How To Make Money Selling On E-Bay
In the jungles of the world, probably the biggest jungle of them all is e-bay. There are probably more people buying and selling things on e-bay than at any other auction site online or offline in the whole world. Needless to say, because of the popularity of this auction giant, everybody and their grandmother wants to sell on e-bay. However, unless you know how to do this properly, your auction can turn into a virtual world nightmare. In this article and the series to follow, I'm going to give you some tips on selling on e-bay. Hopefully, after reading this series you'll be prepared to tackle this monster.The first thing you need to know about e-bay is that contrary to popular belief, this isn't a place where if you build it, they will come. In order to have success on e-bay, you have to build a presence there. Not only that, you have to have something to sell that people are going to have an interest in. Building a presence on e-bay is not something that happens overnight. The way the e-bay system works is basically what I call the reward system. The more sales you make with positive feedback, the more presence you establish. But you have to start somewhere. The question is, where?
In spite of the fact that most people want to start off by wholesaling tons of inventory, it is best to start on e-bay by selling the few odds and ends that you have laying around the house. There is an old saying that one man's junk is another man's gold. This isn't to say that you can sell things on e-bay that are falling apart. Anything you sell must at least be in good condition. Plus, you better make sure you wrap it up well for shipment. The last thing you want is for your item to arrive in pieces.
As far as finding things to sell, this shouldn't be hard. Unless you have been living in a cave all your life, you should have been collecting things over the years such as comics, cards, china, electronics and a number of other things just from day to day living. Maybe you just got a new stereo to replace the one you were thinking of getting rid of, even if it is still working. As long as it's in good condition, there's no reason to throw it in the trash. Sell it on e-bay and make a few bucks.
As you begin to establish a presence on e-bay by building up positive feedbacks, you'll be able to move into more advanced selling such as wholesaling. The key is to take your time and do things the right way. When I say the right way, I mean that there are certain steps that you are going to have to take in order to get your e-bay career off the ground correctly, from the actual opening of your account to writing your ads to shipping your items. Each step must be done just so or you run the risk of turning your e-bay selling career into ashes before it even starts.
The TITLE is the Relevant factor when Searching on eBay - According to several researches conduced by reputable third parties over 90% of people land on an Auction Listing because of the TITLE. What does that mean to you? It means that your title should be spot on when it comes to relevance.
If your Title does not have the keywords people search, you have 90% chance of your auction failing and relying on luck to get your stuff sold. A large percent of auctions fail because they are unable to generate enough traffic to their auctions. So what should you do to get your TITLE spot on?
Always check your competitor’s listings. You may find it surprising but a good way to improve yourself is finding what your competitors are doing right and incorporating them into your auction titles. I've seen first hand that if you take the best strategies used by your competitor and use them in your auction listings, you are virtually impossible to beat.
Check Completed Listings Only
By going to Advanced Search and checking "Completed Listings Only" you have what is called the "completed listings" category, and when the price of the product is in Green, it means the product sold while if it is Red, it means the product did not sell. So if you see a product having a lot of its prices in Green, it means the seller is doing something right. So you can use what’s great in these products and incorporate them into your auction listings.
Split-test your auctions on different categories and with some tweaks on your titles and see which one gets more traffic, and if you see a pattern, you have got yourself a winner. I've found out that those who test which category works best for them and put more effort into the category that gets more traffic and more sales, end up making more money.
Check to see if you are using "plural" words.