Get eBay Research Tools

If you are semi serious or or full time seller on eBay there will come a time when you need to do eBay Research . Now there are several different ways in which this eBay research can be done.

The first way is the old fashioned way where you go through listings, see what is sold, then you get word on the street and from family and friends, and then you take a deep breath and buy your items. Now yes this has worked in the past and will still work in the years to come when you sell on sites such as eBay, but you are taking a great risk, and this risk could cost you everything.

The second and easier way of doing your eBay Research is by using research tools like the one from TeraPeak . This research tool gives you vast information – the best day and time to list your items, the best section to list the item in, and as well as all of this data it gives you what they call sell through information. Now this is worth your monthly fee on it’s own. This sell through data from eBay will tell you straight away if your item will sell or not. For instance if it has a sell through rate of 2% it has little chance of selling, but if it has a sell through rate of 95% then you stand a good chance of selling your stock.

But as with anything you do need to test this eBay Research Tool from Terapeak but over the years I have been using it, it has never let me down, or my clients down, go on and give it a go.

A child’s future is one of the most important things in any parents life and as the child gets older, they too start to think about the future and what the future holds in store for them. Sadly for many a college or university path is out of the question due to the high costs involved.

Yes there are the funds and savings plans you can pay into as soon as your child is born, but these cost money and to many families it is just not practical for them to do this. You can add small lump sums into a plan in the hope that once your child gets to the college age there will be some money in there, buy will this meet the many thousands that will be needed to fund them, guess not.

Another way is for the child to take out student loans, and once they have finished college and get a job they start to re-pay them back. While this is a solution and does work, the child is starting adult life in massive debt and may not pay off all the fees for many years. Not a very good start to adult life.

So what is the answer? Well they could get a job while at college, and work before and after college, but what about college work and exams. It can be fitted in but most part-time jobs take up many hours. Let us think out side the box we are in the 21st century and the age of computers. Teach your child and show them how to use sites such as eBay, Amazon etc, and how they can make money by buying low and selling high.

There are a few steps that you need to take to start with.

@ Show and help them how to open an eBay and PayPal account.

@ Maybe show them hot to open an Amazon Account.

@ Take them through the whole process of how to list items on both platforms and how to offer good customer service.

Once this has been done you have done that old saying “Tell someone how to fish and feed them for a day, but show and explain how to fish and feed them for life” You have just shown your child how to provide for all their college and living fees. Plus they will have a business when they leave too.

Now it is best to start this process a few years before college so your child can build by money before they go, and their online business will be up and running. As for stock I know some parents who will buy the child a few pallets of items to sell, and then teach them how to re-invest some money and use profits to pay bills.

Another way you can teach them to buy from thrift shops, estate sales, car boots, and buy cheap and sell high. But what you sell does not matter that much as long as a profit is made, and the child can attend college and university debt free and live there debt free, and not worry about cash. And if they need a new laptop etc, they will know what to do…………… Sell more stuff.

Hope this has helped you see how just thinking out side the box can let your child attend college, by using eBay and other ecommerce sites.

I would guess if you stopped most people in the street and asked them “Do they like change” a very large proportion will say no or not really. And only a few will say yes we like change or do not mind it. But like it or not change happens. Now I am going to be honest with with at times when change happens the reason we do not like it is because it takes us out of our comfort zone. We are happy where we are and when things around us change we need to change to take these changes on board.

But as with anything change will happen. Just think you are reading this article on a computer, 15 years ago it would have been in a magazine or newspaper, but because things change you are now reading it on a computer, but since the computer came out that too has changed and thats to people like Apple with the iphone and ipod touch, and other phone companies some of you will be reading this on the phone. All because of change and the fact the people were will to take on board and embrace change and move with it.

So what does this have to do with your online business and selling platforms such as eBay and Amazon. Well from the second you signed upto these companies to help you sell your items on the ecommerce platforms that sites have been changing. Some of the changes you will have seen as in the layout of the site and how the site feels and works. Other changes will have been to the code and the programs they use to run the site, these you will not know or see.

But other changes they do you will see, feel and know about and it is these changes that some people get so worked up over. They shout, they complain, they leave bad comments and some even say or do leave the site. but by doing that who are they hurting ? Yes ok on the surface they may be spitting fire but at the end of the day it is their business they hurt. They will jump from platform A to platform B. But when platform B decides changes are needed where do they jump ?

Sites such as eBay, Amazon, etc, do not wake up and say hey lets make this change today, to upset our sellers. No the changes have been thought out over a period of time. These sites need to keep all sides happy. Sellers, buyers, shareholders etc. At times sites may seem to favor buyers well yes as if there were no buyers no one will sell.

Changes are made after a long period of working out and thinking, and yes we may think why have they done that change, but a few months down the road a little light will go on in our head, and we will say now I see why that change was made. The changes will happen, as sellers we need to look at them and apply them to our business, and move on. And build bigger and better businesses because of the change.

If you are looking to sell online or are already selling online in a product niche or several product niches then you may be aware of Trade Magazines for your niche. Now some of you may be getting these already,while others think it is just not worth the time seeing if there is a magazine then applying to receive them on a monthly basis. I need you to think again, if you are into online selling to make money either full or part time then you need a subscription to a trade magazine or several depending how many niches you are in or looking to go into.

Now some of the magazines are free of charge, and yes these free ones are normally high gloss thick magazines. But at times there will be charge and this can be for a few dollars right up to several hundred

dollars. This all depends on the niche you are in, and the type of retailer they are reaching.

So What Is In A Trade Magazine ?

Before I start I would like to say a trade magazine or publication, can be a thick gloss magazine or it can be a thin photo-copied newsletter and even at times an e -mail, plus it can be  mixture of them all. The publication can come out daily, weekly, monthly or every year, again this will depend on the niche you are in.

Within the trade publication you will find facts about products that are selling well, products that are not selling and also products companies are about to discontinue. Now have your product sourcing hat on here as you read this section, if you see a product line that sells well and is about to be discontinued, buy some, hang on to them for a bit then sell them, and you should get some very good prices for them when you sell.

Quite often there will be sections on marketing, interviews with other retailers where they share their "Trade Secrets" with fellow traders. Very often there will be a section in the Trade Publication where manufacturers, wholesalers, and import agents tell people about new products they are bringing out and the dates they will be launched.

Now the wholesale section alone is worth the price of the magazine if you had to pay. Just think you working from home will have the same information as the buyers at Walmart, Sam’s Club, Macy’s, Harrods will have, you will be on the same level as them. For a product sourcing, and product knowledge you cannot beat have several Trade Magazines and emails once a month land on you desk.

If you do not already have a trade publication or do not know where to get hold of one, go over to Google and type in what niche you are in followed by +Trade Publication this should give you the trade magazines within your niche.

As an eBay Education Specialist I am asked time and time again, “what should I sell on eBay ?”, or another question is “How do I know this will sell?” Well there are some very simple methods.

1) Ask you Children and their friends if this is a product they would buy……. Children are always up on these things
2) Ask people at work – you can get a good felling if people say yes or no, but also ask them why.
3) Ask family and friends.
4) You can look online and look at Google.

Now while all those are good and very often I will use at least one of those, for if everyone says yes I almost have the answer to “What Should I Sell On eBay “. I would buy one and it all fails at least you know you will get your money back or just make a small loss. But there is another way which can give you all the information you would ever need and then some. You would be able to see what is known as sell through rate………..

This is a % figure that tells you if a product is good or not, for instance is it says the sell through rate is 25 % then you would have a 1 in 4 chance of selling but if it say’s 100% you know for every item you put up for auction it will sell.You can see what the best day and time to list and finish an item, you can spy on what others are selling and how well their items are selling.Now the cheap way is to go into eBay, click on advanced search, the type in the item you want to search for and click on completed lists, very soon you get a listing back.Now click on sort from highest to lowest and look for all the green listing (this means they have sold), now you can click on on each listing and make a note.OK I can hear you say, Andrew I do not have the time for all this, Ok I know it takes time but would you rather take the time now than end up with boxes of item you cannot sell. But stop, take a deep breath, there is a way, there are software programs and websites out there that for a small fee will allow you to tap into their data-base (This data base is a direct feed from eBay) and from this data base it is all laid out into graphs, charts and listings. all you need to do is add the keyword, click a few buttons and within seconds you get all the information in front of you. If you use this information, you will be way ahead of others who just buy and sell blind or use the long way I mentioned earlier. And very soon your sales will go up and even better the items you list will be selling better as you now know what to list, on what day and what time. I have tried many of the programs and my currant favourite is Terapeak, they seem to know what they are doing, and lay out all the data from eBay in an easy to understand fashion.

Hope this answers your question to “What Should I Sell On eBay”

For sometime now I have been thinking about the name of my blog………. My Auction Empires. When I started out blogging my main focus was Auctions…… I did not think about the future, this was a big mistake.

Today I have renamed this blog My Online Empires as this name covers all the areas of earning money from and on the internet.

So a word of advice to my readers out there, when you buy a name or are thinking about the name for your business, please think long term and not just short term.

Have a great day.

Andrew Milburn and My Online Empires

How To find Out What Is Hot On The Net

Have you ever looked at listings on eBay or read some new report and thought to yourself if only I knew that was hot news, or how did they know that product was going to be hot ?

I guess most of us have over time thought this, and then we miss out again and again……………….. Well folks I have good news for you, from today onwards you will be able “How to find out what is hot on the net” and the cost nothing, yes you heard me nothing. Well no money but it will take you some time but if you master these tips and sites below you will always be able to Find Out What Is Hot On The Net, and act on it.

Also once you have mastered this How To find Out What Is Hot On The Net, you will be able to use it to get out of a market before you lose money on it.

Today I am going to give you the list then over the coming weeks I will take each one and show you how to use these no cost online tools.

1)     Google Trends   http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends

2)    Yahoo Buzz  http://buzz.yahoo.com

3)    Lycos 50  http://50.lycos.com

4) AOL Hot Searches  http://hotsearches.aol.com

5) Ask   http://about.ask.com/en/docs/iq/iq.shtm

6) Google News http://news.google.com/news?ned=us&topic=po

7)  eBay Pulse  http://pulse.ebay.com

8)  Amazon http://www.amazon.com/gp/new-releases

9) eBay what’s Hot   http://pages.ebay.com/sellercentral/whatshot.html

10) Google Zeitgeist    http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html

If you use each of the above links you will soon be able to Find Out What Is Hot On The Net.

Hope you find the above useful and if you know of any other sites please leave them in the comments or send me an email.

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

Multiple Income Streams

Today I want to talk why we need Multiple Income Streams coming into our businesses. If you look at any type of business either online or offline then 99.9% will have multiple income streams or some kind of multiple income built into it.

Now for that 00.1% that only has one product (product means service as well) they have a very special niche and for me, although they can charge top price etc, their business is not built on a solid platform, all you need is something to happen to that niche and the business is gone.

So what are Multiple Income Streams ?

Let us look at a few niches to find out -

GiftShop – This is the main niche, Now you can have loads of income streams coming into your giftshop. 1) You have the main Holidays – Easter, Christmas, Other Faiths Holidays where gifts and cards are given, now these are broken down into adult, children, old and young male and female.

Next you have things like Mother’s day, fathers day etc, etc,

Now each of those main niche’s have many different income streams – cards, gifts, paper, flowers, so if suddenly everyone stopped giving flowers on mother’s day the shop would still carry on because they had cards and other gifts, and hey after mother’s day there are hundred’s more days where flowers are given.

Another example of Multiple Income Streams.

This idea is more for the Information provider.

You start off with a blog post like this – this then moves into a report- now you sell them an ebook- which leads into a hardcopy of the book – which leads into a CD – which leads into DVD – which leads into teleseminar – which leads into seminar – which leads into private  coaching – which leads us back into an eBook part two and we then move through the system again.
And once you have done this one niche let us say Tattoo designs for girls between 18 -25, you move onto girls 26 – 3o , then men, then sufer girls etc etc, .

The above is just one small example of Multiple Income Streams with one idea.

Another point you can have your own products, Clickbank Products, affiliate Products, Joint Ventures all giving you different income streams in case one dries up on you.

Hope this helps you, any questions on Multiple Income Streams please leave a comment and I will help you all I can.

Andrew Milburn and My Auction Empires

With Skype you can make free calls over the Internet. Skype – the whole world can talk for free

We all like to save money and we all like to talk. But I can hear you saying yes but it costs money and even more money if they live abroad, and if you use the old method of using a telephone then yes it does. But I am going to tell you about away where you can chat and even see each other through video, and the cost Free. Yes I did say FREE.

Skype has many services and the best thing you can do is pop a long to their sites and take a look what is best for you.

For My Friends In The USA You Need The USA Skype Store

For My Friends In Europe Click Here

Hi,

I am sorry to say that I have to stop comments at the moment on my blog as I am getting loads of spam. I am looking at ways of brings this back, but until then I have stopped this.

Sorry
Andrew