I just finished a great new book: How To Sell Coupons on eBay and Really Make Money. I bought the book because selling coupons is one of the great niches I talk about in my book, Ten Little Known, Highly Profitable eBay Niche Markets. Basically I wanted to see if I had missed any techniques. It turns out that I hadn’t, but the author of this book, goes into quite a bit more detail.
How To Sell Coupons on eBay and Really Make Money
It is a short –but excellent read. This guide will teach you step by-step how to sell coupons and earn $500 or more a week in your spare time. With today’s rocky economy and unsteady job market, there’s never been a better time for you to earn extra cash on the world’s number one auction website!
The conventional wisdom is that you want to schedule listings to end at times and on days where the greatest number of people are on eBay. Since the Superbowl is the biggest TV event of the year, you would think that having an auction end during the Superbowl would be a dumb move. That’s what I always thought!
Since Sunday evenings are typically great times to end listings I usually do so –but not on holiday weekend or when something like the Superbowl is happening. However, last year I just spaced on it and launched my normal number of listings to end on Sunday. I was amazed when I checked my computer after the game and noticed that out of 17 listings than ended during the game, 12 of them were successful –and one of them was the subject of a bidding war and realized almost double what that product (a Starbucks Headquarters mug) usually sells for.
So this year I wondered what would happen if I did it on purpose. I have about 8 items ending today. So check back and I will update this post after the game. (BTW – I also have several items on Amazon. I will see how those do too.)
Superbowl Sunday – 9:45 PM Pacific Time
Well it didn’t work as well this year. Only 1 auction item sold on eBay during the game. However, I did sell 1 item from a fixed price listing for $289, 1 item on my website for $227 and a small sale on Amazon for $39.95. Plus there were some book buyers on the Skipmcgrath.com website. Two people bought eBooks during the game and within fifteen minutes of the game ending, another 3 eBooks were purchased.
One problem with the eBay listings is that I had only expensive items (over $200) listed that would end during the game. Maybe I will try this again next year, but put up some lower priced items.
Anyway it was an interesting experiment. Oh – and what a great game. I was rooting for New Orleans but didn’t really think they had a chance. By the end of the 1st quarter I thought the game would be in the bag for Indy by halftime. Glad I was wrong. N.O. really pulled on out. Just goes to show you that patientce and persistence pay off.
I was reading Auctionbytes today when I saw a story about the post office expanding its test of greeting card sales. This will be about as profitable as its sales of teddy bears, Christmas ornaments, mailers, scales and all of the other junk you see gathering dust and not selling in the Post Office lobby.
First of all, I don’t think the Post Office, a government agency, should be competing with local business. In our small town there is a small independent office supply store one block from the post office and a greeting card store about three blocks away. Secondly –the post office does not know anything about retail business.
How the post office loses money
Every year the post office loses money and this results in them raising rates for mail. But did you know there are two big areas where the post office loses money: Retail sales and Air Express –the overnight service that competes with FedEx and UPS. It seems that both FedEx and UPS make money, but the post office loses money operating the same service.
If you study business in college, one of the first things you learn about marketing and management is “stick to your knitting.” Losing focus and dabbling in lines of business that are outside your company’s area of specialty or expertise is one of the fastest ways to lose money –and the USPS is a prime example of this.
If the post office would stick to selling stamps and delivering mail –they may not become profitable –but they would dramatically cut their losses and postal rates would go up much more slowly. And private businesses that USPS competes with would do better –creating more private sector jobs –rather than public ones.
I have been working with a company to help me optimize my website marketing who have produced some very interesting information. One of the studies they did used Yahoo demographic information to see who is visiting my website. Take a look at the chart below:
The dotted line that runs through the bar chart represents the internet average. As you can see my readers are overwhelmingly over 35, make above average incomes and are 60/40 male. The first two don’t surprise me, but the last one does because I tend to get a lot of email from women and I know I have a high number of stay-at-home moms who buy my books. Nevertheless this is really interesting information that I can use to further target my material to my readers.
Skip McGrath
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The Complete eBay Marketing System is one of the oldest and most respected eBay training programs on the market. always updated, we are in our 8th year of publishing what has become the best-selling eBay training system.
I was recently introduced to the Internet Marketing Report Card (IM Report card). This is a wonderful free site where you can check out the reputation of any product, service or person related to making money on the internet.
I had no idea that I was reviewed there until one of my radio listeners (www.wsradio.com/skipmcgrath – 10 am every Wednesday) emailed me that I was ranked 5th in the country out of the top 25 internet marketers. You can read my review at the Skip McGrath Page on IM Report Card.
So take a look at Internet Marketing Report Card. Sign up for a free account (it only takes a minute) and post a comment. If you like any of my books you can write about them. I would love to hear your unbiased comments.
The other thing that is really neat about IM Report Card is that you can actually make money every time you rate someone or post a comment –or even when you recommend someone. You won’t get rich, but there are a few active folks who make an extra $50 to$100 a month or so for just a few minutes work each day. And you are also doing people a service when you warn them away from bad promoters or crappy internet products.
Cheers,
Skip McGrath
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Anyone who can point, click and type can set up a website with XsitePro.
Please join me on Thursday, January 14th at 5 pm Pacific Time (8 pm Eastern) for a free training webinar with one of our senior coaches, Suzanne Wells. The topic will be an auction listing review. This will be an identical session that we give our coaching students. Suzanne and I will go through the listings and point out the good and bad parts and make suggestions to improve them.
The webinar will last about one hour. The purpose is to give our readers a taste of our eBay and Internet coaching program. The Webinar is limited to 100 attendees and spaces will go fast. Please click here to sign up.
If you are interested in personal coaching and would like a free evaluation, Call 1-800-578-3449 or fill out this contact form to see if you qualify. We only take a small number of students at any one time. All of our eBay coaches are active eBay PowerSellers and our Internet coaches all currently run successful online businesses.
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The Complete eBay Marketing System by Skip McGrath is the leading eBay training course on the market today. The 6 pound volume is shipped the same business day you order.
My good friend, Steve Lindhorst, author of Selling on The River has just come out with a great new eBook called Amazon – The Quick and Dirty Guide.
This great little book makes a great companion to my book, How To Make Money Selling Used Books on eBay, Amazon and the Internet. In this book Steve lays out his recipe that shows step by step how he went from $0 to $2000 per month selling used books part-time on Amazon.
Making money selling used books on Amazon
Some of the things he includes are:
Where you can find LOTS of profitable books, CDs, and DVDs consistently
How to find thrift stores wherever you go
How to choose what to buy and what to leave on the shelf
How to use Amazon’s Sales Rank to determine the likelihood of a sale
What to do if you find products with no barcodes or ISBNs
How to improve your chances of a sale
Why you should charge a little more than your competition – and still beat them to the sale
How to clean and repair books, CDs, and DVDs to pull higher prices
There’s a lot more. Steve calls it “quick and dirty” because he didn’t spend a bunch of time on a website or fancy graphics. It’s pretty much just “meaty” stuff that can help you make money in a short time. This is all new stuff. There is little if any overlap between Steve’s book, Selling on The River or my book, How To Make Money Selling Used Books on eBay, Amazon and the Internet.
If you wonder if Steve’s methods work, I was speaking with him on the phone today and he told me about a book he found in the trash pile outside of a thrift shop that sold on Amazon within 2 days for $120 and another old Golf book, he bought for $4.00 and sold for right around $100 within 2 or 3 days.
The used book market on both eBay and Amazon is a great way to get started on the internet. It is low cost, low risk and has high profit potential. If you want go learn the basics, get my book: Make Money Selling Used Books on eBay, Amazon and The Internet.
Then get Steve’s book Amazon – The Quick and Dirty Guide and you will be fully armed to make money in this profitable and fun marketplace.
My newsletter readers have been taking advantage of this like crazy. I know some of you follow my blog but don’t get my newsletter. So here is the link to get $50 off WorldWide Brands Wholesale Products and education membership: http://www.worldwidebrands.com/WWB/SkipMcGrath.asp
This is a great offer and one of the largest discounts WWB has ever offered and its only for my readers through January 1st 2010. After that it goes away forever.
Worldwide Brands is the only wholesale information supplier that I recommend.
I would like to extend my wishes for a happy and prosperous 2010 for all my readers
This one almost slipped by me. I just noticed that the Affiliate Summit 2010 will be held in Las Vegas in a few weeks. The event is being held at the Rio Suites and Hotel from January 17-19, 2010. If you have ever wanted to learn how to make money with affiliate marketing then this is the event to attend. Here is a link to Affiliate Summit 2010. It’s not cheap at $549, but that is an excellent investment if you want to make money with affiliate marketing. They have tons of educational seminars, over 200 exhibitors and you can network with hundreds of successful affiliate marketers.
Five other ways to make money with affiliate marketing
Everyone thinks you need a massive mailing list or a high traffic web site to make money with affiliate marketing, but in fact those are only two of the ways to do this. Here are five additional ways to make money with affiliate marketing:
Start a blog. In my book, How To Make Money Blogging From Home I give a complete description of how to set up a blog and use it to make money with affiliate marketing. Once you start blogging, it is very easy to build an opt-in mailing list that you can also use to boost your affiliate income.
Another way to make money with affiliate marketing is to set up small niche websites that are optimized for one specific keyword or keyword phrase. For example, if you were an affiliate of Legal Zoom you could set up a web site targeted to the keyword phrase Start a home business. And then you put banners and affilaite links from Legal Zoom online incorporation service. Or you could become an affiliate of Carbonite and set up a website optimized for the term “online computer backup.”
Social marketing is not only hot –it is one of the fastest growing ways to make money with affiliate marketing. I now have almost 10,000 people following me on Twitter. It took me about 6 months to build that up. But now I can send out a single tweet with an affiliate link and make several hundred dollars from just that one tweet.
You can even use eBay and Craigslist classified ads to make money with affiliate marketing. A good book on Craigslist is The Official Geezer Guide to Making Money with Craigslist. As for eBay, join Jim Cockrum’s Silent Team at www.thesilent-team.com. Jim is the leading expert in making money with eBay classified ads.
Lastly there are people who do nothing more than comment on blog posts and add their affiliate link to the post. This is a lot of work –but it does work as long as your posts get approved. The way to that is to write good comments that help people –then the blogger doesn’t mind if you plug your affiliate link.
So there are a total of 7 ways to make money with affiliate marketing
The first two were the obvious ones and 5 more that almost anyone can do. After I get back from the affiliate summit I should have a few more ways to do this and I will let you know then.
Cheers and a Happy New Year to all of my loyal readers,
Have you ever been scammed on the internet. I have been at this for ten years, and I still get duped once in a while. I get so mad at the scamers that I actually would like to shoot some of them. But alas, laws are not only written to protect you from me, they are also written to protect me from me. So shooting the scammers will have to remain a fantasy –or so I thought until now.
Shoot the scammers and win a free iPod Nano
Would you really like to shoot some scammers and get away with it? I know that’s not exactly in the spirit of the season –but these guys deserve it. My good friend Chris Malta has created a free online game where you can take aim at the scammers and fire away to your heart’s content. The game is fun –no special equipment needed just your computer and a fast mouse.
And he is giving away a free 5th Generation iPod Nano every week.
This is so cool everyone can have some fun with it. If you are a little slow with the mouse, just let your kids or grandkids play for you and you may still win the iPod Nano.
When you get to the page, be patient as it takes a few moments for the game to load. OH, and while you are there, take a minute to watch one of the educational videos that Chris makes.
Merry Christmas to all my loyal readers –and to anyone else who just happens to drop by.
Shipwire, an independent drop ship warehouse and eBay announced a new partnership agreement today wherby eBay merchants will find it even easier to sell their goods on eBay and fulfill with Shipwire, thanks to a free eBay shipping tool that connects their eBay and Shipwire accounts. The announcement underscores Shipwire’s commitment to helping merchants outsource the hassle of shipping and storage, leaving them free to focus on growing sales.
Any eBay seller can now become a dropshipper.
The way Shipwire works is that you purchase your goods in bulk –thereby getting a better price. Then you ship your goods to one of Shipwire’s warehouses located in several locations around the US. When you get an order, you simply use the free eBay tool to notify Shipwire of your buyers address and they ship it out for you. The cost is minimal and in some cases can actually save you money.
Free Trail – Dropship your first 6 eBay items
Shipwire offers a great free trial. Send them 6 products and they will drop ship those for free to allow you to try the service.
Drop ship international eBay orders too
Shipwire has warehouses in Chicago, Los Angeles, Nevada, Toronto, Vancouver BC and the UK so you can save a ton of money on your international sales and undercut your competition on shipping fees. Shipwire service starts at $29.95 month for small sellers and up to $189.95 per month for really large sellers.
Visit Shipwire at Shipwire.com for more information and learn how to become an eBay Dropshipper
One of my readers pointed out a very interesting article to me today on the Book Think Blog. It seems that Half.com, owned by eBay, will cancel your half.com listings and suspend both your half.com and your eBay account if you violate their book description guideline. Worse yet, there are secret pitfalls that anyone can accidently fall into even if you are giving accurate descriptions.
If you sell books on half.com and have an eBay account then you really need to read this article:
eBay has its problems, but even regular live auctions can go bad. This is a very short video that every auction seller should view. Its only about 1 minute. The auction is for a Chinese Ming vase worth about 1 million dollars. Enjoy!
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Don’t let this happen to you. Learn how to sell on eBay from a professional PowerSeller who sells on eBay every day. Take a look at The Complete eBay Marketing System by Skip McGrath who has been selling on eBay since 1999.
eBay Inc. plans to hire 450 more people at a global operations center in Utah.
The Silicon Valley Business Journal reported today that eBay said it is expanding its operations and customer support by 450 people and will build a $334 million data center.
The state of Utah is sweetening the deal with $30 million in tax incentives in return for the expansion, where it already employs about 1,000 people. eBay has operated its customer support center in Utah for ten years and reduced headcount last year when the economy slowed down.
It will take a while for eBay to hire and train these folks, but eventually this should help improve customer service to eBay members which is sorely needed.
We have been selling on eBay for 10 years and new sellers start an eBay business every day. Not all of these eBay sellers will be successful, but many will. If you want to make money on eBay follow these eBay tips to increase your bids, final value prices and profits. You can get more free tips at my website where I have posted 77 Tips and Tools for Selling on eBay. I also feature eBay tips in my twice-monthly FREE newsletter. You can read the current issue of The eBay Sellers News here.
eBay Tips # 1 ~ Determine an item’s value before you list it:
Use a research tool like HammerTap or the eBay Completed Search to find information about your item such as the average selling price, average starting price, and features, and key words that attract buyers. Look at the image below. When you complete a search look for the radio button that says Completed Items located in the left hand panel of the search results. Click on that button and it will show you a list of what the item sold for in closed auctions instead of ongoing auctions.
eBay Tips # 2 ~ Use a low starting bid:
Getting that first bid is very important. Buyers are more likely to bid once they see other bids on an item. Be careful about using reserves. Reserve pricing turns off many buyers, but if this is the only way to protect a valuable item then it’s worth a try. A low opening bid with no reserve will usually jumpstart bidding and increase your final selling price.
eBay Tips # 3 ~ Write compelling titles:
Be sure to include key words that buyers search for. Always check your spelling. Your item title helps bidders find your items. eBay gives you 55 characters so use each one wisely.
eBay Tips # 4 ~ Write Complete Descriptions:
There is no such thing as too much information. A good description is concise, organized, and easy to read. Use bold for subheads, bulleted lists, and white space between paragraphs. Be sure to include item attributes such as style/type, brand, size, color and condition. When you write your description try and think like a buyer.
eBay Tips # 5 ~ Always Include Photos:
A picture really is worth a thousand words. The more photos the better (up to a point). I typically use 3 or 4 photos to show an item from all sides. Take clear, well-lit photos from a variety of angles to accurately showcase your item. Use good lighting and an uncluttered background to get the most out of your photo. Using a tripod will help you get nice sharp pictures. If you sell regularly on eBay it pays to invest in a simple photo studio such as those sold at www.ezauctiontools.com.
eBay Tips # 6 ~ End your auctions at the best time and day when most buyers are online:
This is usually in the evening between 4-8 PM (Pacific Time). However this is not true for all items so it pays to check eBay’s completed listings to determine the best time and day for your category. For example, merchandise purchased by businesses tend to sell better during the business day.
eBay Tips # 7 ~ Over-communicate:
Always respond quickly to any buyer questions. Include a handwritten note in the box to personalize the sale. Always send the buyer an email telling them when and how you shipped their item.
eBay Tips # 8 ~ Don’t stand in Line at The Post Office:
You can print postage online with the PayPal checkout feature or by going directly to the Post Office website at www.usps.gov. Once your packages are ready just take them to the back door of the post office and drop them off. If you know in advance that you will have shipments you can even schedule a pick up at your house.
eBay Tips # 9 ~ Get Free Shipping Supplies:
There are two sources for free shipping supplies. If you use Priority mail, the United States Postal Service offers a variety of free shipping supplies, delivered directly to you within a few days. The other source is your local gift shop or kitchen store. These merchants receive shipments every day and usually break up the boxes for recycling. Many of them will gladly give you their boxes, Styrofoam and bubblepak.
eBay Tips # 10 ~ Don’t Mark Up Shipping:
High shipping costs are one of the biggest reasons buyers leave poor DSR scores. Always charge the actual rate for shipping. If you offer or pay for insurance, check out www.ShipInsurance.com for lower insurance rates.
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Skip McGrath is an eBay Gold Power Seller who has made his full time living on eBay since 1999. He is the author of The Complete eBay Marketing System and publishes the eBay Seller’s News, the largest and oldest FREE newsletter for professional eBay sellers.
