Nebraska has a great point. I would add to that by saying if you go with the next step up in the eBay store your listings will be picked up by Google. So if someone searches for your keywords its bound to be in the top 3 results on Google.

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Heidi

And to add to that point...Google also has a thing called Google Base http://base.google.com This service will let you do an upload of...well any xml product feed...but for this discussion...your xml feed from your ebay store. Now the bulk upload feature has some learning curve...but once you have it down it's a snap. Submitting your ebay store xml feed to Google base will get them listed in Google base and also be a doorway to Froogle, and the Google index as well.

One little hint...Google likes it when you play with their toys. The end result of the Google base listing is essentially a web page containing your ebay stuff...but the key term is web page...recognized and indexed by Big G. If I remember right...there is a place to add some links in there...Now if you have a blog...or another website...hmmmm...you can see the potential here. Backlink...traffic...Page rank for your blog...And ebay store sales too...

Ebay is a pretty tough outlet to make a lot of money on. The main problem with ebay is that you are usually not the only one that is selling what you are selling. The other thing that has been killing me is the fees on ebay, so I have had to try and compensate the fees in the price of the item or in my shipping and handling charges. The only thing about ebay is that they have got you since they are the only one with the amount of traffic that you are looking for.

There are alternatives though. I have had some success on lesser known auction sites...although not as much as Ebay. But if you combine them, the profit is better than ebay as their fees are less...or zero in many cases.

http://epier.com/

http://bidville.com/

http://www.atoncer.com/

These all have zero listing fees and you only pay when you make the sale.

Yahoo auctions, overstock.com auctions, and amazon are other lesser priced alternatives to feepay...

Another benefit of using alternative auction websites is the fact that if you are a seller, there is a bigger chance that you might be the only one with a certain product, but yet your chance to sell it might decrease as fewer buyers may need that product.

I really don't think Ebay or any alternative is worth the time if you are going to base your household income on it, because sales don't seem to be as consistent as a regular business. Buyers also tend to go with sellers with higher feedback, so earning your first couple sales may be a problem too.

Yes, the feedback issue is a big one. That does build with time. Now if you are selling, say an info product that you created and it's good, then feedback may not be an issue as much. If they have an interest in the product and you are the only one who has the right to sell it, then feedback rating may not matter to them.

Ebay now has the abiltiy to add your Skype id in your auctions. This could be a method of overcoming a low feedback score. If the prospective buyer can reach you immediately with any questions, or just to get a better feeling about you before sending you their money, then they may be more inclined to get past your feedback score.

I have it activated for my auctions, but haven't posted an auction yet to see how it works. I have skype on all the time so it may be effective for me once I do post an auction on ebay...

I agree it is hard to make much money on eBay. You really have to do your research and be a good writer. The fees can become a problem. In my first few auctions I did not figure the fees into my pricing, but soon learned that I needed to do that. I buy my shipping supplies in bulk.

Ebay seems very complicated to me. All my efforts to making any money on it have come to zilch. Maybe I am not trying hard enough or maybe I am not doing the correct things - but then I was never very good at selling anything. I end up buying more often than selling.

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Milly
www.goonj.info

I really appreciate everyone’s advices, suggestions and tips and I have been putting many of them to use. I hope that we can continue to keep this dialogue open, because it’s been very valuable.

Something I would like to add is that we started using Auctiva it’s been a great tool and very easy to use, we have also been able to save on certain fees by using Auctiva, it has allowed us to use pre made templates and add our own items into the system anytime and allowed us to schedule them without being charged and the best part it’s free.

We do have an ebay store and has had it since day one, we have over 500 feedbacks at 95% and as many of you have stated this has been a very good selling point, because when the different between you and someone else is only a few dollars, then rating and feedback will always win.

We have also taken some of the advice from Nebraska and loaded up our ebay store with lots of items, and its unbelievable how many people visit our store because they are items we got for next to nothing and we have price them very cheap.

Something else we have learned over the last few months is to take advantaged of ebay’s specials like 1 cent listing fee or no listing to move your items from your store to a regular listing. We predict that this occurs about once a month and with Auctiva you can put your items in ahead of time and when they announce the special for that day we then release them usually giving us a big savings on fees.

I wanted to give everyone an update and say thank you very much for this valuable information and let’s keep this dialogue going, because it’s been a huge benefit.