eBay – You must read these tips

Increase your income just by reading these tips

If you make your money using ebay as your main stream income or as part time job probably you would like to read these David tips as probably you would like to increase your income.

 

Introduction

Either you are new to eBay or having your business running for long time on eBay you as seller must read the below tips!

Maybe some of the tips will sound corny a little bit but remember that the different between successful seller to mediocre ones relay on most of these tips.

 

 The Full Tip List

 

  1. Don’t purchase any inventory unless you know that you can get your money back selling it.
  2. Sell unique high quality items  
  3. Anything that you can have drop-shipped is a good candidate for item to sell.

 

For new on eBay:

- Get experience selling some items from around your house.

- Acquire some other items for resell from different sources such as family, friends, flea markets, online venues and so on.

- Obtain 50 positive feedbacks to get a gold star.

- Find a niche you have a passion for.

 
PayPay Account
 
Set up PayPal account to receive your payment
 

 "Buy Now"

Use widely the “Buy Now” – A lot of people love the instance item buying.

 
Profit margins

Pay close attention to the amount of profit per sale for certain items. Profit margins need to be healthy enough to justify time being spent doing the work.

 

Popular items

Sell cheap, popular, light items with high profit margins preferably a product of your own.

Research by using revised price 

Use the revised price option in order to research the market when entering new item to the market

Start Price

When it comes to pricing your items, you must walk a “fine line”. One mistake to avoid is starting your auction too high. High price does indicate value- but it also discourages healthy bidding.

Start price below you paid

 Price your item slightly below what you paid for it…In general eBay is not a good place to start high since bidder wants a deal. It’s always better to start low and set nice reserve if you absolutely must cover yourself.

Use both eBay category

Whenever you’re creating your ad on eBay you’re given the option of placing your auction in a regional category try listing it in a heavily populated region. It certainly can’t hurt.

Ad Description

 Write your killer descriptions. Remember that buying is all about emotion. Start writing your Ads with the benefit your customer will have from buying the item (leave the description of the item below)

 

Full detail

Make your description complete. E.g. Item condition, Shipping/Return policy.

Fair shipping

Charge fair shipping and handling fees

Key words title

Use the right key words in titles to increase traffic – Remember that the search result is based on this title.

Spelling error

Check to see that your item title has no spelling errors.

Select the right eBay User ID

When selecting a user ID come up with something memorable while at the same time descriptive of your type of business.

Opening paragraph

Use a short opening paragraph (remember – the benefits first). Fire your big guns as tersely as possible- don’t allow the readers attention to wander this early on short sentences make firm friends. Make your paragraphs less than 5 or 6 lines.

Ask for the bid at the end of the description.

 
Positive, Positive and only Positive
 
Use positive language.

Customer Service rules

Some Customer Service Rules (maybe corny but very important):
  • Your customers are everything.
  • Your customer is always right.
  • Go the extra mile.
  • Return emails fast (If you can’t, set up an auto-responder to tell your enquirers you’ll get back to them soon)
  • Under-promise and over-deliver in everything you do.
  • Never criticize your customers directly or indirectly.
  • Make the auction process extremely simple for the customer.

Answer your buyers

Always answer a customer email promptly as you can

Use other auction sites

Use other auction sites eBay is the place to be, but I recommend trying the others mainly Amazon and Yahoo.

Be calm

Don’t ever write an email in anger.

Refund deadbeat

If a deadbeat strikes you, don’t forget to apply your final value fee refunds from eBay.

Take photo of your item

Putting a photo into your ad  (Obvious but need to be said, especially when the first picture is for free)

Image size

Crunch your camera photo - Sometimes image files can be huge, especially fresh digital camera photo. eBayer’s don’t wait around for huge pictures to load. You need a way to squish the image without affecting the quality too much.  (There are a lot of free software on the web)

Your own site

Use free web-hosts - Free web hosts give you some hard drive space on the Interne.

It’s a good idea to go ahead and start experimenting with this. Later you’re going to want to complement a Website with your online auctions.

 

Select the niche you passionate about 

Select a niche that is right for you. It needs to be something you’re passionate about- something you can throw your effort into easily

 
Satisfaction guarantee
 

If you’re certain of your products quality offer your bidders a satisfaction guarantee

 
Use eBay software  
 

Order in your business – There are some software that eBay offer.

 
Be the expert
 

Become an expert in your field

 

Give bonuses

Increase your products value with bonuses (Everyone who browses eBay wants a bargain)

A lot of perseverance

Perseverance will see you through anything

Use Dutch auction

 
Try to use as much as possible Dutch auctions - One of the big keys to earning a fortune on eBay is by running this type of auction.

Avoid Negative feedback

Do your best and avoid leaving negative feedback. In the situation where you are sure that you are right I always use the phrase “Don’t be right be smart”  

Reasonable shippinig cost

Only charge what it normally costs you to pack and ship.

BTW – This is the most common reason for leaving negative feedback.

Pack well

Always insure when the item is of value (over $40) and pack well.

Packing tips

 
Some Packing Tips
  • Make certain the box is securely closed and nothing is rattling around.
  • Newspaper makes fine packing material of course. It’s cheap, it’s handy and it gets the job done.
  • Save packing material from any other shipments you receive.
  • Because of logistics, try to sell small, light items.
  • Use plastic bag to protect your item from moisture (and sometimes even rain….)

Use "My eBay" 

Make use of the ‘My eBay’ page - its free and this is your PR page. Usually buyers whould like to know who are you.

 

Use newsletter

 
Using a newsletter boost – This is a great way of staying in touch with customers and potential buyers is to offer a newsletter dealing with their interests on regular basis. The topic of the letter needs to be something dealing with the niche you choose.

Collect emails

Collect email addresses for your distribution list - You must have a good buyers distribution list!

 

Test your ads

Test your auction ads- this is especially critical if you use an ad over and over for a particular product- (this is irrelevant if you sell lots of different items) - Services like Honesty offer free counters and image hosting will give you an easy free way to do this.

mproved yourself

 
Remember this term:

Conversion Ratio: This is the number of bids per number of visitors. Change and test your ads until you get a high conversion ratio. If you’re getting an average 1 bid per 10 visitors, or a 10% C.R.- change something in your ad to try to improve this.

Backup

Backup your data

Keep good records because auction income is taxable

Preparation

If you don’t have much time to spend at the post office, prepare in advance. You can take care of all your postage needs from the comfort of your own home.

To do this:

  • Buy an inexpensive scale
  • Print postage from your PC
  • Look into having a mail service come by to pick up your packages.

  

Ship promptly as you can 

 

You need to ship promptly. If you sell only few items a week and you decided you ship only once a week – make sure you state it in the shipping policy of the ad.

 

Focus in one direction

Opportunities are everywhere online and it won’t be long before you see them. But you need to resist the temptation to go chasing off after them. Stick with what works best, polish and perfect it. Focus your efforts in one direction .

 
Emulate the best 
 

Learn from the best - If you want to know how to succeed with auctions: emulate the best. Keep an eye out for sellers with astronomical ratings or those who are selling large volumes of items and paying lots for advertising.

You’re clues as to how to make money will come from those who already know.
 

 

Up-Selling activity   

Boost your profits by up-selling. This is a technique that works very well with online auctions. This is something extra you offer to the customer in the end of auction email.

Some guidelines:

  • It must complement the product they bid on.
  • Keep the item around 30-40% of the original products price.
  • Too cheap, you give it away. Too expensive, no one buys.
 
 
Use template
 

Have your template for Ad description for similar item.

 

Good item - Start with low price
 
If you have good items that you know will sell then start the bid with low price to build a crowd

  

 

Thanks with a smile :-)

 Note: As I am not native English speaker (and writer) I assume that there are some grammar mistakes in my article. I will appreciate if someone can review and correct these mistakes

   Thanks - David Tip.

 

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