Colin Sebastian, Digital Media & Internet analyst at Wall Street firm Lazard Capital Markets, estimates that Amazon.com’s third-party sellers will generate nearly $9 billion in gross merchandise sales in 2009. This is up from roughly $7 billion in 2008.This may be why more and more eBay sellers are expanding their business to Amazon. Why sell on just one channel?

If you want to learn more about selling on Amazon, a great jumping off point is the SCOE – Sellers Conference for Online Entrepreneurs: The Independent Conference for entrepreneurs who utilize Amazon as a sales channel

The dates are July 10-13 2009 and the event will be held at the Seattle Airport Marriott and Amazon Headquarters (transportation will be available from the hotel to Amazon).

This conference is presented to allow sellers to network, learn, and grow their online businesses. Executives from Amazon.com will be on hand to lead sessions, answer questions and receive feedback and there will be a visit to Amazon headquarters.

I will be speaking on a panel led by Cindy Shebley about expanding your eBay business to sell on Amazon. Here’s the line-up:

Monsoon’s CEO, Kanth Gopalpur http://www.monsoonworks.com/

Alice Rudolph – eBay PowerSeller and Amazon Pro Merchant, from aliceinstitches http://www.aliceinstitches.com/

Michael Levit, EVP of Marketing and Business Development from Vendio http://www.vendio.com/

Cindy Shebley – eBay PowerSeller and Amazon Pro Merchant/FBA seller  http://www.websellerscircle.com

Here is the website for more information and where you can register: http://www.scoe.biz

If you can’t attend but would still like to learn how to sell on Amazon, grab a copy of Selling on The River by Steve Lindhorst.

See Also

• Learn How To Sell Information Products on eBay, Amazon and The Internet
  Complete course on selling real information products for profit and long-term income

Here are the details:

 Regardless of your start price, your first 5 Auction-style listings will have NO Insertion Fees when you list with eBay’s Sell Your Item form or Simple listing form.

The Final Value Fee for these 5 listings with $0.00 Insertion Fees will be 8.75% of the sales price or $20, whichever is lower. Any additional items sold during the same 30-day period will have the same Insertion Fees and Final Value Fees as they do today. Learn more.

Choose the option that works best for you, based on how you list:

• eBay’s Sell Your Item form or Simple listing form – If you’re currently using one of these forms, you can either take advantage of the 5 free Insertion Fees every 30 days, or opt out by listing your items via an eBay tool or third-party listing solution.
• eBay tool or third-party listing solution – If you’re currently using one of these tools, you can either take advantage of this new pricing structure by listing your first 5 Auction-style listings every 30 days through eBay’s Sell Your Item form or Simple listing form, or continue with your current practices at the current pricing.

 The 5 listings with $0.00 Insertion Fees are especially helpful if you don’t sell a high volume, but offer the kind of unique and hard-to-find inventory buyers expect to find on eBay. I am also using it to list expensive items with a high starting price.  For example, I usually use Vendio or InkFrog to launch my listings, but once each month, I go into the eBay sell your item form and list five of my firepit barbeque grills at $227 each. Not only do I save the listing fee, the final value fee is also lower than on a regular sale.

See Also

• The Complete eBay Marketing System by Skip McGrath – Complete printed business manual – money back guarantee
  eBay Printed training manual by a Gold PowerSeller who sells on eBay every day.

Lynn is an old friend and an experience eBay PowerSeller who regularly sells over $100,000 a year on eBay.  Drawing from tens of thousands of eBay sales, a decade of eBay experience, and the wisdom of a beloved grandmother, Lynn puts together a roster of stories that will teach, inspire, and entertain her readers! You will learn dozens of eBay tips and tricks from this highly fun and easy to read book.

Sound good? Well, it gets even better…

For the next 48 hours ONLY, purchase Lynn’s new book “Home Run” and you will also receive more than $534 in downloadable resources from ten of the most successful, well-respected entrepreneurs in the eBay community. All free of charge – no gimmicks, no catches and no hidden fees.

Click here to purchase right now: http://budurl.com/ajrc

This is a great book and every seller can learn from it. and the bonus items (including one from me) are easily worth far more than the cost of the book.

Skip McGrath

Follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Skip_McGrath

See Also

• The Complete eBay Marketing System Updated for 2009 with all the latest eBay changes
  Learn how to sell on eBay with the best-selling training course by an eBay PowerSeller who sells on eBay every day

If you are like most eBay sellers in this slow economy, you are looking for additional places to sell. netSpray is an affordable lead generation e-commerce site and marketplace where sellers are given tools and services to create, distribute and manage items for sale all across the Internet. netSpray ads can be placed in a variety of online locations including blogs, forums, and social media sites.

netSpray is very easy to learn and simple to use. Basically when you log into netSpray, you fill out a form that describes your product and upload a photo of it. netSpray does the rest. It creates an ad than you can simply paste into your blog, website,  classified sites, or a social media site such as MySpace or Facebook. Here is what a netSpray ad looks like:

When you create an ad, the netSpray widget gives you a line of html code that you just paste into your destination site and you get an ad that looks like the one above.  When someone clicks on the ad, they are taken you a large page with a full description.

netSpray is a fixed price venue but has a “make an offer” option for advanced sellers.

Click here to learn more about netSpray and to get your free report

The site sells subscriptions to its innovative Ad Management Panel (AMP). The AMP is your gateway to selling on a wide variety of Internet sites such as blogs, Craigslist, Twitter, MySpace, Facebook,  and even eBay –using their classified ad format. The AMP is the simple listing tool sellers use to list and manage your items for sale. Creating and launching a netSpray listing is easier and faster than launching an item on eBay.  There are no listing fees to launch an item on netSpray.

There are three ways to make money with netSpray:

• You can sell your own products (new, used or vintage) on dozens of websites, blogs and social media sites.

• You can make money (affiliate commissions) selling other people’s new and used products on your blog, website or social media site
• You can make money recommending and signing up other people for netSpray

When you sign up for netSpray, you also get an instant affiliate program so that thousands of people can become your affiliate and list your products on their sites. And, you can earn affiliate commissions for promoting netSpray –or for selling other people’s products on your sites.

The uniqueness of its affiliate program is that sellers set the commission they feel comfortable with for the items they list for sale. Unlike most affiliate programs, netSpray’s affiliate program allows a commission to be made on used items.

Anyone can distribute netSpray ad widgets – distribution of the ad widget is available to both merchants and affiliates.  Think about it – distribution of your offers anywhere on the Internet, no listing fees, an ad management panel for selling in social media networks, and an affiliate network –all of this for one low subscription fee.

As netSpray spreads, sellers will find new and unique ways to use it. This really reminds me of the early days of eBay. I think this is a site where a lot of money will be made.  

Some of the more unique things about netSpray…

• On classified sites like Craigslist, netSpray’s lead generation widgets provide the opportunity for immediate sales through PayPal, which offers secure online payment, essentially giving your audience a direct link to a verified shopping cart.
• Commissions are set by the merchant, not the site – this is huge!
• Subscription-based fees with no final value and no insertion fee means one price for however many ads you create.

If you are having trouble understanding how this works, think of it as a giant eBay store where your listings appear all over the Internet and dozens, hundreds or even thousands of other sellers are helping you sell your product.

netSpray provides a great opportunity for e-commerce sellers who are interested in complimenting their existing sales strategy.  You can supplement your online sales using the site with no worries about final value or insertion fees getting out of control.  Also, netSpray’s seller feedback is also fair.  Within its ad management panel, users can participate in netSpray’s user forum which is closely followed by the netSpray staff…so you can be sure your voice will be heard.

Follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Skip_McGrath. I will send you a tweet whenever I post a new blog post or a new issue of this newsletter

While some people are concerned about eBay fees or the recession, others are making money by finding unique ways to generate additional income.

I have created a special bonus for my readers who sign up for netSpray’s Seller Advantage package today.  You will get my free report Seven Secrets to Selling Online just for looking and a free special bonus report for anyone who tries the service for one month. 

Click here to learn more about netSpray and to get your free report

You really will be amazed!

See Also

• Learn How To Make Good Money Selling Used Books on eBay, Amazon and The Internet
  Conmplete training program shows how anyone can make extra money or build a full-time business selling used books online.

If you sell on eBay, or you are thinking about it, you’ll LOVE "Big Bucks Flips".

Julia Wilkinson writes a popular eBay newsletter. One of the more popular features is the "flips" section where readers send in true stories of inexpensive items they’ve found at yard sales, estate sales, bankruptcy auctions etc.

In each of these stories the seller shares how they FLIPPED the item on eBay for huge profits. This is 81 pages of inspiration for anyone that sells on eBay.  I have known Julia a long time and she is the real deal. All of her books are excellent.

Click Here to read more about Julia’s Book

The price is very affordable – you can make it up on your first trade. And like me, Julia gives a money-back guarantee on everything she sells.

See Also

• How To Make Good Money Selling Used Books on eBay, Amazon and Other Internet Sites
  Easy, low risk business. Start small and earn nice profits your first week. Complete details including what kind of books to buy.

According to comScore, Amazon had 60 million visitors to its site compared with 50 million a year ago. By comparison, eBay had 70 million visitors, down from 80.1 million a year ago. Amazon clearly has the potential to overtake eBay unless eBay can rebuild its visitor count.

eBay also announced today that it would be closing its customer service center in Vancouver, BC cutting 700 jobs.

There is a strange dichotomy going on with eBay. One one hand eBay is cutting costs as most companies do when their profitability falls. eBay has virtually eliminated its advertising. On the other hand eBay is sitting on billions of dollars of cash that is being underutilized and they will be raising more cash with the sale of Stumbleupon and Skype. Meanwhile their market share is eroding. It looks like eBay is more worried about Wall Street’s reaction to a bad quarter than doing what is right for the long-term health and success of the core business.

Amazon, who has growing sales but far less cash, is still investing in their growth. There are rumors that they will soon acquire the Seattle based online jewelry seller, Blue Nile –and some have even speculated that Amazon could buy Netflix.

Meanwhile Amazon continues to court eBay and other online sellers. An independent group, the Seller’s Conference for Online Entrepreneurs will hold an event in Seattle. The event which will feature speakers from Amazon is called The  Independent Conference for Entrepreneurs who utilize amazon.com
as a sales platform.

Dates = July 10-13 2009
Place – Seattle Airport Marriott and Amazon HQ

This conference is presented to allow sellers to network, learn and grow their online businesses. Executives from amazon.com will be on hand to lead sessions, answer questions and receive feedback. 

The Website for information is: http://www.scoe.biz

The cost is $250 per person, but that is not so much is you really want to be a serious seller.

See Also

• Selling on the River – The handbook for eBay sellers who want to sell on Amazon
  This is a great book by Steve Lindhorst, a former eBay University Instructor who now sells on Amazon
• How to Make Good Money Selling Used Books on eBay, Amazon and The Internet
  Learn my complete methods for making money selling used non-fiction books on major online venues. Complete instructions.

eBay is considering creating a new category of sellers called eBay Certified Sellers. Sellers in this category would be identified with a eBay Certified Seller icon displayed on all their listings.

In order to be included in the new eBay Certified Seller category on eBay, a seller would have to meet ALL of the following criteria:

• Maintain a sales level of 100 items per year; AND

• Maintain an average of 4.6 or better (1 to 5 scale) on each Detailed Seller Rating (DSR): Item Description, Communications, Shipping Time and Shipping Charge; AND

• At least 99% of buyer ratings on each Detailed Seller Rating are 3 or higher (1 to 5 scale)

eBay recently sent out a survey to members asking them about the service levels they would expect from an eBay Certified Seller. Some of the criteria they looked at include:

·        Product knowledge

·        Shipping packaging

·        Accurate listing descriptions

·        Responsiveness to buyer questions

·        Attractive pricing

·        Trustworthiness

·        Dependability

·        Courteous and helpful

·        Item quality

·        Overall customer service

·        Resolves Issues

·        Shipping rates

·        Shipping promptness

·        Inspires confidence

·        Product Guarantee

·        Authentic products

The survey asked eBay members to rate sellers on a scale of 1 to 10 on each of the attributes asking the question. Here is how the question was phrased:  

Considering your experience with eBay to date and just the category name, please indicate what level of performance you think eBay sellers in the eBay Certified Seller category would typically provide. Please rate each attribute below using any number between 0 and 10 that best represents your impression.

Rumors about the program have been floating around for quite a while. I think this survey makes it pretty likely that eBay has decided to go ahead with the program and is now trying to fine tune it.  What impact this will have on new and small sellers is still unclear. You will still be able to sell on eBay if you are not an eBay certified seller, but non-certified sellers will be at a clear disadvantage.

See Also

• The Certified Seller Program makes The Complete eBay Marketing System more Important than ever
  Our complete eBay training program shows you how the professionals sell on eBay and how to run a great eBay business

eBay latest announcements  cover a lot of ground –too much for one blog post, so I am going to break them down into three posts. today is part one of three.

I am going to try and comment on the changes the best I can realizing that the info available from eBay is still limited. We will have to wait until June to see the final versions.  eBay has buyers rate us sellers on a 5-star system, so turn about is fair play. I am going to give my star rating for each of these features. At the end of the third post I will give you the calculated total.

Let’s look at the first group of changes. The eBay description is on the left and my comments are on the right. The hyperlinks will take you to the eBay page that explains the policy and gives examples. I strongly suggest that you go there and read the full policy after you read my comments.

Overall these changes are a big positive for sellers. About the only disappointment is that eBay has permanently abandoned the level playing field concept. They have been favoring the mega sellers for some time now which is interesting because these guys are the least loyal of all the sellers and are all selling on other platforms. I don’t really have a problem with eBay giving fee discounts to large volume sellers. After all, you can get discounts for almost anything you buy in volume anywhere.

But I don’t like the idea that large sellers get prominent placement and special promotions that the rest of us don’t get. If eBay is really into driving buyer satisfaction then give anyone who provides a stellar buyer experience the breaks regardless of their size or volume of listings.

Skip McGrath

See Also

• The Complete eBay Marketing System is the largest and most comprehensive eBay training manual on the market today
  Learn from an eBay Gold PowerSeller who sells on eBay every day. Printed manual with online supplements

According to the Etsy website “Etsy was started in 2005 by Rob Kalin (28) in early 2005. A painter, carpenter, and photographer, Rob found there was no viable marketplace to exhibit and sell his creations online –other E-commerce sites having become too inundated with overstock electronics and broken appliances.” (read eBay).

Etsy was started as a place for artists, crafters and creators to connect with buyers directly.  Their low fees and focus on quality handmade goods only has attracted over 2 million members since its founding. According to AuctionBytes, Etsy sold over $12 worth of handmade goods last month, March 2009. That compares with $1.6 million in March 2008. 

Here is a chart of Etsy’s growth to date:

Total Members: over 2.1 million
Total Sellers: over 200,000
Items Currently Listed: over 3.4 million
Total $ sold (Gross Merchandise Sales)
2005 = $166,000
2006 = $3.8 million
2007 = $26 million
2008 = $87.5 million
2009 = $32 million (through March)  

At this rate, Etsy should go over $200 million this year.  Given the state of the current economy that is pretty good growth. So if you make and sell handcrafted goods, give Etsy a try.  But for the rest of us, there is still eBay.

See Also

• FREE Information for eBay and Online Sellers
  FREE Subscribe to the oldest and largest newsletter for eBay sellers, The eBay Sellers News

The Internet Marketing Center started over 10 years ago and is still the oldest and largest training resource for folks who want to learn how to make a living online.  I got my start by taking their first course eight years ago –and every couple of years I buy the updated version and use it to stay up to date with the latest techniques.  I have been waiting for the 2009 course to come out and boy am I pleased. The new course is really massive –tons of new material and resources.

If you are just doing eBay and not yet ready to move to website marketing or other venues, there is plenty of stuff in the course that can help you too. A lot of the marketing and sales tricks, tips and techniques translate very well to eBay and when you are ready to expand into the web, you will have everything you need.

I was shocked when I saw the announcement of the new course also contained an announcement that
Derek was retiring. I visited him in Vancouver just a few weeks ago and he didn’t mention anything about that. But he explains everything on his site.  He is also offering a one-time $90 discount if you order by his last day at work on March 13th.  Here is the link to read about this excellent program that I strongly endorse.

This is not some little eBook. The Marketing Secrets Course contains over 1000 pages of material including videos and audios. You even get a personal 30-minute coaching session. With this offer, this is also the lowest promotional price the IMC has ever offered.  Click here to read all about it.

See Also

• Learn How To Make Good Money Selling Used Books on eBay, Amazon and The Internet
  Complete training course shows you how to get into this low cost, low risk, yet profitable online business