1. You
must know how to do all of the basic auction tasks.
Customer contact,
collecting payment, packaging items, shipping items, navigating eBay, etc. This
is all the obvious stuff. This is what most eBay sellers learn but for some
reason they stop here, or they also learn how to take great pictures and stop
there.

2. You must
take great photos of your items.
Pictures can boost your sales, big time. But poor pictures
can actually hurt your sales. You need to know how to take pictures that sell
and how to get those pictures onto your eBay listings.

3. You must
be the only person selling what you sell.
This very idea sounds crazy
when you first hear it considering there are millions of items on eBay. But
it's not difficult if you find your own, profitable and enjoyable niche to
specialize in. What are your hobbies? What are you passionate about? What
skills do you have? It all starts here. Specializing in a profitable niche
will enable you to master the next four "must-have" skills:

4. You must
hunt for bargains.
Unless you're
creating crafts or informational products, you're going to have to buy the
products to sell. You can't just rely on wholesale guides or drop-shipping
sources to find products for you to sell, because their prices are usually
higher than eBay market values. You have to dig deep to find bargains.
Most bargains are found offline rather than online, and the more you have
to dig to find a source, the more profitable it generally is. Your specialized
knowledge in your niche will help you track down bargains for items related to
your theme.

5. You must
add significant personal value to your products.
Adding value makes
your products unique and it increases your profit margin. You can add value in
several ways; making ordinary items unique, finding unutilized niches for
products, packaging multiple items into a more attractive package, offering your
unique knowledge in addition to the product, or even creating your own products.

6. You must
learn web marketing skills to SELL your products.
You don't need a
marketing degree to sell on eBay but you do need to learn critical marketing
skills so you can write great sales copy. Most eBay sellers don't take time to
analyze their target audience - who they're trying to sell to - but if
you do, your sales will increase because your readers will feel that your ad
copy is written just for them. If you specialize, you will have a much easier
time of understanding your customer's mindset and it will be much easier to
write great ads.

7. You must
provide world-class customer service.
Your reputation
and your level of repeat business are two factors that may ultimately determine
if you succeed or fail on eBay. If you offer adequate service, your reputation
won't be ruined and you will still get business. But only if you provide
tremendous, world-class customer service will your reputation grow, word of
mouth start to spread and your repeat customer base explode. This entails
answering questions promptly and thoroughly, completing sales promptly, and
standing out from the crowd. If you specialize, you can easily offer small
extras or incentives that separate you from other eBay sellers. You must
be memorable for your sales to really grow.

8. You must
not rely only on eBay to advertise your auctions.
The biggest
benefit of eBay is that it automatically drives traffic to your auctions. But
does that mean you should just sit back and let it do its work? If you really
want to maximize your profits, you need to aggressively advertise your
auctions on and off of eBay (this does NOT mean send spam e-mail or unwanted
advertisements to anyone. If you do anything like this, ever, your reputation
and YOU - are toast).

Advertise your items for
sale in your actual auction listings, at your eBay About Me page, at websites,
newsgroups and message boards related to your theme, in specialty and trade
magazines related to your theme, offline if you find targeted sources,
etc., etc. Just because eBay brings in traffic doesn't mean you can't do so
much more to increase that traffic.

9. You must enjoy what you're doing.
I
didn't include this because 10 Tips sounds better than 9 Tip. You're ten
times as likely to stick with something if you really enjoy it. You must sell
something you're passionate about and you must be comfortable spending time on
your computer, using the Internet, dealing with customers, packing and shipping
items, etc.

And the #1, can't miss,
most important strategy of all...

10. You
must diversify and develop streams of automated income in addition to
the income generated from your eBay auctions.

The only way to do this is
to create your own profitable website. Don't let the thought scare you.
Nowadays, you don't need technical skills or computer skills because there are
hosts that do all of the "technical stuff" for you so you can focus on building
your business.

Your website should
provide content related to your niche. People search online for information.
They don't search for you. Any successful website follows a simple
4-step process called C-T-P-M, developed by web marketing guru Ken Evoy:

1. Give your readers what
they want by converting your knowledge into high-quality, in-demand Content.
In other words, you'll write about topics related to your niche that others
want to learn about.

2. Your content ranks high
at search engines which attracts free, targeted Traffic...readers
who are interested in your content.

3. You OVERdeliver
high-value content to these motivated readers, developing trust and confidence
("PREsell" your readers).

4. FINALLY, you're ready
to Monetize your warm, willing-to-buy customers. This is when you
must diversify. Don't just post a link to your eBay auctions and/or
your eBay store. Take advantage of additional AUTOMATED
monetization models:

• 
  
  Sell your digital or hard goods to targeted customers


• 
  
  Add targeted Google ads (you get paid for every click)


• 
  
  Partner with Amazon.com and link to books related to
  your theme


• 
  
  Partner with eBay and get paid for everyone who signs
  up from your site


• 
  
  Monetize automatically through affiliate programs
  related to your theme

What it all comes down to
is you can't rely on eBay to do the work for you. By diversifying, you
will greatly expand your business and increase your profits. And that's how you
can make a living on eBay.

Virtually all web
businesses failed in the late 90's because they skipped steps 1-3 and tried
to monetize first. And today, 98% still do it the wrong way...but if you
follow the C-T-P-M formula, your eBay business will be literally forced to
thrive.

Anyone can make some extra
money on eBay. But there comes a point where you either stop making money
or you are spending every waking hour on your business because
there's too much to do. That's why you need to seize control of your
business from eBay and grow it the right way, not the way eBay wants you to.

If you're intrigued by
the C-T-P-M formula and the tips offered in this article, you can read more by
downloading the author's new book, How to Make a
Living on eBay: Separating Truth from Hyp� absolutely free from

http://www.online-auction-expert.com/free-eBay-book.html

Don't be fooled by the
free� price tag. How to Make a Living on eBay:
Separating Truth from Hyp� is 119 pages of high-value content that
you won't find anywhere else. It expands on the content in this article to
provide a step-by-step strategy guide to building a successful eBay auction
business the right way.



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Timothy Mina is the author of the Online Auction Expert's Bible to

Selling on eBay and the creative force behind the online auction help

site, online-auction-expert.com, which shows beginners how to start

on eBay and helps current eBay sellers maximize their profits.



Send a blank e-mail to
ezine@online-auction-expert.com to be added

to his opt-in e-zine for eBay sellers.



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