eBay is NOT easyBay! (Part 1 of 3 – Getting Ready)

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It’s been months since I’ve written an article and some of you reading this may not have seen any of my past work concerning the HYIP industry. Like Jude, I got out of the HYIP game long ago. I’ve continued to pursue making a living from home. What was I doing? Well, the first thing I tried was selling on eBay. I wanted to make a serious go of it and I’m not good at fishing around at yard sales and flea markets for bargains that will sell.

I didn’t just jump into eBay. I’ve actually been looking into it and reading various things about it for a few years. Of course I’ve been a customer for years, too! Like anything I do, I set about learning all that I could find. There is a ton of information available! Some of it is free and some of it is quite costly. Let me tell you, folks, most people aren’t getting rich off of selling stuff on eBay. They’re getting rich selling information on “How to sell on eBay!”

For a Start, the Learning and Searching Process

Want to know one of the inside secrets? 95% of the stuff in the information you can buy is available free at eBay University, courtesy of eBay itself! Yep, if you’re going to get into selling on eBay, start with the resources on eBay, including the massive amount of information in their forums. You just have to read, watch their videos, and read some more! Okay, I just saved you a ton of money and time, if you’re serious about it.

What’s next? You need a product or service! That’s kind of a duh! LOL! What’s not easy is coming up with a product or service that people want. There is one product that is cheap and delivery of the sale is free and automatic. That product is information. If you can write, you can sell your information. Personally, I prefer to give away information, like writing articles on Jude’s blogs.

What ever it is, don’t make the mistake I did. I had no clue what I wanted to sell, so I went hog wild finding a wide variety of products (baby to video gaming) at whole sale prices. Instead, find something you’re interested in, like your favorite hobby, and pick something(s) that has to do with it. Preferably something you know a lot about already. It’s called niche marketing and it is key to your success. If you still can’t decide, eBay has a list of the current hot niches.

Can’t think of anything or you don’t want products in your house? There is always drop-shipping. Drop-shipping is where you take the order (eBay auction in this case) and you submit it to a company that will mail the product to your customer. You pay the drop-shipping company their price and your customer pays you your price. You keep the difference. I just made it sound soooo easy! It’s not! First, you have to find a drop-shipper that is reliable. There are horror stories about items not being shipped, wrong items, wrong quantity, damaged items, etc. and their customer service is virtually nonexistent. They leave you holding the bag dealing with your angry customer. You lose reputation. And in the sales game, reputation is EVERYTHING! Let’s say you find a reliable drop-shipper, preferably the manufacturer. Guess what! They don’t sell you merchandise at whole sale. They mark it up. What you can actually sell it for is a very slim profit margin. Moving on… you found a reliable drop-shipper that will sell to you cheap enough for you to make a profit. Now you face every other Tom, Dick and Harry selling on eBay using the exact same drop-shipper! They aren’t going to sell to you exclusively. I dropped the idea of drop-shipping like a bomb.

Now for the fun part. Everyone Loves Shopping!

Getting products that you want to sell is actually the easy part. Although, it does get a bit expensive stock piling enough products to be able to keep sales going. In addition, you need to get mailing supplies, including mailing labels, and pick a mail carrier. If you’re in the USA and go with UPS, they’ll supply labels and a label maker. UPS will pick up for free if they are making a delivery to you or you have enough volume. If you go with USPS, they are a lot cheaper to mail light packages, but you have to buy labels and print them from your printer. USPS will pick up your packages for free; saving you a trip to the Post Office. USPS also has the advantage of supplying a lot of boxes and mailers for free. Will you ship internationally? If yes, decide which countries and find out their laws and shipping costs. Just make sure you mail everything with the ability to track it. Packages do get lost in the mail.

Best Way to Trickle Money in from eBay?

You’ll need to decide how you want to get paid. I highly recommend using PayPal. For customers without PayPal accounts, they can use their credit cards at PayPal without signing up. PayPal also has the ability to print mailing labels right from the order. You can pay your eBay fees and mail carrier from PayPal, excluding FedEx. In addition, a lot of eBay customers won’t buy if you don’t offer PayPal. Also, decide if you’re willing to deal with checks (personal and/or certified) and money orders being sent to you in the mail. There are eCheck companies, too.

The next step is to decide on the software and companies you wish to team up with. So far you’re teaming up with eBay, PayPal and your mail carrier(s). You’ll need to find a company that gives you templates, so that you can decide on the look and feel of your eBay advertisement. You’ll need management software to track everything. You’ll most likely want something that automates most of customer service (sending invoices, tracking payment and sending payment reminders, tracking problem customers, tracking incoming feedback and giving feedback, etc.) You’ll also need a shipping insurance company and a warranty company, if your product is expensive or electronic. A lot of the things you’ll need are available free. Check out the free resource www.auctionsoftwarereview.com and its forum. Remember to give yourself enough time to customize everything to your liking.

Check out the amount of work and money so far and you haven’t even started, yet!

JMO - Sharon

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