EBAY GIFT CARDS

The importance of first impressions cannot be overstated. On Ebay, a buyer’s first impression of a seller is usually the title of an auction listing. Auction titles are a seller’s first chance to really grab someone’s attention and entice them to click the link and learn more about the merchandise. If the auction title is good, it will bring more business. If it’s bad, it can get your auction ignored – or even removed.

Take an honest look at your auction titles. Are they a little on the bland side, or do they inform readers about the item in exciting terms? You want to convince buyers to click on your auction without annoying them. Filling a title with excessive punctuation and special characters with no purpose other than to attract attention often backfires. Some Ebay auction titles are so full of gibberish that it’s hard to tell exactly what is being offered for sale. If a buyer finds your auction titles obnoxious, they will go with a more readable auction title from a competitor. It would be a shame to lose business just because your auction titles were too boring or too outlandish.

Do a search for completed auctions for items like the ones you sell. Look at the auction titles for inspiration. You will likely find that most of the high winners were well-written, and included specific item details. If your item is a brand name, say so in the title. If it’s new and has never been used or worn, put that in the title as well. Details make the difference between buyers clicking on your item or someone else’s.

Don’t assume that all potential buyers will search for an item’s proper spelling. Typos happen all the time. There are tools you can use, such as the free web site Fatfingers.Com, which reveal the most common misspellings of Ebay search terms. You might want to drop one or two of these in your auction title, just in case. (Incidentally, you can also use misspelled searches to find low-cost items to buy and resell. Typos in titles reduce the number of bids on items, which you can use to your advantage.)

Alternate spellings should also be utilized. For example, if you’re selling a computer on Ebay, you might state that it has a 40 gig hard drive, a 40GB HD, a 40GB disk, and so on. Try to think of terms that a buyer would actually search for, and use more than one of them.

How does one write a title so terrible that Ebay would actually remove the auction? By keyword stuffing. This involves stuffing a title with dozens of keywords that will show up often in searches, but which have no relevance to the actual item. For example, a seller wants to sell a Dallas Cowboys football jersey. In the auction title, the seller also lists the names of twenty other pro football teams, knowing that their auction will turn up in more searches because of it. However, buyers who search for a Green Bay Packers jersey will be frustrated when they come across the keyword-stuffed listing and find that it’s not what they were looking for. Hence, keyword stuffing is a bad idea. And it can get your account suspended.

Auction titles are the very first layer of marketing your goods on Ebay. Of course, your superior item quality and outstanding customer service will keep customers coming back for more, but you need great titles to attract them in the first place.

There’s no doubt about it: Ebay is a popular way to make money from home. Ebay sellers rave about the online auction’s ease of use and the large pool of potential buyers. Millions of sellers report Ebay as their sole source of income. If they can work from home with Ebay, why can’t you?

You can. But if you want to make money on Ebay, you need to ask yourself some questions.

What do you want to sell on Ebay? Some people make a fine income reselling items they found at yard or estate sales. Other Ebay sellers list their items again and again because they just don’t seem to be in demand. Why the discrepancy? Successful Ebay resellers are very familiar with their items. They know how much each item is worth, and they know how much competition they can expect from other sellers listing similar items. They also know whether or not there is a market for a given item, and they pass up items that might prove difficult to sell.

One top Ebay seller follows a simply rule of thumb: she never pays more than $5 for an item when she’s not sure what it’s worth. This has brought her great success while minimizing her losses. If a $5 item turns out to be a hot seller, she gladly pockets the extra money. If the item bombs instead, she hasn’t lost much of her initial investment. Like other Ebay power sellers, she also knows that the really big sales come sporadically. They should be enjoyed, but never counted on.

How do you assess the competition for a given item? Do an Ebay search for similar items and see what comes up. If it looks like the market is saturated, find something else to list. You can always list your item later, when competition isn’t so stiff. Doing an Ebay search is a great idea because it also lets you see how much others are charging for items like yours. If you can undercut the competition without going broke, do it. If not, wait.

While vintage furniture and other bulky items often find enthusiastic new homes, you should be familiar with shipping prices and procedures before you list the big stuff. You don’t want to spend a hundred dollars shipping an item that just sold for $150. Consult your local post office to learn vital shipping details.

Finally, ask yourself if you want to sell general merchandise or cater to a niche market. Having a wide selection of diverse items can mean a larger market for your wares. It also means a pretty hefty initial investment of time and money while you build up your stock. If you’re experienced with a certain type of merchandise, like designer clothing or toys, why not specialize in that niche? With the advent of Ebay stores, you can create a low-cost, permanent showcase for your items. Niche stores tend to do very well, because customers will visit them when they need a specific type of item. Some specialize in gothic jewelry, while others focus on collectible figurines. There is a niche market for just about everything, so choose items that you’re familiar with and display them in your Ebay store.

Making money on Ebay is easy to do. Sellers who research their items and their markets beforehand lead the pack in Ebay success stories. Take a page out of their book. Before you build your inventory, know what you want to sell, to whom, and for how much. A little research now will save you a lot of unpleasant surprises later.

Ebay auctions are more likely to be successful if the seller offers a variety of payment methods. It’s always a good idea to give buyers every possible chance to make a purchase. Checks and money orders work fine, but the preferred payment method for Ebay auctions is, and always has been, PayPal. If your auctions don’t list PayPal as a payment method, you might be turning away a lot of business. Here’s why:

PayPal was purchased by Ebay, and the two services work seamlessly together. PayPal is like an online bank account. Users can deposit and withdraw money to and from their offline accounts, or they can make online purchases using their PayPal balance directly. Users like PayPal’s security and convenience. PayPal can also be used as a way to accept credit card payments from buyers, which is increasingly vital these days.

To sign up for PayPal, go to www.paypal.com. You can create a free account and start accepting payments immediately. Your PayPal account must be linked to an actual bank account or credit card. Note that Ebay pros recommend that you create a bank account specifically to use with PayPal. That way, if one of your transactions gets hit with a chargeback, your main bank account won’t be in danger of going negative.

PayPal will verify your account by sending two small auto-deposits of different amounts. Don’t get too excited, though. These deposits are just a few pennies. They take a couple of days to show up in your bank account. Once you see them, log back into PayPal to verify your account by entering the exact monetary amount of these deposits. Once your account is verified in this way, you can start withdrawing money to your offline account. You can accept payments into your PayPal account from the moment you open it, though.

Now that you’ve signed up for a PayPal account, you need to add Paypal as a payment option. This is a simple way to get more bidders and more money from your Ebay auctions. To add PayPal as a payment choice, go to your “Sell Your Item” details and check the box next to “PayPal”. Then you will need to enter the e-mail address you used to open your PayPal account. Once this is done, buyers will be able to pay you immediately via PayPal whenever an auction ends.

If you want to be able to deal with unlimited amounts of money each month in your PayPal account (which is recommended for high volume sellers), you should upgrade your account. Upgrading is free, and also gives you the option of accepting payment by credit card. To upgrade your PayPal account, simply log into PayPal and click “Enhance Account”. There will be a small fee taken from each transaction after you upgrade, but it is nominal when compared to the benefits of using PayPal.

Take a lesson from Ebay’s top sellers: give buyers as many payment choices as you can. This includes PayPal, Ebay’s number one preferred choice for payments.

Ebay is a fabulous way to sell items, but did you know that it can also be used to advertise and drive sales for your offline business? When you list items on Ebay, you can also include information about other offline businesses. This results in a marketing one-two punch; buyers are drawn to your auction as well as your store information. It’s a legitimate tactic that does not violate Ebay’s terms of use, and savvy sellers are taking advantage of it.

With a bit of research and practice, you can soon come up with auction titles that catch the eyes of potential buyers. When these buyers view your item description, they will also be exposed to any information you list about an offline business. This is particularly useful for sellers of antiques, collectibles, and other items that can take a long time to sell. Smaller items can be listed on Ebay, along with the address and phone number to the seller’s offline store where larger merchandise can be found. If this sounds like an easy and effective marketing tool, that’s because it is.

There are a few tips to remember before you advertise your other businesses on Ebay. First, consider whether this sort of advertising will benefit you. If you sell products within a niche market, such as musical instruments or rare artwork, advertising your shop in your auction listings will probably drive business to your offline store. But if you’re a supplier of general goods that are easily obtained, you might not benefit as much.

Successful merchants who use this marketing strategy always include basic information about their offline stores. You need to list a phone number and physical store address so that buyers can contact you. Put up a schedule of store hours. If your store is in an urban location where parking is a bit tricky, be sure to give a brief description of the parking situation. Will buyers need to pay to park? Will they need to park down the street? Extra information like this will prepare buyers for a trip to your boutique.

Another thing to consider is a map of your store and the surrounding area. Buyers like to know where they are going. If they can visualize your store’s location, they will be more likely to visit. Also, put up a picture of your storefront and interior. This makes your store seem more familiar to buyers and paints an accurate picture of your establishment.

Finally, buyers like to know that you want their business. In your Ebay listing, put in a brief paragraph about how your business prides itself on excellent service. Then invite buyers to call or come by. Even a simple invitation can make the difference between a casual browser and someone who will take the time to come and look at your merchandise.

Many offline shops use Ebay to sell their overstock, but really sharp sellers use Ebay to market their other stores, too. Advertise your business on your Ebay auction listings and you will bring your store’s name to a whole new audience.

Ebay offers plenty of ways to make money. Sellers can put items up for sale or even open their own virtual storefronts. But did you know that Ebay also has an affiliate program? You can sign up to be an Ebay affiliate and have the potential to earn lots of revenue just by driving traffic to Ebay.

Let’s say that you have a web site that gets thousands of hits each month. When you sign up with the Ebay affiliate program, you will be able to place links on your web site that lead back to Ebay. When users click these links, they are able to browse items for sale and even sign up for a seller account if they want to. For all sales and sign-ups that occur within one week of the user clicking on your affiliate links, you earn money. It’s that simple.

Signing up with Ebay’s affiliate program is easy. They have partnered with Commission Junction, an affiliate tracking service that offers real-time reporting and monthly commission checks. To join the program, you must first sign up with Commission Junction. Sign-up is quick and easy. When you’re finished, you will receive codes that you can place on your web site to start attracting customers and directing them to Ebay. And that’s where the money begins.

For every active registration that occurs through one of your affiliate links, you will receive $25-35. Ebay considers a registration to be active if a user places a bid within thirty days of registration. In addition, you will receive a commission of 50-75% on all winning bids or Buy It Nows within seven days of an affiliate action. That means users who click your affiliate link and make an Ebay purchase are putting 50-75% of that transaction’s revenue in your pocket. And all you did was put some code on your web site. What could be easier?

Ebay uses a tiered payment structure for determining commission rates. If you bring over 1-49 active accounts, you will earn a commission of $25 per account. 50-1,999 active accounts will earn you $28 per account. If you bring in 2,000-29,999 active accounts, each one will earn you a $31 commission. And for recruiting 30,000 or more new accounts, you will receive $35 per account. Those are generous terms for an affiliate program. The revenues system is similarly tiered. For every $0-$99 you generate, you will earn 50% commission. The amounts increase incrementally, up to 75% commission for revenue of $3 million and more.

Ebay’s affiliate program is painless for participants and easy to get involved in. Drive traffic to Ebay and get rewarded. Every little bit helps, right? To learn more about this affiliate program, visit affiliates.ebay.com.

Online auction sites like Ebay are very competitive. Sellers do whatever they can to make sure buyers bid on their items rather than a competitor’s. The lengths they go to include keywording, careful auction timing, and the use of Ebay’s many features which make life easier for buyers and sellers alike.

One of Ebay’s most popular features is the “Buy It Now” option. With Buy It Now, bidders can choose to purchase the item outright at a predetermined price. This option is best suited to buyers who want the item and don’t want to risk losing it to a higher bidder. Its appeal comes from its limited availability: once a bid has been placed, Buy It Now is no longer an option. Buyers will be tempted to make the purchase right away, before someone else places a bid.

But some pros caution sellers to be careful when deciding whether to use Buy It Now on their Ebay auctions. Should you offer this option? If so, how should you price your products? Are there times when you shouldn’t offer Buy It Now?

Buy It Now can be risky for sellers. If an item is listed for its full course of seven to ten days, it has the chance to attract watchers who will place bids at the last minute. But if someone comes along and snaps up the item at its Buy It Now price, the seller will never know how much money the item would have generated otherwise. They might even wonder if they should have listed the item at a higher price.

Sometimes it makes perfect sense to use Buy It Now. Holiday shoppers in particular are going online to look for gifts, and many won’t want to wait for auctions to run their course. Additionally, the holidays are a time when impulse shopping is at its peak. By using Ebay’s Buy It Now feature over the holidays, you’re allowing buyers to make purchases before they change their minds.

When should sellers avoid Buy It Now? If you’re selling an item of uncertain value, it’s best to let that item remain on the auction block for a full seven to ten days. For example, let’s say you’ve got some collectible plates but aren’t sure how much they’re worth. If you put them up with the Buy It Now option, you might be asking for much less than the plates’ actual value. Keen collectors would certainly buy the items right away, but you would have made a much larger profit had you forced buyers to place bids.

Ebay sellers should do some research before listing items with the Buy It Now feature. Search completed auctions to see how similar items have been performing. It’s a safe rule to price your items slightly on the low side, since Buy It Now makes it much more likely that they will be purchased quickly. But take care not to price items so low that they’re no longer profitable! Keep an eye on market trends by doing frequent searches for items in similar categories. If the market is saturated with items of this type, you could set your Buy It Now prices low, or switch to different items until the market recovered. If demand outweighs supply, go ahead and set your Buy It Now prices higher than normal.

Buy It Now is a useful feature when used correctly. Take this advice to heart and you’ll have no problem deciding which of your auctions should incorporate Buy It Now.

When it comes to selling goods on Ebay, what you have and how you present it are two vital characteristics of successful auctions. Buyers like to know that they’re getting a good deal, and they like to know details about the merchandise they are paying for. But did you know that the timing of your Ebay auctions can also affect their success? It’s true. Real Ebay pros use timing strategies to maximize their profits, and you can, too.

Some sellers are discouraged when their auctions fail to get bids within the first few days of the listing. This is very common; most bids are placed in an auction’s final hours or even minutes. Buyers who have been watching the auction will try to place the winning bid just before time runs out, to cut down on competition. Since this is the case, Ebay sellers will benefit from making sure their auctions end during peak buying times.

When are Ebay’s peak buying times? According to the pros, daily purchases spike between 8 and 10PM Eastern Standard Time. Weekly sales reach their summit on Sunday evenings. If your auction closes during any of those time periods, your listing is more likely to be seen and bid on. If your auction closes in the wee hours of the morning, it’s unlikely that you will benefit from the last-minute buying scramble.

So how do you time your auctions to end when Ebay has the most visitors? Time your listings carefully. If you put up an item in a three day listing, the auction will end at the exact listing time, three days later. The same goes for other auctions of longer durations. For example, a seven day listing made at 8PM on Sunday evening will end at 8PM the following Sunday evening. It sounds simple, but careful auction timing is an oft-overlooked strategy that can drastically increase your sales on Ebay.

Also, consider the length of your listings. If you list an item for three days, you are shutting out thousands of potential bidders. You want to leave items up for as long as possible. Not only does this give buyers time to find and place bids on your merchandise, it also cuts down on listing fees. Why would you list an item for three days over and over again when you could just list it for seven or ten days from the beginning? Some types of merchandise, such as antiques and collectibles, can take a while to find purchasers. By listing them for three days, you’re losing out on lots of potential visibility. Increase the length of your auctions and increased profits will follow close behind. Items listed for a week or longer have time to attract plenty of auction watchers who could turn into bidders in the auction’s final moments.

Time your auctions for maximum visibility, and your profits will improve. You don’t want to lose out on sales because your auction ended at 3AM when nobody was looking! Close the bidding at a peak time to make the most of your Ebay business.

Ebay can be a fast and fun place to sell your merchandise. Everyone dreams of buying an item for pennies at a rummage sale, only to find out that it was a rare antique worth thousands on Ebay. Stories like that do happen on occasion, but the majority of Ebay profits come from good old-fashioned effort.

Many sellers list a vast collection of items in search of that single smoking hot sale that will make them rich. Unfortunately, it might take hundreds or even thousands of listings to turn up such a sale, and sellers have to pay a fee every time they list an item. Ebay listings only last for seven days. If items don’t sell by the end of those seven days, the seller must pay to list them again. This can get expensive if the seller has hundreds of items to list every week. Some sellers get discouraged when they have to pay repeat listing fees.

Fortunately for sellers with large inventories, Ebay offers stores that allow items to be listed permanently. Ebay stores are virtual storefronts where merchandise can be displayed and sold. Ebay stores are similar to regular auction listings, in that sellers can add photos and descriptive text to give buyers a good idea of what they’re purchasing. But if some Ebay store items take a while to sell, the seller isn’t required to pay for additional listings. Once listed in an Ebay store, the items stay put until they are removed by the seller.

Ebay stores offer convenience to buyers and sellers alike. They can be linked to directly, and they do not expire. For a small monthly fee, Ebay sellers get an e-store that they can customize, link to, and even temporarily take offline if they go on vacation or become otherwise indisposed. Since Ebay stores have static URLs, sellers can even register their own domain names and set them up to forward readers to the store itself. Convenience for the buyer leads to profits for the seller. Buyers will appreciate a convenient custom URL.

Niche Ebay stores are especially appealing. If you have lots of listings that fall under a common category, you should definitely think about setting up an Ebay store. Some stores are devoted to electronics or maternity clothes, while others are devoted to rare vintage items. Whatever your passion, you can build an Ebay store around it.

Another benefit of having an Ebay store is the increased exposure your merchandise receives. Ebay searches now turn up auction listings as well as store items. That means more potential buyers see your items whenever they do a search. More views translate into more money for you, the seller! And because you have a store with a static URL, you can also promote your business by placing links in your e-mail and message forum signatures. You can link to your store from your personal blog or web site. Submit the store’s URL to search engines and social networking sites. Marketing is the key to making money with your Ebay store.

For detailed store terms and conditions, visit the Ebay site. They have a host of information for prospective sellers, including everything you will need to get your Ebay store off and running. If you’re a high-volume seller or frequently list similar items, this research would be well worth your time.

It’s an EBay seller’s most frequently asked question: What should I sell? If you’ve got a hobby you’re passionate about, this question is a no brainer. But if you’re not sure which items to list, take a look at the characteristics of Ebay’s best selling items: collectibles, limited lifetime goods, and seasonal items.

Limited lifetime goods are products that are meant to be used, not put on a shelf and saved. Because of rapid changes in technology or fashion, these items will probably become obsolete before they lose functionality. They won’t last forever, but they can be put to good use in the meantime. These goods typically include electronics, clothing, and the latest and greatest installment of anything in a rapidly evolving market. Current promotional posters and products from popular movies and television shows also fall under this category.

To make the most money by selling limited lifetime goods on Ebay, you have to act fast. Pre-released electronics and game titles are among Ebay’s hottest sellers ever. Timing is important with these products; sell them before the competition does, but after there is a definite demand. This window of opportunity can be very slim, so watch the market carefully. End-of-cycle merchandise can be bought at low prices, but make sure there’s still enough demand to justify such a purchase.

Seasonal items include holiday decorations and cold- or hot-weather clothing. The key to making money with these items is to list them before the competition does. Start a month or two ahead of time and write a convincing auction title and item description that will convince shoppers to buy early – from you.

Antiques and collectibles are a challenging market to break into due to the limit of both supply and demand. You might find a rare item that only a handful of people are interested in. Even then, one of those people would have to have enough expendable income to purchase the item. That can be difficult to coordinate, so allow yourself plenty of time to make a sale. Use other avenues of sale, too; Ebay might not be enough to move some items.

The key to making a good living selling antiques and collectibles on Ebay is to know your market. Buyers will be more likely to purchase from someone with expert knowledge. Customer service is also paramount. Remember, these high-ticket sales depend on quality over quantity. Buyers will not part with their cash if the seller ignores their questions or acts rudely. Cultivate a strong, well-deserved reputation for excellent service.

The best selling items on Ebay tend to fall into one of the three categories mentioned above. Sellers who pay attention to the fluctuations of the market, who time things right, and who don’t hesitate to snatch up a good deal for later resale, will likely find great success with their auctions.

Ebay has spawned some wild stories of rags-to-riches wealth. Some of those tales are true, but instant Ebay millionaires are far outweighed by the legions of Ebayers who make a decent living doing something they enjoy. (And isn’t that good enough?) Still, so many of us can’t help but look at these top power sellers and wonder what they know that we don’t. What’s the secret to their success?

Some foundations of success aren’t secret at all; it still takes good old fashioned hard work and customer service to become a top seller on Ebay. That being the case, there are still a few tips and tricks that separate casual hobbyists from serious Ebay merchants.

#1. Keyword Managers. Keywords are all the rage these days. Web pages with plenty of relevant words will show up on web searches. Likewise, auctions with relevant, highly searched terms will show up in Ebay searches. How do you know which terms buyers are searching for? There are subscription programs such as Keyword Pro and Ebay Pulse that generate lists of the most frequently searched terms in any given category. Add some of these terms to your own listings to increase views. (Just be sure that the words are relevant to the actual item. Nobody likes a keyword spammer, least of all Ebay.)

#2. Typo Searches. It’s a sad truth that there are some poor spellers on the Internet. When they become online merchants, they lose business because their misspelled items never turn up in Ebay searches. Luckily, Fatfingers.Com is a free web site that lets you search for common misspellings on Ebay. For example, I searched for the term “scarf”. I was then sent to Ebay’s web site, where a search was run for “sacrf”, “sxarf”, and several other typos of “scarf”. It’s amazing how many items you can find at low prices just because they were listed with incorrect spelling. Many sellers capitalize on these misspelled items, buying them low and selling them high. Let this be a lesson to prospective Ebay merchants: proofread your listings. Twice.

#3. Data Analyzers. Offline businesses use data analysis before making their decisions, so why shouldn’t you? Imagine knowing which items are selling like hot cakes and which ones aren’t really taking off. You could minimize your risk by avoiding slow sellers and snapping up soon-to-be-hot items at a discount. There are software packages that actually analyze Ebay’s data to see what’s really selling and what’s not. Hot Item Finder (www.hotitemfinder.com) is one such program. Experts agree that they can save many hours of research each week by using data analyzers. There is also a program called Auction Yen which runs analysis for Want It Now listings. It pays to know what customers really want, so these programs come highly recommended.

#4. Selling Managers. It’s vitally important to keep track of your inventory and auction listings. Ebay offers a selling manager for a low monthly cost. This online tool helps sellers track and customize their listings, print shipping labels, and more. Sellers tout this one as another great time saver.

It’s no secret that you can make a lot of money on Ebay. With these tips from the top Ebay sellers, you’ll be smiling all the way to the bank.