Thursday, April 16, 2009

What To Look Out For When Buying From eBay

Internet marketing is really a big thing nowadays, but it is quite understandable if you still prefer the normal and conventional ways of buying, especially with the many internet scams that you probably have heard.

There is credit card fraud and identity theft which you should always protect yourself from. However, you also cannot deny that there are certain items on eBay that is simply too tempting to pass up.

Imagine buying, for example, a fine Chinese silk kimono, a piece that will retail in the United States for about $250, for just for $45 plus shipping!

You can buy cheaper things online because you are actually buying them from the source. So you cut through all the money that middlemen bring into the picture, yet you get the same beautiful item. There are also many pre-owned items that you cannot find anywhere else like vintage jewelry and clothing, accessories and leather goods.

There are even those that sell their items at wholesale price, which can really save you a lot of money. So yes, there are reasons why you should be very careful about buying online, but you should not deprive yourself of the chances that you get from it!

So what do you look out for when buying from eBay?

If you are looking for eBay wholesalers, the first thing that you check for is the quality of the items. There are a lot of eBay sellers who, in the attempts of making a lot of money, try to pass off factory overruns as authentic items that they bought in bulk.

Overruns, even if they were produced by the same company as the originals, do not have the same quality as the real thing, so they may fall short in the aspects of durability and longevity, which may become an issue between you and your own buyers.

So as much as possible, try to have a sample sent to you so you can check for sure. Otherwise, try to see if the seller offers returns or after sales support so that if you ever find that the items are actually overruns, you have a valid return claim.

Labels:


Click Here To Read This Article

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Setting up an eBay Store

If you have been selling on eBay an eBay store may be just what you need to put your sales into overdrive.

Setting up an eBay Store gives you a few things that will help your business.

1. Firstly, your store acts as your website, so think of having the store as owning a website.

2. The cost of the store should be looked at as what it would cost you to run website.

3. Setting up a store is as easy as listing an auction, you don't have to worry about uploading files or getting a domain like with a website.

4. Your eBay store can get 100% free traffic from Google Product Search. This could literally mean thousands of visitors a day from popular searches.

Who are those that should setup an eBay Store?

Someone who has already sold a few things on eBay and wants to turn their eBay into a full-time or part-time income producer. If you find a decent dropship/wholesaler you can simply list all their items on your store.

I highly recommend you focus on a set of related products. For example, if you sell printers, sell the ink cartridges to customers and vice versa. You could also sell printer cables (since most printers don't even come with a cable this is a high percentage sale). You may also want to sell computer networking "hubs." This will be useful for people who want to add a printer on their network and need more plugs.

Power cords, Power Surge Strips, Paper and printer cleaning kits are just a few things off the top of my head you could sell to customers who bought any one of the other products.

This makes it so you can sell your products for less initially and make up for it on the backend selling accessories.

Labels:


Click Here To Read This Article

Thursday, March 26, 2009

The Online Sellers Debate

There are many new online sellers that always seem to be debating on the idea of whether to sell on eBay or build their own website?

Well, if you can do both, then do it. However if you could only choose one, I would pick eBay in a millisecond.

There are many people who don't really understand the concept of how difficult it is to get traffic to a website. This isn't like the old days where people said "If you build it, they will come". That's not the way it works anymore. If you want to traffic, you are going to have to work REAL HARD to get it. According to the statistics there are over 160 million websites on the Internet. Talk about your grain in the sand.

If you want business you better be prepared to separate yourself from the millions of websites that are also fighting to get traffic. This is obviously not the case with eBay. eBay is a brand name. Even Grandmas and Grandpas know what eBay is. It's like Google. When somebody is searching for some information online, one word comes to people's minds: Google!

It's the same exact thing with eBay. You ask somebody "Where can I find a..." before you can even finish the sentence, somebody from across the room says "eBay!!" It's a part of our pop culture. People just type "eBay.com" on their web address without even thinking about it.

Think of the power that holds. You've got one-third of the entire Internet using world visiting eBay at least once a month, and you have the ability to list your products for sell for the entire world to see. Talk about easy traffic. Does it really get any easier than that?

Please don't get me wrong.

I am not saying that you shouldn't build a website. In fact I really encourage you to do so. But use eBay as a way to build up your brand/site. There is absolutely no reason why every eBay customer you get, can't become a returning customer to your website.

As you can see, you not only can generate strong sales from eBay, but you are also able to build a very large clientele.

Labels:


Click Here To Read This Article

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Bidding In The Final Seconds Of Auction

Very often, that final buying moment decision your potential bidder must make is based upon convenience. Their convenience, not yours! Remember, eBay is truly a global marketplace that operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

An eBay business never closed!

But each auction has a distinct closing time that must be considered when you are creating your listing.

Even though there are many automated bidding systems that allow bidders to 'bid' in absentia many many bidders prefer the 'action' of bidding themselves in the final seconds of the auction.

Your goal is to get as many bidders as possible participating in your auction so give some special thought as to when you items are scheduled to close.

Oftentimes if your auction closes when a potential bidder is not able to bid they will just pass on your offering.

Consider where the most likely bidders are for what you are selling. Personally I sell a lot of Stamps on eBay and find that the country of origin for the stamps usually has the most bidders. Therefore, if I am offering a lot of Australia stamps I schedule the closing to correspond with Australia times.

In this particular case I try to have my auctions close on Saturday or Sunday evenings, Australia time. Fortunately, eBay makes scheduling your auctions simple.

Therefore, by spending a little bit of extra time - you may very easily find your sales doubling, tripling even quadrupling; far greater than what they would have been if you would've just "let happen as it may!"

Labels:


Click Here To Read This Article

Friday, March 13, 2009

Fun Way To Make Some Extra Cash

Do you know that eBay can be a fun way to make some extra cash or even replace your current income or add a second source of income.

However, many new eBay sellers fall into a trap, they don't know anything about Marketing, they think whatever they have to sell or want to sell people will buy, quickly learning when their auctions don't sell, that's not the way Marketing Works.

The secret to making money on eBay is very similar to making money with any business. Get access to products people want for less than they will pay and you will make money.

Starting a part time business on eBay is great because it puts millions of buyers right in front of your products, you don't have to go buying traffic or pay for advertising if you know how to correctly list your auctions you can make a bundle of money.

So first as I mentioned above, you need to sell what people actually want to give you money for, this may sound simple and it is, but often overlooked.
And how do you find what people are paying money for? Interestingly enough all the information you need to find what to sell on eBay is freely available on eBay and some other popular online retailers.

For instance, ever wonder what the top selling electronics are right now?
Simply go to Amazon, scroll down half way through the page and you'll see "Amazon Bestsellers" under the blue menu "Features and Services --> Amazon Exclusives"

Click that link and you'll see a list of the top selling items in every category, then you'll see under the top 3 sellers "See all Bestsellers in ....."
Amazon is telling you what people are actually BUYING, you think this is valuable to your eBay auctions? You better believe it is.

So, before you even list your next listing check it out and see if what you're selling is hot right now.

Labels:


Click Here To Read This Article

Friday, March 06, 2009

Million Ways To Make Money on eBay

It seems there are a million ways to make money on eBay and the sky is the limit. Some individuals are really very creative. For e.g. they will sell their underwear. Yes, that is disgusting and rather hilarious. Nevertheless, it happens and what is more frightening is that people actually buy those items which you and I may thought can never sell.

The good news, however, is that you don't have to sell your undergarments to make money on eBay. You can sell clothes, but they can be clothes that you make according to the buyer's specifications. You will see that people do this all of the time, but you will also notice that no two people make things the same way, so everything is unique.

For example, you might be selling a white t-shirt and you may give certain customization options. Perhaps the buyer may say that they want their name on the back of the shirt. Then again, they may say, "I want the red and blue patches sewed randomly onto the shirt." Whatever they choose to do, it is their decision. You are just doing what they want you to do, which is no problem at all. This is how you make your cash.

So go ahead and give it a try. Make sure you take a picture of past work you have done and tell the individuals browsing your ad that you can do the same for them. List the customization options in the listing and let them choose. It's a lot of fun to see what people choose and a lot of fun for you to fulfill that order. You can even make a full time career out of this.

Labels:


Click Here To Read This Article

Thursday, February 26, 2009

eBay Keywords is a great tool to help you

eBay Keywords is a great tool to help you find what people are actually searching for on eBay.

Since 90% of people who use eBay use the "Search" function which searches Auction Titles (unless the box is checked to search the descriptions, which by default it is not) knowing what people are searching for can vastly improve your auction sales success rate.

What does this mean?

It means, if you're selling something you can get 2, 5, even 20 times the amount of visitors you'd normally get by adding a few more Keywords to your auction title.

Knowing which Keywords people are searching for is what eBay keywords shows you, however, it's not the most user friendly tool.

First, you access the keyword tool by going to keyword.ebay.com

Second, you'll notice a search box, don't bother entering anything into there, it will just search Auctions, I have no idea why eBay has it setup like this, but it makes it look like you can search for keywords from the list, which you cant.

There are some tools out there that let you search eBay Keywords and actually give you a number of searches performed, I talk about this in my newsletter. So, lets say you are selling baby clothes. So you click "B" then scroll down and you'll see baby Gap, Baby Phat, etc.

If your item can use one of these keywords, use it in your title.

But, before we write a title, lets click on a keyword that fits the item, "say Baby Gap." This will perform a search on the baby gap term.

Now, you see the search results, start clicking on some listings and scroll down to see if they have the view counter on their auction. You can then compare the auctions to see which is getting the most views, take the title and make a similar one, and use those keywords in the description.

Here's an example:
Let's say I have a stack of baby clothes I want to sell. Let's say there's a few Baby Gap items I might write a title like "Assorted Baby Clothes - Baby Gap, Baby Phat, NR"

This now only helps you sell more but helps people looking for those specific items find your auction which will get them what they are looking for.

Labels:


Click Here To Read This Article

Thursday, February 19, 2009

An Easy Way To Start an eBay Business

Have you been racking your brain trying to come up with ideas for starting an eBay business? Does it seem like everyone else is making money with the online auction site while you are barely getting by? Or maybe you have read or heard about the successful eBay sellers and want to do the same thing. These are just a few questions you can probably relate to when it comes to learning about eBay businesses. The good news is, there is an easy way to start an eBay business that will become profitable.

The key is to not reinvent the wheel. Taking the shortcut towards a profitable eBay business is simply a matter of replicating what other successful eBay sellers have done. You can find these successful sellers all over eBay. They are referred to as the Powersellers. These individuals have created businesses and when you find them, you can study and copy their techniques. Let's take a look at what you can find.

1. What are they selling? - This is the most obvious question and one of the first things you will want to know. Are they selling high-ticket items, low-ticket items, or a combination of both? What about the pricing? Take note of the types of products, shipping price, etc.

2. Study their sales pages - Every powerseller builds their item sales pages differently. Some go all out with tons of graphics and text, while others keep it clean and simple. Study both types and take notice of the wording they use, the graphics, and other details you may notice.

3. Putting it all together - Once you have done your initial research on several powersellers, it is time to decide how you want to model your business. You have plenty of options from dropshipping products to selling information products to sell on CD or DVD. It will require some market research but what you have learned from studying the powersellers will make the sales process much easier for you.

What would you invest in your eBay business if you could learn even more in-depth techniques from actual eBay Powersellers who have created full-time income online? I can bet that serious entrepreneurs wouldn't hesitate to learn from these experts.

Labels:


Click Here To Read This Article

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Buying At a Low Cost From Other Sellers

Making money on eBay can be done in a number of ways. With an eBay registration, you can choose items found or purchased from estate sales, garage sales, thrift stores, and so on, or, you could actually become a buyer and then turn the items purchased.

If you do a search for a solid selling item and find auctions with extremely low prices, there is no reason you cannot purchase and then turn around only to sell that same item for a higher, yet competitive price.

Another way you can use your eBay registration to make money is by finding items that sell but also items sold in lots. Commonly, people will list lots of clothing, jewelry, shoes, equipment, and other things that could easily be broken down into single sell items.

Let us say you found a lot of women's shoes. In this particular lot was four pair of brand name shoes, all in excellent condition. The seller was simply eager to get rid of things no longer needed so the item is listed at an exceptionally low price. You could purchase the items and then on your own eBay store, list the shoes as individual auctions, increasing the price somewhat. With this, you now have four times the earning power while still giving potential buyers a great bargain price.

The key of being successful with your eBay registration is to learn the insider secrets of how you can increase your money-making potential. The search option provided by eBay is a great tool used by buyers, as well as buyers turning to sellers. Before you start bidding on just any auction however, you want to do some research to identify items that are hot sellers. This way, you do not end up having to sell items at a low cost to move them either.

You might also find that with your eBay registration, you can locate items being sold that would enhance an auction you want to list. For instance, if you had a lot of baby bedding, you might be able to locate baby sleepers in excellent condition that you could offer as a bonus. By pricing the bedding lot right, you could easily absorb the cost of the sleepers and still make money.

eBay registration and all it brings is a very interesting and strategic process. Because of the growing possibilities, eBay's online businesses have quickly become the fastest growing market in the world. No matter your lifestyle, background, or history, eBay creates an option to start over and build something that can make serious money. With your eBay registration, you can begin the process of learning the various features and benefits so you can take full advantage of what this particular site has to offer.

There have been thousands and thousands of success stories from people who had the heart and drive but no education or experience. Since eBay makes it so easy, these people have taken a dream, learned, and grown to make that dream a reality. You too have the same opportunity by using all the ways to make money, which includes buying at a low cost from other sellers and then reselling at a more competitive price.

Labels:


Click Here To Read This Article

Monday, April 14, 2008

eBay Work From Home - Earned On-line Income Fast

Are you keeping too much stuff in your house? Are you one of those whose closets are so full that you are afraid to open them? Do you have a hard time getting rid of some of that stuff? I know, I know, that stuff still has value, so you can't throw it away. How about selling that stuff on eBay and making a profit out of it? Of the 60 or so items that I listed on eBay, I sold about 40 of them. And, I put about $1500 in my pocket, within two weeks. Along the way I picked up a few tips:

1. To begin, first get familiar with the eBay site. If you have never visited the site, start as a visitor, get familiar with the buttons and how it all works.

  • In the search bar type in the name of an item, for example: "blue dishes". Notice there are about 1700 items listed for "blue dishes". Add the word "glass" to blue dishes. Now there are about 400 items. Add the word "cobalt" to blue glass dishes and now there are about 100 items. It is much easier to search 100 items, then 1700 items. Click on one of the pictures, a new screen will come up for that item. Check all the information there: Current or Starting Bid, Your maximum bid, End time, Shipping Costs, Ships to, Bid History, and High Bidder. Scroll down and read the item description and check out the pictures.

2. Next, set up two email addresses, one to handle eBay transactions, and one to handle PayPal transactions.

3. Register at eBay the website. At the top of the page, next to the eBay logo are the words: Sign In or Register. Click Register, a new screen comes up and asks you for some basic information; name, address, phone number, email address, user name and pass word. Finally, agree to the User Agreement and Privacy Policy, then click Register.

4. Register and create an account at PayPal. PayPal is one of the safest ways to handle cash on-line, you can always opt to accept money orders and/or personal checks, but you need a way to pay your eBay fees, PayPal makes that easy. Order a PayPal debit card, it will come in handy.

5. Confirm your account settings that you have created. At the eBay site, log in, then scroll down to ACCOUNT and click on the links underneath it. Make sure all of the your personal information, addresses and preferences are current, edit where necessary. If you move, change bank accounts, or stop using a particular credit card, it is important to keep both eBay and PayPal informed.

6. Go through your stuff and pick an item to sell. You can sell just about anything, but the easiest items to sell are relatively small, and light weight and not easily damaged. Once I sold a door knocker, I had purchased it for personal use, then didn't use it. It was new, in the original package, small enough for ease in shipping and solid brass, so it wasn't likely to get damaged. How about an old music record?...an LP or 45? Again, a music record is not bulky, doesn't weigh much, and it's fairly easy to protect against damage during the shipping process. How about a gently used pair of name brand shoes? Shoes aren't too big, they don't usually weigh very much and they are easy to ship.

7. Learn to do research. Log into your eBay account, click one the Sell button in the upper right hand corner. Now, Click on the Research eBay's Marketplace button. Go through the tutorials and pay close attention to the Search Completed Listings. Check out the items that sold. Analyze why some items sell and others don't. There are a lot of factors that determine whether or not a product will sell, some obvious, some not.

8. Get your digital camera and take digital pictures of your item and prepare the item description.

9. Get your item listed. Log into eBay and click on sell in the upper right hand corner. From here, if you have done your research, the process is fairly simple.

  • Create a title for the item you are selling. Use descriptive words and phrases that apply to the item you are selling. The better your title, the more traffic to your item posting.
  • Select a category that best describes your item.
  • Add pictures. Its good to have more than one picture. I recommend the Gallery Plus, the large picture option.
  • Describe your item. Here is where research helps, use key phrases and descriptive ideas from other successful on-line auctions and incorporate them into your description.
  • Research shipping costs for your item. Click on the "learn about shipping" link... then click on the "Shipping Calculator" and follow directions. If you intend to charge a flat rate, calculate enough shipping to send your item anywhere in the country.
  • Set your starting bid. A good rule of thumb is to start with a combined cost (price & shipping) that is about 10% lower than what the buyer would pay for the item in a retail store or price the item slightly lower than other 'sold' items listed in the Completed Listings search.
  • Decide how you would like to be paid. I highly recommend PayPal, when your income lands in PayPal, you can pay for and print your shipping label directly from PayPal. You can also pay your eBay fees there, then, all of your costs related to the sale of your item are listed in your PayPal site. Easy to see, easy to track, and easy to use.
  • Finally, click - Save and Preview. In the next screen, scroll down and preview what your listing looks like. Edit, if necessary, then click "List Your Item".

10. Finally, monitor your "My eBay" page. Check your emails daily, there may be questions from potential buyers. Track the progress of your item; how many people are watching your item, how many bids, etc. When the auction is over, "My eBay" tells you when your item is paid for and when it's time to ship.

That is it, mission accomplished! You have just learn how to start an ebay work at home business and earned On-line Income Fast! Happy Selling!

Labels:


Click Here To Read This Article