Make Money On eBay - Easily - By Joanna Payge

I am a seller on eBay, and here are my top tips for how to make money on eBay easily. This is aimed at helping newcomers to make money on eBay, starting with some important basics.

Firstly, when you register on eBay you need to choose a name (eBay ID). Give this serious thought, don’t just key in something that is significant for you – why? Because if you want to be taken seriously by the buyers on eBay, your name should look professional and ideally relate to the kind of things you want to sell, and be memorable.

The same goes for the name of your eBay store when you open one, a little later. Your name and shop name could tie in together. E.g. If you are going to sell gems, your ID might be ‘gemster’ or ‘justgems’ and your shop might be called ‘gemsters gems’ or similar. Who would a buyer trust (and also remember) if they were torn between your gems and another ebayer’s gems, if your competitor was called ‘plutredoper’ ? (Yes, I know that name makes no sense, and you’d be amazed how many ebay ID’s are like this).

Regarding what to sell on eBay, what are your interests and passions? Because if there is an area that inspires you, you are more likely to put your heart and soul into it than if you just choose an area because you think it will make you money. So if you love books, or maps, or cards, or cd’s or dvd’s or jewellery or whatever, research that area first. If you specialise in a ‘niche’ area you will be much more successful – just study the powersellers on eBay. These are the most successful eBayers. A niche is a specialised section of a larger marketplace. For instance, if you want to sell jewellery it’s best to focus on a particular type of jewellery e.g. body jewellery, silver jewellery, brooches, charms and so on. If you make it yourself even better because you can let people know they cannot get that item anywhere else in the world.

To find out what sells well on eBay, log in to eBay and press the ‘buy’ tab. Choose the category you want to research e.g. silver jewellery, then on the lower left-hand side of the page click on ‘completed listings’. Then on the top right of the page go to ‘sort by’ and choose ‘price highest first’. You can then see which items had the most bids, which didn’t sell at all and which fetched the highest price! All this is invaluable research that will save you wasting a lot of time and money on the wrong products.

Where do you then find items to sell on eBay? Again, do your homework first. Some items you may be able to get on eBay itself – just key in ‘wholesale jewellery’ or whatever your niche area is, into the search box and see what comes up. Sellers will list items in bulk that you can then sell individually. You can also get items from car boot sales (such as books, maps, cd’s etc), auctions houses, product directories, local designers (check the local yellow pages or do a search on google). You can also use Dropshippers, but I wouldn’t recommend this to start with as it can be an unreliable method.

The key to eBay success is follow your passion, do your reasearch (lots of it) and follow what the successful eBayers do.

For more information about what to sell on eBay, where to find it and how to sell successfully on ebay, visit http://www.waystomakemoneyonebay.com

I am an eBayer and internet entrepreneur.