SECTION 1. SELLING ON EBAY: PART 3: LETS SELL SOMETHING

Now for the part you’ve been waiting for, how to begin making money by selling on eBay. We begin with just the basic steps, and will continue in the following sections with key tips & strategies for finding the right products and selling successfully

A. Decide what to sell

Unless you’ve already got a killer idea, the simplest place to start is to use synthetic imagination. That is, take a successful idea and try to do it better, or at least add some kind of extra perceived value [lower cost, uniqueness, free shipping, free bonus gift, etc]. Thus the first real step for most of us is to research items to sell.

Suggestions for Your First Sales Attempts

A few ideas include:

Search your home for unwanted items

Stick to things that are easy to ship. The beauty of this is that as long as you can sell it for more than your selling costs [eBay fees, shipping costs, PayPal fees, etc] anything above that is essentially found money. Don’t factor in your time or capital invested [like for a digital camera or other needed equipment] at this stage, since these are investments in learning the trade. Once your initial self training is complete, you should certainly consider the cost of your time to complete the transaction as should any businessperson.

Research what’s hot.

Then see if you can buy them low enough to profit while selling them at a competitive price.

On eBay itself, start with:
-eBay pulse
-eBay deal finder
EBay pulse: You'll see popular searches, stores, products, and most
watched items. You can filter the lists to show content for specific
categories on eBay.
To access eBay Pulse, follow these steps:
1. Click "Buy" at the top of most eBay pages.
2. Scroll down to the "Other Ways to Browse" section. In this section
you'll see a link for eBay Pulse.
3. Click the "eBay Pulse" link to find the top ten popular searches and
the top five largest stores on eBay.
You can also access eBay Pulse by going to: http://pulse.ebay.com/

EBay deal finder:

1. Click the "Site Map" link at the top of most eBay pages.
2. Click the "eBay Deal Finder" link in the right column, under "More
Ways to Find Items."
3. You will reach the eBay Deal Finder page where you will be able to
select the most sought after items.
http://dealfinder.ebay.com/

Analyze EBay Market Data with terapeak:

www.terapeak.com

Use this site for more advanced research, as noted in the below section of the homepage.

See Appendix 1: MORE ON MARKET RESEARCH for more on these.

How to sell an item on eBay

AFTER YOU’VE REGISTERED and SET UP W/ PAYPAL: HERE ARE THE STEPS

SELECT THE RIGHT CATEGORY IN WHICH TO SELL YOUR ITEM

Sometimes this is obvious, sometimes not. You can search categories by entering item name and search category that is most appropriate.

NOT SURE IF A CATEGORY IS RIGHT FOR YOUR ITEM? CLICK ON SAMPLE LISTING OF WHAT’S IN THE CATEGORY TO SEE THE TYPE OF ITEMS IN THAT CATEGORY. You’ll get option of selling in separate category IF there are distinctly separate audiences.

Fill out / create your listing form, use the simple version

(Explore the more complex one later; it has options that may be useful, like…?)

1. FIRST, FILL IN ITEM NAME. GET TO PUT IN 1 FREE PICTURE, CAN PUT OTHER PICTURES ON YOUR WEBSITE 2 OR MORE PICTURES ON EBAY WILL COST

2. PUT IN PICTURE USE PHOTOSHOP OR OTHER PROGRAM TO REDUCE FILE SIZE IF NEEDED

3. FILL IN DESCRIPTION: Consider writing and saving it in Word and then cut/paste the text into the description. Not only do you get the full word features like the spell checker to review your work (always use this before submitting); you also can save the description on your computer for future reference or reuse.

4. RECORD A STARTING BID, SHIPPING DETAILS AND NUMBER OF DAYS TO DELIVER.

5. DECIDE HOW YOU’D LIKE TO BE PAID – BEGINNERS SHOULD STICK WITH PAYPAL for simplicity and security of payment. Warning, unless your initial signup goes smoothly, getting setup with them can be a time consuming headache.”PayPal customer service” can be one of the great oxymorons. If one or two email correspondences don’t solve the problem, abandon email correspondence. My personal experience suggests that reading comprehension is not a major hiring criterion at customer “service”, so call them and don’t be shy about asking for a supervisor.

6. Put in at least one picture in the picture gallery. Currently, (12/08) eBay offers 1 free picture, additional categories ALWAYS USE THE GALLERY PICTURE – normally worth the 35 cents extra,

a. Much better chance to sell. also this picture shows up in search results,

b. eBay asks you to install some free software to upload image

c. can avoid eBay’s fee for extra pictures by self hosting more pictures i.e. putting in a link to a website or blog with more pictures and thus avoid eBay fees for extra pictures, thus allowing the buyer to see more pictures

d. If you don’t put in that link, then let the buyer know that buy right clicking on the picture and selecting the properties option, the URL [website address of the picture] will be visible

e. IF YOU DON’T HAVE THE IMAGE, often you can go to another site that has a picture of the item, [like the site of the manufacturer or of a major seller]. For example, if selling a Gateway laptop, go to gateway site, right click select properties and link that picture to your auction of that gateway computer

7. Select the FREE VISITOR COUNTER to appear on your page since it shows others how many have come and helps generate excitement by showing its popularity

8. SET UP SELLING FORMAT IF SELLING BY AUCTION SELL ONE ITEM AT A TIME [AVOID DUTCH AUCTION – a separate topic ] i.e. if have 3 chairs, then have 3 separate listings of one chair each. If you sell by the buy it now option then can sell all at once NB look over more complex form has some extra options like Skype contact, mission fish to donate from sale, etc.

9. AGAIN, BE SURE TO SELECT PMT METHODS MUST DO PAYPAL, AMONG OTHERS

10. GIVE BUYERS SHIPPING DETAILS & FILL IT IN. Try to do free shipping and just price it into the item. But if low priced item can’t do so try either flat price or by region, country, etc. give handling time, places you’ll ship to, international options, insurance.

11. OFFER SHIPPING INSURANCE i.e. if item breaks you’ll send another or reimburse. This is an easy way to make another $5. i.e. don’t actually set up insurance co just say you insure [stamp “insured” somewhere. and charge extra. If shipping properly, few claims good way to make extra $.

12. 9^TH. OTHER STUFF TO KNOW: blocking certain types buyers i.e. those w/ bad ratings, buyer requirements, return policy, etc.

13. 10^TH; PUT IN ADDTL CHECKOUT INSTRUCTIONS, THANKS, ETC

How to save $ on eBay – what eBay extras are worthwhile and not

MOST AREN’T WORTH THE EXTRA MONEY. An item in demand, with a low price, good description and picture are the keys to success. Avoid borders, highlight, subtitle, featured seller, and all other featured stuff.

RETURN POLICY: site credit, 30 days to return, etc.

Total cost per items: insertion fee, buy now fee, gallery, scheduled start time

OFFER FREE SHIPPING ALA [AS LONG AS] BUILD SHIPPING PRICE INTO ITEM PRICE, or can have diff shipping charges for different areas or as a marketing trick sell low but have high shipping cost and make some $ that way.

B. ­­My eBay

MY EBAY IS YOUR ADMIN AREA, WHERE YOU MANAGE YOUR AC, SEND INVOICES, PAY SELLERS, SEND MESSAGES, SEE HOW MANY WERE WATCHING YOUR AUCTION

C. My eBay for after the auction ends

See what sold, who didn’t pay, so can send invoice

SEND INVOICE, and perform other follow up with buyers. If selling well, line up supply for next auction.

SECOND CHANCE OFFER: item had multiple bidders and you have other items, can also take second bid. Can set # days for someone to buy your second chance offers. BEWARE MUST CONTACT PEOPLE THROUGH EBAY OR IF CAUGHT EBAY CAN EJECT YOU

CHECK AUCTION RESULTS AS SOON AS AUCTION END

Miscellaneous Notes for Sellers:

· In general, set as low price a price as possible in order to generate more bids and make the auction look successful – also saves money on the listing price, which is based on the opening price you set.

· RESERVE AUCTIONS – NOT RECOMMENDED AND EBAY CHARGES YOU MORE, but consider for very high priced items

· Reserve auctions allow you to set a low initial bid to attract buyers but “reserve” the right to refuse to sell to the highest bidder if that bid is below your reserve price. Reserve prices are not shown to buyers, who thus often find them frustrating and unless very motivated they go away.

· Thus sellers should generally avoid reserve auctions unless selling high price items to avoid a big loss on the sale. BEGINNERS SHOULD THUS START OUT SELLING CHEAPER ITEMS THAT CAN VERY LIKELY BE SOLD AT A PROFIT AND STILL BE A GOOD DEAL. FINDING THESE ITEMS AT THE RIGHT PRICE IS THE KEY TO SUCCESS.

· We will discuss how to do this in the coming blogs.

Next, Selling tips, strategies, and ideas of what to sell and how to find items to sell.

SECTION 1. SELLING ON EBAY: PART 2: SET UP TO SELL (CONTINUED)

Last time we covered:

A. Fill an Unmet Need, Provide Perceived Value

B. Why use eBay?

C. Steps to getting started on eBay. Here’s what we wrote for this section.

1. REGISTER:

2. Fill out form, click activate now

3. CREATE PERSONAL PAGE: when set up a/c set up personal page immediately with picture and background to give comfort/trust/credibility. MUCH DEPENDS ON YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE. There’s a place to link to your website to your personal page.

4. BUY A WEBSITE ADDRESS. If you don’t already have one, then at least reserve a website address (URL – Universal Resource Locator) at www.godaddy.com or similar site. It costs about $10 just to reserve the URL. While website setup is a later topic, but for now just know that creating a URL for a future website and matching/similar email will be useful. Here are a few basic tips for now:

5. IDEALLY, YOUR EBAY USERNAME, WEBSITE ADDRESS (URL), AND EMAIL SHOULD MATCH. They should be the same or as close as possible to each other or convey the same meaning. This usually means setting up all three at about the same time. All three should remind your buyers of the other two, and reinforce and clarify what you do.

For example, if you’re selling camping gear, you’d want something like:

EBay username: campinggear, or mycampinggear, or outdoorstuff, etc

URL: www.campingear.com, mycampinggear.com, outdoorstuff.com, etc

Email: campinggear@yahoo.com, mycampinggear@gmail.com, etc.

You can always change your eBay username at a later time if needed (go to http://www.ehow.com/how_4502111_change-username-ebay.html ) to get a closer match to the URL and email addresses.

Note: Unless you’re selling in a very unusual niche, all the best usernames, URLs, and emails related to your niche are usually either long taken or being sold for hundreds to thousands of dollars. Avoid those until you’re already successful. When you begin searching for a URL on www.godaddy.com the site will automatically provide you with close alternatives at the basic $10 price if the site name you want is already taken. Stick to these for now. When you’re successful in a given niche you can consider spending for these or seeking out expired URLs that are better.

6. CHOOSE A URL WITH “.COM” SUFFIX. This is reputed to be an advantage since those searching the web will often just enter what they want with a “.com” suffix.

We continue from here.

7. Sign up for PayPal. PayPal is a topic unto itself, but suffice with the following for now. Before you even start doing business on eBay, sign up for PayPal. Go to www.paypal.com. This is a service that allows buyers and sellers to transfer and receive payments by almost any means without sharing financial information. It also offers various buyer and seller protection features.

Why bother with PayPal? Three reasons. It provides lots of security to buyers and sellers, it is owned by eBay, and thus it has a virtual monopoly on handling payments on eBay. Many buyers and sellers will only work via PayPal. EBay encourages this attitude (surprise!).

Like any monopoly, its customer service is at times less than ideal.

Nonetheless, don’t even bother trying to bid or purchase before you’ve set up an account and means of payment with them.

A. BEGIN BY BUYING

A good way to learn selling is by buying. You also get feedback from seller and thus begin building your eBay track record.

Begin buying a small item, just to get a feel for the process.

For example, let’s say I wanted to buy a DVD of the movie Being There. On the Home page, in the “Find” box, I typed in the title. In the “in” box drop-down menu, I chose “DVDs & Movies”.

Here’s a partial view of the long list of search results.

By clicking on a search result, I come to the seller’s page for this auction.

Note in particular the Meet the seller and Buy safely sections on the right. Here you can

· Check the seller’s feedback, experience, and ratings for various criteria

· Ask the seller a question even without knowing their email

· Designate sellers as favorites and get automatic notification of new items they’re offering

· View the seller’s other items. NB: The option for buyers to visit the seller’s online store makes these auctions a very cheap means of advertising that online store or website. More about that later on, but remember that eBay sales and auctions can be a powerful marketing tool for your other ebusiness.

· Get details on how eBay, and PayPal, offer buyers and sellers protection from identity theft and other possible hazards of dealing with strangers online.

Scroll further down the page to see product details about the product, shipping options, return policy, payment methods, and more.

B. PLACING A BID

Enter your bid in the indicated field box. It’s that simple. Of course, there can be a lot more to it if you want to learn how to find deals fast and efficiently.

Buying well on eBay is its own topic, or book. Because our focus is on earning with eBay by selling, we’ll restrict ourselves to just a few points and move on.

· Go to eBay University Online and study the tutorial “First time bidding and buying”. Rather than reinvent the wheel here, this gives you a brief overview of the basic steps, and thus give you a starting point for further research as needed. More on this below.

· In particular, one topic to focus on will be the “My eBay” slide for managing your searches and buying.

· Sophisticated Bidding: there are special software packages like auction sniper and bid sniper that will automatically bid for you at last minute (up to your limit), so that you don’t pay more than a minimal amount than the next highest bidder. Worth checking if you do a lot of auction bidding.

· When bidding, note the time remaining in the auction. Duration can vary from 1-10 days.

·

C. Learn More about Bidding and Buying

To get to the eBay University Online’s tutorial on bidding and buying:

On the home page, under the Buy tab, select Help with bidding & buying.

You’ll come to the following screen.

To save you time, here’s the link: http://www.ebayuniversity.com/gotraining/First_Time_Bidding_And_Buying?_trksid=m37

D. Learn More about Everything Else You Need to Know for EBay Success with the Tabs at the Upper Right of Every Page

These allow you to fast access the most important info you need. No reason for me to repeat it – just go straight to the source yourself. The following tabs are in the upper right corner of the eBay homepage (see two screenshots up from here).

The Buy Tab

The Sell Tab

The My eBay Tab

The Help Tab – Especially Important for Beginners

E. CONCLUSION & SUMMARY

In this section we covered the steps for getting started on eBay. Next time we begin how to profit by selling on eBay.

SECTION 1. SELLING ON EBAY: PART 2: SET UP TO SELL

Here begins a series on the basics of selling on eBay. The basis of earning money on eBay is to apply the key concepts of lesson 1 to eBay. That is:

A. Fill an Unmet Need, Provide Perceived Value

Easy to say, hard to do. Variations on this theme include:
Sell Low, Buy Lower: Finding something at a far lower price than the general public can find, and selling it at a price that is still low but allows you an adequate profit margin.
Sell Something Unique or Hard to Find. Examples include all sorts of memorabilia and collectors’ items.
Sell Time or Convenience: A product that saves buyers time, like a directory of hard to find products or services, such as kosher restaurants in Mecca, or antique car parts suppliers in Beijing.

More on finding ideas and suppliers in future lessons.
B. Why use eBay?

Main reasons include:
· Targeted customers – you can find those who are searching for exactly what you’re selling
· Small investment to get started
· Fast startup time. Once understand 5 min to list something
· No need advertise – you’re in targeted market
· Global audience
· Easily create or expand your client base

C. Steps to getting started on eBay

1. REGISTER:
2. Fill out form, click activate now
3. CREATE PERSONAL PAGE: when set up a/c set up personal page immediately with picture and background to give comfort/trust/credibility. MUCH DEPENDS ON YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE. There’s a place to link to your website to your personal page.
4. BUY A WEBSITE ADDRESS. If you don’t already have one, then at least reserve a website address (URL – Universal Resource Locator) at http://www.godaddy.com/ or similar site. It costs about $10 just to reserve the URL. While website setup is a later topic, but for now just know that creating a URL for a future website and matching/similar email will be useful. Here are a few basic tips for now:
5. IDEALLY, YOUR EBAY USERNAME, WEBSITE ADDRESS (URL), AND EMAIL SHOULD MATCH. They should be the same or as close as possible to each other or convey the same meaning. This usually means setting up all three at about the same time. All three should remind your buyers of the other two, and reinforce and clarify what you do.

For example, if you’re selling camping gear, you’d want something like:

EBay username: campinggear, or mycampinggear, or outdoorstuff, etc
URL: http://www.campingear.com/, mycampinggear.com, outdoorstuff.com, etc
Email: campinggear@yahoo.com, mycampinggear@gmail.com, etc.

You can always change your eBay username at a later time if needed (go to http://www.ehow.com/how_4502111_change-username-ebay.html ) to get a closer match to the URL and email addresses.

Note: Unless you’re selling in a very unusual niche, all the best usernames, URLs, and emails related to your niche are usually either long taken or being sold for hundreds to thousands of dollars. Avoid those until you’re already successful. When you begin searching for a URL on http://www.godaddy.com/ the site will automatically provide you with close alternatives at the basic $10 price if the site name you want is already taken. Stick to these for now. When you’re successful in a given niche you can consider spending for these or seeking out expired URLs that are better.

6. CHOOSE A URL WITH “.COM” SUFFIX. This is reputed to be an advantage since those searching the web will often just enter what they want with a “.com” suffix.


NEXT TIME, WE CONTINUE WITH SETTING UP ON EBAY. TOPICS WILL INCLUDE SETTING UP PAYMENT METHODS, GETTING CREDIBILITY, AND MORE. SEE YOU THEN.

SECTION 1. SELLING ON EBAY: PART 1: INTRODUCTION:

SUMMARY: CREATE PERCEIVED VALUE

A. Identify a Need and Fill It at a Price the Market Sees to be a Good Value
When asked what he’d do if he lost his wealth, Henry Ford said he would simply identify an unmet need, fill it for what people believed to be a good value, and he’d have his fortune back quickly.

Remember an online business is still a business, and all the fundamentals still apply.

Yes, the internet’s unique advantage is that it lets you spread information very cheaply and quickly. This has transformed numerous industries that prospered because they had control over that information. For example, almost any kind of brokerage or communications media business has seen its traditional revenue sources cut or disappear.

Those that have survived or prospered found other ways of providing value.
B. How to Create Perceived Value
Forget about trying to define the true value of anything. What matters is how a real buyer that can pay sees the value. There are different ways to create perceived value in your product or service. The usual ways include:
· Quality: product is perceived as better made, better looking, more durable, better performer, etc. For example, BMW or Rolex have lots of cheaper competitors, but these are perceived as better performing, better designed, more durable, etc.
· Price: offer a cheaper substitute of acceptable quality.
· Convenience/ease of use/ ease of availability, fast delivery. For example, fast food, private delivery services, or any kind of food sold in public venues like stadiums, train stations, or convenience stores.
· Reliability, trustworthiness: For example, anyone with an established brand name/goodwill/reputation can charge more because people trust them. Franchise businesses, name brands are classic examples.
· Uniqueness/difficulty of duplication/barriers to entry into the business. Examples include: businesses with unique or patented technologies, publicly sanctioned monopolies like electric utilities, or businesses violently protected and dominated by organized crime.
· Prestigious: prestige = desirability x [limited availability]. Desirability here usually comes from perceived high quality, for example luxury cars or homes. But prestige is not always directly linked with money. For example admission to perceived top university programs, teaching positions, or government jobs. Being chosen is what confers prestige, not the cost or compensation.

C. Finding That Unmet Need: A Truly New Idea Versus a New Twist on an Old Idea
· Examples of a New Twist on an Old Idea: Japanese cars offered better value, reliability, and fuel economy. Starbucks added quality and variety to coffee. Franchised fast food offers a low cost, trustworthy, tasty meal.
· Examples of Something Truly New. The electric light bulb, the first cars, personal computers, etc.

Usually faster to find an existing product and add one or more or the ingredients from section B above.