Pyschology Behind Why People Buy Information Products - the Infopreneur’s Key To Explosive Success
As an infopreneur, always remember you are dealing with people. And people have emotions. These emotions are powerful drivers, governing almost all decisions they make - including buying decisions.
To be a successful infopreneur, your information must appeal to any one (or better still, more than one) of these very important emotions:
* Fear
* Greed
* Vanity
* Lust
* Pride
* Envy
* Laziness
These are powerful emotions. Yes, they are ‘negative’ emotions - but still, they are important. Let’s look at a few case studies and examples of infopreneurs using these effective hooks to sell info-products.
The ‘Fear’ Hook
Do you play the stock market? (Or to put it more euphemistically, are you an ‘investor’ in stocks and shares?)
If so, you probably subscribe to magazines, newsletters and membership services that give you stock picking tips and advice. These are information products, and those selling to you are infopreneurs who often harness their marketing to the emotion of fear.
When you have cash invested in stocks, what are you afraid of? A market crash!
And what if I could teach you how to predict or foresee a coming crash - before it happens. Or show you how your portfolio can be guarded against a crash, even if it occurs before you cash out. Isn’t that information you would love to own?
I’ve just played on your fear. Fear of loss. Fear of being caught unawares. Fear of being trapped, financially crippled, going bankrupt.
The ‘Vanity’ Hook
Imagine you look and feel like Marilyn Monroe in her heyday - and are as old as her too. Your friends envy your timeless beauty, your unwrinkled skin, your nimble agility, your bright smile - while sadly comparing it with their own pot-bellies, arthritic fingers and asthmatic wheeze when climbing a few stairs.
Now what if you wrote a book showing them how to reverse the aging process, look
and feel young again, recapture their youth. Teach them how to look like you, even if they are older, weaker, less healthy. Paint a rosy picture of a future where they enjoy years of glowing good health.
Will people buy your book? Sure, they’ll be lining up all round the block, waiting with cash in hand.
Because you appealed to their vanity.
The ‘Laziness’ Hook
You might wonder just how powerful a trigger laziness could be.
A friend of mine wrote a popular book and sold it in electronic format. It taught people who worked at computers, spending hours every day sitting in front of their machines, a simple set of exercises to keep them fit… without getting out of their seats!
It sold like hot-cakes… because it appealed to the buyers’ laziness. Get fit while you sit. It just doesn’t get more attractive than that!
Each of the triggers listed above has similar potency in eliciting a response from prospects. Often, infopreneurs tap into a product idea that appeals to more than one of these emotions, dramatically increasing the profit potential of their creation.
So as part of your niche research as an infopreneur, see if an information product based on your experience and expertise will help solve a problem or provide a benefit - while appealing to one of the ‘hooks’ above.
Prepare a list of potential topics you can cover. Make a note beside each idea, about which emotions it appeals to. Later on, when you start looking for a niche to start working in, this will become a major determinant of your final choice.
The information product that appeals to the most people will be the one that can pull the most ‘triggers’.
Promoting Your Ecommerce Site
Anyone can build an ecommerce site, but if you don’t promote, chances are that no one will ever see it! Promotion is one of the key elements in a successful ecommerce business and one that many webmasters don’t know how to do well. That’s why you are reading this, to learn more about promotion techniques!
The most obvious method of promoting your ecommerce site is through ads. There are many different types of ads and they have varying degrees of success. For example, there are websites where you can put your link for free, but they will not tend to bring you much traffic. Not that you should rule them out, but don’t waste too much time posting free ads!
Google Adwords is a good way to advertise on a budget since they let you set the price you pay per click as well as how much to spend per day, letting you keep your spending in check. Also, you might consider ezine ads, which can be had for as little as $2 in some cases for a classified ad.
Don’t overlook offline promotion, as well. If you are selling something that would appeal to the general public, why not take out a classified in the local paper? Or in several papers around the country for that matter? This is a good way to catch the attention of people who would not normally look for your business online.
Sometimes, it is worth resorting to lesser known methods of promotion in order to get your ecommerce site noticed. You can find plenty of ideas by chatting with other webmasters on ecommerce forums, but here are a few ideas to get you started.
Host a contest. By holding a contest of any kind, drawing, writing, photo, etc., you can post your listing on hundreds of free contest sites that thousands of people will see every day. The number of potential new clients that will be attracted to your site is astounding with just a simple contest. Just make sure that you set the end date a couple of months ahead.
You might also consider giving away something, whether an e-report or a sample product. This can be listed on free giveaway sites that will bring plenty of treasure seekers to your website. While some will only want the freebie, others will stay to look around at your products.
Another way to promote your ecommerce site is to set up an affiliate program through a service like Clickbank. This allows you to get your product in front of a wide variety of people who will then work hard to promote your site themselves, if you give them a good enough incentive.
Posting valuable information on forums related to your website theme is another way to get free promotion. You can include your ecommerce site URL in your profile and signature. When people see that you offer good advice, they will check out your site for more information and see your products.
There are many more ways to promote your ecommerce website, but these will get you off to a good start. The more you talk about your site, whether in the real world or in chat rooms and on blog comments, the more visitors you will have. It’s really that simple.
Why You Will Fail With Private Label Rights Products
You might be wondering how I can say you will fail with private label rights products.
It is a statistical fact that 95% of the people that try to make money online fail. That makes me right 95% of the time.
Don’t worry, if you want to be one of the 5% that makes money online I have some tips for you that will help you succeed with private label rights products.
#1 Make sure you get a product with the proper rights.
There are a number of different rights and restrictions that come with private label products. You need to make sure you have the rights to do what you have planned with your product.
All private label rights products will let you edit the product, put your name on the product and resell the product. But that is all they have in common some of the rights that vary are:
* Whether or not you can claim copyright.
* Whether you can give away the end product.
* Whether you can sell the private label rights.
* Whether you can group the products.
* Whether you can sell in a membership site.
* Plus more. . .
Be sure you read the terms and conditions before you purchase the product. If it doesn’t give you the rights to do what you want to do keep on looking.
I personally find that the more restrictive products (no private label resale rights, no give away rights) are the ones that I can make the most profits from. But if you are trying to build a list by giving something away then you need to make sure you have giveaway rights.
#2 Make the private label product your own.
What does this mean?
It means actually use the rights that you have. At least 90% of the people that have the rights don’t change the name of the product or the graphics or the sales page, let alone the product itself.
Now, if you remember 95% of the people don’t make money, we have just accounted for a large percentage of them with this one step.
Change the name, change the graphics and most definitely change the product. Make it promote you and not the person you bought from.
Put your affiliate links in the product.
Put your name on the product.
Point the product to your site.
#3 Improve the end product.
Make your product better then the products of all the other people that purchases private label rights. You can do this by:
* Adding related bonuses to the product.
* Group some related articles with the product.
* Create an autoresponder series to go with the product.
* Create instructional tutorials to go with the product.
* Anything else you can think of to increase the apparent value of the product.
#4 Read or use the private label product.
This sounds like a rather obvious thing to say but I have purchased private label products that were absolutely trash. Not only providing poor information to the end user but giving damaging information.
Fortunately, I knew enough about the products to know they were trash and possibly even harmful so I didn’t use them or resell them until I had them fixed.
I have followed up on these products and found people selling them without changing the name or information at all. If they do manage to make a sale I doubt they will make a followup sale if their customers actually read the products.
#5 Avoid the cheap stuff.
From personal experience I found that you can profit a lot more from the higher priced private label rights products.
The reasons for this are:
* They are usually better quality products.
* They have fewer people selling them.
* They have better promotional materials included.
* They usually won’t let you sell the private label rights.
Remember the price is relative. If you buy a $27 PLR product and you don’t sell any or if you buy a $500 PLR product and you sell 100 of them at $97 each which actually cost you more?
The key is the first four points. If you don’t do those steps you will fail with private label products.
Ebay Powerseller Secrets And Tips
Ebay Powerseller is a public recognized symbol. It shows the seller is trustworthy and experienced in selling on ebay. Most importantly, he is making a good living from eBay auction business.
I have compiled a list of ebay powerseller secrets so that you can learn from their experiences.
1. Offer easy payment options for buyers:
It is your responsibility to increase the ways of accepting payments online. It will drive up the sales if you offer more payment options.
2. Use Paypal as your first choice of payment:
Paypal is by far the most popular online payment service, especially on ebay. It offers security for both buyers and sellers to protect from online fraud. You should sign up for a free Paypal account now.
3. Use a dedicated email account for your online auction:
You will look more professional if you have an appropriate email account that deals with all your online orders and enquiries.
4. Always use signature in your email:
This is an effective branding strategy and it is a good opportunity to sell more items to your existing customers.
5. Compile a list of FAQ:
It saves you time without answering the same questions from buyers.
6. Conduct your market research according to the trends on eBay:
You need to constantly look out for the hottest items to sell on eBay. Check out eBay calendar for particular themes of the month. Pay special notice on what other people are selling.
7. Write decent ads:
Your ads need to look neat and simple. Don’t confuse your buyers. Be honest when you are describing your items. You will increase your chance of getting positive feedbacks in that way. In addition, check your spelling and grammars before you put up your ads.
8. Use automation:
If you have a seller pro subscription, you can automate a lot of things, such as emails, feedbacks, and newsletters. It saves you a great deal of time so you can concentrate on other things.
9. Clear policy on shipping and handling:
Be very clear on instructions after sales, such as shipping, handling, postage, etc. Your customers will appreciate that greatly. Also, it will be better if you can provide a tracking code for your customers to track the shipment. Don’t overcharge your shipping fees.
10. Use quality pictures:
You should use multiple pictures whenever possible. It is proven to increase your sales and attract more bids. Please take quality pictures with your digital camera in an appropriate background.
11. Relist your unsold items:
You should relist your unsold items since eBay don’t charge you again if the item is sold later. Don’t create a new listing for the same item.
12. Use different features of listing appropriately:
EBay offers different types of listing features, such as bold, highlight, border, feature plus, etc. They all have different price and some of them are not cheap. You should use them appropriately after weighing against the potential profits in the sale.
13. Never use reserve option:
So far I haven’t seen any successful auction using reserve option. No one wants to bid on items with reserved price. If you don’t want to lose your profits, simply raise your starting bid.
14. Use ten days auction and gallery option frequently:
These are two of mine most favorite options for listing. They are proven to work. Use them often.
There you have it.
Hope the above tips are helpful to you.
Private Resale Rights Pitfalls
In any business, you do not always get what you wanted. You cannot convert your business into an overnight success. Do cannot simply create business out of nothing and end up big time because everything has to be planned and carefully studied. And any business you engage would bring you to different challenges along the way because no business is perfect.
And like any other businesses, entering into the private resale right field could not give you the success you have always dreamed of.
While most of the private resale rights entrepreneurs win big time in this field you have to consider that there is a portion of the pie that losses in this business. With the popularity of private resale rights in the information age, you should know where are the areas you would fail. Focusing your attention on the following this could save your time, your effort and your money. Here are the private resale rights pitfalls:
1.Intense competition is always one of the problems of newcomers who want to gain name in any businesses they would like to venture in. The private resale right business is not different. With worldwide market and of course worldwide competition, your private resale rights business could not move as you wish.
2.Any road to success is not always the easiest road to take. For private resale rights business, it could take a lot of marketing skill and time of careful planning to arrive at your dream success. Since private resale rights is existing right before your awareness that it exists, you should test the water first and plan your dive before you take the dip.
3.Although every business could be different from one another, the private resale rights intense competition could also mean “competition.” One brand with different versions of presentations, there is a little chance to come up with a unique product of your own. A particular private resale right product might have a clone which in turn become a fierce competition.
4.Private resale right business is time consuming. Although most businesses requires time, extra effort should be given with modifications and customizations to come up with unique product.
5.Last but not the least. Any product you produce for private resale rights is more or less owned by other people. And because you don’t own the rights of any of the products, it is subject could also be owned by other people which is also subject for improvement and modifications. You don’t have the hold of any of your product that is why you cannot have the full market of any of your product.
Enumerating all these thing does not mean you don’t have the space in private resale right business. For few people who succeed in this business, you surely can get to the same pedestal of those who make things good for their private resale right business.
What is good about these pitfalls is that if you know you are properly equipped to launch your own business, you are certainly get all the credits. And the elimination process would not eat you alive if you are prepared to face these challenges that could certainly occur along the way. With good and proper management of your private resale rights products, you will know where you stand up in case you fall down.
Tips On Choosing A Domain Name For Ecommerce
Choosing the right domain name is an important foundation for any ecommerce business. Not only should it be memorable and relevant to your target audience, but there are specific considerations relating to search engine optimization, as well as implications associated with the domain name extension itself.
More so than a simple, offline street address, domain names can convey a lot of information to your prospects. Fortunately, this is something you have a lot of control over. Whereas you cannot rename a street, you can define your web address, within the limits of what is available. Because prospects cannot see your site in directory and search listings, the domain name should communicate the nature of your site, and if possible, something of your business.
When brainstorming a domain name, start with your main keyword. Whilst it’s not essential to include this in the final name, doing so serves two purposes. First, it tells your visitors what they can expect. It identifies your site as being relevant to their inquiry, and it also helps search engine bots determine the relevance of your site. Whilst no-one truly knows what goes into a search engine’s ranking algorithm, most of the sites in the top 30 tend to include their main keyword in the domain name for a given query.
Keywords are not enough, however. Simply stringing keywords together creates a very weak domain name. It tends to be cumbersome, and poorly remembered. Try to thing of a way to convey some value or description of your site, in as few words as possible. If you can create a short phrase, perhaps three words, including your keyword, then it will sound both memorable and natural. For example, my sister called her site “Sane Parenting”. My business website is called “Pick The Business”.
This exercise requires a little lateral thinking. It can be a good idea to use a thesaurus to find synonyms as many combinations are already taken. Unfortunately, this is the case with a lot of two word combinations, although with a little patience you can still find some good ones.
The best domain extension to choose is generally .com, though there are exceptions to this rule. The reason you should opt for .com in most cases is because this is the extension that most people default to when they try and remember web addresses. If you choose a different extension, perhaps .biz or .org, you will potentially lose some traffic to the .com extension as people mistakenly type in that url. Conversely, if you own the .com extension, this can be to your benefit.
Country specific domain names are another case entirely, particularly if you have a business that is not global. They essentially act as a filter, and can deliver more targeted traffic. If your business is global, however, this filtering could have a detrimental effect, as people may assume you don’t service their country. In that case, choosing a .com extension would be better.
Avoid using dashes and numbers in your domain name. They are hard to remember, and look cumbersome. There are no search engine advantages to using dashes, if anything, the opposite. In any case, you will probably lose traffic as people are likely to forget to type them in. Numbers can be easily confused, as they can be spelled or written numerically. And they don’t look professional.
If you can create a domain name that communicates the intent of your business, or a sense of your business’ values, then you assist your visitors in remembering it, as well as creating a favorable first impression. And if you’re looking at selling your domain name (or site) further down the track, short domain names that are catchy always fetch higher prices.
Ultimate Ebay Resource - How To Begin Selling On Ebay
Ebay is a very good market place to start your online business. It offers good market coverage of interested buyers and easy-to-use interface for both sellers and buyers. I have compiled a list of useful Ebay resource. I hope you will find it helpful.
Best place to find products to sell on Ebay.
1. Garage Sales: This is one the most amazing place that you can get your goods from. You can get nearly anything if you look for them. You can usually bulk purchase at very cheap price. Tips: get there early to get good items.
2. Household Items: Research has shown that 75% of household items are used only once or never. You can just turn them into second-hand items and sell them on Ebay. Tips: make sure you polish them up first and take some decent photos to entice your buyers.
3. Ebay: Why? You can study the market and buy in the items that are well below the market price and resell them on Ebay. It can’t be simpler than that. Tips: prepare to do some research to real understand the trend before you jump into any deals. Expect to run back and forth between your house and post office. A lot of human cycle time wasted if you want to do that yourself.
4. Drop-Shipper: Arguably the best option to take for professional sellers. My recommendation is only one: worldwidebrands.com. Tips: Don’t trust other sources. You will have a good chance to be tricked if you listen to others. If you want to explore this option, it will be better if you approach them using a company name.
5. Ebay Wholesale: Go to Ebay and check out their Wholesale and Bulk Buy section. You can bulk buy items at a low price and sell them on Ebay. Tips: you need sufficient fund to do this and you need a room for storage purpose. You need to finish selling all items before its better version comes onto the market.
6. Local Shops: It is especially the case for Antiques and Collectables. Go to the shop owners who don’t know how to sell on Ebay. Offer them your service and you get paid buy selling other people’s items. Life can’t be easier. Tips: Don’t tell them exactly what you want to do. Your job is to find interesting buyers. You are not responsible to explain how you make money. Save you troubles.
Once you have found the items to sell. In the end of this Ebay resource guide, I suggest you to join some community to further your understanding of Ebay and its market trends. Great places that you can start reading Ebay news are:
1. Ebay Auction Blog: www.ssblogging.com. A great place full of useful info and tips regarding Ebay. Good place to meet others and have some in-depth discussion.
2. OnlineAuction Forum: www.onlineauctiontrader.com. A useful and interesting forum for everyone. A lot of good material and discussion there.
3. Trevor Ebay Blog: www.trevorginn.com Another personal blog with simple design. It contains easy-to-understand information for readers to take in and start using.
7 Product Sourcing Tips for E-merchants
For ecommerce start-ups the realities of product sourcing often come as a shock to the system. With so many online “wholesalers” to choose from these days, it’s common to assume that the process will be easy. If your store is to be profitable, however, your sourcing methods will require just a little more effort and creativity than you think.
1.Search clever.
Avoid using general terms when sourcing products online. Googling “wholesale widgets” may bring up a huge number of results, but you’re unlikely to find a worthwhile supplier among them. Most will be non specialist companies that act as middlemen between you and the real wholesalers. This means profit margins on their goods will be virtually non-existent.
Instead, try qualifying your searches with terms such as “distributor”, “manufacturer”, “designer” or “trade” and rather than searching for generic terms such as “widgets,” try taking a more specific approach. Use individual product names and model type wherever possible.
Image searches will also give you more focused results. Many products are sold online using stock photos created by the original manufacturer and this can an excellent way of tracking them down.
These tactics will improve your chances of success but don’t despair if you don’t find what you’re looking for. Google is a great research tool but it’s only one of many in your arsenal. Resist the temptation to spend hours and hours surfing the net looking for “secret” deals and sources that do not exist. Traditional retailers have never relied the internet to find suppliers and neither should you.
2.Consult traditional business directories.
It’s amazing how often resources such as the white/yellow pages are overlooked these days. It must be because we automatically assume the internet to be a superior source of information. Well this isn’t always the case. There are a lot of wholesalers out there that don’t have an online presence but that doesn’t mean they don’t have telephone numbers.
3.Subscribe to trade publications
Trade magazines related to your niche will be packed with ads from relevant manufacturers and distributors. It’s how offline businesses have done things for years and you should too.
4.Trade fairs.
Attending trade fairs takes more effort than surfing in your pyjamas but the pay-off can be enormous. They provide unparalleled scope for sourcing and networking. Plus, establishing personal contact with suppliers makes it a lot easier to negotiate prices further down the line.
5.Ask an expert
Find someone who already stocks what you want to sell and ask them where they got it. This isn’t as absurd as it may sound! Obviously emailing a rival online store is never going to work because nobody wants to knowingly help out their competition.But more personal approach conducted in the offline world can yield excellent results. Find a “widget” store and get talking to the owner, preferably once you have made a purchase. People love talking about their businesses and if you are suitably charming they will often recommend a supplier or trade magazine.
You’ll be surprised at how helpful people can be when you don’t represent a threat. This tactic has worked well for me in the past - the worst thing that can happen is they refuse.
6.Contact the manufacturer.
If you can’t find a supplier but you know which company makes the product, give them a call and ask who their distributors are. Again, there is a tendency for new e-merchants to see this kind of information as somehow privileged or secret and they often approach such conversations with trepidation. Remember that these companies want your business, just because you don’t have a traditional bricks and mortar establishment it doesn’t mean your money is no good.
7.Check product packaging
This is a fool proof method. If you don’t know the manufacturer of a particular product and all else fails, buy it yourself. All goods, virtually without exception, will include some reference to the manufacturer on the packaging. In some cases the name of a supplier will be there as well.
Once you know the manufacturer, the information you require is just a phonecall away!
Finding Products To Sell Online
Billions of dollars worth of products are sold on eBay and other online merchants every year. Where are people getting all these items to sell? Surely, they have emptied their closets and garages by now. Even if they have, finding stuff to sell online is still relatively easy. Several sources are available for those who want to make a little or a lot of cash selling online.
Home Stuff
Not all garages have been cleared of junk. Weekend garage sales are still popular places to find items to sell. Sales in high income areas tend to net more quality items like designer clothes, high end furniture and antiques. However, do not neglect an average Joe garage sale, one never knows what unique items will be unearthed regardless of the neighborhood. Go to these sales toward the end of the day. Home owners will be more inclined to sell you merchandise at rock bottom prices rather than having to pack up unsold items.
Look through your own garage and closets to find items to sell online. You may be harboring old clothes, books, Cds and toys that will bring in a few bucks online. Offer to rid your friends and family of their unwanted junk by selling on consignment. You sell their stuff and keep %25 of the profits. Local retailers may also agree to let you sell their overstocks and returned merchandise on consignment as well.
Buy And Sell Online
Finding products to sell online is as easy as buying it from the same online source. eBay is an excellent place to find everything from antiques to huge lots of merchandise that you can buy and resell at a profit.
Locate other online sources by using search terms such as wholesale liquidators, closeout dealers and drop ship services. These same sources can also be found in print media including the Yellow Pages and classified ads in newspapers, trade magazines and free weeklies.
Auction Action
Unclaimed, slightly damaged and repossessed merchandise can be purchased at freight claims and government auctions. Check the Yellow Pages for contact information and newspaper classified section for upcoming sales.
There are storage unit operation on every corner these days. The storage company auctions off the contents of unpaid rental units. Although the contents are sold on sight, there are probably enough sale worthy items inside to let you break even.
Estate auctions are another great source for finding stuff to sell online. Like garage sales, high income estates yield the greatest funds but gems can be found regardless of the estates net worth. These sales are advertised in the newspaper.
Drop Shipping
Drop shipping is an easy, hands off way to sell online. You send the order to the manufacturer or distributor and they ship the product to the customer. No inventory or shipping hassles to worry about.
Local Events
Bazaars, flea markets and festivals are good sources for everything from unique handmade crafts to valuable collectibles. Like garage sales, stop by near closing time for deep discounted deals.
Check with the local convention and visitors bureau to find out about upcoming trade shows that are open to the public. You wll be able to buy from manufacturers and sale reps selling the latest products on the market.
Offshore Action
Asia is a good source for finding stuff to sell online. However, the red tape and cost of contacting sources, there can be a hassle. Your best bet is to hook up with a manufactures who has overseas connections. There is enough available home grown sources for locating products to sell to make this option necessary.
What Are The Factors That Make A Web Host Bad?
Given the innumerable number of web hosts dying to take your money in exchange for their services, you might be exasperated at the need to choose one over the other. How do you tell the good from the bad? You could spend the hours pouring over their web pages and looking for testimonials from previous, pleased users, but then why would a business put a less than satisfactory testimony on their web site? Instead of looking for evidence of good service, it is far more expedient to look for evidence of bad service. The following article will provide you with the tools to find that evidence.
If you are looking over a sight and do not see a prominently displayed comprehensive support page, or does not provide a support telephone number, you alarm bells should be ringing. Since this is something that is relatively easy to discover, it is a good place to start your investigation. For an example, imagine that your have (or, perhaps you actually do have) a web host that doesn’t return your calls or answer your emails. Is that good service? No!
It’s time to start looking for a new web host, one that has a support staff that actually does its work. In broad terms, it is safe to say that the better support a web host is providing, the better overall host it is. This is because support helps you in times of crisis, when a server goes down or your shopping cart isn’t working properly good support will fix it quickly. How does this help you if don’t already subscribe to a hosts service? Well, for one thing is, you can call the support number listed on their site and see if it is very hard to get a real, living, human being on the other side of the line. If it is, then it probably still will be when you are a subscriber.
Another thing to look at is how much a web host chargers. Cheap per month hosts likely cut their costs to ensure that they are able to make a profit. If you look around and come across a deal that is too sweet to be real, then it probably is. Keep looking. But the best way to judge a company is to see if it is turning a profit. If you come across a web host company that is publicly traded, go look up its earnings over the last several quarters. If the earnings have been good, then you can probably trust the competence of the company.
If you are reading about some scandal or takeover happening at the offices of your web host, you might want to change to a new one. More often than not, when web hosts are getting press it is because they are screwing up.
After you’ve chosen a host, make sure to keep an eye on what they are offering you, and for what price, over time. It is a trait of bad hosts to increase charges over time, at the same time as they start stopping services. If there is a price increase that you can’t find a good justification for, change hosts.
Finally, remember that you ought keep an eye on what your host is doing. Although most web hosts are less than forthcoming about the inner workings of their business, you should keep your eyes peeled so that you can know well before disaster strikes. Then you can change your website over to another host before it goes offline and you can’t salvage it at all.
Ebay Basics: How To Keep Your Profits From Evaporating
If you’re fairly new to eBay, or business in general, you may be scratching your head and wondering why your profit isn’t what it should be. This article looks at some ways to plug the profit hole and keep you afloat!
There are two main aspects to ensuring profits in business - and this applies to any business, eBay or otherwise. Let’s look at them in turn. The first is the gross profit margin.
This is the term applied to the portion of any sales amount that is the profit element. For example, if an item costs you $50 and you sell it for $100, it’s tempting to think you’ve made 100% profit. This is incorrect - what you have in fact done is applied a 100% mark-up to your cost, which equals a 50% gross profit margin. This, for newcomers to business, is a common mistake and can give the trader a much rosier view of their profit margin than is real.
Also, the difference between gross profit margin and nett profit - the magic ‘bottom line’, so called because the nett profit always appears on the bottom line of a profit and loss sheet - is something not always fully understood by newcomers to business and trading. Put simply, nett profit is what you have left after everything else is paid out. These payments include such things as rent for premises, rates, staff wages, transport and insurances. These cost elements are usually known as overheads.
Although a full explanation of overheads is beyond the scope of this article, basically they are, as described above, anything that is not classed as ‘direct costs’ - defined as what you pay for your stock. Too often these overheads are either ignored or simply forgotten - and this can have a disastrous effect on the difference in the amount of money you should be making and the amount you actually are making.
This difference can, in some businesses - especially those in high-volume, low-margin markets - mean either success or failure. So - what can be done to ensure that this does not happen to your business? For that we turn to the second aspect of ensuring profits in business: price setting.
Price setting literally means just that - setting the price for any item that you are selling. Again, a full discussion on price setting is too large in scope for this article but, basically, you must set a price for your item that will do two things - firstly, the price must be competitive (you have to sell your goods!) and secondly the gross profit margin must be sufficient for you to make the nett profit you require.
This may seem very straightforward but there is one ‘hidden’ charge that is regularly overlooked by those traders who use eBay and PayPal on either a regular basis or as a core business vehicle. This is, of course, the percentage charges levied by eBay for listing your items and also the final value fees. As for PayPal, the charges for accepting money via their service are significant. In fact, to set a price for an item that will take into account eBay and PayPal charges the formula is cost price + required profit + 15%. This is a rough figure but certainly not far off the mark and a good ‘rule of thumb’ to work to.
What this means in real terms is this: buy an item for $50. Say you want a 50% gross profit margin - plus $50. Now say you sell your item. Your overheads (so you think!) equal $30, leaving you with a nice $20 bottom line nett profit. Whoops! You forgot the eBay and PayPal fees! These equal roughly 15% of you sale price which is $15. Suddenly your $20 nett profit is reduced to a measly $5!
This equation is even more important when selling items on eBay by the auction format. It’s very tempting to just put the item on at $5, or $9.99, or whatever - ‘because everyone does that’. I beg to differ. Many people may do that but the ones making money are those who stick to a formula such as the one I’ve listed. If your item does not sell, or regularly falls below the price you think is viable - choose another market or maybe another supplier.
The moral of this article is simple. Always, always examine all your costs before setting your selling price. Failure to do this may not result in total disaster - but you will be making far less than you should be!
A Brief History of Selling on Ebay and How Things Change Over Time
I began selling stuff on Ebay in July of 1998. Since then Ebay has grown to enormous proportions and I am not sure how many of the millions of people who visit Ebay every day really know much about what it was like and how it has changed. I will not pretend to present a comprehensive history of Ebay which may have already been done or will most certainly be done at some point in the future. Please, allow me to just relate my own experience of buying items and selling them for profit on Ebay.
In 1996 I was one of the co-founders of a company that provided local dial-up internet access for the small rural community where we live. The company is still in business and has grown with the times to now be a primary provider of high-speed wireless internet access in several communities in 3 counties in the area. So, I have been closely associated with the internet for the past 11 years.
In 1997 or so we started to hear about a web site called Ebay, an online auction site where people were buying and selling stuff. I was no stranger to auctions having attended auctions with my parents when I was a young child. And now as an adult, I still attended estate or farm auctions in the area. So, I checked out the site and thought it might be an interesting thing to try. In 1998 I registered as an Ebay user and started to look for some stuff to sell.
The first item I sold on Ebay was a little hand woven wool rug. It was only about 2 feet by 3 feet and quite worn because it was pretty old. I paid 5 dollars for it and it sold for 20 dollars which I thought was pretty good since it was four times what I had paid for it. If I had a hundred dollars worth of stuff sell for 400 hundred that would be some good money.
I was off and running to sales all over the area. My wife and I bought stuff of all sorts, brought it back to our office, took pictures, wrote descriptions, and listed the stuff during the evening so it would end a week later during the evening when people were home in front of their computers.
At that time Sunday evening was the prime time to have your auctions end. It was then that the largest volume of potential customers were on the Ebay site. Keep in mind that internet access at work was not nearly as prevalent as it is now. People used their computers from home in the evening. The downside to this was the Ebay site would become so busy the site would sometimes become unresponsive for buyers and sellers alike.
There was nothing worse than having to wait for a couple of minutes for each page view in the listing process to happen or, worse yet, have some one trying to bid on your stuff that is ending in a couple of minutes and they cannot get the page up. Ebay was working furiously to update its software and hardware and its internet connections to handle the traffic that just continued to grow.
On the Ebay front page it used to say how many items were for sale at any given time. I remember seeing that figure at around 800,000 and thinking it was huge. I do not know how many millions of items are now for sale on Ebay at any given time and not sure if they even say any more.
I have always focused on selling antiques and collectibles on Ebay. Like any other area of the country there are 8 or 10 auctioneers in a four county area around us. When we really started to go to auctions a lot there would be anywhere from 2 to 6 auctions during any given week one could attend. We bought a lot of stuff because it was usually cheap.
I would have 50 to 75 items for sale on Ebay at any given time. A person could buy stuff for a dollar or two or maybe a little more and list it on Ebay for a minimum of 9.99 and it would sell for maybe 15 or 20 dollars or more. You never knew what something would bring which is why it was so much fun. It seemed like you could sell just about anything for a profit.
Estate sales and auctions have always been my largest source of items to sell on Ebay. In 1998 and for a few years after these auctions were attended by the local public, maybe a couple of collectors, and a handful of antique dealers.
Nowadays, upon arriving at an auction site there are still those same groups of people but there is another group who have come exclusively looking for items to sell on Ebay. These people may have come from 50, 100, 200, or more miles away.
Before the auction you see people going through the days offerings while talking to someone on a cell phone who is probably in front of a computer telling them what something might potentially bring or has sold for on Ebay. Sometimes these people are specialized or sometimes they seem to want to buy everything at the sale. Consequently, prices at live auctions have risen to where many items sell for what they might sell for on Ebay and the people who seem to have to buy everything are most likely just spinning their wheels and really going nowhere.
The cost of doing business on Ebay has steadily increased over the years. It is still a bargain considering the market exposure your offerings receive. In the past the expenses associated with selling on Ebay were kind of an afterthought. Now the expenses are something to consider.
I will certainly continue to sell items on Ebay with the hope of picking up some extra cash from time to time. There are numerous methods, books, and programs to make millions on Ebay. Some of them may work but probably only if you are willing to work hard at it. I am sure there are lots of people whose sole enterprise is selling things on Ebay. There are people selling stuff from warehouses, offices, garages, home offices, off the dining room table, or their bedroom. All of them contributing to making Ebay the most successful online business of them all.
