When I first started selling on eBay, I was clueless. I did not know where to start or what to expect. Made a lot of mistakes along the way and wasted time trying to figure it out. Here are 11 tips for you to give your eBay selling experience a good kick-start.
Tip 1: Find Your Market. Use eBay’s Pulse as good guide in location hot items currently being sold. Think about what higher end items you like. Research for items you think maybe profitable.
Tip 2: Learn Your Competition. Research how the other sellers are marketing their items and strategies. Do offer guarantees, low starting bids, using website traffic for their auctions, and so on. Look for to any weakness their auctions might have. Is their auction listings incomplete, hard to understand, or if they have a bad feedback rating.
Tip 3: Find Products. Contact suppliers for rates and policies for products you wish to market. It is best to try to work with local suppliers first. Also, look into the possibility of a drop shipper. When considering your profit estimation, do factor eBay fees, shipping fees, payment transaction fees, and other business expenses.
Tip 4: Set-up your “About Me” page. Every seller on eBay has the opportunity to create one page to describe what he or she is about. Include your website address, pictures, policies, guarantees, and more. For inside tips in how to make your “About Me” page really work for you see Jim Cockrum’s “Silent Machine” ebook –click here.
Tip 5: Start Slow. It might be tempting to list as many auctions as you can manage. However, this may increase fees you are not able to pay. List about 25 auctions per week as a good starting point and test your market.
Tip 6: Test, Tweak and Repeat. Try different strategies until you find something that works, and do it again. Test your auctions by using different layouts, colors, words, and more. Tweak your “About Me” page and try to get more traffic to your auctions.
Tip 7: Have a Business Plan. This does not need to be a strict plan and is mainly for personal use. Write up an outline for your goals, strategy, and overall outcome you desire. Set up a budget and jot down marketing methods. Tip 8: Invest to Grow. Do not profit your entire earnings. Reserve some funds to grow your business by investing in inventory, hiring help if needed, website expenses, etc.
Tip 9: Make Your Business Legitimate. Upon a few thousand dollars worth of sales, it is highly suggested you register your business. Obtain a business license, open a separate bank account, and determine what type of business do you want. Most people start off as sole proprietor but will look into better options as the business gross.
Tip 10: Automate. To cut down your listing time, you programs that can help you with this. Ebay offers a program called “Turbo Lister”, which at the current moment – free. Use email autoresponder for people whom opt-in your mailing list. Send out newsletters with good information they may be interested in and the latest deals.
Tip 11: Don’t Give Up. Sometimes the market will not be as strong as you wish. There will be customer complaints and refunds to give. Increase fees and so on. When bad things are happening, adjust yourself. Think about finding other methods to market your items or maybe you need to find a better supplier. Read up on the eBay forums and see if there are solutions for you.
To your eBay success–
