Events > Rockaway: eBay Fans Networking Meeting > Rockaway , NJ > Daily record

Events > Rockaway: eBay Fans Networking Meeting > Rockaway , NJ > Daily record

If you are in the Rockaway Township area on Monday 11/08/10, come out and join us. Always good coffee and conversation. Click link above for details and directions.

Dr eBay

What Sells on eBay

People always want to know what sells on eBay. The answer is almost everything! Everything from the largest vehicles (think yachts, trucks, jet planes...) to the smallest stone (think diamonds, rubies, pet rocks?...). Some other profitable categories include: anything that people collect, anything that people need or use regularly, new and used clothing, and the list goes on. One way to see what's selling best at any particular day is eBay Pulse. eBay pulse will give you the top 20 times that have sold on eBay that day.

One of my favorite niche categories to sell on eBay is called memorabilia. By memorabilia I mean things that remind people of good times, fun times, often childhood times. For example, as a child did you have a special doll or toy? Maybe you had a Radio Flyer Wagon. These are still made today, but the older models bring big bucks on eBay. Imagine how much fun this man still has with his. Radio Flyer Video

Smile and go find something to sell on eBay.

Ken
DR EBAY

Checks Again OK on eBay with Paypal

Many eBay members were not happy when eBay decided to no longer allow payment by check. This was part of eBay's efforts to limit many bad checks being received by eBay sellers.

Paypal has just announced a new check payment method now allowed on eBay. It is called 'eCheck'. Any eBay buyer with a Paypal account can now send an eCheck to pay in whole or in part for an item bought on eBay. There is a small $.50 fee.

For those who are not familiar with eChecks, Paypal debits the buyer's checking account and when the echeck clears, Paypal then credits the Seller's account.

So, for those who miss paying by check, you now have an alternative.

Ken
Dr eBay

New eBay Green Box

At eBay's final "eBay on Location" meeting in San Jose a few weeks ago, they announced their creation of a green shipping box. They come in three different sizes. They plan to give away 100,000 of these new boxes beginning sometime in October, 2010.

A green shipping box is not new. I understand that UPS has them already. But eBay's box is rather unique. By design, it is intended to be used 6 times. The box even has an interior design encouraging recipients to save it and use it again. eBay has designed the interior with six panels for each of the six recipients to write a little message to the next person receiving it. If the box does reach the end of it's useful life before the sixth use, of course it is fully recyclable. A great idea!

If you are an eBay seller and would like to receive some of these boxes, make sure you get to the eBay Green Team site and opt-in to email so you will know when they become available.

Ken
DR EBAY

Combining eBay and YouTube to Increase Your Fan Base

While I'm on this roll of telling you about great places you can learn how to make money on eBay and elsewhere online, I can't overlook one other trusted educator: Jim Cockrum. Jim is best known for his first book The Silent Sales Machine (on eBay). Jim has been around the eBay and online marketing scene for many years and is listed on an independent online Internet Marketing website, as the most trusted Internet marketer/teacher on the Web. I believe that and I didn't need a poll to tell me.

You can read his blog to get a better sense of who he is and what he is about. Although he has many income streams and claims to work just a few days a week for a six figure income, he still says that eBay is one of the best places to make a good living. So, read his blog, get on his newsletter mailing list, and learn. You won't be sorry.

Ken
DR EBAY
My Silent Team Member

Learning from Online Rockstars

Learning what you need to know to be successful in the online marketplace can be a real challenge. There are many places to get information on succeeding online and at eBay, but as you probably know they are not all equal. There are people selling information on this subject on eBay and through email who aren't worthy of your time. Many offer everything from out and out false information to products that aren't even worth one dollar. However, if you read about it here, I am putting my reputation on the line and you can be sure it is worth every penny.

Another learning site I would like to share is the Online Success Intitute, now known as OSI Rockstars. This site is run by Janelle Elms, a well respected former eBay University teacher. Janelle has created this site with some of the most friendly people I've met online. Besides classes she herself has created, there are many others created by other talented and successful people, many of whom are eBay Top Sellers. There is an annual fee which allows access to all the classes, past, present, and for the length of your membership at no additional cost. Janelle also provides a weekly newsletter for members and many other opportunitiesas well. I highly recommend OSI Rockstars to you. Go visit the site and I think you'll be very impressed.

Ken
DR EBAY
OSI Rockstar

The eBay Garden

A lot of people are gardening these days. Many people are trying to live a 'greener' lifestyle. Others have been challenged financially by the recession here in the USA and a home garden has been helpful in putting food on the family table. I recently learned that even eBay has a 'garden'.

Learning how to vegetable garden is a little like learning how to make a great website. "Really?" you say. You don't learn to grow vegetables with one try. For most people it takes years until they learn the best way to make compost, choosing the right crops for their climate, getting the best seed, and so much more trial and error. Similarly, for a great website you need graphics, the right hosting company, enticing products or services that will draw regular visitors, and there is SEO, social networking, AdSense, and so much more through trial and error.

eBay has a garden. No, not for vegetables. eBay's garden is for experimenting with new ways to make eBay better and better. This is where the techies tweak this and that. They try out new apps to help buyers and sellers. They work on ideas submitted by the eBay user community. They brainstorm to find better solutions to known problems.

And guess what? They want you to come help them. You can try out their new ideas and fixes for old problems. And you can tell them what you think works and what doesn't. It's a lot of fun! Visit them now and go back often to see what new things they are working on. eBay Garden

Ken
DR EBAY

Monthly eBay Call on Skype

Recently I blogged about the first anniversary of the Virtual Online Learning site at meetup.com. I can't say enough about Dana Crawford and her VOL website. It is all about learning how to make money in the online world we call eBay. But there are plenty of classes you can take where you can apply what you learn to the online world in general.

One of my most favorite things with VOL is a monthly Skype meeting, hosted by James Kirk Pace. You just call in on skype.com for free from anywhere and for a couple of hours you get to speak to others experienced online sellers. Many of them are Powersellers and Top Sellers on eBay. Most of them also sell on other online marketplaces too. You can ask questions or talk about what you are doing and get some feedback and everyone is so friendly.

Hope to see you there. Just visit them at VOL.

Ken
DR EBAY
Lifetime VOL Menber

eBay Fifteen Year Anniversary

eBay just celebrated their fifteen year anniversary a few weeks ago. Many of you know that eBay was started by Pierre Omidyar in 1995. It was originally known as AuctionWeb and was just one of Pierre's websites in his business. The nam was later changed to eBay. Did you also know that the first item sold on eBay by Pierre was a broken laser pointer which sold for $14.83.

Well, we've come a long way since then. I've been active on eBay since the year 2002 and so much has happened since then. The Internet continues to change almost daily it seems. And eBay keeps evolving and getting better to in order to keep up with the Internet and the ever changing marketplaces thereon.

As a celebration of eBay's fifteen years, I encourage you to tell us about the best thing you ever bought or sold on eBay. Just leave a comment below.

Ken
DR. EBAY









http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v729/ASKDANNA/VOL/BlogBadges/BlogChallenge1.jpg

Virtual Online Learning One Year Anniversary Party

Danna Crawford's Virtual Online Learning will be celebrating it's one year anniversary tomorrow, July 16, 2010. The huge virtual anniversary party will be held on BlogSpotRadio beginning at 8PM and running until 10PM EDT.

If you don't know Danna, she is one of the best of the best on eBay. You may know her better as Powersellingmom. Everyone is invited to the party. There is no charge and you don't have to join anything. Come join us all and have some fun and you may even learn something too.

So come join in the fun. Go to BlogSpotRadio and sign up now so you'll be ready when the party starts. You can win some fantastic prizes. You can participate in the chat and hear from surprise guests. See you there!

Dr. eBay

Apps to Help Your eBay Selling

Apps are everywhere it seems. The tech world is in love with apps. This word 'apps' is short for 'applications' or an older term, 'application programs'. Apps are on your iPhone, or your Droid (Android), the iPod Touch, etc. Did you know that if you sell on eBay that eBay has apps too! Also, Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, all have apps. In general, the apps we are talking about are created (written) by third parties, not the owner of the website or device.

Let's focus in this blog post about the apps on eBay. eBay apps are there to help you have a more productive selling or buying experience on eBay. Like apps on Smart Phones and elsewhere, some are free, some are not. There are apps for eBay, Twitter, and other websites that you have to find through word-of-mouth or by searching the web. But the apps we're talking about are found right within eBay.

To see all the third party apps available on eBay you have to go to the Apps Center. There are places on eBay to find a link to the Apps Center including the full explanation on using it in the Help Menu. If your Seller account is set up you should also see a link to the apps center in your My eBay in the upper left next to Activity/Messages/Account. Once you get to the Apps Center, I suggest you make it a Favorite or Bookmark in your browser. Note: there are some eBay-provided features that I would also call Apps. They can be found in My eBay in the link called Subscriptions.

In the Apps Center you will see that the apps are divided into several categories, namely:

Customer support

Finance & accounting

Inventory

Listing

Marketing & merchandising

Research & reporting

Shipping & payments

Sourcing

In addition, you will find a list of the latest, newest apps and a list of the most popular apps. Start browsing. You are bound to find a few to interest you and make your selling life on eBay easier. One of my favorites is Shipsaver. They provide shipping insurance considerably cheaper than USPS and it's connected right to your My eBay page. I love it. See what you can find to help make your selling tasks easier.

Dr. eBay

Help! I'm Overworked and Can't Afford to Hire Someone

Many online entrepreneurs are one person companies. Me included. Whether you sell on eBay.com, Amazon.com, Half.com, Bonanzle.com, Clickbank.com, a bunch of niche websites, or all of the above, life as an entrepreneur can get overwhelming at times. Some people throw in the towel because of all the pressure of trying to do it all by themselves. They think they can't afford to hire someone or several someones.

There are, after all, so many tasks one has to do to run a company, even a small company. There can be accounting tasks to control the financial side of the business, legal activities, phone calls to make, letters to write, research to do, websites to create, programming to be done, marketing, graphic design, and many others. What is a busy entrepreneur to do?

Well, good news! Freelancers are willing to help you with these tasks on a one shot basis or a regular basis for very little money. How do you find them? There are websites that these freelancers enroll with to help you find them. One that just came to my attention is Fiverr. This site's claim to fame is that you can hire anyone on the site for only $5. Every freelancer on Fiverr will tell you what they will do for just $5. You can browse or search. Take a look.

Fiverr is certainly the most varied of all the freelancing sites in terms of what people will do for your $5. Most jobs offered are meaningful, useful tasks that may help you is some way. But some are out of left field. For fun here are a few I wouldn't have thought to ask for:

1. I will write anything of your choice on my face with a Sharpie for $5
2. I will tweet about your product or service to 3800 followers 5 times a day for 4 weeks for $5
3. I will read your palm for $5
4. I will do any voiceover work for $5
5. I will leave flirtatious/didn't-we-have-so-much-fun comments on your Facebook wall for $5
6. I will give you 60 GB of cPanel web hosting for 1 year for $5

There are many other freelancer websites available. In most of these, you describe your project and freelancers send you bids on what it will cost. You then have the ability to negotiate and question the freelancer about their qualifications and even request samples of similar projects they have completed previously.

My top six freelance website picks in addition to Fiverr are:

eLance, - From creative work like graphics and writing to computer programming.
FreelanceSwitch - From marketing, to writing, to graphic design to programming.
Guru, - From Web and Graphic Design to Programming to Business Consulting.
Allfreelancework - Projects posted on a variety of subjects.
Rentacoder - From simple web pages to programming jobs that could last for months.
ProgrammingBids - From web and graphic design to flash to software development.

(Note: I do not recommend any particular site mentioned above. I have no connection with any of them. I get no remuneration from any of them.)

Go find some help!

Dr. eBay

Can You Always Trust Feedback?

Feedback is something all eBayers are familiar with. But as Danna Crawford writes at Practical eCommerce, feedback comes in many forms and not all of it is to be trusted.

One example of feedback that is not to be trusted, I have personally experienced. It involves a condo at the beach that I own and rent out. It is in a building at the beach that has dozens of condos. It is a very nice building with two pools, a spa, barbecue deck, and many other amenities.

Several years ago some people rented one of the condos. These people apparantly had no respect of rules. Rules like no running by the pool, no glass bottles in the pool area, no public drunkeness, no disturbing other guests... all meant to help everyone there have a safe and enjoyable stay. These people repeatedly broke these rules and were given numerous warnings to no avail. Finally, one night the police had to be called because other guests' safety was at risk. The people causing all this ruckus were finally asked to leave.

Within a few weeks some slanderous comments were left on a public website that asks for evaluations of vacation stays at various beach hotels, motels, and other rental properties. Year after year those same or similar comments were left. All were similar enough that any intelligent person could only conclude that they were left by the same person or group.

This is just one example of how reputations can be ruined or hurt by anger and bitterness through no fault of the 'seller'. The lesson here is that whenever you are reading feedback, whether it is concerning another eBayer or in any other form, take it with a grain of salt, as they say. Remember, when people are happy or satisfied, they often don't leave feedback, except on eBay. For more, read Danna Crawford's post.

Dr. eBay

Books, Product Sourcing #1

When I teach people how to sell and make money on eBay the most common question is, "What should I sell?" One answer I give is, "Sell what you know." Do you have a hobby, a job, a passion, a pastime, or love of something? This is something to ponder and out of that you may come up with the answer to the first question. This begins a series of posts on the subject of sourcing, i.e. finding sources for the items that you sell.

When I first had someone tell me to sell what I know, my immediate thought was that there wasn't anything in my hobbies or jobs that I could connect with a product to sell on eBay. Later I did think of one or two things, but I felt no passion for them. Some years later I read something about selling books on eBay and I realized I love books. I've had a passion for books and have collected books for years.

After thinking about and researching this new potential eBay product for a few weeks, I decided that books made sense for me. New books are available in dollar stores, and at clearance sales in book stores, supermarkets, and elsewhere. Are there sources for books where one can make a decent profit margin? Of course! Used books are available at yard sales and estate sales as well as public library book sales.

I did further research and read some papers and books on the subject to learn the ropes of sourcing, choosing, pricing, & shipping. So now I sell mostly used books on eBay, on Half.com, and on Amazon. I don't get rich selling used books, but it is only one of my income streams. The people who can succeed selling one product are few and far between today.

So what is your passion? Tell us a little by leaving a comment.

Dr. eBay

Is Your Online Business Full of Drama?

As an online business owner, be it on eBay or another online selling venue, if your daily business life is full of drama it will undermine everything else you do in that business. Sometimes it can be very difficult to remain positive. In the past year and a half, many successful sellers on eBay have gotten sidetracked by negative reactions to changes eBay Inc. made to the rules of selling and buying on the site. No matter what or where your business is, remaining positive can be difficult when someone keeps changing the rules.

Our friend Danna Crawford has created a new blog called Run Drama, Run. It's aim is to help us all leave the drama behind and keep positive in our business and our private life as well. I urge you to check it often to help keep the drama away.

Ken
Dr. eBay

Google Announces New eBook Platform

Google announced yesterday that they will begin selling eBooks this summer. They have created a new platform that will allow readers to load ebooks onto various devices, according to a news story on MercuryNews.com.

Do you have an eBook in the works or already being sold? This may be worth watching.

Auction Progress Every Place I Sell

Auction Progress Every Place I Sell

How To Use eBay Completed Items Search to Your Advantage

Are you an eBay seller? If so, are you successful at what you do? Perhaps, the better question to ask is if you are making a profit selling on eBay? If you aren’t, there are a number of steps that you can take to increase your chances of making money on eBay.

When it comes to improving your chances of making a sale on eBay, your first impulse may to be change the way that your eBay items are listed for sale. For instance, it is often suggested that you upload detailed pictures of your items, provide detailed descriptions and such. While you certainly will want to try doing so, you will also want to focus on the items that you are listing for sale. Your problem with making a profit on eBay, might be the items that you are trying to sell. If you have a poor quality item or an item that other sellers can't seem to sell either, you may not be able to sell it, but you would still be responsible for paying your eBay fees. In this case, you will not only be unable to make a profit, but you also may end up losing money.

When it comes to knowing which items you can profit from selling on eBay, there are some who will tell you that it is impossible to do. While it may seem impossible, it isn’t. Before actually trying to list a particular item for sale online, like an old music CD for instance, you can check to see if that item has been sold on eBay before. This information is found by doing a completed items search for the name of the item you want to sell. If that particular item was sold before, you can also figure out exactly how much money it sold for! This will give you a good idea as to whether or not it would be worth it for you to spend the time creating your auction listings and paying eBay’s fees. Although the decision as to whether or not you want to post your item for sale is yours to make, a completed items search may give you inside information; information that you will want to take into consideration when making your decision.

To perform a search of completed items, you will want to use the advanced search option. The link to the advanced search form can be found by eBay’s traditional search box. The only thing that you will do differently is check the box labeled “Completed Listings Only.” Your results will include auctions that meet your search criteria, but that have already been completed. If an item sold, its price will be in green print. If an item did not sell, the asking price will be in red print. As previously stated, performing an eBay completed items search gives you the ability to tell whether or not you have an item that has been a good seller in the past.

If you are like many eBay sellers, there is a good chance that you are always on the lookout for great deals, bargains, or antiques. Familiarizing yourself with popular eBay items, ones that can be considered “hot sellers,” is a great way to make yourself a profit on eBay. In fact, you can not only use a completed listing search to determine if an item you already have is worth money, but you can also use this eBay tool to help you determine what items are in demand and how much, on average, the item sells for. If you scout yard sales, flea markets, or thrift stores, you may want to have a partner at home looking up eBay completed listings, while you are out shopping for items to sell on eBay. If that isn't practical for you, another way is to use a cell phone with an Internet eBay search application or bring a laptop computer with Internet wireless access when you are out scouting for things to sell.

Performing an eBay completed listing search will only take a few minutes of your time and can help you make money as an eBay seller, not lose it.

eBay Bucks Program Helps Buyers and Sellers

eBay hates it when sellers lower the price of an item and then raise the shipping charges to an outrageous amount to compensate. When this is done eBay loses money in Final Value Fees and other conscientious sellers face unfair competition when they charge actual shipping and handling.

I can remember as far back as 2006 at the eBay Live conference in Las Vegas hearing Bill Cobb, the President of eBay North America, tell us that eBay will be taking steps to stop these unscrupulous sellers from overcharging for shipping. Since then eBay has put several procedures and other steps in place to get sellers to stop overcharging for shipping and handling. Some of these include encouraging sellers to offer free shipping, creating the Detailed Seller Ratings (DSRs) program, and adjusting search results to favor sellers charging free or reasonable shipping.

AuctionBytes, a trade publication for online merchants, suggests that the new eBay Bucks program is another great step in the war against high shipping. With the eBay Bucks program,
"...buyers are able to earn rewards based on the purchase price of items they buy on eBay using PayPal. The buyer earns 2 percent of the purchase price (up to $200 per item and a maximum of $500 per qualifying period) and receives an eBay Bucks Certificate at the end of the quarter to use against purchases in the following quarter. Shipping is not included in the "purchase price" used to determine the reward amount.

Now the buyer has a reason to buy the $20 item with free shipping over the $5 item with $15 shipping. In the first example, the buyer receives 40 cents, in the second example it is only 10 cents. It sounds like small numbers, but if you're looking at items in the hundreds of dollars, or a buyer who purchases a lot throughout the quarter, which sellers do you think buyers will choose?"

For the complete article, go to Will eBay Bucks Deter Excessive Shipping and Handling? By Lissa McGrath.

eBay Auction Fees Lowered Again

A major announcement by eBay today restructures Auction and Fixed Price fees. For instance, beginning March 30, 2010, up to 100 auction listings per month with a start price under $1 are free to list. Also Final Value Fees (FVF) for auction items are a flat nine percent but never more than $50, which does simplify working with FVFs. In addition, there will be new lower listing fees for all other start prices.

Fixed price listings, both store items and direct listings will be considered the same for search purposes. This means that all store fixed price items will always appear in search results, unlike today where store fixed price listings only appear in search if the threshold is met and often don't appear at all. Now you can eliminate direct auction or fixed price listings to drive traffic to your store.

Another thing I like is the new eBay fee illustrator. This new tool allows you to put in your average estimated listing data and the tool will respond with recommendations as to which store level, or no store, is the best choice for you!

You can find all the details eBay Annoucements.

Happy eBaying!!

eBayers Donate Sales Proceeds to Haiti

As a follow up to my blog about eBay Ink last Thursday, the latest issue of the eBay Ink blog tells how eBayers are stepping up to the plate to help the Haitian people after their devastating earthquake earlier this month.

Yes, you can buy, sell, or donate items while on eBay with the proceeds being sent to The American Red Cross, Save the Children, and other nonprofits doing relief work in Haiti. So far, over 326,000 donors have raised over $1,000,000 and climbing, for the work in Haiti.

How can you get in on this worthwhile effort? Click here to get to a special eBay page to learn how to help in Haiti by simply buying or selling something on eBay. You can also make a cash donation on the same page if you prefer.

In addition to the eBay effort, Paypal Checkout is waiving the payment processing fees for donations to Save the Children. You can also make donations to Save the Children through Amazon Checkout, and Google Checkout if you use those services. Click here for the Save the Children donation page.

eBay Ink

Here's a resource any serious eBayer should be watching. It's called eBay Ink. These are regular posts by eBay's resident blogger. His name is Richard Brewer-hay. He is an eBay, Inc. employee. His job is to blog about the conversations happening inside eBay and outside of it too.

It's a great way to keep up with what management is thinking and lower department heads are working on for the future, even before the official announcements are made about changes to the platform. Richard also welcomes comments and questions about his blog posts.

As I write this, Richard has blogged about his Favorite eCommerce Podcasts. The topics include: "eBay Radio", "ColderIce (Internet eCommerce & eBay)", "eBay & Beyond: Basics to Business", and "The River, The Ranch & The Bay." These are all great topics and I'm sure you will learn a lot if you give a listen.

Virtual Online Meetup

I found a great resource for eBay buyers and sellers. It's called the "Virtual Online Meetup." There you will find online classes called webinars, a discussion board, monthly skype meetings, website directory, article reference, and more. Topics range from eBay and other online sales sites to social network marketing blogging, and other of Internet marketing.

This great resource has been created and hosted by the one and only Danna Crawford, PowerSellingMom. Many of these features are free. But you get everything for a very reasonable membership fee. If you are interested in learning about these topics, a visit to this group may be just what you've been looking for. I'm a member myself and I can tell you that there is something for everyone from newbie to experienced.