The E-bay Beginners Guide To Instant Profits - Page 3 |
What's Your eBay Reputation Really Worth?
Your eBay reputation is everything you are on eBay - without it,
you're nothing.
Your reputation is worth as much as every sale you will ever make.
If you've ever bought anything on eBay (and the chances are you
have), then think about your own behaviour. Buying from a seller
with a low feedback rating makes you feel a little nervous and
insecure, while buying from a PowerSeller with their reputation in
the thousands doesn't require any thought or fear - it feels just like
buying from a shop.
Your eBay reputation is everything you are on eBay - without it,
you're nothing.
Your reputation is worth as much as every sale you will ever make.
If you've ever bought anything on eBay (and the chances are you
have), then think about your own behaviour. Buying from a seller
with a low feedback rating makes you feel a little nervous and
insecure, while buying from a PowerSeller with their reputation in
the thousands doesn't require any thought or fear - it feels just like
buying from a shop.
A Bad Reputation Will Lose You Sales.
In fact, a bad reputation will lose you almost all your sales. If someone leaves you negative feedback, you will feel
the pain straight away, as that rating will go right at the top of your user page for everyone to see. Who's going to
want to do business with you when they've just read that you "took a month to deliver the item", or that you had "bad
communication and sent a damaged item"?
The answer is no-one.
Your next few items will need to be very cheap things, just to push that negative down the page. You might have to
spend days or even weeks selling cheap stuff to get enough positive feedback to make anyone deal with you again.
It's even worse if you consistently let buyers leave negative feedback - once you get below 90% positive ratings, you
might as well be invisible.
You Can't Just Open a New Account.
Besides e-Bay's rules about only having one account, there are far more downsides than that to getting a new
account. You literally have to start all over again from scratch.
You won't be able to use all the different e-Bay features. Your existing customers won't be able to find you any more.
Your auctions will finish at a lower price because of your low feedback rating. Opening a new account is like moving
to a new town to get away from a few people who are spreading rumours about you: it's throwing out the baby with
the bathwater.
A Good Reputation Will Get You Sales.
When a Power-Seller tells me something, I tend to believe them. They can be selling a pretty unlikely item, but if they
guarantee it is what they say it is, then I trust them - they're not going to risk their reputation, after all. This is the
power of a reputation:
people know you want to keep it, and they know you'll go to almost any lengths to do so.
This is true even to the point that I would sooner buy something for $20 from a seller I know I can trust than for $15
from someone with average feedback. It's worth the extra money to feel like the seller knows what they're doing, has
all their systems in place and will get me the item quickly and efficiently.
10 Steps to Successful Selling on eBay.
So you want to be a successful seller with your own eBay business, do you?
Here's a simple, ten-step path to eBay enlightenment.
Step 1: Identify your market.
Take a while to sit and watch for what sells and what doesn't out of the items you're interested in. Any market
research data you can collect will be very useful to you later on. You'll probably see the 'sweet spots' quite quickly -
those one or two items that always seem to sell for a good price.
Step 2: Watch the competition.
Before you invest any money, see what the other sellers in your category are up to, and what their strategies are.
Pay special attention to any flaws their auctions might have, because this is where you can move in and beat them
at their own game.
Step 3: Find a product.
Get hold of a supplier for whatever it is you want to sell, and see what the best rates you can get are - don't be
afraid to ring round quite a few to get the best deal. If the e-Bay prices you've seen are higher than the supplier's,
then you're set.
Step 4: Start small.
Don't throw thousands at your idea straight away - get started slowly, see what works and what doesn't, and learn as
you go. Remember that it's very cheap to try out even the craziest ideas on e-Bay, and who knows, they might just
work!
Step 5: Test and repeat.
Keep trying different strategies until you find something that works, and then don't be ashamed to keep doing it,
again and again. The chances are that you've just found a good niche.
Step 6: Work out a business plan.
A business plan doesn't need to be anything formal, just a few pages that outline the market opportunity you've
spotted, your strategy, strengths and weaknesses of the plan and a brief budget. This is more for you than it is for
anyone else.
Step 7: Invest and expand.
This is the time to throw money at the problem. Buy inventory, and start spending more time on your business. Set a
goal number of sales each week, increasing it each time.
Step 8: Make it official.
Once you've made a few thousand dollars worth of sales, you should really register yourself as a business. Don't
worry, it's not expensive or hard to do - a lawyer is the best person to help you through the process.
Step 9: Automate.
You'll probably find that you're writing the same things again and again in e-mails or item descriptions. This is the
time to give up on the manual method and turn to automated software that can create listings for you, and respond
to completed auctions and payments with whatever message you provide.
Step 10: Never give up.
Even when it looks like it's all going wrong, don't stop trying until you succeed. If you keep working at it then you'll
almost always find that you make a real breakthrough just when things are starting to look desperate.
Once you get into the swing of things, you might start thinking that you should quit your job and take up e-Bay
selling part time. But it's not always as easy as that - there are all sorts of factors that you need to consider. The
next page will weigh up the case for and against taking up e-Bay full-time.
How to Think Like an eBay PowerSeller.
As explained earlier in this guide, Power-Sellers are the people on e-Bay who've made it, recognisable by the little
'Power-Seller' badge next to their name.
You've probably seen these people around - and to succeed on e-Bay, you want to think the way they do.
How do People Get the Right to Call Themselves Power-Sellers?
e-Bay gets to decide who can be a Power-Seller and who can't, and they have strict requirements. To get in at the
minimum Power-Seller level, you must have a feedback rating of at least 100 (minimum 98% positive) and sell at
least $1,000 worth of items every month for three months in a row. There are different levels of Power-Seller
membership as you sell items of greater value: $1,000 total is bronze, $3,000 is silver, $10,000 is gold, $25,000 is
platinum and $125,000 is titanium.
If Power-Sellers ever fail to meet the required amount of sales, or their feedback falls below 98% positive, then they
lose their Power-Seller status. In short, the only people who get to be Power-Sellers on e-Bay are the people who
have been successful for a good while, and are on track to stay that way.
The Shop and the Marketplace
This is the most important part of understanding how Power-Sellers think.
They don't see what they're doing as being some random bazaar, or a hobby - instead, they see themselves as a
business.
Put it like this. If you run a stall in a marketplace, the chances are that you have a general area of business, but you
mostly just sell whatever you can get your hands on that week. If your dodgy buddy got his hands of a job lot of
something at a discount, then that's what you'll be selling. This might be fun - and when you have a good week,
you'll have a really good week - but it's no way to run a real business in the long-term.
Power-Sellers think far more like shops. They sell the same things again and again, every
week - regular stock for regular customers. They do 'boring' business things like keep
inventories and budgets. They know what they're going to be selling, how much they buy
it for and how much they expect to sell for. Just like a real shop, there
can be hard times sometimes, but their income is stable and their business can grow slowly.
The best advice I can give you on thinking like a Power-Seller is this: don't take long-term
risks for short-term gain. Look after your reputation, manage your selling properly, provide
good customer service and the rewards will come to you in due course. And you'll get a
little badge next to your name that makes people trust you more!
One possibility that you might have realised so far is what eBay can do for any
other businesses you might have. Remember, millions of people visit eBay every
day - why keep everything separate when you're starting to tap into that kind of
power?
In fact, a bad reputation will lose you almost all your sales. If someone leaves you negative feedback, you will feel
the pain straight away, as that rating will go right at the top of your user page for everyone to see. Who's going to
want to do business with you when they've just read that you "took a month to deliver the item", or that you had "bad
communication and sent a damaged item"?
The answer is no-one.
Your next few items will need to be very cheap things, just to push that negative down the page. You might have to
spend days or even weeks selling cheap stuff to get enough positive feedback to make anyone deal with you again.
It's even worse if you consistently let buyers leave negative feedback - once you get below 90% positive ratings, you
might as well be invisible.
You Can't Just Open a New Account.
Besides e-Bay's rules about only having one account, there are far more downsides than that to getting a new
account. You literally have to start all over again from scratch.
You won't be able to use all the different e-Bay features. Your existing customers won't be able to find you any more.
Your auctions will finish at a lower price because of your low feedback rating. Opening a new account is like moving
to a new town to get away from a few people who are spreading rumours about you: it's throwing out the baby with
the bathwater.
A Good Reputation Will Get You Sales.
When a Power-Seller tells me something, I tend to believe them. They can be selling a pretty unlikely item, but if they
guarantee it is what they say it is, then I trust them - they're not going to risk their reputation, after all. This is the
power of a reputation:
people know you want to keep it, and they know you'll go to almost any lengths to do so.
This is true even to the point that I would sooner buy something for $20 from a seller I know I can trust than for $15
from someone with average feedback. It's worth the extra money to feel like the seller knows what they're doing, has
all their systems in place and will get me the item quickly and efficiently.
10 Steps to Successful Selling on eBay.
So you want to be a successful seller with your own eBay business, do you?
Here's a simple, ten-step path to eBay enlightenment.
Step 1: Identify your market.
Take a while to sit and watch for what sells and what doesn't out of the items you're interested in. Any market
research data you can collect will be very useful to you later on. You'll probably see the 'sweet spots' quite quickly -
those one or two items that always seem to sell for a good price.
Step 2: Watch the competition.
Before you invest any money, see what the other sellers in your category are up to, and what their strategies are.
Pay special attention to any flaws their auctions might have, because this is where you can move in and beat them
at their own game.
Step 3: Find a product.
Get hold of a supplier for whatever it is you want to sell, and see what the best rates you can get are - don't be
afraid to ring round quite a few to get the best deal. If the e-Bay prices you've seen are higher than the supplier's,
then you're set.
Step 4: Start small.
Don't throw thousands at your idea straight away - get started slowly, see what works and what doesn't, and learn as
you go. Remember that it's very cheap to try out even the craziest ideas on e-Bay, and who knows, they might just
work!
Step 5: Test and repeat.
Keep trying different strategies until you find something that works, and then don't be ashamed to keep doing it,
again and again. The chances are that you've just found a good niche.
Step 6: Work out a business plan.
A business plan doesn't need to be anything formal, just a few pages that outline the market opportunity you've
spotted, your strategy, strengths and weaknesses of the plan and a brief budget. This is more for you than it is for
anyone else.
Step 7: Invest and expand.
This is the time to throw money at the problem. Buy inventory, and start spending more time on your business. Set a
goal number of sales each week, increasing it each time.
Step 8: Make it official.
Once you've made a few thousand dollars worth of sales, you should really register yourself as a business. Don't
worry, it's not expensive or hard to do - a lawyer is the best person to help you through the process.
Step 9: Automate.
You'll probably find that you're writing the same things again and again in e-mails or item descriptions. This is the
time to give up on the manual method and turn to automated software that can create listings for you, and respond
to completed auctions and payments with whatever message you provide.
Step 10: Never give up.
Even when it looks like it's all going wrong, don't stop trying until you succeed. If you keep working at it then you'll
almost always find that you make a real breakthrough just when things are starting to look desperate.
Once you get into the swing of things, you might start thinking that you should quit your job and take up e-Bay
selling part time. But it's not always as easy as that - there are all sorts of factors that you need to consider. The
next page will weigh up the case for and against taking up e-Bay full-time.
How to Think Like an eBay PowerSeller.
As explained earlier in this guide, Power-Sellers are the people on e-Bay who've made it, recognisable by the little
'Power-Seller' badge next to their name.
You've probably seen these people around - and to succeed on e-Bay, you want to think the way they do.
How do People Get the Right to Call Themselves Power-Sellers?
e-Bay gets to decide who can be a Power-Seller and who can't, and they have strict requirements. To get in at the
minimum Power-Seller level, you must have a feedback rating of at least 100 (minimum 98% positive) and sell at
least $1,000 worth of items every month for three months in a row. There are different levels of Power-Seller
membership as you sell items of greater value: $1,000 total is bronze, $3,000 is silver, $10,000 is gold, $25,000 is
platinum and $125,000 is titanium.
If Power-Sellers ever fail to meet the required amount of sales, or their feedback falls below 98% positive, then they
lose their Power-Seller status. In short, the only people who get to be Power-Sellers on e-Bay are the people who
have been successful for a good while, and are on track to stay that way.
The Shop and the Marketplace
This is the most important part of understanding how Power-Sellers think.
They don't see what they're doing as being some random bazaar, or a hobby - instead, they see themselves as a
business.
Put it like this. If you run a stall in a marketplace, the chances are that you have a general area of business, but you
mostly just sell whatever you can get your hands on that week. If your dodgy buddy got his hands of a job lot of
something at a discount, then that's what you'll be selling. This might be fun - and when you have a good week,
you'll have a really good week - but it's no way to run a real business in the long-term.
Power-Sellers think far more like shops. They sell the same things again and again, every
week - regular stock for regular customers. They do 'boring' business things like keep
inventories and budgets. They know what they're going to be selling, how much they buy
it for and how much they expect to sell for. Just like a real shop, there
can be hard times sometimes, but their income is stable and their business can grow slowly.
The best advice I can give you on thinking like a Power-Seller is this: don't take long-term
risks for short-term gain. Look after your reputation, manage your selling properly, provide
good customer service and the rewards will come to you in due course. And you'll get a
little badge next to your name that makes people trust you more!
One possibility that you might have realised so far is what eBay can do for any
other businesses you might have. Remember, millions of people visit eBay every
day - why keep everything separate when you're starting to tap into that kind of
power?
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