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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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.