Archive for the ‘Auctions’ Category:
Written on November 9th, 2010 by Guruno shouts
OK, so you want to get into the business of online auctions. Maybe you want to sell, or maybe you are looking to buy. Either way, it doesn’t have to cost you a fortune. Actually, it doesn’t have to cost you anything. That’s right! There are many free auction sites online to choose from.
You’ve heard of eBay (unless of course you’ve been living under a rock for the past several years), but there are alternative free auction sites online to choose from. For example, AuctionFire.com charges no listing fees and allows sellers to link to their auction page straight from their website for free. They have tons of item categories to choose from, whether you are a seller or a buyer, and claim to be open to new category suggestions. Similar in its item categories is Bid-Alot.com where buying and selling is free, though they require sellers who sign up for free account to provide credit card information. They also offer a how-to-trade guide for their beginners. Baymore.com offers pictures of their home page featured items as well as message boards for both buyers and sellers.
Other free auction sites include BuySellTrades.com which offers free listings, classifieds and trading, secure shopping and bidding, free store setup, community forums for buyers and sellers and even a chat community. BidMonkey.com also offers communities and even ChatMonkey IM. Users have the opportunity to earn Monkey Bucks and purchase items without paying anything but shipping. Also, sellers have the chance to be featured on the main page—a guarantee that everyone who logs in will see your name!
Whether you want to buy or sell, there are free auction sites out there for you with extra bonuses such as free store setups and community forums and chats to help you along your way.
Written on November 2nd, 2010 by Guruno shouts
Just about anyting you can think of can be found at an auction. Anything from jewelry, collectibles, boats, books,cars, household items; I repeat, anything and everything. That’s the excitement of the auction.
You can find auctions in your area by various ways including your local newspaper who would have a section in the classifieds for auctions that will happen in the coming week or weeks. You can search for auction houses on the internet. If they have a web site, their upcoming auctions along with pictures and descriptions of items would be listed so customers know what is being offered. Usually, there are signs placed close to the auction site indicating an auction is taking place or will be soon. The ads or web site should also give directions to the location.
After you find the auction or auctions of interest, you need to check the time it starts. There should be a starting time for the auction and for viewing the items. Make sure you allow lots of time to get to the auction to check out the items. Then you will decide which items you want to bid on and how much you want to bid. Take a pad of paper and pen to make notes of the items and your top dollar you are willing to bid for the items. This will also be a good time to find the auctioneers and auction workers so you can get to know them. They have the all of the details about the items and should be happy to provide any information you require.
You will want to find out when the auction will start. Find out where the auction will start and what direction it will go. There may be more than one auction ring, if there are many items. Some auctions last for several days. Each auction ring will have an auctioneer, a recorder, and helpers. Find out how many rings and which auctioneer will be in which ring. Introduce yourself to the auctioneer and the workers so they will recognize you when you bid and be more apt to look your way for a bid. It is also an avenue for inside information to the type of auction it is, the type of items being offered, etc. Some auctions have multiple estates represented, so some sections of items may look like it doesn’t really go with the other items. The auctioneer and workers should know this and will share that information with you.
There will be a payment and registration table which are usually together. You will want to stop at the registration table before the auction starts to register. They will need your name, address, phone number, picture ID, and tax number, if you have one.
The auction can be indoors or outdoors, so dress appropriately. You might want to think about taking a snack or lunch. There might be a vendor available near the auction. Check out where you want to park to get your winning items to your vehicle easily.
Each item will have a lot number or description associated with it. This information may not be on the actual item, but the recorder will have it. It will be on the tickets for each of your winning items. Keep track of what you were the winning bidder on and what the winning bid was. This way, you can match each up to your ticket when you check out.
The items up for auction are usually kept in boxes or flats. The items may be auctioned per box or per item. You should be able to request a certain item be pulled out of a box to auction separately, if you like. A lot of times, you can get a better bargain if the item you want is together with other items that may be less in demand.
The more expensive items are kept in locked cases with an attendant close by to open the case for inspection when requested. These items have been determined by the auctioneer to be more valuable pieces and will be auctioned individually. Since you have gotten familiar with the auctioneer, you will know where the auction will start. Get yourself in a position so that you can see the items as they are auctioned and so that you will be readily seen by the auctioneer for your bids. Make sure you have your bidder number card ready to show the auctioneer when you bid and also when you win an item.
Before and during the auction, as people look at the items, some may get moved from box to box. Make sure you pay close attention to what is being auctioned, in case some things were moved. When you win, make sure to take your winnings directly to your vehicle. Once you win the bid, the item or items are you possession and you are responsible for them. Items have been known to get up and walk away while you are not looking. It is best to keep an eye on your winnings or have another person attend to them and take them to your vehicle.
Depending upon the auctioneer, bidding may start at what the auctioneer thinks the item will eventually sell for. That offer may not get any bids, so in order to get people bidding, the auctioneer will lower the starting bid. If you are really interested in an item, you may want to bid first thing. This quick bid may scare off other potential bidders and you will win the item. Toward the end of the auction, there may not be as many people at the auction so this is a good time to get in on some good deals as well.
When you are ready to leave, you will need to go to the payment or registration table to pay for your winning items. They will have a list of items or a ticket for each winning item. Make sure the item and price match what you have recorded. It will be much easier to resolve any conflicts immediately rather than later. Good luck with your bidding!
Written on October 29th, 2010 by Guruno shouts
It’s a fact. Clear, high-quality photos will greatly enhance your chances of selling your products on eBay. Here are 12 simple tips that will help you make the most of your eBay product photos.
1. You don’t need an expensive, high-resolution digital camera for your eBay photos. You just need a digital camera that will produce a 640×480 pixel image (which includes just about all digital cameras on the market.)
2. Before you buy a camera, handle it to feel how comfortable it is in your hands. Make sure the camera controls are logical, and that it’s easy to transfer photos from the camera to your computer. The camera should be able to focus within four inches or less.
3. When taking a photo for your eBay product, generally select the camera’s smallest photo size. If you are going to crop the image or upload it to eBay’s picture services, however, select at least a 1024 x 768 image size.
4. Disable your camera’s built-in flash when taking a photo. The built-in flash produces a glare on the photo and makes your products look two-dimensional.
5. Use your camera’s “Macro Focus†feature to take close-ups of your product. (“Macro Focus†is usually indicated by a tulip flower symbol.)
6. The key to effective product photography is lighting, and the key to effective lighting is control. You can control the strength, size, position, color and number of lights you use. And each of these controls changes how the subject looks. Review your camera’s manual to understand your camera’s “white balance†symbols ( i.e. a light bulb for indoor shots with incandescent lights, a sun symbol for outdoor photos, etc.) You’ll use the white balance control to get accurate colors. You can preset the white balance to match the type of light you’re using (daylight, shade, tungsten, fluorescent).
7. Use the “Exposure Control†(EV) to correct light and dark photos. A plus number lightens the image, a minus number darkens it.
8. Use a tripod when taking pictures of your product. The tripod stabilizes your camera and eliminates blurry photos.
9. Photograph your products at an angle.
10.Take more than one photo of each item. For example, if you are selling clothing, take one full-length photo; one photo of the tag showing size, fabric, content, brand; and one or more close-up photos showing the texture of fabric and any details or flaws.
11.Use photo-editing software to make final adjustments.
12.Host your pictures on your own website. You will save money and be able to use as many pictures as you need to adequately show eBay bidders your products. It’s simple, and yet 70 percent of eBay sellers don’t do it.
Adding high-quality product photos that enhance your eBay listings will greatly increase your sales. Try it today!
Written on October 28th, 2010 by Guruno shouts
If you have an eBay store, then you can print off promotional flyers for it for free.
You might have seen ones that other sellers have sent you – they’re basically lists of items available in their eBay stores, usually bearing this default message: “Thank you for your purchase! Please visit my eBay Store for more great items and friendly, reliable customer service.†If you know what you’re doing, though, you can really make your flyer stand out from the crowd.
How Do I Do That?
Go to ‘My eBay’, then ‘Manage Your Store’. Now click ‘Promotions’, and you’ll see the ‘Store Promotional Flyer’ option there for you to use. A flyer will be automatically created using the settings and items from your eBay store, and you can customise it however you want. Be sure to add a border, to make your flyer more attractive visually.
Once you’ve created a flyer, you can print it as many times as you need to – it will be updated each time you print it to show your latest items, so you should only print what you need that day.
What Can I Do With the Flyers?
Well, there are all sorts of uses for promotional flyers.
While you could go and hand them out on the street, that probably wouldn’t be especially effective. Most of the people who walk past you and take the flyer will have no interest in your product, and it’ll just be a waste of paper, ink and time. No, as with all marketing, there are better ways to target your flyers.
Put them in envelopes: if you’ve been putting business cards or compliment slips in your envelopes, use the flyers instead. It’s like sending out a mini-catalogue to your buyers, and including the right items on it might help you make a few backend sales.
In your shop: If you have a real shop or business, then you can hand flyers out to your customers to let them know that you also sell things on eBay.
At a rival’s shop: This is a bit of guerrilla marketing, but maybe you’re into that. You can try handing your flyers out outside a shop that sells your items. Be aware that this might get the shop’s owners a little upset if they see you, however – you should only give flyers to people leaving the shop, not entering it.
Send them to businesses: Look up the addresses of businesses in the area that might need what you’re selling, and send them flyers in the post.
Flyers give you another advantage: If someone types your store’s address as it appears on the flyer and then buys something, then you’ll get the 75% final value fee credit for advertising, without even having to pay anything for advertising!
Users who are inexperienced on eBay, though, can create a few problems for you – they might not quite know what they’re doing, and that’s never good. In the next email, we’ll cover how to report and handle eBay transaction problems.
Written on October 15th, 2010 by Guruno shouts
Buying in any auction either on or offline can be an exciting experience. You see an item that you are interested in and you make a bid. But then someone else bids and you are no longer the high bid. Well, your bid was a bit low anyway so you might as well raise it a little and get control because there are only a few minutes to the end of the auction.
And so up and up go the bids until the end of the auction arrives. One of two things will have happened, you will either have won the item and paid way over the odds or you will breath a sigh of relief as someone else has the winning bid.
As sellers we love two or three people to be interested in our item and bid against each other. That is how items reach two or three times the amount we expected but as a buyer it can leave us a bit flat and not a little poorer.
There is absolutely no reason why this should happen to you. Bidding in the last few minutes of an auction can become frenzied and it is not the place for value for money seekers like us to be. And the good news is that we do not have to be.
These days I make all my bids by Proxy. It is very simple and straightforward and you will often pick up a bargain. What you do is decide what is the maximum price you are prepared to pay for any item. And this is a decision you make ideally a few hours before the end of the auction although you can bid as soon as the item is listed if you wish. Personally I do not like to attract too much attention to an auction by bidding early if I can avoid it. But sometimes it can be necessary if I am going to be away from a computer for a while.
Once you have decided on the amount you are prepared to pay enter that as your bid.
Now do not worry all that will happen is that your bid will be recorded at the level of the next bid increment. For example if the current bid was 99c and you were prepared to pay £3 the actual bid would be for just $1.04 a 5c increase on the previous bid. If someone else then bid yours would increase until someone bids more than your maximum bid.
In my experience I find that by using proxy bids I get about 50% of the items I bid on and often for much less than my maximum amount. One useful tip that I can give you is to never make your maximum bid a round number. For instance if you think $10 is about right bid $10.11 or even $10.51 because a lot of people will quit bidding when the item reaches a significant amount such as $10, $50 or $100 and those few extra can swing the auction in your favour.
Once you have placed your proxy bid you can just forget about it until the auction is over and then just check your e-mail for the congratulations or “the you have been outbid†message. Either way you can be sure that you have not paid over the odds for an eBay purchase.
Written on October 9th, 2010 by Guruno shouts
Listing tools automate the process of adding listings to eBay, to stop you having to go through the ‘Sell Your Item’ process every time. There is a surprising amount of choice out there when it comes to eBay listing tools, to the point where you might not know what to choose. Here’s an overview of what’s useful and what’s not.
Turbo Lister.
Turbo Lister is a free download from eBay, and allows you to sell on eBay without ever having to actually visit the site. You can write descriptions, save them and list them over and over again – if you want to, you can even do most of your eBay work offline, and just go online for a few seconds to upload it.
You can list in bulk and schedule your listings to start any time. Since this is eBay’s officially supported program, you’re guaranteed that upgrades to eBay’s site will never break it and leave you out in the cold. Personally, though, I find the design quite bad – it’s not really that much easier than just going through eBay directly.
Blackthorne.
Also from eBay, this is what used to be called the ‘Seller’s Assistant’. It’s a downloadable program, but it’s more powerful than Turbo Lister is. It lets you do everything in bulk: listing, re-listing, and even feedback. You can export your sales data to an accounting program, and track your auctions while they’re still going on. You only have to enter things like payment choices and shipping details once, and they’re saved forever.
So where’s the disadvantage? It costs $9.99 per month, or $24.99 for the pro version, which also lets you print shipping labels in bulk and manage an inventory.
Andale Lister.
If you want to try something that’s not been made by eBay, Andale’s lister is still web-based, but aims to streamline the process.
You can create ‘profiles’ with different selections for your auctions. For example, you could create a ‘Normal’ profile that doesn’t include any of the listing upgrades, a ‘Promote’ profile that includes Bold and Highlight, and a ‘Super Promote’ profile that buys Bold, Highlight and Featured Plus. This makes it easier to choose the set of options you want for each item.
It’s all about saving things you’ve done. Each time you upload a picture, it gets added to a ‘Picture Library’ for you to use again, and you can store an inventory and choose from it to create a listing. You also get nicer-looking templates than eBay provide.
Of course, if eBay had their act together then this is what their own process would be like – but they’re happy for third-parties to make money doing the work instead of upgrading their own site. Andale Lister can cost anywhere between 20c and 4c per listing, as you get discounts for volume.
Now that you’re listing in bulk, you can spend more time trying to attract people to come and bid on your auctions. But how should you be doing your marketing? In the next email, we’ll go through some of the options available to you.
Written on September 26th, 2010 by Guruno shouts
There are steps you can take to make sure that you are getting a great deal on the items you obtain through eBay. These same steps will also help to shield you against fraud.
Start with the auction in question. Make sure that you read every word of the description and the auction details.
Pay special attention to what the description and auction details do not say. For example, is a guarantee mentioned? Is the item new? Is it authentic? Is there evidence of authenticity? Look for auctions that provide the right information, and just keep away from those that do not.
Who will pay the shipping and handling costs? Often, the buyer pays these costs, but sometimes, the seller tries to charge more than the actual shipping and handling costs are. Be careful of high shipping costs, especially for items that will be auctioned off at a very low price. Note when the item is supposed to ship after the bidding has ended.
Don’t make the mistake of bidding on an item merely because it is a &good deal.& It is only a good deal for you if the item is something that you really want or need. A lot of people simply bid for the sake of bidding – or winning – without having any real need for the item in question. Before bidding on items that you do want or need, it’s best to check prices around the Internet and the prices available from offline sources as well.
Learn more about the seller. What is their rating? Read their feedback page. Not learning more about the seller can be very costly. Sometimes scammers make their auctions sound like really great deals. Be cautious of prices that seem to be extremely low.
Written on September 24th, 2010 by Guruno shouts
So you’ve done everything you can to keep your buyers happy – but still someone’s left you negative feedback! You don’t think it’s fair, either because you fixed the buyer’s problem, or they never gave you a fair chance to fix it. What can you do?
Communicate.
Tell the buyer that you don’t think that feedback was fair, and give them a list of the things you’ll do in exchange for them withdrawing it. You can offer refunds, replacements, or even to ‘compensate them for their time’ (that means bribe them), depending on how desperate you are. If they agree, you can go through the mutual withdrawal process detailed below.
Respond.
Leave a comment under the negative feedback explaining what happened – this at least minimises the damage it will do to your reputation if anyone looks at it. Remember that you can more-or-less write whatever you want, as there is no facility for the buyer to respond to your response – and anything you write will show up on their ‘Feedback Left for Others’ page! If you’re a little devious, you can make them look very bad.
Retaliate.
However much you’re not supposed to do it, you really shouldn’t let a buyer leave you negative feedback without leaving them a negative in return. Be polite and factual, saying something like “buyer did not give me a fair opportunity to fix their complaint†(note that this is one of the reasons why you should always leave feedback second, or not at all). This might not be the ‘nicest’ way to do business on eBay, but it’s the only realistic way to protect your flawless reputation.
Don’t be worried: retaliatory feedback is not against eBay’s rules, however much it should be. Anyway, you’re not just doing this for revenge – it’s essential for the next step.
Try for a Mutual Withdrawal.
Since the buyer probably won’t want a negative response or feedback comment on their record, you can do a simple “I’ll take away my negative if you take away yours†deal. This is called mutual feedback withdrawal, and the process can be started at this page: http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?MFWRequest.
This will cause eBay’s system to send an email to your buyer, asking them if they agree to withdraw their feedback in exchange for you withdrawing yours. You should get them to agree before you press the button, though, because you can only use it once per transaction.
Use Dispute Resolution.
You and the buyer can take your feedback dispute to SquareTrade, where you can both give your side and they will cancel feedback that they feel is unfair – they are far more responsive than eBay. Be aware that this costs about $20, but it has the advantage that if the buyer doesn’t respond to the process then their feedback will be removed automatically.
Of course, at some point you might find yourself with an even worse buyer than one that just leaves negative feedback – they might refuse to pay, or harass your other buyers. Our next email will tell you how to get in touch with eBay’s ‘Safe Harbor’ team, and what they can do for you.
Written on September 17th, 2010 by Guruno shouts
Going full-time as an eBay seller is living the dream: making a real income, working from home, being your own boss and all the rest of it. It’s the promise of a million scams, and it’s finally come true – at least for some.
What they don’t tell you in the success stories, though, is that becoming a full-time eBay seller is by no means for everyone. You really, really ought to try it part-time before you even consider taking it up full-time, and even then, caution is advisable. Before you burn your suit, here’s a list of questions you should ask yourself.
How Much Do I Earn From eBay Now?
Work out how many hours a week you spend doing eBay-related things (be honest here), and divide it by the average amount of profit you make in a week. If you were doing full-time hours, would you earn as much as you earn now?
Do I Have a Good Job?
Think about what you might lose if you give up your job to focus on eBay. If you’re in a well-paid job with good promotion prospects then it’s well worth reconsidering: you might get a few years down the line and wish you’d stayed in your traditional job, as you’d probably be the CEO by now.
Would I Really Make Much More Money?
Unless you’re selling a large quantity of small goods, most of what you do on eBay will be waiting for auctions to end – and you can wait at work just as easily as you can at home. This is why whether you would make more money on eBay really depends on what kinds of items you’re selling – for low value items, going full-time could be a good move. For high-value ones, the chances are you’ll hit the limits of how much money you have to invest in inventory long before you hit the limits on your time.
Is my Home a Good Place to Work?
Quite apart from anything else, you might find that the dream of home working is more of a nightmare in reality. People can start to depend on you to get things done that need to be done during the day. If you have a wife and children then they can resent the fact that you’re in the house but refuse to have anything to do with them for large parts of the day. Giving in to any of these things and stopping work for a while will cause your profits to fall.
Can I Survive if it All Goes Wrong?
In the end, would you be able to get by if you had a month or two where you sold literally nothing? Or would you be desperately looking around for a job and cursing the day you ever discovered eBay? That’s the real test.
If you made it through all these questions, then I guess you’re cut out for the eBay life – and even if you didn’t, you’d be surprised just how far you can get part-time. In our next email, we’ll show you how to think like the eBay elite: the PowerSellers.
Written on September 10th, 2010 by Guruno shouts
If you know what you’re doing, you can quickly find what you’re looking for on eBay. Here are a few golden rules.
Be specific: If you’re searching for the first edition of the original Harry Potter book, you’ll get further searching for ‘harry potter rowling philosopher’s stone first edition’ than you will searching for ‘harry potter’. You’ll get fewer results, but the ones you do get will be far more relevant.
Spell wrongly: It’s a sad fact that many of the sellers on eBay just can’t spell. Whatever you’re looking for, try thinking of a few common misspellings – the chances are that fewer people will find these items, and so they will be cheaper.
Get a thesaurus: You should try to search for all the different words that someone might use to describe your item, for example searching for both ‘TV’ and ‘television’, or for ‘phone’, ‘mobile’ and ‘cellphone’. Where you can, though, leave off the type of item altogether and search by things like brand and model.
Use the categories: Whenever you search, you’ll notice a list of categories at the side of your search results. If you just searched for the name of a CD because you want to buy that CD, you should click the ‘CDs’ category to just look at results in that category. Why bother looking through a load of results that you don’t care about?
Don’t be afraid to browse: Once you’ve found the category that items you like seem to be in, why not click ‘Browse’ and take a look through the whole category? You might be surprised by what you find.
Few people realise just how powerful eBay’s search engine is – a few symbols here and there and it’ll work wonders for you.
Wildcard searches: You can put an asterisk (*) into a search phrase when you want to say ‘anything can go here’. For example, if you wanted to search for a 1950s car, you could search for ‘car 195*’. 195* will show results from any year in the 1950s.
In this order: If you put words in quotes (“”) then the only results shown will be ones that have all of the words between the quote marks. For example, searching for “Lord of the Rings†won’t give you any results that say, for example “Lord Robert Ringsâ€.
Exclude words: Put a minus, and then put any words in brackets that you don’t want to appear in your search results. For example: “Pulp Fiction†–(poster,photo) will find items related to Pulp Fiction but not posters or photos.
Either/or: If you want to search for lots of words at once, just put them in brackets: the TV example from earlier could become ‘(TV,television)’, which would find items with either word.
So once you’ve found your bargain item, bid for it and won it, what if it all goes wrong? Don’t worry – eBay has a thorough dispute resolution procedure, and we’ll cover it in some depth in the next article, so you’ll be prepared if the worst happens.
Written on September 10th, 2010 by Guruno shouts
Stuff that is being bought and sold online these days mostly comes from eBay, this trading had attracted a lot of people that would like to sell their items for a good price. They come and go like hot pancakes, just juice up the deal by making them stand out. You can always make a difference by making honest deals and build up your reputation. Here are some free eBay selling tips that might help you sell those old figurines in the attic.
Write a simple description and do not clutter your auction with unneeded items like animated Gifs, and colored backgrounds. Remember, you are selling not entertaining.
If you are selling items such as DVDs, software and designer labels, make it clear that your items are genuine and not pirate copies or fakes. Letting them know what you sell for real makes them understand your product better, hence, having little trouble when the day ends. You might end up having a bad reputation if you are selling bootleg copies when you stated they are genuine.
Charge a flat rate for shipping, and mention the shipping costs prominently within your auction description. Let potential buyers know that you are prepared to ship overseas. This will greatly increase potential sales.
Check your spelling. Items won’t sell if potential buyers can’t find them because you’ve misspelled the item’s name. Write a title that accurately describes your item. Use manufacturers name and model number within the title if applicable. Write a detailed description that allows prospective bidders to make a decision about purchasing the item. A basic tip is the description can never be too long as long as it is describing the item.
Host your own pictures. By hosting your own pictures, you will save money, and, more importantly, be able to use as many pictures as you need to adequately show eBay bidders your item. This is the simplest thing to do, and yet 70 percent of eBay sellers ignore this simple tip.
Pay the extra fee to include a picture of your product. Make sure that it is a good quality image, with no background distractions. Optimize your pictures for the web is the best way to tune out the loading times of your image. Many sellers use the highest resolution settings on their cameras and generate huge files that download very slowly. Computer monitors only show 72DPI, any extra detail is just a waste of the bidder’s time.
List your item in the most appropriate category. Many buyers’ only search eBay by looking at listings within categories. If you are not in the right eBay category you will not be seen by lots of potential bidders and you item may end up selling for less than it’s worth.
Systemize your eBay selling. Using a system to sell on eBay will lower the amount of time spent selling each item, and insure you don’t forget any important activities.
Build your positive feedback. You can do this quickly by buying and selling several small value items. This will give potential buyers confidence in you.
Be honest. If your item is less than perfect, say so. This is more likely to generate a sale as potential buyers are more likely to trust you. Being honest should also help to protect your valuable positive feedback. I once made a tidy profit on some items that were originally free; I made it clear in the copy; the buyer was pleased and so was I.
Don’t set a high starting price. This will cost you more, and could put off potential buyers. Your item will find its correct value if you have listed it properly, but it may not reach its value until the last few minutes of the auction. Be realistic about shipping costs. If you charge too little, you risk your profit. It is possible to make a small profit from shipping, but if you charge too much, you will put off possible buyers
Time your auction to end on a weekend, this is when most potential customers will be available to buy your items, and should increase the final price you get. Take advantage of eBay promotional offers; look out for special days when you can advertise your items at a reduced cost.
Now, time to get started, remember, you can only build your reputation by having good trades, having to let strangers trust you is really nonsense these days but on eBay, they make sure your points are given credit. Follow these tips and you’re on your way to making good money.
Written on September 7th, 2010 by Guruno shouts
Today, eBay is considered to be one of the most lucrative auction sites available in the Internet.
However, selling on eBay is not that easy, and the very first thing a seller should do is to find the ways on how he or she will get paid once the item is sold. And so, here are the different ways how a seller can be paid:
1. PayPal
PayPal is the most common and convenient way of sending and receiving money based on an eBay transaction. Here, the payment for the sold item is sent directly to the seller by means of an established bank account or a credit card.
2. Personal Check or Cashier&s Check
Sellers may choose this kind of option. However, the drawback of using this kind of payment method is that the seller still has to wait for a number of banking days before the check gets cleared.
3. Credit Cards
Sellers must have a merchant account to be able to accept payments from its buyers through credit cards. This is applicable only if the buyer will be paying directly to the seller. If the buyer still wants to use credit card but wants a safer transaction, he or she may opt to pay the seller through PayPal with the use of the credit card.
4. Bank to bank wire transfers
In this type of payment, the seller can be paid through a bank-to-bank transaction. Here, the buyer will transfer funds from his or her bank account to the seller’s bank account.
5. Money Orders/Bid pay
This is one of the recommended payment methods of eBay. This is considered safe because the seller or the buyer can track down the mailing address of the concerned person.
6. Escrow
This is strongly suggested for high-priced item transactions. The escrow service guarantees full protection while the transaction is not yet closed. Through this service, the seller has to wait for the confirmation that the buyer had received the product before receiving payment.
However, sellers and buyers should take extra precautions on dealing with escrow services. There are a lot of counterfeit escrow services lurking on eBay these days. It’s best to check if the escrow service was approved by eBay.
8. Cash
Sellers on eBay may receive payments through cash. However, this is a high-risk activity and offers no guaranteed protection.
8. Instant Cash Wire Transfers like western Union and Money Grams
Sellers may opt for this type of payment method. But, they should keep in mind eBay is strongly against this mode of payment and that insisting this to the buyer may result to suspension or termination of account.
Written on September 5th, 2010 by Guruno shouts
As you might have already noticed there’s more to selling on eBay and the various other auction sites than just posting and auction and waiting for the money to arrive.
You only need to to look at the many many eBay items that go unsold every day. This article will help you learn to successfully sell on eBay and other auction sites by examining the different skills to you need to learn to be successful. We will use combined experience of many eBay sellers with years of success and we will list here many pointers and tools that will help you join their ranks.
Sell something you know and care about.
The to be very successful on eBay requires more than just following a few steps. The above average sellers more than just anonymously listing a few items for sale. The top sellers reflect a portion of themselves in each item they list. This helps put aside any uncertainties a buyer might have purchasing from a complete stranger. Thus the first lesson in becoming a top of eBay seller is to learn how to put to that little something of yourself into your auction listings.
Research, what the buyers in your field of interest are looking for.
What is the main difference between eBay sellers who sell, and those who run up bills listing items that they don’t get rid of? Those who are stuck with their stock look for items to sell that they want to sell, those who are very successful at selling looks items to sell that people want to buy!
Research is absolutely critical to being successful on eBay. You should utilise the Internet to its full extent to find the information necessary pertaining as to which heightens will be the best sellers. Good sources for finding this information are eBay itself, and the various forums dedicated to eBay buyers and sellers.
Make sure what you know how to meet your eBay buyers’ needs
You will need to learn how to obtain your products, be it through wholesalers or
importers or other means. How to deliver your products, be it self delivery, out
sourced delivery or drop shipping. Keep in mind the extra costs involved with the various forms of purchase and delivery.
Design your auctions to build relationships with your eBay buyers
Buyers would prefer to spend their money when they feel comfortable with the seller. You should therefore build up good relationships not only with your current customers that with any potential customers looking at your listings. Keep in mind that eBay keeps track your customer satisfaction through the feedback system. It is imperative that you build up an excellent feedback score.
Promote your auctions to attract new buyers
You should learn how to promote your products on eBay through use of the inbuilt tools such as eBay stores, membership profiles and cross-referencing of various listings.
By following these pointers you will improve your selling results in no time at all. It’s all a matter of discipline and being realistic and with oneself.
Written on August 19th, 2010 by Guruno shouts
You may know every Internet Giant, from Amazon, Yahoo, to AOL, Google, but not forget eBay. Only eBay is so close that home based business can make money online. It is the easiest way to make money online selling on eBay.
You may not realize it yet, but you are about to begin an exciting new lifestyle! The world of online auctions is not only a very profitable world, but it can also mean a lifestyle change unlike any you could’ve imagined just a few years ago.
eBay is now the world’s largest marketplace and the online auctions model which eBay first brings into business actually allows you the opportunity to make money online quickly. So why not use this to the advantage of your website and your business? By creating an easy-to-use eBay Store and listing some hot, in-demand items at a small discount from the price on your website, you can drive traffic from eBay back to your website as well as creating sales and revenue for your company through eBay. eBay Store’s monthly fees is nominal and can easily be paid off from the profit of just a few small sales. eBay Store is set up to where your item can be listed automatically saving your valuable time and making the maintenance of your eBay Store effortless.
Compare this with the majority of businesses out eBay, which may actually take a year or couples of years before they realize any real profits, you will feel satisfied. Is it amazing to make money online selling on eBay?
By simply understanding and knowing what you are doing, you can be very successful doing your online business to make money selling on eBay.
The traffic on eBay is massive, check out the figures for yourself at any source you trust. eBay has a staggering 10 million items on sale at any point in time. The site gets 1.5 billion auction page views each month. This is the key that makes it so easy for ordinary people to make money on eBay. It is simply a matter of taking your products to where the customers are waiting for it. But you need to know what you are doing. It all boils down to getting the formula to maximize your auction effectiveness.
You can be found by more eBay users by being as descriptive as possible in the Item Description and by using as many keywords as possible that describe your item and industry within the Item Title. Reports show that over 90% of searches on eBay are done using the search facility. What users do not know about eBay search facility is that by default it only searches the item titles – not the descriptions of the items.
Imagine building a website that got more than 10 million unique visitors per Day. Do you think you might be able to find a way to make money online selling on eBay? One of the greatest benefits of selling on eBay is this sheer volume of traffic that you automatically acquire as a registered seller of eBay.
eBay allows you to set up an account with only some basic personal information and a credit card for billing. There is typically no up-front investment required! Meanwhile, you can use PayPal as your tool to collect your money from selling on eBay. If you compare this to traditional business, you have to admit this is for your utility.
One of the main concerns that sellers have about trading on internet is: “How do I know that they are going to pay?†That is not a question at all. eBay and PayPal have protections for sellers and protect buyers also. One protection is “feedbackâ€. This is simply a recorded “comment†(either positive, neutral or negative) left by both the buyer and seller after a transaction ends, telling future buyers and sellers how that particular transaction went.
Just imagine the facts that there are numerous of people making money online. The facts are that there are numerous of people who make money online selling on eBay. So why the next one is not you?
Full Story »
Filed under Auctions
Tags:Buy, Credit Card, eBay, Google, Money, Profit, Register, Revenue, Sell, Website, Yahoo
Written on August 17th, 2010 by Guruno shouts
If you’ve a savvy businessperson, the chances are you’ve already taken a look at your competitors’ auctions. What you might not have realised is just how much you can learn if you know what you’re looking for.
To begin with, don’t bother looking at listings that haven’t ended yet – you don’t know what’s going to happen with them. Instead, use the advanced search page to search for listings that sold. Just go to the advanced search page, type in the keywords that you know will find your competitors’ items, tick ‘Completed listings only’ and set the minimum number of bids to 1. Set it to sort by ‘Price: highest first’.
This will show you auctions competing with yours that have recently finished, starting with the ones that sold for the most (ignore any with prices in red – they didn’t sell). Go through and take a look, paying special attention to the following points:
Titles. What information do the top sellers of your item put in their titles, and what do they leave out? If your titles are very different to theirs, it might be time for a rethink.
Descriptions. You’ll probably notice that the highest sellers haven’t just copied text from the company’s website or an Amazon.com review – they’ve gone to the trouble of writing a little about the item, and about themselves. Learn from their example.
Pictures. I can almost guarantee you that the listing will have very nice pictures – not catalogue quality, but good enough to see what you’re getting. With items of any significant cost, you’ll probably find more than one photo from different angles.
Style. Is it written conversationally, or in terse businesslike language? The way you should write entirely depends on what the market seems to like – and the market seems to like what the top sellers wrote.
Time. It’s pretty easy to ignore this as a factor without meaning to, but pay attention to when the top selling items’ auctions began and ended. This might give you a few clues about the best to catch buyers who will bid highly on your item, and then you can schedule your items accordingly.
Price. If your competitors are selling using Buy it Now, you can see what the maximum is that they’ve managed to sell for recently, and set your own Buy it Now price slightly below that.
Shipping. Look around to see the sweet spot for shipping. If you can figure out a way to get your shipping costs lower than the highest sellers, then this is a great opportunity to differentiate yourself in the market.
Once you see what works, you can start to emulate your competitors – of course you can’t just copy them completely, but you can structure your auction similarly and make sure it includes the same information.
If you want your items to do even better, then start stocking the items in your category that are the most in-demand. We’ll show you how to tell what’s selling and what’s not in our next email.
Written on August 8th, 2010 by Guruno shouts
Trying to be help your buyers find your auctions can be a truly daunting task. Most people only search eBay by title, not by description, and that means that you only have those 55 characters of the title to cover all the possible search terms. That’s not easy. In this email, I’ll give you a few pointers.
Don’t bother with eBay clichés: There are plenty of eBay auction titles that say things like “Super rare camera wow look low priceâ€. These are stupid things to put in your title, as no-one is going to search for them.
Think like a buyer: If you were looking for your item, then what exactly would you type into that box? If you think it’d help, try searching yourself to find someone else selling your item. What were the first things you thought of typing?
Think like other sellers: Keep an eye on which sellers are doing best with items like yours, and try to copy their title styles – if it works for them, it can work for you.
Be specific: You should be sure to write the item’s brand and specific model number in the title, as people will often search only for this information. Make sure that you also say exactly what the item is.
A Few Examples.
Here are a few examples of good titles. They’re real, and they’re on eBay right now, making their sellers money. So what makes them good?
“Dell Latitude Laptop P3 500mhz Notebook PC Computerâ€
If you know about computers, you’ll know instantly what this auction is selling. It has manufacturer (Dell) and product line (Latitude), followed by a few technical specifications (P3 500mhz is the processor speed). Notice also that the title includes the four words ‘laptop’, ‘notebook’, ‘PC’ and ‘computer’, as the seller wants people looking for any of those words to see his auction.
“OASIS Don’t Believe the Truth CD Album (New)â€
This auction for a CD is well formatted: it gives the artist name in capital letters, followed by the album name. It then manages to include the two key words ‘CD’ and ‘album’, as well as the word ‘new’ – that means that anyone searching for ‘new oasis cd’, ‘oasis new album’ and so on will find this auction.
“1840 Penny Black stamp, certificate, four marginsâ€
Here’s a slightly more obscure one, from the exciting world of stamp collecting. A penny black is one of the oldest and most famous stamps. It uses a few key words that collectors will consider important: ‘four margins’ indicates that the stamp has been cut out with some margins around it and so isn’t damaged, and ‘certificate’ tells you that the item has a certificate of authenticity – it’s a real penny black. Remember to use every bit of space to squeeze in as much important information as you can in the title.
So now that you’ve written a winning title, you need to start on a great description. The next email will show you how.
Written on August 4th, 2010 by Guruno shouts
eBay has quite an intricate and long-winded dispute resolution procedure. In this email, I’ll try to break each step down for you, so you can see what’s involved and how long it takes.
As an example, let’s go through what you would do if you paid for an item but didn’t receive it from the seller.
Before you open a dispute: Give the seller a chance to send the item before you get ahead of yourself and open a dispute. If you’re concerned about how long the item is taking to arrive, the first thing you should do is send a polite email to the seller saying that you haven’t received it and asking whether they have posted it. You should also check your own email address in eBay’s options, to make sure that the seller can reply to you. As a last resort before opening a dispute, you should try to call the seller on the number eBay has for them. You might have to pay long-distance charges for the call, but that’s better than dragging the auction through mediation for months.
Step 1 – You open an Item Not Received dispute: You can do this here: http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?InrCreateDispute.
All you need to do is enter the item number and say that you did not receive the item.
Step 2 – eBay contacts the seller: eBay sends the seller an email that tells them that you’ve said you didn’t receive the item. Then can then choose to tell you one of three things: that your payment hasn’t cleared yet, that the item is in the post, or that they’ll give you your money back. The seller can also tell eBay that they would like to send you a message.
Step 3 – You talk to the seller: You try to work out what’s happened directly with the seller, sending messages back and forward. Hopefully they’ll agree to give you a refund for the sake of their feedback, or your item will turn up in the post during this time.
Step 4 – Closing the dispute: After 30 days (or 10 days if the seller didn’t respond), you have two options to close the dispute: either you were satisfied or you weren’t. If you weren’t satisfied, then you can claim under eBay’s purchase protection program for up to $200.
Independent Dispute Mediation.
If you don’t want to go through eBay’s own process, and especially if the auction was for a high-value item, then you can use a third-party mediator. eBay recommend SquareTrade, at http://www.squaretrade.com, who provide mediation to many websites where there are buyers and sellers. They will contact the seller on your behalf and then mediate as you negotiate what to do from there.
Sellers who are committed to going through SquareTrade’s mediation for any disputes can sign up to display the ‘SquareTrade seal’ on their auctions. This gives their buyers $250 fraud protection, and shows that their identity has been independently verified so they are who they say they are.
When your sellers aren’t in such good standing, though, you need to be careful to avoid being a victim of fraud. There are a few scams that you especially need to look out for – we’ll cover them in the next email.
Written on August 1st, 2010 by Guruno shouts
Good communication is the key to encouraging your auction buyers to leave you positive feedback. Such communication also helps avoid most negative feedback on eBay.
1. Good Communication Prevents Misunderstandings
Good communication helps to avoid misunderstandings. For example, if surface shipping takes six to eight weeks but the customer doesn’t know this, he may expect almost immediate delivery. When such quick delivery doesn’t materialize, he may feel that he has been cheated or that your service is slow and poor.
Thus, try to spell out delivery time frames and other details as much as possible. Is your refund policy clear? Is your product clearly and accurately described in your auction ad? Does your product&s quality meet or exceed the expectations created by your auction ad?
2. Prompt E-mail Response
If, for whatever reason, your e-mail response is slow, the customer may assume that you aren&t delivering on your promises. Prompt e-mail communication can help reassure the customer and gives evidence of good customer service.
3. Encourage Queries
Basically, state in your auctions: “If you have any questions about this auction, please e-mail me.” If a person is expecting instant delivery of an e-book but instead you send him the information via the postal service, he might be disappointed. Nip all such problems in the bud by encouraging your prospective buyers to ask questions.
4. Ask for Positive Feedback
How can you encourage buyers to leave positive feedback for you? Simply state that you’ll leave positive feedback for them after you’ve received theirs.
Since they are leaving the feedback first, they will hesitate to leave you negative feedback, knowing that you may respond in kind. If you leave positive feedback for the buyer first, they may never return the favour.
5. Reversing Negative Feedback
With good communication, you can often avoid receiving negative feedback. Try to do everything that is reasonable to make your customer happy.
However, what if you do receive negative feedback on one of your auctions? What can you do about it?
Under certain, very limited circumstances (such as an extortion attempt), eBay might reverse negative feedback unjustly given to you. In most cases, however, eBay will not reverse negative feedback.
You can use eBay’s “Mutual Feedback Withdrawal” procedure. This is where both the buyer and seller agree to withdraw negative feedback from each other. Thus, the negative feedback will be removed from both of your total scores (thus improving both feedback ratings).
The negative comments themselves won’t be removed by eBay. However, your comments left in response to a negative feedback will also stay to tell your side of the story.
Yes, good communication can lead to more positive feedback from your auctions. Such communication can also help you to avoid and even reverse negative feedback. So, by all means, promote positive feedback on eBay through good communication.
Written on July 23rd, 2010 by Guruno shouts
If eBay’s figures are to believed only 6% of eBay sellers use the About Me page facility. If anyone doubts the effectiveness of an About Me page it is worth noting that over 30% of Power Sellers have one.
There are three ways that any seller can benefit from using this facility. First of all it is the only place on eBay where a seller can advertise theirs or anyone else’s web site. This can be a powerful way of directing traffic to your site, especially if your site is related to the niche or group of products that you are selling on eBay.
Even if you do not have a web site of your own you can generate income by directing visitors to an affiliate program that you have signed up for. You can actually place up to 3 links on your page so you could have one pointing towards your own web site and the other two to affiliate programs.
As well as providing links the main purpose of an About Me page is for you to tell potential bidders something about yourself and your business. It is a fact that most people prefer doing business with someone they know rather than a faceless stranger.
The About Me page gives you the opportunity to introduce yourself and you can even include photographs of yourself and your family.
You can also add either a complete list of the other items you have for sale on eBay or a list of your recent feedbacks and comments. These can help to inspire confidence, in bidders. If you do not already have an About Me page then you really should start thinking about getting one. There is no reason why you should not, eBay provide a very simple step-by-step tool to build your page. It’s easy there are no technical skills required. All you have to do is select a layout, add your information and then preview and save your page. When you’re finished, eBay will send you the Web site address (URL) to share with your friends.
Once you have built your and uploaded your page eBay will place an “me†icon next to your ID. However, do not just rely on this alone to get visitors to your About Me page. You should include a mention or link to your About Me page in all your listings. A sentence such as “To find out more about this seller visit their About Me page†or if you are familiar with HTML you could add an actual Click Here link.
If you are one of the 94% of sellers who are not currently using this free facility you are missing a golden opportunity to boost your online income. Don’t waste nay more time, go and check it out now.
Written on July 17th, 2010 by Guruno shouts
One thing many eBay sellers neglect is to actually communicate with their buyers – not with some automated ‘suggestion’ system, but with actual person-to-person contact. If you can be friendly and sound nice, then you can make them think you’re doing them a favour while you make a few extra sales.
‘I Could Throw In…’
When you receive an order for an item that costs a lot for shipping and needs some kind of equipment, this is an ideal opportunity to make a ‘friendly’ extra sale. For example, if someone has just bought a computer, you could send an email like this:
“I’m just emailing you to ask if you’d like a mouse or a keyboard – since you’re buying a computer from me, I can throw in any accessories you want without charging any extra shipping. If you’re not interested though, then don’t worry about it – it was just a thought.â€
Note how informal this email has to be. It can’t stink of sales, or the whole ‘communication’ thing will be ruined. Would you rather buy something extra from someone who says “you might as well, since you’re paying shipping anyway†or from someone who says something like “our valued customers will also love our GREAT DEALS on mice – check it out!†I know what my answer is.
Know Anyone Else?
Here’s a simple thing to try: when you thank your buyer, simply say that if they’re pleased with you then you’d really appreciate it if they could spread the word. Many eBay buyers feel like they’ve got a real bargain, and combining this with good customer service could be enough to make your customer go out and start writing down your eBay store’s address on pieces of paper for their friends. If you notice a lot of orders coming from the same town, then you’ll know that this technique is working.
Any Problems?
If you contact the buyer a few months down the line to ask if their product is still working fine, you might find that they’re having a problem you can fix, by sending a spare part or an upgrade. This is another opportunity to make a sale – not to mention helpful for them.
Anything to Sell?
If you’ve just sold them a brand new item, ask your buyer if they have an old one that they might like to trade in. They will often be delighted to take you up on your offer, since they were wondering how they were going to get rid of their old one anyway. Give them a fair price for it and offer to pay their postage and you won’t believe how happy they’ll be – and the chances are you can make a good profit on what they send you.
When everything is going to plan with your buyers, it’s nice to be able to spend a while every week leaving them all big chunks of positive feedback. But how do you make this feedback the best it can be? We’ll take a look at the dos and don’ts of leaving feedback for buyers in the next email.
Written on June 16th, 2010 by Guruno shouts
It’s surprisingly easy to kill your eBay business, if you’re not careful – sure, you can start over from scratch without it costing you anything, but do you really want to? Still, if you want your business to end up dead in the water, here are some simple ways to do it.
Lie about an item: Say it works fine when it sometimes doesn’t work. Say it’s in perfect condition when it has a scratch. Your customers will hate you!
Post whenever you feel like it: Make sure to leave your customers hanging around, wondering when their item is going to turn up. This makes sure they buy from someone else next time.
Let items end anytime: Few people will be around to care about your auction if it ends in the middle of the night. Why go to the trouble of working out whether auctions will end at a good time?
Don’t bother with email: Customers are just timewasters anyway. eBay businesses are supposed to run themselves! Never give informed responses to questions about your item.
Sell rubbish: Really, it’s just eBay. You can just sell any old tat from the market for a 200% profit. Let quality be someone else’s concern – I mean, really, what do they expect for that price?
Refuse to give discounts: You know what your items cost, you know what your profit margin is going to be, and you’re not going to negotiate. Remember that giving customers special deals might make them feel good and come back to you again.
Make your listings ugly: As many colours, flashing lights and animations as possible will really give those customers a headache. Write as much in CAPITALS!!!! as you can. Preferably big, red capitals. Be sure to use the fonts Impact and Comic Sans. For an extra special touch, see if you can figure out a way to add some music.
Don’t take photos: It’s such trouble, after all. If buyers are picky enough to actually want to see items before they bid on them, then screw ‘em, that’s what I say.
Write short descriptions: Be as brief as possible, and use lots of mysterious abbreviations. This obviously makes you look very cool. You can even just write the title again in the description box. Think of the effort you’ll save!
Use reserve auctions: Now, this is a fairly controversial final choice, but it really is one of the best ways to scare away your customers. They’ll see ‘reserve not yet met’, and click that ‘back’ button before you know it. Luckily, they can always bid in a normal auction for the item somewhere else.
Now that you know the ten ways to kill your eBay business, how about we explore what to do if you want to do the opposite, and make a success of it? The next email will give you ten steps to successful selling on eBay.
Written on June 11th, 2010 by Guruno shouts
Once you’ve drawn the buyers in with your title, the next thing to do is to tell them all about your item with the description. But just what should you write in your description?
At its heart, your item description is an ad. Without making it too obvious, you should be writing sales copy. You’re trying to get buyers excited about your products, and that’s usually hard – but on eBay, if you have the right thing to sell and give enough details, the buyers almost excite themselves.
Technical Details.
Include every technical detail you know, including the item’s manufacturer, its condition, how big it is, where and when it was made, its history, and anything else special about it. Don’t be too boring, though: the best descriptions are written in friendly, conversational language, and show a real knowledge of the item. Whatever you do, make sure you tell the truth!
Remember that most of the people who’ll be buying your item will be just as knowledgeable about it as you are, if not more – this is their hobby, and they’re experts. Don’t feel like you need to explain the basics of the item: just go into as much technical detail as you can. As a rule, don’t write anything in the description if you don’t know what it means, as the chances are someone will, and if you’ve got it slightly wrong then you’ll look like you don’t know what you’re talking about.
Interesting Details.
You might find that you enjoy writing a few things about how you got the item, why you’re selling it, and who you think might like it. This isn’t strictly necessary, but it gives your auctions some character and a personal touch, and can make people more likely to trust you. People might wonder what you’re doing selling 500 CDs all at once, and if you tell them the reason, then they’ll feel reassured that nothing dodgy is going on. If you’re selling them because you’re having a baby and you need the space, just say so.
Write as Much as You Can.
Leave nothing out of your description, even if that seems to you like it makes it cumbersomely long. There is no way you can be too thorough: someone, somewhere will appreciate that you took the time to write the extra information.
Don’t assume that anyone who wants extra information will email you to ask a question: many buyers are shy and won’t do it. Think of questions that buyers might have and add the answers to your description, as people generally tend to ask the same questions over and over again.
Each time a buyer does email you with a question, you should both answer their question and update your description so that it will include the answer next time. If people ask questions that are answered in the description, try putting these parts of the auction on a line alone, or in bold, to make them easier to notice.
In the next email, we’ll focus on increasing the number of buyers who respond to your auctions.
Written on June 10th, 2010 by Guruno shouts
Online Auctions are often called the “Entrepreneurs Dream’, because it is the easiest and the cheapest way to make money. And who doesn’t want to make money and grow rich? The online auction giant eBay has more than a million hits a year. And these are targeted customers. Unlike the regular auctions, in online auctions the customers are already there and they will come to you provide you go about it the right way. So how do you build your ezine subscription list with online auctions? Here are a few hints-
1. Decide who your targeted customers for your ezine are. For example if you are selling herbal health products, then customers who are interested in computers wont be looking at your site.
2. Choose the correct category for your products. To get an idea how to do this you can visit one the online auction sites. For example if you are selling leather belts, you can list it under apparel and accessories. Again, you have to list if it is for men or women.
3. Then you have to offer your item to the customers. To do this successfully you have to describe your product in a very positive and seductive way? How do you do this? List out the different colors of leather belts available, different sizes of belts. Offering a guarantee is also a sure way to make people know that you are genuine. You can also use positive feed back for previous customers who have bought the product from you.
4. A picture speaks a thousand words. So make sure you have good photographs of the product, so that customers can have n idea of the product that they are going to get.
5. Make sure that your product is listed with a very attractive headline. As the space for headlines is small in online auctions you have to express a lot with very few words.
6. Work in references and links throughout your sales copy to your ezine. Mention your ezine many times throughout your online auction site. Put your listing on some of the biggest online auction sites on the Internet. Some of the big online auction sites charge for a listing but it is free on smaller online auction sites.
Some of the online auction sites are listed below—
http://auctions.amazon.com
http://auctions.cnet.com
http://auctions.lycos.com
http://auctions.msn.com
http://auctions.yahoo.com
http://www.ebay.com
Once your ad is put up then it is time for you to put up your feet and relax. Your ad will create a steady stream of subscribers for your ezine.
Written on May 24th, 2010 by Guruno shouts
Just about everybody knows someone who has sold something on eBay. If you don’t know what to do with something a common response is “Sell it on the Bay.†Internet auction sites are actually changing the face of e-commerce and small-business around the world. 30 million people visit eBay on any given day. And that is only eBay. There are many other auction sites that are quickly gaining in popularity including: http://Overstock.com, Yahoo auctions, and Bidville.
These auction sites provide sellers the opportunity to put up items for sale while charging a listing fee and a percentage of the selling price. People all of the world can find these products for sale at bargains.
Bargain hunters can find super deals at these auction sites and those interested in a business opportunity have an easy way to break into e-commerce. There has probably never been a better opportunity for people to get started in their own business with so little money up front. For example, on eBay a seller can set up an online store within only a few minutes and be selling from their own URL address for less than $20 a month. It is really that easy and the only problem an individual faces is finding things to sell.
It’s no easy task to find things to sell. Sourcing products requires consistent efforts. Some successful sellers find their products in their own attics, yard sales, clearance racks at large department stores, wholesale suppliers, liquidators, drop shippers and thrift shops. Drop shippers are a popular option among new sellers. This is because the seller does not have keep inventory and does not have to order products until they&re sold.
The main reason that eBay as well as other auction web sites provide the optimum opportunity for sellers to start an online business is because they already have traffic. One of the most difficult parts of starting online business is getting people to find your site. eBay has already solved this dilemma. The people are there and all you have to do is show up with something to sell.
Another reason why people can be successful starting a business through online auctions is because everyone is on a level playing ground. An individual working out of his living room can compete in the global marketplace against large well-funded companies. The resources and the tools that are available to sellers are the same whether you are an individual or corporation. If you’ll is dreamed of starting your own business they did know how to get started – now&s the time. Your first sale is probably sitting in a box in the garage.
Written on May 15th, 2010 by Guruno shouts
When you buy things on eBay, you pay the seller before they send you anything. This means that you, as a buyer, are vulnerable to all sorts of problems. You might not get the items you have paid for, or they might be damaged or faulty. Luckily, you have two very important rights when you buy on eBay.
The Right to Receive Your Item.
Maybe the seller never sent the item, or maybe it got lost in the post. Whatever happened, you paid for the item. If it doesn’t arrive in the post as described, you have the right to a replacement or a refund, whether it’s the seller’s fault or not.
The fact that you bought something on eBay doesn’t mean that you don’t have the exact same rights that you would have if you bought it in a shop (these rights are pretty much the same all over the world). Plus, under eBay’s rules, the seller isn’t allowed to change their mind about selling you the item: once the auction ends, it becomes a contract – you must buy and they must sell, or face eBay’s penalties.
The Right for Your Item to Be as Described in the Auction.
Sometimes sellers don’t wrap items properly, and so they get broken. Occasionally they write descriptions that are misleading or just plain wrong to begin with, leaving out vital details that would have caused you to change your mind about buying. If this happens to you, you again have the right to a replacement or a refund.
So How Do I Use My Rights?
First, you should take it up with the seller – most will be responsive, as do not want to have their reputation damaged when an upset buyer leaves negative feedback for all their future buyers to see. If that doesn’t work, report them to eBay.
While eBay don’t have many people handling complaints, they do have a relatively effective set of automatic process to handle common problems buyers and sellers have with one another.
Finally, if that doesn’t work, then you should seek advice from consumer groups in your country, and as a last resort from the police. You should never have to get this far, though: problems on eBay that can’t be resolved easily are extremely rare.
Don’t Be Too Quick.
Remember not to get too annoyed and be unfair to the seller: nice sellers have agreed to give me refunds for undelivered items, only for me to find out a few weeks later that they were being held for me at the post office! Always try your best to communicate and think of everything that might have gone wrong: eBay works best when buyers and sellers sort out their problems together, instead of reporting each other to the authorities straight away.
More often that not receiving what they paid for, buyers have an altogether different problem: they knew what they were paying for, but didn’t realise that what they were paying for was overpriced, low quality or a scam. The next email will give you a list of tips on how to avoid being ripped off on eBay.
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