Yes, It's Absolutely True. I Made Over $25,000 on eBay in 1 month !
I Made $25,072.24 on eBay in just 1 month! This is completely true and I am going to show you how.
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Follow these simple and effective tips to attract more buyers and get the most cash for your items.
Find out What It's Worth: If you know what you want to sell, you can get information about the item such as the recent sales activity and price, appropriate listing category and key words, and examples of good descriptions. Simply do an Advanced Search on your item and click Completed Listings. If you want to find out what is selling on eBay, check out the eBay Pulse.
Determine Pricing and Listing Format: Many sellers that sell in an action-style listing format, find that setting a low opening bid with no reserve jumpstarts bidding and increases their final selling price. However, demand for the item must be high to generate multiple bids. Your research in step one will help you with this information. If you know the value of your item or have multiples of the same item, set a fixed price for a quick sale. Learn about how eBay displays items in search results.
Sign up for PayPal: PayPal enables you to accept online payments for your eBay items. Sellers must offer safe electronic payments to buyers on eBay, so sign up today - it's fast and free to sign up.
Maximize Your Item Title: Be sure to include key words that buyers will search for, unique or descriptive attributes, and always check your spelling. Your item title is critical in helping users find your items, so use each character wisely using descriptive key words.
Describe Your Item in Detail: A good description is concise, well organized, and easy to read. Create bold section headlines, bulleted lists, and be sure to include item style/type, brand, condition, and other attributes. When available in your category, use item specifics to help buyers find your item. Depending on category, item specifics include the condition of the item (new, used), size, color, brand, etc. Make sure to include your return policy and handling time, which is now required in every listing.
Include Photos: A picture really is worth a thousand words and your first one is free! Use clear, well-lit photos from a variety of angles to accurately showcase your item. Use good lighting and an uncluttered background to get the most out of your photo. Add additional photos to showcase details and unique features of your item. Upgrade to Picture Pack to take advantage of the zoom feature on item listings. Many categories and Premium and Anchor eBay Store subscribers get multiple free photos.
Include Reasonable Shipping Costs: Specifying reasonable shipping and handling costs in your listing is essential for smart selling. eBay's free Shipping Calculator provides real-time shipping costs to buyers all over the world, so you can increase your chances of success. Providing free shipping can give you an extra boost in search results ranking and sales.
Communicate: Always respond quickly to any buyer questions. Include extras or a handwritten note in the box to really surprise and delight your customers. Make sure to leave feedback for your buyer so they'll do the same for you.
Use My eBay to Track Sales: Your My eBay page is your own personal dashboard to track all your activity on eBay. Simply click My eBay on top of any eBay page to reveal the items you are selling, items that are sold, shipping addresses of your customers, messages from your prospective buyers and to manage your personal information and communication preferences.
Save a trip to the Post Office: The United States Postal Service® offers a variety of free shipping supplies, delivered directly to you within a few days. After the sale you can pay for and print shipping labels for UPS and USPS directly from My eBay. Pay for the shipping using PayPal and print the labels on your home printer. You can also schedule free carrier pick-up online and at no additional charge.
This is by no means a complete discussion on bidding. Ebay has a good help page and the Q/A board is tops for getting questions answered. Ebay uses a hidden proxy bidding system for standard auctions. This means that your bid is hidden from the public and Ebay's computer bids for you in your absence up to the maximum amount that you decided on when you placed your bid. The amount bid by proxy in your behalf is governed by how much your adversary bid and a pre established minimum increment. Theoretically, you could bid a million dollars on an auction item, but you will never pay more than the minimum increment it took to overtake your adversary.
Whenever it is you find yourself in a situation where it is not possible for you to Snipe an item, you stand the best chance of winning an auction by placing the absolute maximum bid you are willing to pay for an item. By bidding in this manner you are using the hidden proxy method as it was designed to be used. This maximum bid can be placed at anytime during the auction. If you come back later to find that you did not win the item, you can feel confident you didn't lose either. Somebody was just willing to pay more than you. If you are bidding on an item that has a bid placed by an anti Sniping bidder you can rest assured this bidder has bid high enough to protect themselves from your Snipe up to their absolute maximum they are willing to spend.
There is one small catch to using the hidden proxy system. It can cost you money! It can cost you money because when you bid early in the auction and become the high bidder, you stand an excellent chance of being bid bumped or worse, out bid! To prevent this from happening you Snipe the auction. (Details on the Sniping of an auction to follow). At a traditional auction house, the auction house uses an auctioneer to auction off the items. Ebay is not a traditional auction house as they are simply a go-between. The sellers are conducting their own auctions. This means every seller conducts their auctions just a little bit differently than the next. For this reason be sure you read any disclaimer posted by the seller. They do vary. If there is anything you don't like, don't bid. Check the Sellers Feedback! Those high scores and the star do not necessarily mean that things are fantastic. If you find some negatives but you still feel inclined on bidding, email the seller and ask about their side of the story. Most sellers that have been given negative feedback unfairly would be more than happy to tell their side.
Don't be fooled with very low start bids. Human nature what it is, very low starts is a sellers strategy to get you to commit to item early in the auction in hopes that as the auction wanes on you will show some resistance in letting it go. Always keep in mind shipping and insurance when you bid. This is especially true with lower priced items and heavy items. If shipping is a concern, always email the seller and ask for a shipping estimate. As long as you treat the quote as an estimate the seller shouldn't have a problem with helping you. Whatever you do, do not assume implied representations by the seller. Email the seller with any and all questions you may have or can think up if not covered in the item description. This is very important as it is not your eyes and hands examining the item you are thinking about bidding on. The more questions you ask the seller before bidding the better you are able to establish a true value as you perceive the value to be. Save all emails you receive from the seller until you decide not to bid or when the transaction between you and seller is complete. All emails between you and the seller are a legal record. Again, visit the Ebay Q/A board often. Lurk if you don't have anything to say. This is where you can feel Ebay's pulse, learn how to handle problems and pick up on many techniques.
Study the competition
Know your adversary. Most people have bidding patterns that can be readily discovered by doing history searches on Ebay. By using your adversary's email address you can search the last 30 days they have been bidding on Ebay. You can conduct this search on Ebay's search page. Get to know the seller. You can do this by studying the sellers sell history and emailing bidders if you have some concerns. If you find a seller that often lists items you like, bookmark the sellers auction history. As the seller posts new items you can use your bookmark to see what is new. Opportunist/Impulse bidders are the easiest to spot. The opportunist/impulse bidder generally bids on an item because the current bid at the time is low and you rarely see them come back for another bid. Although watch out because some bidders bid early just to bookmark the item with Ebay's daily status reports. Learn who the good Snipers are. If you find that so and so bidder always Snipes the same type of item you are after, discover their average Snipe time by studying their bid histories. If this Sniper wins items a lot give very serious thought focusing on beating this Snipers best average Snipe times. You never know what a Snipers maximum bid is but you do know how many seconds before auction end time they get their winning bids in. If you feel you are no match for a high caliber Sniper, give serious thought to Thunder Sniping the item and of course, bid all the money and forego Sniping.
When studying bidding histories be sure to read the item descriptions carefully. There will be obvious and not so obvious clues as to why some bidders stopped bidding. Besides the obvious damaged or imperfect item some possible reasons an item may not have gotten a higher bid is the lack of a graphic, a poor item description by the seller, low seller feedback or feedback with negative comments.
Some hold the view that you should never bid early in an auction because if you do you attract attention to the item. Others bid early to make an email bookmark or a bid history bookmark courtesy of Ebay's search engine. Personally I don't buy the attract attention theory. Bottom line is a good item is going to get sold on Ebay and it will be sold for top dollar. Bushwhackers never bid early as they do not want to give themselves up. If there was a reason not to bid early, this could be it as it is difficult if not impossible to establish bidding patterns on a Bushwhacker. Due to the nature of Ebay's proxy system and for the simple reason you know exactly what time an item is going to end, the general rule is you should bid very late in the auction. The only time you would not bid very late is if you were not going to be available for a Snipe. If you can't be present for the Snipe then bid your absolute maximum anytime during the auction. Cricket Jr has been designed to assist you in bidding in the last 15 to 20 seconds of an auction. You increase your odds of winning significantly if you bid in the final seconds of the auction in that if you take possession of the prize with your Snipe bid there isn't enough time left in the auction for an adversary to respond with a counter bid. The one exception would be another Sniper that sends in a Snipe later than you. This Sniper will beat you if their maximum bid is higher than yours. In the event of a tie, the early bidder wins. By bidding in the last seconds you can only lose if you did not bid high enough to take the item away from the current high bidder or another sniper submitted a higher bid just prior to or after your Snipe. By knowing who your adversaries are, you should also know how good they are at Sniping if they use this method.
You should bid the absolute max you are willing to pay for the item. If you do not do this then obviously you stand a chance of losing the item to another bidder that Snipes you. In the Doubles Command Control, there is a technique called Never Say Die. You can use this technique to send in a last second bid if things go awry and there is still some seconds on the clock. The key to the Snipe is high bid and last final seconds. Bid in odd dollars and odd cents. With regard to dollars people generally think in even $1 $5 and $10 increments. With regards to cents, 25¢, 50¢, 75¢ are the most common with 5¢ and 10¢ increments being the next most common. When bidding dollars try to use 3, 4, on the low side and 8, 9 on the high side. Use those same numbers with cents also. For example, 23¢, 48¢, 67¢.
Bid Bumping is just what it sounds. Bid Bumping is can be used to get a feel for how high a high bidder has gone toward the end of an auction. It can also be mean sport that only devilish people do. Using bid bumping to test the waters can save you time later by not having to come back and try to Snipe an item. For example, say the current bidder is at $30 for an item. You decide you are willing to go to $50 max. Bump the bid $5 to $10. If you take it, stop and come back prepared to Snipe. If you don't take it bid bump another $5 to $10. Bid bump to your max bid. If you still don't take the item, you do not have to worry about coming back later. Go find another prize to spend your time on. Bid Bumping for mean sport can be used to aggravate a bidder. If you do this, be careful as you could very well end up owning something you do not want. The Cricket Jr Cat 'n Mouse Technique uses Bid Bumping.
Used by sellers to auction small to large lots of items, the Dutch auction has a lot to offer a crafty bidder. Two important thing to always remember in the Dutch auction is that the date and time stamp your receive when you bid is much more important than in the standard auction. The second is, there is no proxy bid. Your maximum bid is made public. The following is by no means a complete discussion of the Dutch auction. Further information can be obtained by reading Ebay's FAQ.
3 rules
Rule 1: When developing a strategy to bid on a Dutch auction always remember to figure in the law of supply and demand. If demand exceeds supply, the price will go up. In the Dutch auction, if demand remains low, so will the price. This is true in all auctions but in the Dutch auction you can see this law in action more clearly. In a standard auction, stupidity and bidding wars alone can drive up a price! One exception would be wherein the seller has an unlimited supply and repeatedly lists the same auction. A seller strategy used here is to sell a lot of items for one price but the seller is using the auction format to achieve the goal.
Rule 2: Always do a search for more than one of the same Dutch auctions. Often times you can find the same item selling for less in another category. Sellers frequently list Dutch Auctions in multiple categories in addition to listing week in and week out.
Rule 3: Do a history search for completed auctions. You may find that an auction just closed recently and the seller did not sell all of his/her items. You may find that the items sold for less than any current identical items. Contact the seller and make an offer. Rule 2 also helps you establish what the end price may be for the current auction you are looking at. In a nutshell, the winners of the Dutch auction pay the lowest winning bid. Technically it doesn't matter how high you bid on a Dutch auction you will not pay more than the winning lowest bid. Confused? Ok, here are some examples:
Seller offers 10 widgets. This means there can only be 10 winning bids. The start bid is $5. All bidders bid for 1 widget. The auction just ended.
Bidder
Bid
Win
Pay
1
17.37
yes
11.45
2
15.00
yes
11.45
3
14.56
yes
11.45
4
12.00
yes
11.45
5
12.00
yes
11.45
6
12.00
yes
11.45
7
12.00
yes
11.45
8
11.75
yes
11.45
9
11.50
yes
11.45
10
11.45
yes
11.45
11
11.00
no
12
10.00
no
13
10.00
no
Bidders 1- 10 win as there are only 10 items available.
The lowest bid was $11.45 by bidder 10.00
Had you come and bid any amount above $11.45 you would have bumped bidder 10 out of the auction.
When demand is 100% each time a new bidder bids more than the lowest bidder the lowest bidder gets bumped.
So to win at a Dutch auction you have to be in the bubble. Notice that the start bid was $10 and bidder number 10 set the final price of the auction.
Bubbles
Some refer to the stack of high bidders as being in the bubble. So that we don't confuse terms we will refer to the bidders that are in reach of winning the auction as being in the bubble. In the table above, since there were only 10 items up for action there can be no more than 10 bids. That is bids, not bidders. A bidder can bid on more than one item. The object of the Dutch auction game is to not end up near the edge of the bubble then get pushed out of this bubble. In the event you get pushed out of the bubble you can go back and make a new bid just like in a standard auction. You can also reinforce your bid before you are pushed out of the bubble. Note: If you come back to place a brand new bid or if you decide to reinforce your bid, your personal date/time stamp will have changed. That means if you bid any amount that is the same as any others still remaining in the bubble, you no longer posses your original date/time position. In the event of a tie, winner is the senior bidder decided by the time stamp . Of course the smartest thing to do when demand is approaching or has already exceeded supply is to pull up young Cricket Jr. and SNIPE!
Generally you do not treat a Dutch auction much different than a standard auction. If demand is about to or has already exceeded supply in the Dutch auction, treat it like a standard auction, bid very late. Dutch auctions strategies are easier to form as all bids are exposed to the public whereas in the standard auction the bids are concealed until the end of the auction. There is one major exception that would indicate you do not need to Snipe in a Dutch auction. This is when the seller puts more items up for Dutch auction than can fill current demand. This happens all the time. These auctions will be obvious as quantities will be very high and the general response is low. You can back this up with a completed auction history searches for the same item.
When deciding to bid on a Dutch auction first determine how the law of supply and demand may fit the particular auction you are studying. If supply is high and demand is low you can probably safely just bid the minimum start bid and forget about snipers and bushwhackers.
Here are some strategies to use in this case. Look at the table above again (use your browser back button to come back) We will use this as the example auction to discuss some Dutch Auction strategies. You have done your research and there is just a day or so left in the auction.
1. Bid deep into the bubble. Using the auction scenario above bidding deep into the bubble means you would bid any amount just over $12. By doing this you would move into the number 4 spot. All bidders below you move down one step. Bidder 10 gets pushed out of the bubble. Bidder 9 goes into 10's spot and in this auction a new low price is set. For you to get pushed out of the bubble all those below you and any new bidders arriving on the scene would have to bid higher than you. In the typical Dutch Auction, that is a lot of bidding and unless the seller intentionally low balled the start bid on a high quality item, you are relatively safe. Another option is:
2. Don't mess around and become the King/Queen of the hill. Bid any amount higher than the bidder in the number 1 spot. It would take a pretty wild end of auction scuffle for you to get pushed out of the bubble. Or:
3. SNIPE it.
Test time!
There is one last thing to talk about with the Dutch auction. A lot of bidders are dealers. They bid in the hopes they will get something at a good enough price to resell it. Here is a surprise test for the resellers. Lets assume Seller is offering 25 key chains at a $1 start bid. You know you can sell all these key chains for $5.00. You begin to think strongly you should bid on all of them. It is five minutes to the end of the auction. The bidding scenario is this: There are 18 bidders. There is a high bid of $3 and the lowest bid is $1. Shipping will be $5 for the whole lot. You have decided to Snipe and of course because you use Cricket Jr your Snipe will win. What is the best strategy to take all or most of the key chains and what price are you going bid? This was a real auction I was asked to help develop a strategy for. The numbers are not exact but the principles are the same. Think it out and write down your answer. Below is the scenario.
There is really one objective. To Win! Bid as late as you dare. Bid sooo late in the auction that your adversary does not have time to get another bid in. Whether or not you bid early and then come in and Snipe late or whether you never bid early and always bushwhack is up to you as the jury is still out discussing the pros and cons. More often than not Sniping will save you money.
Stay tuned for more info on how to become a professional sniper...
1. Know the product. This is pretty simple in many cases, as some brand names and items are well-known, readily available and difficult to counterfeit. But as the economy becomes more global, more and more unscrupulous businesses market knock-offs. It is a safe bet that most of those will show up here at eBay. Do your research. There is hardly a product in the world that does not have at least one web site on the topic. Learn from those who care about the product, not just from those who are selling. Many specialty items - antiques, jewelry and other collectibles come to mind - have clubs who offer quality advice. Another pool of potentially good sources are other eBay guides. If it is an expensive item, check your local library. Make no assumptions about authenticity. Educate yourself.
2. Do not follow e-mail addresses that are included in the text section of postings. If the seller claims that is the only way to contact them, abandon ship and go no further. Send all the questions you have ONLY via the Ebay mail link (Ask Seller A Question). When you do send a message, ask about payment methods and shipping and such, not just about the item itself. If you don't like the options the seller gives for payment method, tell him what you would be willing to do. If he is real, he may try to accomodate you because he has the item and he wants to sell it.
3. Short duration sales may be suspicious. There are a few good reasons to sell quickly (such as a high-demand commodity item where there are many sellers and many items), but it may also be setting the stage for a hit-and-run seller. Scammers want to quickly hook their marks and then disappear into the ether; they do not want their postings to languish for for all to see. It is not a deal-breaker, but should be considered along with other potential red flags.
4. American laws do not apply anywhere but in America. The bad guys know that. So use great care, if you must proceed at all. Especially do not deal with anyone who is "temporarily" out of the country.
5. If the sale is supposedly in the United States, make sure the bid amount is in American dollars. Non-American currency values are printed in italics on Ebay, so they are easy to spot. It doesn't make much sense for a guy in Texas to convert your bid to Euros, does it?
6. What is the return policy, and how much do they charge for shipping? Don't be impressed by money-back guarentees and dirt-cheap shipping. If it is a scam, they aren't going to give your money back and they aren't going to ship anything.
7. Look at the seller's feedback. Carefully! Don't just look at an impressively large number and call it good. There is a ton of useful information here if you take the time to really investegate. If it is a stolen account, they are somebody else's points anyway. But you can learn a lot:
A. Has he bought or sold anything recently, and what was it? Accounts that have no recent activity are much more likely to be stolen accounts.
B. Is this auction consistent with items bought and sold in the past? If a buyer of $5 trinkets is suddenly selling a $4000 drum set, take note. It may be valid, but it is suspicious.
C. Is the item location the same for this sale as for his last sales? Does the location actually exist, or is it some fictional locale?
D. Are his accepted payment methods the same as his last sales? If he accepted PayPal before, why is he insisting on a wire transfer or cashier's check now?
E. The seller's positive feedback points for purchased items are not very useful to you as a buyer, so don't over-value them.
8. What else is the seller posting for sale at the time? Follow the link for Seller's Other Items. If they have a large number of unrelated big-ticket items currently for sale (musical instruments, computers, cameras, bicycles...) that is very suspicious.
9. Look at the photos. Are they just stock pictures from the company web site or are they apparently authentic photos of the item? Scammers can get pictures of anything from the web, including from other Ebay auctions. If you have seen the exact same photo in other auctions, be suspicious. Also, look at the backgrounds in the photos. Does it look like they just took their digital camera into a store and started clicking away?
10. Talk to the seller! How? Place as low a bid as possible on the item. Bidding gives you the right to view the seller's contact information. Go to this link, and paste in the seller's name and the item number. Ebay will e-mail his contact information to you.
If the phone number does not work, that is a major red flag. Use a phone number web-site or directory assistance to verify that the person's name, location and phone number make sense. Don't be afraid to ask very specific questions about the product and sale. If you have tried to contact the seller but cannot (and do give him time to respond), that is a valid reason to cancel your bid. While I am not a big fan of bid cancelling, I will not send my money to anyone who won't answer my phone calls or reply to my emails.
11. Is the item in the correct category? Another device scammers with use to hide their skulduggery is to post items in obscure places. Instead of searching the entire Ebay universe for your item, specify your category.
12. Payment method is a very big deal. C.O.D. is great if they will go with it. Escrow.com is good (though a little pricy), and the only escrow Ebay recommends. Some criminals set up bogus sites that sound and look like Escrow.com, but do not be fooled. DO NOT use any other escrow site. PayPal is good too, up to a point, but the sale does not qualify for their $2000 protection unless it specifies that on the posting. In that case, the best you can hope for is the $200 coverage extended by Ebay (minus a $25 service fee).
If you use PayPal, use your credit card rather than your own bank account. PayPal may try to persuade you to draw money directly from your bank account. Don't do it. Many credit card issuers will refund money stolen from you. It is not fail-safe, but it is another layer of protection. Never use Western Union for these transactions. Western Union's own web site will tell you that. Wire transfers and any kind of check is a one-way ticket to fraud.
13. Some second-chance offers are scam attempts, so be careful. If there is a hot-link on the page, take a look at the URL it points to when you roll your cursor over it. (The URL is usually displayed at the bottom of your web browser) There are fake Ebay and PayPal sites that attempt to steal your login information. If the URL does not start with "https:" it is not a secure site. Do NOT log in there!
14. Finally, do not wait until the last hour of the sale to get interested in it. If it is something you want, there is some homework for you to do. Give yourself the time to evaluate things and give the seller time to respond to your questions. Do not burn bridges, but do not allow yourself to be burned.
If you think a listing is bogus and want to report it to eBay, this link will get you where you need to go:
Finally, you are doing business with total strangers here, and don't forget it. Most people are decent and honest, but some aren't, and they can really mess up your day.
Exactly. And in addition to that the CD's also have what I like to call hidden jewels on them. They have affiliate links on them of course. And I make about one sale per week minimum from those affiliate links. I made one again today. I made one yesterday. Just from those CD's.
People are searching through, they find that link, the products are good, I screen them, and in most cases I use them myself, and I put an affiliate link on there and the next thing you know someone else is also using it. Secondary sales. I think I mentioned that in my newsletter.
What type of person would you say buys your CD?
There are those who buy it in order to start a business. There are those who buy it because it's got information on it on how to find people, and how to find information -- like spy software, and there are those who buy it because it's got games and fun stuff on it. It covers the whole gambit, it's just an absolute ton of information.
The thing that I'm selling my advertising on is "Making Money On eBay -- How profitable it can be, and here's how you do it". You can literally take my same CD and sell it as "Do you want to learn how to be an online spy?". And if you look there are other people selling "The Online Spy" -- it is the exact same software and it's the exact same CD in all likelihood.
So let's talk about the day-to-day running of your business, and for example let's take this CD of yours. How many copies of that do you sell -- do you list one a day, do Dutch auctions...?
Well what I do is I do a Dutch auction and I count up the number that I have remaining in stock and I place the Dutch auction for that number remaining. I do list it as if I'm completely, totally selling out, which there is a possibility because honestly if I see that too many people are selling it then I'm not longer going to sell that particular CD and move onto one of my others.
But I work at the Fire Department one day on, two days off, I time out my auctions where they always close when I'm off duty. Because I've found that if an auction closes people want instant gratification.
And that's another mistake that a lot of rookies make when they get on eBay ... they forget that people are paying hard earned money for something that is sight-unseen from someone who is sight unseen. It's a lot of trust involved.
And if you send an email to that person who you just sent your money to by PayPal and they don't respond right away you start getting nervous -- "Oh my gosh, did I just get taken?". So by being off duty and online, I can make certain that when they send that email I get it, and within a couple of minutes most of the time I can reply, makes them feel really comfortable, and once again you end up with a satisfied customer.
So for your Dutch auction, you start them all at 99 cents?
On the Dutch auctions they all sell at the exact same price, and if you look it's sort of strange how this CD is doing ... it sells for 1 penny and I charge $4.99 for the shipping, handling, and CD processing.
What I tell all the people I teach as far as eBay is concerned, as far as markup, you want to use the standard 42% markup minimum, you know make sure you cover all the advertising costs, that you cover your shipping, to make sure that it's worth your time and effort. For the CD processing, there's a company that I contract with, they make all of my CD's and they cost between -- depending on how much you buy they cost between $1 and $4 per CD. I'm able to buy so many now, that they cost on the low end of that.
So they make copies with all the software? Do they label it too?
They sure do. They have the label and the whole nine yards so that when the CD comes to me it's actually ready to ship. It's very, very professional. It's computer stamped, and they actually offered to do my logo on there and I said "that's too much". I really didn't want that.
They do an awesome job and they have extremely good quality control. I know when I shipped out my CD's everything that's supposed to be on there is on there, and accessible and the stuff that's not supposed to be on there isn't. They don't mark the CD with their marking's either which is another important factor. Because it's my product, not their's.
Exactly. So since you're selling them quite cheaply at $5, are you looking to make money through sheer quantity, or do you have a longer term plan?
Basically, in this particular case, it's only one of many items that I'm selling. I have 14 web sites online now. Of those 14, two of those are actually selling for me, and several of them are actually getting lots of traffic. My biggest money-maker of late besides eBay, has actually been hosting. I provide hosting services.
Which web address is that?
ULSO.com. That's my home site as a matter of fact. I pretty much base everything else from ULSO. And it's strange how things have worked out ... because it all happened in very little time ... I went from being an online internet novice to carrying lots of domains, several of which are doing quite well.
Gnuday gets around 20,000 hits per month. That's 20,000 quality hits, that's not trash hits, it is making sales. Both the eBooks that are on there sell and the CD's.
I would never ever tell anyone that it's easy to make money online, that would be an outright lie, it takes work, it takes effort, it takes knowledge, but once you figure out how to write an ad, and once you figure out how to get people to come to your sites, if you've got a quality product, and you back it up, people will buy it.
So let's take one of your sites Gnuday.com. When did you start the site ... how did you promote it, and how do you continue to promote it?
I actually started the site less than 6 months ago, believe it or not. Basically, the idea came to me as far as this site was concerned originally I was going to sell some of the things that I was selling on eBay, on that site. I ended up leaning much more towards informational products on it.
Once I started promoting the site, the first thing I'd do is set up metatags. And I make sure that I've got a really good description on there so the search engine spiders are going to be able to find it. I'm by far, nowhere near a search engine expert, but I can say that if you search for certain terms, my sites are on there. My sites are on Google and Yahoo. I do get hits from those search engines.
You're ranked quite high in them are you?
I honestly don't know how high, but I've had people who have emailed me and told me that they found me both through the search engines and I know if you search for certain names, I pop up.
Anyway, I start doing ezine advertising. Newsletters. Basically, I track the newsletter ads very, very closely so now I've got a nice list compiled of which newsletters are really good to run ads in and it's all logarithmic. Once you start getting hits to a site it seems like they never stop coming.
The hard part is getting it started in the first place. I haven't placed an ad for Auction Hints in six months or more, because I focused a lot of attention on Gnuday and Auction Hints still gets 8,000 hits per month. I have people signing up for my newsletter 3, 4, 5 per day every single day, and that's without one ad.
Now the next thing that I do also, and you're aware of this, I post answers in the forums. And in each case when I post an answer I make certain that I put a signature file at the end. It's a subtle advertisement. Hopefully the post that I put in there doesn't make it sound like I'm an idiot, it builds enough credibility that someone says "Hey, I'd like to see what this guy's site is all about".
Well, I have noticed that you're one of the more regular posters and your posts are really interesting. Because you share some of your business -- what's happened in your business, what's worked for you. So I think it interests a lot of people.
That could be because in addition to being a paramedic, I also am an instructor at a local community college and I think sometimes that that pops out in me as far as the activities that I take on, online.
Something that I hadn't mentioned up to this point, which just occurred to me, the person who wants to get started in eBay, they have absolutely no earthly idea how to get started, or what to do, I urge that they look around their own home, they have got to have something laying around they no longer use, they no longer want, they can turn that item or those items into cash.
And it's just a simple matter of looking on eBay to see if it's already selling, looking at the ad that is already selling it, getting an idea of how to write the ad, and sort of mimicking what others are doing.
Certainly not copying that but that is one thing that several of my family members have done. I talked them through what amounts to an online garage sale. And they sold all kinds of stuff. You name it: old golf clubs, collectables, coins, jewelry, the list goes on and on and on.
You mentioned earlier that you do a lot of hunting around for bargains and wholesalers. Is that an ongoing process?
It's a constant ongoing process. If you're not constantly looking for new stuff to sell, then you're going to end up being stagnant and you're going to get left behind.
That is probably the hardest thing to do. Even those people who have found their niche in online sales, are going to end up trying to constantly find new suppliers. Because the fact is you can always find a better price.
When I first started selling the software: I sold children's software specifically, for a long time and I found that I could get 10%, 20%, 30%, 40% savings simply by shopping and comparing. And not going constantly to the same supplier.
And so literally, what you find you end up doing is building what amounts to a list of suppliers and when you need an item or you see a market you contact those suppliers, find out the best that they can do, and then you go with the lowest price. It's a simple common sense approach.
And those suppliers, do they drop-ship, or do they send it to you?
Oh no, I stock it myself and most of the time what I do is any stock that's sitting on the shelf is gathering dust so the goal is to buy as limited amount as you possibly can. And still get a reasonable price. And then move it out fast.
Actually someone else I spoke with -- Jim Straw told me how he structures his drop-ship program, that people buy from him at 40% of the cost so you're basically getting a 60% discount. So let's say the product sells for $10, and you're buying it for $4, and you were selling it on eBay, what price would you choose to start at?
Actually I would have to research the particular item to see what price it would sell at. The reason that I don't do a lot of drop-shipping, actually I can honestly say I don't do any right now, is because of the fact that on eBay people are looking for bargains. And there's so little markup on most items that the little bit of profit that the drop-shipper is going to make, often wipes out the profit that you would have made.
And that's one of the frustrating things about eBay is that you do sort of have to plan on having an inventory at some point. But there are drop-shipping companies out there that you can make a little bit of money on.
I've sold "As Seen On TV" items for a short period of time. And those "As Seen On TV" items ended up doing fairly well. I could actually sell 10 - 20 items per week fairly easily. But the problem was all of the hard work that went into the advertising and the cost, I wasn't really making a whole lot because I had to pay the drop-shipper.
So you tend to look more for Wholesalers?
Exactly. I look more for wholesalers, honestly of late, the greatest bargains that I have found have been at garage sales and at flea markets. My wife and I went to a garage sale a couple of weeks ago just before Christmas. I found an old leather case filled with a travel bar. It had three glass bottles, a liquor shaker, a stirrer, and just all the makings for a travel bar.
It was circa 1970 and the jet-setters used to use them. The woman had a price tag on it of $25, I offered her $5 and she took it. I put it on eBay, and it sold for $46 and the guy paid $12 for the shipping.
That's an instant turnaround of anyway you look at it, by the time I pay for the ad and everything, my gas and my time, of around $40. That's one item. He's extremely satisfied. He's going to use it for parties -- he's a big Buffalo Bills fan and he's taking it to football games.
I love going to the flea market. And to the garage sales. As I said, if it looks old, and it looks like there's any value, chances are it is. You don't have to be an antique expert, if you look at it and you say to yourself "Wow, if I dust that off, take a couple of good photos of it, describe it well in an ad", chances are there's somebody out there in the world, which is literally who you're dealing with, with eBay, you're not dealing with just your local garage sale market, you're dealing with the world. Someone out there probably wants it.
As you say you ship stuff all over the world ... fragile stuff too?
As it happens the travel bar was fragile, with 3 glass bottles in it. That's a piece of cake, because you just wrap it up in newspaper ... I put it in a nice string box, and shipped it out to them priority mail, as per his request, and that's what he paid for.
And no harm. There was absolutely no damage. He even let me know it arrived safely. I shipped a camera just last week. An old collectable camera that actually my wife found in a box of her grandmother's belongings after her grandmother passed away.
This box became my wife's and I asked "What are you going to do with that?". She said "Nothing". And it sold for $50. And it was an old beat up camera. It even had the original receipt and the original box.
People love that kind of collectable item. So that's exactly how I presented the ad as a matter of fact ... I said that "This was made in a simpler time when camera's weren't digital".
Let's say for example you were writing your ad for that, where did you come up with the text? Did you use the documents that came with the camera?
I read some of the documents that came with the camera and took the model, and basically what I do is I've got a template of an ad that I use. What I do is I actually base my work on that template. I've found it's a nice clean template that other people actually -- you can easily apply this template to literally any ad, and as a matter of fact what I'm doing right this moment, I'm going to go and bring up that ad ... so that I can tell you exactly what I wrote on it ...
So the whole process of putting together an ad ... how long would you say it takes?
It used to take me somewhere around 2 to 3 hours minimum. Basically I'm very fortunate now because honestly I can bang out an ad probably in about 18 - 20 minutes. Because I have this template that I base the ad on.
And I'm actually looking at it, I'm looking at the leather bar one that I brought up ... okay it says "Travel bar, leather bar kit" and right below that I had a photo and then I put in a little catchy saying that I made up "This is one bar that never closes".
And then I put a description: "Circa mid to late 1960's, these were actually quite fashionable for the jet-setters to throw a party on the run. The kit is highly collectable and is in near mint condition inside and out."
Then there's a couple more photos that are close-ups of the inside, then I put a description of what was actually in the kit: "leather case, 3 glass bottles, a faux silver tray", faux is a wonderful word too "faux" - a faux silver tray ... AKA plastic. "Comes with complete instructions for some great drinks".
And then I put the terms of the purchase to let them know exactly what they're bidding on and exactly what they're going to pay for the shipping and I have my email address there. And that is the exact same template that I use on each and every ad that I write.
It's got a little place for what I would call the headline, right below that I'll put a nice photo of the item. Below that I'll have some kind of a phrase that sort of describes it or perhaps embellishes upon the photo, trying to add to it ... like if it's picture of jewelry, I'll say something to the effect of "You can actually see in this photo how much this wonderful piece shines" or something like that.
And then I would go into extreme description including all the way down to what's included so that the person knows exactly what they're bidding on, and then I always put the terms of purchase on the ad ... that's an extremely important aspect, and I notice that a lot of people don't do that and then they wonder why customers end up being a little bit upset when they didn't realize that they needed to pay x number of dollars for shipping or that the person had a no return policy, or something like that. The terms of purchase spell it out. Small print so to speak.
So just from the example you read out, it sounds more like catalog copy, rather than a sales letter. Would you say that that was what you were going for?
Essentially yes. It's like you're putting it on an online catalog. It's factual and I go for a lot of pictures. It slows down how fast the ad loads -- yes. But a picture is indeed worth a thousand words. When they can actually see what they're bidding on, they're more likely to bid on it.
I use just about the same format in every single ad, but what I do is I will actually modify the ad to fit the product. If I'm selling something that is somewhat vague then I'll go into an extreme amount of detail and if I'm selling something where I'm up against a lot of competition, I'll go into even more detail, I would try to convince people "Why should they buy from me versus the 250 other people that are also selling the exact same product?"
The gentleman that lost his job and is asking for my assistance, he became very fortunate. It just so happened that as a fire fighter I knew what he was talking about -- he had a whole bunch of shields that he had found in the basement of this house that he had just bought.
And the shield is the front portion of the helmet that indicates the unit number and the station number and from his description these things were quite old. He was able to put those on eBay, and they sold for $200 - $500 a piece. They were 100 years old.
I told him "Put them on there with pictures and I'm not going to teach you at this point how to write an ad, but bottom line show the pictures, and let the item sell itself".
And that's exactly what it did, and he said in his ad ... he was very honest "I found this in my basement, I think it came from Lancaster Pennsylvania, it's probably about 100 years old, I don't honestly know, here's the photo, the rest is up to you, please bid".
And they did. He made a bundle in his first week. So if he could find more of them like that, he wouldn't need my help any more. That's the main thing that I go for: honestly and integrity.
You mentioned earlier that you used to link to your own sites from your listings, but eBay won't allow that any more...
They completely negated being able to do that. I understand eBay's position because eBay works very hard to get people to come to their sites and what they are essentially allowing was eBay's hard-earned customers to essentially click-through and leave.
So they said "No more -- we won't allow that any more". A wise way of getting around that, that I did for a while was I made my eBay ID actually the name of my web site. Check out my old ID it was GolfCFL.com. And that was the golf web site that I sold golf clubs from. It got a few hits.
The main thing was it's all a matter of what you're selling, and in that case I was selling golf clubs that were in high demand. And so it definitely transformed into lots of hits and lots of requests for clubs.
In one week, in August I did $3,500. That's why September 11th, oh boy. That really messed up the economy in the States. And this is something that's also interesting Louis, is the fact that September 11th has actually caused a boom in eBay sales in some facets. I would have thought that it would have wiped out eBay sales but in actuality it increased it because people were looking to save more money and people are looking to make more money so there's more people actually coming to eBay.
Yeah, I remember reading that often when people are laid off it's home businesses or home business opportunities that really boom ... and that it's often when lots of network marketing companies get more sign ups.
But unfortunately, it's only certain things. Obviously luxury items, like jewelry, I would imagine that those sales suffer tremendously while information products that teach people how to make money on line ended up with a boom.
And there again it's just a matter of knowing your market and figuring out exactly what the trends might be and trying to move with the market, as opposed to against it.
Would you say, that because of the eBay rule change, having your site and any affiliate sites you wish to list, on your About Me page is a good thing?
That's definitely something that everyone should do when they join eBay, because in the first place it takes the mystery out of who you are, let's you tell a little bit more about yourself, and perhaps you can put a photo of yourself there, but in addition to that you can link to your eBay store or your own web site and that can definitely lead to more credibility and more sales.
You have an eBay store do you?
I don't have an eBay store, simply because I didn't want to try to justify that particular expense while I'm spending so much on eBay ads. And I rotate -- it would be difficult for me to have a store since I really don't center on one specific theme any longer, I sell literally anything that I go out and find at a flea market or a garage sale.
It would be hard to put those in store, but if I did once again get into the golf again, yes I was building an eBay store for the golf products I was selling. So bottom line is if you have a niche product that you sell specifically then I would definitely recommend that you build an eBay store and write an About Me page.
If I remember one of your posts from the Tony Blake board, you mention that you take pretty much any method of payment ... is that right?
Just about. I don't take American Express but every other form of payment - yes. And I don't hold an order specifically because when I look at the people who are buying online, they're looking for online instant gratification in most cases, so if they send me an electronic check, or if they use a credit card, to me they've paid, and I've only gotten for lack of a better term, in the four years I've been doing this, I've only got burned twice, so maybe I've been real lucky, but it's not hard to imagine that the easier you make it for someone to pay you, the more likely it is that they're going to buy from you because they realize "I can pay this guy using literally any form and I'm going to get that item that I wanted".
So do you actually have the ability to take credit cards by themselves as well?
Yes I do.
So you have a merchant account do you?
I have a merchant account set up through bank locally and in addition to that if a customer buys from me if they would like I can set them a special link that they can go into my shopping cart and literally pay me directly through the shopping cart, and as a matter of fact if you go to Gnuday.com if you click on any one of those links it will take you into my shopping cart. And you can pay using Visa, MasterCard, you can pay with an eCheck, you can pay via PayPal, it's just a really simple way of setting up a shopping cart.
I know that PayPal keeps growing -- would you say it's the most popular method of people paying for things on eBay?
It is by far -- my sales actually went up when I started accepting PayPal. I understand that there are those who are disgruntled with PayPal for whatever reason. I have yet to have any dealings with them as a seller, that was less than ideal.
As a buyer I would never recommend that you use them to buy anything that's not a solid object because they simply don't provide buyer protection, and I didn't know that until it was too late, I bought a series of ads as a matter of fact and the guy was not legit and PayPal didn't back me up, they backed that seller up, but I learned my lesson and I won't make that mistake again.
But I do put PayPal logos on each and every one of my auctions ads. As a matter of fact, out of the 78 that I sold the other day, nearly 60 have already paid, and out of those that paid 4 of them used BillPoint, and all of the others used PayPal so that tells you the mass percentage of people that are using PayPal.
And I remember you saying that to avoid any problems, what you do is download your PayPal balance to your bank account every day.
Daily. As a matter of fact today I did it twice. Because this morning when I got up there was another $44 in there from people who had paid overnight so I processed those orders, and this evening when I got home, there's another $40 from people who once again had paid during the day while I wasn't on the computer. And in both cases I went ahead and sent them to my account. There's a small fee for the transfer -- it's like 50 cents. To me it's worth the peace of mind knowing there's no funds in there to be frozen.
Of course. It's nice to come back to more money each time...
It is. There was a time when I just started out that was a rare occurrence, now I'm happy to say that -- and this is another huge piece of advice that I would give to anyone Louis is this is like the race between the Tortoise and the Hare.
Online marketing is not something to be rushed. If someone tells you "Oh by next week this time you'll be making $10,000 a week" stay away from them, they're probably lying to you.
The fact is though the longer that you stick it out and the more you learn the more likely you are to succeed. And now, I make in a week, what it used to take me a month to make online.
In relation to that ... something I'm curious about -- you said that you sell what's in stock, could you say how many auctions you have running at any one time?
Right now I've only got two, but right around Christmas I had 40. It depends on what I've got in stock and it also depends on what my wife has me doing on my days off! As a matter of fact I would have run more ads this week 'cos I do have some things in inventory here that I bought at garage sales that are just itching to be sold but I couldn't write the ads for them, because I had to clean out the garage.
But the good news is, in cleaning the garage, I found some more stuff out there that my wife would have thrown away and one mans junk is another mans treasure. I put it right into my inventory and I'll write ads for it too. I imagine if you want to check my advertising over the next week to ten days, you'll see that I have more ads on. I imagine that I'll probably run 20 to 30.
Generally speaking I usually run around 20 per week and now because I think it's a combination of what I'm selling and how I'm selling it most of the time just about every item I put on is selling. I'm really, really lucky.
Another of your posts that I saw on Tony Blake's board -- something really caught my eye, you mentioned "this morning I've processed 150 orders". It seems an awful lot of orders. I'm intrigued. How did you do that?
A lot of pre-setup work. What I recommend to those who are going to sell on eBay, you do the work up front. And then it's just a matter of copying and pasting. I had my post-sales emails completely set up. All I had to do is copy them and then basically eBay sends you an email that tells you exactly who all of your bidders were and you get their email address, and you click on their email address, and paste the email into that particular blank email and hit send.
It took me about 15 minutes to process all those invoices. It's simple copy and paste. It's kind of "Oh boy, am I going to make any mistakes here" because you do it so quickly, but after you've done it so many times you get used to it. It's just a matter of making sure you're set up beforehand.
I would equate it to being like an instructor -- when I first started teaching at the college here locally, it took me hours upon hours to set up for my classes because I had to prep for each and every class, but now that I've been doing it for 16 years I'm ready-prepped. So I go in there, and I open the book, and I lecture. I know what I'm going to say.
It's the same thing -- you do your prep work before the auction closes. Actually before you even post the auction. And then it's just a matter -- I've already got my post-sales letters set up and I just change the item, change the amount, and click on the person who bought it. It's all pretty much done in place.
You choose not to use a service like Auction Watch?
No, because they charge too much. The bottom line is I'm still a small business, and they're a wonderful service but you really have to be clearing a fairly decent amount consistently in order to justify that expense. I would much rather put that money, instead of putting it towards AuctionWatch I'd rather put it towards more advertising.
Do you use any auction specific software packages?
I used to use Robbin Tungett's Virtual Auction Ad Pro, and it is absolutely phenomenal. She is like the eBay Queen. This woman is just phenomenal.
I now use Front Page to write all of my ads, I found it's more versatile, but for anyone who's just starting out, I would highly recommend that they visit AuctionRiches.com ... that's Robbin's site, and take a look at her software because it does everything for you in assisting you in writing a decent ad.
And how do you post your auctions? Just manually through Explorer?
I'd rather use Netscape. For some reason Explorer -- another little tidbit of information for people now just getting started, Internet Explorer for some reason after you post your first ad tends to lock up. I don't know why. It's done it ever since I've been selling. I've found that Netscape doesn't so while I'll use Internet Explorer for 99% of my browsing, when I'm posting ads I'm using Netscape and it slides right through.
I can post, once I've got the ads I've already written, and I already have my headline written out also, so it's just a matter of copying and pasting it, I can post 30 ads in less than 30 minutes. And if you talk to the people who are literally selling thousands and thousands of items, they're probably doing the exact same thing.
So all these customers you've had over the years, how do you follow-up on them, what do you do with them after the sale?
That's an excellent question. I make certain as I said to send them that final email once again thanking them and reminding them that I'm still there, and I keep their email address in a data file and when I come up with another product that they might be interested in, I email them to remind them who I am and ask them if they might be interested in hearing about it.
The last thing I want to do is send them an unsolicited business email. I invite them to return my email if they are interested, if they do -- great, I send them the offer. If they don't, then I don't. I definitely don't throw away any email addresses of any past customer because they are another potential customer.
I've ended up with several sales from people I've already sold to by doing that. I have an eBay mailing list -- I actually have more than one depending if they bought software from me, or they bought the CD, and I use Worldmerge to send the mass mailing out, and the mass mailing, the first one that I do is basically an invitation saying "I've come up with another product, you were a former customer of mine, as I told you in a previous email I'll let you know if I came up with anything, the last thing I want to do is interfere with you or whatever you're doing these days, but I wanted to let you know about this offer. If you would like to know more about it please feel free to email me and I will personally email you".
In that case I do send a personal email to those who reply. That way it doesn't seem as if I'm something of a business machine just asking for more money. And I also like adding that personal touch because as I said earlier in our interview Louis, removing the mystery of who the person is behind the auction ad actually makes it a lot easier to sell because people will buy from someone who they trust a lot faster.
Okay, do you have your photo on your listings?
I don't put my photo in my listings, but I make sure I put contact information. I make it very easy for them to contact me. My email address is right there in every single ad that I run, many of the ads that I run actually have my name, as well as my post office box business address, and my phone number and I urge them, I invite them to email me if they have any questions. I even use that word "urge ... if you have any questions please email me" and it works.
Do you use any other contact methods like ICQ ... instant messaging?
I used to use ICQ and then I found that it made me vulnerable using a cable modem, so I took it off my computer because I got hacked, no more, it's not worth it, at one point I was using software that allowed me to actually interface while I was online I could leave a little thing on my web site that indicated that I was indeed online and if they clicked on it they could ask me a question live and in person. That worked out quite nicely, but I found that I couldn't get things done 'cos every time that I was online as soon as I logged on, I started getting questions.
That's it, unlike emails you can't choose when to respond.
Exactly. I tried to use ... and this is something else that I'm now focusing on is my time management, because I've found that I'm so excited about getting email from someone because I love chatting with people, I love answering the email, that I would actually stop writing an ad, I would stop scanning in photos, I would have all of this stuff all set up and right in the middle of writing an ad my email thing would ping, and next thing you know I'm answering the email.
I've got time management down now, and basically I set aside a certain time that I check my email and a certain time that I process orders and it seems to be working out. Actually I have to schedule myself almost as if you would as if you're working for someone. You work certain hours, and you do certain things during those hours, and that's another little tidbit of advice I would give anyone getting started is: make sure to put themselves on a schedule.
Time management is just as important, if not more important than money management because your time is valuable. You would have thought that I'd have learnt that one a long time ago!
It's too easy to be disorganized. I can vouch for that. I think we're kind of coming to the end of this interview ... so what would you suggest to someone who's either starting selling on eBay, or someone who's already selling on eBay but wants to sell more, or take it even full time?
eBay is definitely one thing you can get into online full time and yes it's going to take some time and effort and some learning but there is definitely money to be made. I could do it in all likelihood fulltime already honestly if I devoted more time but the fact is I've got so many years in the fire department I can't give up that retirement. That would be a very silly thing to do.
The big hint that I would give people that want to get started is learn as much as you can and just absorb the information that's out there ... Auction Hints, my eBook is a fairly decent eBook that tells all about eBay.
There's several other publications out there that will tell you exactly what you need to know as far as how to safely sell and buy in the online auction forum. In addition to that I would say start counting on something that you truly, truly love because if you have a passion for it, then you'll find it easier to sell it.
And I loved software absolutely, I still do, but unfortunately I got knocked out of that market but if you find a niche, for example a friend of mine that sells on eBay, she is very much into antiques and she does extremely well selling antique vases and she loves them. How could she help but sell them? Another friend of mine sells fishing equipment. Guess what his passion is?
It was just natural as a golfer -- I love the game of golf, and so for me to sell golfing equipment was awesome. I got to actually see the brand new golf stuff as it came out of the factory. "Wow -- look at this!". Find a niche. If you have urges to keep something yourself, then how hard can it be to sell it.
There's going to be other people out there that are going to want it. And don't overprice yourself, don't try to make a killing on one item, you're far better off selling ten of the same item, and making the profit over the long term because now you've got ten contacts.
Just be honest, and be available, and do unto others. The old ethic of "do unto others, as you have them do unto you" it definitely plays into online sales.
I'm happy to say that the people that I've dealt with, I don't know if I've just been very lucky or what but the people I've dealt with have been very, very honest, and had a lot of integrity, if they did write me a bad check it was an accident and they made up for it, and it's been just an extremely wonderful experience, and I don't regret any portion of it.
Especially now that I'm actually, it's taken some time, but now that I'm now making a nice secondary income. I could actually give up my teaching at the college, but I love that too much too. But I'm actually making as much on eBay, as I was at the college.
And as you say, you've got the system so automated, how much do you actually spend on it ... an hour a day?
It depends if it's a day I'm scheduled to post ads. If it's a day that I'm posting ads then I go over the ad with a fine tooth comb to make sure I didn't add something in there that was dumb. You know you're tired, you're writing 30 ads, and you could absolutely put the wrong description or something. And people will hold you to it. And they expect the item to be exactly what's advertised.
And once I've done that, by the time I've posted, probably maybe 2 hours, 3 hours, and that's maybe twice a week. And then every other day it's about an hour on eBay, and then I spend several hours reading online forums and posting, which is a great form of advertising, but in addition to that it's an awesome way to meet people, like yourself, and end up learning even more about online marketing.
And it's also another passion ... it's almost like a hobby, because you really enjoy reading a lot of the posts because some of those people are just so intelligent and in addition to that you like seeing the fighting too ... it's almost like a soap opera. You gotta laugh at some of the posts.
I'm constantly looking at new and better ways of improving things. I just registered EzineAdResults.com and as a matter of fact the gentleman that's working on it with me is in the UK and he and I are working diligently to put together a nice info-package on how to advertise successfully in newsletters.
That's basically another thing that I'm working on that's sort of behind the scenes, so you constantly keep learning and moving forward. And as a matter of fact my plan is once the product is 100% completed I will be marketing it on eBay. Just one more thing that we market.
There are people on eBay that sell certain types of items exclusively, and they continue doing it, and they do quite well. I envy them in some ways, but in other ways honestly I enjoy selling a diverse measure of items because there's little side businesses that end up popping up.
Once you get very decent at selling on eBay, as a matter of fact I've got a gentleman today that contacted me about selling one of his golf clubs for him. It's a used golf club. It will probably sell for around $100 on eBay, and he'll give me 20% of the sales price. I've already got golf club ads written, all I've got to do is take a photo of his and then I'll put it on and he'll pay the ad cost by the way, and I'll sell his golf club. That's another potential business. I hadn't really thought about it, until he mentioned it to me.
Okay, thanks very much Jim. In conclusion, anything you would like to say ... any final points?
I really appreciate you taking the time to talk to me about this. I still consider myself a little guy, who's a fire fighter paramedic first, and online seller second. But eBay has definitely made a difference in my life, I make money on eBay. Others can certainly make money on eBay also.
It affords people opportunities that most online endeavors simply don't because they're too difficult. eBay is simple. It's a very, very good place to start. And it's inexpensive. It's fun, and they have made it as safe as they possibly can as long as you add your own common sense to the measures that eBay has taken then it's a perfectly safe place to also to buy and to sell.
Jim Wilson has been selling successfully on eBay since 1999 making a very nice secondary income, that fits in with his job as a Firefighter Paramedic.
And I was lucky enough to speak with Jim for almost two hours recently, picking his brains about every aspect of his eBay business ... and how anyone, even with little money or experience, can start profitting on eBay.
Hi Jim ... well firstly, could you tell me about your background please?
Sure, I am a firefighter paramedic, have been since 1982 and I am in what I like to call the twilight of my career looking at a potential retirement. I was looking at ways of making supplemental income and online seemed to be the way to go. And the easiest way to make money online seemed to be eBay.
Okay. So when did you start online?
I actually started marketing online in 1997. A friend of mine was already doing it, told me what he was doing and built a web site for me and unfortunately I did not know how to get traffic to the web site or anything really about marketing so that utterly and totally failed but it did lead me to the direction that I ended up with eBay. I actually started selling on eBay in mid-1999.
Okay. So two years later for you?
Yes. And because I'm still full time at the fire department I would imagine that if someone really devoted more time full time to an online effort it would be less time as far as learning but I worked full time so I couldn't devote as much time as I wanted to my online endeavor.
So it really started taking off in 1999?
I really got very lucky twice. In the first place I met a gentleman on eBay that took me under his wing and explained to me some of the basics as far as writing the ad and a little bit about finding some of the products.
He instructed me that I needed to find a niche that I was comfortable in, and that I felt comfortable selling. And that led me to software. And that was the first thing that I really focused on ... was selling software.
I was extremely fortunate shortly after I got started ... within one month of getting started on eBay I found a supplier that was selling software that he had no idea what it was worth. It was a title called the Neverhood and it was like a cult classic. It wasn't made any longer.
It was selling on eBay in droves for $70 - $80 per title and I got it for $6 per. I bought 200 of them and that really inspired me! I sold out in a couple of months.
What was the Neverhood exactly?
It was a game, by DreamWorks Interactive, and it became quite popular and unfortunately it wasn't made any longer and I assumed that it was a lot of college students, that seemed to be who I was selling the most to. Actually that really inspired me. And it became clear that there definitely is money to be made online. That was the one that really set it off.
Definitely a good return on investment there.
An incredible return on investment.
Just out of interest you say that it was a hot item and that you bought for $6 and were selling for about $70, how many bids would each one have?
It was incredible, I would start them out at 99c and often that's what I do with most of my ads as a matter of fact, that's a tip that I tell people that subscribe to Auction Hints start it low because once you get bids, bids get more attention. People always seem to want something that someone else has.
I've noticed that actually.
And I would end up with sometimes 30, 40, 50 bids, with people getting into bidding wars, and that really amazed me even though I had other titles that had less bids and cost less, people were still bidding on the more expensive copy of that exact same title.
I've noticed from my auctions that often there's very little activity until maybe the last two hours.
That's typical. Most of the time when they get to the going, going, gone ... people on eBay are looking for bargains. The main thing that they're looking for is something that they're going to save money on and they were going to buy it anyway, and so those last two hours are the key two hours.
But if you're selling something that people are looking for like in my case the Neverhood, it got bids almost immediately and continued to get bids throughout. I would run them for 7 or 10 days and they would get incredible bids.
And back then eBay allowed you to actually put a link on your ad on their site to your site so I actually built a site called TonsOfSoftware.com so I got a ton of hits on it and sold other software too.
So where were you getting your copies of Neverhood from, at such a bargain price?
I got it from a software company actually based out of Houston, Wholesale Software Incorporated. I found them completely, totally by accident.
They were selling on eBay, I was looking for a software title, I found that they were selling the one that I was looking for, one thing led to another and since I was also trying to sell software the next thing you know we started chatting and she said that she had found this guy locally that had some software that was hot on eBay and she was going to buy some and she suggested that I did.
And she bought 200 of them and I bought 200 of them and we were the only Neverhood suppliers probably worldwide. We held the market. I sold those things literally all over the world. I shipped them everywhere, you name it I shipped it there.
A great position to be in...
It was fun. My only regret is that there wasn't more than 200! Even to this day, if you check eBay the Neverhood still sells for $40 or $50. It's just an amazing software title. People are still collecting it.
So you mentioned that you start your auctions low and in that case you were starting it at 99 cents, was that with a reserve?
Actually no, because I knew it was going to get bids I felt very safe in running a no reserve auction.
There's two trains of thought where the reserve is concerned: You run a reserve auction ... there are those who may feel that there's no point in bidding because they probably won't meet your reserve and you might want too much for it. And that scares some bidders away.
However if you don't put a reserve on it and it's an expensive item such as real expensive golf clubs or jewelry or something like that then obviously you take a chance of losing quite a bit of money if it doesn't meet it's reserve.
But in that case on a hot item like that I knew for a fact it was going to get bids and I felt quite comfortable, and actually my headline mentioned that it was no reserve. My headline was "Neverhood, brand new, factory sealed, 99 cents starting bid, no reserve". And that got tons of attention.
So you've developed software as your niche on eBay have you?
That was actually the original thing that I sold and unfortunately what happened was I sort of got bumped out of the market for lack of a better term.
eBay is constantly changing, when one thing becomes hot and everybody starts selling it, then those who have been in there long enough realize it's time to go ahead and find something else somebody is going to want.
There are those who set the market trend, and they make the money first and the other people sort of follow behind. And so actually I've sold several things on eBay. Software was just the first of many: jewelry, collectables, info-products, books, toys, electronics, just about everything.
One of the funnest things that I sold was laptops. I got 14 laptops free of charge, because this guy was throwing them out. I bought them home, they worked, he didn't know how to charge the batteries I guess, he didn't know they worked.
I put them on auction figuring that I'll be lucky to get $50 or $100 and every single one of those things sold for around $200 a piece. So in two weeks time I turned those around.
And that's the whole thing about eBay, it's actually fun, as well as profitable. I go out to garage sales and my wife and I actually look around for, you know the old saying "one man's junk is another man's treasure".
And we look to see if something looks old. That might sound silly but if it looks old it probably has some potential value. And then it's just a matter of negotiating. People sell things at garage sales for 50 cents. I turn around and sell it on eBay for $50. It's amazing.
So is that where you found the laptops?
The laptops were actually from a company that were going out of business locally, and he was throwing all kinds of stuff away and I went down there to help him clean out the office and there were those laptops in a box and I asked him "Where are these going?"
And he said "Those are going out to the dumpster".
"Do you mind if I take them?"
"No, not at all. Take them, they don't work".
He had no idea how to charge the batteries, it was amazing. They had all of the software and everything.
Were they decent specs as well?
They were old IBM 386 laptops. They sold like hotcakes -- I was very interested to find out why in the world people were buying old technology, this was around the time that 5, 6, 700 Mhz was state of the art and these things are 386's and I was asking people "What are you buying this for?" and most of them said they were going to use it for the calendar program that was built in and just for traveling. It was a nice cheap way of keeping track of their information. As long as the customer is satisfied. That's the number one thing.
I have noticed a lot of old computers still selling well on eBay, Pentium 166's -- you can run Word on it but it does crawl along, but I've noticed those auctions always getting bids.
What's amazing is some of the old stuff is collectable now. The older IBM's are actually considered collectables, you never know what's going to shoot up in value.
One of the things that I tell the people that ... as a matter of fact within the last week I had a gentleman that wrote me a heart felt letter how he got laid off and I've sent him several emails and I'm walking him through the steps of how to sell on eBay.
And one of the first things that I told him is "Things are worth exactly what people are willing to pay for them". Your ad is going to have to try to convince them that they want to pay that amount.
And online sales are very impersonal. You have to remove the mystery of who you are. That's why I have no problem giving my email address on my ad, I have no problem whatsoever if people want to contact me, and I'm very open and honest about the product. If they ask me a question about it I'm not going to mislead them and say it's better than it really is. Treat people with integrity.
Absolutely. Can I ask out of interest: what is your eBay ID?
That's right. The original was Gernsbid. My nickname as the fire department was Gern. And I started out with Gernsbid and then I was making an absolute incredible amount of money on golf products. For about 3 months there. And I changed my ID to GolfCFL.
I found a Golf supplier, I was able to get golf equipment at a fraction of what it would sell for and September 11th wiped that out. All of a sudden people were more interested in more important things than golf, and the golf market went from a club selling for $325 to selling for $175. My cost was $225 so that sort of wiped that out, so then I changed it to Gnuday.
I own that site and I said "that's a good name", so that's it. I think that I've got 300, something like that, probably 300 feedback ... only one was negative and that was a guy that got impatient about his golf clubs, and he came back, changed it, and said "Yeah, you did me right".
The golf clubs were late from the manufacturer and ultimately I ended up sending him some golf balls and all kinds of other stuff. And an apology. The thing that I've noticed, is that people simply want to know that you're still there, that you're communicating with them, and I have avoided negative feedback when quite honestly Louis I should have gotten it.
I had software in stock, sold more than I had in stock, promised someone I would send it, the supplier says "It's on the way", and it drags out ... as long as I kept emailing the person every single day "...I'm still working on it..." and I sent them another title in the mean time and told them "This is on me".
I avoided the negative feedbacks. Honestly, I don't think the feedback matters as much as people put weight on, and that's because of the fact that for so long there you could get fake feedback.
A lot of the people on eBay that have literally thousands in feedback, it's not hardbacked. When eBay started, you could get false feedbacks simply by, you could actually give yourself feedback. It was strange...
The guy who taught me -- his name is Leo Richardson, he's moved on now, his name on eBay was LCRR ... just an incredible mentor, he sold martial arts items and software, and Leo showed me how you could ... basically back when eBay first started and for about the first 6 months that I was on there, you could get feedback 50 or 100 at a time simply by sending other people feedback because feedback was not tied to an item number.
So if you gave Leo feedback, chances are they'll feel obligated to give you feedback, so you could just go through a whole list of eBay members and send them positive feedback saying what wonderful people they are and they would reciprocate.
I never did that. I promise I never did it, Leo said that he didn't either but I noticed that his feedback went from 800 to 1,100 in one day. So I don't know! Because back then, you could click on an eBay's member ID and actually send them an email directly. Whereas now it goes through eBay.
Unless of course you put your email address in your sales letter.
Exactly.
Actually I think that's a good idea because sometimes people don't actually want to bother clicking to ask a question ... and I think I remember this from your newsletter, rather than expecting people to click on "See All Auctions" actually adding "Click Here To See All My Other Auctions". Really spell it out. Because it's too easy to be lazy and not bother searching for a link.
It's too easy to be lazy and complacent. You also have to realize that the average knowledge level of the people that are on eBay, they're those who have 1, 2, 3, 400 ... 1, 2, 3, 4000 feedback, and there are those who are brand new.
Those who are brand new far out number those who aren't. You see the people who are brand new are probably also brand new to the internet, relatively speaking, so you have to write your ads around that idea, and you have to treat them like they are brand new, and sort of walk them through all the steps, make them feel comfortable bidding on your item.
Yes, I think it's too easy to take knowledge for granted. It's too easy to forget that you weren't actually born knowing how to use the internet...
It's easy sometimes to forget that people may not know what a URL is. So if you say "You can go to my URL to pay for your auction" they have no idea what you're talking about!
So you're far better off spelling it out in detail and that covers the whole gambit from the brand new person all the way up to the expert.
I have yet to have anyone say that I ended up making them feel like I had degraded them by sending them too much information. I send actually, my customers, and this is something very important that I would stress to anyone starting out in eBay, is I send out an email initially right after the auction closes thanking them for the bid and telling them that they're going to receive an automatic invoice from both Billpoint and PayPal, but in addition they can send me a check or a money order, I send them a second email once their payment has been received letting them know that it has been received and that their item is packaged and that it's on it's way, and then I send them a third email letting them know that I gave them positive feedback, thanking them for the manner in which they handled the transaction, and reminding them that I have other auctions and I would love to do business with them again.
It leads to positive feedback for me, and in addition to that it creates a comfort zone. They know that I'm a real person. I get literally hundreds of emails a week from people that read Auction Hints, people that are customers, that are telling me "you are actually making me feel a lot more comfortable about buying online". And that's kinda neat.
Something, related to what you said earlier... about you going to garage sales, I would say that now I've been online for a few years I've found my niche in sites I often visit, and it's very rare that I actually venture beyond it ... and occasionally when I search on key words, I find that there's a whole other world out there. I think it's the same with eBay ... they get millions upon millions of visitors every month, there's something for everyone there. But often you don't see it.
There definitely is. There is items on there which actually are astounding. There was a young man that was offering to sell his kidney. He actually had bids in to the seven figures, before eBay yanked the ad because it was illegal. There was a nuclear submarine on there. And it had six-figure bids. And eBay yanked it.
I mean, it's interesting if you go onto eBay if nothing else, just to do the searches and see what other people are actually trying to sell. It's actually amusing, and very educational.
And that is exactly what I do Louis, in order to follow the trends of what's selling, I find those people who have a lot of feedback and I go to their auctions. If they've got a lot of feedback, chances are they're selling a lot. Look at what they're selling. And then it's not hard to find their suppliers now that there's so many suppliers in the world.
I was going to ask you actually about something you said earlier -- how do you spot a trend, how do you see what's popular on eBay, because you say you try to get in early before it gets saturated, what do you look for?
That's an excellent question. The thing that I look for is hot items. An item becomes hot after 32 bids. If it gets 32 bids it's getting a lot of attention for some reason -- let's take a look and see what in the world it is.
Then actually something like a car, those things are hot items, become hot bids items all the time, but as it turns out informational CD's right now are extremely hot and it's obvious why because a lot of people in America are out of work now and are looking for ways of making money and one of the ways that they can do this is by buying CD's and information as far as teaching them how to make money online.
And they're selling like hotcakes. And that's one of the things that I've sold that's the item that I sold 78 of in one auction. An informational CD all about selling on eBay. I figured out that that was going to be a hot item simply because other people were already selling it and what I did was I took the idea and modified it and centered it on eBay.
I've seen those too actually. A hot topic at the moment on the internet is selling ebooks with reprint rights and a lot of people do that on eBay, and as you said you're doing the same thing with CD's, and you're selling a CD like that on Gnuday.com...
That's the exact same CD...
The one you sell from Gnuday, and on eBay?
Yes. But actually I have 4 different CD's and the one that I'm actually marketing and really marketing heavily right now is the one that I developed that centers on eBay.
I noticed that. It has eBay software, eBay ebooks...
Exactly
Have you managed to fill all the CD?
Oh, it has over 650 MB of information on it. It has a tremendous amount of information. A lot of that info is what I would call fun information and wasted information as far as the person who is putting in the CD in order to start a business.
The ebooks that are on there, the information that I put on there personally as far as advertising and eBay tips ... it's a very, very good CD, it's very effective. It can end up taking someone from being a novice brand new to eBay and actually bringing them to a level where they know how to make money.
eBay affords everyone an equal opportunity to make money online whether you know how to get traffic to a web site or not. eBay already does that for you. All you have to do is write a good headline, write a good ad, and have a product with communality. A product that has mass appeal.
That's true actually. To sell on EBay, you hardly need any money at all.
Absolutely not. 30 cents ... that's dirt cheap and then a small portion of the sale, assuming that the item sells.
Anyone can get started with that.
Exactly.
As you've been doing this for a good few years now ... I'll ask you this: I would say that people tend to go through eBay by searching more, rather than trawling through categories. Would you agree?
Definitely. They go to eBay, and in most cases if they are the shopper as opposed to the seller they're going there looking for one specific thing.
When I was shopping for my Christmas presents I found myself exactly in that position. I was actually shopping on eBay for something for my wife and I specifically typed that search term in. And people that had used that term in their headline ended up getting hits and ultimately I did make a couple of purchases that way.
That's the thing. On the front page, the search only looks in headlines and I think if you go beyond that you can click on "Search Descriptions" as well. So your heading is very important. What would you recommend, for putting together the most effective heading, for choosing the best keywords in the heading?
In the first place, make certain that you don't use quotation marks or wasted space. You're only allowed so many spaces in the headline, and the quotation marks actually negate whatever term is inside of the quotation marks and a lot of people don't know that.
If you put something in quotation marks on eBay as far as the search engine is concerned it negates it. It no longer exists. So if you put in there "FREE" or whatever ... guess what? You've lost that particular search term.
I didn't know that.
Most people don't. Leo is the one that told me that little tidbit of information. The headline needs to have what I would call the words that catch attention: "bonus", "success", "free", which you've got to be careful about using that because eBay frowns on anything that's free, "controversial", that's one of the reasons that I sold those 78 is because I said that my CD is very controversial.
And people like that term I guess. Honestly I think they searched for "software" but when someone goes into eBay you have to put yourself into the mind of the potential buyer. They're coming in there and they're looking for software.
There could be 10,000 other people selling the exact same title that you're selling so the key is to try to get them to buy from you as opposed to those 9,999 others. The only way you can do that is by making your headline really stand out.
And don't be afraid of the competition. That's another thing that I tell people that I'm trying to assist, a lot of people shy away from the competition, they see somebody selling an item and they say "Shoot, I know where I can get that" or "I could make that" or "I could sell that " or "Oh, he already is so there's no point in me doing it" and that's simply not the case.
Because if they can sell it, you can sell it. Chances are you can sell it better. You take the idea ... they're setting the trend, you're just taking their good idea and making it better.
If you look right now, for that "Most controversial CD" on eBay, they're several of them now. And I was one of the first ones that did that. And people are copying the idea. Some of those people that are copying the idea, bought the CD from me! And I have no problem with that whatsoever because I'm going to move forward. They can continue selling that ... in the mean time I'm already developing another one.
Because of the sheer volume of people selling CD's which are very similar ... either selling them all separately, or with Dutch auctions, how do you compete against such quantity?
The guy who comes out new, is going to have a hard time competing against that quantity because they don't have the feedback and chances are they don't have the resources financially to have that kind of a mass quantity of stock.
So the thing to do is to try to set yourself up to build up to a level where you can compete. I'm up to that level now and I don't want to end up sounding like "Wow, boy" because that's certainly not the case because there's people out there that out-sell me every single day of the week.
But I'm up to the level now where I know that I can write a good ad, I know that my ads will sell and most importantly I know that once I sell something the people are satisfied and I make certain of it. 100%. I can't speak for the other people who are selling the same item.
Word of mouth Louis, it's amazing. I sold three today off of my web site that were sold specifically because of the fact that I sold to other people who were satisfied and told those 3 people about me. No advertising. No work on my part. Word of mouth. And they came to my site, they sent me an email ... they said "We've heard that this CD is wonderful, that you're a great salesperson" and I mean it's flattering.
