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"EBAY SELLING" EZINE

March 8, 2006

In this issue:
* “Will You Teach Me How To Build An eBay Store?”
* Superb Auction Blog
* Feature Article: eBay Is Not About Gambling, Hoping or Good Luck
* What To Sell On eBay: Different Products = Different Emphasis
* The Latest In A Sad Series of eBay Scams
* Selling Digital Products on eBay
* From Our Humor Department: How To Behave On An Elevator

“Will You Teach Me How To Build An eBay Store?”

Recently I received an email from a gentleman who asked, “Will your course teach me how to build an eBay store?” I've been asked this question many times and the answer is always the same ... No.

There is no need for me to teach anyone “how” to build an eBay store. eBay will gladly teach you that and it won't cost you a penny. The point is that 'how' is the wrong question. Here are some better ones:

* Should I build an eBay store?
* If not, why not?
* If so, what are the advantages and reasons for doing so?
* What should I sell in my eBay store?
* How can I ensure the highest number of sales?
* How can I promote my store?
* How can I make multiple profits from every sale?
* How do I know when it's time to open a store?

Anyone who thinks that all they need do is set up an eBay store and sit back, waiting for the millions to roll in, is out of touch with auction reality. The how-to, the mechanics, is the easy part. What's much harder is the <strategy>. Success on eBay isn't always obvious. For example, look at one of these auctions:

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQfrppZ50QQfsooZ1QQfsopZ1QQrdZ0QQsassZworldwidebrandsinc

eBay ID: worldwidebrandsinc

This is an ebook sold by Chris Malta and myself. It sells for only 99 cents and the money goes to the Girls & Boys Clubs of America. This means that we make no money at all on actual sales of the auction. Yet, this is an incredibly valuable auction to both Chris and myself because:

It is an “auto pilot” income stream, meaning we did the work once and keep profiting from it indefinitely, with no further work (my favorite kind of money! :-)

There are three separate income streams from this auction. Can you see them?

You've probably heard the wise comment that 'just because we can do something doesn't mean we should do it'. That certainly applies to eBay stores – it's diving in to the eBay waters before checking to see if there's water in the pool.

The strategy is what's important and that's what we teach in our Auction Genius Course which begins this Saturday, March 11, at 10AM Eastern.

http://auction-genius-course.com

Superb Auction Blog

I've been mentioning the auction blog of Mark McClean. It's wonderful, funny and profound. And currently Mark currently has a contest which states,

“The person who shares their own personal adventure here at 'My Ebay Adventure' and then racks up the most follow up comments between today and the day I launch my Auction Genius product line will receive one of my first auctions for free.”

There are several entries that make this whole eBay adventure so much more real. I don't know about you, but I like hearing the details of people's lives and what success and auctions mean to them. For instance, there's

* A cab driver

* A lady who opted for “security” 20 years ago and is now under constant threat of losing her job

* A gentleman who wants “a viable online business that I can leave to my kids so that they will have other options before they wake up one day and find they have worked forty years for someone else’s benefit and not their own.”

I find parts of my life in every entry and I'm betting you will, too. Do yourself a favor and meet Mark and his friends.

http://myebayadventure.blogspot.com

eBay Is Not About Gambling, Hoping or Good Luck

In our last issue, I mentioned a no-cost way to do your homework <before> you invest in some product and waste your time and money and have a heartbreaking experience.

Reader Lucky Hopkins replied to this with the thoughtful comments below:

In your most recent newsletter, you touted Mpire Researcher as a wonderful free tool. I have been using that tool for the past month and very much enjoy the marketing knowledge I can gain from it. However, it is not the gospel when it comes to data. Below I will explain.

What I've found is that this tool focuses on quantity, not quality. When it states that a certain day, time of day, or duration is best, that may not necessarily be the case. Those recommendations are only based on popularity, not highest closing bids. Someone who sells a lot and likes to end their auctions on Friday nights may skew the numbers enough to have that appear to be the "best time" to close auctions. However, I doubt their profits would be higher than other sellers who better know when to close auctions for the best results.

I found one Power Seller recently who sold enough to skew the numbers on one of my searches. They always use 5-day auctions, so Mpire Researcher showed that as being the best duration. Only 2 of the 25 listings returned were 3-day, but those two brought significantly higher closing prices than most of the 5 or 7-day durations ranked ahead of them.

I agree that this tool is quite valuable, but those who use it must look beyond what shows on the surface to get the most significant data. In the 25 listings which are returned, some end up being nuggets of very valuable information on how to do things right, while others are just fools gold and part of the masses.

Do I agree with Lucky? Oh, yes – absolutely! Let's think about what a research tool actually is ... it's a machine that takes humongous amounts of data and organizes and summarizes it. That's all. It doesn't matter who is compiling this data – whether eBay, Mpire or any of the other data systems in existence. The program simply follows the directions of the humans who gave it orders.

There are two important points about this data:

First, do the inherent flaws in any research system detract from its usefulness? No, it frees our time for the important activities that require a human brain.

Example: back many millenia ago when I was an eBay newbie, eBay saved six months of auction results, rather than the 30 days or so. I was looking for books that sold for $100 and up. I spent weeks finding this data. It was a horrible chore yet today a computer could ferret out that information in seconds.

Secondly, some auction tasks require a human brain while others don't. In my classes, I constantly point out that there are two activities that make money on eBay:

* Finding products
* Writing listings

Everything else is detail. And the thing about auction research is that it's only an INDICATOR. It's not the Oracle where a you-can-bet-your-life on it answer shoots out.

Having said that, is there any value in these indicators? You bet. If I'm selling an item and the research indicates that the best time to end my auction is 5PM, Pacific time, on Thursday, then that is where I will start.

But to just assume that's correct without testing is a very foolish way to conduct my biz. There is only one certain way to get answers to these kinds of questions and that is to test, test, test. What works for me may not be the right way for you to go. Testing is ultimately the only reliable source.

My students often get frustrated that there is no exact, black and white answer to some questions. But the other side of that particular coin calls for celebration! Why? Because most people are too lazy and too undisciplined to exert the patience to find out the correct answers for their business. They give up quickly and go on to the next get-rich-quick scheme.

Don't believe me? Then how can we account for the fact that only .003% of eBay sellers are making a full-time income as discussed in our last issue? {eBay numbers of 430,000 successful sellers out of 141,000,000 registered accounts}

One last comment from our ezine reader needs attention:

“Mpire Researcher is like most other tools; it can be quite useful,but only for those who are skilled enough to use it effectively.”

Does this mean that unless you are a skilled auction seller, this research tool is useless to you? Not at all! There is no other way to become skilled than to do and do and do – until you understand what's going on. We're all novices in everything at some point in our lives. Learning to walk and talk are probably the two toughest skills we ever have to master. Thank heavens we learn those when we're too young to beat ourselves up for failing!

And you can gain very useful insights. For instance, here's a comment from an Auction Genius Course student named Sandra who definitely isn't a novice:

“That research tool you mentioned in the latest newsletter is incredible! Thanks for the tip. In just a few searches I have seen ideas that I might never have happened upon. One example was the way people spell my keyword - it happens to be one that is frequently hyphenated and the keyword analysis showed what searchers used most often. I was astonished to see how people used capital letters. Blows my mind! But now I know and that knowledge can make me money. Hoorah.”

The mpire tool is quite valuable and the price is certainly right since it costs nothing. :-)

Just use it as only one of your ways of getting the information you need to profit from your auctions. Be one of the .003%!

http://research.auctionknowhow.com

What To Sell On eBay: Different Products = Different Emphasis

1. Designer Handbags: these expensive goodies like Coach and Chanel bags and the Fendi Spybag, which was the most popular purse in 2005, have astonishing sell-through rates. They sell for high prices (although, presumably, not as high as they are off-eBay) and generally 95%+ sell.

The most important issue: assuring buyers of the authenticity of your merchandise. Do whatever you must to prove that your designer clothing is truly the real deal.

2. DeWalt & Other Tools: my son got a DeWalt cordless drill and screwdriver for Christmas so I've been aware of tools lately. DeWalt is considered a top level tool manufacturer and others aren't valued as highly.

Apparently lots of buyers read reviews, such as those on my favorite review site, epinions dot com. There isn't anything you can do about the reviews except to

* Read them and choose what you sell accordingly
* Emphasize them if you're selling highly-rated tools

3. Coffee is IN: I don't drink coffee (although it smells wonderful) so I was astonished at the cost and even elegance of some of the coffee makers available today. I discovered a Gaggia Titanium Espresso Machine for $1600! Good golly Miss Molly. You can see this amazing machine here:

http://auction-genius-course.com/sell-things-ebay/espresso-machines.shtml

Of course, you might already know how popular coffee machines are, but they do prove the power of a niche market. Obviously, there are a lot of dedicated coffee lovers out there. If you're one, you might consider this as a profitable area in which to sell.

4. There are products I didn't even know existed – like the Bushnell Digital Camera Binoculars. This is a set of binoculars that actually takes digital pictures. I understand they're very popular with bird watchers.

With that kind of product, education needs to be your first consideration as a seller. If bird watchers, for example, don't know about such a useful tool, how can you tell them?

Adapt your listings and sales copy to your customers and your sales will increase nicely.

The Latest In A Sad Series of eBay Scams

The slimeballs just keep sending out the junk mails that are calculated to get your account information.

Welcome to a community of sellers that have achieved exceptional levels of success and positive feedback on eBay!

We invite you to join us as a PowerSeller

If you agree with this rank please Become an eBay Power Seller within 24 hours

Very important!
The registration is active only once.

Just an FYI on the eBay spoof e-mails. At the top of real e-mails to you through the eBay Message system, it will say that it was sent to you (and here it will have YOUR NAME) to prove it is authentic. If it doesn't say that, or if it has someone else's name there instead of yours, that's a quick tip-off that it's a scam. I'm constantly amazed at how many of these I get every day supposedly from PayPal and eBay. Anyway, maybe you already knew that info, but if not....

Selling Digital Products on eBay

Selling digital products on eBay just got a lot easier.

Digital goodies have been considered almost disreputable on eBay, which is certainly out of touch with the times. But eBay has recently revised its rules and made it easier to sell electronic goodies.

New and positive changes:

* Now it's easy to add a download page.

Obviously, one of the best parts of selling electronic books is that there is no shipping involved. The ultimate is to have the seller download their purchase. It used to be tougher, although certainly not impossible because I've done it for years. Now it's so easy almost anyone can do it. Simply create your page and then click on a button and eBay will send purchasers there.

* Digital products used to be limited to "information" categories but now ebay is suggesting that it might be OK to list digital items in other categories

* Recently information products couldn't be listed on the Home Page Featured area, but now they can be

All positive changes. Kudos to eBay.

Caution, though: if you think you'll join the Zillionaires Club based on your sale of digital products, you need to re-think that plan. The odds are very heavily against that possibility. However, they can be incredibly valuable if used in the right way.

From Our Humor Department: How To Behave On An Elevator

1) Greet everyone getting on the elevator with a handshake and ask them to call you 'Captain.' 2) Draw a little square on the floor with chalk and announce to the other passengers that this is your “personal space” 3) Meow occasionally 4) Open your briefcase or purse, and while peering inside, ask “Got enough air in there?” 5) Ask each person on the elevator ... Do you come here often? 6) When arriving at your floor, grunt and strain to yank the doors open, then act embarrassed when they open themselves.