DECIDE WHAT TO SELL
Buying and selling things is not new . As a matter of fact, people
have been buying and selling things in one form or another ever
since time began. It is part of life. We all need or want things
that we can't provide for ourselves, so we have to find someone who
can supply us with the items, and we pay them to provide us with
these items that we need or want.
Deciding what you want to sell is not as easy as it looks. There are
two main types of items that you will be selling. The first and most
obvious are those items that are lying around your house that you
want to get rid of, you know, all of those CD's that you don't
listen to anymore, that old toy you got when you were a kid, things
like that. These items are great to sell to make some extra money,
but they are a one time sale item, meaning once they are sold, they
are gone and so is your chance at a recurring income!
The second category of items that you will be selling is a set of
products that you create or buy in order to sell them. These can be
a great source of income, things as simple as your mother's recipe
for chocolate chip cookies, or a disk or book about Beanie Babies.
These types of items are things you can sell over and over again.
They may not bring in as much per item as other items, but you can
sell them in a great quantity. Let's look at each of these item
types in a little more detail.
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ONE OF A KIND ITEMS- ITEMS THAT
YOU OWN
First, we'll take the one of a kind items. These are the items that
are taking up space in your closet, the things that you bought and
don't have a use for anymore, or the things you've gotten as
presents that have never been taken out of the box! These items can
put some fast cash in your pocket, as well as open up some
much-needed space in your closets!
There is really no limit to the type of things that you currently
own that you can auction off. Just by taking a look at an auction
web site, or a Usenet Newsgroup, you will see people selling
everything from toys, computer equipment, photo equipment, beanie
babies, books, clothing, and even automobiles and homes! Your
choices for what you can actually sell are unlimited!
ITEMS THAT YOU CAN SELL IN
QUANTITY
Now, let's take a look at the other type of items. These are the
items that you can sell in quantity. These can be things that you
purchase in
quantity in order to sell. There are a lot of collectibles that are
widely available in certain areas that aren't available worldwide.
These can be
sports figures, dolls, trading cards, beanie babies, etc. Anything
that you can buy and sell at a modest profit is fair game, remember
people on
ebay DEMAND low prices. Better to sell 100 reports for $5 than 20
for $10
HOW TO DECIDE WHAT TO SELL
How do you decide what types of items that you want to sell? Well,
there are a few different ways to do this. The first thing I would
do is make up a list of the items that you are considering for sale.
Look at the items carefully, and write down information such as a
description of the item, what you paid for it, the condition it is
in, etc. Being very specific here will help you greatly if you
decide to list any of these items for auction. Sometimes the
smallest details can mean much greater prices, and much greater
profits for you!
Now, take your list; sit down at your computer and search eBay TM
for the types of items that you have come up with. Now, this may not
be effective for that one of a kind BABE RUTH autograph. For about
85% of the things you want to sell, however, it should give you a
pretty good idea of the market value of the item, as well as
consumer interest.
So, get on your computer and go to the auction web site. Click on
the area where it says "SEARCH" and you're on your way. If you want
an even easier way to search eBay, check out the Power Searching
eBAY section of this Ebook. Back to the search page on eBAY In the
search box type a relevant term. If you want to know what GARTH
BROOKS GREATEST HIT'S CD is worth type GARTH BROOKSin the title. If
you're looking into selling your VCR, simply type VCR into the
search categories at eBAY TM. Have you ever taken a look at just how
many listings are in the Beanie Baby category? It is absolutely
amazing!
As you can see, with searching for the proper words, it is very
simple to see if the types of items you want to sell are already
being sold at auctions. When you find the listings, you can learn a
few very important things. The first is, you can get a good idea on
what the market price is. By seeing what other people have sold
similar items for, you can decide whether or not you want to sell
the item, as well as what you should expect to get for the item when
it sells! When you search, you can look at auctions that have
recently been completed, as well as current ones, to see what items
similar to yours are bringing in for other people. After you find
out all of this good information, you can now set out with an idea
of what you should bring in for selling your items.
The other thing you will learn by searching the web site for other
similar products is the amount of people that want the type of item
that you are selling. The auction web site lists the amount of bids
along with all of its items. This will tell you how many people are
bidding on those items. Obviously, if you have fifty different
people bidding on an item, it’s a lot more apt to bring in money
than an item that is being bid on by only one or two people. This is
not an iron-clad rule, though, since you only need one bidder to
make money on your item!!
The best way to get started in the market of buying and selling is
to decide how much money you can afford to invest right off the bat.
I would recommend starting with at least two hundred dollars or so
to begin your empire. It's a small investment, and you should be
able to double your money pretty quickly!
Then, you need to decide exactly what you want to buy and sell. Your
choices here are virtually unlimited, as you have already seen.
Here's a good way to begin. If you have a hobby, or an expertise
that gives you an edge in particular field, use it to your
advantage! If you know computers, you might want to buy and sell
computer equipment. If you're a camera nut, then maybe photographic
equipment would be your cup of tea! Remember, if you have an edge
over 90% of the other people at the auction site, you will probably
be able to spot the bargains that you can buy and then re-sell at a
profit!'
Another way to find out good items to buy and sell is to check out
the auction web site, Usenet Newsgroups and your local classified
ads to see what other people are buying and selling! Just because
someone else is selling the product like yours does not mean that
you should not try marketing your own version of it. As a matter of
fact, just the opposite is true! After all, if someone is already
successful selling something, you probably can be too! Imagine that
everyone looked at HENRY FORD'S first car and said, gee what a great
idea! 'Too bad it's been done, no need for me to try. We would all
be driving Model A's if that was the case!'
LOOK FOR ITEMS THAT ARE HOT
One of the things that I like to do is search the auction web site
for collectable items that are extremely hot at that particular
time. The beanie babies are the best example, but there are many,
many others. I found out that some things that I would have never
considered very highly collectable are bringing in a decent price at
auction.
The most recent fad in this kind of a market was the Spice Girls
dolls. They are an item that are literally flying off of the store
shelves as soon as they come in, and people are willing to pay a
premium to get them. Remember this, time is very valuable to the
individual. The last thing anyone wants to do is scavenge all the
local Wal-Mart and toy stores trying to get the latest toy. Most
people would be much happier logging on to their computer, typing in
a few keys and paying a little extra to get that special item.
Needless to say, I found a few cases of Spice Girls dolls, bought
them, and resold them at a profit on both the auction site and on my
own web site! If you are into collectibles, or something that you
always have on hand, do consider getting your own web site where you
can sell your products 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and you won’t
have to pay eBAY ™ to list the items for you! Later, I will talk
more about setting up your own web site to sell items!
CREATE ITEMS THAT YOU CAN
PRODUCE & SELL YOURSELF
Another type of item that can be extremely successful is something
that you can produce on your own. Things like grandma’s recipes, a
how-to manual on hooking up your VCR, etc. These are the items that
can offer you immense profits! I know, you're asking yourself what
kind of item can I produce? It's simple, look at what you are good
at and use it. If you can make the best brownies in town, sell your
recipe. If you're the guy everyone calls when they can't figure it
out how to do something on their computer, write a how to manual on
that! Look at all of the books that are available for dummies on the
store shelves. They sell like crazy, because everybody needs help to
tell them how to do something! So take what you are good at and
MARKET IT! People will gladly pay $5.00 to $10.00 for the
information that they really need. After all, it is a very small
price to pay in order to understand something, or to better
yourself. And, while $5.00 or $10.00 is a relatively small amount
for a buyer, it can really add up quickly for the seller! As I write
this, my first listing for my Auction Express software has gotten
over 70 bids in just the first five days that it has been listed!
And, while it took a lot of time for me to put the program together,
I can now sit back and duplicate that one disc and make a good
amount of money on each one!
If you've ever watched the TV Food Network, and I know I watch it
too much sometimes, you may have seen the show the Essence of Emeril.
Chef Emeril Lagasse has a saying that I think is very relevant to
what you want to do with selling you items on eBAY. Emeril says,
We're not building a rocket ship here!' And, we are not building a
rocket ship, nor are we reinventing the wheel. What you want to do
is take a simple idea and nurture it, build it into something that
you can offer the buyer. What you want to do is look for items that
go for people's hot buttons.
While it may be true that everybody is different, it is also just as
true that everyone is the same in a few ways. Everyone wants to make
more money! I don't care if you are near broke or Mr. Microsoft,
Bill Gates himself; everyone wants to make more money! Everyone
wants to be smarter. These are universal things that you can use to
make yourself money!
Reference books, like the one that you are reading right now, are
great items to sell! Trust me, they are not always easy to put
together, and can challenging to get off of the ground! But, the
payoff comes when you are finished! Not only can you sit back and
feel you have accomplished something, you can now sell that one item
over and over again! Printing costs are relatively low, and you can
feel good making money by helping other people accomplish something
that is important to them!
If you do decide to write a book, check your local print shops for a
good deal on printing them up. When you are dealing with a lot of
copies, and we certainly hope that they sell big, it is much easier
to leave the copying, folding and stapling to the experts! Then, all
you have to do is collect your checks and address the envelopes!
So, use your imagination. Examine your unique talents. Look at what
products are in demand. The beanie baby craze can’t last forever!
Just imagine you were the person who came up with that idea! It
really is the simple ideas that can change your life forever!
SELL A QUALITY PRODUCT AT A
FAIR PRICE
I want you to keep in mind, and never ever forget People will buy
virtually anything! That is, as long as you are providing a quality
product at a fair price, you can be a huge success in buying and
selling! Look for products that people use on a day to day basis.
Look for a unique idea that you think is in demand; or take an
existing idea and make it better. One of the hottest things right
now is specialty mail order items. Items like cigars, beer, and
lobsters are being sold via mail order. Use your imagination and
think about what kind of a service you would like to see and if it
is something that you can put together on your own, go for it! Also
remember this, if people are happy with your product, they will
become repeat customers!
Now that you know what you want to sell, it's time to package it and
market it for the auction process. Here is where it takes a little
bit of planning and care to get your items noticed. Here is where
you’ll learn the techniques that will get your items higher bids on
average than similar items. The things I will show you are simple,
but they are very effective. It's amazing to see ads on eBAY that
are totally horrible. Ads that have misspellings are the kiss of
death for me. If a seller cannot spell correctly in an ad, you can't
completely trust their ability to address the package correctly!
Maybe I should write a whole new book on the importance of the spell
checker!
CREATING THE
PERFECT AD
THE TITLE GETS YOU NOTICED
Ok, you’ve been to the auction web site, and you’ve taken a look
around. It’s a lot like looking the classified section of a
newspaper, except for the fact that you have to click on the title
to see the rest of the ad. It can be a very confusing task to find
exactly what you are looking for. It is a virtual maze as you try to
weed out just the items, that you are looking for. There’s so many
items, that the information overload makes you want to scream! It’s
your job as a seller to help your prospective bidder cut through the
red tape, and get your ad viewed by as many people as you can! There
are a few ways to do this, so let’s get to it!
Like I just said in the last paragraph, in order for someone to see
your ad, they have to go through the trouble to take their mouse,
put it over your title and click on it! If they do not do this one
thing, I do not care how good your item is, and I do not care how
good your ad is, the simply reality is you are not going to sell a
darn thing to them! Therefore, one of the most important things that
you will do is create a title for your ad.
USE RELEVANT WORDS IN YOUR
TITLE
The thing that I feel is the MOST IMPORTANT when coming up with your
title is to include the relevant words. Ok, this sounds really
stupid, but you would be surprised at the amount of titles that tell
you ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. You must be extremely specific in your
titles about exactly what you are selling. If you have an
autographed Frank Sinatra photo, don’t use the title "Frank
Sinatra." I don’t care if it is in the autograph section of the web
site, this is not descriptive enough, and a lot of people may miss
your ad. Use something more like "RARE Frank Sinatra AUTOGRAGHED LP"
and you will be amazed at the difference in the amount of bids you
will get.
Remember that a lot of people will use the search feature to find
the items that they are looking for, and make sure you include the
words that they are most likely to search for in your title! I’m a
big NASCAR racing fan and absolutely love to purchase die-cast model
cars over the Internet. If I am searching for the different paint
schemes used by a particular driver, they had better have the
driver's name in the title, or I am going to miss it! So remember,
think about what your buyer is searching for, and give it to them in
the title!
USE WORDS THAT WILL GRAB THE
BUYERS ATTENTION
The other thing you want to do in the title is use words that will
GRAB the attention of the buyer. After all, they have literally
thousands and thousands of titles to look at, and you want them to
take a closer look at yours. How do you get their attention?
First, you can pay the small extra fee, which is $2.00 at the time
this is being written, to get your title listed in a bold face font.
This is an easy way to set your ad apart from the rest of the ads
that are out there. And while the bold face is a quick and easy way
to get more attention, I don’t believe that it is always the best
way. The best thing, along with being descriptive, is using POWER
WORDS.
What are power words? They’re things that you can use to add a sense
of urgency to your items. Words such as RARE, LIMITED EDITION,
UNIQUE, ONE-OF-A-KIND, BEAUTIFUL, will help you get attention. Other
words like GREAT, UNBELIEVABLE, STUNNING, AWESOME will also help get
your buyer to notice what you are selling.
Look at these two titles:
Bruce Springsteen Autograph
"RARE SPRINGSTEEN AUTOGRAPHED GUITAR-AWESOME!"
Ok which one grabs your attention? I’d say that 98% of you said that
the second title did, the other 2% of you need to take another look!
There are a few things going on in the second title, the most
noticeable is that the whole thing is using capital letters. Now,
this is a great way to make your items stand out, but sometimes it
can be overdone. Occasionally it can take away from the emphasis on
what you want the buyer to see. Take a look at this title:
"RARE SPRINGSTEEN Autographed GUITAR Awesome!"
This can also be a very effective title. The buyer will see what is
the most important in the title first, which is "Springsteen
Guitar." Remember no matter how you use capitals and lower case
letters, you want your title to stand out from the rest.
Many sellers like to use characters in their title, things like @,
#, $, %, etc. to draw extra attention. Sometimes they look cheesy,
and sometimes they work. That all depends on the product, and the
type of buyer that you are trying to attract. Try a few different
things and see what is most effective. Keep records on how well each
individual ad title is received, and use the style that is most
successful!
Remember, when it comes to the title: be descriptive, use exciting,
attention grabbing words, and set your ad apart from the rest!
WRITING DESCRIPTIONS THAT SELL
Once you’ve gotten someone to take a look at your ad; you want him
or her to bid on the item you are offering! You need to make your
product look as appealing as possible and you want to motivate the
person to place a bid immediately. After all, if the person leaves
without placing a bid, there’s a good chance that they will not be
back.
BE SPECIFIC
There are a few things that are important in the ad itself. The
first is the overall description of what you are selling. BE
SPECIFIC. This is the most important thing in your description. Do
not leave any room for error on what is for sale. Get as graphic and
specific as you can to describe your item. If there is anything
special about the item, list it. List any special features of the
item. People do not feel comfortable bidding on something of which
they are not 100% sure.
LIST ANY IMPERFECTIONS THAT
THE ITEM HAS
If there are any flaws in the item, like a dent or scratch, you have
to list that when you are selling the item to protect yourself. As
long as you are 100% specific on what you are selling, you will save
yourself a lot of time and hassle if someone decides to return the
product to you because they were not aware of a defect.
Even if you are using a picture in your ad, and we do highly
recommend using one, write your description for an ad without a
picture. That way the picture can be there to totally reinforce what
you are selling, but will not rely on the photo.
Once you have written an accurate and honest description of the
item, add your own creative touch. Again, use wording that will
motivate the buyer to bid on your item. If the item is difficult to
find, use words like rare, one of a kind, and unique. If it’s brand
new in a box, let the buyer know that. Include things that may seem
obvious to you, because the potential buyer may not be aware. This
helps the buyer feel more comfortable in dealing with you.
BE CREATIVE
When writing your ad you want to paint pictures with your words. Use
adjectives like great, awesome, beautiful, etc. to describe your
item. Paint a visual picture that makes your item irresistible! Tell
a story with the item if you can. Explain what the item is, and what
it can do for the buyer. If you are selling a cute little teddy
bear, play it up. Put something in the ad about the bear looking for
a good new home, and some new friends to play with. Not only will
the buyer get a kick out of the ad, they will be more likely to bid
on the item if it is something that they are looking for. Going
along with the theory that people do not want to bid on something
that they are not 100% sure of, people are much more likely to bid
on an item if they like the person that is selling the item. While
it certainly is not easy to convey your personality through an eBAY
™ ad, it does not hurt to try!
USE PHOTOS TO INCREASE YOUR
SALES
It may be a cliché that a picture is worth a thousand words, but it
is one hundred percent true! A simple picture included with your ad
can increase your sales by over two hundred percent! Like I’ve said
before, people are not comfortable bidding on an item unless they
are absolutely sure what they are bidding on. A picture gives the
buyer a strong visual image of what they are buying. Take a look at
the items that have the most bids in almost any category on the
auction web site, and I’ll bet you that the ads that have pictures
have more bids, and also have higher bids than the ads that don’t
include a picture! It’s the simple fact that seeing is believing!
Ok, so you're sold on an idea that a picture will help your item
sell. Now your asking yourself, how do I get a picture up on the
Internet? Well, that’s a good question, and this next section is
dedicated to showing you exactly how to take a picture of your item
and post it to the Internet.
STEP 1- GET THE PICTURE INTO YOUR
COMPUTER
Ok, so this is no brainer, even for the novice, but there are a few
different ways that you cam accomplish this. The first is the old
fashioned way, and that is to use a normal camera, take a photo, and
then take it to your local photo shop and get it developed. Once you
get the photo developed, you need to get the photo scanned into your
computer.
You can either buy a scanner at you local computer shop for
approximately $100 and up, or you can take your photos to many local
copy shops like Kinko’s and they can scan your photos for you, and
save them on floppy disk.
The other alternative you can use is a digital camera, which will
take a photo and download it immediately to your computer. These
cameras are great to use, but cost about $300 to $500.
You can also use a normal camcorder to grab the image. With a small
device (like SNAPPY) you can hook any video source, Like camcorders,
to your computer and transfer the image that way. These devices cost
between $100 to $200 and are a good alternative if you already have
a camcorder at home.
STEP 2-PROCESS THE PHOTO
Ok, you’ve got your photo saved on your computer in either a .gif or
.jpeg file. Next thing you may need to do is process the photo in a
graphic program. Programs like Paint Shop Pro
(http://www.jasc.com/psp.html) or LView Pro (http://www.lview.com)
are available as sharaware on the Internet. You can use them to do
things like crop the photo using only a portion of the photo with
your item. You can use them to adjust thing like the brightness and
contrast of the photo, or even add some cool text over the photo to
create the perfect ad! Programs like Adobe’s PhotoShop is a full
blown graphics program that will help automate tasks like processing
photos and adding some cool effects to both your photos and your
text.
Take a look at the photo of the item you want to sell. The first
thing you need to do is crop the photo to only show the item that
you are selling. Each program will do this fairly simply. You need
to click on the tool that selects a rectangular area of your photo.
You then need to draw a box only around the area you wish to keep,
and then select crop command from the main toolbars image or edit
menu.
Then you should go and adjust the brightness, contrast and sharpness
of the image as needed. Try to get as much visible detail as
possible. Remember that the better the picture is, the more bids you
will get!
You can also add text directly over the picture of the item. This
may or may not be useful for you, since you can type in as much text
as you want before or after the image on web page. If you do want to
add text, simply click on the text button, which is the "T" button
in 99% of graphics programs, and select an area on your photo and
type away!
STEP3- POST THE PHOTO TO THE WEB
All right, the photo is taken, processed, and ready to be used in an
advertisement on the auction web. The next step you have to do is to
actually upload the picture to a web site. Most sites like eBAY ™ do
not allow you to actually put the picture on their site, so you have
to have some web space of your own in which to store the picture. If
you’re on AOL or a lot of other Internet Service Providers, you most
likely have some web space allotted to you through them. You can
check with your provider to find out how much space you have, and
how to access it.
If you are on AOL, you can skip down to the next section, which will
take you step by step through the process that you have to use to
get your pictures up on AOL’s web space!
If your Internet Service Provider does not offer you any web space,
you can always find free web space through the Internet from
services like Geocities (http://www.geocities.com). These services
allow you to sign up for free web space that you can use to display
your pictures on your website, or to create your own actual web
site. There are a variety of places that offer you small free web
sites, just do a search on http://www.yahoo.com for web providers
and you will find some others besides Geocities.
Once you have someplace to put your picture, you have to upload the
picture. Upload, for those of you who don’t know, simply means to
send that picture file from your computer to your web space. There
are a variety of programs, which are called FTP programs that you
can use to transfer files over the Internet. You can easily find
them for download on the Internet from places like http://www.tucows.com
or http://www.shareware.com.
The program called WS_FTP is very popular, and easy to use. You can
download a copy directly from the manufacturer by going to their
website at: http://www.ipswitch.com/Products/WS_FTP/index.html
Once you have your FTP program, you simply log onto your server and
choose the files you want to send to the web site. For example,
let’s say that your picture file is called "auction1.jpg" and it
shows the item you want to sell. You would start up your FTP
program, choose the directory on your computer that your picture
file is in, select your file "auction1.jpg" and press the button to
transfer it to your web space.
Entering the following text to your auction's description can now
access your photo:
http://www.yourhost.com/-directory/imagename.jpg
Here is another great place that will HOST your image for you...
AuctionWatch--Free Image Hosting
AOL PHOTO INSTRUCTIONS
This is for all of you who are on America On-line. This will take
you step by step through the process that you need to follow to get
your pictures posted to your personal web space with AOL.
First, Go to the keyword "MY PLACE". If you are a novice, you may
want to click on the section called "My Place Help" for a quick
overview on what to do.
Second, click on "MY PLACE" where you will find a folder that is
called "private". This folder is where you will store all of your
images for eBAY ™. You can also create a new folder, call it
something like "auction" or "eBAY ™" and you can store your pictures
there if you like.
Then click "ok" and cancel to go back to the screen where you see
the folders that you have. You are now ready to post your pictures
to the web. You must know where your photos are located on your hard
drive.
Click on "UPLOAD".
You will now see the Remote Filename Screen. In the space that is
provided, you must type in the name of your photo file, including
the file type extension. The two types of files you can use are .gif
and .jpg files. Overall, .jpg files are better for photographic
images, but you can experiment with your photos if you’d like.
Press "CONTINUE".
Click on "SELECT FILE" and find the photo file that you want to use.
Click on the photo’s name to select it. You will see the name of the
file that you selected on the bottom of your screen where it says
"FILE".
Click on "SEND"! Your file is now stored on AOL’s web server, where
you can access it from anywhere on the Internet!
Your file can now be called by using the following text on your eBAY
™ listing: http://members.aol.com/yourscreename/filename.fileextention
Please remember that web addresses are case sensitive, so be sure to
type it in exactly as it appears on the server or you might have
problems accessing them from the eBAY ™ site!
The
Killer Ad
This is what is all comes down to, you take everything that you have
learned, and you put it to good use. You know what you want to sell,
you know how you want to describe it, you know what your starting
bid will be, and you have a picture or two up on the Internet that
you want to use in your ad. You are primed for action!
This next step can really make or break any ad that you have come up
with. If you’ve looked around eBAY ™ or other auction web sites, you
couldn’t tell one from another. You know what that means? You
probably are not inclined to buy from those ads.
You did see a few ads through, that you thought "wow that's cool."
You know the ones that used different fonts, in different sizes,
with bold letters, or different colors that really caught your eye.
And they used a great photo of the product, and even some cool
graphics, right? And, those are not only the ads that people
remember; they are the ads that people BUY FROM!
If you take the extra time to make your ad look good, the people who
are bidding on the item will realize that they are dealing with
someone who cares about what they are selling. They are dealing with
someone who will go the extra mile to make sure that they are happy
with their purchase!
There are a lot of different programs out there that can help
automate this task for you. Programs like Microsoft Front Page are a
full-blown web design tool that you can use. Or you can even use the
more recent browsers from Microsoft or Netscape to create a simple
web page. The programs will let you work in a WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT
YOU GET environment, and will let you create some awesome looking
web pages without needing to know a whole lot about HTML.
The section on eBAY ™ that asks you for a description of your item,
the section that says that HTML code is accepted. What this
basically means is that you can include any of the tags that HTML
understands. These tags can do anything from make the text larger or
smaller, make the text bold or italics, center the text and graphics
on the page, or even link up to another website. The possibilities
are endless.
HOW
TO GET MORE PEOPLE TO SEE YOUR AD
There are a variety of ways to get your ad noticed by the people
that would be interested in buying it. You can use the Usenet
Newsgroups, e-mail or a personal web site to tell people about your
items that are up for auction.
Usenet is the bulletin board area of the Internet. People post
messages concerning just about any topic that you can think of.
There are separate boards for each subject. You can search the
newsgroups by typing in a word that should appear in its heading. If
you’ve got Internet Explorer, just go to the top where it says "GO"
and click on "NEWS". Follow the instructions from there. Netscape
Navigator has a similar feature that you can use to access the
newsgroups.
You can post a message to any newsgroup, but remember that it is not
always proper etiquette to post a for sale message in some groups.
Look through the group first and see if there are other for sale
messages.
Of course, there are some newsgroups that are set up for the sole
purpose of buying and selling. Many of these have the word
marketplace in their heading, so you can search for that to see what
kinds of bulletin boards are available! E-mail! What a concept this
is! It’s a great way to target your prospective buyer, especially if
you specialize in one type of merchandise. After all, someone who
bought a Star Trek figure from you in the past will most likely be
interested in another Star Trek item in the future! Make sure you
let them know where to look for your new auctions!
The other thing you can do is build an email address database of
your own when you see people looking for items that you may have. If
you are searching a web site or newsgroup and find someone with
interests related to your products, cut and paste their e-mail
address into a database, which you can use to send out e-mail about
your products!
Finally, you can set up your own web site. It may not get as many
hits as the auctions at eBAY™, but it’s a good place to list items
that are harder to sell, or that you want a set price for! Your own
web site will give you total control over the environment. And,
although you probably will get only a fraction of the traffic that
eBAY™ does, you can leave the items up for as long as you want, and
you can set your own price. If you want a higher price, and are
willing to wait for it, you can be successful running your own web
site.
We’ve talked about getting free web space before, from such
companies as Geocities, and these can be fine to use for a small web
site to list a few products with your e-mail address. If you decide
to get a little more involved, you may want to go out and find a
company that rents web space that you can use. Most offer a small
site for about $15 to $25 per month. These sites will offer you the
ability to use a custom domain name, i.e.. www.mycompany.com, and
will offer things like e-mail, on-line support, shopping cart
programs etc.
TIMING IS EVERYTHING!
An eBAY™ ad generally gets the most attention on its first day
posted, and in the hours before the auction ends. I have found there
are certain really optimum times to begin and end an auction. In my
experience Saturday and Sunday afternoons have the heavies viewer
traffic on eBAY™. So, I suggest that you post your auction on
Saturday or Sunday between the hours of noon and 3:00 p.m. (prime
time viewing hits its peak between 3-4:00 p.m. Allow it to run a
seven day course so that it ends during these same high exposure
viewing hours.
FOLLOWING AND ENDING THE AUCTION
HOW ARE MY AUCTIONS DOING?
eBAY™ has included a user lookup in
their search section. Simply click on "SEARCH", go down to the area
that says Seller e-mail and enter your e-mail address, as well as
the options that they list, such as current auctions only, how you
want the results sorted, etc. Hit "STATUS" and you will receive a
complete listing of all of the items that you have up for auction.
These include the item numbers, the starting date of the auction,
the ending date of the auction, the current price of the item, the
item title, and who the high bidder is.
THE AUCTION'S OVER, NOW WHAT?
Well, you’ve sold your first items on eBAY™, and you are excited!!
Now, you see that this stuff can really make you some money. The
first thing you do is send an e-mail out to the winning bidder,
letting them know where to send the money and any other special
instruction that they may need.
Let them know that you will notify them when you receive their
payment, and also that you will let them know when the item has been
sent. This will accomplish two things, first it will help your money
arrive more quickly, and second it will make the buyer feel more at
ease. Everyone is a little cautious when dealing with someone new
for the first time, so good communications are a must. If you are
delayed in getting an item out for any reason, let the buyer know
via e-mail.
Once you receive the buyer's payment, it is only fair to leave them
some positive feedback on the system. After all, a lot of people use
this factor to decide if they want to do business with someone. If
they have been good to deal with, please let other people know, and
perhaps they will do the same for you in return!
WHAT IF THE HIGH BIDDER BACKS
OUT?
There is not a lot you can do if a bidder backs out on you. What you
can do first is contact eBAY™ and let them know that the item did
not sell for the high bid. Remember that eBAY™ takes a percentage of
the highest bid, so let them know that the highest bid backed out on
you.
If the high bidder refuses to respond to e-mail inquiring about
their reasons for backing out on the bid or is rude, then, by all
means, leave negative feedback about the user on eBAY™. Most
problems can be settled via e-mail, so be sure before you affect the
online reputation of a buyer through negative feedback. The buyer's
hard drive could have crashed or have been shorted out by
lightening. Family emergencies can also cause users to be away from
their computers. Also remember, that if you need to re-list your
item on eBAY™, you can probably do it for free! Just look at the
link that eBAY™ points to in the e-mail it sends you after the
auction is over if for any reason you need to re-list the item.
Here is one of the most fun things that you can do besides make
money, and that is spend some of that money!! Whether you are
looking to buy at eBAY™ for personal use or to resell, it can be a
really fun experience! In the next section, I will inform you of a
few things that you will need to know in order to be a success at
this auction stuff.
eBay(tm)
Advertising Rules Revealed!
In my time as a seller on eBay™, I have quickly learned there are
more than a few pitfalls to be wary of when placing ads. In
particular, I am referring to the FEATURED auctions which draw the
most attention. What I would like to accomplish here, is to educate
you as to what, when, why, and how to create your eBay™ ads, so as
to greatly reduce or even eliminate the risk of early termination.
What is "early termination"? Well, when eBay™ finds an auction which
violates one of their regulations, they will very often end it
early, or "pull the plug" so to speak. This is costly, since none of
the bidders at that point are obligated to purchase your advertised
product, and the auction is considered null and void. By avoiding
the "nuke", you can keep more of your customers, which translates
into more $$$ in your pocket.
In my personal experience, the most frustrating aspect of this whole
situation involving early termination, is that eBay™ does not post a
COMPLETE LIST of situations which will cause an auction to be
cancelled. They have some vague references in the legalese portions
of the user agreements, and a few other spots on their web site, but
nowhere on the site is there a comprehensive list of "no-no's" which
a seller can use as a reference when creating advertisements. It
took me several attempts, but I finally received the list I'd been
searching for a few weeks ago. I am happy to share that list with
you here, so that you may place ads on eBay™ and use the service in
the manner in which (I think) it was intended, which should be to
have fun and enjoy yourself in a relaxed atmosphere. If you have to
constantly worry about having your auction nuked by "Big Brother" at
any moment, then the fun aspect of the online auction environment is
quickly destroyed. When auctions are constantly being cancelled, it
discourages sellers from placing more ads, and frustrates buyers
into looking elsewhere for their purchases.
Something to be aware of: Many times an auction ad will contain MANY
rules violations, and will still be allowed to run full-term. Other
times an auction may only contain one minor violation and be stopped
immediately. I noticed this odd situation early in my advertising
run, and questioned several people at eBay™ about it. From the
responses I have received, I have concluded that there is apparently
no regular "policing" of the ads by eBay™ officials. They rely on
users to alert them to ads with possible violations, and then act
accordingly. Keep this in mind when advertising something which may
offend other users, or may be an infringement on someone else's
copyright or intellectual property. They will be quick to report
your auction to eBay™ if they feel you are stepping on their toes or
otherwise diminishing their income with your product. If this is the
case, and your ad has the slightest rules violation, it's a good bet
it will be cancelled.
THE LIST!
Here it is. This is the list of advertising violations it took me
almost a month to obtain. Finally, after my sixth attempt, my wish
was granted, and an eBay™ employee sent it to me. Keep in mind, this
is a NON-EXHAUSTIVE list! These are advertising violations that
*could* cause your auction to be cancelled if found and reported to
officials:
All auctions:
Items which specify "do not bid"
Items as "advertisements", with no product, for solicitation
purposes
Items containing "bonuses", prizes, raffles, or any condition in
which all bidders are not bidding upon and shall receive the exact
specified item regardless of number of bids, final price, etcetera.
(providing reserve has been met in a reserve price auction)
Items which are bootlegs, pirated media, unauthorized copies, or
anything violating copyright protection.
Items which are illegal - counterfeit, lottery or raffle tickets,
lock-pick sets, live animals, plants, foodstuffs, etcetera
Items which are of a service or informational nature cross-posted
into inappropriate categories
Items which offer any "choice" of items. The listed item shall be
the item provided
Featured auctions:
Listings of an adult nature.
Listings for services or for the sale of information.
Listings that are of a promotional/advertising nature.
Listings that may be illicit, illegal, or immoral.
Listings that do not offer a genuine auction per eBay™'s Auction
Rules.
Listings that promote "free" or "bonus" items
Items for direct sale or which otherwise blatantly circumvent eBay™
auction fees
Items containing links to other auction services, or to a page
containing advertisements for, links to, listing information from
other auction services, or to a page selling the item at a lower
price than the item's minimum bid (or reserve in a reserve price
auction), or links to a commercial web page
Items which are "replicas" or "faux" versions of trademark protected
items, for example "Rolex Look Alike"
Items in which a seller indicates an understood reserve price while
not listing a reserve price auction
Items which contain political or personal attacks on another user or
mention or publish information about another user
Items which state terms and conditions which contradict eBay™
auction rules, terms or conditions.
I have found that advertising an item for a very low figure in a
dutch auction, like say 50 cents, and compensating it with a high
shipping fee can qualify as "circumventing eBay™ auction fees", and
can possibly lead to auction termination. This is my own personal
observation, and not on eBay™'s "official" list.
Please note this is a non-exhaustive list, and eBay™ reserves the
right to end any auction at their disgression without prior notice
or notification!
WORDS & PHRASES TO AVOID
When writing ad copy, it is generally a good practice to avoid words
and phrases along these lines....
Free!
Bonus!
First 20 bidders get...
All this for only $6! (or any hint of a "fixed" price)
On sale
Go to our web site to order now...
Negative feedback will be left if you....
Special, today only!
If caught, many of these references can cause your auction to be
terminated.
CATCHY AD TITLES
When creating your auction title, there are some techniques
which always seem to work. Generally speaking, the more you can make
someone desire to read your ad, the more bidders you are going to
get. In my personal experience of over 11 years in the mailorder
business, the ads that pull are the ones that have what I call
"shock value". An ad title with shock value makes you want to know
more! When I see one of these ads, it's all I can do to resist the
temptation to click it with my mouse so I can find out what it's all
about. This is the sign of a well-planned ad title, and one which
will most likely generate handsome sales for the creator. The trick
here is not to reveal TOO much about what you are selling, UNLESS it
is a fairly mainstream product or service. In that case, be as
descriptive as possible. If however, you are selling something a
little more unusual, or of an informational nature, spice up the
title with words like "danger", "caution", "too hot", etc. Tags like
this create intrigue and mystery, and make users want to know more.
Recently I created an ad with a title "So hot it will probably be
BANNED!" The ad generated 152 bids in less than 48 hours.
Afterwards, there was a whole slew of authors using the word
"banned" in their ad titles, after seeing the huge success of this
newly created catch phrase which I initiated. Another one I like to
use is the word "look" with an arrow. I usually give it some
unconventional appearance, like "lOOk" or "L@@K" to grab attention.
Adding an arrow "-->" seems to help convince people they should
click it with their mouse, and they do, in great numbers! Of course,
the old standby..."sex" still draws, as well as words like
"clearance", "blowout", "warning", "amazing", "great", "rare",
"secret", and others along these lines. One ad I just saw touted
"FULL FRONTAL NUDITY! LOOK!" Of course I had to check it out, and it
showed a picture of an Orangutan ape hanging from a tree, with it's
full, fuzzy front exposed for all to see. This was kind of a silly
ploy, but the author's goal was to GET PEOPLE IN THE DOOR!
Apparently it worked, because his auction had 61 bidders at last
count. You get the idea. Create mystery, interest, intrigue with
your title! It doesn't have to be descriptive or say anything
whatsoever about what you are selling. Your ad will take care of the
"informational" part. Your title just has to draw potential
customers into your "shop". After all, they can't buy unless they
click on your ad first.
ADDITIONS TO YOUR AD
In order to keep the legal department at eBay™ satisfied, and
for your own protection, it is always a good idea to add the little
"trademark" symbol to all references to the word "eBay™". This
clearly identifies their company name as a trademarked name, and
should keep their lawyers off your behind. Adding this symbol can be
accomplished the "easy" way by simply typing the letters "tm" in
parenthesis like this: "(tm)", or the "hard" way, which is to use
the actual high-ASCII trademark character symbol: "™". This is easy
to accomplish using a standard text editor, but not quite as easy
using an HTML editor like Netscape Composer. I haven't tried it with
MS Frontpage, but using the text editor method is easiest. Simply
press and hold down your editor's ALT key, and type in the numerals
"1-5-3" on your keypad. Then release the ALT key. This will create
an odd looking character in your editor, which will translate to the
"™" symbol in HTML.
If you are selling an informational packet, it is also a good idea
to disclaim any liability on eBay™'s part, with regard to the
content of your package. Something similar to this works well:
As per eBay™'s rules: eBay™ is a trademark of eBay, Inc. This
Material is being offered by (insert name here) and is not licensed
by, endorsed by, or affiliated with, eBay™ Inc. in any manner.
Well, there you have it! Your toolkit for advertising success on
eBay™! In keeping with my own advice, I would like to state that the
material listed here is my own creation and compilation, derived
from a variety of sources. It has not been approved or endorsed in
any way by eBay™ Inc., and neither myself nor eBay™ will be held
responsible for its accuracy.
Now read our next
book on "99
eBay Success Secrets"
Now read our next
book on "Write
more effective ads"
Start
Here
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