How Your Friend's Blog Can Benefit Your Business

Here's a tip you can implement today.

To get more exposure for your online store/selling venue, trade blog posts with a friend. (You do have a blog, right??) Ask a friend with a blog if she'll write a guest post for you and offer to write one for her. At the end of the post include a brief bio, including a link to your own blog and, perhaps, to one of your online stores. (Leave it to one or two links; don't make it look tacky.)

Simply share a great tip or selling experience, something that will appeal to the audience of your friend's blog. You post hers, she posts yours and, voilà, you both have new readers and, hopefully, new customers.

It's a win-win situation!

P.S. I love Darren Rowse's blogging tips. Here's a book full of them: ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income Read the reviews and consider buying the book if you want to learn how your blog can benefit your business.

How to Get Buyers to Read Your eBay Newsletters

Are you a store owner on eBay? Do you use your mailing list capability, the one that eBay provides along with your store? I hope that you do as it can be a very powerful tool. Speaking as a buyer, I enjoy receiving newsletters from eBay store owners - occasionally. The majority of the time, though, I simply delete them without opening because I know they're going to be a waste of my time. How do I know that?

When I see these subject lines, I don't ask questions, I just delete:

"eBay Seller Email: Check out my Newly Listed Items"
"eBay Seller Email: Sale! Shop my eBay Store for Big Savings"

Those are default subject lines, the ones that eBay supplies for you. They're the lazy seller's way of sending a newsletter. Inside, I can expect to see a list of items for sale and little else, sometimes not even a personalized message from the store owner. In fact, unless I scroll to the bottom of the page, 99 percent of the time I have no idea who sent the email. Why? Because eBay's default does not supply the store name at the top of the email. The only place I might find it is on the feedback section that is (by default) plugged in at the very bottom. Sorry, but I have too many other things to do than search an email to see who it's from. I'd rather shop with sellers who catch my attention with subject lines such as these:

"eBay Seller Email: Birdhouse Books - New Year's Sale"
"eBay Seller Email: 25% Off Selected Flat Wallets & More"
"eBay Seller Email: Happy Holidays from Handmade by Martha"
"eBay Seller Email: New 2 Day Sale Fun Stuff from Annie Star"

Aren't those subjects more appealing? Absolutely! Don't they make you want to see what's inside? Of course!

Note that the "eBay Seller Email" part is always provided by eBay, identifying that the mail is not s-p-a-m, so that's okay. However, it leaves you, the seller, a limited number of characters to work with, so be creative and use the space wisely.

If you've been taking the lazy way out by using the eBay default subjects, check your stats to see how many subscribers open your newsletters now, then try it my way a time or two and see if that opening rate increases dramatically. I truly believe it will. If I'm on your mailing list, I can guarantee it will. Then come back here, leave a comment and let me know if it worked for you.

Happy selling and prosperity to all in the new year!


P.S. It's tax prep time. Need advice? The eBay Seller's Tax and Legal Answer Book: Everything You Need to Know to Keep the Government Off Your Back and Out of Your Wallet

Selling on eBay? You Need All the Help You Can Get!

When eBay sellers think of eBay these days, the one word that comes to almost everyone's mind is "change." Change in policy, change in fees, change in rules, changes here, changes everywhere.

While it's simple enough to go to eBay's site and read the rules (well, maybe it isn't all that simple), perhaps it would be easier to have a team of people, experts, to help you understand and interpret all these changes and help you understand how they affect you and your business.

If you're not sure what to do about your eBay business, whether you should hang tight or jump ship, I can tell you that doing the same things you've been doing for years, working hard and having little to show for it, may not be the right choice. There are alternatives. There are changes you can make in order to succeed online and, specifically, on eBay.

Do you have about six and a half minutes? I'd like to suggest that if you can spare that small amount of time, click on the banner below and watch the video. Take a look and listen and evaluate if this membership site might be right for you. Maybe it will, maybe the monthly investment is more than you believe your future is worth. That's fine, but I love to see people succeed and I love to see people enjoy what they do, rather than working more than full-time hours and seeing little to no results, and I think this is something worth checking out. Really, you have so little to lose to just take a look. How about doing it now, while it's on your mind.

P.S. Remember, the busy holiday selling season is coming up. Check this out before you miss out on information that could make a huge difference in what happens to your eBay business the rest of this year.

Didn't Make it to eBay Live? No problem.

So, you didn't make it to eBay Live in Chicago this year. Neither did I. Sorry that you missed all the great teaching that went on there? So am I. Well, we're in luck! Now we can access many of the seminars and presentations that were made in Chicago at eBay Live 2008, online and all in one place.

The EBay Live Presentation Download Center contains 80 downloadable presentations (PDF downloads) in six different categories, including topics for buyers and sellers at every level. Want to learn how to pack the unpackable? They've got you covered. Want to find out how to market your eBay business? Of course you do and you'll find that topic covered as well.

While it doesn't include t-shirts, pins, and the party atmosphere of eBay Live, the topics that you need to help you succeed on eBay are all there. Dig in and help yourself!

EBay Store Seller Quick Tip of the Day

When you send out eBay store newsletters, be sure to personalize the Subject line rather than using the eBay default for the style of newsletter you've chosen.

I have received a dozen or more store newsletters this month with the same subject line: "Sale! Shop my eBay Store for big savings!" Knowing who sent the mail (the From field always says "store-newsletter" by default, so that doesn't tell me) goes a long way in my quick decision as to whether to take time to open and read that email or to trash it.

Don't know about you or your customers, but I would be much more likely to open a message with this subject line (for instance) "Hurry! All BIN On Sale Now at my52cents on eBay!" than one with the default. Remember, think like a customer!

EBay Plus Squidoo Equals . . .

. . some awesome lenses and a lot of traffic for some very smart eBay buyers and sellers.

In honor of eBay Live 2008, Squidoo and lensmaster Katiyana put together a challenge for those who "do" both eBay and Squidoo. The result? The 10 Day eBay Challenge 2008. Participants were to make 10 lenses in the days leading up to eBay Live, lenses that would highlight their eBay businesses or, not to leave out the buyers, special stories about items that they have bought on eBay. The result? Wow! A great bunch of new lenses, at least 104 at last count.

You can see the long list on the challenge lens. Pay special attention to the 14 finalists, in a separate list on the lens here. I haven't had a chance to check out all of the lenses yet, but one of my favorites so far is the Redneck Rings lens. Lensmaster titanium_knights involved a reality show on the lens, and we all know how popular reality shows are! Of course I enjoyed this lens by one of my favorite lensmasters, Chef Keem, whose lenses are always entertaining no matter what the subject.

If the challenge lenses don't convince you that all eBay sellers should have a Squidoo lens (or a few) to enhance and help advertise their businesses, then nothing will. I hope you'll check them out and then get started on Squidoo, too.

How to Write the Best Item Title on eBay

I'm not going to tell you, but I'll point you to someone who will.

I found a terrific 10-minute video on a Suzanne Wells' Power Seller King blog here. If you sell on eBay, whether full-time or casually, investing a small amount of time watching this video and putting what it teaches into practice will likely pay huge dividends. I have already heard from others how much the knowledge taught in the video has improved their eBay businesses.

If the information helps you, I'd love to know, so I hope you'll come back and leave me a comment here.

Squidoo Fanatic Teams Up With Power Seller King!

I hope you've seen my friend Suzanne Wells' Power Seller King blog. Suzanne provides her readers with awesome tips on a daily basis, tips that will help you improve your own eBay business. If you don't read Suzanne's blog regularly, you're really missing out on some great stuff.

Today's great Power Seller King tip is in a guest post written by, ahem, moi. The post is called How to Use Squidoo to Promote Your eBay Business. It's really good advice, if I do say so myself.

While you're there, be sure to subscribe to Power Seller King and read it every day. If you sell on eBay, you'll be glad you did.

Why the Advanced Search is Important to eBay Sellers

Easter's early this year. Have you done your shopping? Have you listed your Easter-related items on eBay?

I've been using eBay's advanced search feature a lot lately and this morning I decided to do one search for items from all categories with "Easter" in the title that are marked down and have Buy It Now available, including store items. I found 399 items that met all of those search options. Very cool search. You can try it here.

So, why am I telling you this? If you're an eBay shopper, remember to use that Advanced Search feature to help narrow down the items you're looking for more quickly. If you're a seller, remember to use words such as "Easter" in your item titles when you believe people will be looking for those items specifically. My search turned up items in 14 main categories from apparel to antiques to cell phones & PDAs. That last category included an Easter Lily charm for a cell phone. I never would have thought to search for that item, but what a great idea for an Easter basket stuffer.

Sellers, think like shoppers as you think about upcoming occasions and events (Mother's Day, graduation, even spring) as eBay shoppers will use those words in their searches. Those same shoppers may turn into buyers when they find your item, even if they did't know they were looking for it.

Why Now is the Best Time to Start Selling Books on eBay

Recently eBay announced pricing changes, including lower listing fees, effective February 20, 2008. Now the news is even better. Another announcement was made this week, this time regarding category-specific listing fee reductions for media categories.

Effective along with the previously announced changes, listing fees for books, music, movies, and video game software categories will be further reduced. Auctions listed at a starting price up to 99 cents will be reduced from 20 to 10 cents each, auction and fixed price listings in these categories with starting prices from $1 to $9.99 will be reduced from 40 to 25 cents, and similar listings with starting prices from $10 to $24.99 will be reduced from 60 to 35 cents.

What does this mean to you? If you're a bookseller (or music or movie or video game seller) this can mean a very nice increase to your bottom line!

Haven't started selling on eBay yet? Why not start with books? With eBay's listing fee reductions, now is the perfect time to get started. Books are a great product for a new seller to start with on eBay; most of us have too many and, if not, books are very easy to find at yard sales, church sales, and library sales. They're easy to handle, pack, and ship, and they're great sellers.

This bookwill teach you all you need to know about selling books on eBay or elsewhere online. The used book business is booming and eBay's fees are coming down, so why not find out how to get started selling books on eBay today!

Feedback Changes on eBay – My Turn to Vent

I blogged about the fee changes eBay announced last week but still have been digesting both sides of the feedback changes issue. I think I’ve finally formulated my opinion. Read on if you’re a seller with thick skin, curious to know what I think.

To review, eBay is changing its policy such that buyers may continue to rate sellers and leave positive, neutral, or negative feedback for them, but sellers will no longer be able to do the same for buyers. Instead, only a comment may be left by the seller regarding the buyer. The way I see it is this, and I've said this many, many times, if you’re a seller who provides excellent customer service, you won't have anything to worry about regarding feedback. Now, many eBay sellers will tell you that isn't true and can give examples of idiot buyers who leave stupid feedback. My friend Pat had a buyer recently who claimed he didn't buy her item and, even though she bent over backwards to take care of his situation (long story, but he was most definitely in the wrong), he ended up leaving negative feedback for her, saying that he didn't buy the item and that she needed to stop contacting him, blah, blah, blah. Well, how could he leave feedback if he didn't buy the item? This buyer was obviously wrong. My friend has documented evidence that he is wrong, and hopefully eBay will rectify the situation and remove the negative. So, it is true that there are unscrupulous (I wanted to say idiot again, but I won’t) buyers. And it’s also true that you can’t please all the people all the time no matter how close to perfect your customer service is. However, whether my friend could leave this buyer negative feedback or just a comment warning others about this man would have made no difference in his behavior.

Is there someplace online, besides eBay, where you can shop and have the business where you made a purchase leave feedback about you as a buyer, feedback for the world to see? If you know of a place, please tell me, but I certainly don’t know of even one. Everywhere I’ve ever shopped other than eBay, if there is an opportunity given to leave feedback it has only been for the buyer to rate the transaction. In fact, most online businesses don’t even offer that option for their customers. Amazon.com does encourage its shoppers to rate their buying experience, though most shoppers do not, but there is no public forum for sellers on Amazon to rate their customers.

I believe that eBay is trying to grow up and provide a good place for buyers to buy while encouraging sellers to provide the excellent customer service that far too many of them do not provide. EBay is trying to become a more professional and reliable marketplace for people to do business. As a buyer on eBay, I welcome that change. I’ve dealt with too many sellers who have been far less than professional and if those sellers drop off the eBay map, that’s fine with me. I believe that the cream of the crop of sellers will, indeed, rise to the top and the changes that eBay is implementing, including getting rid of the sellers’ opportunity to leave negative feedback for buyers, will encourage this positive growth.

Maybe the customer isn’t always right, but I think it’s time for eBay sellers to treat their businesses as businesses and act like professionals. If you’re a seller, I say adjust your attitude if it needs adjustment and move on to bigger and better things with eBay. If you’re a seller who would rather complain and boycott and focus on the past, the next time I go shopping on eBay I probably won’t see you at the top. EBay isn't going anywhere and if sellers leave in droves, so much the better for the professional sellers – and the buyers – who remain.

Why Bettye Had Record Sales Last Month on eBay

My friend, Bettye, from Dragonfly Vintage Clothing, just reported on her fabulous eBay sales from last month. January was her highest sales month ever after opening her eBay store 18 months ago. Here are Bettye's top three reasons, in her words, of why her sales have continued to grow and why she believes she had the big jump in January.

1. I'm buying better - more selectively...which I'm able to do only because I'm shopping MORE - I get to at LEAST one thrift store 6 days a week, and, many days, two. On average, I'm in 10 stores a week. This is on top of my full-time M-F, 8:30-4:30 day job. You have to get to a LOT of stores, and see a LOT of items, to allow yourself the luxury of only buying the BEST items. When I used to try and do all my shopping in one day, I had to lower the bar for what I would buy, as I knew there would be no other buying opportunities that week.

2. When ebay works right, it's using a system of exponential growth - which I think only REALLY works when you have a niche. I've done both. I've studied both. I know people who do both, and ON AVERAGE, there seems to be MORE GROWTH in stores that specialize in a certain type of product. Niche sellers have more repeat customers, there is probably more word-of-mouth referrals...and over time, a specialty store gets more and more and MORE regular watchers...as you have more people watching, you have more people likely to bid...and all it takes is two or more people who want the same item, and prices get driven up. When every one of your items is totally different - not even in the same style or genre - repeat customers are not as likely, repeat watchers the same. This exponential growth takes TIME. To Really Succeed on Ebay, I think you need to have/offer one of several things (you don't need all, but you need ONE): HIGHLY rare or desirable and well-recognized things (Coach bags, Apple ipods, etc); or EXTREME savings - if you're The Cheapest in any category, you will get the attention and the sales; or TIME. Time listing above average, well-priced items, in an attractive format, with good pictures, clear descriptions, reasonable shipping, in a specialty - and in TIME, you WILL build up a customer base. I think I'm finally hitting My Time :-)

3. To reiterate #2, I have really taken care to have clean, unfussy auction formats; clear, large pictures (I'm a firm believer in the PICTURE tells the story - the text is just an aside); low starting prices and reasonable shipping with no handling fee. I've held firm to my gut feeling that MY clothes are best shown on a live model, even though it would be easier and cheaper to use a mannequin.

Many thanks to Bettye for allowing me to publish her tips and observations. Bettye's goal for 2008 is to double her eBay sales from 2007. Looks like she's off to a fabulous start. (You go, girl!)

Bettye's store
Bettye's other store

Changes on eBay - Don't Panic 'Til You've Done the Math

Did you hear it, the rumbling going through the eBay seller community today? It's been building for a few days, since the news that today would be the Big Announcement with details regarding the restructuring of eBay's fees and feedback policies. If you heard the rumble change to a roar early this morning, that's when the details hit the news - and eBay sellers hit the ceiling.

Fortunately, now that it's afternoon the roar has subsided and even the rumbling has settled down since wise sellers have started doing the math and assessing how the fee changes might actually affect their businesses. Initially lost in the roar was the fact that, after being rumored for some time, the fee for gallery photos indeed will be eliminated. That in itself means a huge savings for sellers who use the gallery photo option and is great news for eBay buyers as hopefully this will make it easier for them to shop (which turns into good news for the seller, who is more likely to make a sale). It seems that most of the sellers who have done the math have figured out that the change in the fee structure will have little effect on their final, bottom line fee. In fact, many who have a low sell-through rate are thrilled that their overall listing fees will be significantly lower.

Of course, there is the feedback issue, the fact that sellers will no longer be allowed to leave neutral or negative feedback for buyers. On the surface that certainly stings but, as I've said before, practice excellent customer service and you should not have to worry about any but the very occasional negative buyer, and there's even a policy to handle and remove those negatives in certain cases. Read all the details about the feedback policy changes on this page.

There's a lot to learn about the policies that were announced today. Rather than getting caught up in the hysteria, savvy sellers should study the changes, do the math and then decide how much worse off - or better off - they might be in the long run. Here's an overview of the announcement with links to the details. Read and study, then decide for yourself what changes if any you will need to make in your eBay business to stay a step ahead of the crowd and take advantage of the void to be filled by those disgruntled sellers who jump the eBay ship. Fee changes take effect February 20, so that gives you plenty of time to make any pricing or policy changes of your own that you deem necessary to best serve your customers - and help your business grow.

91 Things To Sell On eBay

What a great list! You probably have some of these things lying around your house. If not, your neighbor does or your mom does or the folks having the next yard sale you go to probably have several of them. They're that easy to find and the great thing is, they actually sell well on eBay. The research that proves it has already been done for you and is included.

To get the list, you'll have to download an ebook. No charge. Just fill in your email address to get the download link. Really. It's that simple and there's no catch.

Here's the link. Fast, easy, and a terrific bunch of items that you can find and you can sell on eBay. Isn't that just what you were looking for?

Drive Traffic to your eBay Store with This Tip

Skip McGrath had a neat tip in his newsletter this week that I thought I would pass along. If you have multiples of the same item to sell, list one at auction and charge shipping, but include an enticing line in the listing such as, "Buy this item now from my eBay store and get Free Shipping!" Hyperlink directly to your store. Build the shipping cost into the price of the additional items in your store and list them there with free shipping. What a great way to get people to visit your store.

If you'd like to read more of Skip's great ideas, as well as his take on eBay news and much, much more, click here to read the lastest issue and for your free subscription to The eBay Seller's News. Don't miss the article called "Tune Up Your eBay Store for The Christmas Season."

Make This One Change to Grab Your Customers’ Attention

Do you use email marketing to promote your eBay store? I hope you do. And if you do, I hope you make those newsletters interesting for your potential buyers. The most important place to start is by writing a killer, attention-grabbing subject line.

It’s easy to put together a store newsletter using the marketing tools section from your “My eBay” page. The first thing the process requires you to do is select the type of email that you want to send. The drop-down menu includes several choices (newly listed, etc.). After you have made that selection, on the next screen you will have several options. One of those is “subject.”

The subject line is what your customer will see first, right in their inbox. What they read there will make them decide to open the email or to simply delete it. Why leave the subject line, like so many people do, with the default “Check out my Newly Listed Items” (how boring is that?) when you have 55 characters to work with, 55 characters just waiting to make or break your entire marketing effort.

Here are some examples of subject lines that have enticed me to open and read an eBay store newsletter.

“Newly Listed Items – Hair Accessories, Jewelry, Lenox”
“100 sales, auctions, pet tips ANNIE STAR PET SUPPLIES”
“New Auctions and Tons of Sales!”
“Limited Time Special for our Newsletter Subscribers” (Who could ignore that!)
“Sale! Shop Dragonfly for Big Savings”
“March Inventory Sale! All Items Reduced!"

Aren’t those better than the default? It’s easy and doesn’t take but a minute or two to create an interesting subject line for your store marketing emails. Get creative, grab your customers’ attention, then see if your “opened” rate – and your eBay sales – increase. It’s worth 55 characters of your time to find out.

How to Run a Successful Drop-Shipping Business

Are you tired of looking for great stuff to sell on eBay? Would you rather use your garage to store your car instead of those boxes full of unsold inventory that eBay shoppers don't like any more than you do? If so, drop-shipping may be the solution you're looking for, and Doba may be the company to provide that service for you.

Doba is a certified eBay service provider with interfaces that make it easy to list their items in your eBay store. Doba offers a free 7-day trial with no obligation, giving you full access to the site including the wholesale prices of their one million item inventory plus their library full of educational articles to help you learn how to run a successful drop-shipping business.

If drop-shipping sounds like something that might be of interest to you, I would suggest signing up for the free 7-day trial and dedicating several hours to researching the site. That should give you plenty of time to explore the products and read the excellent educational articles. Then, with no obligation, decide if dropshipping is the right choice for you.

You can learn how to run a successful drop-shipping business. Sign up here for your no obligation free trial.

Make Money With eBay Items on Squidoo

I blogged a little about Squidoo a few months ago, but I think it's time to mention it again.

Squidoo consists of individual pages, called lenses, each created by regular people called Lensmasters. Cool thing is that Lensmasters make money when people click on links in their lenses and, especially, if said people buy the things they click on. A good lens contains a lot of good information as well as some great products or items to click on.

So, how does this affect you as an eBay seller? Let's say you have a niche on eBay. That makes you an expert in that niche, right? Sure it does! You research it, you describe it, you list it, you sell it. You should know as much about that niche or that type of item as anyone, and more than most. So, take that expertise and turn it into a Squidoo lens.

Your lens doesn't have to be about eBay, but it can contain a module, or section, that features your eBay items, those same items that you have written about and shared your expertise about, in the Squidoo lens. For instance, I sell Arkansas Razorbacks fan items (among other teams) on eBay. To get those on Squidoo, I made a SquidWho lens (SquidWho is the new people lenses part of Squidoo) all about Darren McFadden. (If you're a college football fan, then you've probably heard of Darren McFadden, last year's Heisman Trophy runner-up.) When people find that lens on Squidoo, they'll see my eBay listings. What great free advertising!

Keep in mind that Squidoo pays the lensmaster a commission on other people's eBay or amazon listings, too, so feel free to promote those items on your lenses as well, as I do on, for instance, my Shirley Temple lens.

So, choose a person, a niche, or an eBay item you would like to promote, go make a lens and make some money.

List for FREE on eBay!

If you've never sold anything on eBay before, I'd like to invite you to start now and get your first three listings free!

All you have to do is contact me with your e-mail address by leaving a comment below and I will have eBay send you an invitation to list your first three items, including a gallery photo, for free on eBay.com.

This is an eBay promotion and the details and requirements will be contained in the link inside the e-mail. I just need your e-mail address in order to have eBay send the invitation. Your e-mail address will be safe with me. I promise to never use your address for anything else, ever again, and won't sell or rent it to anyone.

You know you'd love to make some extra money and eBay is a great way to do that, so if you've been putting it off, now's the time to make the decision to get started selling on eBay - and save from 55 cents up to $5.15 in fees for each of your first three listings!

Again, just contact me through the comment form below this post, include your e-mail address and let me know you'd like to receive the invitation. HURRY! The promotion ends September 15, 2007!

EBay Shoppers Have Stars in their Eyes

The new stars feedback system on eBay has been in place for a few months now and some sellers are still complaining. Yep, it's hard to take anything less than a 5 on "shipping and handling charges" when you charge actual postage, hard to accept a 4-point-anything on "item as described" when you include multiple pictures and write a really decent description, but what's a seller to do? At least the playing field is leveling out with all active sellers now in a similar situation. (If you have four rows of perfect 5's, please leave me a comment. I want to see what you do that I don't do!)

On what I thought was an interesting note, my sister-in-law recently wanted to purchase something on eBay, a specific item from a specific seller. She (new to eBay, no account yet) told me that the seller "has a very high rate of satisfaction." When I went to look, I found that the seller has 99% feedback with stars at 4.6, 4.7, 4.7, and 4.2. Personally, after reading the feedback comments and seeing several recent neutrals and a negative, I didn't feel that was a particularly "very high rate of satisfaction," but this was the opinion of a brand new buyer on eBay and she felt quite comfortable with the stars that weren't nearly as colored-in as mine and many others' are.

I suppose the value of the stars system really is in the eye of the beholder/buyer. It is a subjective system, so all we as sellers can do is to do our best to hold up our end of the deal in each of the star categories so that our ratings will stay as high as possible. And remember that stars really do get in our shoppers' eyes.


Now you can offer your shoppers 5-star merchandise.
Read this!