The Real Route to Successful Selling on eBay
If you live on planet earth and have surfed the Internet it’s probably already come to your attention that there’s a huge opportunity out there in the shape of the unique auction marketplace site - Ebay.
You might be surprised to hear that for thousands of retailers Ebay acts as their only shop front.
There are lots of reasons for this that I won’t go into now, suffice to say that the cost benefits in having no premises, staff and even stock in many cases are three great reasons to dip your toe into this exciting online arena.
In this article I’ll run you through a few tips on how to rise above the cometition, and how to use your knowledge, some basic marketing common sense, and a little bit of effort to make your ebay store as successful as it can be.
1. Always, always spend time getting your product photo’s just right. We all like to view items in as much detail as possible before we click the buy button. The Ebay customer can’t be in your house to touch, feel and see the product you’re offering for real, so your photographs really do need to be the next best thing.
It’s common knowledge amongst Ebay entrepreneurs that the items with the most professional photographs are the ones with the most buyer interest.
2. Write every item description with the care you would apply to a media advertisement for your product. It’s tempting to dilute your listing text with soft selling words like ‘gorgeous, lovely’ etc. Don’t fall into this trap. If you’re serious about making a living on Ebay you need to approach the task professionally.
3. Consider the search engines. Every paragraph you write to describe your items should be written with the search engines in mind. If you are selling a dress that Nicole Kidman wore in a magazine, mention it in the first paragraph, describe it as Nicole Kidman dress, and think of what people may be searching for around your product. Linked with solid, knowledgeable information about your product this is a killer sales tool.
4. Research your shipping charges. It’s vital to be as accurate as you can with your postage and shipping charges - if you’re not, you can overcharge your customers on shipping purely through your ignorance of the correct prices - this leads to poor levels of customer returns and in the worst cases, bad feedback.
5. Give your buyer payment options
Your customers should be able to pay using as many options as possible. Within reason, you should look into every payment option and make it available to purchasers of your items.
The more payment options, the more bids - it’s as simple as that.
6. Research your items
If you are selling vintage handbags you should be spending a portion of your time online looking at similar products, their prices and the bid patterns.
It’s obvious really - if you see the bidders go crazy for a similar item you’ll know the market is strong, and vice versa.
7. Reputation is everything - work on your feedback
Feedback is vital on Ebay - it’s the only ‘trust’ element besides the professional impression you give that your buyers have to go on, so make sure your service is great, and focus on selling your low-cost items fast and delivering on time. Once your feedback score really begins to climb you’ll see more traffic, more buyers, and your reputation will soar.
8. This is your profession - be professional
You must act as professionally as possible when selling on Ebay. This isn’t always the easiest and most natural thing to do - if someone leaves you bad feedback - respond courteously, and if there’s a real issue take steps to resolve it swiftly and professionally.
Always answer buyers’ questions comprehensively, and make service your priority - your customers will thank you for it and you’ll project a much more professional image.
© Copyright 2005 Harry Hardisty
Harry Hardisty is a renowned UK SEO expert with over 10 years in the Internet Marketing field.
He’s performed incredibly successful SEO services for global corporations, uk government departments, private enterprises, small businesses and private individuals.
UK seo http://www.harryhardisty.co.uk
He has won numerous awards in the Internet field and is regarded as a ‘guru’ for all things web related. You can contact Harry Hardisty on info@harryhardisty.co.uk or harry.hardisty@gmail.com
http://www.harryhardisty.co.uk
Filed by admin on May 22nd, 2008 under Make Money | Comment now »
How To Live Your Life Purpose, Your Passion, and Make Money at the Same Time
A great question came recently from one of my valued Subscribers who asked - ‘How can I achieve my higher potential and at the same time get paid good money for my passion, my hobby, which is in a creative, artistic area?’
In response, here are some thoughts and suggestions that I hope you’ll also find helpful -
The challenge for creative people who pursue their life purpose is how to turn their passion into their livelihood. This is a biggie! … It often takes major courage to pursue your life purpose and true calling.
Many people have found their life purpose when they’ve taken time to reflect and see that something or some hobby they’ve been doing all along for friends for fun & free or charge (like coaching or counselling friends, art, crafts, creative gift arrangement & wrapping, floral arranging, gourmet goodies, or whatever …) - is actually a tradable commodity.
The challenge is then to make the ‘internal’ shift and put a ‘value’ on your creativity, talent and contribution - and believe it with conviction!
When we start out in whatever we pursue, it’s good personal and business karma to give generously of yourself and your talents. But, there comes a time when you must decide to take action to make this a paying proposition, if that is what you desire.
You may need to go ‘inside’ and ask some vital questions of yourself and make some ‘internal’ shifts to achieve what you want ‘externally’. You may have some beliefs, conscious and subconscious, that you are/or aren’t fully aware of that may be holding you back. Our ‘outer’ results are completely correlated to our ‘inner’ thoughts and feelings about what we want and desire.
Ask yourself these questions, in this sequence -
1. What is it that I DO NOT Want? What are my thoughts, feelings and emotions around this?
2. What is it that I DO Want? What are my thoughts, feelings and emotions? Our thoughts, feelings and emotions directly influence our behavior and results.
3. Why do I Want this? Really connect with the emotion of your Why, you’re compelling reason and motivation.
4. What are the beliefs I hold to be true around these areas - positive and negative/limiting?
5. What are the overriding benefits and rewards that will come to me by pursuing this? How will that make me feel when I achieve what I want? What are the costs if I don’t do it?
Try to identify the limiting beliefs that may be holding you back. To get what you want, to achieve your goals, your highest potential, you have to clear any limiting beliefs you may have.
Limiting beliefs stop us from taking action. They get in the way and create blockages to our achieving the success we desire and deserve They stand in your way of making the changes you really desire.
When you’ve made the ‘internal’ shifts, then the ‘external’ actions you pursue (packaging your proposition, getting referrals, networking, actions to ‘attract’ ‘ideal’ paying clients who are more than happy to pay for your services … ) are more likely to get you the tangible results you want.
© Copyright - Kathy Baker -
You have permission to reprint this article on your website or in your e-zine as long as it is not edited in any way and you leave the Author Bio / Signature File / Resource Box below intact with this article.
Kathy Baker is a Success Coach (Business/Marketing/Personal), Marketing Practitioner, Writer, & Law of Attraction Practitioner. She practices Intuitive Marketing with Integrity, & specializes in Niche Marketing & Information Product Marketing. She works with success & freedom seeking individuals & entrepreneurs in helping them find ways to achieve their dreams.
www.allinteractivesolutions.com
success-self-help-tips.blogspot.com
www.home-decorating-ideas-for-you.com
Filed by admin on May 21st, 2008 under Make Money | Comment now »
Essentials of Network Marketing
Surely by now you’ve heard of network marketing and its promises to generate for you an unlimited income from the luxury of your own home without the stress of a fixed workday schedule.
You might wonder what magic this network marketing is. It’s really quite simple, and when successful, you really can makes lots of money. Of course, it’s not as easy as the ads make it to be.
Some manufacturers use another route to sell their products other than the standard manufacturer-warehouse-wholesaler-retailer-customer path. This alternative route is known as network marketing.
You buy the products from someone who is already a member of a network marketing company. He recruits you and becomes your sponsor.
You, in turn, will be selling products too. Upon joining the network, you will become a part of your sponsor’s downline, which just means all of his recruits and his recruits’ recruits (and so on).
Your sponsor benefits from his downline because he will get a small percentage of profit for every item sold by every member.
However, aside from selling, you are also expected to get recruits and create your own downline.
The bigger your downline is, the better chances for you to earn big. Suppose you recruit ten people, and each one of them recruits another ten. You’ll get a hundred people already at just the second level.
If all these members are active sellers and recruiters then you’ll have around more than a thousand people from which you can get profit from.
There’s monetary investment involved in network marketing. Some ask for membership fees, while most require you to buy a set of all the products offered upon joining.
Either way, it’s still money out of your pocket. If you’re willing to risk joining a startup company, you will not be dealing with sponsors because you’ll be a pioneer member.
If the company becomes successful, you’ll have more members in your downline than you’ve ever dreamed of, and if all of them do their job well, maybe you can afford to sit back and wait while the money goes straight to your pocket, and not out of, for a change.
If you’re not comfortable with risking your money, you can join an established network company.
The downside of this is that you may have a harder time getting recruits because many people are already members.
Of course, you can choose not to build a downline and just sell the products, but you’ll be alone in working. You only earn form what you sold. In network marketing, your downline will work with and for you.
You earn not only from what you sold but also from what your members sold.
Be reminded that in reality, recruiting people can be difficult in the first place, let alone keeping those already recruited interested enough to be active.
You must use all your salesman skills when joining a network marketing company.
If you want to try out network marketing, here are some tips to remember:
1.) As a member, you will get big discounts on the products the company is selling. Join one whose products you can use and love.
2.) Choose a company that focuses on the quality of their products, not on the networking, which should be secondary.
3.) When choosing a sponsor, make sure that he is efficient. He should be able to answer your questions. He should also treat his immediate recruits as a team.
He should be a good motivator so you won’t get bored or frustrated
4.) Find out exactly where your money is going.
5.) Gather all information you can on the company you’ve chosen.
If you’re looking for get-rich-quick schemes, forget about networking. This will entail work, both in selling and getting recruits.
There are also marketing scams which you have to watch out for. Some companies only want your initial investment. Others are focused on recruitment and not on the products.
When the products aren’t good, no one will buy them, and as a consequence, you and your downline will not earn anything. In the end, it still boils down to working for the money.
Sean Felker is the publisher of the very successful and popular Work at Home and Making Money on the Internet blog:
http://making-money-online.blogspot.com
