I get a lot of questions from both new and experienced sellers.  Here are the common questions I get from new sellers with the answers regarding how to sell on eBay beneath them.

 As you will see below, these answers are short answers aimed at beginning sellers. As a new seller gains experience on eBay, you will learn that all of these issues are more complex and nuanced and any of these questions can have many answers depending on the given situation.

Most of the topics I cover here are covered in much more detail in The Complete eBay Marketing System. If you want to learn how to sell on eBay, that is one of your best sources of learning and information.

How To Sell on eBay

Q: Where should I set my starting price?

A.    It is a fact that lower starting prices attract more bids.  It is also a fact that auctions with lots of bids end up with higher prices.  So you always want to use a low starting price.  The exception to this is if you are selling a very expensive item that you could not afford to lose money on, or if you are selling an item that is so specialized that there will not be many bidders.  In these cases you may want to use a higher starting price or a reserve (see below for info on reserves).

Q: When is the best time to start my auction?

A.    The better question to ask is when should my auctions end.  Deciding which day to start depends on the auction duration you select. Statistically auctions ending Sunday and Monday evening between 5PM-7PM Pacific Time (all eBay times are Pacific) get the most visibility and the highest number of bids.  But this is not true of all products so it pays to test.  For example, if you are selling something to retired people, they are online more during the day than in the evening.  Students tend to be online between 3PM – 5PM.  If you are selling something to a business, then the morning and early afternoons might be best.

Q. What should I sell on eBay?

A.    Start with items around your house. Essentially you want to have an eBay garage sale.  Just take a box and go through your house and place things in it that you haven’t used in the past year or so or don’t really need or want anymore. This will give you some experience, clear out some space in your house and give you a little cash flow to invest in merchandise to sell.  In general, you will find that items sell on eBay for far more than you would realize at a garage sale.

Forget trying to sell popular or hot consumer products.  Look for a specialized niche of some kind where there isn’t so much competition.  As a beginner and a small seller you just don’t have the resources to compete against the huge sellers on eBay who can spend thousands of dollars at a time buying inventory in bulk.

Once you are ready to find merchandise to sell, I recommend Worldwide Brands.  They are the only source of wholesale and dropship information that I recommend other than my own. (See The Wholesale Buying System). 

Do not join any of the many drop ship supply companies that require membership.  Many of them are pure scams and the rest are pretty much a waste of money.  These sites are basically middlemen who take a percentage.  This results in not having enough margin to sell profitably on eBay. Worldwide Brands actually connects you directly to manufacturers, importers, liquidators and master distributors so you can buy at the lowest price.  Best of all they charge a one-time fee instead of an ongoing membership cost.

Q: Should I use optional listing features like bold, highlight, gallery, etc.?

A.    This depends on a lot of factors but mostly it is a question of return on investment.  For example the Bold option costs $1.00.  So it would not make sense to use this on a low cost item.  eBay claims adding Bold will raise your final value by 11%.  If you were selling an item that you though would go for around $10 this would result in a break-even result.  But, if you are selling something that you think would go for more than that, this option makes sense.  In general I use the Bold Option on items that I think will bring in over $20.

So look at each option, calculate the cost and figure out if it makes sense.  The one option I always buy is Gallery ($0.35).  If you don’t put a gallery photo next to your listing you won’t get many views to your auction.

 Q. How long should I run my auctions

A.    If an item is popular you can use a short duration like 3 or 5 days.  On most items I use 5 or 7 days.  I rarely use a 1-day auction unless I am selling something like an event ticket for something that happens in a few days.  I save 10-day auctions for very expensive items when I want to get the most exposure to insure getting the highest price.

Q. What should be included in my listing?

A.     Write a clear and concise description that fully describes what you are selling.  Include any specifications or physical description.  If you are selling anything used be sure and describe its condition and reveal any flaws. Include clear photos of the item being sold and a close up of any damage (tears, scratches, dents, etc.)  Include details about shipping, payment types accepted and your return policy.

Writing listings is a real art they you will learn with experience.  If you want to learn more, the topic of writing listings and auction titles is one of the longest chapters in The Complete eBay Marketing System.

Q: Should I use “Buy It Now”?

A.    eBay’s Buy-It-Now (BIN) feature is one of the most talked about of eBay’s optional features. Some love it and others hate it –but the trick to using BIN is knowing how to use it.

Buy-It-Now (BIN) is a feature that lists a fixed price next to your current bid price that allows a buyer to end an auction at any time by paying the BIN price. However, the BIN price disappears from the listing and search results once the first bid has been placed on an ordinary auction, or once the reserve price has been reached on a Reserve Price Auction (RPA).

 One problem with BIN items that start with a low bid is that someone interested in the item will place an early bid at the minimum just for the purpose of getting the BIN to disappear. Remember there is no cost to bid. Low bidders have nothing to lose by placing unreasonably low bids. If they win, they get a bargain. If they lose they just move on to the next item. 
 I charge the actual cost to ship an item plus a $1.00 handling charge to cover the cost of boxes and packing materials.

 eBay gives you the choice of using calculated shipping or putting in a fixed shipping amount.  I prefer to estimate the fixed amount as this allows bidders to see the shipping next to the search results.  I find I get more hits to my auction when I do this.

 Q: When should I offer free shipping?

A.    Free shipping can attract additional buyers, but obviously you would not want to offer free shipping on very heavy items as the cost versus distance can be a very high variable.  But on low weight items it can make sense.  I like to use free shipping with Buy-It-Now.  I set a BIN price high enough to cover the shipping and my profit and offer buyers free shipping if they buy it now.

Q: Should I sell  internationally?

A.    I used to ship internationally.  Typically you get higher bid results from people overseas, however, the increase in postal rates has made this less attractive. There is also a higher risk to your feedback when shipping internationally as shipments can be delayed and more things can go wrong.  So if you are a new seller, I would leave international selling to later when your feedback is higher and you have more experience.

 Q: Should I include a photo of my item?

A.    Always!  Bidders rarely bid on listings without a photo. You should also always use the gallery photo  so your photos show up in the search results. Good photos are very important to successful listings, so take the time to take a clear sharp photograph. I like to use at least 3 photos in every listing.

Q: Should I offer a return policy?

A.   Yes.  I have offered a very generous return policy since I started selling on eBay in 1999.  Over that time I have sold thousands of items and probably had fewer than a couple dozen returns. eBay now requires that you state what your return policy is and if you offer returns and refunds.

Q: Do I need a PayPal account?

A.    Yes. PayPal now accounts for over 90% of the transactions on eBay.  If you don’t accept PayPal you will not get very many bids on your auctions.  PayPal now offers both buyer and seller protection.

Note:  You have to confirm your bank account if you want your buyers to have buyer protection and when you ship items you only have seller protection when you ship to a confirmed address.

Q: When should I email buyers

A.     eBay sends buyers an automated email when they win an item.  If you use PayPal they also get an automated payment notice.  I always send an email acknowledging receipt of payment and telling the buyer when I will ship the item.  Then I send another email a few days later asking if they received the item, was everything OK (and if not they should contact me) and telling them I left feedback for them.  I end the email by asking them to leave feedback for me.

Q: Should I buy shipping insurance?

A.    eBay no longer allows sellers to charge buyers for insurance, although you can build the cost into your shipping and handling fee. I recommend two tactics for insurance:

1. Only buy insurance on expensive items > $100. In reality items are rarely lost and most people can stand the occasional $100 loss.
2. When you do purchase insurance, buy it from a company called ShipInsurance. ShipInsurance rates are 50% below what UPS and the post office charge and they pay their claims a lot faster.

Q. Should I open an eBay Store?

A.     Not as a brand new seller.  I suggest you get some experience first.  An eBay store is helpful when you are selling items that you have plenty of –it is not the best place to sell a unique item.  Some sellers use eBay stores as a place to park slow moving inventory.  Although this is good for a while, if you keep inventory too long you are just losing money and it is better to get rid of it at any price and get your cash working for you with products that will sell.

 If you want to learn how to sell on eBay  I hope you have found these tips helpful.

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 Skip McGrath is an eBay PowerSeller who has been selling on eBay since 1999 and making his full time living on eBay since 2002.  His website, www.skipmcgrath.com is a resource site for eBay sellers of all levels.

eBay Consignment Business

I wrote my first book on eBay consignment selling about four years ago at the height of the consignment selling craze.  The frenzy died down, but recently with the poor economy, consignment selling is on the rise again. So I just released an updated version, of Making Money With an Online Consignment Business.  The book assumes you know the basics of selling on eBay and focuses on how to start and run your consignment business profitable. It includes all of the forms, contracts pre-written advertisements to help you find consignors. I include information for both types of sellers –working from home or starting a consignment drop-off store.

We have a guest article today by Sean Eyring from HammerTap Research.  HammerTap is our recommended eBay research solution.  At the end of the article is some information about HammerTap and how it can help eBay sellers make more money on eBay.  Karen and I have been using HammerTap for the past six years with good results.

 Make More Money on eBay by Getting Your eBay Listings the Attention they Deserve

By Sean Eyring, eBay Consultant, and eBay Education Specialist

 We’ve all been there. You visit a Web site looking for information.. You’re bowled over with bright “circus” colors, animations going everywhere, and text that’s hard to read.

The site almost begs you to click your browser’s “back” button. Many eBay listings look the same way. If you want to make more money on eBay follow these tips.

eBay’s “Create Your Listing” page makes it easy to use backgrounds, change text colors, add graphics, and so on. But the question is, does the look of the listing increase your chance to sell your product? Read on to learn when using eBay designs makes sense… and “cents.”

Consistency Pays if you want to make money on eBay

What’s the value of consistency? On eBay, people may fear buying from those they don’t know. That’s why eBay has their feedback system. It gives you some confidence in the person you’re buying from.

If a person recognizes the “look” of your eBay listings, you increase your chances to sell to them. If an eBay buyer purchases from you and has a good experience, the next time they recognize one of your listings, you further increase your odds of selling to them. The more sales you make the more money you make on eBay.

 Designing Your Unique “eBay Look”

So now that you know the value of a consistent design, how do you create your own look? I’m an online marketing consultant. When I work with a client, the first question I ask is “Who is your audience?”

If you’re mostly selling electronics, you probably don’t want to go with a border with flowers and dolls. On the other hand, if you specialize in selling teddy bears and plush toys, this may fit your audience perfectly.

Think of your audience. Are they predominantly male or female? Is your product high-tech or high-touch in nature? Take a moment to write down what you know about potential buyers of your products. Keep this in mind when designing the look to use with your listings. But there are a few absolute do’s and don’ts.

“Branding” Yourself On eBay

Is there a time when consistency of appearance counts? Here’s a quick mental exercise. Think of the Coca-Cola logo. What colors are used? If you thought red and white, their multi-million dollar branding campaigns did their job.

Why not blue and white? It doesn’t matter, really. What matters is that they use red and white over and over to “brand” themselves into your mind. Put a Coke, a Pepsi and a Dr. Pepper at the bottom of a cooler filled with ice water. Even without being able to read the labels, if I want a Dr. Pepper, I reach for the dark red can.

Sure, ask an eBay seller you don’t have the advertising budget of Coke or Pepsi. But you have one advantage. If you sell products on eBay, especially in any kind of specialty “niche” market, it’s likely that many of the same people will see several of your listings. Here’s where branding comes in.

Create a consistent and unique look for your eBay listings. Use the same background image if you choose to use one. Use the same text color and font. Create a unique “theme” and use it for all your listings.

 Absolute Design No-No’s

Make your eBay listings easy to read. First of all, let’s choose the text color and background. Use black on white or on another VERY light color. Never use light text on a dark background. Especially on older monitors, it can be too difficult to read.

Use a font size that’s large enough to read easily. Stay away from small print that many readers will have to strain their eyes to read.

Use a “sans-serif” font like Arial or Verdanna. “Serif” fonts like Times New Roman are easy to read in print, which is why they’re used in newspapers and novels. Studies have shown however, they are much harder to read on a monitor.

 Composing Your eBay Listings for Maximum Effect

Studies have shown that any Web page (such as your eBay listing) has between 3 and 10 seconds to grab the interest of your reader. If you haven’t made at least one “benefit” statement they connect to, chances are they’re gone with a quick click of their browser’s “back” button. And they’re gone for good.

So how do you catch the attention of your audience in seconds? Simple. Put your best benefits at the top, and make them easy to read. Bullet points are great for that. Give short, to-the-point descriptions of why the reader should by your product.

 Stress Benefits vs. Features help you make the real money on eBay

I’ve read dozens of books on marketing. I’ll save you a lot of reading. Here’s the thing I’ve learned that’s more important than any other. It’s the value of clearly stating your product’s benefits.

Let me illustrate the difference between two ads for computers, one based on features, the next based on benefits:

Features-based

• 3.0 Gigahertz Processor
• 256 Megabyte Video Card
• 350 Gigabyte Hard Drive

Benefits-based

• Fast processor lets you get more done quicker
• Powerful graphics card lets you play all the latest games
• Roomy hard drive, so you can install all your programs and still have room for music and video

A feature describes an attribute of a product. A benefit tells why you should care. For example, stating a computer has 256 Megabytes of video RAM says nothing to the average computer user. It’s a feature. But they may be purchasing the computer for someone who’s really into the latest computer games. Many of these require a lot of video RAM.

Now we’ve turned the feature into a benefit by telling how that feature makes the product more valuable. Make sense? But one of the strangest things I see as a marketer is how even professionally produced advertisements costing thousands of dollars to create and sent out break this one simple rule. So if you consistently want to make more money on eBay, always stress the fetures as well as listing the benefits.

Well there you have it. A quick Marketing 101 course as it applies to creating a winning “brand” for your auctions. We also described how to selmake more money on eBay by focusing on benefits, rather than features.

Make more money on eBay with research!

If you want to make more money on eBay, determining what works and what doesn’t when it comes to your listings requires research. Anything less puts you at risk of not making the sale or not making as much as you could be on each sale. A research tool like HammerTap helps eBay sellers bypass the costly trial and error process by quickly giving them the key information they need for profitable online auctions.

Start making more money on eBay now:  Take HammerTap for a FREE test drive? We’ll give you 10 days to put HammerTap to work for you. Use its power to determine:

• Successful Keywords

• Best Auction Type For Your Products

• Best Listing Duration

• Which Listing Features Improve Your Chance to Sell and Which Increase the Closing Price

• Optimal Start Price to Use

• Best Day of the Week to Start and End Your Auctions

• Seasonal Trends

• And much more!

 As a bonus, you’ll receive a 10-lesson Power to Profit course to help you immediately see the effects research can have on your auctions. We’ll also throw in selling tips from Industry Experts in our members-only Auctionography newsletter.

Here is a special offer for Skip McGrath readers: Save $2 month or $24 year on a HammerTap subscription.   www.hammertap.com/skip

You owe it to yourself to take the guesswork and risk out of your auctions. Try HammerTap free for 10 days. If you are not absolutely sure you’ll increase your eBay profits by the $17.95 subscription price, you’re free to cancel. It costs you nothing to prove to yourself there’s a more profitable way to eBay.

Use this link to get the special offer for Skip McGrath readers:    www.hammertap.com/skip

As another free bonus, once you sign up, we will invite you to a series of webinars designed to help you make more money on eBay with research.

Potential buyers can view the photos of your items with a video commentary. This eBay tool comes with a pointer you can control to point out parts of the photos you are talking about.

ConnectNote is a new company looking to expand into the eBay seller market. The service costs about $25 per month, but you can get a free 7-day trial. My initial reaction when looking at this new eBay tool was: “Why would I pay for video that I can get on You Tube for free.”  But once you see what ConnectNote does, you will see the advantages.

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The Complete eBay Marketing System is a basics-to-advanced course for new eBay sellers. The system is delivered in a 5 pound binder and it comes with lifetime membership in our wholesale resources membership site that helps you source products to sell on eBay.

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When you shop on the web, just look for the Pay Phrase button. When you click on it, you enter your phrase, type in a 4-digit pin number and you are done. Amazon will handle the payment to the vendor, and give the vendor your shipping address.

PayPhrase is an easy-to-remember shortcut to shipping and payment information in your Amazon.com account. Use it for Express Checkout at Amazon.com and across the web.

Benefits of PayPhrase:

• Privacy:  Shop securely across the web without sharing your credit card.
• Express Checkout:  Speed through checkout without having to sign in.
• Parental controls:  Let teens shop online within limits you set.

Each PayPhrase is two or more words, and the entire phrase must be at least four or more characters. Amazon checks availability for you as you create your PayPhrase. No digits or special characters are allowed, but a PayPhrase can be up to 100 characters in length.

It only took me a couple of minutes to set up. After I set it up I went onto Amazon and used it to buy a Christmas present for my Granddaughter. One click and I was done.

Will PayPal be Next?

I suspect PayPal will take notice and come up with something similar. PayPal is far larger than Amazon and is used by tens of thousands of websites. So if PayPal creates something similar, I think it will find market traction quickly.

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Learn how to sell on eBay with The Complete eBay Marketing System, wirtten by an eBay Power Seller who sells on eBay every day.

>>> eBay Holiday Promotions – eBay just uploaded the Holiday Selling Guide for tips to sell more this season. eBay is also launching a number of holiday sales promotions such as eBay coupons and eBay bucks sent to buyers.

>>> eBay to fix search slowness. eBay said yesterday that they are removing some graphics from the search results page so the pages will load faster. Great! This has been a long standing complaint and it looks like someone at eBay finally listened.

>>>  Last week eBay announced a new TV advertising program.  eBay’s return to TV advertising is long overdue but from the admittedly little I have seen, this campaign seems pretty lame. Amazon is also rumored to launch a TV campaign for the holidays. So far they are out with wome 15 second spots for the Kindle reader, but I expect them to launch some more general ads in the next few weeks.

>>> The Internet Marketing Center, the oldest and largest internet training company launched the 2009 Updated version of “The Insider Secrets to Marketing Your Business on the Internet” system with a $30 price cut.

>>> Amazon announced a rebate program for sellers who use FBA - Amazon is offering its sellers a chance to earn up to $1,000 in fee rebates when they sign up for Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA). FBA is Amazon’s drop ship program where merchants store inventory in Amazon’w warehouses and Amazon does the order fulfillment for the merchant seller.

>>> The USPS announced a 3% price increase on Priority Mail starting in January. There will be additional price increases on Global Priority and Express mail as well.

>>> eBay has created a mobile boutique that will roam the country to promote buying on eBay.  From November 10 through December 20, the eBay Mobile Boutique brings the eBay shopping experience to life in a town near you. See the schedule.

>>> eBay Sellers News Now Online.  the November issue of the eBay Sellers News is now online at http://www.skipmcgrath.com/newsletters/current.shtml

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The Complete eBay Marketing System is our flagship product for eBay sellers. The 6 pound printed manua starts with the basics and takes beginning sellers through everything they need to start and run a profitable eBay Business.

What does this all mean for online sellers?  There is no question that the high number of job losses and pessimistic consumer confidence will impact holiday sales, but there in one offsetting possibility –The Swine Flu.

No one likes to make money from other people’s misery, but it is a fact that swine flu fears are already responsible for some of the drop in retail sales. Amazon just reported its best quarter ever and eBay’s sales were only down 1% when many analysts were expecting a larger drop. Nielsen numbers on website sales will be out soon and it will be interesting to see if online sales are growing or declining.  My bet is that we will see some growth –probably not much but as people fear the holiday crowds in the malls, I think online shopping will offset some of the retail sales lost to brick and mortar stores.

The Complete eBay Marketing System by an eBay PowerSeller who sells on eBay every day is the leading training course for eBay sellers.
Shipped the same busines day you order, The Complete eBay Marketing System comes in a 5 pound binder and takes sellers from the basics to eBay profits.

HIAWATHA, Iowa (CNN)– As Dr. Jennifer Lickteig examines patients at the Linn Community Care Health Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, she’s also earning money from a second career that has nothing to do with medicine.

Dr. Jennifer Lickteig started her online clothing business while taking time off from medicine to raise her family. 1 of 2  Lickteig runs a clothing store on eBay, where she’s a “Gold PowerSeller,” ranking among the top 1½ percent of merchants on the online marketplace.

The 35-year-old family practitioner says she earned $120,000 last year on eBay, more than she did practicing medicine.  Read the full story at CNN.

Yes, eBay is not as easy as it was a few years ago –and yes, fees are higher and their policies are more strict. But hundreds of thousands of small and large sellers are still making money on eBay today. 

When it comes to learning how to make money online, eBay has several advantages for the small or new seller. First of all is a built-in audience. eBay gets the eyeballs to your listings.  Although eBay has lost its first place in shopping traffic to Amazon, there are still millions of people who visit eBay every day and type what they are looking for into the search engine. If you know how to optimize your listings for eBay search, then you will get your products in front of buyers.

Making money selling on eBay.

The tricks are pretty simple:

• Use good searchable keywords in your auction titles.
• Use good photographs that show off your item
• Write complete thorough descriptions that give the buyer all the information they need
• Deliver good customer service to earn a great feedback rating and high Detailed Seller Rating stars

The other thing about eBay is the skills you will learn are translatable to selling in other venues including Amazon, other auction sites, fixed price stores and even your own website. In fact eBay is a great place to secure customers so you can market to them in other ways.

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If you want to learn how to make money on eBay, our flagship product, The Complete eBay Marketing System will give you the tools and skills you need to be successful.  I have been selling on eBay for ten years and eBay is the source of a large part of my online income. Let me show you how to make money selling on eBay with The Complete eBay Marketing System. It comes with a No-Questions-Asked money back guarantee and ships the same business day you order.

Affiliate marketing is a great way for small online sellers to make extra money. You don’t even need a website. You can promote affiliate advertisers with a blog, from social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook or to your readers if you have a newsletter. Of course if you do have a website and would like to make some extra money then these networks can work for you too.

Almost all affiliate networks work the same way. First you sign up to create an account. Once you are in the program, you log in and look for advertisers. Most systems allow you to select advertisers by category, while some others are specialized. For example, MarketHealth.com specializes in health and beauty products.

One problem with most networks is that you have to join several of them to find the right products to advertise or to find products in your category. One answer to this is to take a look at Affiliate Scout. Affiliate Scout lists thousands of affiliate advertisers by category. This way you can find the networks with the products you want, before joining them.

Make Extra Money

Making extra money with Affiliate marketing is not a shotgun endeavor. You must specialize. Ideally you want to find advertisers who are related to the topic of your blog or website. The best advertising is that which is related to your content and focused on your readers. Affiliates offers for credit cards and mortgages tend to pay the highest commissions, but if you blog is about pet care and training; then those ads would be out of place, whereas ads for Petsmart would work very well.

If you would like to get some training on how to make money with affiliate marketing, check out http://www.affiliatetraining.com/x/affiliate-articles/. This is a site where you can get plenty of free articles and advice for earning extra money with affiliate marketing.

They are coming out with a new product called The Complete Guide to Website Building.  Don’t worry this is not some high-tech system that you need to know about programming and HTML. This is designed for people who know nothing more that how to type, point and click. If you can do that, you can build a website.

If you want to sit in on the free webinar tomorrow, click here to register. It is completely free and will give you a good overview including:

1. Who the course is aimed at helping

2. How you can benefit from the course

3. What’s included in the training

4. How the delivery platform works

 5. Details of the support on offer to trainees

 6. Pricing and guarantee information

 And they are offering an exciting set of bonuses to everyone who attends…and these bonuses are not “free PDFs” or some other low-value thrown-in… they’re quality additional benefits for:

- The First 100 fast-acting sign-ups, and;

- The First 1000 trainees through the door

 Oh, and did I mention they are also giving away TEN complete courses to ten lucky webinar attendees?

So if you have ever thought about taking the leap to building your own website, take a look at this short webinar. XsitePro has one of the best reputations in the industry and their stuff is really good.

Here is the link to sign up: http://tinyurl.com/XPwebinar

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Learn how to make extra money blogging with How To Make Money Blogging From Home