Note: out of date information has been removed from this newsletter
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Creative eBay Selling
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July 22, 2002
'Creative eBay Selling' newsletter is published
monthly and is for subscribers only. You'll learn
ideas on how to make money on eBay as well as
other creative and simple Internet money making
ideas.
Welcome to the new format for 'Creative eBay Selling'!
Many of you suggested an 'online version' so we were happy to accommodate you! If you have questions or feedback about the new look please let us know. This is a long issue - you may want to print it out!
Note all links are in BLUE and will open a new window on your browser.
In this issue:
1 Do I need multiple eBay accounts?
2 How Jim earned $7,000 in 3 hours last month
6 email virus update - SPREADING TRUTH
8 Guest article from my drop shipping guru
9 eBay News and Ideas
1 Do I need multiple eBay accounts
I personally have multiple eBay accounts. Perhaps you should too. Here are some reasons for you to do so:
> You can keep your eBay feedback protected. You protect your feedback by separating buying and selling into at least two different accounts. That way if you buy something from a scammer you can leave them negative feedback without worrying about them retaliating with negative feedback toward you (as most scammers usually do). Having a little negative feedback as a buyer is no big deal. Having negative feedback as a seller can do some damage to your bottom line!
> You can have a theme with each account. This concept is discussed at length in the book "The Silent Sales Machine Hiding on eBay". To summarize, you can benefit in many ways if you have a general theme going in each of your eBay selling accounts. Your account name, the items you sell, the contents of your about me page, and the 'back-end' offers you provide can all revolve around that same theme. You'll be perceived as an expert. Their are ways to make a lot more money if you have a theme... I encourage you to read "The Silent Sales Machine" book again for more tips on this idea.
> Insurance against having to 'start all over'. eBay reserves the right to shut anyone down at any time. You could accidentally or even intentionally violate an eBay policy with your only account and be stuck with the gloomy task of having to establish a brand new account with NO FEEDBACK - it happens all the time to unfortunate sellers! Even if eBay doesn't shut you down, they can impose 'temporary' black outs on accounts that violate certain policies. This can be costly!
> Sell your spare account! Currently eBay prohibits the resell of accounts from one 'owner' to another 'owner', but who knows what the future holds?! As 'credibility' becomes more of an required and rare asset on the internet, an eBay account with a lot of positive feedback could be worth its weight in gold!
> Participate in eBay chats anonymously! If you aren't familiar with eBay chat rooms, you should check them out. There are some great tips, and you can ask just about any question you'd like and get an answer from other eBayers. Unfortunetly, you can also attract unwanted attention from eBay 'prowlers' or from eBay police. eBay has recently started tightly monitoring the conversations on the chat boards and punishing those that violate chat policies. There have even been instances of eBay suspending the accounts of those that speak too negatively about other eBayers. It's best to have an eBay account set up JUST for chatting! We do!
Can you think of any more good reasons to have more than one eBay ID? Let me know - I'll share your ideas with the group...
Action item: Open a new eBay account now. Remember it's free! Click Here and look for the 'register now' button.
Note: Although I've never encountered it some readers have reported that eBay required them to use a DIFFERENT credit card for their second or third eBay account. If that happens to you don't run out and open a new credit card account - it may not be necessary. You can just ask your current credit card company for a 'virtual' credit card number that you can use for the eBay registration. Many credit card companies are offering 'virtual' credit card numbers to their clients to ease their fears about buying items online. I know Citibank offers this feature as do many other major credit card companies. It's worth looking into.
2 How Jim earned $7,000 in 3 hours last month
It's been exactly a year since I started selling information products on the Internet. July 24th 2001 was my first sale. I was so excited to see that first payment come in! I wanted to call that first customer and personally thank him for the order! I still have a print out of that payment email hanging by my desk!
The first month I made about $75 if I recall correctly. It was very cool. The best part was that the product I was selling was 100% profit! I decided that I wanted to grow that business! I started reading the materials of many Internet marketing guru's and absorbing it all. I learned about auto-responders, taking online payments, and most importantly I taught myself the secrets of making the most of eBay auction traffic.
With my new found skills I saw my profits grow every week.
Something I didn't expect started happening though. I was getting a lot of questions from people wanting to know HOW I was doing what I was doing. They wanted to know how profitable it was, and if I could help them do the same thing I was doing. As an answer to their questions, I wrote my next book...
My second book came about 6 months after my first one. I called that second book The Silent Sales Machine Hiding on eBay. Now, a few months later that book is the second best selling book on Clickbank.com (the largest eBook site on the Internet!) in the crowded 'Money/Employment' section.
CHECK THIS OUT!
My top web site SilentSalesMahcine.com is now ranked as the 3,123rd most visited site on the Internet. Don't believe me? (that's OK!) Click here for proof of that ranking! (type in 'silentsalesmachine.com' in the search window). When you consider the fact that there are BILLIONS of websites on the Internet you can see what an honor it is to be in the top 1/10th of one percent!
Perhaps the best part of the whole thing is the fact that many of my affiliates are getting a nice check in the mail automatically every month because they are directing visitors to my website and recommending my products to others. It's all on autopilot!
THE LESSON: Success breeds more success. Take one small success and turn it into a bigger success.
Last month (June 2002) I only worked about three hours on my Internet business. Don't get me wrong, I spent a lot more time than that checking email, checking my stats, thinking up new ideas etc., but if I were forced to limit the amount of time I had to work down to it's bare minimum I would only have needed three hours (O.K. maybe five hours) last month to maintain my Internet business and earn over $7,000 PROFIT.
As I surveyed the readers of 'Creative eBay Selling' the past few months I've learned that my readers (you) are looking for success on eBay AND success on the Internet in general.
I hope our success helps you to succeed yourself! I'll do my best to share all I know - that's my promise to you.
6 email virus update - SPREADING TRUTH
Chances are you don't know all there is to know about email viruses. Take two minutes now to educate yourself and prevent disaster!
In the last issue of 'Creative eBay Selling Newsletter' we included an article on a rather nasty email virus that is still making noise on the Internet. It's called the KLEZ worm, or the W32/Klez.
Here is the article we wrote originally. It has some very good info in it if you missed it:
Here is some additional information that was sent in by our loyal readers in response to our article:
First, here is a link to a leading AntiVirus software company explaining the KLEZ virus. (Thanks for sending this in Chris R.)
http://vil.mcafee.com/dispVirus.asp?virus_k=99455#characteristics
Here are some notes about email viruses from a computer technician that is also a reader of our newsletter. She only wants to be recognized as M. Carra : (Thanks Mrs. Carra!)
1 - Keep your virus scanner CURRENT
(update it at least twice a week)
2 - Do NOT use the preview pane in your mail client
3 - When your mail downloads, delete (press shift plus delete on some keyboards
for complete removal) any suspicious email.
4 - McAfee and Norton do a great job of catching the viruses as they come in if
you keep your scanners current.
5 - ANY mail program is susceptible.
EDITOR NOTE: If you only read what we sent out in the last newsletter you were lead to believe that you couldn't get a virus by simply opening an email. The fact is that you MAY be susceptible to an email virus by simply opening an email especially if the email is in HTML format.
Also note that the KLEZ worm can 'spoof' the FROM field making it appear to be form someone other than the true sender. Don't send hate mail to people that send you a virus! It may not be from the person you think it's from!
One last useful email virus related link...
Don't be fooled by 'hoax' virus alerts! Verify virus warnings on Symantec.com:
http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html
Spread truth!
8 Guest article from my drop shipping guru
Editor Note: Looking for items to sell on eBay? Read this article!
What Is Drop Shipping?
by Chris Malta
To understand Drop Shipping, we should first understand product distribution.
People have been distributing products since before the first mastodon skinner traded a fur coat for a flint axe.
Here’s how it works.
Let’s say ABC Manufacturers makes a product called Mom’s Ankle Wax. We’ll say that Mom’s Ankle Wax has been around for years. It’s a very well known brand name product. It will without a doubt give you the shiniest ankles on your block, and everybody wants some.
ABC Manufacturers makes Mom’s Ankle Wax, but they don’t sell it directly to the public. They’re a manufacturing operation. They’re far too busy melting paraffin and waxing test ankles to go around building stores all over the place. They need distributors; companies who will take their product and distribute it to the places that will sell it.
For years, ABC Manufacturers has sold Mom’s Ankle Wax to a company called DEF Distributors. The founder of DEF Distributors knew Mom herself, back in the old days when she made her Ankle Wax by hand, out in the turkey barn. Today, DEF Distributors buys Mom’s Ankle Wax by the truckload. They pay $5.00 a case for it, which is a very good price. It’s such a good price, it has it’s own name: the Manufacturer’s Wholesale Price.
However, DEF Distributors does not sell it to the general public either. They are a distributor. They distribute Mom’s Ankle Wax. DEF Distributors works with a chain of retail stores called Wax R Us. This place was founded by a retail business visionary who saw the incredible potential of Mom’s Ankle Wax a long time ago. Today there are Wax R Us retail stores on every street corner in every major city in the country. Wax R Us buys truckloads of Mom’s Ankle Wax from DEF Distributors for $10.00 a case.
So, DEF Distributors makes $5.00 on every case of Mom’s Ankle Wax they sell to Wax R Us retail stores. This makes DEF Distributors very happy. Cases and cases of Mom’s Ankle Wax arrive in the stockrooms of Wax R Us stores everywhere. The Wax R Us employees open those cases, and pull 12 cans of Mom’s Ankle Wax out of each case. With their pricing guns, they stick a price of $4.50 on each and every can.
Wax R Us stores make a total of $44.00 on each case of Mom’s Ankle Wax. (12 cans x 4.50 per can = 54.00, minus the 10.00 they paid for the case = 44.00).
Wax R Us is even happier than DEF Distributors. However, the happiest people of all are the people who can stroll into Wax R Us and purchase a can of Mom’s Ankle Wax for only $4.50. They think this is a great price, and they’re walking around with the shiniest ankles in town.
Well, that’s it - basic product distribution. The manufacturer sells to the distributor, the distributor sells to the retailer, and the retailer sells to the end user (the customer). The manufacturer, the distributor and the retailer all make money because the customer is willing to spend money for the product.
Drop Shipping has been around for a long time, too. Probably as long as mail order catalogs; maybe longer. If you want to use a buzzword to impress a corporate type, call it "second party addressing". Above, we talked about the manufacturer-distributor-retailer relationship. When you use drop shipping to sell products on the Internet, (or anywhere else), YOU become the RETAILER in that relationship.
For our purposes, there are two kinds of retailer. There is the retailer who stocks products, and there is the stockless retailer. Drop Shipping means that you become a stockless retailer.
-- Retailers who stock products
Let’s imagine that you want to open a retail store on the Internet.
You have to have products to sell, right? Let’s also imagine that you like to
suffer. Mental anguish is your favorite pastime. You aspire to financial ruin.
In that case, you will want to stock products for your Internet retail store.
To stock products for your store, you will have to rent warehouse space, or at least clean out your garage. You will have to have to pay for a shipping account with UPS or FedEx, unless you want to saddle up and trot down to the post office every day. Worst of all, you will have to pay for those products up front.
Yes, that’s right. Money. Probably lots of it. For example, if you want to sell Mattel Toys, you can contact Mattel and they will be happy to set you up as a retailer. I know - I’ve talked to them. We had a nice conversation about setting up an account, placing orders, and all the other wonderful things businesspersons discuss with each other when beginning a relationship. Toward the end of our conversation, this nice woman said to me, in an offhand manner, "By the way, your minimum first order must be at least $100,000." That’s One Hundred Thousand Dollars, folks. I nearly choked on my bagel. Needless to say, I do not stock Mattel products. Or anyone else’s, for that matter.
Stocking products costs money, that’s the bottom line. No matter what you sell, if you carry stock, you pay first, and then hope you sell later. If you don’t sell the products you buy, there are going to be some very happy people at your next garage sale, and your bank will be sending you an amazing amount of undesirable mail.
There’s a much better way.
-- Stockless Retailers (Drop Shipping)
It should be noted here, if only to keep the Punctuation Police happy,
that if you use the method of drop shipping in your business, YOU are not the
"drop shipper". The company(s) who supply the products to your
customers for you is the drop shipper. YOU become a "Stockless
Retailer".
Here’s how drop shipping works.
1. You open an Internet Store, with a shopping cart and the ability to accept credit cards.
2. You find a distributor who is willing to drop ship the products you want to sell. The best place on the Internet for this is our website, and our Drop Ship Source Directory is recognized as the best source for legitimate wholesale drop shippers on the Internet.
3. You establish an account as a retailer with the distributor you choose.
4. You receive images and descriptions of the products you want to sell from the distributor, and post them on your Internet Store.
5. A customer surfs into your Internet Store, and falls in love with a product that you have priced at, say, $80. They purchase the item with their credit card. Your Store charges their credit card $80 plus your shipping fee.
6. You turn around and email the order to your distributor, along with the customer’s name and address.
7. The distributor sends the product directly to your customer, with YOUR Store’s name on the package.
8. The distributor charges you the wholesale price of, say, $45.00, plus shipping. 9. Your customer gets a cool product from your store shipped to their door, and they tell all their friends about you, and you make even more money.
There you have it. You just made a $35.00 profit on one item. You didn’t have to buy a whole bunch of the product and keep it in your warehouse, hoping you would sell it. You didn’t have to pay to have it shipped to you, and then pay to ship it to your customer. All you did was send an email to your distributor.
That’s the drop shipping process in a nutshell, and we’ve placed information in the Drop Ship Source Directory about everything from setting up your store to accepting credit cards.
***************************************************************************
Chris Malta
WorldWide Brands, Inc.
jmalta@cfl.rr.com
1-800-549-7664
EDITOR NOTE: Chris Malta is the Author of the FREE EBook, "Starting Your Internet Business RIGHT!", available for free download at http://www.SilentSalesMachine.com/dropship.html He is a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer who has been working on, teaching about, and spending way too much time with computer systems for 18 years. He and his partners at WorldWide Brands, Inc., publish The Drop Ship Source Directory, which lists wholesale distributors of over 600,000 products from more than 1,200 brand names who drop ship for web site owners. WorldWide Brands, Inc. uses drop shipping exclusively to operate their own retail web sites as well. Customers that buy "The Silent Sales Machine Hiding on eBay" get a special link to Chris's 'Drop Ship Source Directory' at $10 off the normal price! If you aren't sure what to sell on eBay you should look into drop shipping!
9 News and ideas
+++++++++++++
eBay isn't going anywhere but up...
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/07/012/1023864702087.html
+++++++++++++
Quick fact:
Soon you will only need $1,000 per month in total sales to qualify as a power-seller on eBay. The current minimum is $2,000 per month. Also look for health insurance sponsored by eBay for full time eBay sellers...details pending.
+++++++++++++
If you haven't heard...eBay bought PayPal
Quote from eBay: "We expect the acquisition to be finalized around year-end 2002. Until then, PayPal and eBay Payments (Billpoint) services will continue to function as independent providers of online payment services. When the acquisition is finalized, we plan to phase out eBay Payments (Billpoint) as we integrate the PayPal service. We will provide more detailed information about the eventual integration of PayPal in the weeks and months ahead."
EDITOR NOTE: Is this good news for eBay sellers? Not likely, but it isn't necessarily bad news either. Time will tell...we'll keep you updated.
+++++++++++++
Quick idea:
Looking for items to sell on eBay? Why not sell O.P.S. (Other people's stuff)? Advertise in the classifieds of your local paper as an experienced eBay seller and keep a percentage of every sale. Perhaps you could also offer 'eBay tutoring' to help people get started on eBay. If you are already doing something like this in your community let us know -we will publish your ideas in our next newsletter!
Here is a very recent article that will give you some ideas about selling O.P.S.
http://www.bizforward.com/wdc/issues/2002-07/launchpad/
Combine these ideas with the "Silent Sales Machine" concept, and you've got a formula for serious eBay success with very little if any upfront investment!
+++++++++++++
A useful tool:
TracerLock is your personal early warning system and assistant. Every day they scan thousands of articles published on news sites, online trade journals and e-zines looking for new matches for your information requests.
I use this to monitor my name on the Interent. Anytime someone writes something about me, I am notified - pretty cool!?
Thanks for reading -
Keep smiling ;0)
and
Keep selling! $0)
Jim Cockrum
Author: "The Silent Sales Machine Hiding on eBay" and the free email newsletter
"Creative eBay Selling"
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