How to Use eBay Research for Beginners
If you are new to selling on eBay and want to make money on eBay, there are a few things you should learn before listing any items for sale. You will want to analyze eBay market research. That research starts on eBay and these tips will start you on your way.
Be specific
The search for the competition should start on eBay because that is where the compet0rs are located. eBay generates enough traffic on its own, you do not need to worry about driving the traffic to your sales page. If you are searching maternity clothes, you should keep in mind are you selling used or new clothing. This will impact the type of result you will get.
Spelling Mistakes
Hey we are all human and we all make mistakes and you should capitalize on these mistakes. No matter what you are searching for, think of a few common misspellings. There is a good chance that these auctions will go for less because few people will find them. You can buy it on eBay cheap and resell it on eBay for profit! For example search addis instead of adidis. There are over 40 results with Adidis spelled wrong. If you want to learn more about how to make money off of people’s mistakes on eBay, check out this listing of mine on eBay!
Use a Thesaurus
If you are selling on eBay or you want to start selling on eBay, there is no need for you to own a thesaurus. Why? Because you have internet access and could use thesaurus.com to help you think of different words someone might search for when looking to buy what you are selling. For example searching for both ‘TV’ and ‘television’, or for ‘phone’, ‘mobile’ and ‘cellphone’. This goes back to being specific, if you can you should consider using the brand and model.
Use eBay Categories to Your Advantage
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If you do not know, eBay requires all sellers to list their items in at least one category. You can narrow your search results by searching in specific category. Even after you completed your search you will notice a list of categories to the left of the search results. For instance, if you are looking for a particular CD, you should search the CD category. This will save you valuable time looking through a ton of auctions that you do not even care about. You maybe asking yourself, why would I want to search for something I want to sell on eBay? You want to check on the competition! Any time you are trying to sell anything, you need to spy on your competitors. Check on their prices, shipping costs and how much activity on the auction(s).
Take Your Time and Browse Around
This tips goes along with using the eBay category search tip. Once you have found the item you are looking to sell, you should check out the entire category and try and find items that would compliment the item you are trying to sell. If you find items that go well with your item, you could create a package deal to increase the value of your auction, thus getting more bang for you eBay buck and more sales. Also, you will get ideas on what other items are selling in that category and you could add these items to the list of items you are already selling. Thus, growing your business!
Advanced Search Techniques
Here we start getting into some more advanced techniques, but they are not that difficult to understand. Just know these few strategies will help you complete very narrow searches and will ensure you are defining you niche.
Wildcard searches
You can put an asterisk (*) into a search phrase when you want to say ‘anything can go here’. For example, if you wanted to search for a 1950s car, you could search for ‘car 195*’. 195* will show results from any year in the 1950s.
In this order
If you put words in quotes (“”) then the only results shown will be ones that have all of the words between the quote marks. For example, searching for “Lord of the Rings” won’t give you any results that say, for example “Lord Robert Rings”.
Exclude words: Put a minus, and then put any words in brackets that you don’t want to appear in your search results. For example: “Pulp Fiction” -(poster,photo) will find items related to Pulp Fiction but not posters or photos.
Either/or
If you want to search for lots of words at once, just put them in brackets: the TV example from earlier could become ‘(TV,television)’, which would find items with either word.
So once you’ve found your bargain item, bid for it and won it, what if it all goes wrong? Don’t worry – eBay has a thorough dispute resolution procedure, and we’ll cover it in some depth in the next article, so you’ll be prepared if the worst happens.
I hope this post has helped you! If it has, leave a comment. If you think I missed something, leave a comment. If you think I suck, leave a comment. If you want to enhance you eBay market research, you should check out the folks over at hammertap.com. I have used their services and it has improve the money I have made from eBay.
Selling on eBay to Make Money
Filed under: Resale Rights on eBay, Research, eBay Research, eBay Strategy
I got my start in my home based business by selling on eBay and I started this Internet marketing venture at the prompting of my brother-in-law, JL Scott. He knew my family was just getting by on what my wife and I were making as high school teachers and asked me if I would be interested in earning some extra money by selling on eBay. My interest was peaked and my work from home business was born. The really cool thing about selling on eBay is that anyone can do it.
I am about to make a bold statement: there is only one way to make money on eBay. Just a quick scan at the eBay home page will show you at least ten different items for sale on eBay, but the keyword in the first part of this sentence is ‘sale’. To work from home and make money on eBay you must sell something. Many people are under the impression if you start an online auction on eBay the item will sell. That is not necessarily true. The item might sell, but without the proper eBay market research, it might not sell for the highest price possible. If you trying to establish an eBay business, then you will want every online auction that closes to close for the highest price possible.
To increase the closing rates and profits on an eBay auctions there are several areas that one should consider researching:
- Type of auction
Starting day
Listing duration
Ending day
Keywords
Staring price of regular auction, price of BIN (Buy It Now) auction
Listing enhancements.
I primarily have sold information products (eBooks) on eBay. Depending on how you want to run your eBay business, selling eBooks on eBay can run on virtual autopilot. There is software created and sold by Paul Ponna, called Auction Acrobat which integrates eBay, PayPal and Kunaki to automate the entire shipping process. Using an order fulfillment company like Kunaki will decrease profits because of a slightly higher shipping cost, but it frees up time to concentrate on converting eBay customers into customers outside of eBay.
Selling eBooks alone on eBay is not the only way to start an eBay business. I have seen eBay sellers, like myself, sell only eBooks and I have seen eBay sellers dominating a niche and selling one information product. For the second group, of eBay sellers, by selling eBooks, they increase their bottom line in two ways.
First, they increase the amount of money they make. Even if these sellers use a fulfillment company for these orders, they are selling the eBooks for no less than $9.97 and if they are selling 100-200 per month, that is between $997 and $1,994 in sales. So, even if the profit on each item sold was say $5, that would mean an extra $500 – $1,000 of income and it is on virtual autopilot.
Secondly, the additional eBook sales count toward PowerSeller status. There are several benefits to obtaining PowerSeller status on eBay, one of which is PowerSellers receive discounts on final value fees and listing upgrade fees.
Since these sellers have established themselves in a niche, they have credibility as an eBay seller and will be successful selling almost any eBook about how to sell on eBay.
Products That I Recommend
Rob Benwell's Blogging to the Bank
Rob Benwell is only a mere 22 years old and has already made a fortune using this method. Early last year he sharing his secrets with the world in his highly successful Blogging To The Bank ebook and has made making money online a whole read more.
The 90 Day PowerSeller Challenge v3.0
John Thornhill is one of the top information sellers on the Internet. He consistent makes $100's per day from just selling eBook on eBay (R). In his book he reveals his eBay seller ID. This is virtually unheard of in the world of eBay, click here to read more.
Buying and Selling on eBay and the WWW
This is eBay (R) PowerSeller Richard Fenn's Complete Newbie's Guide To Selling on eBay and the World Wide Web. In it you will learn how to create and operate 2 sources of income! To find out more, click here.
