Gene Minor's Blog

The most successful sellers on eBay are not those that list the odd auction or two each evening after work. They have dedicated their time and their money into the process of developing an eBay business strategy that gives them a great starting point in a highly competitive market. Unfortunately you can’t expect to jump straight onto eBay and see soaring success; you too need to put in the effort to create your very own strategy.

Without an eBay business strategy you will struggle to succeed in anything more than making a few sales a week. But with it, the sky is literally the limit and you could start to see an increase in profits quickly. If you feel lost and don’t know where to start keep reading for some handy hints to incorporate within your very own plan.

What should I sell?

Deciding what your eBay store will stock is of vital importance and should be decided early. Don’t attempt to be a shop that stocks a little bit of everything, instead find a very specific niche. It might sound like you’re limiting yourself to one particular income stream, but once you have established yourself as an expert within your own small corner of the market you may be surprised to find that your customers return time and time again to your shelves.

What do I need?

It’s important to understand exactly what you will need and what it will cost you to establish your online business. The costs of starting out on eBay are minimal, but you will still need some equipment to function and to make your money, for example, a computer, an internet connection, a printer and a digital camera. You may already be in possession of this technology but if not you will need to allow for its purchase.

How will I operate?

Are you planning to receive your stock from a wholesaler? You’ll need to consider where you are planning to store your goods before selling them on at a marked-up profit. Considering a dropshipper? You will have to make contact with those in the same industry in which you wish to establish yourself, ensuring that they will deliver the goods on time. Will you buy your own merchandise from charity shops or the high street, or even cheap auctions on eBay?

The method that you choose is not important; success can be had with any of the above. What is important is that you decide upon your method and adequately research it, including any costs and risks associated. Remember that any eBay business strategy must include a method of buying at a low cost and selling at a higher one.

When do I start?

If you already work full time it is sensible to try out your eBay business strategy in your free time, initially at least. This will give you a taste of the lifestyle that you could expect if your business takes off, as well as some valuable insights into the success of your particular niche.

The time to start making money from eBay is not ten years in the future; it can be as soon as next week. But always remember that if you are determined to be successful you will need a successful strategy to get you started.

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Amanda O’Brien is a successful eBay Powerseller and author of ‘The 2,500 Per Week eBay Powersellers Secrets’ home study course. Want to learn more about starting an eBay business or simply want to improve your eBay sales? Claim your free eBay Selling Secrets Report at http://www.powersellerpod.co.uk

Source: http://www.submityourarticle.com

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Have you ever wondered how do you sell stuff on eBay? There’s many people making a great living from this auction giant website alone, but getting back to basics, where do you start? How do you know what to sell? How do you go about making your listing stand out? With these five top tips we hope that you will soon have the answers to these questions.

Tip 1 – Earn some feedback

Feedback is king when it comes to eBay, positive scores will earn you more sales so it is essential that you build up this rating. This can easily be done by selling a few odds and ends from around your house that you no longer need, or perhaps a few cheap items from charity shops. The benefits to this are twofold, not only do you start to earn a great rating, you also start to learn about the inner workings of eBay and what makes a great auction.

Tip 2 – Think about what to sell

Have some fun spending time digging around in the previous auctions that have already ended on eBay. Pay particular attention to any areas that you know a lot about as these will help you to create informative descriptions. This research will help you to know what items are selling for and also highlight the best descriptions. Once you’ve selected your items you’ll be well on your way to answering the question how do you sell stuff on eBay.

Tip 3 – Find a source for your products

You might have decided that you’ll be selling something that you have easy access to. If that isn’t the case however you will need to source your items from somewhere, ideally somewhere a lot cheaper than the prices you’ll be making from eBay. There are a range of possibilities in this area such as wholesalers selling on eBay. One option that often offers untapped potential is searching for local shops that do not have an online presence – they might be happy for you to sell their products on eBay for them.

Tip 4 – Create compelling listings

Don’t rush the time it takes to create your auction. Instead take some time to research the item in question so that you can create a description that is informative and authoritative. Make sure you include a photo with your item if at all possible; it won’t cost you anything and will drastically increase the saleability of your item. Look at similar listings for great ideas about titles, descriptions and images that sell your products well.

Tip 5 – Don’t get discouraged

Sometimes an auction simply won’t sell. Sometimes you’ll barely break even, just about covering your postage and eBay expenses. The important thing to remember is that this doesn’t necessarily have to be the norm. Anyone who makes their living from eBay will inform you that not every auction is a victory. But don’t give up, it’s the people that keep pushing through and seeking the answer to the question how do you sell stuff on eBay that make the most profits. With the right level of determination, you could join them.

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Amanda O’Brien is a successful eBay Powerseller and author of ‘The 2,500 Per Week eBay Powersellers Secrets’ home study course. Want to learn more about starting an eBay business or simply want to improve your eBay sales? Claim your free eBay Selling Secrets Report at http://www.powersellerpod.co.uk

Source: http://www.submityourarticle.com

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Electronics, designer clothing and DVDs, just some of the top selling eBay items but how is that of practical use to you? Simply knowing the most popular categories of eBay items isn’t necessarily helpful because you can rest assured the vast majority of people making a living from eBay have knowledge of the very same information. What you need is a method to help you to discover profitable niches in which you can sell time after time. Just such a method is detailed below and will help you to consistently discover areas of eBay in which you can make the most money.

Step 1 – take advantage of eBay’s own tools

eBay offers a little known tool known as eBay Pulse. It provides vital information to you, a potential seller, as to the exact products that are being searched for within each and every category. Check out the specific category that you are considering selling your items into and you’ll soon be aware of exactly what people are looking for. Don’t forget this information, you will need it later.

Step 2 – don’t stop searching

Do you have a specific item to sell? Search for it on eBay to see if anyone else is selling it right now. That will give you an indication as to how many bids and page views the items have, and also give you exposure to some great (or not so great) descriptions that you may be able to use within your own auction to great effect.

It doesn’t end with current auctions however. eBay’s advanced search actually allows you to check out completed auctions, giving you priceless information about how much similar products to your own actually sold for. You can search specifically based on keywords, price, date and much, much more allowing you to conduct your market research. Pay particular attention to any items that have sold for a significantly higher price than their rivals because their titles, descriptions and images will offer valuable clues as to how best to promote your own top selling eBay items.

Step 3 – use your gathered information

Simply spending time researching is not enough if you never utilise the essential information that you have discovered about top selling eBay items. Do you remember what people were searching for based on your eBay Pulse research? Try to sell into the areas that people are searching within these categories, and ensure that you actually use the keywords that the public are using within your own titles.

Also don’t forget the auctions that you saw in the advanced search that were selling particularly well. You must not copy their descriptions word for word but there’s no harm in seeing what works well and replicating it.

Unfortunately there is no substitute for research, it is a step that every great eBay seller must spend time doing and you are no exception to the rule. With eBay’s great tools and your own determination you’ll discover top selling eBay items in no time at all. But more than that, you’ll also be able to capitalise on the knowledge that you have gained.

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Amanda O’Brien is a successful eBay Powerseller and author of ‘The 2,500 Per Week eBay Powersellers Secrets’ home study course. Want to learn more about starting an eBay business or simply want to improve your eBay sales? Claim your free eBay Selling Secrets Report at http://www.powersellerpod.co.uk

Source: http://www.submityourarticle.com

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If you have spent a lot of time on eBay you might have noticed that many auctions include a hit counter at the bottom of the information included. These eBay counters record the number of views that the auction has received, providing an instant assessment of the popularity of an item. This can be used in two different ways for an eBay seller; researching potential items to sell and monitoring the success of niche markets. Let’s explore these two areas now.

eBay counters in research

There’s a saying that goes, ‘There’s no point finding a gap in the market if there is no market in the gap.’ You might think that you’ve stumbled upon an excellent area to sell in on eBay because no one else is selling that product, but it could be because no one is buying that product.

Many different tools offered by eBay help you to identify how successfully eBay items are selling or have sold, the Advanced Search is one such tool. However, many sellers forget to look at the hit counter at the bottom of the page at all, focusing instead on the quantity of auctions and how much they sold for. While hit counters can be fooled with excessive refreshing of a page by buyers, looking at a few different auctions within a niche will give you an assessment as to the popularity of the items. If less than 50 page views are received toward the end of the lifetime of the auction it simply might not be worth selling into this area.

eBay counters in monitoring your auctions

It is free to insert an eBay counter into your listing and there are different designs that can be used to be aesthetically pleasing. This means that there really is no excuse not to include one. But other than in generating a vague interest as to how many people are looking at your particular auction, how can these hit counters practically help you?

Different items that sell on eBay can expect to receive different amounts of page views. A specialist niche tool, for example, shouldn’t expect to receive as many views as a hot selling item. That means that you don’t need to be depressed if your hit counter is coming up low, but it does mean that you need to monitor it, and other similar auctions, to see if it is worth continuing within that particular area. There is no point in spending a lot of money in advertising your items sold on eBay if they are simply never going to be popular enough to recover the costs.

Rather than simply looking at your page view counter and forgetting the information by the next day, record it in a spreadsheet for every auction that you list on eBay, whether it sells or not. Over time you will generate an incredibly valuable list that could show clearly how successful certain advertising campaigns have been, how many views you should expect for a certain niche or even how different products sell better at different times of day.

Never underestimate the use of eBay counters in your own auctions and in researching items to sell. Why not start implementing them now and begin to see how valuable the information that you will gain actually is?

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Amanda O’Brien is a successful eBay Powerseller and author of ‘The 2,500 Per Week eBay Powersellers Secrets’ home study course. Want to learn more about starting an eBay business or simply want to improve your eBay sales? Claim your free eBay Selling Secrets Report at http://www.powersellerpod.co.uk

Source: http://www.submityourarticle.com

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In these days where the economy is uncertain and money is potentially tighter than it has ever been, you might be asking the question, ‘Can I sell my stuff on eBay?’ The good news is that the popularity of internet auction sites has not diminished in the global credit crisis, quite the opposite in fact. People have been flocking to the internet in droves in the hope of finding a good bargain, and you could be the one to offer it to them.

The first step is to identify what to sell. Don’t feel the need to sell your most prized possessions because you fear that your other items won’t sell. eBay is home to a huge variety of people and a lot of very strange items have sold for far more money than you would expect. So delve into the back of your closet, spend some time searching the attic and have a sort out of the boxes in the garage. Once you’ve assembled the things that you would like to get rid of it’s time to get onto eBay itself for a little research.

If you have the time, you could maximise your profits by spending a while researching similar items to those that you want to sell. Look for completed auctions using eBay’s Advanced Search option and pay particular attention to the time that successful auctions finished, their descriptions and their titles. Mimic the successful ideas and lose those that contributed to making items sell for a low amount.

With your products found and your research completed you are ready to start to create your own auctions. It’s easy to start selling on eBay, with the website offering many tutorials in how to sell my stuff on eBay. Don’t rush your listings, instead think carefully about the information that you are including and make sure that you proof read your descriptions. Also when it comes to the titles try to include as many keywords that you think people might be searching for as possible. For example, say you are getting rid of a pair of slippers that you received two birthdays ago and have never worn, instead of writing ‘new slippers’, write ‘Brand New Brown Faux Fur M&S Slippers’. The extra keywords just might bring more people to your auction.

It’s possible that potential buyers of your products will have questions. If you don’t answer them you will discourage them from bidding at all so make sure that you log in to eBay frequently, preferably every day. Communicating with your clientele in a polite manner and with a quick response will persuade them that you, as an individual, would be good to buy from. This will increase your potential sales and might even bring people back to your cyber-door looking for other goods that you are selling.

Can I sell my stuff on eBay? The answer is a resounding yes! With just a little bit of effort in clearing out your clutter and researching potential topics you could quickly be earning some extra cash.

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Amanda O’Brien is a successful eBay Powerseller and author of ‘The 2,500 Per Week eBay Powersellers Secrets’ home study course. Want to learn more about starting an eBay business or simply want to improve your eBay sales? Claim your free eBay Selling Secrets Report at http://www.powersellerpod.co.uk

Source: http://www.submityourarticle.com

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It doesn’t take long to discover that there are many people out there on the World Wide Web offering to take you on an expensive journey to discover what sells well on eBay. However, the courses, eBooks and information available, whilst plentiful is often out of date so you need to ensure that you use a reliable source, someone who knows about selling on eBay because they sell on eBay themselves.

Spending time researching the area in which you will be selling on eBay needn’t be a long and trying process. You simply need to understand exactly what it is you are looking for, and that’s where the following information will help you, as well as providing the free sources that will help you to discover all of the information that you need to know.

First things first, you’ll need to have a browse around a seldom mentioned sub-site to eBay itself, eBay Pulse. eBay Pulse provides an excellent way to know what sells well on eBay quickly and easily, by showing users exactly what the most searched for keywords within each category are. Assuming you already have an idea, whether vague or solidified, as to the products that you wish to sell, start to delve into the category or categories associated with it to see whether people are searching for what you can offer them. Open up a document on your computer or grab hold of a notepad and write down the most searched for items within your chosen category. The keywords might come in handy for your own descriptions when you are listing your auctions.

It is often said the best way to know the future is to know the past and eBay is certainly no exception to this rule. To discover what sells well on eBay today, you need to know what sold well on eBay yesterday. Instead you can take advantage of the Advanced Search tool freely offered by eBay which allows you to search their records for Completed Listings that have finished within the recent past. Don’t underestimate the importance of this crucial step. Search for similar items to yours, paying particular attention to how many auctions there have been and how much they have sold for.

You should also be on the lookout for some tips and tricks to help your very own auction to be a success. Did a product with an exceptionally good photograph make more money than one without? Did an auction ending at midnight on a Wednesday make as much money as one ending on a Sunday afternoon? This is valuable information that will help you to maximise your profits.

This information is at the touch of your fingertips right now.

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Amanda O’Brien is a successful eBay Powerseller and author of ‘The 2,500 Per Week eBay Powersellers Secrets’ home study course. Want to learn more about starting an eBay business or simply want to improve your eBay sales? Claim your free eBay Selling Secrets Report at http://www.powersellerpod.co.uk

Source: http://www.submityourarticle.com

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The concept of working from home is a popular one. Where most people have a weekday routine that is almost entirely governed by their work, the individual with a job that allows them to work from home has a great deal more freedom. Here are 3 easy ways to start making more money at home.

1.Making Money On Ebay:

Register with eBay is a good way to begin and browse through the various auctions and see what’s selling and what’s not. There are many tutorials, books and audios you can purchase (some of them are free) if you’re serious about making money on eBay.

The beauty of selling on online auctions is that it’s inexpensive to get started and test a product. Throw it out there and see how many buyers bite. If it’s a flop, try something else and you’ve only lost a few cents. eBay offers many ways to research a product to see what an item has sold for and how many have sold. If there’s no demand for your product, find something else.

Be honest about the things you’re selling and point out any flaw it may have. If you make a mistake, admit it and make it good. Your reputation as a seller is at stake. A good digital picture of the item will reveal most flaws and will boost your sales. Most of the time on eBay the first picture is free and you can add others for a small fee.

When you sell an item, communicate with your buyer and ship promptly. Say thank you and that you’d appreciate receiving a good feedback and you’ll do the same. Selling on eBay one item at a time or in volume in an eBay store is an excellent way to make easy extra money and maybe even a small fortune…at least a good living.

2.Have A Garage Sale:

Garage sales are a fun way to make some extra money, get rid of old stuff you no longer use and help the environment by recycling. But, to have a successful garage sale it takes hard work and planning. It’s easier if you involve your family. Many hands make light work, you know.

Don’t have a garage sale on a holiday weekend. Try to pick a weekend that good weather is forecast. Too hot or too wet can ruin your chances of making money. Display merchandise attractively. Don’t pile everything on top of each other where customers have to waste time digging.

Place a few interesting items near the roadway. Light music is okay but not too loud. Guard your money and watch for shoplifters. Most people are honest and rarely is there a problem. By the way, have plenty of change on hand along with plenty of bags for purchased items.

When the sale is over count your money and take down any signs you’ve put in people’s yard or on the roadways. Remember as the old saying goes, “One man’s trash is another person’s treasure.” Almost everyone, rich and poor, spends money at garage sales.

3.Turn Your Hobby Into a Career.

Turn your special interest or hobby into a career. Perhaps you could start out converting your hobby into a money making venture while continuing your present job. Many times what you’re enjoying as a pastime could become a good second income or more.

If you like making jewelry, sell it at an on-line auction or craft fair. Or, use your jewelry expertise to become a jewelry salesperson at a local store and perhaps advancing to a jewelry buyer or repair person.

Writing presents many opportunities and you can do this at home or anywhere you have a laptop. You may not get rich as a travel writer but it offers many perks of sometimes traveling and eating for free.

Entrepreneurs who sell things on line are always looking for good ghostwriters to write interesting articles and sales letters. Good copywriters are always in demand to work from home or at an advertising agency.

Talents such as dancing, gardening or being good with animals all offer many opportunities to transform these hobbies into moneymakers or job changers. Check the ads to see if jobs are being offered in these related fields. Getting a better job takes time and effort. But, if you’re not happy with your current place of employment it will be worth it. It’s up to you to get the job search ball rolling.

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Learn More About Work From Home Opportunities By Visiting http://www.easycash4life.com/ Arthor Annette Lode Marketing Advisor.

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The following is some useful terms when you are doing business at eBay.

• Bid: telling eBay’s system the maximum price you are prepared to pay for an item.
• Dutch: an auction where more than one of an item is available.
• Feedback: positive or negative comments left about other users on eBay.
• Mint: in perfect condition.
• Non-paying bidder: a bidder who wins an auction but does not then go on to buy the item.
• PayPal: an electronic payment method accepted by most sellers.
• Rare: used and abused on eBay, now entirely meaningless.
• Reserve: the minimum price the seller will accept for the item.
• Shill bid: a fake bid placed by a seller trying to drive up their auction’s price.
• Snail Mail: the post, which is obviously very slow compared to email.
• Sniping: bidding at the last second to win the item before anyone else can outbid you
• AUD: Australian Dollar Currency.
• BIN: Buy it Now. A fixed price auction.
• BNWT: Brand New With Tags. An item that has never been used and still has its original tags.
• BW: Black and White. Used for films, photos etc.
• CONUS: Continental United States. Generally used by sellers who don’t want to post things to Alaska or Hawaii.
• EUR: Euro Currency.
• FC: First Class. Type of postage.
• GBP: Great British Pounds Currency.
• HTF: Hard To Find. Not quite as abused as ‘rare’, but getting there.
• NIB: New in Box. Never opened, still in its original box.
• NR: No Reserve. An item where the seller has not set a reserve price.
• OB: Original Box. An item that has its original box (but might have been opened).
• PM: Priority Mail.
• PP: Parcel Post.
• SH: Shipping and Handling. The fees the buyer will pay you for postage.
• USD: United States Dollars Currency.
• VGC: Very Good Condition. Not mint, but close.