eBay -->

Successful selling on eBay requires effective methods and tools. By successful I don't mean you've sold one or two items at a profit but you are selling many items at the highest profit. So what are the secrets to getting the highest bids for an item?

Don't be invisible      (Top)

First, make sure it's listed correctly. There are four parts to any listing: the title, the description, the picture and the category. Make sure you list your item with a title that uses as many eBay keywords as possible. Get it right and you?ll reap the benefits, get it wrong and your item will be invisible. Keywords are the words that people will use to search for items so don't use a normal phrase like "please look at this" or abbreviations like "mob" for mobile phone. For example, let?s say you were selling a skirt. The title might be something like:

"wonderful flowly white skirt".

This was an actual eBay listing. Out of the four words used only two would actually be sensible to use in a search. Who searches for items called "wonderful" or "flowly"? What kind of word is "flowly" anyway? It's probably a word that has been misspelled, perhaps "flowery". We'll talk more about this later, but for now remember how important it is to check your spelling. Such a title isn't going to help this skirt show up in searches very well and so will not attract as many bids as it could. Using eBay keywords the title should be:

"NEXT, size 12, white cotton skirt"

Now each word of the title is an eBay keyword. We have the make, the size, the colour, the fabric ? all of which is important information for anyone looking for a skirt. When listing women's clothing size is everything! They are much more likely to use a search phrase such as "size 12 skirt" than "wonderful skirt". When you actually think about what you are trying to accomplish with the title it should be common sense ? but it's not! The use of just one keyword can make the difference between an invisible listing and an attention grabbing, bidding magnet that gets the best price for your auction. To really make the most of keywords in listing your eBay auction you need to know what the current hot keywords are. A good tool to use is "eBay Auction Watcher" which will give you all the top keywords from the latest auctions so you'll know exactly which words and phrases to use to attract the most interest for your auction. You can read more about it by clicking here.

Art Deco or Art Nouveau?     (Top)

The description of your item should be thorough and correct. When writing your description try to think what questions you would ask if you were buying this item on eBay. You don't want to be wasting time answering questions such as "what size is it?" You may need to research an item to make sure you have all the information a buyer needs in order to make that all-important bid. For example is the clock you are selling Art Deco or Art Nouveau? If in doubt, check it out ? don't make mistakes in your description or you could end up with negative feedback and lots of eBayers very reluctant to bid on your future listings. It pays to be honest, but you don't have to major on faults. If an item is damaged make sure you mention it but it doesn't need to be a headline. For example a book may have a description like "cover stained but all the pages are clean and intact". So long as you've been honest in your description you will be forgiven but don?t mention any faults and you may have to refund the sale and be penalised with negative feedback. Lastly, never, ever, claim your item has something, or does something, that it doesn't. This is the path to eBay suicide.

"A picture paints a thousand words"     (Top)

Or so the saying goes, but some pictures I see on eBay are out of focus, upside down or shot from too far away. They are only worth two words; "Don?t bid". Don't just take any picture of your product take a great picture. Use a good angle or close-up, showcase its best side, but show any flaws it might have without highlighting or hiding them. Use a plain, neutral colour for the background making sure the light is not casting strong shadows. When you have taken the picture, crop it to include only your item, then shrink it down to 72 dpi to make it load faster. This will allow buyers to not only see your item, but see it quickly. If it loads too slowly, buyers may lose patience and turn away. If you have no picture, you will appear unwilling to sell and wary of showing your product. Look at your picture as if you were the buyer. What does it say about the product and about you as the seller? Remember that people are not just buying an item they are buying an item from you, and you need to gain their trust.

There's much more to learn about the use of descriptions and pictures than I can go in to in this article. A great source of ideas and further help in the use of descriptions and pictures to get your item noticed and, more importantly, sold for the best price can be found in "The Power Sellers Bible". For example it has an excellent chapter on the best use of 3, 5, 7 and 10 day listings; something that we can't go in to in this article. However, it's suffice to say that this can be a critical choice to make along with which day of the week to start your auction. You can read more about "The Power Seller Bible" and a sample chapter by clicking here.

Where do you belong?     (Top)

Just as important as the title is the category you choose to list your item. With some things it's obvious where they belong. The skirt I told you about earlier on plainly belongs in the "women's clothing" section. But what if you were selling a book about The Beatles? Do you list it in "Books" or "Music"? The answer is both. This way you maximise the number of people who will see your listing. If you were to list only in "Books" then you miss the opportunity to catch the interest of those Beatles fans searching in "Music" to see that your book is available. When choosing a category think about all the potential interested parties.

Would you spend 15p to save 1p?      (Top)

I thought not. But this is precisely what I see many people doing on eBay. They list the starting price of their item at £5.00 when if they listed it at £4.99 they would save 15p in eBay fees. By trying to earn the extra penny it?s cost them fifteen times more in fees. Not so bad for the amateur eBayer with their one or two items but disastrous for the power seller who has listed and sold thousands of items. Such a mistake can cost hundreds of pounds. So before you choose a starting bid for your product make sure you have checked the table of fees and don't make the mistake of paying higher fees for the sake of 1p. It's very easy to be confused or lose track of all the various charges that go along with eBay and their own help pages don't make things very clear. Keep in mind that as far as eBay are concerned it's to their advantage that you make such errors as choosing a starting bid that pays higher fees. Using "Profit Calc For eBay" will show you how much a listing is actually going to cost you. It factors in ALL the fees involved in doing business on eBay and when you move to a serious use of eBay you need serious management of costs. You can read more about "Profit Calc For eBay" by clicking here.

Shipping costs     (Top)

Don't forget shipping. Make it plain and clear what the shipping costs are for your item. Buy a good set of scales and know the dimensions of the package you will be sending. Some shipping fees depend on weight but can also be affected by the size of the package so it's important to know both. Try to have more than one method of shipping and not just first or second class post. Packaging can add a lot to the cost so try and keep the costs low by collecting used boxes and bubble wrap etc. from local shops or offices. By keeping shipping costs low you attract more buyers. For example if you were buying a CD and saw it listed with two sellers one offering to ship for 99p and other seller for £2.50 which would you buy?

Profit from the clueless and the careless     (Top)

Now we've covered the secrets of successful listing on eBay it's time to look at what to sell on eBay and where to get it. You may be surprised that one of the biggest sources of goods to sell on eBay is eBay itself. The secret is to sell an item for more than you bought it for and the way you do that is to take advantage of other peoples mistakes. Some are clueless, some are careless but there's a great source of revenue to be made out of buying items whose listed titles are misspelled. Remember the "flowly" skirt? Should that be "flowery" or "flowing"? When an item title is misspelled it becomes virtually invisible to the eBay search facility and gets no bids. This is where you come along and pick it up for a pittance. Then, listing it correctly, as explained earlier, you can sell it for vast profits. It's possible to do it all even before it's been shipped to you and you can get the original seller to ship it to your buyer! None of this is illegal or unethical. It's not stealing. But sometimes it can feel like it because you can make so much profit out of it. For example I recently searched for "moble phone" and found one of the latest mobile phones being listed with 0 bids. A search of completed items showed that this phone usually sells for over £45. It sold for £20. Listing it correctly earned an easy £25 profit. Try a search for yourself to see just how many people make the simple mistake as misspelling the item they are trying to sell. Some examples to try are: labtop, moble phone, dimond ring, saphire.

Now, trying to think of all the possible misspelling variations of a word, typing them in to eBay and searching can be so time consuming it's not worth it. However, using the "Misspelled eBay Search System" automates the whole process for you and makes it very easy to find all the misspelled items to bid for, and it works across all the international eBay sites. So you can take advantage of any misspelled item whether it's in the UK, USA or Australia etc. You can read more about it by clicking here.

"One man's junk is another man's treasure"     (Top)

This saying could have been written for eBay. Knowing what other people are willing to pay for gives you a source of revenue that is not available to others. For example, one profitable niche is in vintage advertisements. Next time you come across a tatty old magazine or newspaper don't throw it out, check it out for advertisements. The cover or front page may be ripped and faded but inside there's treasure. Recently a full-page newspaper advertisement for an Austin A35 sold for over £4. "That's not much!" you may say but remember that's pure profit and when you think there may be five or six saleable advertisements in any one magazine the profits multiply dramatically. There are many, many more items that are not obviously valuable but which could earn you plenty on eBay. The profit is in the knowledge of these niche markets. It would take months to research all the listings on eBay to identify and take advantage of these sources of income but don't worry, all the hard work has been done for you in "Riches From Niches". In this guide you can learn about things you pick up for pennies and sell for pounds. You can read more making money from unexpected sources by clicking here.

Good manners cost nothing but earn plenty     (Top)

Finally, it is important to remember that, as a seller, it is your responsibility to be professional, courteous, and timely with all of your buyers and their transactions. Negative ratings can put an end to your eBay career as quickly as you started it. If you are conscientious and polite as a seller you will earn a good reputation and gain trust among eBay buyers, and people will return repeatedly to bid on your items. This is your business and it's up to you how well you do. So, if you are really ready to move from curious to serious take advantage of the tips and tools I've introduced in this article and you will maximise your earning potential.

Now, armed with all this, you can go on to succeed in your new adventure in making money on eBay!