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I did alot of “window” shopping over at eBay, but never actually got up the nerve to bid, buy or sell over there. I saw so many items over there that I was interested in(you name it..they got it!), but was just afraid of jumping in. Was it safe? Would I wind up with something I really didn’t want? How do you know when and what to bid? If your selling, how do you go about that? etc. etc…
This book answered ALL those questions and much, much more. Even this book itself was intimidating to me when it first arrived. There was sooo much ’stuff’ in it. Did I have to know ALL that before i could hang out at eBay? So I just started glancing through it and realized what a treasure chest of info it was. Pretty soon I was reading it chapter by chapter just because I found it all so interesting.
“eBay for Dummies” covers it all. From the very basics…getting a feel for eBay, how to sign up,getting the “lay of the land”, getting info on the seller, and bidding, to putting items up for sale, completeing cyber paperwork, shipping and dealing with buyers and sellers.There are chapters on rules and a safety program, bidding strategies, and there’s even one on how to present the best pictures of your items if you are selling.
Yes..I was afraid..I was very afraid..but there’s no better feeling than going into something armed with knowledge, even if you are a newbie! And you don’t need to read it cover to cover to get started. It’s easy to look up and find answers to questions you have to get started, and it’ll always be there as a reference as you go along and become more comfortable.You’ll be a biddin’ and a buyin’(and maybe even a sellin’)in no time at all. Be careful though..you may get hooked!
Thanks for this great fountain of new age shopping information for beginners. I’m not afraid anymore!
By Stuart Lisonbee
Most retailers agree: drop shipping, if used properly, is a huge time and labor saver.
But is it a money saver as well? It is often said that time is money. But just what is the true value of drop shipping?
We will attempt to answer that question in this article from a scientific approach, using logic to come to a conclusion as to what the value of drop shipping is for you.
The value of time is different for everybody… Read More
Avoiding the 12 Most Common Business Blunders
Introduction
Every single day, enthusiastic entrepreneurs start about 2,000 new small businesses. Three years from now, about 1,600 of those new businesses will have failed.
Being in the business of helping others break into the retail business, we’ve had a ringside seat to witness competitors battle it out retail arena, and we’ve identified the 12 differences that separate the champs from the chumps.
In this article, we reveal those differences and use our observations, experience, and expertise to steer you clear of the most common pitfalls and ensure that your business becomes part of the elite group of successful startups.
Poor management
People launch their own businesses for a variety of reasons. Some think it will be fun and easy. Others aren’t happy with their current lifestyle and seek to better themselves financially. Still more look at their boss and think, “If he can do it, then I sure can!”
But the truth is that 80% of new businesses fail within the first three years. The number one reason small businesses fail is, by far, poor management.
Recognizing the essentials of good management
Good management boils down to developing a solid business plan and then effectively executing your plan or adjusting it to meet the needs of the current situation. Effectively managing a business, big or small, requires the following…
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Think about it: Thousands of eBay buyers are posting to eBay’s WANT IT NOW section every day, desperately seeking goods they can’t find anywhere else. It is an absolute seller’s market out there!
Imagine if you had your finger on the pulse of this marketplace… instantly knowing which products were in hot demand and low supply, so you could step in and grab those buyers?
Say hello to Auction Inspector: Your own personal
money-making snoop!
Auction Inspector inspects posts on the eBay “WANT IT NOW” section and tells you which products are wanted most often. Not only that, but it also analyzes responses from sellers, so you can immediately see the areas where sellers are already swarming, versus the areas where there are clear, open pickings for you!
Auction inspector takes the number of requests for the product AND the number of responses by sellers, and runs it through a sophisticated algorithm to give you the potential of the products with a low potential are either not in demand, or already satisfied by a glut of sellers. Products with high potential are ones you should jump on — everyone is wanting and nobody is offering!
”The Auction Inspector Complete Guide to Making a Fortune On eBay”
Having the best tools at your disposal is great, but you’ll get a lot more out of them if you’ve got the best knowledge to back it up. That’s why if you purchase Auction Inspector today we’ll bundle in a copy of this 80+ page e-book showing you exactly how to become an eBay powerseller and earn your fortune on eBay. We’ve managed to get over 50 powersellers to give up their best tips and insider advice so that you’ll never miss an opportunity again!
You’ll learn how to recognize mistakes that practically every eBay seller makes. We teach you the big three factors that will make people want to buy from you, and the things you’re doing to scare over half of your customers away!- How to get past suppliers’ minimum order quantities, and how to find a wholesale supplier, manufacturer or drop shipper for practically any product you want. We even teach you how to find amazingly profitable products that aren’t available from wholesale suppliers!
- Learn the advantages and disadvantages of selling different kinds of products, and how to identify the reason why you’re not making as much money as you should.
- How to make money from no money! You can get started on eBay even if you’ve got no money to invest in buying products!
- How to run your eBay business like a business (this will save you time, and allow you to make much more money!). How to create the perfect listing that will grab your visitors’ attention and compel them to buy from you, rather than your competitor.
- And much, much (much, much!) more. CLICK HERE!
By Stuart Lisonbee
Backorders can break the backs of online retailers. If you can’t quickly deliver a product to your customer, they might just cancel their order and look for a more reliable webstore. Because drop shipping places inventory control in the hands of your supplier, it raises your exposure to the risk of backorders. You can, however, implement some strategies for minimizing your exposure to backorder situations:
- Monitor Quantities on Hand (QOH)
- Run shorter auctions
- Cancel an auction when supplies run low
- Pad your inventory by drop shipping items to yourself
In the following sections, I explain these strategies in greater detail… Read More
Time and time again it’s said from web store retailers, eBay sellers, online auction gurus, and a host of others: “You can’t make any real money with drop shipping. The prices and fees that drop-ship suppliers charge eliminate your profit margins.”
Yet, there are thousands of retailers (including Sam’s Club, Costco, and Amazon) who sell millions of dollars of merchandise every month and make a handsome profit doing it. For them, a drop ship product source increases their profit margins by slashing the amount of time and money they have to spend on managing inventory and packing and shipping products themselves.
The business case for determining whether a drop ship wholesaler service is the most cost-effective option for your retail business must look at a cost benefit analysis…
Avoiding Fraudulent Orders and Unscrupulous Customers
Introduction
In this article, you’ll learn how to spot the signs of potentially fraudulent orders and protect yourself from unscrupulous consumers.
Currently, identity theft laws are anemic and law enforcement is often unwilling to pursue “minor” cases. Until the laws catch up and law enforcement begins to prosecute these cases more aggressively, online merchants are pretty much on their own.
Because of this, it pays to be informed about what you, as an online merchant, can do to protect yourself from credit card fraud and other deceptive activities.
As described in this tutorial, you can implement four proactive strategies to protect yourself and your business from fraud:
- Prevention: Stop fraud by following fraud-prevention strategies.
- Early detection: Watch for red flags that indicate possible fraud.
- Investigation: When you notice suspicious activity, investigate.
- Action: When you’re relatively certain that fraud is occurring, contact someone who can do something about it.
Protect yourself
Customers typically pay for merchandise with credit cards, checks, money orders, or PayPal payments. In the following sections, we reveal several ways to identify and stop the most common payment scams.
Preventing credit card cons
Credit card con artists have numerous hi-tech and no-tech ways of obtaining credit card numbers…
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By Stuart Lisonbee
A well-designed eNewsletter, packed with valuable content and exclusive offers, can help you walk the fine line of keeping in touch with your customers without annoying them.
In this article, you learn:
- How to design an attractive eNewsletter that increases your brand presence.
- What to include in your eNewsletter and what to leave out.
- How to encourage customers to subscribe without being pushy.
- How to automate distribution to save valuable time.
Designing an attractive eNewsletter
Whenever you contact a customer, you have an opportunity to impress or disappoint, so you want your first attempt at an eNewsletter to be impressive. In any publication, your first impression hinges on… Read More
Dear soon to be eBay powerseller,
You’ve heard how easy it is. Average people just like us running small shoestring businesses from home and literally
…. raking in thousands of dollars each month using the power of eBay!
But you’ve probably wondered a few things. You’ve always wanted to know if you could be successful on eBay, and get rid of that job that sucks so much time and energy right out of you.
Or you might have wondered if people really are making large incomes (I’m talking thousands each month) with a simple eBay business.
Let me start by answering your second question….
Yes, oh yes … people are really making money on eBay. Lots of it. And I’m one of them. I’m actually using eBay as the foundation of my full-time career, making money on the internet. More about me in a moment.
by: Sydney Johnston
eBay users are accustomed to only two “standard” formats for sales on eBay: either the ‘regular’ auction which involves bidding and waiting; and the Buy It Now, which is an instant purchase.But there are three other formats that are less well known.
1. Live Auctions Before eBay, the traditional auction included live bodies in chairs and an auctioneer up front (talking so fast he was frequently unintelligible). Any buyer can still participate in these live auctions via eBay. Live auctions are a hybrid - a buyer is ’sort of’ present in a live setting yet is at
home using an Internet connection. The products for sale are usually expensive and unusual.
There are such items as expensive and unique coins, Asian art, native American artifacts, incredible jewelry, costly furniture, memorabilia from major sports stars and even history. Today, for instance, there are documents signed by John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, James Madison and Ulysses Grant (he confides that he was strenuously opposed to the “wicked” war with
If you choose to participate in a live auction, be certain that you register first because you can’t just drop in on a whim. You can find all the details here:http://www.ebayliveauctions.com 2. Private Auctions Private auctions are similar to the typical auction that we’re all familiar with except for one detail – the identities of the bidders are kept secret. Only the seller has access to the names. Why would anyone create a private auction? It’s usually for one of three reasons:
- The item is quite expensive and buyers might be uncomfortable having others know they can afford such merchandise. Their concern about their financial status is most likely misplaced because it is quite possible to distance yourself from eBay contact information, but much of selling is about perception.
- The buyers might be embarrassed by the nature of the
merchandise. - Some sellers habitually use private auctions to make it
harder for their competition to snoop on them.
3. Restricted Access AuctionsThis is usually for sales of “adult” items. The main purpose is to prevent children from seeing this kind of merchandise, and is similar to having covers on racy magazines at store checkouts.To bid on these items, the buyer must:
- Be 18 years old
- Must have supplied credit card information to eBay. The theory is that no one under 18 can get a credit card and therefore cannot get into these sections.
- Agree that he is voluntarily accessing restricted access auctions
In addition, restricted auctions are excluded from the Featured pages. So if you are a seller using this format, your listing will be harder to find.Even though they are less well known, these three formats for auctions on eBay still account for tens of millions of dollars in sales each year. If they suit your business model, you might consider them.
About the Author Learn how to sell on eBay with 16 hours of online instruction taught by a 10 year eBay veteran. Own an eBay business instead of an eBay hobby.