« October 2005 | Main | December 2005 »
November 20, 2005
A Beginner’s Guide to the Different eBay Auction Types
Over the years, eBay has introduced all sorts of different auction types, in an effort to give people more options when they buy and sell their things on eBay.
For every seller who doesn’t like the idea that their item might sell for a far lower price than they intend, there’s another who wants to shift hundreds of the same item quickly. eBay tries to cater to all tastes. This email gives you an overview of the different kinds of auctions and their advantages for you.
Normal Auctions.
These are the bread-and-butter of eBay, the auctions everyone knows: buyers bid, others outbid them, they bid again, and the winner gets the item. Simple.
Reserve Auctions.
Reserve auctions are for sellers who don’t want their items to sell for less than a certain price – a concept you’ll know about if you’re familiar with real auctions. They work just like normal auctions on eBay, except that the buyer will be told if their bid does not meet the reserve price you set, and they’ll need to bid again if they want the item. If no-one is willing to meet your price, then the auction is cancelled, and you keep the item.
Fixed Price (‘Buy it Now’) Auctions.
Buy it Now auctions can work in one of two ways. You can add a Buy it Now button to a normal auction, meaning that buyers can choose either to bid normally or to simply pay the asking price and avoid the whole bidding process. Some sellers, though, now cut out the auction process altogether and simply list all their items at fixed price. This lets you avoid all the complications of the auction format and simply list your items for how much you want them to sell for.
Recently, eBay added a twist to fixed price auctions: the ‘best offer’. This means that buyers can contact you to negotiate a price, which could be a good way to get sell some extra stock at a small discount. The only downside to reserve and fixed price auctions is that you pay a small extra fee to use these formats. In general, it is more worth using reserve auctions for higher-priced items and fixed price auctions for lower-priced ones – but remember that you can combine the two formats.
Multiple Item (‘Dutch’) Auctions.
These are auctions where you can sell more than one of a certain item. Dutch auctions can be done by bidding. Buyers bid a price and say how many items they want, and then everyone pays the lowest price that was bid by one of the winning bidders. If you have trouble getting your head around that, then don’t worry – everyone else does too! These auctions are very rare.
=================
Sidebar - Register at eBay - It's Easy And FREE!
=================
What is more common is when a seller has a lot of one item, and lists it using a combination of two auction types: a multiple-item fixed price auction. This just means that you can just say how many of the item you they have, and offer them at a fixed price per unit. Buyers can enter how many they want and then just click Buy it Now to get them.
Now that you know about the different types of auctions, you should make sure that the items you plan to sell don’t violate eBay’s listing policies. The next email will let you know what’s allowed and what is a big no-no.
=================================================
Jason James is a 10 year Internet marketing veteran and an eBay Power Seller of 4 years. His website "The Auction Resource Network" reveals his inside secrets, tips, and sources that help him pocket over $10,000 per month on eBay. His proven step-by-step system shows even users with little or no business experience how they too can make huge profits selling products at online auctions.
=========================================
Posted by auction at 12:33 AM | Comments (0)
November 17, 2005
The Million Dollar Mentor
I was young and clueless once. Oh, I know we all go through it. The MLM marketing, the small business attempts. Worthless books and seminars, chainletters, lies, manipulations. We were done with the dirtbags pretending to be knowledgeable just to sucker us into paying for another product pack or seminar tickets.
I gave alot of money up in those days. It means nothing to me now, but it was a long sustained search that lasted years and 10's of thousands of dollars down the drain.
What did happen was that I learned a little from every costly endeavour. Every book I ate up with determination and absorbed with skill that led to no where. Every seminar I sat through that failed to deliver even close to what it promised did have small twigs of worth to offer.
WealthAndFreeTime
Many things stuck, I guess my complaint was at the time, that I wasn't getting what I had been promised. Not that everything was completely worthless. I did learn, its just that nothing and I mean no single service gave me what I wanted. RESULTS.
I guess you could say, success is a sive and you pan for the gold dust at the bottom of the pan. I have done my prospecting, found my nugget and cashed it in.
Thats why you should pay attention when I tell you I use something that passed my stringent standards. When you have sat through as many seminars as me, you begin to know right away what works and what doesnt. Let me tell you MOST of it doesnt. But then we found this.
WealthAndFreeTime
I havent got the energy or time to teach you everything I have learned from years of research, investigating wealth strategies. Realistically, do you really want to be sitting there reading 20,000 pages and watching dvd after dvd? I've seen some packages with 60 dvd's ! All I can say is -what tha hell are they talking about on those programs- I'll tell you.....blah blah blah blah adnauseum.
Do you really want to listen to cd's and tapes until the cows come home? I didnt think so. Like me you want the facts and you want to get down to it. You'd like to make your first million before your 60th birthday if at all possible.
The Million Dollar Mentor © asks for none of that fake study. Let me give you the mail...whether you are too tall, too short, ugly, pimply, bald, crooked eyed, hopeless, clueless, or simply lazy like me, you will get your share of the action and thats a promise. The only thing that stands between you and a million bucks right now is a few clever insights and a couple of hours of reading.
All we ask is that you follow the requirements to the letter. Do it exactly the way its suggested and your money concerns will be a distant memory. If Hayden tells you to turn right...Just do it OK?
We need your testimonials so dont screw this up.
5 years ago, we discovered a system that anyone can follow. Not only that, but anyone can understand it. Once you read, you will understand, then you will do. Within 12 months you wont have to work anymore. Within 24/36 months you will have enough money to sit your butt on a cruise chair and watch the world go by.
The "system" the "establishment" dont want you to learn this. What Hayden Muller has done is against the rules. What I am doing is against the rules. The upper classes know all this, but they dont want it commercially advertised and sold of. We are at a point where we will have to disappear soon. We get harrassed by officials and the puppets of influencial people because we have done this. One day you may come back to this page and it will be gone and that day is not far of because they dont want this to get out.
Caution: due to extreme pressures by certain parties and political lobbie groups -the information contained in "The Million Dollar Mentor©" will become unavailable soon. We may be forced to go underground with this knowledge. Only registered subscribers who have already got the information will have continued uninterrupted contact with us.
Read the rest of the story here
Posted by auction at 09:20 PM | Comments (0)
November 14, 2005
A Look at Third Party eBay Tools
There are plenty of companies out there offering third party eBay tools. Most of them are web-based instead of downloadable, so you pay a monthly fee instead of just buying the software. But do you know what these sites can do for you? It can be hard to get to grips with what’s out there using a search engine, so here’s a quick rundown of the key players.
Andale (www.andale.com).
Andale offer lots of small products instead of one solution that does everything: you can take your pick from a lister, image hosting, counters, analysers, a gallery, a checkout and an email manager. The price plans are a bit of a maze, but quite reasonable as long as you don’t go and use everything.
Andale’s real claim to fame is that they’ve been doing it for so long – they’re not some fly-by-night organisation, and many eBay sellers have been using their free counters for absolutely years. They also have a reputation for being very responsive to customers, and will often talk to you directly on their forums and implement any suggestions you might have for improving their software.
Vendio (www.vendio.com).
Vendio offer two editions of their software, Sales Manager: a Merchandising edition and an Inventory edition. The difference between the two is that the Merchandising edition is designed to make it easier to list individual auctions, while the Inventory edition is for sellers who sell many of the same item. They offer a pay-as-you go price of 10c per auction.
They also offer software called Tickets Manager, special software for people who sell lots of tickets on eBay – an odd product to have, but useful if you happen to sell tickets. Other services offered by Vendio include web and image hosting, fancy Flash galleries of your products for your listings, and stores.
ChannelAdvisor (www.channeladvisor.com).
ChannelAdvisor offer their software in three versions: Enterprise, Merchant and Pro. Enterprise and Merchant are both designed for very big businesses, though, and the chances are that the Pro version does everything you’d want. ChannelAdvisor is popular among sellers who want a solution that they know is used and trusted on a very large scale by enterprise-level customers.
It offers all the standard bulk listing and inventory features, as well as the unique feature of being able to create auctions from an Excel spreadsheet of your inventory. The cost is high, though, at $29.95 per month.
And Many, Many More…
eBay maintain a comprehensive directory of third-party software, which you can browse through anytime you have a few days to kill. You can look either for complete solutions or for each part of what you want individually – the choice is so daunting that there’s bound to be something out there for you. You can look at their directory at http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?SolutionsDirectory.
Once your items have sold and you’re about to ship them, you might be a little nervous about whether you can trust your buyer. Our next email will give you a few tips for spotting problem buyers before you send them anything.
Posted by auction at 11:30 PM | Comments (0)
November 08, 2005
10 Tips for Increasing Your eBay Response
So you’ve got the buyer in front of your auction, and they’ve read the description. They’re must be interested, or they wouldn’t be looking… but just how can you push them over that line and make them leave a bid? Read on for some tips.
Improve your picture: In all that description writing, you might have missed the vital importance of your item’s picture. A picture with bad lighting or an intrusive background looks amateurish and won’t make anyone want to buy from you.
Add an About Me page: You’ll be surprised how much you can reassure bidders just by creating an About Me page and putting a little bit about yourself on your business on there. You can also have a few special offers there for people who bother to look at the page, and let people subscribe to your mailing list so that you can email them updates.
Use SquareTrade: Signing up at SquareTrade and displaying their logo on your auctions shows that you are committed to have them resolve any disputes that arise. You always see this on PowerSellers auctions – it makes you look more professional.
Write terms and conditions: Have the ‘small print’ clearly visible on all your auctions, giving details of things like shipping times and prices, your refund policy, and any other business practices you might have. This helps build confidence with buyers.
Show off your feedback: Copy and paste a selection of the feedback comments you’re most proud of to each item’s description page, instead of making bidders go and look for it. If you have 100% positive feedback, be sure to write that on every auction too.
Add NR to your titles: If you have extra space in a title, put ‘NR’ (no reserve) on the end. Bidders prefer auctions that don’t have a reserve price, and doing this lets them see that yours don’t.
Benefits not features: Make sure your description focuses on the benefits that your item can give to the customer, not just its features. This is a classic sales technique. If you have trouble with this, remember: ‘cheap’ is a feature, ‘save money’ is a benefit.
List more items: If you want more people to respond to your items, then list more items! You might find you have better like listing items at the same time, instead of one-by-one. There’s no need to use a Dutch auction – you can just keep two or three auctions going at once for an item you have more than one of in stock.
Accept unusual payment methods: To reach those last few buyers, accept payment methods that many sellers don’t, like cheques.
Buy some upgrades: The best upgrade is the most expensive one, which makes your item appear first in search results. In crowded categories, you might find that this is worth the money.
Once you’ve got some buyers, you want to keep them coming back to you. The next email will show you how to turn one-time buyers into long-term customers.
Posted by auction at 12:50 AM | Comments (0)
November 04, 2005
Greeting Cards
The Vision of SendOutCards
The vision of SendOutCards is simple. We are out to help millions of people become senders of cards. By doing so, we will help build relationships, express appreciation and touch peoples lives all over the world.
Making a difference is as simple as sending at least one unexpected card every day. By doing this we not only reach people when they need it, we also connect with something inside of ourselves. The simple habit of acting on promptings will guide a card sender to their true genius within. We believe we all have something unique to contribute to the world.
Making a difference is as simple as sending at least one unexpected card every day. By doing this we not only reach people when they need it, we also connect with something inside of ourselves. The simple habit of acting on promptings will guide a card sender to their true genius within. We believe we all have something unique to contribute to the world.
We believe that at certain times in life, there are people that only you can reach. It is during those times that you will receive promptings to reach those people and express yourself. SendOutCards not only gives you a daily mechanism to act on those promptings, it also creates an atmosphere that promotes the habit. We have conducted Treat em Right seminars all over the country. We will soon be crossing the border and conducting them in Canada. It is amazing to hear the card sending stories you all share. The Treat em Right event truly helps you to see the magic that is hidden in a card. It puts you in a room with like minded people who are positive, happy and simply want to make a difference.
We believe that we are a billion dollar greeting card enterprise. We believe that we will not only create card senders, we will create millionaires. We believe we have, bar none, the best opportunity in the world today. Why? Because the deepest emotional craving of all human beings is to feel appreciated. We have the system that can deliver the fix for that craving.
Our target audience is everyone from a 12 year old boy that sends a thank you card to his dad; to a 42 year old dad that sends a proud of you card to his son. It covers individuals of all ages that have personal experiences from sending cards who then see the vision of using it in their business. Every person in every type of business has a need for this service. Every family has a need to keep their connections alive and strong. Every friend has a need to stay in touch with those they care about.
We are part of a $7.5 Billion Dollar greeting card industry. That industry has been flat over the past 12 years. Consumers will buy, on average, 10 cards per year. Studies have shown those same consumers have a need for 70 or more cards. There are 3 reasons they don't buy 70 plus cards.
- Its inconvenient
- They forget
- Cards are too expensive
We make it convenient, we never let you forget and you can send a card for less than $1.00, stamp included.
The biggest secret lies in our marketing strategy. The only way to get millions of people to send a printed greeting card from the internet is to personally coach them. It is one person sitting with another person, face to face or over the phone and helping them send their first card out. Through gift accounts, we can create a new card sender. Through seminars and training programs, we can inspire, uplift and encourage people to be the best card senders in the world. We can teach the power of a prompting; we can create a system of self improvement that will help people always send out their very best.
What this tells me is we have a way to truly get consumers to send an average of 70 or more cards per year. We have the ability to single handedly grow the entire greeting card industry.
Now, the interesting part of this is that we have yet to even discuss a compensation plan. We have a plan that rewards the behavior of personal coaching and attendance to seminars. We have a plan that pays personal and downline coaching activity on a weekly check. It also pays for personal and downline greeting card use on a monthly check. This is a plan that shares the wealth and creates unlimited opportunity for those who simply want to help others become senders of cards.
All of our greeting cards are print on demand. What this means is we do not keep any inventory of cards. We do not produce a card until it is paid for and ordered from a user. On a daily basis, we print the ordered cards of the day, stuff them, stamp them and mail them out. This means our overhead is low so we have more to work with to keep our card costs under the competition. It also allows us to create and maintain a lucrative compensation plan.
This also means we can expand into other countries for a fraction of the cost that other companies can. We do not export any product. We simply set up facilities on foreign soil, hire foreign employees, use foreign postal services and create a worldwide network of card sending. There will come a day when you can be in California, send a card to someone in Japan, the card will deliver in a couple of days with a Japanese stamp. We currently have people living in 3rd world countries that send cards to family in the U.S. Their cards deliver within a couple of days with a 0.37 cent stamp.
So there you have it. This is a vision of where we are and a vision of where we are going. Make no doubt about it. We are a billion dollar company in the making. We hope you all stay on for the ride because it's a big one.
Your Friend,
Kody Bateman
SendOutCards.com
Posted by auction at 11:02 PM | Comments (0)
