If you asked someone a few years ago what Social Marketing was most people would look at you with a blank expression, while others would say something like marketing when you were out with friends.

But that all changed with the power of the internet and companies such as Myspace, Facebook, Google +  and Twitter. But to be honest there are dozens more out there. Some reaching for the mass market while other like Linkedin are more for the business person, Social Marketing or as it is also known Social Media is here to stay and is growing by the hour. You only need to look at companies such as Facebook and the 800,000,000 registered on the site,and the idea just started in a UNi dorm room by a few guys looking to make friends and as they say the rest is history.

As an eBay Consultant one of the questions is “Does Social Marketing”  work for my business, and in most cases I would say yes. There are a few instances where you need to tweak the use of it, but Social Marketing should be part of your overall marketing plan. But you do need to have a plan and not just put random posts up. Keep your social life and business life separate. Business people do not want to know what you got up to at the weekend – unless you are the brand of course, but in normal life keep it separate. Now by all means send your business links to your personal pages, but not the other way round.

Set your self a plan and then work your plan, but remember that when you are on these sites during your working day you are there for work and not fun. The main problem with these sites is you pop on and a few hours later, you are still there, having fun and no work done !!!!

Also you will need to use each site differently. The way you use and talk on Twitter will not work on Google +, and how you talk on Linkedin will not work on Facebook. Each platform has different users and they interact with each other and use different ways of communicating with users.

Get to know how these platforms work, find the platforms that work for you and your business, make a plan of action and then make Social Marketing work for you.

Every morning what is your habit as you turn your computer on what is the first thing you do ? Sales, email, Facebook, Farmville and the list goes on and on. Now while there is nothing wrong with those things, what does matter is the time it takes.

Your habits and your eBay business can make or break your business and the time you spend in it. For you see the issue with Facebook is it is not just a few minutes that will be spent on there and before you know it an hour has gone by as you look at what your friends are doing and building your farm. Oh dear it is now two hours into your working day.

Next emails, for some reason you like to re read some you have read before, and yes it is now lunch time and no real business done. I hope and pray your habits and your eBay business is not like that.

You need to set yourself time limits……….yes answer emails but once the morning ones have been dealt with close the email down. For a few days this will seem strange, then it will soon be a habit. Check the email at lunchtime and then late afternoon, and maybe just before bed. But that is it. Filter as much as possible.

Facebook do your business market then close it down till your business is done and in your private time play on Farmville chat with mates, again it will feel strange but habits are heard to break but once you have achieved it you will feel so much better.

If you sell on eBay thats all you want to do, all your sales are in the eBay window so no need to check your email. You need to think like you worked for someone. Would your boss allow you to chat to friends all day long and ignore customers no. You are your own boss.

Try this for 30 days and see what a difference it makes in your business and also your life.

How well do you know your numbers ? If I was to stop you in the street and asked you for your eBay numbers could you give them to me without much thought, I would help you could but sadly not many people in offline and on line businesses can do this and when we get to selling on eBay people often do not bother.

it does not matter if you are clearing a few items out of your home or buying items to resell you need to know your basic numbers. If you get the basics wrong at the end of the month or year you might find you have been running your eBay business at a loss. Just imagine you thought you were making say £1.00 profit on each item and you were selling 10 a day, when in fact you were only making –£..50 per item over time it will be a massive loss.

Keep track of the cost of postage and packing items, and always be on the lookout for new sources for bubble wrap, boxes, jiffy bags. Again it may sound silly when you talk about a few pence on each box but again if you are sending out many items in a day or week it soon adds up.

I know it sounds like extra work, but if you know your numbers, and keep a regular check on them then you will be on top of your business, and the extra time it takes will over the years you are trading help you make more and more money. Spend some time each day and get to know your numbers and you will not regret it.

In the early days you can keep check of these numbers with paper and pen or a basic spreadsheet, but as you grow you can buy special programs or you can even get custom made software that is designed for your business. But whatever you do, start today and get to know those numbers and help your business stay on track.

Andrew Milburn Is An eBay Consultant. If You Need Help With Your eBay Business Send An Email Toinfo@MyAuctionEmpires.com
Or Phone 07582 889 050

Starting an eBay business is no different from starting any other business and as an eBay consultant I try and help my clients understand the process in an easy to understand way. Other the years I have found 5 simple steps that if followed help clients on their way to starting an eBay business.

Step 1 – Learn how eBay works, you can learn this from books, from eBay trainers and consultants, and you can learn a lot by just looking at the eBay site and the help sections on the site. But to understand how eBay works and learn all about starting an eBay business you need to learn as much as you can about the site and the way it works.

Step 2 – Research, Research and Research. If you grasp hold of the fact the research is a main part of starting a business on eBay, you will go along way and you will make more money time and time again. I am not saying you will always pick winners, but once you understand how to research items to sell and buy on eBay will will stand a better chance of making a profit.

Step 3 – Products, once you have found a product that sells on a regular basis, do not just sit there always be on the look out for new products to sell. These can be in the same niche, or they can be a different one, the main thing is always be sourcing new products and product lines. Then when one product stops selling for whatever reason you will have other products to keep you going.

Step 4 – write good product descriptions and take good photo’s. When I am training some when they are starting a business on eBay, this is another cornerstone I teach them. product descriptions and pictures will make or break a business. Get this wrong and your sales will be poor or not happen at all. Sorry to be blunt on this but ask any seller on eBay.

Step 5 – When you are starting a business on eBay you will make mistakes, please do not let this put you off. learn by these mistakes and let them make you into a stronger person and by this you will have a strong business that will be here for a long time to come and growing month by month.

I hope this short article on starting a business on eBay has got you thing, and if you do need to speak to some one, I am always willing to talk with people and see how I can help you grow your dream of starting a business on eBay

Today we are going to talk about something as eBay sellers we need to do but there are times when we just do not do it and sit back and then cry and moan when our sales do not happen. Of course I am talking about promoting your business.

As sellers we need to be thinking and promoting 24/7. It needs to be in our minds all the time. Now I am not talking about being boring and the person everyone avoids at parties. That is the last thing you want to be as a seller, you need to be the life and sole of any party or gathering you are. So how do you promote your eBay shop ?

• Flyers
• Word of Mouth
• Name and URL on Clothing
• Cards in Newsagents
• Magnet signs on Car
• Stand in Shopping Centre
• Direct Mail
• Talking to Groups
• Facebook
• Forums
• Twitter
• Blogs
• And the list goes on and on

As I have mentioned before come up with a plan and then follow the plan through. Each day do two action steps one off line and then one online to promote and market your business and very soon you will have a steady stream of people coming to your eBay shop and of course some of those people will turn into customers.

But remember to Promote your business you must do small action steps each day of the week, and if you do you will have all the visitors you ever want or need

As we were growing up and in school we were always told not to copy other people and if we did we got into serious trouble not just at school but also when we got home. Then as we grew up we often carried this thought into all areas of our lives, business and personal. But today I want you to through this thought out the window and take another look and re-visit the idea of copying other people and businesses.

When we sell online and on sites such as eBay, we can brainstorm and spend weeks and often months looking for that brand new product or service that no one has heard or seen before, now while there is nothing wrong in this concept and I would also suggest we are on the lookout for the next big seller there is another way, that often people miss use or just pass on over as it seems so easy.

Before we get into the main part of the article I want to say what this process is not. It is NOT copying someone title word for word, nor is taking their pictures and listings and using their wording and lastly it is NOT using layout to the letter. So, now we got that out the way let’s take a closer look at what I am talking about.

While you are searching eBay for a new product or product range you use research tools such as eBay pulse (eBay pulse shows a snap shot of what is hot right now in each category and is updated on a very very regular basis.), you come across some hot sellers in say the baby category. After further research you find these items are fast sellers and sell multiple times a day and there are dozen of sellers all selling these items. This tells you this item sells.

Now you can either jump on the band wagon, source the same brand name item and join them, and make some money. But let’s look at this copy cat idea a bit deeper………go onto a site such as Alibaba and source some non-branded product that is the same it just does not have the brand name on it. Very often this allows you to buy at a cheaper rate. Here you have copied the idea, but gone with a non-branded name.

Next take a look at the keywords they use, number of pictures and types of pictures they use, then using your own layout and titles and descriptions start to list the products and then watch the products sell.

As I mentioned at the start this is not about taking the listing and product and copying it word for word, no it is about copying the idea and then putting your own slant and touch to it.

Andrew Milburn is an eBay Consultant based in Lichfield Staffordshire, for further details please phone 07582 889 050

In the second part of this mini series Do Something Every Day, I want to cover something that may seem very basic, but if we want to be successful with our eBay business then we need to take steps to learn how to do the basics to improve our business. Now before we get into the main parts of the article I do want to say there are times and places where I do suggest you need to out source some parts of your business, but for today I just want to cover some basics that you can learn.

So why do you need to learn new things everyday…….well by learning about ourselves and our business and finding out new ways of doing some aspects of our business, then we can move on and reach our goals. And as I mentioned before if HTML scares you to death…….fine out source the website design to someone who knows coding, but I do suggest you learn the basics, for example how to add the image tags to a picture…….the reason being you will be using tags like these on a daily basis so if you need to out source this simple task then it will cost you money plus you will also have to wait for someone else.

Another thing is learning to buy domain names…….again if you have to rely on another person then you could loose that domain name. Just spend a little time on sites such as Godaddy.com and they have simple to follow videos on how to buy and register a domain name.

Just learn how to do the basics and out source those big projects. But you will find by allowing yourself time each day learning how to do some basics in your business then when you need to add a tag or buy a domain name, you will do it in your sleep.

But also take time out each day and spend it investing in you as a person and if you just spend 30 minutes each day investing in you as a person then over a year you will have input many hours into yourself and over time this will show in both your business and personal life.

Now go, and invest sometime each day improving your eBay, and other online businesses.

Happy Selling.

As an eBay and Amazon Consultant I am always being asked about Product Sourcing tips and ideas and how to find those items you can buy low and sell high. And before we get into the main part of this article that last part is the important bit, buying low and selling high.

You do not need fancy bits of kit to help with product sourcing nor do you need a degree while these may help at the end of the day you just need to remember buy low and sell high and if you follow that simple rule you are a good way there to make money week after week on eBay and Amazon.

Quick Product Sourcing Tips

Buy low and sell high – When you are out and about keep an eye open for shops and stores that are selling items off at a steep discount or buy 1 get one free. Here in the Uk I have seen some supermarkets even do buy 1 get 2 free. When you see the buy one get one free sale, remember you need to halve the retail price. For example let’s say it sells for £10.00, but because it is buy one get one free the cost is now only £5.00 each. Take a look and see what they are selling for on sites such as eBay and Amazon and see if there is profit to be made.

Recently I let a big opportunity pass through my fingers in our local shopping centre we had one of those discount stores that was closing down. I popped in whenever I was in town and spend some time doing some product sourcing, and from time to time I found bits and pieces I bought. Now this shop was in it’s last few days of being open and was the last in the chain of shops and they had all the stock in this one shop………………Lots of people and lots of rubbish stock this was stuff people had not bought from the past few weeks. But……………..there were 2 pallets of a well know make of maths sets.  I had a look on my phone and they retailed at £4.99 each on a regular basis plus shipping. 

The shop had them on sale for 25p each. Now I was thinking were these the real deal, it was something the shop would not normally sell. So I thought well I have got a £10.00 note in my pocket so bought 40 items and thought if they are not the same as ones I have seen on Amazon and eBay all I have lost is £10.00.

Anyway got home and listed them and yes they were the real deal and yes each one sold for £4.99 plus postage and packing. On Buy it Now and sold in hours. Next day went back with some more cash to buy a load and the shop had gone, the day I was there was the last day. 

So when you are out product sourcing there are times when you need to take that risk. If you see something when you are out and about I would suggest you spend what you can afford to loose when you are just starting out. Yes when you are product sourcing there will be times you get it wrong and when that happens keep the items as gifts or sell them at cost price.

Product sourcing is fun and over the coming weeks we will look at many different ways you can source products for your eBay and Amazon shops. Happy Product Sourcing

Andrew Milburn Is An eBay And Amazon Consultant Based In Lichfield Staffordshire.

Yes you read that right Christmas…………..What’s Next. I have not gone mad, honest. But in the retail market place and yes if you sell online you are in the retail trade then you always need to be thinking what’s the next trend, what’s the next season. What’s next should always be on your mind and in your business plan.

Although we are at the start of December, all your planning should have been done and dusted for the Christmas / Holiday selling season. So what should you be planning right now – Well this does depend on the niche you are selling in and also the lead times on the products you source and buy. But let’s look at this as a normal niche with no major lead times etc.

So what seasons should you be thinking about and marketing as soon as the Christmas Day Supper has been eaten. ?

Sorry it is too late for anything to do with New Years Eve – this should have been thought about along with Christmas. The top ones that I can think of straight away are -

• Valentines Day
• Mother’s Day (UK)
• Easter

A very popular question that I get asked is “eBay or Amazon” and yes once again I have to answer it depends. Regular readers will by know be used to me saying it depends, but as you learn more about the science of selling on platforms such as eBay and Amazon you will get to learn that it will depend which one you sell on, by the items you are product sourcing.

You see eBay as long as it is legal and allowed will allow you to sell most items on the platform no matter what the condition is as long as you are open and honest in the listing and the description. But Amazon on the other hand will only allow you to sell media items in any condition – again you need to be open and honest with people and tell the condition the item is in. But other items have to be either new or in same cases if it is a collectable item (signed item) then you way be allowed to sell older items on Amazon. But for items other than media it is best to source new items only.

Also prices will vary from the different platforms and as you get used to sourcing and selling you will soon get to know what sells best on the different eCommerce platforms such as eBay and Amazon (and please remember there are many others out there, for example Etsy is suitable if you sell craft or antique items). This is due to the fact that the different platforms each have a different type of buyer. With their own likes and dislikes.

When you are looking at where you will be planning to sell remember that if the product is suitable why not list on both the eBay and the Amazon sites, by doing this you will be giving yourself better exposure for the items you will be selling as you will be appearing on both of the selling platforms. But if you do sell an item on both of the sites, please remember that if it sells on one to remove it from the other one straight away, without fail, if not you will be selling something you do not have.

Happy Selling