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.