Business & Investing

So you’ve sold a few items on eBay from around your house. Congrats! By selling your first items on eBay, you’re ahead of 90% of people who hope to sell on eBay. You’re ahead of those people who dream about selling but never do anything to get there.

But right now maybe you’re wondering, what do I do next? Apart from getting rid of the clutter around your house, where does the real money on eBay come from?

To answer that question, let’s talk business. What makes a business successful? What turns a single small hamburger stand into the hugely successful McDonald’s chain? The answer is that the money is made through the system. The system is the optimized and repeatable process that works all the time, every time. For your business, you want to create great systems that work without you having to be there. Having your products automatically put on eBay and sold while you sleep is a great example of this.

There are great tools to help you create amazing systems. These tools free you from having to always sit in front of your computer all the time. It’s a great feeling when you wake up the next morning and discover how much more money you made in your account. It’s almost like you get paid to sleep.

Here are two more tips. First, you need to buy products that sell. When you’re getting started, you might not have a lot of money to buy a ton of products. Don’t worry about that. Instead, buy smaller quantities. Whatever you buy, make sure that you do your research first. What’s already selling on eBay? Where can you buy it less than the current eBay price? What products are selling quick? Where can you find them at a glance? Well…

Keep Your Finger On The Pulse. You can get a snapshot about what’s happening on eBay by visiting http://pulse.ebay.com. This page shows what eBay buyers are looking for in each category, with the top 10 most searched for items, the most watched items and the largest eBay stores in each category. All of this information together helps you spot the latest trends. For example, right now the largest eBay stores are selling books or music. That suggests that these categories have high demand.

The eBay Pulse is a great tool to help you start identifying what is most often searched for on eBay, and what the buyer is looking for. Type those highly searched items in to the search bar and see how much competition there is. Once you find an item that is highly searched for but has a low number of competitors, you know what you should be trying to find to sell.

Jesse Holmes is an eBay PowerSeller who has been making money on eBay for more than 3 years. Before you start selling on eBay, you need to check out his excellent free eBay Business Start Up Kit, showing you step by step how to learn to sell on eBay.

When new people are coming to eBay, often they focus on how to make a listing and understanding how eBay works. However one very important topic that many people miss is how to take good pictures. You could have a perfect description of your item, but if you have a bad picture, then your item likely won’t sell. If your item does sell, it will be for much less than you could have sold it for if you had a good picture.

Descriptions are important of course but without pictures, the buyers will not be able to tell if you are telling the truth about the condition of the item. The pictures will not only show the condition of the item but it will also help describe the features or details of it. Pictures can also be used to show the size of an item. Even though you can write the dimensions or weight of something in the description box, a picture with will do much better. For example, small items can be placed next to rulers. Larger items can be put up against just about anything in your home in order to show a comparison of size.

In order to properly sell items on eBay, you should know how to use a camera. If you do not include any pictures at all, you might as well consider your listing fees wasted. There is nothing more important than the picture because it shows what your buyer is actually getting, what it looks like, its condition, and its size. It also helps your buyer to trust you because they know that you put the extra time and effort into the auction.

As you grow your eBay business, you might want to consider buying a high quality digital camera. You also might want to invest in a photo editing program such as Photoshop. Photo editing programs help you stand out from the crowd because they can make your pictures appear like they were taken by a professional.

Here’s a closing tip on taking pictures. When you do take pictures, make sure that you take them from as many angles as you can. The more pictures you can provide your customers, the more they will be able to trust you. This will have a direct impact on your sales.

Jesse Holmes is an eBay PowerSeller and Entrepreneur who has been making money on eBay for more than 3 years. Before you start selling on eBay, make sure you check out his excellent free eBay Business Start Up Kit, showing you step by step how to learn to sell on eBay.