How To Maximize Your eBay Bids


As an eBay seller, or perhaps a budding entrepreneur, it's always an advantage to have an edge on the competition. If you are looking to maximize your eBay bids, start by offering a thorough product description. Ensure to note the genuine condition of the product, along with payment options and shipping time. Don't turn away potential bidders by limiting your payment options. It is a good idea to accept as many types of payments as possible, including cheques, money order, personal check or PayPal. By accepting a broad range of payment methods, you will increase the number of potential customers that may bid on your auction.

When listing an auction, include a few photos of the item that you are selling. A quality photo can be obtained in several ways. Many eBay sellers acquire their photos through the use of a computer scanner. But, if you don’t have a scanner, that’s no problem. If you’re a good photographer, a digital camera or even a mobile phone can provide the same results. In fact, a digital camera will be an excellent way for you to photograph the items and possibly add some extra special touches to make the photo even more beautiful. For example, if you are selling sports memorabilia, perhaps you want to include a sports theme in the background or a display to show the details of each item. If you aren’t comfortable operating a digital camera and still prefer the regular film cameras, you will be glad to know that most photo labs can develop pictures and include a picture CD-Rom with your film developing order. Simply snap the photos using any regular camera and request a picture CD-Rom when having your film developed. Once you have the CD-Rom, you will be able to retrieve the photos onto your computer using the CD-Rom drive.

If you open an eBay store or shop, your listing fees will be more affordable and will allow sellers to comfortably list more items for sale, for a longer period of time. With all of the extra features that eBay offers, it’s difficult to know which ones work best. In fact, the only way to learn is often the trial and error method. However, there are a few tips that can suggest better exposure at a minimal cost. The gallery feature is widely used and is a bargain at only $0.35. This allows your auction photo to be listed in the auction gallery and, as potential customers scroll the list of auctions, they will see the photo of your product. This is just one more reason to have a quality image. By making your title bold, you may increase the ability for your auction to stand out above others. If you see 10 lines of writing in regular type and one in bold, that one in bold will stand out and catch your eye first. The subtitle feature works nicely, as well, but only if you absolutely need it and do not have room in the title field.

A final way to maximize your eBay bids is one that not every auctioneer has considered. By submitting your auction listing page to search engines, you will be increasing exposure and gaining placement on some of the net‘s top website directories. Ebay listings are regularly appearing in search engine results pages. If you sell a lot of a similar product and offer a constant inventory, the search engines will recognize your site and place it in the appropriate category. This is a terrific little promotional tool, especially if you plan to sell on eBay long term, rather than short time.

Allowing A Part Time Ebay Hobby To Become A Full Time Income


Even as a full time employee, hopefully you should still be able to set aside time to earn additional income on Ebay. Entrepreneurs, work at home parents, and others looking to become self employed often use Ebay to test the waters before they make the leap from employee to self-employed.

It's never easy to find time in the day, to develop additional methods of making money. However if you have just a spare sixty minutes to devote towards eBay it is possible to earn a full time income.

Consider the following scenario and you will see why. There are 60 minutes in every hour and let’s say that you average listing one auction every 6 minutes. That is 10 auctions per hour and, if your sales average $10 each, that is equal to $100.00 per day. If you list auctions 5 days a week, that’s $500.00. If you choose to list every day, that’s $700.00 per week. Of course, prices vary as auctions are unpredictable but this is a very minimal amount of time to invest with a terrific return potential. Prices may be higher or lower but, for one hour of time spent every day, there is really no way to go wrong.

If you purchase items from a dropshipper, manufacturer or distributor, you may be able to use their photos in your auctions. Most dropshippers also allow you to copy and paste their descriptions over to your Ebay listings. This method, when allowed will save you a lot of time in photographing & uploading images. All you will need to do is simply upload the photo and insert the description into the auction template provided by eBay.

If you plan to sell the same type of items, such as jewelry, you can save yourself a lot of time by writing a paragraph detailing shipping cost, delivery options, payment requirements and timelines. Save this paragraph into a text document and copy and paste it into each auction. The only thing that you will need to write is a brief description of the item. Anything that you can do to save time will help you to increase the number of auctions you can list per hour and, therefore, increase your revenue potential.

As hopefully you'll see, Ebay offers a lot of ways to minimise the time you spend online doing the same repeative tasks. As you sell more products, you'll bring more exposure to your listings and bring in further sales. A long term presence on Ebay really will make the difference between a fly by night seller, or a serious seller. Thousands of Ebay users make a full time living on the site. Will you become one of them?

Make Your Ebay Business Succeed - Part Two


Running your Ebay business has never been easier, or more rewarding. However many businesses trading online or on ebay do not succeed straight away. If you decide to start your own eBay business, there are several factors that will help to determine whether or not your venture is a successful one.

In the second part of this article, more basic mistakes and policies are discussed which you must avoid to make your eBay business a success.

- Do as much research as possible prior to starting a business. This may include viewing product types and services available, dropshippers, wholesalers and product manufacturers for the market you want to sell in. Also be sure to check existing sellers in this category.

- Do price your items or services competitively, but do not be forced into loss leading products by competitors. Reasonable price and quality customer service will win every time, try to offer your customer something that they will not find anywhere else such as a bonus related to the primary product.

- Do not change your e-mail address frequently. You should always have a primary address that you plan to keep for a long term. In the event you have to change your email address - setup an autoresponder at the old address informing customers of the change so they can still contact you.

- Do not offer a very low purchase price and then overcharge on shipping & handling. Ebay are currently clamping down on such auctions and you risk being suspended or having your item listings removed. This creates an unprofessional image for your business.

- Do not fund your business with credit cards unless you are sure you can afford to pay it back within several months. A lot of successful businesses have been launched using credit cards, but if the worst was to happen and your business failed you would have to pay it all back personally.

- Never tell your customers that their item has been dispatched unless you are 100% certain that it has been. When shipping items yourself, double check every last detail including delivery address to ensure it's correct. If using dropshippers, they will normally advise you when the item has been sent to your customer and supply a tracking number so you can pass it onto your customer.

- Do not ignore customer questions, comments and/or complaints. If you get a complaint, it's very easy to ignore it and delete it. customers are the only reason your business surrives, so treat them with respect and always thank them for taking the time to contact you.

Ebay Explained: Second Chance Offer


For Ebay Powersellers, Second Chance Offer is one of the most used and popular features of Ebay.There are a number of reasons for it’s soaring popularity, including the seller’s ability to sell an item to follow-up bidders without having to pay out additional listing fees. The second chance offer becomes applicable if the seller has more than one of the same item or if the original high bidder fails to send payment. Conceivably, a seller could send as many second chance offers as he/she had bids and identical items.

The second chance offer is immediately available upon the close of the auction. This link can be found near the top of the ‘closed auction’ page. After clicking the link, the seller will be prompted with a list of bidders who they may select to receive a second chance offer. This page will display the username and the bid amount so that the seller has a clear view of each bid amount before offering a second chance opportunity. Once selected, the bidder will receive a notification that they are being offered another chance to purchase the item at a ‘Buy Now’ price that is equal to the amount of their last bid. If interested, they will purchase the item immediately. Some buyers are excited to receive another chance to purchase an item they had shown a previous interest in while others may have already purchased something else after being outbid.

While second chance offers do not require that the seller pay a new listing fee, the seller is charged a final value fee is the offer is accepted. If the second chance offer is used regularly, the seller may end up earning a substantial profit with a minimal cost to him/her.

The eBay second chance offer is a valuable tool to both buyers and sellers, but may help sellers to realize a much larger profit margin and increase sales. With the click of a button, the seller has access to all previous bidders and can offer them another chance to own the item. When participating in the second chance offer in an effort to sell more than one identical item, sellers must only use this feature if they have quantity in the exact product as was shown in the auction. A clear understanding of what is being sold and what exactly is being purchased will keep the eBay buyers happy and, in turn, will keep the eBay sellers cashing in on big profits.

Make Your Ebay Business Succeed - Part One


Running your Ebay business has never been easier, or more rewarding. However many businesses trading online or on ebay do not succeed straight away. If you decide to start your own eBay business, there are several factors that will help to determine whether or not your venture is a successful one.

These basic factors, are often where errors are made so take care to ensure you don't put yourself at a disadvantage as soon as you start.

- Promotion, Promotion, Promotion! Do as much promotion as you can. Free publicity is always the best, especially for new businesses launches or those on a tight budget. Normally this include press release submission to websites, emailing existing customers, and informing friends and family.

- Always offer excellent customer support & service. Make it a policy to answer any emails within 24 hours.

- Communicate to your buyers, instructions about making payments, delivery and your refund policies. Buyers shouldn't have to go out the way to look for this information.

- Always offer tracking numbers for deliveries. This improves a buyers confidence & also gives them some indication of when they can expect to receive the item. Additionally, it protects you as a seller as you have proof of delivery in case the buyers claims the item never arrived.

- Do be polite to customers & potential customers at all times, whether in person, via telephone or by e-mail. If someone seems to have a legitimate concern or reason to complain, try to handle it with patience & professionalism. Some instances, which may require extreme patience, would include an item that has failed to arrive after shipment, a misunderstanding regarding a return/refund policy and/or a dispute over a damaged product. When you operate a business, there are a number of misunderstandings that can occur between the customer and yourself, but always be respectful and handle every situation professionally.

Growing Your Ebay Business Through Knowledge


Getting started buying and selling on eBay is simple and straightforward. Just about anyone can easily sign up, and put a few loose items up for sale. However, taking the next step to move from "cyber-garage sale" into a genuine business on eBay can be a little daunting and even a little scary at first. Successful eBay sellers know their business inside and out. They know what items they have in stock, what vendors they have bought from with the costs associated, and they keep in good contact with their customers to establish repeat business. In the next few minutes, I hope to give you a little insight as to what you need to build your business, without breaking your budget.

Most importantly, eBay is a business of numbers. Buying items at the right price, and selling them with the proper markup are absolutely essential to consistent profits. I have noticed that many new sellers resell items they have bought on eBay themselves, and I would encourage you to do so, especially in bulk. A very common mistake, and one that kills many eBay businesses, is a lack of inventory management. You need to keep track of each individual item you have, how much you paid for it, and who purchased it. This is something every brick-and-mortar store does, and your business should be no different. If you don't know your inventory and liabilities, you won't be able to gauge your businesses growth.

You can keep a simple inventory with pencil and paper, or in a spreadsheet. However, as your business grows, this becomes more and more of a pain. If you can start with a software or service while you are still small and agile, your business can grow to be flexible and structured. Nothing is more painful than trying to clean up and reconcile old inventory that wasn't organized well.

Repeat business is key. The best powersellers online know which products sell well, but also who bought them. If they have related items to get rid of, they can call or write their customers and offer it to them. I highly recommend you keep a computer file of your orders and customers contact information for easy reference. This will also help you stay organized with your payment and shipping processes. You can simply mark orders as pending, paid, shipped, canceled, etc...

There are a number of Point-of-Sale (POS) software available for managing inventory, orders, customers, promotions etc... Many great products exist. You should be forewarned that many of these products costs hundreds or thousands of dollars. They also tend to be overkill for a simple small business. Since they are forced to sell new versions of their product year after year to stay in business, they are constantly adding new features. In my opinion, this is a bad thing. It creates bloated and confusing software. Software full of features you'll never need or use.

Personally, I use a product called Barracuda Suite. It's a free service that runs in your web browser and manages the basics of your business beautifully, without complicating your business with unnecessary features. You can read more about Barracuda Suite, and sign up for your account at http://www.barracudasuite.com/Home/

I hope this article has given you some ideas for organizing and increasing your eBay sales. Running an eBay business is no different than running a retail business: Knowledge is power, the more you know about your business, the smarter you can be in building it.