How Do I Become an eBay Powerseller?

If you want to become an eBay PowerSeller the good news is that it's free to do and the benefits you receive as a result will help you maximize revenue from selling on eBay. They include:

Access to 1:1 phone consultations to help achieve Top Rated seller status
Unpaid Item Protection
UPS rate discounts
USPS Commercial Plus pricing for Platinum or Titanium PowerSellers
Health insurance solutions
PowerUp print and email newsletters
PowerSeller Discussion Boards

But how do you get there? In order to become an eBay PowerSeller you need to generate $3,000 in sales from a minimum of 100 transactions over a 12 month period; so clearly you have to product selection right when creating an eBay business.

In fact when selling on eBay product selection is the single most important element and getting it right will fast track you to PowerSeller status. In order to do this you need to be able to source wholesale goods which are both in demand and at a reasonable price. This process begins with solid product research; when selling on eBay you have to know which products are hot and how much shelf life they have. It's about balancing your portfolio of products and having some items which are regular, steady sellers, but also keeping an awareness of hot, trending items which can be capitalised on in the short term. Another method would be to focus on seasonal products, for example, selling items relating to Christmas, Valentines day, Halloween, Easter or even birthday gifts. Following the selection of the right products you need to be able to source them correctly and competitively. This is where you need to start building relationships with wholesalers so you can negotiate the best prices for your products.

It is important to remember not to limit yourself to selling on eBay. Other platforms where you can look to sell your stock are Amazon, Ubid and Craigslist to name but a few. Not forgetting your own website, whether it be a e-commerce site or one you have created yourself. One advantage to having your own site is the fact that you don't have to pay eBay fees or rely heavily on customers providing you with positive feedback in order to give you a good reputation.

If you get the stages outlined above right, you'll be well on your way to becoming an eBay PowerSeller and creating a successful eBay and online business.

Mike Graham is an eBay Powerseller and is the author of a successful eBook entitled 'Auction Profits Exposed' Showing you the exact same way he finds 'Hot' products to sell online. Find out more right now by visiting

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7384692

How to Start Selling on eBay With Baby Steps

The best way to get started selling on eBay is just to start posting auctions. There are a million and one little things you can do to help you get the most out of it and entire businesses have lived and died through eBay but it's best to start with baby steps.

So look around your house and pick out a couple of things you don't really have much use for. If you *really* can't find anything like this (are you a monk?) then go to a local garage sale or second hand store and pick up a few small items. Now there are people who buy and sell cars etc... through eBay but we're not going to start there.

We're going to start by making a couple of sales here and there just to get you used to selling on eBay.

Now the most important part of all of this really, is knowing what sells best on eBay and how much to sell it for. If you buy a small porcelain figure in a charity shop and aim to sell it for 100x what you paid then sure you'll get a good return - but you probably won't make the sale.

Now there's a couple of things to remember here:

* You pay to post a listing (so you'll lose money if it doesn't sell).
* Start by selling just a few auctions. You want to maintain a good positive reputation for later.
* Double check your auctions and prices before you post them.

When setting a price for something you can't just judge on what you think makes a good deal. You need to look at the niche on eBay to see what others are buying and selling things for and how your auctions differs from theirs. Some things will sell a lot faster than others and don't get too disheartened if your first couple of auctions don't sell at all.

eBay has come a long way since it first started. From occasionally selling a few spare knick knacks from around the house businesses have started taking over and selling things at wholesale prices with proper advertising.

While your normal 'mom and pop' operation or normal user might post a few pictures and a quick description the bigger players will have prepared images, copy (advert writing) and offer free bonuses.

You don't want to compete with that.

Not to start with at least.

Baby steps, remember?

So take some time and look around eBay for a while. Find yourself a 'niche' where people are buying and selling frequently but there's not too many 'big dogs' around making it harder to make sales. This might take some time but it's worth doing because it'll make your auctions much more successful.

For an example of the kind of thing to avoid search 'iPad cover' on eBay. You see how professional everything looks and how many sales these guys get? Sure if you could make sales in there you'd make a good return but it wouldn't be easy. Now if you search 'Smurf' you'll see a niche which is far more open.

Your (long term) goal should be to take over one (or more) of these niches and apply the 'big dog' sales tactics for easy sales.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7392871

Confused on How Exactly to Price Your eBay Products? Read This

How to price your eBay products

Pricing your items on eBay can be quite tricky. Obviously they are your products to sell so you can sell them for whatever price you want but there's a few things to bear in mind.

The main point to consider is that you MUST be competitive in your pricing. Sounds obvious but it's a point worth making anyway. It's no good giving your eBay items an unrealistic price because basically they won't sell, or at least they won't sell in the quantity you need them to. By this I mean, yes you might sell a few because you will get buyers that are prepared to pay a premium for a product they badly want or need, or some buyers may pay a premium price on eBay because you as the seller have a great reputation along with great feedback and dispatch your items quickly BUT if you over price your eBay products you are excluding potential eBay buyers of your product by over charging. Some buyers simply won't pay the premium. What you need to do is appeal to as many potential customers as possible.

So, you know the price you have paid for your product. The next step would be to have a look on eBay at what competitors are charging for the same item. Chances are there will be a quite a varied price range and you need to research and see how fast these competitor items are selling and roughly the average price they are selling at.

Do NOT try and be the cheapest on eBay. If you can be the cheapest and still make a profit after fees then that's great BUT do not try and purposely be the lowest priced seller of your item on eBay. I see a lot of people do this and I wonder why. All that happen is that it will drive the price DOWN, meaning less profit for you and everybody else.

It's a race to the top not the bottom.

I'm going to tell you now about one simple method you can use to determine the price of your eBay products as a seller. What you can do is use gross profit to price your products.

To do this you take your sale price. Take your profit figure. Then divide your profit figure by your your sale price.

An example

You sell something for 3. You're profit is 1. You then divide the small figure (profit) by the large figure (sale price).

So 1/3 = 0.33. That is 33% gross profit on that sale.

So lets say that you've done your research and these figures work for you, you now know that you can sell your eBay items at 33% gross profit. But how does that help me price my eBay products I hear you say? Let me explain.

Now all that you do is take your purchase price, in our example it would be 2 and the multiplier used to get a gross profit of 33% would be 1.5. Lets now say you use this figure across the board, or across you're whole eBay shop pricing.

Remember 1.5 is our mulitplier so, we purchase products at:

1 x 1.5 = sale price needs to be 1.50

5 x 1.5 sale price needs to be 7.50

10 x 1.5 sale price needs to be 15

And so on... In short 1.5 times our purchase price gives us a gross profit of 33%.

But what if 33% doesn't work for my products?

Good question. So here are some more multipliers you can use.

10% = 1.11

20% = 1.25

30% = 1.43

33% =1.5

40% = 1.67

50% = 2

60% = 2.5

Remember, all you need now do is take your purchase price, use the multiplier to make that amount of gross profit.

How does this help?

Gross profit is the figure on which most accountants, book keepers and tax officials will use. How much did you pay? How much did you sell it for? Pay tax on the difference. Not quite that simple as you can deduct expenses and costs to give you NET profit but gross profit are the basic figures that all other figures flow.

Let us say you download your monthly eBay sales figure for November and it was 5,000, $ or £ it makes no difference. You are working on a gross profit of 50%. You can work out your gross profit figure on eBay for that month then in a few seconds. It's 2,500.

Let us say you download your yearly sales and it was 80,000, again $ or £ it makes no difference. Gross profit of 50%. So that's 40,000 for the year then.

You can now work out your gross profit for ANY business on ANY figures, quickly and simply.

So next time somebody asks you how much money you're making on eBay, you can tell them in about ten seconds. Or go and ask an eBay seller the same question with a pricing policy that's all over the place and they won't have a clue.

Hope that article was informative and you find it useful. As usual, feel free to comment.

Mark Davies

FREE eBay templates and useful information for sellers available on my blog, see you there!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7418585

Tips And Tricks From Online Auction Bidding Experts

Online bidding auctions can be some of the most entertaining fun you have online. But they can also be the most frustrating experience if you don't do your research beforehand. Read on to learn tips and tricks from some of the top online auction bidding experts.

Research, Research, and Research Some More

One successful bidder says: "As far as advice... watch the auctions you're interested in BEFORE you bid and see what to expect. Know when to bid (time of day, time of week, time of month) to conserve energy, frustration, and not to mention... money! And the Buy Now feature is priceless. I don't feel like I'm losing money, rather aiming for discounts on products I'd already be buying."

Patience and Planning Pays Off

Another bidder said "This is not a frivolous addiction: it is careful financial planning! So far, I have earned a 50% profit on my investment by teaching myself who to avoid and by studying the selling prices of items in order to gauge the best time to begin bidding. Patience and planning pays off!"

Watch Out for Over Bidders, Keep Reasonable Limits

A top bidder on QuiBids Live Auctions said, "I have learned from QuiBids 101 to watch out for the notorious over bidders, keep reasonable limits, and I have used the Buy Now for many of my gift cards... Thanks to the Limit Busters I have been able to win by watching for the right times of the day to bid. I am disabled and am on a limited budget so I have to utilize every opportunity there is to win. Between working at studying the auction trends and the great values offered, I am able to enjoy things I would NEVER be able to enjoy otherwise!"

Be Careful with Your Bidding

Another bidder warns about keeping track of your bids. "My strategy is to wait till the last 10 seconds of an auction before starting to bid, and be careful with your bidding, so you don't use up a lot of bids - I like to wait for auctions that start in the wee hours of the morning as well. I only use the Bid-O-matic when I think it's getting really close to the auction ending to make sure that I don't waste too many bids."

Most Importantly: Have Fun

Last but not least, one bidder reminds us of the main purpose of these kinds of sites. "Even if you don't win at least you have that satisfaction of enjoying the thrill of an auction."

QuiBids launched in October 2009 and quickly rocketed to success as the leading online entertainment retail auction site. QuiBids Live Auctions stand out from the competition by providing an online auction model with the absolute best user experience and deals for consumers.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7434488

Three Steps to Dealing With Internet Connection Problems at Home

Regardless of the quality of service your Internet Service Provider is providing you, you will eventually have to face common internet connection issues. One minute you're enjoying your favorite basketball game at a live streaming site, and the next minute all you can see in the screen is "buffering". You try to connect your tablet to the Wi-Fi, but it seems like it can access the router. These are just some of the problems you may have or already have experienced with your internet connection at home. Before you contact your ISP, make sure you diagnose the problem first and try if you can fix the issue yourself.

Diagnose the Problem

There are several different reasons why you may be experiencing intermittent connection drops, and the inability to connect to the internet. The first thing you need to do is to identify the problem. Are you unable to connect to the internet completely, or are there just a number of websites you cannot open? Can you log in to Skype or Yahoo! Messenger, but can't browse on any website? You need to take note of these details to help you deal with the issue a lot easier.

Troubleshoot

Once you have identified the problem, the next step is to troubleshoot. It is possible that you're in a dead spot or have positioned your laptop or mobile device too far away from your Wi-Fi router, which is why you're getting a very weak connection or no connection at all. It's also possible that it's your own router at home that's not functioning correctly. Unfortunately, while the router is one of the most valuable gadgets you can at home, it's also one of the most complicated and troublesome. It may act from time to time, and sometimes, a quick restart of the router should do the trick. You can also restart your laptop or PC and see whether it resolves the issue.

Contact Customer Service

If all else fails, then it's time that you contact your ISP. This is where the importance of finding the best prepaid mobile broadband service provider comes in. A good ISP should have excellent customer service and be available to assist you any time of the day. Your ISP may help you identify the problem and offer you advice on how you can fix the issue on your own. They may even do some remote troubleshooting if that is necessary. Finally, they may send someone over to your address to fix the problem if the rest of the solutions won't suffice.

Finding the right prepaid broadband service is crucial if you are to have the ultimate surfing experience at home. No Internet Service Provider is perfect, but a good ISP can offer you excellent service when you need it ninety-nine percent of the time!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7441023

How to Speed Up and Maximize Your Mobile Broadband Service

In this modern time wherein people heavily rely on the internet for various online activities, the importance of stable and high-speed connection is given more value by many consumers. Many are willing to pay the extra cost to get their browsers loading faster, no lagging messages in chat, and stream videos seamlessly. As much as we want to get unlimited data, which is more expensive, we settle for something we can afford. A 30 mpbs data plan might not be as fast as 60 mbps but there are ways wherein you can speed up that slow connection and enjoy better service.

Be Wary of the Hype in Advertised Speeds

More often than not, what you get in reality is less than what you signed-up for. That is a general notion about most internet service providers these days. If you can request for a trial for about a week or 2 weeks to check internet speeds before you sign-up, that would be a good way for you to gauge the internet speed you'll be getting once you avail of the service. Always keep your expectations realistic when it comes to mobile broadband services.

Do Speed Test

You can always use free internet speed tests online that shows the download and upload speed of your connection. If it truly shows 30 mbps if you signed up for 30 mbps, then you're on the right track. If doesn't come at par with the service, it is a good time for you to make that call to your internet service provider about this particular concern. Consumers can always demand for better service but it might not always be an easy way to get your concerns addressed quickly. If things turn out for the worse, you can always get a new service provider if you're not locked in with any contract/data plan.

Check Your Usage

We might not always be aware of programs that are running in the background and might be consuming a lot of your bandwidth. You can always check in your control panel for any unnecessary programs running in the background. Any ongoing program updates, software, or even viruses that might be lurking in your system can cause slow net speeds. The same goes for tablets and other mobile devices for games. Internet games can consume a lot of bandwidth. Make sure you close any unused apps to get better speed.

Beware of Free Loaders

Wi-fi can be easily shared and without proper security settings and limits to the number of users, your connectivity might slow down because of too many users and devices using up your bandwidth. Check your router's settings and set limits or passwords to make sure no free loaders are taking advantage of your broadband service.

Take Advantage of Off-peak Hours

There are certain times in a day wherein internet speeds can slow down due to many users simultaneously connecting to internet for various online activities. In the evening, internet can slow down a bit. However, in early morning and wee hours of the night, you can usually expect faster connectivity speeds. You can take advantage of off-peak hours to get better connection.

When you can't help but feel the need for an upgraded service, you can always pay extra for faster internet and more ease in browsing and mobile broadband communication. But, always make sure you get the best service provider in your area.

Dave Carter is an independent consultant for small businesses. A techie at heart, he's up to speed with the latest releases and innovations in consumer technology, sharing his insights in language ordinary users can understand. If you're from Australia and looking for a reliable broadband service.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dave_E_Carter