Ebay Secrets Blog

Archive for October, 2009

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It's 9am in Vegas and John Donahoe (JD) is taking the stage for a talk and later will have Forrester analyst Patti Freeman Evans do a fireside chat.   This is a fire side chat kind of format.  I'll be doing some live blogging and tweeting.

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Over on Amazon Strategies, we have details of ChannelAdvisor's new Amazon solution that I thought everyone would be interested in learning a little more about.

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I have been a fan of XsitePro for some time. They offer a very easy and inexpensive way to create websites that can be used for selling products, generating affiliate income or earning money with Google AdSense.

They are coming out with a new product called The Complete Guide to Website Building.  Don’t worry this is not some high-tech system that you need to know about programming and HTML. This is designed for people who know nothing more that how to type, point and click. If you can do that, you can build a website.

If you want to sit in on the free webinar tomorrow, click here to register. It is completely free and will give you a good overview including:

1. Who the course is aimed at helping

2. How you can benefit from the course

3. What’s included in the training

4. How the delivery platform works

 5. Details of the support on offer to trainees

 6. Pricing and guarantee information

 And they are offering an exciting set of bonuses to everyone who attends…and these bonuses are not “free PDFs” or some other low-value thrown-in… they’re quality additional benefits for:

- The First 100 fast-acting sign-ups, and;

- The First 1000 trainees through the door

 Oh, and did I mention they are also giving away TEN complete courses to ten lucky webinar attendees?

So if you have ever thought about taking the leap to building your own website, take a look at this short webinar. XsitePro has one of the best reputations in the industry and their stuff is really good.

Here is the link to sign up: http://tinyurl.com/XPwebinar

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Learn how to make extra money blogging with How To Make Money Blogging From Home

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Data Shows eBay September Year over Year Traffic at 5-Year Low

An article by Ina Steiner in AuctionBytes this morning reported that eBay traffic for the months of August and September were at 5-year lows when compared to those same months going back to 2005, according to data provided by Nielsen, which also shows a slight but steady growth trend in Amazon.com traffic over the past 2 years. You can read the full article at AusctioBytes here.

http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y09/m10/i19/s01

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Beware of Phone Phishing Scam Involving Suposedly Deaf People

There is a new phone phishing scam aimed at eBay sellers. I received one of these calls this morning. Here is how it works:

You receive a phone call and an operator on the line explains that she is on the line with a hearing impaired person who is typing her message and the operator will translate. So you say “OK” and the operator gives the person’s name and asks for yours. Then the operator says the person is overseas and wants to buy one of your products.  She then started asking questions wanting my location and address and eBay ”name.”  

I wasn’t sure what was going on and being very careful, when suddenly I heard a click and an another operator came on the line. She said she was from AT&T and that she was disconnecting the call because it was a fradulent call. I asked her what was going on and she explained that this was a phone phishing scam designed to get personal information and the calls were originating from overseas.

So, if you get a call like this, my best advice is to just say “No thank you,” and hang up.

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The Complete eBay Marketing System by Skip McGrath is a complete training program for eBay sellers and those wanting to start and run an eBay business.  The course is contained in a five-pound printed training manual, shipped the same day your order is processed.

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The holidays are fast approaching and this is the time of year when eBay sellers make the most money. For example, last year our sales for November thru January exceeded our sales for the prior 5 months. I just sent this out to my newsletter subscribers, but since some of my blog readerrs don’t subscribe I wanted to share it with you too. If you would like to subscribe to my FREE TWICE MONTHLY NEWSLETTER click here The eBay Seller’s News.

I wanted to give you three resources with this issue:

1. eBay Holiday Selling Tips:

• The Thanksgiving selling season has already started. The Christmas selling starts the day after Halloween.
• Free Shipping works best during the holiday season
• People often buy more than one of the same item during the Christmas season. The best way to take advantage of this is with fixed price listings for multiple quantities. If you offer free shipping when someone buys more than one item this always works
• This year people will be looking for bargains. eBay’s markdown manager is a great tool to find those buyers
• People are shopping every day. Run shorter duration auctions and run them more often

2. Key Dates To Start Promotions

• If you have any Thanksgiving related products or promotions you should be sending them out now and launching auctions next week.
• Start your Christmas promotions the day after Halloween
• The day after Thanksgiving is not only a big retail day it is also a big day on eBay. Make sure you have auctions ending on that day. Anytime from 8AM Pacific to 7PM Pacific is a good time. If you have identical products that sell well for Christmas, have an auction end once an hour starting at 8AM. This way your items will appear at the top of the search results on one of the biggest shopping days of the year. I did this for one of my products last year and 9 out of my 12 listings sold and over half of them went with the BIN price.
• Start offering optional expedited on December 18^th and keep it going right up to Christmas eve. Even if someone buys on Christmas eve with expedited shipping they will not get it in time, but people still do that as some of them are always a couple days late.
• Run a post-Christmas sale with markdown manager starting December 28th and running through January 15th.

3. Holiday Toy Guide

Every year about this time, Jennie Hunt comes out with her Holiday Toy Guide. Even eBay sellers who don’t normally sell toys can make money in this category this time of year. Last year one of Jennie’s readers who had never sold toys before made over $4000 selling toys she bought retail from discount warehouses and outlets.

Jennie has just produced a great article about the toy market and what it will look like in this economy. Here is the article. After you read it, you can visit Holiday Toy Guide and get more free articles and read about Jennie’s service.  When it comes to the toy market Jennie is the acknowledged expert on the eBay Toy Market.

How Is The Economy Going To Effect Toy Sales On eBay This Year?
By Jennie Hunt

If you are an eBay seller, you probably can’t help but think about how the economy might affect the biggest selling season of the year… holiday toy sales.

First of all, I think it is important to note that nobody can predict how things are going to pan out this year (or any year for that matter)… no matter who says it or how they say it… until we are smack in the middle of the season, it is just a prediction.

Even so, it would be unwise if we ignored the status of the economy and didn’t take a closer look as to how this selling season COULD be affected. It is equally important to examine strategies we, as sellers, can put into place that will help ensure a profitable selling season regardless of how glum things may look today.

What We Can Rely On

1. That children always come first.

   Parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles… no matter what… will find a way to make their child’s holiday one to remember. Even if it means cutting the budget elsewhere, they will find a way to buy toys and gifts for the children in their lives.

2. Even in a slow economy, the holidays still bring out good cheer.

   The holidays are known for being a time for hope and generosity. Although you wouldn’t always recognize this when customers fight over the last (latest and greatest) Elmo on the shelves… the motive is still to bring cheer to the loved ones in their lives during the holidays.

3. Most people don’t know how to budget.

   Consumer debt in our country is through the roof… we don’t really understand how to control spending… and, although I can’t encourage getting into more debt, I think it is safe to assume that people will spend what they feel like they have to spend to make the people in their lives happy this year. This means people are going to be buying the hottest toys for the children in their lives… even if it means going into debt.

Okay, so we know people are still going to buy. In fact, Deloitte Research and Retail Forward are predicting sales to be flat this holiday season compared to a year ago when it dropped significantly. At the same time, the International Council of Shopping Centers has predicted a 1% increase in sales compared to last year’s sales.

The only thing we really know is that analysts are all over the board. No one really knows what will happen… But, we can assume that, although they may be forced to cut back from previous years (you do have to have food on the table), we are a society that is known for getting deeper and deeper into debt. But what if people do cut corners and aren’t interested in (or able to) buying the hot toys that are released for this holiday season?

They are still going to buy toys!

I’m confident that even if parents can’t afford to, they will find a way to buy toys for their children. And, if they can’t afford to get the newest toys for this year… they will buy used. Did you know that used toys sell well all year long – and they do quite well during the holiday season too? I can’t help but wonder if new toy sales slump a bit this year… only to find that used toy sales go through the roof!

We’ll have to wait and see to find out – but, it doesn’t hurt to be prepared.

One of the best strategies toy sellers can implement this holiday season is to offer both used and new toys to their customers.

Even though new toys traditionally skyrocket during the holidays… and that means sellers can buy them at full retail prices only to see them double or triple on eBay… there can be a much higher profit margin when selling used toys. You can pick up gently used toys at yard sales, consignment shops, estate sales and thrift stores for pennies on the dollar and turn them around for 100-200% profit on eBay!

But, it all comes down to knowing what sells…

The Holiday Toy Guide is created to help you make the most from your toy selling efforts on eBay… to help you know what is selling (and what isn’t!)… and in an unpredictable economy – this is MUST HAVE information.

Holiday Toy Guide

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The original reesponse to our eBay Niche Workshop was excellent but we still ended up with a few open slots. So we opened it up again this week and we are almost full.  Here is the link to read about the workshop opportunity: http://budurl.com/ebayniche

We will be closing it on Sunday Evening, so this is your last chance to get in to a wonderfully easy and profitable niche. We show you how and where to source products for $10 to $20 that can be sold for between $50 and $90 and even more. And the sources are local and plentiful –right in your neighborhood.

I hope you will take advantage of this.  http://budurl.com/ebayniche  and yes – it comes with a money back guarantee if it doesn’t work for you.

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Let eBay and other sellers know how you feel and how you are coping with the changes.  AuctionBytes is conducting a survey of readers to see how eBay’s Fall Release of changes is impacting sellers.

The survey focuses on eBay’s changes to search and new Top Rated Seller program.

There are 22 questions and takes about 5 minutes. Take the survey here now.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=1V6m5mpScbmS5xSKb3tVTQ_3d_3d

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The answer to that question depends on the kind of drop shipper you are looking at.  I like to place drop shippers in four categories:

1. Total scams
2. Large general product dropshippers
3. Specialized drop shippers
4. Small and medium-sized manufacturers that drop ship.

Let’s take a look at each one.

1. Total Scams – there are a few companies out there that claim to have thousands of famous name brand products that in fact ship mostly fakes from China.  I once bought a dozed Polo dress shirts from one of these companies. I didn’t know I was buying from China, but that’s where the package came from when it arrived. Actually the fakes were pretty good quality, but they were fakes so I couldn’t sell them on eBay. I ended up selling them on Craigslist and telling people they were knockoffs. I didn’t make any money, but I got my money back that way.

2. The large general dropshippers are the companies you see advertised in Google Ads all the time.  They claim to have virtual warehouses stuffed with millions of products. In fact they are nothing more than middlemen, who buy at wholesale from the real distributor, mark up the product and sell it to you. The problem is that others are selling the same things on eBay for less than you are buying it for.

3. Specialized Drop Shippers are a little better. These are distributors who buy from manufacturers and specialize in one type of product. For example, Safety Technology sells all types of safety and self-defense products such as stun guns, and pepper spray.

4. Small and medium-sized manufacturers that drop ship are your very best source because you are dealing directly with the manufacturer.  There are thousands of these companies out there. Yes it is a bit of work to find them, but when you do this can be a very profitable relationship.

My long time readers know that one of the best companies I recommend for wholesale sourcing is World Wide Brands (WWB). For several years now they have provided real wholesale sourcing information. Unlike other companies that simply sell wholesale lists, WWB actually has a staff of people who research the sources and contact the companies listed to make sure they are real wholesalers and that they will work with eBay sellers.  They list about 7000 companies that will drop ship –many of them small manufacturers.

Worldwide Brands has long been known as a highly trusted authority on Wholesale Product Sourcing for online entrepreneurs. They have a revolutionary new tool that combines their extensive Drop Ship, Light Bulk, Volume Wholesale, Liquidation and Import Wholesaler contact information with instant analyses of how well each product searched will SELL online.

The integrated research tool helps you select profitable products by showing you how well a product will sell online and how large the competition is.

Their service also includes over 20 hours of training videos and webinars related to wholesale sourcing and selling online. Click here to learn more about World Wide Brands. You can even get some free sources from them as a demo if you click on the Free Trial Link 

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The eBay niche workshop I promoted a couple of weeks ago was a huge success. We limited the workshop to a low number so we would not saturate the niche. Originally the full number sold out, but we had a few people who backed out at the last minute, so we can still take a few more clients.

If you visit the page and the PayPal Button at the bottom of the page is gone, then I am sorry but we were sold out.  Here is the link to the original blog post where you can learn about the workshop.

http://blog.skipmcgrath.com/2009/09/new-ebay-niche-can-earn-up-to-5000-per-week/

It has only been 5 days since the workshop and we have already had several people make their first sales.  And the special forum we set up to go with the workshop is full of positive comments about this very unique and profitable niche that literally anyone can get into for about $20. You can turn every $20 investment into $70 or more with a 3-day or 5-day listing on eBay.  And best of all the product has a sell through rate over 85%.

Skip McGrath

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