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EBAY TECHNIQUES, STRATEGIES, TIPS & MUCH MORE

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The Auction Reporter Issue 2

 

This lens is the second free issue of my newsletter - The Auction Reporter.  Follow my progress on eBay and learn tons about eBay that might know already but need reminding of or totally new things that could really jazz up your eBay career.  Don't forget to check out my website http://www.theauctionreporter.com

and keep an eye on my progress at:

http://stores.ebay.com/theauctionreporter 

ISSUE 2 CONTENTS 

HELLO & WELCOME

TIPS FROM THE TOP
What's in it for me? (WIIFM)
I WANT IT NOW!!

IT WAS CHRISTMAS
Selling your unwanted Christmas Presents

DID YOU KNOW ABOUT?
eBay Workshops Update
eBay Live Help
Don't be an eBay Pioneer
eBay Forums worth a mention

QUICK START TIPS
Personalized Goodies

WEIRD & WONDERFUL AUCTIONS!
Some interesting Auctions

PLANNED AND NEW ON EBAY
Deal Finder

EBAY IN THE NEWS
Domino's Pizza Runs eBay Promotion

THE AUCTION REPORTER PROGRESS AND PLANS

PLANS FOR FUTURE ISSUES

SOURCES USED THIS MONTH

RECOMMENDED

HELLO & WELCOME 

Okay I'm still not an eBay expert by a long shot (but I'm learning and will get there one day soon!) but as a researcher I know good information, that can be learnt from and implemented, when I see it.

I am learning as much as I can about eBay, after all education, education, education (and action, action, action) are the keys to success online and anywhere else for that matter.

On the following pages you will find the best tips and strategies from eBay newletters, blogs, forums and articles. The Auction Reporter has brought them to you in a summarized form (rewritten with my personality and take on them as not to break any copyright rules) so you can learn and implement the best eBay tips, techniques, strategies and keep up with the latest happenings on and about eBay.

From these tips, I will select a few that I am going to use before the next edition of the newsletter and let you know what my progress is in the following month. By being accountable to you (and listening to all your suggestions) I aim to provide you with one of the best eBay newsletters online.

During December I tried the following tactics so check out The Auction Reporter Progress and Plans page to see how they went and what January holds in store.

Setting up an About Me Page (done)

Writing a Guide (wrote 2!)

Packaging a Selection of Ebooks/Software/Videos to Sell on eBay (I tried selling my own unique ebook so this one will be a task for January)

Attempting a Couple of Sideshow Auctions (I tried two of these)

Study the eBay Workshops and various Ebay forums to see if there is some good information to extract for this newsletter. (Some tips are incorporated within the summaries)

TIPS FROM THE TOP 

What's in it for Me? (WIITFM?)

Oh the importance of copy. Will I ever get it right? I hope so because only then will the achievement of being a Powerseller become attainable!

You have to think about the whole process of an eBay auction (particularly ebooks). Have a download page that has some extra freebies, affiliate links and a link back to your store. I say mainly ebooks as if you are selling physical products, you could offer a digital guide that your customer could get their teeth into while they wait for the physical product to arrive.

What's the phrase? Under Promise and Over Deliver that's it.

Look at the Powersellers in the categories you want to get into and study their copy and use it in your auctions (in your own words of course).

That's one of my aims for this month to learn as much as I can about copy as I can and apply this knowledge to my descriptions in the auctions I offer this month. I will let you know the best points I learn next month. I really think it is the difference success and failure on eBay or on the Internet as a whole.

Tips from the Top 

WANT IT NOW SECTION ON EBAY

This is the place to find out what eBay buyers want. What they really, really want! This is the place where eBay buyers post their requests to buy certain products and services. As as eBay seller you can respond to these requests by pointing them to your auctions.

You can browse through these sections and enter the information gained from entering a certain keyword on a spreadsheet to easily see repetitive trends, as you can imagine this is quite time consuming.

You would hope to see posts that occur regularly and don't have many responses from other eBay sellers. Find items that have HIGH DEMAND BUT LOW COMPETITION. Almost like finding a needle in a haystack I'm afraid to say!

There is an easy way! Using software. There are several similar applications around but I personally like The Auction Inspector. I'm sure they are all very similar but I do like the Avatar for the application (it looks like Inspector Gadget!). I'm not that superficial as a general rule I promise!

Anyway for example a search for "Custom" brings up a lot of motorcycle and cars questions. Profitable if you afford it. Maybe you could do the search on eBay to find a seller for them, and as an eBay affiliate, point them in the right direction? More on eBay affiliates next month!

"taylor made" brings up lots of people wanting Taylor Made Golf Clubs. The brand not hand made I presume.

"hand made" brings up unanswered queries on "Cat Dolls or Animals by Judith Loeber of Loeber Cats". Good if you can get your hands on them.
want it now
Take a look at the Want Now Section on eBay
The Auction Inspector
It still a time consuming task but you will find some unusual niches - the GOLD needles in the haystack. It is a very underutilized part of eBay for sellers so why don't you make a mark on eBay by giving the buyer want they want. You could become "a Finder of Want it Nows". That would be a nice position to be recognized as. So take a look at the Auction Inspector and see if you can tame him!!

IT WAS CHRISTMAS 

Selling Your Unwanted Christmas Presents

The phenomenon of selling on unwanted Christmas gifts is officially growing, apparently 69% (according to a Survey.com study) of people surveyed before Christmas thought it was socially acceptable to sell unwanted Christmas presents on eBay. 20% more then last year. People tend to sell on knick knacks, alcohol, DVDs and CDS, smellies (bath products) and believe it or not fruitcake!

Apparently 85% said they hadn't got caught, which might be why the phenomenon is getting more popular.

Coming from a very computer literate family I think reselling any unwanted Christmas gifts would be just too risky so when I read about the following tip I had to agree it was a wonderful idea.

Why not provide a service of selling unwanted presents, (not just for Christmas but also birthday presents and any unwanted items). Hopefully you won't get too many unsellable items like Richard Gere DVDs or Cliff Richard CDs (only joking - just not my cup of tea!).

Sell these unwanted gifts on eBay and take a nice percentage for your time. Make money without taking a risk AND provide a potentially very popular service in your local area.

DID YOU KNOW ABOUT 

eBay Workshops Update

This section includes little snippets about eBay that you may or may not know about or not given much thought to or just me just being very slow on the uptake (but if you haven't tried them yet don't forget to take a look)!
Advanced Marketing Strategies
Quite an in depth look at psychological factors in selling your products. Interesting if you are a marketer, otherwise it is quite in depth and advanced but worth a read as you are not being sold anything on this particular workshop!

DID YOU KNOW ABOUT 

eBay Live Help

I have had some fun in December I can tell you and instead of writing to eBay customer services eBay live help is a Godsend. I wrote to eBay Customer Service about being not able to get a Classified ad to show up and they said it was because I had pornographic content which was complete and utter rubbish and I wrote them back an email telling them that. Their response? I'm sorry you have a dispute with your buyer. Completely irrelevant I think you would agree.
Ebay.com Home Page
Anyway I contacted eBay Live Help and it turned out I couldn't activate the Classified ad because my feedback was not high enough to add multiple items to the advert. You can find a link to eBay live help on the main ebay.com site and if you have a problem with another eBay site (UK, Australian, whichever) they will take a look at your account and help the best they can. Very useful, helpful and available 24/7.

DID YOU KNOW ABOUT 

It Doesn't Pay to be a Pioneer on eBay

If you manage to think of a new approach or idea, eBay is not the place to try it out, well you can, but it will be copied in a blink of an eye. So remember first move advantage on eBay is very short lived. It doesn't pay to be a pioneer on eBay.

A better approach would be to study a number of Powersellers and what they are doing and how they are doing it, then combine the best features to come up with your own approach. You become unique in copying the best of best from the best!

DID YOU KNOW ABOUT 

Some Good eBay Forums Worth A Mention

Some great forums with a load of useful eBay tips lurking within them.
FREE AUCTION HELP FORUM
A great eBay forum and place to network
POWERSELLERS UNITE
Popular online auction discussion forum
AUCTION HINTS
Another busy forum that you can learn loads about eBay from.
EBAY BUSINESS FORUM
A well visited forum with lots of tips for eBay success and other Internet Marketing Ventures.

QUICK START TACTICS 

Personalized Goodies

Everyone loves personalized gifts. I have found this great resource which shows you how to make your own personalized candy bars and baby newsletters. You can imagine how well these sell with a bit of word of mouth and with a store on eBay.

Let your mind go into overdrive and you could well have an eBay winner on your hands. Take it a step further by searching the term "personalized" on eBay and see what other ideas you could improve on (as of today there are 15851 results - plenty of food for thought). ;)
Baby Newspaper Business
Do me a favor and read the sales page. Don't buy it if you don't want to but use it to think of things you could easily personalize like certificates, t-shirts (with the help of cafepress.com) and badges.

WEIRD & WONDERFUL AUCTIONS! 

Some Unusual Auctions this Month

If you haven't looked at all the weird and wonderful auctions on eBay, you should because some of them sell for extraordinarily high prices. They are mainly listed in the Weird Stuff categories and get thousands of hits. If you have a creative mind or an overactive imagination you could have so much fun and make loads of money creating these types of auctions not to mention the traffic they can generate.
What The Jesus!
Pictures of Jesus on strange items are popping up everywhere on eBay nowadays.
Smiley
One of these mystery auctions that did quite well
Half Of My Bounty !!!
A good play on words here!

eBay on YOUTUBE! 

YouTube thumbnail
"Ebay" by Weird Al Yankovic

Runtime: 3:28 | 18922293 views | Comments

YouTube thumbnail
The Ebay Song, Hilarious!

Runtime: 4:30 | 4924145 views | Comments

YouTube thumbnail
Ebay

Runtime: 3:28 | 516450 views | Comments

PLANNED & NEW ON EBAY 

eBay Deal Finder

From a seller's point of view this will give added visibility to your auctions as they are ending.
DEAL FINDER
A great place to find a deal on eBay. The listings that are returned from this search have zero bids, end within 4 hours, have no reserve price or fixed price and has free shipping.

EBAY IN THE NEWS 

Domino's Pizza Runs eBay Promotion

This is quite exciting!!

In Conjunction with Domino's Pizza Anything Goes Promotion (Any Pizza for $9,99) it is putting up items like ipods, flat screen TVs, acoustic and electric guitars and even a car up on eBay for $9.99! But only if you can work out the clues!
Dominos Offer
Check it out here - offer runs from Jan 1st to Feb 5th 2007.

Damn looks like US only!

THE AUCTION REPORTER PROGRESS AND PLANS 

Right okay I've not made a huge impact on eBay in December, I didn't make any money but I tried a few things. I stand corrected I have a bid of 1 cent - how exciting (I'm not being sarcastic I'm elated)!!
My About Me Page
I wrote my About Me page (with help from eBay live). My advice would be to use the html version and not the steps they suggest as I tried that for three nights in a row and its still wouldn't show up. Ebay live told me it was an eBay glitch and to contact customer service as there was nothing else they could suggest. I tried doing it in html and it worked first time

This is one of the things I'm going to improve this month, its not very exciting. I need to inject some good copy and my personality into it.
How to Create an Infoproduct in 1 Day
Trying to sell my unique ebook - How to Create an Infoproduct in One Day. I used featured plus and still no joy. Injecting enthusiasm into everything I do coming up. I'm going to take notes from WOO-HOO-MYSTERYMAN!!
Taz's Masterpiece
Two weird Auctions - nobody wanted my dog's work of art!! I did get over 250 views though, thats a first I've not managed that before. Something positive!! Oh and again the template design was custom made by TEMPLATES-MADE-SIMPLE. I love them and this one was outstanding. Meet Taz. I am going to relist this one someone has to appreciate Taz's masterpiece!!
My Sideshow Auction
My second sideshow auction is bit strange. More suiting to the crazy side of my personality. It will be probably finished by the time you read this but at the moment I have a bid of 1 cent on it. It's going to be my first sale ever and I'm so excited. Hopefully if I'm lucky I'll get a few more bids but never mind if I don't. It was really fun to create and I will be doing more like it so keep an eye out for more if it even slightly amuses you! It might even be my way of selling certain items. I will probably state what the product will be next time straight away though.
Is your Store on Google?
Oh yes and I wrote two guides - you would have seen the content already as I used part of last month's newsletter:
Don't Panic it's not the end of 1 cent auctions
This guide need some amending as eBay doesn't like use of one cent listing but with the New Classified Ad format some more can be written about it.

THE AUCTION REPORTER PLANS AND PROGRESS 

January is going to be an all or nothing month. I got a Christmas Bonus last month so I should be able to afford to set up a store and and list a substantial amount of items both in the store and on eBay itself. Now I will try and convince myself to do this but I'm not promising it because I'm kind of scared to make that leap. I'm a bit scared of the risk. But that's got to be what's holding me back. I'd have liked a little bit more success before taking the leap. In for a penny so they say. I don't want to disappoint you my subscriber so I'll see what I can do!!

A few good tactics to try this month, writing some reports based on Google Zeitgeist, using Myspace (of course!), reading up on copy, and taking the plug out from my butt by following some proactive action in making eBay work for me!

Well that's December's summary. I hope I wasn't too disappointing for you. I like having you as my accountability partners, it means next month I will have something better to report.

PLANS FOR FUTURE ISSUES 

PLANS FOR FUTURE ISSUES

More personal success stories from The Auction Reporter (and I'd love to include your stories of success or eBay woes as well!)

More 'Tips from the Top', 'Did You Know About' and 'Quick Start Tips' (they are my favorite sections this month - are they yours?)

Some tips straight from the Powersellers themselves - I've got a few Powerseller Friends on Myspace! (hopefully in time some interviews too)

Tell me what you'd like to see, if you like what's here, what sections are your favorites, what I can improve or change

SOURCES USED THIS MONTH 

SOURCES USED THIS MONTH

http://www.skipmcgrath.com/newletters
http://blog.skipmcgrath.com
http://auctionbytes.com
http://www.planetsmsnewsletter.com
http://www.auctionenterprise.com
http://www.silentsalesmachine.com
http://www.olivergoehler.co.uk
http://www.sideshowauctions.com
http://www.ukauctiononline.co.uk/newsletter.html
http://www.auction-genius-course.com/blog/
http://www.ebayentrepreneur.net
http://www.powersellerking.com
http://www.ebaystrategies.blogs.com/ebay_strategies/
http://www.whatdoisell.com
http://www.auctionresourcenetwork.com
http://ebay.about.com/
http://www.workwinners.com/Newsletter_archive.htm
http://theauctionrebel.com/
http://www.ebay.com

RECOMMENDED 

Some of best free and paid resources this month
Auction Income Secrets
I think that this blog and newsletter might be worth keeping an eye on, as this guy has decided he wants to sell public domain texts on eBay and he is recording his progress for all to see right here:
FREE EBAY QUICK START KIT
I'm also very impressed with this eBay Package (free)
EBAY DEVELOPER
(not free) How To Start Your Own High Profit eBay Home Business Within 24-Hours...

WHAT YOU ARE MISSING!! 

FULL CONTENTS OF THE AUCTION REPORTER ISSUE 2

HELLO & WELCOME

TIPS FROM THE TOP
Classified ads on eBay
What's in it for me? (WIIFM)
I WANT IT NOW!!
Bargain with the Powersellers
Niche of the Month

IT WAS CHRISTMAS
Selling your unwanted Christmas Presents

DID YOU KNOW ABOUT?
eBay Workshops Update
eBay Wiki
eBay Live Help
Translation Services
Don't be an eBay Pioneer
eBay Forums worth a mention

QUICK START TIPS
Quick Popular Reports
Myspace & eBay
Personalized Goodies

WEIRD & WONDERFUL AUCTIONS!
Getting on the Pulse
Some interesting Auctions

PLANNED AND NEW ON EBAY
Expanding into China
eBay Pop
Deal Finder

EBAY IN THE NEWS
Selling Snow on eBay
eBay Toots its Horn at Holiday Marketing Efforts
Domino's Pizza Runs eBay Promotion

THE AUCTION REPORTER PROGRESS AND PLANS

PLANS FOR FUTURE ISSUES

SOURCES USED THIS MONTH

RECOMMENDED

GET THE FULL EDITION OF THIS NEWSLETTER HERE 

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eBay

WHAT DO YOU THINK? 

Junyuan wrote...

I must say that eBay is one of the fastest proven source for anyone to start generating a good income online. You have a very good lens that contains really good tips on how one can use eBay to generate good money online. I've given you 5-stars for your lens. I have a lens on how to sell digital products on eBay using eBay classified ads. Perhaps you may want to drop by and let me have your comments. :) You may also want to add your lens to my Internet Marketing Directory to get more traffic to your lens... :)

ReplyPosted September 24, 2008

DailyCash2u wrote...

You have an Excellent Lens! Good work on the pagerank! I just got a page rank for my personal website recently. I was so happy! Anyways I have a relevant Lens that talks about Cash Gifting, and another great Lens that explains How To Market for Cash Gifting. There are a lot of great ideas on there that are for any at home business. Keep up the good work. Maybe if you have more free time you can utilize another at home business. If you are thinking about possibly getting another idea up and running for extra income check out My Personal Cash Gifting Site. Thank You my friend, I joined you fan club as well. See you soon..

ReplyPosted July 27, 2008

awesomesteals2002 wrote...

Great lens!

ReplyPosted January 24, 2008

ebayriches wrote...

Hey! Nice site you have on eBay. Great information. I have just set up a lens on how one can a living on eBay at http://www.squidoo.com/ebayriches. You might want to check it out when you're free. :)

ReplyPosted September 12, 2007

CliveAnderson wrote...

Great Lens, it just goes to show that for most people who think eBay is cut and dry, how wrong they are. There is just so much to know. Lens should be on the SQUIDOO Zone on my Free Forum. 5 stars. Clive Anderson...

ReplyPosted June 10, 2007

 
1 of 2 pages

OTHER FREE EDITIONS OF THE AUCTION REPORTER AVAILABLE 

FIRST FREE EDITION OF THE AUCTION REPORTER
Ground zero edition of The Auction Reporter
THIRD FREE EDITION OF THE AUCTION REPORTER
This issue delves into many more eBay related topics.
FOURTH FREE EDITION OF THE AUCTION REPORTER
A jammed packed issue full of juicy eBay tips and news
THE AUCTION REPORTER ISSUE 5 (Full Version)
This is a full version of The Auction Reporter, freely available for everyone to read so you can see just how good the newsletter is.
THE AUCTION REPORTER FREE ISSUE 6
Another issue helping you to get to know eBay inside out.
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TheAuctionReporter

About TheAuctionReporter

Hi I am The Auction Reporter and the lenses I will be creating will all be about uncovering the secrets of eBay and to success on (and through eBay!)


The first Lenses I will be creating are the free editions of my Newsletter - The Auction Reporter and as you will see they all contain fantastic and useful information about eBay.


Of course the paid version will have more information and if you are interested in it, you can the latest newsletter here:
http://www.theauctionreporter.com/


Or past editions from my eBay store
http://stores.ebay.com/theauctionreporter

TheAuctionReporter's Pages

See all of TheAuctionReporter's pages

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