Ebay Seller Tips Blog Weekly Recap

Take some risks, don't live in your parent's basement!

June 21-June 25

People sell on Ebay for a reason, and those reasons are usually to make more money than our jobs can provide, to work from home, or to get rid of things around the house. You might also be a business looking to expand its reach by selling online (and where else to look but the biggest online auction marketplace in the world?).
The best way to grow beyond your wildest dreams on Ebay is to not actually depend totally on Ebay. Huh? Well, you’ll have to do some marketing of your own, outside of Ebay, and you’ll have to take some risks that might involve selling products that have never been sold on Ebay before. If you can corner a niche market and dominate that market, assuming it’s a large enough one, you can pull in a decent amount of money from Ebay. Do your own marketing outside of Ebay, and you might just double those profits in the form of publishing royalties, Adsense income, affiliate revenue, and new sales driven to your store. Maybe making a living off of Ebay isn’t much of a reality for many, so why not think of making it just part of your plan of action? A business idea of selling products on Ebay, in addition to your own website, a blog, and some online articles could pay off in dividends down the line.

Since there were so many posts this week on the blog, I’ve decided to recap them into a post here. To help you reach your goals, here’s what was posted this week on the Ebay Seller Tips Blog:

Monday:

Why Your Auctions Aren’t Making Money
Sometimes it’s not “what didn’t I do right?” It’s “what did I do wrong?” With Ebay, this means eliminating doubts and fears in the buyers head. This post went into detail and about what your auctions might be lacking, and what might be killing your traffic, clicks, and sales.

Tuesday:

Approaching Businesses About Selling Their Products on Ebay
Ebay does have a stigma involved (still). When people hear the word “Ebay,” they automatically think “used gym shorts” or “grilled cheese Virgin Mary.” Ebay might sometimes be associated with junk, as well as the eccentric (sometimes also junk). For some, you’ll never be able to convince them that Ebay is a great place to grow their business. To them, it’s a risk to have their items listed alongside the likes of the Grilled Cheese Virgin Mary. Could this be bad for their business? It’s your job to eliminate fears of those potential clients of yours, and tell them the countless benefits for them, their customers, and their future.

Wednesday

What Customers Want from an Ebay Seller
It’s not about what you want, it’s about what the customer wants. You might love to have your storefront a hot pink color with loud music blaring and glitter falling as you visit the homepage. Your customers might beg to differ! Think about their needs, and what you would think if you visited a page like the one you are visiting. Would you trust it, and more importantly, would you buy from it? If you can’t honestly answer the question, it might be time to get some opinions for unbiased third parties, or at least read the post and see if you can improve your store today.

Thursday:

The Complete List of Where to Find Inventory for Ebay
If everyone knew where to get inventory for Ebay, they still might not make a living off of it. The fact is, you’ll still need to have to put in some work and some sweat equity to make your business profitable. So, here it is, cut and dry, the best places to find your inventory.

Friday:

How to Sell Artwork on Ebay
Ebay isn’t the first place most people go looking for artwork to decorate their home, but it is the home to some really great treasures. The key to making an art business on Ebay thrive isn’t the price, but the consistent offering of well-made professional, original products. It’s also about how well you can spread the word about your art business in a non “sell-out” style. Artists have it tough, and people are especially judgmental about artists who market their artwork. On the other hand, without marketing, you may be living in your parent’s basement forever. Just look at Thomas Kinkade! Clearly, he’s a great marketer, and you can find plenty of his prints available on Ebay.

Next week, some great posts are already lined up. Follow this blog for those new posts (click the follow button on the sidebar), and if you haven't considered it already, visit the Salehoo inventory website to gain access to their massive inventory list and niche building resources.

It’s Time to Announce Your Ebay Business

Don’t worry about having too many people contact you all at once, or having everything perfect before you start contacting people. Once people know that there’s someone out there that they know and can trust to sell off their things on Ebay, you will get responses. Encourage them to pass the email along to their friends and family. Offering a referral bonus can always help get some new business, too (and it still won’t cost you anything). Delaying this crucial step will do nothing but hurt you!

Why Your Auctions Aren't Making Money

List it, and they will come.

Actually, that's not true at all. It's not uncommon for people who have never sold on Ebay to think the idea of selling products is a dream come true, and that there are millions of ignorant buyers out there waiting to scoop up any piece of junk that's listed for sale. That isn't reality.

What is reality on Ebay is that there's a need for good customer service and honesty. Maybe your auctions aren't working for you because you aren't being entirely honest. Or, maybe there's just too much competition in your field. Maybe customers aren't comfortable buying from you. It's your job to make the buyer feel comfortable, find items that people actually want to buy (that you'll profit from), and to give great customer service. If you can combine those three key ingredients, you'll start making money. There are many more possible reasons your Ebay auctions are losing money, and it could range from blurry photos to a boring listing. The best thing you can do is to think like a buyer, then apply those concepts to your auction.

5 Ways to Increase Sales on Ebay

Once you've got the hang of selling on Ebay, you're going to want to increase your sales per auction. Listing more in quantity is always going to get you more, but why not try to optimize every auction so it brings in the most money and is seen by the most potential buyers?


I've written a series of tutorials that can help you sell more on Ebay, whether you're a novice or an Ebay pro. These Ebay tutorials will help you sell more on Ebay, increase profits, and find new buyers. Here are a few of them:


1. If you're not sure where to find inventory for Ebay, check this page. This will give you some great ideas on sourcing new inventory, from online sources to places that might be right around your home.


2. Don't just take it from me, there are hundreds of other resources out there to help you sell more. I've compiled 48 ways to sell more on Ebay, from ways to network, how to bring in outside buyers, and how to optimize every single auction so it gets the best possible end price.


3. Take a look at your keywords. Once you've realized how important keywords are for Ebay auctions, you'll write in a new style that will bring in more search engine traffic. This will also help you optimize your store for search engines, too.


4. Speaking of search engine optimization, how is your Ebay store set up? If your Ebay store is your main business, you're going to want to set it up in a way that is friendly to search engines. You want them to find your store, and have a good idea of what it is that you offer. In addition to brand names, but product names and product lines, as well as promotions that you offer will add additional content. See the full Ebay stores SEO guide for more details.


5. Find more ways to increase sales on Ebay with this post. This list of 48 more tips will help you get your business more profitable, even if you only pick a small handful of these things to do.