1. SECTION 2: CONTENT SITES – PART 1 AN INTRODUCTION

 

We now begin the second section of this ebusiness course, Content Sites. These lessons will cover all you need to know about the basic types of content sites and how to use them for promotion and profit.

This Part 1 Introduces this Section 2 of our introduction to ebusiness, and introduces the what, how, and why of Content Sites

 

We now begin the second section of this ebusiness course, Content Sites. These lessons will cover all you need to know about the basic types of content sites and how to use them for promotion and profit.

This Part 1 Introduces this Section 2 of our introduction to ebusiness, and introduces the what, how, and why of Content Sites

A. THE WHAT

Content sites provide information. Often there are no physical products offered at all, just digital information in the form of text, video, audio, etc. If they sell any physical product at all, it’s something containing information, like a book or DVD. Some of the biggest internet businesses are content sites, like Google, Yahoo, Youtube, and Facebook.

B. THE HOW

Before getting into basic types of content sites and revenue sources, here are a few points to remember.

1. The Key Reason a Content Site Succeeds Is the Same Reason ANY Business Succeeds – It Gives Perceived Value

Remember what that is? Let’s review.

2. Perceived value

· It fills a real need or demand. For example:

o McDonalds: Fast, cheap, reliably tasty food, saves time.

o Toyota: fuel efficient, reliable, durable cars at a fair price.

· It fills meets the demand in a way that is somehow better than the competition: faster, cheaper, more variety, more convenient, more specialized niche, higher quality, etc.

· It is not easily replaced or substituted. The rarer it is, the harder to find or replace with a substitute, the greater the perceived value. For example, to start an online book seller to compete with Amazon would require billions in technology, distribution centers, etc. Hard to do that.

C. THE WHY

In theory, information products could be the ultimate low risk start up.

· Low risk: If you produce the content yourself, you have no tangible investment in inventory at stake other than your time. Marketing and distribution can also be done, theoretically, free or cheaply as well.

· High return: If in fact production, marketing, and distribution costs can be kept low, anything you earn above that is profit.

· Simple shipping and storage: Since most information products are digital, they take up no physical space and are sent via email or download. There are issues and possible costs involved in protecting your copyrights and collecting payments.

D. So What’s the Catch?

The hard part is producing and marketing content for which there is a demand. Since truly original products or ideas are hard to produce, the easier way is to choose a subject that’s already popular online and add unique value. For example:

· Specialize in a niche. You select a niche, specialize in just that and produce superior quality and/or quantity of information on that niche than the bigger sites provide. For example, there may be many sites providing advice on stocks, but there will be far fewer focused on

o Stocks in a specific sector like utilities, energy, health care, etc.

o Stock for a specific type of investor, like those seeking high yield, fast trading plays, safe long term growth buy and hold stocks, etc.

· Provide information at a lower cost: Give away or sell info at a lower cost than the more established sites, at least until you build up a following. There are all kinds of dating, job, investment sites that charge users to access some or all of their information. If you can afford to provide comparable information for less, there will be demand.

Once you’ve got demand, all you need then do is effectively promote your site.

E. CONCLUSION

If we think about it, most of us have some kind of valuable expertise or experience from which others could benefit. A homemaker may have vast experience dealing with child or husband rearing for which a new mother would gladly pay. A civil servant may have a wealth of knowledge of how to save time or get money from certain government bureaucracies. The disabled or unemployed can offer advice to others with similar difficulties.

In short, you may well have a potential content site and profitable information product lurking inside you. If you don’t want to write, you can put it in audio or video format.

Obviously there are content sites like Google, Yahoo, WebMD, JDate, and others that are already highly developed, complex, and well known with an established brand name. It would require major investment to duplicate them, so very few will even think about doing so. But you need not start out or even end up that way. On the following pages you’ll see numerous cases of sites that started small and grew.

Next, we discuss the basic types of content sites and how they make money. End Part 1.

Looking for safe, high yield investments? Interested in all-weather stocks that pay safe, high dividends backed by strong businesses? Check out http://highincomestocksguide.blogspot.com

SECTION 1. SELLING ON EBAY: PART 5: CONCLUDING MISC IDEAS AND TIPS TO SELLING ON EBAY

Additional aids, sites, and software for selling on eBay.

A. EBay express

EBAY TAKES ALL BUY IT NOW ITEMS AND MAKES AN ONLINE STORE OF THESE. ITEMS MUST BE LOCATED IN US

B. Classified advertisements

GOOD IF SELLING ITEMS ON YOUR OWN WEBSITE AND WANT THOSE ITEMS TO SHOW UP IN EBAY SEARCH RESULTS

C. Best offer option

IS AN OPTION CHOSEN WHEN YOU LIST AN ITEM

D. Amazon fulfillment: useful if buying from wholesaler/manufacturer who doesn’t drop ship

AMAZON OFFERS FULFILLMENT I.E. YOU SHIP THEM ITEMS. THEY STORE AND PACK/SHIP AND PEOPLE GET IT FROM ITEMS. For example, you buy from China and ship to Amazon and sell on eBay. Good for if have hot selling item that you know could sell lots and better if get china and cut out drop shipper rather find own supplier in China or elsewhere. Find via alibaba.com.

FOR EXAMPLE, PURELAND Co. FOR SLEEPING BAGS AND OTHER CAMPING EQUIPMENT

E. Listing software if have auctions regularly

TURBOLISTER: FREE, FULLY SUPPORTED BY EBAY, I.E. IF SELLING SLEEPING BAG EVERY WEEK, IT DOES ALL THE SETUP AUTOMATICALLY ( so don’t need manually enter description, pictures, terms, and other listing details) IF PLAN TO RESELL AN ITEM REGULARLY START RIGHT AWAY USING TURBOLISTER

F. PayPal – a key point - must have

WILL AUTOMATICALLY INSERT THEIR LOGO INTO YOUR AUCTION IF YOU ASK THEM – IS GOOD GET AUTOMATIC LOGO INSERTION, SET IT UP IN MY ACCOUNT

Request a PayPal Dr. card.

If you don’t have someone in the US to whom PayPal can mail the PayPal debit card, use http://www.mustop.com/ . They’ll take delivery of anything and send it to you in wherever you are abroad, or use http://www.2checkout.com/.

G. How to calculate shipping costs for Israel

Go to Israel postal website for costs on shipping abroad: http://www.israelpost.co.il/

Can get the site in English

H. Other software

1. Auctiva

free auction tools for eBay sellers for tracking and managing bids, free eBay store fronts, etc.

Figure 1: Auctiva homepage summarizes free tools

2. Square Trade

An online warranty provider, online merchant verification and dispute resolution. Good for high priced items, they provide arbitration of disputes.

Figure 2: SquareTrade Homepage and Merchant Solutions pages

3. Automated bidding software

Auction Sniper and Bid Sniper are automated bidding software that will place bids at last moments of auction up to a limit you set, so you don’t have to watch auctions yourself, and won’t pay more than needed.

4. Software to do market research

Terapeak: Built into eBay. Free. See http://www.terapeak.com/ .

Figure 3: Terapeak Homepage Summarizes Its Features

Vendio see http://www.vendio.com/ . Has risk free trial, so I assume is not free.

Figure 4: Vendio Homepage Summarizes Its Features

I. Advertising your eBay items

AVOID EBAY’S ADVERTISEMENTS. BETTER:

1. Write a free guide or review about your product to generate interest

FOR EXAMPLE IF WRITE GUIDE, TAKE SOME IF IT AND PUT OUT FOR FREE ON EBAY FOR REVIEWS AND GUIDES. FOR EXAMPLE: SELLER OF GUIDE TO SELLING TKTS TO EVENTS ON EBAY WROTE FREE “TEASER” GUIDE OFFERING SOME TIDBITS IN ORDER TO GET YOU CURIOUS ENOUGH TO BUY THE BOOK

2. Other ways to promo your auctions

· EMAIL CAMPAIGN (MORE ON THAT LATER)

· USE SOCIAL MEDIA SITES LIKE http://www.stumbleupon.com/, facebook, youtube, etc.(MORE ON THESE LATER). SOCIAL MEDIA GOOD IF HAVE ESTABLISHED BUSINESS.

END BLOG 5

SECTION 1. SELLING ON EBAY: PART 4: THE BASICS OF WHAT TO SELL ON EBAY AND HOW TO SELL IT

1. IDEAS OF WHAT TO SELL

MUST BE SOMETHING OF VALUE AND CHEAP RELATIVE TO PERCEIVED VALUE.

A. Ideas include:

1. USE WHAT NATURE PROVIDES. Make or sell products based on what grows or is found cheaply where you live.

2. REPRODUCE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY NO LONGER COPYWRITED. F/e.g. come up u w/ an original idea f/e.g. replicas of old flags – no copyright on it. Or other stuff w/ no copyright.

3. SELL THINGS YOU ALREADY OWN i.e. find something of value at home you don’t need & sell it on eBay. Use http://www.terapeak.com/ or see similar items sold on eBay

4. THINGS YOU MAKE YOURSELF

5. FIND CHEAP ITEMS AND RESELL THEM F/EG GO TO THRIFT SHOPS – BUT MUST BE OF VALUE ELSEWHERE LIKE REGIONAL ITEMS

6. DIGITAL items f/ e.g. CD about how to sell tickets on eBay, to events

7. GO TO EBAY PULSE to find out what’s hot on eBay – so can apply “synthetic imagination,” that is, add value, a lower price, etc.

8. UNUSUAL ITEMS: For example, one man sold advertisements space on forehead

B. What to do if item doesn’t sell

As you learn to earn on eBay, you’ll try items that don’t sell. As long as you keep your investments small in the beginning, especially when selling new items, accept these small losses as part of the “tuition.”

1. RELIST IT AND PUT UNDER DIFFERENT CATEGORY. For example, leftover xmas tree lights can be sold as decorations for the Jewish holiday of Succot, which occurs in autumn. Small but heavy statuettes might sell as paper weights – seriously!

2. LOWER PRICE OR VARY SOME OTHER KEY FACTOR

3. PUT IN STORAGE AND TRY LATER IF IS SEASONAL ITEM LIKE XMAS ITEMS DURING XMAS

4. GROUP IT W/ OTHER UNSOLD ITEMS AND SELL AS PACKAGE DEAL

5. ADD EXTRA VALUE; IE OFFER W/ A FREE ITEM W/ PURCHASE

6. CAUTIOUSLY EXPERIMENT W/ EBAY LISTING ITEMS THAT COST EXTRA BUT BEWARE

7. REALIZE THAT NOT ALL ITEMS WILL SELL so either discard, lower price, donate, or otherwise cut your losses.

C. EBay stores

An eBay store is essentially your own ready-built e-commerce site that eBay offers. It may be worthwhile if

· you are already succeeding with eBay

· you want to list lots of items at a lower total cost

· you don’t want build own website

REQUIREMENTS FOR BUYING AN EBAY STORE:

· eBay member, feedback score of 20+

· id verified or PayPal account in good standing

1. Overview of how eBay store works.

EBay gives you tools to help you, like a choice of templates to allow for quick setup of the store. If you already have an eBay account and PayPal it is quick to set up. As with any set of e-commerce templates, you have a few options to customize if you need something a bit different. The big advantage is that you can list a lot of items f/ little money and whenever you auction an item, you have an icon next to it showing you have store, so people looking at your auction see the icon and can go look at store. Thus auctions now also serve as cheap advertisements for the store. The store costs $16 /mo. An eBay store is only recommended if selling a lot on eBay.

2. SELLING TIPS

Here are specific tips on making your product description and presentation sell via the right headlines, description, and images.

A. Top 7 headlines i.e. item description

Use some variation on one of the following.

1. PROMISE A MAJOR BENEFIT [double your income/intelligence/sales, etc….]

2. ASK A QUESTION [ is it really possible to lose 20 pounds in one week/ double your income, etc]

3. OFFER A SOLUTION TO A PROBLEM [Cures embarrassing acne]

4. GIVE A WARNING [You could lose everything in the coming energy crisis]

5. FLAG YOUR TARGET CUSTOMER [BUILD & REPAIR COMPUTERS LIKE A PRO]

6. USE A TESTIMONIAL [I never dreamed I could make $500K/year until I tried…]

7. NEWS ANNOUNCEMENT: [YOU’VE READ ABOUT X NOW ….]

B. Use power words – i.e. words that excite

VINTAGE

HARD TO FIND

ALMOST NEW

UNIQUE

PRISTINE

RARE

ORIGINAL, ETC.

C. Use pictures

· IMAGES SELL—CRITICAL TO USE IMAGES ON WEB: EG SHOW UP CLOSE IF NEEDED, SHOW ALL KEY VISUAL DETAILS OF DETAILS BUYER WANTS TO SEE

· DON’T BE LAZY W/ IMAGES; SELF HOST MANY ON YOUR WEBSITE.

· HAVE PIC CLOSE UP SHOWING DETAIL

· CLARIFY SCALE/ SENSE OF SIZE. If the item is small, try showing the item next to a ruler if small, or place it next to an object that makes the item’s size clear. For example, display a ring on someone’s hand close enough to see fingerprints.

3. SELLING STRATEGIES

Here are selling strategies, that is, basic ideas for what and how you will find and sell products on eBay

A. Either Focus on high volume or high profit:

· SPECIALIZE IN SMALLER PROFIT ITEMS AND TRY TO SELL A LOT OF THEM.

· SELL A FEW LARGE PROFIT ITEMS – RARE, HARD TO FIND, OR EXP BUT CHEAPER ON EBAY

B. Use drop shippers – avoid shipping and handling

Drop shippers are wholesalers that maintain large warehouses full of goods, allow you to sell their goods on eBay (or via other channels) and for a fee will do the shipping. They can be a major source of wholesale products, and it avoids hassle of shipping and handling. If find major success with an item from a wholesale drop shipper, you can then consider seeking out cheap manufacturer to buy from directly at super-wholesale prices via http://www.alibaba.com/.

One example of a business that buys items in quantity, wants you to sell it, and they’ll take care of all else: http://www.dsdi.com/

NB must ensure an item you auction w/b available from the drop shipper for at least the duration of the auction. Auctions can last 1-10 days, 7 is typical. Most wholesalers will allow you to place deposit on the item to hold it, or will even allow you to set an item aside without deposit. Make sure you understand in advance how they work.

2. Finding reputable, reliable drop shippers [many are scammers]

Directories of wholesalers/drop shippers

Pay for a directory of drop reputable drop shippers: SALEHOO or World Wide brands.

Find your own drop shipping sources

Go to a store/wholesaler/manufacturer and arrange to sell their items on eBay. But reach agreement on details so they won’t compete. For example, one entrepreneur arranged a deal with a large wholesale/retail lighting business. He built their website and does their online sales including eBay. They charged him at the wholesale price and did the drop shipping.

Could also seek out manufacturers or wholesalers via non-web sources (those on web are probably already selling on web, but perhaps not so worth seeking out manufacturers online to – or at least directories of them and then find ones that don’t have web presence and approach them.

Next time: Additional tips and tools for selling on eBay, and doing market research.

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.