eBay Auctions The First Time

If this is the first time that you will be setting up your auction on eBay to sell your item and start making money online, you may find the whole process easier to comprehend in just five easy steps.

First Step: Create a seller's account on eBay
Let's say that you were able to make old transactions on eBay before, this means that you already have an active account. So all you have to do is to log in to that account and then click on the 'Sell' link located at the top most part of your eBay page on the toolbar, and then click on 'Create a seller's account.' If you haven't had any transactions before, you may click on the 'register' link which is located below the toolbar, click 'Sell' and then click on 'Create a seller's account.' Then after, all you need to do is to follow instructions accordingly.

Second Step: You should determine what item you want to sell
You may look into selling books or CD's for the first time, or maybe other stuff. You can always find something interesting to sell and make profit from it.

Third Step: Submit the item that you want to sell
Have your item listed by clicking on the 'Sell' link. You may start with choosing a category that would best describe the item, or have eBay choose the best category for you. Create a very good title and description for your item, and don't forget to add in keywords which you think people would be typing in on the search box and land into your item.

From here, you can set your own starting price, such as $0.01, which would help in drawing people's attention to your bid. Then you can set up a duration which has a range from three days upwards. The duration will be based on your preference; you may choose whichever is comfortable for you. Take note that this is also the part where you can upload the picture that you have taken, so the customers can get a glimpse of the item you are selling. After this, you are ready to select the payment method that would be best for you.

Fourth Step: be patient enough to wait for your item to sell
Remember that eBay will not leave you behind in getting your item sold. They provide tons of hints and tips to make your item more appealing to the buyer. Even if your item does not sell straight away, you may still end up receiving a lot of questions from potential bidders. If you want to seal a deal, be sure to respond to the questions accordingly.

It is not necessary that once you post an item, that it has to sell immediately. If you are not successful in selling the item, then you can post it again without having to pay a fee.

Fifth Step: Get payment from the winning bid and have it posted
Your buyer will be informed via his or her email, regarding the process on how to pay you for the item. Before you send the item to the customer, make sure that you get the payment first.

After receiving the payment, you can then continue to ship the item to the buyer. Be sure to double check the shipping details available from the confirmation email that you received from eBay, and then you're done.

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How to Increase Your eBay Profit Using Social Media Websites

Social marketing and networking are now the favorite marketing strategies of Internet marketers, webmasters and bloggers. They use social media sites to generate a steady stream of traffic, boost sales and develop a brand presence within specific communities which will ultimately increase their online revenue.

The social media sites are even helpful for increasing eBay profit. If you have eBay auctions set up selling a variety of products, you can use the social media sites to get more potential buyers to visit your eBay auction listings. The more exposure your eBay auction listings get, the more sales you could possibly generate and the more profit you will earn.

The social media sites such as Myspace and Facebook provide features that you can use them specifically to gain attention to your eBay auction listings. Mention in you profile that you are an eBay seller. Include links to your listing pages in your profile. If you do run an eBay store, mention it in your profile as well. This will help promote your eBay listings.

As a member of Myspace, you are allowed to use the bulletin section of Myspace where you can send bulletins to all your Myspace's friends anytime. Spend some time to create bulletins for your eBay listings. Make sure you include a link to the listing within the each bulletin before sending out. As friend list is the key to success when using bulletin. You need to have as many friends as possible that are interested to your niche or interested to what you are offering. So, when you are building your friend list, try to find those people that have an interest on your niche or on the products you are selling.

Pictures can speak thousand of words. So, you should set up your own photo albums to add pictures of your products that currently auction in eBay. People are more likely to check out your eBay auctions if they can see pictures of your products especially when they see something that they are interested.

If you run an eBay storefront, the biggest web video sharing site - Youtube is a great place to promote your eBay business. You can create and upload web video about your brand. Post videos about your products. Funny and entertaining web videos can attract many viewers. You may think about creating some of those videos that can relate to your business and publish them on Youtube so that you can get these viewers to visit your eBay store and possibly become your buyers.

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There are many eBay business success stories published on the internet. You may have read some of them. But for every success story, there are actually thousand failures. People use their selling ideas and list all kinds of items on eBay for sales. But, the sad news is that not many of them sell their items well. So, you may want to know can I really make money selling on eBay. The answer is yes, you can.

eBay isn't a marketplace that can help people get rich quick. You will be disappointed if you jump on to eBay and expect fast profit. Building a successful eBay business needs three ingredients: time, money and hard effort. With these ingredients, you can make good money.

Three Important Questions You Have to Ask Yourself
You need to ask yourself these questions before getting into eBay selling. How much capital do I have for inventory investment, eBay fees, and unforeseen expenses? How much time do I need to put into this eBay business? Do I possess the necessary energy and drive to build up this business? Once you have answered these questions, you will know exactly what course of action to take. If you have limited time and energy, you can begin by selling part-time on eBay. This is ok; many people who own a day job is doing fine in their part-time selling on eBay. There are monthly bills you have to pay; a new eBay business can't replace your income right away. It may take years of time.

Money can be a Problem
Money is another thing you have to think about. Do you have sufficient capital to build your business? If you have saved money for years, then money shouldn't be a problem that will obstruct you from building and growing your eBay business. But, if you don't have the available start-up fund, you can try to sell unwanted items from your home. This is a way to obtain some capital.

What You are Going to Sell
The three issues: money, time and energy have all been discussed, now it is time to find out what products to sell on eBay. You can sell almost anything on eBay but not everything sells well on eBay. Some items never sell because there are 100 other eBay sellers are listing the very same thing. Before you start an auction to list your item, do some market research. eBay offers a number of free resources for eBay sellers. Take advantage of all of them before listing your first item. Effective use of these free marketing tools and resources will give you an edge that others did not bother to look at. The information you obtain from your research will give you clear insight of what items to list in the eBay marketplace.

Know Your Competition
Competition is another thing you need to study. Avoid selling items that are in direct competition with those eBay power sellers. eBay power sellers generally have good feedback rating, probably people will prefer to buy from them. Also you will not want to become a rival of Wal-Mart as it is just too hard to profit with items that are selling on Wal-Mart. As a new eBay seller, you should sell something that has demand and the competition isn’t that tough. There is a good e-book that can help you find profitable items to list on eBay. The e-book is called overlooked treasure. It let you know 91 high demand every day items that you can sell for good profit. And the good news is many of these hot every day items aren’t in tough competition condition in eBay.

eBay Reputation
Your reputation and feedback ratings are very important for your eBay business success. Good customer service and fast delivery service will help you build your positive image on eBay. Your product description should always exactly describe the condition of your product. Be honest to the buyers, if the item is worn in any part; write it in the description to the let buyers know. Try your best to make your buyers satisfy on every purchase. If the transaction goes smoothly and the buyer satisfies with your product, then he/she will leave you a positive feedback. Your reputation will grow when you get positive feedbacks often. Good reputation will mean more people want to do business with you.

When your business started to generate consistent sales every month, it is time to expand. You can sell more categories of products to grow your customer base and business profit. When you eBay business grow from time to time and the profit it generates can cover your monthly living expenses, it is time to leave your day job and focus on your eBay business full-time.

Conclusion
Can I make money selling on eBay? Yes, you can with a good business planning and right selling strategies. Every business has to be run using proven business tactics. The same holds true for eBay. Take the time to study eBay selling techniques, read often to keep yourself up-to-date, make use of all of the free tools and resources provided by eBay and you can make money on eBay.

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eBay New Changes Benefited Your eBay Selling

eBay has announced a major changes on the selling policies and rules. The areas that affected by this changes are fees, eBay PowerSeller rewards and standards.

Here's a rundown:

Lower Listing Fee
This is a good news to eBay sellers as lower listing fee mean lower up-front cost to sell stuff on eBay. Effective February 20, 2008, the insertion fee (listing fee) for Auction-style, Fixed Price listings and Store Inventory listings will be reduced according to the fee chart in eBay basic fee page.

$1 Minimum Starting Price for Store Inventory and Fixed Price listings
This will affect those who sell info products like ebooks, reports, etc where they usually start their price under $1 in Fixed Price listings.

No More Gallery Feature Fee
eBay no longer charges you for adding picture to your listing. This is a pretty smart change of eBay to encourage sellers to upload product picture which will help in attracting more bids and achieving higher final sale price. It is good for the profit of both eBay and the sellers.

New PowerSeller Standards
Starting July, a score of 4.5 or more Detailed Seller Rating is needed to maintain PowerSeller status on eBay.

New PowerSeller Rewards
PowerSellers who have record of excellent customer service will be rewarded with discount on final value fee of 5 - 15%, expanded Paypal protection, extended unpaid items protection and greater search visibility for their auctions.

New Feeback System
eBay designs it own Feedback System to increase buyers confidence in eBay sellers by providing a true and accurate record of previous buyers experiences. Here are some changes made toward achieving this goal:

• Seller can only be able to leave positive Feedback to buyer.
• Positive feedback from repeat buyer will count toward a seller’s overall Feedback Score.
• Feedback left by members older than 12-months will not be counted towards your Feedback percentage.
• If a buyer doesn't respond to the Unpaid Item (UPI) process eBay will remove the negative or neutral Feedback they have left for that transaction.
• eBay will remove all the negative and neutral Feedback left by members who have been suspended.

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How to Write eBay Ad Copy that Brings in Sale

When writing ad copy (headline and the product description) for the product that you want to auction in eBay, you need to look at it from the point of view of buyers. The potential buyers who are searching for a particular product will key in the relevant keyword to find it.

If you eBay ad contains the words like 'Wow!’, ‘Yeah!’ Or "Look at this!", “Try and check this out”, it probably will cause you lost customers.

First of all, your ad copy has to be really describing your item truthfully, then as clearly and accurately as possible. Add in relevant keywords and provide the brand name, artist or designer if that applies to your item. Besides these, there are a few other things that can make your eBay ad copy appealing to your potential buyers.

You can give the details like the date that the item was made and the materials used to create it. If it is a used item and under warranty, tell the auction viewers. Another important thing is the current condition of your item, you must tell your potential buyers honestly. Let them know if the item has flaws or repairs or the area that has damaged.

Does the item has any special features or extraordinary? What country it is made from and what’s the history? All these things can be considered the important stuff you should write about in your eBay ad copy.

But don't just sound like a sales letter. Many buyers are attracted by the human voice approach. They want to feel as if they are dealing with a real person, not just the information about the product features.

Thus, you can also consider writing any interesting story the item has, how you got the item and why you want to sell it, instead of keeping it. Tell what is in the item that appeals you most, or whom you think would benefit if possessing it. If it is an item that people seldom see, describe how the item can be used. Also, you must give clear details about the shipping and handling charges and the payment methods that you accept, eg. PayPal, Western Union, bank wire, etc.

It is good to add a few keywords and search terms, but make sure the keywords aren’t inappropriate. For example, you should not say something like, 'if you like Michael Jackson you'll like shirt'. This is called keyword spamming and is disallowed by eBay and the search engines, Google, etc. It is also against the listing policies of eBay

After finished writing your ad copy, read and review it to find if there are any grammatical and spelling errors. Also make sure all the info you included are correct and truthful. You want to establish and keep the trust of your eBay buyers.

Always keep these eBay ad copy tips in mind, you'll soon be able to write the kind of eBay ad copy that will generate good sales for you.

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Make Money Online by Buying and Selling on eBay

Buying products on eBay marketplace then resell the products on the same marketplace has become one of the ways to make money on eBay. There are now a number of people doing this. eBay is their primary products source and also their primary marketplace to sell products.

eBay Buying
Nothing is complicated when buying products on eBay. Search for the products you like to sell and place your bid on them to buy the items. When finding products on eBay, one of the ideal sections to look for is the wholesale lots category of eBay. You may find some good deals there on an ongoing basis.

But keep in mind that the sellers typically auction large lots of products. If you just started in eBay, make sure you know what you are buying.

Don't place your bid too high to get the items that you want to sell. Your purchase price per item should be at 1/3 or lower of your selling price. The shipping, handling and insurance charges will drive up your cost. So, you should also take these charges into account when placing a bid to purchase your inventory on eBay. Many buyers like to wait until the auctions near ending to place a bid. You may need to watch your items closely and try to buy them at the last minute or two.

Besides the wholesale lots category of eBay. You should also check out other categories like cell phones, laptops, computers, electronics, video game and etc. People often auction their used items in these categories. You may find few months old cell phones or laptops selling at a great low price. Used and fully functioning video game consoles and electronic items sell for half price or lower. All these used items can be bought and resell on eBay for profits.

eBay Selling
Once you have purchased some items, you can start reselling them on eBay. Create an auction for each of your different items. Upload the photos that capture the different angles of your items. Write an attention-grabbing auction title and a clear description for your each auction. After setting up your eBay auctions, your products are up online and ready for sales.

You should try to limit your auctioning costs as these little costs can add up quickly and cut your profit especially if your product doesn’t sell. Gallery listings, special layouts and bold faced listings can make your auction special but they will cost your more money. So, it is necessary to control your costs of auctioning to make sure they don’t reduce your profit too much.

You can choose to use software that is very inexpensive or free which will help you list your items. Using the software you can create designer listings and add pictures without paying extra fees.

Then you need to set your policies for product shipping, return and refund; and decide if you want to ship the product outside your country. The next thing to think about is what payment methods you want to accept. PayPal is a safe and convenient payment processor. Many buyers prefer to use Paypal to make payment for their purchases. So, you should ready to accept Paypal. It could bring you more sales if you also accept other payment methods such as bank wire, check and etc.

Conclusion
Overall it is not difficult to set up an online business that makes money by buying and selling products on eBay and one good thing about this business is that you can start slow and keep you current full-time job. As you learn and experience more about eBay buying and selling from time to time, you can start buying and selling more on eBay for greater profit. This is how people make more money buying and selling products on eBay.

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eBay Auction Titles are Important for Making Money on eBay

When it comes to selling items on eBay, the buyers first impression on your product is the title of your auction listing. The listing title is your first chance to really draw the potential buyers attention and entice them to click the title link to find out more about your offer. A good auction listing title can attract more people to view on it and possibly generate more sale and profit for you. But if the title is bad, it can get your auction ignored – or even removed.

Take some time to review your auction titles. Are they really telling the viewers about your item in exciting terms? It is very important that you can convince the interested buyers to click on your listing title to check out your auction. The auction title shouldn’t be filled with too many punctuation and special characters as viewers often ignore these auction titles. The buyers will not be able to understand what your auction is actually offering on their first glance if the title is full of gibberish. They will look for another more readable auction title from your competitor. So, you will want to make sure the titles of all your auctions are compelling and clear enough to push your potential buyers to check out what you are offering.

A good way to learn how to write good listing title is by reviewing the previous completed auctions that sold the similar items with your. When you read these auction titles, you will discover that most of the completed auctions were written well and included specific item information. If your item has a brand name, mention it in the title. If you are listing a new (never been used) and original item, say it in title also. Details make the difference between viewers clicking on your auction or someone else’s.

In addition to that, you should also use alternate spelling. For instance, if you are listing a computer for sale on eBay, you might mention that it has a 40 gig hard drive, a 40GB HD, a 40GB disk, and etc. Try to think of the terms that the potential buyers will use to search on your items on eBay and use some of these terms. This could help increase your auction page views.

Some terrible listing titles aren’t allowed in eBay.

What sorts of auction listing titles that get removed by eBay?

It is those titles that fill with too many keywords which will show up often in searches, but which have no relevance to the actual product. This practice is called keyword stuffing. For instance, a seller is selling a Manchester United soccer jersey. In the auction listing title, the seller also put the names of ten other related soccer teams because this could make the auction show up in more searches and get more people to view on it. However, buyers who search for an Arsenal Soccer jersey will be frustrated when they find the keyword-stuffed listing and read that the auction actually not offering what they were searching for. Thus, keyword stuffing isn’t working. And it can get your eBay seller account disabled by eBay.

Auction listing titles are the very first layer of promoting your items on eBay. Of course, the good quality of your items and excellent customer service will keep customers buying from you again, but you need to have a good title to draw their attention in the first place.

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Can I Make Money Online on eBay

There are many eBay business success stories published on the internet. You may have read some of them. But for every success story, there are actually thousand failures. People use their selling ideas and list all kinds of items on eBay for sales. But, the sad news is that not many of them sell their items well. So, you may want to know can I really make money selling on eBay. The answer is yes, you can.

eBay isn't a marketplace that can help people get rich quick. You will be disappointed if you jump on to eBay and expect fast profit. Building a successful eBay business needs three ingredients: time, money and hard effort. With these ingredients, you can make good money.

Three Important Questions You Have to Ask Yourself
You need to ask yourself these questions before getting into eBay selling. How much capital do I have for inventory investment, eBay fees, and unforeseen expenses? How much time do I need to put into this eBay business? Do I possess the necessary energy and drive to build up this business? Once you have answered these questions, you will know exactly what course of action to take. If you have limited time and energy, you can begin by selling part-time on eBay. This is ok; many people who own a day job is doing fine in their part-time selling on eBay. There are monthly bills you have to pay; a new eBay business can't replace your income right away. It may take years of time.

Money can be a Problem
Money is another thing you have to think about. Do you have sufficient capital to build your business? If you have saved money for years, then money shouldn't be a problem that will obstruct you from building and growing your eBay business. But, if you don't have the available start-up fund, you can try to sell unwanted items from your home. This is a way to obtain some capital.

What You are Going to Sell
The three issues: money, time and energy have all been discussed, now it is time to find out what products to sell on eBay. You can sell almost anything on eBay but not everything sells well on eBay. Some items never sell because there are 100 other eBay sellers are listing the very same thing. Before you start an auction to list your item, do some market research. eBay offers a number of free resources for eBay sellers. Take advantage of all of them before listing your first item. Effective use of these free marketing tools and resources will give you an edge that others did not bother to look at. The information you obtain from your research will give you clear insight of what items to list in the eBay marketplace.

Know Your Competition
Competition is another thing you need to study. Avoid selling items that are in direct competition with those eBay power sellers. eBay power sellers generally have good feedback rating, probably people will prefer to buy from them. Also you will not want to become a rival of Wal-Mart as it is just too hard to profit with items that are selling on Wal-Mart. As a new eBay seller, you should sell something that has demand and the competition isn’t that tough. There is a good e-book that can help you find profitable items to list on eBay. The e-book is called overlooked treasure. It let you know 91 high demand every day items that you can sell for good profit. And the good news is many of these hot every day items aren’t in tough competition condition in eBay.

eBay Reputation
Your reputation and feedback ratings are very important for your eBay business success. Good customer service and fast delivery service will help you build your positive image on eBay. Your product description should always exactly describe the condition of your product. Be honest to the buyers, if the item is worn in any part; write it in the description to the let buyers know. Try your best to make your buyers satisfy on every purchase. If the transaction goes smoothly and the buyer satisfies with your product, then he/she will leave you a positive feedback. Your reputation will grow when you get positive feedbacks often. Good reputation will mean more people want to do business with you.

When your business started to generate consistent sales every month, it is time to expand. You can sell more categories of products to grow your customer base and business profit. When you eBay business grow from time to time and the profit it generates can cover your monthly living expenses, it is time to leave your day job and focus on your eBay business full-time.

Conclusion
Can I make money selling on eBay? Yes, you can with a good business planning and right selling strategies. Every business has to be run using proven business tactics. The same holds true for eBay. Take the time to study eBay selling techniques, read often to keep yourself up-to-date, make use of all of the free tools and resources provided by eBay and you can make money on eBay.

Read more...

Make Money by Thrift Selling on Ebay

Thrift selling means selling lots of unique products on eBay that were bought at a cheap price, typically at thrift stores. These product or items are occasionally not in perfect condition. They were either worn or damaged, but buyers like them because they are unique and don't cost much money to purchase. Thrift selling might not sound very profitable, but it can be if you do things right.

How to Find Thrift Stores
You can visit thethriftshopper.com to find the thrift stores that near your area. Thethriftshopper.com directory contains over 7,000 thrift stores in the United States. You may search by zip or city/state.

For people outside US, you may use Google and Yahoo to find thrift stores on your areas. Alternatively you can post your question in Yahoo Answer or in forums. Those experienced thrift shoppers see your questions may post their answer to help you find thrift stores near your area.

Keep Record of Your Auction Listings
There are a lot of things thrift sellers need to do. Their inventory is in bulk; they will frequently obtain hundreds of different items in their inventory at a given time. So it will be necessary for them to start lots of auctions to list each of their unique items. Thrift sellers must keep track of their items and their listings, so excellent book keeping is needed to ensure everything run smoothly. If you decide to start a thrift selling on eBay, you should look for a book keeping program that you’re comfortable with. Microsoft Excel is a good low-frills spreadsheet program. You may use it to keep track of your goods, your eBay auctions, and your shipping.

Excel spreadsheets are also helpful tools for calculating your net profits over time. Use them to find out which items have sold well, and which doesn't perform well.

Keep Your Stock Orderly and Neat
While you’re monitoring your eBay auctions and stock with Excel, spend time to organize your physical inventory as well. You don’t want to need to dig through a messy heap of stocks to search for the one that needs to be delivered. Organize your spaces to store your goods orderly. Label each item with a post-it note consisting the listing number. That way, you can find the item needed to ship easier and faster.

Maintain Good Reputation in eBay
Seller’s reputation is very important when making money on eBay. Since thrift items are usually used items which might have some damages, so the item description has to clearly specify the condition of your item. Be honest to disclose any damage the item has sustained, and include a picture of the worn or damaged areas. Specify that buyers purchase the items “as is”, and emphasize that you don't know the items’ histories and are not responsible for item failure. This may sound harsh, but you need to include these descriptions to protect yourself.

Use Listing Tools to Help Manage Your Auctions
There are good tools that you can use to make your thrift selling process easier. Bulk listers are tools that designed to start many listings at a time. This is a real time saver for eBay sellers need to start hundreds of auctions at the same time. Turbo Lister is the most popular bulk listing tool you can use. There is no cost to download and use this tool. The tool can be downloaded at:

http://pages.ebay.com/turbo_lister/

Conclusion
You can get thrift items at low price usually, but they can be costly if you make mistakes in your inventory management. Keep everything orderly and easy-to-find. Use software tool to help manage your listings. And provide buyers an honest description of an item’s condition. Building a good reputation is important to the success of your eBay business. So whatever you sell on eBay, always be friendly and helpful to your buyers.

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Make Money Selling Antiques on eBay

Many people have said that antiques and collectibles are some of the most difficult items to start selling on eBay. However, people also said that these items have good potential on becoming the biggest sales on eBay.

So just what are the things a new eBay seller must know before setting up an auction to list their first antique or collectible for sale on eBay?

First of all, the markets of both the antiques and collectibles are moving slow. Antiques and collectibles trading aren't active like most other markets where huge qualities were transacted every day. So if you want to turn a fast profit with antiques and collectibles, you would do better with seasonal, general, or limited lifetime items.

eBay is a great marketplace to make money with antiques and collectibles selling, but these goods aren’t typically fast sellers. This is mainly due to the limited supply of antiques and collectibles. They are rare items and cannot easily be obtained in bulk, so the supply is very limited. On the other hand, the demand is also limited to people who both have the interest and can afford the items. As you can see, you have to be prepared for keeping certain antiques and collectibles with you for some time before the right customers come to you and buy your items.

Another challenge that new eBay sellers have to face is the high stock purchasing cost of an antique business. These goods don’t come cheap. In addition of that, finding a great deal on a rare item has a lot to do with luck and connections.

To achieve success in antique business, you need have a passion on antiques and collectibles and also have good knowledge on these items. One way to offset the high stock purchasing cost and the limited sales potential of antiques and collectibles is to use several sales channels. Listing your items on eBay is a good way to make lucrative profits, but you might not be able to clear out your stock with eBay alone. Search for other online and offline auctions dedicated to antiques. Contact your local dealers and get to know them. They are often a useful source of information.

If you do have expert knowledge on items that you are selling, make sure potential customers know. They will be more likely to purchase from someone who has good knowledge and experience in antiques or collectibles. They will expect that the item they are getting is valuable, not a cheap (or expensive) imitation. By telling them your knowledge of antiques and collectibles, you are reassuring your potential customers that they are paying for something really rare and wonderful. Customers may also recommend you to their friends and possibly bring repeat business to you if you provide good service to them. Your excellence customer service and high quality of your products will attract buyers keep on purchasing from you.

Lastly, focus on brands and trends that have persistent value. Some brands are popular for their rarity or their resilient craftsmanship and beauty. These brands will always have consistent demand. As for market trends, beware for hot fads that are here today and gone tomorrow.

eBay is well known for its antiques and collectibles, and for good reason. This Internet marketplace with its worldwide popularity is the perfect place to list hard to find items. Oftentimes, they are able to buy and sell items that they are interested, which makes their Internet auctioning look more like play than work. Each auction set up for reselling antiques and collectible does require some effort, but the payoffs are worth it.

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3 Interesting Ideas to Make Money on ebay

1) Sell Used Cell Phones on ebay
The demands for used cell phones with brand names like Nokia, Motorola, Kyocera, Alltel, Ericsson, Sprint, etc in ebay are pretty high. Many of the used cell phones auctions in ebay usually attract bids.

So how to find used cell phones to profit on ebay?
Many people change their cell phones every year. If you are one of them, probably you already have 2 or 3 used cell phones kept at home that can sell on ebay. Your friends may also keep a few of old phones left unused. You can buy from them and resell on ebay.

To get a consistent supply of cell phones, you may think about placing classified ads in newspaper states that you pay money for used cell phone. You shouldn't pay much when buying used cell phones. Do a little research on ebay to find out how much used cell phones are generally selling. If a used cell phone sell at a price of $50 in ebay, you should pay not more than 30% of the price to buy it. If the phone is a recent model you can pay little more and cut a little if it is old and nothing special.

2) Sell Used How-to Books
Used how-to books are quite easy to find and inexpensive to buy. They can be bought at $1.00 or less. You can buy how-to books from thrift shops, estate sales, used book stores, yard sales, etc and sell them in ebay for high profit margin. You can also get how-to books from Book Sale Finder. Here are the type of books you should look for:

Hobbies
Photography, blacksmithing, clock building & repair, woodworking, magic, treasure hunting, iron work, pipe smoking, dog training, antiques, coins, buttons, medals, drawing, painting, craft making, dolls, pottery, etc.

Home and Garden
Home decorating, home remodelling, garden trellis, etc.

Misc
How to repair (watch repair, door repair, pipe repair), how to play, lost treasure, eary aviation, etc.

When you list your books in ebay, you can either list them in the "Book" category of ebay or in the subject specific category of ebay. For instance, If you are selling a book related to home decorating, you may be making more profit if you list the book under the "Home Deco" within the "Home & Garden" category of ebay campare to listing the book under "Book"

3) Sell Gift Cards
Gift card is another profitable market in ebay. There are many people possess gift cards but not everyone of them will use their gift cards. If you can offer to buy these unused gift cards for a price at 20% or less of the value of the gift certificates, they will sell to you. You can advertise your offer in local newspaper, penny shop and trading post. You are looking for gift cards that are still valid (not yet expire). Most gift cards have a toll-free number on the back you can dial to check whether the cards are still valid.

When determining the buy and sell price of a gift card, you should do some research on ebay. Try to look for auction that sell the similar card. See how much the card sells in the auction and set you buying price at 40% to 50% of the selling price of the auction. The starting bid and winning bid of the auction can also give you an idea on how much your card can sell on ebay.

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Unique Idea to Make Money On ebay

If you have been learning how to make money online for some time, you may have aware that you can make some extra money by selling your unwanted things on e-bay instead of throwing them away.

But, do you know that there are plenty of people who struggle to dispose their unwanted stuff for extra cash never think about they can dispose their stuff on ebay even though they heard about ebay before.

They just sell their items using the old-fashion ways like spending money to advertising in newspapers, sticking their sale notices on everywhere on the street. If you can offer them a better way to sell their unwanted things then they would like to accept your offer. And this created a business opportunity for you to profit online.

The business will work in these ways:

1) You approach the people who desperate to sell the stuff.

2) Discuss about your offers with these people.

3) If they accept your offers, you may start photographing their items and list the items on ebay on a no sale, no fee basis.

4) If an item successful sold on ebay, you earn certain percentage on the selling price as agreed earlier with the item's owner.

The owner possesses the item until it was sold and thus the item will be stored at the owner place, and you don’t need to spend any money up front.

You can use your existing bank account or open a personal bank account for the business until the bank starts bugging you. Other things you must have are:

An ebay account - To list your customer items for selling.

A PayPal account - To accept payment from ebay buyers.

Your own business cards - You can design your own business cards and print them out to distribute to your customers. Or a better way is to create a flyer. A flyer is a small advert and the suggested size is A5 (half A4) with the details of your offer and contact inside the flyer. Here’s an example:

Give your flyer to your potential customer when meeting with them. If they don’t have anything to sell yet, tell them to stick it to their doors or walls, or keep it until the need your service.

The headline and messages in the flyer should be simple but attractive to the readers.

Set Your Price
The reasonable service charge for an item sold is 12% to 15% on the selling price. If the item doesn’t sell, no charge to the customer and the agreement end.

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Make Money On ebay

Marketing Your Service
To make money you need to have customers. You are going to go out and find customers. Don’t worry, it is not very difficult. I believe you can do it. Here are 2 methods to find customers for your business.

Post Your Flyer
Look for a local shop that can prints out 500 copies of your flyer. The cost should be anywhere between $20 to $40. Then go out to post your leaflets through 500 letterboxes. You can start with your own area to post your leaflets. After you have posted all the leaflets, all you need to do is wait for calls.

Once you received your first call, you are going to arrange to meet your first customer. You will meet your customer at their home as the items usually placed at their homes. Bring your digital camera and a notebook. Be cheerful and polite with anyone you meet.

Take a few shots on the item using your digital camera. You can get good results in daylight, but using the flash. Record as much detail about the item as possible like make, serial number, model and other details. Make sure you have agreed the following things with your customer:

• The selling price of the item
• How much commission you’ll charge and how much money the owner will receive.
• The item must not advertise for sell during the period you are trying to sell the item on ebay.
• Who will pay the shipping fee? You, the owner or the buyer
• Who will send the item once it was sold

Establish a good relationship with your customers. Make them trust you and they are likely do business with you again.

Another marketing method is to buy a copy of all your local newspapers and start checking at the ads section in all the newspapers and look for the ads that offer items for sell. You are going to contact the sellers to tell them you can sell their items for them for a fee. You can contact them using phone. Is this a sales call? Yes it is. If you don’t like to do that, there is another option. Use your leaflets. Send them to the sellers to offer your service. You may found many items for sell, but you should not contact each of the item’s seller to offer your service as not every item will make you profit. Here are some tips on what kinds of items you should pick to sell for the sellers:

• Small items with value more than $100.
• Jewelry and metals.
• Collectables and antiques.

Listing You Items on ebay
After your customer agrees all the terms and conditions and let you sell the item. It is time to list the item on ebay for sale. You will be uploading a picture (pick the best picture) of the item to ebay, write an attractive title and a description.

Start with an auction listing instead of fixed price listing to allow ebay visitors to bid for your item and this can make your selling price go higher. Try not to set your starting price too high as people in ebay tend to like bargains. They prefer to bid for an item with a low starting price.

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Where to Find Products To Sell On eBay

There are more than one million people visit ebay every day. These people come to eBay not just visiting, they are looking for something and ready to buy when they found the items they are looking for. If you have something to sell online, eBay obviously is the best place for selling your stuff. You can sell almost anything you can imagine on eBay. Here are some tips and ideas that can help you start making money from eBay.

Sell High Demand Products
To find out what products hot in eBay, you can study eBay Hot Categories report at http://pages.ebay.com/sellercentral/hotitems.pdf which can help you decide what kinds of hot items you want to sell. After deciding what items to sell your next question is where to buy these items for reselling on eBay. You can buy your stocks from wholesalers, but you usually need to order in bulks. Thus it will cost you several hundreds to thousands dollar to buy the stocks at the beginning. One way to start your eBay business with minimum cost is deal with drop ship wholesalers. Drop ship wholesalers allow you to list their products for sale on eBay and other auction sites without paying upfront to stock products. You only pay to the drop ship wholesaler when an item is sold and the drop ship wholesaler will ship the item on your name to your customer. You don't store any inventory; package and ship merchandise.

Garage Sales and Flea Markets
You can find inexpensive items for reselling on eBay from garage sale and flea markets. Take some time to shop around for the items you wish to resell on eBay.

Sell Returned Items
Another way to get things to sell on eBay is buy returned items from stores and retailers. Usually the retailers will not resell returned items again so they have to do something with those returned goods. You can try to approach store managers and ask them whether they can sell the items to you at below cost.

Trade Shows
Trade shows are another way to find products for reselling on ebay. Lots of merchants gather in one place to look for resellers. You can find trade shows in a particular industry by contacting trade associations and industry publications.

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10 Steps to Successful Selling on eBay

doesn't out of the items you're interested in. Any market research data you can collect will be very useful to you later on. You'll probably see the 'sweet spots' quite quickly - those one or two items that always seem to sell for a good price.

Step 2: Watch the competition. Before you invest any money, see what the other sellers in your category are up to, and what their strategies are. Pay special attention to any flaws their auctions might have, because this is where you can move in and beat them at their own game.

Step 3: Find a product: Get hold of a supplier for whatever it is you want to sell, and see what the best rates you can get are - don't be afraid to ring round quite a few to get the best deal. If the eBay prices you've seen are higher than the supplier's, then you're set.

Step 4: Start small: Don't throw thousands at your idea straight away - get started slowly, see what works and what doesn't, and learn as you go. Remember that it's very cheap to try out even the craziest ideas on eBay, and who knows, they might just work!

Step 5: Test and repeat. Keep trying different strategies until you find something that works, and then don't be ashamed to keep doing it, again and again. The chances are that you've just found a good niche.

Step 6: Work out a business plan: A business plan doesn't need to be anything formal, just a few pages that outline the market opportunity you've spotted, your strategy, strengths and weaknesses of the plan and a brief budget. This is more for you than it is for anyone else.

Step 7: Invest and expand: This is the time to throw money at the problem. Buy inventory, and start spending more time on your business. Set a goal number of sales each week, increasing it each time.

Step 8: Make it official: Once you've made a few thousand dollars worth of sales, you should really register yourself as a business. Don't worry, it's not expensive or hard to do - a lawyer is the best person to help you through the process.

Step 9: Automate: You'll probably find that you're writing the same things again and again in emails or item descriptions. This is the time to give up on the manual method and turn to automated software that can create listings for you, and respond to completed auctions and payments with whatever message you provide.

Step 10: Never give up: Even when it looks like it's all going wrong, don't stop trying until you succeed. If you keep working at it then you'll almost always find that you make a real breakthrough just when things are starting to look desperate.

Once you get into the swing of things, you might start thinking that you should quit your job and take up eBay selling part time. But it's not always as easy as that - there are all sorts of factors that you need to consider. The next email will weigh up the case for and against taking up eBay full-time.

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Make Money on eBay - Guide to Finding a Drop Shipper

If you have embarked on some online money making venture through the channels made possible by eBay, the virtual world’s most popular marketplace, then you’re sure to be on a constant crusade for some techniques that would help boost the profitability of your trade. Well, I have two words that would help you when it comes to such:

Drop shipping.

Drop shipping involves a contact with a wholesaler, known as a drop shipper. The drop shipper would offer some items for wholesale prices (i.e. big, big discounts). The clincher? There are a couple of them, actually:

1. You’d get to purchase these items at wholesale prices even if you’re going to get them per piece.
2. The drop shipper will take care of shipping the item to the designated location.

Immediately, you will see the potentials for profitability with this setup. You won’t have to buy items for resale. You won’t have to create items for your offers. You just need a relationship with a drop shipper, select from his selection of products, and market the same at eBay. You could place your own markup. And you wouldn’t have to worry about storage space or shipping. Better yet, you wouldn’t be too pressured to make a sale, as your items aren’t technically in stock, rather, they’re with the drop shipper who will be awaiting your word as when to deliver the same to the winning bidder.

Now, here’s what is of the essence. Where could you find drop shippers?

Here’s an important piece of advice: forget about offers that promise to provide a list of drop shippers. More often than not, these lists contain outdated information, dead links and even fabricated entities. This is a fact that has been confirmed by eBay itself.

Here’s another important piece of advice: forget about searching for “drop shipping” or “dropshipping” at Google. The term has been exploited beyond belief that it has almost lost its essence in many content sites.

Here’s a fact that you should know: 80% of manufacturers would be more than happy to do some drop shipping for you. Whereas a couple of years ago, drop shipping was a novel approach to selling items online, nowadays, manufacturers have realized that drop shipping can be an effective evolution of the direct selling model. It’s easier to look for drop shippers today than it was a couple of years ago.

The first thing you have to learn is how to focus. What do you want to sell, exactly? Have you researched the market for it? Is it a profitable market?

The second step should entail researching appropriate products for the market you have chosen. What are available for the same? What, among these choices, do you want to sell?

Subsequent steps would be easy. All that remains to be done is to pinpoint specific manufacturers based from the list you have prepared, and contacting them individually. Ask them if drop shipping is among the services they could offer for willing partners. Chances are, you will get an affirmative reply.

Of course, there are ways to streamline the process. The website www.worldwidebrands.com offers a comprehensive directory of manufacturers that do drop shipping. Unlike the lists that have sprouted all over the internet, this website is very well known for its credibility as well as the equally credible information they offer. Each entry is verified to ensured accuracy. Their service isn’t free, however, but for a serious seller who wishes to make the most out of drop shipping, it would prove to be a good investment.

There are also some dedicated people maintaining websites about their experiences with drop shippers. Take www.webpuffs.com for example. The webmaster offers reviews of the drop shipping manufacturers he encounters, and the information he provides for free is immediately worth a lot.

The bottom line is this: drop shipping can make your eBay business more profitable and more convenient. And finding drop shippers is not as difficult as advertised, if you know how to proceed with the same.

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5 Simple Steps to Posting Your First eBay Auction

It's surprisingly simple to get started posting your very first auction on eBay. Here's what you need to do.

Step 1: Open an eBay seller's account
If you've bought things on eBay, then you already have an account - just log in with it and click 'Sell' in the toolbar at the top of the page, then click 'Create a seller's account'. If you've never used eBay before, then you'll need to open an account first using the 'register' link underneath the toolbar, and then click 'Sell' and 'Create a seller's account'. The eBay site will then guide you through the process. For security, this may involve giving card details and bank information.

Step 2: Decide what to sell
For your first little experiment with eBay, it doesn't really matter what you sell. Take a look around the room you're in - I'm sure there's something in there that you're not all that attached to and could put in the post. Small books and CDs are ideal first items.

Step 3: Submit your item.
Click 'Sell', and you're on your way to listing your item.

The first thing you need to do is choose a category - it's best to just type in what the item is and let eBay choose for you. Next, write a title and description. Include key words you think people will search for in the title box, and all the information you have about the item in the description box.

Now set a starting price. $0.01 is the best starting price, as it draws people in to bid who otherwise wouldn't, and items will almost never finish at such a low price. The next thing to set is the duration of the auction: 3, 5, 7 or 10 days. This is up to you: longer sales will usually get more bids, but will also seem to drag on forever. If you've taken a picture, add it now - items with pictures always sell for more. Finally, tick the payment methods you will accept (just PayPal is best for now), and where you will post to (limit yourself to your own country to begin with). Submit and you're done!

Step 4: Wait for it to sell
This is just a matter of sitting back and letting eBay do its thing - buyers will find your item and leave bids on it. Some bidders might email you with questions about the item, and you should do your best to answer these questions as quickly as you can.

Remember that if your item doesn't sell then you can list it again for free.

Step 5: Collect payment and post it
eBay will sent your buyer emails guiding them through the process of sending you payment for the item. Make sure you have the money before you send anything.

Once you've got the payment, all you need to do is pack the item for posting (make sure to use some bubble wrap), take the buyer's address from the confirmation email eBay sent you, and write it on the parcel. Put some stamps on, post it, and you're done!

I hope you enjoyed selling your first item. Now that you're starting to get into it, the next email will give you a checklist of things you need to do to be a successful seller.

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Make More Money on eBay - 10 Tips for Increasing Your eBay Response

So you've got the buyer in front of your auction, and they've read the description. They're must be interested, or they wouldn't be looking… but just how can you push them over that line and make them leave a bid? Read on for some tips.

Improve your picture: In all that description writing, you might have missed the vital importance of your item's picture. A picture with bad lighting or an intrusive background looks amateurish and won't make anyone want to buy from you.

Add an About Me page: You'll be surprised how much you can reassure bidders just by creating an About Me page and putting a little bit about yourself on your business on there. You can also have a few special offers there for people who bother to look at the page, and let people subscribe to your mailing list so that you can email them updates.

Use SquareTrade: Signing up at SquareTrade and displaying their logo on your auctions shows that you are committed to have them resolve any disputes that arise. You always see this on PowerSellers auctions - it makes you look more professional.

Write terms and conditions: Have the 'small print' clearly visible on all your auctions, giving details of things like shipping times and prices, your refund policy, and any other business practices you might have. This helps build confidence with buyers.

Show off your feedback: Copy and paste a selection of the feedback comments you're most proud of to each item's description page, instead of making bidders go and look for it. If you have 100% positive feedback, be sure to write that on every auction too.

Add NR to your titles: If you have extra space in a title, put 'NR' (no reserve) on the end. Bidders prefer auctions that don't have a reserve price, and doing this lets them see that yours don't.

Benefits not features: Make sure your description focuses on the benefits that your item can give to the customer, not just its features. This is a classic sales technique. If you have trouble with this, remember: 'cheap' is a feature, 'save money' is a benefit.

List more items: If you want more people to respond to your items, then list more items! You might find you have better like listing items at the same time, instead of one-by-one. There's no need to use a Dutch auction - you can just keep two or three auctions going at once for an item you have more than one of in stock.

Accept unusual payment methods: To reach those last few buyers, accept payment methods that many sellers don't, like cheques.

Buy some upgrades: The best upgrade is the most expensive one, which makes your item appear first in search results. In crowded categories, you might find that this is worth the money.

Once you've got some buyers, you want to keep them coming back to you. The next email will show you how to turn one-time buyers into long-term customers.

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Free Guide to Starting an eBay Business from Scratch

Starting an ebay business isn't difficult and it wouldn't cost much to set up an ebay business. But if your are completely new in online business and lacked of business experience, it will be better to read some start-up guide before starting your ebay business. Here's a sale website that offer a free quick-start ecourse.



Just go to the sales website and sign up for their free ebay ecourse, you don't need to buy their comprehensive ebay course called eBay Secret.

The free ecourse is written by Derek Gehl and Brandon Dupsky. Derek Gehl is a successful Internet marketer who makes over a million dollars every year and Brandon Dupsky is a powewseller in eBay who generates an average earning of $22,000 a day. If you subscribe their ecourse, you will also receive a lot of ebay tips and strategies. Here's what you will learn from the free course:

* How to create an eBay account.
* What to sell on ebay at the beginning.
* How to set up your first auction.
* How to create a simple auction listing.
* and much more......

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Make Money Online - What to Sell on ebay

There are more than one million people visit ebay every day. These people come to eBay not just visiting, they are looking for something and ready to buy when they found the items they are looking for. If you have something to sell online, eBay obviously is the best place for selling your stuff. You can sell almost anything you can imagine on eBay. Here are some tips and ideas that can help you start making money from eBay.

Sell High Demand Products
To find out what products hot in eBay, you can study eBay Hot Categories report at http://pages.ebay.com/sellercentral/hotitems.pdf which can help you decide what kinds of hot items you want to sell. After deciding what items to sell your next question is where to buy these items for reselling on eBay. You can buy your stocks from wholesalers, but you usually need to order in bulks. Thus it will cost you several hundreds to thousands dollar to buy the stocks at the beginning. One way to start your eBay business with minimum cost is deal with drop ship wholesalers. Drop ship wholesalers allow you to list their products for sale on eBay and other auction sites without paying upfront to stock products. You only pay to the drop ship wholesaler when an item is sold and the drop ship wholesaler will ship the item on your name to your customer. You don't store any inventory; package and ship merchandise.

Garage Sales and Flea Markets
You can find inexpensive items for reselling on eBay from garage sale and flea markets. Take some time to shop around for the items you wish to resell on eBay.

Sell Returned Items
Another way to get things to sell on eBay is buy returned items from stores and retailers. Usually the retailers will not resell returned items again so they have to do something with those returned goods. You can try to approach store managers and ask them whether they can sell the items to you at below cost.

Trade Shows
Trade shows are another way to find products for reselling on ebay. Lots of merchants gather in one place to look for resellers. You can find trade shows in a particular industry by contacting trade associations and industry publications.

Read more...