"EBAY SELLING" EZINE
April 24, 2006
In this issue:
* New Auction Genius Course Live Class To Begin May 6
* Video Will Give Your Listings A Smashing Advantage!
* eBay Express Offers Exciting New Way To Sell
* New Turbo Lister Makes Bulk Listings Easier
* Touch Your Heart: See Finnegan The Squirrel
New Auction Genius Course Live Class To Begin May 6
We begin a new live Auction Genius Course on May 6. Our classes are two hours each, every Saturday for eight weeks. I love this email from student Steve Williamson who kindly allowed me to quote him:
I came across Sydney's Auction Genius Course about this time last year and bought the CD version of the course. As soon as it arrived I popped it in the computer and then it happened ... Sydney started all the straight talk about hard work. So guess what I did? The same thing a lot of others do, I snatched that CD out of the drive and went to find the easy way.
And as you can imagine I had no trouble finding online marketers who would tell/sell me the secret to the easy path, sometimes it wouldn't even cost me any money up front, I could give them my email address so they could bombard me with their marketing message over and over. What a deal! :-)
After a year of wasting my time I saw that CD again and discovered a new live class was getting ready to start, so here I am.
I hope I don't pop my hip out of socket, kicking myself in the butt for wasting a year. But I think I've learned a valuable, but expensive, lesson. The money, I can always make more, unfortunately the time I can never regain.
http://auction-genius-course.com
Video Will Give Your Listings A Smashing Advantage!
For years folks on the Net have been talking about using audio and video on their listings and websites, but the time wasn't really right. However, I believe the day of multi-media has truly arrived. There are two primary reasons for this:
1. Yes, some technology was around but it was often complicated and hard for the average user to master. That is no longer the case. It's gotten easy (well, compared with the old way of doing things :-) and it's gotten cheaper to make videos.
2. Because of the ease of new technology, and the way it displays its results, it's more possible for Ms. and Mr. Computer Owner to view videos on their monitor.
For instance, take a look at the video technology on this auction:
http://auction-genius-course.com/videodemo.shtml
{Note: Identification of the seller has been removed for privacy reasons}
That recorder was sold in only four hours and the buyer had his money that very day. Amazing.
The developer of this software explained to me that the way it works is that we make our video, put it into some software, and the software produces a piece of code. Then all we need to do is paste the code onto our auction listing. How simple. This morning I am going to the developer's studio to get a preview look at how it works. Since I'm technologically unsophisticated, I will be a good subject.
The course on how to do this - which includes the software that makes it possible - will be available in the next month or two at a very affordable price.
I think it will give us a giant advantage over other sellers. That advantage won't last forever, but it should be effective for a couple of years. Right now, we will get the curiosity factor, plus there is no doubt that the average person would rather watch and listen than read. Personally, I love to read and I suspect that it isn't the best thing for our culture that people prefer not to read. However, this is about marketing and this new technology is quite exciting. It gives us new options and I will keep you updated.
eBay Express Offers Exciting New Way To Sell
I've never had an eBay store and never planned to have one. I don't want to work within the constrictions of eBay's rules, even though listing merchandise is much cheaper with a store, as compared with regular listings. However, the new eBay Express makes the entire store possibility enticing and I might have to re-think my position.
eBay announced eBay Express this winter and it's online now. The timing coordinates with eBay Live! in June and it is an exciting new channel for buyers and sellers.
eBay Express (EE) is really an online store, rather than the using the traditional bidding format of an auction site. If you're a seller you don't submit your items to Express. Instead, store and Fixed Price listings will automatically appear on EE and there is no charge for this (at least at this time - I'll be surprised if it stays that way). There are a lot of advantages to having your goodies on EE:
1. There is a shopping cart so buyers can purchase multiple items at once, just like any online store
2. Payments can be made via credit card or PayPal
3. Buyers will pay at the time they buy so there won't be any non-paying buyers
4. eBay is going to promote EE in the search engines, so sellers should have the advantage of eBay's name plus search engine traffic for more buyers
* 98 percent positive feedback or better
* Feedback score of at least 100
* Sellers must be PayPal Premier or PayPal Business merchants
* At this time, it's only open to American and Canadian sellers, although it is sure to spread to other countries, if successful
* Must fill in the item condition field (i.e. New, Used, Refurbished) in Item Specifics (some categories are exempted)
* Must use Pre-Filled Item Information for listings within Books, DVDs & Movies, Music, & Video Games.
* Must include shipping costs (flat, calculated or free) in the shipping fields
* Must provide a picture or gallery
* Must use eBay checkout or the new checkout integration API (for 3rd party order processing)
* Items must be located in the US
eBay Express will offer sellers more exposure for their widgets and items will be sorted by “best matches”. According to eBay:
"Results are sorted on relevancy against the buyer’s search by default. Searching brings back listings that may not be an exact keyword match and sorts them based on a range of factors. The buyer is able to re-sort by total cost, i.e. item price plus shipping cost."
One downside: sellers must agree to ship items to unconfirmed PayPal addresses. This means that their sales won't be covered by PayPal's seller protection program.
In the US, we have the AVS system. AVS is an acronym for Address Verification System which is a safeguard to protect credit card owners and sellers. If a buyer inputs an address that doesn't match the address given by the credit card holder, the system 'flags' the purchase. Many merchant account providers won't allow their merchants to approve purchases that don't pass the AVS test.
PayPal has been similar because their seller protection will only apply if the address is verified. With eBay Express this protection will disappear.
What can sellers do if they are uncomfortable with this risk?
1. Opt out of the eBay Express system entirely
2. Decide on a sale-by-sale basis whether they will accept purchases from unconfirmed addresses
Naturally, I will have to test this out but I strongly suspect that the increased sales will more than make up for the additional risk.
In 2005, eBay bought shopping.com and it is that technology that will be used on eBay Express. It is different from the shopping.com site, though, because it took buyers to individual seller sites. This won't be the case on EE. Instead, buyers will be able to buyer from multiple sellers, all in one transaction.
I checked out eBay Express from the buyer's point of view and was delighted with what I found:
http://www.express.ebay.com
I can view up to 90 items/page, and they're all beautifully arranged with clear pictures. I can buy from multiple sellers at once and pay for everything with only one payment. It's hard to see how this new eBay project can fail.
New Turbo Lister Makes Bulk Listings Easier
I haven't even tried Turbo Lister in years. Of course I have software that will do the same thing and I don't do a lot of 'straight selling' these days. But the last few times I tried to use Turbo Lister the darned thing never worked right.
Of course, it has a major advantage: it doesn't cost anything!
eBay now has a 'new and improved' Turbo Lister that they claim will allow you to:
* Create multiple listings on a single page
* Customize the options you want to see on the page, allowing you to look only at the fields that you use
* Edit your items directly in the main inventory list - change the prices, modify the title, and make other quick changes from the list view without having to open another window
* eBay claim to have "made some technical changes to the new Turbo Lister to make it faster and more reliable"
You can download Turbo Lister and learn more here:
http://pages.ebay.com/turbo_lister/?ssPageName=CMDV:AB
Touch Your Heart: See Finnegan The Squirrel
For about as long as she can remember, Debby Cantlon says friends and strangers have brought her animals in need. So it wasn't much of a surprise when someone asked her if she'd care for a newborn squirrel found at the base of a tree.
Debby plans to release the bottle-fed infant squirrel back into the wild.
When Debby took in the tiny creature she found herself with an
unlikely nurse's aide, her pregnant Papillon, Mademoiselle Giselle.
Cantlon and her husband watched as the dog dragged the
squirrel's cage twice to her own bedside before she gave birth.
(My favorite picture)
