Sunday, January 24

19 Secret Strategies of eBay Powersellers, Part 1

Image representing eBay as depicted in CrunchBaseImage via CrunchBase

19 Secret Strategies of eBay Powersellers, Part 1

Author: Ed Brancheau
As if you haven't already heard, millions upon millions of people of people buy and sell on eBay every single day. Some only make a few sales here and there. Others have figured out what it takes to become "Powersellers." Powersellers are the very small minority of eBay sellers that do at least $2,000 per month in sales on eBay and maintain a 99% positive feedback rating. Powersellers are the ones that really know what they're doing and if you really want to be successful on eBay then follow the secrets they revealed to me.

So, what are the secrets, tips and tricks that will cause you to become a Powerseller as well?

Well, I'll be completely honest with you... I may be well on my way but I'm not a Powerseller yet. However, one thing that I know from creating several successful businesses is that if you want to become the best at something, you need to copy those that are already successful, ask them to mentor you and ask questions and take notes. And now I am going to take what they taught me and pass it on to you.

This is part one of a four part article series. You will find links to the other parts of this article series at the end of this article.





SECRET STRATEGY #1 - FIGURE OUT WHY YOU HAVEN'T DONE IT BEFORE!

Before, you rebuild a house, you need to tear down what doesn't work and then rebuild. To just rebuild over the bad parts just doesn't work. So, ask yourself this question: "Why haven't I done it before?" And if you have done it before, ask yourself: "Why haven't I succeeded before?" Now, before you say something like "I didn't have the money" or "I don't have enough time," I want you to consider that the answer is really something that you can't see. Let me draw an analogy.

Let's say that you're driving down the street and you see this house that is tilted. You walk up to the front door, the owner answers and you say, "Hello, did you know that your house is slanted and that there is probably something wrong with your foundation?" The owner replies, "I don't know what you're talking about. My house is perfectly straight!" How could they possible say that?! Well, it's because they've been living there so long that they don't even see the symptom let alone the real problem. So, consider that all the reasons that you haven't done this before aren't the real reasons. The real reason is the one that you can't see... the foundation of the house.

Now, fill in this Bible saying: "_____ is the root of all evil." You said "Money," right? Well, would you be shocked if I told you that the Bible doesn't say "Money"? You're shocked aren't you? Well, Timothy 6:10 actually says "The love of money is the root of all evil." A few words makes world of difference don't they? After all, if you heard "Money is the root of all evil" over and over again as a child then how could you ever have money around you and still remain good? The sad thing is that while the Bible's actual saying, "The love of money is the root of all evil," is true, the often misquoted version simply isn't true. The Bible is talking about Greed not Money.

Another saying that I really hate is "Money doesn't grow on trees" because it really does! OK, it may not physically grow on trees but it does grow like fruit on a tree. Investments are a prime example of this principle. If you invest and nurture your investments, they'll grow and you can use some of the money to spend on yourself and replant the rest. Constantly feed the Goose and it will lay bigger and bigger golden eggs. Later in this article, I am going to tell you about a Powerseller that epitomizes this as he took $1,000 and turned it into $270,000!

My point with both of these sayings is that you need to get at the real reason that you haven't succeeded rather than focus on the obvious symptoms.

SECRET STRATEGY #2 - GET SERIOUS ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS

According to the Powersellers that I interviewed, they believe that they number one reason that people fail on eBay is that they don't treat it like a business. While the Powersellers that I talked to really love their work, the realize that it is a business. Even though it doesn't cost millions of dollars to sell on eBay, they treat it like a business every day of the week and they have it organized like Microsoft or Ford or any other successful business. You know, even ballplayers who make their living playing a game treat their profession as a business. eBay Powersellers treat their business like a business worth $100 million.

SECRET STRATEGY #3 - ORGANIZE IT AND KEEP IT ORGANIZED

This is the absolute hardest thing for me because I am one of those people that likes to go with the flow. Although whenever I'm not organized, I always lose money because I can't find the web address to that one special deal that I found out about. Or I forget about some meeting or to make a call to place an order. You've got to be organized to be successful. Successful businesses are highly organized and disorganized businesses are short-lived.

SECRET STRATEGY #4 - COMPARTMENTALIZE EVERYTHING THAT YOU ARE WORKING ON

This strategy is kind of similar to #3 but I want to make it specific anyways. I have used this strategy for a couple of my small businesses and I am told that it also works very well on eBay. You see, one thing that amateurs try to do is the try to do a little of everything everyday. Post a few listings, answer a few emails, go to the bank every morning, package a few items and mail them. The problem is that this just doesn't work because you'll be all over the place and unfocused. And when you're unfocused, you make mistakes and mistakes cost money!

A better way to approach your business is to do one or two things per day. For example, make Wednesday your shipping day. Simply package all of the items that you sold and then drop them off with your shipper. Make Tuesday the day that you go to the bank. And make Thursday the day that you get all of your listings ready to be posted. The main point is to focus on one thing until you're done with it and avoid getting scattered all over the place.

SECRET STRATEGY #5 - BUILD A WINNING TEAM

It takes a team of 55 players to win the Super Bowl and 25 players to win the World Series. How are you going to create a successful eBay business on your own? Now, you might be thinking "But I'm more of a tennis player type." Well the best tennis players in the world have coaches, trainers, medical staff, agents, publicists and tons of other people that are there to help them succeed. Do you think that the President could have even become President without a campaign team?

Or maybe you're saying something like "But I can't afford to hire someone!" Look, you can't afford not to. Take this article for example. I dictated it into a digital audio recorder, copied it onto my computer, had somebody transcribe it for a few bucks (probably in India for all I know), edited it myself and then hired another kid to submit it to over 300 article directories.

On top of that, while the kid submits the articles, I'll be writing another article. All of this cost me about $30 and would have taken me at least five hours to do on my own. I'm worth more than $6 an hour and so are you. Always look at it this way and you'll make more money and more money.

One of the best places to check for very reasonable and reliable outsourcing is Elance at:

http://www.a-to-z-web.com/links/elance.html

And yet another consideration is to barter with people. I know a gentleman that is about 75 years old and doesn't even own computer. And yet he makes over $100,000 per year online. How does he do this? Well, his grandson knows a ton of stuff about how to create a web site, how to market online and other things. So this gentleman makes fishing flies and lures and his grandson sells them on eBay. In addition, this gentleman dictates articles into an audio recorder for his fishing email newsletter for which he has over 5,000 subscribers. He takes care of the creative stuff and his grandson manages the business and they split the profits. There is not excuse... if you don't know how to do something find someone that does!

Well, that's it! Armed with these secret eBay strategies, you too should be well on your way to making a very substantial income on eBay. However, should you wish to obtain even more information about how to make money on eBay and the rest of the Internet, please visit our eBay store for some fabulous informational products.

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http://www.a-to-z-web.com/links/ulsc-ebay-store.html

And be sure to check out the extremely powerful A2Z Web Building & Internet Marketing Platinum Package. It's over $1,500 worth of the best web building and Internet marketing books and programs in the world for less than $50. Check out our eBay rating and you will see that people love this package!

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Finally, if you missed any of the four parts of this article, you can read the other three at the following addresses:

http://www.a-to-z-web.com/ebays-secrets-1.html

http://www.a-to-z-web.com/ebays-secrets-2.html

http://www.a-to-z-web.com/ebays-secrets-3.html

http://www.a-to-z-web.com/ebays-secrets-4.html
About the Author:
Discover several extremely powerful web building and internet marketing packages that uncover all of the secrets to making money with eBay, Google AdSense, affiliate programs and much more! We offer a 180-day, no hassle, satisfaction guarantee!
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - 19 Secret Strategies of eBay Powersellers, Part 1
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Thursday, January 21

eBay: The Recovery Takes Hold - Tech Trader Daily - Barrons.com

The Wall Street JournalImage via Wikipedia
Today the Wall Street Journal has a promising story about both the economy and eBay: eBay: The Recovery Takes Hold - Tech Trader Daily - Barrons.com

The story talks about eBay's quarter reports and that eBay is actually growing above the market right now. With revenue up 15% eBay sellers can be confident that buyers are still flocking to eBay to buy.

Great news for all of us who rely on eBay to earn all or a portion of our income.
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Friday, January 15

Prestashop Update

FrustrationImage by music2work2 via Flickr
Well I have both some good news and some bad news to report about Prestashop. I unfortunately will not be using Prestashop. We got the whole storefront set up, I had all my pages complete. Uploaded all my products and categories using csv files. It looked good, I mean really good. Prestashop has a nice looking store template. Really professional and easy to set up. Some of the set up is not very intuitive but it takes a quick search on Google to find an answer to any how to questions.

So we have the site setup and ready to go. One last step till launch, shipping. That is where prestashop takes a nosedive for U.S. users. It is absolutely not UPS compatible and I have heard it is slightly USPS compatible but I didn't install that module. I tried installing a module that someone had created that was supposed to add UPS shipping to the shopping cart but it didn't work. My boyfriend is a computer programmer and he couldn't get it to work, so it really was a failure. I ship items that vary in weight greatly and I ship all over the world so I could not possibly make an accurate shipping chart myself. It would take me forever and everytime  prices changed I would have to redo the entire thing, no way.

With that being said I will be saying fairwell to my Prestashop store and trying another shopping cart software. Zen Cart is also a free software but unlike Prestashop it caters to users in the United States and has UPS and USPS shipping modules that are supposed to be functional. I will keep you updated on my findings.

I think I will try and do some eBay auctions in the near future just to make some money. I keep focusing on the longterm goal of having my own store but nothing can beat eBay for making some quick profits. I just wish the items I sold where more niche and then it could be quick and large profits. If you have a niche product, eBay is the best place to start developing your business. After you start getting a customer base and some regular profits, then branch out to a store, Amazon, or other auction sites.

Here are some of the books I found about this subject for further reading if you are interested. In fact I think I may need to purchase one of these this time around.
You can't beat a good euphonious

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Thursday, January 14

eBay vs Craigslist and what is Kijiji

eBay Inc.Image via Wikipedia



Just when you think that eBay has learned its lesson and has stopped trying to dominate every aspect of e commerce, they go and launch their new classifieds site Kijiji. So I guess if you are a Craigslist seller like me and millions of others, you can now also list your products on Kijiji. We will see how successful this site ends up being but eBay seems to be having more success these days with their e commerce pet projects like Stub Hub than eBay itself. Maybe if they lowered their selling fees and lifted some of the restrictions they have placed on selling items, they would see business return. 

eBay is still a great place to sell your products, don't get me wrong. I just wish eBay was the same as when I started selling in 2000. All business changes though, that is the nature of the beast. Check out Kijiji and let me know what you think. Should Craigslist be scared? I guess we will have to wait and see.
























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Sunday, January 3

OnlineAuction.com

eBid Ltd.Image via Wikipedia
I was doing a little research on alternative auction sites tonight and came across a site started right here in Southern Oregon. OnlineAuction.com is a modestly popular auction site. It certainly doesn't have the business that eBay enjoys but, it is only one of many auction sites popping up on the internet trying to win a piece of the frustrated eBay sellers who are looking for a better alternative. Some other auction sites are:

I don't receive anything for advertising these sites. Its just for your information. You should check out the other auction sites because you may find they offer more for the money and may fit your goals better than eBay can.

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