Improve Your eBay Business 1% and Watch the Cash Come In!

by Janiece V. Smith

© Janiece V Smith - All Rights Reserved

http://www.expressprofitsonline.com

I was sitting around today thinking back to years ago when I was involved in a multilevel marketing business. You know the business where you invite your friends over for dinner and then bring out the old white board in the hopes that you can get them, and then their friends, to join too?

Trust me. It’s a hard business in which to succeed. It takes the long-term dedication that most cannot survive. I was a distributor for Nu-Skin International for about four years and never made more than a couple thousand dollars per month on my best months.

One day, I was out on the town “prospecting” (walking up to complete strangers asking them if they would come to a meeting to learn how they can make a fortune). I truly believed I could help these people make money. I was convinced if I could get them to do what I was doing, they would be rich and so would I!

(I know this message is long but stay with me here…you will see how this can make your eBay business skyrocket in just a few short days.)

Back to what I was saying.

One day, I was prospecting with a friend and we were talking about our sponsors and how much money they were making doing the same thing we were. I was trained by Mark Yarnell on how to market and sponsor people. Mark was a brilliant man, one I could see myself modeling. He was making about $300,000 per month doing the exact same thing he taught me to do. I know he was doing exactly what I was from working with him and talking with him on an almost daily basis.

My friend and I could not resolve the problem as to why he was making so much money and we were making so little. So we decided to sit down and put all the numbers together in the hopes we could figure out the reasoning.

There were a couple of factors that were the same when I compared my numbers with Marks. I was talking to (prospecting) almost as many people as he was per day. I was having almost as many people show up to our meetings. So, what was the difference?

This is when I figured out the missing element that made him rich and me poor. It was 1%!

He was doing about 1% better at getting people to the meeting and 1% better at getting them to sign up and duplicate what he was doing.

It doesn’t seem like a lot, does it? I mean it’s only 1%…

It’s not a lot on a day-to-day basis, but over time it’s HUGE!

Look at it this way. Every day he was doing 1% better at getting people there and 1% better at signing people up. When you add that up over one year, it comes out that he was doing 730% better than I was!

That, in turn, means he would be making hundreds of thousands of dollars over and above what I was making simply by being 1% better.

The 1% factor applies in many areas of life, besides business.

Let’s look at baseball: Did you know that the average baseball player only gets a hit once every four at bats (a 0.250 batting average)? The batting champion each year has an average slightly better than one hit per three time at bats (0.333). A career average of more than 0.300 will likely get you in the Hall of Fame. Finally, only one player in the last 60 years has hit more than 0.400 (4 hits per 10 at bats) in a single season (Ted Williams, who died this summer).

As you can see––even in baseball––if you’re only a tiny percent better, it will get you into the Hall of Fame and literally make you millions of dollars more per year. It’s really a simple concept to understand and, once you understand it and work to improve your business 1%, you will change your life.

Now, let’s look at how this applies to your eBay business:

Think for a minute how much more you would make if you could…

• Sell your items for 1% more
• Get 1% more people to buy from you again
• Get 1% more people to buy more than one product from you at a time
• Cut down your operating expenses associated with running your eBay business by 1%

I could go on and on, but I think you’re starting to get the idea.

I would love to take the time to give you dozens of examples for each of the bullet points above but, if I did, this article would be HUGE! So let’s try and keep it simple. Let’s look at one idea for each. This will at least get your brain working and make you start thinking.

Number 1: Sell your item for 1% more

A great way to achieve this goal is to do a little research on your product market. An easy way to do this is to research past auctions of the same exact product using the software located at www.auctionmarketwatch.com (this same research can be done without the software, it just takes a little longer). Look for the listings that sold for more than yours did. Study what the seller did differently than you.

Did they start the auction at a different price?

Did they list different benefits?

Did they make the perceived value of the product appear to be more than yours, even though it was exactly the same?

How did the overall look of their auction differ from yours?

Get out a pen and paper and go through each auction that sold for a higher price than yours did. I know sometimes its just luck of the draw, but don’t be so sure of that. Many times, it’s the little things that make a big difference. Write down EVERY difference you can find. The key to using this research to increase your sale price is to test the changes. You don’t want to go and change your entire auction. Because what you’re already doing is working (and you’re just trying to improve), you can make small changes each time and see the difference.

The next time you run an auction for the same product, or a different product, make sure to include the points that you wrote down in the description. There is a very good chance you will uncover your problem and you will make more money on your next item.

Number 2: Get 1% more people to buy from you again

If you’re not contacting past customers on a regular basis, now is a good time to start. If you choose to do nothing else with your eBay business, make sure that this is the one that you do.

You will always have much more success getting your past customers to buy from you than you will have trying to sell to a new customer.

Why? They trust you. They know how you do business.

You have removed the skepticism factor that lives in all of us. It’s true; we are all very skeptical and we choose wisely on who we will trust and spend our hard earned dollars with. After you remove the skepticism and someone knows how easy it is to do business with you, they will come back.

Contacting past customers can be as easy as sending them an email once a month to notify them of new items you have listed. If it’s someone that has proven to buy more than the average customer, you might want to step it up a little. Contact them on a weekly basis, but always offer them something in return. You will be surprised at how happy people are when you email them letting them know you have new items listed for sale and that you’re giving them a special discount for being such a loyal customer.

People email me every day thanking me for emailing and keeping in touch. Many times I won’t hear from someone for a couple of months and I starting thinking maybe I’m wasting my time. Then, out of the blue, they will email to thank me for all of the emails and for keeping them informed.

It is difficult to understand why someone will come out of the dark and purchase from you, but I can guarantee they will if you just take a few minutes a week to email your customers. This will take you very little time and definitely increase your return business by 1% (if not more).

(In a later issue, we will talk about the lifetime value of a customer and why it is so important to keep a customer once you’ve earned one.)

Number 3: Get 1% more people to buy more than one product from you at a time

It’s called an upsell. You see it everyday. Have you ever been to the movies and they ask you if you would like a large coke for only a quarter more? Consider McDonalds––they ask you if you would like a hot apple pie with your meal. They do this because a huge percentage of people will purchase something extra if you try to upsell.

An easy way to upsell with your eBay business is to do so in the auction text. It is best to include some sort of upsell text at the end of your item description.

For example, you’re selling a pair of Nike shoes and include the following text:

“Winning bidder on these Nike shoes can receive FREE shipping on any other Nike item in my other running auctions.”

There are several ways you can upsell a customer and they will be happy you did. People buy from their emotions and, if you can make them feel like they are getting a good deal on an upsell product, they will be happy to buy.

Number 4: Cut down your operating expenses associated with running your eBay business by 1%

Most eBay sellers think they are backed into a corner with many of the associated eBay fees. However, this isn’t the case! There are several ways you can save money on your listing fees, such as adjusting the list price, cutting down on extra features, and choosing the right auction management software for your volume. A lot of these factors will depend on each seller individually. But, as an example, I’m going to use someone who is selling lower-end fishing poles.

Someone purchases their fishing poles using my techniques for $6.00 per pole. His goal is to make a $4.00 gross profit per pole. So, he lists the pole at $10.00 and, of course, hopes it gets bid higher. The pole gets bid up to $13.50 and the auction ends successfully. Now, the seller made more of a profit than he had hoped for with the eBay list fee being $0.60, the final value fee being $0.71, and the cost of the product $6.00, his profit on the sale was $6.19.

Let’s take the same scenario, but, this time, the seller takes a little more time evaluating the costs for listing and realizes something significant. The cost for listing an item at $10.00 is $0.60, and the cost for listing an item at $9.99 is only $0.35. So, if he lists the pole at a $0.01 decrease from his goal gross profit, he will actually be making an extra $0.25 per pole.

Now, $0.25 may not seem like a lot to most people. However, if your business is selling on eBay and you’re doing high volumes of listings to generate a significant income, this would seem like a lot. If you take these same poles and say he lists 500 of them per month, this is an extra $125.00 per month, for absolutely NO extra work.

Please keep in mind this is only one example of how you can cut auction costs with eBay. You should evaluate every aspect of your business for small changes such as this. If you could find just four areas of your business in which you could make a small change to, such as the one in this example, you would make an additional $500.00 per month. Now, that’s big deal!

Janiece Smith is the author of Internet’s top-selling eBook teaching everyday people how to make their own small fortune selling on eBay®.

Discover The Secrets Janiece Smith Used To Earn Up To $11,212 Per Month Selling On eBay. Her New eBook “How An Overworked, Traveling, Soggy Sandwich Eating Dental Hygienist Made up to $11,212.00 a Month––100% Online” allows you to easily and quickly apply the author’s secrets of finding and selling products on eBay® to create huge amounts of instant profits!

Click here for more details
http://www.expressprofitsonline.com

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10 Secrets Why Wholesale Drop Shippers Should Not Be Your Only Supplier

by Janiece V. Smith

© Janiece V Smith - All Rights Reserved

http://www.expressprofitsonline.com

If you sell on eBay, read this now. You’ll discover the shocking truth about drop shippers and why you should avoid having them as your only product suppliers.

At least 99.99% of all Internet drop shippers sell their products for much more than you can buy them yourself right off eBay. Alarming, isn’t it?

It seems unfair to us eBay sellers. Why don’t drop shippers sell their products cheap enough for us to make money? Well, it’s simple. Drop shippers have to make money too and there is simply not enough working room in the prices to allow both sides to make a profit.

But, with a little work and a little knowledge, you can get the same products they sell for even cheaper than they do! And, yes, you read that correctly. You really can buy these same products for just as inexpensively as or even less expensively than they do.

Many times, you may feel that drop shippers are trying to cheat you. This isn’t necessarily the case. Drop shippers can make you believe they are the cheapest source for their products. If they didn’t, they would quickly go broke.

So why do people buy from them? For one, some people are desperate for money to pay those overdue bills. If you are like most people who try to make a living selling on eBay, you have undoubtedly looked into––or possibly even used––a drop shipper to at least get something to list. Sadly, after you listed the item you probably found that there were other sellers offering the same item for much cheaper than your drop shipper even sold it to you.

Believe me, I know how frustrating it is to wonder why nothing sells, especially when you (supposedly) received it for the “lowest price anywhere.”

Please don’t misconstrue what I’m saying––I do firmly believe that most wholesale drop shippers are good companies that offer good products. And, yes, it is possible to find products from drop shippers that are cheap enough to sell for a profit and make money on eBay.

That said, I don’t see a viable way you will ever make a living using drop shippers. At best, you might be able to make a couple hundred dollars per month. And even that would take many hours of work and lots of frustration.

But, if you do want to find products that will sell using a drop shipper, just follow these easy steps:

1. Find a product category on the drop shipper’s site that interests you and that you have some knowledge of.

2. Get an exact description of the product and the cost.

3. Conduct an eBay search for the exact product. If there are no current auctions for that product, try checking completed sales.

4. Compare the sale price with the price for which you can purchase the item.

5. Make sure you compare the EXACT same product. Using a product that is close could include many variables that would make a difference in its sale price.

6. Check the shipping and handling prices for these products on eBay to make sure the seller is not low-balling the product’s sale price and making his/her money on the handling fees.

7. If the product has a successful record of selling and is the exact same product that you’re researching, then look a little closer as to whether you should list it or not.

8. If you do decide to list it, make sure that (after you deduct all of your fees, including PayPal, eBay, Auction program, etc.) you are earning enough per hour to make it worth your while.

9. Choose an amount you will work for and don’t get caught trying to sell items only to make $0.83 per hour. It will only waste your time. Spend your time finding high-profit, low-risk items.

10. If all the numbers work, sell the item! Then start trying to find new items and add additional products.

You might only find 1 in 50 or 1 in 100 products that you can get for a low enough price to make a good profit. If you’re lucky, when using a wholesale drop shipper, you may locate a product with a gross profit of $3 to $8 per piece. That’s not bad, but definitely not great. You would have to sell a whole lot of them, just to pay your car payment.

I don’t know about you, but working this hard and putting in that many hours does not sound like fun to me. You may as well get a job at a fast-food restaurant and save your energy. The point is that you will never make a GOOD LIVING using these drop shippers.

You could make enough to have a little extra spending money while you are working to find these products yourself at below wholesale prices. That is the ONLY reason I would recommend using them. To further demonstrate, let’s put some numbers together and see exactly how you can make a couple hundred dollars per month using a drop shipper.

For example, let’s say you found a product that sells for $20 and has a net profit of $8 per piece (we are shooting on the high side here). Without being a math genius, you can see you would need to sell 30 of these products to gross $600.

Follow along, as I want you to see the shocking truth about these wholesalers. Just by searching around myself, I found that you would probably spend a good 12 to 24 hours searching for a product with which you could earn $8 each by using a drop shipper.

Most likely, you would only have these great finds once or twice per month. The reality is that you can only list so many of the same products and expect them to sell. Drop shippers won’t normally have a wide range of items that would generate that kind of profit anyway.

One more thing to keep in mind: Even if you do find a potential seller, it’s likely that hundreds of other eBay sellers are trying to sell that same product from the same wholesale drop shipper.

So take your $600 gross from the example above. Then deduct your fees of about 60%, which includes the cost of your product, eBay, PayPal, etc. This leaves you with $240 for 12 hours of work. That’s a little bit over $20 per hour. Not too bad, but remember, this is a best-case scenario. You would have to do that a few times per month to make any real money.

Time-wise and profit-wise your best bet is to never let your only product supplier be a wholesale drop shipper. Otherwise, you could easily get yourself into financial trouble.

I teach all my members and customers that the ONLY way to make big money is to bypass these wholesale drop shippers. That said, I do think you can use them while you are building your own EXCLUSIVE list of product suppliers.

Surf around eBay. With a little research, you’ll find that there are literally hundreds of categories in which you can sell to make a living. So take the time and do your homework. By being a smart buyer and seller you will profit much more than you ever thought was possible. Now, get out there and start selling!

Janiece Smith is the author of Internet’s top-selling eBook teaching everyday people how to make their own small fortune selling on eBay®.

Discover The Secrets Janiece Smith Used To Earn Up To $11,212 Per Month Selling On eBay. Her New eBook “How An Overworked, Traveling, Soggy Sandwich Eating Dental Hygienist Made up to $11,212.00 a Month––100% Online” allows you to easily and quickly apply the author’s secrets of finding and selling products on eBay® to create huge amounts of instant profits!

Click here for more details
http://www.expressprofitsonline.com

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Buy Surplus Stock And Make A Huge Profit

by Janiece V. Smith

© Janiece V Smith - All Rights Reserved http://www.expressprofitsonline.com

Each and every day there are millions and millions of dollars of surplus inventory that goes on the market. Most of this inventory is never, and will never be, seen by the general public. But why?

It’s actually pretty simple. Big corporations would rather not “advertise” that they have products they did not sell or that were returned for one reason or another. They want to move this surplus as discretely as possible. And they don’t like to make a lot of noise doing so.

Most companies don’t want to move these products through their normal sales channel because they want distributors to buy their new items. For example, Nike sells shoes in malls across the United States and has thousands of distributors who buy these shoes (from Nike) at wholesale prices.

If Nike suddenly called all their distributors and told them they had six million dollars in unsold inventory, which they could get for 50% below wholesale, they’d surely lose sales on the new shoes. Many of these distributors would spend their extra cash on the products that will make a better return. Clearly, the distributor will make more money buying shoes at 50% below wholesale than they will buying them at the regular wholesale price.

You can access the same unsold inventory that a company’s own distributors often cannot. You just need to know how. Sometimes, even if you do get access, companies will already have a channel in place for moving this surplus inventory. However, just because they have one channel doesn’t mean you can never gain access. Your task is to find out what that channel is and talk with them to see whether they have any surplus inventory available.

Understand that these companies get many calls every week from people trying to get a “good deal.” For example, if you were calling Sony hoping you could just buy a big screen TV for cheap, think again. You’d be out of luck. They know who is serious and who isn’t. It would be nice if they would drop ship and send us all big beautiful catalogs with products in full color for 50% below wholesale. But, if you think that you can order one item at a time and have them drop shipped, just forget it.

As you know, if they did that no one would make any money. With the multitude of people trying to find products to sell on eBay every day, you have to be savvy about what these companies want. If you are not, you surely will not find or get access to nearly as many products. Nonetheless, you could still make a good living on what you do find and you will find plenty of it.

Remember this: If you don’t succeed with them at first, you will sooner or later. Manufacturers have to protect themselves and they do this by picking and choosing who they think will help them move inventory, rather than by whom they think needs money to pay their bills.

This is a business. Success in business takes time. You will have plenty of good deals that will keep you going and will keep the money flowing. Just don’t give up; you will prevail!

Janiece Smith is the author of Internet’s top-selling eBook teaching everyday people how to make their own small fortune selling on eBay®.

Discover The Secrets Janiece Smith Used To Earn Up To $11,212 Per Month Selling On eBay. Her New eBook “How An Overworked, Traveling, Soggy Sandwich Eating Dental Hygienist Made up to $11,212.00 a Month––100% Online” allows you to easily and quickly apply the author’s secrets of finding and selling products on eBay® to create huge amounts of instant profits!

Click here for more details
http://www.expressprofitsonline.com

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