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An eBay Seller's Checklist
By: Barry S Gilbert
Date: Wednesday November 19, 2008
Being a seller is a lot of responsibility, and sometimes you might feel like you're not doing everything you should be. This simple checklist will help you keep on top of things.
Have you found out everything you possibly could about your items. Try typing their names into a search engine - you might find out something you didn't know. If someone else is selling the same thing as you, then always try to provide more information about it than they do.
Do you monitor the competition. Always keep an eye on how much other items the same as or similar to yours are selling, and what prices they're being offered at. There's usually little point in starting a fixed price auction for $100 when someone else is selling the item for $90.
Have you got pictures of the items. It's worth taking the time to photograph your items, especially if you have a digital camera. If you get serious about eBay but don't have a camera, then you will probably want to invest in one at some point.
Are you emailing your sellers. It's worth sending a brief email when transactions go through: something like a simple "Thank you for buying my item, please let me know when you have sent the payment". Follow this up with "Thanks for your payment, I have posted your [item name] today". You will be surprised how many problems you will avoid just by communicating this way.
Also, are you checking your emails. Remember that potential buyers can send you email about anything at any time, and not answering these emails will just make them go somewhere else instead of buying from you.
Do your item description pages have everything that buyers need to know. If you're planning to offer international delivery, then it's good to make a list of the charges to different counties and display it on each auction. If you have any special terms and conditions (for example, if you will give a refund on any item as long as it hasn't been opened), then you should make sure these are displayed too.
Have you been wrapping your items correctly. Your wrapping should be professional for the best impression: use appropriately sized envelopes or parcels, wrap the item in bubble wrap to stop it from getting damaged, and print labels instead of hand-writing addresses. Oh, and always use first class post - don't be cheap.
Do you follow up. It is worth sending out an email a few days after you post an item, saying "Is everything alright with your purchase. I hope you received it and it was as you expected." This might sound like giving the customer an opportunity to complain, but you should be trying to help your customers, not take their money and run.
Being a really good eBay seller, more than anything else, is about providing genuinely good and honest customer service. That's the only foolproof way to protect your reputation. Of course, you might be wondering by now whether it's really worth all the hassle to get a good reputation on eBay. Won't people buy from you anyway, and couldn't you just open a new account if it really comes down to that.
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Topica Article Directory 5. Pay Later
Offer your customers the choice of being billed later for their
purchase. Bill them in a few weeks or a month. This will stop
you from losing customers who can't afford to purchase your
product or service at that time.
6. Little At A Time
Offer your customers the option of paying you a little at a time
for your product or service. You could divide up the purchase
price into bi-weekly or monthly payments. You won't lose
customers that may not be able to pay the full amount at that
time.
Survey Says
Do you have a list of e-mail addresses of your customers or
prospects? Do you have a list of e-zine subscribers? If you
have their permission, send them an e-mail survey to conduct
market research. See if customers are satisfied with your
products or services, or see if they enjoyed their visit at
your web site.
You can learn things you didn't know about your business by
surveying. Maybe your customers buy your main product just
to get the free gifts. Your visitors may think it's to hard to
navigate through your web site. You may find out that most of
your customers make over $100,000 a year. By knowing this
type of important information you can improve your web site,
products/services, advertising, and marketing.
3 Popular Types Online Business Surveys
Customer Satisfaction Surveys - what did you like or dislike
about our product or service, what can we improve or add,
how satisfied are you with our customer service, etc.
Web Site Feedback Surveys - did you find it to easy navigate
through our site, did you find the information you wanted, what
did you like or dislike about the site, how did you find our
site, etc.
Demographic Surveys - what's your gender, age, income,
occupation, marital status, etc.
Sometimes people don't want to take the time to fill out a
survey. To encourage them to fill out the survey offer them
a freebie if they fill it out. Some ideas are free ebooks, free
advertising, free reports, free internet services or a free
e-zine. Hold a free online contest or sweepstakes and ask
visitors to fill out a survey before they enter.
If you don't yet have an e-mail address list you could post
your survey on appropriate newsgroups, forums and e-mail
discussion lists. You could also upload survey software to
your web site or use a free survey service on the internet.
To find such services just type in the keyword "survey" in
your search engine of choice.
How To Use Database Marketing To Skyrocket Your Online Profits
Database Marketing is the gathering and storing of specific information
about your prospects or customers. This information is usually stored in
a database program on your computer. You would then use the information
to market and advertise to them. It can save you time and money because
you can target your promotional efforts to your best prospects or
customers.
The Types Of Information To Collect
The information will vary depending on the product or service you're
selling. If you're selling a product that costs $2 you wouldn't collect
information about their yearly income. If you're selling web space you
wouldn't collect information about what type of books they read. The
basic information you need would be all their contact information,
purchase history, and birthday. You will need to decide what other
information would benefit your business.
How To Collect This Information Online
It's pretty easy to collect this information online but the hard part is
getting people to give it you. The best way to collect this information
is to give them something FREE in return. Ask them to fill out an e-mail
survey before subscribing to your free e-zine. Tell everyone who visits
your web site they will get a free e-book when they fill out your online
questionnaire form. Ask them this information before they sign up for a
free contest at your web site. Sometimes you have to give a little
something to get a little information online.
Beneficial Uses For Your Database
Find out your customers purchasing habits. Use the information to
improve the design of your web site. Use it to write all your
advertising material more persuasively.
Find out the things they like or dislike about your business. Use the
information to target your best prospects.
Find out how much money your prospects or customers make. Use it to
improve your customer service.
Find out what new products or services they need or want. Use it to test
ideas before launching a total sales campaign.
Find out how to your improve your existing products or services. Use it
to build your customer loyalty.
Find out which benefits or features they like most about your products
or services. Use it to send electronic greeting cards on holidays or on
your customer's birthdays.
The list of beneficial uses are endless. Do you see the importance of
collecting this information? The Internet makes the process of
collecting this information quicker and cheaper than offline methods.
Take advantage of database marketing and watch your online profits
skyrocket.
How To Use Outsourcing To Beat Your Competition
Outsourcing is when you hire outside professionals or
services to take on part of your business workload.You
may want to outsource part of your work because you
don't have the room, you need an expert, you have periodic
busy periods, or you need more production to get orders
out on time etc. You could outsource accounting,
secretarial tasks , factory help, computer training, web
design etc. Below are ways to use outsoursing to beat
your competition.
By outsourcing part of your workload you can save time
and spend more time concentrating on beating your
competition.
-you won't have to take time training new employees
-you won't have to do time consuming tasks like adding
on new equipment
-you won't have to learn a new software program or other
equipment
-you won't have to interview employee candidates
-you won't have to fill out all the complicated employee
paper work like tax forms, scheduling, retirement plans etc.
By outsourcing part of your workload you can save money
and spend more money on marketing or advertising to beat
your competition.
-you won't have to buy extra office and other equipment
-you won't have to buy extra office or work space
-you won't have spend money on employee costs like;
taxes, medical, vacation time, holidays, workers comp.,
unemployment costs etc. (these may vary by which
country you do business)
There are many other ways outsourcing can help you beat
your competition. Here are a few more:
-the extra help can help you complete and deliver orders
faster
-you could expand your market share by becoming the
middleman and offering your subcontractors services or
products
-you could end up getting orders from your subcontractors
-it will allow your business to take on extra or large orders
Multiply Your Links
I feel the most effective way to get people to link to your
web site is by offering web masters the option of giving
away your free stuff. In exchange, they link to your web
site. Why would other web masters want to do this? They
may want give away a freebie to draw traffic to their web
site. They also may not have the time, knowledge or skills
to give away certain types of electronic freebies from their
web site.
Your links will just keep multiplying. When a web master
offers your freebie to his or her visitors. Those visitors may
decide to also give away your freebie. And so on and so
on... The more people that link to your web site the more
traffic you'll get. Below are four of the most popular types
of freebies given away on the internet to increase traffic.
Free Software
Offer free software from your web site. The software could
be freeware, shareware or demos.
Free Online Services
Offer a free online service from your web site. The online
service could be an e-mail account, search engine submission
or e-mail consulting, etc.
Free Information
Offer valuable free information from your web site. The
information could be a report, article, e-book, online audio
recording or e-mail course, etc.
Free Affiliate Program
Offer a free affiliate program from your web site. The
affiliate program could be pay per sale, click through,
two tiered, etc.
Now, I know, there are many other ways to get links
like trading or exchanging links with other web sites or
joining a banner exchange. You can also do joint ventures
or cross promoting. I feel these are not as effective as
multiplying your links. I hope this article can help you
increase traffic to your web site.
Increase Your Target Markets
Are your products or services geared towards only one
target market? You can increase sales and profits by
increasing your target markets. Below are some creative
ways to increase your target markets by using your existing
products and services you're selling right now.
REDESIGN
You can increase your target markets by redesigning your
products and services. For example: you're selling a book
called "Internet Marketing Tips For Accountants" You
could rewrite part of your book and call it "Internet
Marketing Tips For Lawyers". You've now increased your
target markets by redesigning your book.
ADD-ON
You can increase your target markets by adding on other
product or service with your main one. For example: if
you're selling a football magazine you could add a free
football when someone buys a subscription. You're now
targeting people who want the football magazine and those
that want to play football out in the yard. Sometimes they
buy stuff just to get the freebies.
TEAM-UP
You can increase your target markets by doing a cross
promotion with a similar non-competeing businesses. For
example: your business sells tennis rackets and you find
another business to cross promote with that sells tennis
balls. You could combine your racket and their balls in
one package. You are now targeting people that need
tennis rackets and balls.
10 Ways Writing Articles Can Improve Your Business
1. Submit them to e-zines and web sites for publishing.
Include your resource box at the end of the article to get
free advertising.
2. Combine your articles into a free e-book. You can place
your business ad in the e-book. Give it away to visitors and
allow them to do the same to multiply your advertising.
3. Create an article directory on your web site. People will
visit your web site to get the free information.
4. Submit your articles to print publications that pay for
submissions. You can make extra income getting paid as
a freelance writer.