The Management Consulting Group

In your quest to build credibility as an Ebay seller,
few things are more important than creating and
following consistent store policies. Doing so will
provide your customers with an attractive buying
atmosphere, where they will feel safe making any
transaction.

Whenever I create store policies–whether it be for
an Ebay business or an Internet business–I use one
standard: I promise what I can reasonably deliver.
And I deliver more than I promise as often as possible.

If I can reasonably offer to ship everything two days
after payment, I will promise it. But if I get the
chance to ship some items within one day, I take
that opportunity to overdeliver.

Not only is this a more ethical approach–delivering
or overdelivering on all promises–but it is also a
more practical business strategy for the long-run.

Developing relationships with your customers is the
best way to get repeat sales, testimonials, and positive
feedback–the three pillars which will support your
business and increase your cashflow.

You should extend this principle to other policies.

Create a return policy that stipulates when and for
what reasons you will accept a return. Again, you
will want to give the customer certain guarantees,
but at the same time, you don’t want to promise
what you can’t reasonably deliver.

For instance, you may want to stipulate that you
will only accept returns if the item is broken.
You may also want to add that you can only accept
returns within 14 days of delivery.

In addition to a shipping and return policy, you
will want to create a statement of quality assurance.
When I used to sell jewelry on Ebay, I promised my
customers that the metals were solid, the gems were
real, and everything was stamped.

It was relatively easy for me to prove this because
all of my jewelry came with gemologist-certified
appraisals; however, if you aren’t selling something
that can lend you credibility in a similar fashion,
you will need to earn it in the form of testimonials and
positive feedback.

. . .and this is precisely why it is so important for
Ebay sellers to create and follow store policies. Not
only will this lend you credibility and subsequently
encourage visitors to bid, but it will also prevent
customers from making unfair complaints against you.

In addition to this, when you overdeliver, your customers
will know it - and they will verify it with feedback
and testimonials.

http://www.workathomerightnow.net/ebay.html
Written by Isaiah Hull, author of “How to Profit
on Ebay In Seven Days Without Spending A Single
Penny.” For a limited time only you can get a
pre-publication copy of his book for
ONE-FOURTH the post-publication price!

PRICING ITEMS:

How much profit you want to make is entirely up to you. Depending on what you sell, if your products are priced too low you’ll be working for peanuts, price it too high and you won’t be selling any.

You need to factor in all the individual line item costs before you set your retail price. The eBay final value fees and PayPal fees are the most obvious. eBay does not include shipping costs when they calculate the final value fee while PayPal does plus a small transaction fee.

Other fees include auction, buy it now, store inventory and those for additional pictures as well as any optional listing features.

You must also consider the cost of your shipping material. At the Laundry Bag Store Online we know the exact weight of each item down to the printed invoice. By knowing the exact weight of each item including the shipping material, you can tell if a buyer is being truthful if they claim that an item was not included with their order since the shipping weight is printed on the postal receipt.

Some sellers set up their listing to use the shipping calculators while others use the flat rate option. It may boil down to a matter of choice, but on some items one be better to use than the other and sometimes the calculator is unavailable which can result in a lost sale. Stores with a large volume of products should use the calculator.

Keep in mind that savvy buyers know if they are being overcharged for shipping. Don’t risk losing a repeat customer by overcharging for shipping.

GUARANTEE:

Just what is your guarantee? Your guarantee and any store policies should be clear and well defined. Wishy-washy policies are sure to confuse your buyers. Work with your buyers. Consider bending the rules for a valued customer or a large order if it will mean future business.

FEEDBACK:

Open any business and you automatically have a reputation. It is within your power to create a good reputation or a bad one. For eBay sellers and buyers your feedback page is your reputation and is one of the most widely viewed pages.

Trying to keep a 100% positive feedback is the ultimate goal. However, there are some things that may be beyond your control, for instance, a buyer may have had a bad day and decided to take their frustration out on you.

Still certain buyers may have their email accounts set up to block spam, AOL and hotmail accounts are notorious for this. Avoid including any links, pictures, attachments and/or HTML code in any emails sent to these accounts.

If you need to contact a buyer with an AOL or hotmail email address, first send a basic text only email to let them know you are contacting them and then follow it up with an email that contains HTML.

Lapse a store policy if it could mean the difference between getting positive feedback and negative feedback.

If an item is out of stock, email the buyer as soon as possible. Include an estimated shipping date.

SHIPPING:

Some sellers use UPS while others use the USPS. The Laundry Bag Store Online uses the USPS so these tips are based on shipping with the USPS. Some of the information you may already be aware of.

The USPS offers several types of free shipping boxes, mailers and envelopes. However, some of these can add extra weight and thus add extra cost to your shipping. Aside from using postal rate calculators you can print or ask your local post office for Notice 123, rate fold. The notice includes all the current postal rates. You will also need a postal zone chart.

13.1 oz. is where First Class postal rates ends and Priority Mail or Parcel Post rates begin up to 70 lbs. The cost of shipping most items Priority Mail vs. Parcel Post is small and can be the difference between getting positive feedback or negative feedback, a satisfied customer or a dissatisfied customer.

Depending on the weight and size, some items may be best shipped via Parcel Post instead of Priority Mail. The saving amount between Priority Mail and Parcel Post increases significantly as the weight increases and you can pass this saving on to your buyer.

Shipping Parcel Post takes a few days longer so make sure your buyer is willing to accept the delay. However, keep in mind that there are specific guidelines when shipping packages via Parcel Post. Notice 123 and the USPS web site lists all the required criteria.

Another shipping option offered by the USPS is Priority Mail Flat Rate. You can ship to any US destination regardless of weight for a specific cost. The post office offers free flat rate boxes in two sizes as well as a flat rate envelope.

If you buy your own shipping boxes the size of the box may exceed the USPS shipping limits and you may have to pay additional shipping. The combined length and girth of a piece (the length of its longest side plus the distance around its thickest part) may not exceed 108 inches.

However, to be safe in most cases the combined length and girth should not exceed 84 inches. The formula is simple. It is 2x the height + 2x the width + the length. For example, a box measuring 24″ L x 12″ H x 16″ W is 80 inches. (24H+32W+24L)

Self adhesive poly bags come in various sizes and are extremely durable. These may provide an inexpensive way of shipping certain items and may even save your some money on shipping if you are including it in the sale price.

If you print your own shipping labels on an ink jet printer, tape over the entire label covering the ship to and return address. The ink will run if it comes in contact with any water making the label illegible.

INSURANCE AND CONFIRMATION:

Depending on the retail cost of your products, insuring shipments is always a wise choice. If you ship via UPS then your packages up to $100 in value are insured for free. USPS insurance is extra. For USPS online and APC you can insure packages up to $500, over $500 requires a trip to the post office.

The USPS refers to tracking as delivery confirmation. There is standard confirmation and signature confirmation. You should use signature confirmation for shipping expensive purchases and standard for the others. Insured shipments over $50.00 require a signature anyway so signature confirmation may be redundant. When you do ship with confirmation or insurance the counter person will give you a green receipt for confirmation and a blue receipt for insurance. On each is a section to write the name of the buyer.

APC MACHINES:

In the lobby of certain post offices is an automatic postal machine. These can speed up shipping significantly. The machine is easy to use and walks you through the shipping process. However the system and the current version of the software have a few drawbacks. Sometimes the package drum is full. Make sure you can open the drum before you start shipping. Don’t ship any fragile items or they could get damaged when other packages are inserted on top of them.

The machine is capable of confirmation or insurance but not both. You can ship a flat rate envelope but not a flat rate box. You can’t ship to an APO.

It can print two sizes of labels, a large and a small. If you plan on using the large label make sure you leave enough room on your package for it. Use this label if you plan on adding insurance or confirmation.

Since you have to type in the destination zip code make sure you double check it before printing the label.

You can pay with a debit or credit card but not cash. When you use a debit card it requires you to make separate payments for each package, thus separate receipts. Credit card transactions are printed on one receipt. When you add confirmation to a package the tracking number is printed on the receipt as well as destination zip code.

eBay TOOLS:

Thee are many free and fee based seller tools available from eBay. Some of the more common ones include Selling Manager, Turbo Lister, Andale Counters, Picture Manager and Sales Reports Plus.

However, another great tool is Omniture’s Site Catalyst. It provides detailed reports on your site’s traffic. Some of the stats include: the most often viewed pages and listing, the web sites and search term keywords that generated the most visitors and the path reports will show you exactly how they navigated to and through your store.

PROMOTING YOUR STORE:

There are several things you can do to promote your site. However, your site must be pleasing in design. You store listings should be consistent. Choose the same font size, and colors for each listing. Avoid the cute graphics and the rainbow text. This is one of the benefits of using Turbo Lister.

Utilize your storefront’s real estate to offer sale items, special offers, your guarantee, and even shipping information. Put items in both auctions and buy it now. Use the subtitle to mention your store or key features about your product. Add a link in your listings to your store or other products. By reviewing the stats recorded by Omniture’s Site Catalyst, you’ll know exactly which items and pages are generating results.

That being said, getting a steady flow of visitors to your store is really the hard part. If you sell a hot item you’ll get plenty of traffic but also have fierce competition and if you sell a niche market item you’ll have to go out and get your traffic.

You may have read our guide on RSS FEEDS (available on our eBay about me page), if not, you should check it out. RSS feeds provide an easy way of getting your products listed throughout the Internet.

Another way of getting traffic is to list your store in ListMyStore. It is free to join and is exclusively for eBay stores. A sponsored listing is very inexpensive.

A link is available at the top of the Laundry Bag Store Online Home Page and also in our About Me page.

Advertising your site with Google AdWords and Yahoo Sponsored Search are two possibilities.

A link directory is certainly a popular way of generating traffic but usually requires a reciprocal link so your options may be limited. However, search with Google or Yahoo for a free links directory.

Be sure to test your link before you submit it and write your stores description ahead of time. Link directories allow only a certain number of characters in the description so make sure you get your best pitch up front.

If you have a non-eBay site like we do you can use that to drive traffic to your store. Did you know that eBay will give you a store referral credit off the final value fee if someone buys your item through a link outside of eBay? Search on “store referral credit” in eBay help for more information on how to set this up.

Join some forums outside of eBay. You won’t be able to spam your store but you can set up your signature with your store’s link.

Create landing pages. There are tons of free web hosts that you can use. If you don’t know HTML you can use one of the free web host’s templates. It would be advantageous to learn both basic HTML and then Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in that order. Pick up a book on both at the local library.

The areas you should know something about are the HTML Meta tags for title, description and search terms (keywords). If you can learn how to code HTML tables and the anchor and image tags you’ll be able to modify your store’s home page and listings at will.

If you sell different products you could make a landing page for each and even add a link exchange directory.

Press releases are great way to promote your Store. However, it can’t be an advertisement but should be a newsworthy story. The Laundry Bag Store Online sends out press releases on an ongoing basis and these show up in the Search Engines rather quickly as well in RSS feeds.

If you have a verified PayPal account list your store in PayPal shops and then submit an application to have your store considered for a PayPal “featured shop”.

Driving traffic to your store is an ongoing effort. Use the Omniture traffic stats to monitor exactly where traffic is coming from. Experiment with different ads, offers and descriptions to increase sales.

As you can see there are many aspects of operating an online store. If you do your homework you’ll have success.

Best Regards,

Laundry Bag Store Online eBay

Laundry Bag Store Online Web Site

One question that always seems to pop up is, “Where do I find products to sell on eBay?” Here are some ideas to get you started.

Start at Home

When you first get started, it can be a little unnerving. The best option is to start by looking around your own home. Think of items that you would sell in a garage sale. However, instead of pricing each item and lugging it outside hoping for a nice sunny day, you can advertise them on the Internet.

Collectibles

Hot sellers on eBay are collectibles such as coins, stamps, or dolls. You can check out the collectibles category to get a better idea of what people love to buy. Anything that will move up in value would fall in this category.

Consumables

This popular category would include anything that people use and then would need to buy again such as lotions, perfumes, camera film, candles, etc.

Information Products

In this category, you would sell anything that can be sent on a CD or floppy disc or downloaded from the Internet. This is another popular category.

Hobby into Profit

If you have a favorite hobby, such as creating custom wreaths or swags, making homemade soaps or lotions, sewing stuffed animals, whatever it might be, put it to work for you. Turn your hobby into a business using eBay. People do it all the time and make good money.

Small but Expensive

One of the best ways to make good money on eBay is to sell small but expensive items. This allows you to move more items without the bulk of heavy shipping and to move fewer items while making more money. This type of selling provides you with a much higher profit margin.

Specialize

While many sellers on eBay sell anything you can imagine, many of the power sellers specialize. Rather than offer 100 different items with no real connection, focus in on something that you can offer several varieties and then change those varieties out from time to time. Two great examples are purses and shoes, and paintings. You are staying in the same category but providing a multitude of options. Gotham Online is a perfect example. They have their website, shopgco.com, listed with eBay and offer a tremendous value on high quality men and women’s shoes. Once the buyer finds the value of this site, the next time they need shoes, they will go back to this site, either through eBay or directly to the URL. However, the buyer will not become bored since the styles and brands of shoes rotate on a consistent basis.

Wholesale Products

Some eBay sellers create a business relationship with suppliers. As you find reliable suppliers, you can be assured of the quality and bargain of the merchandise. If you are not sure where to find suppliers, you can visit stockmystore.com where there are thousands of wholesale products, with the majority coming from reliable suppliers.

Drop Ship

Another option many power eBay sellers use is to Drop Ship. This is where the seller acts as the agent between the buyer and the merchandiser. In fact, the merchandise sold does not belong to the seller and the seller does not even have to make the shipments. This is actually a strategy used by many small businesses. The Drop Ship option allows the manufacturer to sell more merchandise while the eBay seller makes money. On eBay, check out the Drop Ship Source Directory if you are serious about selling.

Lewis Leake helps people make money from home. His
website at GrowNetProfits.com contains tools, resources, articles, newsletters, product reviews and traffic builders to help you make money from your home based business. Click here to get additional Online Auction articles.

eBay is now a prime market place for selling just about anything online from antique buttons to sexy photographs of your girlfriend. And if there’s a demand for your item then it will probably sell. You should then make a nice profit and be encouraged by your success.

But can you always make money on eBay? Is it as easy as we’re all led to believe?

Well, common sense tells us that it all depends on what you’re selling, the competition and the market for your product.

After all, eBay is essentially an online market place that brings together international buyers and sellers to do business and the basic economic law of supply and demand applies.

So what basic factors should we consider before we start to sell on eBay? Can virtually anything sell and make us a handsome profit?

The answer must be a definite ‘No’ - especially if the profit motive is important. And it must be, because we don’t want to waste our time just breaking even or - dread the thought - making a loss.

But, for example, if you’ve really got your heart set on selling nineteenth century sweet wrappers on eBay because it’s you’re passion in life - you’ve already been divorced twice because of your obsession - then you just need to stop and think for a minute.

And before you rush out and invest £500 in a gold plated, digital camera, hand crafted by Balinese maidens, just because you know it will produce the finest quality images of your antique wrappers, it might be wise to first consider the following essential factors.

…is there likely to be a healthy demand for your product? Is it something people need or want to buy - hopefully on a regular, repeat basis?

…is the potential market big enough so as to make a decent profit (say a ‘minimum’ of 40% mark up on cost) and can that profit be sustainable?

…are there others already selling the same item? If so can you compete on a price basis or offer something different to justify a higher price?

and finally

…can you maintain a reliable supplier of your item so that you can consistently buy at the ‘right price’ and sell at a profit?

So what I’m saying really here is that before you dive into the eBay ocean make sure you’ve got your swimming costume on!

Or, to put it simply, before you decide what you want to do, or what niche you want to concentrate on, you need to be fully aware of whether it’s even possible to do it at a profit.

So the basic message is: Don’t let your enthusiasm or obsession for a particular market blind you to the basic economics of what you’re doing. After some careful consideration, you may have to totally ‘rethink’ your plans and abandon your previous, cherished, pet ideas. If it’s not going to pay then you don’t really want to do it.

But sometimes you will never know unless you try and you shouldn’t be afraid of trying to sell something totally different. However, always make use of eBay’s ‘feedback’ feature as a useful research tool. And what I mean by that is studying the feedback of existing sellers in your general and particular area of interest.

You can quickly discover what volume of sales they are achieving; what their average selling price is; which country they are operating from (this can be important for some products); how long they have been trading etc.

All this information can help you get an overall ‘feel’ for that market and you can then test out your idea with some confidence based on facts rather than a personal, well intentioned ‘gut’ feeling.

And if you find that someone else is already selling what you had in mind then this isn’t necessarily bad news. Maybe you can offer the same product cheaper ( but try to avoid a ‘price war’ if you can), or promote it in a different way or sell it with some other product as a free bonus. Try to think creatively and ‘outside the box’ to make yourself different.

If you discover that you’re the only seller dealing in a particular item then perhaps it just can’t be done profitably. Maybe someone has already tried it and abandoned the venture as a waste of time. Or, conversely, you may have discovered a unique and hopefully profitable niche!

Another vital consideration is your view of just how much income you want to make from eBay trading.

Do you see it a just a part-time, weekend affair or as a full time career alternative? If you’re aiming high then what you intend to sell is very important.

Would there be enough ‘in’ the antique sweet wrapper market for you to reach, say, your £50,000 profit target? Probably not, you must be the judge, but you might easily achieve that figure dealing in more high ticket items.

So, in conclusion, you need to be absolutely sure of two things.

The first is to ask yourself if your market is financially viable. Are you going to make any money?

And, secondly, if you believe that money can be made then does the amount compare favourably with your income goals.

The answer to these essential factors should determine your activity. You may have to take some tough decisions but in the end you will benefit financially and develop a successful and fulfilling eBay business.

After 30 years business experience, I’m always searching for genuine online opportunities. Here’s one worth serious consideration.

Are you looking for the best way to start your own eBay business but find yourself tied down with family commitments? Well this could be the answer.
It’s a proven system, making an average of $10,000 per month (working part time hours) and it was created by a hardworking mother who just refused to quit!!

For her full story please visit: http://ebayprofits.salesplease.com

“The eBay eBook market is dead, flooded, useless and a waste of time.” I am a little tired of reading those comments in various forums and message boards. In my opinion the eBay eBook market has never been better, that is if you know how to use eBay to your advantage.

You may/may not know this but eBooks are probably the easiest way to make money on eBay as everything can be fully automated. I am a fan of eBooks with resale rights simply for their viral nature. As other eBay members sell my products they are advertising my services. About 90% of all my website traffic comes from eBooks I have written myself.

The eBay eBook market is crying out for new material, so give them some, give them an eBook you have written yourself and grant master resale rights and let everyone fight over one another to sell it, let them sell it for 1 cent as they battle for feedback. Who cares, as long as the eBook you have provided was created by you and benefits you long term.

Allow your eBooks to be copied and redistributed freely on eBay and they will spread like a virus across the Internet, each one of them a homing beacon leading the way back to your eBay store/website so the whole viral process can start again.

You can also generate a very generous affiliate income by granting resale rights to your eBooks, simply include relevant affiliate links in the form of recommendations and you will see your affiliate income rocket.

Do you have a high priced product for sale? You do! Well why not provide a taster in the form of an eBook then provide the solution in your high priced item. If you don’t have your own high priced product to promote consider clickbank products as an alternative.

If you grant resale rights you need to make it as easy as possible for the eBook to be re-sold, first of all a short statement at the start of your eBook explaining the eBook can be resold is essential, simply explain your eBook can be resold as long as it is not modified.

Also provide all the tools necessary to enable your eBook to be re-sold, include multiple book covers, graphics and a sales page. The easier you make it to re-sell the eBook the more chance you will have of it going viral.

Creating your own eBook is not an easy task. There is research, writing, compiling and a variety of other skills and time-consuming measures involved. It is also not necessarily a perfect fit for every eBook seller on eBay. Some sellers are not interested in writing or simply do not have the skills required to create their own eBook. If this is the case you may want to consider hiring a freelance writer or ghostwriter to produce an eBook or to pursue different avenues within the eBay eBook selling marketplace. Also, private label content is a good option.

However, if you have the skill to produce, or the willingness to create a unique eBook you can profit tremendously. Selling eBooks to which you and others have resale rights to can be profitable, but exclusive ownership of your own title with links to your products and services gives you a massive advantage over your eBay competitors.

Copyright 2006 John Thornhill

John Thornhill trades on eBay under the username planetsms. Discover how he will earn $10,000 from a single eBay auction and over $50,000 from a single eBook, visit ==>http://www.tenthousanddollarauction.com/secrets/

If you ever want to sell anything on Ebay Auctions make sure you take the time to read the excellent guidance published by Ebay itself.

Fairly high up the list is the pretty commonsense idea that, before you commit to posting your advertisement, you spell check it thoroughly.

Commonsense?

You’d certainly be forgiven for thinking so. But strangely, many people choose to ignore it.

The great news for you, as a street wise ebay buyer, is that this inattention to detail can be source of some incredible bargains.

How so?

Well let’s imagine you want to buy an Armani suit. Chances are you are going to spell Armani correctly. In fact, the chances are most people searching for Armani will use the correct spelling. As Armani is a very famous and popular brand there will be lots of people viewing each of the suits on offer on EBay. Competition will be tight. Prices will be high.

Now a little time ago I had a ferret around on EBay. I found the following spellings for Armani (not all for suits):

Amani

Amarni

Amarne

Armane

Armanie

I am sure if I had spent a little more time that I would have found many more spelling variations.

So what?

Well if most people looking to buy Armani products use the correct spelling, yet sellers occasionally get their spelling wrong, it stands to reason that the auctions using the mis-spelt versions will get fewer visitors. Fewer visitors mean less competition. And, all things being equal, fewer visitors mean lower prices.

Finding mis-spelt words is easy. You can take the easy but time consuming option of just trying a few variations for yourself. To get started this is almost certainly the best option.

However, it’s not true to say there are always bargains hidden in mis-spelt words. Searching out the tastiest morsels would require patience and persistence. Not surprisingly therefore, there are a number of software packages that search out the mis-spellings for you. As you get more advanced you will certainly want to check out one or 2 packages with this feature.

Anyone for Gucci, Guichi, Guiggi,…?

Keith Longmire is extremely enthusiastic about EBay Buying. He has collated his research on his Ebay Buying Blog

There are a number of things you need to make money on the Internet, but the most important is targeted traffic. Think about it, having a good product won’t make you money if nobody sees it, a good headline, good copywriting, nice website, none of these things will make you a dime if nobody sees them.

Just knowing that targeted visitors are the most important part of making money will do us no good unless we take action. How are we going to take action? We get going, going to where the targeted traffic is, and the traffic is at Ebay. Would you be surprised if I told you over 12 million people visit Ebay a month. I haven’t checked all the sites on the Internet, but I doubt there are many sites bringing in that much traffic.

Ok we have solved one of the main problems with making money, we now know where we can get targeted visitors, but don’t be fooled thinking it will be a piece of cake just because we overcame the main problem. You see we are not the only ones that know where the traffic is, so we are going to have a lot of competition.

What can we do about the competition? I would just send them an email and ask them to stop selling so I could sell my products and make a lot of money. Now if that doesn’t work there are a few more ways we can beat the competition. It might be easier if I just list them below.

1. Since most visitors use the search tool to find a product on Ebay we would want to make sure we were using the best keywords we could come up with that describes the product we are selling.

2. We would also want to take our time and make sure we list our product in the correct categories.

3. If we can find a unique product with little competition that would be great, but we will need to be careful with this,

because if no body is selling it, it could be because there is little demand for it.

4. If we find a product that we can buy at a lower cost than our competition then we could sell it at a lower price than the competition.

I think we have a good idea how to sell on Ebay, but we need a product to sell. If you are new to Ebay you could start by selling products you have around the house. That is how I started, I did a check on Ebay to see what products were selling and what they were selling for. If there was a high demand for it and I had one, I would take a picture of the product and offer it up for auction. You would be surprised at some of the objects people will buy.

After you have sold all you have around the house you will need to get a tax number from your state tax office and sign up with a wholeseller. You can search the Internet to find a wholeseller, but there are lists you can buy that will save you a lot of time and will list the top wholesellers. You can find wholesellers that don’t require a tax ID, but I would not use these, because I don’t think you will get the best price or best products from them. Since there is so much competition you want to make sure you have the right product at the best price.

There is no way I can cover the whole process of selling on Ebay in one article, but I hope this has been some help to you.

Good Luck!

Clint Pollard has been marketing on the Internet for 9 years, many of those years using Ebay.

Wholesale Distributor Directory…Means Key to Success!

http://wholesaledistributordirectory.ncave.com

When you’ve decided to enter the fast-paced, exciting world of online auctions,
what should you expect from your auction services? How does it all work, exactly?

All auction services online will require you to register with a username and
password, first of all. If you intend to sell a lot (rather than buy), you should choose
a name that reflects what sort of merchandise you deal in. Or, if you have a wide
variety of things to sell, choose something that inspires confidence. Avoid cutesy
names, or names that suggest cartoons, pop stars or other things not usually
associated with professionals.

Auctions services usually require credit card information, too, to confirm your
identity. Since bidders and sellers aren’t meeting face-to-face, the Internet auction
site has to do what it can to ensure everyone is on the up-and-up.

Once you’ve registered, you can buy and sell according to the auction site’s rules.
The site’s job is to provide a place for bidders and sellers to meet, a sort
of online open market. As long as you follow the general rules, the
auction site itself stays out of the transactions.

Most sellers prefer payment by Paypal, an online money-transferring system. It’s
less risky than a personal check, and is instantaneous, unlike waiting for a money
order. If you plan to do much transacting through online auctions, you should set
up a Paypal account first.

As a buyer, you should expect sellers to ship your merchandise promptly and in
appropriate packaging (padded, if necessary). You should also expect the
merchandise to be in the condition it was promised to you. If anything is amiss, you
should not hesitate to contact the seller. With so many Web sites and so many
people selling merchandise, a buyer has a right to expect quality.

Richard Verker has been writing business and auctions articles for 15 years. After studies in general
economy and e-commerce, his work on online auctions make his articles top-rated by
magazines and thousands of readers.

If your business is not using eBay and other Internet
auctions, you could be missing out. Here are just a
few ways of generating additional income, profits and
cashflow from online auctions.

1. Convert Excess Assets to Cash

Sell personal or business items that you no longer
use. For example, are there slow moving inventory
items in your store? A major camera store chain sells
their slow movers, quite successfully, through eBay.

2. Buy and Sell Anything

Sometimes people put things out in the garbage because
they don`t need them anymore and don`t know anyone who
could use them. You can successfully sell some of
these items by Internet auction.

As well, if you pick up bargains from garage sales,
flea markets, importers, wholesalers, closeout dealers
or other sources, these items can also be sold through
online auctions.

3. Drop Shipping

There are suppliers who will ship one item at a time
for you. You don`t have to stock any inventory. You
simply pay your dropship supplier out of the money
you receive from your auction sale. They will ship
the product directly to your customer.

For further information about drop shipping, visit:
http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/dropship.html

4. Self-Publishing

Do you have expertise in a specialized area of
interest to people? Then, you could publish your
own information product.

A very popular format for self-publishing information
products is the electronic book (or e-book). E-book
compilers, some of which are free, are readily
available on the Internet. When people buy your
e-book, they can download it from your website or
receive it by e-mail.

You could sell such self-published information
products on eBay and other Internet auction sites.
Incidentally, online auctions are an inexpensive
method of testing the market for your information (or
other) products.

For further information about self-publishing, visit:
http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/selfpub.html

5. Reprint and Resale Rights

You may not want to produce your own information
products presently. Or, perhaps, you may already
have an information product, but would like to
supplement your income with additional, related
product offerings. This is where reprint and resale
rights come in.

You can buy the rights to reprint or resell excellent
information products created by other people. Some of
these rights are inexpensive.

In addition to selling these products from your own
website, you can use Internet auctions to create
extra sales. Another advantage of online auctions
is that they can create additional traffic for your
website.

For further information about reprint and resale rights,
visit http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/instantpub.html

6. Sell Your Services

Do you design logos or websites? Do you sell consulting
or other services? These, also, can be successfully sold
through eBay and other auction sites.

7. Run an eBay Consignment Shop

There are still people who don`t have a computer or who
don`t use eBay. You could sell on a consignment basis
for them, taking a commission on the successful sale.
You would need to charge for advertising expenses
incurred, such as eBay listing and selling fees.

8. Promote Affiliate Programs through Auctions

Some affiliate programs have brandable e-books that
contain your affiliate link. When people order from
the e-book that they bought from your online auction,
you get credit for the sale. As well, some of those
purchasers may sign up as affiliates, earning you
additional commissions.

Some of these e-books have valuable information that
is worth the nominal value you would sell it for on
eBay. In other cases, such an e-book is readily
available for free. In this latter case, you might
consider selling another related product and offer
the e-book as a free bonus.

For further information about affiliate programs,
visit http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/affiliate.html

9. Supply Fellow Online Auctioneers

During the gold rush days, it is said that those
who sold picks and shovels were more likely to make
money than those panning for gold. Similarly,
since there is such a big market for online auctions,
you can make money supplying eBayers with information
and auction tools to help them start and grow their
own online auction business.

10. Internet Auction Consulting

As you gain experience and expertise in online
auctions, you might consider charging for your
knowledge.

Consulting services, seminars, information products
and other ways of packaging your knowledge can
earn you additional income streams.

For more information about consulting, visit:
http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/consulting.html

These are just a few of the ways you can profit
from Internet auctions.

For more information about Internet auctions, visit:
http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/auctions.html

RESOURCE BOX:

J. Stephen Pope, President of Pope Consulting Inc.,
http://www.popeconsultinginc.com/ has been helping
clients to earn maximum business profits for over
twenty-five years.

For valuable Work at Home Small Business Ideas, visit http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/

The major bugbear of any webmaster is that no matter how stylish, how well written or how downright beautiful their site is – it all counts for nothing unless you have traffic.

There are many articles (just like this one) that can describe the varying ways of getting eager visitors to gaze upon the marvels of your site.

You could use reciprocal links to get visitors from other websites – although there is talk that the value of these is slowly diminishing.

You could write articles to get back links to your site – write a particularly good one and you’ll be surprised how many times it gets duplicated over the net, all the while with your website address in the author bio!

There are other avenues to explore such as viral e-books, forum signatures and so on, but what if you could harness the power of a site that already has billions of visitors?

Heard of ebay? Thought so, you’re probably already a buyer or seller on there. But it’s time to start seeing auction listings as something other than a way to sell off unwanted tat.

I’ll let you know what I do and then you can adjust the method to suit your own needs.

I have a newsletter which I publish at least once a month – I struggled for a long time with how to get subscribers whilst also selling a lot of e-books on ebay. Then it hit me – time to combine the two!

Now, it’s a great idea to include links to your site within the ebook, providing you’ve written it yourself obviously. The buyer will read the book and hopefully click on the link to whichever of your sites you’ve chosen. You could even have them sign up to your newsletter before they can receive the book.

On ebay however, you’re going to get a lot of visitors who read your auction and decide not to buy for whatever reason. You may only sell 4 or 5 books per one hundred visitors.

This is where the “about me” page comes in to play. Make the most of this underused tool!

Ebay gives you the opportunity to write a quick description about yourself, your interests and a list of your feedback. Use this space to give yourself a short bio and then a link to your latest website. Be careful though – ebay doesn’t allow direct links to sales pages. Instead link to your newsletter course, a page on one of your content sites or anywhere that doesn’t obviously look like you’re taking sales away from ebay.

The killer tip is to include a link to your about me page on your auction listing. I usually place a short paragraph above and below my listing pointing out the benefits of my free newsletter.

It helps also to make the product you’re selling compatible with what you are offering through the “backend” of ebay. Don’t sell a mint condition Barbie doll and then put in an advertisment for your bonsai gardening auto-responder course for example.

I tend to offer a resell rights ebook or (preferably) a short guide I have written myself about one aspect of Internet Marketing.

That way you will no only get sales for your listed product (provided you do your listing in the correct manner, but that’s a whole other article) but also subscribers or visitors and therefore future sales for your off-ebay business.

Give it a try and use some of eBay’s billion dollar power for yourself!

Matt O’Connor is owner of http://www.the-complete-guide.com. Join the newsletter now and get your FREE guide to flooding your website with traffic.