Generally there is only one earning strategy employed by eBay sellers. Buy low and sell for a profit. Sellers may be cruising yard sales on a weekend, op shops, or bargain bins in department stores, or they may have access to suppliers of wholesale goods (including dropshippers). But the strategy is still the same. This is the easiest and most direct method to make money on eBay as it involves listing an item for sale and then within days or weeks seeing a return on the investment.

Sellers may be able to repeat the sales that they have achieved, as in the case of goods obtained in bulk from a wholesale supplier or dropshipper, or they may have different items to sell in each listing. There are many people making excellent money on eBay from this strategy by all accounts and so it obviously works. I do it myself.

There is another strategy, hardly employed on eBay by sellers, which can also earn money for the account holder. That is using eBay as a vehicle for generating traffic to a seller’s other items, located off eBay, or for the seller to create affiliate sales of other peoples’ products. I will endeavour to explain the workings of these two strategies in more detail below.

Buy Low - Sell High

There’s definitely nothing new about this. It has been the backbone of trading since time began and essentially eBay is just an extension of any shopping mall or market place where trading goes on - the only difference is that a lot of eBay sales are conducted by auction, which is somewhat unconventional in a traditional commercial sense.

There are a number of ways that eBay sellers utilise this method of selling and trading on eBay. As mentioned, the auction format is perhaps the most used, or at least the most commonly noticed method of trading on eBay. This may be used predominantly for items that are personal possessions being sold off on eBay, such as old DVDs and clothes, where the seller would be happy to accept any value for the goods seeing they have already used up their value by using them themselves.

It is also used where an item is rare and this is where eBay has built its global reputation as being the place of choice for selling such items so that sellers can attract a global audience to fight over the product.

Sellers often also utilise a fixed price format, or include a buy-it-now price on their listing to encourage quick sales or to set a reserve price on an item in categories in which this option is not available using the auction format. Fixed price format sales are also used for eBay store owners where the listings are generally listed for a month at a time rather than for a week or 10 days or less.

There are advantages and disadvantages to owning a store for different sellers and different items, but as regards the benefits of a store for listings I’m not going to go into that here.

The costs of listing and selling items on eBay, apart from the purchase costs of the items that are being offered for sale are:

* the listing fees payable to eBay calculated as a small percentage of the listing price upfront and the sales price in arrears

* the cost of promoting your listing through use of pictures, highlighting and a premium for promoting your listing on search results or on eBay’s featured listings pages

* a percentage of the total sale amount (including postage) for buyers who use PayPal

* postage costs (although these costs are usually totally offset by the buyer)

* eBay store subscriptions and other eBay subscriptions such as Picture Manager and Selling Manager Pro

Another cost that too many eBay sellers don’t take into account when they start selling stuff, particularly low value (and hence low margin) items such as books and DVDs, is the value of their time. I don’t know about you, but my time is worth money during the day at least. I also put a value on the time that I have after working to spend with my family, or having fun, resting, exercising and eating amongst other things.

When valuing my time monetarily I put a higher value on the time that I spend out of work, just as I would expect to be paid extra for overtime. This time is an important part of any eBay seller’s strategy because it takes time to put up listing, pack and post products, respond to email queries and perform other administrative tasks. And this time is usually time spent after work, i.e. the most valuable time.

All up I allocate at least 30 minutes to a unique listing and 15 minutes to an item I can repeatedly re-list. That means that if I value my time at $20/hour then I wouldn’t list any unique item that doesn’t make me $10 profit or a $5 profit on items I list repeatedly.

If you can make some money selling on eBay with this strategy then there is no limit to what you can do with your business as all you have to do is multiply the number of items that you sell to increase your profits. There are even eBay sellers that employ people to do their postage and packing or other administrative tasks where they are selling more than they can handle on their own.

eBay as a Traffic Generator for Other Products

No doubt, affiliate marketing is a huge money maker on the internet. There are probably millions of products that can be sold as an affiliate and usually all you need is a website or some content, whether in the form of a regular newsletter or blog or articles, to get into the game. eBay is another great place to ply affiliate products, or even your own products, outside of the usual eBay sales channels of auctions and fixed price listings.

If you want to sell anything on the internet then you need some sort of product and some webspace on which to advertise and sell it. Duh. Well eBay is a free platform that you can use to do that - and I’m not just talking about your listings. Every eBay account comes with an opportunity to create an About Me page on which you can tell the world who you are and what you are about.

You can include text, graphics, video and even HTML on that page and unlike the very strict policies that eBay maintains and enforces in regards to the content and links that you include on your listings eBay is much more lenient on the stuff that you have on your about me. About the only restriction is that you don’t link to other auction sites or sites with a catalogue of products for sale (ie eBay’s competition).

You can link to your home page, your blog, your granny’s poker club - anything - including sites that sell certain products that you can refer people to and earn affiliate commissions. This is best done with information products in my opinion, or by inviting visitors to your about me to leave you their details through a web form so that you can send them newsletters (though which you can sell anything you want). This is a very poorly tapped opportunity on eBay.

I use my about me page to invite visitors to my online business website where I have a form to capture their name and email so that I can send them info about building a home business. I’ve worked out that for ever 100 people that view my listings about 15 go to my about me page and approximately 1 goes on to check out my business homepage. Small numbers at this level, sure, but seeing as I average about 1000 listing views per day, that’s 10 people visiting my online business and they convert to leads on my website at about the rate of 2%. So I get one lead from eBay each week.

It’s still a trickle, I’ll give you that, but it’s a FREE trickle that I wouldn’t otherwise get and each year I make about $3000 this way. I’ll take $3000 for free, wouldn’t you?

If you don’t have an online business then you can just promote someone else’s. Just go somewhere like Clickbank and sign up as an affiliate there. Easy money if you ask me.

You can also set up a link in your eBay store header that can take your store visitors to your online business or affiliate business (though I’m not entirely sure if eBay approves of that). I haven’t found anything that directly says it’s a no-no & I haven’t asked or had my store suspended (yet). Until then I’m getting another trickle of traffic there as well.

Conclusion

Correct me if I’m wrong but I think that the key to any successful business is optimising your opportunities. You only have so many and if you are not making the most of each one then you are not going to be in business very long. You should be using all that eBay offers to build your trading business and also adding additional streams of income that you can profit from where available as well.

Buying low and selling high is going to be your key weapon in your business strategy and part of this is going to be finding a good supply of items from which you can profit (though I haven’t gone into that here), but you should have an affiliate stream built in there as well - especially seeing that you don’t have to pay anything extra for the privilege and it’s so easy.

By: James Finnila

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eBay has become a great way to sell all kind of merchandise on the web. A person can start out by selling personal items they wish to get rid of and graduate to selling merchandise that they find or contract for. An eBay business can become a full time business and for some be a very profitable enterprise.

How to get started on eBay

eBay has a website that can be found on the Net that describes exactly what a potential seller on eBay needs to do. There are many other sites that offer to help and or teach you how to be successful on eBay. There is obviously no lack of information and websites that are willing to help you get started.

This information will help any new eBay seller get started and hopefully reduce the learning curve toward success. There are many missteps that can make getting started filled with potential errors. All new enterprises are learning situations and eBay is no exception.

What to sell

There is an alternative to selling your own merchandise on eBay. Drop off eBay stores have become a creative way to enter the eBay business. These stores advertise that they will help sell items for you on eBay. The reason this works is people do not know how to use eBay or they are too busy to try selling anything in this way. The customer with something to sell is willing to pay a fee for help in selling whatever the item is. This has big advantages to the storeowner. They have a constant flow of new items to sell and they do not have to spend any money buying the items they then sell. New inventory keeps buyers coming back to their listings on eBay.

If you do not want to sell other people’s items, you can buy items and sell them for yourself. College auctions of equipment, state and city auctions are excellent sources for merchandise that can be purchased for a song and sold for a decent amount. A fellow I knew bought a palette of Hulk Hogan VCR tapes and sold them all on eBay for $5 each. His cost per tape was about 5 cents each. How he knew he could make money on them is a mystery. It may have been that he could buy them so cheap he figured he could not lose. Stories like this are common for people who go to these auctions. When the equipment that is owned by the military comes up for auction there will be some real bargains. Items like this will be very profitably sold on eBay.

Specialization selling

The success stories on eBay seem to have one common factor for those that sell merchandise. They specialize in a very specific area of items they sell. It could be clothes, toys, diamonds, cutlery, art pieces or any thing you can think of selling. It is possible on eBay to build a reputation for selling things that are always in a similar category. If you want to branch out, there is no reason that you cannot start a new company and list the new products under that name.

If you enjoy a solid eBay reputation, your reputation will help get you business. The reputation is made up from timely service and fair treatment of the customer. The delivered merchandise is what it was claimed to be. All three of these elements are critical to a good eBay reputation.

Learn by reading

There are many books about selling on eBay in a successful way. Reading these books will speed up the learning curve and prevent common mistakes. Some very successful eBay business people have seminars that will enhance what you have read. Websites on the Net are also available for free and at modest prices to learn the ins and outs of eBay. Knowing what to do and how to do it is worth time and money. Emulating pros is not a bad way to learn what to do and how to do it. Ebay pros are willing to give solid advice in books, websites and seminars. There is no better group to learn from in the eBay business.

Finding things to sell

Finding things to sell other than through auctions takes some work. You can locate companies that offer items to sell and you can go to garage sales, pawnshops and thrift shops. You could specialize in estate sale items such as antiques. The smaller the niche is the better you might become at finding great buys that can then be sold on eBay at a better than average profit. When you are an expert in certain areas it is easy to recognize when you are offered a bargain priced item. These can then be turned around and sold on eBay.

Payment for eBay purchases

Many sellers on eBay take credit cards or PayPal for payment. Others will take money orders or bank drafts. Very few will take a personal check, or if they do, shipment is not made until the check clears the bank. PayPal and credit cards are the most popular forms of payment. The reasons are pretty clear. The payment is almost instantaneous and will be good funds. Once the payment is made, the seller has the obligation to deliver the purchased item.

Keeping your record clean and clear

It is difficult to sell anything and not at some time have a dispute with the customer. The secret is to settle the matter as quickly as possible and as fairly as possible. Keep your eBay record clean and the customers will rate you better.

A good eBay rating by customers will lead to more sales. Lack of problems is good; solving the few problems that happen is critical.

Conclusions

An eBay business is easy to start and does not take a lot of money to get up and running. A person could start by selling items they already own and slowly buy and sell other items. If the profits were put back into the business this would help grow the business. A growing eBay business can be sustained over time by having items to sell that people want. Finding these items is the area that will take work to find. Products that are wanted will sell, finding them is the job of the eBay business owner. Think outside of the box and find unique items that are not commonly seen. Find useful and helpful items. These will sell also and help the company turn a profit. The items need to be purchased right so they can be sold at an attractive price and still make a profit.

A person should study the successful eBay companies and what they do to remain successful. These business people have found ways to be successful and their techniques should be studied.

Read everything that eBay puts out for information. Sure some of it will be promotional, but some of it is very helpful. Read and decide for yourself what is true and important. The more you read and study, the better you will be prepared to make good decisions.

By: Bill Henthorn

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I began selling stuff on Ebay in July of 1998. Since then Ebay has grown to enormous proportions and I am not sure how many of the millions of people who visit Ebay every day really know much about what it was like and how it has changed. I will not pretend to present a comprehensive history of Ebay which may have already been done or will most certainly be done at some point in the future. Please, allow me to just relate my own experience of buying items and selling them for profit on Ebay.

In 1996 I was one of the co-founders of a company that provided local dial-up internet access for the small rural community where we live. The company is still in business and has grown with the times to now be a primary provider of high-speed wireless internet access in several communities in 3 counties in the area. So, I have been closely associated with the internet for the past 11 years.

In 1997 or so we started to hear about a web site called Ebay, an online auction site where people were buying and selling stuff. I was no stranger to auctions having attended auctions with my parents when I was a young child. And now as an adult, I still attended estate or farm auctions in the area. So, I checked out the site and thought it might be an interesting thing to try. In 1998 I registered as an Ebay user and started to look for some stuff to sell.

The first item I sold on Ebay was a little hand woven wool rug. It was only about 2 feet by 3 feet and quite worn because it was pretty old. I paid 5 dollars for it and it sold for 20 dollars which I thought was pretty good since it was four times what I had paid for it. If I had a hundred dollars worth of stuff sell for 400 hundred that would be some good money.

I was off and running to sales all over the area. My wife and I bought stuff of all sorts, brought it back to our office, took pictures, wrote descriptions, and listed the stuff during the evening so it would end a week later during the evening when people were home in front of their computers.

At that time Sunday evening was the prime time to have your auctions end. It was then that the largest volume of potential customers were on the Ebay site. Keep in mind that internet access at work was not nearly as prevalent as it is now. People used their computers from home in the evening. The downside to this was the Ebay site would become so busy the site would sometimes become unresponsive for buyers and sellers alike.

There was nothing worse than having to wait for a couple of minutes for each page view in the listing process to happen or, worse yet, have some one trying to bid on your stuff that is ending in a couple of minutes and they cannot get the page up. Ebay was working furiously to update its software and hardware and its internet connections to handle the traffic that just continued to grow.

On the Ebay front page it used to say how many items were for sale at any given time. I remember seeing that figure at around 800,000 and thinking it was huge. I do not know how many millions of items are now for sale on Ebay at any given time and not sure if they even say any more.

I have always focused on selling antiques and collectibles on Ebay. Like any other area of the country there are 8 or 10 auctioneers in a four county area around us. When we really started to go to auctions a lot there would be anywhere from 2 to 6 auctions during any given week one could attend. We bought a lot of stuff because it was usually cheap.

I would have 50 to 75 items for sale on Ebay at any given time. A person could buy stuff for a dollar or two or maybe a little more and list it on Ebay for a minimum of 9.99 and it would sell for maybe 15 or 20 dollars or more. You never knew what something would bring which is why it was so much fun. It seemed like you could sell just about anything for a profit.

Estate sales and auctions have always been my largest source of items to sell on Ebay. In 1998 and for a few years after these auctions were attended by the local public, maybe a couple of collectors, and a handful of antique dealers.

Nowadays, upon arriving at an auction site there are still those same groups of people but there is another group who have come exclusively looking for items to sell on Ebay. These people may have come from 50, 100, 200, or more miles away.

Before the auction you see people going through the days offerings while talking to someone on a cell phone who is probably in front of a computer telling them what something might potentially bring or has sold for on Ebay. Sometimes these people are specialized or sometimes they seem to want to buy everything at the sale. Consequently, prices at live auctions have risen to where many items sell for what they might sell for on Ebay and the people who seem to have to buy everything are most likely just spinning their wheels and really going nowhere.

The cost of doing business on Ebay has steadily increased over the years. It is still a bargain considering the market exposure your offerings receive. In the past the expenses associated with selling on Ebay were kind of an afterthought. Now the expenses are something to consider.

I will certainly continue to sell items on Ebay with the hope of picking up some extra cash from time to time. There are numerous methods, books, and programs to make millions on Ebay. Some of them may work but probably only if you are willing to work hard at it. I am sure there are lots of people whose sole enterprise is selling things on Ebay. There are people selling stuff from warehouses, offices, garages, home offices, off the dining room table, or their bedroom. All of them contributing to making Ebay the most successful online business of them all.

By: Michael Dappert

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Now, I am going to give you how to get started making money on eBay & boost your high income business opportunities. eBay online market is the largest marketplace on the internet right now. I am sure that you can make big money online from home on eBay. You just have to learn EXACTLY how to make money on eBay.

READ THIS: If you are looking for high income business opportunities and way to earn big money online from home.

Are you interested in using eBay to buy the products that you need or even sell items that you no longer want? Do you want to make money online on eBay? If you are, you will need to create an eBay account, if you haven’t already done so. Although many automatically assume that getting started with eBay is a complicated task, it doesn’t have to be. All you really need to do is follow a few simple steps and you should be good to go.

You’ll discover my recommended simple steps to get started on eBay and start earning money online at home below:

The first thing that you will want to do is visit eBay’s website, which is located at eBay.com. Once you are at eBay’s website, you can then click on the link that allows you to register a new account. At that stage, you will be brought to a signup form. That signup form will ask you a series of questions. For instance, you will need to enter in your full name, your address, your telephone number, as well as an e-mail address. You will also be required to come up with an eBay screen name or sign in name, as well as an eBay password, which will be used to access your eBay account. Once you have correctly filled out the form, you will be sent a verification email from eBay.

Once you have received eBay’s verification email and followed all of the instructions, which will help you validate your eBay account, you will be able to start using eBay right away. When you first get started, you may need to sign in to your eBay account. As previously stated, you will need to use your eBay sign in name or screen name and password to do so. For that reason, you may want to write down your sign in information and keep it in a safe place. Once you have signed in to your eBay account, you can then do whatever you want; buy or sell.

That’s a real simple step for your registration on eBay. Now, you are ready for earning money online on eBay. The key factor of making big money on eBay at home is to find great & cheap products and sell those products for profits. The big major task is how to find hot selling product online in the eBay marketplace.

If you are interested in using eBay to shop online, to buy, you will want to start searching for items to buy. This can be done a number of different ways. eBay allows you to browse through their large selection of items, by detailed categories. You can also perform a standard eBay search or an advanced one. Searches are more likely to give you accurate, tailored results. When browsing or searching for something in particular, you should be able to see a large number of auction listing all on one page. The information that you will be presented with at this time is the standard, bare minimum. If you would like more additional information on the item in question, such as how much shipping costs or too see additional pictures, you will want to click on the link to view the detailed sales page. Should you like what you see, follow the instructions to buy and you will have made your first purchase on eBay!

As it was previously stated, if you are interested in selling on eBay, to make a little bit of extra money, you can also do so. The only difference is that you are required to pay small fees to become an eBay seller, unlike eBay buyers who have completely free accounts. The amount of money that you are charged will all depend on your auctions, particularly how much you list each item for, as well as how well each item sells. To get started with selling, you will want to click on the “sell,” link at the top of the eBay webpage. What is nice about listing items for sale on eBay it is relatively easy to do. For example, you need to choose a category for your item, make a headline for your auction listing, write a description of your product, upload pictures of what you are selling, outline shipping costs, as well as accepted forms of payments, but everything is outlined for you, in a step-by-step matter.

Whether you are interested in becoming an eBay buyer or an eBay seller, you can do both, in as little as a few minutes. eBay, as previously mentioned, is considered one the most shopped at online marketplaces. For you, this means that if you are looking to make money on eBay from home, you should be able to do so and if you are interested in buying on eBay, you should be able to find millions of products to choose from. This is a real home based business opportunity you should NOT miss! You’ll discover a lot of golden high income business opportunities on eBay. It is a global marketplace in the world!

Finally, I am sure that making money on eBay is one of great ways to make big money on the internet at home. It is a real home based business opportunity. You’ll discover a TON of homeworker business opportunities to make EXTRA money online from home.

Learn more about how to make money over $8,000,000 selling products on eBay. You’ll discover step-by-step, tips, techniques and insider secrets of how to become a millionaire internet entrepreneur selling products on eBay.

By: zmilliondollars

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Having a store on eBay is an exciting venture, at least at the outset. You have visions of millions of eBay buyers who will be visiting your store, buy from you, and the money will just pour in.

Anyone who has had an eBay store knows better. Competition is very tough. It takes hard work and a lot of marketing to drive traffic to your eBay store.

Then, when people do arrive at your eBay store, what do they see? Do they see the run of the mill, the “me too” look, the amateurish storefront that many, if not most, eBay stores present to the world?

You have only one opportunity to make a first impression. In a second or two, the eBay buyer is going to categorize you into professional or amateur, into trustworthy or dodgy.

Here are five basic things you must do right to give you the best chance of survival.

Number One: Treat Your eBay Store as a Serious Business

So many eBay stores appear to have been hastily bolted together, almost as if it were something that the eBay seller did late one Sunday evening. Nobody wants to buy from somebody who appears to be in it just for the money. An unprofessional eBay storefront gives the impression of an unprofessional eBay seller who simply wants to take people’s money and run.

Number Two: Portray Yourself as a Knowledgeable Professional

It is astounding how few eBay sellers make use of the About Me page. That one page has the ability to either establish or destroy your credibility. The page gives the eBay seller the opportunity to tell the eBay buyer why she should buy from him.

Look at it from an eBay buyer’s perspective. You would much rather buy an item from somebody who clearly knows something about the item, than from someone who doesn’t. More importantly, you would much rather repeatedly buy from someone who is knowledgeable about the particular item or category of item.

You might be a guru. Nobody will know it if you do not tell them.

Number Three: Give all the Necessary Information to Facilitate Buyer Decision

Remember, the eBay buyer is forking out hard-earned cash for your item. You need to give them the required business information to ensure them that: a) they are paying a fair or better price, b) they are getting value for money, c) they won’t get any nasty surprises of hidden costs, and d) they can get their money back if they are not satisfied with the purchase.

That’s the purpose of eBay Store Policies.

Number Four: Give Special Attention to your eBay Storefront Above the Fold

It’s that first impression issue again. What do eBay buyers see when they land on your main storefront page? Do they see a tacky image? “Unprofessional, see ya,” hit the back button! Do they see the most expensive items at the top of the list? “Expensive,” hit the back button! Of course, YOU would want an eBay buyer to see your most expensive item first. However, is that what the eBay buyer wants to see? Probably not.

Number Five: Make It Easy for the eBay Buyer to Find Items

You are one amongst thousands. Unless you are selling something completely unique, nobody is going to take an hour, or half an hour, or ten minutes, or even one minute, to try and find an item in your eBay store that they could also find somewhere else.

Wisely use the categories and promotion boxes of your eBay store. The categories are like aisles in your eBay store. You do not want to force people to rummage through the entire store if they came for a specific item. Why not? Won’t they see other things they might want to buy? The answer is, because they won’t. They will just leave and look somewhere else until they easily find what they are looking for.

Conclusion

It might sound very tough, but if your eBay store is failing or is struggling to get off the ground, the reason is probably you. Are you treating your eBay store as a serious business? Are you portraying yourself as a professional and knowledgeable business person? Are you presenting the best image possible and are you making it as easy as possible for the eBay buyer to buy from your eBay store? Think about it.

By: Jason Griffith

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