How too much can be too little
publication date: Jan 31, 2007
*****
- Editorial
- Make Money On eBay - Tips For Dealing
With An Angry Customer
- eBay Shops: Enough Niches For Everybody!
*****
Hello,
I'm musing today, and brimming over with ideas
for snippety bits of information I really do think
will help grow your eBay business, and fast.
What I'm really saying is I like to run my ideas past
you, I love to tell you about problems I have
encountered in hope of preventing similar things
happening to you.
So here we go, my musings for the day:
You Will Never Please Everyone All of the Time
For my books I like to cover most things people
need to know about a subject, whether those people
are complete novices or experts in whatever subject
I write about. So a book about selling something on
eBay will contain lots of information about the
specific product and lots of information about how
to sell the product on eBay. Everyone happy?
Or are they? The answer is NO!
Case in point, in the last two weeks I've sold just
over 100 copies of a book about selling a specific
product on eBay. I won't tell you what the product
is; it's the subject of a full length article in next
month's newsletter. I will tell you though that my
book covered the product itself and selling it on
eBay in almost equal measure.
First off, you are always going to get people who
will work very hard at finding fault with your
product just to justify the refund they made their
minds up to ask for long before they ever bid on
your product.
Those people aside, you can reckon on maybe two
people out of 100 requesting a refund for what
might be considered a genuine problem for them.
This is good, if the same problem or complaint
often rears its ugly head, that's a sign of something
wrong with your product, which can usually be
corrected.
But to prove how you really never can keep
everyone happy, these are the reasons for the two
refund requests I got today for those 100 plus sales:
NOT ENOUGH information about selling the
product on eBay!
TOO MUCH information about selling the product
on eBay!
There is no answer to problems like this, it pays to
just do your best and benefit as many people as
possible.
Yes, You Can Make a Fortune on eBay - Just
Give Your Products Free and the Money Will
Flow in Later!
So much is said about growing a mailing list to
promote products later to people on your list
without having to pay eBay listing or final selling
fees. The best way to do this is to offer something
free of charge, something that's really valuable and
well worth a tenner or so, maybe much more.
While you can't list items at zero cost on eBay, you
can charge a penny, ten pence, 99p, depending on
whether you want to cover your costs, break even,
or even lose a little to grow a valuable mailing list.
I prefer to cover my costs so I list lots of items,
costing 99p, to attract names for my mailing list
which I contact regularly with offers of other
products, usually dog jewellery and other pet-
related items which I am selling direct or promoting
on commission.
This list business works, it works very well, and my
'History of Your (BREED OF DOG', comprising
dozens of breeds using information I got free of
charge from the public domain, can generate
upwards of 100 new names each week for my
mailing list. I haven't promoted them on eBay yet,
I offer them free of charge through articles I
promote to article directories, focusing on my
favourite subjects: Dogs!
This process of breaking even, generating a tiny
profit, or even losing money on a first sale is a
powerful way to make really big profits later and
I'm not saying it because it works for me. It also
works well for another PowerSeller, Brian
McGregor, who has produced a free report called
'The eBay Traffic Funnel' which you can have free
of charge by mailing me at:
mailto:ebooks@meanderpress.com with FUNNEL
in the subject heading. Email me, ask for the report,
and I'll send it direct within 24 hours.
And that's it from me, now onto a neat selection of
articles from internationally renowned eBay
experts...
Happy eBaying!
Until next time,
Avril
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Make Money On eBay ~ Tips For Dealing With
An Angry Customer by Bob Hamilton
***
Don't you just hate it when things don't go as you
had expected? This is especially true when you are
making a purchase at a store. Your eBay buyers feel
the same way when things don't go the way they
thought with a purchase. They had their heart set on
a specific product that had specific features, and
then the product that you shipped arrives. Out of
nowhere you get a message that there is a horrible
flaw in the item, or possibly the features weren't
exactly as the customer had expected.
If your goal is to make money on eBay, then you
will instantly share the customer's concerns. But
then you examine the listing and see that the flaw or
defect was clearly stated in the item description. In
fact, you also had a picture that clearly showed the
flaw or defect. The features that the angry buyer is
upset about are also not your fault. In fact, you
highlighted the item features to be sure that
prospective buyers would know exactly what they
were getting.
It isn't your fault! Why do you need to deal with an
angry person over a mistake that other person
made? Why should you even care is that person
can't read or look at pictures? It's their problem not
yours, right? WRONG!
Having an angry and upset customer is a risk any
time you deal with people. Communication,
whether in either writing, or verbally, can lead to
misunderstandings. The challenge is to do
everything possible to eliminate the possibility of
such miscommunications. When they do occur the
challenge is to minimize the potential damage (Lost
customer. Negative feedback) and to quickly
resolve the issue.
Let's examine ways to handle these examples.
In the case of the flaw or defect, what would you
do? Remember, it was described in your
description. What would you do? Here is what I
would do:
* Start by apologizing for the communication
breakdown.
* Send a copy of the listing to the buyer to show that
the information was in fact there.
* Ask the customer what they feel would be a fair
resolution.
* When the buyer emails you back, determine if you
feel their request is fair.
* React appropriately.
* Note: Offering a partial refund might be an
appropriate way to resolve this with the buyer.
Though you don't owe them anything, your goal
has become to eliminate the possibility of any
negative feedback and the damage to future sales
that will follow.
To make money on eBay requires that you develop
skills to handle every upset customer regardless of
whether you, they, or anyone for that matter is at
fault. Your goal should be to calm down the
customer. It is to find a middle ground where both
the customer and you feel that the issue has been
resolved fairly.
for a free dropship report!
***
eBay Shops: Enough Niches For Everybody!
***
You have probably read plenty about niche
marketing on the internet - but what does it really
mean? This article takes a look at niche marketing
in its context as an eBay shop based business.
eBay: who would have thought ten years ago that
this little project of Pierre Omidyar's, started in his
living room, would now be the global phenomenon
it has grown into? Many things have changed in the
last ten years and opportunities for business online
have mushroomed to the extent that there's now
almost 'too much information'. One thing that seems
to baffle people who want to get on the eBay
bandwagon - and it's nothing to do with the
mechanics of having an eBay account which, let's
face it, are pretty simple. No - the real stumper for
many people is this: what do I sell? What do I trade
in? And what's the best way to get exposure for my
goods?
These questions are not asked by the casual eBay
member; the one who wants to sell off some
unwanted household goods or hold the online
version of a garage sale. That type of trading,
although still massively widespread amongst the
eBay community, is not what niche marketing is
about. In fact, it's not what an eBay business in
2007 is about at all.
I personally don't know any eBay millionaires but
they doubtless exist and let's get one thing straight:
eBay did NOT make these people rich - they made
THEMSELVES rich. They had the savvy to see that
eBay is what it is - a superb turnkey operation
simply begging to be taken advantage of. They
learned how to take advantage of the plethora of
tools and reports that eBay waved in front of them,
tools that elsewhere could well have cost a fortune.
And do you know what? You can do exactly the
same! It's just a question of learning how to use the
eBay system.
One of the must-knows for anyone setting up or
operating any trading business is this: know your
market. What do your customers want? Where are
they? What do they want to pay for your goods?
These are questions that all business owners must
know but, before that, before anything, you must
know what you are going to sell. What is your
stock-in-trade? Where will you buy it from? What
investment do you need and (and this is a really
important one) - how are you going to get those
products in front of these potential customers that
your research tells you are champing at the bit to
buy from you?
In a redbrick business there are several avenues to
market - direct mail, yellow pages, mailshots,
catalogues - all tried and tested and all ranging from
quite expensive to ruinously so. Just try pricing a
minute of prime TV airtime - but have the smelling
salts ready! On eBay things are a little different -
simply get an eBay shop.
For those who don't know what an eBay shop is, in
some ways it's a return to the old virtual shopping
mall idea of the late 'nineties, with all the pros and
none of the cons. The virtual malls were a good idea
let down by clunky servers and snail-speed
connections. By contrast, an eBay shop is quick,
easy to maintain and, importantly, easy for your
prospective customers to use. It's also inexpensive
and will put your goods in front of more prospective
customers than you could ever realistically hope to
contact by other means.
Where an eBay shop can really come into its own is
when you have your own website. Why? Simple.
Your eBay shop can easily be embedded into a page
on your site - where of course you can offer other
goods or services and have targeted ads such as
Google AdSense on the page, giving you more
opportunities to earn income. An eBay shop can be
as simple or as complex as you like and can grow as
your business and experience does. Many people
start off by selling products that they are interested
in - a niche interest! But there are many, many
niches within the eBay marketplace and ways of
discovering them do exist - unfortunately these are
beyond the scope of this article.
eBay shops are ideal for those niche businesses I
mentioned above. If you want to sell pottery figures
from Wade - great! Bakelite inkwells - no problem!
I'm not saying you'll ever make your fortune doing
this but the important thing is that you will 'cut your
teeth' in a real business environment - and there are
enough niches for all. Maybe you'll spread to a
broader product base and make your million after
all - maybe you'll just have a very nice niche
business that you understand and are good at. It's all
up to you!
Steve Dempster writes informative articles for the
web and is also a ghostwriter. To learn more about
levering your eBay sales, take a look at
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