My Auction Empires

Can I set you a challenge ? We all know this song “Somewhere over the Rainbow”, but there is a line in the song “The dreams that you dare to dream , really do come true” This  week I dare you to take time out of your busy lives and spend some time dreaming. But there are a few rules.

@ Money is not an issue – if you want your dream bad enough you will find the money, or the money will find you.

@ No dream is too big or too small – you can have small dreams or you can have massive ones, each one is important

@ Do not limit your dream – you may think to your self, I am not that clever, or I would love to do that, but what will people say. Stop there……….. It is your dream, believe in yourself, and your dream will come true.

@ Careful who you share your dream with – be very careful who your share your dream with, sadly in the world there are dream stealers who would just love to take that dream from you.

That’s it just four simple rules.

In finishing here in the UK we have had a series where Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, choose a new Dorothy for his production of the Wizard of Oz each weekend for many weeks here on national TV, 3 judges and people at home voted who they thought was best and each week one girls dream was lost as she was sent home. At the final there were two girls left and one became the new Dorothy, and she had to sing the title song as the programme finished. And as she sang those few words ” The dreams dare to dream, will really come true” a smile came accross her face and you could see a small laugh – yes as a little girl she had dreamed one day she would be a West End star and that night the hard work and big dream really did come true.

Sadly I cannot find that clip as it is owned by the TV company  but I did find another version. Just sit back and as these four girls sing start to dream big dreams for your business and personal lives.

As I write this post it is almost 9pm here in the UK, and we still have clear skies and it is still very warm outside. In the distance you can hear children playing in the gardens and people mowing their lawns and having barbeque’s. Is summer here ? In a matter of days the Football World Cup will be on the TV, and following on from that we have Tennis. And in a matter of weeks children will be breaking up for their holidays.

Now you may be thinking what on earth has the above got to do with eBay and e-commerce. Well in one way it has got nothing at all to do with selling on line or off line, or eBay. But if we take a closer look it has everything to do with selling. While the sun is shining and the weather is hot, people are out side enjoying barbeque’s, spending time doing their gardens and going for long country walks. They are not interested in what is happening on the internet and when we couple that with these major sporting events on TV sales are well down, we just need to watch our timings of when we finish the auctions.

For instances if we normally decide to finish auctions at 9pm in the UK we should look at moving them to a 10pm finishing time. If you have several of the same item, try finishing them at say 8pm, 9pm, and 10pm and do a test. You could turn some of the auctions into Buy It Now’s, you just need to find what is more suitable for the niche you are selling in to. Something else you could try is finishing your auctions over a lunchtime period. You just need to test, test and test.

If most of your auctions and items are aimed at men you do need to make a note on your calander of all the times when England are playing, and do not have auctions finish during that time period while the match is on. You could try finishing them before the match or after – or even not have them finish on that day. Now I did say auctions aimed at men, but there a lot of women out there who love football, so just plan and do not loose out on sales, because you have 100 items finishing during an England match. (Please not while I am writing this from a UK angle, the format will work for every country who has major sporting events on, or who has a team in the World Cup).

In closing I just want to point out for those not into sport or gardens, now is a good time to be on the look out for some cheap items going on eBay. Cheap because they have not read, this article and are sitting there thinking – normally my item sells for £10.00, why today did it go for £0.99……………. Maybe because England were playing in their opening game, and there were only a few people bidding. Take care, and watch those times and keep a diary of all these major events around the world.

As in any business there are always hidden secrets that new people starting out do not know about, and very often the people who use them do not like to share them. Now often this is not because they are under handed, but because they had to learn the hard way back in the early days of eBay, and other ecommerce businesses. Now while I am talking about eBay in this article, a lot of the principles can be applied to any ecommerce business that has products you sell.

Research – Research, Research, Research. If there is one secret that you must always do is proper research. Sadly a lot of people think anything will sell on eBay, now this may have been true in the very early days, but not now, buyers are very savvy. You can do research on eBay using things like completed listings and if you see lots of green items – this means they have sold and they have sold for a good price that allows you to make a profit, then things could look good for you and the items you are wanting to sell. Also you can use special software that does the research for you and gives you stats telling what it sold for, when it sold, best days to list.

Keywords – You will have heard it before many times, and you will hear it hear again. Keywords do matter, and they matter because if you use the correct keywords in your listing then you will get people coming to look at your auctions. You need to use key rich titles, and also write key rich descriptions. Now a word of caution, only use keywords that apply to the item you are selling, if you do not then eBay will find you out and may take your auction down.

Learn To Sell – Although you may never see the buyer, you need to learn to sell. You need to learn how to write a good listing, what words to write, and how to write them

Customer Service – You need to offer good customer service. Respond to any emails people send you. Send out the products as soon as the item has sold. Package up the item in the correct way. You will want to make the buyer feel good, as soon as they see your package, even before they open it. Also think can I send a small free gift in the item.

About Me Page – You will need to make an About Me Page. This allow people looking at your listings to click on the About Me Page on your listings, and here you sell yourself.

Have you sold all the items in your home and sold everything not nailed down in your friends homes ? Well if you have the eBay bug I guess the answer maybe yes. So what next ? Well you could just close up shop and have a rest, but something tells me you enjoyed the extra money this new hobby has bought you in. Yes ?

Another way you can take this business is go to a local wholesaler or cash and carry and spend some money and buy some stock to resell. At the end of the day this is often the best way to go as you have the stock to hand, you can see it, touch it and you ship the items out every time an item sells. But if you work from home you may have limited space to store items and also you may be low on funds to buy stock. Do not worry there is another way. A way that allows you to carry thousands of items, you never touch these items, you do not ship them, all you do is promote, sell, and then send details of the buyer along with your buyers price. The difference between what you charge your buyer and the price you pay is your profit.

Of course I am talking about the wonderful world of Dropshipping. Drop shipping allow people to get started online from small or no costs upfront. Just while we are talking about this please be very careful if you see a dropshipper and they want to charge a lot of money to sell for them, normally stay away from these companies. Most drop shippers do not charge anything to set up an account.

So What Is Drop Shipping ?

You can do a search online for companies that offer the product you are interested in and on their site they will say they offer drop shipping. But another way is if you have found a product you want to sell and do not have the money to buy stock, pick up the phone and ask if they do drop shipping – they can only say no !!

@ You open an account with the company.

@ Most companies will send you on a disk or via email copies of images, product codes and your price and retail prices.

@ Also they will tell you how to order. Most will ask you once a day to email or process online the separate orders for each client. You enter their names, address, and products they have ordered. And when you have done all the orders, you make one payment.

@ The drop shipper will then package the items and send out the items with an invoice in your name, so the buyers do not know it has not come from you.

It is that simple. You can be drop shippers for many companies and just list all day long, sell and make some nice profits, without ever seeing the items. That is the beauty of being in the drop shipping business.

Marketing Your eBay Trading Assistant Business is not really that hard. It is the same as marketing any business but it does have some very good advantages that go with a brand name such as eBay, without the massive overheads of running a business such as McDonald’s etc. eBay is known throughout the world and in fact you only need to see those famous colours and the name eBay springs to mind.

To start with there are some very easy steps that you can start with straight away that will not cost you anything apart from a little time.

@ Make sure you mention you are a Trading Assistant on all your eBay listings.

@ You can put the fact that you are a Trading Assistant on your About Me Page.

@ If you have an eBay shop you can use one of your custom pages and mention the fact that you are a Trading Assistant.

@ Lastly in this section you can join the eBay Trading Assistant program and add your name into the directory.

The above four steps will start to get your name noticed and should start to bring you some calls or emails asking about your Trading Assistant Business.

Another way that you can use to market your eBay Trading Assistant Business is to have your own website or blog and promote this in your local area with postcards, business cards, press releases and word of mouth. Also with your website if you use good SEO very soon the spiders will be picking up your site.This will take some time to build and time to drive traffic to, but all the hard work and effort will pay off, with new clients finding you and using your services.

Lastly please do not forget the power of referrals and word of mouth marketing. Everyone you see and meet talk about your eBay Trading Assistant Business and how you can help them sell their items. And when you have worked with a client for sometime ask them for some referrals.

You are able to promote your Trading Assistant business through the use of flyer’s which you can push through your neighbours doors, put on notice boards. The same can be said for the use of business cards. Remember in all that you do, you are in business and your site, flyer’s, business cards need to reflect that. At the end of the day you are offer people a service and you are expecting them to leave or give their treasures to you, for you to sell for them. Look and act as a professional and soon you will have as much business as you want.

Today I was looking for a video to help set you up for the week, and I came across this one. I am part of a mentor group over at OSI Rock Stars and at the moment we are going through a great series on Marketing. This short video shows a simple way that can make a massive diiference in our customers lives, and from that make a massive difference in the life of our business.

Please watch and enjoy

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

As you look around the people you know who are successful at anything usually work very hard to achieve their goals. But did you know these people don’t just randomly work hard, nor do they just wake up one morning and the things they told you about the night before at a party have happened. No they have over a period of time set out and written a series of goals and plans – A Road Map For Their Success. The same can be said for all those top business people and sports people around the world, they start off with an idea and then set out a plan and a goal, and bit by bit they work their plan, and soon their goals become real and achievable 

The Difference between Goals and Plans

Goals and plans can be defined in many different ways, but the I think the best way to define them is like this. Goals are the end result that you want to have in your life or business, while plans are the process you need to go through to get to that goal. For example you might want to earn £50.00 a day, this is a goal. Now your plan would be, I need to sell X number of items a day to achieve that, and to sell X number I need to see X number of people.

How To Set Goals

In life we always need to have goals to aim for. It is best to write your goals down, so you can keep a check on how you are doing, but please do not get bogged down, by looking everyday at these goals. Set them, then set about the plan and work towards them and soon you will have met this goal, and ready to start on a new one. Also with goals it is best to have several, short term ones, medium ones, and then long term ones.

Make Those Plans

You can have as many goals as you like a few or books full, but unless you have a plan to reach those goals sadly those goals will fail. as they “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail”. On a piece of paper write out one of your goals, and then under it, make a list / plan on how you are going to meet that goal. What you need to do, what items you need, what help you need. Once you have done this start at step one, and take each step at a time.

Goals and Plans are your Map To Profits And A Better Life

If you have a life without Goals and Plans then your life will be very empty, and you will say “if only” or ” I wish I had done that”, but if you have goals and a plan for your life you will be able to achieve many great and wonderful things in your life. So today please set out the goals for your life, and then plan to reach those goals.

If you are looking for some more great tips and teaching on how to set out a “RoadMap For Success” then Janelle Elms of OSI Rock Stars has got a very comprehensive one over at OSI Rock Stars please go and take a look.

I guess many people have heard the saying “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear”. I for one can tell you that is true. All through my business and personal life, when I am ready for that next step or to have a push the right person always turns up. In my eBay and ecommerce business the same is very true. The right sites always turn up, a newsletter pops in my inbox or through the door.

Over the last few years a few “Teachers” have come into my life that have changed the way I think and look at my business and how I work my business. Today I want to tell you about one of these people. Her name is Janelle Elms.

Janelle is one of those people who can teach and really move you and your business to the next level, but also at the same time have loads of fun. Janelle can tell you off, and you never feel told off, you learn from the mistakes you make and in her own way Janelle shows you how and where you have gone wrong. Janelle Elms has toured with eBay University, appeared on many radio shows to talk about her passion of eBay and ecommerce.

Janelle’s latest project is OSI Rock Stars this is a membership site where people have a forum and they can ask questions and answer questions. This forum is broken down into different sections so it is easy to find and place questions and answers. The main other section is the education section. Here janelle and her team have well over 450 hours (yes 450 hours) of teachings that go from basic how to to complex teaching. But Janelle can make the most difficult subjects easy to understand.

One thing that makes OSI Rock Stars stand out is Janelle and her teach she uses to help her teach the subjects walk the talk. They are daily using the systems and sites they talk about, they are active in the business. This makes a massive difference and you can see and hear it when they teach.