Automating Your Ebay Business

They great thing about doing business on eBay is you can automate 70% of your daily chores after and before sale - and 100% if you selling information products. The things that you can automate are: Leaving feedback - you can setup you eBay business in such a way that everytime someone leaves a postive feedback, your automated system replies with a positive too. A great tip is to clearly state this on you auction. example: Thank you for looking at my auction, if you do decide to purchase, kindly note that I have a system setup that will automaticlly leave you postive feedback if you leave me one. This encourages buyers to leave feedback fast because your automated system will not only benefit them (As their feedback rating will increase), but yours too as they will be motivated to leave you feedback. Recieving feedback - You can also set-up follow up where you can set up a 3 day or 7 day period (You decide) that automaticlly contacts the buyer that hasn not left any feedback for you to take action and leave feedback. Again in this email, you can emphasize that your system will leave them an automatic feedback too. Purchase Thank You Letters - Thank you letters are a great first step when it comes to building a relationship with your customers. After each purchase, you can set up your eBay account to send custom thank you letters. Payment Recieved Letters - You can send an additional letter after payment has been received. This gives the buyer the peace of mind that they will soon be getting their product now. Now to automate all the things above, simply sign up with selling manager pro provided by eBay. You can even automate the auction re-listing process and send second chance offers. Its a great tool to grow your business and automate. I personally recommend it and you can get more information on it here: http://pages.ebay.com/selling_manager_pro/ But if you are selling information products - you are in for a treat Not only can you automate the above but 100% of your eBay business and by that I mean product delivery. All you need is MS Outlook - which is standard with every version of windows now and a PayPal account. So here is how it all works together: You setup MS Outlook with the same email you are using to send and receive payments through PayPal. So now when you press send and receive button on MS Outlook, you should receive payment notifications from PayPal. You setup two mail filters the subject line and message in body and create a reply text. For subject line use, Notification of a Cleared eCheck Instant Purchase Notification of an Instant Payment Received For message in body, User your auction title For reply text, (This goes automatically to your customer once they meet the above criteria) Insert the download link (To your product) so when your customer opens this email, they click the link and their it is - your product just got delivered. Once MS outlook receives an email with the subject line that was defined in the mail filters, it checks it with other filter (Message in body). If it they both match, MS outllooks sends a reply to that email from PayPal (Which directly replys to the customer who sent you payemnt) with the reply text you defined. To set up the proper email account on MS Outlook visit this great tutorial: http://products.secureserver.net/email/email_outlookexpress.htm To set up MS Outlook to automatically reply to your customer: Got to Tools Message Rules Menu Click on New and follow instructions NOW YOU EBAY BUSINESS IS AUTOMATED!

Top 5 seller mistakes to avoid so you can earn potential buyers' trust and make more sales!

What if I told you that a few simple listing mistakes could have you losing potential sales without even knowing it? And that correcting these mistakes could instantly increase your chances of selling your items — and getting positive feedback? As with any large marketplace, not all eBay sellers are above-board. Just search online for "eBay fraud" and you'll find countless eBayers claiming they've lost money on fraudulent auctions. In fact, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) puts Internet auctions at number two on its fraud list. (I'll talk about number one in the next article.) With all that scamming going on, eBayers are becoming more diligent about examining auctions carefully and checking up on sellers before buying, so make sure your listings are squeaky clean and you'll convert potential buyers into paying customers! Avoid these five common mistakes — and signs of a suspicious auction — that could be costing you sales: 1. "Email me before placing your bid." Unless a potential buyer has a question about an item you're selling, there's no reason they should have to contact you before placing a bid. Savvy eBay buyers have come to see requests like this as the trademark of unscrupulous sellers trying to take the transaction outside eBay. eBay frowns on this since they lose their cut of the transaction, but also because buyers lose eBay's Standard Purchase Protection once the transaction leaves eBay. Smart shoppers know this means they'll be out of pocket if the transaction goes sour. By asking a buyer to contact you before placing a bid, you run the risk that they'll skip over your auction completely and go on to your competitors'. Even worse, they could report you to eBay! 2. Deals that are just too good to be true You know the saying: "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is"? A lot of shoppers flock to eBay looking for great discounts on particular products, and great deals are definitely out there! But super-cheap deals can sometimes have the reverse effect. Experienced eBayers will compare prices and shipping costs in the search results for items they're interested in buying. Those same experienced buyers also know that one of the most common eBay fraud complaints from buyers is "Item Not Received." If your prices are TOO low, you may scare off potential customers who wonder if you really have the item at all. To choose the right price point, check what starting price your competitors are listing and consider that some buyers may be suspicious of unusually cheap bargains. 3. Rude responses to negative feedback It's impossible to please everybody all the time, which is why you'll rarely find a high-volume eBay seller with 100% positive feedback. Most eBay buyers realize that a small amount of negative feedback doesn't necessarily mean a seller is untrustworthy — it's just a natural part of doing business. But how you treat an unhappy customer speaks VOLUMES to potential customers! By clicking on your feedback number in your "Meet the Seller" box, they'll be able to see how you've handled these sticky situations. Always respond to negative feedback by asking to be contacted so that you can fix the issue. Even if the buyer doesn't respond, potential customers will see you've made an effort to make things right! 4. Unusual payment requests A surefire way to turn potential buyers off is to make requests in the body of your listing like: Winning bidder please send PayPal payment to "myemail@hotmail.com" at the close of auction. Sending money directly to a PayPal account bypasses eBay's invoicing system. This separates the payment from the item that's being paid for, and makes buying from you more of a risk, since the transaction won't be eligible for PayPal's Buyer Protection. Other payment options that will likely raise a red flag for seasoned eBayers are: * Requests for instant cash transfer through services like Western Union and MoneyGram — these transactions are untraceable and cannot be canceled * Using a non-recommended escrow service — there are countless eBay buyers on the 'Net claiming to have been ripped off by fraudulent escrow services. Stick with eBay-approved Escrow.com. Keep your payment options on the up and up. Not only will your potential customers be more confident in buying from you, you'll BOTH be protected if something goes awry. For more on PayPal's Buyer Protection, go to: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/gen/protections-outside 5. A suspicious buying or selling history Buying a slew of one-cent items has long been a popular method for sellers wanting to build up positive feedback to gain the confidence of potential customers. But having positive feedback isn't enough anymore. Cybercrooks have recently started using automated "bots" to buy up one-cent items on eBay in order to build up a positive feedback rating. Smart buyers now know they need to do a little more homework on sellers — especially before buying big-ticket items. A couple of clicks into your feedback rating and a few minutes of research will quickly reveal your selling history — including items you've sold in the last few months and at what price. (And if you've left feedback for items you've bought, potential buyers can see that too.) Be aware that if you've bought a ton of one-cent items to establish a positive feedback rating, you run the risk of buyers assuming you've used a "bot," which could potentially destroy your credibility. To help build your feedback rating quickly — and legitimately — simply handle all of your transactions responsibly. Leave positive feedback for the people you buy from and sell to — and request that they return the favor. Soon you'll have a positive feedback rating that PROVES your credibility, rather than calling it into question. More and more eBay buyers are probing deeper into seller auction listings and transaction history before forking over their money. It's crucial that you take the time to make sure your listings build buyer confidence... instead of eroding it with poor listing strategies. For more tips on how to build buyer confidence in your listings, go to: http://pages.ebay.com/securitycenter/selling.html

Add a "Listing Frame" to promote your eBay Store in all your listings!

Speaking of driving traffic to your other listings... If you own an eBay Store, consider adding a new profit-generating weapon to your sales arsenal by turning on the Listing Frame feature so you can promote your Store inventory in all of your current and future listings — automatically! And not only are Listing Frames a great way to drive more potential customers to your eBay Store, you can also use them as a way to put your weekly listings in front of more people — more often! The Listing Frame is a header that's placed at the top of each of your listings just above the item description. The header displays your Store name as well as a link to your Store’s home page. You can even customize the header and add your Store logo and a link potential buyers can click on to quickly add you to their Favorite Sellers list! In your Listing Frame, you can also include a maximum of five links back to your eBay Store. These links can lead to items from your Store inventory, or your About Me page, or any other Store page! For more on the Listing Frames feature, go to: http://pages.ebay.com/help/specialtysites/custom-listing-template.html

Use promotional flyers to turn first-time buyers into lifelong loyal customers!

As a business owner, you should always be looking for ways to promote your listings and increase your sales. But once you've actually sold an item, the opportunities to make money don't stop there... One great way to encourage one-time customers to become REPEAT customers is to put promotional flyers in the packages you ship to them. That way, you can drive your customers back to your eBay listings again and again, which can potentially double — or even TRIPLE! — your eBay earnings! Not only are these kinds of flyers a fantastic way to thank your customers for their business and encourage positive feedback, you can also use them to remind your customers to add you to their Favorite Sellers list. And THAT'S pure gold, because once your customers list you as a Favorite Seller, eBay will automatically email them weekly updates of any new items you've got listed. Plus, once your customers list you as a Favorite Seller, you'll get their email addresses, which means you can email them directly to build your relationship with them and send them more promotions whenever you want! Any way you dice it, the more you're able to communicate with your customers, the better the chance they'll buy from you again. The thing is, your customers are one of your most VALUABLE assets! They already know you provide quality products and top-notch service, meaning they'll be FAR more likely to buy from you than from an eBay seller they've never heard of before. After all, they've already come to trust you enough to buy from you. And trust is a HUGE component of the eBay seller-buyer relationship! And provided you've kept track of their buying history, you already know what kinds of items interest them, which means you have a good idea of what they might like to buy in the future! Presenting them with more opportunities to buy from you can potentially increase your sales — while costing you nothing in return. So the more ways you can find to encourage first-time buyers to become loyal, repeat customers, the better In order to make the most of your customers, be sure to send them promotional flyers with the following elements: Thank you! This lets your customer know you appreciate their business and shows them you are committed to meeting their needs, which lends to your credibility. Congratulations on purchasing product XYZ! Many buyers report feeling a rush of excitement when they win an eBay auction, but this excitement can dissipate by the time the item actually arrives in their hands. By congratulating your customer for snagging something of value, you can re-ignite the thrill of the "win" and get them interested in what else you've got to offer. It also helps to reduce buyer remorse, which can cut down on your refund rate if you accept returns. A little about me. Putting a face to your business makes it more personal and can help create a connection with your customers. By including a short biography about you or your business, you can show your customers that there's a real live person behind the listing. If you liked product XYZ, you may also be interested in... This is your chance to plug other items you have for sale — which is especially effective when they're related to the item your customer originally bought. Be sure to include a brief description, the URL to the online listing, and perhaps a small photo of the item. The key is to make your product blurb interesting enough that your customers will want to check it out online. This is also a good opportunity to remind your customers that they can get a weekly update of your items for sale automatically by adding you to their Favorite Sellers list! A discount on your next purchase! Offering a limited-time discount helps to create a sense of urgency to buy, especially if you compete with lots of other eBay sellers who sell the same kinds of items you do. It can really help your business stand out from the rest! On top of that, discounts are also a good way to liquidate slow-moving inventory, so you can replenish your stock with hot items that'll fly off the shelves! Putting flyers in your shipping packages is an easy — and inexpensive — way to follow up with your customer and optimize the final step of the sales process. If you're an eBay Store owner, you can learn more about using eBay's Promotional Flyer service by going to: http://pages.ebay.com/help/specialtysites/promotional-flyer-ov.html If you don't have a Store, or if you simply want more control of the look and layout of your flyer, go ahead and create one yourself! Just be sure to customize it with your name, eBay Seller ID, and Store URL, if you have one. It's also a good idea to keep your flyer to a maximum of one double-sided page in length. If it's any longer, you run the risk that it'll look like too much work to read — and chances are it'll go straight into the recycling bin!

How To Get The Highest PRICE For Your Item

LIST YOUR ITEM CORRECTLY TO GET THE BEST PRICE Put your item in the correct category. There are shoppers who only shop by checking the category list over and over, limiting the number of possible buyers if your collectible salt and pepper set is listed under porcelain dinnerware. Some people think that the most general category possible will get their item the most views, but this is not true on ebay. If you are listing sixteen items, take a few seconds to double check your listing details so you don't put items in the wrong category accidentally. RESEARCH YOUR ITEM FIRST Not researching the item you are selling is a common fault. You call the pattern Blue Onion when it is actually Delft. First, the Blue Onion collectors go away unhappy, then the Delft collectors never came at all. Besides knowing what to call your item, you should research its value. There could be six of the exact same item listed for $2.99 each but your price is $12.00. It doesn't take a genius to see that your auction is the last of these auctions to even get a look, let alone a A GOOD PHOTO BRINGS A HIGHER AUCTION PRICE Take a good clear picture of your item, as close up as you can to get the entire item into the picture. Before you click the shutter, see if there is anything ugly or unnecessary in the immediate background. You could move the background distraction or put your item in another location to take the picture. Then, your picture must be optimized. With the help of a photo program, crop the picture to include the item only. No cares about your living room, and it is maddening to wait forever for a photo to load only to find out that your time was wasted because the seller couldn't take a minute to crop their picture. Tweak the color of your item until it matches as much as possible. Most collectors specialize, and the color does make a difference to them. If they are forced to guess on the color of your item, they just might pass altogether. Next, shrink your picture down to 72 dpi (which is the most that monitors see anyway) to make your picture load fa! ster. If your starting picture is small, you can shrink the dpi without shrinking the size of the picture that people will see. If your picture fills the entire screen, you can probably make it much smaller so it loads faster and makes for more comfortable viewing. When a special feature should be highlighted, make a copy of your large picture before shrinking it, then crop out a "close-up" view of that feature only as a second photo. Try sharpening your photo - sometimes this helps and sometimes sharpening makes the picture look worse, but you can always click on undo. When you take pictures without enough light, you have problems. The color will never come out correct, even with good photo software. A white item will look dirty and gray, and lightening the picture doesn't help much. And, shadows can look like flaws to buyers. It always makes for a better photo if you adjust your camera to match the lighting you are using. ADVERTISE WITH YOUR PICTURE If you are not using ebay's picture services, you could simply write your photos into your written description. But, unless one of your photos goes in the space "Enter the Web site address of your hosted picture," you won't get the little camera icon letting buyers know that you do have one or more photos. Some buyers will pass your auction right by if they think you don't have any photos. A cheap (25 cents) way to get a lot of advertising is to put your photo into the gallery. Some people shop through the pictures of the gallery only. And, the gallery picture now also goes on the general listing page. Lots of buyers get a little sidetracked at looking at all the photos that they pass right over some of the auctions without this extra photo. LACK OF PHOTOS HURT AUCTION SALES Be honest with your photos. You might put into your written description that the item has a "small" defect in the back. Showing a photo of the perfect side only would be deceptive on your part, and it makes a lot of buyers not trust you. If a buyer's idea of a small defect is much different than yours, you will end up with a very unhappy customer and possibly have to issue a refund to keep your reputation. You don't have to put a large close-up of the flaw, since this makes the problem look worse than it really is, but do show both sides of the item at the same size if one side has a problem. Buyers may decide that the flaw is not enough to bother them. NO PHOTO IS AN AUCTION KILLER Collectors are very picky. They may have twenty items that look the same to a casual viewer (or an under informed seller), but all twenty have some little difference in the collector's eye. If you don't offer any photo at all, they will assume that yours is not Number 21 for their collection. Not researching the item you are selling is a common fault. You call the pattern Blue Onion when it is actually Delft. First, the Blue Onion collectors go away unhappy, and the Delft collectors never came at all - an excellent reason to add a photo. Years ago, people could say "I don't have a digital camera." They did start out pretty expensive. Not any longer. If you plan to sell more than one or two items, you can't afford to not get a digital camera. Even an inexpensive digital camera can produce a good picture if you follow the directions. If you only plan to sell one or two items, you could scan in a photo from a regular camera, have someone else take some ! photos for you, or borrow someone's camera. INCORRECTLY PRICED AUCTION ITEMS MAY NOT SELL There are two items exactly the same listed at the same time. Basically, everything about both auctions matches except the opening price. The item is expected to sell for about $28.00. One starts the auction at $14.99 (Auction A). The other starts the auction at $28.00 (Auction B). When both auctions close, Auction B has received NO bids at all. Sure, the item is worth $28.00, but people don't want to pay what an item is worth. They want a deal at an auction. Auction A received 10 bids and sold for $28.00 The first few buyers were trying for to get a great deal. Then the competition began, and some went back and put in another bid. Competition simply works with auctions. Even after several bids got the price up and up, people could still see that the starting price was very low - so they will check out your other auctions. RESERVE AUCTIONS Reserve auctions can may both sides happy. The seller in Auction B does not have to sell the item for less than $28.00 if the reserve price is $28.00 ($27.99 is even better). But, if that seller makes the opening price $9.99, the buyers will still think DEAL even after seeing that there is a reserve. This brings competition without the risk. The most common reason for using a reserve is in case ebay has an outage so the buyers can't get in and bid, and it is good insurance in a questionable economy. THE WRITTEN DESCRIPTION DOES COUNT Some sellers think that they can say about six words about an item since they put in a photo. No. People with older computers, on a bad ISP, or that just highly value their time do a lot of their shopping without photos. They "turn off" the photos in their browser and search by written descriptions alone. At least put a real description of what the item is. This is also highly valuable when people do searches. A search can't find a 3" Goofy in a karate outfit if the description only says "No damage, shipping is extra." Added to all of that is the title of "Goofy Toy," and you can see how difficult it would be for this item to be found. Few Goofy collectors want to do a search for "goofy" just to find one special one - there are thousands of Goofy items listed, including Goofy Grape and someone who tells you he got the item from his goofy brother. Write your description in an effort to answer any question buyers might have. You could get ma! ny, many buyers looking during the last five minutes, and that simply not enough time to ask a question and get the answer. Getting a question answered was much quicker before ebay made themselves mediators. In fact, it is to your benefit to put your email address in your description for last-minute questions. Anyone who ever goes anywhere on the internet will have their email address added to "spam" email lists. It is just the price we pay for the privilege of talking to anyone in the world for free (no stamp, no phone bill). Hitting the delete key is not hard to do. If you have kids and worry about the possibility of receiving adult-type email, don't let the kids use email until you check the mail. Anyway, if a buyer doesn't have enough time to get their questions answered, they will most likely not bid. In the event that someone has a question in the last hour or two, or even the last 24 hours (when your item is in the "ending today" category), do your best to be availab! le. Check your email often. The more people that fin! d your auction through a search, the more bids you could get - theoretically, depending on all other factors also. Include your item name in the description. Adding the color (although it seems obvious by the photo) may double your amount of visitors. People search in different ways, and they don't all spell the same or use the same terms. For example, using "eye glasses," "eyeglasses" and "spectacles" in your description will bring in three times the number of visitors as any one of these alone. Add the maker's name also if you know it. NOTICES, WARNINGS If you have had trouble in the past with an auction or two and would like to prevent the same problem in the future, you are allowed to put some sort of notice or warning in your description. But, be aware that bad auction dealings are such a minority, as are bad auction people. Try to make your words sound businesslike and polite instead of threatening or belittling. Otherwise, you may get your wish and not get have any more bad auctions simply because you will send all potential buyers away in fear or disgust. They may not want to take a chance on being your next "victim." THE AUCTION TITLE margin-left:0in">Titles with funny characters (*** @@@ ^^^ " ") in them do not attract more bidders. While searching through a list quickly, these characters actually get in the way and prevent the eye from seeing that one word or phrase you are looking for. Doesn't it seem obvious that what the item is should be included in the title? There are many, many auction titles that give no clue as to what the item is. "Large China!" That's quite a title. It is for a marble - a valuable type of marble. Someone doing a search for marbles won't find it. The description also does not contain the word marble. (This is an actual auction listed at this very moment!) The auction is in the marbles section, but only a small percentage of buyers shop through the category. If you ran an auction this way and then accidentally listed it in the wrong category, absolutely no buyers would find it. The word "jerk" suddenly comes to mind! Why would that be? Enough said. EXASPERATING EXTRAS Unless you are a real professional, don't use a background on your auction page. Most of the backgrounds used are way too large. In fact, most backgrounds can be found in the pages that take forever to load - then you find out that the item wasn't even worth the wait. That is a quick way to lose customers. Even if you are a professional and can make your background small enough that it loads instantly, why? Why bother? Backgrounds do not add anything worthwhile to an auction, they sometimes get in the way of the picture, and they are annoying. Even worse adjectives could be used for music on an auction page! As mentioned in a section above, photos that take up the entire screen and photos that are absolutely huge but are 90 percent junk and 10 percent item are a waste of bandwidth and time. THE BOTTOM LINE Getting good prices for your items starts with common sense. Give your visitors every reason to come back to see your auctions next time and to see your other auctions now, and get rid of everything that is not essential or takes up their valuable time. If there are six other auctions for the same item that you want to sell, look at the one that is getting the most bids and the ones that is getting the least (or no) bids and see what the differences are. If you are new to selling, do a lot of browsing first. See how other auctions look. If you don't have a photo editing program, you absolutely need to find one if you are going to list more than one auction ever - and even then if you want to get a good price for your item.

How To Get FREE Shipping Supplies

The United States Post Office is still "pushing" their Priority Mail services. You can order all the shipping supplies you want through the USPS - order in minutes on line - and have them delivered to your door. When you make your first order, the USPS will mail you a postcard to sign and mail back to them. The "payment" for this deal is simply agreeing to (and signing to prove it) use these supplies only for their intended purpose. Anyone caught turning Priority Mail boxes inside out to use a cheaper mail service will be in big trouble. We haven't done this so we don't know if you get a large fine, jail time, or just lose the privilege to ever receive any more supplies. So, this is not for you if you prefer to send your packages by UPS or using the Book Rate. Just what kind of supplies does the USPS offer? Small boxes, larger boxes, flat boxes, larger flat boxes, small flat boxes, flat mailers, "Priority Mail" tape, and labels. You can't have it all, ! you have to buy your own bubblewrap! The only real catch is that you must order the minimum, which can be a case of boxes. Since the boxes come flat, this is not as bad as it sounds. For those that don't want to use Priority Mail or the USPS in general, there are still places to get boxes for free. Your local supermarket gets deliveries at least once a week. Just ask one of their employees on what day and at what time their deliveries arrive. They won't usually save boxes for you, but you can walk in and get as many as you like before they cut them down for recycling. Office Depot has great boxes for larger items. They receive their reams of paper in sturdy boxes with lids, and these are always clean. Our local Office Depot receives paper deliveries twice a week. The store manager even agreed to hold the boxes for a few hours. We just need to go in on the correct day. Since these are such handy boxes, you may have to be the first to get to the store to beat others with the same idea. Check the free ads in the Recycler. Companies go out of business all the time, and they would usually prefer to give their supply of boxes away than to pay someone to haul them away. We found a vitamin store that was closing down and got hundreds of small and tiny boxes. These are not only great for mailing small items, but they are perfect for double boxing a set of smaller breakables. Liquor stores have the sturdiest boxes since bottles of liquor and wine are so heavy. If you sell bottles, these may even come with cardboard slots in them already to keep bottles from hitting each other when you send out several to one buyer. Dumpsters behind stores sometimes have good empty boxes. Sometimes you are lucky enough to find the boxes piled outside the dumpster. Either way, you should check them to be sure that they are clean and dry (a box will be weakened forever once it gets wet). Get inventive, you may find even more good suppliers of boxes.

When is the Best Time to List Your Items?

You may think that you should list your items on Saturday mornings because that is when you have the most free time or on Monday nights after 10:00 because the family is in bed and you finally have total concentration. You need to ask yourself just how many possible buyers will be at their computers at closing time. Especially when 10:00 p.m. on the West Coast is 1:00 a.m. on the East Coast. There are lots of possible buyers shopping at lunchtime during the week. But, because of the enormous amount of traffic at that time, you really cut down on the possibility of last-minute bidding if the bids are all in an internet traffic jam and can't get through at all. The amount of bidders a viable at closing time is of utmost importance to your auction. Most of the bidding on any auction will occur in the first 24 hours (when it is listed as new) and on the last day (when is listed as ending today), with most people only looking at one of these two times. And, the bulk of the serious bidding will be in the last 5 minutes! An auction is truly at its best when two or more people fight over your item, and they may not be awake to do so at 1:00 in the morning. When to list your items is best decided on actual sales histories of your particular items. Hardware and tools may get more male bidders who are looking on Saturday afternoon, and pokemon cards may get more attention from kids right after school. Etc. So, check the sales of completed items. You should be able to see a definite pattern for each type of item you plan to list. This is the first step. If your item sells best on a weekday evening, now you need to see if there is also a second pattern. It sold best on Tuesday one week and Thursday the next week. Why? One big factor in evening sales now is "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" There are almost no bidders at their computers when this show is on television. This show happens to be moved around from week to week. On top of that, if it is on at 8:00 p.m., that means 8:00 p.m. on both coasts so West Coast seller has to work around 5:00 p.m. through 8:00 p.m., and the East Coast seller has to work around 8:00 p.m. through 11:00 p.m. There are many more factors that come into play. Watch the weather forecasts for all parts of the country. If the East Coast is due for heavy rains, more possible bidders will be available at their computers instead of outside enjoying the spring or summer weather - and vice versa. If an area is in the middle of a terrible heat wave, they may be hiding inside at their computer instead of doing anything outside. Great weather is bad for sales. You may not want to have items close on Thanksgiving afternoon when most of the country is sitting down to a great meal - or in the evening on the day of a Presidential election. Contrary to this logic, Christmas morning may be a good time to have items close because many people don't have family with whom to share their day or they are not of a Christian faith. Those people would see this as a great time to sneak in a few bids. Other people may go shopping on Christmas afternoon to try to buy what they didn't receive for a gift! Selling at the busiest time of the day will make your photos load slower. At any time, using a dial-up connection puts your auctions at risk since they will take longer to load. And, since most dial-up connections get lost often, there is always the chance that your photos will not load at all. When either happens, you will lose buyers. Some could bookmark your auction to try again later, but last-minute shoppers don't have time to come back. Cable modem or DSL will make everything you do on the internet at least 10 times faster - without disconnects. You only need to be have your photos not load during the last half hour of an auction once to know how important your internet connection is. The real answer to when to list your items is it is totally relative….relative to as many factors as you can think of. You will need to do research on the past and try to foresee the future. Good luck on the latter.

Preparing To Sell

Using online auctions is a relatively inexpensive way to promote your products or services. On the downside, they can be very time-consuming to post to - especially if you're only making a few dollars profit per sale. Several steps are involved before you can post your auction on major sites such as; eBay or Yahoo! Shopping Auctions. If you're new to selling via online auctions, the following steps will make listing your item a smooth and easy process. 1). Plan your item title and description. Give some thought to naming and describing your item. What will buyers most want to know about it? What are its most appealing characteristics? What words might buyers use to search for your item? 2). Write your HTML code. If you plan to include HTML, complete and test your code before you get started with the listing process. Learn more about HTML. 3). Have a good picture of your item in an appropriate digital format. JPEG (.jpg) is recommended. If you host your own photos, have your photos uploaded to your service. In some cases, you'll need your photos stored on your computer's hard drive. 4). Have the item on hand. Keep the item close by in case you think of other things you want to add to your description. In addition, you'll want to ship the item to the buyer ASAP. 5). Plan your pricing. You may want to do a little research into the selling prices of other items similar to yours. This will help you set your starting price. 6). Registration. This usually will require your credit/ debit card and bank account information. It is recommended you write down your registration information (username and password) or save it in a place you will remember in the future. You're now prepared to sell your item! A few things to keep in mind after you've made the sell: 1 Communicate With The Buyer. Some auction sites offer a checkout service in which you must verify before receiving payment. Contact the buyer directly if you have not heard from the buyer within three days of your listing's end. 2 Receive Payment eBay and Yahoo! offer their own payment solutions. Another popular method used by auctioneers is PayPal. If the buyer hasn't already made payment, send them a letter explaining how they should proceed. 3 Ship Your Order Immediately You don't want your buyer to get angry. Many auctions provide buyer and seller feedback systems. It's hard to sell products with a bad rating and several negative buyer comments.

Choosing The Right Products To Sell

So you want to start an online business! Since most people don't know anything about ecommerce and building websites and such, most folks will start out by selling products on eBay, then pay someone to build a website once the money starts coming in. The big question is: what is the hot product to sell on eBay to make money fast? While it's true that selling products on eBay can be a quick, low cost way to launch an online business, following the herd by selling the "hot product" of the moment, is not a great idea. To the contrary, chances are you will be stomped in the ground by the herd and left lying in the dust with your unsold inventory in hand. The most successful eBay sellers are those who understand that success on eBay relies on many of the same factors as success in a brick and mortar business. Smart sellers research the marketplace and the competition to determine the salability and profitability of the product. Smart sellers test the market with one or two before committing to a product line and tying up their cash reserves in inventory that may never sell. Smart sellers adjust their product offerings until they find a product or product line that sells consistently. The last point is perhaps the most important. Long term eBay success does not come from "one off" sales. The key to real eBay success is to find a product that sells well and sell that product over and over and over again. There are several websites where you can find excellent products that can ship products directly to your customers once you sell their products. These companies are often called Dropship companies. DropshipDesign.com will offer you the best service of all since they will gather products from several manufacturers all in one place PLUS they will offer their dropshipping services to all theirs members at no extra cost. There are other websites that offer you the wholesale sources only, which means that you will need to work with the manufacturers directly in order to buy and sell the products on ebay.