My Auction Empires

Today I spent some time looking around our local charity shops and around the market to see what items there were that could be bought at one price and sold on at another, higher price. When you buy and sell like this you are not looking for a massive profit (but at times you can make what is known as a Home Run – Where you buy for a few dollars and it ends up selling for a few hundred dollars).

The average profit is normally around the $5.00 dollar mark, now I can hear many of you saying that’s not worth getting out of bed for, well true but if you do this 3 times a day x 7 = an extra 105 a week. Now this is starting to look a bit better. Now lets look at the big picture a bit more say you are wanting to save for a new laptop all you need do is take the price of the laptop and divide it by the $5.00 and that will tell you how many items you need to find and sell.

Yes it is that easy. And if you plan your year out and note down when you will have expenses, say Christmas and a Holiday, if you plan and buy and sell right, you will never need to use a loan or credit card. The Beatles that famous pop group, one time one of their members wanted a new swimming pool, so instead of saying lets get a loan or use some of my money said “I need a pool, so I will write a new song”. Now we as sellers need to think that, we need this item, lets buy low and sell high.

You can start to use this idea for all the things you need in your life and very soon, that credit card will not be used, and you will begin to lead a debt free and stress free life. Yes it will take some time to get into the habit of, but it will be fun and a challenge.

Happy buying and selling.

Once you have got the bug of selling on places like eBay you are always looking for new ways of adding extra money or another income stream to your growing on line business. But sadly all too often things get in your way, and for a new start up or for some one brand new to business, money is often the next stumbling block, that stops you taking the next step. Well what if I told you there was away well what about five differents way (In fact far more than five, but I guess by the time you have read five there will be nothing stopping you.) And even better this part of your business can be started with almost zero money.

The business I am talking about is an eBay Trading Assistant. Once you have mastered the skills of selling your own items and for a few family members, why not sell for other people and get paid for doing it. So lets get started with five good reasons why you should start an eBay Trading Assistant business today.

1) This is one big reason why anyone who has the desire to sell more items by cannot do so because they lack the money to buy more stock. When you become a Trading Assistant you fill your eBay store with other peoples items and make a commission everytime you sell an item. But as you add more items to your store, a strange thing happens more people come and take a look, and with more people taking a look, guess what you sell more.

2) Most Trading Assistants charge a small commission every time they sell an item, and to be honest you can make a very good income just from this one fee. But there is nothing stopping you make other charges for photo’s. storage, extra work. But a word of warning please do not be greedy with the extra fee’s.

3) As a Trading Assistant you get added to the eBay Trading Assistant Directory. This not only brings you leads from people who are looking for a Trading Assistant, but also it can bring other buyers to your store who have money to spend.

4) Number four works in the same way as number three, when you start the buisness you want to submit a Press Release to your local papers, radio and TV stations. Again this will bring you new clients, but will also bring the buyers to your store. You will also want to submit a Press Release, when you get new items that are unique. This will bring massive traffic to your eBay Store.

5) The last reason in this section is to do with all the on line education and resources eBay provide you as Trading Assistants. This online training provides you some fantastic marketing and promotion skiils and will help you in other areas of your buisness and personal life.

As you can see from just these five items how becoming an eBay Trading Assistant not only helps your bank balance grow, but also can benefit you in many other ways.

Are you or do you know someone who raises money for charity ? Have you noticed that your fund raising income is lower than normal ? I guess the answer to those two questions will be a big yes. But did you know that there is help from one of the best known names in the world and has a presence in nealy every country.

The days are gone when you ran a fund raising auction and had just the few people in the room who lived in a nearby town or village. How would you like to place an auction and within a few minutes your item will be seen by millions of people around the world, and with the choice of saying anything between 10% to 100% can go to your chosen charity. Of course I am talking about eBay.

There are many different ways in which you can use eBay as a vichiel to sell items for charity. The best way is to sign up your charity for “Giving Works” if it is not already, as this means everything is kept above board and a record can be kept.

1) The first and easiest way is for someone who knows about eBay and has some spare time is for them to take on the job of doing the research and then listing and shipping the items out for members of the charity, but be warned this will take time, but the rewards for the charity will be well worth it. All that needs to be done is a letter go out to members asking for items that can be sold. These are items that would normally be sold at places like Garage sales, carboots etc.

2) Another way that is almost the same as the above is to collect a large amount of items from members, via newsletters, letters and word of mouth, and once you have a large amount, look for someone who runs a Trading Assistant Business and get them to do the work. The only downside of this is that they will take out a commission for their work. But the upside is that they know what they are doing and how to list to get good prices. Therefore the upside will far outway the downside.

3) Another way is where you can ask your members to donate brand new items and then get these items listed on eBay and you can use either the method of someone from the charity doing the listing or asking a Trading Assistant to do it.

4) Another way is when you stop and think outside the box, why not ask people to donate, write poems, short stories, recipies and get someone to compile them into a book either printed or ebook on cd format and sell that on eBay. Remember you will have people all over the world buying and supporting your charity.

5) The last way I want to tell you about today, is this. You are a charity based in New York, and the charity is basically a New York one, and all the support comes from local people, but you have supporters all over the world, but due to travel etc they cannot send items for auctions. Stop that was then we are now on eBay. Let us say there is someone in Australia who has family in New York who support the charity, they can now log into eBay Australia, list the item, click on the Giving Works button, look for the charity in New York click it, then state how much they want to give between 10 – 100%. Very easy and very simple, but at the same time very powerful.

Hope this has helped you think outside the box when you are looking for ways of using eBay.

Did you know that a good many people earn either a full time or part time business do so by working on line, and out of these people a high percentage do so by selling on that great site eBay. The eBay business is open to anyone no matter what age, what background you come from, or what money you have backing you.

But the one thing you will need to have is good customer service and without this you should stay off eBay or any ecommerce platform, as customer service will make or break you.The eBay business is one of the easiest ways of earning an income on line, and if you just follow a few steps you will be on your way to saying good bye to your boss and hello to that fantastic world of ecommerce selling.

Step One You need to get to know the site, and get a feel of how it works and runs, and there is no better way to do this than to become a customer and buy a few items that you need. by doing this you will get to know what your customers have to go through every time they buy from you. Click around the site, look at the different categories the site has the the sub-categories. You will be amazed to the any different areas there are. At this stage it is also a good idea to look at the different eBay countries there are just to see what these sites look like in case you want to be selling on there in the future.

Step Two You need to do some in depth study as to what you will be wanting to sell on the site. Attend some Trade Shows, read some trade magazines and newsletters, visit suppliers, feel and touch the stock. Also ask the weights of the items so you can work out what the postage charges will be. You can also at this stage look at the different carriers and options you have to send the items to the customer. Make up a file on your computer and keep this up to date.

Step Three Get all the paper work in to place that you will need to start and run your business. If you need to take professional advice do it early rather than later.

Step Four Set aside a place where you will be working. To start with it may be a bed room or the kitchen table, but make sure it is clean and tidy and do not make a mess as you will still be wanting to eat or sleep there. Set aside a set time when you will be working and keep to those times.

Step Five If you get stuck look around on the eBay site as they have a fantastic help section, site maps and a great forum where you can ask questions and soon get answers coming in to help you. The eBay forums are very friendly and very helpful.

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

I would guess as you are reading this article you are either interested in or already have an eBay or e-commerce business. You are doing this to make some part time or full time money to pay those bills. And even if you are not and are just doing this for a bit of fun, you should always go that extra mile in who you service and delivery the orders that you get online.

We are all humans and as humans we like to be treated with care, love and respect, this is just natural and when we do recieve this we talk to our friends and co-workers about it for days. For a minute I want you to stop and think about the last time you went to a shop and bought something. Did the cashout people pack your bags ? Ask how you were, give you a free gift ? Or you stopped in a hotel and each night you had a chocolate on the pillow. Now unless there was a promotion on they did not need to do this, and again I would guess when this happened you told many people. You see by this one person going the extra mile many people heard and came to that shop.

Ok I know you are sitting there and thinking yeah I can see that working for a shop, but how can I apply this extra mile principal in my on line store ? Well believe it or not there are many ways in which you can go that extra mile, and below I have just listed a few :

@ In your item listing you say you post second class, well leave it at that and send the item 1st class your customer will be happy.

@ Keep your customer up to date from the second they buy to the time you send the order out, this will impress them and keep them up to date with what is happening.

@ Include a small hand written note saying “Thank You” for the order. Customers will love this.

@ If you sell things like perfum etc, you may have boxes of samples, just add a few in with the order, this will not add to the shipping costs and may get you more orders.

@ Another way you can go that extra mile is someone buys something from you and email and say look I know it says you only ship on the day, but it is my daughters sweet 16 party at the weekend, please can you send the item out a bit sooner, and we will pay the extra. You email back and say it is Ok, the item has been sent straight away by 1st class and no extra cost. And in the box you include a sweet 16 card.

With all the above apart from time and a small cost, you have gone the extra mile and people will remember this and will buy from you time and time again and will tell all their mates and family why they should buy from you.

If you are just starting out or are a seasoned seller on sites such as eBay and Amazon, you are always on the look out of small, light weight items that are always in demand. The one product that always comes to every ones mind is the Dvd. These DVD’s are easy to store, do not take up much room, are light weight to post and once you have sold them, they just pop in a jiffy bag in seconds.

Now when you look at the DVD market it is always in high demand and as long as you get the price point correct then you are almost guaranteed a profit small or big, and if you find one of those hard to get DVDs that a few people want or need then you are on to a
winner. Before you rush off and start on your next fortune I do need to stop you and give you a few tips which I hope will keep you on the straight and narrow. Not a guarantee, but will try.

If you have done any research online you will have seen how profitable the DVD marketplace is, and it is because of this that the DVD market has also seen some of the bad guys enter it to make a quick fortune. But if you do follow these guide lines I hope you will stay safe and sound.

Do Not Trust Middleman

Now not trusting in middlemen applies to most businesses and buying wholesale items. I am not saying never buy from middlemen, but if you do be very careful and only do it if there is nothing else there. One of the reasons why you should stay away is the fact that you are paying higher prices than from a wholesaler. Thus reducing your profit lines.

Source From Trade Directories

You will be able to find a trade source (wholesalers) by subscribing to and reading trade industry magazines. Also pay a visit to your local library and take a look through trade directories, also again check online. But if you check online make sure they are a real company and not just wanting to take your money and run.Finding real and legitimate DVD wholesalers is very hard, spend time researching your market, make phone calls to these people, pay a visit and ask for trade price lists.With markets like this you need to look hard and once you find a supplier treat them well and do not mis-use them, they are like gold dust.

Selling DVD’s online can be a fun and profitable business but you need to do your home work and to take your time. Believe me it is worth it.

When you are happy and busy in your business, the marketing that you did every single day back when your business was new and customers very few seems not very important. You have all the business that you need. Stop right there, take a step back, and think what you have just said. Ok you may have all the business you can handle, but what if one or two of those clients vanished, and a few more cut down on their orders, how would you be now ?

Customers come and go, they are not loyal to you at all, at any given time they will go somewhere else if the offer or service is better. You do not own your customer and they are free to go where they want. You also need a steady flow of new enquiries, and new customers coming into your business on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. You will never, ever stop marketing from the day you start your business till the day you finish and close up shop. (And unless you market yourself and yor business daily you could end up closing your business sooner than you thought)

You need to set aside time each day to market you and your business, mark it on your calendar and set aside time each day when you do something to market and promote. Some days you will be able to spend an afternoon or a few hours on it, and other days just a few minutes, but if you commit to do something each and every day to market your business then you will have a steady flow of customers coming into your business.

@ Write an article, press release, or blog post. With this do not just promote your business but give some useful tips and hints that would be of use to a new customer. By offering this free information people will trust you when it comes to buying from you. Once you have done a few of these you can write an article and just by tweaking a few words here and there you can turn that article into a press release and a blog post.

@ Attend a business networking event, Chat with people, find out what they are doing and see how you can help them build a better business. By taking this approach you are helping them yes, but by doing this you in turn will build a bigger business for you.

@ Also thank a customer for their order, by a letter and in this letter ask them to recommend a few friends who you can contact.

@ Keep your website and blog up to date at all times.

@ Go to forums and boards on the internet where your customers hang out, and again do not sell but answer questions and be of help. Again they will trust you and when the time comes to buy, you have a good chance of getting the sale.

Hope those five tips will help you build and market your business. They are just a start and there are many more out there. Just market your business on a daily basis and you will see new business coming into your business on a regular basis.

How many times have you had an event in your diary or on your calender for many months. An up coming wedding, Holiday or Christmas, as you know you will be paying out quite a bit of money. But when the time comes, you either have to cut corners on the gifts or food and in worst cases not have that holiday you had been planning. Yes you could save money out of your monthly budget, but do we have that kind of money to set aside?

Some people may take out a loan or put it on the a card, while this works in the short time, that money has to be paid back and with interest. So what are the other options we have. Well one could be get another job, or a part-time job, but most people are too tired or have family commitments to look after. So what do we have left? Well one that has worked for people all over the world time and time again is selling on ecommerce sites such as eBay.

Selling on platforms can be worked along side your family and your work, and if done in the correct way can earn you a nice income which if you put some of the profits to one side will go along way to paying for that holiday or present. Remember you will need to re-invest some money each month back into your business to pay for expenses and for new stock. Also some will need to be put on one side for tax, but a large proportion can be put into a savings account for that special time.

A good formula which I have found has worked for me and many others is this.

* Source your items from where you want to
* Then spend a session taking the pictures and adding pictures to a file with names you will remember.
* Next time you will write up the descriptions for all the items in something like word, notepad etc, again make sure you name things that you will remember.
* Next time you will weigh the items and add this information to the descriptions, and make a note of the costings.
* Then you are ready to list like mad, by having done all the hard work in the last few days or evenings all you need to do is a cut and paste job.

It is a good idea to have this information saved on a flash drive and Google Docs, this will let you list where ever you are by a computer you are allowed to use. Also set yourself some listing targets. For some people 3 a day works well, over a week it will give you 21 listings, while others could list 10 a day. You need to set this goal not too high it needs to be reachable by you each time.

Remember the more you list the more items there will be for people to see, and the more items there are to see, will mean more items will sell. Thus bringing you in money each and every day.

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.