eBay offers an opportunity to earn extra cash when it suits you. Unfortunately people shy away from the sheer thought of running their own business which is sad really. Hundreds of people are missing the boat by not looking into the eBay (Or Amazon, for that matter) opportunity that can change their whole way of life.

Becoming an eBay seller is an option to be considered if you are seriously thinking on turning your life around. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain on top of the satisfaction of being your own boss.

If you have decided this is the route you are going to take to earn extra cash by becoming an eBay seller then you have made a positive move in securing your future and I congratulate you.

Remember to catch up on the basics on how to start selling by following the advice supplied by eBay, the most competitive market in the world. Also stay tuned to my blog (or even sign up) to be updated on the progress of my new ebook, coming out soon, which will undoubtedly sky rocket your eBay sales.

Once up and running always treat your eBay business as a business and conduct matters like a professional. Professionals in their eBay empires are experts because they have had a lot more practice. Don’t worry; there is plenty of time to get to that stage. Never cut corners and operate on the cheap, you are out to gain custom not lose it. Financial gains should be reinvested back into your business. This is how eBay sellers run their successful businesses.

When it comes down to promotional activities and advertising of your product/service you are guaranteed of sales if done correctly. Your product has to be described in the best descriptive way. Give your prospective customer a run down on every little detail on what you are selling this will make a huge impact on getting those sales. Remember your images, a picture paints a thousand words.

You will hear me say this over and over again, be friendly in your approach when dealing with potential buyers as you are looking for repeat orders. Try to simplify all correspondence like payment methods or even offer to help them if they are new and not sure of how things are done after winning an auction. Your customer will feel comfortable and begin to trust you as a worthy eBay seller with your offer of assistance. The way you handled and conducted the sale along with your friendly approach just may have secured yourself a regular customer.

 Firstly start building up a reputable reputation – this will have your feedback scaling to enormous heights. People make judgement on the feedback scoring system of the eBay Seller when buying. No matter how good your product and fabulous glossy photos appear – if feedback is poor say through lack of communication etc, then say goodbye to sales.

 Remember by becoming an eBay Seller there are rules and regulations that you have to adhere to. The rules are there for the safety of the buyer and seller. It is a good chance you may not like or agree with a number of them – but remember it is in every ones best interest why these rules have been implemented.

 One of the nice things apart from meeting friends from all over the globe on eBay is instead of being part of eBay you now own a share with your very own business empire.

Why not share your story through the comments?

So what exactly are your plans for the New Year? What does 2012 have in store for you? Will you be sitting at home lying on the sofa watching tv (Nothing wrong with that), out in January getting rid of all the excess flab which seemed to pile on very mysteriously over the Christmas period, or looking through countless websites including eBay and Amazon and thinking to yourself, I could do that, I could have a feedback of 1000+ and sell multiple quantities of items online each day earning money for me while carrying out the first two pastimes mentioned in this sentance.

Well guess what, yes you can do that. Do you have a new years resolution? To be honest I don’t normally bother but this year is different. This year I am going for two New Year Resolutions, the first one being to increase my training and enter the UK Ironman event and the second is to complete my ebook based around sourcing products, finding suppliers and helping all of you who want to sell online and the lifestyle that goes with it, for instance working from home, spending more time with your family and more time doing the things you really want to do.

At the moment, I am 4 chapters of approximately 15 into my new ebook so I would say around the end of February it should be ready, fingers crossed. I know I am UK based but the tips and advice I shall be giving will be valuable to people from all walks of life, whichever country you may live in.

So with that said, I must carry on with it and wish all of you a Happy New Year and stay tuned if you want 2012 to be a success for you.

I just had to write this because I have a real life example for you.

As we know it is one of the busiest times of the year for using our trusted postal services and as a result delivery of products can be delayed or maybe even lost in the system.

I sent out a parcel to a customer on the 14th of December, 1st class (Normally next day delivery). On the 27th December the customer emailed me to say he hadn’t received his item. He basically acknowledged the fact I had dispatched the item but wanted to know why it hadn’t arrived……err hello! This is the busiest time of the year for posting items. Anyhow, I had to bite my tongue and refrain from telling him to be patient in a polite way and consequently I had to appologise on behalf of the mail service and ask him to wait just 2 more days,

2 days later he messaged me again as the item still hadn’t arrived (Or had it)? Either way, I agreed to send him a duplicate item and trust he would send the other back when it arrived.

So basically, although it doesn’t happen too often there are times when you will simply have to bite your tongue, be polite, remember the customer is always right, take the loss and give them what they want in order to carry on with your day without the hassle you would have had if you acted in any other way.

Sourcing products to sell online  whether it is to sell on eBay, Amazon or any other site (maybe your own site) can be quite daunting for anybody, especially when you have to invest your own hard earned cash. How on earth do you know if the product you have purchased (probably in bulk) will sell? The last thing you need is a spare room or garage packed with products you can’t get rid of.

The truth is, sourcing the products to sell is only half of the battle, you then have to look at your description, keywords, pictures of the product and a few other small but very important factors. Incidentally, I am currently working on a ebook  which will outline everything a beginner and even the more experienced sellers need to know to make a success out of selling online.

In the meantime let me tell you about a handy little tool available as an add on with the Firefox browser.

You probably figured it out already that you will have to download the firefox browser in order to use this add on.  So if you click here you can go ahead and download it. After the install, you can then view the options which will enable you to change to the relevant eBay site (default is eBay.com).

Once you are up and running you should see a letter e at the top of your browsers window, this is the button you will click on to get you valuable information from, including top selling products in various catagories on eBay. Have a play around with it and let us all know your thoughts in the comments box. The best bit about this is it is absolutely free.

So get sourcing your top selling products and I will carry on with my ebook, due out sometime early in the new year.

I can answer this question for you right now: the answer is ‘yes’. In fact, the answer is ‘YES!’ – The biggest yes you’ve ever heard. Of course the customer is always right. If you want to be a successful eBay seller, you should go miles out of your way to make sure every single one of your customers is 100% satisfied, however much time or money it might cost you.

 An unsatisfied customer will leave negative feedback, and negative feedback is to be avoided at all costs. That one piece of negative feedback will always cost you more than it would have to deal with the complaint, whatever the value of the items you sell. You should consider any positive feedback percentage under 100% to be an absolute disaster. I know I do. Some people I have come across simply say, “Don’t worry, your negative feedback will soon fall off the bottom of the screen”. Maybe it will, but your score will still say less than 100% and the area where it says feedback in the last month, last 6 months, last 12 months, well I think you get the idea. Don’t get me wrong, if you do get a negative and there is nothing you can do about it then just keep providing the first class service you normally do.

 But What If..

But nothing! There is no situation where you, as a seller, should get into any dispute with a buyer. Here are a few common situations and how to handle them.

They say the item never arrived: Politely ask your buyer to wait a few more days to see if it turns up, and then email you again if it still hasn’t arrived. Remind them that you always get proof of posting. If it still hasn’t arrived, you should assume it was lost in the post somehow and offer to send a replacement if you have one, or give them a full refund otherwise. No, I don’t care what that costs you. Are you serious about selling on eBay or not? If the person did receive the item and is simply trying it on, then it is nothing short of shoplifting I know, but send another item to them all the same.

The item has been damaged in the post: You must offer to replace it or take it back for a refund without hesitation.

They say the item doesn’t match the description: Resist the urge to email back with “yes it does, you just didn’t read the description properly”. Take the item back for a refund, and edit your description if you need to, to make any confusing points extra clear.

I’m sure you can see a pattern emerging by now. Offering a refund will make almost any problem go away, and it really will cost you less in the long run. Remember, one piece of negative feedback will stay with you forever, while having a 100% positive rating is like owning a bar of solid gold.

 You should always handle customers’ complaints before they complain to eBay – in fact, you should email them pre-emptively to ask if they have any. Going through the dispute process is time consuming, reflects badly on you and is absolutely unnecessary.

Are you convinced yet? Think this would only work with cheap items? Well, you see, the higher the price of the items you sell, the more your reputation is worth to you. Let’s say you were selling £7000 / $10,000 worth of items each week, for example, and making a £700 / $1,000 profit per week overall. You might think that refunding one customer’s £700 / $1,000 purchase would be a tragedy, losing you your whole week’s profit. It’s far better to look at it this way: if you don’t give that refund, then not only will you lose the next week’s profit, but you’ll probably lose a few weeks’ profit after that too. Now which option looks better?

I absolutely can’t emphasise enough the importance of really believing that the customer is always right. But trying to make excuses for complaints isn’t the only thing you need to avoid. There are a lot of pitfalls that you need to avoid if you don’t want to kill your business before it has even begun – and I’ll explain to you what they are as time goes on.

It’s surprisingly simple to get started. Here are 5 simple steps to posting your first eBay auction.

Step 1: Open an eBay seller’s account.

If you’ve bought things on eBay, then you already have an account – just log in with it and click ‘Sell’ in the toolbar at the top of the page, then click ‘Create a seller’s account’. If you’ve never used eBay before, then you’ll need to open an account first using the ‘register’ link underneath the toolbar, and then click ‘Sell’ and ‘Create a seller’s account’. The eBay site will then guide you through the process. As you are setting up your eBay account then you may as well set up a Paypal account too. For security, this may involve giving card details and bank information.

Step 2: Decide what to sell.

For your first little experiment with eBay, it doesn’t really matter what you sell. Take a look around the room you’re in – I’m sure there’s something in there that you’re not all that attached to and could put in the post. Small books and CDs are ideal first items.

Step 3: Submit your item.

Click ‘Sell’, and you’re on your way to listing your item.

The first thing you need to do is choose a category – it’s best to just type in what the item is and let eBay choose for you. Next, write a title and description. Include key words you think people will search for in the title box, and all the information you have about the item in the description box.

Now set a starting price. 99p or $0.01 is the best starting price, as it draws people in to bid who otherwise wouldn’t, and items will almost never finish at such a low price. The next thing to set is the duration of the auction: 3, 5, 7 or 10 days, I would recommend 10 days, this will increase the amount of interest, it is entirely up to you: longer sales will usually get more bids, but will also seem to drag on forever. If you’ve taken a picture, add it now – items with high quality pictures always sell for more. Finally, tick the payment methods you will accept. PayPal is best for now, and where you will post to. Make sure you choose the correct postage amount, I see too many people trying to make a few extra pounds or dollars by increasing the postage. Submit and you’re done!

Step 4: Wait for it to sell.

This is just a matter of sitting back and letting eBay do its thing – buyers will find your item and leave bids on it. Some bidders might email you with questions about the item, and you should do your best to answer these questions as quickly as you can.

Remember that if your item doesn’t sell then you can list it again for free.

Step 5: Collect payment and post it.

eBay will send your buyer emails guiding them through the process of sending you payment for the item. Make sure you have the money before you send anything. Once you receive the payment, all you need to do is pack the item for posting (make sure to use new wrapping, not second hand), take the buyer’s address from the confirmation email eBay sent you, and write it on the parcel. Put some stamps on, post it and you’re done!

There you have it 5 simple steps to posting your first eBay auction. It really is as easy as that. 

I hope you enjoyed selling your first item.

As this is my very first post i thought i would carry on from my “about me” and ask the question, “Is It the right time to get started on line”?

Since the economic downfall most of us have been finding it hard in these tough times, and you may be forgiven for thinking you would be wasting your time trying to launch an online business. Well, that all depends on what you want to do online. If you have a website selling designer clothes, then you may only appeal to a small minority of people, however, if you want to get started on a site like eBay or similar then now has to be the best time. You see, people are looking for a bargain and if you go to a site like eBay or Amazon or similar then you know the competition is high and sellers, if they really want to sell, will price their products accordingly. If I want to purchase a particular product then my first port of call will always be eBay. Search through the business sellers and you can be sure they are offering their lowest possible price, at least this way it will give you a benchmark and if you happen to find it cheaper elsewhere then you have done well.

So where do you start? First of all, if you haven’t already, open an eBay account and start selling your old unwanted items in your home. Doing this will give you a feel of how the site works and at the same time will build your feedback. Believe me, when you start seeing real money coming your way from stuff you may have thrown out one day, then it can get really addictive.

During the days, weeks and years ahead I will be bringing you up to date with the latest tips for succeeding online, whether it is on sites like eBay or Amazon or internet marketing in general.

So, “Is It the right time to get started on line”? You bet it is, so take some action and follow the advice in this first post. As the saying goes, “from an acorn grows a mighty oak”.

Until my next post

Speak soon

Mike