How to Make Money on Ebay by Charlie Choo - HTML preview

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There is a lot of money to be made as a seller on eBay. Thousands and thousands of sales are made each day, resulting in a lot of income for a lot of sellers. And there is still room for you if you want to get involved – whether you want to earn some part time cash or set up a whole new full time business on the side.

But where do you get your stock from? How do you get started? And how can you build a business that gives you PowerSeller status? Relax – you’re about to find out.

It’s easy work to get started earning money on eBay. Once you’ve signed up for your free account the best way to get a feel for what selling is like is to auction off some of your personal items that you no longer want. If you are going to start buying stock to resell, you’ll do better by getting some basic selling experience first.

While we are on the subject of stock, you’ll need to decide what kind of business you are going to set up. Of course you can sell anything you like, but if you want to make a name for yourself it helps to become known for selling a specific type of product.

Now that doesn’t necessarily mean your product area needs to be a small one; on the contrary it could be quite large. You could sell toys for example – there’s plenty there to keep any seller going for months on end without selling the same thing twice. You do need to pick a popular product though, and it’s worth doing some research using eBay’s advanced search feature to find out what is selling and how much it’s selling for.

So let’s say you want to sell computer games, for example. There are hundreds of games you could buy to sell here, but if you don’t know which ones will sell you could lose a lot of money buying the wrong stock. By searching the ended listings you can see which titles consistently sell well, and which ones will produce the best profit for you.

Okay – so you know how to figure out what to buy. Now you need to know where to get it from. It stands to reason that no seller is going to tell you where they get their stock; that would be like giving away the keys to their business. In order to find the best sources for stock you need to do a bit of legwork.

We should mention here that there are two main sources for stock – wholesalers and dropshippers. Both have their pros and cons; it just depends on which method you personally prefer.

Dropshippers hold all the stock for you, so you only actually pay for an item once you’ve received payment from the customer. You may have to pay a fee to join the scheme in the first place though.

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If you choose to go with one or more wholesalers you will need to have the room to buy the stock, and the money to buy it in advance. This comes with more risk since you could buy stock that doesn’t sell, but with the tactic we’ve already covered for checking completed listings before you order anything, the risk here should be kept to a minimum.

So – back to where to find these sources. If you have a particular product in mind that you want to sell, the simple act of looking at the packaging can often reveal the name of the supplier. You can then check out their website to see what else they do.

Another method is to search for what you want on Google. This sounds deceptively simple and in fact many people don’t think of doing this. It can be a bit hit or miss, but it’s possible to find some excellent wholesalers through this method. Over time you will go from having one wholesaler to a handful of sources to get your stock from, and you can build up your product range as you start to grow.

Building your feedback is an important part of being a good seller and the higher you can get your score the better. It sets you apart as being a dedicated seller. And the faster your score climbs, the closer you get to attaining PowerSeller status.

The PowerSeller symbol is highly prized among serious eBay sellers, and there are five levels to strive for. The first is Bronze, and it’s a lot easier to reach than you might think. While you might set a goal for yourself to reach PowerSeller, you will find that if you build up your product range and gradually increase your sales, you will reach it in no time. And if you get off to a great start you might just do it in three months – the minimum time you can actually do it in.

Many sellers have their own shop on eBay, but it’s not necessary when you first get started. In fact you are often better off waiting until you have a good range of stock before opening a shop, since it can look rather empty if you only have a handful of items.

The final thing to think about is the price of the items you are selling. It stands to reason that if you sell a hundred different products in the $5 to $10 price range, you won’t make as much cash as you would selling a hundred in the $50 to $100 price range.

But you need to work out what you enjoy selling and what you can sell lots of to experience real success on eBay. Don’t go for expensive products just because they might bring a bigger profit. Go for your calling – that’s where you will experience the biggest success.

Above all, remember that it can take time to build a successful business – but if you’re determined to achieve real success on eBay you should be enjoying the journey. 
 

 

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Contents

Introduction .............................................................................................................................................. 7  What to Sell............................................................................................................................................. 9  Where to Source your Product........................................................................................................... 12  How to Take Great eBay Photos ....................................................................................................... 18  How to Get Maximum Eyes on Your Offer....................................................................................... 19  How to Write a Top-Notch Description.............................................................................................. 21  The Best Time to List........................................................................................................................... 23  The Biggest Mistake Sellers Make.................................................................................................... 24  Preventing Problem Customers......................................................................................................... 26  How to Price your Item........................................................................................................................ 27  How to Package your Item.................................................................................................................. 29  Getting Efficient with Fulfillment......................................................................................................... 31  How to Get Repeat Sales ................................................................................................................... 32  Software to Automate your Business................................................................................................ 33  Conclusion............................................................................................................................................. 35 

Recommended Reading ......................................................................................................................... 36 

 

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Introduction

Millions of people all over the world have tried their luck at selling on eBay, but only a small number have truly succeeded at making money. Their failure usually occurs because they underestimated the work and commitment involved, or thought that selling on eBay is a just another-get-rich-quick scheme.

Those who succeed understand that an eBay business is just like any other business; it requires a lot of planning, time and effort; and they also know that all that would be worth it when the money started rolling in.

But don’t panic, after reading through this eBook, you’ll be well-equipped to make some serious cash. Before I get into it, I want to clarify common 3 misunderstandings about selling on eBay and sourcing new items to sell:

#1. Designer goods are among the most popular items on eBay, and therefore, I should be selling them.

 

Sorry, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Well, the first part is true; designer goods are popular among eBay buyers, but that doesn’t mean that you should be selling them!

The whole truth is, there are so many other sellers out there who are selling those designer items, that it makes it pretty much impossible to make any money doing the same. Instead of entering these highly competitive markets, you should try and find your own niche which appeals to a smaller, but much hungrier market.

#2 eBay is the best place to sell goods online

eBay is a great place to launch your career as a seller, but because it is so highly competitive, many sellers move on to other auction sites or platforms and find that their money making potential skyrockets straight away!

Other sellers try out new selling platforms which start out with only low levels of buyers. Soon enough however, buyers start flooding the site, and as a pioneer of that platform, they enjoy a level of sales that they couldn’t imagine on eBay.

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Others start their own eCommerce websites and enjoy the freedom of being able to sell whatever they want, whenever they want. They also love the fact that they don’t have to pay fees; all their profits are their own!

#3: When I buy from a wholesaler, I’ll be able to buy items for 50% less than the retail price.

This is a popular one. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Most of the time, wholesale prices are around 10-20% less than the retail price. It’s a shocking truth, but those are the same margins that retail stores and eBay’s top sellers get when they buy wholesale.

Of course, when you buy in huge bulk, you might be able to get even better deals, but until you can fork out $10,000+ on a single order, those are the prices you should expect to pay.

Ok, with that under your belt, it’s time to get started. Over the following chapters, you will be covering some essential selling tips such as how to take great photos for your eBay listings, where to source your items for reselling, how to price your items for maximum bids, and how to get repeat sales. Plus much more!

At the end, you will be well equipped to make some serious money on eBay. So let’s get started!

 

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What to Sell

 

If you are looking at a blank canvas of options that you want to start your business with, it is necessary to take a few steps to find out the best items that you want to sell. Here is a quick checklist for you to answer on a piece of paper of where to begin;

— What is my background in?

 

— What am I passionate about?

 

— What is profitable?

 

— What industry is in alignment with my professional goals?

 

— How much money do I want to make?

 

— Which items sell enough to become make me a good profit?

 

— Who would be my competition?

 

— Who do I want to sell to?

 

— How do I reach a target market?

 

— How much money can I invest in this venture?

 

— Who are the websites that I can partner with?

These are all questions that you would essentially answer in a business plan. There are obviously a trillion items that you could sell on eBay. It really boils down to the type of person that you are and if you would be able to stay motivated to keep up the store during the tough times. The people that become successful on eBay are usually extremely passionate about the items that they choose to sell on a consistent basis.

They are not choosing products that will only make them money. You are going to sacrifice your customer service if you do that because you will not know a single thing about your products. When they have the item or products that they sell, all they do is take persistent steps to ensure the quality of their production is constantly enhanced.

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Take a look at your life and ask yourself some serious and challenging questions. You are obviously not just trying to sell a few items just to make a few hundred dollars if your intention is to be a turn eBay into a full-time money-making venture. You are in it to win it. This is going to be a huge investment of your time and effort to get the ball rolling.

So what items do you sell to make money on eBay? Items that consistently sell would be a good start. You need to have a volume of sales in order to reach the super seller status and that is a big business move that takes massive action with a large distribution process.

But I do not want to just lead you into the darkness of choosing items to sell because you are passionate about them. You could be passionate about underwater mouse traps for all I know. And I would be willing to bet that there are no serious sellers in the world selling underwater mouse traps.

You are going to have to see what is selling, and then see if you can implement your own understanding and passion about those items. And I’d be willing to bet that there are items out there that are selling that you would learn to be passionate about once you learned about them and bought one.

How you are going to find an item to sell is to find trends of what is selling already. A free way to do this is to go to eBay Pulse. This is an excellent resource for you to go to see what is selling and who is searching for which items.

You are going to have to pretend that you are already a big-time seller by using the techniques and strategies that they are using. This is going to take some reconnaissance on your part to see what other big sellers and PowerSellers are doing on eBay to make sure that their businesses are thriving.

After you look up trends of items that are selling on eBay and stalk other sellers of the items that interest you, I would choose 5 major players in those niches and sign up for every newsletter or marketing plan that they provide. What this is going to do for you is to allow you to see if you can even do what they are doing.

You may not even want to sell the items that they are selling because of the competition. But by involving yourself in other seller’s businesses, you can think about any additional items that might give you a unique store. Many times successful eBay sellers do the same thing over and over again because it seems to be working for them. You are going to need to be unique and offer items that people know they need or want.

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I’m not saying this is easy to find any product and start to see if it makes any money. You may want to open several stores to see if certain items do well with different strategies. There are changes in e-commerce all of the time that happen by accident. There are eBay stores that have exploded their business overnight, not because they sold the perfect product, but because they sold the right product at the right time.

For example, a few years ago face plates for cell phones were a top seller on eBay. Now however, we don’t see so many phones that actually allow for interchangeable faceplates, so this wouldn’t be a good niche. Many times there will be something that happens in the world which launches a surge in product searches. This happens in every niche. You’re not going to find the perfect product right away, but a good start would be to equip your store with items that you can provide an excellent service around.

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Where to Source your Product

 

The best possible way to find a company that you want to source to, is going to be at trade shows. Any serious seller on eBay will tell you that this is what you have to do if you are going to be serious about your eBay business. It really depends on a few things of where you want the company to be depending on their location, prices and business processing. You don’t want to find to a wholesale company by chance. Unless you find the supplier on a reliable wholesale directory, there is too much at stake for you to lose if you simply look up a wholesaler on the internet and tell them that you want to sell their product.

If you live in a country where there are trade shows within your industry or niche, than there is no excuse that you can’t attend. It is one weekend out of the year to go talk to these companies that have booths set up where you can get a personal relationship based on trust from all parties involved.

You want to do business with companies based on trust and nothing is better than meeting them in person. The companies that you want to source from want to meet responsible and profitable retailers as well. They are not just going to offer just anyone to sell their products. Go on the internet and start looking for trade shows that are relatively close by to you so you can attend. Sign up for the organization’s newsletter to keep informed on any featured exhibitions or changes in scheduling.

If you have a specific product in mind, then you are going to need to do a more defined search by adding keywords that are product-specific. If you sell brand name sunglasses you are going to need to type in the brand and other keywords (Fossil + wholesale + 2010 tradeshow). This will return some results that will show the brand name that you want and which trade show they are going to be attending. When you get the information for the trade show, go ahead and go to the trade show’s website and register to attend. Sometimes if you sign up way in advance you will get a free pass.

If for some reason you cannot attend any of the trade shows because you live in very remote areas, do not get frustrated. You do the same thing by finding them at the trade show that they are going to be at and you find the contact information that they have on the website. You can then prepare a quick presentation on a Powerpoint slide that gives the highlights of your eBay store.

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If you are brand new and do not have your store up as of yet, you can still give them information on your intentions and how you are going to market their brand effectively. You will soon discover that the wholesale companies that you are going to source to will be open-minded.

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What Is Dropshipping?

Dropshipping is a method of selling and distributing goods wherein the distributor or supplier of the product (the dropshipper) sends the product directly to the end user (your customer) on the retailer’s behalf (that’s you).

The process of dropshipping is relatively simple. It involves three parties who take a product from manufacturing to market.

 

Let’s use a blue widget as a sample product to demonstrate the process:

• The blue widget manufacturer: This is the company that manufactures the blue widgets. This widget manufacturer does not sell directly to the public or supply the retailers who ultimately sell the blue widgets to the end user. They prefer to use distributors to handle the task of taking their blue widgets to market. The manufacturer sells blue widgets by the truckload to distributors and charges $5 per blue widget.

• The blue widget distributor (dropshipper): This is the company that purchases blue widgets in bulk from the manufacturer and supplies them to resellers and retailers at a cost of $7 each. The distributor does not ship blue widgets to the retailer, but fills orders on the retailer’s behalf as the retailer sells the widgets to its customers.

• The blue widget retailer: This is the company that sells blue widgets to the public. In this example YOU are the blue widget retailer. The retailer orders the blue widgets from the distributor as they are sold (usually one at a time) and has the distributor ship the blue widget directly to its customer. The retailer sells blue widgets to the public for $10 each, which means that for every blue widget sold the retailer nets $3.

Note: It is not unusual for the manufacturer and distributor to be one and the same.

 

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The Step-By-Step Process For Using A Dropshipper

 

There are seven steps involved and they are as follows:

 

STEP 1: Choose A Product To Sell The very first step in any sales process is deciding what product to sell. This is not a decision to be taken lightly.

 

There are many factors that should be considered before deciding on a product.

 

We’ll talk more about the product selection process later, but for now let’s say that you decide to sell CD players on eBay.

STEP 2: Locate A Supplier Who Will Dropship For You Using a research tool like Google, Thomas Register, or an industry-specific resource like The Ultimate eBay Dropship Power Pak, you search for and find a company who will dropship CD players for you.

The company offers you a 35% mark up over cost, which means that they will supply the CD players to you for $100 each and you should be able to retail them for $135.

STEP 3: Set Up An Account With The Dropshipper You contact the company that can supply the CD players and set up a reseller account with them. This can often be done online or by phone, but some companies will require that you complete and return a reseller application to open an account.

Some companies may also require a tax ID and business license. If you are serious about your business, you should get these items. We’ll discuss this more shortly.

STEP 4: Advertise The Product For Sale Now that you have your supplier lined up, it’s time to make a sale. You advertise the product using an eBay auction. Since you know what you must pay the dropshipper for the product, you know what the minimum amount you will take for the product. In this case you start your auction at $100 since that is your cost. If you are confident that you can get more than $100 for the product you can start with a lower price, but remember that if the product goes for less than what it costs you to fill the order, you will lose money. Also remember that the dropshipper will charge shipping, so you should figure that into your sale.

STEP 5: The Product Sells Great news: your CD player sells $135 and your customer pays you with a PayPal instant payment. I highly recommend that if you are selling on eBay you use PayPal or some other online processor to accept instant payments. This

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allows the customer to pay you immediately, which gets the money in your account immediately, which lets you place the order with the dropshipper immediately. Get the idea?

STEP 6: Place The Order With The Dropshipper After your customer pays you, you should contact the dropshipper immediately to order the product on your customer’s behalf. The dropshipper then ships the order to your customer under your company name and address.

STEP 7: Follow Up After The Sale This is where many new business people drop the ball. Just because your customer has paid you and you’ve placed the order with the dropshipper does not mean that you are out of the loop. Quite the contrary, if there are problems with the order you are the one that will be held responsible in the eyes of your customer.

Be proactive in your customer relations. Follow up with your customer to let them know that the item has been shipped. Offer yourself as the personal contact for any issues that may arise.

This is also a great way to sell that customer more products. Invite them to check out your eBay store or website if you have one.

 

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What Kind Of Profit Margins Can You Expect?

 

That depends on the product you sell and the company which you get it from. Most dropship margins vary from 25% to 75%.

 

My advice is this: if you can’t make at least 40% on the product, find something else to sell.

Can I Make Money Off The Shipping Charges? There is no faster way to turn off potential customers than by padding shipping fees. People are not stupid. They know that it does not cost $30 to ship a six ounce figurine, so do yourself a favor and don’t try this. It will end up costing you more money in lost sales than you would ever make on shipping.

Many sellers take the approach of inflating shipping costs and selling the product for less. This is fine within reason, but grossly over-inf