eBay Talk

Everyone is talking about The Secret and it has quickly become the hottest topic on the internet today. For those who haven’t heard of it, The Secret reveals how to improve your life by focusing on the positive and attracting great things, with the help of The Law of Attraction – or Intention Manifestation as some call it. It is said to have opened eyes of many people to greater possibilities for their lives, thus, The Secret is automatically propelled to the #1 Bestseller DVD and book on Amazon.com with over 2 millions of The Secret book sold. Besides that, it was also featured in Oprah Winfrey, Larry King Live, The Wallstreet Journal, NY Times, TIME and Newsweek. Isn’t that impressive achievement already a secret of success that you need to pay attention to?

In response to the overwhelming demand of The Secret teachings, the three big name teachers of The Secret - Jack Canfield, Bob Proctor and Michael Beckwith recently launched a how-to home seminar program that reveals in-depth “The Secret Science of Getting Rich” (SGR) for those who are really serious about learning the science of wealth building. This program is based on a book called “The Science of Getting Rich” by Wallace D. Wattles, written in 1910. SGR teachers are targeting $100 million within a year for those who take advantage of this program.

SGR also offers the most comprehensive affiliate program that allows you to earn $500 per sale. Go to the website Official Secret Seminar to find out how you can benefit from this program. With a tag of $1,995, it is definitely not a cheap program, yet value for money. If you still hesitated, why not go to the website to get your 7 lessons for FREE?

Auction listing title is one of the most important elements in driving potential buyers as it contains keywords buyers are searching for. I believe you are aware that eBay listing title only allows 55 characters, but most sellers do not use it wisely. The title is what potential buyers see when they perform a search or browse through the categories, not by description. Meaning that, your title should immediately attract potential buyers to your listing, and eventually place a bid on it. Thus, writing a keyword-rich title is essential if you wanna make money selling on eBay.

Imagine yourself as a buyer, when you come to eBay looking for specific items, you find these items by entering keywords into the search box, because you think it helps you find what you want by using the terms that you thought. Therefore, use words that will help your buyers find your listing first, it doesn’t have to be a sentence, because you will have enough space to effectively describe your item in the description box, why waste the title space? Moreover, buyers get annoyed at meaningless title like “@@BARGAIN!!!@@”, and do you think buyers will enter keywords like “@” or “bargain”? These characters do absolutely nothing to educate potential buyers about the item you’re trying to sell and entice them into bidding.

Think about the search terms your buyers would use when looking for your item and develop keywords relating to them. Although these keywords may not be the same as you would expect the buyers to use, take advantage of all 55 characters you’re allowed and make sure you’ve covered all the keywords. Also make sure your title is as descriptive and informative as possible, and it’s most advisable to include the brand name, model number and any other major detail of your item, in order to maximize exposure and increase the odds of potential buyers actually finding what you have to sell when they conduct a search.

One good example is “Dell Inspiron 640m Laptop Notebook 14.1” 667MHz”. If you know computers well, you’ll know immediately what it’s selling. It gives you the manufacturer (Dell), the model (Inspiron 640m), the screen size (14.1”) and the processor speed (667MHz). I believe you noticed that it also includes “notebook”, as buyers might use “notebook” instead of “laptop”.

Sometimes, we just can’t come up with any additional keywords to put it into the title, it happens. On these rare occasions, ask someone else to look at your item and say a few words that come to mind, you might be surprised to see what keywords they could think of. Last but not least, always remember to revise your title before listing it.

Wirefly Store, a successful eBay Power Seller with over 2,260 positive feedbacks, is one of the leading online retailers of cellphones and wireless plans. Wirefly offers branded cellphones, big names like Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung and many more. Wirefly is also an authorised online agent for Verizon Wireless, Cingular Wireless, T-Mobile, Sprint and Nextel. Besides cellphones and wireless plans, you can also purchase cellphone accessories, for eg headsets, bluetooth etc, from Wirefly.

Wirefly accept returns and most surprisingly, they guarantee lowest prices in the market. At Wirefly, your application for the wireless service will be processed automatically once your order is placed, and your cellphone will be delivered to your doorstep within 2 business days by free FedEx shipping througout the United States. One of the greatest services offered by Wirefly that really impressed me is that, they deliver on weekends too, and you are able to check your order status using the tracking number given by FedEx.

Wirefly is a member of Square Trade too. I believe you should be impressed with Wirefly by now. Therefore, if you're looking for a great deal, stop looking up and down from one seller to the other, buy from a Power Seller, buy from Wirefly.

Visit the Wirefly Store today to shop for the best cell phone deal with or without a wireless plan.

In order to make a real profit on eBay, you will need to know the costs of your auction listings, especially the listing fees. Budgeting or simply calculating your eBay fees ain’t an easy task, because there are so many fees involved, namely “category fee”, “gallery fee”, “final value fee” etc, and sometimes you might forget the fees incurred. Therefore, to help you better calculate your potential eBay fees, I recommend you three FREE eBay fee calculators.

TopTenReviews has recently released a '2007 Online Auction Sites Report'. The report gives a detailed review of and rating for top ten leading online auction sites.

Needless to say, eBay topped the review, followed by Overstock and Yahoo! Auctions. Other sites like Amazon, ePier and uBid are in the list too. The report compares and reviews seller fees, process flow, features and benefits, help and support etc, of each online auction site.

If you are considering an eBay alternative, I strongly suggest you to have a look at the wonderful report before making your move.

One of the smartest auction strategies to draw new customers or maintain the return customers is giving away free gifts. Consider including a free gift with every successful sales, not only it gains you the clientele, it also helps boost up the loyalty of your existing customers.

The free gift doesn’t have to be a high value item, but if you’re a little tight on budget, consider using promotional items like pen, key chain, calendar etc. When choosing promotional items, try choosing something relevant to the item you’re selling. For example, if you’re selling books, a bookmarker will be sweet.

You may consider attaching promotional gifts in the following circumstances:

1. Every successful transaction to show appreciation to your customers.

2. Every return customer.

3. Multiple purchases done by any buyer.

4. When your customers are not happy with the bought item/service.

5. When a customer refer you to a friend or family.

Of course there are many other situations when you can include a free gift too, just remember to follow this good business practice at every opportunity.

To my fellow Chinese readers,

Happy Chinese New Year, 恭喜发财，新年进步，事事如意!

Have you ever grown your business only to find you didn't have the accessible capital? Cash drives business. Cash flow is one of the most important indicators of a business's financial health, and it's definitely the key to the success of a business.

However, what do you do when your business is short of cash? Fund it, of course. I came across this wonderful company the other day, by the name of "Premier General Finance, Inc."(PGF). One of the funding options offered by PGF that really caught my eyes is "Merchant Account Cash Advance". What's so special about this funding option? Merchant Account Cash Advance can assist you in acquiring cash based on your future credit card sales. You can get up to 150% of your monthly credit card processing amount, for example, if you process $10,000 a month in credit card transactions, you can get a cash advance as much as $15,000. Imagine what you can do for your business with this additional $15,000 cash.

There are many other funding options available as well, pay them a visit today. It's worth visiting and knowing them, rest assured. Click here and visit them now.

A better cash flow management will definitely help you create and grow a healthy and strong business. Happy business'ing.

I came across this wonderful post "Risk Management Made Easy…". Don't panic. It’s about ACCOUNTABILITY. I would like share with all of you ‘cause I think it’s very useful, you can definitely apply it to your eBay selling business.

Define accountability. Accountability is all about:
1. Assuming full responsibility for the consequences of one's behavior
2. Following through on commitments to buyers
3. Demonstrating reliability and dependability
4. Keeping the service promise
5. Admitting mistakes and taking responsibility for correcting

In other words, accountability simply means responsibility. Read the great write-up by N2Growth. Apply accountability to your eBay selling, automatically you will build up the trust, the positive ratings, the name and most importantly the sales.

Do you speak eBay’s language? Or, do you speak like an eBayer? There are eBay jargons that many people don’t understand still. Here I include a simple list of them. These buzzwords or acronyms can be useful to help draw in a potential buyer but remember to only use them if they are relevant. Many people on eBay are not experienced buyers and you will lose them if your listing is full of jargons, thus, avoid using it unless you really need to (for example, when you run out of space in an item’s title).

It’s good to be able to understand others’ jargon, so let’s learn.

The Buzzwords
Bid- offer an amount of money for something at an auction
Dutch- an auction where more than one of an item is available
Feedback- comments in the form of opinions about and reactions to other users on eBay
Mint- in perfect condition
Non-paying bidder- a bidder who wins an auction but does not then go on to buy the item
Reserve- the lowest price the seller will accept for the item
Shill bid- a fake bid placed a seller trying to drive up their auction's price
Snail mail- the postal mail, as distinct from the faster email
Sniping- bidding at the last second to win the item before anyone else can outbid you

The Acronyms
BIN- Buy It Now. A fixed price at which you can buy the auction
BNIB- Brand New In Box and never opened
BNWOT- Brand New WithOut Tags. An item that has never been used without its original tags
BNWT- Brand New With Tags. An item that has never been used and still has its original tags
BW- Black and White. Used for films, photos etc
CONUS- Continental United States (for sellers who don't want to ship items to Alaska/Hawaii)

FC- First Class. Type of postage
HTF- Hard To Find
LTD- Limited Edition
MIB- Mint In Box
NBW- Never Been Worn
NPB- Non-Paying Bidder
NR- No Reserve
OB- Original Box
OOP- Out Of Print
PM- Priority Mail
PP- Parcel Post
SH- Shipping and Handling
VGC- Very Good Condition. Not mint, but close
VHTF- Very Hard To Find

If you think the list isn't enough, and that you wanna learn more, you may refer to eBay Acronyms or eBay Glossary for detailed breakdown.