top auction news

How You Can Turn Offline Auctions into Ebay Gold

Stephan — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:55:00 +0000

Online auction selling can be fun and profitable. But the real excitement and thrill occurs at the onsite, or at offline auctions. There is nothing that compares with the sights, sounds, and actions of an auctioneer, bidders, and visible merchandise.

Would it surprise you to learn that many highly successful and profitable ebay sellers actually purchase their merchandise and goods at on-site or offline auctions? Well it's true.

Following these simple offline or on-site auction tips, you too could join the ranks of highly successful bank account busting ebay auction sellers.

1. Make sure that you always get to on-site auctions on time so that you have a chance to check out what is to be sold... and decide what you are going to bid on. While looking over the goods that are to be sold, take note of others looking over the goods that you want because they will be the ones that will be bidding against you.

2. Make every effort to introduce yourself to the auctioneer, and tell him what you are interested in. Many times he may state what he thinks it will go for, or the restricted price that the owner may have reserved for it. Some auctioneers like to start their own bids. They make you think they have a bid for a certain amount, when they really do not have a thing.

The first bid is the auctioneer's own. When this is obvious, he can be stopped by no one bidding at all. There are some auctioneers like this... who always grab a truck load of goods they bought themselves. An auctioneer may also be stopped by bidding just a quarter over his starting bid. If no one else bids against you, you will get the goods for the starting bid of a quarter... unless only dollar bids are accepted.

Many times an auctioneer will quickly change his tactics when he sees the crowd is on to him. He will simply add another item, and ask for a buck over the last bid. If no one bids, he will throw both items on a pile to be sold later. Surprisingly, that whole pile may go for less than the last bid asked, and you can grab a bunch of valuable goods for your ebay online auction... if you are the bidder.

3. While you should be comfortable at an on-site auction, you should not place yourself in an obvious position where you can be easily seen. Bid cautiously, raising your hand to your chest, extending one or more fingers according to your bid, or raise your card if you have the numbered system. To bid half, raise your hand with the palm down. Never raise your arm full length and wave because you will certainly be outbidden. If you are not certain your bid has been accepted, point one finger at yourself so the auctioneer sees you, and he will nod yes or no.

4. When the numbering system is used at an auction, you must register, and keep your card in view of the auctioneer. Be sure to hand in, or destroy the card when leaving because thieves may pick it up to use it to charge merchandise to you. The card may also be used at another sale to avoid paying for goods... until the auctioneer or clerk realizes there are two of the same numbers.

Use the back of your card to keep a tally of the prices and purchases as you buy. Where cards are not used, keep a book because many dishonest clerks rake money off the top by overcharging, and adding items you did not buy.

5. Talk to the auctioneer, but do not annoy the customers with senseless talk. A friendly auctioneer can be worth a pot of gold. Help the auctioneer along by starting bids on slow objects you do not intend to buy... but have a starting and stopping place so you do not get stuck with them.

6. Beware of bystanders who purposely engage you in conversation all the time, bidding behind your back on goods they know you want. Look out for the person who thinks you know all the good items, watches you closely, and bids just over you... because they think whatever you bid, it's really worth more. Get rid of them by bidding the items much over their worth, quit suddenly, and let them make the final bid. If they bite, they will be stuck with it.

There are those that will bid any price until they get what they want... whether it's worth it or not. These people get stuck most of the time, but they do get what they want. When there are several of this type present... you may as well go home, for all you will get is the junk.

Last, but not least. Mistakes can easily be made at auctions. If you have concerns about the amount you are expected to pay... you need to go over the items one by one with the clerk to make the corrections. It pays to be careful.

Follow these simple tips, and you should always end up with plenty of goods at below bargain prices that you can resell on ebay for a small fortune.

How to Protect Yourself from Ebay Product Sourcing Ripoffs

Stephan — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 22:21:00 +0000

Product sourcing is one of the most important topics for eBay entrepreneurs, along with customer service. The basic idea, of course is to buy low, sell high. Most people start on eBay by selling whatever they have in their attic or basement. This is a great way to begin, because they will get used to selling on eBay and they will become familiarizes them with the shipping and customer service.

After a while though, they've sold off everything they have in the attic, and need to find more items to sell. So they begin going to every garage sale and flea market they can to find more products to sell. They quickly find that they are spending a lot of time (and money) doing this and begin looking at new ways to find new items to sell. This means finding products from wholesale suppliers.

One of the most common mistakes people make is to go to a search engine and search for wholesale suppliers online. Unfortunately, search engines are NOT a good way to find legitimate wholesaler suppliers. Real wholesalers will most likely not be going to be found via a search engine. What they will find is that 99% of the time the if you found a wholesaler supplier though a search engine, it will be a scam artist.

They set themselves up with a real wholesale supplier and then promote themselves as a supplier. They raise the prices of the goods and simply pass on any orders they get to the real wholesaler. The prices are so high that is will be impossible to make any money with them. Some, if not most, will charge a monthly fee to use their service and they will tell you that you do not need a reseller's license to set up an account with them.

A real wholesaler will require that you provide proof that you are a legitimate business. This generally includes a business license and a sales tax permit. The actual name of the needed documents vary by state. These documents are absolutely vital in order to deal with real wholesalers. Don't let this detail scare you! These are really not that hard to get and unless you incorporate, will not require a lawyer. These can be obtained at your county courthouse and they will guide you in any other documents you need.

To summarize, a real wholesaler will:

1. Not be found on the internet with a search engine.
2. Require some form of proof that you are a real business.
3. Will not charge a set-up fee or a monthly access fee.

If you find a wholesaler that does not fit these criteria, then you may have found a scam artist posing as a wholesaler.

How to Sell Children's Items on Ebay

Stephan — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 03:26:00 +0000

Selling for a profit on eBay is easy when you have kids. People are earning hundreds of dollars a month by selling kid related items. Here are some general ideas to help you get started.

Kids Items You Can Sell

Clothes, toys and videos are good money makers on eBay.

Go to eBay and look up a "lot" of size six girl's cloths. You will find they are expensive! The average price for a lot of 20 good conditioned clothes is about $35.00.

When your kids grow out of their seasonal clothes do not throw them out. Bundle them into different lots by category. For example bundle girls dresses separate from girls play clothes, but only do that if you have at least six of each different type.

Lots of any item sell better than single items unless the item is unique or high priced. For example, a hand embroidered dress that you paid a lot for would sell better by itself instead of bundled with other basic dresses.

The next item to lookup on eBay is toys. Most toys in good condition will sell for a lot of money. One idea that works well is to buy hot items in October at Wal-Mart or Toys-R-Us and sell them on eBay. Busy people are willing to pay extra for the convenience of getting the items delivered to their home. For example, last year a Mega Power Ranger came out in stores around October and sold at Wal-Mart for about $45.00. The same item sold on eBay for up to $65.00 plus shipping. The Yellow Power Ranger is yet another example where the store price was about $6.00, while the same item was selling on eBay for about $20.00.

Have your children ever received duplicate birthday or Christmas presents? You can sell those on eBay also. Look at the eBay listings for items of interest to see if selling on eBay is worth more than returning the item to the store.

Kid's videos and DVDs are also good money-makers. Bundle about three of these together, and you can usually make about $7.00-$12.00 per bundle. Bundle more and the money goes up. Disney movies in hard cases can go for a higher amount. This also works for other types of movies as well.

Save those McDonalds toys. Some Kids Meals toys sell high. Take the new Star Wars toys from Burger King...very collectible. You will find them selling on eBay from $1.00 to $5.00, not including shipping.

Ebay has a whole section devoted to dolls and bears. If your daughter doesn't want her collectible dolls anymore sell them on eBay.

Kids Crafts You Can Sell

Around the holidays, especially, have your children place their hand in paint and make a print on some quality paper. Add a holiday related poem and you have a great craft to sell on eBay.

Have your kids make gift jars with ready made mixes. For example, hot chocolate mixes in a jar with a plastic spoon tied to it with a ribbon. Dip the end of the spoon with white chocolate.

Baby Items You Can Sell

Used baby items are very profitable. Baby items cost a lot of money, especially in their first year. Any "gently" used items are generally good sellers on eBay.

If you have baby coupons that you will never use, sell them on eBay! Left over diapers and formula sell well also. A lot of 35 used cloth diapers usually sells for around $38.00 plus shipping. Four Fuzzi Bunz diapers (cloth diapers with hemp inserts) can sell for as much as $40.00.

There you have it. Plenty of ideas for selling those leftover kids items on eBay...and you can even make a nice profit while you are at it!

Stephan Iscoe

How You Can Spot Fakes and Frauds on eBay

Stephan — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 19:29:00 +0000

Fake items abound on eBay, and it takes much effort not to be duped by scammers who peddle these wares. There have been many painful stories relating how a seemingly legitimate item turned out to be either fake or defective.

It is possible, however, to avoid these scams if one is careful and vigilant. Buyers should be wary of any purchase over eBay, and should take steps to ensure the authenticity of the item and to make sure the item is in reasonable condition.

Be Vigilant

Buyers should take the initiative by doing plenty of background research. They must learn as much as possible about the products before bidding on them. If the seller provides pictures of an item, they should not be taken at face value. Comparison of these pictures with the real item helps in this regard.

Many sellers will use pictures from manufacturers that do not represent the item they are actually selling; buyers should ask the seller for actual pictures of the item. If the seller balks, buyers should refrain from bidding. Collector’s items, autographed memorabilia, and historical artifacts are common items that are misrepresented on eBay.

Authenticate

Familiarize yourself with the various bodies that certify respective items. For example, reputable merchants of autographed sports memorabilia should include a COA (certificate of authenticity) from a trusted third party. Counterfeit or misrepresented items should be reported to eBay. When buying on eBay Motors, one may have an inspection service double-check if the seller is accurately representing his automobile.

Look at the Feedback

One should analyze the feedback rating of a seller. Analyzing feedback is another helpful exercise to prevent scams. Sellers who have an established history of credible sales are usually helpful and professional to deal with. Negative feedback should be a red flag as to whether one should pursue a trade with the person. The same thing applies for those who do not have feedback ratings at all.

Buyers must be careful however, since it is possible that a scammer has hijacked an account that has positive feedback.

Buyers should make sure they have read the entire product description on its eBay listing. Things to look out for are disclaimers, damages, current item condition, years of use, and others. If this information is not specified, it would do well for the buyer to contact the seller regarding such.

The Price Theory

If the price for an item is too good to be true, it probably is. Auctions that carry outrageously low prices should be taken skeptically.

Why You Should Use eBay to Build Your Opt-in List

Stephan — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 22:28:00 +0000

There is an adage in Internet Marketing: The money is in the list. For that reason, it is very important to grow your list as large as possible. In fact, it should be an ongoing and never ending project for your business, since you will doubtless encounter attrition as you lose subscribers. There are many ways to build your list. Article marketing, blogging and pay-per-click advertising are all examples of effective list building methods. Those methods are beyond the scope of this article, however. Instead, this article is about using eBay as a resource to tap into to grow your list, naturally and inexpensively. With about 8 million visitors per day and over 200 million registered users, eBay is a great potential source for traffic that can help you grow your list.

There are two methods eBay can be used to grow your list. The first is to create and sell small reports or ebooks using the buy it now auction format. The minimum price you can set and still sell multiple items is $.99, so you are practically giving away these reports or ebooks that contain useful information. In these ebooks or reports you can place your links to a squeeze page for your list. The information in these reports should be informative, but should also entice the reader into wanting more and sign up for your list. You can specify that the purchaser can give away the report or ebook, but they can not alter the content. This may result in getting more sign ups in the long term. The point of selling your report is not to make money, but to grow your list. Since the insertion and selling fees on eBay are relatively low, this can be a very cost effective way to get sign ups to your list and if you sell enough reports or ebooks, you may turn a small profit while simultaneously growing your list.

The second way eBay can help grow you list is through the use the classified ad format. This ad format is often overlooked by many on eBay, but it is a simple and very cost effective method you can use to grow your list. The classified ad is set up similarly to a standard auction. The major difference is the ad will run for 30 days instead of the 3, 7 and 10 days that standard auctions run. The title is subject to the eBay search engine just like auctions, so it's very important to optimize your ad title. Since HTML can be used here , you can paste a squeeze page that contains a opt-in form in your ad. The insertion fee for a classified ad is $9.95 for 30 days. If you purchase a Pro Pack for your classified ad, it will cost more, but it works out to a little over a dollar a day. By comparison, buying a Pro Pack for a 7 day auction would be about 4 dollars a day. Using the classified ad format can be a very cost effective method to grow your list.

There are doubtless other ways to use eBay as a list building tool, but these two methods are effective and far less expensive that using par-per-click advertising or purchasing leads and may result in a small profit or enough income to cover your eBay fees.

Best of Success,
Stephan Iscoe

The eBay 2007 Holiday Hot List

Stephan — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 01:49:00 +0000

Top 25 Hottest eBay Sellers

1 iPhone
2 Webkinz / Lil'Kinz
3 Transformers
4 Collectible Barbie
5 Dooney & Bourke Zebra Tote
6 Nintendo Wii
7 T.M.X. Friends - Ernie & Cookie Monster
8 BCBG Dress
9 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
10 Rock Band Video Game
11 iPod nano 8GB (Black)
12 The Simpsons
13 PlayStation 3
14 I'm Not A Plastic Bag
15 Motorola RAZR2
16 Designer Fragrances
17 Citizen Eco-Drive Watch
18 Nike Air Max 360 II
19 Abercrombie & Fitch Hoodie Jacket
20 Dept. 56 Snow Villages
21 Nike SasQuatch Sumo2
22 Gibson Electric Guitar
23 Craftsman Hand Tool Set
24 Burton Snowboard
25 Vtech Gadget

Get the complete list at eBay's Top 25 for the Holidays

Happy Selling (and Shopping)!

Stephan

New eBay Research Software - Instantly Extract Hot Items from eBay

Stephan — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 16:54:00 +0000

So ... what is Hot Item Finder and how can it benefit you?

First, this software can be used by eBay newbies looking for hot items to unload on eBay ... or by more advanced sellers looking for new product ideas or keywords to insert into their marketing content.

Second, the software offers features that cannot be offered by any other software program on the planet!

Third, the product owner has provided several instructional videos guiding you to auction success.

You see, Dave Guindon, the product owner is also an experienced online marketer as well as an advanced software developer. So he knows how to deliver quality products along with how to use the products to your advantage.

Not many product owners even attempt to over-deliver as much as Dave does!

Here is a short list of the powerful features this software provides:

Find all the HOT ITEMS on eBay in minutes !!
Search 4 different eBay sites! ... eBay.com, eBay.com.au, eBay.ca, and eBay.co.uk
Generate Hot Items from current and completed auctions !
Analyze EVERY eBay category for HOT ITEMS !
Generate the TOP 100 popular search terms from each main category !
Find the hit counts for all the hot selling items !
Search eBay's online keyword database for the best words to put in your auction titles and descriptions !
Give sellers a great idea for what items to sell on eBay !
Use the popular search term generator to create very attractive auction descriptions !!
SAVE a HUGE amount of TIME at eBay?
Analyze a particular category to see with one contains the most items!
Find out how much your competitors are selling their products
Increase your sales by adding popular search terms in your
auction descriptions and titles !
Find products in your market that are selling !
What are the best words in the current hot item auction titles !
Lastly, Dave Guindon offers an unbelievable 365 day money back guarantee!

So you basically have nothing to lose ... I didn't!
The software works great and I use it everyday.

Thanks for Reading,
Stephan

p.s. check out the software here :)

Q: Why eBay??? I want to make 'real' money...

Stephan — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 14:10:00 +0000

Wow... when I wrote about the 99-cent trial of Derek Gehl's
brand-new eBay training system, I really opened a can of worms!

Since then I've been flooded with questions from people wanting
to know why I'm suddenly singing the praises of eBay, instead
of focusing on how to help people become successful with a
"regular" online business.

It's not an "either-or" situation, folks. You don't have to
choose between building your own "regular" online business or
getting started with eBay.

In fact, after having read Derek Gehl's new training system
-- The Insider Secrets to Selling on eBay -- I'd say anyone
who's doing one without the other is seriously missing out!

(Whether you have a "regular" business but aren't taking
advantage of eBay's massive value, OR you have a successful
eBay business but aren't doing anything to promote it off
eBay.)

So in order to clear up any confusion, I thought I'd take a
few moments to answer the top 3 questions I've received over
the past week or so regarding eBay:

===============================================================

Question #1: "Why eBay??? I want to make 'real' money, not
just make a few dollars selling junk for pennies!"

===============================================================

Here's a news flash... Selling "junk" on eBay is never going to
make you rich -- and it's not something I'd ever recommend.

The secret to eBay success is using key research tools to
discover what people are buying on eBay -- and how much they're
willing to spend. Then all you have to do is find a cheap
source of that product so you can buy it for less, then turn
around and sell it at a generous mark-up on eBay!

It's not rocket science... and there are no tricks and gimmicks
involved -- just steady, reliable income, and the chance to grow
a huge opt-in list of people you can sell other products to in
the future.

It might not be as "sexy" as the one-in-a-million chance of
launching a website that starts making 1000s of dollars
overnight. But it's way more of a sure thing -- and
personally, I find a guaranteed extra $1,000 a month
sexier than a distant longshot any day of the week!

===============================================================

Question #2: "I've been pouring all my free time and money
into my online business -- now you're saying I need to start
all over again with eBay?"

===============================================================

For goodness' sake, no! If you're smart, you should use eBay to
help you grow your "regular" online business -- not replace it!

Not only is eBay an excellent place to do valuable market
research -- so you know what your potential buyers are buying
(and why!) -- it also allows you to grow a huge opt-in list of
people you can sell to, before your off-eBay site is even up
and running!

Imagine that -- being able to drive thousands of interested
buyers to your site the very same day you launch it!

===============================================================

Question #3: "I already have a profitable online business. Why
should I bother with eBay?"

===============================================================

My answer is, I guess it depends on how happy you are with your
traffic numbers.

If you're getting so much traffic that it's crashing your server
and you literally don't know what to do with it, then you
probably don't want to use eBay to send more visitors to your
site.

BUT -- if you're getting less than 500 visitors a day, or if
you're getting more than that but your visitors aren't
converting to sales -- then you should seriously consider eBay.
It's a great way to drive highly targeted visitors to your site.

Remember, these are people you've found on the world's largest
marketplace, which means they're enthusiastic online shoppers!
They're exactly the kind of people you want to introduce your
products to.

I hope that clears up any misunderstanding about how eBay can
help you grow your "regular" online business. If you're
interested in learning more, I urge you to visit:

http://qwikurl.com/visit/powersellers

Best of Success,
Stephan Iscoe

UPDATE: I talked to Derek yesterday and he told me he has only a
few 99-cent trial copies of his eBay training system left. Once
they're gone, the only way you'll be able to get this powerful
new training system is by paying the full price of $197.

So hurry -- get your copy before they all fly off the shelves!
Go to: http://qwikurl.com/visit/powersellers

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Free Report: Make Money on eBay 99% Automatically!

The Insider Secrets Of An eBay Millionaire

Stephan — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 20:10:00 +0000

Review:

"The Insider Secrets Of An eBay Millionaire" by Derek Gehl and Brandon Dupsky

I've just finished devouring the brand-new "Insider Secrets Of An eBay Millionaire" by Brandon Dupsky and Derek Gehl, and I've got to tell you, it is by FAR the best system for making a life-changing income on eBay that I've come across!

Don't be embarrassed if you've never heard of self-made eBay millionaire Brandon Dupsky before. After all, he likes to fly "below the radar" (which gives him more time to focus on his booming eBay business!)

But what you should know about him is that he's just a regular guy who got his start on eBay by selling a few odd-and-ends he found in his basement...

... and since then, he's refined his techniques to the point where he made $8 MILLION in just one year!

And what's really great is that Brandon has agreed to team up with Derek Gehl, the well-known Internet marketing expert who is responsible for over $40,000,000 in online sales!

... together, they can show you everything you need to know about profiting on eBay!

I'm talking about information like...
*
Where to find in-demand products that you can buy for cheap and resell for massive profits!
*
How to attract TONS of bids and make HUGE profits on every single auction you list!
*
How to CREATE stunning listings that grab the eyeballs of eager bidders!
*
How to easily rake in even MORE cash by establishing a glowing feedback rating!
*
How to eliminate 90% of all eBay headaches by setting up foolproof payment And shipping systems!
*
Techniques for driving 1,000s of qualified bidders to YOUR auction listings!
* And much more!

And if you have an existing Internet business, they can show YOU how you can use your current business to tap into the 2,000,000 visitors who come to eBay every day!

I give this eBay profit system the highest rating possible!

It includes a huge 237-page guidebook PLUS over 4 solid hours of audio instruction on 4 CDs...

... and contains every tip, strategy, and secret there is for getting started on eBay today, earning your first profit by tomorrow --and making a life changing income of potentially $100,000 or MORE in your first year!

PLUS -- the live recorded conversations between Derek and Brandon are indispensable for explaining in detail the most powerful auction strategies that other eBay "Power Sellers" don't want you to know!

I strongly urge you to check out Brandon's eBay profit-generating system as soon as possible! Click here for a FREE preview.

--
Free Report: Make Money on eBay 99% Automatically!

Behind Every Successful eBay Seller, There’s a Blog!

Stephan — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 14:21:00 +0000

by John Thornhill

If you are a serious eBay seller who wants to boost his eBay sales figures, let me tell you, the only way to do it is to increase the traffic to your auction listings.

Registered users and frequent visitors of eBay must be aware of the recent addition on their website popularly known as eBay blogs. But, how many of you have actually tired it to enhance your web traffic and subsequently your sale on the most visited eBay website. If you have been one of those who underestimate the potential of blogging on eBay, I think it's about time you wake up and take a hard look at what it is and the incredible ways in which it can help you. If you are an active member of eBay, you can sign up for your own free blog and open the doors for more traffic, more business, and naturally, more profits.

How to start blogging on eBay?

Blogging on eBay is easy, and providing great content to worldwide eBay users will keep them coming back for more. Through a platform as influential as eBay blogs, you can communicate with you loyal patrons and inform them about the latest developments pertaining to your forte. When you visit the following URL http://blogs.ebay.com/, you will see an option that says "Start Blogging" and all you need to do is click on it to begin your blogging expedition.

What are blogs?

For those who do not know what a blog is, let me explain… A blog is nothing but an online journal and through your blogs, you convey news and views about yourself and of course, your auction sales on a regular basis. Many people these days are taking up blogging to publish their opinions on the Internet and get closer to the outside world.

What should my blog contain?

Now that you have understood what blogging is all about, let me quickly tell you what you should include in your blogs to make it an absorbing reading material. Blogging can be very addictive and as you start blogging, it won't take you long to figure out what appeals to your customers. Enlighten your customers about the kind of products you sell, a bit about your auctions and some stuff that can throw light on the nature of your business. For instance, if you sell computers and that's your specialization, you can provide lot of info regarding computer maintenance, upgrading computers, price comparison, best deals, and so on. What's important here is that your customers must be satisfied with your information and guidance and should be eager to read your next blog.

Although its okay once in a while to write a blog to introduce a new item you have included in your auction, more emphasis should be laid on providing lots and lots of authentic information about your area of expertise. Commenting on other people's blogs and using blog tags (these are keywords to enable people find you easily) can also help you increase your web traffic.

John Thornhill is an eBay powerseller and trades on eBay under the username planetsms. He earns $1000s every week selling info products on eBay. If you really want to succeed on eBay selling information products check out John's FREE newsletter at http://www.planetsmsnewsletter.com/

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Free Report: Make Money on eBay 99% Automatically!

Scouting Local Auctions For Products To Sell On Ebay

Stephan — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 14:48:00 +0000

by Lynn Terry

If you have never sold products on eBay before, I would suggest that you start with your own household items that you are ready to part with. You probably have things in storage, items in the back of your closet, or things you don’t use anymore. You can generally get a lot more for them on eBay than you can by having a yard sale.

Once you get your feet wet with the selling process, and exhaust your personal resources, you can look to local auctions for more products to sell on eBay. Many local auctions specialize in property, personal estates, antiques, Nascar and other collectibles.

Sometimes you can even find large lots of inventory or product types, and purchase the entire lot for a discount or wholesale price. You can then sell the products individually through online auction, and flip your investment into a nice little profit.

How do you choose which products to buy, and how much should you bid?

The goal is to buy low and turn a nice profit. What I have done in the past, and would highly recommend, is that you team up with your spouse or with a friend. One stays at the computer while the other attends the local auctions, and you stay connected by cell phone. You want to keep your method under your hat by the way, so step outside to make the calls or be as inconspicuous about text messaging as you possibly can.

When you find a product that you are interested in, or that you think may do well on eBay, make a note of the model number or any specific product information. Pass this on to your "invisible partner" so that they can research the product for you.

They can look up the product to see how well it has sold on eBay in the past, and the price range that it usually brings as a high bid. This helps you to bid more accurately at the auction, instead of guessing at how well it will do online and bidding in the dark.

Your partner will need to be quick on the keyboard and familiar with eBay. You need to know how many auctions are currently running for that item, and whether the market is already flooded with sellers. They can also search the Completed Auctions to see what the high bids were when the most recent auctions ended. After a few trial runs, you can get your teamwork down to an art.

Without this Invisible Partner you may bid too high for an item that brings a lower price on eBay, or that doesn’t sell well online. Unless you know your product, and know your market (super well), it pays to have someone checking on things behind the scenes.

You can usually find out about Local Auctions by checking the newspapers. There is also a great site called http://AuctionZip.com where you can find live auctions in your area as well. All you have to do is put in your zip code, tell it how far you are willing to travel (within 30 miles, for example) and it will give you a calendar of auctions in your area.

A quick search at AuctionZip tells me that there are 9 local Auctions going on in my area this weekend (and I live in a very small town). Some of them are for properties, others are entire personal estates (ie estate auctions), and some of them specialize in antiques & collectibles.

When you tap into these resources and get a system down for buying smart, you can flip products from one auction to another for an easy profit!

Browse Wholesale Products online with an eBay Certified Dropshipper!
Visit http://www.selfstartersweeklytips.com/wholesale.htm to learn more and set up a free trial.

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Free Report: Make Money on eBay 99% Automatically!

How to Turn Your Love of Bargains into a Thriving Business With eBay

Stephan — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 13:43:00 +0000

by Tangopang

Do you love getting up at the crack of dawn and searching for treasure at yard sales and flea markets? Maybe you love to purchase things for yourself, family or friends. But did you know that you can take your love of shopping for bargain products and make some real money with it? It's true -- thanks to Ebay, the current world's biggest online marketplace.

Many of the items you find at those thrift shops, yard sales and flea markets can be placed on E bay and sold for a lot more than you paid for them. For example, I once purchased a box of paperback books by the bestselling author Sandra Brown. The books looked just like new, and offered t only ten cents each (what a bargain!). The twenty books I purchased cost me $2. And guess hHow much did I sell them for? A whopping $36! That's an amazing profit margin of 18 times. Here's another example for you: Another time I found a Belleek porcelain butter dish at a thrift shop for $1.49 and sold it on Ebay for this item $21.95!

Imagine if you found bargain items like this each and every week. It's defintely possible -- especially if you live in an area that's full of swap meets, thrift shops, flea markets and yard sales. Estate sales are another great way you can find valuable items at bargain prices. Some people just want to declutter their homes. They're not interested in going through all the hassle of listing each piece on Ebay one by one. They just want someone to take their so-called junk off their hands as quickly as possible. That's where you come in with your e bay business!

So how do you recognize what's good to buy and what isn't for those bargin items? Any item that is still in its original packaging is a good bet. Bestselling books in good condition are also a good bet, and so are the vintage or antique books, especially those that are first editions. Ceramics, crystal, pottery and porcelain are also good bargain bets for your e bay business. Depression era glass, also known as carnival glass, can be a profitable pick if you know how to spot one. Clothing is sometimes good depending on the materials, especially when it's in like-new condition from a brand name designer. Vintage toys are also great items for the e bay business, especially when they're in packaging or in like-new condition.

When listing your item in your e bay business, always aim for your auction to start and end on a Sunday evening. This will ensure your item is seen by as many people as possible during the period. Take clear and good pictures of your item and always choose the Gallery option. Write an auction listing title that grabs a reader's attention, is easily found via the keyword search and gives a clear description of the item. Also include the name of the item, color, size, condition and any other applicable details. When writing the actual listing, you'll need all of this information as well as any other details. Use enticing words for your item description. Make sure to include your payment and shipping details too. Price your e bay item low as you can while still making a profit. A low starting price will lure more bidders, and give you the best chance of fetching top prices along the process.

This online e bay business can work if you're vigilant, determined and dedicated to good customer service. If you're able to locate and list a good number of treasures every week, you're likely to get repeated customers that visit your listings and/or Ebay store on a regular basis to see what's new on the offer. And by packaging your items well and shipping them in a timely manner, you'll get good feedback, one of the most important aspects of starting a successful e Bay business.

TangoPang owns several online businesses. Click on Learn To Earn Your Income Online to see how you can also work from home.

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Free Report: Make Money on eBay 99% Automatically!

Put Your Ebay Sales On Autopilot

Stephan — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 13:18:00 +0000

by Don Schonberg

There will come a time were you are going to reach a point that you will find yourself spending more time managing sales, shipping orders and a lot of other back office projects. Well guess what? If you are spending your time doing that you can't be posting auctions and bringing in sales.

It is time to start shopping around for a auction processing service, of which there are many. If I remember correctly I have used five different ones over the past six years. At present I am using eBay's BlackThrone. Here is the thing, there seems to be 4 or 5 that are the leaders and they will leap frog each other every year or two. I believe BlackThrone may be the best out there today but six months from now who knows. You will have to do your research when the time comes.

Most charge a monthly fee, for around $25 a month you can get everything you need to get you started. There are a couple you can purchase outright but I don't think that is a good idea with all the changes ebay can make. Some run entirely off your hard drive and only connect up when you want to upload auctions or download sales data. Others store all of your information on their servers so you are working online the entire time, better have a fast connection for these.

Some offer their own eStores from which you launch your auctions from. Some have their own shopping cart were you can up sell from your estore to the customer as they checkout. I love this idea but found a lot of my customer were unsure of using an unknown shopping cart.

Any ways, with these kinds of auction services you can automate the posting of your auctions, automate the sending of email, feedback and most have a lot of reporting features.

These services come and they go, they seem to change names a lot so I am not going to put a bunch of links in here that don't work, just Google post auction services and you find them. Be sure to compare two or three of them side by side to see which one fits your needs better. They all have the same basic sales processing features but some are better for people who sell multiples of the same items not like me who sells one of a kind items.

Free Power Sellers eCourse

Sign up for Don Schonberg's free Power Sellers ecourse at www.bestauctionaffiliates.com & visit his blog, Internet Marketing Made Simple, at www.donschonberg.com
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Free Report: Make Money on eBay 99% Automatically!

eBay Auction Strategies

Stephan — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 03:19:00 +0000

by Ron7650

Perhaps one of the best things that the Internet has spawned for the world is eBay, a site where everything can be sold at prices that people online will dictate. The concept of eBay is much like the usual auction houses that collectors often go to. People will bid on an item and the bidder with the highest bid will get to take home the item after buying it of course. What makes eBay different is the fact that it is opened to virtually anyone in the world.

This way, items that are found in place outside the country you are in will already be accessible to you. You can bid on items that interest you, pay on paypal and have it delivered or shipped to your doorstep.

If you are looking for a no nonsense, down to earth, realistic guide to doing business on eBay, eBay Auction Strategies is an absolute must for your digital library. No hype, just good, solid how to information. There is tons of money to be made on eBay. Thousands do it every day and there is no reason why you can not be one of them!

Make it visual

People are basically visual. Sometimes, they need a picture or a graphical representation before they will be persuaded to buy from you. And besides, how will they know what they are buying without a picture on your site? This is especially true if what you are buying are items that you yourself have created. A picture will be better able to advertise your product online. Do not however put just any picture . A site without any pictures is vastly preferable to a site with many pictures that are blurred or low pixels. Remember that your site is there to make your products look good and to entice people to buy. So, post clear and crisp pictures on your site. One downside though of having pictures on your site is the fact that graphics can be pretty heavy. The pictures can actually make your website harder to download. This can discourage a lot of users especially those who are not using broadband connections with their internet.

eBay Account

Buying and selling in eBay is actually very easy. Just open an account, answer some questions about yourself and voila! you are ready to auction off any item to people around the world. but before you do that, here are some things that may help you make your site more inviting to bidders. Read on and you will get valuable ebay auction strategies that will for sure help you generate more online traffic and eventually income.

Build a solid reputation

The internet is a pretty small community. What you do there will eventually be known throughout the web. This is the reason why it is important for you to build a sterling reputation when doing business. The eBay for instance has a section where users or people you have dealt can comment on your business practices.

A 100% approval rating can go a long long way especially with people who are reluctant to deal with people that they do not know. Maintain a good business relationship with all people for you will never know when it will be advantageous for you.

Put a fair price

eBay is primarily an auction site. This means that the price that you put in can still go up depending on the demand for the product that you have posted. In putting price tags for your product, it is good to do some research first and find out the price of the product in the market as well as the demand for it. The higher the demand, the higher the price that you can ask for it.

Ronald Firquain is a writer, marketer, entrepreneur, webmaster and has 16 years of computer knowledge. You can download e-books for making money online, building a website, improve your golf game, playing guitar and much more. For more information go to: eBooks Mall

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Free Report: Make Money on eBay 99% Automatically!

3 Easy Ways to Find Out What eBay Buyers Want

Stephan — Thu, 31 May 2007 14:41:00 +0000

by Kj King

What if you could find the exact items people want to buy off of eBay? The key to getting started on eBay is to find a hot product to sell and stick with it. If you were to corner the market on one particular item, your work load would decrease dramatically.

How exactly can you do this?

You could take the time to research on eBay for weeks, months, maybe even years to find the perfect product. But thanks to the geeks of this world, there are software developers that are clever enough to come up with easy to use software that can help you find that perfect selling product.

I’ve found that three software packages are amazing for just this. They’re all easy to use and yield amazing results. The hardest part is choosing between them.

1. Hot Item Finder

You know how earlier I said you could research for weeks, months, years…? Well, doing manually what this software does for you in minimal amounts of time would certainly fall into the latter category. Even if you were an excellent eBay researcher, it would take you loads of time to do this type of research. This software will help you analyze each category on eBay to see what the most popular items are and which items are selling the best. You will be able to find the best keywords to use in your auctions and you even have the capability of spying on your competition to see what and how they are selling. It really lives up to its name.

Let me warn you, these next two pieces of software are some of the cleverest ways to find out what eBay buyers want. One of them is developed by the same person who developed the aforementioned Hot Item Finder, so you can trust its reliability. The second piece of software is one I’ve just discovered and love it just the same. These two really come down to preference, because there purpose is generally the same.

2. Auction Yen

Let’s say you want to start your own brick-and-mortar store and you’re brainstorming for ideas of what to sell. Then you come up with an idea to let people fill out a piece of paper that basically states: “What I want to buy.” If you had access to thousands of people, I think you’d get an idea of what people want in a store.

eBay’s Want it Now feature does just that, though with millions of visitors each day, you have a lot better chance to find what it is that eBay buyers want.

Just like the Hot Item Finder, Auction Yen is an eBay research tool. However, Auction Yen takes your research to the next level by extracting information from the Want it Now section. It basically searches out the total posts of a particular keyword and the total responses. It then rates each keyword by the amount of posts compared to the amount of responses. The results with the most amount of posts and the least amount of responses are rated the highest for profitability.

3. The Auction Inspector

I could say that the only difference between Auction Yen and The Auction Inspector is their names, but that wouldn’t be fair. The Auction Inspector essentially does the same thing, but it does it just as effectively with a different interface. It really comes down to preference between these two pieces of software, but I couldn’t go without mentioning both. The slightly lower price and a bonus eBook may be an incentive to buy The Auction Inspector. Either way, you’ll uncover hidden niches and find products you’d never thought of using The Auction Inspector.

You can spend all your time researching on eBay for that next hot item to sell, or you can invest a small price for excellent, dependable software that will have you up and selling an amazing product on eBay in no time.

Like I said, the hardest part is choosing between the three.

KJ King
http://www.PracticaleBaySelling.com
© 2007

Learn more about how to find out what eBay buyers want at Practical eBay Selling. There’s no better place to find unique ways to make money on eBay.
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Free Report: Make Money on eBay 99% Automatically!

How To Sell $20,000 Per Month On eBay Selling At Wholesale Prices

Stephan — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 14:22:00 +0000

by Jorge Olson

Home Business Review: Sell $20,000 per month on eBay

First of all let me tell you selling on eBay is easy, but it takes time or money. eBay has fees that you have to pay and if you want to grow quickly you will spend a lot on fees while you are learning.

My wife had an eBay business and she was a Gold Power Seller selling more than $20,000 per month. She sold mostly watches, lots and lots of watches. She sold them wholesale, by the dozen or by the case, 30 to 60 at a time. They were inexpensive watches; we paid from $2.50 to $4.00 for each one and sold them from $3.50 to $12.00 depending on the quantity purchased.

All of the techniques and suppliers we used are included in my eBook or in my exclusive newsletters you get as a free bonus when you buy my eBook.

When selling on eBay there are several tricks. Let me tell you the 3 tricks I think are the most important.

Trick #1: Build your reviews. Your reviews are your lifeline on eBay. You need to build your reviews so people trust you and want to do business with you. If they don’t trust you, you won’t sell anything on eBay. When you start you will have to offer good deals, free shipping or great communication. I always encouraged people to call me on the phone and ask questions by posting my phone in every listing. I didn’t get a lot of calls but I did get a lot of reviews.

Trick #2: Make big margins. You need those margins. You can’t buy something for $10 and sell it at $12, not even at $15. The listing fees alone will eat you. Remember, you have to pay a listing fee, you have to pay a fee if you sell the product and on top of that you pay PayPal when you collect the money. You could easily pay up to 10% or more of your selling price. This could be your entire profit. If you use any special listings to showcase your product you could be looking at $20 extra per listing category. So again, don’t try to make it on volume, try to make it on big margins. The best things to sell are either unique items or collectibles, name brand items that people are looking for like iPods, or hard to find items or imports.

Trick #3: Make more money on shipping. When my wife sold on eBay about 80% of our profit was made from shipping charges. We kept our product prices low so they attract the buyer and charged a bit more on shipping. People understood and they always got a great deal. For us it was a no brainer. eBay does not charge you any fees on your shipping charges, just on the selling prices.

The funny thing is we only sold wholesale on eBay. And it seemed we were the only ones really selling wholesale. Most people selling at “wholesale prices” were selling at about 3 times what we could get any of their items.

Many of our customers had eBay stores, others had convenience stores or gift stores, many of them had other businesses and wanted giveaways for their customers.

This is only a small example of what you can do with Wholesale Distribution. And believe me, it’s not the most profitable one or the easiest to start. In my eBook you will find cheaper, faster ways of getting started in wholesale distribution and make even more money than what I made on eBay. I made much more from my other wholesale distribution businesses than what I made on eBay and I worked less too.

Copyright © Jorge Olson 2006

Jorge Olson is a consultant, speaker and entrepreneur and owns several Wholesale Distribution companies. His latest Weebsite teaches you step by step how to get started and make money in Wholesale Distribution. You can find it at http://www.LearnWholesale.com

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Free Report: Make Money on eBay 99% Automatically!

How To Make Money Through Ebay Selling

Stephan — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 14:36:00 +0000

Can you make money through eBay selling? Absolutely. You can use this auction giant to generate a serious part- or full-time income just by selling products on eBay. But even if you already have a business, eBay can help you make even more money.

Why? Well, eBay had around 78 million active users in 2006, generating over $52 MILLION in sales! So all you have to do is sign up for a free eBay account and list your items... and voila! You have instant access to a massive audience that's eager to BUY

Let's take a look at some of the many ways you can profit through eBay selling:

*Generate qualified leads for an existing business. A well-presented listing may result in only one winning bidder — but it will be seen by many more people than those who actually make a bid.

You can take advantage of this exposure by including a link to your website from eBay About Me page (NOT from within your auction listing!). Then in your auction listing include a link to your About Me page.

*Sell off your retail floor model items and returns for extra money. Continue selling your full-price items on your web site or in a retail location while clearing out items you need to discount on eBay.

*Sell in-demand items purchased at yard sales and thrift stores. Check out eBay's "Completed Listings" to see what's popular, then scour local second-hand sales. You can also check out wholesalers to see if you can get these items at low cost.

*Sell collectibles found at flea markets and estate sales. eBay originally started out as the place to buy collectibles... and these items are still very much in demand.

*Resell items for a profit. You can often buy items for less on auction sites that don't get as much traffic (like Yahoo Auctions or Amazon Auctions). Then you can resell the same items on eBay for a profit!

*Buy items offered in bulk on eBay and resell them individually. Single items sell at a higher price point than they would as part of a bulk package. So by listing these items individually, you can make a tidy profit.

*Tap into international markets. Just because there isn't a market for something in your local area doesn't mean that there isn't one anywhere. With eBay, you can span geographical boundaries, so try selling these types of items worldwide.

*Make a quick buck selling "fad" items. Take advantage of passing trends. We've all heard those stories about people going nuts and bidding thousands of dollars on items like Beanie Babies. If you do spot a trend, you'll have to be speedy if you want to take advantage of it, though. These trends tend to go as fast as they arrived!

As you can see, there are a ton of ways you can make money selling products on eBay. For more hot eBay selling tips, check out AuctionTips.

AuctionTips was founded in 1996 by Internet marketing expert Corey Rudl, The Internet Marketing Center focuses on researching, developing, and testing cost-effective e-business marketing strategies and eBay selling and making money on eBay.

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Free Report: Make Money on eBay 99% Automatically!

Make Money On Ebay With These Advanced Auction Tips

Stephan — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 14:25:00 +0000

If you want to make money on eBay, you need to drive as many visitors as you can to your auction listings — and turn them into buyers! Here are some advanced tips to help you maximize your eBay sales:

*Be a buyer as well as a seller. This will introduce you to other eBay sellers and encourage them to check out your "About Me" page to find out more about you. Not only that, but you can learn a lot from other sellers — what they're doing right that you can adopt and what mistakes to avoid.

*Set up different eBay identities for each category of item you sell. Let's say you sell two totally different types of items: discounted trendy clothing and household tools. You might name one selling ID "trenz4less" and the other "handymanspecials." You'll be taken more seriously if you can build a reputation as the "go-to" person for a particular kind of product.

*Send automated email messages in response to questions about your auction items. This lets potential customers know that you received their email and that you will respond to them personally at your earliest convenience. It's also the perfect opportunity to provide more information about your business — like your shipping policies, for example. You can even include a link to your other auctions.

*Promote backend products to your mailing list. Send email to your opt-in list featuring more of your items. A person who has bought one thing from you is FAR more likely to buy something else if it's related to their initial purchase.

Just make sure you do NOT market to your customers unless they have explicitly opted in — it's against eBay policy!

*Turn your buyers into customers for life. When it comes to running a business, there is NO greater asset than a loyal customer! Not only are they more likely to come back to you and buy more of your products, they'll also tell their family and friends about you and spread the word about your site!

Make sure you send them emails thanking them for making a purchase after they've bought something from you. Do everything you can to make sure your customers are completely satisfied.

These are just some of the ways you can ramp up your auction sales to make money on eBay. For more auction tips, from novice to advanced, check out http://qwikurl.com/visit/auctiontips

AuctionTips was founded in 1996 by Internet marketing expert Corey Rudl, The Internet Marketing Center focuses on researching, developing, and testing cost-effective e-business marketing strategies and eBay selling and making money on eBay.

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Free Report: Make Money on eBay 99% Automatically!

Make Money With Online Auctions The Easy Way

Stephan — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 22:20:00 +0000

Make Money With Online Auctions The Easy Way by Amber Lowery

I’m sure you’ve heard that the popularity of online auctions is going up at a dramatic rate. Current volume of online auction sales is already in the tens of billions of dollars and this amount is predicted to rise within the next few years.

The lure of online auctions is due to their convenience for buyers and sellers alike. They are also easy to use even for newbie’s, with most of it being quite self-explanatory.
Where there is this kind of sales, it doesn’t take rocket science to realize there is money to be made with online auctions. In fact, selling at online auctions is fast becoming a great new way to work from home for many. The popularity of online auctions is prompting hundreds of thousands of users to take a serious look into eBay as more than a hobby. It just might make the perfect home business.

Making money with online auctions is actually one of the easiest home businesses to start, run, and turn a profit with. Even with a part time effort, selling through online auctions is a great way to earn extra cash. Overall, the cost it takes to participate in online auctions is quite little. Online auctions work for virtually any type of product you can think of from crafts to art to information products.

The largest of the online auctions is eBay. The best way to learn more about online auctions such as eBay is to just jump right in and get started. If you are new to online auctions, you should first get your feet wet and participate as a bidder. Once you are familiar with how everything works from a customer’s point of view, you can look into selling.

The power of online auctions is quite real. Once you decide what to sell, you can do the actual listing of your items on eBay quickly and easily. One of the best ones for managing your online auctions is eBay's Turbo Lister.
Using Turbo Lister helps you be efficient and organized and staying organized and on top of your online auctions is crucial to providing good customer service.

Swift communication and honesty are important qualities of successful eBay veterans.
From eBay to Yahoo, it’s easy to learn how to use online auctions to increase your sales, or sell exclusively to auctions profitably. Many are working from home, selling on online auctions every day. Master the skills and you too can work from home selling on eBay!

Not sure what to sell?
The webs best dropshippers have hundreds of thousands of items ready to ship to your customers for you. Using dropshippers is an easy and profitable way to sell on eBay fast.
Learn more about dropshipping: http://www.buywholesaleinc.info

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Free Report: Make Money on eBay 99% Automatically!

Unlocking the eBay Treasure Chest

Stephan — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 02:00:00 +0000

25 Million Products...

The purpose of this article is twofold.
Firstly, to show you that there is a serious money making opportunity in the eBay affiliate program and, secondly, to illustrate that my latest tool - Build A Niche Store - really enables you to exploit this opportunity in a way that has not previously been possible.Almost every internet marketer I know has at some point signed up to the eBay affiliate program and almost every single one of them have failed to make any significant money with it.

Build A Niche Store is set to change this…Enjoy the read and if you have any questions you can contact me directly.
Stephan
InstantNicheStore.com

Why eBay
eBay is a fascinating marketplace for all sorts of reasons but the most important of these is that eBay invites us, through their affiliate program, to take a share of their revenue.This is what eBay says about their affiliate program (http://affiliates.ebay.com/):

"Drive your traffic to eBay and get paid for it!
• Earn up to 65% commission on eBay Revenue
• Earn up to $22 commission for new active user referrals
• Take advantage of eBay’s brand and wide variety of products"

There are four important points to this:
1. eBay pays you up to 65% of the revenue they make from every product sale that you refer.
2. eBay pays you up to $22 for every new active eBay member that you refer.
3. The success of the eBay brand means that their conversion of browser to buyer is exceptional.
4. eBay provides you with a choice of products to promote which covers virtually every online product market.

Made simple, eBay is saying something like this to you:
"Look guys and girls, the eBay marketplace contains millions and millions of different products all of which are wanted by millions and millions of different people. If you can connect these people to the products that they want on eBay our successful branding will convert them for you and you will receive in return for your service up to 65% of the commission that we make on each sale and a further $22 if the particular buyer became an active eBay member to make that purchase".

I'm sure you see the opportunity:
You have a constantly updated product inventory of over 25 million to choose from which caters to just about every imaginable instinct for purchase that currently exists online. What this means is that regardless of the niche market you already target or would like to target there are products listed for sale on eBay that they would very likely be interested in.- While you have access to this product inventory and can make money promoting it you never have to stock a product yourself, ship an item or deal with a customer.- eBay has invested a lot of time and money in carefully developing and branding a marketplace which is now trusted by millions of people worldwide.- eBay will pay you more than half their revenue plus a high member sign up bonus if you help them sell the products listed in the eBay marketplace by connecting targeted people to them.

Bearing this in mind, why is the eBay affiliate program not talked about like AdSense or ClickBankwhen it comes to making money online when in reality it offers much more substance than AdSense and much more width than ClickBank?

The primary reason for this is a previous limitation of tools which has meant that the opportunity that lies in eBay’s wide variety of products has not been properly explored.Before today, if you wanted to market eBay’s products you had to have extensive PHP knowledge so that you could manipulate eBay’s API or you were limited to manually integrating things like affiliate banners and eBay editor kits into your website or blog.
Limited to these tools there was no way for you to truly exploit the opportunity presented by a marketplace that contains 25 million products.

Consequently, eBay’s huge product inventory and their high paying, high converting affiliate program has been largely demoted to a means of filling up space on a website. An eBay bannerhere and an editor kit there – there’s no system, no purpose, no aim and consequently no money.
Build A Niche Store now changes this and enables you to start taking a piece of eBay’s revenue by connecting people to the products that they want in the eBay marketplace…

Meet Build A Niche Store:
For the first time Build A Niche Store gives you (regardless of your technical ability) complete control over eBay’s massive and constantly updating product inventory.Try to imagine yourself as having a huge warehouse behind you which contains 25 million productsand which you control through one store setup file. It is this reality that Build A Niche Store grants you.
You choose which of eBay’s products you want to market, for example "Golf".
You then go to your store setup file, choose the Golf category, press "Build" and Build A Niche Store will automatically give you a complete eBay affiliate store for that niche.
This store will contain every golf related item listed on eBay (in this case over 80,000) which you can then connect people to and earn affiliate commissions from.
You are, however, not limited to one niche or one store ;)

You have a choice of 28,926 different niche stores that you can build, each of which will contain all of the products listed on eBay that are relevant to you chosen target market, be that Diamonds, Guitars, Baby Strollers, Sunglasses or Laptops.

Each affiliate store you build will automatically:
1. Include all of the products listed on eBay that are relevant to your chosen target market.
2. Include all of the associated navigation structure which eBay has for your category choice.
3. Update on a live feed from eBay and as such will never need manually updating.
4. Include your eBay affiliate id in every product link.
5. Provide you with hundreds or thousands of keyword packed, content rich pages that the search engines love.

All you have to do is decide which niche market you want to target and press build…

Come and Give Build A Niche Store a GO!

I know I’m biased, but I would challenge anyone to use the Build A Niche Store demo and not start to feel a little giddy at the potential that lies in being able to easily and effectively bring eBay products direct to the people that want them.Whether you want to more effectively monetize websites or blogs that you have already developedor target new niche markets with content-rich eBay affiliate stores, everything is in place for you to start now.

Click Here to Discover Build A Niche Store

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Free Report: Make Money on eBay 99% Automatically!

Taming the Impatient eBay Buyer

Stephan — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 03:16:00 +0000

Auctions have always been popular ways to buy and sell merchandise, from small community fundraising sales to gala events hosted by famous auction houses like Christie's and Sotheby's. Traditional auctions bring to mind images of fast-talking auctioneers banging mallets to close a deal, or lavish rooms filled with wealthy buyers, ready to bid on rare antiquities and works of art.

But these days, the word "auction" conjures up an entirely different picture: buyers impatiently refreshing the online auction pages on their computer screens, as the minutes tick down to the final bid.

The Internet has changed the way people do practically everything, including the way we buy and sell. Internet auctions have gained incredible worldwide popularity, with the eBay as the undisputed leader. Today, anyone with Internet access can buy or sell online. Bidders don't even need to be in the same time zone, let alone in the same room. Virtually everything is bought and sold on eBay auctions, from expensive antiques and works by master artists, to everyday household items and personal creations.

It's easy to get acquainted with buying and selling on eBay:

* All participants need to sign on to establish an eBay before buying or selling. Every participant receives his or her own unique user-designated screen name like, for instance, Catgirl99. If the user consistently violates eBay rules, the website can discontinue the account as sanctions against the user.

* Anything can be put up for bid on eBay, with the exception of pornography, drugs and illegal items. The seller sets a reserve price, which will act as the minimum bid and starting point for online offers. For example, Catgirl99 is selling a kitty collar with bells on it. She won't take less than five dollars, so she sets the reserve at a five-dollar minimum bid.

* The seller places the item on his or her eBay page, along with a product description, photograph and a sales pitch. Catgirl99 writes, "Never lose your cat again!" The seller sets a bidding period for the term of the auction, usually around two weeks.

* Buyers search the eBay site for items they are interested in. When the item is found, potential buyers will place bids. The initial bid must be higher than the reserve, and higher than any previous bids.

* As more bidders begin to take action, the price of the item up for bid continually rises.

* After the predetermined period has passed, the bidding will close. At this point, the auction is ended and the product is considered sold to the highest bidder. The sale is confirmed with both parties, and the buyer contacts the seller to arrange payment and delivery terms.

Buying and selling on eBay really is a very simple process. With items offered for sale from literally every part of the world, it's easy to see why this method of buying and selling has become so hugely popular. ebay auctions make it simple for buyers to locate hard-to-find and collectible items, and sellers can easily find interested buyers to purchase their items. With strict rules in place, eBay also helps to protect both parties by promoting fair deals.

However, that is not to say that online auctions are free of fraudulent cases. According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), over the past three years Internet auction fraud has ranked consistently as one of the most filed consumer fraud complaints. Both buyers and sellers have filed cases where deceitful parties have scammed them.

The key to security when buying and selling on eBay, is to understand what the scams are, and recognize the setup before it's too late.

Bid Siphoning

You've located the item you've been searching for, and the seller emails you directly to tell you that there is an alternate auction site where you can buy his or her product at less than the eBay price. Don't follow up on this offer. Legitimate auction sites like eBay offer buyer protection in the form of insurance. If a seller fails to deliver an item you've paid for, eBay may be able to replace the money you've lost. In turn, they will pursue the seller and charge him or her accordingly. However, if your purchase was made outside of eBay, that protection may not be available to you.

Bid Shielding

This is a scam perpetrated by buyers. An item is shielded from fair bidding when a buyer places a high starting bid. Other bidders don't want to compete with the high price, so they leave the auction. Just before the bid closes, the scammer withdraws his or her bid and begins bidding under another name. Since the auction is about to end, the second lowball bid becomes the final selling price.

Shill Bidding

A shill is a swindler's accomplice. Shills drive up the online bids, forcing legitimate bidders to raise their offers. You'll be able to spot a shill if the item doesn't seem to carry the value of the price it commands. Shills place high bids to lure others to raise their own bids. In the end, the highest bidder has paid much more than they normally would have, often for an item of compromised value. Stolen items, counterfeit or knock-off products and refurbished pieces can be sold this way.

These are the most common cases of Internet auction fraud. Being aware of these situations, and being cautious in general, can help you avoid the unpleasant experience of being scammed of your goods or money. Nevertheless, buying and selling on eBay still proves to be a fair and reliable way of marketing merchandise.

Internet auctions like eBay have created a true global market--connecting buyers with sellers and helping the world to connect through fair and responsible trade.

About the Author:
William Davis is a writer for several online magazines, on home business tips and business and technology topics.

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Free Report: Make Money on eBay 99% Automatically!

The Insider Secrets Of An eBay Millionaire

Stephan — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 03:10:00 +0000

"Discover how to easily claim a HUGE portion of the $86,000,000 spent on eBay every day!"

Review: The Insider Secrets Of An eBay Millionaire, by Derek Gehl and Brandon Dupsky

I've just finished devouring the brand-new "Insider Secrets Of An eBay Millionaire" by Brandon Dupsky and Derek Gehl, and I've got to tell you, it is by FAR the best system for making a life-changing income on eBay that I've come across!

Don't be embarrassed if you've never heard of self-made eBay millionaire Brandon Dupsky before. After all, he likes to fly "below the radar" (which gives him more time to focus on his booming eBay business!)

But what you should know about him is that he's just a regular guy who got his start on eBay by selling a few odd-and-ends he found in his basement...

... and since then, he's refined his techniques to the point where he made $8 MILLION in just one year!

And what's really great is that Brandon has agreed to team up with Derek Gehl, the well-known Internet marketing expert who is responsible for over $40,000,000 in online sales!

... together, they can show you everything you need to know about profiting on eBay!

I'm talking about information like...

Where to find in-demand products that you can buy for cheap and resell for massive profits!

How to attract TONS of bids and make HUGE profits on every single auction you list!

How to CREATE stunning listings that grab the eyeballs of eager bidders!

How to easily rake in even MORE cash by establishing a glowing feedback rating!

How to eliminate 90% of all eBay headaches by setting up foolproof payment And shipping systems!

Techniques for driving 1,000s of qualified bidders to YOUR auction listings!

And much more!

And if you have an existing Internet business, they can show YOU how you can use your current business to tap into the 2,000,000 visitors who come to eBay every day!

I give this eBay profit system the highest rating possible!

It includes a huge 237-page guidebook PLUS over 4 solid hours of audio instruction on 4 CDs...

... and contains every tip, strategy, and secret there is for getting started on eBay today, earning your first profit by tomorrow -- and making a life changing income of potentially $100,000 or MORE in your first year!

PLUS -- the live recorded conversations between Derek and Brandon are indispensable for explaining in detail the most powerful auction strategies that other eBay "Power Sellers" don't want you to know!

I strongly urge you to check out Brandon's eBay profit-generating system as soon as possible! Click here for a FREE Preview.

Essential eBay Selling Tips

Stephan — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 16:16:00 +0000

Ebay is a worldwide used online auction site. Sometimes to start to sell on a site like this is quite daunting, so I have put together some EBay selling tips to help you get started and hopefully to help you make some money.

If you are still thinking of ideas of what you could sell to make money, just stop, look around your home and see what you think you don't need or want anymore. Clothes, books, media, shoes, plates, china, ornaments, paper, pens, picture frames, toys. Look around to see what you think you could sell. If you are not sure if it would sell, search for it and see if anyone else is selling it, if they are then you can too!

EBay selling tips would not be complete with out payment advice. Buyers can pay by various methods, check, postal order or PayPal. By far the easiest way is PayPal so I would highly recommend setting up a PayPal account for this. It is the safest way to buy and sell for both the buyer and the seller.

There are costs involved in eBay and you need to keep track of what you are spending out so that you know what profit you are making, here is a list of the costs involved:

Item cost
Listing and reserve fees
Feature fees
Final Value fee (if the item sells).
Auction Management Service (if you use one).
Credit card or PayPal service fees
Internet service or DSL fees
Shipping costs and materials

Think carefully about the title of your item. If someone is searching for a particular, item you have to think what they may type into search for. For instance "blue jumper" Is a very vague description, but "Perfect condition ladies blue jumper size 12" would attract a lot more visitors. Also try to include the brand name and people often search for brands.

One of the most important one of the eBay selling tips is to ALWAYS include a picture of what you are selling. Most buyers will not buy an item with no picture. Also, you will almost double the money you make if you list the picture in the gallery view, this is only 15p but many buyers will only look at auctions with a gallery picture. Items with no gallery picture are often deemed invisible.

Books, CDs and DVDs and other media have ISBN or UPC numbers, if you add this into your item description then eBay will put a picture in for you of the cover of the item and also a lot of the other information about the item.

Do some research on the item you are selling, find out the retail value and include that in the information about your item. If the buyer knows the retail value you are more likely to get a better price for it. Look up other eBay auctions selling the same items as you, see how much they are going for and what they sell for, you can gauge interest that way.

You need to find out which category to put your item in, you can do this by eBay's recommended or you can choose your own. For an extra free you can put it in a sub category also. Make sure you think carefully about the category and search other items similar to yours to see what category they are listed in.

If you are still unsure about how much to list your item for then you can always start it at a low auction price and put a reserve price on it so that it can't go for under that price. The buyer will not know what the reserve is until they get to it, but for your peace of mind you will know that you will get the price you want. If you start bidding higher you are much less likely to get any bids at all.

Make sure you weigh your item and work out the shipping costs, don't forget to add the weight for the packaging. You can charge a flat rate for shipping so make sure this is clear in your listing. Make sure you don't put your postage costs too high as this can scare off potential buyers. If there are two items both going for the same amount, the one with the cheaper postage will be more likely to get more bids.

About the AUthor:
Shelley Green is the owner of http://www.fast-ways-to-make-money.com, a site that specializes in Fast Ways to Make Mondy including tips, advice and also other recommended sites.
Article Source: The FREE Article Distribution Center

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Visit Jim Wilson's Auction Hints Forum

How to get Started on EBAY

Stephan — Sat, 11 Nov 2006 16:19:00 +0000

EBAY is a 70 billion dollar a year industry giant. The really interesting situation is that they are dependent on entrepreneurs, like you, to make that business figure grow. In 2005, the number of people making money from working on EBAY increased by 68%. Over 724,000 million people either make a full time or a supplemental income from working EBAY. And another 1.5 million say that EBAY gives them additional income throughout the year. EBAY, Inc. 2005 offers these figures.

What is interesting is that there are many ways to get started working EBAY for an extra income. The main thing is to get a plan and work the plan. Gather up some income products from around your home, your relatives, garage sales, thrift stores, salvation army, big lots, consignment shops, etc. Invest a set amount, say $200. Make sure that you get items that are useful or entertaining and that provide a quick turn over. The way to do that is to think about your own buying habits. Would you purchase this item if you saw it advertised, does it appeal to a mass market, is it a niche product people might be willing to purchase? What you want are items that you can pick up for very little money and that you can put up on EBAY for a small price and, thereby, create an immediate cash flow. At first, you will want to return almost all your profits back into purchasing some more items to sell. You will do this until you have a comfortable amount of money invested in your business and then you will have set up your own profit stream.

To get your items ready to market what you need to do is to take a quality digital photo of the item from different angles. For smaller items, you should use a whiteboard backdrop to get the maximum amount of light with few reflections. For larger items, outside shots work well, just have the sun behind your back when taking the picture. You also need to write up a very good description of your item and do not try to hide any imperfections. Point out the usefulness and benefits as well. A description that is fair and honest will result in much better comments received in EBAY feedback. I will explain this more in a later paragraph.

You can open a starting seller's EBAY store for just $15.95 a month and have about five pages to sell your items. You also receive a free month when you start your store, so you can get a feel for how it all works. You will have to pay EBAY for their sale fees which amount to an insertion fee and a selling fee. I will attempt to explain each in an example format.

The insertion fees differ based on the listing price, but for example, you will pay a fee of $.60 for an item listed from $10.00 to $24.99 and when that item sells, you will also pay 5.25% of the selling price. If that price is $24.99, then you would pay $1.32, so it has a cost of $1.92 to sell this item. Since you have several items to sell, you will want to know the following qualifications. The insertion fee for multiple items, dutch auctions, and fixed price items is based on the opening value of your listed items. The opening value is the starting price or fixed item price multiplied by the number of items you list. The maximum insertion price from EBAY is $4.80.

The final value fee charged by EBAY is determined by taking the multiple items or dutch auctions final value fee of the lowest successful bid item and multiplying it by the number of items sold. The final value fee charged by EBAY for a multiple value fixed price listing is calculated on per item sold, based on the final sale price of the item.

A EBAY Store is a very effective way to display your items, drive traffic to a website, or to display a couple of your best items in EBAY auctions and get people to visit your other items through your store listing on your auction websites.

After you sell an item, you will be eligible for "feedback." This is where the buyer makes comments about your service, your responsiveness to email questions, and general comments about how it was interact with you as a seller of EBAY items. You want this to be 100% or as close as possible to it. If there is a dispute on any item, you will try to work it out and make sure that the buyer is satisfied within your own selling descriptions. You have a right to have your terms met, but you also have to satisfy the buyer as much as possible. You want return customers and you want others that will check your feedback section to be sure to find good comments about your service. This enables those who have not conducted business with you to know your track record and feel more confident that they will have a good buying experience with your company or store. Another thing that happens is that you should return the feedback to the buyers account so that they also have the good notations on their membership listing as a buyer. For instance, "buyer pays promptly, buyer is easy to deal with, buyer is welcome back to your store," etc.

If you have any qualms about listing or do not know how to list, there are actually places you can take your EBAY items and have them do the marketing, listing, and selling for you. However, if you really want to make this a good source of income, I suggest learning to do the listings yourself and capitalize on more profits. But the key thing is to GET STARTED.

EBAY will only continue to grow as more and more people make money with them, so why not capitalize on this easy to do program. Go where the people are looking to buy...that is EBAY right now!

Author Info:
Ian Del Carmen is an online business professional running his main site at http://www.ianDelCarmen.com. His other sites include http://TheOnlineBusinessProfessional.com, http://MobileEbooks.net, http://InfoProductLaboratory.com, and many more...

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7 Ways to Streamline Your eBay Business

Stephan — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 14:47:00 +0000

Building a work from home business on eBay can be fun, profitable, stress free and easy. It's little wonder that more and more people are turning to the internet and specifically ebay to build a new future for themselves. However, things can get a little overwhelming so it's essential to organise your business correctly from the start. Fortunately, there are many solutions & tips to cut down on the amount of eBay hours that you have to put in.

1) Clearly Specify Payment Terms

One of the most popular questions I receive is "How Can I Pay?", especially off newly registered members. Make it easy for buyers to pay you, by offering a large option of payment processors - not just Paypal. Also, make it policy or not whether you will be accepting cheques as payment, some sellers decide this is more hassle than it's worth. If your selling hundreds of items daily tracking cheques can be quite time consuming.

2) Organise Your Products

If your selling physical products on eBay, and you carry them in stock make sure they are already to be dispatched as you list your item. This will ensure there's no delay while you find suitable packaging materials, and you don't risk losing the item amongst the rest of your stock. When the auctions complete, all you need to do is attach the shipping label and the sale is as good as completed.

3) Use A Mass Lister

Advanced seller programs such as Marketworks can completely cut down the amount of work needed & the amount of hours your spend on eBay. Automatically listing & relisting, email notification to yourself and your buyers, payment notification and automatic feedback are just a few of the features that are offered to sellers. Almost all powersellers use a service such as Marketworks to manage their ebay businesses.

4) Keep Upto Date With Your Accounting

Make it a habit to print our your Paypal and ebay statements monthly, they'll be needed for any end of year accounting you need to do. File them somewhere safe, as Paypal statements are normally only available for upto three months.

5) Delivery Turnaround

Clarify, when any orders will be sent out. The last thing you want to be doing is running to the post office every time a sale is completed, so make it an established practice to send out your products as the last task of the day, or even only 2-3 times a week.

6) Automatic Delivery On ebooks & Special Reports

If your in the select group of sellers who offers digital goods for sale, then there's absolutely no reason to spend hours on ebay each day. Programs such as payloadz exist so you can automatically send out your products as soon as the winning bidders completes the transaction. This reduces the need for you to check your email religiously every hour to complete any new orders.

7) Automatic Feedback

Even if you choose not to use a mass listing program, others exist to automatically leave feedback as soon as the buyer pays. Ebays selling manager pro, or other third party products can do this for you with predetermined comments. This is one less job to worry about, allowing you to concentrate on the marketing of your eBay business.

Author Info:
Mark Kenny is an eBay expert who specialises in launching eBay related online businesses. You can see his blog at http://www.Trading-Web-Solutions.com/blog or join in Marks Auction & eBay Forum at http://www.AuctionCUT.com