Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Ebay And How To Buy Part 2 Once The Listings Appear

Writen by Amy Lieberfarb

Once the listings appear from your keyword search terms box on the eBay Home Page, it is time to shop. Most important is to give yourself time to look at the different options before deciding which item to click on and check out. There are millions of item available on eBay at any hour of the day, make sure to do your price shopping before deciding what to purchase. It is apparent that narrowing down your search terms is as important as educated price comparison.

Price comparison is made simple online. When in the average retail chain store, one has to find tags, turn over items to locate pricing and sometimes just ask. Online shopping definitely takes the guesswork out of pricing. With eBay, the different product choices appear with the picture (if included), the current price and shipping costs. This also includes the end of auction or fixed price time and with a simple click you can find detailed product specifics and information about the seller.

When scrolling through the listings for your product, scroll down through the listings before deciding which one to click on. A picture can do as good as a thousand words for most shoppers and it is simple to see what quality of seller and listing you are going to see just from the gallery photo. When choosing a product, look for set shipping rates on the listings.

The more advanced seller knows that set shipping rates or free shipping is the way to go for online sales. It is best to try and buy from someone who knows what they are doing on eBay, has sold many items, has a high positive feedback rating from eBay One who has a detailed product description is best so that you know exactly what you are purchasing when you send your money.

When comparing prices, keep in mind that with the auction listings, many can be deceiving due to the time of start of the auction. If a listing has just started and has many days left, the price could inflate drastically as bidding nears close. With Buy It Now listings, the price is set with a button in order to purchase now, pay now and have it shipped quickly. This is more like shopping in your average online store, can save time and money with some great deals available. Most eBay Stores feature all Buy It Now listings and shopping in these stores can make buying easier with the knowledge that you are also buying from a reputable seller.

Price comparison is important on eBay, because it is a competitive market. While one price might look extremely low at first glance, you may find something 10-20 percent less just by putting in the time to really search through eBay for the perfect product. Price varies no matter which product you are searching for. Take your time to search and the monetary rewards will really justify it.

Amy Lieberfarb has been in the office furniture and interior sales industry for 11 years and currently runs two online websites dedicated to Office Chairs and Furniture. Providing information on how to pick the right ergonomic chair and featuring hundreds of different chairs, the site is very informative.

http://stores.ebay.com/liebswholesale

Specializing in Office Furniture and Ergonomic Chairs.

http://www.liebswholesale.com

Please see her websites and her many other articles for more information on ergonomics and proper positioning.

She is an expert in most things office chairs and is an eBay Gold Level Powerseller with years of experience and great positive feedback from all of her loyal customer base.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Successful Ebay Sellers Sell Yourself 100 Ignorance Wont Sell Products

Writen by Maisy Day

Ebay the biggest online auction offering everyone a piece of the action whether a seller or buyer you would like to be. Skill and techniques are needed in any business venture to be successful so why not learn how Ebay is giving people the opportunity to do just that.

A good way to start with trading in this manner is to sell items that you love being around or part of (this could be something to do with a hobby of yours) you will find it is much more rewarding while you make money. Once you have built up confidence in yourself then it is time to gain trust from your customers. Do not be afraid to share a little intimate detail about yourself. People you will find are apprehensive in sending money to a complete stranger so the more they know of you and what you are selling then they warm to you.

Expect to find that the people who share the same interest as you in what you are selling on Ebay are more willing to part with their money - all because they feel you will be the master of knowledge on any issues relating to the product. Do your homework - this is very crucial to get your business off to a good start to become successful in your Ebay business. Scour the internet to find out what is the most favoured selling product that is hot property at the time. You can learn a lot from forums to gather information.

Locating the right product should not be an issue if your research was forensically done. Remember when choosing items to sell always check to see if it entails large quantities or special delivery. Matters on shipping - bulk buying and much more can be found at the ebay support centre. This is how others learned to become successful ebay sellers

Remember to be consistent and keep building up that reputation. Customers without doubt are likely to purchase from you when they know more of you personally and your wares. Ebay is a powerful force giving recognition to all loyal self made entrepreneurs. Bad business from others means bad business for ebay which is not tolerated. Therefore rules and regulations are enforced to help you uphold a regular ongoing business selling your services or product.

Promotion is the key factor behind a good volume of sales so be sure to advertise your self 100%. Tools are provided by ebay which unfortunately not many sellers are aware of or choose to ignore. Ignorance means no sales. Build your own website to promote and by doing this your customers can get a bigger picture of your whole entity defined in more detail.

If this is the route in life you intend taking like trading over the internet then learn to become a Successful Ebay Seller. There is not the slightest doubt that the best way is this way. Check out the nuts and bolts behind any auction site. Never buy your products up front until you are fully geared up with knowledge. If and when you are ready then get bargain buys wholesale from other successful online sellers on ebay.

For success in business you have to be in the know - don`t take my word for it and check it out for yourself http://www.ebay.webinputbiz.com Find a niche market - Rally Car Parts is worth looking in too. http://www.rccars.webinputbiz.com

Monday, December 8, 2008

Easiest Way To Write Hypnotic Listings

Writen by Gary R. Ferguson

You may think that creating hypnotic listings are too difficult, too time consuming, or require special skills that you don't have. This is definitely not the case. If you can talk, you can write. Remember you are not trying to create a literary masterpiece in your auction listing. You are just trying to tell a bidder about your item and compel them to place a bid. So what's the easiest way to do this?

First, and probably the biggest surprise, is to just write like you talk. Now this may be completely contrary to everything you learned in English class. For the most part, people will read and understand something that is written following the same form as how someone talks.

Now this does not mean you want to use a bunch of slang terms, or insert a bunch of ums and ahs, but merely write like you talk. In fact, you want to focus on using small words and short sentences. Anything written using smaller words and simple sentences is easier for the reader to follow and understand. It also sounds more conversational and friendly. This style of writing will again provide an additional hint of familiarity, which will lead to greater trust.

If you find it difficult to "talk" in your head and type at the same time, them by all means grab a tape recorder (or MP3 recorder these days) and record what you want to say and then transcribe it. This is more work, but it will definitely force you to "write like you talk."

Discover how you can create auctions that receive more bids and higher final prices than your competiton with the free Hypnotic Auctions Newsletter available at http://www.hypnoticauctions.com. Gary R. Ferguson is an author, publisher, and on-line marketer and can be reached at me@garyrferguson.com.

Sunday, December 7, 2008

A Picture Paints A Thousand Words And Creates Auction Euphoria On Ebay

Writen by Mike Ralph

Ever since I sold my first item on ebay I have been addicted to the site and I have steadily developed it as a supplementary source of income over the last two years. As I gained experience from listing items, I rapidly became aware that the inclusion of pictures in the listings was a major selling point as buyers could literally see what they were buying and as such create a greater interest and desire within them which in turn led to greater selling prices.

To sum it up in one sentence:

Pictures attract attention, help explain details and more importantly stimulates desire which leads to Auction Euphoria.

Auction Euphoria is that process whereby the desire to own an item is that great that all logic goes out the window and the buyer rebids to ensure that they win it, thus increasing the selling price.

This simple bit of knowledge has allowed me to push my final selling prices up on average between 10-30% and as such it amazes me that so many listings do not include one picture and just type out the details in one long line of text (usually all in capitals!). I am not complaining however because this fact alone has allowed my auctions to stand out and make the money.

I started off using eBays add additional photo service to include extra images in my listings which people could use as a reference point and I found out the following :

1. Always make sure that the image is clear and of the actual item for sale, otherwise what is the point of including it? You will find that poorly presented pictures suggest that the seller doesn't care and hence will devalue the potential selling price of the item which is of no use to anyone.

2. Never use a stock photograph of the item for sale, with the increase in fraudulant transactions (especially on the higher value items) this will serve to put the buyer off, again serving to devalue your final selling price. Taking a little extra time to get an actual photograpah shows yours buyers that you care and will endear them to you.

3. Where possible use a digital camera, these are very easily accessable nowadays and relatively cheap and they produce excellent images. A webcam can also be used but does give a grainier picture. Remember the cost of the digital camera can be offset by the gain in final selling prices.

4. Have good lighting on your images, a poorly lit image may as well not be there. Where possible I take mine outside into the garden, put it onto a chair with white paper behind it and take advantage of the natural light. Its a few minutes work that pays dividends in the end in cold hard cash!

5. Never just use one image, always use at least two. I tend to use one image for every one of the details (or faults) that I mention in the listing. This illustrates what you are actually trying to describe and helps to prevent the dreaded negative feedback of 'the item wasn't as described'.

Using the above meant my auctions stood out and I was considered to be true to my word by my buyers so much so that I have multiple return buyers and the Auction Euphoria effect is evident on my auctions as there regularly go for higher prices than similar items listed on eBay.

As I developed my auctions I realised that using eBays additional picture service was COSTING ME a large proportion of my profit so I looked into other ways of getting my pictures on my listings. I also realised that the format of the listings was another major factor. I wanted to use the additional pictures to illustrate a detail or fault but it was no use having the picture at the bottom of the listing away from the description as per eBays standard approach.

So I did some research and learned that the answer to my problems was HTML to generate a template for my listings and allow me to pull my images into them without having to use eBays image service, sure it was still gonna cost me to host my own images but no where near what eBay was charging me. Using this has meant that my eBay Listing Fees have dropped by nearly 90%.

My buyers then started to ask me if they could use my templates and how they could include images on thier listings, advice which I always gave to them. I then decided to put this advice together on a few webpages so that they could use it as a reference and to upload some of the templates that I have used in the past so that anyone can use them for FREE.

I hope that these simple bits of advice help you to take advantage of Auction Euphoria, and really develop your profits from the amazing, and addictive, animal that is eBay auctions.

Mike - Webmaster and eBay Power Seller.

Online Auction Trader

FREE eBay Selling Templates, can be used by anyone you dont need to ask my permission to use them anywhere you want.

Saturday, December 6, 2008

So What Are You Going To Do About Ebays Fee Increases

Writen by DeAnna Spencer

Unless you have been hiding under a rock, I am sure that by now you have heard that eBay is raising its fees. So what's a small merchant to do? Here are some suggestions.

Get your own hosting. You can have your own online store and only have to pay for your hosting fees. Delspin Hosting offers a reasonable hosting plan for small merchants. You can also have somewhere to host your pictures if you decide to stay with Ebay.

You can still use your Paypal account with your hosted store. It also a good idea to find another alternative to process your credit card transactions because some people just don't like paypal.

Also, there are lots of other online auctions sites on the Internet. Just type in online auctions in your search engine and start experimenting with some of the online auction sites that rank in the top ten sites.

Bottom line: Ebay's fees are increasing. There's nothing you can do about that.

So instead of whining and complaining about something you can not control, you need to decide whether or not you are going to jump ship or adjust to the changes.

My personal opinion is to stick with it, because Ebay still comes up number one in the search engines when you type in online auctions. Are you really going to let all of that traffic pass you by?

This article may be redistributed on the Internet as long as the byline remains intact.

Copyright 2005

DeAnna Spencer is a virtual assistant that helps entrepreneurs run a successful business by providing affordable administrative help. She also publishes a blog for small business owners. Visit this small business resource today.