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Browsing Posts in Education

Tips For Marketing Your Business Outside Of eBay

November 25, 2011 No comments

One of the questions I am asked time and time again is do I just need to put my listing up on eBay and will they do all the marketing. Well I am sorry to say “it depends”. Sorry if that was not the answer you were expecting but it does depend on what you are selling and in what section of eBay you are selling in.

Yes eBay will help you all they can with the promotion and marketing but at the end of the day you will need to drive traffic to your listings. Most of this can be done within eBay……………….using proper keywords, some basic SEO will go along way. And when you couple this with free delivery and a good picture you will go along way to getting traffic to your listings.

Now you can help this along by doing some reviews and guides and posting those on eBay. Both eBay and Google will pick these up and it can help with some extra traffic to the site. Moving along from that you can write some press releases, articles and send them out to sites online and offline.

And again how much you do will depend on the value of the items you are selling. If you are selling a one of £4.99 item then all the extra work might not be worth it. But if the item is worth thousands then some extra work will pay off. And if you have been asked to sell a large collection of items for someone famous then as much offline and online marketing as you can do will bring the viewers and from the viewers will come the buyers.

So weigh up what the item or items are worth and then spend some time if needed doing promotions off eBay. Also if you have an eBay shop you will need to spend sometime just promoting your eBay shop both online and offline, as you cannot and should not rely on eBay doing all the work.

Have fun and get out there and promote yourself and your business everyday both online and offline.

 

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What Is Failure In Business

November 15, 2011 No comments

The other day while talking with someone about selling on eBay and Amazon they asked me a question or was it more a statement. “I have got this idea for a business, but can we be sure it will not fail”. Well this got me thinking…….. What is failure in business ? This all depends on what you see as failure in business or life. But to be fair years ago I saw it as not achieving the goals you had set your self or losing money or worse your business and house. But as time went on I started to see it as something different.

So let’s look at this from some different angles. Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, but did it work the first time ? No of course not, it took him many tries and failures before he got what he wanted? Some would have seen him as a failure in business and life, but he saw each failure as a step nearer to the finished product. Abraham Lincoln failed in life and business not once but many times…………but each time he got up dusted himself down and learnt from the failures and moved on.

And if we look at business people all over the world, the ones who come up with new ideas and new products will have had more failures than successes. Some we hear about and others we don’t, but we do see is a finished product that would not have been there if they had not had the failures in life and business. Did Apple think one day iPhone……………………no it was a process and within that process many failures, but the finished product was fantastic. Take a look at Google each day the teams launch new ideas in the world of search some get thumbs up overs last a few months, while others come through. Do companies such as Google see these failures as failures, no they see them as a learning curve. Where did we go wrong and what can we learn to improve the product or idea.

The same goes for your online business if a product or idea does not take off or does not sell, please do not see this as a failure in business and give. Spend some time and ask questions such as what went wrong, why it went wrong. And then learn from these failures and apply what you have learnt and move on.

It is proven time and time again the more failures you have the stronger you will become, and yes you may have to go through a few dozen products to find the winner, but each time a product does nor sell you learn lessons and being in business is a journey. So please never look at failure in business as failure. Look at it as a learning curve, learn from these mistakes and failures and will become a stronger person and also have a strong and profitable business. So what is failure in business ? It is a stepping stone to finding that product or service that will sell.

 

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Meeting Those Goals

November 14, 2011 No comments

Take The Experts With You

Meeting Those Goals

We all know we should write down goals, but very often we write them down and then sit back and wait for something to happen. I am sorry to say by writing the goals down is not something magic, you will not wake up one morning and find all those goals completed by magic. But what you will find is that over time as long as you do something each day you will be meeting those goals time after time.

Time after time I am asked for a magic wand to help people meet those goals have taken time to write out, but when I ask them what steps they have taken today in meeting those goals, I very often get a blank stare and they often say well I have been too busy playing on Facebook. – Now before I get loads of emails Facebook is good for business but we need to use it in a proper way and if we do it will help you big time in meeting those goals you have set.

So let’s look at a quick example on meeting those goals. You have a goal of listing 300 items on eBay a month, now that is a lot of product, but if you know it is realistic for your lifestyle, lets break it down bit by bit. In fact 300 items is only 10 items a day, and if you say your eBay listing time is 5 hours a day, that is 2 items an hour. Yes simple, but by breaking them down bit by bit you will be meeting those goals day after day.

Also when you have met the bigger goal of 300 items in a month give yourself a treat. Maybe a walk or a meal out or Take Away. But as an incentive of meeting those goals put that reward in the goal sheet. For example “I have listed 300 items – reward a meal at your favourite place. And once you feel at home and meeting those goals each month, set yourself some higher ones, but please do over stretch yourself for this will not help you if you are unable to meet the goals each and every month. Yes your goals need to stretch you every time, but if you fail to reach them time after time, then you will soon give hope of ever meeting those goals.

Stay focused, write the goals down, break them into easy to reach chunks and very soon meeting those goals will happen and it will seem like it has happened by magic, but this is only because you have put the hard work in. Now go and start meeting those goals.

 

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Last Days For Posting

November 13, 2011 No comments

As we fast approach the busy selling time of online selling please can I encourage you to check out the last days for posting items out to your customers. It is a good idea to print of the dates for the different services that you use. Postal services and Carriers and then to mark them down on the calendar.

Also due to the fact that Christmas Day is on a Sunday this year we also have an extra delivery day as all the major companies will be delivering on the Saturday as well – but they and not leave it that late, and as you get into the week before Christmas it may be worth it to send items next day delivery etc.

Also some carriers even offer a Christmas Day Delivery but this is expensive and is only worth it for high end items.

Lastly in many parts of the word Christmas often means bad weather…………….please can I encourage you to look out different carriers in case one is unable to deliver an item.  At times if the weather lasts some time carriers get a back log and this does have a knock on effect. For example her e in Uk last year we had some real bad weather that lasted weeks and a well known online supplier was unable to get their orders out, this was due to bad weather, and their carrier having massive back logs of deliveries, but I was able to send orders out each day and have them arrive within a few days.

So do you have a plan if the weather is bad ?

 

 

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eBay Training UK

November 8, 2011 No comments

 

How would you like to turn those unwanted Cd’s into much needed cash, or that pile of baby items ?  Yes you can still today turn unwanted items into much needed cash, but it is a bit harder these days but with the right eBay Training, you can soon have your items listed and up for sale in no time at all.

eBay has grown over the years and this means there are many books, dvd’s out there showing and telling you how to sell on the platform. But while this eBay Training is good a lot of it is taught by people who have not sold on the platform, and while they can teach you the basics, they often miss some hints and tips as they are not in the site on a daily basis.

When you are looking for training or consulting you need to ask questions like.

  • How long they have sold on the platform
  • Do they sell and buy on a regular basis
  • Do they work full time in their eBay / ecommerce business

The above are some of the common questions you should ask. But more important you need to feel at ease with the person doing the training as often you will be sharing information with them about goals, passwords, and plans for the future.

Also with modern day computers you do not need to having training done face to face. I consult / train with people via :

  • Face to face
  • Will travel to your business
  • On computer
  • email
  • Skype
  • Phone
  • webinars

Also you should look for trainers and consulting who will tailor the package to you the student / client. For instance at all times I find out the clients needs and wants and then I will put forward some ideas and plans and then we take the steps needed.

If you are interested in having some eBay / Amazon / ecommerce training or consulting please get in touch with us and have a Free chat to see how we can help you take your business to the next level with the right eBay Training.

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Make Money From Nostalgia

November 3, 2011 No comments

 

Take The Experts With You

Make Money From Nostalgia

Did you know history sells, or to give it, it’s proper term Nostalgia sells day in and day out. Nostalgia sells for many reasons – people like to remember the good old days, they still own something that requires a part, and then you have TV and production companies who need and want items from days gone by on a regular basis. Lastly you have interior designers who need items for period houses, shops and offices and the list goes on and on.

Can you make a living from this nostalgia niche ? Well I would say it depends. You will need to get known for the person to come to when they need some gadget from the past (and I include clothing, food, sweets in this list too). Also to make a good living you will have to be able to source at the drop of a hat.

It is a fun business to be in, and because some of the items are hard to find you can almost name your price, but do not be too greedy or people will go else where. For example you may find someone asks you to find one of those old “trim phones” it takes you some time but you source one and add a fair profit, this could happen a few times, and then suddenly the person emails you and asks you to source 300 items for a film. Now if you had over charged they would have gone else where. Does this happen on sites such as eBay, yes it does. You often find directors and producers buying props on sites such as eBay.

When you are looking to go into this nostalgia niche think about :

  • Cameras
    Telephones – Trim phones, dial phones etc
    Clothing
    Sweets
    Cereals packets
    Food
    Magazines etc

And the list goes on and on, and if you are careful do your research very soon you may find TV companies paying you to travel the world to source items.  Can it happen, yes, but before it can you need to take that step into the wonderful world of Nostalgia.

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Understand Their Customer

October 30, 2011 No comments

 

Understanding their customer is one of the hardest and and also one of things you need to do if you want to have a success in marketing either online and offline. When I sit down with a client one of the first things I ask them is, have they ever sold or bought on eBay. Most say kind of. I then explain that they need  understand their customer before they can really make a success of their business.

You need to get into the mind set of your customer, what they look like, where they shop, what they like to eat, drink, wear. The types of music they like to listen to, and the list goes on and on.

Do they have a credit or debit card – if not you will find it very difficult to sell to them online, yes it can be done but you will struggle to make sales, as they will need a way to pay for the items.

The more you are able to understand your customer the more you will sell. For example it is a known fact that items sold at auction have a higher selling price on eBay if you finish in an evening at the weekend. This has been proven time after time.

You but some widgets and put them to finish on a Sunday evening at around 8pm, and your heart sinks when you notice no sales. But the main issue was the item you were selling was meant for a business, and these people were only online between 8am – 8pm Monday to Friday. You find this out, change your listings to finish between those times and your sales increase, and on further testing and understand the customer better you find the best time is at 1pm to sell these items. You change them again and your sales never look back.

As you learn more about your niche and what makes the people tick you will be able to find out more and more about your customers some may surprise you and others shock you, but if you apply these simple items into your eBay business you will see sales increase and other product lines will be brought to your attention.

So please take some time out and get to your customer, what they look like and what their buying habits are. Then you will be able to sell more to them and write better sales letters.

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List More And Sell More

October 10, 2011 No comments

 

List More And Sell More

 

 

It is very true, list more and you will sell more. I do not know if there is any scientific research behind this, but as you look at the successful sellers in sites such as eBay, Amazon and Etsy the ones who sell items on a daily basis are the ones who list items on a daily (or regular basis). But from time to time most sellers seem to drift away from the listing process, sometimes there are real reason why we have not listed, but then there are just times when we find watching TV or just being plain lazy the reason for not listing.list more

The challenge is the times we do not list we soon see our sales slow down and in the worst cases sales stop, and then we start to blame eBay, Amazon and Etsy, and when we have done with that it is the product, Google, now while these could be a small percentage of the problem the underlying fact is we have stopped listing on a daily basis.

Each one of us runs our online businesses in a different way. Some of us have more time to run it while others only have a few hours a day to devote to running the business. But what ever time we have, we need to schedule into our To Do List and diaries a time to List, and then we will see the sales starting to come in and money flowing into our bank accounts.

How To List More

 

Myself and others have written blog posts and Facebook posts with hints and tips on how to have process that enables you to list more items in a short period of time and even if you have full time staff working for you some of the processes will help you generate more sales and increase your turnover of both money and stock. (And as a side note, it is quite important to have a good turn over of stock as this will help get people coming back to your shop time after time).

A method I have found that works well and one I teach students is :

  • Take all your photo’s for the week in one go : This will allow you to spend time taking the photo’s for the week and once you have taken them spend some time cropping them where needed and any other work on them. But an important thing is call them something that you will remember and if possible call the photo what the item is.
  • Next write up the titles and descriptions : You do this for each item in either a text file or word file, spend some time doing this, and also add the weight and cost of postage of each of the items.
  • You are ready : Because you have done all the hard work above it can be as quick as cutting and pasting the different parts of the listing into eBay and Etsy. (Amazon is even quicker).

Please try and not do each item on it’s own, this will take you a lot longer and very soon you will become very board and will be putting off doing any listings………….listings should be fun, as they bring you the money in.

In closing set yourself some listing goals. Let’s say you want 90 new items a month in your shop or store. This may sound a massive number, but it is only 3 listings a day. Three a day is a figure most people can cope with, and once you have reached this goal there is no reason why you cannot set a higher one such as 5 a day then 7 a day and so on. Have loads of fun List More and Sell More and soon you will be smiling.

 

 

 

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How To Have Your Own Product

October 6, 2011 No comments

How To Have Your Own Product

 

For many people selling online their dream is to have their own product that they have thought about and dreamed about for months and maybe even years, but there are things that are always stopping them take that leap of faith.

  • Cost
  • Resources
  • Time
  • What If…………………

But today I would like you to put all those thoughts to one side, get rid of them and through them out the window. I want to tell you, that you can have your own product on sale not in a few months time, but in a matter of days and if you have some resources you can have your very own product range on sale in a matter of hours, and for very little cost.

Now before I start, I want to make it clear this will not be something earth shattering, it is not complex, but at the end of the day you will something that you have designed and invented your very self.

How To Make Your Own Gift Basket Product

 

First out of the block is having your own gift basket product range. Let’s say you sell skin care items, why not mix and match a few that go together – add some tissue paper to the bottom of a wicker basket, display the items on the tissue paper and then wrap the whole gift basket in cellophane and add a ribbon. Straight away you have added extra value. Let’s say the four items of skin care would normally retail for £5.00 each by making them into a set, you have added extra value, but by putting them into a gift basket and making it look pretty you could retail this for say £30.00. And that extra £10.00 will cover the little extras you used.

Think out side the box – you can do baby gift baskets, men’s, sweet’s, Christmas and the list just goes on and on. Spend some time brain storming ideas and see what you can come up with and watch the money roll in.

How To Make Your Own Bundle Product

 

This is another take on the gift basket idea. A bit simpler, but  you are still adding value to a product and something you can call your own. For example let’s say you sell children’s colouring books on their own they are quite cheap. But if you add some colouring pencils and a case, you have added extra value to all three items and this means you can sell at a higher cost.

Again thinking along the lines of a children’s colouring book, why not make your own up. This sounds hard, but all you need are some Public Domain (And they must be Public domain) line drawings, and make up packs for children and parents. Think Holiday Packs, Animal Packs, Nature Packs, the sky again is the limit. These are low cost packs to make but can bring in repeat orders time after time.

I hope the above few ideas have started to help you think outside the box and shows how quickly you can have your own product out on sale on sites such as eBay and Amazon. We will have other ideas and thoughts for you on How To Make Your Own Product another time, but for now go and have a go and see some money come into your accounts. Have Fun

Andrew Milburn Is An eBay Consultant

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Can You Still Make A Profit Selling On eBay ?

September 26, 2011 2 comments

 

Can You Still Make a Profit Selling on eBay?

 

A very good question I get time after time, by clients and people just asking in general is “Can You Still Make A Profit Selling On eBay”. I take a deep breathe and say yes of course. But I do go and and explain that of course it is not as simple as it was all those years ago when eBay first started out. I also tell them they need to plan and prepare and do research, but if they follow through on everything they eBay - My Auction Empires too can be making money day in and day out on sites such as eBay. Then I ask them another question……………is eBay for them and the products that they are looking to be selling.  At this point I often get funny looks and go on to explain that there are now many other sites out there, that could be better for the products and items that they are looking to sell, sites such as Etsy and Amazon could be better for them.

In today’s economic selling on platforms can be very profitable people are looking not only for bargains but they are also looking for products that are good buys and good value for money and will spend time research and looking on line and this means you do not always have to be the cheapest seller, but the seller offering the best items and the seller who gives the best customer service.

eBay still after all these years gets a massive amount of visitors each and every day. And these people have money they want to spend and eager to spend money with someone, and if you have written and worded the listing in the right way they could be spending their money with you. Over the coming weeks and months we will be going into far more detail on how to write a listing and how to design your eBay Shop so that people will come and spend their money with you and not someone else.

You will hear if you have not already heard that eBay charges fees, yes they do, and sorry I am going to be very hard here either get over it, or find another site where for very little money you can sell items 24 hours a day, 365 days a week, and I think you will find it very hard. The fees are tiny and when you are sourcing product you will need to factor them into your overall costs.

In closing eBay is a wonderful place to earn money either on a Part-Time or Full-Time basis, you can sell a few items or sell many thousand items from your eBay shop. You will have winner and you will have losers that is a fact of life and part of running a business. So in answer to the question Can you still make a profit selling on eBay ? The answer is a big yes.

Andrew Milburn Is An eBay Consultant Based In The Uk

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