Sell Your Product Online

Sell Your Product Online
by: Marsh Uele
Copyright 2005 Marsh Uele

In today's business world, if you're not selling your product online, you're losing sales. If you have a product, make money online by selling online. There are simple ways to make money online.

Make sure your site is professional and easily navigable if you want to make money online. If you have a lot of product, a search feature is a necessity in order for you to make money online. If you have only one or two products, you can use a payment method such as PayPal to make money online. However, if you showcase more product in order to make money online, you'll want to open a merchant account to handle credit card payments. Some merchant accounts will also offer free features, all helping you to make money online. To keep from violating credit card rules, make sure that for Internet sales, you have an Internet account.

Consider paying affiliates to help you make money online. Affiliates are online "word of mouth" referrals and can increase the amount of money you make online. They link to your site from theirs, and all of their traffic becomes your traffic, increasing the likelihood of making money online. When it comes to making money online, affiliate marketing is a no-lose for the merchant, because commission is paid only on sales.

Consider making money online by selling your product through an eBay storefront. Bidding on items has become a hot way to make money online. Having your own storefront ensures that buyers can find you easily because your product is in one place. Through your storefront, you can make reports, track traffic and sales, and receive advertising through eBay. You can try a storefront for 30 days free, making it an attractive offer to make money online.


About the author:
Marsh Uele is the editor of http://www.homebizsucces.comEverything you need to make money online from home including opportunities, tips, ideas and resources visit http://www.homebizsucces.com


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Here's What I Use to Help my eBay Selling

Here's What I Use to Help my eBay Selling
by: Brian McGregor
I get many requests about the systems I use in running my own eBay and internet business.

To give you the answer in one place, here is the software which I use daily in my own business.

I should point out that much of my own activity is now to do with selling digital information via eBay and from websites i.e. ebooks and software, which is why some of the software programs I use are concerned with this activity.

General productivity

Shortkeys
This is lovely utility which saves me hours of time each week. It is perfect for those occasions when you are required to key in information to websites. For example, how often do you key in your name and address, or a username and password, or an email address?

With Shortkeys, you associate 3 or 4 unique keystrokes with a string of frequently used information. Let's suppose I want to have a shortkey for my email address, and I set this as ##z1 in Shortkeys. Whenever I am required to key in my email address, in Outlook, on web forms, in Word documents etc, I just type in ##z1 and Shortkeys instantly replaces that with my email address.

There is an uncharged version called Shortkeys Lite which has a limit of 30 items. The full version of Shortkeys allows you an unlimited number of items.

You can get it here: http://www.workwinners.com/nlrshortkeys.htm

Download Accelerator

If you regularly download ebooks or software, and it seems to take forever, you will find Download Accelerator is a useful addition to your portfolio. Download Accelerator increases download speeds by up to 300%, regardless of the speed of your internet connection. I don't know how it does it, but I guess 89 million users can't be wrong!

You can get Download Accelerator on 14 day test here: http://www.workwinners.com/nlraccelerator.htm

Ebook Production

Acrobat Adobe
I create all my ebooks in pdf format as this file can be read by anyone with Acrobat Reader, and this includes Mac users too. The way I create an ebook is to write it in Microsoft Word first. Once I'm happy that the Word version is exactly how I want it, I use an integrated converter which takes the Word file and converts it automatically into a pdf file. This conversion preserves everything which appeared in the Word document, including headers/footers, page numbers and web links.

You can read all about Adobe Acrobat here: http://www.workwinners.com/nlracrobat.htm

If you are considering developing your own ebooks using Acrobat, the most cost effective way of purchasing it is to buy online from Adobe's US site, and select the download option. To buy the download version this is the place to start: http://www.workwinners.com/nlracrobat_dl.htm

At 167 Mb, Acrobat is quite a large software product. If you would therefore prefer to buy the boxed CD version, the cheapest way in the UK is to get it from Amazon. http://www.workwinners.com/nlramacrobat.htm

ebook Covers
It is a fact that showing your ebook in 3D form so it looks like a book really helps to boost sales. Compact Draw is the software I use to create my ebook covers. You can try it for 30 days here: http://www.workwinners.com/nlrcompact.htm

Website creation and maintenance

Website design
I use Macromedia's Dreamweaver to design websites, and indeed to create eBay auction description pages. Dreamweaver is a premium web design product, and unless you're going to do serious website design I wouldn't advise you to acquire it.

It comes in boxed form, and Macromedia will channel any UK purchasers to a UK based reseller. The cheapest way in the UK is to get it from Amazon. http://www.workwinners.com/nlramdream.htm

Image Manipulation & Optimising
I use Paint Shop Pro for picture manipulation and for optimising. This is important for auction pictures, as eBay have a size limit of 50KB on any pictures which you want to upload to their Picture Service.

The authors, JASC, have just released Version 9 of this software. I find Version 8 is perfectly acceptable for everything I want to do, and it's cheaper than Version 9.

You can't now buy Version 8 from the author's USA site, which is unfortunate as this was the cheapest way of buying the product before Version 9 came out.

The good news is that Version 8 is currently half price at the author's UK site, as you can see here: http://www.workwinners.com/nlrpsp.htm

It's available for trial at the UK site, and I recommend you test it to see if you can work with it.

Website upload
Cute FTP is probably the best known FTP software. I have used it for several years and have been very satisfied with the software. http://www.workwinners.com/nlrcute.htm

Website hosting
ProWebSpace are excellent and reasonable web hosts which I have now been using for over a year. I transferred to them from another host with whom I was having lots of problems. Now, I have a better service, and it's at one third the price! Of course, you can get web space for nothing from a variety of ISPs. Take a look at http://www.freeisp.com

You only need companies like ProWebSpace if you intend to "go commercial" in your internet activities. If you do, it's important to have a paid service as this gives you the right to kick b**t if ever you experience hosting problems. If you would like to know the hosting company who I moved from, email me. If you think you need professional hosting, this is definitely where I would start. http://www.workwinners.com/nlrpws.htm

Newsletter and other Mailings

As my newsletter has grown, I've tried various ways of managing my mailing lists. I currently use Press-Manager, and have found their service to be very easy to set-up and to use. It's a web based service, and all mailings are performed from their site. This means there's no software to be installed, I can manage my mailings from any PC and my ISP no longer bears the mailing load. http://www.workwinners.com/nlrpm.htm

Autoresponding

You may know that the use of autoresponders is one of the keys to marketing on the internet. I use Promasoft, and have found it can easily handle everything I want. http://www.workwinners.com/nlrpsoft.htm

I hope this glimpse into the systems and services I use has been helpful.

Good luck in your own internet business developments and in your eBay selling.



About the author:
Brian McGregor specializes in showing website owners how to make more money from their sites by applying inventive and original use of eBay. For a free copy of ‘The eBay Traffic Funnel’ which shows you how to use the power of eBay to make more money with your website, visit http://www.more-auction-sales.com/websites/


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3 Internet Home Based Businesses Anyone Can Do

3 Internet Home Based Businesses Anyone Can Do
by: Kent Thompson
Copyright 2005 Kent Thompson

If you’re serious about having a home based business, then you need to prepare. The leading reason for a failing home based business is the lack of preparation people commit after they’ve made a decision to start a home based business.

So what kind of home based business opportunity should you take on? Do you want to have an internet-based home business? Millions have done it, are doing it and are earning good livings doing so.

Here are three different kinds of Internet based business models you can try:

1) Be an online retailer for reputable companies. Your home based internet business can give reviews about all the products and services of these companies. Your customers will browse around your website, and then click on to the link. The link will send the customer to the company’s customer service website, which takes care of processing and shipping their order.

Your home based online business website does the marketing, promoting and advertising aspects for these companies. Your commission comes from the proceeds of the sale. You don’t even have to spend money for expensive e-commerce software.

2) You may not be able to bear the pain of separating from your oldest possessions, but how about auctioning these things off? For a minimal entry fee and closing fee, you can put your prized possessions on auction at Ebay or other spin-offs found on the net. This is a virtually free home based business since you don’t pay for web presence. You’ll get traffic since Ebay receives as many as 4 million visitors a day, and you won’t need to worry about your e-commerce software. Plus your small home based internet business stays open even when you go fishing!

3) Sell information. You can start your home based internet business by writing on a subject that you enjoy or are knowledgeable about. If you can do this, then this small home based internet business is for you. Write your e-book and sell it on sites like Ebay.com, ebookAd.com, or Clickbank.com.

These home based internet business are all simple and easy enough to do. You can earn a living on these ideas if you view this small home based business with passion and commitment.

Just remember these home based internet tip:
Constantly fine-tune your marketing strategy and always test new ad copies to see what brings you the most sales!


About the author:
Find out how you can make $1000 per sale in one of the hottest home based businesses! Check out http://RunAdsForCash.com


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Remove These Objections and Watch Your eBay Auctions Fly

Remove These Objections and Watch Your eBay Auctions Fly
by: Brian McGregor
"Objection" is a term taken directly from sales and marketing training, and it is important you understand the significance of objections to your sales process.

Objections are those points, sometimes small issues, which make a bidder or a buyer think again about going for your offering.

In your auction description you need to remove as many of these objections as you can.

These are the kind of objections which your prospective buyers will have.

Objection 1
Is the seller trustworthy?

The buyer usually doesn't know you. If they're serious bidders they will check you out. How will they do this?

a) A good Feedback Rating will be one way they assess you. Be determined in getting your feedback up, and making it all positive.

b) They might also click through to your About Me page. This page gives you the opportunity to convey your personality and your honesty.

One of eBay's standard About Me page formats lets you display your recent feedbacks - always useful - and also your other auctions, again useful. This is in addition to anything about yourself which helps to show what a sincere and genuine person you are.

And finally, if you have a web site from which you sell products or services, you are allowed to place a direct link to it from the About Me page. This is in marked contrast to your auction description page, where eBay does not allow direct links to web pages. So, create an About Me page and incorporate the points mentioned.

c) A prospective bidder may wish to ask you a question. As you will know, there is a standard eBay facility whereby a bidder can ask a seller a question. You should really welcome questions. Why do I say this?

Well, if a bidder asks you a question, first of all you know they are interested in your offering. They wouldn't have wasted their time on typing out their question to you if they weren't. So, by asking you a question they are qualifying themselves in as a real prospect. And you now have the chance to directly influence them in your reply to their question. Depending on the nature of their enquiry, you have the opportunity to convey your integrity, honesty, credibility, fair mindedness, helpfulness, expertise, knowledge, other appropriate products etc.

So, if questions are such good things, why not make it easy for the bidder to ask one? Always have some text in your auction description offering to answer any questions, with a link to your email address. If you have a little knowledge of HTML coding you will know how easy this is to do. It is far better than simply relying on buyers finding the standard "Ask the seller a question" link provided by eBay.

d) You might consider a moneyback guarantee, if it's appropriate and you can "afford" it.

Why would you or should you do this?

Well, when you think about it, in online auctions, the buyer is normally asked to take all the risk. They usually pay the seller up front - before the item is delivered to them. The risk is all theirs that the seller doesn't perform.

To some buyers, particularly on higher value items, this risk is so high that it can cause them to have second thoughts about bidding. You know you are trustworthy, but they don't. By offering a moneyback guarantee you are offering what is known as "risk reversal". You are taking the risk off your buyer. In effect you shoulder the risk.

I know this works, because I use it myself. In thousands of auctions I've run, I can count on one hand the number of people who have invoked my money back guarantee.

If you can practice "risk reversal", it will help your auction success rate, and it is vital on Dutch auctions.

Objection 2
How do I pay?

Always maximise the number of payment options you will accept.

You should provide different types of payment options for your buyers:

PayPal
Nochex
FastPay
Cheque
Postal Order
Banker's Draft
Bank Transfer
Cash

You can accept credit/debit cards on your auctions if you open accounts with relevant payment processors. These enable buyers to pay you with a credit/debit card even though you aren't a business, and you don't have what is known as a Merchant Account.

As you probably know, PayPal is owned by eBay. Therefore eBay make it really easy for you to take PayPal payments from your buyers. But don't forget other payment processors, like Nochex and FastPay. It might just be that your interested buyer only has a Nochex account, or a Fast Pay account.

Opening accounts is free. Paying anyone via PayPal, Nochex or FastPay is also free - which is why so many auction bidders and buyers use them. There are charges for you as a seller, however, and these are incurred when you receive money and/or when you transfer money from/to your PayPal, Nochex or FastPay accounts from/to your own bank account. Check out the respective fees via their web sites.

In my experience, the rates of charges are reasonable for giving you the significant advantage of being able to accept credit/debit card payments on your auctions.

Objection 3
Is delivery expensive?

Always fully describe your delivery details within your auction description. Be up front about delivery costs.

If bidders or buyers aren't given this detail within the auction description, they may become suspicious that the seller is hiding something, and therefore decide not to bid. There have been occasions where sellers have sold items at what appear to be cheap prices, but have inflated delivery costs to compensate, or even over compensate. Never do this!

There is no reason why you cannot say up front how much P&P will be. You can find out the real delivery costs of the company you plan to use. You can get these details from their website.

Once you have the postal costs you can add the appropriate handling and packaging costs, and there you have the figure to let your buyers know in advance that you're not hiding anything.

You have just removed another doubt in your prospective buyer's mind.

Objection 4
What happens if the item arrives damaged?

In your auction description you should cover your policy in relation to damages and insurance.

If you're selling higher value items you may wish to consider using a delivery service which includes insurance. Remember, even though the buyer has paid for it, the item is your property until it is accepted by the buyer. So if it is damaged in transit, this is your responsibility. You will have to arrange a replacement or a refund, and claim your costs back via your insurance.

Don't forget, if you do need to have enhanced insurance cover, it is perfectly reasonable to include this is in your delivery costs as shown in your auction description.

Objection 5
How professional is someone who has multiple spelling errors?

It is very unreasonable for any bidder to overlook your auction just because you have spelling errors. Isn't it?

However, they may believe someone who won't take the trouble to get their spelling correct might be equally unprofessional elsewhere.

You and I might consider that stance to be unreasonable. With spell checkers available, however, there's no reason to have any spelling errors creeping through on your auction page.

So, spell check your auction description page - please.

Objection 6
What do I do now?

You should always "ask for the order". In other words, suggest to your prospective buyer that they make a bid today for this valuable, rare, stunning, limited edition item!

And remind them that when they win the item they will be enriched by the strongest benefit you have already identified to them in your auction description.

Objections - Summary

If you spend time removing these objections, you will be repaid handsomely. I can guarantee you will receive more genuine bids for each of your auctions than if you had left these points hanging for the bidder to ponder and make assumptions.



About the author:
Brian McGregor specializes in showing website owners how to make more money from their sites by applying inventive and original use of eBay. For a free copy of ‘The eBay Traffic Funnel’ which shows you how to use the power of eBay to make more money with your website, visit http://www.more-auction-sales.com/websites/


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eBay Auction Descriptions That REALLY Sell!

eBay Auction Descriptions That REALLY Sell!
by: Ian Stables
Headline That Attracts
The first thing you need to do is attract people to your auction. The more the merrier. Yes?

You need two main ingredients. Keyword and big benefit.

Your keyword will be the main word that people will search on to find your item. But you need a big benefit aswell to ensure they select YOUR auction and not someone elses.

Powerful Opening Paragraph
Then you need a very strong powerful paragraph to get someone interested enough to read the rest of your auction. And if you make sure it really gets their heart beating faster they're almost guaranteed to buy. They way to do this is by getting them to see themselves already owning your item. Getting them to test drive it, if you like.

Testimonials
If you can, try to get testimonials from people who've owned this item. They could either be a past customer of yours or someone writing about very something similar to your item. If they happen to be famous, well!

Testimonials are other people selling your item. It's very powerful and it creates belief in the quality of what your offering.

List Of What You Get
If this is done right it should sell your item on it's own power.

Everybody likes lists because it's easy to see what you get. Make sure you've got one in every auction. And I don't mean a list of boring features like...

22ct gold
Water resistant
Sekonda make

I mean a list of the benefits...

Look good with this prestigious 22ct gold watch
Don't worry if it's get wet it's water resistant
Know you've always got the right time (Sekonda is accurate)

A benefit is what a feature does for someone. Try to find as many of these as possible. There are certain techniques which are BRILLIANT at finding out the benefits in any item that REALLY SELL! One that I show in my book is particularly effective and quick at this task.

Fantastic Offer Only A Moron Could Refuse
Try to make what you offer your customer well worth the price you're offering. Again, there are ways of making your offer irresistable by adding to it.

Motivating Call To Action
This is where most people fail. They just describe their item and that's it. Sorry! If you want people to bid you've got to write a motivating short paragraph at the end. Tell them why they should buy.

There you have it. Good luck!

About the author:
Ian Stables is the author of the popular ebook "The 37 Effective eBay Ad Writing Secrets". Available on eBay at only ฃ2.97. Click here for details http://members.ebay.co.uk/aboutme/stablesuk


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Google to Compete with PayPal?

Google to Compete with PayPal?
by: Ross MacIver
PayPal is secure in its domination over the electronic payment industry, at least for now.

Following reports that Google planned to launch a new Internet payment service (nicknamed Google Wallet), Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, denied that Google would be directly competing with PayPal. He did, however, acknowledge that Google has plans for some type of electronic payment service.

Without revealing any details, Schmidt emphasized that the Google payment service will not offer the same sort of “person to person, store-valued payments system” as PayPal provides.

The Internet commerce industry was rampant with rumours of the new Google service following an e-commerce conference hosted by securities firm Piper Jaffray. Speculation that Google Wallet would encroach on PayPal territory was reinforced by the appearance of a June 20th article in the Wall Street Journal which stated that Google was planning an online payment service to compete with PayPal.

PayPal is a unit of eBay and generates almost 25% of total eBay revenue. It is used by consumers for making a wide variety of Internet purchases. It allows purchasers to use their credit cards without divulging their credit card numbers to merchants. PayPal takes a percentage of each transaction and had revenues of $233.1 million in the first quarter of this year.

Most of Google’s revenue comes from online advertising and this expansion into online payments was seen by many in the industry as yet another example of the rivalry between the two companies.

Google is a giant in Internet commerce with revenues of $3.2 billion last year. A payment service that competed directly with PayPal would be a serious blow to both PayPal and eBay.

Google maintained silence about the rumours until Schmidt’s comments last Tuesday. Without elaborating, he stated that Google’s payment service would be an extension of its existing advertising programs.



About the author:
Copyright 2005 by Ross MacIver

This article may be redistributed freely on the Internet or in ezines as long as the resource box and hyperlinks remain intact.

Ross MacIver is the director of Best Online Content. We provide quality content for your web site and offer a full range of design and SEO services.


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Four Reasons Why You Should NEVER Use Animations In Your eBay Auctions

Four Reasons Why You Should NEVER Use Animations In Your eBay Auctions
by: Sydney Johnston
Inexperienced auction sellers, or those lacking in confidence, often want to make their auction listings more dramatic and exciting. They dread the possibility that buyers will be bored by their auction and turn away with indifference.

Therefore, they reason, they will spice up their auctions with some "animations" - graphics that blink, change colors, spin, travel around the web page.

Or the seller may be a tech person who loves toys and is proud of his ability to create unusual effects.

Regardless of their reasons, animated elements on an auction page are almost never a good idea for the following four reasons:

1. Rather than attracting attention to the merchandise in your auction, your potential customer may watch a spinning ball or follow Santa and his reindeer through the sky. We want the customer's total attention on that all-important question: "Do I want to buy this widget or not?" Distractions are not good for your wallet.

2. Animations can make the load time of your auction listing much longer. I have been using DSL four years and have forgotten (happily!) how horrible it is to use dialup. However, for many places on this planet, high-speed connections simply are not available. For these folks, loading your page might take forever, and you can be sure they won't wait. Experts tell us that the average user spends only 7 seconds at a webpage before departing for greener pastures. If your sales page is still loading, no sale for you.

3. It takes time for you to figure out how and whether to use animations. This is time that would be better spent on writing more exciting and dynamic copy - copy that will turn a prospective customer into a real buyer. A smart business person will treat time as her most precious commodity and spend it on what is most likely to bring a sale.

4. Many of these animations are just downright annoying. I personally do not enjoy looking at screens that are twirling, whirling and blinking. Two particularly irritating animations are an inescapable message that follows up and down the left side of the page, regardless of where I'm looking, and "trails" that follow my mouse.

A huge majority of people feel the same, apparently. Sellers need to make it as easy as possible for people to buy, rather than throwing obstacles in the way.

Are there any occasions when animated pictures are of any value in an auction listing? Possibly. For example, if you are selling to graphic designers then animated elements might be appropriate. As always, testing, testing, testing is the only way to truly know.

But for the rest of us folks - forget the glitter and focus on your merchandise. That's what makes us buy.

About the author:
Learn how to sell on eBay with 16 hours of online instruction taught by a 10 year eBay veteran. Own an eBay business instead of an eBay hobby.
http://www.auction-genius-course.com


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Kids and Online Marketers

Kids and Online Marketers
by: Tom Dean
Kids and Online Marketing


I’m sure many online marketers have kids and they often come over to the desk when you are busy working online to ask questions like “what are you doing dad/mom” etc.


How many of us actually tell them what we are doing or better yet show them?


I have been guilty of being “to busy” to answer questions or saying not right now daddy’s busy.


All this changed the first time I actually took the time to explain to my daughter just exactly what I was doing.


My daughter has some “challenges” that I won’t go into here but the result of me explaining a little bit of what I do and why to her has been no less than inspiring to me.


She took an interest in this whole marketing thing, especially wondering why people buy things and what makes them buy one item instead of a similar one.


We have had lots of conversations about this and looked at lots of products and ads, everything from tv, ebay, online sites and even the wso’s on the forum. We’ve discussed Christmas and observed the transformation of stores and tv ads during the holiday season.


She has learned a lot about.


* Integrity and honesty in promoting a product and many of the various ways to get the attention of the viewer.


* How a buyer that feels fooled or cheated won’t be back and will tell people they know not to buy from you.


* Wanting to belong to a group” – she was sitting next to me when I signed up for the Alliance forum and witnessed first hand how building anticipation and exclusivity can work.


* Selling something you are passionate about - how it won’t seem like work and you will probably have a better chance of success when the passion you have for a product show’s through.


Soon all these evening conversations and lessons lead to Stephanie wanting her own website to sell something from.


First she needed some money to launch her site. At the time I was an active power seller on ebay. Her little brother Thomas James was really into Bionicles (a toy) and was always cruising ebay looking for a deal on the latest Bionicle. One night we were at Wal-Mart and as usual in the Bionicle section with Thomas. The little toys were on sell at less than half price. Stephanie suggested that we could buy them and sell them on ebay. We did, we bought them all and sold almost all of them at retail or above. She helped design the ad and suggested posing some out of the boxes for pictures and was involved in the design of the auction ad. Enough was made to start her website. More ebay auctions followed to raise a few more dollars.


After some discussion Stephanie decided what she wanted her website to be about.


She decided on:


* The pet niche – an area she is definitely passionate about (three dogs, hamsters, guinea pigs, fish and turtles make their home with us).


* She picked out several private label products and click bank products to promote.


* She chose the domain name freepettips.com


* She bought the website to use a starting point for her site (she picked it out from ebay for $25). You can see the beginnings here. http://tomdean.net/Pets (it’s not finished this is just the starting point) but it will be up and running soon on her domain.


Her site will be online soon and will include private label products about dog care, click bank products, resell rights products for dog/cat recipes, articles, adsense, and two of her very on products written for her but based on what she wanted them to include. One is on buying and caring for hamsters the other is on guinea pigs and includes plans for the guinea pigs home and an outdoor guinea pig play box. Of course I will be the one to finish up the site and get it on the web but the concept, product selection, chosen design and her products were all decided on by her. Think of all she will be learning from this process that she is involved with every step of the way.


Many of her own graphics will be used on the site and in the products. She went from coloring graphics with crayons (her other passion) to drawing them in a paint program using a pen mouse that she purchased from her ebay proceeds.


All of this from dad just answering some questions and deciding not to say “I’m busy right now”.


I know we all get busy and stressed especially when that site is just not working out or your latest mailing didn’t do much for you. But take some time when the little one ask what you are up to. You may be surprised by how much they are really interested in what you are doing and how much your time means to them. You will also be surprised with what they can teach you if you just listen.

* My daughter is 11. She is currently taking art class and learning to draw online with a mouse pen using photo impact and ms paint along with getting her website ready to launch.

Tom
(A proud dad)


About the author:
Tom Dean publishes the Viral Marketing Newsletter.
You can get Free Templates-Tools-Headers Complete Websites at his website
http://www.tomdean.net


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The power of dogs

The power of dogs
by: Eva Sanchez
Well first of all I was always a cat owner, till my husband bought our first Chihuahua (Stitch) in 2002, Stitch was about 6 weeks old and was generally purchased for our children and it stud that was till he was about 5 months or so. Then I started to notice that he was starting to favor me and follow me around more and more everyday, one day I hid from him and watched him run up and down the hallway from the crack in the bedroom door, until he found me and it just melted my heart, my cats never did that and after that he became ALL MINE Stitch stole my heart. Around a month later my mother handed down her old sewing machine to me, I tried making everything that came to mind but nothing ever turned out perfect, but I kept sewing anyways.

Shortly after I got my sewing machine my sister in-law gave me a little dog shirt that she had found on clearance at Walmart and I looked at this little thing and said “ this would be a piece of cake to make” and that very night I began working on little shirts for Stitch. It was a very exciting challenge and the results were outstanding! Stitch always had a new shirt for every occasion, then one day that same sister in-law told me that I should try selling my dog shirts on eBay. So about a month later I did as a matter of fact it I listed my first item on my birthday, at that time dog clothes on eBay was only about 3 pages long so no matter what I listed, it always sold. Stitch became my right hand man, and tested and modeled all of my creations and never complained. We had such a close bond that I understood him and knew what he wanted by just looking at him and he always understood what I told him and sometimes it would just blow me away.

None of my items would sell for over about $10 but that was a lot for me and I was proud, eventually I started making dog dresses, it took some fine tuning but I finally got the pattern right. So as the months passed Stitch became my best friend, my companion and a very close member of my family, we were inseparable and I never left him home. Meanwhile had found success on eBay but the dog clothes section was starting to grow more every week, competition was getting rough and some of my listings were ending without bids. I started to be more creative and put more effort into my clothes and do a lot of research on what kind of dog clothes people were looking for so I started to study websites that sold small dog clothes and found out that dog clothes like mine were selling for twice as much without the haste of re-listing and fees.

I started thinking about opening up my own website and started out with the free 2 page ones and I did get a purchase or two from my eBay customers but at that time I was also selling my shirts for a frugal $6. I did get tired of only having 2 pages for my clothes, I wanted to be more professional, since I was making extra money from eBay so I invested it into a real website, It did take a lot of work to build and even now I’m still spending many hours a week on my current site but it’s worth it.

I finally had my first real website and shortly realized that traffic doesn’t come automatically so here I go again, doing hours of research on website promotion till I found and hired a company to submit my site to a certain number of search engines for about $40 a month, I thought that’s all I would need but I was so wrong. I finally found Overture, signed up and before I new it, I was doubling the income that I was making on eBay WITHOUT THE FEES, I canceled the monthly submissions. In 2004 I learned of Adwords, signed up and started to triple and sometimes quadruple my income in a day and haven’t sold on eBay since.

I owe it all to Stitch without him, none of this would have ever materialized, he played so many vital roles in this business and ultimately changed my life, without Stitch there would be no Princess Petwear.

Stitch passed away on 12-23-04 at 3 years old and I have yet to stop crying over his memories.

Its 2005 now and the dog clothes selection on eBay is now up to 50 pages long, I now work for my business 40+ a week and consider myself a work-at-home-mom with 4 kids, ages 13, 11, 7, 2. I still miss my Stitch, I always catch myself daydreaming of him remembering how soft his fur was and how I loved to rub my check against his face, I also find myself reminiscing on how would baby talk him and shower him with kisses and hugs, then I wipe the tears from my face and get back to work.


About the author:
Author Eva Sanchez founder of PrincessPetear.com, online seller of small dog clothes for boy and girl dogs, which includes, pet sweaters, formal dresses, doggie swimsuits and more. Let your dog feel special every day in our affordable casual collection. http://www.princesspetwear.com


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How to Build Customer Trust in your Auctions!

How to Build Customer Trust in your Auctions!
by: Joe Clare
Whether you realize it or not you may be giving your auction visitors a reason not to buy your product or service. And it could be just the smallest of issues that will cause them to think twice about purchasing from your auction. As explained in my book "eBay Marketing Wholesale SourcePak" you must remove these obstacles from your auction sales page so your visitors will become bidders. Below you'll find some obstacles and how you can solved them on your auction page.

Is This Seller Trustworthy?
This is a question that all your serious auction visitors will ask themselves. As they do not know you they are going to want to check you out. But how will they do this? Well, the first thing they would look for is your feedback rating. Feedback is a way eBay allows buyers and sellers to rate their experiences with each other. If you have a stellar feedback rating your visitor will feel you are trustworthy. Your goal should be to increase your auction feedback and keep it positive.

Another way a visitor might check to see if you are trustworthy is to click over to your about "Me Page". The about "Me Page" is a page you can create in your eBay account. It allows you to give your potential bidders some background information about you and your business. You can also include your feedback and other listed auctions on this page as well. This is where you have a chance to tell your potential bidder about yourself and your business, why he/she should buy from you. I would highly recommend you take advantage of this and create an about "Me Page" in your eBay account.

Also people may have questions regarding your auction. So you could get an email asking about your product or service. You should welcome this opportunity as a way to show your potential bidder you are a real person. Take this time to show your integrity, honesty, credibility, and expertise in your product or service. Include on your auction page an email link and tell your visitors that any inquires are welcome.

What About A Guarantee?
You always need some sort of guarantee for your product or service. Again it will help to show your visitor you are a trustworthy business person. Remember that your buyer assumes most of the risk here. He/she is buying from someone that they have never met, a product that they have only seen in a photo, and they must pay for that product in advance of receiving it. A guarantee that is appropriate for your product or service will help your visitor become a bidder.

How Do I Pay?
The more options you have for payment the more visitors will become bidders. There are many means of payment. The normal being PayPal. PayPal is an eBay company so having a PayPal payment button on your auction is an easy and free option to include on your auction sales page. But besides PayPal you may want to consider excepting other payment options as well..

What About Delivery?
Always fully disclose how your product or service is delivered and your delivery charge. Whether you are sending it via the postal service or a courier your bidder will want to know how he/she should expect to receive the purchase and what the cost will be. You can usually approximate deliver time and cost based on information you obtain from your local post office or courier.

If you answer the above questions on your auction page you will be building customer trust and he/she is more likely to become a bidder. And more bidders means more profits for you!

Happy Selling!
Joe Clare


About the author:
Joe Clare is a successful eMarketer and Author. He has written numerous articles on eBay and how to make money online. Check out his latest ebook plus FREE Articles, Hot Tips and Advice on how you can make a Serious Income with Online Auctions. http://www.ebooksnsoftware.com




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Shill Bidding: How Scumbag Bidders Rob Honest Sellers Like You

Shill Bidding: How Scumbag Bidders Rob Honest Sellers Like You
by: Sydney Johnston

How Honest Sellers Can Be Robbed By Dishonest Buyers

Shill bidding deal is a 21st century version of a confidence game. The purpose of shill bidding is to buy merchandise at an artificially low price which can then be resold for a healthy profit. It involves either two different buyers or one buyer who possesses two different eBay IDs.

Shill bidding is often easy to detect and therefore is usually more successful with an inexperienced seller who doesn't know what to look for. We can't know for certain, but most likely shill bidders look for sellers with low feedback because they know a more experienced seller might realize what is going on.

Shill bidding is only worthwhile with an expensive item. If you are selling many low priced, high-volume items, shill bidding will not be a concern of yours.

Let's use an extreme example so that sellers can easily identify the shill building pattern and be aware of what it looks like. Forewarned is forearmed, and all that.

Let's pretend that a seller has an antique doll for sale. She has seen a few other dolls similar to hers and she knows she can expect approximately $300 for this doll. Our unscrupulous bidders also know that $300 is a reasonable and legitimate price and they want to get it for much less. The seller decides to open the bidding at only $9.95 to encourage collectors to flock to her doll auction.

Basically the way the scam works is like this:

Buyer A will open the bidding at $9.95.

His confederate, Buyer B, will offer an inflated bid, above and beyond the true value of the doll. Let's say he builds $350.

The purpose of such a high bid is to discourage all legitimate prospective buyers from even getting in the game. Obviously, genuine collectors and buyers will not be interested in paying in excess of $300 if that is what the doll is really worth.

There may or may not be a few intervening builders between the placement of the opening bid and the absurd one. If there are any bids, they will be nearer the opening bid of $9.95 and therefore will not raise the price very much. In fact, our dishonest pair might be happy if someone else bids, because more bids make the auction look more legitimate.

The auction will hang there in eBay limbo until only hours before the closing deadline. Shortly before the conclusion of the auction, Bidder B will retract his $350 bid. Since he and Bidder A are in communication with each other, Bidder A will know the exact moment that the high bid is canceled. He will then raise his bid just above the highest one, if any, so that he is now the highest bidder.

Our dishonest pair hopes that no other sellers notice this last minute retraction and place bids. If an honest bid is placed, they can afford to top them because they still have lots of financial room to play with. After all, even if the bidding rises to $150, they can still double their money on a $300 doll.

The result: the dishonest bidders won the doll at a fraction of its value. The shell-shocked seller is left in a daze, wondering what happened to her glittering auction profits.

In a variation on this practice, Bidder B may allow the auction to expire with his bid of $350. When the seller contacts him for payment, he will ignore her requests until she gives up and realizes she is never going to get her money.

eBay has a "Second Chance" program. In the event that a buyer doesn't live up to his obligations, the seller can offer the item to the second highest bid - which belongs to Bidder A and is artificially low.

If an honest seller sees this kind of pattern in one of her auctions, she can recognize the possibility of some dishonesty going on and take steps to verify the extraordinarily large bid. Sometimes such a high bid is totally legitimate because it is from a collector who is determined to own the item for sale.

Fortunately, shill bidding deal is relatively easy to detect and it isn't common anymore. At one time it was much easier to pull off this kind of fraud than it is now. Any seller who has a question, however, should feel totally justified in contacting the high bidder and asking some tough questions. Without satisfactory answers, it is certainly wise and prudent to contact the Bay and discuss the situation. In this way, no seller will never be ripped off by dishonest shill bidders.




About the author:
Learn how to sell on eBay with 16 hours of online instruction taught by a 10 year eBay veteran. Own an eBay business instead of an eBay hobby.
http://www.auction-genius-course.com




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Getting Great Deals on EBay

Getting Great Deals on EBay
by: Lorraine Venner
I love getting a deal. I try to smell them out from miles away. I love frequent garage sales, flea markets, closeouts, and more -- but found that I could much better by simply buying through online auctions - if I shop carefully.

Getting a deal out of EBay auctions is an art. Buying from auctions can be a costly proposition or a very economical option depending on your tactics. Buy wisely by learning from my (sometimes costly) experiences.

1. Is the Seller Trustworthy?
Both EBay and Yahoo auctions have seller ratings. Read these and their associated reviews. If the seller has a great rating from buying and a poor one from selling, you probably don't want to buy from them. Look at both praises and complaints as they may or may not apply to what you are bidding on.

2. Read the Description Throughly
It is very easy to read what you want to see in an Ebay auction rather than what is actually written there. Read both what is in the Ebay description and what is NOT in the description. Often your mind will want to fill in details with what is your dream interpretation. You need to re-read the description until you find out whether what you are searching for and what the seller is selling match.

* Used or New?
Is the item you are buying used or new? If it doesn't say new, you are most likely buying something that is used.

* Real or Fake
Is the item you are interested in "real" gold, sterling silver or pearls? For example, a description saying: "gold necklace for sale" does NOT say 14 kt gold or 18kt gold. That most likely means a gold COLORED necklace which may or may not have actual gold metal. This also applies to pearls as many call plastic fake pearls simply "pearls".

If the seller is selling beads, those beads could be plastic, glass, stone, scrap metal, crystal, chips, wood, clay, gemstone or some other material.

* Item Details
Does the EBay description really say how much you are getting, how long the item is, and quality of the item? Selling by the pound can be a great deal - or a horrible deal.

* Beware of Hidden Costs
Look at shipping and handling costs. I've seen many penny auctions that have $13 or more shipping. Some auctions even have handling fees.

* How Fast Will it Ship?
I've been seeing a fair amount of auctions that note that the product will ship in 2 months or that shipping time is 2 months. If you are buying for a particular holiday, be sure that you will get the item in time.

3. Is it a Bargain For You?
Many times an EBay auction will say that the items are "worth $XXX". In many cases, that price is inflated. Often you can find similar items much cheaper tah "$XXX" at normal stores. (However, the auction price may still be cheaper than you can by elsewhere - it really helps to know how much you usually pay for items!) If you are only interested in some of the items in an auction, adjust your bid to reflect how much you are willing to pay for just those items unless you plan to sell the rest as that is how much you would pay for it elsewhere.

4. Auction Fever
Compare prices on the net at the same time to avoid overpaying. Know that usually you can get the item later elsewhere. Wise buyers know to walk away when the price is higher than the item is worth to them.

About the author:
Find deals and create great gifts. Get your Free report: "10 Ways to Make Your Gift Extra Special" as well as find more jewelry and gift buying tips by going to http://www.jewelrymall.com


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Dropship Wholesale; 7 Secrets to Dropship Success

Dropship Wholesale; 7 Secrets to Dropship Success
by: Jennie Pipkin
Dropshipping offers a the little guy the opportunity to get ahead on the internet by offering top
products, even name brand products without having to invest thousands of dollars of
inventory, shipping products, or manufacturing.

Deopshipping is the opportunity for a home based business, using the internet and even
ebay.com, this article will give you 7 basic steps to finding dropship and wholesale
sources and starting your own home dropship business from the internet.

1. Step 1, finding your niche. You've probably heard of this phrase if you've studied internet
marketing at all. A niche is a specialty or subject that you will focus on when deciding what
products to offer your customers.

Choose something you know alot about as you may have a better idea of the pricing and value
of products that you are familiar with. You may also know what your customers are willing
to pay for products and what the customers look for in different products.

2. Find Dropship suppliers. This may take some time and research on your own. If you're very
luchk you may find a local wholesale supplier willing to dropship products for you to your
customers. Another choice is to consult a
dropship wholesale directory like the one at: http://www.freewebsuccess.info/dropship-wholesale
to find the type of products you want to offer within your niche.

3. List items on Ebay.com. This is an important shep even if you want to sell items via a
website only. Because ebay.com is a great place to find out what the demand for a product is
and how high a price customers are willing to pay for an item.

You could use ebay.com to sell products monthly as well and email customers about your website
should you choose to build one.

4. Build your e-commerce website. If you need help with this you may want to learn html on
your own rather than hire a webmaster for thousands of dollars. There are plenty of free
information websites that will teach you about html. Just google html.

5. Build a list of contacts/customers. The real value of a customer can be drasticially
if they become a repeat customer. Think about it, the most expensive part of your business
will be getting new customers, so you might as well get as much value out of each one as
possible.

You do this by getting the customer to subscribe to your newsletter, or to give you their
email address so you can tell them about new produts or specials. Offering them something
of value for free many times will convince them to subscribe.

6. Upsell your contacts. This is easy, use the list of customers you have gathered to offer
specials, deals, or inform them of new products. Or simply send them tips and information
about the niche you have chosen.

7. Expand your product base. If you add new products to your items customers are more likely to return to the website to see a new item. Especially if it's a hot new item just coming out on the market, so keep your eyes open for new product development within your niche.

About the author:
Consult the dropship wholesale directory at: http://www.freewebsuccess.info/dropship-wholesaleto find products to sell on ebay.com or on your own e-commerce website.



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The Top Ten eBay Buyer Personalities

The Top Ten eBay Buyer Personalities
by: Joe Clare
In my years of selling on eBay I have come across all sorts of people. For the most part these people have been very nice and easy to deal with. Having said that, there are always a small percentage, like in any business online or offline, who you'll have some degree of problem with. As explained in my book "eBay Marketing Wholesale SourcePak" you will need to be as polite as you possibly can and have a little patience when dealing with these people. Below you will find my Top Ten List of eBay Buyer Personalities and how to handle them.

10 - The Manipulator
There will be times when you have an auction end with no bids. When this happens watch out for the Manipulator. This is an individual who will email you once you auction ends wanting to purchase your item off eBay at a ridiculously low price. He/she will often try to manipulate you into believing the product will not sell but he/she will be glad to take it off your hands. Forget about them! Do Not sell the item to them. Instead relist the item for auction on eBay with a new headline. If he/she wants it bad enough, they will have to get the item through your auction. And trust me 99% of the time your item will sell.

9 - The Impatient Buyer
This is someone who has won your auction today and is wondering why it wasn't shipped yesterday. This individual wants what was purchased fast, real fast. Just have patience, be polite and explain your shipping process to him/her. Getting the product out quickly with a thank you note for purchasing will give you a happy customer.

8 - The Disappointed Buyer
There are some people you just can not please, not even if you were to stand on your head. They will be disappointed no matter what you do. Sometimes these people can be down right rude and take up a lot of your time. Learn to recognize this type of person and don't get caught up in an on slot of emails. Remember that time is money, and once you have done all you can do to rectify their problem move on. If the emails continue simply ignore them.

7 - The Invisible Buyer
This is someone who has won your auction but you never hear from them. Ever! They pay you right on time without any problems. So you send the product they won off to them. And that's it! They do not leave feedback, and do not return any emails. They just disappear into thin air. If you send a couple of follow up emails asking if they received their item and requesting positive feedback and you get no response, just forget them and move on.

6 - The Interrogator
This individual could drive you crazy. It's not their fault, they just have questions. Lots of Questions! For these people even if every question imaginable is answered in your auction description, they'll still manage to find a reason to email you a question. Be weary of this type of individual they can, and will waste a lot of your time if you let them. On your first email to them be polite answer their question then refer them back to your auction description telling them all the answers are there. Suggest they read it again. Don't get caught up in email after email. Always remember that time is money, and if you've done your auction description correctly there should be no questions left to ask. Your auction surfer should be ready to make a bid.

5 - The Late Payer
This customer has no clue about deadlines and they really don't seem to care about them either. Their attitude is you'll get paid when I am ready to pay you. You will need to set guidelines for when payment is due. If payment is not received you may choose to give your buyer one extension. Be specific giving him/her a date as to when the balance is due. Also tell them if payment is not received by that date you will have no other choice but to relist the item for auction. Sometimes a month or so down the road you'll end up getting a check in the mail from this person with a note as to why they were late. Simply return the payment with an explanation that the item was re-listed as he/she failed to meet the payment deadline and it has been sold to someone else.

4 - The Deadbeat
There is no buyer more irritating than the one who is always telling you the check is in the mail. Of course the check never arrives. Unfortunately there is not much you can do about this. Like above give them a deadline and if they don't make it relist the item for auction again.

3 - The "I'm Sooo Confused" Buyer
This customer does want to buy from you. Really, they do! If they could only figure out how! How to bid, how to pay, how to... All this high tech computer stuff is just way to confusing for them. Have patience and be polite. Explain what they should do next. If you find no matter how you explain things it just doesn't register with them, suggest they read over eBay's tutorials. Remember your time is money and you can only spend so much time with any potential customer before you must move on.

2 - The Spender
This individual can spend a lot of money with you. And often will return as a repeat buyer usually purchasing a little of everything you have up for auction. This person will also spend $100.00 in merchandise in order to save $10.00 on shipping. Bless him/her!

1 - The Perfect Customer
This individual is simply a Happy Person. He/she has won your auction and they are just ecstatic about it. The great thing about this type of buyer is if you run into a problem they are always understanding and easy to deal with. If looked after correctly, very often these people will become a customer for life. Now, don't we wish all customers were like this.

So, there you have it. The Top Ten eBay Buyer Personalities. If you already sell on eBay I'm sure you will recognize some of these personality traits in your own customers. If you're just getting started with your eBay Auction Business no doubt you'll be running into these people soon. Whatever personality your day brings you, always be patience, polite and just have fun with it.


Happy Selling!
Joe Clare


About the author:
Joe Clare is an active Netpreneur and eBayer! He is the author of numerous articles on how to make money online and be successful on eBay! Check out his latest Best Selling eBook "eBay Marketing Wholesale SourcePak" Your Passport to Success! at http://www.ebooksnsoftware.com




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Seven Steps to eBay Selling Success

Seven Steps to eBay Selling Success
by: Heather Wallace
More and more people try their luck at selling on eBay everyday. With all of that growing competition it is important that you do everything possible to make sure that you stand out from the crowd. By following a few simple steps you can greatly improve the odds of your auction being noticed, that browsers will convert to bidders, and that those bidders will become repeat customers. Begin practicing the follow seven tips and watch your eBay auction sales explode.

1. Inundate your potential buyers with details. It is much better to provide a lot rather than a little information and this will also be a great opportunity for you to pepper your listing description with keywords. Do be sure, however, that your auction listing is informative and not filled with hype. Those extra exclamation points really aren't going to make the sale. Actually, they will only make you look unprofessional. Also, give your readers details as appropriate such as models number, item condition, color, size, etc.

2. The title may not seem like a vital part of the equation, but it really is of great importance. It is the first thing people see when browsing through the auctions, so it has to not only grab their attention, but also entice them to click. Do not enter you title in ALL CAPS. This will only make you look like an amateur. Include as applicable; keywords, model numbers, seating information, brand names, item size, color, etc.

3. A picture is worth a thousand bids. Okay, well maybe not a thousand, but it will certainly help your item sell. Think about it; would you buy something sight unseen? Of course not and neither will the majority of buyers on eBay. Be sure to take care when photographing your item. Lesser quality photos are just as bad as no pictures at all. Also, the more expensive the items; the more photos you should provide.

4. State all of your requirements upfront. Tell potential bidders how much you intend to charge for shipping, to which countries you are willing to ship, if you will accept returns, or anything else that you might wish to specify. You really can't make things up as you go along. You have to get all requirements out there at the beginning.

5. If a potential buyer contacts you with a question then be sure to promptly respond. If you wait you may lose a much needed bidder. Also, be sure to be polite in your response as no question is too stupid to warrant anything other than but a courteous reply. Even if that person doesn't bid on your item they will certainly remember your pleasant attitude and that could mean a future sale.

6. The majority of buyers on eBay prefer to pay for their purchase via PayPal. That is why it is vital for you to accept this method of payment. It is also beneficial to you as it eliminates the potential for bad checks or money orders.

7. After the sale most winning bidders will expect the seller to begin the completion of the transaction. Send an email, an invoice, alert the buyer when the item has shipped, and be sure to leave feedback after the transaction.

Copyright ฉ 2005 Heather Wallace

About the author:
Heather Wallace is a writer whose work has been published in national, regional, and online publications. To receive a FREE eBay Seller's Resource Guide, send a blank email to mail to: eBay-Sellers-Resource-Guide@fetchingsites.com


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Increase Your Response On eBay, Starting Right Now

Increase Your Response On eBay, Starting Right Now!
by: Jordan Williams
Your auction is up and running. You’ve got bidders seeing your auction and looking things over. Now you just need to push them over the edge. This article will cover various ways to increase your bids from prospective buyers.

First off, make sure that your display picture is of the highest quality. You might have the best written description in the world, but if your picture doesn’t mirror your description that will turn bidders off. Use a digital camera if possible. Create a clean, unobtrusive picture. Take care in the background and lighting of the picture and you should be all set.

Adding an About Me page is a great way to increase your response as well. If your bidders have some personal information about you and your business this goes along way to establishing that trusting relationship between you and your customers. You can also post a few special offers on this page for people who take the time to look at it. Also, ask visitors to sign up for your mailing list as well.

Sign up at Square Trade, and display their logo on your auctions. This shows potential bidders that you are committed to resolving any disputes that might arise. Power Sellers always carry this logo on their auctions, and you should too. It makes you look much more professional.

Clearly spell out your terms and conditions making it very visible. Give details of things like shipping times and prices, the refund policy and anything else you want to make your buyers aware of. This also helps create trust between you and your customers. Plus having it all spelled out clearly, helps if any dispute issues arise as well.

Display your good feedback on your auction so that visitors don’t have to go looking for it. You can simply cut and paste the text, or create a screenshot image of your feedback. If you have a 100% feedback rating, be sure to make a mention of that as well.

If you have room on your auction title, use NR (No Reserve) at the end of your title. Bidders like auctions that have no reserve, so having this on your title allows bidders to see that your auction has no reserve without actually having to click on your auction link.

Make sure you auction highlights the benefits of your product and not just the features. You want to tell your visitors why your product is good for THEM. You can have all the features in the world, but without describing the benefits of those features many bidders will pass on by.

In order to reach those last few buyers that you might miss otherwise, accept various unusual payment methods like checks or money orders. Many other sellers don’t take these forms of payment, but the fact that you do may bring you that extra sale.

Upgrade your auction. Buying upgrades helps get you listed higher in the list of items. This can help a lot if your product is in a crowded category. You might just find out that it’s worth the money.

About the author:
This article was written on behalf of eBayBusiness.net by Webmaster and Internet Marketer Jordan Williams. Visit http://www.ebaybusiness.nettoday and get started on the road to eBay Business Success. Download 3 Free eBay Business Success Reports at http://www.ebaybusiness.net/free-reports.htmland skyrocket your eBay business profits. This article may be published on your website or ezine as long as this tagline remains unchanged.


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Make Money Tearing Up Old Books and Magazines and Selling Them on eBay

Make Money Tearing Up Old Books and Magazines and Selling Them on eBay
by: Avril Harper
For the past few years I've been tearing up old books and magazines, and selling them on eBay. Other people's "rubbish" is earning me $20 a time - sometimes a great deal more - every single day!

It's an easy business and items other people throw away can attract fierce bidding and incredible profits for me and other lucky sellers.

We're selling prints and advertisements, crochet and woodworking patterns, recipe books and other niche market publications, alongside hundreds more totally different items, all taken from books, magazines and newspapers that are available in profusion and cost very little.

Let's start with old prints, they're incredibly good sellers, especially popular themes like: animals, sports (especially golf and horse racing), royalty, music hall artists, topographical (named locations) and children.

Very early magazines contained lots of prints, the best being Illustrated London News, The Graphic, Sketch, Sphere, and all you do is remove prints carefully, trim the rough edges, package to protect and make them more attractive, then list them on eBay.
These tips will help you get started in this hugely profitable business:

* Frame your prints for extra add-on value. Look for old (antique and modern) picture frames at boot and garage sales, flea markets and collectors' fairs, and make a point of visiting auctions where boxes of frames can be bought at a pittance.

* Have black and white prints and engravings hand colored and mounted or framed to increase the value of even the most common and cheapest print.

* Give a Certificate of Authenticity. This is simply a sheet of paper, with or without decorative border, which testifies that the print is original and taken from a specific source published on a particular date. The certificate is always taped lightly to the back of the print in the mount so that it cannot be removed and added to another print obtained elsewhere.

* Make your listing for the print descriptive and include details that are likely to attract bidders and be sure to include words they might use to find products like yours.

* Make sure your listings include age, theme, date and source of your prints.

* If your original book is special, say a first edition, or a limited edition, say so in your listing. To people viewing your listings it might make the difference between a sale and giving your product the miss.

* Take great care removing prints from publications. We tend to open the book midway and fold it back on itself, making it very easy to break or weaken the spine and therefore loosen the pages.

* A great place to get quality mounts very inexpensively is on eBay itself. Go to the search facility, request a search for items locally (so many available it isn't worth looking long distance), and use keywords like: "mounts", "photo mounts", and wait for a nice selection of suppliers to appear, some selling items by auction, others offering "Buy It Now".

* When you find a good supplier stick to that person and even buy their items outside of eBay without breaking eBay's rules of course.


There's more to it than just prints, you have the pick of dozens of different products to sell, all from old books and magazines, and just a few minutes easy work. Did I say "work", this isn't work, this is exciting stuff!

About the author:
Avril Harper is the author of Make Money Tearing Up Old Books and Magazines and Selling Them on eBay (http://www.benbeau.com). Contact at: mailto:avril@clippingsfactory.com
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Turning online purchases into profit

Turning online purchases into profit.
by: Michael Lever
Copyright 2005 Michael Lever

Dear internet marketer,

I have some advice for improving your bottom line, whatever that may be.
It could be many things ranging from improving website traffic to increasing sales or even just expanding your mailing list.
But whatever your bottom line is, you have two choices when setting out to achieve it.

Your first choice is to employ an assortment of free traffic, sales, or opt-in subscriber generating techniques.
These can be effective but generally take time and results are usually slow.

Most people adopting solely this choice end up failing and frustrated. But at least they haven't lost their pants in the process.

The second choice you have is to pay for services designed to improve your bottom line. This will almost certainly speed things up and improve the results you achieve both short and long term.

If you find yourself choosing this second option, make sure you can measure quantitative results as you need to know what ROI (return on investment) is being achieved for each paid service.

Most of you are probably a combination of both choices. And if you're anything like me, you probably started using free techniques before moving to paid alternatives.

Enough beating about the bush.
What's my advice? Simply this.

If you pay for any form of online advertising or promotion, do yourself a big favour and explore services designed to assist this process without attempting to influence your decision-making in any way.

Affiliate directories and Customer Acquisition Exchanges also known as "Customer Reciprocation" are 2 such services.

These are really an extension or improved version of link exchanges as they can provide paying customers instead of potential traffic generation (leads, click-throughs, or visitors).

It's that simple. These paying customers earn you sales or commission, depending whether they purchase your own products or products from your affiliated merchants.

So what are you waiting for?

Each time you purchase online and don't take my advice, you're missing out on paying customers willing to purchase through your own referral URLs.
Choose wisely and turn your online purchases into profit.

Side note - I've mentioned thus far your online advertising and promotion purchase intentions but did you know that all online purchases you make can gain you paying customers?
That's because customer reciprocation services incorporate unrestricted global shopping directories.

A comparison with Ebay makes interesting reading.

Whereas Ebay matches buyers and sellers of products through an auction process, customer reciprocation services match buyers and sellers through referral URLs via their own exchange engines.
In effect, they work like limited versions of Ebay.
The exchange process can only be completed for people who promote product using referral URLs.

However, they expand on the Ebay model in the sense that with Ebay, sellers can only offer their own product whereas sellers are able to offer both their own product and those of other merchants through the use of customer reciprocation services.


Regards

Michael Lever


About the author:
Michael Lever is a co-founder and CEO of SpinningTornado.com , an independent company offering unbiased tools and services to help affiliate and network marketers build profitable online businesses . http://www.SpinningTornado.com Partnering affiliates the world over .


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The Ebay Revolution - A Beginners Guide

The Ebay Revolution - A Beginners Guide
by: Adrian Ryder
Copyright 2005 Adrian Ryder

With E bay being one of the most searched for terms on the internet today,[ approx 24 million people last month], it is hardly suprising that more and more everyday people are turning away from the 9-5 job scene, and looking at the income opportunities that this hugely popular forum has to offer.

So just what are the benefits of starting your own E bay business, as opposed to the more traditional self employment options, such as buying a business, or becoming a franchisee?

Well the first and most obvious benefit is the financial one, you can start an E bay business on a shoestring, whereas buying a franchise or setting up on your own will in all probability cost you 10s of thousands of dollars.
Secondly, the element of risk is fairly negligible with an E bay business [ as long as you don’t invest hugely in stock before you have properly researched the market]

Thirdly you can start up in your spare time, without having to “give up your day job”. This allows you to test the water, and see if you actually enjoy running your own business, before you actually take the plunge.For many people Ebay is simply a profitable and fun sideline or hobby, and that’s fine, but you need to make the choice if it’s a hobby you want or a business.If you make the decision that its to be a business,then you need to keep professional records, pay tax etc.

Another beauty of running an online business is that you can do your business activities when it suits you.You can organise your auctions at 2 am if you so choose, and people will still be looking at what you have to offer!

A final benefit,[ and this list is by no means exhaustive ] is that unlike a traditional business, your marketplace is unlimited, you can sell your product anywhere in the world, you have a potential marketplace of millions upon millions of buyers

The most common question for many people is “ how do I get started ?”. The first step if you haven’t already done it, is to get on Ebay and have a look around. Ebay itself offers great informative resources and tours for the uninitiated. Have a look at some auctions in progress, see how people list and display their products, bid for something you would like [you have to join first, but Ebay makes this a very user friendly process] Have a look round your home for unwanted items, run some auctions of your own, its fun, and you’ve nothing to loose but your junk. This is a great way of dipping your toes in the auction pond.

So, after having done this you decide that you would like to get serious about building an E bay business, what should you do first? Here is a shortlist of some basic first steps.

1. Choose your product- Everything from baseball cards to luxury homes is for sale on Ebay.Research possible product choices by looking at what your competition is doing.If you have a particular area of expertise, or a passion which others share, choose your product accordingly. TIP- A great research tool is available at www.overture.com . Its called the keyword selector tool, and it enables you to check how many times a certain word or phrase has been searched for on the internet in the previous month ie rolex watch. If few people have been looking for what you want to sell, chances are it will be a non starter on Ebay.[ at the time of writing this tool can be used by anyone free of charge, though this may well change] On the other hand if your product is frequently searched for, you may be onto a winner.

2. Don’t sell poor quality products.There is nothing more disappointing than receiving a purchase only to find it is inferior quality junk. Ebay has an excellent feedback system, which it uses to rate traders.This feedback is available to both buyers and sellers, so if you get negative feedback, this can seriously jeopardise your Ebay reputation permanently

3. Start small. Unless you are utterly confident in your product, and in a very secure position financially, start things off on a small scale, and increase your spending only as your results justify this.

4. Test, Test, Test- Try different products and combinations of products to see what works best, and always use photos,as many people buy what they see not what they read.

5. Commit from the start to offering exceptional service. Treat others as you would like to be treated, and you will soon get a reputation as a trader to be trusted, and from whom you can buy with confidence.

6. Don’t always try to make a large profit. Many of the powersellers on Ebay make small but consistent profits,and run a lot of auctions! Always ensure that you cover shipping costs, and any costs incurred in running your auction.

7. Many of E bays top sellers sell other peoples products which they neither stock or in most cases even see, through a process called ‘dropshipping’. A dropshipper is a wholesaler, who also takes care of all the product shipping details on your behalf.There are many dropship companies who tailor their services around the Ebay auction scene, and who can provide you with quality products, at very competitive prices shipped directly to your buyers [ if you plan to be in Ebay for the long haul, it is well worth giving this option serious consideration, as you really need to have a steady reliable source of cheap quality products.

About the author:
Adrian Ryder is a University Honours graduate, internet entrepreneur and researcher. For some detailed E bay success resources, dropshipping & wholesale directories, and work at home opportunities, check out his affiliate site at
http://www2268.dropshipwholesale.net
Adrian regrets that due to time constraints he is unable to enter into personal discussion/queries regarding his article.


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USP on eBay

USP on eBay
by: Greg Hayes
If you have dabbled at all in the world of Internet marketing, you may have heard the term "unique selling proposition" or USP. USP is a technique that Internet marketers use to set themselves apart from the competition. Internet marketing is highly competitive and highly saturated. In order to be successful, it is vital that the Internet marketer present himself as being unique and different from his competitors especially when many of them are selling the same products.

It is also just as vital to have a unique selling proposition on Ebay. I am amazed at the number of Ebay sellers that are either unaware or just don't care about the importance of having a unique selling proposition. A case in point: A while back, I was researching some products on Ebay from a wholesale company called B&F System. B&F System is a wholesale only company that carries a variety of brand name products. One of the brands they carry is called Maxam. I came across several Maxam leather jackets on Ebay while searching ended auctions. Now here's the kicker. About a dozen or so of these leather jacket auctions were exactly the same. They all used the same image of a guy modeling the jacket that was captured from the B&F website. They even used the exact ad copy used by B&F!

What was the result? Only one of the sellers was able sell any jackets. The top bid was only $26. And since he purchased the jackets from B&F for $20, he made about $5.00 profit after Ebay fees. That's a slim profit for an item that normally retails for $95.

Always keep in mind that the amount of effort you put fourth on you auctions will be in direct proportion to the amount of return you get from your auctions. The sellers who put up the jacket auctions put fourth little effort by using stock photos and ad copy from the B&F website, and therefore received little or no sales from their auctions. The sellers in this case might think that using stock photos makes their auctions look more professional. It's just the opposite. These auctions look very amateurish. Using a picture of someone modeling a garment will not entice people to bid on your auction. Using three or four high quality pictures of the actual item along with a detailed description will entice people to bid. Remember that buying apparel off the internet is not like buying music CD's or software. You don't need to worry if a CD will fit. You don't need to see multiple pictures of a box of software to know what you'll be getting. However, when selling apparel, good quality pictures and a detailed description are vital. You should use a good quality digital camera to take pictures of the item from different angles. If you're selling jackets or coats, include a picture of the lining as well. In your description, don't just say it's a large size. Give measurements of the garment including overall length, sleeve length and chest size. If you're going to specialize in apparel, it would be a good idea to purchase a form or clothing dummy to model your apparel. Doing these things will go a long way in setting you apart from the competition and establishing a "unique selling proposition."

What ever you're thinking about selling, always look at your competition and think about how to set yourself apart. Remember that unless you're selling antiques on Ebay, there's always someone else who's trying to sell the same thing you're selling. Establishing your USP will put you on the road to Ebay success.


About the author:
Are You Tired of the scams and the get-rich-quick schemes?
Greg Hayes is founding editor of http://www.mammothprofits.com/
Mammothprofits is the website devoted to helping others filter out the scams and become successful in a home based business.



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The Real Secret To Finding Hot Niche Markets!

The Real Secret To Finding Hot Niche Markets!
by: Mark Kessler
Finding a niche market is simple. Finding a PROFITABLE niche market is a little harder, but it's still easy once you know what you are doing. Otherwise, you will end up like 90% of the other niche marketers out there who spend weeks or months on a niche market only to find out there is no money to be made there.
Luckily I will reveal the secrets to finding a profitable niche market later in this article.

There are literally hundreds of ways to find niche markets. You can spend your time searching for popular keywords using tools such as Wordtracker, or you can walk around your local bookstore looking for common book topics. I've tried both of
these options when I first got started in niche marketing, and let me tell you, I lost the most money when I picked a topic that way. Why? Well, it's simple. Just because people are searching for a keyword or phrase online or because there are a bunch of hard copy books on a topic, it doesn't mean those markets will buy your products online.

Have you ever heard the advice "Target a niche market you are passionate about"? What a bunch of garbage that piece of advice is. It doesn't matter how passionate you are about a topic, if
people in that market don't buy products online, YOU WILL FAIL and fail miserably.

Here are 2 ways to find cash generating, starving niche markets that you have probably never seen before...

1) Ebay - the unlimited supply of niches. Everyone has heard of ebay, but few people think to go to ebay to find a niche
market. You would have to be crazy NOT to use ebay to find a market. This is one of the only places you can go and see exactly
what people are buying in real time. Here is how you do it.

First, go to ebay's main page at www.ebay.com. At the bottom of the left column of links, click on the link that says "All Categories". When you get to the next page, click on the link at
the bottom right of the categories that says "See All Categories".

What you have just done is list every product currently for sale on ebay, but even more importantly, you can see HOW
MANY products are for sale in each category. There are literally thousands of categories of niche topics right in front of your eyes, and you can see how popular each one is in just a couple clicks.

I just clicked "See all Antiques categories..." and I uncovered several hundred niche markets within the antiques category.

This is what niche marketing is all about. The category "Antiques" alone is too broad. If you go after this one, you will
fail, however if you go after a sub niche such as "Asian antique bowls" or "Antique sterling silver flatware", you greatly
increase your success rate.

Then, go to http://pages.ebay.com/sellercentral/whatshot.html and see just how flaming hot they are.

2) The next way to find a popular niche market is by going to the website www.meetup.com. From the homepage, there
is a link that says "Browse All Interests". The website will then
list hundreds of topics in which people signed up to be a part of a group. It also lists how many people joined each group,
or "niche market" if you will. Who would have thought there would be a group of over a thousand people crazy about
scooters? I found this niche market under the automotive category.

Using these two methods, you should be able to uncover hundreds of niche topics to begin targeting immediately. Once
you find a niche market you want to build your business around, the next step would be to learn how to develop products
these markets will knock each other over trying to buy.


About the author:
Mark Kessler offers a FREE 34 page report where you'll "Discover The Most Simple, But Extremely Powerful System that reveals the 4 secret steps you need to achieve maximum niche profits!" your copy is at http://www.profitattractor.com


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How To Convert eBay Surfers into Bidders!

How To Convert eBay Surfers into Bidders!
by: Joe Clare
Do you know the phrase "A Call To Action"? Well, using "A Call To Action" on your eBay Auction could help increase your sales almost immediately. As outlined in my book "eBay Marketing Wholesale SourcePak" having the right product, at the right price is crucial. But, what else can you do to entice those eBay surfers to become a bidder? Here is one key factor anyone can implement on their auctions to help increase their sales - it's called " A Call To Action!"

Some of you may be asking "What is "A Call To Action?" Well it's a simple phrase that you would add to your auction description. This phrase should tell your potential bidder what they should do next. I know what your thinking, "Don't they know what to do next?" But really, you do need to tell people what it is you expect them to do. You can not depend on or assume that an auction surfer is automatically going to become a bidder without telling him/her what you want them to do. You need to come right out and tell them to buy. And why they should buy. Here are some examples of phrases you could use to entice that potential bidder to take action now and make a bid.

- Bid Now! Save Money!

- Buy Now and Save on Shipping!

- Bid Now! Don't Miss This Incredible Deal!

- Buy Now! Quantities are Limited!

- Bid Now! One Of A Kind!

- Bid Now! Collectors Item!

You get the idea. If you have what that surfer is looking for any of the above phrases will entice him/her to make a bid now. And this method is not something new. Retail stores have been using this for years. You know any of the big sales where the advertisement says something like "And don't wait, Quantities are Limited!" This method is time tested. Some experts report you can increase your sales by 50% simply by telling those who are just surfing your auction page what you want them to do.

You can also use more then one call to action. And use them for different reasons in your auction. Say you use one of the above. Bid Now! One of a Kind! But what if this surfer is not interested in this item for auction. Well, don't let him/her leave without inviting him/her to view your other auctions. Say something like "If you don't see what you are looking for here - please visit my other auctions" and create a link to your other auctions, possibly your "me page" which lists all the auctions you have running.

Try this method on your next auction.

Happy Selling!
Joe Clare.


About the author:
Joe Clare is an active Netpreneur and eBayer! He is the author of numerous articles on how to succeed on eBay! Check out his latest Best Selling eBook "eBay Marketing Wholesale SourcePak" Your Passport to Success! at http://www.ebooksnsoftware.com



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5 Secrets To Make A Killing on eBay

5 Secrets To Make A Killing on eBay
by: Jason James
Copyright 2005 Auction Resource Network

Secret #1: Find a ‘real’ wholesale and drop ship company

Do you know what one of the biggest problem is to be successful on eBay? ‘What should I sell”? I can tell you, I get many emails per day from eBay sellers, asking me what they can sell. Let me explain this more in detail.

Let’s take John and David for example. Both are sellers and try to make money on eBay. Let’s start with John. He mainly gets his items from garage sales. So, every Saturday morning he gets up very early, hops into his car and drives around the neighbourhood to check out the garage sales. So he went last Saturday. John did not buy anything on the first two garage sales, but on his third garage sale, he found a little treasure. An old book from 1897 - for a bargain price of $10. Bingo! John was proud! ‘I can sell this for huge profit’, he thought and he went home. He took his digital camera and he made a high quality digital photo. It took quite some time but finally he was happy with the result. Then he had to upload this picture to his computer and he spent some time writing the sales copy. Late Saturday afternoon finally he was finished and launched this book onto eBay. 7-10 days later his item got sold for $75!! John is excited. He packs the item, labels it with the buyers address and then he drives to the nearest post office. Oh no, what a long line. After 15 min of waiting he could finally post this item to his customer! Wow, a lot of work for $65 profit? Don’t you think?

Let’s look at David. He usually gets up very late – usually at Saturday around lunchtime. He is still in his pyjamas and he makes himself a nice cup of coffee and gets onto the Internet. He logs into his drop ship account and browses through some hot selling product. ‘Yes, I can sell that” - A nice laptop for a bargain price of $550 (wholesale price). But David does not have to pay upfront for this item, so he just downloads the professional digital photos offered by his drop ship company to his computer. ”Oh wait”; David has just discovered that this drop ship company has also a ‘ready-to-use’ auction sales letter available. That’s really cool …and David copies and pastes the source code of this letter into his eBay listing and he launches his auction. A Dutch auction, since the drop ship company announced that they have more than one of this laptop currently available. Great, David could sell 6 laptops. He hits the submit button for this Dutch auction of 6 laptops and enjoys his coffee (which is still hot by the way). After 7-10 days David has sold all 6 laptops for $830 each. All what David does is the following: He waits until he gets the payment from his 6 customers in his paypal account, sends the address of the customers together with 6 x $550 (wholesale price) to his drop sip company via paypal. He has made pure profit of 6 x $280 = $1,680 in about 25 min of work – total. That’s why David is a smarter eBay seller than John. I think the idea is clear …drop shipping can be the answer to your problem what to sell on eBay and it can saves you a lot of time too. No packing, posting etc.

Secret #2: Have a professional auction listing

A professional eBay auction site is like your business card. If you are serious selling on eBay you should show your potential customers that you are a professional seller and that you are selling high quality products. Please, don’t just upload a photo and type the text in the description box. Do your homework and learn some HTML. Look around there are many professional tutorials and ebooks around helping you in that matter. It’s definitely worth it. And you’ll be surprised, because if your auction listing looks nice and professional potential buyers stay longer on your site and usually it’s more likely that they place a bid.

Secret #3: The money is in the follow up

“Yes, I’ve heard this before”, you may say. But, this is a very important aspect of your successful eBay career: Follow up with your customers. Send them an email ~10 days after they have purchased the product and ask them how they are going with the product and if everything is all right. Invite them to have a look at your other auctions. (You have to be careful though not offending anyone, but if the products are related and you ask how they went with the product, that’s fine). I never got complaints by doing that and your customers are happy to get some “insider tips”. You’ll be amazed how many customers will buy from you again, since they value you as a seller. Keep in mind that it is easier to keep an existing customer, instead of getting a new customer. You could also send them a thank you gift in form of a downloadable digital information product. That’s easy for you and they get some valuable information. You’ll see that your existing customers will be very thankful and they feel good that they have bought from you and will do again in the future.

Secret #4: Sell internationally

This aspect is often neglected by many eBay sellers: Sell internationally! First, check with your drop ship company in which countries they are shipping and how much postage they charge to send the item overseas. If you have sort out these details, you can go ahead and list your item internationally. You’ll be surprised how many more items you are selling when the potential buyers see: Ship worldwide. Don’t miss this opportunity or you are leaving big bucks on the table.

Secret #5: Be creative – Be different

How do you think your listing will be stand out from the crowd? Good question isn’t it. In my 4 years of being an active Power Seller, I have tried and tested a lot. First have the photo in the gallery; it just costs a bit more to list but these additional cents are well spend. A recent study has shown that people almost ignore listing without a picture in the gallery. So that’s mandatory! The next step is your title. Do you know that only the title is spidered by eBay when potential customers are searching for specific products? So, you have to make sure that your title includes as much keywords as possible. But be careful here, eBay does not like “keyword stuffing”. So, be creative and come up with 2-3 different titles for the same item. Try them all and you’ll see what works best.


About the author:
Jason James is a 10 year Internet marketing veteran and an eBay Power Seller of 4 years. His website "The Auction Resource Network" reveals his inside secrets and sources that help him pocket over $10,000 a month on eBay. Get your FREE 14 Day "eBay Secrets" eCourse here: http://www.auctionresourcenetwork.com


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