If you are listing items one at a time, going page by page through the eBay program, this slowdown in your business life is even worse. While you may love the profitability of eBay, you may also wish for an easier, and less time consuming, way to take care of your online inventory.

Thankfully, there are many online tools to help eBay sellers through every step in the process. For many of these, you do not even have to waste time looking – they are available on eBay itself, in the Seller Tools section.

Here’s a look at five of the more popular online tools for eBay sellers:

* Turbo Lister – When you need to list a large number of items – and fast! – Turbo Lister may be the program you want to try. Turbo Lister allows the bulk upload of multiple items on eBay. Once you download the program, you will be able to put in all the information about your products from your offline computer.

Once they are ready to go, you can go online and have the system automatically upload the whole lot. In addition to bulk uploading, Turbo Lister also aids in customizing of your eBay sales pages to be more attractive to prospective buyers.

Turbo Lister is a free program offered by eBay.

* Selling Manager – Taking things to the next level is Selling Manger. This program comes into play when your listings are running and helps you keep an eye on them. From monitoring your listings to printing bulk invoices and shipping labels, Selling Manager can speed up the process.

It can also help you generate bulk feedback to keep your shoppers happy. Additionally, the program will help you get your items back on the market with bulk relisting of sold and unsold items.

If you have an eBay store, Selling Manager is free. If not, it costs $4.99 per month to use.

* Selling Manager Pro – In addition to all the offerings of the Selling Manager program, Selling Manager Pro offers bulk and automatic listing capabilities, as well as the ability to send automatic e-mails to your buyers when they purchase an item.

The system will also let you know when your inventory is getting low on the bulk items that you have listed. When it comes to paperwork, this program will print out profit and loss reports and offer sales data spreadsheets.

This program costs $15.99 per month – unless you have a featured or anchored eBay store, in which case it is included.

* Blackthorne Basic – For middle-level sellers that list at least 2-3 dozen items a month, Blackthorne Basic is a good option for all-inclusive eBay product management. Once the software is on your system it will become an all-in-one program where you can create bulk listings, watch those listings and sales and respond to your buyers.

Instead of having to sort through the pages on the eBay website for all these functions, Blackthorne Basic allows you to complete these tasks from an interface on your computer.

This system will also keep track of your customers’ information and allow you to customize sales reports at a price of $9.99 per month.

* Blackthorne Pro [link to http://pages.ebay.com/blackthorne/pro.html] – In addition to the offerings of Blackthorne Basic, Blackthorne Pro adds the feature of inventory management, so you will always know what is in stock. It allows multiple users to work on the system at a time. This program is primarily for businesses that have designated more than one employee to the task of listing items to sell.

Blackthorne Pro also offers upgraded design features to create listings that will stand out and grab the attention of prospective buyers. This program costs $24.99 per month.

eBay is constantly monitoring the volume of sales of its members. Any seller that can achieve a consistent Sales volume (at least $1000 in gross sales, or 100 items sold per month) for three consecutive months, as well as maintaining a feedback rating of 98% or better, will qualify to become a PowerSeller. These qualifications are reviewed every three months, so a long-time Seller may shift in and out of PowerSeller status depending on sales volume.

However based on those qualifications – there are two obvious secrets to becoming and remaining an eBay PowerSeller: (1) Sell high volume. (2) Keep your customers happy.

To become a PowerSeller, you do nothing except sell. eBay will invite you when they determine you meet the criteria.

Why Become a PowerSeller?

There are a number of fantastic ways that eBay rewards their PowerSellers. These include the following benefits:

- Priority eSupport, Toll Free Phone support, and even an Account Manager (for higher tier/volume sellers).
- Since Feb 20, 2008, PowerSellers enjoy up to 15% discounts on Final Value Fees.
- 5% to 25% more exposure than average sellers for those with ratings over 4.6 in the last 30 days.
- Unpaid Item Protection – crediting Listing Feature Fees when a buyer doesn’t pay.
- Personalized sales and Feedback data
- Nifty looking PowerSeller icon next to your user ID (attracting more sales!)
- Exclusive access to the PowerSeller-only discussion board.

Obviously the benefits are not only useful to save money – but those benefits will lead to a higher volume and higher sales. Essentially, becoming a PowerSeller on eBay ensures that with continuing work, you will remain a successful PowerSeller.

5 Most Effective Ways to become a Successful eBay PowerSeller

Being a successful eBay Seller demands discipline, good time management, and excellent organization. These are critical to managing all aspects of an eBay business. The general steps of eBay selling include Photography, Posting, Packaging, and Shipping. Each of these steps can consume much of your time if you are not smart and efficient in managing your time, and if you’re not smart where you invest money into those resources that will save you the most time. Some of the most critical resources into which you should invest include bulk-listing services, remote (cell phone) advanced research services, and photo management services. We will explore each of these in a moment.

1. Quality Photographs

One of the most important factors in not only whether an item sells, but also how much the item sells for, is how well the item is photographed. This means that the seller with the best camera that can take the closest, clearest photo wins. Most new digital cameras now have a "macro" feature that provides clear and focused close-up photos. If your current camera doesn’t have that feature, junk it and buy a new one. Again – I cannot emphasize enough how critical the photos are in selling your items…almost more important than the item itself! Beautiful photos sell an item. Typically 3 to 4 nice, clear, photos are just enough – 6 to 8 can be too much. Try to get as many angles of the item as possible, including a close-up of all markings or imperfections.

2. Reliable and High-Speed Image Hosting

This is absolutely critical to cutting down on costs. A small monthly investment will save a fortune in eBay costs. To list multiple pictures on eBay, fees are about 15 cents for each additional photo. If you want to have four additional photos on your listing, that comes to a whooping 60 cents. If you list up to 40 items in one week – that’s an additional cost of $24 a week.

A much more cost effective technique, and a well-kept secret of most PowerSellers, is using a high quality Image Hosting service such as MyPhotosHub.com . I personally prefer this particular service above any other because of the very reasonable rates. Purchasing the gold plan at under $7 a month gives you 80 MB of space and 2000 MB/month of bandwidth – more than enough space and bandwidth to handle high volume sales. This particular service even offers 360 degree spins, slide shows, and Auction Galleries – all unique features that attract buyers (and encourages sales).

3. Detailed Descriptions

When you are writing your eBay Descriptions, do not make the mistake of most beginning eBay Sellers…skimping on the description. While pictures may tell a thousand words – a well-written description is the salesman that closes the deal. You need to explain to the buyer why they cannot live without the item – how it’ll improve their d�cor, or the many uses that they will have for it in their everyday life. Be creative. You don’t need to write a book; but you should at least write a quick creative paragraph of about three to four lines that describe what the item is, the colors and size, the condition, and how and where it could be used (why the buyer can’t live without it!).

If you want a well-formatted auction, create a template in Word (or HTML) and simply edit the parts of the template that you need to for each item. This will save you a great deal of time when you are listing a high volume of items.

4. Effective Headlines

Keep in mind when you are trying to stuff as many keywords as you can into the one-line provided for the headline, that it isn’t so much the quantity of words – but the quality. You want to make sure that the specific words that buyers are looking for are placed in your headline. This is where research is critical. Before listing your item, make sure to do a "completed item" search on the item, and observe which items that have sold in the past that are most similar to yours sold for the highest price. Make note of the descriptive headline for the item, and what keywords were used. Use the same keywords and simply tailor the headline for your item.

5. Easy Payments make a Happy Seller

It may be a pain to have to swallow an average of 3% in fees for accepting Paypal payments – however the benefits far outweigh the costs. According to eBay, listings that offer Paypal are 6% more likely to sell – and typically sell for 5% more. Clearly eBay buyers prefer sellers who accept Paypal. This means having a Paypal account and accepting payment from buyers is absolutely critical if you expect to become a successful eBay PowerSeller!

It is also important to provide flexibility – so buyers who don’t have a Paypal account can still buy from you. This means accepting alternate forms of payment such as a Money Order. Some sellers don’t accept Checks, because of the possibility of check fraud; however if you make note that items will not be shipped until checks clear, then you can even safely accept personal checks without worry. Remember – the more payment options you accept, the more buyers will likely be willing to buy from you.

Since then, smaller sellers in the eBay community have rallied together to boycott the hike as eBay attempts to court the bigger sellers. Sadly, the mini strike apparently had little to no effect and eBay remains firm in going through with the changes on Wednesday.

It looks like smaller sellers or anyone not happy with the fee hike should look closely at the pros and cons of doing business through eBay. There are eBay alternatives that facilitate auctioning such as Amazon.com or you could even consider beginning your own. Whatever you decide….good luck!

However, as good as eBay is, it’s not for everyone – with restrictions on what can be sold and rising fees, a small business using eBay as a means of selling products can cost quite a bit extra, depending on sales levels. Thankfully there are a few alternatives to eBay, with some options more effective than others.

Online Auction Sites
As well as eBay, there are a host of other online auction sites. These range from small sites to ones that at least equal eBay in terms of size and users. Some of the more popular ones include Amazon Auctions, Bidz.com and Auction Addict. There are literally hundreds of online auction sites now – for an updated list just type “Online Auctions” into Google and you’ll see some of the more popular ones.

Classifieds
Another way to sell online is via classifieds. Just like you’d advertise in the newspaper, you can do the same online. The big difference here is that may of the classified sites are free of charge, which can save you quite a bit in editorial charges. Some are more popular than others, as well as being more effective. The most-used at the moment include Yahoo Classifieds and Craigslist. The latter in particular has grown quickly over the last couple of years, due in no small part that it’s free and its ability to target your own specific metropolitan area.

Social Networking Sites
The explosion in popularity of social media in the last 2-3 years has seen an unprecedented opportunity to use this new medium. Websites like Facebook and MySpace offer an instant potential customer base that runs into the hundreds of millions, and a relaxation of the rules and regulations means that these sites now allow you to post classified adverts to sell your products. And with the likes of Squidoo and Zubby.com showing that the social network phenomenon is continuing to grow, there are more opportunities springing up every day.

Niche Product Sites
If you sell products in a certain niche, there are a few sites where you can set up your own shop. For instance, if you sell craft items, you can sell on sites like Handmade Catalog . If you sell antiques or collectibles, set up a shop on Ruby Lane . These are just a couple – you can find online “malls” for these and many other product categories as well.

As well as these alternatives, there are also other ways to sell online. Obviously there’s your own website, but if this isn’t an option, you can also find details on police and government auctions. You can also just set up a simple blog and sell stuff from there, using nothing more than a PayPal account for your transactions. Whichever you decide is best for you, at least you know there are alternatives to eBay for you.

EBay’s announcement that seller fees are increasing February 20th is not going over well. The new rules go a little something like this:

"It reduces upfront costs such as listing fees, which will drop from a starting price of $0.20 to $0.15 for traditional auction listings, and makes gallery photos free. However, eBay is adding more costs to the back end for many sellers with higher final-value fees, the commission eBay takes after a sale. Top sellers will be rewarded with greater visibility and protections, but – in perhaps the most controversial aspect of the shake-up – sellers will no longer be able to leave negative feedback for buyers. " (from CNNMoney.com )

I myself have only participated in eBay as a buyer but I can’t quite see how this is supposed to help…well…anything? eBay is claiming top sellers will see more savings but some sellers who’ve run the numbers say it’s going to cost them more.

What are your thoughts?

That’s unfortunate because listing items on eBay can be a fabulous way to earn extra money each month, not to mention a lot of fun to do. So why do so many people give up before they ever make any money? That’s simple really. They aren’t aware of a few clear-cut truths about selling successfully on eBay.

Selling on eBay is as much about integrity, honesty, the bidder’s perception of the kind of person you are, and great word of mouth (feedback) as it is the product you have up for bid. Your auction listing should be a story you tell your potential bidders and a story that will not end until you have shipped the item and received positive feedback for your efforts.

Try these easy to implement eBay "selling secrets" yourself and watch how quickly you change an item with no bids into an actual money making auction, while at the same time ensuring that you receive good feedback, repeat customers and hopefully plenty of money!

* Never use the word L@@K in your title! This is a common mistake and one you shouldn’t make. The words in your title should be chosen carefully as you want those searching for your item to be able to find it. How many times have you ever searched for something called a "L@@K"?

* Never use all caps in your listings and be careful of punctuation and spelling. This is a biggie, but many novice sellers completely over look it. Nothing says, "UNPROFESSIONAL" like a listing in all caps with countless misspelled words.

* Greet your bidders and thank them for visiting your auction.

* Use reserve auctions carefully. Bidders don’t like them, so only use them when you absolutely have to have a certain price for an item.

* Give honest, detailed descriptions of all your items. This may seem pretty straight-forward, but you’d be surprised how many sellers fudge a little when it comes to the details of their items in hopes of making more money.

* Consider listing something for a starting bid of a penny to get traffic to your other auctions. Of course, you aren’t going to list your Great Aunt Tilly’s vintage jewelry for a penny, but if you have an item that you are comfortable with giving up for a small amount of money, you might give it a try. Be sure to mention your other auctions in this listing though, or you’ve missed out on a great cross promotional tool. Never miss the chance to invite your bidders to view your other auctions. Say something like, "If you like this widget, I also have some blue widgets up for auction, so be sure to check them out".

* A great place to get hot selling items is at big name department stores in the clearance aisle. If you have an outlet mall near you, that’s a great resource for products. Just be sure you know the real retail price of the item or you may pay more than it’s worth.

* Never use the word ANTIQUE if an item is less than 100 years old! Only novices do that and it’s a tell-tale sign that you don’t know what you’re doing. Instead, use the word VINTAGE for items that are old, but not yet 100!

* If there is a story behind a vintage item, tell it! Tell your bidders where you found it, who owned it previously or anything else you can think of. The more they know, the more likely they are to bid confidently.

* If you specialize in finding certain things and putting them up for auction, make sure you tell your bidders that so they will check with your auctions again.

* There is some debate about when to leave feedback. Speaking from experience, I learned to leave it only after the product had arrived safely and the buyer left me feedback. There are some folks that will try to extort things from you by threatening negative feedback if you don’t do what they want. Leaving feedback only after they have left it keeps everyone honest.

* Go the extra mile to make your customers happy and you have just earned repeat business.

* Be sure to mention in your listing whether or not you are a business that will need to collect sales tax.

* Try to always list your shipping prices. People would much prefer bidding on something if they know the shipping costs beforehand. I myself never bid on anything that doesn’t clearly specify what it will cost to ship.

* Require shipping insurance on all auctions involving something that may break or something that is very valuable.

* Saying "I’m not responsible if your item arrives broken" in your listing is both unprofessional and untrue. The fact is, if you have wrapped poorly, the post office can refuse to pay the insurance claim and it will come back to you. When shipping, it’s better to over package than to under package. A broken item can mean bad feedback.

* Slow shipping is a big sin! That’s right…slow shipping equals disgruntled buyer.

* Take the best pictures you possibly can and use natural light if possible.

* Don’t list anything without a picture. Bidders hate that!

* Consider having your own website and use the address in the signature of all your email correspondence to winning bidders. This will generate even more sales for you once the auction has ended.

But instead of enjoying a short term gain, why not reinvest it for long term profit?

My partner and I started off with a $360 order from a wholesaler (paid for from our savings), and within three months we’d bought and sold enough items (reinvesting our profits every time) to be sitting on $3000 worth of stock – all bought and paid for. We’d sold around $6000 worth of stock in that time too.

Such is the power of reinvesting.

It’s important to maintain a balance when you’re beginning to expand your eBay business and to achieve that, you need to be able to look ahead. We started in October, in the run up to the Christmas period, and we soon found ourselves sending out twenty to thirty parcels a day. Starting at that time of year enabled us to build up very quickly, which was unexpected. We had little time to plan or think too much about what we were doing – we were too busy sending out orders!

But then we hit January, and February, and sales went down considerably. Fortunately we had built up a huge reserve of stock, and so now our aim changed from building up items to sell, to selling what we already had. We were still reinvesting our profits, but this time we reinvested them in new listings.

We took the time to sit back and evaluate what we were doing. We looked at our newly opened eBay shop and invested some of our profits in listing our stock in the best way possible. A certain amount of trial and error was involved here in deciding on the best way to get the maximum amount of visitors.

I used my writing skills to create articles to send to the article directories, which linked to our shop. I placed ads, and we created an About Me page which I promoted wherever possible, as well as promoting the shop itself.

If anyone tells you that running an eBay business is easy money, they’re lying. It’s hard work, but it’s also extremely rewarding, and not just in a monetary sense. It’s a steep learning curve, and you will make mistakes – we did – but they are usually mistakes you can learn from.

So when you are thinking about reinvesting your eBay profits, remember it doesn’t just apply to monetary profits. Invest time and experience as well, and you will soon have a business you can be proud of.

Perhaps sooner than you think.

Both land-based businesses and online retailers are successfully using eBay to supplement their regular sales, and in this article we will look at ways to use eBay to increase your bottom line.

Offload Old Inventory

No matter what you are selling, you will find that a time will come when certain items in your inventory are not selling as they used to. Excess inventory can be a big problem; essentially, it is money that has been wasted, and it might also be taking up some valuable room.

eBay allows retailers the opportunity to get rid of old inventory items that don’t seem to be selling well from your own website anymore. This is possible due to the wide range of people using eBay in order to buy; odds are that the auction giant has a much greater awareness level, worldwide, than our own website.

This means that you can still recover costs on items that your own clientele isn’t buying, and you may still have the chance to make a profit!

Creating an eBay Store

Think of an eBay store as a side shop to your own web page. Like any branch, it has the opportunity to reach a different category and a broader customer base than your own site. Again, the reason is in eBay’s huge recognition factor; someone who has never heard of your store will have heard of eBay, and if you have a featured store on the site they are likely to find your products and you will make more sales.

Of course, the other side of the eBay store idea is that it involves additional costs. eBay charges anywhere from $30 to $500 a month for stores, so you better make sure that the supplemental dollars you earn are worth it!

Advertising

Never neglect an advertising opportunity – and eBay does present a good opportunity for your website as well as a chance to supplement your sales. Whether you use a store or just the auction, make sure your buyers learn about your own website and the sale opportunities available there.

The best thing to keep in mind about eBay, as far as supplementing the sales off of your own website, is that it has a much greater base as far as customers. If you find that some items in your inventory just aren’t selling well through your own site, the odds are that you can sell them on eBay.

In fact, the most common selling mistakes on eBay today are the same things they were when the site first got fired up! Let’s take a look at them and make some suggestions on how you can avoid them.

* Not Taking Advantage of the Picture Option. It is really, really hard to believe the number of products for sale on eBay that do not have a picture. The Internet is already held in suspicion by a large number of people, and until they see an image of the product in question they will likely never buy.

When it comes to eBay, not only should you be providing a picture of the item you are selling, that picture should also be close up and detailed; the customer will want to have an idea of the condition that your product is in! If you don’t have a good picture, odds are that you won’t make the sale.

* Setting Initial Prices Too High. Way too many people think their items should start out at too high a cost. They forget to think of eBay as an auction; starting low will attract more bids, and people will bid until they think the price is no longer worth it.

This means that the buyers themselves expect to be able to set the price of the products. Starting out too high will turn a lot of bidders off.

* Not Taking Advantage Of eBay Tools. eBay wants you to succeed with your sale as much as you do; after all, it means more business for them. To that end, they have provided a lot of different tools that sellers can use in order to increase their chances at a sale.

Far too many people fail to use these resources for research and just jump right in by posting their items. Doing the necessary research with the tools eBay provides means that you will avoid a lot of the common eBay selling mistakes! You can find eBay’s Seller Tools here .

* Not Understanding Internet Marketing. If there is one thing that you need to understand as far as Internet marketing on any site, it is the use of keywords. eBay and your own website function around using the right keywords to attract attention to your products.

You won’t have a lot of characters on your eBay product title, so you better make sure to use as many descriptive keywords as possible so your auction comes up in searches!

eBay is a great way to start and supplement your business, but you have to go about it the right way. Avoiding some of the common mistakes is a great way to start!

What are the best ways to turn an eBay buyer into a repeat customer? Here are some suggestions:

1. Always give the customer a little more than is expected.
When you describe your item, underplay the condition rather than making it sound better than it is. The customer will be pleasantly surprised when they receive it and will make it a point to keep you on their radar screen.

2. Include a quick thank you note with the buyer’s purchase. Have some little cards printed up thanking the buyer for their purchase. Simply sign each one and place it in the package with their auction item. You’ll receive wonderful comments about this practice and it will result in many repeat customers.

3. Give the buyer useful information relating to their purchase.
For example, if he purchases a piece of jewelry, include a sheet on how to care for his jewelry in the package with the item. Make sure your auction I.D. is listed somewhere on the sheet.

4. Consider publishing a monthly email newsletter that keeps the buyer informed about the items you sell. You can include a link in the newsletter to your current auctions. Be sure to get the buyers permission to be on your mailing list before sending out any correspondence.

5. Ship items fast and respond to all questions in a timely manner.
Show off what good customer service you’re capable of practicing. Impress them so they don’t want to purchase anywhere else.

6. Give your customer the gift of convenience. Offer as many payment options as possible. Always offer Paypal, as this is usually the most convenient payment method for the buyer to use. The simpler you make the auction payment process, the more repeat customers you’ll have.

7. Survey your current customers to find out what they want and then offer them more of it. Try to offer new and exciting auction items relating to your buyer’s interests. They’ll keep coming back for more.

Why not use these ideas to turn your customers into loyal, long term customers? Now that you know the secrets of pleasing your customers, you’ll soon be reaping the rewards in the form of increased eBay sales.