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A Beginner's Guide to Earning Money Through eBay

 

how to earn money through ebay

There’s an excellent chance that you have used eBay some time in the past.  

It may have been to buy a long lost video game from your youth, a fishing pole you were trying to find or even some small items for an event you were putting together.

eBay is the name that many often think of when they are looking for new or used items to purchase.  

It’s like the world’s biggest garage sale. You can find practically anything you can think of, from video games to sporting equipment and even cars – yes, cars.

How eBay works:

Someone puts something up for sale on the platform. As we mentioned above, there are TONS of items that people can sell.

The seller will choose how the item will be sold. It will either be sold at an auction style with the winning bidder getting the item, or the seller will list it at a specific price.

If the item is set for an auction-style listing, the bidding will begin at a minimum bid of the seller’s choosing and will remain up for a specific amount of days.

Bids are placed, and once the time limit of days is reached, the item is sold to the highest bidder.

In a specific price listing, it’s basically like a regular sale made online.

When a buyer is willing to purchase the item at the cost the seller asks for, the item goes to that buyer.

No bidding necessary.

Who is this ideal for:

If you liked garage sales growing up, or still do, then this is for you. If you wish to sell items or buy and sell items, then you will really want to look into this.

If you are motivated and willing to get the word out about your auctions, whether it’s word of mouth or online, then you will definitely want to look into this further.

What skills will you need:

If you already have some experience with buying and selling items on the Internet, then you will be ahead of most.  

However, it is not necessary. Having basic business skills, such as understanding profit margins is also ideal.

For example, you don’t want to sell an item for $1, if you paid $1.

Sounds silly, but if you aren’t careful, you just may find yourself selling an item and spending hours and even days on it, only to find that you made a few dollars in profit for it.

How much time is required to get started:

To get started you will need to have a PayPal account so you can receive payments for your items.  

You will also need to create an eBay account. This can be done in a short amount of time, but you may need to wait if there will be any verifications that need to be done.

The time required moving forward would entail listing your item (photos, descriptions and answering any questions). This could be just a few hours or more at a time.

Some helpful tips:

1) Get to know some people 

If you are new to eBay, then you won’t have any feedback.  

Most people are cautious about buying items from people with no feedback. There is a way for you to get feedback and will entail you making some purchases.

One of the easiest ways to do this is to purchase smaller items with free shipping.

Think of items that cost less than a dollar and you will be on the right path.

You can make 10 to 20 small purchases like this. Most sellers will leave you feedback once you make a purchase.

These positive comments and feedback will add up over time, giving you the credibility you need to start selling.

2) Start where you are at  

If you are just starting out, then you probably don’t have the funds to go out and buy pallets of items at wholesale to resell individually.  

If you look around your home, you can easily find items in good condition that you no longer need that others will be willing to pay for.

3) Price it out  

Look at the items you have found in your house and get online to see how much they are selling for.

Look for them on the eBay site as well as on other sites online.

After a while, you will get a better feel for what the item is actually worth, and what others are willing to pay for them.  

At this point, you can also start to list the keywords and phrases that you are finding people using to get found online for those items.

4) Create a title that gets found  

For eBay, this will be THE most critical factor in getting buyers.  

Include the keywords that would get your item found, make it appealing and just ask yourself if you were the buyer would you click on that title link?  

Think of the words and phrases you would use to find it and incorporate those into your title.

5) Don’t be lazy  

At this point, you will be asked to fill out a description.  

While you may be telling yourself that it’s pretty straightforward with the title, DO NOT skip out on this.  

Many sellers have failed because they got lazy and decided not to fill out all of the information in this section.  

6) Create some eye candy 

Photos can really make a difference. Be sure to use only high-quality images. Use pictures that are clear and new, not blurry and old.  

You may be tempted to upload just a picture or two, but don’t. Upload at least six photos from different angles.

7) Get the timing right  

Many of the veteran sellers utilize a listing for 10 days which you may want to start using as well.  

These sellers like to start their listing out on a Thursday because you can get two full weekends out of this type of listing.

Most traffic happens on the weekends, so using a listing of 10 days starting on a Thursday will work to your advantage.

How to make money:

Making money at this point is straightforward. You make money when buyers purchase your items, but how do you get them to purchase?

First of all, follow all of the tips we have listed.

Ensure that you are selling high-quality goods and paying attention to your buyers. When you can do this, you will begin to build up more positive feedback.

eBay will handle all of the financial transactions, so all you will need to do is worry about creating quality listings and order fulfillment.

When you begin to make money, take a look at what items are selling best for you and purchase them in bulk so you can, in turn, sell them to turn a profit.

The last step is to continue the process and make more money.

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