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Browsing Posts tagged Andrew Milburn

Someone of you will have read the post I made on the 1st July 2008. Well yes I shall be doing general business updates and marketing tips and hints for business in general but not here.

I have started a new blog over at http://www.LinfordDirect.com the reason I have done this is for several reasons. But the main one is I want to keep my Linford Direct Blog aimed more at the offline business world and those just starting out on the online world.

By building up my readers over there at Linford Direct, I can then drive traffic to this blog as and when I talk about eBay etc. And also I can drive traffic from here to my other blog when people want to learn about offline marketing.

The blog here will be kept for ebay, Amazon, Affiliate and online marketing.

Hope that is fine.

Happy eBaying

Andrew Milburn

Can you really believe it? I am back with another idea for you to source products. If you are a true eBayer, or online seller, then Product Sourcing will need to be in your blood. You will after a time find yourself in the Product Sourcing mindset every time you go out. This is for all things, going to gym, taking children to school, out for a meal, and dare I say even on holiday.

You will need to buy yourself a small note book so that you can write down things like what you saw, where you saw it, the shop, and costings. This will help jog your memory when you get back to your “office”.

Well onto this Product Sourcing Tip. When you go away on holiday, I want you to take your nore book with. Oh No I can hear you say, I want to get away from work. Well yes you can, but please remember you are your own boss and responsible for your business, so if you are not looking out for new products and ideas for your business then no one else will.

Now when you are away on holiday either in the UK or abroad you will be surrounded by hundreds if not thousands of new product sourcing ideas. Some of the items you see will be unique to the area you are in, and who knows you could even become their sole online retailer, and think then of the money you could make, and if it is abroad you could even make business trips on a regular basis.

So please do not switch off totally when away, also keep your product sourcing radar up and on.

Happy eBaying

Andrew Milburn

I have not mentioned this site for sometime, but if you are really serious about taking that next step and learning more about eBay and other methods of online selling and how to drive that all important web traffic to your site, then you need OSI Rock Stars. OSI Rock Stars is the brain child of Janelle Elms. Janelle has an insight into e-retailing that is out of this world.

Janelle and the team at OSI Rock Stars are not affraid to think outside the box, and this shows in the great ways they come up with the ideas to draw traffic to their sites.

f you do decided to join OSI Rock Stars you will learn things about :

Blogging
Video
Article Marketing
Squidoo
Networking
ETC, ETC

There is now well over 100 hours of audio and visual training, with much more being added on a regular basis. And as well as this training by Janelle and her team, you have a very active forum, who are always willing and able to help you with the questions you may have.

So go on, and pop on over to OSI RockStars and take a look.

Happy eBaying

Andrew Milburn

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eBay Money Saving Tips – 1

 

Before I get into the meat of this article I would like to point out that I have researched the UK eBay site, but having looked around most of the other eBay sites most have the same fee structure.

Did you know if you start your auction off at lets say 0.99p instead of £1.00 you save yourself 0.05p a time.

If you start off at £4.99 instead of £5.00 you save a massive 0.10p a time.

For a full list of eBay fees pop a long to the eBay fee site by clicking here.

Now you may think 0.05p and 0.10p is nothing and maybe it is not but if you are listing 10 items a day at £5.00 you would pay £2.50.
Now reduce the start price to £4.99 and ten items will cost you £1.50, so you can see the savings that can be made by reducing the starting fees by 0.01p a time

Have fun and Happy eBaying

Andrew Milburn

 

 

In Love

I know In Love is a strange title for a business blog, but I have a reason. Today I was talking with a girl about product sourcing  and she asked me, do I have to love my product or can I sell anything.

To be honest this got me thinking for a bit, and to give me time I asked her to explain what she meant. (As an eBay Education Specialist knows that is a good idea to give you time to think)

Well she came back at me with “Well I love the clubbing scene can I sell products to it” So I went through the usual teaching. Is there a Market, have they got money, have they got a means to pay for the product, etc etc. And she answered yes to all. And when we looked online it backed up all she had said.

But I did warn her that at times being in Love can cloud your business judgement, and if you have fallen in Love with a niche or a product you could be selling well passed the time it can make you money.

Now this girl is one sharp cookie. She maybe only young, (she was doing a business course at the local college ) and you could see her thinking. She said Yeah see what you mean……So again being a bit naughty said see what………she said it is like love in real life. She explained that she could really fancy a lad at uni, and go out with him and fall in love, but soon the lad starts cheating on her , but she is madly in love and cannot see it, even though all her mates are telling her. And it takes her some weeks before the penny drops that he is bad for her. And during that time her energy has beed drained etc.

I said well yes, at times we can all sell a product that we love, and at times have problems dropping it, but if we enter a market with a product like that we must be prepared to drop it or else the product we are in love with will drain our business.

Now a question I would like to ask you all and please leave loads of comments for and againist.

Can we sell a product we don’t love , don’t have feelings for and really market it to it full potential?

Andrew Milburn / AndyUk

This Thursday, May 29th when you list on eBay.Co.Uk using the Auction-style, Auction-with-Buy It Now or Buy It Now Only (Fixed Price) formats in eligible categories, insertion fees will be half price for each item you list.

So the more you list, the more you can save!

Final value fees and feature fees are not included in this promotion.

So come on and get listing

 Andrew Milburn 

 

Amazon Revisted

Hi,

This is just a quick update on the Amazon posts I did a little while ago. For those people who have gone ahead and done something well done, and for those who are still not yet decided there is still still plenty of time there is no rush at all.

I have done three posts on Amazon, I have listhem below or you can find them by clicking on the Amazon link to the right.

Part One           Part Two         Part Three

Now this update is for those who have listed items on Amazon and nothing as yet has happened, please do not worry. The Amazon site is like a bus or policeman……. For those who have no idea what I am on about we have a saying that goes there is never a bus or policeman around then all of a sudden you get one and then a few more turn up at the same time.

Now it is the same with Amazon, my sales have been low for sometime, this is my fault as I have not been listing, but I have around 50 items listed. I had no sales for two weeks then it went like this :

3 Sales Wednesday

2 Sales Friday

1 Sale Saturday

2 Sales today Sunday

Total Profit for the week from Amazon around £20.00. Not a lot, but these were mostly cheap paperback books, so I am quite happy, and that £20.00 is after all the postage and packing costs taken out.

 

Top Tips

Use These Top Tips and You Will Make Money.

Did you know there is a big void on eBay, between those who sell on eBay and those who make money on eBay? Sadly it is true and the gap grows bigger by the day. Below I have taken a look at the top sellers on eBay and made up the top Selling Tips list. I believe that if you use all these selling tips in your auctions and store you will have a successful eBay business.
1. Set A Low Starting Price – The first tip is that you should start all your auctions off with a low starting price. Either start at a price cheaper than you bought the item or at the cost price if you do not feel brave yet. Just think about real life auctions, the auction house starts off low and builds up. I myself have done this a few times with items I sell. For instance I sold a marketing course once. I started it off at $0.99 (now this course was worth money and a lot of money around $999.00) was I nervous, yes very, espically as it got to the last few hours and the auction was still very low, from what I can remember around $97.00. Then it went mad and finished off at around $1,000. So the motto is start low.

2. Why use Titles and Descriptions – Use all the words you can in your title and use describe words in your auction description. Although you use pictures, when you describe your item do it, as if the person cannot see the item. Use a bit of hype, but please do not lie to your customers.

3. Concise Information – When you describe your items just use enough words and sentences to sell. If your item is a cheaper item say $20.00 you do not need to go to town on the sales piece, but if you were selling a house or a $10,000 ring then yes you need to spend time on the sales letter.

4. Why You Should Use Good Pictures – Use a good camera. Place the object on a plain back ground. Use good lighting. (If possible take picture outside as this gives better pictures). Try and not use a flash. A picture is far better then words but still remember you need to use words as search engines cannot see pictures.

5. Always Sell Overseas.– If you wish to get more bidders and also a higher price for your item, also list your item as available for sales overseas. The only time you should not do this is if item is way to heavy to send or you are not allowed to export to that country.

6. Sell Your Items In the Right Place – Buyers always search for items by looking through the eBay categories, mainly because it is easy, but also because eBay makes it quicker for them to find what they what. So as a seller make sure you put your item in the right category. Another good tip here is to but your keyords not only in the title but also in the description. This gives you a better chance of being found and selling your item. Also list on more than category.

7.Keep away from mass markets – It is always a good idea not to sell where hundreds or thousands of other people are. Prices will always be low thus profits will always be low. Not good for you or your business. The only exception to this rule is if you can source the real product at a good price which means you can sell and make a good profit.

Commission Selling

Commission Selling is a quick way

to fill your store with stock…………

From time to time we have all said I just wish we had more stock to fill our shop and auctions with. But sometimes we just do not have the money to buy in stock to re-sell. At this point many people give up and just leave their shops partly full.

Well today I am going to share with two words. Commission Selling. Commission selling is where we go to a shop, a local wholesaler, Charity Shop and ask them how would they like to increase their turnover and profit, by doing very little work. Most places will say why yes, how can you help.

You explain how you will sell on eBay for them for a small commission of around 30%. – ( A side note here, the best places to go to first are those who have a high profit margin)

Once you have a place say yes we will give it a go, you get them to sign an some forms which covers both you and the shop. (You will either take the stock home or leave it in the shop), but you list it as normal, and when it sells you package it up and send it to the buyer. If the shop still has the item, take the paypal invoice to prove it has been sold, show it to the shop, package the item up and send it on it’s way.

Once the buyer is happy and has left feedback that they are happy, you send the payment to the shop via cheque or PayPal less your commission.

This is very simple and makes all sides happy.

Have Fun

Andrew Milburn

Product Sourcing Tips


Today I am just going to bring the last two post together. As I have said I do not have a tattoo or know about the market, so I was coming at it from a new persons point of view.

My last bit of research took me to using the phone and chatting to men and women who had Tattoos.

I phoned some of the local tattoo shops and also some of the ones in the larger cities and they all told me that prices go from around £50.00 upto several £1,000 if it was a compex tattoo.

Now the above fact told me that this market had money to spend – now this is very important when you are going into a Niche, you need to find out does this market have the cash to spend.

I also asked the shops if they took Credit or debit cards and they all said yes. – Again this is important for if you are selling online people need to have a means of paying you staright away.

The age bracket I spoke to was between 18/30. And they all said they liked Tattoo’s as art and it made them feel good. – Again they were buying and wanted to buy.

I explained to each person I spoke to I was doing research and nearly all of them were happy to help. Today while I was in town I was having some lunch and I saw two girls with lower Back tattoo’s and one had one on her lower leg. So I thought well could get a slap but went and I chatted to them. They were only to happy to help.

They also thought it was a cool idea to have somewhere to go to get pictures and they would go to a site like that because they want other bits done.

(And this is another point – this market loves their product and will buy – even when only a few people would ever see the end result, and am not joking the one tattoo the girl only her boyfriend or husband would ever get to see).

Also she explained although she had her lower leg done and lower back done there were plenty of other places that she could have done and all her mates had atleast two or three tattoo’s. So why not split designs up into : Lower Back, legs, arms, other bits.

Her mate had now gone back to work , but the other girl still chatted and said if I was going todo this product why not sell body jewellery, Crop tops and jeans so they could show off the art, and she went on and on.

So what am I saying well :

The Niche had a range of magazines and expensive ones at that.

The Niche had money to spare and spend on their Niche.

The Niche had a means of paying for their products.

Also there were other Niches that could be drilled into once they had bought. Such as Jewellery, Clothes.

Also the person who wanted the product did the buying – What do I mean. Well for example a child may want the latest computer game, but he does not have means to buy it, he has to ask a parent.

Well I hope you understood that. And that it has helped you.

And before anyone asks NO I am not going to go into the Tattoo Niche.

 

 

 

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