Ebay - Money Making Made Easy

I avoided eBay like the plague when I started trying to make money online. I do not know why, but it seemed like a good place to waste my efforts.

After stepping back for a while, I started thinking of all the things I had tried and what there was left that I had not touched yet. It wasn't until stepping back that I realized there was money all around me.

I remembered hearing from a friend that they went through their house and found all kinds of stuff they did not need anymore, so they listed it on eBay. He made about $500 on the things he found and has been selling every since. I was about due for a garage sale, so I gathered everything I wanted to sell and sat down to figure out eBay.

I knew absolutely nothing about selling on eBay. I had purchased two golf clubs a few years back but had never thought about listing items to sell. Being addicted to e-books by this point, naturally I went searching. I found some really helpful free e-books, bought some off of eBay itself, and really found what I was looking for when I purchased Auction XFactor.

EBay has strict policies when it comes to running your own auctions. I did not know the first thing about auctions; much less what would make my auctions a success. As I dug into Autction XFactor, I found a lot of helpful tidbits that helped me know how to present my products, list at appropriate times, choose proper categories, etc.

The best advice I received was that in order to be an effective seller you need to understand the buyers' point of view. In essence, you need to buy a physical product and see all the steps that are taken by the seller to get your purchase to your door. I learned a great lesson by doing this because I bought a watch and waited over a week with nothing to show. I emailed the seller numerous times and hounded them about my shipment. I never heard back but finally my watch arrived.

I learned that in order to be taken seriously as a seller you have to communicate well and handle things promptly. Customers are worried about getting their product and you need to do everything possible to reassure them that it is being taken care of.

As I continued my search for things to list on eBay I started to ask my parents and brothers if they had anything to list. I never knew that my parents could fill a truck so quickly. I took time sorting out what I thought would sell and what I would throw away.

As my items began to sell I was overwhelmed with packaging and printing labels and sending emails. Keep in mind I am doing all this while working a full time job. My lunches were spent running to the post office to drop off products and my evenings were consumed packing up product.

To save you the hassle I went through learning the ropes, here are some tips to streamline your sales.

Package your items as soon as you list them. That way when it comes time to ship you only have to label and pay postage.

Set up an excel spreadsheet to keep tabs on how much it costs to list each item, what the auction ended at, what the buyer paid for shipping, and what shipping costs you. This will help you keep track of everything you need to ship and what your shipping costs really are.

Go to the post office and ask about shipping materials for priority mail. They offer free packaging granted you use their service.

State in your auction when the item will ship after the close of the auction. I recommend shipping two days a week, so you are not running yourself to death every day.

Always offer multiple payment options so that you do not lose any bids because people cannot pay you.

Answer any questions quickly and try to avoid these by describing your item down to the last stitch.

Be honest in your listings about what you are selling. Negative feedback will hurt your sales, especially as a new seller.

List your items in the evening so that will be when they end. This is when the most people are home.

Take good pictures of your items so that buyers can get a good look at what you are selling.

I could probably write an entire book on the small tricks I have learned about eBay, but that is for a later date. EBay offers anyone with something to sell that chance to connect with a buyer looking for just what you have.

Remember when I said I was sorting out what I thought would and wouldn't sell. The mistake I made was thinking that there is something you cannot sell on eBay. No matter what you think of the item, there is a very good chance that there is someone out there looking for it. There are millions of people that search on eBay every month, so the market you are reaching is massive.

Do not be discouraged if an item doesn't sale or you do not get as much as you want for something at this point. Remember, you are selling things you were going to get rid of anyway and probably are getting a lot more than you would get by having a yard sale.

I am still learning all the benefits of selling on eBay and I probably will not ever learn everything there is to know. I do know for the person wanting to start out in Internet marketing, eBay is a chance to get extra funding and learn about how others do business. Always be looking at other people's listings, especially powersellers. By seeing how these people display their products and write about what they are selling, you will learn a great deal about how you can be a better seller.

Internet marketing is all about making the sell. EBay is a good starting place to see how things are bought and sold on the Internet.