How to Start an eBay Bidding War

A bidding war is where two or more people bid furiously against one another, each desperate to own a particular item.

Phenomenal results are possible, such as last month, where a postcard by artist A. R. Quinton, depicting a cliff view at Herne Bay, fetched £100 plus. By anyone’s standards, the card was worth about £3 for the view and maybe a few pounds more for the artist.

I checked and found that two serious bidders, one of Herne Bay topographical postcards, the other a Quinton enthusiast, had launched a bidding war that was eventually won by the Herne Bay collector, or was it the seller of this rather common-a-garden postcard?

Such events are not uncommon. My own best selling item this month, a pair of vintage cufflinks with ancient Greek Coins, for which I paid £3 at a flea market, went for £34, with the two final bidders being a collector of cufflinks and another of Greek coins. The Greek coin collector won.

You only need two bidders and it doesn’t matter if they’re interested in the same product or specific parts of your product or listing. The end result is always the same; more money for you.

You’re looking for just two people in the whole wide world, these tips will help you find them.

* List a minimum two items (or themes) in one lot. The trick is to make each item valuable in its own right and appealing to more than one person. The cufflinks and postcard are good examples. I’ve seen other wars raging over two completely unrelated postcards listed together; two books bearing no relation to one another; a pack of artist illustrated playing cards where one bidder wanted the cards and the other collected all things artist related.

* List in two eBay categories to achieve maximum market penetration. You can also list in two shop categories. For the Quinton/Herne Bay postcard I’d list under ‘Artist Drawn Postcards’ and ‘Topographical’.

* Research and use commonly used keywords for your product to attract the highest audience for your item. Go to eBay Pulse pages for common keywords or use software such as Adword Analyzer to study most commonly used key words and phrases for specific subjects. Although developed largely for search engine optimisation and Google advertising campaigns and similar, products like Adword Analyzer are equally suitable for all areas of the Internet, including eBay. Visit our site, www.1st-in-auctions.com/Keywords.html for more ideas on keyword research with tips from top eBayers and other Internet marketers.

* Offer free gifts and bonuses to attract interest from people selling similar items. For example, offer three cufflinks where most offer two (emphasise these things get damaged, lost, stolen); ship items postage free; add complementary items such as matching tie pin (free or otherwise) with cufflinks, free presentation boxes with every batch of wholesale necklaces, and so on.

* Offer a free gift that is valuable in its own right, worth more than the product listed, and not available from any other source. Remember to change the freebie regularly as frequent buyers will have it already. Study and comply with eBay rules regarding gifts, bonuses and discounts. The trick is to find people not necessarily wanting your listed product, but very keen on the freebie.

What In The World Do I Blog About?

If you’re like most people who start a blog, you initially have a bit of writer&s block. Good news- it will likely go away, and you’ll find yourself thinking of new things to blog about frequently. In fact blogging becomes quite addictive.

This was certainly true of me. When I began blogging, I would often struggle with things to blog about. Now, I have the problem of not having enough time to post on all the things I want to talk about!

Here are a few tips to get you through that initial dry spell until you find your blogging voice.

1) Subscribe to other blog feeds for your industry/target market.

If you have a blog about babies and toddlers, you’ll want to have other similar (preferably high traffic) blogs on your RSS reader. It’s a good way to keep abreast of what&s going on in the collective consciousness of people. Just do a Google search for blog + topics of choice, and you’ll come up with plenty.

Keeping up with other blogs in your niche means that you can link to their posts (and you should always link to a blog that inspires your own post!) and add your own “spin” on the subject.

2) Look at trade magazines and newspapers in your niche

Again, going back to the baby/toddler theme, read parenting magazines. Magazines are a great place to look for inspiration…the articles are mostly short, pithy, “quick fix” and solution oriented (similar to blog posts). They also change to reflect what&s going on in the world and with your target market.

Keeping up with the news is also a good idea…you can find news feeds to add to your RSS reader too. When something is happening in the world that impacts your target market, blog it.

3) Keep a notebook (or file on your desktop) of blog fodder

When a thought or sentence hits you, write it down immediately. These sentences can be lengthened into blog posts (and later lengthened into articles…that&s another ecourse!). The more you do this, the more aware you will become of the unlimited topics you can blog about, even in your niche.

4) Milk Your Content

If you’re publishing a newsletter and write articles, then blog a short intro paragraph along with a link to the rest of the content on your website.

5) Product Reviews

Review products that you’ve tried and books you’ve read that relate to your niche. Anything that would help your blog readers make a decision (and we all need that help in a world with too many choices!) is a good thing.

6) Involve Your Visitors

Your newsletter subscribers and blog readers can be marketing partners and content generators for you! How? When they email you with a question, ask their permission to post it (along with the answer) on your blog.

May you soon find yourself in the predicament of so many blog posts, so little time!

Getting Your Domain Name

Since thousands of domain names are registered everyday it is a really very difficult to get a domain name of single phrase in English language and other major languages. Given below are some tips to guide you to decide a domain name of single phrase.

Avoid Messing around with the New Domains

Most of the good domain names are already registered and owned by someone. Don’t settle for number-ridden or a hyphenated domain name unless it is really unavoidable. Don’t despair because with some lucks you would be able to get some good domain names by backordering domain names about to expire in anticipation that the domain would be deleted and made available again.

So what are the resources which you need to know and understand to find expiring time of domains?

1. Expireddomains.com: A good source for domain names already deleted, about to be deleted with info about rank popularity and many other useful advices and tips.

2. Deleteddomains.com: This website has a search feature which helps you to see on-hold domain names and expiring domain names by keywords. This is most important and a core resource for finding those domains that you want to own and which will be expiring soon.

3. Pool.com: It is another great website for viewing the domains which are soon-to-expire. This website also offers backordering service and a keyword search.

4. Snapnames.com: This website is providing an original backordering service. As soon as you find a domain name that attracts you go to snapnames.com and from here you can ‘backorder’ this domain name for $69 only. This confirms that the price for backordering is $69 per domain name and this is registration fees of first year if the domain name is acquired by you.

Other Tricks and Tips

Since many people are using same tools to acquire best expiring domains you should be fast enough to acquire an expiring domain name. Additionally, SnapNames.com will only allow one backorder prospect for one domain name. Therefore, you should act quickly when a domain name is available for ‘backordering’.

Patience is important since your ideal name may not come for months. But you should not worry because each day there will be a fresh set of domain names expiring and you could get your choice any day.

Happy hunting!

Five Ways To Continually Grow Your Affiliate Checks

The promise of earning profits without really doing much of anything has enticed a lot of people towards affiliate marketing. But does affiliate marketing really work this way?

As an affiliate, all that is required of you is to simply place the merchant’s ad on your website. Then after that, you virtually do nothing but wait for anyone to click on the merchant’s ad and later collect your profits. Easy, right? Well, not quite often. Many affiliates earn almost nothing from their affiliate programs simply because they do nothing. Remember that affiliate marketing is but another form of marketing, and you’ll definitely need to market your merchant’s product for you to earn something.

Successful affiliates in any affiliate program simply don’t sit there and wait for money to come. Why? Because there is no money in simply sitting and waiting. If you want to be successful in affiliate marketing and if you want to continually grow your affiliate checks, you’ve got to do something. Think of ways on how to promote your merchant’s business and products better. Think of ways on how to induce other people to click on the link or ad provided to you by your merchant. Think of ways on how to make your affiliate sales increase!

So if you’re new in affiliate marketing and you try to follow the easy go lucky pit that most unsuccessful affiliate marketers follow, then you’re definitely on the wrong track. But we&re not advising you to stop right there. No. Rather, we want you to take some steps to make your affiliate program work better and gain more commissions for you. How? Here are a few guidelines that may help you to continually grow your affiliate checks:

1) Become an expert on your affiliate product.

You can promote your merchant’s product better if you know a lot of things about it. To become an expert, the best thing you can do is purchase your merchant’s product yourself. This way, you can tell your customers about your first-hand experience using the product. You can even write a testimonial or a personal endorsement ad about it. But if any condition does not permit you to purchase the product, you can at least make a thorough research about it.

2) Host your own website.

Or at least have a domain name that is short and easy to remember. You certainly wouldn’t expect a visitor to remember a very long and incomprehensible URL. And if that&s so, you also wouldn’t expect him to visit your website any time soon. That means less traffic for your page and the less chance for your affiliate ads and links to be clicked.

It is also a good idea to create a private website and offer access to it to anybody who clicks on any of your affiliate ads. Visitors usually get interested with these private websites. Private websites also gives you a venue to promote your back-end affiliate products.

3) Write your own affiliate ads.

Many merchants usually wouldn’t mind if you write and design your own ads for their products, for as long as you ask permission from them and present them your ad before posting it on your site. This gives you a greater advantage over a lot of other affiliates who must be advertising the same affiliate products.

4) Participate in chat rooms, discussion boards, and forums related to your product.

If you use to ignore them before, then it is time for you to start focusing your attention on them. You can start your own chat or join an existing chat related to your product. You don’t have to promote your affiliate product at once, but find the chance to advertise and promote it as you go along. The same would be true for message boards, discussion boards and forums.

5) Create a free ezine or newsletter.

Ezines and newsletters are periodical publications whose aim is to inform a group of people about a certain subject. In your ezines and newsletters, you don’t always have to promote your merchant’s product for this may greatly annoy your subscribers. Rather, find a way to insert your affiliate ads and links on some portions of the letter. Also, don’t forget to promote your ezine or newsletter on your website.

These are but a few guidelines on how you can increase your affiliate sales and continually grow your affiliate checks. Sure there can be a lot of other tips that out there, and if you think they would work, we won’t discourage you from following them. What’s important is that you be able to find a way to: attract more traffic to your site, induce your visitors to click on the ads on your site, and be able to promote your merchant’s products even outside the boundary of your website. If you can do these, there’s no reason for you to fail in affiliate marketing.

Great Ideas for your Auction Site Business

Finding great items to sell can be difficult for some people. After all, your auction site business depends on great items that you can purchase very inexpensively and sell for a profit. If you are having difficulty finding items online for your auction business, here are some easy tips.

One of the best ways to find a great ideas is to check out the auction sites. Many people don’t realize that great ideas are on practically every page of Ebay. You can easily look at which products are selling, how much they sell for and the average price that they are sold at. Using Ebay is probably the easiest and quickest way to find great products that already have a thriving market.

You can also check out auction site forums. Here many people talk about great products that are hot. There are even auction analysis companies that analyze millions of pieces of data to come up with great items for their customers to sell.

There are many overseas manufacturers and distributors that would love to sell their items to you for a great price, which can be quickly converted into profit. Many of these overseas manufacturers are usually located on large marketplace websites which are easy to find. So if you are looking for great items to sell on auction sites, follow the above tips.

Ecommerce Websites – Howto Take Your Business Online

In the technological world full of changes from time to time, everything seems to undergo a transformation. For being a part of the web world, it is vital to keep pace with the varying trends and advancements. Information is required at every point and needs to be available at a click.

Gone are the days of dependence. With independence ushering in the workspace, it is necessary to have full control of the website too. Set the business free with an ecommerce website fully customized to the business needs and update whatever is required and desired as and when it happens.

For promoting the online sale of any product, it is essential to have a fully functional ecommerce website. An e-commerce website would provide the platform to sell and take payments online. It thus provides an opportunity to operate and grow any business online using internet.

Business organizations have now started establishing their own websites which enable them to come into direct contact with the customers easily. They can keep an established association with their clientele and prompt the sales of the product or service in a healthier manner. Any customer can visit or find his way to a website easily and in less time by just one click. A customized website will act as a bridge between the customers and the organization&s objectives.

To reap the benefits of these features, it is must to have a perfect ecommerce design and content. Let us have an idea of what is required. Ecommerce web site is the concluding goal which leads the customers to buy products from the right place. Hence, the website design should be artistic and should not take the customer away from the central purpose of purchasing. All that needs to be done is to take care and devote appropriate time in applying these tips. Following are the points that should be considered while having a custom e-commerce website: Domain nameS & Hosting The domain name is the actual website address and it should have hosting where the website is placed so that it becomes easily accessible to the customers. A well structured Buy path. The website should have a structured and definite path to persuade the customer to buy the product. Different web pages should be showcased along with the path direction. This content will make the website easily accessible for the customers.

Important product button The product button must be displayed on the home page. This will help target customer to buy products through the product page. The payment option should be displayed. It should help the customers to make payment for the product through their debit or credit card which makes their shopping easy.

Product information The product must be displayed properly with correct information about the customized website. The information must be enough to influence the thinking, choice and decision of the target audience in less amount of time. Product categories can be displayed along with its features and picture of the product. Business image defines the success of any image. A custom-made website provides an edge and the tool to refine and define the business and its key strengths amidst the target audience. It helps a business become exclusive and develop flexibility. The user friendliness and competitiveness offered by such a website calls for its need. For the diversity and a more refined personalized website, services of an expert can definitely make a difference. Custom e-commerce service providers ensure that a business reaches its peak through uniquely developed sophisticated website catering to specific client requirements.