The Casual Ebay Seller

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Sorry
2008-01-03 04:18:00
I know I haven't been writing much.This blog is being transferred to The Dollar HeavenI will write some more posts until February. After that time, all new posts will be written only on The Dollar Heaven.
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Bloggerwave review
2007-12-20 16:32:00
Another little off topic post.If you own a blog (which I recommend you do in order to promote your store's news, items, and your own personality), then you should reap in profits for it. You can make money on your blog with Bloggerwave.They accept bloggers from all countries and are a lot nicer to new bloggers than many other paid posting sites as they have jobs even for blogs with a google PR and alexa rank of 0.All you do is pick a job (on their site after signing up and having a blog being approved); make sure you use the keywords they want; make sure you have the minimum words needed. Then, you just take the job and wait for the post to be approved.You can have up to 5 blogs in their program and they pay via paypal.Anyone with a blog and some modecum of traffic should join
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My fight against nofollow
2007-12-14 21:11:00
I have been going around on the net to find answers to taking it off.The only one that semi-worked was taking the the rel=nofollow directly from the template (and I made sure the checkbox).I found this advice on Tips 4 BlogspotHowever! This advice doesn't work on comments. I check nofollow links with a firefox add on called "Search Status". It's awesome.So I was toying around my blog dashboard on my quest to see if I could find something to help me get them off of comments as well and found something HORRIBLE!You know that little button that asks if you want your blogger blog to be listed?Well I was playing with that and decided "what the heck, I'll click no"I looked at my blog, search status told me every link (EVERY LINK!) on my blog was nofollowthen I put it to yes, and the nofollow disappeared.I put it back to no, and they reappeared.I did this back and forth until I was sure this was true:If you choose "no" it automatically generate no follow tags EVERYWHERE (no matter if yo...
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Optimize your listing descriptions
2007-12-12 22:53:00
lol, my title's so lame. *cough* anyway:Well, so you've noticed a stock description was available for an item you're selling. That's a good thing right?...MaybeStock descriptions will have most commercial information but that doesn't mean they are complete.If you're selling a Andre Rieu dvd and it classifies it as "classical performance" (or something like that), that doesn't change the fact that you should still mention the theme of the dvd. You should mention the state of the dvd itself, its box, its rarities. You should mention something great like how a person could feel watching it..Little things you know?Anyway:ProsThose are detailed and you won't have to write the commercial info yourselfConsThey may not have the essence of the item in their descriptionThey may be for an item that is extremely similar but not quite the same Example: I was selling a Myst: the book Atrus novel once. They had 2 or 3 descriptions available for it due to different editions. None of those ...
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Lower your insurance rates
2007-12-12 20:08:00
This is a little off-topic from what I usually write (just a little).Advantage One Insurance offers Term life insurance. In order to help you save the most money while still getting a great rate, they let you compare rates from the biggest term life insurance providers. They have a questionnaire that is accurate enough to find out how much you'd have to spend as well as tell you which health class you belong in.Don't worry about the site's legality: it is part of the BBB reliability program (aka, it's legit)Though this is a US organization, they also offer insurance for Canada.If you don't want to have to renew term insurance you go for Whole life insurance. There's a sidebar that shows you all of the types of insurance where they can offer you Insurance Quotes. (Some of which are term, whole life, diabetes, mortage, overweight etc...).If you have insurance already (which I hope you do as insurance is crucial), this is still very much worth checking out to compare your quotes ...
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Stock pictures. To use them or not?
2007-12-12 16:17:00
Sometimes items you list will have stock pictures and descriptions available. Some people will choose to use them, others will not.Pros of Stock pictures.You don't have to get your own picture and upload itIf you're a bad shot, you're guaranteed this pic will be clearThey look professionalConsYour item will be expected to be exactly as in the stock pictureSome buyers prefer if you don't use stock pictures because that means there's less chance you're lying about having this itemQ.What if my item isn't exactly like the stock picture? A. Any of the followingGet your own picture in the galleryUse the stock pic but write (and make it seen) what is different about itUse the stock pic for the gallery but add a html code to your own pic in the item descriptionHow do I add a html code for pics?Let's say you upload "pic.jpg" to www.site.com <img src="http://www.site.com/pic.jpg">If you use a free pic upload site they should give you an already prepared code. Be sure to use th...
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A review of Ms. Merchant Account
2007-12-11 17:04:00
I've said before that you should accept credit card payments (it's safer than sending cash through the mail and faster than waiting for a check to be cleared) but I only mentioned one way of doing processing the cards.For those of you who would like to compare processing fees with your current credit card acceptor, it is necessary to find out about as many Credit Card accepting sites as possible.Ms. Merchant Account is Card Processor Merchant; it is a way for online businesses to be able to swipe credit cards. Obviously, you couldn't actually swipe the card since your customer is probably very far away. However, with an online processor, you can pretend to have one. It'll check that the credit card is approved and process the payment-as a "real" processor would. It accepts transaction for Visa, Discover, Master Card, and American Express, and other popular cards. Ms.Merchant Account also does not care if you're a small business. All businesses sizes are allowed.Even though it i...
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Blogsvertise and the ebay seller
2007-12-11 04:42:00
I know what some of you may be thinking "Isn't Blogsvertise something that has to with, well, blogs?"Yes it does.If you're going to sell on ebay, you might as well get yourself a blog. You can use that to:put up future items or datesdetailed descriptions of itemsStart discussions and polls about what to sell nextExplain a change in shipping costs or policiesGet more likability. People would prefer to buy from other people who sound niceShare news about Ebay Share techniques, tips and tricks Since you can get a blog for free I don't see why you wouldn't jump at this idea. Especially since you can use your blog to earn more money during the times between item listing, and listing endings. (like me. I put all my listings on sunday and then don't do anything until I see an e-mail notification..unless the buyer uses buy it now, that'd be a 1 week wait. I have to do something in the meantime). You can put a link to your blog on your my ebay page...as well as in your listing pag...
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Targeting your customers: part 1- Teenagers
2007-12-10 02:49:00
In an effort to make shorter, easier-to-read, posts I will do this as a series of posts.Part 1:Teenagers Introduction to Demographics.When selling anything you have to ask yourself some questions:1. Who can afford to buy this item?2. Who would want to buy this item?3. After figuring out question 1 and 2. When would (most of) those people be at work?4. Would these people bid at work or only at home?5. What time would these people go to sleep? (they can't bid if they're asleep)The idea is to try to find out how many groups your item sells to. The more groups, the more people will be interested in it, the less you have to think about what the best time would be. However, if you have few groups, you need to make sure you know what is convenient for that group.NOTE: These are generalizations, of course not all teenagers follow this set up.Group 1: Teenagers (13-19)Not all teenagers have the same needs or schedules so you have to think carefully and really pinpoint a specific demographic...
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Getting traffic to your listing
2007-12-08 01:30:00
Little guide on getting people interested1. Word of mouth!If the product is something that's sold in stores. You could use word of mouth to attract a stores's customers . Example: You're selling a used game (rpg). You go to Gamestop to see how much they're selling it for. They don't have it. You see some other people browsing the used game section, so you make casual contact-find out what type of games they're into and what game they're looking. Let's say this person is looking for a game that happens to be an rpg. Well isn't that a coincidic? Mention that you're selling an rpg on ebay and tell them to check you out. (obviously mention your ebay name which brings me to number 2)2. Business cards and posters You find someone that likes the same kind of things you're selling, give them a card with your ebay name on it (and what kind of stuff you sell). Try to spread posters on real world stores (Waldbaums anyone? Specialty shops?) Many people DO look at these posters ...
More About: Traffic , Listing

Associated Content
2007-12-06 23:15:00
Site you can go to in your spare time to earn money (perhaps to help pay for listing fees and free shipping?)Associated Content is paid-to-write site (not paid to forum like mylot, paid to write as in write Articles).Basically, it's a freelancer site.You can submit articles and videos and hope to receive upfront payment for it (the real money maker)OR you can submit poems, articles, videos and slideshows and get Performance payment. (If eligible, go for BOTH types of payment.).What are performance payments?These are payments based on how many unique views you get. Once you reach 20$, you can ask them to send it to you via paypal.Currently it's a rate of $1.5 CPM. That means if 1000 unique people view your content, you get 1.5$.(unique is counted on a 24 hour basis. A person can come back the next day if they didn't finish reading the article and it would still count as another visitor)What is an upfront payment?A payment (sent directly to paypal, no minimum) that they offer you f...
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Should I accept credit/debit card payments?
2007-12-02 19:08:00
If you're using a personal paypal account, that may be costly:"4.9% + $0.30 USD (limit of 5 transactions per 12 month period)** for domestic or U.S. transactions2% + applicable Fees Fees for cross border payments4.9% plus $0.30 USD for card payments received using PayPal on Skype"However, if you're using a Premier account, it's slightly less costly"1.9% to 2.9% + $0.30 USD"What does this all mean?If you're using a Personal account (and you get the maximum fee of 4.9%), if someone were to send you 1 dollar Paypal would take away .35$ leaving you with a revenue of .75$.If you're using a Premier account (and you get the maximum fee of 2.9%), if someone were to send you 1 dollar Paypal would take away .33$ leaving you with a revenue of .77$.However, usually a personal would have to pay for shipping as well. If the item is 1 dollar and the shipping is 1 dollar, and the person pays with a credit/debit card, Paypal would take .36$. (Premier account example).Since the shipping fee is (...
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Card Seller Shipping Advice
2007-12-01 08:01:00
Ok, so you have a lot of cards that you want to sell. Those could beAnime Trading Card sSports CardsCollectible cardsGame cardsMagic Cards (that's right, I make a separate listing for them)Yu gi oh Cards (they also deserve their own listing)So you put one or many up and they've been bought (and paid for..Don't ship without receiving payment First!)Now, how do your ship them?(I only give one method for each because these are the ways that I find safest for the cards)Shipping Lots:Buy an Index card holderPut some plastic on the bottom (Plastic page for binders are great. Just cut them up)Put the cards and if they don't fill the entire Index box, just put some filler plasticUse a box and put some padding (Bubble wrap or newspaper. This is so that the box won't move. If it moves, the sound might tempt certain mailmen to open the box to find out what's in it)Weight it and determine shippingShipping 1 or a few cards (up to 5):Follow this slideshow I made, it's step by step and very ...
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Earn Money from your Product Pictures
2007-12-01 07:44:00
Ok. So you get to put 1 free picture on Ebay.Might as well make the most of it right?First off, take a good clean pic-Clear-Close (people will want to see your product)-Bland Background (it looks more professional. I suggest putting it on printing paper)Should I ask for the gallery pic?If you want to, personally I think it's better if you do. And since you're going to be earning money from your pic, you might as well.How exactly do I earn money from my pics?DON'T UPLOAD THEM FROM YOUR COMPUTER INTO EBAY!-Put them on a Image Hosting site that pays you per viewSites:Flixya , you earn 100% of your adsense revenueShareapic ,easy friendly site. RECOMMENDEDUpblogger, not as friendly but it pays rather well.
More About: Pictures , Money , Earn Money , Product , Earn