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When All You Have to Do Is Ask
publication date: Feb 7, 2007
***
- Editorial: When All You Have to Do Is Ask
- The eBay Hustle - Buying From eBay To
Sell On eBay R Heavner
- Is Your eBay Store In Google? By Helen
Farmer
***
Hi,
I don't like asking for help. I try to solve my
problems myself and, once solved, I tend to
remember the solution, unlike where someone
else solves my problem without my getting
involved.
So it was, for almost two years I have tried to set
up an autoresponder on one of my Internet
accounts. Two years and all I ever got was a
message saying 'You have reached your
maximum number of autoresponders. Increase
your quota and try again'.
So I tried, and tried, over 20 months or so, until
today a problem appeared which meant people
who'd just bought from me on eBay were not
being taken from payment to download stage.
There was nothing I could do, the processing
system was under another person's control. So I
kept a close eye on orders coming into my
mailbox and within seconds replied personally to
customers with download details.
But overnight, that's when the real problem
started, and I woke to a lovely clutch of orders
and a message from PayPal saying someone had
complained about not receiving his download (all
£33.50 worth of it).
Which got me to thinking, if a regular customer
(now ex-customer; my choice) complains about
this, without waiting for me to respond, without
even thinking I might have a problem or be very
ill or even dead, if he couldn't accept I might
sleep once in a while, then how many other
people are likely to complain?
I worried and worried, then it struck me, if I could
link an autoresponder with download details to
my PayPal payment address, the problem would
go away.
Of course it would, so I tried once more to
increase my quota of autoresponders. I failed
and, in the end I had to ask for help.
"Your site says I have already exceeded my quota
of autoresponders. I didn't even know I had any
autoresponders set up already." I emailed my
hosting company.
"That's right", my contact replied, "You don't
have any autoresponders set up already, because
in the box where it asks how many
autoresponders you want you have put NOT
APPLICABLE."
He was right, it all came drifting back to me, I
had keyed NOT APPLICABLE into that box,
years ago, mainly because I didn't know then
what an autoresponder was!
There it was, it took three minutes to solve a
problem that had already consumed hours of my
time.
And all I had to do was ask!
The point is, left unchecked, this new product,
with its tiny problem, promised as an instant
download product on eBay, could have generated
lots more complaints in days to come, and who
knows it might have affected my feedback score
or even got me expelled from eBay.
And all I had to do was ask!
Are you guilty of trying to do too much yourself,
afraid or reluctant to ask others for help? You
shouldn't be, most people are only too happy to
help and, if you ask right away you might prevent
problems like mine occurring at all.
Give it a go, put modesty to one side, ask for help
when you need it, see how much easier your life
becomes.
Happy eBaying!
Until next time,
Avril
***
eBay Blueprint: Selling 'Dirty' Postcards
***
Thanks to DIRTY POSTCARDS, I can make a
laughably easy £3100-£3200 a-day eBay part-time
income...
How much will YOU make copying me exactly,
now I've turned this untapped vintage market into
the latest eBay cash-cow?
Click here to find out:
***
The eBay Hustle - Buying From
eBay To Sell On eBay by R Heavner
***
The most common business model on eBay
revolves around buying from either wholesalers
or second hand dealers and then reselling at a
profit. This is the simple and straightforward
approach.
A method many use to enhance this approach and
add to inventory and bottom line is a sort of eBay
arbitrage. Simple put, it involves buying directly
from other eBay sellers and then reselling at a
profit. Some sellers actually use this technique as
their primary business model, and do quite well
with it.
There are millions of people selling on eBay.
While many are full time professional sellers, a
great many others are occasional, or hobby sellers
that are cleaning out attics or just trying to make a
few bucks. As frequent sellers know, it can be
difficult at times to correctly position an auction
in terms of categories and keywords. Mistakes are
easily made. Your mission is to seek out other
sellers' mistakes and take advantage of them.
The two things required to make this work are a
second eBay identity (for buying purposes) and
some free time. eBay allows as many IDs as you
want. You simply need to sign up again under a
different email address.
Start by targeting a few markets which you know
well. This aspect is very important, since if the
seller didn't realise they were selling an antique
vase, you are not likely to realise it either. Do
some searches with commonly misspelled words.
Think in terms of categories other than the
obvious ones a seller might use and surf those
categories. Look for auctions with poorly worded
titles (there will be many, many choices).
Basically you are looking for auctions with poor
wording, wrong categorisation, or grossly under
priced merchandise. Poorly placed auctions will
receive little traffic and can often be had for
minimum bids. The only real requirement is the
time spent surfing.
Also look at small lots of items which may
contain a few pieces that far exceed the cost of
the entire lot. A seller offering a lot of old papers
and cards for $10 is not likely to mention that
there are a few rare $85 postcards included in the
lot. That is simply because they did not know.
Look at the pictures and do your homework!
These techniques work, and you will find some
great bargains. It takes a bit of practice to know
where to look, but after awhile you will begin to
develop a feel for it. And for those who feel it is
somehow 'wrong' to take advantage of others
mistakes, keep in mind that eBay is a business
and you are here to make money. Every
opportunity you do not take advantage of will be
very quickly snatched up by you competition.
Happy treasure hunting!
For more eBay selling tips, visit our blog at
***
Is Your eBay Store In Google? By Helen Farmer
***
Very few people explore the potential of
optimising their eBay Store despite the fact that
over 50% of online shoppers research their
purchase through search engines. Here are some
tips that could put your eBay store into the
rankings that matter.
Add Metatags
Even though the human eye won't read Metatags
the search engines will and you will need to look
into configuring your Store and Listings through
html and the 'Manage My Store Area'.
Pick Your Keywords Carefully
The best way to pick keywords is to put yourself
in the shoes of your customers and decide what
words they would enter if they were looking for
your product.
To help you find useful keywords it would be
worth using
y/suggestion/ to find popular search terms used on
the Internet in general and then look at:
http://pulse.ebay.com to see what is popular on
eBay.
Now use these words in your titles, item
descriptions and even your store URL and eBay
ID if you can. It's also worth bearing in mind that
search engines will attach the most importance to
words in titles and also ones in bold.
Custom Pages in your Store
These are pages within your store that you can
create and enter unique content to show
promotions, showcase an item or give details
about your business.
The About Me Page
Another underutilised page that sellers neglect but
really it is essential for all sellers to have as it's
another place to put keywords, a link to your
store, a newsletter subscription box and even
promote affiliate links. Get some great free About
Me templates from here:
Reviews and Guides
Writing eBay guides and reviews are another
great way of getting links from eBay and outside
of the site and using your chosen keywords will
potentially attract more visitors to your listings
and stores. eBay recommends using 'search tags'
on these pages to show what topics and content
are revealed in your content and to make your
content visible to the search engines.
Here are some tips on picking a good topic for
your guide (whatever you do, don't forget to
include a link to your listing or store!)
Browse the most popular guides at eBay by
looking here: http://reviews.ebay.com, you are
likely to see that the most popular topics are how
to avoid being scammed, how to protect your
eBay account, selling tips.
Keep up to date with eBay Happenings and write
about Hot Topics and Items.
Try to pick a topic you can relate one of your
listings or your store to.
If you sell a book, ebook, DVD or album, write a
review on it and link it to your listing
Get as Many Links as You Can
Try to create as many links to your eBay store as
you can, ask your friends, acquaintances,
subscribers and everyone you can think of! Try to
find online directories like
http://www.listmystore.com to enter your store
onto. Make sure you link to your store within
eBay as well – on your guides, listings and About
Me page. (The more page links, the higher the
Google PR Rating and the higher the search
engine ranking!).
Featured Items
Nearly all featured auctions from eBay show up
in the top 5 – 10 listings on Google. So pick your
keywords carefully and pay about $20 to get a
featured listing for your auction. As a potentially
great traffic generator it's worth the risk. If you
have an eBook that answers a desperate need and
good keywords you could get loads of traffic for
it this way.
These are some good ways to getting your eBay
Store onto the Search Engines. eBay also
provides a basic section for optimising your eBay
store for search engines here:
I hope to be seeing you in the high search engine
ranks soon.
Helen Farmer aka 'The Auction Reporter' writes
monthly newsletters summarizing the best eBay
tactics and strategies from newsletters & blogs.
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Want more exciting ebay news?
Check out:
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