Getting the click – Our first goal was to increase the amount of clicks we were getting, based on the same number of listings.

1. Work on the product image – The product preview image which buyers see in their search result can really make a difference. It will help your listing stand out in the sea of listings and you can use it to communicate a marketing message, such as ’same day dispatch’ at the bottom of the image.

2. Experiment with product titles – After optimising your image, look at the product title with the aim of making it more appealing to buyers. By all means do experiment, but don’t forget to keep the product keywords in the title. My suggestion is to use the matrix of [product title - Unique Selling Proposition], for example [ipod leather holder in black - cheapest on eBay], [ipod leather holder in black - get free gift], [ipod leather holder in black - free delivery] etc

3. Make the title stand out – After experimenting and based on the clicks and sales that each title received, pick one and make it stand out. To achieve this, you can try to place uncommon characters in the title (those which eBay permits such as <>,# etc), use upper case for the first letter of each word in the title, place your phone number, use symbols and so on. The important step is to keep your keywords in the title and just experiment.

4. Use enhanced listing wisely – eBay’s own tools to enhance your listings are great, but come at a price. For some products it’s worth using the bold and sub-title option in particular. Use the sub-title field to provide further product description and include a call to action.

Convincing the unconvinced – Our second goal was to reduce the amount of pre-sale inquires we received because they highlight buyer’s question marks. If listings are unclear then potential buyers will simply move onto another seller.

5. Write your own product description – Great product copy is essential for getting the sale. It should address all the concerns buyers have before buying the product and provide an accurate description of what they’re buying. We found it useful to include answers to questions buyers were asking and to show why we’re different from our competing sellers within the copy. If your idea of a product description is to copy and paste the manufacturer’s description, it might not be enough. Write your own.

6. Work on product offers – If you also sell away from eBay, for example in your standalone store, you know the value of product merchandising and offers. The same should be applied to your eBay store to make your offer more convincing. Consider offers such as free gifts, upgraded delivery methods, discount on future orders and more.

7. Pay attention to feedback – Many buyers scan through your feedback before buying. Try to follow up with buyers to get as much feedback as you can and in particular ask buyers to rate you. If negative feedback was left, take the time to publicly respond to the feedback and accept the blame (if that is, it’s your blame).

Closing and getting the sale – Our third goal and the holy grail for any eBay seller was to get our figures up.

8. List your call to action – The same with any type of advertising, you want to direct buyers to take an action. If your listing page is long, place several calls to action across the page.

9. Offer alternative payment options – The vast majority of eBay buyers are likely to use PayPal as their payment means. Some however might want to pay by credit card or cheque and some by telephone order. By offering those options you’re creating a competitive advantage over your competitors.

10. Prioritise eBay customer service – eBay buyers are expecting high levels of customer service from your part, but most will look for it after the sale. If however you offer exceptional service before the sale takes place, you might capture the buyer while they’re still signed in on eBay and it reinforces your credibility.

I hope you found my selling tips useful.

Recently I’ve received some questions from a reader about this subject, seeking clarification on whether feedback transfer is authorised from ebay and if the article is still relevant.

Q. If it’s against ebay policy to transfer feedback to another website, how are some of other auction websites like ioffer.com and bonanzle.com have feedback transfer programs? Do they have some special agreement with ebay?

The latest ebay agreement still states that you are not permitted to transfer your feedback to any other non ebay site. I consulted Bonanzle customer services over the issue, who openly admitted that “We have no agreement with eBay for this, nor does the other alternatives who also import feedback from eBay and other marketplaces.  We have had zero instances of trouble with this”

Q.  How do these programs verify that you are the correct person? I don’t want somebody else using my ebay name to get my feedback.

Most of these services ask you to verify it’s your feedback by entering your ebay username and password – this should never be stored by the alternative auction site so it’s important to read the terms and conditions first. If you’ve any doubt or concerns about the security of this, simply avoid the issue by not transferring your feedback.

I’ve heard no reports of ebay closing individual accounts who transfer their feedback to alternative auction sites, and it’s good to know that ebay are not pursuing those auction sites yet. However it’s important to be aware of the risks -  however minimal they are, that your ebay account could be closed.  I’d love to hear your thoughts on transferring feedback to other sites? Have you done it and would you recommend it?

We’re also keen to learn about other local sites, as I’ve recently discovered in Poland,  Allergo is the market leader with eBay coming in second place.

Comment below with your opinion or experience of any alterative ebay site or join the AuctionCUT Ebay alterative category here.

As usual, please don’t spam the blog with your comments as they will not be approved (comments are now moderated) and take the time to read our comments policy first.

Simon Brew, the editor emailed me earlier in the year asking if it would be possible for me to contribute but sadly time restrictions did not allow it. I would be very interested in seeing who did and am sure they’ll be some familiar and trusted names offering the best advice for making money on eBay.

The cost is £7.99 – if your struggling to find it in your local newsagent, it’s possible to order it direct from Dennis Publishing here .

Enjoy the read & I look forward to hearing your feedback on the guide.

With 49 video lessons, each with an accompanying article great effort has gone into creating SkyHigh Auctions. The AuctionCUT competition is open until 6th March, midday GMT & you just need to register and give your answer in this thread to have a chance of winning.

• ChannelAdvisor webinar discussing the recent changes to eBay.

• eBay Spain announces compulsory Gallery.

• Join Skip McGrath & The Professional eBay Sellers Alliance in a teleconference (tomorrow) discussing DSR, Feedback and Fees.

• Christian Braun, co-founder of Auctioning4U on the sad developments within the consignment selling sector.

Back soon…

Alternative Auction Sites

AuctionAir

AuctionAir is a site I mentioned at AuctionCUT last March. It launched in 2001 and is a former project of British Airways. Unlike eBay, AuctionAir uses sealed bidding meaning you can not see how much other users are bidding completely eliminating the need to get involved in a bidding war. According to their website 1 in 7 users who placed a bid last year won an auction.

Telebid

A different auction model again, TeleBid offers mostly high value electrical items such as iPods, laptops and mobile phones all starting at 10p. It costs 50p to place a bid on any item, and with each bid placed the price of the auction increases by 7 or 10p. It does look like a fun site, but I imagine it’s easy to get carried away.

Competition

Our friends over at Power Sellers Forum are running a competition to design the best eBay template. The prize is being kept quiet at the moment, but it’s well worth entering especially as the template doesn’t have to be new. It can be one your already using on eBay & the competition is being judged by members of the forum. Details here.

Avril Harper, author of “Make Money Tearing Up Old Books and Magazines and Selling Them on eBay” writes a guest post for Mark-Kenny.com on UK Fast Start eBay Business Ideas.

Readers often ask for ideas for starting a really unusual business or unique line of products on eBay, hence the reason this month I’ve compiled a selection of those ideas I really do think have huge potential for new and experienced eBay sellers.

None of these ideas look to be over-used on eBay and I’m quite certain anyone can profit from them. As always do your due diligence before spending time, money and effort on any business. Select one or more of these ideas, research other eBayers selling similar items in the UK and other eBay sites, learn what you can from people already making money in these areas.

Two important warnings:

• Just because no one is running similar ventures does not mean this is a market wide open for you to profit from fast. It could be someone has already tried and abandoned similar ventures as unprofitable or because they involve a dirty four letter word spelled ‘W – O – R – K’. Test before spending too much time or money on the venture and if it’s unprofitable, look to tweek it a bit, test ways to increase unit profits by even a tiny amount which overall may add many pounds to your bottom line. (Oh No, She’s Back On The Numbers Games Spot: bear in mind anything that makes you just £3 extra each day increases your annual turnover by a staggering £1095, more on a Leap Year!). If the idea has already been tried and abandoned on grounds of hard work, at least check it out, see what’s involved, act like a true entrepreneur and work to get the idea up and running, then delegate the task and move onto another idea.

• Be aware that, any time someone comes up with a good business idea that’s not been tried before, the lazy amongst us will jump on the bandwagon and copy the idea completely unchanged. Days afterwards hundreds of people could be running the exact same business, sharing the profits, and not making money. You must be different, you must rise above the crowd. Give these ideas a try:

Target a different customer base from that featured in the idea. So, for example, the first idea you’ll listed below, about selling baby equipment and toys located at Mother and Toddler’s Groups, could be targeted instead at gardeners’ allotment groups (plants and garden ornaments), neighbours (unwanted household and personal goods), and so on.

Target a different eBay country site. ‘Free Stuff to Sell’, mentioned later, could involve collecting free guides and maps for places in the UK which have similar place names in the USA and would interest buyers on eBay.com. For starters try Washington, York, Norfolk, Birmingham, Dover, and many more. I keyed ‘places + with + same + names + in + uk + and + america’ into Google this morning and found hundreds of sites containing all the information you need to copy this idea.

So here we go with ideas for you to emulate (not copy):

CHILDREN’S CAST OFFS. Children grow quickly and discarded toys, clothing and hardware are sometimes in near perfect condition and worth up to fifty per cent their original value. Most parents are too tired, too busy, lack time and commitment to turn their discarded kiddieware into cash. But most will pay someone else to sell it for them. A one-off client is hard work, so look for a captive audience, and offer your service as consignment seller (trading assistant) to the largest Mother and Toddler groups you can find preferably close by. Most groups have a leader – official or unofficial – and this is the person to approach with offers to sell other members’ goods on eBay. Talk to the leader, make the offer, get that person to handle all communications with fellow members and also distribute money to members after the sale. This saves time and hassle for you and members are more likely to trust their leader with goods and money than an unknown agent. Have an agreement drawn up with the leader who must accept responsibility for collecting and holding all goods and all monies which absolves you from any wrongdoing that might ensue. With the exception of all but very small items it’s best to sell locally on eBay and have buyers pick up and pay for items while the group is in session. Either be there personally to claim the cash and pay the group leader once your commission is deducted or get the leader to hand over goods and take payment and you call every few days for your cut.

FACTORY OUTLETS: Most factory outlets deal in perfect and slightly imperfect goods and there are eBayers making thousands of sales every week of items picked up inexpensively at factory outlets. I personally know some who act as trading assistants for numerous factory outlets. Those people buy just one item to illustrate, describe and test resale potential and profits. From there most factory outlet managers are happy to put similar stock to one side for future sales. You’re spoiled for choice of products to sell from manufacturers of thousands of different product types, from clothing to tableware, cosmetics to socks, cutlery to most things you care to imagine. You must choose items with potential for unlimited sales via one standard listing template that does not require extensive changes between listings. Be careful picking goods and look for slight seconds as opposed to seriously flawed items. Faults vary and you’ll have difficulty using the same listing template for items ranging from slightly to seriously flawed. Look for near perfect items or perfect overstocks and you can use the same description for all similar items with specific add-ons like: ‘perfect overstock’, ‘cancelled order’, ‘button missing’, ‘light stain easily cleaned’, ‘broken zip’, ‘light chip on spout’, ‘cooking instructions missing’, etc.

Further Information

You’ll find a comprehensive listing of factory shops at: www.shoppingvillages.com

Top guide to factory shops and other discount sources is: The Official Great British Factory Shop Guide by Gillian Cutress and Rolf Stricker published by Anthony Peters Product Development Ltd. (ISBN – 10: 0955065208)

FREE STUFF TO SELL: Just because it’s free doesn’t mean an item is worthless, especially on eBay, where really weird and commonplace free items can attract incredible prices. Newspapers and magazines published in one country and not available elsewhere is an obvious example, but FREE gifts given with publications are also potentially very profitable domestically and in overseas markets. Things that sell well include discount vouchers and money off tokens, bonus CDs and wallcharts and other items from newspapers and magazines, maps and travel guides from visitor centres and tourist attractions. Money Off vouchers sell particularly well on eBay, mainly cut from newspapers and magazines and product packaging. For example, just recently: £50 worth of coupons and vouchers for various foods and household cleaning items fetched £22, £48 Of Eukanuba (Pet Food) Money Off Coupons made £20, £20 worth of Pampers Nappies Money Off Vouchers went for £13.00.

Most of what I spotted on eBay were clipped from magazines and newspapers with the majority fetching around half their full discount value. That suggests you could even buy newspapers and magazines specifically for their vouchers, free gifts and other potentially resaleable items. A friend who did this, very effectively, was an avid competition enthusiast who gave up a full time job as a teacher to enter competitions that won her many thousands of pounds each year in cash and consumables. She bought newspapers and magazines for the entry forms and sold the discount vouchers to friends and neighbours to fund her hobby.

Newspapers and magazines with free bonus gifts might also yield a profit from selling gifts and coupons on eBay but you’ll need to take a risk sometimes and buy multiple copies or risk newsagents’ stock selling out fast.

Further Information

Be careful, check the wording, a minority of companies prohibit you from reselling their products and vouchers.

- either leaving it as it is now with both parties deciding when & how to leave it
- once they have paid for their item then sellers can only leave them positive feedback or
- finally the option that ebay itself automatically leaves feedback when the buyer pays quickly.

It goes without saying that this has once again sparked off the old argument, who should leave feedback first -buyers or sellers? with no signs of movement in either side.

Skip McGrath, over at Auction Seller’s Resource reflects on some of the some of the more bizarre emails he gets from his eBay buyers, customers and readers to his blog. Seems like you can’t please all the people all the time. One of the best messages being with reference to a product called Ten Profitable Ebay Niches:

Product: Ten Profitable eBay Niche
message: I need to get a refund for this item. It looks like a lot of work. I look for free money from eBay.

If anyone can get me free money from eBay BTW, please drop me an email

More importantly what are these creatures called? is the topic of conversation at Ebay Strategies with Scott Wingo. Ebay’s latest feature, http://bestof.ebay.com/ which showcases the more interesting and bizarre items being auctioned has introduced these strange creatures to us. BestOf eBay is a digg like experience with users able to vote for each listing. Meanwhile I’m sure Scott will be relieved when he finds out exactly what they are called. Any ideas?

Reputation.  A solid reputation is always a good thing, and it gives a potential buyer the added peace of mind in knowing that their transaction with you will be a successful one.  If you’re new to eBay or the internet in general, don’t be discouraged.  Everyone is new at some point, right?  The best thing that you can do is to tell buyers that you’re new and hoping to build a longstanding relationship with a world of customers.  It never hurts to offer an incentive, such as free shipping, to garner interest.

Timely Shipment.  There are certain times of the year, such as near the holidays, when shipping times are extremely important.  Whether your buyers are looking for a last-minute gift idea or they are simply anxious to receive their order, it’s important to ship items in a timely fashion.  Most mail-order businesses promise delivery within 7-10 business days unless otherwise noted.  As an eBay seller, it’s important that you let your buyers know how long it will take for you to ship their purchase and which shipping companies you use.  Some people may prefer one delivery company over another, so it’s important to be flexible in terms of your shipping method.  Additionally, you should consider offering both standard and express delivery options for those who are in a hurry to receive their order.  Always remember to purchase and keep the tracking number, which your shipper will provide, incase there is a problem or delay with the delivery.

Selection.  As an eBay seller, one of your greatest assets is the ability to offer a large amount of products at a minimal cost.  You could conceivably start your own business with very little money paid upfront due to the fact that you can list a lot of products for sale without spending a fortune.  Instead of opening a physical storefront, paying rent, insurance and utilities, all you will need is a computer, an internet connection and the inventory ready for shipment.  When you make the decision to list an item on eBay, buyers may wish to see what else you are offering for sale and this means a wider selection could lead to a wider customer base and increased income.

Photos.  If you are buying something over the internet, one of the most important qualities that a product can have is a clear photograph.  When your buyers cannot physically touch a product, there is an added challenge in making them see how great the item is.  As an eBay seller, it’s up to you to paint a picture in their mind and an important part of that is to show them an actual photo of the product that showcases its best features.  Some things to consider are lighting, background and camera angle.  If you’re using a digital camera, you can instantly see which photos are good and which are not, but the task changes when using a regular camera.  In this instance, you may want to take several photographs so that, hopefully, at least one will turn out perfectly during development.

Payment Options.  When doing business online, it’s important to keep in mind that not everyone can or will use the same payment method when shopping.  This means that, as an eBay seller, you may wish to consider a range of payment options to ensure that your buyers can complete the transaction with ease.  Additionally, the more payment options you accept, the wider your customers base can become.  For instance, if you refuse to accept personal checks, the only people who could shop with you would be those who have credit cards or don’t mind getting out and going to the post office to mail a money order.  At the same time, if you were to rule out all payment methods with the exception of a money order, you would prevent those who enjoy the convenience of online payments from shopping with you.  Some tips to keep in mind with various payment methods include making sure to hold all personal checks until they clear (typically 10-15 business days) and to ship only to a confirmed address that matches the billing address.