first4ebiz.com
| How To Really Make Money On eBay |
| Wow, Look! eBay Sellers - Sorry, But You're Doing it Wrong By Quentin Lawrence eBay is the website that levels the e-commerce playing field. People can make fortunes from their kitchen table without the cost of setting up their own website and driving traffic to it, investing time in internet marketing that can be very lucrative but may not be fruit for many months or loose all their friends trying to plug an MLM scheme. eBay has millions of buyers, you can have cash coming in from day one, and if you start off right, is completely self financing. Unlike many other online businesses, because there a physical product, it is more credible to a large number of people who would not see a value in a digital product. eBay is full of individuals making a difference to their income by what is in effect starting their own small scale business. In the current financial climate it is vitally important that this is done as profitably as possible, but yet 95% of eBay sellers are making at least one critical error every single time they list an item.The thing is, not only do they not know it, because they are still making a profit, THEY DON'T BELIEVE IT. Look at it this way - depending on where you list your item and for how long, you have an audience of up to 250m buyers, do you really want to screw up in front of that many people.......? You'll need an open mind and a pen. You won't need to write anything down, but it's handy to have something cheap to throw at the wall in frustration when you realise how much money you've been wasting. Without being guilty of stating the blindingly obvious, you will of course need a PC or more attractive but less compatible Apple alternative, internet connection and eBay account. OK first up, there is usually some resistance to the idea that so many people are getting it wrong, so if you will indulge me I will provide a demonstration. Open up another window and go onto eBay, and in the search box type the word 'WOW' or for more giggles, 'LooK'. How many search results have you got ? 15,000? 30,000? That's how may people have got this one basic thing wrong. When you are searching for something on eBay have you ever typed in the word 'wow' (apart from just then) and LooK isn't even a real word - it will not help people find your item so why would you do it ? We're maybe back into blindingly obvious territory here, but as eBay is an auction site, if more people can find your item, more will have the opportunity to bid on it and increased bids will raise the sale price. Nearly everybody would agree with the last statement, so would it then make some kind of sense if I then said that you should only put words in the description that will bring buyers to your listing? There are as many if not more searches done on eBay than there are on Google each day - surprising, but true. Getting the right words in your title is so important when listing an item it deserves a little research, which can be a bit time consuming, but can be very profitable. So if we have acknowledged and identified there's a problem - we now need a solution. Folks I've discussed this with previously have put forward the points that they use the WOWs make people notice their auction out of a page of results or to fill up their 55 characters as they can't think of anything else to write. (There are other ways of making your listing stand out from others on the page (without spending any extra money on fees) more of this a bit later on), but if you run out of relevant words to put in you title here something that might help. Use a Keyword discovery tool to identify words that you might not have thought of. To find a keyword discovery tool just search the term on Google or try www.keyworddiscovery.com/search.html (The one I use) and type the name of your item in. It will then give you a list of the internet searches that have been done for that item, and the words they used to find it. These are also the words you should be using in your item title, as you know people use them when searching for your item. (A bit of common sense is handy here, it is a sad fact that regardless of what you type in, a disturbingly large amount of people have done a search for that item along with some sort of sexual term or practice - and it's best not to use those words on eBay) It is not just a keyword-laden title that sells an item however, it merely puts your listing in front of as many people as possible to give then the opportunity to bid. Whether they bid or not, and for how much, is dependent on many other factors which can make or break your listing. Thanks for taking the time to read, Q. Hi I spent many years in a job before becoming a full time eBayer here in the UK, where I live with my Wife, daughter and dog. I run my business from a laptop the kitchen table and really love sharing what I've learned with others. http://www.onlinewealthwizard.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Quentin_Lawrence Auctions - Big Business On The Internet By Keith M Johnson Internet auctions have become a source of extra income for some and even the main income source for others. There is no limit as to who can sell and what can be sold, millions of buyers can be reached. Membership is easy and can be more convenient than traditional shopping, especially for those hard-to-find items. One key thing to remember is to establish yourself in a particular niche and prove yourself as capable and competent before expanding into other areas. Build customer trust at the on- set and there will be no limit to your success. Keeping your stock replenished is another key element to your success. There are numerous sources available you can use. Garage Sales, Liquidation Sales, Estate Sales, Clearance Sales, and Bargain Store Sales are great resources. And don't forget to check into repossessed and seized vehicle auctions if your niche happens to be auto bargains. With garage sales you can potentially pick up items for pennies but do not rely on them as your sole provider of products. Liquidation sales offer name brand items at enormous discounts but make sure you check for damaged, used or returned items as this may bring down your profit margin. Again, not a reliable replenishment source. If you are specializing in selling jewelry, vintage clothing, rare books, even antique furnishings, Estate Sales are a goldmine. Have a budget in mind beforehand and try to stay within your particular business scope. Greater profit can usually be gained from estate sales offered by family members compared to ones through estate agencies. Most major stores have sales at certain times of the year to reduce stock. These include Clearance Sales and Inventory Reduction Sales and you can sometimes get merchandise at 50% or more below regular selling prices. This is a great opportunity to replenish your stock. Hobby Shops can be another source for clearance sales items, especially those unique items. Your most reliable and consistent source of stock is Wholesalers. These can be found through a directory which ensures legitimacy and reliability for mainstay product sourcing. In today's economy, more and more people are facing uncertainty when it comes to making home and car payments. Many have been forced to default and their vehicles are seized by the finance company. But lenders are not in the business of storing vehicles so they are anxious to unload them and one of the best ways is through auto auctions. Everyone has seen the TV commercials offering government seized, repossessed or even fleet overstocked vehicles at ridiculously low prices, some as much as 90% off retail cost. Using alternative means is one of the best ways to get auto bargains since most vehicles are fairly new and are still covered by the manufacturer's warranty. Repossessed vehicles also come with service and registrant history and a clean title, making this one of the fastest growing niches in online business. No matter which area you decide to go into, whether as a part-time hobby or as a full-time career, online auctions have become one of the fastest growing businesses today. Keith Johnson writes on marketing and business related issues. You can learn more by visiting http://keiths-auction-info.blogspot.com. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Keith_M_Johnson 5 Tips to Make Money Selling on eBay By Kathy McGraw Since eBay went public in 1998, it has become the preferred means to sell online. It is very accessible for the average person, both to buy and sell, and its huge online presence guarantees a good amount of online traffic for your auctions. The following 5 tips will help you make money selling on eBay: 1: Do some research. This is the key starting point in selling anything, anywhere. Look at what's selling on eBay and for how much. If you see a particular item or items that appear to be "hot," take your research out into the wider web and Google it. Find out where else that item is selling and for how much. If you can get a good supply of that item for less than what you can get for it on eBay, then you have a winner! 2: Know your item. This means different things, depending on what you're selling. For example, if it is a diamond ring set in gold, you should know the carat weight of the stone and the gold. You should know the quality of the stone and the type of cut. 3: Use pictures. People like to see what they're buying. If you're selling an item that you're having drop-shipped and you don't have the actual item on-hand to take your own photos, you can use the stock images available from your drop-shipping catalog. Never, ever, use someone else's pictures without first getting permission to use them. 4: Use keywords and descriptive, catchy phrases in your title. You want your title to contain words that your potential customers will input into the eBay search function so that they can easily find your item. Beyond that, your title will be the first thing that your potential customer sees and you want the title to entice people to click it. If no one clicks on your listing, you won't make a sale. 5: Finally, make good use of the tools that eBay provides to make attractive listings. You can bold the title, add a second line right underneath the title where you can use a more descriptive phrase to describe your item. You can also have your title highlighted. These features cost a little extra, but sometimes, that little extra bit can help you sell your item. Having a little knowledge in HTML can help you improve the look of your listings as well. Kathy McGraw is a full time internet marketer and a budding web-designer. You can read her blog at: http://workathomeinfo.biz/?p=28 Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kathy_McGraw Use the Ebay Crystal Ball to Determine Your Item's Selling Price By Mike Ralph When researching a product to sell on ebay one of the important things that you need to know is 'what will it sell for?' Obviously no one can guarentee this selling price but Ebay gives you the tools to get a good idea. The background to this is that a friend has been made redundent and has decided that he will make his living on ebay, which contrary to popular thought is still very much a possibility. His idea is simple, he is advertising to do house clearences and unwanted item removal with a view to selling this on at both offline auctions and Ebay. He was voicing some concerns over the fact that he obviously has some in depth knowledge in certain areas but in others he has none and hence he didn't want to be paying to much and leaving himself no profit. So I walked him through a feature that is readily available to all Ebayers and one that is seldomly used to the full. The feature is the Closed Item Search.....simple really. This allows the question, "What is something worth?" to be answered quickly and as accurately as is humanly possible. It really is like having a crystal ball supplied by Ebay. Let me give an example, take the Samsung D600 Mobile Phone.. Log into Ebay and in the search box at the top just type in Samsung D600 Mobile Phone. At this point try to think how the listing titles would be written so as to get the 'complete' set of results that will give you your expected selling prices accurately. Hit the search button.. What this does is bring up the current auction listings that are active for your chosen search term, scroll down the screen on the left hand side and click the box that says "Completed Listings" and then hit the Show Items button. (you may have to enter your Ebay username at this point) Then click the Price column twice and this sorts the data into ascending format, ie. the highest to the lowest selling price. Like always green means it was sold and red means that it wasn't. What you have now is a guide to the expected highest selling price and the lowest selling price and pretty easily determine the average selling price, obviously some of the selling prices will be slightly skewed (particularly in the mobile phone example used) due to the 'must have' effect but generally these are very easy to identify and eliminate. A quick click around the completed auctions can also give you an idea of the best selling formats, titles, categories to list in ect so that you are furthur armed to maimise your Ebay profits. Now then using my friend as an example. Say he gets a call off someone wanting to dispose of a certain number of items he can, whilst still on the phone, determine his likely selling prices and be able to give them a price that he knows he can make money on.....even if he has never sold that product before. When it comes to Ebay remember that most people see Ebay as a benchmark as to what they are willing to pay and hence what the value of any goods are. So using this simple but effective free tool you will be able to give yourself the chance of going into a sale pretty much confident as to what you are going to get back money wise. It really is like having a crystal ball.. Mike - Webmaster and eBay Power Seller at Ebay Selling We offer free templates, information and product sourcing to enable you to develop your online auctions into a sustainable, long term income stream. We also operate a Ebay Forum where any advice can be sought on any aspect of Online Trading. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mike_Ralph Successful eBay Selling: Evolution Of An eBay Mutant By Donovan Baldwin Many successful eBay sellers have two things in common:
eBAY SELLERS ARE MADE, NOT BORN Almost everybody selling things for a living, or at least for a recognizable income, on eBay started the same way...by intentional accident. Usually, they have become intrigued by the phenomenon, looked around their house and found a few things to test the waters with, and after that, they were hooked! That's the birth. After that comes evolution. Once they run out of things to sell, but have been struck by the business opportunity lurking on eBay, they have to find other sources of eBay merchandise. This problem is solved in various ingenious ways. Some link up with a wholesale drop ship operation, some find merchandise elsewhere, such as at auctions and estate sales, while some create their own products. Having gotten a product source, they still had to learn...learn...learn. In general, becoming a success at selling on eBay is comprised of varying amounts of research, study, trial-and-error, failure, success...and luck. WHAT eBAY SELLERS DON'T KNOW Many eBay sellers arrive at this particular internet business niche independently of a previous internet marketing experience. As a result, while successful in their own area of expertise, eBay, they often miss cues and opportunities that an experienced internet marketer would pick up on or take advantage of. They lack knowledge of ways that they could expand the auction success by applying some standard internet marketing techniques. BEYOND EVOLUTION eBay has now been such a successful internet phenomenon for long enough that the evolutionary path of eBay selling has produced experts. In true entrepreneurial spirit, some of these experts are now sharing their hard-won knowledge by publishing courses on the subject. As in many things, there are good courses, there are not-so-good courses, and there are plain awful ones. Their prices range anywhere from a few dollars to a great many dollars, and the process is still new and fluid enough that few, if any, can truly claim to be major players. ONE BENEFIT MOST eBAY SELLING COURSES OFFER Many people do not take the plunge simply because of an uncertainty and fear of failure due to ignorance. If they have visited the eBay site, they have often be over-whelmed by all the links, warnings, and terms specific to eBay. It seems as if they have wandered into a meeting of a secret organization and lack the password and handshake, and they feel that anything they do will be greeted with derision, if not complete animosity. One thing that almost any course about selling on eBay can do is familiarize you to some extent with the experience. That will erase some of the fear and uncertainty. A GOOD course on selling on eBay can cut your evolutionary time considerably because the author will have already been there and can guide you past some of the pitfalls and help you mutate more quickly than you could grow through simple evolution. The lag time between first eBay auction and the point where you consider yourself to at least be skilled at the process, if not yet wealthy from it, can be cut considerably. Although not immediately necessary to learning the eBay process, learning something about internet marketing as well can help you expand your opportunity beyond just the auctions. Fortunately, there are eBay selling courses that cover at least some of the internet marketing aspects as well. HOW TO GET STARTED The easiest way to get started selling on eBay, with or without a course, is to do what so many others have done. Look around the house and find a couple of things you think SOMEONE will possibly want to buy. Remember, the purpose here is to learn the process, not to get rich. In fact, even if the item doesn't sell, you will have benefited from the experience. Be aware, however, that you will have fees to pay even if your item does not sell. This is not a terrible thing because, unless you have bought every possible option, these costs should be minimal. Chalk it up to tuition. Anyway, if this test develops into a real internet business those expenses become tax deductions. RECOMMENDATION? Give eBay a shot with a couple of sales of things you already have just to see what's going on and how you feel about it. If you believe that this might be a business you want to get involved in, get yourself a course and learn a little bit more about the business before you leap in with both feet...or with your wallet in your hand. It's better to spend a few bucks up front and realize the experience is not for you, than it is to spend a lot of bucks and experience a great deal of frustration only to learn that you should have let this opportunity pass you by. Donovan Baldwin is a Dallas area writer. A graduate of the University Of West Florida (1973) with a BA in accounting, he is a member of Mensa and has held several managerial positions. After retiring from the U. S. Army in 1995, he became interested in internet marketing and developed various online businesses. He has been writing poetry, articles, and essays for over 40 years, and now frequently publishes articles on his own websites and for use by other webmasters. He has blogs on the subjects of weight loss and health, and internet marketing and related business topics. He has a wholesale dropship program at http://donovanbaldwin.com/ebay Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Donovan_Baldwin |
| Advertise To ONE MILLION (1,000,000) Ezine Readers For 2 BUCKS Get your ads seen by tens of thousands of targeted readers for peanuts using the power of Co-op Advertising. For full details CLICK HERE. |