Tuesday, June 5, 2007

The Top Ten Tips For Auction Success!

The Top Ten Tips For Auction Success!
by: Joe Clare
If you were to look through eBay, or any other online auction site for that matter,you would find that many people make some very basic mistakes. And, they repeat these mistakes over and over again. As indicated in my book "eBay Marketing Wholesale SourcePak" with a little common sense these mistakes are completely preventable. So to prevent you from making these very same mistakes I have put together the Top Ten Tips For Auction Success.

10. Shipping
Always state what your shipping price will be. And, Do Not try to rip off your buyers by inflating the shipping price to increase your profit. Believe it or not, people do have a fair idea of what shipping costs should be. If they feel you are inflating your shipping price they will not bid on your item and may not look at any of your other auctions either from fear of being ripped off.

9. Customer Support
You must respond to all emails regarding your auctions. Yes, responding to emails is time consuming. But, if you don't, that potential bidder will look elsewhere for the product and you will have lost yourself a customer.

8. Reserve Price
Do your research on the price for your item. If you must use a reserve price keep it real. If you over price your item you will not get as many bids. And, while all good marketers know there is a time and place for the Reserve Auction, you may actually get more bids using no reserve pricing at all. Do your research to help you make this decision.

7. Item Condition
You must let bidders know what condition your item is in. Is it new and in it's packaging, or used but like new condition. Does it have any imperfections they should be made aware of. A potential bidders will want to know what condition your item is in before making any bids.

6. Terms
This could come under the heading Customer Service. If you have terms on your auction page that read something like this "Not Responsible For Item Once Shipped" or "Item Sold As Is" you will get less bidders for that auction. Be a responsible eBayer, have insurance on the item that your buyer can purchase. And be sure to have some sort of guarantee on your products.

5. Feedback
One of the most important parts of your eBay Business. Feedback is a method eBay uses to allow buyers and sellers to record their experiences with each other. Then, others can check out the feedback of any eBayer they wish to deal with, to see if there has been any negative comments left. Therefore, it is extremely important to keep your feedback rating positive.

4. Auction Start/Close Time
You must plan your auction start/close time around the bidders you wish to attract to your auction. If the product you are selling appeals to the working woman, the best time to start/end your auction would be in the evening or on the weekend. Always create a profile on your product and what group of the population you are selling to.

3. Item Description
Not enough information or too much rambling of information will discourage people from bidding. So too will to many typos. Your item description must be clean and concise. Succinctly provide all the information required to describe the item sufficiently and create buyer interest.

2. Image
You need to use an image on your auction page. Remember a picture is worth a 1000 words! Potential bidders will want to see what the item looks like before they make a bid. With digital cameras, being so affordable these days adding an image to your auction page is easier then ever. But, make sure the image is clear and well lit to show it's detail or any imperfections it may have. Also, keep the image at a reasonable pixel size so your auction page doesn't take to long to load.

1. Headlines
This is the most important issue for getting more bidders to your auction page. You must include words that people will search on eBay. And, you must make your headline enticing, so potential bidders will click it. If you are selling an antique make-up table a headline saying old vanity table would not pull in a lot of bidders. But, if you said something like "Vintage Vanity Table - Mint Condition - Collectors Item" not only would you get more potential bidders to view your auction, you would also be using words people would search eBay for. Your auction title would appear in searches for Vintage, Vanity Tables, Collectors Items. Therefore, allowing even more potential bidders to see your headline.


Happy Selling!
Joe Clare

About the Author: Joe Clare is an active Netpreneur and eBayer! He is the author of numerous articles on how to make money online and be successful on eBay! Check out his latest Best Selling eBook "eBay Marketing Wholesale SourcePak" Your Passport to Success! at http://www.ebooksnsoftware.com

Source: www.isnare.com
: www.xtreamauction.com
http://www.xtreamauction.com/about-auctions/The_Top_Ten_Tips_For_Auction_Success.html

Use Auction Templates For eBay Success!

Use Auction Templates For eBay Success!
by: Sydney Johnston

Auction templates are simply a must for successful online auction selling. One day I spent approximately 45 minutes writing a listing for an item that would make me about $5 in profit! I suddenly realized the stupidity of what I was doing. Here I was scheming and plotting to become a net millionaire - and I could work at WalMart and make more money than this!

It seems as though you are selling products on eBay, but really you're not. What you have to sell is:

  • Your time
  • Your knowledge

And you must maximize the use of your time, rather than spend it constantly writing listings. The best way to do this, of course, is with a template. A template is a pattern that you can use again and again, without having to write news listings every time you have an eBay auction.

Here is an example of a template that I used when I was selling ready-made websites on eBay:

http://auction-genius-course.com/listings/template2.shtml

I only had to make a few changes on the page, such as ...

  • The picture at the top left
  • The website name
  • The appraised value

... and my auction was ready to list. Time spent: under five minutes!

Personally, I make my own templates, but if you do not want to do likewise, you might consider eBay's management service which offers templates as part of its package.

http://pages.ebay.com/sell/tools.html

Naturally, there are many off-eBay auction templates as well.

Free template sources:
http://auctionsupplies.com/templates

http://nucite.com/templates

http://web.thenetter.com/free_templates_and_graphics.html

http://www.firstauction.com/template/template_generator_others.htm

http://www.antique-central.com/tips1.html

http://auctioninsights.com/practice/auction-template.html

http://desacs.com/downloadtemplates/auctiontemplates.htm

http://woowoodesigns.com/collection1.html

Paid template sources:

http://www.auctiontemplatecentral.com

http://www.auction-resources.com/templates.html

http://www.pc-limited.com/ebay.html

http://www.auction-lizard.com/lizard

http://zoovy.com

Without auction templates my eBay success would have been much less than it is. If you are selling the same items repeatedly, you must use templates or you will waste far too much time in repetitious, tedious tasks. Success isn't about killing yourself working 20 hour days, but about managing your time to make maximum profits.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sydney Johnston, the AUCTION QUEEN, was one of the original sellers on eBay and has been selling on eBay since the winter of 1996. She is the originator and teacher of the famous Auction Genius Course, a powerful 16 hour multi media seminar on the Internet that teaches her students how to sell on ebay.

eBay: What Should I Sell?

eBay or any other auction site: Article on What Should I Sell?

for more articles visit my other site http://www.xtreamauction.com/about-auctions/

There is an art to picking profitable products. It's not just what you want to sell but rather what will sell. Unless you pick a product in demand in the marketplace, you will fail. A fundamental principle of the capitalist system is "supply and demand". It represents a delicate balancing act between "what people want" and how much of "it" is available.

Every Christmas, we see one toy that everyone wants. One year is "talking Elmo" and the next year it's something else. But, it never fails to occur. Because everyone wants "it", so "it" is in high demand. If the supply of the product isn't sufficient to meet the customer demand, prices soar, as do profits for the people selling them.

You could hope you pick one of those products and make a lot of money in one season, or you can be smart and have a profitable business all year round. How? Understand trends in our society and how they help you predict the products which are or will be in demand, now and in the future.

Current Trends In American Society

By reading and watching current news, we should be able to spot trends. These trends will have an impact upon people and therefore, the products they need or want. For instance, some current trends in the United States are as follows:

· Americans are fatter than prior generations (particularly children)

· Baby Boomers (a very large potential market) are getting older. Many are in the 50s or 60s.

· More and more people purchase online from the security and comfort of their own home

· Americans are more security conscious since 9/11

· Travel by car or recreational vehicle is up over previous years

· Diabetes is making major inroads into the general population

These are just some of the trends impacting our culture now. We need to take those identified trends and make some assumptions about them. With these assumptions come product decisions, profitable product decisions.

Using a Trend to Pick Profitable Products

Let's choose the Baby Boomer trends upon which to focus. We know that the Baby Boomer Generation represents a large, and very wealth, segment of the current American society. If we choose to focus upon this group of consumers, we know we have a large potential audience. More importantly, we know we have an audience who can pay.

Determining the products we will offer starts with making some assumptions about our targeted market. What does that mean for the Baby Boomers? We need to take what we know about that market segment and then make some assumption based upon that knowledge. Let's try.

What We Know: What We Can Assume:

We know they are getting older. We can assume they don't like that. We know they are fatter than prior We can assume they don't like that generations. and want to do something about it.

Let's just look at those two trends and how they help us choose products. If this generation is fatter than the last generation, we can assume larger size clothes are needed right now. Is that true? At eBay, plus size women's clothing sold for a total of $90,903.37 in the last 30 days! There's a profitable product selection for the present.

If we assume they are fatter and don't like it, they must want to do something about it. What might they do? Exercise or diet. What does this mean for possible products? Exercise equipment or diet pills. Is this true? At eBay, exercise equipment sold for a total of $1,125,144.50 in the last 30 days and weight loss pills sold a total of $130,795.34 in the last 30 days! Two more profitable, "in-demand", products at eBay, right now.

Choosing the right product for a profitable business does not have to be difficult. Just follow the four easy steps; analyze, assume, test, and choose. You simply have to read and watch the world. Look at leading news articles and magazine stories. What appears to be uppermost in the minds of potential consumers? What assumptions can you make about the trend? What product(s) does that translate to? Sell that product and you will earn money. Continue to follow those four steps and you will be profitable for a long time.

Michele Schermerhorn has over 30 years experience in the business world and over 12 years running her own successful online businesses. She is President of Online Business Institute Inc. (http://www.obinstitute.com). Online Business Institute Inc. exists to "Create Successful Online Business Owners One Person At A Time". They run regularly scheduled free online seminars.

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