• Welcome from Brian McGregor 
• Inspirational Quote of the Day
• News and Views
• Have you Tried eBay’s Classified Ad Format Yet?
• Do You Know How Your Competitors on eBay Are Doing?
• The Powerful Bidding Strategy That Claims A 99% Success Rate
• A Gift from Me to You
• Someone's auctioning what? Unusual items currently available
• Back to Newsletter Archive

1. eBay training - Final reminder

You've probably received an email from me about my training course, the eBay eclass, due to start on May 22nd. This is a 7 week, personal training course which I run for those who would like to dramatically improve their sales on eBay.

I just wanted to let you know that there are a couple of places left on the course starting today. If you want to get in on this private training, check it out now .

You can read about the eBay eclass here.


2. Product Recalls - Keeping You and Your Family Safe

A colleague of mine told me about this site, and I thought it might be helpful to you if you live in the USA.

As you will know, recalls of products are publicized regularly in the press and other media by manufacturers.

There is a useful site if you reside in the USA which is a register of all current product recalls. It's by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and you can find it here:
http://www.cpsc.gov


3. The Special Quality of Colors in Your eBay Auctions

I find colors to be a fascinating topic. We are all affected by color. There's nothing we can do about it - we are conditioned by colors. The fact is certain colors convey good feelings to us whilst, other colors have the opposite effect.

Big companies know all about this psychological impact of color. It's why they are willing to pay millions to ensure they get the right colors for their products and marketing.

Until recently, the internet has lagged behind in this intelligent use of color. It has more or less been that anything goes. This is why you see weird and wonderful color schemes on various websites.

There is a similar misuse of colors on eBay auction pages. You don't even need any HTML knowledge now, as eBay has made it possible for anyone to use colors in their descriptions with the new auction listing pages.

What we all need to ensure, however, is that we select colors which are likely to have a positive impact on our auction page visitors.

My new ebook shows you how you can take advantage of using the correct colors in your auctions, and on your websites.



The ebook is called CASH COLORS, and you can read about it here http://www.cash-colors.com


4. $38,450 from one eBay auction?

I'm sure we would all like to make thirty eight thousand plus from a single eBay auction!

I'm afraid I can't show you how to do this here. But I can provide you with the next best thing possible thing!

I have a transcript for you of an interview with the person who achieved this feat.

You can download the interview transcript from here:
http://www.workwinners.com/nl0722051.htm


5. Free ebook about Selling on eBay

eBay PowerSeller Richard Fenn has produced an excellent 63 page ebook about his eBay business.

Richard's eBay name is djrichardfenn, so you can check out his auctions and feedback yourself to see if this free ebook is something in which you might be interested. Incidentally, he is based on www.ebay.co.uk

In my view, Richard's business is definitely worth a look.


You can download his ebook from here:
http://www.workwinners.com/nl0722052.htm


6. Isn't it Great Being the Same as Everybody Else?

A nun, badly needing to use the restroom, walked into a local Hooters restaurant.

The place was hopping with music and loud conversation and every once in a while the lights would turn off. Each time the lights would go out, the place would erupt into cheers.

When the revelers saw the nun, the room went dead silent.

She walked up to bartender, and asked, "May I please use the restroom?"

The bartender replied, "OK, but I should warn you that there is a statue of a naked man in there wearing only a fig leaf."

"Well, in that case I'll just look the other way," said the nun.

So, the bartender directed her, and the nun proceeded to the restroom.

After a few minutes, she came back out, and the whole place stopped to give the nun a loud round of applause.

She went to the bartender and said, "Sir, I don't understand... Why did they applaud for me just because I went to the restroom?"

"Well, it's because they know you're one of us," said the bartender.

"But, I still don't understand," said the puzzled nun.

"You see," laughed the bartender, "every time the leaf on the statue is lifted up, the lights go out. Now, how about a drink?"

If you sell a product or service and you’re looking to generate leads for this, you might like to check out eBay Classified Ads. Currently only available on eBay.com, this new format is an exciting innovation by eBay.

With Classified Ads you don’t sell anything to other eBay members. People can’t bid or buy on your Classified Ad. What you are able to do is promote your product or service, and enter into a dialog with interested parties who contact you via your Classified Ad. Any sales made as a result of your listing take place outside of eBay.

The reason why eBay has introduced this format is really to attract sellers who might not otherwise use eBay to offer their wares. Classified Ads are available only for certain listings in these categories:

Websites and businesses for sale
Trade show booths
Prefabricated buildings
Travel
Specialty services

There's also a miscellaneous category called "Everything else", although this is slightly misleading as you will see if you check out the allowable categories here: http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/adformatfees.html#list

To set up a Classified Ad is simple. All you do is work down the Sell Your Item form to create your ad, just as you would with a normal auction listing. If you select one of the eligible categories, you are given the option of selecting Classified Ad as your selling format.

One of the benefits of Classified Ads is that they can run for a considerable length of time i.e. 30, 60, or 90 days. The insertion fee you pay is determined by the length of time you want your ad to be displayed.

$9.99 for 30 days
$19.90 for 60 days
$29.85 for 90 days

However, unlike normal eBay auctions, your fees are not based on the value of your item. This makes Classified Ads an interesting option to consider in offering high priced goods or services.

And unless you enable Best Offer, you won't have to pay final value fees for sales. If you think about it, it's not that much to pay to get instant, relatively long term exposure to the huge eBay audience.

Your Classified ad shows up in the category you selected with all the other types of auctions, but your listing will say "Classified Listing" where your bid price would normally be. They are also included in eBay’s search results.

You don’t have to sell something with your Classified Ad. For example, you could use the format simply to get subscribers to your newsletter.

I’ve been testing Classified Ads myself for a product of which I am an affiliate – which is another great use for Classified Ads. So far, it looks like my Classified Ad is a very cost effective way to get visitors over to the sales page of the product owner using my affiliate link. I will definitely be doing more of this with Classified Ads.

For more information about selling with Classified Ads, visit
http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/f-ad.html

It will pay any eBay seller to keep close tabs on their competition. The last thing you want is for sales to start drying up, and be left wondering why.

It may as simple as someone else has moved into your eBay territory and is cleaning up!

To prevent this, you should spend a little time each week in seeing what the competition is up to. You need to check out sellers who are selling similar products to you.

It isn't just knowing they exist that is important, you need to understand how their sales process or marketing plan is different to yours. Also, how successful are they, and what levels of traffic are they getting?

Fundamentally, you want to know are they doing better than you?

The question many ask is, how do I go about finding and monitoring my eBay competitors?

The simplest place to start is to do a few keyword searches using the words and phrases that prospects would use to find you.

Then take a look at the results. Hopefully your items are there, but you are interested in the items of other sellers. They're the ones you need to keep your eye on!

Once you've found some sellers listing items similar to yours, you need to conduct some Completed Listings searches.

Go to eBay.com's homepage and click on Advanced Search in the upper right-hand corner of the page.

Once you're at the Advanced Search page, use the same keywords as before, but also click the box that says "Completed Listings Only". For best results, make sure you specify the results be ranked in the order of "highest price first."

Now, the completed listings with the amount shown in green are those that sold. Hopefully you're on that page too.

If there are other sellers who are getting more money selling items similar to yours, you might want to try and work out why.

Are they generating more bids? Why?

Depending on what you sell, you can consider issues like the brand of item they selling. Perhaps they have more colors or sizes than you?

They may be listing in a category you haven't considered? Is it a more effective or easily-searchable category than the one you've chosen?

Their auction format or listing may differ from yours. Are they using the "Buy It Now" format? What time of day do they typically list their items? How long do their auctions last?

Take a look at their images. What are they doing with pictures which seems to make their auction attractive? How have they positioned or staged the item differently than you?

The title they use may hold some clues for you. What keywords are they using? Are they using the "bolding" option? What order are their words in? What stands out in the title?

The headline on their auction description page may be better than yours. Do they list good features and benefits. If so, perhaps the sequence they use is more effective than yours.

In their auction description, do they have better sales copy than you? What kind of description have they created for the product? How do they answer the questions of their potential customers?

Examine the price issues. If they use "Buy It Now" listing, what are they setting the price at? Or if they're using a regular auction format, what's their minimum bid?

Are their polices better than yours, and are they shown more clearly? How are their shipping policies different from your own? Are they offering discounted shipping? Are they shipping worldwide? What is their return policy?

Look at their "About Me" page. Is it better than yours? What kind of pictures or text have they included here? How do they establish credibility and trust with potential customers?

Check out their feedback ratings. Are their customers happy? How do they deal with negative feedback, if they have any? If they've gone to the trouble of negotiating any mutual withdrawals of negative feedbacks, you can be sure you have a serious competitor here.

Next, take a look at their eBay Store. What cross-promotional tools are they using? Are they selling items besides the ones that are similar to yours?

Finally, how are they on building customer relationships? For example, do they offer a newsletter to their potential customers? Have they written any Reviews or Guides to help drive more traffic to their listings?

You could always buy an item from your competitor, and test their customer service in a live setting. This is a great way to learn about the quality of their after sales service. Do they offer any upsells, or ask if you want to take their newsletter, or be added to their list for latest offers etc?

Anything useful you learn from this forensic examination of some of your competitors can be applied or incorporated to your own eBay business. You can't copy anyone directly of course as this would be plagiarism. However, there's nothing to stop you adopting the successful strategies that other sellers use.

Being a sensible marketer, you will try making changes one at a time, so that you can monitor the effect of the individual change.

There's a lot you can learn from a little digging. So I suggest you get your spade out and test the ground today.

Guest Article by Ian D Major

Don't you just love it?

You've found that special item on eBay that you've just got to have!

No If's Ands or Buts, you've got to win that item.

You've checked and double checked the "End Of Auction" time and date and you're at your computer, signed in and raring to go at least 30 minutes before the auction ends.

You're happy to beat the latest bid and with nervous fingers you tap in the amount you're willing to pay.

Then you read those dreaded words - You Have Been Outbid!

Now you remember, there are sneaky eBayers out there who use deviously cunning tricks, like placing high hidden bids and proxy bidding.

You heard somewhere that you should wait until the closing minute of the auction before placing your bid.

Great, there's still 20 minutes to go, time to grab another cup of coffee.

Back at your computer you count down the final minutes, how can 5 minutes seem to last so long?

You constantly hit the refresh button so that you can check how long there's left to go.

At last the final minute of the auction arrives.

You tap in the next highest bid and hit "Place Bid". You're waiting for that page. The one that says Congratulations! You Won The item!

But your heart sinks when yet again you see those dreaded words again - You Have Been Outbid!

This can't be right! They can't do this to you! It's just not fair!

But wait, there's still 15 seconds left to go.

You frantically type in a higher bid and you're greeted with - Listing ended!

No. No, It can't have ended.

But it has.

Does this scenario sound familiar to you?

I think every eBayer has experienced this at some time or other. I know I have!

There has to be a simpler way. And there is.

Enter the Sniper.

SniperWare, as it has become known, is a program that will place a last second bid on your behalf.

Many of these types of Auto-Bid Programs claim a 95% to 99% success rate at placing the winning bid.

No more sitting staring at your computer counting down the minutes to try and place that winning bid because with Sniperware you simply enter the details of the auction you want to bid on, the maximum bid you are prepared to make and that's it.

You don't even have to be at your computer. You don't even have to be at home come to that.

SniperWare generally comes in two flavors.

1. Web Based

With a Web based program you will usually pay a small fee per use (although you are not usually charged anything if you fail to win the auction). Most of the on-line programs will allow you to make the first few Snipes at no charge.

2. Downloaded Sniper Software.

In this instance the Sniper Software Program is downloaded onto your own computer. The upfront cost is more but there are no ongoing fees and many of these programs can be downloaded on a trial basis for free.

There are many Sniper programs to choose from. Just go to your favorite Search Engine and type in "Sniper Programs".

My personal choice, having tried several, is PowerSnipe and I have won some great auction using this particular program.

So if you don't want to see those dreaded words - You Have Been Outbid!, get Sniping.

To sign up for PowerSnipe, it's free, visit here:

If you can't find the PowerSnipe page on Hammertap's site, try this link:
http://www.hammertap.com/hammersnipe/

About the Author

Ian D Major is the creator of www.eBay-Articles.com, the one stop resource for information, reports and articles about all things eBay.

If you want a short and sweet way to make some money quickly on eBay, this is for you.

It's a 13 page ebook showing you how to sell ebooks on eBay.



Although it's short, it's perfectly formed! I'm sure you'll find it helpful.

You can download "Info Profit With eBay" from here:

http://www.workwinners.com/nl0722053.htm

Nothing surprises me when it comes to internet auctions. Amuse yourself with some of these beauties.

Is this sad, or am I just a soft touch?

Doesn't it make you proud of the younger generation?

I don't know why, but this appeals to my sense of humour!

I wonder if this seller would like to take my eBay training course?

Any animal lovers out there?

Disclaimer - I have no association with any of the sellers of the above items.