How to Make Money on Ebay – The 5 Things You Better Be Willing To Do
When you’ve fallen on rough financial times or you suddenly become the victim of an ailing local economy, one remedy that’s sure to work is creating additional income streams. After all, no sensible entrepreneur would place (and leave) all of their eggs in one basket. With that said, one basket that you can really count on is eBay.
Millions of people are aware of the online auctioning platform. Millions more want to know exactly how to make money on eBay. While it is relatively simple to turn a profit by using this site, there are five noteworthy points that should be made. In the five years since we began our family-run business on eBay we have attained the status of Power Seller and Top Rated Seller. These five tips really work!
#1. Take Good Photos
Think about it – you’re trying to sell an item to someone half way across the globe, yet you want them to trust you. Part of establishing this online trust is to go above and beyond when picturing your items for sale. It is true that it can become a tedious task to set up a listing. There’s data that you must include (about the item) and even sizing information. When it comes to creating a visual for a prospective buyer it’s really the image that helps make the decision.
Often times you will find listings on the site that boasts blurry pictures, or even over-cropped ones. This will not say much about your attention to detail. Not to mention, those types of images are anything but professional. You do want to be taken seriously, don’t you? Go the extra mile any take your time on the shots. If you seriously want to make money on eBay, consider various angles you too would want to see if you were the one shopping. These suggestions should help you when taking good photos for eBay.
#2. Honesty & Communication
Years ago I once met a guy who would purposely attempt to sell an item while knowingly overrating the item. He’d make the sale, ship the item, and when the customer received it (upset, of course) he would open a new eBay account to avoid the negative feedback. This is totally wrong! What this gentleman failed to realize was that he would’ve been better off being honest up front.
When describing items in your listing be as truthful as you possibly can. Because just when you don’t think that someone will want what you have, there are hundreds more that do. It’s always worth it to practice honesty because of eBay’s built in feedback system. Deception will catch up to you, and then ultimately you won’t earn anything. If your item is flawed, disclose it. Your customers will notice that you routinely keep it real, and it’s the trust that will keep them coming back so you can continue to make money on eBay.
#3. Sell What Sells
You probably know the adage: “If it isn’t broke, don’t try to fix it.” The principle is the same when you want to make money on eBay. Before you venture into this stream of income do a little research. Discover what industries are popular. Find out which name brands are hot commodities. Know what is selling and place yourself in a position to gain some of that market share.
This website isn’t the ideal place to try and sell new products or those that are handmade. Stick to the script by offering products that people are already buying. It may be tough to find your niche but doing this research at first hand will pay off in the long run.
#4. Never Stop Marketing
eBay has long been supplanted in the top 20 most popular websites in the world. The site sees daily traffic by the millions. Even though this may seem like a great luxury to have you still do not want to rely heavily on all that “in house” traffic. If you want to make money on eBay it is your responsibility to constantly drive traffic to your store (or eBay profile).
You never know that one day your eBay business may grow to become larger than you expected. When this happens and you decide to move your store off of the eBay platform you will be in good shape. At that point you will no longer have to rely on the in house traffic. As you begin your quest to make more money using eBay, definitely polish up on your traffic generation skills. Business cards, classified ads…use them all.
#5. Implement Aweber
This final tip worthy of noting often goes unnoticed and under appreciated. Being able to follow up with those who have purchased from you in the past can be powerful. It can really affect your fiscal bottom line. Aweber is an auto responder and contact management system that will allow you the convenience of keeping track of customers. As a member of Aweber you will be able to synchronize your auto responder with your sales.
What this means is that each time you sell an item, your customer will have the opportunity to subscribe to your newsletter. You can set it up this way. The power in this comes because through simple follow up you can turn one time buyers into repeat sales. You can even segment your customers into groups, that way your subsequent newsletters will relate to what they’ve purchased before.
These five things are the core to actually making money on eBay. Follow them, and maybe one day you too can turn a hobby into a consistent income streaming home business. Take a look at our niche in our eBay store for some ideas.
For another great way to earn money online take a good look at this. As always, please feel free to add to the discussion with your comments below. Also, be kind and share this post by clicking the “share” tab at the top right of this webpage.
— Kevin Timothy
