Saturday, November 14, 2009

5 Easy Steps for Creating an eBay Business

By Gus Dean

You can generate a solid and steady income stream on this multi-million dollar online auction site through the buying and selling of products. If you are thinking about creating a new eBay business, you will want to start with the following 5 steps:

Step #1 is to register yourself as a new user on eBay. After you register, you can then watch the multiple tutorials that this site offers. There is also alot of tips and advice offered by current eBay business owners. And, there are help pages available for you to reference so that you can be guided through the site.

Step # 2 - Begin to familiarize yourself with the buying and selling processes by searching for various items listed. For example, if you are focusing on selling vintage stamps, you will want to get a feel for the items currently sold within this category, the listed prices for various items and the types of listings shown. Each of these bits of research will help you to formulate your plan of attack on the site.

Step #3 - Decide what you are going to sell using your own marketing concepts along with your passion or expertise in a given area. For example, if you are not an avid book lover, focusing your business in this niche is not advised. What sells best on eBay? Well, if we knew the answer to that question, we would all be millionaires. Most of the powersellers offer a variety of products across several niches. The success that you will achieve is largely dependent upon the competitiveness of the niche you have chosen, how you have priced your products to sell and your required profit margin (taking into account your acquisition expenses and your selling expenses). You may have to work through several niches and the trial and error process before figuring out the overall plan that works best for you.

Step # 4 is the use of listing tools. You can download free software from eBay that will help you manage the listing on your products. Turbo listor is one of the most popular on eBay but there are many others that you can research. Basically these programs will allow you to create templates that you can use to list, sell and ship your products.

Step #5 - Begin to list and experiment with given pricing strategies to see what works for your given product niche. When you list products, be sure to include your preferred payment terms (Paypal, check, money orders, etc.), shipping and handling charges, estimated shipping time, your return policy, your contact information and as your business grows, you may want to include answers to frequently asked questions to make it easier for browsers to shop within your eBay store or within your listed eBay products. And most importantly, include multiple pictures of your products from all relevant angles to show the bidders exactly what they will be receiving.

Once you have completed these 5 basic steps, you can begin to expand your eBay business strategy. Be patient- as with any new business, working through a new eBay business will require time.

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