Ebay Tips For Beginners
Making money isn’t an easy thing to do these days. Many people want to turn their unused items into extra money, and eBay fills that need. Selling on Ebay does require some effort but is no means that hard. Keep reading to learn the basic steps you need to start your own eBay business.
These tips are for the beginners who would like to earn some money on eBay. The nessary components to have your own online store are really not that demanding. All you need to start is a computer, Internet access, a digital camera, and of course, products to sell.
You can sell used or like new items you find at garage sales, in your garage and so on. You can sell new items that you find at discount prices from liquidators, dollar stores, store closings and clearance sales. You may be even luckier if you can find a supplier who will make you a deal.
Skills for the Online Business World
Skills for Marketing
You can develop marketing skills as you educate yourself on how to sell various items on eBay. Reading some marketing books and articles to help yourself learn how to sell things is a good idea, but you can also learn from observing other successful entrepreneurs online. Take time to read and plan out your strategy. You will thank yourself later for taking this effort now.
Getting Organized
You need to maintain good records of your sales, and not just for tax purposes. You need to be able to keep track of which buyers have paid, which have received their items, and so on. Setting up a spreadsheet with all the pertinent information should help keep your business under control. You can also take advantage of third party payment systems online. There are options to choose from; however, they charge for about one percent of the item price as a fee. The small fee is nothing compared with your clients purchasing your items with ease.
The Basics of HTML
To ensure that your auctions eye-catching and appealing, you will want to know some basic HTML skills. There are a lot of easy and basic tutorials offered online. You can begin by searching for html tutorials, and then you can choose which one you like for your convenience.
Getting Started on eBay
Start by choosing a certain type of product to specialize in (for example, toys, clothes, etc.). That way, you can become an authority in those products and how to sell them effectively. You may decide to expand your product line at a later date.
Setting up an account is easy. Register an eBay user ID and you’re on your way. Make sure to read the eBay selling rules thoroughly and check out all the tips eBay offers along the way.
To start, put up only a few items and don’t saturate your auctions with too many of the exact same item. The primary goal is to sell your item at the highest price. If you are selling five of the same items, it may be more difficult for you to get a high price. Test out various selling methods and find out what works best for your particular items.
Ideas for Online Marketing
Promote your business with your own personal website. Your site can be a webpage just to promote your eBay business, or it can be an online store that links to your auctions. It gives you a more credible presence on the Internet and gives your clients a better sense of who you are. Create a mailing list. Mail out an informative newsletter on a regular basis to your subscribers. Don’t forget to promote your auctions in the newsletter too.
Other Auction Sites
Don’t limit your business to eBay. EBay is only one of the many auction sites available, but it is by far the largest. However, eBay’s fees can prove to be expensive after awhile. It may be more cost effective to sell your items on other auction sites, and you may face less competition, particularly if you are selling items at a fixed price. Other auction sites might be a more lucrative opportunity for you to buy items to sell for higher prices elsewhere.
All you need is some motivation and patience to watch your hard-earned money grow through on eBay business.
Keep in mind, though, you may also have fewer buyers for your products and may have a lower selling price. You will need to determine which is the most efficient way to sell your items.
Charles Taylor
http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-articles/ebay-tips-for-beginners-102845.html
Ebay selling tips for a beginner?
I have 3 items on eBay, and there are a lot of others that I want to sell. How do I get people to bid on my item? I know it helps to start the bidding at .99 cents, but then I might not make money. Thanks!
It depends on what you want to sell. I wouldn’t undercut yourself,if the item is worth more. A good photo helps to sell a product, also a simple description in bold print. As an example I used to sell glass ornaments on ebay and would price them 4.99 + 2.99 postage and would clear 5.00 profit.
References :
One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Everybody collects something. Keep in mind, though, that we are now in a recession. Money is tight and sales are soft most everywhere including ebay. In the majority of cases, items will not close now for what they might have closed for a year+ ago only because there is also less competition that equates to lower closing prices.
Starting the initial price at .99 has no bearing whatsoever on the closing price. The only thing a .99 opening bid does is increase the number of bids. If you have what bidders want, they will find your items long before the auction ends with a search or the ‘save search’ feature which alerts prospective bidders to your items via email to their inboxes. Start the bidding at what you feel is a reasonable price or set a reserved price on more expensive items, especially in this recession.
You can go to ebay for a tutorial on how to be a seller:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/newtoebay/getting-started.html#learnsell
The basics in getting started can be found via online tutorials and books. But to get to the nitty-gritty:
Be honest and accurate in your descriptions – One-sentence descriptions are for lazy sellers. One paragraph should be sufficient for most items. My general guideline is the more expensive (read higher priced) an item, the more you should ‘talk it up.’ It won’t be time wasted. Use lots of adjectives in your descriptions. Adjectives make prose and your items come alive. Without them, prose is dull and your items less appealing. Just add a little ‘sizzle’ and even have a little fun with it. In short, make your descriptions stand out above the crowd.
Be professional – use good English with no spelling errors
PICTURES:
ALWAYS include at least one picture, more pictures for higher priced items. Make sure your pictures are clear. There are far too many pictures on ebay that are dark. If prospective buyers can’t see your items clearly, your items, more than likely, will not fetch the closing prices they deserve. To remove darkness, use any photo editor to add some brightness and a wee bit of contrast.
Eliminate clutter. Prospective bidders don’t want to know what kind of cereal you eat or what kind of kitchen table or bedspread you have. Use a SOLID backdrop when taking your pictures as you want to focus all of the attention on your item. In short, the one and only thing you want in your picture is the item being sold. A SOLID white or light blue backdrop is best. However, there are certainly items that won’t show well on a light backdrop. In these cases, use a darker backdrop. And for gosh sake, don’t even think of using a plaid blanket as a backdrop for your pictures as I once saw on ebay. You should also crop the photos in your photo editor. Good pictures can add 5% to 10% to final closing prices.
GOOD DESCRIPTIONS + GOOD PICTURES = GOOD PRESENTATION. This is what you should strive for.
COMMUNICATION:
GOOD Communication is a must – Always notify buyers when you mail their items. It is not only a courtesy you would want and expect as a buyer but it is also both good customer service and good business practice. After all, you are the ‘President & CEO’ of your ‘company’ running your business but using ebay as your selling medium. In short, conduct your business so that it reflects well on you as a person. Treat everyone as a human being, not a living being and this includes people who have inquiries about your items, not just your buyers. Prospective buyers making these inquiries could ultimately be the winning bidders and possible repeat customers.
TIPS TO MAXIMIZE PROFITS:
Do not limit your auctions to one country. SELL WORLDWIDE. The reason is elementary. You now have access to the largest market ebay has to offer. Limiting your auctions to only one country also limits your potential profits. A basic business tenet is, ‘the greater the potential market, the greater the potential to maximize profits.’ But do note in your listing that PayPal is the only form of payment you will accept from overseas bidders/buyers. Through experience, you will learn that there are certain problem countries. Italy seems to be one of them. Mail sent to buyers in Italy very often ‘mysteriously disappears.’ If this is the case, just note in your listing you sell to all countries EXCEPT (name(s) here).
However, if you decide to limit sales to only one country, such as the USA, never say NO when you receive an email asking if you would ship to Taiwan, Germany, Australia or wherever. The reason is that you have a ‘FISH ON THE HOOK!’ This person will bid! When he or she does, this may force a previous bidder to enter another, higher bid or force later, first time bidders to come in with higher bids. So always say YES to these emails if you want to maximize your profits. But do say that PayPal is the only form of payment you will accept from these overseas bidders
Avoid selling ‘nickel and dime’ items. People who list and sell a steady stream of items that close for $5 or less are wasting their time. Less expensive, similar items ($5 or less) are best sold as a group to save time. If you have a large number of these cheaper, similar items, divide them up into sub lots of three, four or five.
More expensive (higher priced), similar items are best sold individually to maximize profits. There are ebay ‘vultures’ who just love to swoop down on similarly grouped items in one listing. When they win these auctions, they turn around and sell the items individually and, in most cases, get one and a half to 2 times and sometimes three times what they paid for them on an average item basis. I know this works. When I had more time (read unemployed), I was one of these ‘vultures.’ This is one of those situations where the parts are worth more than the whole.
Short of items to sell and where to find items to sell? Garage and yard sales, church bazaars, flea markets are obvious as are ‘junktique’ shops. If you want to let your fingers do the walking, you too can be crafty ‘vulture’ like a select group of other ebay sellers. Become a member of several smaller auction sites and search for bargains there. But as before, ‘stick with what you know.’ These smaller auction sites are great for buyers for the same reason they are bad for sellers:
Far fewer potential bidders = less competition = lower closing prices
Once you have your bargains, turn around and sell them at ebay. Ebay has the largest membership of any auction site. There isn’t another auction site that is remotely close and I do mean remotely close to having the number of members that ebay has. Here is the ebay formula:
Largest, by far, of any auction site = MAXIMUM competition = HIGHER closing prices,
If you want to do your listings OFFLINE, download the TURBO LISTER program free from ebay. Once you have finished with your listings, you can upload them anytime or schedule a date and time when you want your auctions to start.
Lastly, keep in mind that experience is the best teacher. Start off slowly listing only two or three items and see how that goes for you. Once you get your feet wet and gain confidence, start listing more items on a weekly basis. You will soon learn the ins and outs and the dos and don’ts in short order and ultimately settle on a system that works best for you. The more items you list, the more items you will sell, the more $$ you will make and the harder you will work. Nothing in life comes easy and that includes becoming a successful seller at ebay. Good luck & happy selling!
References :
eBayer since the last Milennium – 1997