Anyone still there ???

I'm still alive ..and just about to start selling again ..if you want to know what I have been up to these past 12 months then check out my other blog ..shared4u ..see the link on the right ..

If any of my old ebay friends are stll about then drop me a line in the comments ...

Taking a break

Hi folks ...no I havn't died ...still doing my stuff ( see shared4u link) ..I have just had to prioritise my time a little more carefully ...I still do need a second income and eBay is the best place for that ...so I will be back ..Hope you are all well

Rob

eBay psychology

If you have an hour to kill, are interested in the psychology of buying and selling on eBay and you enjoy economic analysis then this article is for you .


Its a paper written by a student at Stanford University entitled

" Do consumers know their willingness to pay ?" ...it makes interesting reading ..if you can find the time to read it that is !

Ever felt like this

The task sometimes seems a little too big ...but always remember David soon sorted out Goliath

still alive ...Its a bit too fast at the moment

Just in case you have been missing my ebay blog ...I am still around although my free time is non-existent . My main role in life apart from being a husband and a Father to three daughters is training for the pastorate in a church in Wem England ..This has consummed all my time over the last few weeks coupled with a number of essays requiring to be completed for my theological studies ...you can get a flavour for all this over on my other blog ..click here ..

Anyway ..the diary eases a little in June ...so I expect to resume my ebay career then ..

Hope you are all well ..especially Mark , Andrea and Linda

Rob

10 tips for writing better advertisements

I picked up a few useful tips from this website today

Writing good copy for your adds is essential to selling success . these tips will help you do just that ..


"The appearance of your eBay ad text can actually increase or decrease your sales. The size, font, style and color of your text can easily affect your reader's buying decision. Below are ten points to consider when typing text in your ad.

1. Easy To Read- You want to make it easy for your visitors to read your text. You don't want to use a light colored text like yellow on a white background and you don't want to use dark blue text on a black background.

2. Create A Mood- You want to use the color of your text to create a mood for the reader. If you want to create excitement, use some red text. If you want to create greed, use a some green text. Use colors that would put you in a mood to buy your product.

3. Grab Their Attention- You can grab your readers attention by using headlines. Make the headline more noticeable by using a different colored headline than your ad copy. This offsets the headline and pulls the reader into the rest of your ad copy.

4. Highlight Keywords- You can emphasize phrases and keywords that are important to your readers. For instance, use super, deluxe, fast, low price, free, new, etc. You could use bolding, underlining, italics, color changing, etc.

5. Sizing It Up- You don't want to use text that is too small or to large. You want to use larger text for your headlines and subheadings. You want to use smaller text for your ad copy. If your grandparents can't read it, it's too small.

6. Don't Use All CAPS!- You don't want to use all capital letters in your ad copy. It looks unprofessional and is hard to read. You may want to use all CAPS in your headlines to offset it.

7. Font Properly- You want to use a text font that relates to the product or services your selling. You don't want to use a comic type font when your selling business books.

8. Spacing Out- It's important to use spaces properly when typing your text. You should indent and bullet key benefits your product or service will give the reader. Your headlines, subheadings, sentences and paragraphs should be consistently spaced throughout your web site.

9. I Need Sunglasses- Don't use all bright text colors and backgrounds on your web site. It will make your text hard to read and actually bother your readers' eyes to the point they just decide to leave your site.

10. Check The Readability- It's important to check your spelling and grammar before you upload your web page. When writing an ad copy you're allowed to break some of those grammar rules to get your point across."

eBay slump .... motivation

I love the poem "IF" by Rudyard kipling . I go back to it every now and then when I need to spur myself on , in times when motivation for the task is waining .

I have in the last couple of weeks suffered from a bad case of de-motivation . Primarily because of other family and work commitments but nevertherless I am sure I could have found half an hour here and there to post and to list ...

So I need to pick myself up and dust myself off and start again ....Or as the old Japanese proverb goes , "fall down 7 times stand up 8 ".

April turned out to be a pretty good month on the bay with a profit of @£120 ...the only problem for me was that it consummed too much of my time ...particularly in my listings ..I will have to speed up a little . maybe I'll invest in some software to help .

Anyway today ...despite a million and one other priorities I am determined to get some listings back on ...

Sorry for my lack of postings..

I haven't been sleeping ..Honest

For those of you who are regular readers of this blog you will have noticed that I haven't been posting as regularly as I had .. I do apologize ..

I have had very little spare time over this last seven days and as my eBay world always has to play second fiddle to family , studies for a degree in Theology , and my job as a student pastor ..Then unfortunately it has suffered ..

Next week the diary looks a little better ...So here's hoping

Blowing an old Whistle on eBay

I visited my mum and dad over in Liverpool on Monday . Dad knowing that I had become hooked on eBay said why don't you sell this old whistle .

"Your gran found it during the General strike riots of 1926 , a policeman dropped it , she found it and brought it home ! " He said

So I listed it a couple of days ago and have been very surprised by the amount of interest . Obviously there is a market out there for old whistles..

Maybe this is a niche market that might be worth exploring ..

Incidentally I listed it using the new listing tool that eBay are triailing ..it seemed to work quite well until you come to revise your item and then you have problems ...so much so that I have been wanting to change a spelling mistake for two days now and every time I try it boots me out ..

So eBay will have to work on the programme a little before full release ...So beware if use it yourself ..

Blue star Brigade ...

I have made it .... My Blue Star certificate arrived today ... 50 items with feedback ( all positive ...Although I do have a delivery problem going on at the moment so that might change ...)

I must celebrate ...Anyone got any suggestions on how to commemorate appropriately this major eBay milestone :-)

Selling Books on eBay

I have been selling off a few of my old books lately . Well not just mine , a few have come from my youngest daughter who hopes to pocket a few pounds [ I havn’t told here about my trading assistant fees yet :-) ]

Second hand books are very popular sellers on ebay and other sites ( particularly amazon)

I was reading Steve Webers blog last night . A site dedicated to the online book seller . He now makes a considerable amount of money from his online business , having started out in the year 2000 selling off some of his old books .

His site is well worth checking out from time to time if you intend to sell books …you might also be tempted to buy his ebook . He gives you a couple of chapters free , both of which are very readable and informative ..

Here is the link to his Story http://weberbooks.com/selling/2005/09/selling-books-with-no-advertising.html

…and here is the link to his blog http://www.weberbooks.com/selling/selling.htm

List of free web based Auction tools

I have been doing some surfing again and found a number of web based auction tools ..

I havn't had time to review them all ....That is where you come in ...please check some out and leave your comments for others in the comments section below ...

Auction Shadow..
Offers searching, bidding, and auction alerts. Includes misspelling search, accessory filter, and "shadow" feature to find items that others are bidding on.
Auction Mapper
Interactive eBay search tool with advanced search options, breakdown by category, and illustration of item location on a US map
AuctionShark
Searches across multiple auction sites. Includes cross-site watchlist and optional public wish list
AuctionSpeller
Free website which searches eBay for typing and spelling errors, based on a single search wo
Coogy
Flash-based eBay searcher with results in list, gallery and map formats
DealClosetAuction Search and Alerts
Searches across auction sites. Includes option to receive an email notification when a new auction is found matching keyword, price, and time remaining criteria
eBay Google Maps Mashup
Search eBay through Google Maps. This free site will try to guess your zip code and then find items close to you
Internet Bargain Center
Search or browse items on eBay, filtered to your local area
ItemScout
ItemScout is a hosted service which searches eBay.com for new auctions matching your serach terms, at the frequency of your choice - from every 5 minutes to 24 hours, and emails you the results.
MyBaboon
MyBaboon searches across auction sites for the search terms you specify, emailing the results to you when new items are found or at a specified interval
MyBuyerIQ
MyBuyerIQ aims to help buyers find bargains on eBay by finding items that are posted in the wrong category, have spelling errors in the title, do not have a gallery picture, end at inconvenient times, or have no bids
Vivisimo
eBay search with "clustering" technology, which finds common topics to group search results under.

Now that lot should keep you gainfully occupied for an hour or two :-)

I picked these sites up from another great site called Auctionsoftwarereview.com.... another site for you to take a look at

Ebay Is Infectious..and current hot product to sell

I have been away for a few days over to Derbyshire, staying with good friends . As you can imagine because of my affliction ( ebayitis) the conversation on occasions turned to eBay .

The result of which is that eBay has a new seller ...see I told you it was infectious ...My mate Paul and I { not forgetting Matthew his son who also became infected }...listed a few items yesterday ...you can see the fruit of our labours by clicking here ..

We also discussed current market trends and liked the idea of the latest gadget to hit the UK The Digital Photo Frame... a quick check on completed listings tells me that this is a hot product . So being the entrepreneur's that we are, we fired off a couple of emails to some Chinese suppliers found at alibaba.com ( a great site for sourcing product from the far east)

So will this be the product line that will kick start our eBay business ?..who knows ..but I will certainly keep you posted.

Also thinking about signing up for yahoo adverts [ after google dumped me :-( ] ..if I do this though, my guardian adsense Angels must not be tempted to defect to Yahoo Angels ...because I will get booted out again :-)

Must get on ...I have a sermon to write..an essay to complete ..and tons of items to list ....

Market Research for collectables..

Cartoon courtesy of Cartoonstock.com

If you want to buy and sell collectables on eBay then you need to understand the market .

Here is a very simple fact ... buy what will sell .

Well how do I know what will sell ? you may ask .

The answer is in the research . You have to do some digging to see what is selling . This does involve a little of your time but there is help at hand . There are plenty of free online services that cut out some of the leg work .

One such site is smartcollector.com ...on this site you can ..

Search up to 120 days of historical eBay sales data .
Filter out numerous unsuccessful listings .
Track trends in collectible/antique item and category sales .

The site looks fairly comprehensive ..take alook and let me know your thought in the comments section below ..

I am away again from Sunday night through to Wednesday ...a short Easter break with our Best friends ...have a great Easter

Rob

Bad Day at the Office

Now I have had a few bad days at the office in my time ....this crane driver certainly did ...if he gets fired though there is always eBay to fall back on :-)

What to sell on eBay

Well I'm back ..And by the looks of my listings I had better knuckle down and do some selling .

At the moment the cupboard is full with items to list , Gill last week trawled through the house and found me plenty of stuff to offer up to the world of eBay .

There is a day looming however when my home based supply chain will dry up ...The day when the house is totally minimalistic because everything has been sold ;-)...On that day I will need a source of product to sell.

Scott Prock has written about this subject for Bellaonline...He like so many other eBay guru's is telling me to find a niche that I like , maybe an old hobby that still tickles my fancy ..Something that I will enjoy selling , something that I have some knowledge of ..

So I'm off to think about such things ....Like when I was younger I was a plane spotter .. Is there much of a market for jet airliners on eBay though , and they would be a right pain to wrap up in brown paper ... Ah well back to the think tank ..

Away till Friday

I will be away at a conference this week returning Friday ..

So postings will dry up for a few days ...

But I shall return on Friday without any advertisements to annoy you ... :-)

So keep on grinding out those listings eBayers

Rob

Oops I have upset the Adsense people

I had an email tonight from Adsense saying that they had disabled my account because of the following reason

A publisher's site may not have invalid clicks on any ad(s), including
but not limited to clicks generated by:

- a publisher on his own web pages
- a publisher encouraging others to click on his ads
- automated clicking programs or any other deceptive software
- a publisher altering any portion of the ad code or changing the
layout, behavior, targeting, or delivery of ads for any reason

So the $100 dollars is now back in the hands of the advertisers ...what can I say

I must learn to read the rules :-(

But old Japanese proverb say "Fall down seven times stand up eight " ..I will press on

I would also like to publicly apologies to adsense for unintentionally breaking the rules ..Sorry

Success Stories on eBay

Success stories are good to read aren't they ?

I came across a story about three ebayers all from very different backgrounds, all of which have have made a success of eBay.

There is Richard who was diagnosed with a brain tumor , who survived and now runs a successful violin restoration business on eBay...click here for his story

There is Crystal and Steven ..Who loved old movies and now sell 3500-5000/month on eBay...click here

And finally Diane an ex -alcoholic who has now built up a multi-million dollar eBay business in antiques ..click here

Their stories should inspire you to keep going ..Especially when you feel like giving up
"Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow "

Personal Note of Thanks

My Adsense account( Google's advertising service) has been running since I started this blog in January this year.Well today it reached the accumulated grand total of $100.

Now I know that somebody out there has been clicking quite regularly on my adds ...So whoever my guardian Adsense Angel is I would like to thank you

Gill ( my wife) , Anna , Katie and Laura ( my three daughters ) will all now be able to have an extra tin of beans for tea next week :-)

Many thanks

Rob

Fairtrade products on eBay

A couple of weeks ago I was asked to sit on the committee for Fairtrade in my home town of Wem and duly obliging I attended the inaugural meeting tonight .

I am now a fully converted Fairtrade man and part of the community team whose role it is to give Wem town a Fairtrade Town status ..

When it comes to fairtrade products on eBay, like the highstreet market place, eBay is tracking a small but increasing amount of traffic in these products . Something any ethically challenged individual should be pleased about . One such trend is towards ethical clothing ..Read this posting from January's archives .

So is there an opportunity for public spirited eBayers to trade in products that serve the dual purpose of providing a profitable income for yourself whilst ensuring that the producer receives an honest days pay for their labours .

Personally I would love to find a source of supply for these products that would sell . If anyone knows of any then let me know .

The market in Fairtrade products is going to grow , consumer consciences are beginning to be supportive of the underprivileged third world producers . This trend ,thankfully , is set to continue and will inevitably lead to exponential sales growth in the not too distant future.

So go and find some Fairtrade products to sell ...Its highly likely to be win , win all round

Handbags the girls go mad for them on eBay especially Louis Vuitton

I came across this company yesterday ... click here... they are based in Florida and sell top designer make ladies bags and accessories at wholesale prices .

Now I must admit I am tempted to experiment again ...you see I just can't stop myself ... The prices are very tempting ...but my one niggling doubt is whether they are genuine or not .

I did some research on Louis Vuitton bags and they go like hot cakes ( sorry American readers ..hot cakes is a British expression) ..The UK bidders can't get enough of them ..

So I am tempted to buy a couple ..... What do you think ??..Help me make a decision here cyber friends ..

Yes or no ... let me know in the comments ...or let me know if you are tempted as well :-)

incidentally ...Louis Vuitton..is a great name for the Fat fingers site ..loads of people spell it wrong .

Buying to sell on Ebay

I have been experimenting again . A couple of week ago I bought this item ..click here..via the fatfingers website . Fatfingers is a site that lists items with spelling mistakes ( read about it here)

Anyway I typed in Caithness ( a famous Scottish glassmaker) and found the listing with its title spelt incorrectly . So I bid and picked it up for a grand total of £7 ( including postage)

Yesterday I offered it back up to eBay ...click here ... I worked on the copy , as preached in other posts , I worked on cleaning the item up and taking a nice Photo ( although if I had better equipment the photo would be a lot better). Most importantly though, I made sure that there were no spelling mistakes in the title ...




<<<<<<..still not fully happy with it ..too dark at the bottom ..but I'll get better :-)










the original photo listed when I bought it.









So I am watching this one closely ( as are two other people according to my eBay)

What do you think ? ...will it be a profit or will it be a loss ...eBay can be really exciting sometimes ...but then again I'm getting old and it doesn't take very much to get me excited these days :-)

Watch it with me

A woman scorned on eBay :-)

My little metal woman is suffering from depression this morning . You see, she has all her best trendy gear on , she has made a real effort to be attractive and only nine people have stopped by to admire her so far . She is starting to talk about therapy :-)

I think I have a problem with my title . I have written in the past about the importance of having the right key words in your title .Well I think I have failed my little woman and not complimented her with words that would get her noticed . Understandably she is not talking to me now .... a reaction that I am not immune to , after all I have a wife and three daughters who often do the same if husband or dad lets them down ,

So I need help from the dolphins ...what do you think about the title ...here is the link to the listing ... She is such an attractive figurine , it would be a shame to not show her off to the eBay world ..

Creative thinking for eBay

Are you creative ? Do you use the creative part of your brain ? Scientists tell us that the average man or woman fails to utilise their inbuilt creative potential.

Our world , they say, would be a much more enthralling place to live if we would only tap into our potential . How many Rembrandts and Mozarts have lived and died without ever realising their creative potential? Men and women who have never been encouraged to hold a paint brush or play a few notes on an instrument . Or how much more technologically advanced would we have been if only we had fully realised our creative potential ?

When it comes to eBay then , how do we utilise the creative element of our brains . How will our sales be influenced by our creativity ?

I came across this group of ladies the other day , whose creativity in marketing their product has led to a rapid growth in their business . It may not be an eBay business but we can still learn much from them .

They are in the Taxi business .Nothing unusual about that you might say but the element that sets them apart is that they only have women taxi drivers and only offer taxi rides to women .They offer women a sense of security. Women driving women late at night, free from the concerns about a male driver dropping off an often vulnerable female passenger .

The creative element of this business is their marketing strategy .They are called " Pink Ladies" and they drive around in strikingly pink cabs with pink leather upholstery .They have taken a simple idea and made sure that their brand appeals to their market ...women

For eBay we have a product to sell , we have a targetted customer to sell it to and if we are to reach that customer then we need to spend time thinking creatively about the kind of copy that will attract the buyer .

What is special about my product ?
Why should the customer buy from me and not somebody else ?
How will my product enhance my customers life ?


The answers to those three questions will help you to write creatively targetted copy(listings) that will appeal to your customers desires.

The Pink Ladies have done that with their taxi business and I believe by spending a few more moments thinking creatively about our listing then we too can increase our chances of selling our listings for much higher returns .

For help with tapping into your creative marketing potential ..then take a look at the wikipedia article on creativity and try out a few of the links at the end of the article ..here is an example of one of the links ..

Go on be creative ...

Strange Tales For Friday from eBay

Well its Friday . Have you had a good/bad or just plain ugly week ... For me it's been good , very busy , absolutely manic in places but still good .

If you need cheering up though , and often we do at the end of the week, then let me take you back in time to December 25th last year . Did Father Christmas come to your house ? [and have you sold anything that was given to you on eBay yet :-) ]

Well there is a chap in the States who has the evidence that he did come down his chimney ..And he is selling it on eBay for $5000 ...Interested in his story then click here

Hope it made you smile .

This weekend I am off to speak at a youth conference so no postings for a couple of days ...But I will be back fresh as a daisy on Monday ..

PS Andrea look out for my trendy Figurine going live tonight ..

One final thought before I go. Creativity is key to any business success . We often hear the phrase "think outside of the box " . For eBay it is no different , from what I have read of successful online sellers they are usually people who use their creative skills to transform a simple idea into something compelling ... Take these Bricks for instance ...Ordinary bricks but used in a different attractive way ... A good idea for your garden project this weekend :-)



Have a great weekend

Rob