Ebay Secrets Blog

I just finished a great new book: How To Sell Coupons on eBay and Really Make Money. I bought the book because selling coupons is one of the great niches I talk about in my book, Ten Little Known, Highly Profitable eBay Niche Markets. Basically I wanted to see if I had missed any techniques. It turns out that I hadn’t, but the author of this book, goes into quite a bit more detail.

How To Sell Coupons on eBay and Really Make Money

It is a short –but excellent read. This guide will teach you step by-step how to sell coupons and earn $500 or more a week in your spare time. With today’s rocky economy and unsteady job market, there’s never been a better time for you to earn extra cash on the world’s number one auction website!

Click here to read about How To Sell Coupons on eBay and Really Make Money

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If you would like to learn about more interesting and easy to enter profitable niches on eBay, get a copy of my book Ten Little Known, Highly Profitable eBay Niche Markets. We just finished the update for 2010.

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eBay today announced the dates and locations for its new program, eBay: On Location — a series of events aimed at helping eBay sellers accelerate their businesses on the platform.

eBay: On Location, which kicks off March 19-20 in Atlanta, will bring small-business and part-time eBay sellers together to network and gain practical knowledge about building and growing their businesses on eBay.

Event attendees will hear from national speakers, as well as eBay experts, on timely business topics and will participate in a series of classes designed to help sellers be more successful on eBay. After Atlanta, the event will travel to three other U.S. cities: Dallas (May 7-8); Chicago (July 9-10); and San Jose (Sept. 1-2).

“eBay sellers are creative entrepreneurs who understand that eBay’s global reach and dynamic marketplace offer the ideal setting to start and build a business online,” said Lorrie Norrington, president of eBay Marketplaces. “We invite our sellers to eBay: On Location to connect with each other and to take the next step in making their eBay businesses even more successful.”

Here is a Q&A with Dinesh Lathi, vice president, Buyer and Seller Experience, to learn more about the new program:

Is eBay: On Location a replacement for eBay Live!?
No, eBay: On Location is a brand-new program geared toward a specific type of eBay seller: those who sell on eBay part-time, and those who have set up small businesses on eBay and earn a significant portion of their incomes from their eBay sales. The goal is to immerse these sellers in a full-day’s worth of classes designed to help them be even more successful selling on eBay.

During the past year, many sellers have told us that although eBay Live! was a terrific way to learn and network, they would enjoy more intimate, local events that provide greater opportunities for dialogue and a higher level of interaction with each other and with eBay team members. eBay: On Location gives us the chance to connect with our sellers on this more personal level.

Who is eBay: On Location targeted at?
The event is designed for eBay sellers who fall into two categories:
• Part-time eBay sellers who want to earn extra income, who list regularly and who generally want to find new opportunities on eBay.
• And, small-business sellers who earn a significant percentage of their income from eBay and are looking to expand to new channels and gain access to buyers.

Where can people learn more about registering for the event and curriculum?
We have a dedicated Web site where sellers can register: http://www.ebayonlocationevents.com view the curriculum, speaker bios and course information.

Later, we’ll load videos, photos and content from the events to the Web site, and eBay: On Location social media channels will follow the events in each city. In addition, sellers can connect with one another through various message boards and social networks.

Attendees may register for various class sessions, including the following:

*** “Top Seller Secrets”: eBay Top-rated sellers reveal their secrets and tips for taking an online business to the next level.
*** “Productivity Power”: Experts share their advice on streamlining and managing a business to boost sales and reduce costs.
*** “I Just Tweetered on FaceSpace”: Sellers make sense of new online tools like Twitter, Facebook and blogger engagement to creatively market and increase sales for their businesses on eBay.

To learn more about eBay: On Location, and to register for an event, visit the official site.

Cheers,
RBH

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Superbowl Sunday – 11:45 AM Pacific Time

The conventional wisdom is that you want to schedule listings to end at times and on days where the greatest number of people are on eBay.  Since the Superbowl is the biggest TV event of the year, you would think that having an auction end during the Superbowl would be a dumb move.  That’s what I always thought!

Since Sunday evenings are typically great times to end listings I usually do so –but not on holiday weekend or when something like the Superbowl is happening.  However, last year I just spaced on it and launched my normal number of listings to end on Sunday.  I was amazed when I checked my computer after the game and noticed that out of 17 listings than ended during the game, 12 of them were successful –and one of them was the subject of a bidding war and realized almost double what that product (a Starbucks Headquarters mug) usually sells for.

So this year I wondered what would happen if I did it on purpose.  I have about 8 items ending today. So check back and I will update this post after the game. (BTW – I also have several items on Amazon. I will see how those do too.)

Learn how to make money blogging from home by Skip McGrath.  If you can point, click and type, you can blog and we will show you how to make money doing it.

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I was reading Auctionbytes today when I saw a story about the post office expanding its test of greeting card sales.  This will be about as profitable as its sales of teddy bears, Christmas ornaments, mailers, scales and all of the other junk you see gathering dust and not selling in the Post Office lobby.

First of all, I don’t think the Post Office, a government agency, should be competing with local business. In our small town there is a small independent office supply store one block from the post office and a greeting card store about three blocks away. Secondly –the post office does not know anything about retail business.

How the post office loses money

Every year the post office loses money and this results in them raising rates for mail.  But did you know there are two big areas where the post office loses money: Retail sales and Air Express –the overnight service that competes with FedEx and UPS.  It seems that both FedEx and UPS make money, but the post office loses money operating the same service.

If you study business in college, one of the first things you learn about marketing and management is “stick to your knitting.”  Losing focus and dabbling in lines of business that are outside your company’s area of specialty or expertise is one of the fastest ways to lose money –and the USPS is a prime example of this.

If the post office would stick to selling stamps and delivering mail –they may not become profitable –but they would dramatically cut their losses and postal rates would go up much more slowly.  And private businesses that USPS competes with would do better –creating more private sector jobs –rather than public ones.

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Learn how to make money blogging from home by Skip McGrath.  If you can point, click and type, you can blog and we will show you how to make money doing it.

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eBay has teamed up with RecycleBank, the country’s premier recycling and loyalty program, to reward consumers for recycling and reusing what already exists in the world today.

RecycleBank rewards people for positive green actions (currently the recycling of trash and electronics) and seeks to create a greener economy with key partners across the U.S. In just five years, the model has proven its success; on average, recycling volumes increase two-to-five times and members across the country earn hundreds of dollars in reward value. RecycleBank has programs in hundreds of cities around the country, reaching over one million consumers.

By teaming up with eBay, the RecycleBank program brings consumers online, offering 50 RecycleBank Points for joining eBay’s Green Team. Additionally, RecycleBank members will be able to use their RecycleBank Points for discounts on eBay purchases.

“RecycleBank has always been rewarding more responsible environmental behavior like recycling for households across America. Working with eBay on an initiative to promote reuse and reward you for that behavior becomes a natural progression of our business,” said Morley Ivers, Chief Rewards Officer, at RecycleBank. “Together, we look forward to amassing a movement of people committed to reusing and recycling.”

I asked Morley if he would take part in our series of “5 Minutes with…” features here on Ink and he obliged. Here you go…

Full Name: Morley Ivers
Nickname: RED (the term was coined by Suze Orman)
Official Title: Chief Rewards Officer (a title only a mother could love)
What You Really Do: I manage a team of very smart and passionate people who execute the strategy, operations, partnership development and account management for RecycleBank – the world’s premier green loyalty program that motivates consumers to recycle and to take environmentally preferred actions
Education/Schooling: I studied business at The Richard Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario in Canada
Interests: Spending quality time with my wife and son; great food, travel and maximizing the utility of my loyalty points portfolio
Favorite Quote: “Good, Fast or Cheap….pick two”
Most memorable eBay experience: Snagging first row tickets to a Dave Matthews Band Concert from a seller in Boston who used his loyalty access with DMB to get seats to the concert in Toronto
Most recent eBay purchase/sale: A water filter for my fridge
Favorite Albums: Counting Crows, Dave Matthews Band, Bob Marley, Nickleback
Favorite Movies: The Bourne Series
What You Wanted to Be Growing Up: An entrepreneur that changed the world

Fill in the blanks:
I should have got more sleep yesterday
I wish that I had more hours in the day
The first thing I do when I get to work is redeem my Odwalla RecycleBank Reward for an OJ

Also, I saw that eBay commissioned proprietary research last month that measured the carbon savings of specific items available on eBay.com and got some neat little facts back:

• Choosing a new-to-you blender saves 95% of the CO2 needed to produce a new one
• Selecting a refurbished smart phone saves the energy equivalent of driving 186 miles
• Choosing a classic, previously loved watch saves the energy equivalent of 39 days of refrigerator use

“Thousands of eBay sellers have built successful businesses by recycling, reusing and re-selling products that already exists and may otherwise have ended up in landfills,” said Amy Skoczlas Cole, Director of the eBay Green Team. “Our relationship with RecycleBank offers an innovative way to encourage and reward green-conscious consumers who are looking for more sustainable ways to shop.”

Cheers,
RBH

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I have been working with a company to help me optimize my website marketing who have produced some very interesting information. One of the studies they did used Yahoo demographic information to see who is visiting my website.  Take a look at the chart below:

The dotted line that runs through the bar chart represents the internet average. As you can see my readers are overwhelmingly over 35, make above average incomes and are 60/40 male.  The first two don’t surprise me, but the last one does because I tend to get a lot of email from women and I know I have a high number of stay-at-home moms who buy my books.  Nevertheless this is really interesting information that I can use to further target my material to my readers.

Skip McGrath

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The Complete eBay Marketing System is one of the oldest and most respected eBay training programs on the market. always updated, we are in our 8th year of publishing what has become the best-selling eBay training system.

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All,
I’m still answering specific questions through email and comments here on Ink but in the meantime, I wanted to share a little sneak peak into what is happening behind the scenes. In addition to our usual Customer Service call center and PR efforts around news like this, we have also established two dedicated Communications rooms to allow for real-time collaboration across social media platforms and chat rooms to ensure we could get answers out to folks as quickly as possible. These have been staffed since 6am PT yesterday morning and include folks, such as myself, focused on communicating through a specific channel (forums, blogs, Twitter, email, etc.).

I took a quick video of our Comms Room here in San Jose HQ to give folks a behind-the-scenes look at how we’re working together to communicate information in real-time. The desks are set up in a horseshoe so we can easily ask questions to anyone in the room (representatives from the Buyer & Seller team, Corp Comms, Social Media, Engineering, eBay Annnouncements, etc. are all in here) for quick response…

Out in Salt Lake City, in addition to the Customer Service center, we have another comms room devoted to social media outreach and response. What follows is a sequence of photos taken out of that room where you can see folks on Twitter, Facebook, etc…

Personally, it has been great to see so many people involved in proactively communicating information – regardless of channel or platform. As a global organization, I am hoping we can build on this for the future.

Back to it…

Cheers,
RBH

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The following video was recorded earlier today at eBay’s Customer Service HQ in Salt Lake City, Utah. Andrew Chase (aka @ebay_andy) has joined me on past podcasts to help answer seller questions around previous announcements we’ve made in the marketplace. I find him an extremely knowledgeable and unsung hero for our community – similar to a number of Customer Service folks out in SLC – who has made it his mission to get information out to as many people as possible.

Here, he talks about the first few hours of reaction to the eBay Seller Release of earlier today…

Cheers,
RBH

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All,
I was also able to spend some time with Lynda Talgo, Senior Director of Resolutions at eBay, to discuss the eBay Buyer Protection news coming out of today’s Seller Release in more detail. What follows is a 3-part, face-to-face with Lynda in the lobby of the Community building at San Jose HQ. Again, like the video conversation with Dinesh, I’ve embedded the questions right into the videos.

Lynda gives an overview of the eBay Buyer Protection announcement…

Lynda discusses how the program differs from PayPal Buyer Protection and how this differs from last year’s initial launch…

Lynda talks about how this will benefit both buyers & sellers on eBay…

Cheers,
RBH

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All,
I was able to spend some time with Dinesh Lathi, VP of Buyer and Seller Experience at eBay, to discuss the news coming out of today’s Seller Release (eBaySR) in more detail. I did my best to anticipate some of the more challenging questions that may be on Ink reader’s minds and posed them to Dinesh (I realize you’ll have a ton more… and I’m happy to ask those too). What follows is a 7-part, comprehensive sit-down discussion with Dinesh in the lobby of the Community building at San Jose HQ. I’ve embedded the questions right into the videos.

Part 1: Dinesh Lathi, VP of Buyer & Seller Experience for eBay, sits down with eBay Ink blogger RBH to answer some questions. Here he explains what he believes to be the top three messages coming out of today’s Seller Release…

Part 2: Dinesh addresses smaller sellers in the eBay marketplace and the new zero Insertion Fee pricing for auctions starting under $1…

Part 3: Dinesh talks about eBay’s “level playing field” and how it still applies with the Seller Release news of January 2010…

Part 4: Here, I ask Dinesh why the focus on Auctions again (e.g. zero up-front Insertion Fees), even though we’ve been emphasizing Fixed Price in the last year and a half. Dinesh also talks about why some up-front insertion fees remain…

Part 5: Dinesh addresses the concern some smaller sellers may have with regard to their ranking in search coming out of the changes made in the Seller Release announcement…

Part 6: I ask Dinesh about Best Match…

Part 7: Dinesh talks about what this news will mean for buyers and sellers and for the eBay Marketplace as a whole…

In addition to feedback regarding the news itself, I’m interested to hear if you find this new format of interviewing helpful. I’m trying to evolve the video integration here on Ink to accompany trends and news that I cover. Let me know.

Cheers,
RBH

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