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• Inspirational Quote of the Day
• News and Views
• Auction Pricing Strategies
• Don't Forget to Advertise on eBay
• About You, About Me
• A Gift from Me to You
• Someone's auctioning what? Unusual items currently available
• Finally
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Hello and welcome.

A particularly warm welcome to you if you're a new subscriber. It's good to have you as part of the family taking my eBay auction newsletter.

I hope 2006 has got off to a great start with you.

As I write this I realize we're nearly into March. Pretty soon we'll be a quarter of the way through the year! And I get to thinking to myself, have I made the progress I wanted this far into 2006?

What prompted this thought was an interesting document I came across recently. It's ideal for all of us who are operating on eBay and in other places on the internet.

What I'm going to tell you comes from an ebook called "How to Make Six Figures Online". But please don't let that put you off!

Hidden in that ebook was what I consider to be a gem.

It talks about the need to establish a daily activity routine.

On each day of the week you have a checklist of actions which you undertake. Each of these activities are designed to help build, in this particular case, that six figure income.

Now, what I recommend is that you take that methodology and apply it to your eBay business. So your Monday checklist might be something like:

1. Research a new product for sale

2. Review and improve an existing auction title

3. Review and improve an existing auction description

Tuesday might be:

1. Create a new auction for an item you haven't sold before

2. Research eBay auction automation tools

3. Write a special report to sell on eBay

I hope you get the idea. Rome wasn't built in a day. Neither is it simple, or sudden, to make a six figure income online.

It's the same with your eBay business. If you want to earn more from eBay, you need to keep researching, reviewing and adding. By taking small steps you will make large strides in your eBay operation.

I'm following this process myself, and it's really satisfying being able to tick off each activity as it's accomplished.

Try it yourself, and see if it helps you.

Look forward to speaking with you again.

Brian
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1. Blogs with Tips About eBay

Strategies for eBay is a blog written by Jane Hatton and Pascal Finette. As they are both former eBay employees Jane and Pascal have a wealth of knowledge gathered over 6 years on how to sell on eBay.

Their blog provides eBay selling tips, insights and strategies with advice being useful for new starters and more experienced sellers alike.

You can see how their blogs here:

www.strategies-for-ebay.co.uk

www.strategies-for-ebay.com

2. Do You Recognise This?

What was that book called - "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus"?

I guess it could well be true.

Just consider how we each take a shower.....

HOW A WOMAN SHOWERS

Take off clothes and place them sectioned in the laundry basket according to lights and darks.

Walk to bathroom wearing long dressing gown.

If you see husband along the way, cover up any exposed areas.

Look at womanly physique in the mirror - make mental note to do more sit-ups/leg-lifts etc.

Get in the shower.

Use face cloth, arm cloth, leg cloth, long loofah, wide loofah and pumice stone.

Wash hair once with cucumber and sage shampoo with 43 added vitamins.

Wash hair again to make sure it is clean.

Condition hair with conditioner enhanced with grapefruit and mint.

Wash face with crushed apricot facial scrub for 10 minutes until red.

Wash entire rest of body with ginger nut and jaffa cake body wash.

Rinse conditioner off hair.

Shave armpits and legs.

Turn off shower.

Squeegee off all wet surfaces in shower.

Spray mould spots with tile cleaner.

Get out of shower.

Dry with towel the size of a small country.

Wrap hair in a super absorbent towel.

Return to bedroom wearing long dressing gown and the hand towel on head.

If you see husband along the way, cover up any exposed areas.


HOW A MAN SHOWERS

Take off clothes while sitting on the edge of the bed and leave in a pile on the floor.

Walk naked to the bathroom.

If you see wife along the way, shake willy at her making the "woo-woo" sound.

Look at manly physique in the mirror. Admire the size of willy, and scratch bum.

Get in the shower.

Wash face.

Wash armpits.

Blow nose in hands and let the water rinse it off.

Fart and laugh at how loud it sounds in the shower.

Spend majority of time washing privates and surrounding area.

Wash bum, leaving coarse bum hairs stuck on the soap.

Wash hair.

Make a shampoo Mohawk.

Wee.

Rinse off and get out of shower.

Partially dry off.

Fail to notice water on floor because curtain was hanging out of shower the whole time.

Admire willy size in mirror again.

Leave shower curtain open, wet mat on floor, light and fan on.

If you pass wife, pull off towel, shake willy at her and make the "woo-woo" sound again.

Throw wet towel on bed.

I KNOW YOU'RE LAUGHING NOW BECAUSE MOST OF IT IS TRUE! ! !


3. Here's a Good Snapshot

Garry Edwards is an interesting character.

In addition to being a highly successful professional photographer, Garry is an eBay PowerSeller.

Garry is also the author of a range of superb photography ebooks, and it is these which form the bulk of his eBay sales.

When Garry decided to produce a new ebook showing eBay sellers how to take the most effective photos for their auctions, you can be sure his advice is worth listening to.

I've reviewed this new ebook and it is excellent. In particular the photos in this PDF format ebook are of very high quality - naturally!

If you want the best advice available on creating killer photos for your eBay auctions, I recommend you review Garry's brand new ebook.

You'll find all the information here.


4. A Free eBay Resource

I've just finished reading another new ebook. It's called "Mining Gold From eBay".

Being written by Michael Rasmussen and Jason Tarasi, you can be sure the contents are valuable. Michael in particular is a well known eBay and internet guru.

You may receive emails from various internet marketers offering you this brand new ebook for anything from $27 upwards.

As a valued subscriber to my eBay newsletter, "Mining Gold From eBay" is free to you.

You can download "Mining Gold From eBay" from here.


5. And there's more.....

As another gesture of appreciation for you being my subscriber, here is a new web page where you can download everything for free.

Enjoy!

Here's the address:

www.TurboCollection.com

By the way, when you get to this page, you may like to bookmark it since new products are being added all the time.

One of the reasons why items don't sell on eBay may be to do with the pricing strategy that has been used.

You will see this in action if you search and find more than one auction for identical items. Have a look at the start prices being used by each seller, whether or not a Buy it Now is available, and which if any of the sellers have used a reserve price.

Every seller is in control of these variables, and how they are deployed can have an impact on the success of the auction.

Hare are some different ideas for you on pricing strategies.

Try setting your start price to the level you would normally have as your Buy it Now price. Then make your Buy it Now price at a slightly higher amount than your start price. The idea here is to entice an interested bidder to make a Buy it Now purchase. This method clearly makes the value of a Buy it Now extra clear, and hopefully makes them willing to pay the extra for the privilege of immediate ownership.

Or, how about taking on your competition head on?

Keep an eye on your competition and, when they start a Buy it Now auction for an item you stock, start an auction for one of those items yourself. Make sure your title is similar to theirs, but price your item slightly lower than theirs. This will mean that your auctions will be listed together in search results, but yours is going to appear to give better value.

Or, try the free shipping option.

Many buyers dislike paying for shipping. So why not incorporate the shipping cost into the price of the item, whether that be by start price or Buy it Now, or both? Then you can make a feature of the fact that the item has free shipping. This has the advantage of "removing" what some consider to be an extra which appears at the checkout stage.

Or, if you're brave, why not just go for it?

In this strategy you list your item for the maximum duration of ten days, ideally starting the auction on a Thursday so that it goes across two weekends and finishes on a Sunday. Plus, set the starting price to the minimum you dare - ideally one penny or one cent. It may be prudent to purchase low cost listing features like bold or highlight, to give your auction a visual boost. What you’re attempting here is to give bidders as long as possible to discover your auction, so that a bidding war can take place.

If you get this one right, you can make a much bigger profit than you would have with any Buy it Now price, especially with a medium or high value item.

As in all eBay activity, my advice to you is to keep testing. By all means try different pricing strategies, but keep track of what works and what doesn't. And never put all your eggs into one basket. When testing pricing strategies, don't do it with every auction.

Be sensible, and you should be able to improve the performance of your auctions. But remember, there's no guarantee. So please walk before you run.

Just about every business will tell you that advertising is a necessity. The only way to sell a product and attract customers is through advertising. When selling on eBay, however, the task is somewhat different.

On eBay, there is only one opportunity to advertise your products, and that is via your auction title and your auction description.

Most buyers on eBay find the product they are shopping for in one of two ways. They either do a keyword search, or they navigate directly to the category of the item they are seeking.

Although this appears to be two chances for the item to be found, in practice by far the most common way eBayers use to locate items is through keyword searches. You therefore need to take the time to think about the keywords to use in your auction title and item description.

The number one tip for writing effective titles and descriptions is to be specific.

For example let's imagine three different eBay sellers are offering an identical item. They are all selling the same item, which is a Nokia 8800 mobile phone. Seller A lists the item using the following title, "Brand new mobile phone". Seller B lists the phone using the following auction title, "Nokia 8800 mobile phone". While seller C uses the following auction title, "Nokia 8800 Camera mobile Phone w Radio".

Given these examples, seller C will typically experience the most visitors to their auction page. They have created the most precise auction title.

Let's see what happens when a buyer does a search...

If a buyer comes along and simply types "mobile phone" into the search engine, all three auctions will display.

If the buyer types "Nokia 8800" then only sellers B and C will have their auction page displayed in the results.

If the buyer types in "Nokia 8800 camera", only seller C's auction will be returned.

So, as you can see by being more specific about the item that is being sold, the seller can capitalize on the natural search results.

One way you can uncover good keywords to use in your auction title and description is to do a search yourself for the product you are selling.

For example, if you type in Nokia 8800 into the eBay search box, at the top of the returned list you will see a "Related Keywords" list . These are keywords that eBay is suggesting as possible search terms relevant to Nokia 8800. Any of them could be good high traffic keywords to use in the title of your auction.

So, a little research before creating your auction can pay dividends. And, make your auction title as specific as you can be. And don't forget to make use of eBay's "Related Keywords" facility.

If I've never told you before, I'm a big fan of eBay's About Me feature.

This is a special page you can create as part of your eBay account and which is linked from your eBay ID via the About Me icon -

eBay members can click on your About Me icon to get to your About Me page. You can set up this page to show information about you, your interests, and even links to your website. Plus, you can use your eBay About Me page as a sales tool.

Not only is it a great way to get personal with your customers, you can use your About Me page to drive traffic to your website or other online businesses.

However, eBay does not approve of blatant advertising on your About Me page, but you can include links to products and services that you think will be of interest to the eBay community at large.

If these links just happen to be affiliate links to products that pay you a commission, that's good for you!

Your About Me page can be as simple or as detailed as you like.

Click here to see my own About Me page.


Here's how you can create your own eBay About Me page.

1. Register for an eBay account. If you're already an eBay member you can skip this step. If you don't have a free eBay account you can register below:

If you're in the UK, click here to register now.

If you're in USA, click here to register now.


2. Once you're registered, log into your eBay account by clicking the "My eBay" link at the top of any eBay page. Enter your eBay user name and password.


3. Once you're logged in, click the "Personal Information" link under "My Account" in the left hand menu.


4. At the Personal Information page click to create your About Me page.


5. Once you're at the About Me creation page simply follow the directions. You can use the About Me wizard to create the page, or paste in custom HTML as I have done with my About Me page. If you're not familiar with HTML coding, you'll find a useful HTML tutorial here.


Once you have your About Me page set up, you should include a link to it in every auction and sale you do.

After all, it's free advertising, so why not use it!

This time I've a comprehensive free ebook for you entitled "How to Make a Living on eBay".

Written by Tim Mina, "How to Make a Living on eBay" is an A to Z of selling on eBay and comprises 119 packed pages.

Here's a look at the contents:

Section One: The Big Picture – Making a Living on eBay

Chapter 1. Is eBay the Perfect Opportunity for You?
Chapter 2. Why 99% of Sellers Fail on eBay
Chapter 3. How to Join the 1% That “Get It”

Section Two: eBay Basics – For Beginners Only

Chapter 4. How to Register on eBay
Chapter 5. eBay 101 - The Beginner’s Guide to eBay

Section Three: Tips for eBay Sellers from the Pros

Chapter 6. How to Choose Your Own Profitable Niche
Chapter 7. How to Find Products at Bargain Prices
Chapter 8. How to Write Great Ads that Sell
Chapter 9. How to Take Great Photos that Sell
Chapter 10. How to Advertise Your Auctions

Section Four: After the Auction Tasks

Chapter 11. Contacting Customers & Collecting Payment
Chapter 12. Packaging & Shipping Your Items
Chapter 13. Automating Your Post-Sale Tasks

Section Five: Take Control of Your eBay Business

Chapter 14. It’s Simple to Create a Profitable Website
Chapter 15. A Final Look at the Big Picture

If you're looking to take your eBay selling to the next level,
I recommend you download "How to Make a Living on eBay".

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

Now I know exactly where I am

How come this is being sold by a guy in Blackpool? I'm a Geordie myself, so I want to know!

Do you imagine John Lennon might be turning in his grave?

Well, whatever turns you on!

If you're anywhere near Uxbridge, do you fancy it?

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