We know that people coming to eBay are prepared to buy, they usually aren’t just window shopping. Rather than have them land on your sale page once and then forget about you, why not have another way to contact them?

eBay doesn’t allow you to advertise another site on your auctions, but on your About Me page, you can mention you have a blog and include a link to it. Then when people visit your site, have an opt-in form so that they can give you their first name and email address. That way you can keep in touch and let them know when you’re having a special auction.

You’ll have to give your readers a good reason to sign up with you. That could be a free report, some free tips you’ve gathered, or even just the promise that they will be the first to know the minute your auction is posted.You can also advertise current eBay auctions right from your blog.

An easy way to start a blog is with Blogger. It’s free, easy to use, and fun as well. I recently conducted a workshop at the local community center and talked about starting a Blogger Blog. I recorded it and am including it in this post so you can have a listen.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Why not try adding video to your next eBay sale? With the new camcorders, like the Flip, you can record and upload to Youtube in no time. Once your video is on Youtube, go ahead and finish creating your listing.

Instead of  clicking on ‘Sell’ and creating your listing, click ‘Sell’, then ‘Advanced Sell’. Then chose your category and move on to the ‘Create Listing’ page. On ‘Describe Your Item’ you want to click on the HTML tab and add the code for the video. To get that, you would copy the embed code that is listed beside your video.That’s it and you should get extra interest in your auction as a result.

Let us know how using video on your auction works out for you. And don’t forget to include a link to your auction in the Youtube description for your video.

Technorati Tags: video in eBay auction, Youtube and eBay, using video descriptions on eBay

Anyone can sell anything on eBay.  Open an account, list your product, and wait for the bids to start coming in.  While it is true that anyone can sell, to be successful, you need all of the little tricks of the trade.  Thousands and thousands of people are making a full or part-time living just by selling on eBay. And its popularity is still increasing. Take your time and learn all you can about this method of making money online.

When you first get started, it can be a little unnerving.  The best option is to begin by looking around your own home.  Think of items that you would sell in a garage sale.  But instead of pricing each item and lugging it outside hoping for a nice sunny day, you can advertise them on eBay. By starting with items you no longer want, you can make mistakes and learn without spending a lot of money and with no regrets.

Although there are several other quality auction websites, eBay is by far the most popular and most successful.  You could use all the other sites as well,  but by spreading yourself too thin you risk getting things mixed up.  In reality, it’s better to use eBay and focus your attention and efforts on this one site.  You can always try the others once you know better what you’re doing.

First, navigate through each section of eBay to familiarize yourself with all the different pages.  You will find a site map and help files, which are very useful tools.  It will take a little time to get used to the site but before long you’ll get the hang of it.  As you start selling, navigating will become much easier.

Technorati Tags: eBay, selling on eBay, learning about eBay

I found this excellent video about finding good niche markets to sell your eBay products.
Hope you find it helpful.

Here are ten steps you can take to start a real business on eBay:

Step 1: Identify your market.

Take a look at the completed listings and watch for what sells and what doesn’t from the items you’re interested in. Pay attention to photos, titles, descriptions, starting prices, and shipping rates. Any market research data you can collect will be very useful to you later on.

Step 2: Watch the competition.

Before you invest any money, see what the other sellers in your category are selling, and what their strategies are. Pay special attention to any flaws their auctions might have, because this is where you can improve. When reading their content, ask yourself “does this make me want to bid? Why or why not?”

Step 3: Find a product.

Once you’ve run out of things to sell around the house, find a supplier for whatever it is you want to sell, and get the best price you can find – don’t be afraid to check out quite a few to get the best deal. If the eBay prices you’ve seen are higher than the supplier’s, then it’s a promising product. Other options are to create your own products, including information cd’s (my favourite), or to sell things for other people.

Step 4: Start small.

Get started slowly, see what works and what doesn’t, and learn as you go. Remember that it’s very cheap to try out even the craziest ideas on eBay, and who knows, they might just work!

Step 5: Test and repeat.

Keep trying different strategies until you find something that works, and then keep doing it, again and again. The chances are that you’ve just found a good niche.

Step 6: Work out a business plan.

A business plan doesn’t need to be anything formal, just a few pages that outline what you intend to sell, your strategy, strengths and weaknesses of the plan, and a brief budget. This is more for you than it is for anyone else, but it will keep you on track with your new business.

Step 7: Invest and expand.

Buy inventory and start spending more time on your business. Set a goal number of sales each week, increasing it each time. You could even open an eBay store if you have enough inventory.

Step 8: Make it official.

Once you’ve made a few thousand dollars worth of sales, you should really register yourself as a business. Don’t worry, it’s not expensive or hard to do - many government agencies have been set up to help you through the process, or you can consult a lawyer.

Step 9: Automate.

You’ll probably find that you’re writing the same things again and again in emails or item descriptions. This is the time to give up on the manual method and turn to automated software that can create listings for you, and respond to completed auctions and payments with whatever message you provide. Many of these automated tools can be found by talking to other sellers on the eBay forum.

Step 10: Never give up.

Even when it looks like it’s all going wrong, don’t stop trying. Many times the only thing that keeps us from being successful is that we give up too easily. If one type of product doesn’t sell, try another one. Try ending your auctions on different days and at different times. If everyone else is listing a product a certain way, try listing yours the opposite so it will stand out in the crowd. The beauty of selling on eBay is that you can change your product line without it costing you too much. You could never have that flexibility with an offline store.

Technorati Tags: eBay, selling, eBay business