I have been selling my Complete eBay Marketing System for 6 years now and it remains my flagship training product, but in all honesty I am not the only expert on learning how to sell and make money on eBay.  In fact I have always been a big believer that you should learn from many sources.  Every day I read about techniques from successful sellers that I don’t use or prefer –but they do often work.

Everyone’s business model is different; what works for me may not necessarily work for everyone.  Even if my strategies and techniques work for you, you should also look at those by others.

For the past 6 years while I have been selling my eBay training books and courses, I have also been recommending the training material from the Internet Marketing Center to those who are looking to go beyond eBay to setting up and selling from your own website.  And I continue to do so. The Internet Marketing Center master course is still the best resource for learning internet marketing from A to Z.

But now the folks at the Internet Marketing Center have developed an excellent eBay training course as well. Its called eBay Secrets.  I just finished reviewing the entire course and the bonus materials and I think it is both a great basic training tool for new and small eBay sellers and has good information for existing sellers wanting to expand their business.

eBay Secrets is filled with the selling strategies that are working right this minute on eBay (strategies that even seasoned eBay veterans don’t know about).

Here are just a few of the things you will learn:

• How to identify the hottest markets on eBay and guarantee auction success!
• Where to find the products that offer the greatest profit potential!
• How to write “bidder magnet” listings that explode your final selling price!
• What you can do to automate your business — so you have more time to grow it!
• Ways to drive swarms of traffic to your auctions with top-secret promotion strategies!
• Advanced techniques tested and proven to grow your business further!

… and much, MUCH more

And because eBay’s rules and strategies continue to change over time, you  will be constantly updated about the LATEST rules, and shown how to exploit them to make even MORE profits, through regular FREE updates.

Click here to read about eBay Secrets

And if you want the best of both worlds…Click here to get my Complete eBay Marketing System too.  With these two tools you can’t go wrong.

Skip McGrath

See Also

• Learn How To Create and Sell Information Products on eBay and The Internet
  I am not talking about stupid 99-cent eBooks. This course shows you how to create real information products that sell for real money.

Today there are plenty of programs and services that allow anyone with no technical experience to create a website. You no longer need to know HTML code or how to use web publishing software. If you can point and click you can develop a website.

Here are some of the popular tools I recommend:

1.      If you want to set up an eCommerce website to sell products, take a look at a builder I use and recommend at www.PowerSellerBuilder.com. I currently have two websites operating that were built and are hosted by this system.

2.      Another great system that comes with good support, training and wholesale sourcing help is the Be Biz Program from the Internet Marketing Center.

3.      If you want to set up a site to make money from Google AdSense or Affiliate Marketing, there is a great system from a company called XsitePro.  I have not used their program, but I have looked at it carefully and received tons of email from users who love their system.

Once you set up your website, you have to get traffic. You can have the most beautiful website in the world, but if no one visits it you can’t make money from it.

Building traffic to your website isn’t really that hard and doesn’t take that much time if you follow a steady routine. Here is an article from a ten-part series from BrightBuilders, the company that powers my website builder tool at www.powersellerbuilder.com. The series is called "Marketing Your Website: All ten tips are available at the following links:

·       Tip #1: Ten Ways to Create Compelling Sales Literature ·       Tip #2: Effective Keyword Research ·       Tip #3: Creating Effective Titles & Descriptions ·       Tip #4: Creating and Marketing to Your Customer List ·       Tip #5: Building Content Pages Search Engines Love ·       Tip #6: Pay Per Click Advertising: Sound Strategies ·       Tip #7: Reaping the Benefits of Paid Inclusion ·       Tip #8: Increase Your Link Popularity ·       Tip #9: How Blogs Can Benefit Your Business ·       Tip #10: Build a Daily Marketing Routine

Building a Marketing Routine

One of the Internet´s major advantages over print media is that it can be updated constantly. A website that has not changed in months seems abandoned to those who frequent the site. So change is necessary for repeat business, and this change comes down to a daily marketing routine.

Content is King

When most people think about marketing, they think of advertising. Don´t fall into that trap. Marketing also encompasses your design, your page copy, etc. According to MediaMetrix, 75% of all repeat visitors come back to a site due to the site´s content. We have mentioned before that "Content is King" on the web. MediaMetrix also states that it is vital that the content be good, compelling, new, and free.

Your Daily Routine

Marketing your site on the Internet should be done on a daily basis. In fact, experts agree that you should get into a daily routine, even if it is only for 15 minutes at a time. Doing so will increase your traffic, your customer loyalty, your sales, and your profits. In other words, it will help you create a "sticky site."

Daily promotion activities include:

• Email: No, we are not referring to email marketing, but to responding to customer email in a timely manner. If this is overlooked, you could lose hard-won customers. Many Internet businesses have earned and kept business based on their ability to respond quickly to customer email. Customers appreciate a timely response.
• Newsgroups: This is not copying and pasting an advertisement in newsgroups, but rather it is finding an area of your expertise and being an "advisor" or "expert" online in that area. Answer questions and give advice freely. Ensure that you reference your website in the signature of your posts, so people who read your posts can find your site. If you gain a solid reputation, you will gain customers.
• Update Your Site: Keeping your site fresh with new content is vital, even if you are selling only one product. For example, you might expand your FAQ page or your product information page. By expanding your content, you are not only giving new content for your customers to read, but you are also expanding the number of pages listed in the search engines, which will increase your chances of appearing in the top of the search results.
• Link Popularity: You can review our article on Link Popularity for detailed information, but this is an area that takes constant work. By contacting sites on a daily basis, your link popularity will increase, and if you do it right, your link reputation will increase as well.
• Guest Articles: Writing a guest article for publication in a newsletter or to post on another website is one of the best methods of promoting and marketing your website. First, the guest article can be posted on your own site as new content; second, the guest article will have a link back to your site which will increase your link popularity; third, if you select a site that has a good profile online, it also has a good reputation, which will increase your link reputation; fourth, you and your company will begin to be recognized as an expert in the field. Your "brand awareness" increases.
• Track the Competition: Go where your #1 competitor goes. Use the Google Alert system to track your top competitor. Wherever their company is mentioned in a page newly indexed by Google, you will be notified. This will uncover a gold mine of information for you and you can ride on the coattails of a successful company in your industry.

This article is copyrighted 2009 by Bright Builders Inc. and used with permission.

See Also

• Ten Little Known eBay Niche Businesses Anyone can do to make extra money on eBay
  Here are ten great little eBay businesses that are low cost and low risk that anyone can start

The sale of used books on the Internet increased 25% last year. Almost one of every 10 books sold is a used book, and the majority –over 60% of those are bought online from small individual businesses –many operating out of their homes.

My latest book, How To Sell Used Books on eBay, Amazon and the Internet is a complete guide to starting and running an online book business. It is now available for immediate delivery at: http://www.skipmcgrath.com/products/sell-used-books-ebay-amazon.php.

Anyone can learn how to start and run an online book business for less than $100 in start-up costs.

Used books are the perfect product for the small eBay or online seller.

• They are easy to find
• Although there are tons of expensive books, most books sell for less than $25. This attracts few thieves and scam artists
• Used books are highly profitable.  You can buy books for a quarter of fifty cents that will sell for $10, $20, $30 or more –sometimes much more.
• Books are easy to list, store and ship
• Book prices are easy to research and determine
• Books and book condition descriptions are standard and well understood.
• Book cover photographs are available for most modern books just by typing in the ISBN number
• It only takes a couple of minutes to create a book listing. Amazon, eBay and other sites have standard pre-written descriptions that will fill in automatically just by entering the ISBN number
• Perfect, low-risk business for the part-time seller
• The online book market is growing at double-digit rates and shows no sign of slowing down. Used books make up a larger and larger portion of that business
• Recession-proof business. When the economy slows down, used book sales increase

In How To Sell Used Books on eBay, Amazon and the Internet I show you everything you need to get started and give you the resources you need to grow your business into a profitable online venture.

I rolled out this latest book to my newsletter readers last week and it was well received by readers.  How To Sell Used Books on eBay, Amazon and the Internet is an eBook, but I have set it up so readers can easily print it out on their home computer printer.

I do show the basics of listing a book on Amazon, eBay and some other online sites, but this is not a beginner – How to Sell on eBay – book. So you should know some basics such as how to register and how to list an auction. Listing on Amazon and some other book-selling sites is pretty simple and we cover that in detail. But if you want to learn how to sell on eBay whether it is books, or anything else, I am also offering a package deal. If you buy How To Sell Used Books on eBay, Amazon and the Internet, you will get a link to save $20 + free shipping (a further $9.90 savings) on The Complete eBay Marketing System.

Click Here to read about How To Sell Used Books on eBay, Amazon and the Internet and the free bonus offers that come with the purchase.

See below for other books by Skip McGrath

See Also

• The Complete eBay Marketing System by Skip McGrath
  9 year eBay Gold Power Seller Reveals how he makes a living on eBay. 5 Pound Printed manual and 3 eBay tools and resources CDs
• Ten Little Known, Highly Profitable eBay Niche Businesses Anyone Can Do
  Are you struggling trying to figure out what to sell on eBay? Here are 10 little knows niche businesses that can get you started making money on eBay within days

A few weeks ago I shared a list of some of the awful terms that sellers use in their auctions. Today, I thought I would share some of the more interesting emails I get from readers.

These are just a small sample from the past three months. Some of them are well intentioned, other frustrating and others from people who I really wonder about.  And, yes, these are real emails from readers. You can’t make this stuff up.

I have copy/pasted them exactly as they came in, so the grammar, punctuation, spelling and capitalization are exactly as received with no corrections on my part: I have removed the names and email addresses to protect the guilty.

i think that people who sale on ebay should pay taxes becasue there no better than people who pick up pop can for a living and please do not give my email address or name thank you.

Product: Ten Profitable eBay Niche
message: I need to get a refund for this item. It looks like a lot of work. I look for free money from eBay

 IF Skip McGrath is making so much money on ebay, why is he SELLING this information?
It looks to me, like he’s making money SELLING INFORMATION.
WHY should I BUY His imformation, when like everything else…it doesn’t deliver. WHY would he sell or even TELL his secrets?
Doesn’t he make enough on ebay without selling his secrets on a website.
I’ve sold on ebay for several years. (I looked up this seller and her feedback was 43, most of it as a buyer)

Skip – Your stuff is the best, but what should I sell on eBay to make the most money???

Your newsletter is just more ebay propaganda to get out money in more fees for ebay.

Skip do you teach me the secrets that work and if you do are they still secrets if you teach them to so many people? I want just the real secrets not the ones you sell to other people. Can we make a deal? I am happy to pay extra.

I looked at every wholesale source there is and none of them really sell at wholesale. How can people make money if no one really has wholesale prices. Why won’t real wholesale companies sell to me.

Mr. McGrath: What sells best on ebay? What is hot product and where can I get it? Thank you.

I live in Nigeria and work in orphanage and want to do eBay from here to make donation to our good cause. Can you send me a free book to help my orphans, God bless to you.

What products sells best on ebay and where can I find the best wholesale source.

You are screw job and so is ebay paypal why shold I buy you book ????????????? But I llike your newswletters

Mr. Skip I would like to be your agent in Nigeria and can sell millions of your product. Plesae contact me immediately to disuc uss this interesting and profitable business proposal. (This was sent from the same email address as the orphanage)

eBay hoses people and takes them for a ride why are you helping them skip mcgrath…I bet you make money too.

The last one is interesting.  I am not sure if he is confusing hoses with horses or where the ride will take me.

As you can see several of the questions are from people who want to know what to sell on eBay, or what sells best on eBay. I get this question stated several ways and is probably the most asked single question.  All of my books and several free articles deal with this question in great detail. I will take one more stab at the answer:

Forget selling hot consumer products. There is too much competition and the margins are very low. Find a specialized niche that is less competitive and most importantly find a niche that you know something about and enjoy working in.  Here is a link to my Free Articles page where you can read several articles about what sells on eBay, niche marketing and where to find the wholesale products to sell on ebay.

As for secrets; If you read the sales letters for my products, you won’t find many mentions of "secrets."  I don’t keep any secrets for myself.  Clever sellers are always looking for angles and often come up with new techniques, but once they use them then everyone else can pretty much see them.  So are there any secrets?  yes – but they don’t last very long. If you really want to make money on eBay, there is no substitute for learning the basics, doing the work and then staying on top of your business.

And I will leave you with a little advertising plug (I have to pay the bills too).

If you are struggling to find wholesale products, don’t forget that OneSource is having a holiday sale where you can save an extra $30 over my normal $20 discount on this excellent source of wholesale product information.  www.worldwidebrands.com/skipmcgrath.  This promotion ends November 30th.

See Also

• Wholesale Buying System for eBay Sellers
  Complete printed course teaches eBay sellers how, what and where to buy wholesale products to sell on eBay

There are three words that strike fear into many sellers. They are Detailed Seller Ratings (DSR). Sellers protested when the Feedback 2.0 program was launched about six months ago, and they haven’t stopped. The issue is that the buyer leaves the rating anonymously and the seller has no recourse or chance to respond to the rating. For high volume sellers, it’s not as big a deal because, like with feedback where one negative amongst thousands isn’t going to make a huge impact on the feedback rating, one low rating on DSR isn’t going to ruin your rating.

But, if you’re a low-volume eBay seller, or just starting out, it can make a huge difference. One negative feedback when your feedback score is 50, drops you immediately to 98% positive. Similarly, one low rating on the DSR will drop your rating down significantly.

A new announcement has eBay sellers up in arms. Beginning in 2008, search results will not be presented by the current Time: Ending Soonest sort. They will be based on the seller’s performance. We’ve seen Best Match become the default on the Playground, so it looks like this is going to become the default on eBay. According to eBay, they will be using the Detailed Seller Ratings to determine which seller is better than another. This is going to instantly penalize smaller sellers.

According to eBay’s announcement, this table shows the breakdown of DSR scores by seller percentile.

	Bottom 10% of Sellers	Bottom 25% of Sellers	Median Seller	Top 25% of Sellers	Top 10% of Sellers
Item as Described	4.6	4.7	4.8	4.9	5.0
Communication	4.5	4.7	4.8	4.9	4.9
Shipping Time	4.3	4.6	4.8	4.9	4.9
S&H Charge	4.3	4.5	4.6	4.8	4.8

Surely, just looking at this table shows DSR is not effective. The rating range is 0-5. Why, then, is there only 0.4 variation between the top 10% and bottom 10%? Surely that shows that either buyers are not using it properly, or it is just an ineffective tool.

For one thing, there is no real system for buyers to know where on the scale to rate the seller. Some start at 3 and add for very good service, and deduct for very poor service. Some start at 5 and only deduct for bad service. There’s no standardized system. From the table above it suggests that buyers should leave a 4.5 rating for a really poor seller. That makes no sense at all.

Many sellers are balking at seeing these numbers because they have ratings in the 3.5-4.5 range. This has never bothered most savvy buyers before, but seeing these numbers and knowing that where they show up in search results will be based on this, is making many sellers very dejected.

As I understand it, you will see sellers with the highest DSRs first. So that means you will see all of the huge corporations who have tens of thousands of feedback, and enough DSR ratings coming in to mask any low ones, and you’ll rarely see the small sellers unless they have perfect DSR.

Maybe the idea behind this was to get sellers to work better to accommodate buyers in this area, but since the ratings are purely based on the buyer’s opinion, not what the seller actually does, it doesn’t really make that much of a difference what the seller does. I know eBay is trying to reward the sellers who work hard to please their buyers, and as one of those sellers, I do appreciate it. But I think they are inadvertently penalizing some very good sellers who have had a few buyers who don’t know how to use DSR completely mess up their rating.

Hopefully eBay will look at this and it’s likely impact before launching it next year. One thing I will say, thank goodness they’re not rolling it out this month, right before the holiday season!

Unless eBay hears from you this will become the defacto system. So write to eBay and post on the message boards. (eBay does read these, even if they don’t always respond on the board).

See Also

• Increase Hits, Bids and Final Values in Your eBay Auctions with Auction TNT
  Get a $1.00 Trial for Skip McGrath Readers.
• FREE Wholesale Search Engine
  Find wholesale products to sell on eBay with our FREE Wholesale Product Search Engine

ebay Image Tips

You will make more money on eBay if you use appealing photos and a basic photo strategy.

• Always use eBay Gallery.  I know it costs a few cents, but eBay listings with gallery photos get far more hits than those without.
• Use more than one photo. Try and shoot products in use and always provide a good closeup.
• Save money by finding a free photo hosting site or use the Auctiva auction management service
• learn and experiment with video as this is the new trend on eBay and is showing good results. (See my previous post on using video in auctions)

Photography is one of those skills that can take years to learn to do well, but fortunately digital cameras with their high level of automated features have made this task much simpler.

Digital Camera Selection

Your first task is to select a good digital camera with all the features you will need. There are hundreds of digital cameras on the market and new models are coming out virtually every week. The trend today is towards higher and higher image quality. This is expressed in the number of pixels –or mega pixels a camera can resolve. The higher this number, the more expensive the camera.

Fortunately you do not need extreme high-resolution for your auction photography. In fact, high-resolution photos are undesirable because they take a long time to download when someone opens an auction.

eBay recommends that photo file sizes be limited to 50 kilobytes. Actually you can go up to 64 kilobytes with no problem. Sixty-four kilobytes (64kb) is the size of what is called the email setting on most digital cameras. So this is one of the first features you need to look for when buying a camera –make sure it has a low resolution or email setting. This feature is on most digital cameras so it is not a hard option to locate. The email setting is OK for most digital photos if you are not going to crop them. When you do, you lose detail. If you are selling a product where detail is important, then you will want to shoot at a higher resolution, at least 1 or 2 Megapixels, and crop or resize the photo in your software to get down to 65KB. Shooting at this higher resolution will preserve the detail when you crop or resize.

Here are some of the features you need in a camera for auction photography and why they are important:

Tripod: Digital cameras have a very slow shutter speed that can lead to motion blur. Almost all cameras have a standard tripod screw mount in the bottom. It is very important to use a tripod when taking auction photos to avoid blurred images that occur when you handhold a camera.

Macro Setting: Macro is the photographic term for the ability to focus very close to an object. Typically the macro feature will allow you to focus as close at 3 or 4 inches from the subject. This is important to photograph small objects or to get up close to details you may want to show such as the original manufacturer’s price tag or a maker’s mark on pottery or silver.

White Balance Adjustment: We will talk about white balance in detail below. Basically this is how you adjust a camera to account for different color temperatures of light. Almost all cameras have an automatic white balance, but you want to make sure you get one where you can manually select the white balance between daylight, fluorescent and incandescent.

Manual Focus: The auto focus on digital cameras is often fooled. The ability to manually focus on an object or part of an object is very important.

Exposure adjustment: The light meter in a camera can be fooled by bright backgrounds. Since we often shoot against a white background especially when using a lighting tent, you need a camera that can adjust for this exposure.

Optical zoom: Digital cameras come with both optical zoom and digital zoom. Digital zoom is very restrictive and difficult to work with. Make sure your camera has a basic optical zoom feature. You can tell if it does by pushing the zoom button and seeing if the lens actually moves in and out. If not, they the camera is using digital zoom.

Aperture priority setting: The ability to select a small lens opening (aperture) allows you to achieve what is called depth of field. This means that objects close to you and far away are both in focus.

I have several cameras reviewed in my Amazon Camera Store that fit all of these criteria. 

Whichever camera you buy. take the time to read the manual and learn how to use all of the features. Taking Good Photos

Rather than try and give you a complete course on digital photography which would be the subject of another book, I have organized the most important information as a series of tips. If you want to read more about digital photography there are several books on the market that span the gamut from beginner to advanced. If you would like a good basic book aimed at the auction photographer, you can purchase a copy of my eBay Online Auction Photo Secrets at www.skipmcgrath.com.

1. Always use a tripod. Unless you are shooting outdoors or using a flash, digital cameras tend to use a very slow shutter speed. With a slow shutter speed, typically under 1/125th of a second, most people cannot hold a camera steady enough to prevent blur. Using a sturdy tripod will prevent blur and allow you to shoot all the way down to 1/25th of a second with good results. Make sure your tripod is sturdy and has an adjustable head that will rotate the camera both horizontally and vertically. A sturdy tripod can cost as much as $100, but I have found that most large photo stores often have good –even professional quality, tripods second-hand for as little as $20-$30.

2. Focus carefully and correctly. I see out of focus pictures on eBay every day. This is usually attributed to one of two things. Autofocus malfunction or lack of depth of field. Most digital cameras project a laser or infrared beam onto the object being photographed and measure the reflection to determine the focus. This beam can often be fooled by large objects that allow the beam to spread out or something reflective on the object that fools the beam.

The other issue is depth of field. Have you ever looked at a photograph where the subject is in focus and the background is all fuzzy? Depth of field is the focal distance from near to far the camera will cover where everything is in focus. The aperture, or lens opening, on a camera adjusts to allow more of less light into the camera. When the lens opening is large, the camera has a very narrow range of focus. When the opening is small, the focal length is longer. This effect is magnified when you are shooting very close up as you do when taking photos of small objects.

The aperture can be set manually on most of the digital cameras we listed above and many others. Lens openings are marked as a series of numbers that range from 3.5 to 16. The higher the number the more depth of field you will have. This is critical when shooting up close with the macro function as the macro function also limits the depth of field (for technical reasons I won’t get into here). If I am shooting an object close up, I typically use a aperture of 8 or higher. With automatic digital cameras when you set the aperture at a high number, the camera compensates for less light by slowing down the shutter speed. This is why you need a tripod. If you try and hand hold a camera at a slow shutter speed you will almost always get a blurry photo.

The other advantage of setting your camera to Aperture Priority is the autofocus will not be fooled as easily if you use it.

3. Use soft lighting. Sunlight or direct light from a bulb or a flash can create hot spots and reflections in your photos. If you are shooting outside, you want to shoot in bright shade or on a cloudy day. If you have a north facing window, this can often produce very nice diffuse light. If you are using lights, you can either purchase white plastic light covers to diffuse the light or use a light tent such as the EZ Cube.

The EZ Cube is probably the most widely used system by eBay sellers. It makes taking great photos easy. You simply place an object inside the light tent, shine the lights on the outside and you get very nice diffused light. This eliminates glare and reflection from shiny objects. Also it has a seamless background and you can place different colored paper or cloth in the background to get different effects. You can purchase the EZ Cube light tents at a discount at www.EZAuctionTools.com.

4. Avoid clutter. Try and photograph only the object you are shooting. Placing an object on a table with other stuff in the background will distract from your subject. If you use something like the EZ Cube this is easy, but sometimes you have to photograph large objects that would not fit. In this case, but sure to clean up the background as much as possible. If you are shooting a computer for example, remove everything from the desk it’s on and hide the wires or any other distracting objects. If you are shooting a car, drive the car to a park where you can shoot it will lawn and trees in the background, instead of your garage or driveway.

If you are shooting apparel, you should invest in a dress form or mannequin. Then place the mannequin against a wall draped with cloth to contrast the color and diffuse any shadows.

5. Avoid Underexposure. If you are shooting objects on a white or bright background or shooting outside in bright light, you camera’s automatic light meter can often be fooled by trying to adjust to the surrounding bright light rather than the object. Most good digital cameras have an over/under exposure compensation adjustment. If you are shooting on a white background such as in an EZ Cube, try setting your camera’s exposure setting to +1. This will allow more light onto the subject. One way you can tell you are underexposing is if a white background appears grey in the photo. If this happens or if your objects are just too dark, they try adjusting the exposure compensation until the white looks truly white.

6. Use the correct white balance. Different types of light have different wavelengths. Without getting into a discussion of optical physics, this means you have to set up camera for the type of light you are using. If your camera is set on Daylight and you shoot with an ordinary household light bulb, you photos will appear yellow. If you shoot with a fluorescent light, your photos will appear blue-grey. You can purchase Daylight bulbs. These are ordinary light bulbs that have the same wave length as daylight. The people who sell the EZ Cube also sell a variety of Daylight bulbs. You can also find them at most large camera stores. All of the digital cameras mentioned above have a white balance setting. If you are using indoor light bulbs or fluorescent lights, just set your camera for the correct type of light you are using.

7. Get close. Getting close to your subject will produce a better photo. It is easier to focus accurately when you are close and it will show more of the object without the distracting clutter.

The best way to learn to take good photos is to practice. Read your camera’s instruction manual completely and experiment with all of the controls and functions until you are comfortable with them.

Pro Tip

When you are shooting colorful objects, place a piece of colored cloth or craft paper behind the object. Pick a color that matches one of the minor colors –not the main color. For example if you were shooting a blue teapot that had other colors in the trim such as red or yellow, you would pick a red or yellow background paper. This is a trick used by professional photographers that will give your photo an image of more depth and help the main color pop (stand out) in the image.

Managing Your Photos

Image management is the term used by eBay sellers for editing, storing, and uploading your photos.

Most digital cameras come with photo editing software. I happen to like Nikon’s the best. You can set it so whenever you plug your camera into the computer it automatically opens and you can import your photos with one click.

There are also a number of software programs you can buy to perform this function. If you own an Apple computer you are lucky because all Macs come with i-Photo which is one of the best all around photo editing and management programs on the market. There are some very advanced (and expensive) programs available such as Adobe Photoshop, but if your digital camera doesn’t come with one, there are some good consumer-level programs available as well. If you go to www.shareware.com or www.tucows.com there are a number of free image and photo management programs you can download. One of the best is PhotoPlus. The download is free, but they make their money selling the support and training tools which cost far less than most expensive programs and are excellent.

Whichever program you use, you want to be able to easily plug your camera into your computer, import the photos and then give them filenames so you can organize them, and edit and crop them. Most of the software programs have a feature which allows you to adjust brightness and contrast also just in case you didn’t get a great photo in the first place. This is a real time saver because you don’t have to re-shoot your product.

Once you have your photos edited and named, you will want to create a folder on your hard drive called Auction Photos or something like that. Within this folder you will want sub-folders with the product categories you are selling. Simply file your photos to the appropriate folder so you can easily find them when you are ready to upload them to your auctions.

Once you have your photographs on your hard drive you now need to get them into your auctions. eBay offers two ways to manage your images. You can insert images from your computer’s hard drive one at a time as you launch auctions and eBay will charge you for each photo. The first photo is free and each additional photo costs $0.15. So, if you used four photos in a auction it would cost you $0.45 for every auction whether the item sold or not. This is obviously too expensive if you are running dozens of auctions a week. eBay also offers a subscription hosting program based on the number of photos you host. It starts at 9.95 for 50 MB, and goes to $19.95 for 125 MB and $39.95 for 300 MB. This is also very expensive although eBay does give you free editing software when you subscribe to this service. A better solution is available from Auction TNT.  They also offer a video hosting program for the same fee.

Another way to host your photos is on a web site. If you already have a web site you can simply upload your photos to a web page and just insert the web URL of the specific photo into each auction. Unfortunately this is very time consuming and you have to pay for the web space.

You can also host your photos with an Auction Management Service. My favorite is Vendio.com Other popular services are Auctiva and Marketworks.

The images are stored on the web site of the auction management service. When you create an auction, you get to the page to select the images you want to attach and simply double click or select a check mark next to the photo. The service inserts the URL of the particular image into your auction. When the auction launches, eBay just looks for those images at the named URL and they are displayed in your auction every time someone clicks on it. If you select a gallery image, that URL is fed constantly to eBay’s web site so it is always visible when members are searching, browsing or perusing the gallery.

Once you start using an auction management service you will appreciate both the speed, and therefore timesaving aspects of hosting your photos this way, but you will get the whole host of additional services such as templates, automated customer emails, shipping calculators, and inventory management tools that come with the service –usually for what you would be paying eBay to host photos individually.

See Also

• Learn to sell on eBay with The Complete eBay Marketing System by eBay PowerSeller, Skip McGrath
  Everything you need to start and run an eBay business written by a PowerSeller who sells on eBay every day.

Normally, when eBay offers a listing promotion, it’s for one day only and it’s usually a Tuesday or Wednesday (typically the worst day to list an item). So, the dollar value savings in the listing fee often does not equate to the loss you’ll take by ending your item at a non-optimal time. This time it’s different.

In my previous post I talked about the Summer slow-down, so this is the perfect time for eBay to offer this kind of promotion. September is a tough month because the kids are back at school, summer’s coming to an end, often buyers spent too much on vacation, and no-one’s really thinking about Christmas yet. This usually translates into fewer sales and lower final values. So in this month, many eBay sellers list fewer items because the listing fees mount up if you’re not getting as many sales. Cue eBay’s new promotion:

If you list between August 29th (today) and September 30th you can get your listing fee waived. There are a few requirements:

• You must use Gallery (which you should be doing anyway)
• You must list the starting price at $9.99 or lower
• You must add Gallery separately (rather than with Pro Pack, Gallery Featured, Value Pack, Gallery Plus, etc.)
• You must list an auction-style or fixed-price listing
• eBay Motors (including parts and accessories) and some other categories are excluded

This is huge. You can list your items at optimal times, and still get the fee reduction. This is not a credit you have to wait for, this is a discount that you will see immediately.

"What if I can’t list it at $9.99?" I hear you cry. Don’t worry, eBay has got you covered too. They understand that there are some items you just can’t start at that low a price. So they are giving you a 25% discount on all insertion fees when the starting price is $10 or higher. This is how the fee table works out:

Starting or Reserve Price	Regular Fee	Discounted Fee	Savings Per Listing
$0.01 – $0.99	$0.20	FREE	$0.20
$1.00 – $9.99	$0.40	FREE	$0.40
$10.00 – $24.99	$0.60	$0.45	$0.15
$25.00 – $49.99	$1.20	$0.90	$0.30
$50.00 – $199.99	$2.40	$1.80	$0.60
$200.00 – $499.99	$3.60	$2.70	$0.90
$500 +	$4.80	$3.60	$1.20

Let’s look at a few examples.

High-Volume Low-Dollar

If you’re a professional high volume, low-dollar seller, listing 100 auctions a week, that gives you 400 auctions during this promotion. It shouldn’t be an issue for you to start at $9.99 (since you probably do that anyway). So you are saving $160 in listing fees. That’s pretty significant, particularly in one of the slower months.

Low-Volume High-Dollar

Now, let’s look at the other type of professional seller – low volume, high-dollar sellers. You may only have 15-25 auctions a week, but your starting price (or more likely reserve price) will probably be either in the $200-$499.99 or $500+ band. So if you list 20 auctions per week, that’s 80 during the promotion period. Let’s assume you’re in the highest band price, that means you’ll be saving $96 in listing fees. This isn’t as high as the high-volume seller, but it’s still good. This might be the time to get a bunch of items listed so you can take advantage of the promotion. If you are able to list 40 auctions a week, your savings just jumped to $192.

This promotion has been launched at the absolute best possible time. Don’t forget, that many sellers are also buyers. All of the buyers who saw this promotion know that there will be a lot of inventory posted in the next month, so we may actually see a spike in sales. Either way, this is a great way to get geared up for the holiday season.

See Also

• The eBay Wholesale Buying System
  How to find and deal with wholesale sources who will work with eBay sellers
• The Complete eBay Marketing System
  Everything you need to know about starting and running a successful eBay business

I am not talking about lacking professional-level writing skills – many of the auctions I saw would not impress a 5th grade teacher.

If you want to learn how to make money on eBay you really need to concentrate on writing good descriptions.

You have all seen the difficult-to-read auction descriptions: Small type, run-on sentences and paragraphs, missing information and so on. If you really want the item, you are forced to email the seller to get more information – or you just give up and go on to the next item.

My own writing skills are no where near the level of a professional writer or journalist, yet I am successful at getting my ideas across to a wide audience. Here are some rules I follow to write winning auction descriptions:

• Use the HTML command <font-size=+1> at the beginning of your description or If you use eBay’s HTML editor, set it to Medium font size. This will increase the standard eBay type size to make your words readable on any computer screen
  
  

• Clearly state what you are selling in the first paragraph. Make your paragraphs short – no more than two or three sentences. There is plenty of research that shows web page readers like to scan text. If you paragraphs are too long, it makes it harder to scan. Place an extra return between paragraphs to create some white space around them.

• Use bullets to describe features and benefits.

• Write short sentences and/or follow a long sentence with a short sentence
   

• Write complete sentences (i.e. subject and a verb). Avoid complex punctuation and long prepositional phrases
   

• Don’t worry about your auction description being too long. It is more important to include all the information a buyer needs than to have a short description. If your description is easy-to-read, potential bidders will keep reading until they have all the information they need.

• Describe all relevant details such as age, condition, hallmarks, flaws, packaging, size, manufacturer, and so on.

• Use “power words” to create word pictures and emotional responses. A few examples are: New, Rare, Genuine, Beautiful, Original, Charming, First Class, Lovely, Save Money, Bargain, Guaranteed, and Expensive-Looking. Stress any product benefits such as health, beauty, time-saving, ease-of-use, money-saving, etc. (Caution: When using power words, don’t exaggerate. For example do not describe something as rare if it is not.)
   

• Personalize the description. Tell the reader how or where you found the item or how you use it.
  
• Spell out your shipping and payment terms clearly and completely.

Follow these steps and you will see your eBay bids and final values increase.

See Also

• The Complete eBay Marketing System
  Learn how to make money on eBay with The Complete eBay Marketing System by Gold PowerSeller, Skip McGrath

I’m a PowerSeller, so obviously I am thrilled about this new feature that will credit me back my Featuring fees when a buyer doesn’t pay for an item. But I have a feeling not all eBay users will feel that way. Yes, eBay is changing how they categorize PowerSellers so low-price, high-volume sellers and seasonal sellers will become eligable, but that doesn’t cover everyone. Still, I think it’s a great step in the right direction and it really gives sellers an incentive to go that extra mile to become a PowerSeller.

There are a few restrictions:

1. The listing must be auction, or auction plus Buy It Now option.
2. Shipping and handling charges must be reasonable.
3. PayPal is accepted.
4. The seller must file an unpaid item request with eBay.

Unfortunately, eBay is as vague as ever about what "reasonable shipping charges" are but if you use common sense (as I always recommend) and don’t try to use shipping as a profit center, you should be fine.

The only other concern is that you must file an unpaid item request. Yes, that’s got to be a requirement, but many PowerSellers choose to assume the insertion and final value fees rather than going through the unpaid item process. Even if you do a mutual withdrawal from transaction, many buyers (usually newbies) get spooked when they see the full-page alert from eBay next time they log in and don’t agree to it. Now you’re stuck because you can’t go back and refile. If you file a non-paying bidder report that would count against the buyer, you risk negative feedback. In the past it’s not really been worth the hassle for the amount you would get back. Now, however, when you add in the feature fees, it becomes more worth the risk. I’ll be interested to see how this impacts seller’s feedback, particularly considering they have to maintain 98% positive to remain part of the PowerSeller program.

The program became effective August 1st and will run until the end of the year. It may be extended at that point, but eBay has made the point that they need to evaluate any unforeseen knock-on effects of this new program.

For all I am happy to be eligable for this program, I do feel that eBay is moving further and further away from its roots. Programs like this are only going to distance new or occasional sellers from the PowerSellers.

Deciding which day to start a listing depends on the auction duration you select. eBay offers 1, 3, 5,  7 and 10-day auctions.

Statistically auctions ending Sunday and Monday evening between 5PM-7PM Pacific Time (all eBay times are Pacific) get the most visibility and the highest number of bids. However, this is not true for all items and it pays to test and do some research.

Here is an example.  I am a fairly large dealer in Starbucks collectibles –mostly Starbucks City Mugs. (Here is a link to my listings if you are interested). For the past three years I have been ending my auctions mostly on Sunday and Monday evenings and doing pretty well.  Typically my Starbucks listings have a Sell Through Rate (STR) of over 70%. 

A few months ago I was playing around with the HammerTap3 Research tool researching some new items I had seen at a wholesale trade show.  On a whim I decided to plug in my Starbucks city mugs to see what it said about the best day and time to end an eBay auction.

To my surprise HammerTap came back and said the best day &time to end auctions was on Wednesdays between 3PM and 4PM.  I thought that was a little strange but decided to try it.  I guess HammerTap is pretty accurate because my STR jumped to over 80% and my final values went up by more than 15%.

Now the conventional wisdom would be to immediately change all of your listings to that time block –but this could be a mistake.  Once you know the best time and day to end an auction, the natural tendency would be to list all of your items at that time.  The problem is this could hurt you.  It is a question of supply and demand.  If you suddenly list lots of items at the most popular times you will increase the supply and essentially compete against yourself.

A better strategy is to list your best-selling or most profitable items during the peak time and then look for the next-best times to list the rest of your items.

See Also

• FREE Wholesearch Search Engine
  Find products to sell on eBay or your website –completely FREE !!!