First of all, when you specialize in an area, you have the potential to become a “go-to” person in the area.  For example, if you sell plus-sized lingerie, you will eventually develop a following of people who visit your auctions on a regular basis looking for new plus-sized lingerie.  If you make your buyers very satisfied with their purchases, and they truly enjoy dealing with you, they will look up your auctions specifically every time they need new lingerie.  You will be the first person they “go to” when they need what you sell.

Secondly, you can be seen as an expert in your area if you specialize.  If you’re selling household items, a few items of pottery, and several types of clothing all at once, people are going to see that as very random.  They won’t trust that you know what you are talking about with regards to that rare piece of Wedgwood, because your auction history shows that you have only ever sold five pieces of pottery or china and none of it was Wedgwood.  How can they be sure that you even know it is authentic?  But if they look at your feedback and see that you’ve sold dozens of pieces of Wedgwood, they can feel more confident that you know the difference between an authentic piece and a reproduction.

Another great reason to specialize is that you will learn better sources to get the items you sell.  If you are selling a wide range of items, you won’t have as much time to seek out better and better sources for your merchandise.  But if you specialize, you can work on a close basis with one or two suppliers to get better terms and prices for your items.  You will also be able to learn more about your items, so that you’ll always know you’re getting the best price.  If you are selling too many different items, it will be much harder to learn everything you need to know about the items.

You might also consider naming yourself something related to what you are selling.  If you sell Wedgwood china, you might name yourself “Wedgwood_China_Source”, or “WedgwoodJennifer”.  When people see your name, they will know right away that you will probably have even more items in your other auctions, and they will be more likely to click the link to see what else you are selling.

You need to get a quality digital camera.  It doesn’t have to be a ten megapixel camera with an expensive zoom lens and a separate flash, but it does need to be capable of taking decent photos.  If your camera consistently takes grainy or dark photos, it may be beneficial for you to consider purchasing a better camera, especially if you will be selling a considerable number of items on eBay in the near future.  Your camera should be at least two megapixels.  You can get a decent camera of two to five megapixels for under $200.  It is a great investment if you plan to sell many items.

You should always try to include more than one photo of each item.  You should take photos from different angles, and be sure to show all flaws that you know of in the item.  Always be honest in your listings, because you don’t want to have to deal with the hassle of returns if you can possibly do anything to eliminate (or reduce) them.

Lighting is essential.  If you cannot afford a semi-professional lighting setup, your best bet is to shoot most photos outdoors in natural sunlight.  Natural sunlight between the hours of ten AM and three PM on a day that is not overcast or foggy is excellent for lighting photos.  You might take a table outdoors to take your photos on.  It is also a good idea to have two tablecloths.  One tablecloth should be a dark color like dark gray or navy blue for taking photos of white or light colored items, and the other should be white for taking photos of darker items.

Make sure that there are no hard shadows on your item.  Whether you are photographing indoors or outdoors, you can rotate the item and/or lights to the best position to eliminate harsh shadows.  Items should be lit as evenly as possible.

Make sure to take a few photographs from different angles, especially on more expensive items.  You also want to get a few shots from as close to the item as possible without taking away detail or making the item look unrecognizable.  Remember to always show any flaws.  This is a point worth repeating.  Even if you think the flaws will hurt the selling price of your item, it is better to sell the item for less than you want than to get a return that you have to deal with.

It’s actually quite simple to do.  Even if you have one of the major eBay consignment businesses in your area, a large portion of the populace will not be aware of it.  This means that there is no need to feel that you cannot compete!

You’ll need to advertise your business in order to find people who want to sell their items through you.  The local newspapers and thrifty ad magazines are probably your best bet, although advertising on websites for your local area, and on bulletin boards around town are also great ideas.  You could also have fliers printed up and pass them out on car windshields (make sure to ask permission from store managers, first) and leave stacks of them by cash registers in convenience stores (again, asking permission.)

Your fliers should mention that you are a full-service eBay consignment business.  You will take the item, photograph it, list it on eBay, take payment, and handle shipment.  You take a percentage of the selling price or profit (usually 20-35%) and they get the rest.

In order to ensure that you don’t spend a lot of time listing items that will only sell for a few dollars, you should be sure to have a minimum value.  You could say that you will only sell items that you believe will sell for at least $50 or $100, or whatever you feel comfortable with.  This way, you’re not working yourself to death for a few cents per item.

You’ll need a fairly large area to work in.  You’ll have to have room to safely store the items that are being sold, a good area to take the photographs, and a place to package items for shipment.  This means you might need to devote an entire room in your home to your business, especially if it takes off.  You’ll need shelving to hold the items, boxes, and such, and a table for taking the pictures and packing boxes.  Don’t forget, you’ll need some way of protecting valuable and delicate items, like newspaper and bubble wrap.

It’s actually a very simple and straightforward business to start.  It takes a bit of work, but it is a great way to make money on eBay without having to pay for inventory up front.

Selling e-books on eBay can actually bring in more money than selling physical books if you know a few tricks.  You see, when you are selling physical items on eBay, you have to pay for the item itself, plus you have shipping costs (which the buyer usually pays for), packaging costs, the cost of your time and gasoline to get to the post office or UPS or whatever to ship, and other expenses.  With digital goods, you don’t have those expenses.  You have only the expense to purchase resale rights to the product and perhaps a small amount of bandwidth if you host the download on your own web hosting.  The profit margins are phenomenal on digital products.

Of course, the first thing most people ask is how it can be possible to make good money selling e-books when so many people are selling them for $0.99 or less.  How could you possibly compete with that?

Well, you don’t.  In order to beat these under-cutters, you must play the game differently.  Make your own rules, so to speak.  You have to do things your own way, because you can’t beat their prices.

The first trick is to sell something that no one else is selling.  Does that mean that you must develop your own product?  No!  You can simply rename an existing product, have a new cover created for it, and sell it for a higher price than the original.  You should check the rights of any product that you intend to do this for, though.  Some products may not allow you to do this.

Secondly, you can create your own product, or pay an outsourcing company to create one.  Simply select a niche that you can not find represented in e-books on eBay, and you believe will sell well, and create your own e-book in that niche.  Original products can sell phenomenally well on eBay.

In closing, just remember that you shouldn’t try to compete with those people who are selling their products for such ridiculous prices.  They aren’t selling at those prices to make money off of the sale of the e-books themselves.  They are using those cheap prices for other reasons, such as building a mailing list, or having affiliate links inside the books that sell other items.  By setting yourself apart from the cheap e-book crowd, you can make yourself some nice cash!

First and foremost, you need photographs.  It has been proven many times that auctions that are equal in almost every other way will sell better when good photos are included.  People who shop on auction sites are very visually oriented.  When you think about it, this makes sense.  When you go to a clothing store, would you be comfortable just reading a list of descriptions of their clothing items, and then ordering your clothing from that list?  Of course not.  You want to see each item.  Internet shoppers are no different,  The nicer your photos look, the more excited your potential buyers will become about the item.

You should also be very descriptive in the text.  Photos alone will not sell them item.  You need to be careful with your description.  Be accurate, describe any flaws in detail, and try to paint a picture of the condition of the item with your words.  Consider the following descriptions for the same item.

“This is a navy blue blazer.  It has a small rip in the seam under the right arm.  It is not really visible.  It is a size 40.  It has a navy blue silk lining.  It’s a really nice blazer and it has only been worn three times.”

“Here we have a gorgeous, navy blue, tailored, single-breasted blazer from Blazer’s International.  This blazer is a size 40 and is beautifully tailored to fit just right.  The lining is made of a very high quality navy blue silk.  It has two lovely silver-colored buttons in the front. The buttons are in perfect condition, with no cracks or peeling.  This blazer was purchased new for over $250, and has only been worn three times.  It comes from a smoke-free, pet-free home, and has been cared for very well.  This item does have a small rip in the seam under the right arm.  The rip is not visible under general wear, but should be able to be fixed very easily since it is in the seam.”

As you can see, the second description not only offers much more information, but it paints a much more detailed picture of the item.  The second description actually tells you that the item is tailored, high quality, and has silver-colored buttons.  Remember, the photos may not tell the whole story, so the description is just as important!

Offering a good return policy is another way to ensure better selling prices.  When a seller sees that he or she can return an item if they feel it is not as described or does not fit will make them feel more comfortable with buying from you.  Your return policy should be tailored to your own needs, but the more flexible you can make it, the better people will feel about spending their money with you.

One final thing to consider is your feedback rating.  The higher your feedback is when you start selling, the more people will feel that they can trust you.  You should always do your best to ensure that every single person that you buy from or sell to is satisfied with the transaction.  You might also consider buying several inexpensive items in order to raise your feedback quickly before you start selling items.

One thing you can do is offer an optional service for buyers where they can ship a gift to someone else.  You could offer gift-wrapping for free with any item over a certain price, and ship it with a gift message to anyone they choose.  There is one point to keep in mind here, however.  This type of service is sometimes taken advantage of by people who are using stolen PayPal accounts, so it is up to you to decide whether or not you wish to take that risk.  It certainly can be worth it, especially if you are selling items that are very commonly given as gifts.  It is also a great service during the Christmas holiday shopping season.

You should also go as far as you possibly can with regards to packing items for shipping.  Tossing a piece of delicate glassware into a box wrapped in a couple of layers of newspaper is not good packaging.  You should always take great care to carefully package everything you ship as carefully as possible.  Buyers will often make extremely glowing positive feedback posts for you if you go out of your way to pack the item carefully.  Packing is one extremely important area that you should never, ever skimp on.  Even magazines should be packaged with a little extra padding inside the mailer, especially if they are ten years old or older, or sell for over $10.

You might offer a small bonus inside the packages that you send out.  One seller that I made a purchase from gave me a sheet of stickers for free with my purchase of a sticker album.  The seller did not advertise this in the auction, so I was especially happy with this  Another seller included a beautiful bookmark for free with a book purchase, and that bookmark included her eBay seller ID and the URL to her auction listing on the back.  This was a great way to offer an unannounced bonus, as well as reminding me to visit her auctions again.  And yes, I have bought from her again!  Try to keep the bonus related to the item you have sold, if possible.  If it’s not possible, a generic bonus is still something that sets you apart, and people will definitely appreciate the extra effort.

Include a personalized, hand-written thank you note with each purchase.  Your buyer is going to really appreciate that you took the time to thank them, and that you’ve included their name on the thank you note.  Even something very simple like, “Thank you, Lisa!” will go a long way toward making your buyer happier with their purchase.

Shipping very quickly is extremely important to the way people see you on eBay.  If you only ship once or twice per week, it is probably going to hurt your business somewhat.  If you really cannot ship any more often than that, it is extremely important to state this fact very, very clearly in your auctions!

One final point is that you should always answer every single e-mail quickly and courteously.  Even if you think a question is stupid or the tone of the e-mail is rude, be professional and respectful, and respond quickly.  That angry buyer might be a really nice person who is genuinely interested in buying from you, but just happened to be in a bad mood that day.

eBay itself is a popular choice.  You may find this a bit odd, considering that if an item is available on eBay, others have a chance to get it at the same price you do.  You might wonder why they would pay a higher price to you.  Well, it’s simple.  You want to buy “lots” of items, or you want to buy misspelled items.  If you find a pair of shoes that normally sell on eBay for $100, and the title has the brand name misspelled, you might get lucky and be the only person who finds the auction.  If the starting bid is $9.99 and there is no reserve, you might get this $100 pair of shoes for $20 or less including shipping.  That leaves you the opportunity to make a nice profit!

You might also buy lots of items and break them up.  A lot is a group of similar items that are sold together, in a group.  You might find a store owner who is closing their store and selling out the inventory on eBay just to get rid of it.  You could run across 500 pairs of sunglasses or 20 pairs of shoes in one lot.  The average eBay user is not going to purchase a large lot of items this way, so you have a good chance to get the lot at a decent price.  You can then break this lot up and sell the items one at a time for a good profit.

One of the most popular ways of finding items to sell on eBay is through places like garage sales, flea markets, and thrift stores.  You can find great items at these places, but you need to be prepared to do this very regularly.  Some people visit their favorite thrift stores every week, or even every single day!  You never know when they are going to put out a rare piece of pottery, or an antique chair, or a suit that might sell for over $100!  And garage sales and flea markets are treasure troves, but you need to be prepared to spend a lot of time sifting through useless junk to find some items that will sell well on eBay.

Another resource that is often overlooked is Craig’s List.  This website has free classified listings for nearly every major city in the US, and many others around the world.  You can find good items very cheap, and sometimes even free!  If you want to spend a little time and effort going to pick up the items, you can very often find great items to sell on eBay in the free section of your city’s listings there.

There are many other ways of finding items to sell on eBay.  Consider your local newspapers and thrifty ad magazines, swap meets, live auctions, estate sales, and stores that are going out of business or have surplus inventory.  With a little research and a bit of leg work, you’ll find plenty of items to sell that can make you good money!

 by kim and charles Petty The internet is the hottest place today to earn cash. If you are planning to start an online business, then you first need to know that although the internet will potentially generate a lot of cash for you, it doesn’t mean that you will be able to achieve success overnight. You still need to work hard even if it is an online business.

And, if you want to become successful with your new online business, you need to market it on the internet. You have to remember that if you have a new website, no one knows about it and if someone knows it exist, he or she wouldn’t care. You have to market your products by marketing your website. It’s how it works in the internet.

It is also important to remember that marketing on the internet is different from marketing in the real world. In fact, even the most experienced marketers in the real world have hard time marketing in the internet. It is a new kind of marketing and it will require different strategies to make things sell.

There are free ways to market in the internet. However, these free ways can be a pain. Unless you are a really good writer, it is often very hard to catch people’s attention in the internet. If you are just a beginner in the world of internet marketing, then you might want to try out Facebook. Here, marketing is easy, effective, and is very cheap.

Facebook is basically a social networking website where each member will build their own network of friends. Here, people will be able to communicate and have lots of fun with the different applications available. With over 60 million active subscribers and still continuing to grow, you will obviously see that Facebook is definitely the place to market your products or services.

You don’t have to worry about traffic as with the amount of people logging in and out each day, you know that you have your clients here. All you need to do is get them to your website.

After becoming a member at Facebook and building your own network of friends and also after completing your profile, the next step is to start using Facebook Ads to market your products or services.

Facebook Ads is basically a pay per click advertising tool offered by Facebook to its members and is used within the Facebook website. The great thing about Facebook Ads is that it will let you decide your target clients according to interests, age, gender and other general information. You will also be the one to decide the daily budget for the advertising.

This way, you will be able to try out your advertising without investing a lot of cash. If you are just beginning to advertise, don’t expect to get results right away. It’s all a matter of trial and error. Besides, nobody’s perfect. You have to find out what your target market wants in an advertising campaign or what will get their attention. With Facebook Ads, you will be able to do this.

So, if you are just starting out with your online business and you want to promote your products, services and your website in the internet, you might want to try marketing in Facebook Ads. Here, marketing is a lot more fun, cheaper and also very effective.

The feedback system allows eBay buyers and sellers to leave a rating and comment on the experience that they have with the other person.  If you sell an item, you can leave feedback for the buyer about whether or not they paid, how quickly they paid, and what their behavior was like.  The buyer can comment on your response time, shipping time, the state of the product when it arrived, etc.

You can leave positive feedback, which adds one point to the user’s overall feedback score.  You can leave negative feedback, which subtracts one point from their user’s overall feedback score.  And you can also leave neutral feedback, which does not actually affect the user’s feedback score at all.  In general, you should always leave positive or negative feedback.  Neutral feedback may be left if you have a bad experience with a user, but they make up for it later.  Or perhaps if you feel their service was barely adequate, but not bad enough to warrant a negative rating.

There are a number of ways to increase your feedback quickly.  First of all, you could bid on a number of inexpensive auctions and pay for them quickly, probably with PayPal.  But some users will actually look at your feedback list and see that most of your feedback came from purchases, and they won’t look at that favorably as an indicator of whether or not they can trust you enough to buy from you.

Another way to increase your feedback quickly is by selling inexpensive items, preferably items that can be download, like e-books.  You can purchase resale rights to products that will allow you to sell the items on eBay.  If you search eBay for “resale rights” or “resell”, you should be able to find plenty of packages of items that you can sell to increase your feedback.  When a buyer pays, you can leave them feedback quickly, and hopefully many of them will do the same for you.

A topic of growing concern among many eBay buyers is what is commonly known as “feedback extortion.”  This is when a seller posts that they will only leave feedback for a buyer after the buyer has left feedback for them.  While not actually against the terms and conditions of eBay itself, many buyers find this practice particularly unappealing, and may refuse to bid on your items, or even leave you negative feedback out of frustration.

Some sellers believe that this practice will help safeguard their feedback.  If you leave positive feedback for a buyer, and then they leave negative feedback for you, you cannot go back and change the positive feedback that you left for them.  But I have to ask these sellers, why would you want to do that, anyway?

When a buyer pays you, they have completed their part of the deal, period.  If they leave you negative feedback because your shipping was slower than they would like, or because they didn’t like the condition of the item, or even because they just don’t like you, it has no bearing on whether or not they completed their end of the deal.  I believe you should always leave feedback for buyers as soon as they pay.  You may end up with a few negatives, but you will gain far more positives from happy buyers who don’t feel forced into leaving feedback.

The internet offers great opportunities for prospective entrepreneurs. If you want to make extra cash, but you don’t want to quit your current job, then the internet is the place that you will want to go to. Online businesses are continuing to boom today and two businesses that many people are now making a lot of money from is internet marketing and affiliate marketing.

Here, you don’t really need to have the product to sell. You will be marketing for other people who have the product or service. You make money advertising their offers.

Internet marketing may seem easy but it’s really not. Even if you are experienced as a marketer on the real world, you will see that internet marketing is a new kind of marketing that will need new skills and new strategies.

If you are new to internet marketing, then you might want to know about Facebook marketing.

Unlike any other types of internet marketing, Facebook marketing is a lot easier but is as effective.

Basically, Facebook is a social networking website. Today, this particular website is now one of the most popular in the world. In fact, there are over 60 million subscribers and is continuing to grow very rapidly. With this kind of traffic, you know that this website is definitely the place to market in.

The next question that you may ask is how marketing in Facebook any different from other types of internet marketing. Basically, Facebook marketing is also internet marketing. But in Facebook, you will already have the traffic you want. Also, you have the tools necessary for you to market your website as well as the products or services your affiliate is trying to sell.

In Facebook, you first need to try and create your own network. You can easily start out adding your old friends, colleagues, and relatives in your network. Once done, you can now expand and start building new relationships, join groups that is particularly interested in what you are marketing, and after all these things are done, you can start marketing by using some of the great applications or tools that Facebook provides.

And, the best thing about all these things is that everything you read is absolutely free. For this kind of internet advertising, you don’t even have to pay a dime.

In Facebook, you can also use its official marketing tool called Facebook Ads. This is a pay per click advertising tool, which means that you need to spend money. Although this is the case, you will see that Facebook Ads is definitely well worth the money.

Also, instead of starting out with a hundred dollar a day budget for your Facebook Ads advertising, you will see that Facebook Ads can let you start advertising in as little as 10 dollars a day or even 5 dollars. This is great if you are just starting out and is still experimenting with your advertising ideas as you don’t have to invest quite a large sum of cash for it.

So, the next time you try internet marketing to market your website, you might want to try marketing on Facebook. Here, you will see that you will have everything that you will ever need. From traffic to tools to great advertising programs, Facebook will be able to provide it all.