My eBay Life

Thank you for visiting!

I joined the world of eBay and started selling online in April 2004. I began with online auctions, and soon opened an eBay store, Silver Lotus. eBay business is sometimes a bumpy ride, but never a boring one.

Selling on eBay, and participating in the eBay community, has been a fascinating experience. There's always something new to learn. Not to mention whole communities of people to "meet" online.

Tons of resources are available if you want to learn more about doing business on eBay, and I'm gathering information about them here for you.
Please stop in for a visit at my eBay store.

My user ID is the-silver-lotus. You can check out my feedback here.

I hope you find this lens helpful. Please don't forget to take a moment to rate it. Happy eBaying!

Cheers!

Don't wait - get started on eBay now

This link will take you there

What you'll find in this lens

Don't wait - get started on eBay now
Helpful Tools and Web Sites
FREE Information About eBay!
eBay Research Labs
Learn from one of the best
eBay Business Centers
SCORE
Join Squidoo!!
ebay on Squidoo
More helpful tools and websites
Keywords, Traffic, Search
Helpful Books
Better Photographs For Your Listings
AuctionBytes Blog
News and Strategies For eBay Sellers
bloggingstocks: eBay
Start Using PayPal
Silver Lotus
Powerseller King
Internet Mosaic
Squidbids and Other Help On Squidoo
PowerSeller Daily
There's more than one way to skin a cat!
Cool Tools: Holiday Countdowns
Submit your eBay store to search engines
A little something for the ebay addicts out there......
Beyond eBay
Stay up-to-date!
AuctionZip
If you sell on eBay...
SRG: The Sellers Resource Group
Visit these online sellers

Helpful Tools and Web Sites

These are some of the tools and websites I've found helpful in developing my eBay business. I hope they can be of help to you too!

eBay Auction Count Charts: These folks monitor EBay's pages 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, at 1.5 hour intervals for their auction counts and the sell-through statistics. Fascinating stuff.
HTML Practice Board: Type in your html and see how it looks
Hexadecimal HTML Color Chart: Choose custom colors for your store (background, foreground, or text).
eBay Dedicated Practice Board: Check your auction listing HTML or templates on a simulated eBay page.
Owen and Emma's eBay Stores Library: Almost everything you might want to know about starting and maintaining an eBay store.
Links for eBay Sellers: This page was organized by members of two ebay community groups and contains a wide range of links to ebay resources, including, but not limited to, item research/identification, shipping, bookseller resources, phone numbers, shipping supplies, and resources for "jazzing up" your listings. There's a lot here, so be sure to have a look
Yardsale Queen: Looking for merchandise to sell on eBay? Many people do quite well buying at garage sales and reselling on ebay. This website will help you learn how to be a smart yardsale shopper and avoid garage sale scams. It includes a bulletin board where you can advertise your yard sale and find out about yard sales in your area. And if all that stuff you bought piles up and you have to have your own garage sale, this site has tips on organizing a successful sale.
Toolhaus.org: Several good feedback tools: you can check out an eBay member's negative feedback, see mutual feedback left by two members, see recent feedback with an item number, and even see which items members have bid on.
eBCalc: eBCalc is a free online eBay fee calculator. It allows anyone who sells on eBay to find out what their total eBay and PayPal fees would be if they were to sell an item on eBay. They also have a nifty Reverse Net Profit Calculator that can tell you what amount you should charge for Shipping & Handling to receive the amount of Net Profit you want. There's also a Reverse Shipping & Handling calculator built in as well that can tell you exactly what you should be charging for Shipping & Handling to completely cover your eBay fees, your PayPal fees, and your actual cost of shipping.
Free Tools For Better Auctions: On this page set up by a member of the eBay community you'll find lots of different free tools that can help improve your listings.
List My Store: Want to start an eBay store? Need help with your existing eBay store? This is an excellent resource for you!

FREE Information About eBay!

a couple of handy eBooks for you

Whether you are just getting started or have already been at it for a while, it's always good to learn whatever you can from the pros!

Click here for your FREE eBay Buyer's Guide

Click here for your FREE eBay Seller's Guide

eBay Research Labs

take advantage of these great tools from eBay

eBay Research Labs: This is the starting page, where you can see what's most in demand TODAY and do your own searches.
BayEstimator: Optimize your eBay listing title with BayEstimator
Repex: Use the reputation extractor to learn more detailed information about your feedback (or someone else's!)
Hyades Clustering: A really neat and easy way to navigate eBay to see what is currently for sale in any category, with subcategories. You can then sort results by relevance, supply, or alphabetically and then click on the links to see the listings. Sweet!

You can do the same thing by entering a seller ID.
Emosi Sosial: "Capturing the emotions behind community feedback"

This is very interesting. For user feedback, enter an eBay user ID and the program will return tags and emoticons about the user.
ebaysaurus: A semantic query network. Peek into the eBay community vocabulary with this tool. It can help you see what queries are popular - just enter a search term and the tool will help you unravel it.

Learn from one of the best

I mean it!

Skip McGrath and his wife Karen began selling on eBay in 1997 and soon became really successful in that business. Since that time, "guru" Skip has been sharing what he's learned with people in the eBay community, including me. Skip's website is loaded with really useful free information. Whether you've been selling on eBay for a while or are a newbie, you should not miss it. Just click on this banner and get learning!

eBay Business Centers

According to Entrepreneur magazine, "eBay is the most level of playing fields--virtually anyone can make money auctioning their stuff. But to move from eBay hobbyist to eBay business owner takes work and planning." And they are right. Their web site has a whole section set up for both new and experienced eBayers. Everything from getting started on eBay to growing and managing an eBay business is covered. Visit entrepreneur.com

The eBay Center on ATT/Yahoo is part of ATT/Yahoo Small Business and is another very valuable resource. When you're done checking out the eBay information, have a look at the other small business information - you may well find some very useful ideas and tools.

SCORE

free tools and counseling from REAL businesspeople

SCORE is an outstanding nonprofit association dedicated to educating entrepreneurs and the formation, growth and success of small business nationwide. SCORE is a resource partner with the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA).

SCORE's local offices throughout the country offer workshops and other services for small businesspeople. And 24/7 their website is the place to go for a wealth of support and guidance. Learn about starting, managing, financing, and growing a business. About technology. Get free templates, workshops, and tools. Doesn't matter whether your business is online or not - if you've got or want to have a small business, this is one of the best resources you'll find.

Join Squidoo!!

If you haven't yet registered for Squidoo, use this link:

Join Squidoo: Squidoo is a great way to promote your eBay business - every eBay seller should join!

ebay on Squidoo

some eBay-oriented lenses for you to visit

Ebay Sellers on Squidoo

Thank you for stopping by! If you are looking for products and content from the best eBay sellers, you've come to the right place. Please use the clickable links below to find the items that interest you or browse the entire lens. Note to eBay Seller...

Online Auction Terminology

Have you ever gone to eBay and seen the phrase "dutch auction" or "Bakelite" and wondered what the heck it means? Or you're a new eBay store owner and are seeing these foreign terms on the forums? You're not alone!&nbs...

eBay Auction Buyer's Tips and Tricks

eBay isn't just an auction and a marketplace: often it can feel quite a lot like a game. Like any game, you can get ahead if you think strategically, using your head to outwit the other buyers and get the best price. Here are a few things you can try...

Grow and Promote Your Ebay Store Sales & Creating Multiple Streams of Ebay Income!

Learning How to Make Money on ebay (the right way!). This lens is about selling on eBay to make money by using an eBay store and considering all eBay has to offer you in terms of opportunities to make money and promote yourself. We operate o...

More helpful tools and websites

Seems as though the list never ends. A good thing too!

eBay To Go: Great little widget! In each of my listings, I include one that shows pictures of items in my eBay store. It draws people to my other listings. Several widgets are available.
Auctiva: Free, popular, and a certified eBay provider, Auctiva is auction management software.
Auction Cloud: AuctionCloud shows popular keywords most frequently used by eBay users when searching for auction listings.
Shopit - The Social Commerce Network: Shopit is the world's first and largest peer-to-peer social commerce network that enables users to buy, sell and trade anything, anywhere on the Internet. And not only is it free, but you can import your eBay and Yahoo store listings. Shopit widgets work with nearly 40 sites such as Facebook, Friendster, and Yahoo 360, just to name a few.
Free ebay research data from Terapeak: eBay pricing research tools help you increase your profits while selling on eBay. Terapeak is the industry leader for eBay research with over 200 thousand sellers using its service worldwide.
Auction Repair Home Page: A collection of tools to help find problems, and make repairs to auction listings.
Copy-Not: Prevent routine theft of your eBay listing photographs with this easy-to-use script (just add it to the html in your listings). No method is 100% foolproof, but this is a great little tool for preventing casual theft of your pictures. And it's FREE.
10 Tips to Avoid Negative eBay Seller Feedback: Helpful article and slideshow from PCmag.com

Keywords, Traffic, Search

Get those buyers to your eBay store!

Keywords are critical to every type of listing on eBay. Even if you have an auction listing that isn't around long enough to be indexed by a search engine, you still need to use the right keywords for eBay's internal search.

At 7 days, auctions don't last long enough to be indexed by search engines, but if you have an eBay store, you want traffic originating from all over the Internet, not just from ebay.

These links will take you to useful free tools that will help you with search, keyword, and traffic concerns.

Google Keyword Tool: This tool generates potential keywords and reports their Google statistics, including search performance and seasonal trends.
Keyword Generator: Generate keywords, make meta keywords, and lots of other tools
Increase Your Traffic: Automatically add your URL for FREE to over 70 of the most important indexes and search engines! Improve your search engine ranking. Highly recommend this do-it-yourself web promotion site! I use it, and not just for my eBay store....
TypoBid: When a seller spells brand names (keywords!) incorrectly it's your opportunity to get a deal - misspelling results in fewer bids, which means a cheaper price for you. Sometimes the price will be low enough that you can turn around and sell the merchandise for a profit!
Typo Buddy: Here's another website where you can find listings with incorrectly spelled titles. The great thing about this one is that it's not just for eBay -- Craigslist is included as well. When you type in what you're looking for and hit the search button, results for both eBay and Craigslist are displayed. Cool!

Helpful Books

some of the many books about doing business on eBay and online

Three Weeks to eBay Profi...

The 7 Essential Steps to...

Sell It on eBay: A Guide...

The Business Guide to Sel...

All My Life for Sale

Better Photographs For Your Listings

These are links to websites where you'll find tips and tricks for producing better photographs for your listings.

Jerryrig.com: A homemade lighting box, macro tips, and other how-to ideas - not only for photos.
Basic Jewelry Photography: Will help you shooting great photos of jewelry and other small items
Table Top Studio: A motherlode of help for photographing many types of products
A Homemade Light Tent: Easy to make light tent using common objects from your office or home
BetterPhoto.com: Links to articles, discussions, and Q&A about photography
Kodak's Tips & Projects Center: Information about digital photography and many tips for shooting better photos
Digital Photography: From DT&G Photographic, lots of information about digital photography

AuctionBytes Blog

News and insight focusing on
ecommerce and the online auction industry
by Ina Steiner, Editor of AuctionBytes.com

Fetching RSS feed... please stand by

News and Strategies For eBay Sellers

World of eBay: My fellow eBay seller Marty's blog. He's found some interesting stuff to sell on eBay!
Hammertap's Resource Center: Hammertap provides auction research software and education programs. Their website also features free and excellent resources for eBay sellers. And be sure to have a look at the newsletter archive to see what you may have missed.
All Business Auctions - Blog and More: A blog and more - lots of eBay information and news here.
eBay Strategies: Scot Wingo's eBay Blog. In addition to discussing eBay strategies, Scot provides his take on the latest eBay related news.

bloggingstocks: eBay

Market takes on ebay and related companies

Fetching RSS feed... please stand by

Start Using PayPal

PayPal can be used for much more than eBay.

Many shoppers love the convenience of PayPal. If you're selling online, whether on eBay or other sites, consider offering this service for your customers. Click on the banner for more information.

Silver Lotus

My eBay Store

This is the RSS feed from my ebay store. For this module I have chosen to have 4 of my store listings featured. Click on any of them and you'll be taken to the listing in my store.

If you have an eBay store, you can add a module like this to your Squidoo lens. To find the feed, look at the bottom of your eBay store's home page - you'll see a little orange rectangle with the letters RSS in it. Click on that link, and it will take you to your RSS page. The address (URL) shown in your browser is the one you'll use to pull RSS from for your Squidoo lens.

Fetching RSS feed... please stand by

Powerseller King

A well-written blog by an experienced ebayer

Fetching RSS feed... please stand by

Internet Mosaic

A nifty site to help you promote your ebay store or other online business

Click on the banner to check it out.

Squidbids and Other Help On Squidoo

If you sell on eBay, you'll want to have a look at this great squidoo feature.

Silver Lotus Jewelry Showcase: This link is to my squidbid showcase, just to give you an idea of what these are like. I haven't had a chance to do much with it yet, but you should go set up one of your own and see what you can do with it.
Squidoo Directory Group: SquiDirectory is an online directory of selected Squidoo's by expert authors on a variety of subjects. From art to unique gift shopping ideas, politics, music and sports and more.
Squidoo is an outstanding web resource for many interesting subjects. Silver Lotus' My eBay Life is proud to be a member. Be sure to check out the directory, and consider submitting your lens: Squidoo Directory

PowerSeller Daily

an eBay junkie's life

Advice, tips, trivia and humor of an Ebay Powerseller.

Fetching RSS feed... please stand by

There's more than one way to skin a cat!

(eBay being the cat....)

If you aren't able to sell on eBay for some reason, or you'd like to increase your existing eBay income, I strongly recommend checking out BANS (Build A Niche Store).

I recently bought this software and opened my first online niche store featuring merchandise from eBay, and I am seriously impressed. The software is really good value for the money, is easy to use, and comes with excellent support. This is the perfect way to participate in eBay without the cost of inventory or the aggravation of dropshippers. Click on the banner below to learn more - it is definitely worth your time!

Cool Tools: Holiday Countdowns

If you sell on eBay - or anywhere online for that matter - putting a countdown to a holiday in your listings or on your site is a way to remind shoppers that it's time to buy that gift. Here is one of a variety of Christmas countdowns (many different holidays offered) available free of charge:

$Christmas countdown banner$

All you have to do is copy the HTML code for the countdown you want to use and paste it on your page. The number changes automatically. You can see more Christmas countdowns, and countdowns for other holidays, here.

Submit your eBay store to search engines

it's free and easy

Search Engine Optimization and SEO Tools

A little something for the ebay addicts out there......

Buy one of these things. Use it for a while (and treat it well). When you're tired of it, sell it on ebay ("gently used" condition). Then buy some more stuff....and start over again!

White Long Sleeve T-Shirt

from ReadMyChest.com

Long Sleeve T-Shirt

Price: 22.99

ONE MANS JUNK OR TREASURE Hooded Sweatshirt

from GLAMS

Hooded Sweatshirt

Price: 39.99

Ebayers Anonymous Magnet

from ReadMyChest.com

Magnet

Price: 2.75

Sticker (Oval)

from The Major City

Sticker (Oval)

Price: 3.09

When Life Hands You Lemons Yellow T-Shirt

from Hilarious T-shirts Gifts Funny - Offensive t-shirt

Yellow T-Shirt

Price: 22.99

Beyond eBay

looking for other ways to make money online?

It's very rare for any product to really excite me, and it's even more rare when I recommend it. But this is something you really ought to have a look at.

Dozens and dozens of ebooks, courses, private sites, and other resources are out there. There's no shortage of this stuff, as you probably know. Some of it is good. And some, as you've no doubt discovered, is really, really awful.

Recently I started learning about Yanik Silver, who's made quite a name for himself in the world of internet business (I'm a big fan of his book "Moonlighting on the Internet").

One of Yanik's latest resources is the Instant Internet Profits system. It's a complete step-by-step blueprint to help you succeed. Every step is carefully explained. Nothing is left to your imagination to guess how to put it all together or which tools to use. Yanik took his site from zero to over $50,000 in no time, so it's worth your time to learn more about it.

If you're looking for guidance from someone who has actually *done it* and is willing to share everything with you, you won't find many who are more qualified.

Don't waste time and money trying to figure out what really works on the Internet. Save yourself the frustration, time and mistakes by following Yanik's lead. Please do yourself a favor and check it out soon.

Stay up-to-date!

Useful tools and information for sellers

AuctionZip

live auction information

Auction Zip: AuctionZip is the Nation's largest Directory of Live Auction Listings. Site contains auctions, auctioneers, auction companies, and auction galleries in various auction categories and states.

If you sell on eBay...

you should have a Squidoo lens (or lenses)

and you should promote your lenses using these excellent tools

The Isle of Squid: The Isle of Squid is a Directory of the Best lenses on Squidoo.
SquidUtils - Utilities and Tools for Squidoo Lensmasters: SquidUtils has complementry utilities and tools for Squidoo Lensmasters. Tools include: the advanced dashboard, lensmaster feeds, plus Amazon links and feeds.
Lensroll Networking / Popular Lenses: Social networking for Squidoo lens masters to share relevant content. Build links, increase traffic, make money for yourself.

SRG: The Sellers Resource Group

eBay Sellers Working Together

Many different online communities have come together through eBay. Among these are groups of like-minded sellers who work together to promote their eBay stores within and outside of eBay.

The members of the Sellers Resource Group are committed to providing the highest level of customer service to eBay buyers. In addition to sharing the same values, SRG members are always available to help each other out. If you're buying on eBay, you'd do well to have a look at the SRG index page for starters.

We also have a squidoo group SRG and invite you to check it out.

Thank you.

Visit these online sellers

Online sellers, including some members of the Sellers Resource Group, that you might want to visit.

My eBay Life by Silver_Lotus

Rate this Lens

Don't wait - get started on eBay now

This link will take you there

What you'll find in this lens

Helpful Tools and Web Sites

FREE Information About eBay!

a couple of handy eBooks for you

eBay Research Labs

take advantage of these great tools from eBay

Learn from one of the best

I mean it!

eBay Business Centers

SCORE

free tools and counseling from REAL businesspeople

Join Squidoo!!

ebay on Squidoo

some eBay-oriented lenses for you to visit

More helpful tools and websites

Seems as though the list never ends. A good thing too!

Keywords, Traffic, Search

Get those buyers to your eBay store!

Helpful Books

some of the many books about doing business on eBay and online

Better Photographs For Your Listings

AuctionBytes Blog

News and Strategies For eBay Sellers

bloggingstocks: eBay

Market takes on ebay and related companies

Start Using PayPal

PayPal can be used for much more than eBay.

Silver Lotus

My eBay Store

Powerseller King

Internet Mosaic

A nifty site to help you promote your ebay store or other online business

Squidbids and Other Help On Squidoo

PowerSeller Daily

an eBay junkie's life

There's more than one way to skin a cat!

(eBay being the cat....)

Cool Tools: Holiday Countdowns

Submit your eBay store to search engines

it's free and easy

A little something for the ebay addicts out there......

Beyond eBay

looking for other ways to make money online?

Stay up-to-date!

Useful tools and information for sellers

AuctionZip

live auction information

If you sell on eBay...

you should have a Squidoo lens (or lenses)

SRG: The Sellers Resource Group

eBay Sellers Working Together

Visit these online sellers

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

#8

#9

#10

#11

#12

#13

#14

#15

#16

#17

#18

#19

#20

#21

#22

#23

#24

^#1

^#2

^#3

^#4

^#5

^#6

^#7

^#8

^#9

^#10

^#11

^#12

^#13

^#14

^#15

^#16

^#17

^#18

^#19

^#20

^#21

^#22

^#23

^#24

^#25

^#26

^#27