My Auction Empires

Domain Names

What is a Domain Name ?

A Domain name is simply something you call yourself or your buisness online. A Domain name is a bit like a shop name or your own name, but there is also a very big difference in that there could be millions of people called Andrew Milburn, but there is only one http://www.andrewmilburn.com (Yes I do own that Domain Name), now you can buy .info, me, .name, .tv, .co.uk .mobi. Quite often they add more extensions to Domain names such as .US.

Now a lot of people think that ones like TV , US are for things such as Television where in fact they are country names. Another name for them is TLD Top Level Domain. Now .gov is a TLD where as .uk.gov is not.

To be honest when buying a Domain Name you do not need to worry about all of this. Try and buy a .Com name as most people think of a Domain Name as .com. And in fact if you look at things such as the apple ipod touch they have a .com botton on the on screen qwerty keyboard. And Internet Browsers will put .com as default if you forget to put any thing after a name.

Also when thinking about Domain Names I know I said to buy .com names but when you are promoting a country website. For example loan deals in the UK then it is best to buy .co.uk domain name as it makes it easier to promote.

Now there are hundreds of companies out there that sell you Domain Names, but the one I have been using for many years is one called GoDaddy They sell Domain Names at great prices and at the moment you can pick up .com names for under $8.00 and very often GoDaddy run promotions.

Another Resource bought to you by Andrew Milburn and My Auction Empires

I want eBay To Pay Me and You

We all love eBay, and most of us do not mind paying the fees, I mean at the end of the day we are in business and all businesses have fees and expenses. And eBay is no different. Now how would you like eBay to pay you?. I can hear you laughing and saying what eBay pay me, oh yeah it is some sort of affiliate deal. (Yes they do have a great affiliate deal and program). No wrong.

eBay are willing to pay you to drive traffic to your ebay store, eBay will pay you if you drive traffic to one of your pages within your store, also they Pay you when you drive traffic to other certain pages within your ebay store.

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Linford-Direct-Auctions?refid=store you just added ?refid=store at the end of your store url. that is ?refid=store  and when you do this ebay will give you back 75% of your fees back.

To learn more about this pop a long HERE and eBay have all the terms and conditions in black and white, but it very easy and straight forward and very soon eBay will be giving you 75% back on all traffic you drive to your eBay Store and other pages within your eBay store

So very soon you will be getting eBay to pay you. This also means that you will be able to list more as you will have more money to list with.

Next post will tell you how you can take that long url and put it into a very easy to remember name that you can use any where.

So I hope this quick post has helped you learn how eBay will pay you and me.

Another tip bought to you by Andrew Milburn and My Auction Empires

In today’s blog post and want to talk to you about How To Grow Your eBay Business during 2009 and beyond. When you pick up a paper or listen to the TV all you hear is negative reports on business out there. But if you stay focused and not listen to the media and follow these simple tips on How To Grow Your eBay Business then this year will be one of the best.

Grow Your eBay Buisness Step One.

Do not listen to what the media or family and friends are saying about the state of online and offline buisness. Yes it is true that life is not as easy as it used to be a few years back., but people are still buying and if you offer your products at sensible prices and offer good customer service then you will Grow Your eBay Business.

Grow Your eBay Business Step Two

Stay very focused on what Your eBay business is about. Write out a plan on how you want to grow your eBay business, and then work out your plan over the coming weeks and months. Yes you will need to fine tune some parts of the plan, but you must take action on the plan. And at times you will need to say no I was wrong with this idea, and you need to take another path, do nor beat yourself up.

A good idea is to have action steps in your plan and if you do each action step from start to finish, you will have an ebay business that grows daily.

Step Three of How To grow Your eBay Business, is very important. It is important in the good days and in the bad days. This How To Grow Your eBay Business is all about money. In today’s climate you need to keep a close eye on what you spend and how you spend it.
What do I mean? Here in the Uk we can buy postage stamps online and it does not cost anything extra, or does it? well you have to buy the labels.
Also the post office have another format where you can pay £5.00 a month and have access to a template to print out address labels and stamps, so now you are paying the £5.00 plus labels, you need to think does my business need this? If you look at just the £5.00 a month that is £60.00 a year which in the UK is 4 months ebay shop fees.

So keep a check on what you are spending and how you are spending it.

How To Grow Your eBay Buisness Step Four.

Now this may seem a bit strange or funny after the last step, but please stay with me. You are in business and like all business you need training. Now some training is free and some of the free training is very good, but there comes a time when you need to spend some of your profits. One of the best online resources I have found for eBay and other online platforms is OSI RockStars. OSI RockStars is a training group started by Janelle Elms and now contains well over 250 hours of webinars, podcasts and very active forums.

Please if you are looking for somewhere to learn more about eBay and beyond take a look at OSI RockStars, it will be money well spent and will Grow Your eBay Business by leaps and bounds.

The last step we shall talk about today in this How To Grow Your eBay Business is the importance of keep your old and new customers upto date with what is going on in your eBay world. This is something I need to do and am doing almost as we speak.
We need to keep them informed with eBay newsletters, and also if we have blogs other online newsletters.

These newsletters can be managed using special companies and I shall talk about these over the next few days. Again yes it is some money we need to spend, but believe me what ever we spend on these newsletters we will get back many times over.

Hope you have enjoyed reading this post and that it will help you grow your eBay business.

Another resource brought to you by Andrew Milburn and My Auction Empires

eBay Trading Assistant Lichfield

In a previous article in My Auction Empires I covered what a eBay Trading Assistant does and how they can save you time.

In this smaller article I want to cover, why it is important to use a local eBay Trading Assistant. Yes being honest you will have to travel at times if you have a very item you need to sell, but if it is rare then the travelling is well worth it.

So How Do You Find A Local eBay Trading Assistant ?

1) First of all most local eBay Trading Assistants do have small adverts in Post Offices and Newsagents and some even place adverts in newspapers or drop of leaflets.

2) Another way is to pop a long to ebay.co.uk and do a search for Trading Assistants. If you click on any of the links in this article you will be taken to the eBay.co.uk Trading Assistant site where you can do a search for your local one by entering in your own postcode.

3) When you have done a search ebay will list all your local eBay Trading Assistants and you can also see their feedback and what items they sell etc.

Now if you live in the Lichfield, Rugeley area of Staffordshire in the UK then I would be happy to talk with you about selling your items for you on eBay. To find out more about the services I can offer you please go to page on my site by either clicking here or clicking the link at the top of the page.

Please keep a lookout for further articles on how and why to use an eBay Trading Assistant.

Another resource bought to you by Andrew Milburn and My Auction Empires

Are you having trouble finding  Low Cost Product Sources cheaply enough to sell it for a good profit?  Well, if you are you have come to the best place. The aim for this blog My Auction Empires is to help people either new or old to sell and make a profit on eBay.

So without going on here are some Low Cost Product Sources for eBay.

1 ) Garage sales. The chances are you’ve gone most of your life seeing ads for these and ignoring them. Start going to as many as you can. You won’t find good things at every one, but when you find one person with good stuff, make them an offer for the lot – they’ll be so happy about it that you can get a real bargain.

2) Markets. If your area has a market, then go there and look around for anything good. You could buy it there if it’s cheap enough, or try to make friends with the market traders and find out who their suppliers are.

3) Pawn shops. Pawn shops don’t usually know what to do with the junk they accumulate (unless it’s jewellery, of course). Generally, they put their stock out on the shelves haphazardly, hoping that someday someone with a little money will just happen to come in, search around and buy wildly obscure things. Get them to offer you a discount for bulk.

4) Real auctions. Go to a real auction, as the chances are that you can resell things for more than they will sell them. After all, they only have a few hundred people in that room – you have a few million to sell to!

5) Local newspapers. Place an ad in the local paper that reads “I pay cash for [your item type]”, with your phone number. If you can afford it, make it a big display ad, so it’ll be noticed.

6) Ad boards. Get one of those little ads in the grocery store. And just ask for stock !!!! Simply I know but it works.

7) Friends. Ask your friends if they have anything they’d like to sell you, and ask them to spread the word to their friends.
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Become known. Give out business cards, mention to people what you do. The chances are that you’ll come across someone who’ll say “Oh, really? I’ve got a load of [item] I don’t want”.

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9) Shops. This might be a little surprising, but some real shops even sell things more cheaply than they sell on eBay. Take a look around your local deep discounter, and pay special attention to any shop that takes trade-ins from customers. The chances are they take a loss on trade-ins as a promotion, and are dying to get rid of that stock.

10 ) And finally: eBay! When you’re looking at the completed items view, you’ll notice the massive range of prices that items can sell for on eBay. Try taking the highest-priced item and searching for it on its own, then sort by lowest price first: I can almost guarantee that you’ll see an auction for the same item where it sold for almost nothing. The trick is to find these flawed auctions before they close, win them using a bid sniping service, and then turn around and resell the item.

Another article bought to you by Andrew Milburn and My Auction Empires

ebay Trading Assistant

Do you want to sell your items on eBay, but just do not have time? Then you need an eBay Trading Assistant. An eBay Trading Assistant is someone who will take your items and list them for sale on eBay. eBay Trading Assistants will list your items, take the pictures, deal with all the emails, and when the item sells, send it out to the buyer, leave feedback and send you a PayPal or Cheque payment (less the agreed commissions).

eBay Trading Assistants are experienced eBay sellers who will sell your items on eBay for a commission, most do not charge upfront fees – But sometimes we have to if the item needs special listings etc. When you work with an eBay Trading Assistant and enjoy all of these great benefits

Your eBay Trading Assistant handles every aspect of selling your item on eBay, from listing the item to shipping it to the buyer.

All eBay Trading Assistants have experience selling on eBay and have to be in good standing in the eBay community.

When your item or items sells, the eBay Trading Assistant passes the profit on to you (after taking out the agreed fees).

How to make money using an eBay Trading Assistant

First of all you need to look around your home or office for items you’d like to sell. eBay has millions of buyers and people are always on the lookout for that item on eBay. Remember most things can be sold on eBay, but like anything else there are items that cannot be sold, and your eBay Trading Assistant will guide you through this process.
Also sometime some eBay Trading Assistants may not be able to help you, but in most cases they can and when they are not able will help you find another eBay Trading Assistant who is able and willing to help.

Most items listed on eBay have a good chance of selling either first of the eBay Sites they will tell you this at the first meeting, and yes sometimes it may take a few weeks or months for an item to sell and in rare times an item will not sell, but that is life.

To help you get the best price for your items, please only give your eBay Trading Assistant items valued over £30. If you do have items that fall below this amount your friendly eBay Trading Assistant will talk you through how to get the best price for your item.

Once you have agreed, on the above, your eBay Trading Assistant will get you to sign a simple contract this will cover the both you.

Once this has happened then your eBay Trading Assistant will get to work and all being well very soon your eBay Trading Assistant will be sending you some money.

Another idea bought to you by Andrew Milburn and My Auction Empires