Jul
4
Here in the States, today is Independence Day. This is perfect occasion to blog about declaring your independence from eBay, but after thinking about it for a while, I think discussing preparations for independence is more appropriate. After all, while Americans declared independence in 1776, we didn’t achieve it until 1783.
Your independence from eBay might take a while as well. Please note that I have never advocated leaving eBay altogether in this blog (although you should be prepared to). My point continues to be that true independence means that you don’t rely on any one source for your income - especially eBay. While auctions were the origins of my online business, my online efforts new generate income through a variety of sources. Auction sales are just a small portion of my internet revenue.
That’s how it should be for you. So to help you celebrate “Prepare for Independence Day,” today I’m offering some ideas on how you can expand your eBay business to develop multiple sources of income.
First, think about the reasons why you were attracted to selling on eBay in the first place…
- Easy to do
- No financial risk
- No technical skills required
- Lots of targeted traffic actively searching for your type of product or service
- Fun and excitement
- Etc., etc.,
These positive attributes paint a rosy picture of e-commerce, and for the most part, this “picture” is valid. That’s why entrepreneurs (like you) continue to join and stay with eBay. The payback potential is high and there is a strong sense of community among auction sellers. On a daily basis, you get to meet and/or do business with people who share similar interests to yours.
However, it’s only after you have been in the auction business for awhile that the blush begins to fade a bit. eBay requires real work just like any other real business. And therein lies the rub… all your hard work to succeed is not building a business of your own with true value (i.e., one that can be sold). It’s really building eBay’s equity. And we all know that eBay is presently worth billions of dollars… and growing.
Here’s why eBay has the upper hand at this point (later on, you will see how to “turn the tables” on eBay) …
- eBay gets you, and millions of others, to do the tough, physical part (sourcing, packaging, shipping, payment collection, etc.) for them, from home, as free labor. So they don’t ever need to own, warehouse, or ship a single product.
- eBay collects fees for each transaction – which now adds up to billions of dollars per year.
- eBay owns all the traffic — their automated software runs the network of buyers and sellers. This is not good news for you because if you don’t own your traffic, you can’t own your business.
So, realistically, you are working for eBay. You are depending on eBay for what is basically an hourly wage, while your “business” fails to build its own equity.
Meanwhile, eBay is constantly changing the rules in the middle of the game. Consider the (significant) policy changes implemented just in the five months prior to the publishing of this post:
- Best Match
- Feedback changes
- Fee changes
- Ban on the sale of digital downloads
- Mandating maximum allowable shipping charge in some markets
All those hours of scrounging for boxes, packing sold items securely, trips to the post office, e-mail correspondence, payment collection… and it’s eBay who is profiting! Arggh! It’s time to turn the tables!…
It’s time to take back your business and dreams!
But wait! There is no cause for panic… you don’t need to stop your online auction business (it’s making you money) or start over (continue to build upon what you have now). You just need a web presence, an understanding of the difference between having a website and an internet business, and the motivation to develop and follow a business plan that provides financial independence.
Take control of your business and its future. Here’s how…
STEP #1) Own your targeted traffic – This is essential. As was mentioned earlier, if you don’t own your traffic, you don’t own your business. So how do you eliminate your dependency on eBay for traffic? Simple… build a keyword-focused, content-rich and search engine-optimized web site related to your theme. As you steadily add web pages, more and more interested, targeted traffic will come directly to your site through search engines rather than via eBay. Building web pages with high search engine rankings is the most effective way to solidify your own traffic foundation. And that foundation is an essential prerequisite for the next step…
STEP #2) Diversify – Use eBay selling as only onepart your monetization plan. Once you see your traffic gaining momentum, introduce two or three additional income streams that fit with your theme. One of them will, of course, be your already established auction business. By opening up other options, eBay no longer has the same grip over your business as the sole money-making source. This independence allows you to use eBay, rather than the reverse – eBay using you.
Diversification helps you make every visitor count. For illustration purposes, let’s say that you specialize in US commemorative coins. Your monetization plan might look like this…list a few coins at eBay on a regular basis, sell coins from your site, promote your locally-based coin appraisal service and/or recommend a couple of quality coin-collection books at Amazon. Chances are your site’s high-value content will PREsell your visitors to follow through and generate income from at least one of those streams. (And speaking of informative content, remember to check out Google’s AdSense program as another revenue-producing option for your site.) Diversification will definitely improve your bottom line — which leads nicely into the third and final step…
STEP #3) Build equity – The way to do this may surprise you… publish a quality, information-packed email newsletter. If you do that, you will easily build a large subscribers’ address list. This list is more than just a list of names and e-mail addresses. It is your lifeblood. It will help you generate recurring sales (or commissions or leads, etc.). This is THE essential ingredient for sustaining your business longterm. Sure, you’ll get some signups to your newsletter from your eBay traffic – especially, your buying eBay customers. But now you can really grow your own list and build a credible satisfying relationship with present and potential customers.
So why are these three steps so critical?…
If eBay tripled their fees tomorrow, or did something else that would have a detrimental effect on your auction business, you would still have all your traffic generated by your site, your newsletter subscribers’ list, and your customers. And you could react assertively and immediately to eBay’s actions by either…
- Moving your visitors to other auction sites in a flash or by switching some of your auction business to a category-specific auction option.
Shifting greater emphasis to other monetization models. - Modifying your newsletter content appropriately, so that recurring business generates other types of revenues (for example, direct sales instead of auctions).
The bottom line?
YOU own your business (and not eBay). You depend only on yourself. And your equity is yours. A WIN situation for you!
eBay will come to love it because you will be sending them more traffic than they send you. You will be reversing their leakage problem (i.e., once someone buys from a seller, many simply “buys direct” the next time.) A WIN situation for eBay!
It looks like the auction selling “picture” just turned very rosy again!
Jun
9
Huge List of PayPal and eBay Phone Numbers and eMail Addresses
Filed Under Miscellaneous, PayPal | Leave a Comment
The Consumerist Blog just published a massive list of internal eBay and PayPal phone numbers and email addresses (via Screw-PayPal.com). Internal eBay phone numbers are one of the most closely guarded business secrets in the industry. That’s why this compilation of contact information is such a huge deal.
From The Consumerist:
Here are over 450 pieces of internal email addresses and phone numbersto reach a real live human at Paypal/eBay. Anyone who has ever experienced Paypal unfairly freezing their funds, Paypal siding with someone who scammed them and losing money because of it, Paypal seizing funds from their bank account or credit card without permission, or just the simple impenetrable, rude, and useless customer service can surely appreciate this list. There’s contact info for executive relations, high executives, practically every department, and more, both US and international. The information comes courtesy of Screw-Paypal.com, a site started by a man who says Paypal wrongfully denied access to his funds for four years.
Here’s a link to the PayPal and eBay contact information on Consumerist.
Jun
6
Understanding Bid Increments and Proxy Bidding Part III
Filed Under Bidders' Tips, Miscellaneous | Leave a Comment
This is the third part in our series on Understanding Bid Increments and Proxy Bidding
Proxy Bidding Can Protect Against Snipers
In the previous post, I discussed a proxy bidding scenario in which I placed a bid on an item and declared my maximum bid to be $7.00. A competing bidder came along and placed a bid with a maximum price of $6.00. A round of proxy bidding ensued and, upon completion, I was the high bidder with the current bid standing at $6.50.
It’s worth reemphasizing it the fact that although I entered a maximum bid of $7.00, if the auction closed with no additional competing bids, I would only pay $6.50 for the ball cap. This is an important point. Always enter the maximum amount you are willing to pay for the item being auctioned - you won’t be forced to pay your maximum bid unless a competing bidder forces the price to that level.
How it Works
Your max bid is not necessarily the amount you will have to pay, but will protect you from eBay snipers swoop in at the last second and ad outbid you because you had no time to react with a manual counter bid.
I’ve received scores of comments from bidders who have lost auctions to snipers who ultimately paid less that the losing bidder was willing to pay for that item. That’s often because the losing bidder was confused about the concept of proxy bidding and thought they would end up paying their maximum bid at auction’s close if they won.
The original bid was just enough to make them the high bidder at the time they made the bid. Because sniping involves submitting a bid extremely late in the auction, the losing bidder did not have the opportunity to manually enter a counter bid and they can’t win. Proxy bidding is the simple solution to this dilemma. Even if you don’t win (because the sniper entered a higher maximum price than you), you can get some satisfaction in the knowledge that you forced the sniper to bid more than they had probably hoped for.
Practice Proxy Bidding
eBay actually has a page where you can practice with the proxy bidding system without actually logging in and placing a real bid. Here’s the link:
http://pages.ebay.com/education/tutorial/course1/bidding/index.html
The page details the current bid and asks you for your maximum bid. After clicking enter – the proxy bidding happens instantly and you learn if you’ve been able to outbid the current high bidder’s secret maximum bid. If not, your are provided the opportunity to bid again (try bidding significantly higher this time) and you can see how you will be become the high bidder without reaching your revised maximum bid.
So now that you understand the proxy bidding, don’t be afraid to enter the maximum you are willing to spend on that auction next time you make a bid on eBay
Apr
11
A Dear eBay Letter
Filed Under Miscellaneous | Leave a Comment
I saw this posted on SlashDot in response to eBay’s decision to require PayPal as a payment method on eBay Australia.
Hey eBay,
It was nice hanging with you when we were younger, but since then I can feel we’ve grown our separate ways. I still remember our first dot com bubble burst like it was yesterday.But, sadly it seems that you’re hanging out with a new crowd these days and you’ve changed, I can’t put my finger on it, but you’re somehow different. It seems like you don’t really care about me anymore, and you don’t seem to have coped very well with some of the new people in town.
I’m sorry to say it, after all of this time, but I’m seeing someone new they’re so much quicker and dealing with each individual companies policies still feels easier than dealing with your friend PayPal.
I’m sorry it couldn’t work out between us.Signed,
The Internet
Both funny and sad at the same time.