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Archive for the ‘Amazon’ Category
Hey everyone, I wanted to express how important titles are today. I recently had someone ask me if I could check their Amazon auctions to see if they were up to par. They were great auctions but the title was blah and plain. They were titles that could even be overlooked or even forgettable. This individual had things like “knife for sale” or “coffee pot”.
The problem was; the coffee pot was a kettle and was very old. It was probably worth some money since it was made in the early 1900’s. The knife was a prop survival knife from Rambo the movie(another great item poorly explained in the title). He didn’t know why the items were not selling. He could have easily sold the kettle if he said something like “1902 antique kettle in great condition”. Thankfully, I helped him out and sold his items next time around with a great title. You have to tell as much as you can in the title.
The title is what gets your customer to your auction or item page. Even on a website, make your item titles catchy and detailed. This is the only sure way to bring targeted traffic to your items. For instance, someone looking for a coffee pot would never click on an auction title like; “1902 antique kettle in great condition”. But an antique collector would be interested. And the other way around; the antique collector would probably not click onto a title like “coffee pot”.
You have to think of how you would search for something if you were looking for something specific. After all, the words in your title are the keywords that the search engine would find. Try to put words in your title that you know someone looking for that item would specifically search for in the search engine.
Putting item specific keywords in your title is the key to having the most targeted people visit your item/auction page. This alone isn’t good enough though. You have to be witty and think of a unique, eye catching title. Try and be original and don’t copy anyone. People seem to click on to catchy titles they haven’t seen before.
It’s almost like the “been there, done that attitude”. If they have seen one, they have seen them all. Make your titles something new that nobody has ever seen. Find a formula that works and stick with your originality. Originality can make you stand out among the rest as a seller. Even if you are a new seller; nobody will ever know if you can come up with some keen and descriptive auction/item titles.
I have seen so many new sellers steal another seller’s idea for a title. The problem is; the title they stole was boring and not very descriptive. Boring titles will not sell a thing. It’s a rarity when a new seller comes along with “the same old’ same old’ ” and goes on to succeed. Be your own person and think of everything you do own your own.
It’s okay to see what others are doing. Everyone likes to see what the competition is doing. It’s a very important part of your business to see what your competition is doing. This way you can get a step up on them. Do everything you can to out-wit your competition. But, stay within the realm of originality.
Think about it, you don’t see newspapers always using the same headings or titles. You may see an advertisement phrase for a while but something new always comes a long. They try not to use the same titles because the customers would get bored. They would think they were reading the same stuff all the time.
That’s like your auction titles if they were the same. The customers wouldn’t click on them because they would think they were going to see the same old stuff. Do something to draw them there. Get them to believe they are going to see something new and fresh if they click onto your auction/item. Titles are your advertisements.
Thanks for reading!
Hi everyone, I hope your weekend was good. It has been a little over a month since ebay lowered their auction insertion fees (but raised final value fees by a whopping 3%). There has been a huge serge of powersellers leaving ebay in the past few months. I am not one of them.
I am not complaining about ebay because I still make good money there. But, I am pointing out that it is very difficult to make money on ebay since the new fee changes. I knew I would see a huge chunk of my profit taken away. I had over one thousand dollars extra go to ebay this month, because of the new fee changes.
It is so sad to see something you have watched develop for the better through the years, just turned to rubble. The new person in charge of ebay(his name is not worth mentioning) has even commented that ebay powersellers are not important. He also commented that there will be even more rule changes and price hikes in the near future. I can’t see anyone making money there if this happens. He took over early this year and has already ruined it for new users as far as I am concerned.
It can be very difficult for anyone just starting out with sales online. I don’t recommend ebay as a place to start for beginners anymore. There are so many tips and tricks you need to know about ebay that your average Joe would not make a dime for profit. You used to be able to list whatever you have on ebay and it would sell.
Now ebay has become such a cut-throat market, that you have to be buying hundreds or thousands of units wholesale in order to make any profit. Drop shipping has become almost impossible to make any money on ebay. I only suggest using drop shipping and ebay together if you are very experienced.
I have been a seller on ebay since 1998 and times do change. Just think of all the options you have available compared to a few years ago. Lots of new auction websites have made a great name for themselves in the past year or so. Ebay will not be around forever. When a product becomes as commercialized as ebay, it can only go down from there.
Ebay has already reached its peak. In fact, I think ebay has overshot their peak by a few years. I suggest trying another marketplace that has free or low listing fees if you are just starting out. You can find some great auction marketplaces in this “top 15 auction places of 2007-2008” list I made. You can find part 2 of that list here.
Thankfully, I have only helped people make money on ebay lately. I have actually helped people become ebay experts. But, I am going to start referring people just starting out away from ebay. There are too many options out there for other great auction marketplaces to pass up. I have been making more money on other auction places lately. Ebay has just become this big money sucking monster lately. Ebay used to be the only way to go if you were starting out with sales online.
There are even some great social marketplaces popping up. Look at facebook marketplace. They have become a huge success in the short few months it has been out. It is proof people are searching for other means to make money besides ebay. More social marketplaces will be popping up all over. I even heard that myspace is thinking about having a social marketplace like facebook has introduced.
Five years ago an ebay powerseller would never chance leaving ebay to make money. There just wasn’t any place that had eBay’s traffic. That’s what it is all about. If the website gets lots of traffic, the more sales you will make. Even Amazon couldn’t compete with ebay five years ago. But now, it’s a whole other story. Ebay has actually paved the way for websites like Amazon and Overstock to take over the auction marketplace world.
When it all comes down to it; Ebay has become prettier and shinier. But looks aren’t everything. Take a look at the whole package and you will notice ebay might not be worth your time and effort. Ebay is becoming too much work for the small profit you make. I am not sure if the new generation will appreciate eBay’s new policies and fee hikes.
Times always change, so we will have to wait and see what happens. But one thing is for sure. Nothing lasts forever and something better always comes along. In today’s age of people getting laid off from life long career jobs, you will notice people flocking to the best bang for your buck. The new ebay is not the best bang for your buck anymore.
Thanks for reading my blog everyone! See you tomorrow.
Hi everyone, I hope everything is going well for you. Have you ever had an idea for a great product that you could make yourself? Lots of people have ideas like this. The problem is; most people don’t know how to distribute the product they make. This can be a huge problem. After you read this post, you will know everything you need to successfully promote your product.
It’s easier to make your own product than most people might think. Just think of things you are good at doing. When you make your own product you have an advantage. You set the standards for prices you can sell your product. You will have little to no competition. Your product will most likely be original and rare. Originality sells anything on the market. Consumers love to try new things. If you can come up with a product that people need, you could end up being a millionaire.
The first place you can distribute your product is auction or social marketplaces. This takes a lot of time but you will reach millions of customer right away. This can be the money that keeps you going until you are developed better. Ebay is a great place to start; but I would recommend staying away from ebay for now. Ebay can cost a lot of money to make only a little if you are unexperienced. You can find some great auction places that won’t cost you as much as ebay in my top 15 list of 2007-2008.
If you already have a website, put your product on your website. Get a good template or build a professional looking website. Now that you have a website, you have to do the most important thing. ADVERTISE AND MARKET your website and product. So many people make the mistake of just having a website without telling anyone about it. They think being in search engines are good enough.
Promote your product and website to social networks. Especially the ones that let you distribute articles about your product to your friends list. Facebook, technorati, digg, delicious, myspace, are some great places to make some friends. Try and make friends with people that have the same interests as you. Chances are they will be interested in your product as well.
Write some articles about your product and website. Submit articles to major article websites. These websites get millions of hits everyday. All of these people come to read original articles. Keep your articles original and catchy. Hopefully your product is catchy enough. You can write articles at various places around the internet for free. I wrote a post about some good article websites you can use here.
Make some friends in forums. Forums can bring you tons of traffic. There are millions of members to various forums out there. Don’t underestimate the power of a good forum. Make sure the forums you sign up for are related to your product/business. Don’t spam the forums with posts either. That will only get you kicked off or suspended. You want to actually make some friends there. Talk about various topics in the forum. Make sure the forum gives you the option to have a signature. The signature is how you will get people to your website/product. Put your website in the signature. Now, every time you leave a response or start a topic in the forum, people will see your website link and visit your website. Because the forum is related to the topic of your business/product, more people will buy your product. Don’t join forums if they don’t let you have a signature.
Submit your website to as many website directories as possible. Most website directories will let you submit your website for free. This can be a great way to bring in traffic but can take time to see results. Try and set up the keywords on your website. Put as many keywords as you can that relate to what your product is about. This way search engines will find content related to your business/product. This can be very effective if you get good at it.
Keep the content one your website updated. Update your website at least once a day. Only the newest content makes it to search engine front pages. If the content on your website is over a month old, you don’t stand a chance to make it on the front page of Google. The old style of search engines would have let you slide. But new updated search engines are optimized to find the new stuff first. Google is probably the most popular search engine out there. They don’t want their readers to find old content on the front page and in the number 1 position. Think about it.
Most of these techniques take time to see results. The results are too overwhelming to ignore. These techniques are very effective if you have time and dedication on your side. Any marketing firm charging you thousands of dollars will advertise the same way if you are lucky. Now you know how to advertise and market your product. Get to work!
If you have any questions, feel free to email me or leave a comment. Thanks for reading everyone!
If you sell on ebay; The best way to check the starting prices would be advanced search. Then you can choose to look at all auctions going right now and what auctions have ended also. You can choose completed items to see what the best selling price was. This is usually the best way to check what price is good to start at.
Just click onto advanced search next to the search bar on ebay’s homepage. Now you will see a screen that brings you to advanced auction search.
Here is what I do; Write down the prices of the last ten sales that ended and sold at 8pm eastern time. Now, add them all up and divide by 10. This is the average selling price. Now you have a price to start your item. Sometimes this number won’t jive. But, use your own judgment, as this method works great 95% of the time. I try and make the average price, my buy it now price. Start the auction with a little lower price (at your discretion) than your buy it now price.
Recently I noticed the times people buy things on ebay have changed a little. On weekdays 6-10pm eastern time is the optimal time you want your auction to end. On the weekends the best time goes to 6-12pm eastern. (this is the most common time of day people buy things on ebay right now). So, I recommend you using this time frame for your auctions to end. Notice the times have changed dramatically since last October. Here is a post I made back in October about selling times.
If you don’t sell on ebay: I would recommend doing a search in Google and find and average that way. Take the first ten stores to you find selling the same product you want to sell. Add up their prices, divide by ten and you will get an average price to sell your item. Don’t set your price to high. You don’t want to be the highest price out there, just because other stores sell it for that much. Use your head; lower your price if you can and take their customers away.
There are 2 different price groups. One price group is called custom products. Custom products are ones that you or someone else have created. It wasn’t mass-produced by a manufacturer. Custom items are not usually found online. So putting an average price can be a lot harder. I would even put rare items into a custom price category. Custom price items generally sell for good money. Custom items are usually hard to find items, so people will want to pay more for them. I recommend making your own custom product. Custom price items are really good money makers. Ebay is a great place to showcase a custom item and make good money.
The second price category is called manufactured products. These are products that are mass-produced. They are usually made in a huge manufacturing plant. They usually come with a pretty box to dress it up. Manufactured products are generally very easy to set a starting price. You can usually find these items everywhere online. The problem with these types of items is; the products are usually in high demand and there is lots of competition selling the same products. The product to profit ratio will be a lot lower than a custom product, especially on ebay. You have to do lots of research to find the perfect product for the perfect price to buy at, so you can sell it at a low competitive price.
I hope this explains how you can price your items more accurately. I have been using this little system for years now and it works like a charm. Thanks for reading my blog everyone. Let me know if you have any questions. See you tomorrow.
Hi everyone, I hope your weekend is going good. I got a lot of feedback over my top 7 list yesterday. Thanks for all your feedback. I don’t mind helping all of my readers. Well, here is the bottom 8 on my list of best online auction marketplaces of 2007-08. Just because they are on the bottom, doesn’t mean I don’t recommend them. I recommend expanding your ebay business to all of the auction marketplaces in my top 15 list.
8. Ubid (***1/2) - Ubid.com makes the top 10 in my list for keeping the low prices on their website a priority. They have been around a long time (since 1997) and they are not going anywhere, anytime soon. They are known for their famous 30 minute auction. I have got some really great stuff on Ubid. You can get some great bargains there. Ubid is great if you are looking to buy good merchandise for cheap money. I have used Ubid many times to buy and then resell somewhere else. I recommend ubid if you are looking for another ebay alternative.
9. Half (***1/2) - Half.com makes the top 10 on my list for very obvious reasons. One is; they are owned and run by ebay. That means, they get tons of traffic. More traffic = more sales. Half has been around about 10 years now. They have a great reputation for selling books and other small item digital media. This is where most college students buy their books. At half.com you can save a ton of money if you are looking for expensive books or media. Especially if you are looking to resell them. Half.com is also a great place to get rid of books or digital media you don’t want anymore. I have never been an avid seller there. But I do use them to get rid of small media I don’t want. Give them a try if your house is starting to look like a library.
10. epier (***1/2) - Epier.com is another great ebay alternative. Of course they don’t get the traffic ebay gets. But they get enough buyers that you will make money. Epier has established a great reputation over a span of 10 years. They have silently climbed the popularity ladder as the years have gone by. Not many people know about epier. They made the top 10 on my list because they are like a lost treasure. I tried them a few years back and there were not many members. Now they have tons of members and the seller competition is very minimal.
11. bid-alot (***) - Bid-alot.com is another good online auction marketplace. Bid-alot didn’t make my top 10 because the active members have shrunk dramatically in the past 6 months. Most of the users went to some of the auction places I listed in the top 10. It’s funny how you recognize other powersellers from ebay by seeing them all these years. Bid-alot has been around for about 5 years and they are a good place to buy. You might not make as much money selling there. But I have found more than a few great deals that I ended up making lots of money from. Sign up and give them a try.
12. Craigslist (***) - Craigslist.com (classifieds) is a fantastic place to sell or buy anything. They get almost as much traffic as ebay on a daily basis. The sales turn around by listing an item on craigslist is phenomenal! I recommend using them if you want more sales. The only reason craigslist didn’t make my top 5 list of 2008-07 is because of the increase of scammers working over innocent people. Craigslist has become notorious for the famous Nigerian check scam. Read this post I made about the fake check scam if you want to use craigslist. Beware, there are lots of people that try to scam you with fake checks on craigslist. Don’t except any checks if you plan to sell anything on craigslist. I recommend using craigslist as they should probably be in my top 5. But I want to make it clear, be very cautious if you sell anything there. I try and steer people away from places they may be scammed. But, if you are a cautious person, familiar with scammers, you will be okay. O’yeah, craigslist is a magnificent place to pick up some really good things for cheap money. Especially, if you plan on reselling the merchandise. Give them a try. They are totally free to use.
13. sell (***) - Sell.com is a good place to buy and sell also. They are kind of set up like craigslist(classifieds). They have tons of members and you will sell lots of things there if you have a good niche. Certain categories seem to sell a lot better than others, Um, if you know what I mean. Adult things for those that don’t get it. I have been able to sell a lot of lingerie at sell.com. It’s also a good place to get a deal on a few things. You can even find the strange and original items that are hard to find. An Elvis backscratcher that sold for $112.00. What’s up with that, lol? I guess you can find anything in classified ads. Give them a try. Sell.com is a good place to expand your business.
14. Shopgoodwill (***) - Shopgoodwill.com is another little secret I have kept until today. I know, you are probably laughing, goodwill. But I am laughing all the way to the bank. I have bought more than a few used and “working” Xbox 360’s for under $100.00 on shopgoodwill. Those are just a few things I have bought there recently. I have probably bought 2 items a week, for the past 4 months on shopgoodwill. I have bought some really good items that I re-sold for more than double. You can’t sell anything on shopgoodwill. But, the great things you can buy there for cheap money is excellent! I recommend using shopgoodwill.com, if you don’t mind re-selling used, “working” items.
15. cqout (***) - Cqout.com is a great auction marketplace. There are thousands of members on cqout.com. The only reason they are last on my list is because they serve mostly United Kingdom. You can click onto the American flag to find local auctions, so they are very versatile. They are great for selling or buying. Not much competition for sellers. But, there is a huge amount of buyers on cqout.com. There is no reason not to expand your ebay business to cqout as well. The more places you have your items up for sale; the more items will sell. It’s just the law of selling anything.
As you can see, ebay isn’t the only money maker in the auction marketplace world anymore. Lots of little auction websites have stepped up to the plate. And, with all the powersellers leaving ebay over recent rule and fee changes. It looks very good for the up and coming auction marketplaces. Just remember, none of these auction marketplaces get the consistent traffic that ebay produces, YET. Although, some of them come very close. And hey, every little bit counts, if you are trying to leave ebay and lose the high auction fees. I regularly use 13 out of the top 15 auction marketplaces on my list. 12 of them collectively, make WAY more money for me than ebay. That’s why I say every little bit counts. Expand away from ebay for a little while. Or keep your ebay business going and expand at the same time. You have nothing to lose except more sales everyday.
I have some more places to list. They are not marketplaces that you can sell. But, they are great places to pick up items for a great price, so you can resell. Come back tomorrow and check out the list.
Thanks for reading everyone.
Hi everyone, today I will be giving you some useful information to steer away from ebay and their high prices. I have not fully jumped the ebay bandwagon yet, but it’s about that time. I will probably always sell on ebay. Recently, I have been selling on other auction websites for experimental purposes. Because of ebay’s recent strict rule changes and price hikes, some really good auction marketplaces have popped up all over.
I tested all the auctions marketplaces I will tell you about in my top 15 list. They are some really good auction websites that actually have traffic and a really good sales to listing ratio. A few of them bring in more traffic than ebay in certain times of the year. Amazon and overstock have reported record numbers in November and December 2007. Amazon reported more sales in the Christmas season of 2007 than ebay reported. That means people are starting to drift away from ebay more than ever.
Late last year I made a post relating to the auction marketplaces that were hot around that time. You can find that post here. I have to say, “even though those auction places are great”; the list I have for you in my next two posts, are WAY better in quality. In the past 8 months I have been experimenting with over 40 online auction marketplaces. I know, I will have a lot of happy readers after my 2 part post on top 15 auction marketplaces of 2007-08.
The auction places I tell you about in my list, are the very best out there right now. Although, none of them get the consitent traffic that ebay receives; they have a fantastic turn around ratio. And, all of their auction fees are either, free or VERY cheap! Many, actually have a huge chance of surpassing ebay’s warpath on the online auction world. Okay, here is the list that will change the way you do business online from now on.
Here is my list of the top 15 auction marketplaces of 2007-2008. Listed from best to worst. I will be ranking them on a five star scale. Five stars being the best and 1 star being the worst. Don’t worry the worst is still a great place to make money. I don’t want to bore you with a huge post. So this will be a two part series in a 2 day blog post.
1. Ebay (*****) - Ebay.com still belongs in top dog position. Although, I don’t make as much as I used to on ebay; I still make more on ebay than any other one auction marketplace. So Ebay definitely deserves slot number 1 on my list. Keep in mind, if I combine all the other auction marketplaces I use, except ebay, I make double of what I make on ebay. So I could survive if ebay were to leave my life today. The fact is, it doesn’t look too bright for ebay’s future in the online auction marketplace world. Especially, with all the new rule and fee changes. So many sellers like me are leaving if they haven’t left already. Also, all the new auction marketplaces are making an effort to rid ebay forever. Don’t underestimate ebay though. They still hold the crown in my book for top auction marketplace.
2. Overstock (*****) - Well, I give auctions.overstock.com 5 stars like ebay. I gave them 5 stars and number 2 slot because they are a goldmine. There isn’t much competition selling and there are millions of users buying. In a short amount of time, overstock has been making me some really good money. Not as much as ebay. But I am sure, if I put as many items on overstock as ebay; my sales may be more than ebay. Overstock has really impressed me. I have only been using them for about 3 months and the turn around ratio reminds me of the old ebay. I recommend overstock.com as your primary ebay alternative. The fees are very at overstock are very minimal compared to ebay.
3. webidz (*****) - Webidz.com beat out Amazon on my list because they bring in more sales for less money. Webidz is my little hidden treasure. This place also reminds me of the old ebay. And guess what? Webidz is free to list items! That’s another reason it beat out Amazon in my top 15 list. The traffic you get on webidz is great. There isn’t much competition as a seller. And there are more buyers than sellers, so you make good money. I recommend using webidz as your FREE ebay alternative.
4. Amazon (*****) - Amazon really deserves the top 5 in my list of best auction places. In my honest opinion; I think Amazon will eventually take ebay’s place or they will become a lot bigger than ebay someday. Amazon has been ebay’s close competition this past year. In the Christmas season of 2007, Amazon beat out ebay’s reported sales volume. In fact, Amazon destroyed ebay’s sales numbers almost 2-1 during the winter season of 2007! That goes to show how much potential Amazon has to take over the auction marketplace. The money you make there isn’t too shabby either. Give them a try if you are thinking about an ebay alternative.
5. Onlineauction (****) - Onlineauction.com is another great ebay alternative. They get tons of traffic and a majority of the items you list, sell. They even have a deal right now. If you sign up, you will be considered a founding member and you receive a free e-commerce website through them. Hey, it’s free and it’s a great deal. Don’t pass it up. Expand away from ebay. Give onlineauction a try. They have a very small monthly fee and you can list unlimited auctions! Onlineauctions rightfully deserves the top 5 in my top auction marketplaces list. You can make great money there!
6. Ebid (****) - Ebid.net is a HUGE auction marketplace. They are set up just like ebay. They have a different website for almost every country around the world. Just click onto your country and sign up. For instance; ebid’s USA website is us.ebid.net which brings you to only people in the USA. One of the best reasons I put ebid.net in the top 10 right under Amazon; They are free. If you open a store, all your listings will be free also. Plus you get a free T-shirt, lol. It might sound cheesy, but the sales you make on ebid are well worth using a free auction marketplace.
7. ioffer (****) - ioffer.com is another good ebay alternative. You can even transfer your ebay feedback onto your ioffer account. You don’t pay any listing fees. You only pay a small final value fee when your item sells. ioffer gives you a free ecommerce website storefront. ioffer makes it onto the top 15 of my list because the fees are very minimal in comparison with the money you make there. Even though ioffer gets really good traffic, they don’t get as much traffic compared to the first 6 in my list. But there are a lot more buyers than sellers on ioffer. And, as you know, with little selling competition and more buyers, you will sell more items. There is a reason they are in my top 15 list, with 4 out of 5 stars, check them out.
Tomorrow I will continue my list of great ebay alternatives. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me. Thanks for reading my blog everyone!
I was on the ebay message boards today. I visit the message boards often. The hottest subject right now is, all the powersellers that have already left ebay to move on to another auction place. Back in February the big sellers boycotted ebay for a week. There is a huge list of people that are upset about all the recent changes and are leaving no matter what. I am stuck on the fence on this one. I still make great money on ebay, no matter how high the fees go. But, to take more money out of my pocket, tacking on more restrictions, and giving us less, is really starting to tick me off.
I don’t mean to sound like a cry baby. I have been selling on ebay since 1997 and in the past 4 years it has really got out of hand. All you old school sellers know what I am talking about. The overhead of running a website is little to none. Give us a better experience instead of stealing our freedom of the real ebay experience. I don’t care if ebay restricts certain items to change with the times, that’s fine. But, their rules and price hikes are worse than the tax hikes in Massachusetts. They are all uncalled for and not needed.
What positive changes are ever going to come from raising auction and final value fees? The big retail companies are going to move in. They already have. Who do you think sells brand new cell phones, video game consoles, and brand name clothing on ebay at prices that beat all the other competition? Its the retail stores. You can only buy these items at real wholesale prices from the manufacturer. You need a brick and mortar retail store to do so. The manufacturer also tells the retail store to only sell at MSRP. Which means, home businesses can’t get these items for real wholesale prices. But that’s a whole other story.
Home business owners are the only reason ebay got where they are today. We started it all. Now ebay has decided to change direction in such, that home business owners can’t make a living there anymore. There was a time that home business owners could make a substantial living on ebay. Ebay has become this big over publicized monster. New users never get what they wanted because it’s over hyped.
New members sign up everyday with the wrong knowledge of “It’s easy to make money on ebay”. That’s not true at all anymore. I feel bad for new users that fall for this trap and list 100 items off the bat, thinking they will all sell. You need to know tricks and tips to make your items sell on ebay now-a-days. If you are new to ebay, don’t plan on making fast money. You need to learn the ropes first. You can’t just jump in to it.
You need to do extensive research and have the knowledge to keep a float and still make money on ebay. I have basically become an ebay tutor in the past few years. I teach people how they can make money on ebay. But I also stress to them, it is not as easy as it used to be. I just don’t like where ebay is going with all the new changes in our pockets. They can do whatever they like to rules and the way ebay is run. But stop taking from our pockets ebay.
I have already expanded to Amazon and a half dozen other good marketplaces around the web in the past few years. I don’t see more business coming from any one of them. But as a whole, that other part of my business is making more money than ebay. That tells me that: I could leave ebay and it won’t effect me in a bad way. Get going everyone. Go expand your business, so ebay isn’t the only way you make money online.
I have said this before and I will say it again. Something bigger and better always comes along. Ebay is just making it easier for the competition to take over. Look around people. Right now, there are plenty of options besides ebay. I am not saying leave ebay(unless you want to). But at least branch off, in to other auction marketplaces. The worst that can happen is; you might make more money.
Thanks for reading my blog everyone. See you tomorrow.
Get into drop shipping slowly. The competition is hard enough as it is. Rookies will find no success in drop shipping on ebay. Drop shipping on ebay is very competitive nowadays. You have to find a niche. Even when you find a niche, it could only last a few weeks or months. Make all the money you can from each niche until it’s not in demand anymore. Niches fade as time and fads change. You have to be very experienced in researching what is selling and what is not selling. Ebay is the best place to find out what items are hot. Even if you don’t sell on ebay. You can find lots of ways to find what items are hot on this blog post I made. http://thehomedropshipguide.com/blog/ebay-hot-items/
There is way more than just constant research to know when you start drop shipping. If you have made your mind up about drop shipping, take it in small to moderate steps. The only way to get experience with something is to do it. Hands-on is the best experience. People seem to learn things better when they actually do it. You can learn from your mistakes with hands on experience. You will also be able to understand directions when you have an idea of what is going on. Understanding and learning new skills always take practice. But when you are spending money to make money, you need to make as few mistakes a possible.
After you do your research and find a product with your drop shipper give it a try. But try to sell only one or maybe two items(one to two auctions) at a time. Follow through with the transactions and learn how things go with your drop shipper. Learn the process of drop shipping when someone wins an ebay auction. Once you learn the process of drop shipping you can start to expand to sell more items. But only if you feel comfortable that you know what you are doing and know the process.
When you sell one or two items at a time until you are used to things; you can benefit in many ways. You can test out each drop shipper to see how their service and products are compared to other drop shippers. You will learn the routine of being a retailer through a drop shipper. Experience will make you look more professional because you won’t make as many mistakes as a rookie drop shipper. I recommend signing up with a few drop shippers. Shop around for drop shippers. Every drop shippers prices will be different from another one. Some will have lower prices and other drop shippers prices will be very high. Don’t be afraid to shop around for drop shippers like you would shop around for a car.
Your customers want to deal with a professional, not some kid. They want a smooth transaction and a product that is, what you say it is. Remember, you can’t be professional about something you don’t know about. Do as much research as you can before you jump into drop shipping with both feet. Especially if you are new to ebay. Yes, ebay makes it very easy to make money. But you won’t make money with no experience.
If you already know ebay, I would still throw caution to drop shipping until you get to know the world of drop shipping. Some wholesale/drop shippers don’t care about your ebay customers or your ebay business. They just care about sales. But there are lots of wholesale/drop ship companies that care a lot about you and your customers. You just have to search until you find some that you like. Find a few drop shippers that understand and know that your customers mean more money for their business. They are usually not some fly-by-night companies. Fly-by-night drop shippers are the ones to watch out for. They are just out to make money.
When you are ready for drop shipping you will know it. Search for a few drop shippers to use. Don’t settle for just one drop shipper. What happens if one of your drop shippers is out of stock and you sell something? You need a back-up plan. The best back-up plan you can have with drop shipping; is having a few drop shippers for contacts. Using a few drop shippers that sell the same items can really help you. It will make price shopping a little easier for you also.
Make sure if you try drop shipping, you take it in baby steps. Drop shipping is not cut out for everyone. If you have any questions, feel free to email me.
Thanks for reading my blog everyone!
There is too much bogus information about home business on the internet from people that just copy and paste BS on their blog or website. They have no experience and just believe anything somebody says on a web page. So i figured, in my free time I can blog and help people.
But mainly, my goal with this blog is to steer people away from scams and bogus content. And at the same time I want to answer questions and help people. I hate get rich quick scams around the internet. Lots of people fall prey to them everyday and I am really sick of it. The thing I really hate about scams online are the ebooks that come along and say you can be rich overnight. That will never happen.
I have written a couple of ebooks to help people, just because of all the scams with ebooks out there. My ebooks do well, as they are special. I do not just sell an ebook to you. I back it up with my experience by helping along the way. That’s something nobody else is doing. Most people have never even used the information they sell as ebooks. It is usually just information they found online somewhere. I do charge money for my ebooks, as my customers get VIP service and work I can’t do for free. I do go the extra mile for people that buy my ebooks. When someone purchases an ebook they get 3(more if needed) months of tutoring from me. I offer unconditional help with things like researching and finding wholesalers you want, to showing you step by step anything you can’t figure out. I won’t advertise my ebooks on this post, as they do well already.
Who knows, maybe I can start a trend and experienced people will start writing ebooks and sell them along with experienced tutoring. Offer a money back guarantee and all the scam artists will be forced to do something else for a living. If you can’t help someone with questions about your ebook or how to do the subject in your ebook, you shouldn’t be allowed to sell it.
I do have a couple on blogs. Two blogs are for fun. I do use one blog to make money. I have advertisements and took some advice from the great John Chow among others. I don’t make much with the blog but that’s fine. It’s a learning experience and I am not in it for the money anyway. I want to help people learn how to make money at home. Even part time, anything extra helps. I know how it is to be scratching your head at home saying “how can I make money at home or online?” I was that person ten years ago.
I have been using ebay for about ten years. I met this great guy in 1998 who was always telling me how much money he made on ebay. He was nice enough to show me the ropes and get started on ebay. Maybe I got wanting to help people from him. Ebay was how I started making money from home online. I have expanded to many other marketplaces as auction marketplaces are my specialty. As you know, I do not list my auction marketplace ID’s anymore for sabatage reasons. Sad to say but, almost as soon as I started showing my auction id’s on my blogs(especially ebay) I noticed frantic fraud bidding and an avalanche of scam artists. So I don’t advertise my auctions or stores on my blogs anymore. They get enough exposure already on those marketplaces anyway. As you can tell, from the tips and information I give people on my blog; it’s not like I need the help when it comes to making money online.
For the past six months I have been teaching myself affiliate marketing. My goal is to get away from selling and live off of affiliate marketing instead (Don’t worry, I will always have my home business blogs. I think teaching people correct ways to bring in a little extra money at home is very important). I am finding out there is less work and stress involved with affiliate marketing. All you do is list a company link on one of your websites and when customers click that link you get paid in different ways; depending what that person does on that companies website. There are all kinds of tricks and tips to learn to be an affiliate marketing master. But that’s just like anything else. Practice makes perfect.
I would like to thank my friends around the net who have been kind enough to give me advice on how to market and advertise my websites. I get lots of great advice on young entreprenuer, a forum I visit to get and give home business advice. You see, I am using this kind of A&M knowledge to build experience of making and bringing traffic to my dream business website someday. Marketing and advertising is the most important part of having a website. If nobody knows you have a website, how can they visit it? Over the past six months I have become an advertising and marketing genius.
I think overall I will probaby stick with ebay through thick and thin until something else comes along better. Right now ebay has all marketplaces cornered. Ebay is pretty much the monopoly of auction marketplaces right now. There is too much money to be lost by taking ebay out of the equasion. History always repeats though. Someday something will come along bigger and better than ebay.
But I will always be here for my readers, I love to help people. I have developed quite a following with this blog and I thank you. Now I have found a new love for blogging. Helping people go hand and hand on my blogs. Anyone with questions about making money at home will not be ignored on my blog. In my years of helping people only one person has not been successful. And to tell you the truth, I don’t think they tried.
I do my best to post on my blogs everyday for you, although sometimes it’s just not possible. When I do post, it is usually answering someones question or giving information they asked about. I find answering my readers questions is most useful to everyone. I have been answering questions along with any tips or tricks I can give in a blog post. So, if you have any questions about making money at home, feel free to ask me. It doesn’t cost anything to ask me questions, don’t be shy:) I really am just someone who cares and wants to help you. Times are tough enough without trying to avoid scams too. I would hate to see anyone make a costly mistake they could have avoided. I have helped people from all around the world make money at home.
Thanks for reading my blog everyone. Have a great day!
Hi everyone, I wish everyone a great weekend! It’s Friday, so I figured I would do something fun for a change. Today I got a lot of requests asking about free ebay auction templates. It seems like everyone wants more ebay templates. After all, ebay custom auction templates really sell your item all by itself. Customers look for professional looking auctions. Studies show the customer will stay on your auction page longer if your auction is attractive.
It’s hard to hold interest in something as boring as a plain text auction description. Are you using custom templates to build your ebay auction pages? Or are you a boring text description seller on ebay?
I make my own auction templates from scratch. I don’t usually use auction templates as a base to create my ebay auction pages. But it seems there are tons of you out there that want decent ebay templates for free. There is nothing wrong with turning an ebay template in to your own masterpiece either. You have to learn somewhere. Here is another great place I found for auction templates. http://www.isdntek.com/demo/onlinetemplates.htm
That website has tons of tools and templates for beginners and expert auction builders. Here is another great place to find some decent auction templates. Just click onto the auction template to view; then right click onto the auction template page and choose view source, now select all and copy. Now you have the code for each of these auction templates. http://www.onlineauctiontrader.com/ebaytemplates.htm
This is another great place to download some free ebay auction templates. These templates come in very handy and are highly customizable to your liking. http://www.alouwebdesign.ca/free-ebay-templates.htm . Just use the view source method and copy and paste the code into your ebay auction description.
I really hope these auction templates help everyone. If you don’t know HTML don’t worry. The templates I gave you are very easy to understand. All you have to do is fill in the blanks with your auction information and pictures. And you will have some great looking auction templates to use next time you list some auctions on ebay. These auction templates are not limited to ebay either. You can use them anywhere and on any auction marketplace that lets you use HTML in the auction description.
If anyone has any questions at all feel free to email me. Thanks for stopping by everyone.
Some wholesalers and manufacturers drop ship, but they don’t advertise it. Just ask your current wholesaler if they drop ship. Most companies will drop ship if you have been a loyal customer. In the past, it didn’t matter if you were making a million dollars a month; no major name brand company would drop ship single items.
If you don’t have a current wholesale distributor, find one and ask if they drop ship for home business also. Drop shipping has become so big in the past year or so, that most wholesale distributors will be drop shipping by the end of this year. If they don’t drop ship, they will lose business to the competition. Ebay and other online marketplaces have users drop shipping.
Most online marketplaces have strict rules about not drop shipping. You are not supposed to list an item for sale if it is not in your possession. But today’s drop ship companies have become very good at what they do. They actually care about your customers. So they will do whatever they can to get your items out to your customers as soon as possible. They will also put your company name and address on the return label. Your customers will never know the item was drop shipped.
If you have trouble looking for a wholesaler that will work with your home business do some research. Sometimes it is tough to find a wholesaler if you don’t know what to look for. Here is a post I made about how to find real wholesale/drop shippers. You can read it here. That should help you find a drop shipper.
It can be very time consuming to find the right wholesalers to work with. Sometimes it will take you days or weeks to find the right wholesaler. If you wanted to save some research time, you could get a source company to find real wholesalers that will drop ship for you. Source companies have teams of people that constantly do research to find the wholesalers that will work with small business. World Wide Brands are a great wholesaler/drop ship source. I recommend World Wide Brands to any home business looking for real wholesale/drop shippers. They are the only drop ship/wholesaler information source that is recommended by ebay.
Wholesaler source companies can be expensive. Most sourcing companies will charge one hundred to three hundred dollars per lifetime membership. But the benefits of having a source company finding wholesalers for you will save you lots of time to dedicate in to other parts of your business.
Wholesaler source companies have been popping up everywhere in the past couple of years. It is a sign that more and more big wholesale distributors are starting to drop ship. This post should help most of you find the right wholesaler/drop shipper for you. If you have any questions, feel free to email me.
Thanks for reading my blog everyone. See you tomorrow.
I would tend to agree that ebay is over saturated for lots of well know and common items. It’s the things that you wouldn’t even guess that sell well. Used items from owner and user manuals to cars sell great on ebay as well. That’s why I recommend going to yard sales, garage sales, and flea markets. It can be a fun time and you will only profit from it. There is a huge list I am putting together this week of used items that sell great on ebay. I should have a post about it by the end of the week.
Ebay is still king when it comes to bringing in sales to sell your items. Unless you have a well established website with lots of traffic; ebay and other auctions sites can be your alternative to making money at home. But through recent years ebay’s listing fees, final value fees, and buy it now fees, have skyrocketed out of control. It’s very hard to make profit on items that one hundred other merchants are selling at around the same prices. So you should always have a backup plan or two. Try some other auction websites, there are some great ones out there. I made a post not too long ago about other worthy auction website marketplaces. It can be found here.
As I have said in the past, don’t make ebay your long term goal. Ebay is a great place to make money. But don’t only sell on ebay. Some day you will be ready to take ebay on full time. Then you will find you want to expand. You can expand to your own website, where all the profit is yours. No high auction listing fees, just sales and profit. You could expand to free partnerships or local social websites like craigslist.com. There should be no limits to what you want to do. Take something you love and start a side project. The best way to make money is by doing something you love. Why not enjoy your job? So many people get to do what they love for a living. Your ideas and dreams can be endless. Together they will make you unstoppable once you put your mind to it.
I would say, yes, ebay is still a great place to make money in sales. They offer some of the best traffic on the net. That equals more sales for you if you know all the tricks. Every little trick or tip you pick up about ebay, is one step better than your competition. Being one step ahead of the competition is one sure way to sell really well on ebay. Ebay has single handed helped the online marketplace world survive. Ebay has also helped support millions of businesses across the world. From small home business owners to major name brand stores. Anyone who thinks ebay is dead or over-saturated is wrong. Even though ebay has become commercialized, they are still the leader. No other auction marketplace has more traffic(customers) or sales go through their website.
If it weren’t for a handful of other auction marketplaces, ebay would have an auction marketplace monopoly.
You can’t learn everything overnight. There is so much to know about ebay, it may take you years to learn all the ins and outs. Just remember, if you have any questions, just ask me. I will do my best to help you out. I recommend ebay for everyone. Even if you never used ebay before. It’s very user friendly and most people get the hang of it right away. Hopefully I have explained to you, that it’s never too late to jump on the ebay bandwagon. Give it a try.
See you all tomorrow, thanks for stopping by.
Hi everyone, I hope you had a great holiday. I got to see lots of family I haven’t seen in a while. That’s always a treat. The question of the day is; Is Amazon better than Ebay? Lots of people email me with this question. Today I will do my best to explain why you want to be a seller on both websites. I am in favor of ebay, they seem to make me more money. But on the other hand, Amazon is very good for small items. Some people don’t know about Amazon. Some people don’t know about ebay. Hopefully I can help you make more money by utilizing the both of them as a seller.
Ebay is king of marketplaces right now. But don’t be fooled, Amazon is not far behind. But ebay wins hands down, when it comes to making more money. Amazon is great for selling small items, especially books, movies, video games, and things for college students. For some reason college students flock to Amazon. Amazon also offers almost everything ebay offers. I actually love to buy things on amazon. Amazon seems to have some really low priced deals sometimes. Once and a while you can find things cheaper than you can on ebay, depending on what product is for sale. Ebay still rules most categories for finding cheap items though. Amazon also offers Amazon prime, a great shipping program. Ebay doesn’t offer a shipping program.
Amazon is a necessity when you are thinking about expanding your business. You can make some really good money there. Just do your research. Find out what the hot items to sell for the most profit. Most of the time, you can use the same hot items from ebay. The good thing about amazon is; the prices are generally higher than ebay. As a seller, you can hike up the price and make more profit. The best thing is; The competition on Amazon will have high prices also. Your competitions prices will be higher than the competition’s prices found on ebay. So even though you won’t sell as much as you do on ebay, you will make good profit, when you do sell something. Amazon always has a great sale going on during the holidays. I think they have a 50%-70% sale going on right now.
So the question still remains…..Who is better; Amazon or Ebay? Ebay will make you the most money as a business. In my honest opinion; I have found ebay, by far, exceeds Amazon. All though Amazon is a great place to make some money. They don’t touch ebay when it comes to bringing in more sales. There are so many options the user has at their fingertips on ebay. Ebay has hundreds of tools floating around cyberspace to better your experience. Amazon doesn’t give you as much as ebay does, to make your experience more user friendly. Allthough Amazon has redone their entire website and it has really changed for the better. Amazon gets tons of traffic. Not as much as ebay, but they get their fair share of traffic.
I am not saying don’t sell on Amazon. I am just saying “Ebay is a better marketplace for the seller”. But I would recommend using both and expanding your business. Amazon is not a waste of time or money. It can really make a difference in that weekly profit margin. Don’t overlook the other marketplaces like Amazon or half.com. There are lots of marketplaces you can use to spread your business name around. Lots of other good marketplaces are free also. So you won’t have anything to lose exept your time. If you want to find out about other online marketplaces, I made a post about it not too long ago. Check it out here
I hope this helps some of you decide who is better. See you tomorrow.