Starting a Successful eBay Business (Video Training): Start Selling Today – and Achieve Business Success Tomorrow!
REMEMBER WHEN eBay USED TO BE A GREAT PLACE FOR SMALL SELLERS TO BECOME BIG SELLERS?
Unfortunately, recent changes at eBay have made online auctions less reliable and profitable. So where can you sell when you can’t sell on eBay? Online auctions are the past; fixed-price selling is the future. It’s time to move beyond eBay and first-generation online selling and start Selling Online 2.0. Second generation online selling means migrating from eBay to other online marketplaces, including craigslist, Amazon, and your own e-commerce website. You’ll need to make some new plans, learn some new skills, and change some of the things you do--but you’ll find that there’s more money to be made on your own than relying on traditional eBay online auction sales.
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Introduction    1
What’s in This Book     2
Who Can Use This Book     3
How to Use This Book     3
There’s More Online...     4
Making the Move     4
I BEYOND ONLINE AUCTIONS: CREATING A SUCCESSFUL ONLINE BUSINESS Â Â Â Â 5
1 The Problem with Online Auctions     7
What eBay Used to Be Like... Â Â Â Â 7
Why Is eBay Abandoning Smaller Sellers? Â Â Â Â Â 10
Changes Are Afoot--and You Probably Won’t Like Them     12
Emphasizing Fixed-Price Sales over Auction Sales     12
Changes to the Fee Structure     12
Changes to the Payment System     14
Changes to the Feedback System     15
Changes to Search Results     15
eBay’s Deal with Buy.com     16
How Do eBay’s Changes Affect You?      16
2 Planning for Selling Success     19
Planning for Life Beyond eBay Auctions     19
Asking--and Answering--Key Questions     20
What Type of Merchandise Do You Want to Sell? Â Â Â Â Â 20
How Much Money Do You Want to Make? Â Â Â Â Â 21
How Do You Intend to Manage Your Business? Â Â Â Â Â 23
Where Do You Want to Sell? Â Â Â Â Â 25
Conceiving a Business Plan     26
Understanding the Components of a Useful Business Plan     28
Mission     29
Opportunity     30
Strategy     30
Organization and Operations     31
Strengths and Weaknesses     31
Financials     31
Writing Your Business Plan     32
Implementing Your Business Plan     33
II FIXED-PRICE SELLING ON EBAY Â Â Â Â 35
3 Migrating to Fixed-Price Listings     37
Why Fixed-Priced Sales Are the Way to Go     37
Comparing Fees     38
Comparing Listing Lengths     40
Factoring in Customer Demand     41
Different Ways to Sell at a Fixed Pric     42
Understanding eBay’s Fixed-Price Listings     43
Understanding eBay’s Buy It Now Auctions     44
Understanding eBay Stores     46
Understanding Half.com     47
Creating an eBay Fixed-Price Listing      50
Creating an Auction Listing with a Buy It Now Price     51
Managing Fixed-Price Sales     52
Before the Sale: Setting the Price     53
After the Sale: Payment and Shipping     53
4 Fixed-Price Selling in an eBay Store     57
What Is an eBay Store?     57
Benefits of Opening Your Own eBay Store    59
Challenges of eBay Store Selling    60
Understanding eBay Store Subscription Levels    61
Understanding Insertion Fees and FVFs    63
How to Open an eBay Store    63
Further Customizing Your eBay Store    67
Managing Your eBay Store    68
Listing Merchandise for Sale in Your eBay Store    70
Handling eBay Store Sales    71
Marking Down Your Merchandise    72
Viewing eBay Store Reports    73
5 Fixed-Price Selling on Half.com    77
Getting to Know Half.com    77
Understanding the Half.com Shopping Experience     79
Understanding Half.com Fees    80
Listing on Half.com    81
Pricing Your Half.com Items    83
Calculating Shipping and Handling Charges    84
Managing Half.com Sales    85
6 Promoting Your Fixed-Price eBay Sales    87
Promoting Your Fixed-Price Listings on the eBay Site    87
Optimizing Your Listings for eBay Search    88
Linking from Other Sites to Your eBay Listings    90
Promoting Your eBay Store    90
Seeding Listings into the Traditional eBay Marketplace    91
Enabling Cross-Promotions    91
Creating an Email Mailing List    92
Linking to Your eBay Store    94
Adding a Stores Widget to Your Blog or Website    95
Creating a Listing Feed    95
Exporting Your Listings to Search Engines and Shopping Sites    96
Advertising on the eBay Site with AdCommerce    97
Advertising Across the Web with Google AdWords    99
Promoting Your Store in the Real World    101
Promoting Your Half.com Listings    102
III SELLING VIA CRAIGSLIST ONLINE CLASSIFIEDSÂ Â Â Â 105
7 Online Classifieds: Are They Right for Your Business?     107
Understanding Online Classifieds    107
Examining Major Online Classifieds Sites    110
craigslist    110
Oodle    111
Kijiji    113
backpage.com    114
LiveDea    115
Google Base    116
The Pros and Cons of Selling via Online Classifieds    117
Pros of Online Classifieds Selling    117
Cons of Online Classifieds Selling    118
Do Online Classifieds Make Sense for Your Business?     120
The Best Businesses for Migrating to Online Classifieds    120
The Worst Businesses for Migrating to Online Classifieds    121
8 Doing Business on craigslist    125
Understanding craigslist    125
Navigating craigslist Listings    126
Before You List...    129
Listing an Item for Sale    130
Formatting Your Item Description    133
Using HTML Formatting    133
Inserting Images into Your Listings    134
Managing Your Listings    135
Editing a Listing    135
Deleting a Listing    136
Making a Sale    136
9 Migrating from Online Auctions to Online Classifieds    139
What Items Should You Move to craigslist?     139
Changing Your Business Model    141
Going Local    141
Pickups,No Shipping    142
Cash Is King    143
We Don’t Need No Stinking Tools    143
It’s the Wild West    144
Businesses Aren’t Always Accepted    144
Making the Move    145
10 Promoting Your craigslist Business    147
Choosing the Right Community and Category    147
Optimizing Your Listings for Search    148
Keeping Your Ad at the Top of the List    148
IV SELLING ON THE AMAZON MARKETPLACEÂ Â Â Â 151
11 The Amazon Marketplace: Is It Right for Your Business?     153
Understanding the Amazon Marketplace    153
What the Buyers See    154
The Many Ways to Sell on Amazon    156
Selling Individual Items on the Amazon Marketplace    157
Understanding the Amazon Marketplace    158
Understanding Amazon’s Fees    159
Selling as a Pro Merchant    161
Selling on Amazon via Selling on Amazon    162
Selling in an Amazon WebStore    163
Using Amazon to Fulfill Your Orders    163
How It Works    164
Understanding Fulfillment Pricing    164
The Pros and Cons of Selling on Amazon    166
Selling on Amazon: Pros    166
Selling on Amazon: Cons    167
12 Doing Business in the Amazon Marketplace    169
Listing Individual Items in the Amazon Marketplace     169
Listing Your First Item    69
Managing Your Account and Inventory    173
Selling an Item    175
Setting Up Your Amazon Storefront    176
Moving to the Pro Merchant Program    177
Upgrading to Pro Merchant Status    177
Uploading Multiple Listings    178
Creating a Product Detail Page    180
13 Migrating Your eBay Business to Amazon    185
Does Migrating to Amazon Make Sense?     85
Comparing Fees    185
Comparing Sales and Effort    187
Which Items Should You Migrate?     188
Evolving Your Business Model    189
Making the Move    190
14 Promoting Your Amazon Business    193
Keeping Your Listings Competitive    193
Competing on Feedback    194
Placing Product Ads on the Amazon Site    196
Advertising Your Business with a Display Ad     197
V SELLING ON YOUR OWN WEBSITEÂ Â Â Â 201
15 Establishing Your Own Website: Is It Right for Your Business?     203
Building an Online Store--What’s Involved?     203
The Components of an E-Commerce Website    203
Different Ways to Build a Store    206
How Much Does It Cost?     207
Pros and Cons of Running Your Own Website    208
Pros of Running Your Own Online Store    208
Cons of Running Your Own Online Store    209
Does an Online Store Make Sense for Your Business?     211
16 Planning Your Online Presence    215
Step One: Create Your Plan and Define Your Goals    215
Step Two:Determine What You’re Selling    216
Step Three: Choose a Hosting Service    216
Step Four: Build Your Website    217
Step Five: Choose an Online Payment Service    218
Step Six: Plan Your Promotion    219
Step Seven: Launch Your Site    220
Step Eight: Evaluate Your Performance    221
17 Setting Up an E-Commerce Website    223
Choosing a Hosting Service    223
Features to Look For    224
Comparing Prices    226
Using eBay ProStores    227
ProStores for eBay Sellers    227
Subscription Levels    228
Getting Started with ProStores    229
Building an Amazon WebStore Store    230
Inside an Amazon WebStore Store    230
Creating Your Own WebStore    231
Building a Yahoo! Merchant Website    233
Subscription Levels    233
Unique Features    234
Creating Your Own Yahoo! Store    235
Exploring Other Pre-Designed Storefronts    236
18 Managing Online Sales    241
Managing Your Inventory    241
Managing Your Sales    243
Managing Your Customers    245
19 Choosing an Online Payment System    249
Accepting Payments with PayPal    249
Pros and Cons of PayPal    250
Signing Up for PayPal    251
Understanding PayPal Fees    252
Adding PayPal to Your Website    253
Collecting PayPal Payments    254
Accepting Payments with Google Checkout    255
Pros and Cons of Google Checkout    255
Understanding Google Checkout Fees    256
Setting Up a Google Checkout Account    257
Choosing a Google Checkout Service     257
Adding Google Checkout to Your Website    258
Collecting Google Checkout Payments    259
Withdrawing Google Checkout Funds    260
Integrating Google Checkout with Google AdWords    260
Accepting Payments with Checkout by Amazon    261
Pros and Cons of Checkout by Amazon    261
Understanding Checkout by Amazon Fees    262
Setting Up Checkout by Amazon    262
Establishing Your Own Merchant Credit Card Account    263
Pros and Cons of a Merchant Account      264
Choosing a Credit Card Processor    265
20 Promoting Your E-Commerce Website    267
Putting Together a Marketing Plan    267
Optimizing Your Site for Search Engines    269
All About Search Engine Marketing--and SEOÂ Â Â Â 269
SEO Tip #1: Fine-Tune Your Keywords    269
SEO Tip #2: Tweak Your and
SEO Tip #3: Solicit Inbound Links from Other Sites    271
SEO Tip #4: Submit Your Site to the Major Search Engines    272
SEO Tip #5: Use Text Instead of Images    274
Submitting Your Products to Comparison Shopping Sites    275
How Comparison Shopping Sites Work    275
Examining the Major Comparison Shopping Sites    276
Submitting Your Listings to Comparison Shopping Sites    278
Creating and Uploading a Data File    279
Buying PPC Advertising    280
How Important Is PPC Advertising?     280
Purchasing Keywords    281
Paying by the Click    282
Evaluating the Big PPC Ad Networks    283
Creating a PPC Campaign    285
Buying Display Ads    286
Engaging in Email Marketing    287
Marketing on YouTube    288
Marketing to the Blogosphere    289
Conducting Online Public Relations    290
21 Migrating Your eBay Business to Your Own Website    293
Does Migrating to Your Own Online Store Make Sense?     293
Comparing Costs    293
Comparing Effort    295
Which Items Should You Migrate?     295
Changing Your Business Model and Processes    296
Making the Move    297
22 Selling in Multiple Channels    301
What Is Multichannel Selling--and How Does It Work?     301
Pros and Cons of Multichannel Selling    302
Benefits of Multichannel Selling    302
Drawbacks of Multichannel Selling    303
When Does Multichannel Selling Make Sense--and When Is It a Recipe for Disaster?     305
Managing Inventory Across Channels      306
Creating a Multichannel Marketing Plan     307
Index    311
Country | USA |
Brand | Alpha Books |
Manufacturer | Que Publishing |
Binding | Paperback |
ItemPartNumber | Illustrations |
ReleaseDate | 2009-04-06 |
UnitCount | 1 |
UPCs | 029236739744 |
EANs | 9780789739742 |