Make Money With eBay and Become eBay Powerseller

eBay Gift Certificates – The Gift Solution Suitable for Everyone

2009-02-11T13:15:00.000-08:00

We all know one. There is at least one in every family, and one in every circle of friends. There is even one in every office! There is always that one person that you know who is absolutely impossible to buy a gift for! These people either have everything, or want nothing. They don’t drop hints at all, and when asked, they simply say that they don’t know, they don’t care, or they don’t want anything.

Well, now you can buy a gift for that person. The solution lies in an eBay gift certificate! This will allow your loved one to essentially buy anything that they
want, in a very exciting way. eBay gift certificates can easily be purchased through paypal, in varying amounts.

There are things that you should point out to the gift recipient, however. For instance, eBay gift certificates do expire. eBay gift certificates will not be accepted for all auctions either – they can only be redeemed for those auctions that accept Paypal as a form of payment. Other than that, your loved one should not have any problems redeeming their eBay gift certificate!

eBay Data and Research – How Important Is It?

2009-02-11T13:14:00.000-08:00

eBay is a business anyway you look at it. Sure, it is a great deal of fun for both the buyers and sellers, but when you look at it from another view point, you will see that it is a business from the seller’s point of view, the buyer’s point of view, and eBay’s point of view. 40 million dollars a day travels through eBay. Selling items on eBay successfully is an art, and eBay offers many different forms of Data and
Research to ensure that you are selling the right items, to the right people, in the right way.

Some of the data and research is not free, but much of it is. The available resources include hot items by category, eBay Pulse, merchandising calendar, sales reports, marketplace research, buyer behavioral report, and the eBay solutions directory.
These tools are quite easy to use, and the information that can be gleaned from them is extremely valuable.

The Data and Research tools are all accessible through your seller’s account, by clicking on the ‘Advance Selling’ link. Learn to use those tools, and get your piece of that $40 million eBay revenue each day.

eBay and Customer Service

2009-02-11T13:11:00.000-08:00

If you are running an eBay business, you may not realize that the need for great customer service still exists – even for online auctions. When a buyer receives quality customer service from you, they will potentially do one of two things – or both. They will give you great feedback, and they may look for more of your auctions in the future. If you hope to make a living from eBay, you have to stop thinking of it as an ‘auction’ and start running it like a ‘business.’

If you owned a brick and mortar business, how would you treat your customer while they were standing at your counter, waiting for you to finish ringing up their order? You would be helpful and respectful of course! You would do everything that you could to guarantee that customers return to your establishment in the future. You would bend over backwards to make sure that their buying experience with you was both satisfactory and enjoyable. Why would you do any less at the close of one of your eBay auctions?

First, act quickly at the close of your auctions. Contact the winner, and congratulate them. Describe the item they have won and how the item will be shipped – even if this information is already part of the description for the auction. Remind them of their winning bid amount, and give them payment options and instructions. Let them know when the item will be shipped.

Close your email by thanking them for participating in your auction. You might even take this opportunity to tell them about other open auctions that you have as well. Think of this contact with the winner as a conversation that you are having with a customer who is standing at your counter in that imaginary brick and mortar store.

Once the payment and shipping details have been taken care of, contact your buyer again. Let them know when the item was shipped – the exact date and time – and when it is expected to arrive on their end. During this contact, let them know that if they have any problems or questions, that they should contact you through the eBay site. If they do contact you in the future, make sure that you answer promptly, and that you do all that you can to make them happy with their purchase – even if it means issuing a refund.

Yes. You should be open to issuing refunds, depending on what the item is. furthermore, you should issue refunds promptly. Of course, it is reasonable to expect the buyer to return the item to you, at your expense, before the refund is issued –
but once you receive the item, issue the refund promptly. This is just good business!

eBay Business Solutions

2009-02-11T13:09:00.000-08:00

If starting an eBay business is your goal, as opposed to just auctioning a few items off for some extra cash, you need to use the eBay business solutions that are available to you. Because eBay’s success depends on the success of its sellers,
they strive to help you at every turn. eBay Business Solutions is the key to starting an eBay business.

eBay Stores is one of the better solutions for eBay business owners. An eBay store will allow you to list multiple quantities of the same item, and allow you to keep them listed for longer time periods. eBay Store owners also enjoy lower auction fees,
and have access to advanced merchandising tools. Eventually, you should consider upgrading to an eBay Pro Store, which will allow you to customize your storefront with your own brand and web address.

There are many other eBay Business Solutions, such as seller tools, the eBay solutions directory, and the merchant solution center, but you should definitely start with your very own eBay store, followed by an eBay Pro Store.

eBay and Drop shipping – Getting the Product to Your Customer

2009-02-11T13:04:00.000-08:00

If you hope to own an eBay business, and make a full time living at it, you can easily make that dream come true – even if you don’t have a product of your own to sell. eBay provides many people who want to quit their corporate nine-to-five jobs with a way to make a good living, without having to put up a lot of start up capital. This is made possible with the help of drop shippers. Drop shippers send merchandise to the customers of business owners. If you have an eBay business, you are a business owner. This will allow you to offer a wide variety of stock in your eBay store, without having the need to warehouse all of those products!

All you have to do is set up your auction, and sell the product. You then pass the customer’s information on to the drop shipping company. The drop shipper does the rest, and they will even use your company information, as well as your company logo if you have provided it to them. When the product arrives at your customer’s home, they will have no idea that your company didn’t send it. The drop shipper will package, label, and ship the products that you sell, allowing you more time to set up even more auctions, for greater profits.

You must establish a relationship with several drop shipping companies in order to become successful.In the beginning, most companies will require you to pay for the items that your customers order before they are shipped. You need to fill orders in a
timely manner, so you should pay for the items with a credit card for speedy service. Eventually, you will be able to have the drop shipper fill your orders, and then bill you for them later.

When you set up your eBay auctions, make sure that your reserve price is set higher than the price that the drop shipper will be charging you for the item. The idea, of course, is to earn a profit! Depending on the item you are selling, a markup of about 10% should be about right, but you should do some research to see if the item is selling for a lower price in another eBay auction, or through other online sources.

By starting an eBay business using the drop shipping method, there is essentially no financial risk involved. The product will be sold before you pay the drop shipper for the item. This is one of the few businesses where you can actually turn a profit before you have expenditures!

Starting an Ebay Business: Online Business Model

2007-11-23T02:53:00.000-08:00

THE REALITIES OF AN INTERNET BUSINESS

Millions of people are still coming online each year, and many of those people come to the Internet with dreams of making their financial dreams come true.

The truth is that building a website to sell products and services is not the easiest way to make a living online. A lot of specific knowledge or money will be required to be successful with a standard website.

You must acquire skills --- or pay someone who already possesses those skills --- in the following areas:

Graphic design
Copywriting
HTML design
Perl or PHP programming
Database programming
Marketing research
Promotions

When this is understood, most people throw their hands up in frustration and walk away from their entrepreneurial desires.

Maybe cash is the problem; maybe the desire is just lacking.

If you have reached this point yourself let me offer one piece of advice...

DON'T THROW AWAY YOUR DREAMS JUST YET

More people than I can count are making a successful living online, and none of them own their own website or send a single commercial email to anyone.

How is this possible?

Two words, "Ebay auctions."

EBAY MAKES IT EASY

Ebay covers all of the difficult technical issues. And more importantly, Ebay already has floods of visitors eager to purchase your wares.

Ebay has provided everything you need to operate a successful business online with three exceptions:

1. Products to sell
2. Time to list the products in the Ebay database
3. Cash to acquire the products

CHOOSING THE KINDS OF PRODUCTS

Before choosing your products, you should ask yourself what you enjoy the most. You may enjoy cats, NASCAR or even antiques. You should select products consistent with what you enjoy for two reasons.

First, you bring to your presentation a real appreciation for the products your are offering.

Secondly, a job you hate is one you will quit. A job you enjoy doing will be one that you will want to keep forever. If you are starting your own business, the hope is that you will be doing it for a very long time.

I personally know people who have generated a nice living on Ebay selling cat-related items, NASCAR memorabilia and antiques.

FINDING THE ACTUAL PRODUCTS TO SELL

I recommend against diving in and spending thousands of dollars buying products that you may or may not be able to sell.

A drop-shipper is a middleman who is willing to permit you to buy an individual product, and then they will put your business name on the return address of the product package and handle the actual delivery for you.

By utilizing a drop-shipper, you can speed product delivery to the client without risking your own cash to keep a product in inventory.

If you are lost as to how to find a drop-shipper, consider subscribing to the drop-shippers directory:

http://thePhantomWriters.com/drop_shippers_directory.html

Through this site, you can get all of the information you need to find drop-shippers from which you can order over 500,000 products from over 1,000 brand names.

LEARNING TO LIST YOUR PRODUCTS AT EBAY

Learning to use Ebay is pretty easy and straightforward. Ebay has put forward a lot of effort to help people to become successful. For example, Ebay has an entire area of their site devoted to the online entrepreneur.

To get an overview of all of the services and tools that Ebay provides to sellers, you may visit:

http://pages.ebay.com/services/index.html

Ebay also delivers courses and strategies to help you to be more successful:

http://pages.ebay.com/sellercentral/index.html

THE IMPORTANCE OF CASH FLOW TO YOUR SUCCESS

Ebay provides tools for both buyers and sellers to rate one another. The speed of delivery is one of the most important factors that sellers are rated on. By providing quick delivery, your buyers will give you a good rating --- and more shoppers will bid on your products.

Ebay recently purchased PayPal.com to help facilitate purchases for their buyers and sellers, and they have integrated the two systems together.

Unfortunately, getting the money from your PayPal account to your personal account generally takes four days. Even with a merchant account, the time gap is nearly the same. This time gap expands the turn-around between the transaction and delivery of the product unless you take action to speed the process.

If you were doing high volume, you would want to minimize the handling of a transaction to reduce the chance for a foul-up and to increase your ratings within the Ebay system.

But how can this be accomplished?

MANAGING CASH FLOW

While you could rely upon credit cards to get the job done, it is not something I would recommend. Paying credit card interest rates to process your customer's purchase, is an unnecessary burden.

Instead, put a sum of money into a dedicated bank account with a debit card attached to it. When you verify a transaction has been credited to your PayPal account, then use your debit card to immediately process the order with your drop-shipper.

But, how can you do it this way on a tight budget?

THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO THE RESCUE

Let me ask you this. Do you have a 401(k) account?

Experts advise that you not touch your retirement savings for anything other than retirement income. That is good advice. Fortunately, it is possible under special circumstances to acquire loans against your 401(k) accounts.

Beginning in 2002, even the self-employed small business owner with no employees could open his or her own 401(k), called a solo-owner 401(k), and borrow from it just as employees with big companies can.

Weigh this option against the others available to you. It only makes sense to take out a loan rather than to take a hit in heavy taxes and penalties for drawing your retirement money early. Seriously, consider taking advantage of our historically low interest rates to meet your cash flow needs.

To learn more about creating and borrowing from a solo-owner 401(k), please visit:

http://www.investsafe.com

IN CONCLUSION

It is wise to choose your new business venture based on a model that has proven itself over the long-term. Ebay has been proving its concept since 1995; helping thousands of people build a successful and very profitable business.

The time to act is now. Choose the product line that will give you the most satisfaction and then get busy. Your success awaits you.

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