10 Steps to Successful Selling on eBay.
So you want to be a successful seller with your own eBay business, do you?
Here's a simple, ten-step path to eBay enlightenment.
Step 1: Identify your market. Take a while to sit and watch for what sells and
what doesn't out of the items you're interested in. Any market research data you
can collect will be very useful to you later on. You'll probably see the 'sweet
spots' quite quickly - those one or two items that always seem to sell for a
good price.
Step 2: Watch the competition. Before you invest any money, see what the other
sellers in your category are up to, and what their strategies are. Pay special
attention to any flaws their auctions might have, because this is where you can
move in and beat them at their own game.
Step 3: Find a product: Get hold of a supplier for whatever it is you want to
sell, and see what the best rates you can get are - don't be afraid to ring
round quite a few to get the best deal. If the eBay prices you've seen are
higher than the supplier's, then you're set.
Step 4: Start small: Don't throw thousands at your idea straight away - get
started slowly, see what works and what doesn't, and learn as you go. Remember
that it's very cheap to try out even the craziest ideas on eBay, and who knows,
they might just work!
Step 5: Test and repeat. Keep trying different strategies until you find
something that works, and then don't be ashamed to keep doing it, again and
again. The chances are that you've just found a good niche.
Step 6: Work out a business plan: A business plan doesn't need to be anything
formal, just a few pages that outline the market opportunity you've spotted,
your strategy, strengths and weaknesses of the plan and a brief budget. This is
more for you than it is for anyone else.
Step 7: Invest and expand: This is the time to throw money at the problem. Buy
inventory, and start spending more time on your business. Set a goal number of
sales each week, increasing it each time.
Step 8: Make it official: Once you've made a few thousand dollars worth of
sales, you should really register yourself as a business. Don't worry, it's not
expensive or hard to do - a lawyer is the best person to help you through the
process.
Step 9: Automate: You'll probably find that you're writing the same things again
and again in emails or item descriptions. This is the time to give up on the
manual method and turn to automated software that can create listings for you,
and respond to completed auctions and payments with whatever message you
provide.
Step 10: Never give up: Even when it looks like it's all going wrong, don't stop
trying until you succeed. If you keep working at it then you'll almost always
find that you make a real breakthrough just when things are starting to look
desperate.
Once you get into the swing of things, you might start thinking that you should
quit your job and take up eBay selling part time. But it's not always as easy as
that - there are all sorts of factors that you need to consider. The next email
will weigh up the case for and against taking up eBay full-time.
