Take a look at the 10 simple steps to improve your chances of making money selling on eBay!

I have learned these techniques as a successful eBay Powerseller, selling on eBay since 1998,  and I now have over 4,000 positive feedbacks.

Now, I am trained by eBay as an  Education Specialist & I can help you be successful on eBay too!

The Top Ten Things You Can do to be Successful on eBay!

1. Research the item: Be sure you know everything you can about the item you are listing, so you can accurately describe it and determine an approximate value.  Research the item by doing a Google search.

2. Start with a low starting price. I always start with a $9.99 starting price and have a no reserve auction.  This means the item will sell to the highest bidder.  Low starting prices encourages participation and bidding.  You can protect yourself with a reserve auction for a valuable piece.

3. End auctions on Sunday evenings. I always start my auctions on a Sunday evening around 9 pm Eastern time. (That is 6 pm West Coast time.)  That way, the auction will end 7 days later at the same time.  That is prime time for people to be on their computers and bidding!  eBay traffic proves that’s a great time!

4. Include Important Keywords in the Title.  Did you know that your title is critically important to your eBay listing & is the main way people will find your item?  For that reason, research all the important words that people associate with this item.  Look at other eBay listings to see keywords others have included in their auction listings for similar items.

5. Write a catchy description and include all details.  Write as if you were writing an ad—because you are!  The description &  photos are the only way buyers can learn about the item & decide to buy.  Include all flaws or damage about the item.  People get very upset & leave negative feedback if you are not honest about the condition.

6. Take great photos.   Great photos in good lighting is crucial! Include as many photos as you need to show all the features of the item. Take close ups of significant features of the piece.  Make it easy for prospective buyers to get excited about your item!  Then they will bid more!

7. Keep Shipping Costs Low or Free. Set shipping prices low. Use the Paypal shipping feature that allows you to print US Post Office labels from home with free delivery confirmation included.  The mail carrier picks them up from you for FREE- so no more trips to the post office.

8. Be available during the auction to answer questions.  Check your e-mail often throughout the day and evening. People will have questions &  they expect timely responses, so answer them promptly.

9. Ship the items as soon as you are paid. I love accepting Paypal, since they handle the entire financial portion of the transaction.  Once a payment is in your Paypal account, you can ship, since it is considered cleared. Buyers LOVE it when you ship quickly.  That helps encourage positive feedback!

10. Be generous with positive feedback. I leave glowing positive feedback as soon as I ship the item to a buyer. This sets a pleasant tone & the buyer is in a positive frame of mind when they receive their item.  Then, they are much more likely to leave me positive feedback!

Go to InternetAuctionDiva.com for a schedule of eBay classes starting soon, so you can begin making money on the Internet!

Be sure to check out my blog posts on TheDealDivas on the Charlotte Observer’s online website for lots of frugal tips and easy ways to save & make lots of money!

Let me give you a heads up on several categories where eBay is offering discounted listing fees right now!  You can make some money while you work from home!

Starting today and going through June 15, Fixed Price Insertion Fees on eBay will be just 5¢ for golf clubs, cameras, cell phones and other similar type items.

All listings must be created with the Product Details feature (Pre-filled Item Information).  Product Details automatically fills in your listing with the item information and a stock photo.  How much easier can you get?

Don’t have any of those items laying around?  Go to some yard sales! I see this kind of stuff there all the time!

Another fabulous deal on right now is for collectible books. From May 27 – June 9th, you can list books for 5¢ in the categories of Books—Antiquarian & Collectible and Antiques—Books & Manuscripts.  This promotion is good for both Auction-style and Fixed Price listings.

eBay Motors is having a listing sale from June 1 through  June 8, Insertion Fees in select Parts & Accessories categories.  These listing fees will be just 35¢

Included are Fixed Price and Auction style  listings in Apparel and Merchandise, ATV Parts, Aviation Parts, Boat Parts, Motorcycle Parts, Personal Watercraft Parts, and Other Vehicle Parts.

The sooner you list some items to sell on eBay, the sooner you will be making some money!

Get Going!

Many people are surprised to learn that they can print postage labels and ship all their packages from their own homes or offices through the US Post Office using FREE supplies provided by them!  There are boxes of every shape and size and you can choose as many as you need.

You can order boxes directly from the post office at www.USPS.com and they will deliver them to your home or office FREE of charge!

This is a perfect solution for all your holiday shipping needs or for shipping all the goodies you can sell on eBay or Amazon!

Save time, money and hassles on all your shipping needs–not to mention the gasoline savings thanks to the US Post Office!

You can pay for the postage easily with your PayPal Account and even get discounts on the cost of the shipping.  As an added bonus–you will receive FREE Delivery Confirmation when you purchase postage through Paypal! That service costs 65 cents if you get it at the post office!

Sign up for PayPal here!

See how easy it is with this step by step tutorial Print labels and Pay with Paypal.

To make life even easier and to save gas-you can even schedule a pickup with your mail carrier through the USPS.com website.  I just leave a note in the mailbox for my mailman and ask him to come to the door.

This is perfect for Work at Home Moms and Dads!

No more standing in line with the kids at the post office!

]]> http://frugaltorich.com/2009/05/22/super-simple-shipping-from-home-easy-cheap-free-boxes/feed/ 1 http://frugaltorich.com/2009/05/13/start-making-lots-more-money-today/ http://frugaltorich.com/2009/05/13/start-making-lots-more-money-today/#comments Wed, 13 May 2009 10:51:17 +0000 M.S. http://frugaltorich.com/?p=596 Want to pay off debt and start to accumulate savings, but you don’t know where to start?  Let me tell you about the technique we used many years ago when we wanted to save for our first piece of real estate.

Determine the exact amount of money you want to accumulate per month. Earn that extra money and along with your reduced expenses, pay off debt, then start SAVING and Investing it. Then, Get Rich!

There are so many ways to increase your income that you might not have considered!  Keep an open mind!

My Absolute Favorite: Sell on eBay www. eBay.com There is a market for practically everything on eBay!  Clear out your closets, go to Spring yard sales, or offer to sell things for other people and make a commission! I will talk much more in depth about this in future posts and give you tons of ideas to get maximum money for your items.

Check out Amazon. com to see how easy it is to sell current books, tapes and DVDs.   Amazon.com You don’t even need to take pictures or write descriptions! Simply enter the name of the item you want to list and Amazon will bring up all the information.  Along the right hand column, look for More Buying Choices. Below that it says “Sell Yours Here”. Click that and fill out your info–and the item is listed!

Are you crafty or artistic? Check out www.Etsy.com This website allows anyone to sell their handmade items!  I know 2 gals that are making great money by selling their handmade yoga bags, totes, and clothing!

The beauty of the Internet is that you can make money online with NO childcare costs!

Learn how to do something that other people want to know about–then teach others how to do it!!  Call community colleges and continuing education departments at local universities, as well as senior centers!  That’s what I did after becoming a successful eBay Powerseller!  Now, I am trained by eBay & teach folks how to become successful sellers on eBay!

I wanted a website and didn’t want to spend thousands of dollars to get one, so I took training and learned how to build my own FREE website.  Now, I teach other people how to build their own Free websites!

There are teachers for everything from painting to auto mechanics to cake decorating.  Anything you can think of could be offered as a class! Learn something!

An added bonus of my teaching gigs is I get a gift certificate from the school that allows me to take 2 FREE classes each year!  I receive that just because I am a teacher!!  How awesome is that?  Ask your school- maybe they offer teachers free tuition too!  What a great way to learn more skills to make you extra money–at NO cost to you!

Take look at this fabulous list of 52 other ways to make extra money.   52 Ways to Make Extra Money

Now–get going!

The technique I have used to capitalize on this offer makes the process super easy!  I signed up for the e-mail version of the weekly specials to be sent to me on the first day of the new week.  I then check what they are offering as super deals that week, paying particular attention to the Buy One Get One Free offers.  I went to eBay and in the Search Field, I type in the names of the products that are on special to see if there are coupons available.

Recently, I was able to find 10 peanut butter coupons for 40 cents off each, for total cost of $ 1.49 plus 42 cents postage. That’s a grand total of $1.91 for 10 coupons!  That’s a $ 1.20 reduction for each jar of peanut butter! I order the coupons from the eBay seller on the first day of the store sale, so they can be mailed to me right away so I get them in plenty of time while the sale is still in progress.

I took these to the store, where my final cost, after all the deductions, came to 30 cents per jar of peanut butter!  Combined with all the other coupons I had for other products, I was able to save 50% on my grocery bill! 

That’s like someone handing me $25.00 cash that I didn’t have to work for! I will take it!

I accomplished this task in 10 minutes drinking coffee at the kitchen table and you can too!  It couldn’t be easier!

Check Out Deals on eBay Now!

One of the things I love the most about selling on eBay for Moms (and Dads) is that it allows you to work at home and earn extra income while caring for your children with NO childcare costs.

Not to mention the time you save on commuting and NO expensive work clothes!  Think of the money you will save on gas costs, too.  The reduced stress of all that juggling is priceless!

An eBay business is a perfect way to increase your income with essentially no investment! There is no factory to build, no staff to be hired! You can earn money and build wealth without any risk.

Are you ready to tap into the over 90 million people registered on eBay in 38 countries? You have access to ALL of them from the comfort of your own home! Try getting that many people to buy your products locally!

When I started selling on eBay in 1998, my husband was skeptical that other people would want this “junk” I had accumulated.  As the money started rolling in- he became a believer!

Today, you can sell virtually anything on eBay and tap into the wealth of the world’s largest auction marketplace!

Take a look at the Hottest Selling items on eBay right now.  Maybe you have some of them in your closet, just waiting to be turned into cash!

Click Here to See What’s  Hot on eBay Right Now

I had the extreme good fortune of having a very creative and fun mother-in-law, who happened to LOVE going to garage sales with her friends for cheap entertainment and to get GREAT bargains.

The impression I had of garage sales at the time was not favorable–alright, I admit it–I had a very negative image of them. I thought the stuff was all JUNK no one wanted. Boy was I wrong! (Although there is almost always some junk in each garage sale.)

My negativity evaporated when my mother in law pulled out the cool items she had purchased on her latest rounds of “rummaging” trips. I was floored at what she could buy for a nickel, 25 or 50 cents!  She had items from Crate and Barrel, Pottery Barn and Williams-Sonoma that looked BARELY used and she had paid 25 cents for them!  She snagged high-end clothing items for herself and grandchildren that were 50 or 75 cents!   She had a wide variety of stuff she had gotten for practically NO money–and I was intrigued!   I had to find out what this was all about!

I started to tag along on her treasure hunts and was delighted to learn I could get all the furniture and accessories I needed to decorate and upgrade our duplexes at garage sales!   I got an even better deal because I drove up in  my older, unassuming “ugly” car- so it looked like I needed a super cheap deal, driving this old car (see earlier post).

Remember—we were trying to aggressively save—so every PENNY mattered!  The less we spent—the more we saved and the more we could invest!

Tables, lamps, dishes, clothing—you name it–they are all available at garage and estate sales for practically NO money!  I was HOOKED!

Over the years, these treasures increased the comfort and value of our personal home, as well as the rental real estate. Soon, my overflowing home loaded with frugal treasures caught the eye of the Discovery Channel and they featured a tour of our home on their top ranked Decorating Show.  They even flew me to Hollywood, where I demonstrated my frugal decorating techniques in their studio!

In 1998, I discovered eBay as the perfect place to sell the overflow of my accumulated treasures, and I have operated a successful eBay business ever since as a stay at home Mom,  making money, generating over 4,000 Positive Feedbacks and shipping goodies all over the world.

I continue to sell on eBay and am now one of the top ranked Education Specialists in the U.S., trained by eBay, as I  teach other people how to sell on eBay!  eBay is a terrific business for me and it is for YOU too!

Garage sales were a super deal back then–and they STILL are a fabulous source for great stuff for almost NO money!  And you are being kind to the environment by recycling!

Spring is here!  Get going to the garage sales!

I’ll see you there!