ask Seller a Question" link offering you a quick payment if you are prepared to sell for £x.

If the offer is not good enough, reply to the sender and politely refuse but suggest a price you would be willing to sell for.

On the other hand, if you are holding out for the maximum you have already specified, tell them why and justify your answer. You may well find that they relent.

At the end of the day, if you do have a high value item then it will cost you a maximum of £2 per listing. Each time you place it on eBay you are attracting more potential buyers. This means that you can have your item available to billions of potential bidders for 100 days for a reasonable £20.

And, when a buyer finally comes and offers the correct asking price, you will not have lost much whatsoever if it is a high value item.

One point to remember; if you give up and auction the item off or sell at a lower price, you may well find you sell it to someone who will actually do the above and profit from your mistake.

Get More for Your Money Shopping for Designer Shoes on eBay

2007-10-04T03:01:00.000-07:00

Get More for Your Money Shopping for Designer Shoes on eBay

The worlds online market place.

In just a few short years eBay has become a household name and millions of people are registered users benefiting from the enormous variety of auctions listed every day.

A store selling womens shoes was recently reported as being one of the largest eBay stores. Whether you search in an eBay store or by auction listing you will discover that womens shoes are there for the taking; page upon page of mostly new or nearly new shoes.

One of the biggest comments women have about shopping for designer shoes online is the price. Some online stores stocking designer brands can command high prices for their products yet still remain competitive. Designer price tags can sometimes be just too pricey and this is where eBay plays a role.

Designer items in general are extremely profitable on eBay. It all comes down to the price.

Designer items always sell for less than their retail value.

The search options through the eBay auctions makes it easy to bag yourself a pair of designer shoes at the last minute for three quarters of the price you would pay for them in a retail outlet.

Many of the top internet shoe stores do offer designer shoes at very reasonable prices but over the last few years women are able to dress themselves in higher fashion labels such as Dior, Gucci, Prada and Jimmy Choo. eBay makes this possible by offering the medium to sell womens designer shoes at heavily discounted prices.

Surprisingly, despite the price competition evident on eBay for designer shoes buyers are still bidding heavily and demand is still strong. It is often common when competing on price to completely price items out of the market. However, due to the sheer demand for designer items on eBay sellers and store owners can continue to enjoy profitable sales on womens designer shoes and other designer items.

If you are thinking of looking yourself for designer shoes on eBay I have some really useful tips to make sure you get what you want and pay the right price for them.

Do an advanced search

There are an awful lot of designer shoes sold by sellers in the Far East [ie Malaysia]. These items are often fake/replica and carry an extortionately high postage and packaging charge for overseas customers.

The shoe might be selling at an unbelievably cheap price but you will discover the end sale is made up heavily of Postage and Packaging charges. Advanced search allows you to choose lots of different options so for instance you can choose to search for womens designer shoes in one or more country, only new items, only buy it now items, only items within your country and so on.

Check the Sizing

Most eBay stores provide you with a sizing chart so you can convert your shoe size from US to UK or Europe and vice versa. For general auction listings [ie those outside eBay shops] always check the sizing and what format it is in. If you are not sure you can either ask the seller a question to check the size or go to an eBay shoe shop and use their size chart.

Check the Postage & Packaging

Very important. It would be disappointing to have won a pair of shoes only to discover you have to pay that amount again to have them delivered to you. International delivery on some items can be quite high. It's a good idea to check this before you bid for anything. Most eBay shops will offer discounted postage on more than one item. When you bid on anything you are committing to buy that item and that also means that you are accepting the listed postage and packaging cost.

Designer authenticity

Fortunately, eBay do not allow sellers to list fake or replica items. However, due to the massive number of people around the world listing auctions on eBay every day it is something they have to police and enforce. There are of course fake and replica items to be found in auction listings. However, some of these are noticeable. If the photos are not clear and you are just not sure email the seller to ask a question. Purchasing from an eBay shop will decrease the risk of you ending up with a fake pair of shoes. eBay shop members are usually involved in the eBay community and promote the correct conduct for auctioning on eBay.

Choose your shopping time

Strangely enough when some list their items they don't think about when they will finish. You can bag yourself some serious bargains by searching for your designer shoes at midnight or early in the morning. Depending on where you live check out the auctions for your particular country at 6 in the morning or at midnight and the ending bids will be non existent or far quieter than shopping at lunch time or early evening.

Bid Strategically

If the item is buy it now and you are happy with the price you will simply bid and pay for your item there and then.

Bidding on auctions for designer shoes that are perhaps a wanted item will mean you need to enter the auction war.

Be very wary of getting yourself carried away with it.

Bidding on an item early on will only result in you attracting the price up or competing with another for that item.

By leaving an item on watch and bidding at the last minute will do a couple of things for you.

You can see how much roughly the shoes are going to sell at and you can also see how many people you are competing with to get them.

Give yourself enough time to bid up say 5 minutes and under. Once you get good at it you can leave for only a couple of minutes.

You then just need to enter your maximum bid and hope for the best.

Remember other bidders will have also entered a maximum bid and you won't know this until you bid. By giving yourself a few minutes you have time to increase your bid and win yourself a pair of designer shoes.

Shelley Costello is owner and author of the Womens Shoes Guru. The website provides an honest and factual guide to choosing womens shoes online. Provides little known secret benefits to womens shoes and gives a clear understanding of shoe designs.

E Bay.com HTML Auction Templates: Which is Best for Ebay Selling?

2007-10-04T02:59:00.002-07:00

E Bay.com HTML Auction Templates: Which is Best for Ebay Selling?

There are a plenty of free e bay.com free auction template services out there and I would like to help you find the service that will best suit your needs by comparing what i feel is the top two contenders. FoamTemplates.com and Auctioninsights.com.

In the left corner? we have with the number one ranking website in google for the coveted search phrase, "free auction templates" This site contains a large amount of helpful information but the Template Designer does lack customization options. You can enter a title, description, and shipping details like most template makers, but are limited to 3 full size pictures, and there is no easy way to change your color scheme without diving into Html. I would say this site does have an edge on reach because of the helpful e bay.com related information and the site age is much greater so there is a slight reputation boost as well.

In the right corner? we have This is a new site and lacks the trusty useful information the opponent has, but it has the strength of being able to not only format your information into tables, but also the ability to easily edit everything there is to edit about your templates design. Many free colors, fonts, and backgrounds are available. You can also upgrade to the premium edition for unlimited picture uploads. When you upload a picture to foam premium, it is optimized, resized, and can also be automatically thumbnailed for you. Great time saver.

I hope you find this review to be helpful in determining which site will best suit your needs. And above all, enjoy the FREE templates and information!

Using Online Ebay Auctions to Promote Your Website - Confessions of a True Traffic Junkie

2007-10-04T02:59:00.001-07:00

Using Online Ebay Auctions to Promote Your Website - Confessions of a True Traffic Junkie

If you are looking for traffic to your e-commerce site, you should look no further than Ebay. The reason for this is Ebay is an online auction site that has a huge following and millions of hits on a daily basis. Because of this, if you have your products and services being auctioned off on Ebay, your storefront can be linked to the auction which increases your site's visibility. Here are a couple benefits Ebay auctions can provide:

1. You'll Have More Links

It is affordable to auction things off on Ebay and the price could come out of your advertising budget. Regardless of how you pay for it, you will have temporary web space where you can provide all the links you want to your website, photos, descriptions of products, or anything you like. These links will accomplish two things. The first thing they will accomplish is they will help you get higher rankings with the big search engines so other people will click on your site, increasing your traffic and ultimately sales. The second thing these links will accomplish is they take the visitor who is currently shopping and interested in your product right to the description, giving them the option to buy. Regardless of whether or not anyone buys your products online, you will have links to your site which will prove successful in driving traffic. You can re-list your Ebay auctions as often as you like and have as many auctions going at the same time, as well. This is a great way to sell products primarily, and secondarily a great way to promote your website.

2. Guaranteed Targeted Traffic

Most people work hard and long hours trying to develop links and joint ventures to their site to get better rankings. However, with Ebay you don't have to ask permission or link back, you just pay a small fee and there you go. You have another link to your website, you have a website that is as popular as they get, targeted traffic interested in your products and services, and all for a very small fee. Actually, the small fee you pay to get your link and product on Ebay is probably less than the amount of money you lose trying to develop joint ventures. So, consider Ebay and other auction sites when trying to get more links to your website, not to mention selling products.

And above all, Ebay is easy. You can learn how to use the interface in no time at all and before you know it not only will you sell some of your products and services online, you will generate so many targeted leads for such a low cost you will wonder what took you so long to try it.

The Top Ten Antique Categories On eBay!

2007-10-04T02:58:00.000-07:00

The Top Ten Antique Categories On eBay!

Knowledge is Power! And this statement could not be more true when it comes to selling on eBay. As explained in my book "eBay Marketing Wholesale SourcePak", being successful on eBay all depends on being in the right place, at the right time, with the right product. For example, did you know one of the most popular categories on eBay for buying and selling is the Antiques Category. That's right! People flock to eBay to locate treasures from the past. But what if we could know exactly what they are looking for? Just what kind of Antiques? Well I can help! Below you will find the Top Ten Picks of Antique Categories (at the time of this writing) as per eBay.

10 - Lace and Crochet Trim

9 - Medical Antiques

8 - Wood Picture Frames

7 - Knobs and Handles

6 - Linen Samplers

5 - Mixed Material: Picture Frames

4 - Roman Antiquities

3 - Silver Napkin Rings

2 - Locks and Keys

And the Number 1 Antique Category for "Hot Items" is...

Weathervanes and Lightning Rods.

There you have it! The Top Ten Picks of Antique Categories where potential bidders are surfing to find all those treasures from times gone by. If you sell Antiques on eBay, finding items that fit into one or more of the above categories will see your number of bids increase substantially. Always remember to do your research before listing any item for auction. Know what categories are "Hot!" Do a price analysis of your product. Know what the item costs you and what you can potentially sell it for. Then sit back and watch the bidding heat up!

Happy Selling!

Joe Clare

Joe Clare is an active Netpreneur and eBayer! He is the author of numerous articles on how to make money online and be successful on eBay! Check out his latest Best Selling eBook "eBay Marketing Wholesale SourcePak" Your Passport to Success!

Auction and Its Benefits

2007-10-04T02:57:00.002-07:00

Auction and Its Benefits

An auction is basically a public sale wherein any object is sold to the highest bidder. It can be defined as a process of purchasing and selling things by offering them up for bid, taking bids and selling the things out to the highest bidder. This is what is generally the case. However, a sale to the lowest bidder may also take place, in cases where land is sold for non-payment of taxes to anyone willing to take it for the shortest term; or where a contract is offered to an individual or party willing to take it for the shortest term; or where a contract is offered to an individual or party willing to perform it at the lowest price. Such cases too seem to fairly come under the purview of the term 'auction'.

In case of auction the seller presents the products on a public platform. The selling price of the products are determined by the bids or offers of buyers interested in buying them based on their individual estimation of value of and need of the products. The person offering the highest bid at closing of auction receives the right to purchase the products at the bid price. The winner of the bid is normally legally bound to buy the item auctioned. In recent times auctions have been conducted online.

The benefits of auction are many. Some of the significant advantages are:

a) The auctioned item fetches the highest price in the given situation. Thus, in a way there is the maximization or optimization of profit.

b) At an auction the goods are almost certainly disposed off after bidding by their sale to the highest bidder. Hence, this serves as the right podium for disposing or selling out of accumulated goods. Otherwise, business could have become stagnant due to the stocking of these goods. Certain items could also have perished (in case of perishable goods) or expired if not sold out in time.

c) In case of auctioning a variety of articles may come up for sale, which may not be otherwise available in the market. The buyer can get quite surprised by looking at a treasure trove of antique articles available at an auction.

eBay The Mega Marketplace For Everyone

2007-10-04T02:57:00.001-07:00

eBay The Mega Marketplace For Everyone

eBay is one of the world's largest market places with over 35 million visitors per day. That first sentence is worth repeating because I want you to realize that eBay gives you the ability to reach a customer base of millions and millions of people which is beneficial to you. Say Goodbye to garage sales and hello to eBay.

You don't have to become a major power-seller or wholesaler to take advantage of eBay and what this mega marketplace can do for you. All you need is a computer with Internet access so you can setup auctions for all that stuff laying around the house you've been wanting to get rid of by selling it or giving it away, so why not eBay it?

eBay auction VS garage sale

First lets talk about garage sales. Holding a garage sale consists of getting all of your items ready to sell and placing them on display in front of your house or on your driveway for neighbors and lookers to purchase. You or someone you know and trust needs to be physically present at all times to sell the items as your front yard has now become a small storefront. In other words you have to sit at home all day after getting everything together and promoting your garage sale which is a lot of work especially considering what you can accomplish with less time and effort on eBay.

Time & Money

Just about everybody is looking to save time and money which is exactly what eBay does for you. eBay is a much larger market and can attract many more potential buyers than a garage sale can. The very reason that there are more potential buyers creates more of a demand for your product, toy or whatever you are trying to sell. eBay commands more dollar for your product than a garage sale for this very reason.

eBay also saves you time because once you have setup your auction it does most of the work for you. You don't have to be present to sell the item, you don't have to be home to get paid electronically and you don't have to be there for somebody to see your auction because your potential buyers can look at your item for sale from the convenience of their own computer which saves you precious time.

eBay also gives you the ability to accept different payment methods such as PayPal, money order, check or cash it is up to you what payment methods you wish to accept. Garage sales simply do not offer this sort of flexibility with time and money.

Quick tips

Shipping can be a hard one to get used to - so make sure that you either A. get a postal scale (about $20 at Office Depot) or B. have the post office weigh the packages before you list. Take it from me because I have lost so much money on shipping because I would just 'guesstimate' and that simply does not work. I would recommend always making the buyer purchase Insurance and tracking. I had an issue where a customer said she never got her package and I didn't insure it. We decided to wait a couple of weeks then figure it out, she actually wanted me to refund everything to her, which I didn't feel was fair but was willing to do it because I believe in customer satisfaction. Fortunately the package finally showed up after three and half weeks (and I sent it Priority Mail).

You want to only send to the buyers address if it is registered with eBay. A couple of years ago a gentlemen contacted me to buy a $250 wireless antenna, he said he was traveling and asked me to send it to his satellite office. He paid me through PayPal, I always thought that was safe and would automatically include coverage. Two months went by and then all of the sudden Paypal took $250 out of our account without warning or explanation, when we called them they said that one of our eBay transactions was fraudulent! It turns out the man used a stolen credit card, PayPal told us we were out of luck since we did not send to his confirmed address. Lesson learned.

Always state the terms of your auctions, it is good to come up with your terms to use at the end of every auction that states your policies, if you combine shipping, the payment methods you accept, etc. Also, think of a refund policy. I give a full refund, or for instance my sister-in-law gives purchase amount back but not shipping, those sort of policies are up to you as a seller.

I use Turbo Lister, a free software program, that makes it so much easier to get multiple auctions setup simultaneously. If you do it directly from eBay it seems like it takes forever to enter each one. Turbo Lister is a free download and is available in Seller Tools at eBay.

A way to save money; I always use the free template from eBay. It's not really anything fancy. You can choose to get those cute little borders and clipart on each auction but it costs more money. It's proven that ultimately it doesn't matter to people, they want what you are selling. Your first picture is free after that they are .15 cents for additional ones. So I always try, when possible, to use only one picture. Sometimes if it is a big clothing lot or a large dollar item I will only use more pictures. I also make sure to try and write a great description so potential buyers know what they are getting and are excited for their purchase.

Something that works; I will sometimes utilize the 'Buy It Now' features (they cost extra) but I put the BIN price higher than I would normally expect to get and when somebody really wants an item, they would rather pay the higher price than risk missing the auction end without winning the item. There are many times where this has benefited both myself and the buy it now bidder.

If you are doing a local pickup or have special instructions for your auction make sure you include those instructions ALL OVER your auctions. The mistake I made one time was only putting local pickup only on just the shipping description and the winning bidder did not notice that. Now I plaster special instructions like that everywhere.

Remember that people love fast shipping so when you do sell try to ship the item out as soon as possible after auction ending. Your customers will love fast shipping. I also include a note thanking them and sometimes I include a bonus item. That's just some of the fun and benefits of selling on eBay.

How to Win on eBay

2007-10-04T02:56:00.000-07:00

How to Win on eBay

I've bought over 100 items on eBay over three years and am ready to share my knowledge of how to win at eBay and buy from reputable sellers.

1. You can find anything on eBay. When searching on eBay I suggest first doing a general search such as "ionic breeze" and checking what the items are going for. I noticed the items by companies with eBay stores were selling much higher than those by individuals. This is true for all categories. So don't be scared of buying from an individual as it could be much cheaper.

2. Before bidding look at the seller's rating. I only buy from those with 99% or higher ratings.

3. Next check the shipping cost. Quite a lot of eBay sellers are willing to sell their high priced item at NR or no reserve but make the money back with outrageous shipping costs. How do you know a shipping cost is too high? When checking out the auctions for your item such as "ionic breeze" keep an eye on the shipping cost. The average cost for shipping quadra ionic breeze machines seems to be $20. If someone is charging $30 then you know you're getting had on the shipping. I make my maximum bid less on those auctions where the seller is charging too much for shipping.

4. To have less search results to wade through limit the search by using the minimum and maximum amounts setting. Think of what you'd really like to get the item for and put it as the maximum amount. By combing the listings for "ionic breeze" I've found it is possible to get a Sharper Image Ionic Breeze Quadra for $50 if I buy it used from an individual or reconditioned from a business. That's ok with me as I just want to pay less than what Sharper Image is charging!

5. One of the most important tips is to read every word in their auction page. People sell broken items on eBay. Some of the auctions for ionic breezes looked great but in between their text stating how great ionic breezes are, how much square feet it covers, was the sentence that the item was broken. Imagine how I'd feel if I had bid and won only to find out I didn't read the auction carefully! Yes it's a nasty way to do business selling items that are broke and tricking people into buying them. But if you bid you legally have to pay for it.

6. Ask questions before you bid. If the auction does not state how the item is being packaged then ask. I once bought a wall mounted barometer, temperature, humidity item that was shipping in a shoe box with no packaging! It was busted, glass shattered. So make sure you ask how they are going to ship it and what packaging they are going to use.

7. Also ask if the item works, do they have the manuals, does it still have a warranty if ownership is transferred, are items sanitized, does it come from a smoke free pet free home? You need to ask these questions as it's "buyer beware" on eBay.

8. The cheapest prices on items is during the summer when people are on vacation and not stuck at home during the winter. The worst time to buy is before Christmas. Everyone is trying to outbid each other for a gift. The prices are unbelievable!

9. After spending time doing the legwork I mentioned above, you'll find that a few eBay sellers seem to be ideal to buy from. Add them to your favorite seller's list. Then it's easy to go straight to their store, or items for sale page, and bid on what they have. You've already checked them out so don't forget who they are!

Low Cost, High Profit Dream Products To Sell on eBay and Amazon

2007-10-04T02:55:00.001-07:00

Low Cost, High Profit Dream Products To Sell on eBay and Amazon

Finding quality products to sell is the key to continuing success. Keeping a pipeline of low cost, fast moving items to sell is also a must. Sometimes it takes weeks of searching to find a load of quality electronics or computer equipment that you can sell online at double your cost. I'm sure you agree that this is a very good rate of return. The problem is that you may have to outlay several thousand dollars to buy the inventory. If you are new to online selling and would like to pick up high quality, easy to ship products for pennies, read on.

Did you know that 95% of books that have been published are no longer in print? What does that mean to you as an online seller? It means that you do not have to compete with traditional booksellers. I have seen books that would not catch anyone's eye fetch over $80. This is because it is an out of print book even though it might be only a few years old.

Money Making Tip

Books, audio book cassettes, and VHS tapes very often are the last items to be picked over at rummage sales or thrift stores; but I have found them to be the lowest cost, most profitable items to sell online. Most can be picked up for next to nothing, especially if you are shopping the last day of the rummage sale or at closeouts at thrift stores. Some vendors actually give the books away to clear space.

With a partner last Fall, I set up a dedicated division just for selling the above items. We are averaging over $14,000/month in book sales on Amazon and eBay. Our inventory cost to buy these books has never been more than a few hundred dollars for a full truckload.

Why would I share this secret? It works! There is no way we could obtain all of the books available.

To Find the market value for a book, tape or DVD, simply enter the ISBN number into the Amazon or eBay search Box.

You may Ask What does ISBN stand for? International Standard Book Number. Where can I locate the ISBN number? It is located on the back cover of most books, it may also be found on the first page inside the book.

Selling your Books, tapes and DVD's is easy and highly profitable, with low cost sources for these items in abundance.

Ebay Auction Selling Secrets - Using Ebay to Launch Your Very Own Highly Successful Website

2007-10-04T02:54:00.000-07:00

Ebay Auction Selling Secrets - Using Ebay to Launch Your Very Own Highly Successful Website

Launching your very own successful website is the dream of many people worldwide because it is a new way to make money and be employed by oneself with little overhead. So, once you have your website you will need traffic to make it successful. The question is, how will you get the targeted traffic you need to support your website, sell your products, and realize your dream of a highly successful website? The answer is eBay. Yes, eBay is an auction site and regardless of whether or not you are interested in auctioning off your products, eBay is the perfect forum for generating that targeted traffic you are so interested in. You may be skeptical, but read the following reasons why eBay will get you the traffic you need.

First of all, eBay is affordable and you can run an auction for up to 10 days at a time. During this period you will have use of a small portion of the web and can advertise and describe your product or service for sale in any way you see fit. You can even add links. Ah, now you are starting to understand. These links on eBay will instantly begin to generate traffic to you site. You do not have to search out qualified websites, contact their webmaster, and grovel for a link. All you have to do is pay pocket change to auction off your product or service and add links to your site. This has several benefits.

One, you will be actually auctioning off a service or product so you might even sell it. And two, you will have the links you need to drive people to your website, and this is targeted traffic. Since eBay has billions of pages and millions of members worldwide, you will immediately realize many hits on your web pages from people who are interested in your particular products and services. Your sales will increase and you will have spent very little money to get those visitors to your site.

You certainly will save a lot of time by using eBay as part of your online marketing strategy. On eBay, you can list a lot of auctions in one day and continuously re-list them. That means you are in control of getting your company linked and noticed on the web. You won't have to be so concerned about other companies not linking to you or waiting long periods of time for them to do so. Using eBay will reduce the pressure a little bit and make the job of promoting your site much easier. Go ahead and try it. You might be skeptical, but you'll be amazed with the results.

How To Stop Ebay Buyers From Sniping Your Auction For Less Than Its True Value

2007-10-04T02:53:00.002-07:00

How To Stop Ebay Buyers From Sniping Your Auction For Less Than Its True Value

There are many savvy eBay buyers who use automated bidding programs, which are referred to as sniping software. Sniping allows the eBay buyer to place an unseen bid in the last seconds of an eBay auction allowing them to win the ebay auction at a very low price if there was no reserve.

This simple method I will now outline to you in detail can be used in a variety of ways. I have even seen eBay sellers use this as a low cost advertising tool.

By preapproving your buyers, it will flush out any eBay snipers. The interested buyer will need to email you to get approval even to bid on your auction.

One of the advantages of this procedure is that it allows total control over the eBay auction, you decide who gets to bid on your ebay auctions.

Step 1 set up your eBay auction as you would normally

Step 2 Click this Link to add an eBay User to you preapproved buyer List (Note, you can approve anyone you know with an eBay user ID that does not mean they have to buy it)

Step 3 View you eBay auction it will state in Large Bold print this auction is only open to preapproved bidders).

Use this technique to gauge response on any new item you have for sale. Once an eBay Buyer emails you asking to be placed on the approved list, You should then go and check their bid history and feedback.

You can check to see what they purchased and for how much, it will give you the information needed to price the item correctly. This will also give you a profile of what the bidder buys and some great ideas of other successful ebay seller's techniques.

Example
Start you eBay auction at 1Cent with no reserve. Immediately approve an eBay buyer you know with the link I supplied. To even bid on your auction the eBay buyer will need to email you, at which point you can check their feedback and decide if you want to let them bid or not. You listing Fee for this auction will only be 30 cents and you never have to sell the item, do not approve any bidders, it is your choice.(this is great for building inquiries to your sale, then once you have established you have some interest for your item relist without any approval requirement, you will have a bidding war ready to start!

Example 2
I have a laptop computer; I wan to generate some lost cost page views for this item. I list the laptop in a 3-day auction format with 1 cent starting bid and no reserve. I then set up my pre approval with an eBay buyer.

Add bidders at any time up until your listing ends. Remember: It's generally better to add bidders earlier rather than later for the best bidding results. Do a Bidder Search - This will allow you to understand the bidding history of the potential bidder.

Any bidder who is not on your list will be asked to contact you by email. Once the bidder has been pre-approved and added to your list, the bidder will be able to place a bid.

You will be amazed at the opportunities that present themselves to you from this simple technique, Remember you can not solicit sales outside of eBay but if someone emails you regarding items you may have in stock, you get the picture!

How to Pre-Approve Bidders/Buyers
Add Item

1. Enter the item number you'd like to restrict to pre-approved bidders/buyers. You can copy your item number from my eBay in the Selling tab or from your item page.

2. Add your approved bidders/buyers in the box below. View tips to pre-approve your bidders/buyers.

Simply Enter each bidder's/buyer's User IDs. Place a comma between each User ID or just press the Enter key on your keyboard to display each name on a separate line.

Buying At Auction: 6 Hints to Make You a Successful Bidder

2007-10-04T02:53:00.001-07:00

Buying At Auction: 6 Hints to Make You a Successful Bidder

Buying at auction, be it for stamps or coins, antiques or even cattle, can be one of the most exciting and profitable experiences possible. It can also be expensive and utterly frustrating. The best way to come out ahead is to learn the tricks of the trade early. Here are some suggestions that should help you get on the fast track to success.

(1) Do your research. Knowledge is your most important tool, even more important than money.

(2) Learn how to be inconspicuous.

(3) Beware of zombies, shills and lunatics. The best way to avoid them is

(4) Hire an agent.

(5) Be selective. Don't be afraid to spend the extra dollar when something especially rare or in exceptional condition comes your way. You may never get another chance.

To elaborate:

(1) Every experienced buyer knows how important knowledge is. Questions of authenticity, condition, and rarity are always the key considerations. If you are fortunate enough to have both knowledge and money, you have the world by the tail. But even if you have limited funds you can still do very well if you know something the rest of the potential buyers don't.

(2) Once you have spotted something you want to buy, fade into the woodwork as much as possible. The last thing you want to do is attract attention to yourself or the lot you are interested in. After you've been around long enough, your competition will find out who you are. Until then try to keep as low a profile as possible and guard your information. Use a code system to keep track of your limits. I'm constantly amazed at how careless some bidders are with their auction catalogs and what they write in them.

(3) Zombies, shills and lunatics are every auction bidder's nightmare. If a zombie knows who you are, he/she will follow your every move. Their motto is: if that person is willing to spend a hundred dollars for a lot, I sure can afford to spend a hundred and ten. Most people know what a shill is. It is someone working for the auction house or seller who artificially pushes up prices by bidding against you. In order for an item to get a good price, two or more bidders must be interested in it. Shills are especially skilled at figuring out how high you are willing to go. Lunatics are the ones who absolutely have to have a lot and will bid whatever it takes to win it. The best way to deal with these three worthies is to hire an agent to bid for you.

(4) Agents are professionals who have developed skills at bidding at auction. One famous New York stamp auction agent was so skilled at hiding his bids that only the auctioneer and a few other people ever knew how he did it. As strange as it may sound, paying an auction agent the extra 2-5% fee may save you many hundreds of dollars or more in the long run. The zombies, shills and lunatics won't know who is bidding against them.

(5) Finally, one of the most important skills of all is the ability to recognize when to open up the purse strings. Condition and rarity are the two most important determinants of price. The exceptional item is always worth an extra bid or two. One customer who was examining my stamps at a national stamp show remarked, "I've been looking for this one for more than 40 years and you have a very nice copy. But I never pay more than half catalog for anything." I wished him well. It was a scarce stamp and I expect he'll still be looking if he lives another 40 years.

To summarize: knowledge is the primary key to success at auction bidding. Secondly, develop your skills as a bidder and buyer. Then, learn to recognize the individuals you will have to deal with on the auction floor. Cross them up and use and agent. And finally, know when to pay a premium for the exceptional item.

Finding Products to Sell on eBay

2007-10-04T02:51:00.002-07:00

Finding Products to Sell on eBay

Do you know how many people in US are earning their livelihood with the help of eBay? According to a new survey conducted on July 2005 by ACNielsen, a leading research firm, an astounding 724 thousand Americans respond that they rely on eBay for their main or supplemental income. Apart from these professional sellers, another 1.5 million people confirmed that they generate additional income by selling goods on eBay. Last year alone, around 150 million registered users have sold over US$ 34 billion worth of goods on eBay. Isn't it amazing?

Why entrepreneurs are flocking into eBay? Some of the reasons are quite apparent.

? Starting a business on eBay is easy and quick

? You don't require large investment

? Anybody can start an eBay business, no special skill is required

? You can sell virtually anything on eBay

? With your eBay business you can have flexible work time

? You have a ready-made market of over 150 million people and counting

? eBay get 1.5 billion page views each month. You get access to this massive traffic almost paying nothing.

So, there is no wonder that anybody with slightest penchant to have their own business will jump into this great opportunity. But, there are two major problems that many of the would-be eBay sellers encounter. The first is what to sell and the next is where to find it.

What to sell?

According to Forrester Research, a major research company, this year, categories with products purchased by women will have the most growth in online retailing. Some categories are already getting more than ten percent of their overall sales through the Internet, which include: computer hardware and software, tickets, travel, books, consumer electronics, cosmetics and fragrances, toys and video games, and flowers, cards and gifts. While choosing items to sell on eBay, you should also explore the features available on eBay and other places on the Internet that show items people search and items people actually buy.

eBay has a complete section called "Seller Central" dedicated to delivering utmost information to help you succeed in selling products through eBay. Two links from this section should interest you. One is What's Hot and the other one is Category Tips

When you go to the subsection 'What's Hot', check out the following three areas:

Hot Items by Category

This is a comprehensive report of categories, and products within a category by the ratio of bid to listings growth rate in PDF format. The report gets updated monthly and shows which products have increased demand in comparison to last month. Super hot products, for example, have over 35 percentage point difference between bid growth rate and listing growth rate. According to the latest report, by the way, Sunglasses for men, in particular Prada sunglasses are super hot.

eBay Pulse

This is another area where you can see the top ten searched categories, ten most widely watched auctions, list of stores with most active listings, and other cool stuffs on daily basis.

eBay Summer Catalog

This is a new subsection. It's a real catalog with pictures and average price of products. In each category of products there is a list of top ten summer trends. You, definitely, should check this out if you are planning to start selling now.

In Demand

On the page "Category Tips" under each category you will see a link under the name "In Demand". This area will show you a list of ten most sold items of this category as well as most searched items for each subcategory.

You might also like to see what people buy on non-eBay part of the Internet. The Shopping.com Consumer Demand Index (CDI) makes a weekly list of most sought after items. This list could give you the needed glimpse to the future market trend!

Where to find items to sell on eBay

Your own home

If you are just planning to start selling on eBay, your first option is to go through your attic, closets and garage. Find those long stashed items that you will probably never need. These may include: books that you will perhaps never read, CDs that you out grew, gifts that you received but did not like much, the list can go on! Take them out, brush them off and post them on eBay for sell.

Flea markets and garage sales

Every body knows that garage sales and flea markets can be real treasure troves! Well, now you can look at them from a business point of view. Your sales experience with own home items, hopefully, will help you understand what will sell well and what won't. Don't go for any costly items as yet.

Local liquidators and auctions

Classified sections of local Newspapers' week-end editions are good place to look for estate auctions. While buying items from local auctions determine what are you going to buy and for what price beforehand and stick to them no matter what! At an auction there is always a risk of getting carried away!

Go visit some local business liquidators. These are excellent places to find items for bargain price.

Drop shippers

When a manufacturer, wholesaler, distributor or importer, after receiving an order from their retailers, individually pack and deliver the product to the customer of the retailer with retailers address as shipper, this selling technique is called drop-shipping. This is an excellent way to find products to sell on eBay. Drop ship source directory is the place to go if you are looking for drop-shippers.

eBay

eBay itself can be a great sourcing place for you. Check out wholesale items and eBay business marketplace from your chosen fields. In order to find wholesale listing, while searching a product select "Items listed as lots". You can buy goods in wholesale and then sell them piece by piece and make decent money. Of course, you have to develop good knowledge of the products before doing this.

How to Sell on eBay Internationally without Risk

2007-10-04T02:51:00.001-07:00

How to Sell on eBay Internationally without Risk

eBay allows you the opportunity to sell all over the world. It is exciting to communicate with a customer from England, Australia or Japan via email. It is almost as if you are speaking in person. It also opens a huge market! Many US sellers do not sell internationally so you can receive higher bids and more interest in your product; but you need to follow the guidelines I will explain below to ensure your payment.

There are only two methods of payment, which will ensure absolute zero risk regarding sending product overseas:

1. The first is wire transfer directly to your bank.

You can contact your local bank and they will walk you through a wire transfer transaction. It is very similar to the process of having a payroll check deposited in your account. As soon as a payment is deposited electronically into your account it can never be touched by any source other than by you, the account owner. Once the bank notifies you that payment is wired or transferred into your account, you can ship the product.

2. The second is , which is a division of Western Union. This was originally called BidPay.com and the name has been changed to Western Union (R) Auction Payments.

Payment for this method is completely processed via email. You will then receive a physical check from Western Union. This usually takes three to four days after your email confirmation. Very Important! Do not ship the product when you receive the email confirmation. Wait until you physically receive the check from Western Union.

I do not accept cashier's checks, even from US customers. There is a common misconception that they are as good as cash. They are not! There have been cases where blank stolen cashier's checks, or even bank checks have been forged.

I also do not accept credit card payments from overseas buyers. They offer no protection from fraud as they do in the US. Even if it states Master Card or Visa, they are not governed by the same rules and laws of the United States.

Shipping product internationally is more work, but the rewards can outweigh the time involved. Unlike shipping products within the US, the first major difference is the "customs form". These forms are free and supplied by the shipping carrier you chose, whether it is the US Postal Service, Fed Ex, UPS, Etc. You will need to state the weight, the item and it's value, the destination, etc.

Important lesson - I learned this the hard way! I have a FED EX account, which allows me to print a label and send an item from my computer without having to go to a shipping company. I receive a discounted rate on my shipping as opposed to taking it to a Mailboxes, etc. or a shipping house. I shipped a computer using my account. I didn't realize I would be charged duty taxes on the item, which was an additional $150.00. Ouch!

Now when shipping internationally I use only the United States Postal Service, and the complete shipping amount is paid to USPS upon delivery. Country duty taxes will be collected from the buyer, not you.

Shipping internationally can be rewarding and interesting! Make sure you only take payment in the methods described above, be aware of the shipping procedures, and send via USPS.com.

2 Step Secret Reveals How You Can Find Wholesale Suppliers

2007-10-04T02:50:00.001-07:00

2 Step Secret Reveals How You Can Find Wholesale Suppliers

Have you spent hours on the internet searching for a viable wholesale source? I did. I spent money on self-professed in-depth Wholesale Supplier directories and membership sites. All a waste of time and money.

So how can you find a real wholesale supplier? A supplier that will give you a fair price which you can actually make a profit from?

What I learned is that the best suppliers for your online sales or auctions do not advertise their services and often cannot be found online. Those you can find online tend to be middle-men. It is often difficult to get a good enough price to make any real profit online.

Let me tell you about my simple 2 step system to find an untapped source for wholesale suppliers. This is so simple that it's often overlooked as a source for product. This system involves thinking outside the box and not letting policy stop you.

The First Step to finding a supplier is to find someone that already sells or has access to what you want to sell. This could be a website, an eBay seller, a manufacturer, a wholesale outlet, or a regular store in your city.

This is the easy step. You know what you are looking for and you can search on the internet, not for a wholesale source, but for anyone already selling what you want to sell.

Another valuable source for a local supplier is your local phone book. The yellow pages are the best way to find local sources. This should be the first place you look. Doing business locally with someone that you can meet face to face is a big plus.

The Second and Key Step is to convince the source you found to become your supplier.

How can you do that? This is wehre you get creative!

Manufacturers and wholesale sources often have minimum orders that might be beyond your reach if you are just starting out. Online retailers, eBay merchants, and retail stores may be your best bet.

The key to remember is that you will be dealing with a human being and they can be convinced to do business with you. Just be sure to sweeten the deal for them.

One way is to offer the person you are dealing with at your new found source, a percentage of your profits from the products he supplies you.

Be sure to project it out for him. If he can see the benefit of working with you, even though it causes extra work for him, you can be successful in making a deal.

You could offer him 20% of the profit from sales of his products. For example you could show him that you project to make at least $100 profit from each product, and you expect to sell 40 of them per month. The $4000 a month means an extra $800 per month in his pocket. You still make a nice $3200 profit for the month in this example.

On top of that, he will be ordering more products from his supplier and may be eligible for a higher price break from them. This way, his reward for the effort to work with you, is making money on both sides.

There are many benefits you can offer your potential supplier, but no matter how you look at it, the main thing it comes down to is MONEY. What's in it for your potential supplier to do business with you? If can you show him that, you have a better chance of making a deal with him and starting your online sales.

So now you see that by thinking outside the box, you open the door to many possibilities and increase your ability to make money online with your products.

Now all you need to focus on is - How you will sell your products!

What YOU Must Know About The Advantages And Pitfalls Of Dropshipping

2007-10-04T02:49:00.000-07:00

What YOU Must Know About The Advantages And Pitfalls Of Dropshipping

The following may be the most important information about dropshipping you will find.

Dropshipping can be a great way to get started with your online venture. Just be careful to make sure that you know the quality of the product your supplier offers, what their shipping policies are, and their reliability.

Your reputation is on the line with your customers, not the dropshippers reputation. You must be able to stand behind your product and service no matter what the source.

Make sure to order at least one of each of the items you would sell via the dropshipper. This gives you several things:

- It will show you the quality of the products. This is very important. You don't want to offer a product and have your customer receive something that is low quality or obviously not worth the money.

- It will show you what the packaging is like. How well is the product protected during the shipping process? Is it likely to break or arrive damaged due to inferior shipping or packaging?

- You can see first hand who they shipped through and how long it took for the item(s) to arrive.

There are many advantages to drop shipping.

1. When you are first starting out, capital may be an issue. With dropshipping you can get around that by selling the product first, collecting the money from your customer, buying from the dropshipper, and keeping the profit. Although your profit may not be as high as it would if you had purchased the products in bulk beforehand, it is still a profit that can get you started.

2. Another advantage is you don't have to have products stored around your house.

3. You don't have to worry about being stuck with inventory that you cannot sell. If a product doesn't sell, you can simply drop it from your offering and go on to other more sell-able products.

4. You can find and sell more items since you don't have the limitations of on-hand inventory.

If you are considering dropshipping to get yourself started you must also consider the *potential pitfalls*:

1. You will get a price break from a dropshipper, but it is often not as low as you could get from other avenues. Be careful to make sure that you have a product that is quality and the price point for you is one that will ensure a profit for you when sold. This is especially important if you will be selling via auctions. Auctions tend to sell new products for 25-30% below retail. If your price is not good enough, you could loose money on an auction.

2. Make sure that the dropshipper gives you a good shipping and handling fee. They have lots of shipping and get a very good price on it themselves. If shipping and handling is high, something is wrong.

3. Don't pay a 'fee' to do business with anyone. You are giving them business by buying product from them. If they want more money for your having the privilege of doing business with them, you know this is not a company that you want to even consider.

4. Find out how the dropshipper handles problems. If you have a customer return, how will they handle it. What kind of support will they give you.

5. Get references for the dropshipper. How long have they been in business and what is their financial standing? Check the Better Business Bureau. Google their company name to see if there are any complaints or problems you might need to know about before making the decision to do business with them.

If you are ready to make the dropshipping model your own, jump right in. Take these points into consideration, but don't let anything stop you. Be as informed as you can though, continue to learn and find out all you can about those you do business with.

The road to success is not always a smooth one. Can you avoid more of the pot holes, it makes the ride much more enjoyable?

Multiple Income Streams on eBay within 30 Minutes!

2007-10-04T02:48:00.002-07:00

Multiple Income Streams on eBay within 30 Minutes!

POWERSELL Status, the secrets revealed.

If like thousands of people you have been using eBay and wondering how to gain a regular income, and work from home, this article will help you.

Like many, I have been searching for years for that illusive system which will allow me to work from home, and spend more time with family and friends. MULTIPLE INCOME STREAMS are the answer.

What are Multiple Income Streams?

Multiple Income Streams are the Holy Grail of the Internet, those things you hear about but never quite see. The 24 hour a day, 7 days a week income machines.

I have found a very simple technique which has proved very beneficial, and in fact earned me POWERSELLER Status on eBay!!

My secret is simple:

I pick a very popular subject, for example Playstation Repair Guides (eBooks) which are a consistent seller on eBay. First you need to acquire the Guide (from eBay) with Resell Rights. Then you need to think of associated eBooks, which would appeal to buyers of the Repair Guide. I use two such associated eBooks, which are :-

Playstation Cheat Guides (with resell rights) and Repair / Build your own PC (with resell rights)

My reasoning behind the eBooks?

They are connected and will appeal to buyers of the Repair Guide, and anyone searching for either Playstation Repair Guides, Playstation Cheat eBooks OR Repair / Build your own PC guides will come across your Auction. In effect 3 Auctions for the price of one !!!

Other potential pairings would be:

PS Repair Guide, Cheat Guide and Fruit Machine Cheat guide

xBox Repair Guide, xBox Cheat Guide and Repair / Build your own PC Guide

xBox Repair Guide, xBox Cheat Guide and Fruit Machine Cheat Guide

Hopefully the picture should become clearer, and the potential is enormous.

What about PRICING?

All of the eBooks mentioned above can be bought for 99p each, with RESELL Rights. Rather than list two seperate Auctions, with two sets of charges, I list one Auction and charge £1.99 for the package. This has a massive impact on your profit.

One Auction for 99p may incurr basic Auction charges of 50p PLUS 25p per item sold, and 25p per PAYPAL Payment received. Leaving you with a profit of 50p, only after sale number two.

One Auction selling the three eBook Package would also incur basic Auction charges of 50p PLUS 25p per item sold, and 25p per PAYPAL Payment received. Leaving a profit in the region of £1 on the first sale, and £1,50 per sale after that.

I PREFER TO LIST AT LEAST 5 ITEMS FOR SALE IN EACH AUCTION

When the Auction has finished you just relist, and wait for the sales to come through.

This is just a snap shot of the potential for selling small amounts of targeted eBooks on eBay. The opportunities are endless, and very quickly you can build-up 10, 20 and more consistent Income Streams on eBay.

Imagine:

One Income Stream

5 sales per day, making £1.50 per sale = £7.50, £52 a week, over £200 a month

Two Income Streams

5 sales per day x 2, making £1.50 per sale = £15, £112 a week, over £400 a month

Ten Income Streams

5 sales per day x 10, making £1.50 per sale = £75, £525 a week, over £2000 a month

The potential to gain this kind of income is open to people looking to put in the work and effort.

Good luck!

How to Double or Even Triple Your Net Profit Selling on eBay

2007-10-04T02:48:00.001-07:00

How to Double or Even Triple Your Net Profit Selling on eBay

eBay Search tips and secrets

This is an example of how I used the Ebay search tab to triple my sales and profit in 1 month!

I had found a great supplier of computer liquidation products using my Ebay Power seller Cloning techniques. I was excited to be selling over $1000 a day in these products (laptop parts and accessories). I noticed I had a lot of repeat buyers, which is a great thing. I would test the products and I shipped them fast, and emailed tracking promptly. These are the keys to building great feedback.

I was searching ebay for new products and ideas one night when a light went off in my head! I decided to check the sales history of the eBay buyers of my products, I assumed they were using them in their computer repair shop. "Important lesson on Ebay I have learned over and over!" Do not assume anything such as if a product will sell, what price it will sell for, what the ebay buyer may do with the product. Keep an open mind and you will not limit you profit opportunities.

I went to the Ebay search tab and I typed in one of the ebay user's ID that purchased products from me. The user id is available in any ebay listing. Then I clicked on the ebay search option and chose by bidder and entered their ebay user id, when I searched last 2 weeks of eBay purchases, I noticed the bidder was sourcing a lot of laptop components from many different ebay sellers. I thought to myself they are buying a lot more parts than a standard computer repair facility would use, so I then decided to check and see what this Ebay user was selling. I found a very profitable business option at this point.

The ebay buyer of my laptop parts was selling complete laptop systems. It took me 2 seconds to figure out what they were doing, they were sourcing the individual parts from Ebay sellers such as myself, then combining the components together and selling a complete laptop on Ebay. So then I checked the ebay seller's completed auctions and noticed he was selling the completed laptop systems like hotcakes for $650-900 depending on the specs, I used the search technique to add up his parts cost it was around $300, Wow! He was making over $350 per laptop Guess what, I shifted gears that night and started putting the laptops together myself I tripled my profit and sales volume in 1 month. As you see search search search! Use this same principle to research history or sales activity on any product or service

Ebay gives you access to the sales secrets of any successful seller

Key point

Create an Ebay account just for selling products

Create an Ebay account just for buying products

You can have multiple sales ID's or accounts on Ebay I highly recommend this, you can see from my search examples you don't want to give potential competitors a view into your buying sources on Ebay, I have used this technique to find successful Ebay sellers sources on Ebay and on the internet. The sales history is there use it.

Sales history of any product on ebay is available to you with a few simple clicks from your mouse. Go to the Ebay search tab then choose competed auctions, you can also use this technique to search sellers completed auctions.

The beauty of Ebay is the completed sales information on any product. When the item sold, how much did it sell for, how many were sold, this information is priceless and in normal business situations this would be a guarded secret In the past if you were entering a market you would buy market research from a business consultant for thousands of dollars to find only a tiny sliver of what is available at you fingertips through ebay searches.

The Powerful eBay Bidding Strategy That Claims A 99% Success Rate

2007-10-04T02:47:00.002-07:00

The Powerful eBay Bidding Strategy That Claims A 99% Success Rate

Don't you just love it?

You've found that special item on eBay that you've just got to have!

No If's Ands or Buts, you've got to win that item.

You've checked and double checked the "End Of Auction" time and date and you're at your computer, signed in and raring to go at least 30 minutes before the auction ends.

You're happy to beat the latest bid and with nervous fingers you tap in the amount you're willing to pay.

Then you read those dreaded words-

!You Have Been Outbid!

Now you remember, there are sneaky eBayers out there who use deviously cunning tricks, like placing high hidden bids and proxy bidding.

You heard somewhere that you should wait untill the closing minute of the auction before placing your bid.

Great, theres still 20 minutes to go, time to grab another cup of coffee.

Back at your computer you count down the final minutes, how can 5 minutes seem to last so long?

You constantly hit the refresh button so that you can check how long there's left to go.

At last the final minute of the auction arrives.

You tap in the next highest bid and hit "Place Bid". You're waiting for that page. The one that says'

!Congratulations! You Won The item!

But your heart sinks when yet again you see those dreaded words-

!You Have Been Outbid!

This cant be right! They cant do this to you! It's just not fair!

But wait, theres still 15 seconds left to go.

You frantically type in a higher bid and you're greeted with-

!Listing ended!

No. No, It cant have ended.

But it has.

Does this scenario sound familiar to you?

I think every eBayer has experienced this at some time or other.

I know I have!

There has to be a simpler way. And there is.

Enter the Sniper.

SniperWare, as it has become known, is a program that will place a last second bid on your behalf.

Many of these types of Auto-Bid Programs claim a 95% to 99% success rate at placing the winning bid.

No more sitting staring at your computer counting down the minutes to try and place that winning bid because with Sniperware you simply enter the details of the auction you want to bid on, the maximum bid you are prepared to make and that's it.

You don't even have to be at your computer. You don't even have to be at home come to that.

SniperWare generally comes in two flavours.

1. Web Based

With a Web based program you will usually pay a small fee per use (although you are not usually charged anything if you fail to win the auction). Most of the on-line programs will allow you to make the first few Snipes at no charge.

2. Downloaded Sniper Software.

In this instance the Sniper Software Program is downloaded onto your own computer. The upfront cost is more but there are no ongoing fees and many of these programs can be downloaded on a trial basis for free.

There are many Sniper programs to choose from. Just go to your favourite Search Engine and type in "Sniper Programs".

My personal choice, having tried several, is PowerSnipe and I have won some great auction using this particular program.

You can try PowerSnipe for free for 30 days.

So if you don't want to see those dreaded words-

!You Have Been Outbid!

The Drop Shipping Business

2007-10-04T02:47:00.001-07:00

The Drop Shipping Business

You have suddenly found the perfect business and you are all geared up to make lots of money. You have see the ads about Drop shipping and it sounds great.

Well of course it is great for some people! BUT will it be great for you?

Of course it will you think! Well think again its not as easy as it sounds and don't be fooled into thinking you don't need money.

First of all you start your search for drop shippers, Wow there is loads. Go on click on one or two.

That's right you have a found a great drop shipper but first of all they want a joining fee, OK you join, now what! You find it is a list with loads of drop shippers you can use. This is even better, so you click on one or two, and lo and behold they want you to pay as well to sell their products!

Is it a wind up? No they really do, It might be just a few pounds or a lot of pounds. And then to make things worse some of them want holding fee to make sure you use their site. It could be £20 or £30 depending on which site you pick. They call it a trust.

OK you pay up again, but oh the disappointment when you see their sale products, Most of them are already advertised on Ebay and other auction sites, and when you check they are selling them at much cheaper prices than you could ever hope to do.

WOW again, you have found one that is really free to use, yes there are a few out there. BUT a slight drawback. They have a big warehouse, but evidently this warehouse only stocks one of each product or so it seems.

Ok you decide to have a go any way, perhaps you have chosen jewellery, so you go to Ebay and put a gorgeous gold ring on auction for five days. Great someone has made a bid, at the end of five days you find you have made a nice little profit. They pay up and off you go to warehouse to pay the cash so the ring will be drop shipped to the customer.

Oh dear they have run out of stock! not surprising when there was only one to start with. What do you tell your happy customer who thinks they have just got a bargain and they are eagerly waiting for it.

What a great start, your disgruntled customer leaves you negative feedback and wham that's a black mark on Ebay.

So back you go and read every thing you can if they have a forum. What is the advice that you find, Purchase first to be sure of the product then put it for sale. So much for starting your business without having to spend.

If you can afford to purchase it then go ahead, it is a risk like anything else, but when you see hundreds of the same or similar on the auction you just have to hope that yours is the chosen one that they bid on.

Its quite true that some one some where will bid on anything, so instead of spending £10 or £20 on a piece of jewellery or whatnot, take a tenner and go to your nearest pound shop and buy ten items, see what you make on them.

That is my advice, take it or leave it. I bet you make a profit.

Mistakes to Avoid in your eBay Auctions

2007-10-04T02:46:00.001-07:00

Mistakes to Avoid in your eBay Auctions

Online auctions continue to grow in popularity as an easy and efficient way to make money on everything from unwanted household items to rare and expensive collectables and even to bulky items like cars.

Log on to eBay and you will see countless auctions on any item you can imagine. As eBay auctions grow in popularity, it becomes harder to make money with your auction because it often gets buried or overlooked with all the competing auctions in the same category. Therefore, to make money on your auction, it is important to set your auction apart and avoid common eBay auction mistakes. Here are 3 important mistakes that you must take note of:

1. Wrong product category or product category not specific enough. As it is relatively simple and inexpensive to auction an item, many sellers simply do not put in enough effort researching the market. The result is the auctions are put up in the wrong category. This would be tantamount to pitching your deal to the wrong market.

However, if you are marketing your product in traditional channels and paying money for your promotions, you are likely to do a lot more research and legwork. If you want to earn a serious income, then you should not treat your eBay auctions any differently.

To research, find the best eBay category to put your product auction in. If you are selling coins, eBay shoppers do not have the time to search all 38,000 plus auctions put up under the category of coins. You need to define your product category as specific as possible. You will then target the true eBay shoppers that are likely to be interested in your auction.

2. A blurred or ugly looking image. Be sure your eBay auction has a clear professional looking image. Pay heed to the saying "A picture speaks a thousand words". Also, don't forget to ensure that your image file size is not too large. If the image takes minutes to download, the typical eBay shopper is bound to skip your auction.

3. Incomplete and unclear product description. Be sure to give a detailed and precise description for your eBay auction item. For instance, you can give exact dimensions of the product or give specific details about the condition of the second hand item. An incomplete or unclear description is not likely to attract bidders for your item.

All in all, the best exercise I can suggest is to visit your Ebay auction and honestly ask yourself if you would be even tempted to put in a bid for this product.

If the answer is no or even probably not, then change it. If you are passionate about your auction and take the time to make it professional, your auction is likely to stand out. Make the effort to do it right and you are likely to have successful auctions.

How To Save Franchise Fees and Set Up Your Own Ebay Drop Off Store

2007-10-04T02:45:00.002-07:00

How To Save Franchise Fees and Set Up Your Own Ebay Drop Off Store

There has been a flood of publicity generated regarding the "Small Business Opportunity" being offered to would be internet entrepreneurs.

The plan is for you to purchase a franchise operation to sell products on consignment via eBay. Selling on consignment means you take a customer's product into your business, and pay the client the balance of the sales proceeds when and if the item sells.

The parent company guides you through the process of setting up a brick and mortar type of store located in a strip mall or similar location, and shows you how to attract customers using traditional advertising methods by which you sell their items on eBay. Your income is generated after all the fees are subtracted from the franchiser and eBay, along with the related standard business expenses listed below.

All of these items are considered overhead or business operating expenses:

1. Rent/Lease
2. Agreeability of Items
3. Bonded Insurance
4. Utilities
5. Employees
6. Fiduciary Insurance
7. Fiduciary Responsibility
8. Advertising

To start an eBay Consignment Business using this method, you will first be charged a Setup Fee ranging from $5,000 to $15,000 depending on the franchise you choose. There is also a range of fees to be paid to the Franchiser on every sale. You need to do the math for this type of operation after paying the franchise and setup fees to see if it is viable.

Setting Up An eBay Consignment Auction The Right Way

Eliminate the rental or lease and work out of your home. You can easily rent a storage facility for $50-$100/month to store your products, and you can meet your clients there. Remember, they do not expect or need an elaborate storefront; they want their items sold quickly with the least amount of effort.

You can obtain inexpensive insurance to cover the items in your storage facility. Advertise your eBay Consignment Service in local newspaper classified ads for under $20/week, and receive more products than you can handle.

Sign up for the eBay Trading Assistant Program (See my article titled How To Have eBay Send You Less Than Wholesale Product Sources). You will be provided with leads directly from eBay to you.

Obtain an Agreement of Items, which both you and the customer sign. These are available for under $29 at Legal Resource Online.

See the list below for Items to target in local classified ads. Indicate in your ad that you will sell items for "No Fee Charged - Pay Small Percentage of Sale"

* Computer Hardware/Software
* Toys and Video Games
* Consumer Electronics
* Antiques & Collectibles
* Jewelry/Luxury Goods
* Clothing & Accessories
* Sporting Goods
* eBay Auto Parts & Accessories

Services You Offer To Your Customer:

1. Inspect their product to make sure it is acceptable for sale.

2. Take photos of their product; then write the copy and design a professional ad and place it on eBay.

3. When the product is sold, process the payment securely, taking out your percentage, in addition to the shipping and handling charges.

4. If the product does not sell after placing the first ad, it is relisted at no charge.

If the product doesn't sell the second time, it can either be picked up by the customer, or donated to charity.

5. Packaging and shipping the product to the eBay buyer.

6. Mailing checks to the customer.

Setting up an eBay Consignment Business the correct way can allow you to start generating income in a short amount of time with limited expense!

Four Reasons Why You Should NEVER Use Animations In Your eBay Auctions

2007-10-04T02:45:00.001-07:00

Four Reasons Why You Should NEVER Use Animations In Your eBay Auctions

Inexperienced auction sellers, or those lacking in confidence, often want to make their auction listings more dramatic and exciting. They dread the possibility that buyers will be bored by their auction and turn away with indifference.

Therefore, they reason, they will spice up their auctions with some "animations" - graphics that blink, change colors, spin, travel around the web page.

Or the seller may be a tech person who loves toys and is proud of his ability to create unusual effects.

Regardless of their reasons, animated elements on an auction page are almost never a good idea for the following four reasons:

1. Rather than attracting attention to the merchandise in your auction, your potential customer may watch a spinning ball or follow Santa and his reindeer through the sky. We want the customer's total attention on that all-important question: "Do I want to buy this widget or not?" Distractions are not good for your wallet.

2. Animations can make the load time of your auction listing much longer. I have been using DSL four years and have forgotten (happily!) how horrible it is to use dialup. However, for many places on this planet, high-speed connections simply are not available. For these folks, loading your page might take forever, and you can be sure they won't wait. Experts tell us that the average user spends only 7 seconds at a webpage before departing for greener pastures. If your sales page is still loading, no sale for you.

3. It takes time for you to figure out how and whether to use animations. This is time that would be better spent on writing more exciting and dynamic copy - copy that will turn a prospective customer into a real buyer. A smart business person will treat time as her most precious commodity and spend it on what is most likely to bring a sale.

4. Many of these animations are just downright annoying. I personally do not enjoy looking at screens that are twirling, whirling and blinking. Two particularly irritating animations are an inescapable message that follows up and down the left side of the page, regardless of where I'm looking, and "trails" that follow my mouse.

A huge majority of people feel the same, apparently. Sellers need to make it as easy as possible for people to buy, rather than throwing obstacles in the way.

Are there any occasions when animated pictures are of any value in an auction listing? Possibly. For example, if you are selling to graphic designers then animated elements might be appropriate. As always, testing, testing, testing is the only way to truly know.

But for the rest of us folks - forget the glitter and focus on your merchandise. That's what makes us buy.

5 Reasons Why Playing Music On Your Auctions Is A Bummer Of An Idea

2007-10-04T02:44:00.000-07:00

5 Reasons Why Playing Music On Your Auctions Is A Bummer Of An Idea

There are 147 million registered users on eBay, and tens of millions of those are desperately fighting to make sales on eBay. When trying to make their auction listings as powerful as possible, many sellers use ill-advised tactics. They think that if they entertain buyers, they are more likely to get a sale. And as the Internet becomes more multi-media, there are many temptations thrown in our way, especially the use of sound.

Using background music or sounds, unless you're selling music, is probably a bad idea. If you are going to include music or even an audio product pitch, you are wise to include a command panel that will allow the viewer to listen or not as she pleases. Do not! Do not! Do not! set up your auction listing so that a potential customer is greeted with loud music as soon as they click on your page. Here's why:

1. Potential buyers are there to see your Gucci handbag or Oakley sunglasses, not to be entertained. Making a buying decision is serious business and you to do not want to take their attention away from your merchandise. Instead, the entire focus of your page should be directed at whatever you are selling. Music is simply a distraction.

2. At this time, we cannot count on the quality of audio technology. Buyers have different browsers, different connections and possibly antiquated equipment. Even worse than unwanted music is unwanted music that sounds terrible, that is scratchy, too loud or of awful quality.

3. You will most likely not know what kind of music your perspective buyer wants to hear. If you are selling to teens you can be reasonably certain that they do not want to hear Big Band music. But can you know whether they prefer Eminem or Travis Twitt? Obviously not.

4. Consider the situation of your buyer. He might be prowling eBay while he is at work and is not supposed to be surfing the net. Sudden blaring music as the Vice-President of the company walks by is the last thing he wants. Or a Mom might have just gotten her colicky baby to sleep and when your music wakes up a cranky infant you can be certain you will never get a sale from that irate parent.

5. Audio files take longer to download than text. If your prospective customer has dialup instead of a high-speed connection, they will most likely be gone before your auction page has even loaded.

Ignore the temptation to make your auctions 'more exciting', and instead, concentrate every element on the page on your merchandise. The last thing you want to do is distract a serious buyer who might decide to purchase. Let them find their entertainment elsewhere!

Five Ways To Detect Shill Bidders On eBay So That You Dont Pay Absurd Prices

2007-10-04T02:43:00.002-07:00

Five Ways To Detect Shill Bidders On eBay So That You Dont Pay Absurd Prices

There is as a lot of buzz about shill bidders on the eBay forums. But in actuality, shrill bidding isn't that common and is rather easily detected.

A buyer will sometimes attempt to use shill building to raise the price of merchandise he is selling. The idea is that the shiller will bid increasingly high prices, in the hope that legitimate buyers like you will top the artificially high prices in an effort to win the goodies for sale.

Here are five ways you can recognize a shill bidder:

1. Few shill bidders will have any feedback. This is because they never follow through with transactions and therefore don't have anyone to leave feedback. If the shiller does have legitimate transactions on ebay, he is usually smart enough to use a separate ID, because he does not want to get caught shilling and lose all buying and selling privileges.

{It is important to note, however, that just because a bidder has no feedback that does not mean that he is necessarily a shrill bidder. This may simply be a new account that has not had time to build a feedback reputation.}

2. Generally, a shiller only bids on the auctions of a particular seller. When in doubt, you can check the current and completed options of a seller and see if this shiller has bid on other auctions by the same seller.

3. Shill bidders are most often newbies. You can check the feedback, and the date that the eBay account was created, for any ebay member. If the bidder's account was created two days ago and he is bidding on several auctions of the same seller, you can be pretty certain about what is going on.

4. eBay has ways of the tracking shillers. Of course we don't know everything they do (and if I did know I wouldn't tell!) but some clues all are dead giveaways. For example, if the seller and the bidder have the same IP address, eBay knows to take a closer look.

5. Shill bidders retract many more bids than normal buyers. eBay does allow any buyer to retract a bid, although this is only supposed to occur for specific reasons. But in actuality, a retraction is rarely challenged and ultimately what can eBay do? It cannot force a person to pay for a particular item.

It is wise not to use this option on a frequent basis. Remember that your eBay behavior deal is constantly tracked. A retraction is considered to be a "black mark" on your reputation so don't do it very often. Shillers, on the other hand, don't care because they're unconcerned about their reputation. If caught, they simply open a new account.

Sometimes a shiller is the high bidder at the end of an auction. In that that case, the seller and buyer can agree to cancel the bid, rather than retract it. However, all this takes a lot of work, planning and effort. In the end, shill bidding is rarely worth the trouble and time. Instead, smart sellers spend their time finding products and writing listings - the two basic moneymaking activities of an ebay business - instead of plotting how to raise profits on individual listings. Success in business is about efficiency.

How to Survive the Jungles of Ebay Selling

2007-10-04T02:43:00.001-07:00

How to Survive the Jungles of Ebay Selling

Come with me, we are going to take a safari into the jungles of eBay selling, sometimes wrought with danger but most often rewarded with treasure.

Beware of non-paying bidders, beware of auction snipers waiting to try and steal your eBay auction at a very low bid, but welcome the loot you will receive selling outdated relics in your house for a small kings ransom.

Sell the heirlooms that even Salvation Army drop off center would turn their nose up at.

Upon our journey we may encounter savvy eBay buyers lurking in the Internet shadows and waiting to pounce like a ravenous lion on novice eBay sellers.

Slashing and cutting your path through the eBay sales jungle is no small undertaking, let me be your guide through this sometimes-perilous journey.

Remember the moose head that was the family joke when we went to visit grandpa Jim at the cabin every fall. The very same moose head that now sits front and center in our family room. As this was the sum total of our inheritance as our dear grandpa passed last spring. Putting Old Grandpa Jims moose head up for sale and successfully selling it to a corn farmer from Iowa for $300 was nothing short of a revelation.

Not only did the moose head eBay sale fulfill the farmer's dream of a big game trophy without firing a shot, but also it unloaded from our hands an item that was flat out rejected by our local charities.

After dropping the monstrous 400-pound beasts head at the UPS packing store counter my brother and I exchanged high fives.

We could only think of 1 word that would adequately describe the value of selling on eBay to our household PRICELESS!

One early Saturday morning, I was being dragged unmercifully by my mother to some local garage sales. Fumbling around in a near incoherent state I spotted on old wooden hand crank phone, it was marked for sale at $30 being in a fowl mood I haggled the sheepish sellers down to $10. Upon placing the old wooden hand crank phone up for sale on eBay a bidding war broke out on the old antique phone, even I was amazed at the final sales price of over $650.

On vacation with his wife and needing to kill some time as his spouse was getting her nails done, Robert wandered into thrift store that was located next door.

Robert spotted on the wall and old looking parchment with what looked top be foreign handwriting of some kind the document was priced at only $8 so Robert snatched up what he thought to be a valuable treasure.

Robert was a certified pack rat according to his wife, returning next store his jubilation turned to dismay as his wife slowly shook her head with disgust as looked at the item he just purchased. She demanded he get rid of it immediately. Robert dejectedly took it home and decided to put it for sale on eBay. His wife's displeasure turned to glee as the $8 thrift shopped document item ended up selling for the ridiculous price of $2600.

Your Ebay selling safari can begin at your very doorstep

Look through you home for virtually any item you can live without There are quite literally rivers of diamonds flowing through your attic or garage.

Ebay has proven time and time again that one mans junks is another mans treasure so do not assume that your cracked Gia pet sitting on the back shelf of you closet will not make a woman in Kentucky's Gia pet colletion complete

There are some pitfalls and sand traps when selling on eBay

Beware of The dubious and cunning eBay sniper

The eBay sniper is a much feared eBay buyer; these villains have automated computer programs that will allow them to shoot a last second bid on sellers who have not priced their auction item correctly

The Ebay sniper is a buyer who preys on the new eBay seller. They look for mistakes such as misspellings in the title of the eBay or listed in the wrong category these simple mistake keep sellers away from your auctions allowing the sniper to target your auction and snipe it with a last second bid for a mere fraction of its value

There is another vaunted creature that is the scourge to eBay sellers.

The most hated creature in the eBay selling jungle. It is the NON Paying Bidder, these hyena like animals turn tale and run the minute you ask them to pay for the auction they just won. The non paying bidders are click happy creatures who often develop an acute sense of buyers remorse just minutes after winning you auction item. They have the ability to come up with a dizzying array of excuses as to why the cannot send payment such as their cat walking on the computer keyboard and inadvertently placing a bid on your item for sale.

Defeating the NON Paying Bidder:

It is quite simple, click on Ebay help button and enter the users Id, after 3 non paying bidder attempts the user will be sent to exile never allowed to roam the eBay jungle again.

Explore your house and unearth hidden items that you cannot quite bear to put in the trash but with eBay you can quickly convert to cash.

Farm the river of diamonds available to you from household relics, to your local thrift stores.

Keep an eagles eye out for any distinctive or one of a kind items you may purchase cheaply. As the path through the Ebay selling jungle becomes clear, you will be rewarded with sales and increased space in your home. Using this online marketplace to eliminate unwanted clutter and turn it into cash is the treasure at the end of our great journey through the eBay wilds.

Drop-ship or U-ship: That is the Question

2007-10-04T02:42:00.000-07:00

Drop-ship or U-ship: That is the Question

For small Internet retailers, drop-shipping is one of the best innovations since sliced bread. How else can a start-up offer a wide variety of products and convince customers that they have a fully-stocked warehouse-while investing virtually nothing in inventory or warehousing? Before you jump right onto the drop-shipping bandwagon, however, there are some pitfalls to avoid.

While a quality drop-shipper is truly a dream come true for the Internet retailer, there are plenty of painful pitfalls to avoid. Things can get embarrassing and costly in a hurry when a drop-shipper:

? sends products out late
? forgets to process your orders
? sends out poorly packaged products
? double-bills your credit card for orders on a regular basis
? provides cheaply made products and/or shoddy workmanship.

A Matter of Credibility

In addition to the above drawbacks, many customers are not very impressed when they find out you retail drop-shipped products. This is especially the case with the rustic log furniture I sell on the web. Many phone customers ask if we make the products ourselves, or are "merely" drop-shipping.

They are relieved and impressed when they find that we manufacturer, finish or pack most of the log furniture we sell at our warehouse. We sell to a lot of people with expensive vacation homes, and quality is of utmost importance. It's always easier to testify to the quality of furniture when you have seen it yourself, and we are able to offer a more unique line by going to Amish suppliers whose products aren't sold elsewhere on the Internet.

Advantages of Drop-Shipping

With this said, there are still some sizeable advantages to drop-shipping. As the volume of our orders grows, it becomes more and more difficult to package all of that furniture. Fortunately for us, our largest supplier is only two miles away and we have a pretty good deal going: we finish all the log furniture they want finished, and they drop-ship the unfinished furniture. So they make it, we finish it.

That means if somebody orders unfinished furniture, it can go directly from the factory. This might have made me nervous about quality control at one point, but I have developed a high degree of confidence in our log furniture manufacturer. In the five years I have been associated with them, they have never let me down. They fill orders with a high degree of quality and accuracy, which makes our job easy.

Choosing a Drop-Ship Partner

Unfortunately, not all drop-shipping companies are as reliable as the one I have found. This is why it pays to do your homework before choosing a drop-shipping company. If you align yourself with fly-by-night operations, your business will most likely suffer as a result. If you are wildly successful, which you no doubt hope to be, a small start-up may not be able to manufacturer or ship product fast enough to meet your needs. A drop-shipper that is unstable as a business may be happy to take your cash but fail to fill orders on a timely basis.

Any business who drop-ships your orders will affect your reputation as a company one way or another. As a result, it's important to make sure any drop-shipping companies you partner with meet the high level of customer service and quality control standards you set for your business.

Make BIG MONEY on eBay - Your Unlimited Cash Cow

2007-10-04T02:41:00.002-07:00

Make BIG MONEY on eBay - Your Unlimited Cash Cow

Let me be brutally honest; until recently, I had never bought anything on eBay, I'd never sold anything on eBay, and, dang-nab-it, I disdained auctions. (Bidding wars just weren't my bag. I was a lover, not a fighter.) But one fine day, everything was about to change.

So if you're searching for an honest, easy way to make cash-in-a-flash and lots of it, then read on dear web-surfer.

My life as usual suddenly took a dramatic U-Turn the day my best buddy seemed to be channeling a tenacious Tom Cruise. The resemblance was uncanny! But the re-enactment of a famous scene from the hit movie Jerry McGuire certainly grabbed my attention.

"Help me help you!" he pleaded, bombastically. "I'm going to an exciting seminar this weekend. It's all about making big money on eBay. Everybody says that e-Bay is fast becoming a cash cow! An unlimited cash cow! You absolutely must accompany me to this extravaganza. I've got tickets. Plus, there's also a free lunch."

Uh, did someone say, "Free lunch?"

Fast forward, I'm front row and center at a success seminar. Yikes! I don't know which I disdain more - auctions or success seminars. And here I am at a success seminar on how to turn eBay auctions into an unlimited cash cow. Double yikes!

Nevertheless, I am a sucker for get-rich-quick schemes. And I sure could use an unlimited cash cow right about now. Plunk it right next to my magical mystical money tree, I would. The sweet sound of distant mooing, like an angelic choir, echoed gently in my ears!

Anyway, I got my free lunch - and a whole lot more! And so can you.

Each day, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of smart, money-savvy entrepreneurs get on the fast track to unlimited wealth, milking this unlimited cash cow for all that it's worth. Many of those top moneymakers became wealthy using the same powerful strategies revealed at that seminar.

As you probably guessed, that seminar was simply a sale pitch for a complete, comprehensive course. It will guide you step-by-step on how to make big money on eBay. Written from the combined success strategies of numerous successful eBay Power Sellers, this course will have you selling like an eBay pro in just a few days. Listen and learn, while the pros share their secrets with you.

Imagine - your own personal unlimited cash cow!

Regardless of whether you are already successful on eBay or just getting started, this complete course has valuable tips to accelerate you on the road to financial success.

Discover how you too can turn eBay into your personal unlimited cash cow - today!

Is Your Trash Cash? 5 Easy Places to Sell Your Stuff

2007-10-04T02:41:00.001-07:00

Is Your Trash Cash? 5 Easy Places to Sell Your Stuff

The old adage that says "one person's trash is another person's treasure" never goes out of date. So when you're looking for some extra spending cash and you want to make some space in your home, combine the two endeavors by selling your stuff instead of donating it or trashing it. Use the extra cash to pay a bill or start a holiday gift fund. Even better, use the windfall to treat yourself to a weekend getaway! Plenty of people and places exist to buy what you could be selling instead of giving away or trashing. Here are some places where you can sell your stuff:

ANTIQUE DEALERS AND COLLECTORS: Sell anything from old coins and costume jewelry to old records and toys that are in great shape to dealers. And sometimes not so great shape. I got several offers for an old hand-me down jeweled pocket watch, even with its bit of chipped paint. Dealers often resell your item to make themselves a profit. The telephone book yellow pages yields the names of area antique dealers or check the local newspaper classified ads under the "wanted to buy" sections. Be sure to get more than one quote or appraisal before you sell it.

FLEA MARKETS: Got a bunch of stuff to sell like books, video tapes, figurines, fake (or real) potted plants, even clothing in good shape? Rent a booth at the nearest flea market that generates a lot of traffic. Often just $5 - $15 rents a space with a table. Visit first to scope out the best booth for your bucks. Perhaps even bring your own additional tables, shelves or hanging clothes racks. A sheet or cheap tablecloth will dress up your flea market table too (Sometimes good displays attract more shoppers!). Don't forget the lawn chair and $20 in small bills for change. And flea market shoppers like to haggle. So inflate your prices just a bit so they can strike a bargain with you. It's expected!

CLASSIFIED ADS: Make room for the new couch by selling the old one in your local freebie paper, especially if you're in a college town. Used furnishings are hot sale items to students. I once netted $200 bucks for a small quaint and deteriorating three piece wood bedroom drawer set someone gave me a few years back. I placed an ad in the local "Pennysaver" newspaper for just a few bucks, and dozens of potential buyers called almost immediately. It sold in two days (to a furniture design graduate student who wanted to restore the furniture).

CONSIGNMENT/RESALE SHOPS: If you have discovered that you like walking in fresh air or you stink at tennis, consider giving up your treadmill or tennis rackets in exchange for cash. Sell used sporting goods equipment to stores such as Play it Again; or put it on consignment at such stores. That means if the item sells, the store gets a cut. If it doesn't sell, you're still stuck with it and earn no money. Also, you probably have some clothing consignment stores in your community. Check the phone book and look around, or ask around, to find them. Sometimes resale shops or consignment shops will advertise in those weekly freebie "tell and sell" or community newspapers too. Make some inquiries with these shops about what seasonal clothes they're looking for currently; then give them your good stash of clothes that you no longer wear to sell on consignment. Make sure you inquire about what happens to the clothing if it doesn't sell (so you get it back and they don't cart it off to the nearest charity clothing shop which some will if you want them to do so).

FRIENDS AND CO-WORKERS: Sure it's okay to give things away now and then to friends in need. But if you're planning to sell an item and you happen to know a friend, acquaintance or co-worker seeking just such an item, why not give them first purchase option? When I married, I ended up with a lot of duplicate items just taking up storage space. One day during a casual conversation with a co-worker I found a new home for my almost new, small microwave. My co-worker had just divorced, moved to this new state, owned almost no household items and lived in a very small apartment; my small microwave was a perfect match for her needs. I ended up with $25 I needed and she ended up with a must-have item for her new apartment. So keep your ears open for people seeking what you're getting rid of and don't be afraid to say an item is for sale (after all, if you could afford to give it away, you probably wouldn't be reading this article.).

Save on EBay Fees with Free Image Hosting

2007-10-04T02:40:00.000-07:00

Save on EBay Fees with Free Image Hosting

Experienced sellers at online auction sites such as EBay will tell you that the single most effective tool of persuasion is a good image. Multiple images are even better. After all, buyers want to know what they are spending money on, it's only natural. EBay, however, takes advantage of that fact to charge relatively large fees for storing your images online. Here is a simple list to illustrate the point:

Additional Pictures: $0.15
Picture Show: $0.25
Supersize Picture: $0.75
Picture Pack: $1.00

These fees will slowly eat away at your profits, unless you store your pictures elsewhere. Free image hosting sites, such as will allow you to upload your pictures and link to them on EBay. For most sellers, the basic free service is more than enough and can easily save over $1 per auction in picture fees.

Take advantage of the service to post as many images on your auctions as you can. It will help you increase the number of bids received by making the sale more attractive. All the code you need is provided at the click of a button, you simply have to copy and paste into the EBay form.

Another benefit is that image hosting sites generally allow you to edit your pictures online (rotate, resize, etc) so that you do not need any special photo editing software.

Best of all, perhaps, may be the online photo album options many sites offer. You can take advantage of this feature to set up an image gallery to display all your items on one page. It will provide a convenient way for customers to browse your offerings.

Whether you are a high volume seller or a newcomer to online auctions, take advantage of the service to reduce your selling expenses. Experiment with different techniques to learn what works best to increase sales.

Fundraising Ideas Using eBay

2007-10-04T02:39:00.002-07:00

Fundraising Ideas Using eBay

Have you thought of using the online auction site eBay as your next major fundraiser?

I have, and it was a huge success!

Like many other businesses the fundraising business has seen an incredible change since the internet. Everyday there are new tools, softwares and websites that are making fundraising not only easier but a lot more fun. One of my favorite fundraising sites is eBay.com

There are many different ways you can take advantage of eBay's services and use it as a fundraiser:

? Selling your member's junk - This is something I did to fundraise for my son's preschool. I collected items from member's attics, closets and garages and sold them on eBay. We rose over $3,000 for our little preschool, which was a lot for us. However, even though I got volunteers to help, it was way too much work. At the time, eBay was my business and I knew what I was doing. I cannot imagine someone who does not know anything about the collecting business or selling on eBay to attempt this.

? Selling your member's junk using a professional eBay seller - Since eBay has become a major profession for many people, there are businesses today that specialize in selling for you. Find such a business and have them do all the work. All you have to do is collect the stuff and they will advertise, sell, and ship the items for you and send you a check. You can find a seller on eBay that lives near you through eBay's Trading Assistant program, or use a service like Auction Drop or I-Soldit.

? New items donated by members - Many times members will donate products rather than money. EBay makes it easy for you to sell these items. Not only will you probably get a better price in a market that has millions of buyers but also this will increase your organization's visibility and potentially attract new members.

? Sell local and national gift certificates - I've done this with the preschool auction. Besides selling member's stuff, we collected local and national gift certificates. Most businesses are very generous and are happy to give you a certificate. If the business that donated the certificate had a website, I put a link to it from the eBay ad. The great thing about listing gift certificates on eBay is that you don't have to take a picture and the description is easy. However, You MUST advertise the gift certificates: Besides sending out emails to all our members with instructions to forward the email to family and friends, I placed a free ad in the local Santa Cruz Market newsgroups advertising the auction and the gift certificates. You can find newsgroups that are specific for your area.

? Sell a calendar or cookbook etc. - eBay has a cool section especially for charity organizations. Go to eBay and check it out by looking for Charity Auctions. I've seen some organizations sell their calendar, cookbook, or whatever on eBay. If you have a supply of these items you can have an ongoing auction selling that item (you would have to re-list it every 7 days).

This has great potential for a nonprofit that helps more universal causes like homelessness, Cancer/AIDS, ecology and so forth. Signing up on eBay as a nonprofit organization gets you listed under a special section. Some people browse these lists and will often buy something from the organization just for the support. EBay also supplies nonprofits with their own web page describing the organization with links back to their major site.

? Encourage members and friends who sell on eBay to sign up for eBay's new Giving Works - EBay's Giving Works program helps sellers to easily donate a portion of their sale to their favorite nonprofit. The seller chooses a nonprofit from a list (or can add a new one) and pledges to a certain percentage of the sale to that nonprofit. The pledged percentage is taken out automatically by eBay after the auction. It could not be any easier.

Seven Steps to eBay Selling Success

2007-10-04T02:39:00.001-07:00

Seven Steps to eBay Selling Success

More and more people try their luck at selling on eBay everyday. With all of that growing competition it is important that you do everything possible to make sure that you stand out from the crowd. By following a few simple steps you can greatly improve the odds of your auction being noticed, that browsers will convert to bidders, and that those bidders will become repeat customers. Begin practicing the follow seven tips and watch your eBay auction sales explode.

1. Inundate your potential buyers with details. It is much better to provide a lot rather than a little information and this will also be a great opportunity for you to pepper your listing description with keywords. Do be sure, however, that your auction listing is informative and not filled with hype. Those extra exclamation points really aren't going to make the sale. Actually, they will only make you look unprofessional. Also, give your readers details as appropriate such as models number, item condition, color, size, etc.

2. The title may not seem like a vital part of the equation, but it really is of great importance. It is the first thing people see when browsing through the auctions, so it has to not only grab their attention, but also entice them to click. Do not enter you title in ALL CAPS. This will only make you look like an amateur. Include as applicable; keywords, model numbers, seating information, brand names, item size, color, etc.

3. A picture is worth a thousand bids. Okay, well maybe not a thousand, but it will certainly help your item sell. Think about it; would you buy something sight unseen? Of course not and neither will the majority of buyers on eBay. Be sure to take care when photographing your item. Lesser quality photos are just as bad as no pictures at all. Also, the more expensive the items; the more photos you should provide.

4. State all of your requirements upfront. Tell potential bidders how much you intend to charge for shipping, to which countries you are willing to ship, if you will accept returns, or anything else that you might wish to specify. You really can't make things up as you go along. You have to get all requirements out there at the beginning.

5. If a potential buyer contacts you with a question then be sure to promptly respond. If you wait you may lose a much needed bidder. Also, be sure to be polite in your response as no question is too stupid to warrant anything other than but a courteous reply. Even if that person doesn't bid on your item they will certainly remember your pleasant attitude and that could mean a future sale.

6. The majority of buyers on eBay prefer to pay for their purchase via PayPal. That is why it is vital for you to accept this method of payment. It is also beneficial to you as it eliminates the potential for bad checks or money orders.

7. After the sale most winning bidders will expect the seller to begin the completion of the transaction. Send an email, an invoice, alert the buyer when the item has shipped, and be sure to leave feedback after the transaction.

How To Write a Traffic Pulling eBay Auction Title

2007-10-04T02:38:00.002-07:00

How To Write a Traffic Pulling eBay Auction Title

Selling an item on eBay should be simple but it is surprising how many people make some very silly mistakes.

As a buyer this is fantastic, you can pick up some absolute bargains by finding poorly listed items. However, if you are a seller you need to ensure that every item you put on eBay will be found and therefore have a better chance of commanding a high price.

Your auction title is really the most important part of your auction, after all, it is this feature which attracts buyers to view your description.

You have 55 characters to use to attract the bidders, try and use all of them - it is free and the more relevant keywords you can add, the more search results your auction will end up in.

For example:

A listing with the title: "Band of Brothers Region 2 - 6 DVDs - UK Version - Mint"

is likely to receive a great deal more interest than one with the following title:

"band of brothers dvd"

Also, try and avoid writing the entire title in capitals or using unrelated words like "L@@K" and "W@W". This simply annoys other eBay users and is not good netiquette.

Never keyword spam either. You see this all of the time on eBay, sellers add unrelated keywords to the title so their auction lands in more search results.

The problem is that these keywords won't attract more bids but simply attract users who are searching for something else entirely.

If you list an auction for a Playstation 2 but use the title "Playstation 2 not Xbox not Nintendo" it will attract people who are not looking for a Playstation 2. Quite simply, people who are not looking for a PS2 will not buy one.

Your time would be better served adding more relevant keywords to the title. "Sony Playstation 2 (PS2) - Mint in Box - No Reserve" is a much better title.

Where possible, try and include descriptive keywords to attract bidders. Some good examples are the following:

Rare, Mint, OOP (Out of Print), Low P&P, No Reserve or NR, Low Starting Price, 1p Starting Bid, Brand New etc

Ensure you spell check your title before you list it. This is easy to do if you write the title in Microsoft Word first. If you spell an important keyword incorrectly you will miss out on a lot of potential bidders.

To make the title look more attractive, add a capital to the front of every major keyword.

"Microsoft Xbox - Mint in Box with 4 Games - No Reserve"

looks more attractive and stands out more than

"microsoft xbox - mint in box with 4 games - no reserve"

If you are unsure of the best way to write your title, try searching for the same item under Completed Listings and see how others have done it before.

If their auctions have commanded high winning bids then their titles have worked.

Importing Products to Sell on eBay

2007-10-04T02:38:00.001-07:00

Importing Products to Sell on eBay

The interesting thing about online buyers is they are extremely price sensitive. A survey done by Forrester Research shows that 73 percent of surveyed online buyers expect prices on the Internet to be cheaper than in stores. No wonder auction marketplaces are thriving. Among the most popular auction marketplaces growth of eBay is especially notable! Its market share is growing at roughly twice the pace of the over all market. So, it's only natural if you like many other wannabe entrepreneurs thinking seriously to start an eBay business.

Say, after spending long hours on the eBay and doing much research offline and online, you finally have come up with a niche category of products to sell. But, there is one little problem! You don't have a slightest clue where to get regular supply of this product for wholesale price. Often, entrepreneurs with great product ideas fail to materialize their dream business plan just because they are unable to find a right supplier. How to tackle this problem?

Finding a local supplier

Success in any trading business depends not only on how good you are in selling, it also relies greatly on your ability to source the product at right cost. If you have a fairly large list of products that you are considering to work with you have a variety of options to choose from. You may start your eBay auctioning business based on local liquidators, closeout dealers, government auctions, newspaper classified or Drop-shippers (http://ezine.rusbiz.com/article/39). But to start a real niche business you need to find a constant source supplier, which could be a manufacturer, a distributor or a wholesaler. Obviously, Internet is the easiest place to get the initial contact information. Try http://www.thomasnet.com/ or http://www.tgrnet.com/ - both websites are good information sources for industrial products manufacturers.

Bear in mind that many manufacturers simply aren't able to handle small orders and don't sell products directly to retailers. Some times, the minimum sales lot is way too big for a small start-up company to manage. However, even if the manufacturer does not sell directly to retail levels, they will provide you with information on their products and refer you to their wholesaler or distributor companies, which will be in a position to cater your needs.

For some category of products, your best option is to attend trade or industry shows in order to locate a supplier. Check out websites of some exhibition centers in your vicinity and find one or two trade shows of your area of interest. Make sure that participants of the trade show are distributors and wholesalers as oppose to large manufacturers. After all, you need to find a supplier who will agree to work with your initial small orders.

Trade journals or publications of your related field also could be a great source in your quest to find a supplier. Trade journals publish information on industry trend, articles on major players, various industry related event schedules such as trade shows, and often carry classified sections. Sometimes, they also publish specialty issues such as a buyer's guide or a who's who issue. You may consider getting those issues by contacting the publishers.

Professional and trade associations similar to local chamber of commerce and other groups offer a variety of services, which are extremely useful to members and general people a like. Promotion of the industry and its products and referral services for buyers trying to find specific products are some of the services that they offer. You should not hesitate to contact these organizations for help.

Importing

Competition in world's largest electronic marketplace is fierce! If you have to buy products from a middleman, you may find that your prices are not workable at all. What to do? Since most of the consumers products are imported any way, you may consider outsourcing your product from a foreign country. Today, thanks to globalization importing products are no longer as difficult as it used to be! If you are trying to buy a labor-intensive product, the best places are probably China - which is the hottest at this time, India, Thailand, Vietnam, Bangladesh and some other Asian countries. If you are looking for medium quality electronics and computer parts, your options are China, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore, etc. For high-end designer products Italy, Germany and France are your best bet. For intellectual property related products, Russia and other Eastern European countries are still a paradise.

There is a good chance of finding a supplier through online B2B portals. If you are looking for a supplier from China you may try www.alibaba.com and www.globalsources.com. Two of the largest trade leads aggregators on the Internet. For products from India you may try searching the database of both www.indiamart.com and www.trade-india.com. For products from Russia and other CIS countries www.rusbiz.com is a great option.

Here are the steps you must take in order to import products successfully:

? Locate several suppliers either through online resources or by contacting Trade Commissions of respective countries.

? Contact the suppliers and see if they are in a position to deliver the right product. Make sure that the suppliers are not your direct competitors. Many foreign suppliers are actively selling products through eBay.

? If you find their price and quality of the product are acceptable get several samples. It is very important to give them an exact copy of the product you are looking for. Without a prototype you might end up getting something far different than you expected.

? Work out your cost, which include buying cost, packaging, shipping, insurance, customs duty, excise duty if any, financing and handling charges, etc. You may also incur other expenses depending on products and your location.

? Check out your supplier. If possible make a trip to visit the supplier. Ask for references. Contact their bankers if necessary. Importing requires absolute due diligence.

? Check with a logistics consultant about shipping and exporting rules of the country.

? Contact a customs broker to verify latest duty and other regulations related to importing of this particular product.

? Don't forget to consider product life cycle, shipping time, seasonality of the product and other characteristics specific to your product.

Importantly, do your homework! You can sure make money by importing and selling goods on eBay. Thousands are already doing this. But, the key to success relies on your entrepreneurial spirit, due preparation, sound judgment and hard work. If you think you are ready, go for it!

Doing It eBay: An eBay Business Means Fun and Profits in a Global Marketplace

2007-10-04T02:37:00.000-07:00

Doing It eBay: An eBay Business Means Fun and Profits in a Global Marketplace

In 1995, when Pierre Omidyar introduced an online business venue that was essentially a virtual garage sale with auction pricing, no one knew a retailing revolution was about to occur. That site became known as eBay, and it's hard to find someone today who hasn't at least heard about the popular online auction company.

What's important to understand from the start is that eBay is a sales channel that you can use exclusively or in addition to selling through a retail operation, mail order catalog, independent Web site, or network of direct salespeople. You decide the type of business you want to have, what type of merchandise you're going to sell, and how you're going to operate.

To sell on eBay, you'll pay a listing fee to post your merchandise and a final value fee (a small percentage of the sale price) when the item sells. For the current eBay fee schedule, check the eBay site.

What can you sell on eBay?

Though eBay is a popular place for the sale of used items ranging from high-dollar antiques to second-hand junk, it's also a venue for brand-new, up-to-the-minute merchandise of all types and in all price ranges. Deciding what to sell on eBay can be particularly challenging because your options are virtually limitless. Some of the more popular categories of items are cars, computers, consumer electronics, books, movies, music, sports items, collectibles, clothing and accessories.

As you take the first step of deciding what to sell on eBay, keep these points in mind:

· Have an interest in the product. Don't choose a product based on potential profits alone; be sure it's something you'll enjoy working with.

· Cost and sale price. How much will the item cost you and how much can you reasonably expect to sell it for?

· Availability. Is the merchandise readily available or will you risk having to deal with supply problems?

· Storage. Do you have room to store the merchandise?

· Packing and shipping. Consider what is involved in packing and shipping the merchandise. Even though the buyer typically pays the shipping costs, think about your labor, time, and potential breakage.

· Seasonal issues. Will the item sell year-round or be subject to seasonal fluctuations?

How do you sell on eBay?

You have a variety of ways to sell on eBay. In addition to the traditional basic auction, where you post your item with a starting price and wait for bidders to drive the price up, you can use a number of other pricing features and auction types. In addition to auctions, you can also set up your own eBay store, which will allow you to sell auction and fixed-price merchandise from your special location on eBay. You'll pay a monthly fee based on the level of store services you want, plus additional fees for items listed and sold.

The technical side of eBay

eBay has evolved into one of the most user-friendly sites on the Internet. Getting set up as a user is a simple process that you can complete in just a few minutes. You will be required to provide your name, address, e-mail, and telephone number, as well as a credit card number and your checking account information. eBay uses this information to confirm your identity, which protects the integrity of their operation, and to collect auction fees. If your contact information changes, be sure to notify eBay immediately.

You must register to buy or sell on eBay, but you can browse around the site without registering. Before you do any business on eBay, take the time to get to know the site. Set aside several hours to get online and browse around, study listings, read the help pages, understand the various tools and how you can use them, check out the forums, and get comfortable with how the site works.

Once your business is up and running, you'll probably want to consider using supplemental auction management software, which will save time and money, make you more efficient, and improve the level of customer service you offer.

Getting started as an eBay seller

Start off by buying a few things, then start selling, posting just one or two auctions at a time until you're comfortable with how the process works. You'll make mistakes, especially in the beginning, but if you learn from them they'll be worth the cost.

Keep in mind that eBay is ever-changing. As the economy cycles, you'll experience changes in pricing and demand. And as more people start operating on eBay, the competition will increase and prices may decline slightly (great when you're buying, but not when you're selling).

If you plan to make selling on eBay a full-time business, expect to work hard. Though there is plenty of money to be made on eBay, it's not a get-rich-quick or easy deal. You'll invest as much time and energy as you would in a traditional retail operation--but your potential for profits is greater.

Don't be intimated by the sheer size of the operation, and keep in mind that eBay has reached less than ten percent of its potential market-which means there is plenty of room for you. So find your eBay niche, get online, and watch your business grow.

How To Convert eBay Surfers into Bidders!

2007-10-04T02:36:00.000-07:00

How To Convert eBay Surfers into Bidders!

Do you know the phrase "A Call To Action"? Well, using "A Call To Action" on your eBay Auction could help increase your sales almost immediately. As outlined in my book "eBay Marketing Wholesale SourcePak" having the right product, at the right price is crucial. But, what else can you do to entice those eBay surfers to become a bidder? Here is One Hot Tip anyone can implement on their auctions to increase their sales - it's called "A Call To Action!"

Some of you may be asking "What is "A Call To Action?" Well it's a simple phrase that you would add to your auction description. This phrase should tell your potential bidder what they should do next. I know what your thinking, "Don't they know what to do next?" But really, you do need to tell people what it is you expect them to do. You can not depend on or assume that an auction surfer is automatically going to become a bidder without telling him/her what you want them to do. You need to come right out and tell them to buy. And why they should buy. Here are some examples of phrases you could use to entice that potential bidder to take action now and make a bid.

- Bid Now! Save Money!

- Buy Now and Save on Shipping!

- Bid Now! Don't Miss This Incredible Deal!

- Buy Now! Quantities are Limited!

- Bid Now! One Of A Kind!

- Bid Now! Collectors Item!

You get the idea. If you have what that surfer is looking for any of the above phrases will entice him/her to make a bid now. And this method is not something new. Retail stores have been using this for years. You know any of the big sales where the advertisement says something like "And don't wait, Quantities are Limited!" This method is time tested. Some experts report you can increase your sales by 50% simply by telling those who are just surfing your auction page what you want them to do.

You can also use more then one call to action. And use them for different reasons in your auction. Say you use one of the above. Bid Now! One of a Kind! But what if this surfer is not interested in this item for auction. Well, don't let him/her leave without inviting him/her to view your other auctions. Say something like "If you don't see what you are looking for here - please visit my other auctions" and create a link to your other auctions, possibly your "me page" which lists all the auctions you have running.

Try this method on your next auction.

Happy Selling!

An eBay Computer Purchase

2007-10-04T02:35:00.001-07:00

An eBay Computer Purchase

An eBay purchase that turned sour.

A story of fraud, deceit, and broken promises.

Let me preface my statements by saying that I think eBay is great. I'm a handicapped senior citizen and it's been a boon to me to be able to shop the Internet and particularly eBay. In nearly six years I've had two problems both to do with non-delivery.

One incident was insignificant as it involved a $5.00 purchase and was quickly remedied. It only deserves mention because it was my first purchase, and because I complained about non-delivery the vindictive seller gave me a negative feed back, which remains on my record to this day.

Some months ago I purchased a computer through eBay. It was a very good price, but not so low as to arouse suspicion. I paid through Paypal using a credit card.

I had checked the seller's feedback record, which was perfect. Next day I received an acknowledgment and a promise to ship in a day or so. I waited for a week or so, then followed up the shipment. The seller, Ann apologized and said that she was a government attorney, on call and had been called out of town unexpectedly. She said she was on the road and on her return home would advise me the status of the order.

About a week later I received an email with an email with a UPS tracking number and an expected delivery date. The date was somewhat extended, but I accepted it, as it was coming across country. When the PC didn't arrive as expected I sent Ann another email. Her response was another apology and she said that her father had died and she was in another state for the funeral and would look into the matter upon her return, also that due to the inconvenience she was going to refund half my money.

More time elapsed and after several email inquiries I received an email from Ann's husband stating that on her way home from the funeral she had been in a car crash and was hospitalized. He said he was not involved in the transaction, but on her instructions was looking into the matter, and would see that I received not only my computer but also a full refund. Naturally many weeks had elapsed by this time.

I was beginning to become suspicious and checked their feedback record when suddenly there appeared six or seven bad reviews. On a subsequent check they made their feedback private so it couldn't be accessed. By then it was too late, the next thing I knew their email was suspended.

When I contacted eBay they gave me Ann's phone number. When I called the phone number their service had been disconnected. I was unable to get an address from either eBay or Paypal.

I reported this case of fraud, deceit and broken promises to eBay and Paypal. Both had time limits, which had expired, so they were unable to help me, so I turned the matter over to my credit card company.

Fortunately, I had used a protected credit card, and I was within the prescribed time limit. I don't know what transpired but I subsequently received a notice from Paypal that they had credited my account. Eventually I received a full refund.

Lessons Learned:

* Always uses a consumer-protected credit card. Do not ever use your checking or savings account even though Paypal encourages you to do so.

* Make sure you have a consumer-protected card, some do not have this feature, and be aware of the time limits, and other restrictions

* Do not accept stalling tactics even if they seem legitimate. Paypay has a 30-day limit. EBay's is 60 days, or 90 days in some cases. Put in a claim immediately, you can always retract it.

* Be careful when checking feed back, make sure you're getting reports from buyers not sellers. eBay has made it easier to do this now. These people had deliberately purchased a lot of small items to build up a positive feed back record. I have seen a tutorial that advocates doing it for new sellers who have no feed back record .

* Follow tour instincts, I had ignored a lot of danger signals. ---DON'T DO THAT---use your common sense---If you suspect foul play, Take immediate action.

Remember that scam artists are very good psychologists. They know how to appeal to your sensibilities.

Beware---They're Pros they make their living that way. Fraud and deceit are their tools of trade.

How I Was Nearly Conned On Ebay

2007-10-04T02:34:00.002-07:00

How I Was Nearly Conned On Ebay

I am not sure how many people have had bad experiences on Ebay, I hope not too many. I was having a great time on there until some man tried to defraud me out of £170.

I had been buying and selling on Ebay for a number of months without any problems at all. If I ever bought anything that cost over £100, I would offer to meet the seller somewhere, normally just off the motorway and this was working very well. I managed to pick up some real bargains and also managed to offload some of my unwanted items which I either had no interest in anymore or that I had no longer a need for.

Good things apparantly have to come to an end and unfortunately it did with Ebay.

I was looking to purchase a mobile phone and saw an advert for a buy it now phone with the asking price low but not extremely low.

There was a mobile number to phone if I had any questions. I therefore rang him, his name was Tony and asked him the general type questions. He sounded and seemed really nice, however stated that he was unable to meet me as he was unable to drive as he had not past his test.

His house was a long way from where I lived and reluctantly I agreed to pay via a bank transfer. He assured me he would post the phone, that very day via Royal Mail Special Delivery to arrive by 11am the next morning. He seemed very genuine, they always do your thinking and that was that.

Next morning have a guess what arrived, yes nothing at all, nor the next day, nor the next.

I tried e-mailing him, texting and ringing his mobile phone, guess what, there was no reply.

I realised what a fool I had been, however decided to go to the police. They were very helpful and half an hour later I had a crime number however was warned that it was very unlikely I would ever see a phone or recieve a refund of my money which was £170.

Outside the police station I sent Tony a text with the police crime number. To my shock he phoned me straight away swearing at me but eventually agreed to refund me the money, if I stopped the police action against him.

I was very lucky, I am sure many other people as the police stated, never get their money back.

How to Sell Your Crafts on eBay

2007-10-04T02:34:00.001-07:00

How to Sell Your Crafts on eBay

Artists, craftspeople and photographers are successfully selling their wares everyday on the online auction site, eBay. According to a recent analysis of eBay sales, a crafts-related item is sold every nine seconds, a scrapbook item is sold every minute, and 40 cross-stitch items sell in an hour on eBay. Sales of craft items on eBay have grown almost 60 percent in the past year, according to TheBidFloor.com.

But, at the same time, many would be sellers are listing their pieces for sale on auctions and getting no bids, concluding that eBay just doesn't work.

Here are some tips from James Dillehay, craft artist, eBay seller and author of the new book, "Sell Your Crafts on eBay" (Warm Snow Publishers), on how to profitably sell your wares online:

1. A word's spelling impacts an item's profitability. For example, the word 'handmade,' spelled as one word, was part of 2,233 auction titles with an average closing price of $16.29. However, auction titles that included 'hand made' as two words were found in 1,358 listings, but with an average auction closing price higher, at $27.81, or $11.52 more profit per item.

2. Go to eBay.com and find the search box. Type in the word or phrase that describes your art or craft item. Then scroll down the links on the left side of the page and click on the link for "completed items." Here, you'll be able to see the demand for this type of product. Do searches for your items every two to three weeks to chart buying patterns.

3. Find out how much people are willing to pay for your wares. Click on the link that says "highest price." This will give you a list of completed auctions from highest priced items to lowest priced ones. You want to know what people are willing to pay for items like yours. If you can't make and sell your product for a profit, eBay might not be your marketplace.

4. Determine how much money you'll make on your product. To determine your profitability, use the cost of your materials plus the cost of your labor plus the cost of your selling price, which should be the minimum price to recover your expenses. If it takes you eight hours to make a piece of jewelry and the highest priced similar item sells on eBay for $26, you won't make a profit.

5. Look at the elements of successful sellers of products that are similar to yours. Examine their winning auction titles. Observe how much detail they use to describe their item. See if the seller used any of eBay's special features such as gallery photos or a bold, featured listing. Evaluate the starting price, starting day of the week, and duration of winning auctions.

For more tips on how to sell your craft items on eBay, consult a resource book like "Sell Your Crafts on eBay," by James Dillehay. It offers-more than 200 easy-to-learn tactics and tips that help sell art, craft and theme-related items for a profit on eBay and on other online auction Web sites.

How Professional Ebay Auction Templates Can Boost Your Ebay Sales

2007-10-04T02:33:00.000-07:00

How Professional Ebay Auction Templates Can Boost Your Ebay Sales

Do you like to sell on eBay ? It's easy and fun, isn't it ? In fact, it's one of the easiest online business you can start almost overnight, without any major investments. That's the best thing about it. But do you also know that only the minority of the people selling on eBay are really successful and that most of them quit after a little while or run it only as a hobby. Yes, that's true. Hard facts, but the truth. So, what are the secrets of those successful eBay sellers ? Well, the most important thing to become successful is a unique product. That's the first thing. In case you don't have a unique product, you can sell products which are in high demand, eg. children clothing, designer clothing, digital cameras, etc. But you have to keep in mind that your item has to compete with 100 similar products - maybe even to a better price. So if you are selling products which are highly competitive, then your sales letter has to be DIFFERENT. No, not only different, it has to be UNIQUE. And not only unique !! Your listing has to be PROFESSIONAL.

Let me tell you about our experiment. We have tried various listings for the same item. And what do you think which listing got the most bids ? Right, listings with a professional UNIQUE design end up with 30-40% more bids. Can you imagine that ? It was exactly the same item. Just the design of the sales letter can make a massive difference in the end price you may get. It's just amazing. We have saying in German: "Das Auge isst mit". The translation is something like: "If it looks nice it has to taste better". Well, as we know this is not always true though, but that's the psychology of our human brain. If the overall impression of the food is good, an impulse is sent to the brain: This has to taste good - I want to try that. It's the same thing with buying in a shop or on eBay. If the auction website of the item you are looking at looks nice, the product has to be good and it's more likely that you click on the "Bid now" button. We have seen that many times and especially with our little experiment.

So, if you use professional looking eBay auction templates for your listings, you will be surprised how this may boost your eBay business. Try to modify your templates and see which perform better. You will notice that a tiny change can make a huge difference. Keep track which templates have generated what prices and compare after a month. You'll see that some templates do really well and some don't. Be creative and modify your templates. But be careful! Don't overdo it though with bright colours and a dozen animated gifs. No, that's not what the buyers want to see. They want to have a clear and honest description and a good picture. If the overall design is professional, believe me - it's more likely that they place a bid. And at the end of the day - that's all it counts, doesn't it ?

Top Internet Businesses

2007-10-04T02:32:00.002-07:00

Top Internet Businesses

The internet is packed with web businesses jockeying for the attention of regular users. Selling everything under the sun and offering a substantial array of services, the internet is quickly becoming the favorite of users, surpassing traditional catalog and store shopping. In addition to phenomenal sales and dynamite deals, the internet offers access to all types of stores with just a click of the mouse. Open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, it is no wonder why the internet is such a popular shopping alternative for individuals all over the world. Especially with such popular online sites such as Overstock.com and eBay, the online marketplace is quickly filling up with top internet businesses. If you are interested in joining this elite group of successful businesses, today is the day to start! In additional to the popularity of owning a web business, the remarkable ease will make it a popular alternative to the traditional job market. Working from the comfort of your own home and setting your own schedule around your pre-existing responsibilities, owning and running a web business will certainly fit into everyone's lifestyle.

Retail sites are by far the most popular type of web business currently based on the internet. Whatever types of goods you decide to sell; there is undoubtedly an audience on the World Wide Web. Instead of having your items dwarfed by the magnitude of the stores on the internet, consider joining an online marketplace instead. Popular auction site eBay has a special section for retailers in their storefront web pages. Owning an ebay small home business is an excellent way to quickly become a top e-business. By joining Ebay's marketplace, you gain the name and exposure available only with a top website. Instead of setting your home business set sail on the vast sea of the internet and compete for attention with all of the other web businesses, your business will be located on a highly visible website that millions of internet users frequent.

Starting a web business using eBay is extremely easy for even the most non-technical individuals. The step-by-step instructions allow you to quickly and easily create the best website for your business. Think of eBay as an online shopping mall with everything possible under its roof. This place could never exist in the real world, but on the internet, it is exactly what the public expects. Instead of renting a space that may only be accessible to a fraction of your town's audience, imaging moving your store to a space that is easily accessible by the entire world. Not having to worry about things like utility bills, cash registers, shelving, store displays, and employees to staff your store during its opening hours will save you thousands of dollars in start-up costs and dramatically lower your overhead. For a nominal fee, you can set up shop on eBay and be up and running in no time. With minimal equipment like a personal computer and digital camera, you can run your entire business from the comfort from your own home without having to hire employees.

Having a top web business is a lofty goal but readily attainable through venues such as eBay. Save money while working from home while adding or replacing an income. Everyone can set up shop on eBay, as there is not advanced technological experience necessary. Furthermore, your web business will be exposed to a large audience of dedicated eBay users who regularly turn to eBay for their purchasing needs. If you have the desire to start your own business but lack the excessive funds necessary for starting a traditional brick and mortar business, joining with eBay is an excellent way to live out your dream for little cost. Using one of the best retail websites on the internet is a sure-fire way to become one of the best businesses on the internet.

Make Money Online: Learn To Sell On Ebay

2007-10-04T02:32:00.001-07:00

Make Money Online: Learn To Sell On Ebay

The online auction site eBay is an excellent tool for making money online. Think of eBay as an online yard sale and shopping mall. Whether you want to start a business selling merchandise or sell the stuff that is cluttering your attic, eBay is the place. It is not difficult to learn to sell on ebay, in fact, the website has made the process downright simple. You will need access to a digital camera in order to upload images of your stuff onto your auction's website. Items with images sell quicker and for a higher price than those without. Furthermore, you will find some auctions will be more successful than others. Many sellers choose to set their auctions to end on a weekend instead of a week day. These sellers have determined their auctions tend to elicit more bids during that time since more potential buyers are online. Also, consider the target audience for each of your auctions. You may want to set auctions of items with a younger audience to end later in the evening than others.

The most important aspect of selling things on eBay is the actual product. Keep in mind, whatever you sell must be shipped to the buyer, so choose items that can cheaply and easily be mailed. Even though the buyer covers all shipping costs, many eBay users will be hesitant to bid on goods with hefty shipping fees. It is a good idea to become well acquainted with the United States Postal Service or any other shipping agency so you know all of your shipping options upfront. Ensuring you send your buyers a correct shipping cost will ensure you do not end up paying for this cost, which cuts into your profit. In addition to the general size and weight of your items, choose products that have been selling well on other seller's auctions. Keep a careful eye on all eBay auctions to see what things have been selling well with buyers. Just as with merchandise sold in traditional brick and mortar stores, popular buyer trends affect the online auction market. Whether you are selling things found around your home, handmade items, or retail goods, going along with public trends will benefit your auctions. If you have further questions about how do you sell stuff on ebay, there are a number of resources available to sort out the process and help you determine what items to sell.

Different items sell better during different times of the year. Holiday-themed things, including decorations or collectibles, tend to sell better before the specific holiday instead of at random times of the year. Additionally, certain items sell better at specific times of the year. For example, toys and gift items tend to sell better before Christmas and Easter, whereas wedding and bridal merchandise will sell better during the early spring for the May and June wedding season. Knowing when to begin and end your auctions will ensure your item sells for the highest bid possible.

Anyone can sell on eBay but knowing what you are doing will ensure your things will elicit the greatest profit possible. Learning how, when, and when to sell on eBay is an art, but luckily it is one you can easily master. The key to eBay success is carefully choosing your goods, knowing how long to run the auction, and deciding the right time to begin your auction. Once you become an eBay pro, you will be hooked! Selling on eBay is a quick and easy way to make money on the World Wide Web. Soon you will be hunting for all types of stuff to sell, as you will have caught the eBay bug.

Start Your Own Business: Sell Things on eBay

2007-10-04T02:31:00.000-07:00

Start Your Own Business: Sell Things on eBay

The popularity of online auction site eBay has been legendary. With millions of transactions completed daily, it is no surprise why many individuals who do not usually shop online regularly purchase items through eBay. From antique washboards to brand new wedding gowns, everything under the sun can be found within the many categories in one of the web's most popular websites. Many entrepreneurs have used the website's popularity to their advantage and sell things on ebay. With little start-up costs, using eBay as your marketplace instead of a traditional storefront, selling items on eBay is an excellent means for any entrepreneur to develop a successful business.

There are many e-books and websites devoted on how to start an ebay business, so resources abound on the World Wide Web. You may want to seek out individuals who have started a successful eBay business for their stories and helpful tips. You can find these individuals by directly contacting them through their eBay sites or through business-related websites. Additionally, you should check out the websites of other eBay sellers, especially those selling things similar to your goods. Finally, access the eBay website and find the specifics on how to go about setting up your eBay business. You will find some auctions will be more successful than others. Many sellers choose to set their auctions to end on a weekend instead of a week day. These sellers have determined their auctions tend to elicit more bids during that time since more potential buyers are online.

Regardless what you choose to sell on eBay, keep in mind the size and shape. You will be shipping all auction items to their buyers, who will cover the cost of shipping in their payment. For this reason, many buyers may be hesitant to bid on items that will be expensive to ship. Additionally, you will want to choose items that will easily fit into a standard-size box, since oversized items (even though they may be lightweight) will be expensive to ship. You will want to be knowledgeable of the shipping policies of the United States Postal Service in addition to other shipping companies. Furthermore, if you plan of shipping a large volume of items, you should consider where you are going to get your shipping supplies. Many sellers add in a slight handling fee to cover the cost of these supplies.

Just as with starting any business, carefully consider what type of eBay business you wish to start. Deciding what items to sell will be a huge part of the start-up of your eBay business, as you must figure out where you are going to get your stock. Many sellers choose to sell their handmade or craft items instead of purchased goods. Other individuals choose to sell antiques on eBay instead of renting space in an antique mall or setting up a traditional storefront shop. If you currently participate in an "at-home" business such as Mary Kay, Pampered Chef, or Creative Memories, eBay is an excellent way to expand your clientele. Many buyers are looking for these items but do not know a representative or do not wish to wait the traditional order time to receive their products.

Whatever you choose to sell on eBay, the appearance and wording of your auction will make all the different when it comes to selling your products. Perhaps the most important feature of your auction website will be the photographs of the products. Investing in a digital camera will pay off quite well in the end, as most eBay users do not look at auctions unless they have images of the product attached. Your description should compliment your image and describe the product to the utmost detail. If there are any flaws in the item, be sure to note this and even take a picture. You will find sellers would rather bid on items they know is slightly damaged instead of thinking they have been duped when they receive your auction in less than mint condition. The buyer feedback that makes up your seller rating will be quite important, since you are selling items based on your good faith.

How Do You Find A Reliable Dropshipping Source?

2007-10-04T02:30:00.002-07:00

How Do You Find A Reliable Dropshipping Source?

A Dropshipper is someone who will anonymously send the goods you order to your customer! There are no markings on the box and no invoices enclosed! Finding a reliable dropshipper can prove to be a strenuous task. When selecting a Dropshipper you want to be sure to find someone that has a large inventory and quickly replenishes items that become sold out!

You also want to find someone that is helpful and knowledgeable about the products they are selling! Make sure to contact them before you consider reselling their items, see how quickly you get a response and how helpful the response is! Remember this is the same service you can expect once you are in business with them! If it is less than your standards consider using someone else!

How do you find a Dropshipper? There are several ways to find a Dropshipper perhaps the easiest is to purchase a list from an online auction! Thoroughly read the context of the ad and ask questions if need be. Make sure you are buying the list you need! Once you have made your purchase you will receive a list of contacts that you can easily view without having to find them one by one! I personally sell Dropship Lists on , to give you an idea what to look for. For the most part they are already thoroughly checked out, and deemed to be good upstanding Dropshippers.

The second, more time consuming method is to do your research! Use the various search engines and type in keywords like "dropship" and specific keywords to the category you are thinking of selling for example "electronics"! This will take a lot more time. Make sure that when visiting the website you thoroughly read their policies! Do not commit to anything until you have done all of your research!

Once you have found a reliable Dropshipping source, you are ready to start selling. The research is gruelling but in the long run you will be rewarded! Statistics say that 9 out of 10 online businesses fail in the first 3 months. Being well prepared will optimize your chances for success!

Can You Really Make Money Selling New Release CDs & DVDs On eBay?

2007-10-04T02:30:00.001-07:00

Can You Really Make Money Selling New Release CDs & DVDs On eBay?

Being an active eBayer, I am often being asked about products to sell. A common question is "Where can I purchase products such as new release CD's DVD's and Video Games for Playstation and X box at a 75% to 100% discount. Well folks, this sort of discount on this type of merchandise is not available from Wholesalers or Dropshippers. The reason being, the competitive nature of the electronics industry, and simple supply and demand.

Still with the tremendous popularity of these products and their ease to package and ship, people want to sell them. So where can you find these products at a great price? Liquidators! Yes that's right, Liquidators! What exactly are Liquidators? You Ask. Well, as explained in my book "eBay Marketing Wholesale SourcePak" a Liquidator is a company who buys surplus, over runs, bankruptcies, and going out of business inventory etc. They purchase this merchandise for pennies on the dollar and in turn pass this saving on to you. There are many Liquidators who would have just what you are looking for. There are General Merchandise Liquidators who basically purchase and sell all sorts of general merchandise. And, there are Liquidators who specialize and only purchase and sell merchandise in a specific niche - say electronics.

An Electronics Liquidator would purchase products from music stores or department stores with an electronics dept or movie rental stores or electronic stores that are going out of business, declaring bankruptcy or who have overstock. From that inventory they would have some of the latest CD's, DVD's and Video Games.

Liquidators are similar to Wholesalers and Dropshippers in that you will have to become a member to have access to their inventory. Most require no fee to become a member, while others may charge a nominal fee. However, Liquidators have a set number of units you must buy in order to get a great price. A Liquidator will purchase inventory in bulk and therefore will want to sell the merchandise in cases or lots.

So, Yes You can make Good Money Selling New Release CD's, DVD's and, Video Games and the likes on your eBay auction by choosing the proper supplier. And remember that selling on eBay is all about research. You must research the product you are interested in selling. What is the best price for the item? What is the best selling price you can get for that item? Also, research that item's market to see just how many people are selling this product.

How To Sell On Ebay: The Money Is In The Back-End

2007-10-04T02:29:00.000-07:00

How To Sell On Ebay: The Money Is In The Back-End

Many people who sell on Ebay completely neglect the follow-up process. They post an auction. Someone wins. They send an automated message to the winner. They ship the item. End of story. End of buyer-seller relationship.

. . .end of customer's total worth to the business --and this is why so many people who sell on Ebay fail or make negligible profits: they have no idea that the real money is actually in back-end and follow-up sales.

In this article, I am going to go over one of the tools you can use to make follow-up sales on Ebay: autoresponders.

Autoresponders will allow you to automate the follow-up and upselling process. You can subscribe to an autoresponding service through a number of different companies. Most will give you a free trial that limits your abilities, but lasts indefinitely.

Getresponse (getresponse.com) is one of these companies. It has a user-friendly control panel, excellent customer service, and offers a free trial version that will give you access to everything you need for early upselling and follow-up.

You can use your autoresponder a number of different ways to make follow-up sales, but you must start by collecting names to load into your autoresponder.

You can do this by asking customers (after you've made a sale) if they would like to join your mailing list and receive special offers, discounts, and the chance to buy items before they go on auction. Load the names and email addresses of the people who respond positively into your autoresponder.

Getresponse will send them a confirmation message. The rest is up to you.

Come up with special offers, discounts, and contests and send them out via broadcast to your subscribers on a regular basis, but not too often.

Your customers have already a) purchased from you and b) agreed to receive special offers. From here, it shouldn't be too hard to get follow-up sales. They are already hooked--just give them a good offer.

For instance, you could send out special offers for complementary products at certain intervals. You could target people who purchased digital cameras and offer them sticks of memory at a discounted price, but only if they buy within a certain amount of days after the close of the auction. You could do the same thing with camera bags--and also set a specific date.

If you sell jewelry, you could offer customers a matching set of earrings for a necklace at a discount. Or cleaning tools. Or a jewelry box.

There are a number of different ways in which you can structure your Ebay post-sales follow-up with your autoresponder. There are only two real rules you should follow:

1) Do not, under any circumstances, add people to your list who did not specifically ask to be added to it. It is illegal and unethical, and it could land you in jail; and

2) Make sure you are targeting the right people with the right follow-up pitch. If you're trying to sell discount plastic dinosaurs to someone who just bought a case of motor oil, you probably wont get the response you want.

. . .other than that, it is completely up to you. Come up with some creative ideas; put them to work; and you can easily double or triple the lifetime worth of each customer who shops at your Ebay store.

How To Sell On Ebay: Using Store Policies To Cement Your Credibility

2007-10-04T02:28:00.002-07:00

How To Sell On Ebay: Using Store Policies To Cement Your Credibility

In your quest to build credibility as an Ebay seller, few things are more important than creating and following consistent store policies. Doing so will provide your customers with an attractive buying atmosphere, where they will feel safe making any transaction.

Whenever I create store policies--whether it be for an Ebay business or an Internet business--I use one standard: I promise what I can reasonably deliver. And I deliver more than I promise as often as possible.

If I can reasonably offer to ship everything two days after payment, I will promise it. But if I get the chance to ship some items within one day, I take that opportunity to overdeliver.

Not only is this a more ethical approach--delivering or overdelivering on all promises--but it is also a more practical business strategy for the long-run.

Developing relationships with your customers is the best way to get repeat sales, testimonials, and positive feedback--the three pillars which will support your business and increase your cashflow.

You should extend this principle to other policies.

Create a return policy that stipulates when and for what reasons you will accept a return. Again, you will want to give the customer certain guarantees, but at the same time, you don't want to promise what you can't reasonably deliver.

For instance, you may want to stipulate that you will only accept returns if the item is broken. You may also want to add that you can only accept returns within 14 days of delivery.

In addition to a shipping and return policy, you will want to create a statement of quality assurance. When I used to sell jewelry on Ebay, I promised my customers that the metals were solid, the gems were real, and everything was stamped.

It was relatively easy for me to prove this because all of my jewelry came with gemologist-certified appraisals; however, if you aren't selling something that can lend you credibility in a similar fashion, you will need to earn it in the form of testimonials and positive feedback.

. . .and this is precisely why it is so important for Ebay sellers to create and follow store policies. Not only will this lend you credibility and subsequently encourage visitors to bid, but it will also prevent customers from making unfair complaints against you.

In addition to this, when you overdeliver, your customers will know it - and they will verify it with feedback and testimonials.

How To Sell On Ebay: Pricing Strategy

2007-10-04T02:28:00.001-07:00

How To Sell On Ebay: Pricing Strategy

Many new Ebay sellers make one of two mistakes: either they overprice items to an unsellable extreme; or they lose money on every transaction by setting low starting prices with no restrictions.

In this lesson, I am going to go over which pricing strategies to use and when if you are using a ten-day auction setup.

Strategy #1

If you are listing a popular item that you are confident will sell for a high price, one strategy you can use is the ten-day, one cent starting price, no reserve auction. This is the best way to start a bidding war: pull in bidders early with a low starting price and no reserve and give them ten days and two weekends to battle it out.

Depending on the profit-margin of the item and the quality and number of your competitors, you may want to consider using listing upgrades, such as bold, highlight, and feature listing options to ensure your auction sticks out of the crowd.

Please note that I do not recommend this strategy for beginners. This is extremely high risk if you do not know how to take the risk out of it - and this is not something I can teach you. You must determine this by assessing your own personal inventory with tests.

Strategy #2

Now, if you are new to Ebay or want to list an item with undetermined popularity, you can use a safer, but potentially as profitable bidding strategy for ten-day auctions.

You still wont use a reserve with this strategy. But instead of setting the start price low to encourage a bidding war, you are going to set your start price to your ideal selling price - and then couple it with a buy it now price that is slightly higher.

This will put pressure on the buyer to buy it now instead of watching. If she waits, she gains absolutely nothing--and she risks someone else bidding (and ruining the low BIN price) or just snatching it with the BIN option.

In addition, knowing that she will lose nothing anyway, she will realize that she can get the item up to ten days sooner if she uses the BIN option to order it then, rather than waiting for the auction clock to tick down.

The strategy I described above is very safe. I use it for the majority of my auctions and I always get positive results. At worst, it will take me 3-4 weeks to sell an item, but I wont ever lose money. I just adjust the price to compensate for additional fees.

Strategy #3

Another effective way to use a ten-day setting is in conjunction with dutch auctions--or auctions that sell a number of the same item. Ten-day auctions will give you the longest amount of time to move the highest amount of products.

You may also want to feature ten-day dutch auctions, depending on what items you are selling. If you're selling information products and rely on the quantity of sales for profit, this wont be effective; but if you're selling a number of expensive, high profit-margin items, featuring your auction is probably a good idea.

How To Sell On Ebay & Keep Your Shirt

2007-10-04T02:27:00.001-07:00

How To Sell On Ebay & Keep Your Shirt

Have you ever been delighted after a huge sale on Ebay. . .only to find out that your massive profit margin was whittled away by fee after fee after fee after fee?

Ebay charged you to list your item; they charged you to add pictures; they charged you to add upgrades; they charged you to use a template; they charged you to put your auction up at a certain time; and then, on top of everything else. . .they charged you AGAIN for closing the sale.

At this point, you would have been happy to walk away from your huge sale with the shirt on your back. But no. Paypal arrived on the scene to process your transaction for a small fee - your shirt.

. . .and there you sat at your computer, frustrated and shirtless. You were probably ready to just throw your hands up in dispair and quit selling on Ebay.

But you didn't. You stuck with it. Maybe you haven't had any success on Ebay since then, but what matters is that you stuck with it. And that is easily the most important part about selling on Ebay: sticking with it until you get that breakthrough.

And for that, I am going to reward you by showing you some simple tricks I have used to prevent the fee-mongers from extracting all of my profits. Hopefully this will help you to do the same and find your breakthrough.

The first method is using free hosting services for all of your auction pictures. If you sell a lot of small items on Ebay, this will save you a considerable amount of money in fees. If you only sell large items, this will allow you to cut back on unncessary fees on each auction.

I personally suggest using Geocities.com for this. All you have to do is upload the pictures you want in your auctions and then then reference them in the actual auctions.

The second fee-saving method I suggest is creating or purchasing a template for your auctions. I personally suggest learning HTML, which doesn't take very long, and using it to create your own template.

In the long run, this will save you a lot of time and frustration, as you will be able to create the exact look and feel you want for your auctions.

However, if you don't have the time to learn HTML, you can either purchase a template online for a dollar or less or you could have one professionally- created to fit your specifications at elance.com.

Not only will this save you additional auction fees on Ebay, but it will boost your credibility as a seller, potentially raising the amount of bids you receive--and subsequently increasing your profit-margin

The third and last method I will go over involves improving the mechanics of your auction, so you can pull just as many customers as a featured listing would, but without using one.

This is actually quite simple. All you have to do is carefully construct your title to accomplish the following two goals: 1) include as many targeted, high-traffic keywords as possible; and 2) form a coherent and compelling message that will entice these new streams of traffic to click through to your auction.

If you can achieve a better balance than what you have right now, you will notice an enormous boost in traffic. In fact, it can easily be the difference between 25 auction visitors and 250!

Some people make a full-time income buying from the auctions that get 25 visitors and then reselling with this tactic, which gets them 250.

By now, you know what you need to do to cut a serious chunk out of your Ebay seller's fees. Put this to work in your auctions - and you could be seeing that breakthrough I talked about in a matter of weeks.

Before You Sell On Ebay, Take The Most Important Step

2007-10-04T02:26:00.002-07:00

Before You Sell On Ebay, Take The Most Important Step

If you want to earn a full-time income selling on Ebay, you must take the first and most important step in all successful business ventures: you must accept that it is possible.

This probably sounds really trite--and maybe it is, but that doesn't mean it's any less true.

Talk to anyone who now earns a full-time income selling on Ebay and they will undoubtedly tell you two things: the first is that anyone can do it; and that is true. Over 430,000 people currently sell on Ebay to earn a part or full-time income. And the second is that the hardest part is getting started. This is also true.

As with any type of business, whether it be on the Internet or in the brick-and-mortar world, the mindsent that the entrepreneur brings into the venture is absolutely crucial to its success.

If you, the entrepreneur, give up in the face of challenges, assuming you aren't skilled enough to persevere, you will never know what benefits overcoming those challenges could have yielded. Instead, you will slowly chip away at your options until you are powerless and without confidence.

As a network marketer and the owner of three Internet businesses, I have seen dozens of people struggle and give up because they doubt they can actually achieve what other people have. Many of them give up on the very presupice of a breakthrough because they lack the confidence to work through problems and overcome challenges.

I personally have struggled with this more than once selling on Ebay. I have been so frustrated at times by bad luck and seemingly insurmountable challenges that I was ready to give up. . .only to have a major breakthrough several minutes later.

So, unless you aren't curious enough to wonder where you could have been if you had just persevered that extra few hours--or extra few minutes--I suggest that you factormotivation and attitude into your Ebay selling.

Whatever it takes, make sure you accept that you can reach your goal before you start selling on Ebay. If you don't, you will find yourself putting all new ideas on the backburner or writing them off as impossible.

From Ebay Zero to Power-Selling Hero: How To Learn New Tricks Without Spending

2007-10-04T02:26:00.001-07:00

From Ebay Zero to Power-Selling Hero: How To Learn New Tricks Without Spending

The Internet is the fastest-changing marketplace on earth. Million-dollar ideas from one year ago might not generate a single penny today. And the best search engine optimization strategies from months ago may be completely invalid now.

But this doesn't affect the best Internet entrepreneurs. It only hurts the one-hit wonders. In fact, it is what separates the top sellers from the struggling sellers.

Most of the struggling sellers rely entirely on the information they get from ebooks.

The best entrepreneurs know that you must be able to conduct your own analysis if you want to stay on the top. Books and courses can help you get there, but ultimately, you must learn how to conduct your own research.

Now, you can spend hundreds of hours and dollars researching this for yourself. Or you can purchase a service that does this for you.

Or, if you're looking to start your business on a shoe-string budget like most sellers, you can simply use the top-sellers' examples.

In today's lesson, I am going to show you one way you can do this: reverse engineering.

Start by going to Ebay.com and searching for something you personally sell in your store. For example, if you sell stereos, search for stereo.

Take your list of results and use it to find successful sellers. Look for powersellers, sellers with stores, sellers with large inventories, and sellers with a lot of positive feedback.

Look at these sellers and try to determine the exact methods they use to make sales: Do they use templates? --If so, how are they constructed? Do they use a lot of pictures? Do they use ad copy?

What words did they use in the title? Is there a subtitle? Is it featured? Is it bold? What date and time did they list it? Is it part of a dutch auction?

Does the seller own an Ebay store?--If so, how is that store arranged?

Does the seller get the majority of her auction traffic from Ebay or does she advertise somewhere else?

How many items are in the seller's inventory? What price ranges do her auctions span? How do her prices compare to yours?

Does she purchase her inventory from another Ebay seller?--If so, can you also use that seller to stock your inventory?

There are dozens of questions you can ask and corresponding answers for all of them. You must determine what you need to ask--and then use the reverse engineering method to answer it.

From Ebay Zero to Power-Selling Hero: Don't Be That Random Ebay Guy

2007-10-04T02:25:00.000-07:00

From Ebay Zero to Power-Selling Hero: Don't Be That Random Ebay Guy

If I could convey only one concept to someone who was about to start selling on Ebay, it would be this: no one has ever purchased anything on Ebay with this in mind--"I think I'll buy something on Ebay from some random guy and pay more than I would at the store down the street."

No one has ever said that. Not once. That is why Ebay sellers who appear to be "that random guy" always fail miserably. It's not enough to simply be professional and responsible. You have to make an active effort to appear professional and responsible.

To begin with, you must actually have a good deal. There are dozens of liquidators and wholesale outlets. If you do your research, you should have no problem finding good prices on anything you want to sell. I list a number of the best ones in my book.

Once you have something good to sell and a good source to buy it from, you have to decide how you are going to present it.

At this point, you are giving your customers a good deal --which is important--but if you don't present it as a good deal, they will have no way of knowing.

One way you can do this is by setting yourself apart from the pack with a unique selling proposition: tell potential customers exactly why they should shop at your store over other Ebay sellers' stores.

For instance, if you know that the sellers in your category who undersell you can only do it because they are selling damaged or refurbished products, then tell that to your customers. Let them know that your products may cost a few more dollars. . .but if they buy it somewhere else for less on Ebay, it is probably broken.

You will also want to add extra services and guarantees to your product that no one else offers. For example, you could give free support or free shipping. Or you could guarantee to ship everything within 24 business hours of purchase. Or you could bundle your product with other products. Whatever you do, your goal should be to gain a competitive edge over big sellers by adding an unquantifiable amount of value to your item.

. . .but even this is not enough to make you appear professional and responsible.

You must frame your products in a template that looks professionally-designed. You will need to either learn HTML or purchase a template from Ebay or elsewhere. In the end, you need to ask yourself this: "if I stumbled over this auction, would I think it was professional--or would I immediately move on?"

It is also a good idea to ask another person what they would do, since it is often hard to judge your own work.

In addition to this, you will want to operate like a real business would. You should email your customers with shipping confirmation numbers. You should be polite to customers and use a systematic process to conduct all transactions and customer interactions.

Everything I mentioned in this lesson is relatively simple. Most of it can be accomplished in a matter of hours; however, the vast majority of Ebay sellers neglect to do it. If you put everything in this lesson into practice, you will immediately put yourself light-years ahead of all stores that look like "that random Ebay guy."

From Ebay Zero to Power-Selling Hero: Using Feedback Effectively

2007-10-04T02:24:00.002-07:00

From Ebay Zero to Power-Selling Hero: Using Feedback Effectively

When I talk about feedback to new Ebay sellers, I usually compare it to having one note posted on the door of a brick-and-mortar business for every transaction. At almost any business--no matter how bad the service--you would have a lot of positive transactions; and thus a lot of positive notes. As a potential shopper, you probably wouldn't bother to read all of these positive notes. Instead, you'd look to see if there were any negatives.

If you were planning to eat at a restaurant and you found a bunch of notes in big, red marker that said the food was moldy; the waiter dumped hot coffee on me on purpose; and the manager chased me out of the store with a gun, you probably wouldn't go there--or at least you'd think twice about it.

And likewise, if you wanted to buy an engagement ring, but you found a number of notes on the local jeweler's door that said I bought an engagement ring. The diamonds were fake. And the owner refused to give me a refund, you would drive out of town to another jeweler.

Feedback is a powerful tool that will ensure either your success or failure selling on Ebay. This is why it is so important to use feedback carefully. You should do everything possible to see that each of the following happens: 1) every buyer gives you feedback; 2) all of that feedback is positive; and 3) every dispute or misunderstanding is resolved, resulting in: a) positive feedback, b) mutually-withdrawn feedback, or c) neutral feedback.

A lot of Ebay sellers have a written feedback policy that requires the buyer to post feedback if they want feedback from the seller. This allows the seller to factor in the buyer's feedback when leaving feedback. It also forces people who wouldn't otherwise give feedback to do so.

I personally do not use this system. When I receive payment, I leave feedback immediately. My feedback is always positive and descriptive. If I have something bad to say, I try to work it out with the buyer first, rather than posting negative feedback.

In the example I used above, giving negative feedback to a buyer would be the equivalent of a store owner driving out to the buyer's house and posting a big, nasty letter on the person's door for everyone in the neighborhood to see.

Leaving negative feedback like this is not only is a bad reflection on my business, but it can also prompt retaliatory negative feedback from the buyer.

Afterall, if someone left that nasty note on your door for all of your neighbors to see, wouldn't you at least exercise your right to leave a response on the door of that someone's business?

. . .again, this is why it is so important to avoid these exchanges altogether.

In general, it is pretty easy to avoid negative feedback as an Ebay seller. If you create a clear store policy and adhere to it, give refunds when they are warranted, and communicate with your customers whenever there is a problem, you shouldn't ever have to worry about negative feedback.

From Ebay Zero to Power-Selling Hero: The Devil Is In The Details

2007-10-04T02:24:00.001-07:00

From Ebay Zero to Power-Selling Hero: The Devil Is In The Details

If you've ever heard the expression "the devil is in the details," you can probably already guess how it relates to today's lesson. The bulk of the work you do as an Ebay seller will be easy and repetitive, but it is the minor details that will make or break your business. In today's lesson, I am going to talk about the single most important "detail" - and why you absolutely must pay attention to it if you want to be successful selling on Ebay.

At some point in your career as an Ebay seller, you probably stumbled over two types of sellers that completely bewildered you: the first type was selling items for absolutely stupid prices--so low that they couldn't possibly be making a profit; in contrast, the second type was selling items for unbelievably high prices. . .and somehow getting bids.

The second type of seller knows that the devil is the details--the details being your auction title and description.

Knowing this seemingly insignificant piece of information and putting it into practice makes all the difference in the world. It can literally mean the difference between 25 and 250 auction views.

The amount of traffic you receive on Ebay is dependent on the keyphrases and keywords you use to form your title and the keywords and keyphrases you pepper throughout your description.

While there are a number of ways to navigate Ebay, almost every visitor uses either "titles" or "titles and descriptions" to search for auctions. If they search for "green ipod mini" and your title or description includes "green ipod mini," your search result will be displayed.

When most sellers create auctions, they concentrate on describing the item or converting visitors with powerful sales copy; however, what they don't do-- almost without exception--is add traffic-pulling keywords to their titles and pepper keywords throughout their descriptions.

In fact, some sellers neglect this to such a great extent that they misspell important keywords in their titles and description. This is the first type of seller we talked about. As a result, they attract no buyers-- with the possible exception of people who scour misspelled auctions to purchase underbid items that are unintentionally"hidden."

. . .so don't fool around when you create your auction title and description! You now know better.

This is the single most important determinant of the amount and quality of traffic you receive as a seller on Ebay. Use it, and you will immediately attract more interested buyers; ignore it, and you voluntarily give interested buyers to the seller who is already selling the same products as you for twice the price.

From Ebay Zero To Power-Selling Hero: What It Takes

2007-10-04T02:23:00.002-07:00

From Ebay Zero To Power-Selling Hero: What It Takes

Have you ever wondered what it takes to be "the best of the best"; to outcompete everyone who tries to do what you are doing--and to keep them guessing exactly what it is that makes you so much better?

If you've ever owned a commercial website before, you know who these people are: they're the ones who sell the same product as you, but make $200,000 each year doing it. They have top rankings on search engines, flocks of loyal visitors, and a mailing list with 500,000 subscribers.

As a webmaster, two things separate them from you: time and money. Either they spent time gaining experience, building a business, and promoting a website or they hired a professional staff that multiplied their time by carrying out those tasks.

Money also separates you from them. They can buy cutting-edge products, hire elancers, and purchase more lucrative forms of advertising.

As an Ebay seller, things are quite different. You don't have to build a 25,000-page website with unique content and promote it to the ends of the earth just to get search engines to notice you.

There is only one search engine you need to worry about--and that's Ebay's, the search engine millions of shoppers use on a daily basis for one purpose only: to buy.

Ebay gets 1.5 BILLION page views each month. And as a seller, you have access to it without "building" anything. All you have to do setup shop and pay a small fee for your "slice" of the traffic pie.

To make things even better, you don't need a team of scientists working around the clock to get on the first page of listings. When your auction is closing, you will be on the first page--just like everyone else.

Ebay puts you on equal footing with your competition.

Even if they're rich and experienced, you can outcompete them by understanding the single market medium you are both using better than they do.

. . .and that's all it takes to be a "Power-Selling Hero," even if you're a zero right now.

Profit through Other Peoples eBay Errors

2007-10-04T02:23:00.001-07:00

Profit through Other Peoples eBay Errors

There are many issues that influence how an eBay auction ends. Timing, Description, Title, Photos, the list could go on and on. However, one tiny error will be the deciding factor on what the final price is & whether your auction ends successfully or not.

It's an error I've made many times and much greater sellers than I make on a daily basis. It doesn't matter whether your new to eBay or an established power seller, almost everyone at some point will make this fundamental mistake.

Firstly what you need to release is how eBayers use the site. Upto 70% of users type in the item they are looking for directly into the search facility. Now eBays search facility only check the words you enter against the title of listings - not the description or sub-title.

Therefore to get the right exposure for your item you have to get the correct words into the title. By not entering the correct combination of relevant words, you will be missing out on potential bidders. That's why I always recommend using services such as eBay pulse (www.pulse.ebay.co.uk) & Keyword Pro (trading-web-solutions.com/keywords/) before you submit your listing.

Put simply if you have keywords that are searched for, your item will appear more than competiting & similar items. It's not rocket science.

And this brings me to the biggest mistake & most costly mistake that we make on eBay. If you get every other aspect of your listing right and get this wrong, your just throwing away your listing fee and wasting your own time.

By making a simple spelling mistake in your title, almost no one is going to see your item. Entering Playstatoin instead of Playstation, Montior instead of Monitor your item is NOT going to get found because the vast majority of users are not going to search for Playstatoin or Montior.

But it's something that keeps happening with thousands of items on a daily basis. And this is where you can profit from it. By deliberately searching for incorrectly spelt words you will uncover items with almost no interest allowing you to grab yourself a bargain at next to nothing.

Regardless of what kind of item your looking for, there are so many listings on eBay it won't be long before you find an item with a spelling mistake in it's title. And it's now made even easier though two services that search directly for misspelt words on eBay.

FatFingers.com & Auctionintelligence.com will search there way though various eBay sites looking for these listings. Just type in what your after & away it flies, trying every combination of spelling mistake. Using these two services you'll be able to grab yourself a bargain or even buy stuff just to relist it correctly & make yourself huge profits. Good luck & let me know how you get on.

The Secret Of The Ebay Money Machine And How To Get Your Share

2007-10-04T02:22:00.000-07:00

The Secret Of The Ebay Money Machine And How To Get Your Share

If you have all the money you need, then this information wont be of much use to you!

If however, like most of us, there are times when you could do with a little more, read on.

At times we all come across circumstances where we could do with some extra income, be it that extra special present we need to buy, that unexpected bill that needs paying or just to make ends meet.

The standard answer to the above would be to get a part-time job, but if you're already working full time or you need to stay at home to look after the kids or perhaps an elderly relative, working extra hours can be easier said than done.

There has to be an easier way.

And there is.

It's time to put your Computer and Internet connection to work.

There are many ways that you can earn an income via your computer; however, in this report we will be specifically talking about earning an income via eBay.

Not a few pennies here or there but a meaningful part-time income.

At the last count eBay had more than 100 million members worldwide and were carrying out tens of millions of simultaneous auctions each day.

Mind-boggling isn't it? Yet approximately only 1% of those 100 million plus members are selling on eBay.

The rest are buying.

So how would you like to be selling in a marketplace of almost 100 million buyers?

But "what would I sell"? I hear you ask.

The majority of sellers on eBay fall into what I call the hobby category.

They buy a few bits and pieces at their local yard sale and sell it on eBay.

In other words they treat it as a hobby.

The problem with this approach is that they constantly have to replenish their stock, plus they have the hassle of packing and mailing their items.

There's nothing wrong with this but it's unlikely to earn them a good, steady, part-time income.

You have to sell products that will give you good a profit and or will attract a lot of bids and that you:

· Don't have to stock

· Don't have to pack

· Don't have to post

This may sound like a tall order, yet it's very easy to do.

Digital products such as Ebooks, Reports, Articles (like this one) and Software can be downloaded over the Internet; therefore they need no conventional storage space, no packing, and no trips to the Post Office.

If you don't know anything about digital products it's very easy to find out about them, but if you would rather sell a conventional product then get someone else to hold the stock and do the packing and postage for you!

Lets suppose you wanted to sell Computers and Computer Accessories via eBay.

You would find a wholesaler who stocked these kind of products, buy at a discount and sell them on eBay at a profit.

Would you still have to stock the Computers and Accessories?

Possibly, but not if you find a wholesaler who also dropships.

Dropshippers are usually wholesalers that will deliver their products to your customer, so in this example you contact your wholesaler/dropshipper to find out what rage of computers and accessories they hold, advertise your choice of product via eBay and when it sells ask them to post it to the winning bidder/buyer.

You don't even have to pay for the product until you have sold it!

Great. No start up capital.

This is exactly what I do and it works extremely well.

Of course, Computers are just one example of what you might sell on eBay.

There are Wholesaler/Dropshippers stocking just about anything you can think of.

So can you really make a good living from eBay?

You bet your Little Cotton Socks you can.

There are people making a fortune on eBay.

Maybe by selling Little Cotton Socks :-)

I generate a very good full-time income, working about 10 to 12 hours per week on eBay, selling among other things New and Used Computers and yes you've guessed it, I don't stock, pack or deliver them and I don't pay for them until I have been paid.

It's not difficult to set yourself up as a seller on eBay, there's heaps of help on eBay itself.

Just click on help in the top right hand corner of any eBay page to get all the assistance you need.