Craigslist may be one of the plainest looking sites on the internet but with over 20 billion page views per month, it is also one of the most popular and currently sits as the 7th most visited website on the internet.

Craigslist is an excellent place to look for items to flip. Flipping items is where people purchase items for cheap and resell them for much larger profits.

Many people will take advantage of the free classified advertising offered by Craigslist to get rid of their unwanted items they no longer have room for. Because of this, you can often find “rock bottom prices” on items if you know where to look. Often times you can find excellent deals on items that just need a minor repair or a little elbow grease cleaning to increase its value. Sometimes people may advertise their listings in an unpopular category or they may turn away prospective buyers by not providing the right information or pictures of the item.

Here are some tips to help you get started flipping items on Craigslist:

Search for items in your location early in the morning. Similar to garage sales, your chance of scoring that bargain is early in the morning before everyone else sees it.

Use the phone instead of email. Obviously this only works if a seller posts their phone number in the listing, but generally you can get a lot more information about an item from a phone conversation than an email message. Sometimes even the sellers tone of voice can que you in on information you may not otherwise receive from email. You may also be able to work out a deal with a seller faster through a phone conversation thereby eliminating competition with other prospective buyers.

Don’t forget about the “free stuff” category. Sometimes you can find some really good stuff in there. All you have to do is pick the item up from the seller and clean, fix it, etc. and resell it for a profit.

Buy items on Craigslist and resell them on eBay. Surprisingly, many people don’t think of this. Craigslist is broken up into geographic locations. Depending on the item for sale, this can be a disadvantage for sellers. For example if you live in St. Louis and you listed an antique silverware set to sell on Craigslist, only people in the St. Louis area would see your listing. If you listed the same item on eBay, you could have more viewers since people worldwide would be able to view your listing. Obviously large items such as furniture are best sold locally due to the excessive shipping fees.

Invest a small amount of money to start. If you are flipping items for the first time, don’t go out and purchase everything you see. Start small. It may take a little time and experience to know what items will sell and how much they are worth. The last thing you want is to become overwhelmed and end up with a garage full of junk that you can’t get rid of. Once you have some experience buying, selling and negotiating, then you can reinvest the money you make into higher profit margin items.

As you can see, it is not difficult to make money with Craigslist, just be very careful because there are a lot of dishonest people out there. Craigslist does not have the fraud protection services that sites like eBay and PayPal have so you must take fraud prevention into your own hands. Be sure to read Craigslist’s page about avoiding scams and always trust your instincts.

It’s no secret that eBay listings with embedded video will convert more sales than listings with no video. Yet it’s surprising that many people don’t think to do this.

It is actually very easy to embed video into your eBay listing. You don’t need your own website or hosting account. All you need is an account set up with YouTube.

Just go to YouTube and follow the directions to set up your own account if you don’t already have one, and upload the desired video from your computer. You want to make sure you provide a good title and keywords people will use to search for your video. You then have the option to embed the video. Just copy the “embed” code provided, then go to the description for your eBay listing, open the “HTML” tab and paste in the code. It is that simple.

Once you have your eBay auction listing complete, go to the listing and copy the URL from the address bar. Go back to the description for the video you uploaded to YouTube and paste the URL with a plug for visitors to purchase your product. For example: “Click here to purchase this product”.

By imbedding your YouTube video into your eBay listing and then linking the video on YouTube’s site back to your listing, you are doing two things to increase the chances of someone purchasing your items:

1. By adding video to your listings you are giving potential buyers more information about the product or products you are selling. These days buyers like to have a lot of information before they commit to a purchase, so the more information you can provide, the better it will work out for you.

2. By linking your YouTube video back to your eBay listing, you create the possibility of bringing more visitors to your listing. More visitors mean more sales. Just make sure to go back and remove the links when your auctions end.

As you can see, embedding YouTube videos in your auction listings is a very simple and effective way to increase sales. Just make sure you own the rights to the videos, and make sure your videos are high quality. Otherwise, some buyers may interpret the quality of your products to be similar to the quality of your videos and if your videos are poor or unprofessional, then potential buyers may be turned off.

So what types of videos should you use?

You could have someone create a video testimonial or review for your product. Video reviews are very powerful marketing tools and if done right they could significantly increase your sales conversions. If you don’t know someone who will do a video review, check to see if you can have it done cheap on fiverr.com.

You could also do a video demonstration of your product. Maybe emphasize how easy your product is to use or how much benefit your customers would receive if they purchased it.

If you are selling a video or video course you could put a small sample of the video so your potential customers can get an idea of what they are purchasing.

As you can see, it is really a win, win to embed your YouTube videos into your auction listings. It’s simple, it’s effective, and it’s good marketing practice. Just remember, if you want sales then make sure the videos are high quality.

If you are thinking of selling books online, the first online place to think about is eBay!

Products are easier and faster to sell on eBay than any other online market places. If you do not have an account yet, just go to eBay.com and register a new one. It is very simple and easy. What to do next is the big question. How do you sell books on eBay?
 
When you are new to online selling and you want to sell books on eBay, it would be difficult at first because you have to build a good reputation for buyers to trust you and buy from you. Your first buyer will be your most important customer because she/he will be the first one to give you a good feedback. One feedback will work wonders.  A few tips should help you in selling used books on eBay.

1. It is important to check on your inbox for buyer questions and messages. When potential buyers post questions, reply to them instantly and clearly. If it took you a long time to answer their questions, they will look for other sellers. One hour will mean a lot.

2. Offer many options for shipping methods when sending their books. Provide all the advantages and disadvantages of each shipping method. Give them estimated time before they receive their package. The buyer pays for the shipping and he has the right to choose which to use.

3. If somebody decides to buy from you, send them all the shipping information and a copy of the packing slip. Let them know that their purchase is on the way. It is also important to thank them.

4. When you sell books on eBay, describe the book exactly how it looks. Mention any dog ears, rips, tears, markings, and creases. Mention also the complete title and name of the author. If you are selling a book with many versions, indicate the version and year it was published. Other books have different publishers that you should mention too. The more information you give in the product description, the better. Answer all possible questions that a buyer might ask. Buyers will seldom buy from an online store with vague descriptions. They might not even spend time to send you a quick question and wait hours for your reply.

5. When you are selling used books on eBay, take pictures of the actual books and use them for images instead of an image of the front cover from other sites. Using actual pictures will give the buyer a concrete idea of what his purchase looks like. Take photos of front, back and all sides of the books. It will be helpful too if you post pictures of the flaws of the books. If a buyer receives a book with creases and dog ears on the corners, or old yellow pages, and it is not what he had in his mind, you might just be given a poor feedback for quality products.

Article By: Adam Bertram