Written by SaleHoo.com © All Rights Reserved

1. Start Small

If you're anything like me, once you have a good idea you want to put it into action immediately!
Although you probably know in theory that any business takes 12-18 months to become established,
somehow you still hope that you can get there in 2!

But, one mistake entrepreneurs consistently make is to throw their life's savings into
buying case loads of stock - before they even know how eBay works. It's easy to be lulled
into a false sense of security on eBay after buying just one or two items. For buyers, eBay is
meant to be user friendly. For sellers, things are a little more complicated. All powersellers
agree that there are new things to be learned all the time and you'll be surprised at how
much more you know after several months selling small, inexpensive items.

Be prepared to spend the first couple of months buying and selling a variety of inexpensive
items you can purchase with your loose change. Keep track of what sells best and work on narrowing
down the possibilities to a few strong products. By this stage you will also have experienced
the best and worst situations eBay has to offer, so you will be much better prepared to crank
things up a notch.

2. Respond to questions as quickly as possible

Most people use the Internet because it provides what they need instantaneously: information,
contacts, gifts, advice, and so on. Therefore I can't emphasize enough the importance of
checking your emails as often as you can and replying to queries as quickly as possible.

3. Organize your time and keep to a schedule

If you are holding down a full-time job and working after hours to get your ebay business in
motion, then it's vital to have a list of what you need to get done and stick to it so
you make the most of the precious time available. Once you are working on eBay fulltime, this
becomes even more important! It's all too easy to reach the end of another day and find
that you have got hardly anything done. So keep a planner or diary and make a timetable of what
needs to be done and when.

4. Do take professional photographs from the beginning

The old saying remains as true as ever: A picture speaks a thousand words. A bad picture can
look unappealing and unprofessional. Plus, if the buyer can't really see the item properly,
they may be put off bidding because they can't tell if it is what they really want. So
right from the beginning, work on creating the most professional pictures you can, even if it
means spending money on a photo tent and better lighting.

5. Don't put all your eggs in one basket - use other ways of selling apart from
eBay

eBay is not the be all and end all of selling online - although it is one of the best
ways to start. As soon as you can though, try thinking of other ways you can increase your web
presence. Perhaps you could place a classified ad in Yahoo or write about your auctions in a
MySpace blog. There are plenty of cheap and easy ways to build up your profile.

6. Do keep a constant look out for other products to sell, while also monitoring carefully
what you are already selling.

Don't become complacent! Even if your items appear to be stock standard - such as
chairs for instance - make sure you keep looking at what other sellers are doing, emerging
trends, magazine articles, home decor programs, and more. There may be another related
product opportunity just waiting to happen that you completely overlook if you keep your blinkers
on.

7. Do keep in contact with your wholesale supplier regularly to ensure you are aware of any
stock issues.

A backorder can create a lot of extra work for you soothing customer's ruffled feathers.
And if they want their order refunded, it costs you money too. So make life easier for yourself
by regularly touching base with your suppliers and ensuring communication lines stay open.

8. Do carry out regular keyword and market research

Keyword research is the way to ensure your potential customers find you successfully. Set aside
some time each day for marketing and research to ensure that you're keeping at the top
of your game.

9. Do use software to help organize your sales

It's hard to part with the initial investment when the business is still finding its feet,
but the right software will make life so much easier. My eBay quickly becomes unwieldy when you
are selling more than 15 items, and software ensures that you avoid making costly mistakes, such
as under-ordering stock, forgetting to ship to a customer, and so on.

10. Don't offer free shipping as a gimmick unless you can afford it

Free shipping is a very effective way of attracting more people to your listings. However, before
you consider offering free shipping, think carefully about your profit margins, how much your
item weighs, and the fact that shipping will vary depending on how far away you are sending it.
Offering free shipping is a good move if you can absorb the cost in your profit margin, but it
could easily become crippling if you apply it to a variety of items of different shapes and sizes.

About the Author: SaleHoo is one of the fastest growing product sourcing
portals on the internet. It contains a database of drop ship, wholesale, closeout and manufacturing
suppliers offering thousands of product suppliers to consumers! Located
at http://www.salehoo.com,
visitors are allowed to sign up for unlimited and lifetime access to the completely searchable
database of products and suppliers. The database is regularly updated, ensuring that
the latest retail products are always available for purchase and SaleHoo carries the BBB Reliability
Seal!

Join SaleHoo Today for their Special Startup Offer!

By Shirlene Moore

You can make money by blogging - believe it or not!

Making money by blogging is a very controversial topic in the blogging community, but the fact remains - several people have made a lot of money blogging (up to $US 1000 per week - which is a LOT of money in some countries).

If you want to start a blog for free (or you don't know anything at all about computers) - go to www.blogger.com or www.wordpress.com and start a blog on one of the networks - for free - all you have to do is create a new user, choose the template you want & then you're ready to go - no money down!

Done? Good - Now, you can make money on your blog in several ways :

a) Advertisements on Blogs (Paid per Click) b) Affiliate Marketing (Paid per Sale or Lead) c) Writing a Blog for a Specific Company (Paid per Blog)

I was going to place all of these points together, but when writing point a) it got so large that I decided to split it in 3. So..... in this post I will discuss Advertisements on Blogs.

A) Advertisements on Blogs

This is probably the easiest way to make money blogging because you don't have to do anything - once you've set the ads up (placed them in your template), they are always there. So each time you publish a new blog, people see new adverts. Several companies offer advertising for your website or blog, some of the popular ones are discussed below.

Most people do not make a lot of money from this form of advertising on their blogs. You need to have high traffic websites - that is - blogs that get a lot of people visiting. But.... remember that it is money for nothing - so if you have a website, or a blog - you may as well have some form of advertising that you don't have to touch.

The good thing about this form of advertising is that there is no "waiting period" - so you can start a blog today - and straight away put advertising on it (as long as you have been accepted by the advertising company that is). You can also start getting clicks (and earn money) the day you publish your blog - you don't need to wait for someone to go away, come back, go away again, come back again & then decide to buy the product - this could take a few weeks.

The main companies that offer advertising options are as follows:

Google Adsense (Worldwide) - Adsense is good because it is content driven - so the ads will change to reflect what is written on the blog (for example if you are writing a blog about making money, the ads will be about making money, and if you are writing a blog about confectionery, your ads will be about confectionery). To put it basically, you will be paid depending on how much the advertiser is willing to pay for the keyword - so.... some words are worth 2c and other words are worth $2. The minimum payout is $US100 - this can take a fair bit of time depending on how much money you are making!

Yahoo Publisher Network (U.S. only) - Yahoo is very similar to Google Adsense, but they are currently only accepting publishers from the U.S.

Adbrite (Worldwide) - Adbrite is not content driven - so you may write a blog about money, but get ads about clothing. When publishing Adbrite ads you decide the price. So.... if you decide that each ad is worth 50c, that is how much a publisher will need to pay to advertise on your website.

Chitika (Worldwide) - Chitika offer a different form of advertising to the above advertisers. They have minimalls (where you see a product, & have the option of buying the product), or cloudtags - (a cloud of keywords which are relevant to your blog - you are paid each time someone clicks on one of the relevant keywords). The ads can either be content driven (that is - they will adjust the ads to match your blog like google), or non-contexual (which means that random ads are shown - like adbrite).

Bidvertiser (Worldwide) - Bidvertiser is very similar to Adbrite in that the Ads are not content driven. Bidvertiser will automatically put the highest paying ads on your website or blog (so if one advertiser bids 10c and the other bids 15c, you will have the 15c ad showing on your blog). The minimum payout for Bidvertiser is $US10, so you will be paid much sooner than other advertising networks.

Try one, or try them all - it is good to have alternatives (so sign up for more than one, and then you can change quickly if you need to). Some people prefer google, some people prefer Yahoo. The thing you need to remember is that some ads will work well with your blogs, whilst others won't - take a little bit of time, experiment, and find the "residual income" that earns you the most money - for.... not much work!

Once you have written your blog, don't forget to "ping" the blog networks. Go to www.pingoat.com to do this - this will send your blog to several networks at once - that way you optimise your chance to make money (the more that people see your blog, the more chance you have of making money).

You can also submit your blog to www.netscape.com, www.digg.com, and www.reddit.com - people will review your blog and vote on how good it is - the better it is, the more votes it will get - the more people will read it (swings & roundabouts).

And that.... as they say.... is that!

Enjoy your money making experience - let us know how it turns out, and which network suits you best.



If Ya Want to Make Money - Shirlene Owns an online Money Making Blog called IfYaWant, where you will find all sorts of tips & guidance for how to make money working from home - bloth online & offline.

Article Source: EzineArticles.com