Help Stefan CampaignCeltnet WebInfo eZine
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
In This Issue
- Window on the Web
- Featured Article:
Top 10 Tips to Selling Successfully on eBay - Classified Ad Board
- Comment
- Business Tip
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Window on the Web
March thus far has been a hectic and many of us have been stung by Google as they continue the roll-out of their Bigdaddy datacentres and the various tweaks to their indexing algorithms. As the situation with these changes resolve themselves I will be reviewing the changes, their impact and what they mean for the internet marketing business in a later issue of this eZine.
This month's newsletter focusses on the use of eBay as an income source. Many people make a very good living simply by marketing their products on eBay and this week's feature article gives the top tips of Jasom James an eBay 'power seller'. This issue's comment deals with one way of sourcing cheap products on eBay which you can then sell-on yourself at a profit.
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Email me @ editor@celtnet.org.uk
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Feature Article
Top 10 Tips to Selling Successfully on eBay
by Jason James
As a successful powerseller on eBay I often get turned to for advice. Since I registered on eBay in 2000, I've ran thousands of profitable auctions which I follow these guidelines.
Most importantly always try to be fair with other users who deal with you and never be intimidated by any competition. eBays big enough for us all, and currently there is 1 seller registered to 78 buyers.
1) Low starting Price
Before you list your auction, ask yourself what's the lowest amount you'd be prepared to accept for your item. A low starting price will attract more bids and at a quicker pace - usually within the first day of the listings. Research shows that a .99c starting price will get you bidders within a few hours. Many vehicles and high value items are sold with a low starting price especially by established powersellers - because unless it's an extremely poor week the item will normally end up with hundreds of bids & at a cost that's acceptable to the seller.
Additionally users are more likely to view auctions which already have a successful bid as it generates interest in your item. It's like if you see a market stall with hundreds of people standing around it - your curiosity would tell you to stop & see what's generating all the interest. Use human curiosity to your advantage.
2) No Reserve
Many sellers still place reserve prices on their item. A reserve price is one which unless it is met by your sellers you are not obliged to sell the item. An example would be if you have an reserve of $10, and your item sells for $9.00 you do not have to complete the sale & release the item. Reserve items, although very occasionally may be necessary in the case of extremely high value items or businesses for sale are off putting to bidders. Why would you bid on an item with a reserve price on, unless you already knew were aware of what the reserve was. Personally I'd look for alternative items without a reserve price.
eBay has already removed the Reserve Price option from some of it's site in a move that is largely welcome by the majority of users. It could be a sign that this policy change will be extended to all of it's sites.
3) Images
An Image is worth a thousand words. Take photos of your item to clearly show the condition of it, and any damage or unusual aspects of it. eBay allows you to include one photo free of charge & if you use your own image hosting service you can easily include as many photos as necessary to show your item in a detailed manner. Many powersellers use up to 20 photos for one single item. Ask yourself how many are necessary for your item. & also consider using the gallery option so the image will appear within the search listings.
4) Cross-Promotion
You've worked hard to get users to view your listing, so while their viewing it also include a link to any other items you've available. This is allowed in addition to the already provided link to "View other sellers items". You can use commercial services (such as Anadale) to include images & descriptions of your other items.
5) About Me Page
Sell yourself on your About Me Page. This is your chance to establish some credibility for yourself. The biggest reason people will not buy from you online is because you have failed to establish any credibility for yourself. So include details about you & your business. Where are you suituated?, how long have you been registered on eBay?, What do you specialise in? If your a high volume seller you may also want to include a photo of yourself. Have a look at other About Me pages to see what works and what doesn't.
6) Return Policy
Nothing gives buyers greater confidence than knowing that they can return the product if it's not for them. So consider drafting yourself a returns policy.
Will you accept returns? What if the item arrives faulty? How long is the policy valid for?
It may seem like a big risk to offer such a policy knowing that you'll have to incur a cost relisting & reshipping items but only a very small amount of users will return the items.
7) Feedback
Leave feedback for the winning bidder as soon as the item is paid for. Some sellers like to protect themselves by only returning feedback when it is left for you. I consider this unprofessional and your bidders will most likely think the same too. Don't be scared of getting a negative or neutral comment on your feedback record. The majority of users will consider all of you feedback before bidding, not just looking at one or two comments.
Additionally if you deserve any feedback left for you such as if you were late shipping, accept it was you fault. Don't be too worried about admitting it with an apology in response to your feedback. You may also want to compensate your winning bidder with reduced postage or a bonus item to show it was a genuine error on your part.
If you know the there is going to be a delay in completing any transaction, email the bidder and inform them. Apologize with a comment such as "This is a rare incident that's completely out of my control. I hope by looking at my feedback record you will see this is an completely isolated incident". Always try to keep on good terms with all your buyers.
8) Instant attention
Give immediate attention to your bidders & prospective bidders. Don't leave a delay of days before responding to any emails or phone calls. And following a successful transaction you may want to email your bidder to tell them when the items been shipped and when it will be expected to arrive.
I know many sellers, some of them powersellers who takes days to respond to a simple email. If you don't have time to respond immediately consider delegating the responsibility to someone else who can respond on your behalf. Never give any bidder reason to doubt whether your a genuine seller or not.
9) eBay Store
Opening an eBay Store is a necessary step for anyone medium sized seller. Not only do you benefit from cheaper & longer listings within your shop, but you can also cross-promote your products easily, send out newsletters and establish a trusted brand for your listings easier. Also you'll gain more coverage (& hopefully bids) for your listings by appearing in the eBay store directory.
10) Shipping
Don't be tempted to over price your shipping costs and try to make a small profit on this. Firstly you can be found out to easily, & it's one of the most unforgiving things for a seller to do. More importantly over pricing your shipping costs is against eBay policy.
If your offering digital goods such as an eBook or special report, you may consider a small handling fee to cover your time and administration costs. If you do make sure it's fair and clearly highlighted within the item listing. The last thing a bidder wants to do is find out there are unexpected costs associated with a purchase they've made. Good luck with your eBay selling activity.
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About the author:
Jason James website 'The Auction Resource Network' reveals his inside secrets and sources that help him pocket over $10,000 a month on eBay. Claim your FREE 'Top 10 eBay Selling Secrets' eBook: www.auctionresourcenetwork.com
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Comment
Sourcing Cheap Products on eBay
It's one of those catch-22 situations: before you can make a profit on eBay you need a product that you can sell for a profit. If you're creative then you can create your own physical product, or if you're a writer then you may be able to author an eBook that you can sell. Don't give up though, as the secret to your own eBay empire is to be clever rather than being creative.
The truth is, literally thousands of people put their items up for sale on eBay each and every day. However, as each item needs to be entered into the eBay auction system by hand many of these auctions end-up being entered in the wrong category or the main item description is mispelled. As a resuly an entry for a 'camera' may be typed in as 'camra' (this is a very, very, common misspelling). As most people going to eBay are searching for their items using the correct spellings many of the mispelled items fall through the search net and are never bid upon (the seller may even be reducing their starting price and reserve on such items as they can't figure out why no-one is bidding. If you could bid on these mispelled items on eBay then you would be able to pick-up bargains at significantly below their true auction value.
Even better, if you could find such an item, buy it and then re-sell it on eBay very quickly you could even have the original seller mail it to the person who bought it from you, thus saving you the postage costs into the bargain! If you time things right you can make a huge profit very quickly with this stragegy. But how do you find these mispelled items on eBay?
The answer is fairly simple, for there are a number of tools on the web to search eBay for mispelled items. The one I would recomment is my own FREE tool eBay mispelling tool which not only uses a new algorithm to determine mispellings it also uses common US and UK English synonyms as well as allowing searches on phrases of up to three words. It is also available for all the major English-based eBay websites (US, UK, Canada, Australia, Ireland, India). Uith this tool you can locate all those mispellied items on eBay, bid on them, buy them cheaply and then use them as the basis for your own stock to sell-on in other eBay auctions. More importantly you will make a profit on each and every item sold.
Business Tip
Ad Type and Placement
Where to place your ads is one of those arts of web-page copy design that's slowly becoming a science as more research is done on how people view web pages. You can read a full article on the subject. However, the upshot is that text advertisements are far more effective that images at attracting buyers. And if you do use banners use those that thave plain backgrounds and text on them. Also place your advertisements within the main body of your text. If they're off to the side or stand out then your viewers' eyes will simply slide over them without actually taking them in.
If you use care with your advertisements and their placement then your click-through rate will increase quite dramatically (which is why the top and middle advertisements on this page are located where they are).