• Sourcing the product
• Warehousing the product
• Listing the product
• Collecting money
• Packaging
• Shipping
• Handling of complaints and support
• Blah, blah, blah

eBay doesn't do any of that. Instead they get US to do it for them. eBay never owns, warehouses, or ships a single product. However, they do collect a small amount for each transaction... which now adds up to billions of dollars per year.

Their business model is truly brilliant – for them! (Wish I'd thought of it!)Have you ever thought about what eBay offers us, the small business owner? One thing, and one thing only ... traffic! Slews of interested buyers! Millions of people with credit card in hand, ready to buy!And the point is that these customers belong to eBay – not to you! Which means you have to depend on eBay.(However, you are building eBay's value and it thanks you.)

I don't know about you, but for me – it's gotta change!

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For about three years I have been using eBay in a totally unique way, one that doesn't require me to buy inventory and then pack and ship it. (As far as I know I'm the only person on the net doing this, although that can't be so. Others must have figured it out, too).

That's not enough, though. We MUST start thinking of eBay as only one stream of income in a business that belongs totally to us!!! WE NEED TO BE IN CHARGE! Not eBay.

Now, if you have an auction business right now, or are thinking about it, you know that it's not going to happen overnight. It can't. It would be exceedingly foolish to give up steady auction incomes without having a replacement and we don't need to do that.

The first step it to begin to think in a different way. When we start thinking of eBay as one stream of income, but not the only one, more opportunities become apparent. Most of you know this anyway, since lots of you are interested in your own websites.

At any rate, this newsletter is going to focus on more than just eBay and other auction sites in the future. One of the advantages that all my years on the net gives me, over fairly new folks, is the experience to wade through tons of “great opportunities” and find the ones with genuine value. You would be amazed at the gigantic numbers of emails I get from people who assure me that, “Sydney, you will just l-o-v-e this business idea.” Wrongo! Most of them don't get a second glance.

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To help with this new direction, we have a new site called:

http://1st-online-classes.com

It is very satisfying to teach the Auction Genius course, but it's not for everyone. So, we are creating some less expensive and less demanding classes that might be of interest to wider numbers of people. After all, not everyone needs or wants the intensive business training that Genius students receive.

These new classes are, in my best judgment, ways that will help go in a new direction. So far, we have only two classes available, although there are two more recorded and many more in the pipeline.

1. I nagged, begged and pleaded with Barbara Ling to record a class about her eBay Search Profits book, and she did. This is EXACTLY how we need to change our businesses if we are going to become independent of eBay over time. Right now, eBay selling is so passive – we list our widget and wait, hoping it will sell.

Barbara, though, is much more proactive than that. Suppose you sell trading cards. You can continue to list them on eBay – but what if you become more proactive, and get your sales pages listed in the search engines?

People do that, you know. In fact, here is a smart ebay store owner of “LUCILLE'S INTERESTING COLLECTIBLES” who understands how to do exactly this. I found Lucille's store on the front page of a google search about playing cards:

http://snurl.com/94e

Here is Lucille's store:

http://snurl.com/916

Get this: my keyword service is reporting on 353,139,347 searches in the past week. Over 35% of those are done on google, which is 123,598,772 searches. Now of course all of those 123,598,772 aren't looking for trading cards. But their popularity is enormous. Today on eBay there are 449,337 cards for sale in the “Sports” category alone. And there are other lucrative niches like celebrity cards and game cards (Yu-Gi-Oh is hot, hot, hot).

Barbara doesn't stop with search engines results, either. She teaches such promotional methods as:

• Local town sites
• Niche forums and message board
• Ezines
• Professional organizations and trade associations
• Webrings
• Colleges
• Diversity organizations
• Chambers of commerce
• Geographical phone directories

We also have other goodies in this package, my favorite of which is her Magnetic Page Template. Creating a high-result search engine page just can't get any easier than this. It's like one of those papers in school where you just fill in the blanks – except it isn't a test! We simply have to follow a few simple step by step directions, and then submit our page to google and other search engines.

More importantly, the folks who find us this way will be OUR customers – not eBay's! And thus begins our internet Declaration of Independence.

http://1st-online-classes.com/ebay-search-profits.shtml

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I had my head tech, Jeremy O'Connell, record this second class. It's about a critical subject for all of us: how to protect our computers from the cyberscum that is constantly attacking our system.

In past issues of Auction Gold, I've mentioned viruses, worms, hacker attacks and a constant barrage of attempts to get our personal – and especially, financial – information.

There are very sophisticated computer people whose dearest wish is to get ahold of your credit card information, Social Security number and the rest of your personal data.

Here's what the Federal Trade Commission's Identity Theft Division has to say: "People whose identities have been stolen can spend months or years - and their hard-earned money - cleaning up the mess thieves have made of their good name and credit record. In the meantime, victims may lose job opportunities, be refused loans, education, housing or cars, or even get arrested for crimes they didn't commit." (http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft)

I feel blessed because, with four techs working in this office, I am behind incredible protective walls. But I recognize that others aren't as fortunate as I am. So, if you feel concern about the security of your system, this is the class for you.

Is this exciting and thrilling information? Not to me it isn't. But, it's a necessary part of doing business or living in our society, much like paying attention to your bank balance or paying taxes.

http://1st-online-classes.com/security.shtml

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Classes that are coming soon are:

* How to put good pictures on eBay or any website (I'm a pitiful photographer!)

* How to make your own eBay catalog, without paying a monthly service

* How to sell information products on eBay. This will be a major class, because it's such an important subject. The truth is that most info products on eBay never sell. So, how come a few sell and the rest are bombs? If you know that, you can create one little profit stream after another and put them all on autopilot.

* A really exciting class is one on how to put audio recordings on your auction listings. There are services that charge $30/month that will do this for you. But, Jeremy has figured out how you can do it yourself, with a piece of software that costs a one time $40. No monthly fees. If you click on the security class, you can see a sample:

http://1st-online-classes.com/security.shtml

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We welcome all feedback about classes you would like to see in the future! Drop me an email at:

genius@auctionknowhow.com

And start today to think of yourself as a savvy marketer who focuses on MULTIPLE STREAMS OF INCOME, and eBay is only one of them.