Online auctions can be an excellent means for realizing your financial goals because we know they work. But first, you need a business plan. Define how much you want to make then define your means. However, rare is the silver bullet that makes you wealthy. You need multiple streams of revenue. When you combine auctions with other online profit sources your income potential explodes because of automation, cross promotion opportunities and the cost efficiency of reaching new customers on the net. Here are a few of the pointers and guidelines that the best eBayers in the world suggest you follow in order to succeed:

*How To Price Your Items: When it comes to pricing your items, one mistake to avoid is starting your auction too high. High price does indicate value but it also discourages healthy bidding. Always give the buyer lots of bidding room. It is better to have a low starting price with a reserve than to just start your auction at your minimum price. One method is to price your item slightly below what you paid for it. You often get no bids or very few as it seems more like a purchase than an auction. Starting too high kills the spirit of the auction process. You will also incur higher listing fees if you price high. Remember, the bidding is most of the fun and is what keeps people coming back.
Do you have good items that you KNOW will sell? Start them off at a penny.
This will get you healthy early bidding. You want a large group around the item; some are competitive bidders (bidders who pay extra just for the thrill of winning…)
If you start an auction for a silver coin at a penny, at the end of the auction you may have 20 people that have bid.
If you start the same coin at £125 then you may only have 3 bids at the end.
At the end of the auction the bidding fever will kick in if you priced low – whereas it won’t if you start high. You want irrational bidders.
A lot of buyers who simply outbid one another to build feedback or to avoid wasting their time following an auction that ends with them not getting what they want.

*Make your auctions descriptions as complete as possible: colours, sizes, shapes, materials, markings, manufacturers, dates, etc. to help buyers find your auction with search terms. This can only help your item do well. A thorough description drives every doubt and question out of your potential bidders mind. They are concerned about a myriad of issues- shipping policy, your integrity, condition of goods and so on. Your job is to blast these issues with descriptive dynamite… Remember though, it’s the unanswered questions that kill the sale.
Also, many people find your auction through the search engine, so use a complete and descriptive headline with good keywords- this makes your listing easy to find for the person looking for your item. Leave no stone unturned.
Neglect to mention some crucial piece of info and bidders tend to leave via the back button very quickly.
Are you selling a computer game? Forgetting to mention if it’s for a PC or Mac will spawn a lot of email.

*Item Description shortcut: If you’ve got an item for sale and you’re a little unsure on what to say and don’t have a whole lot of time in the description do this:
Look for an item similar to yours on eBay.
Find the most complete ad available, then save the ad to your desktop and re-engineer it with your own style and wording in your html editor of choice.
Scroll down to where the ad begins and copy and paste the description to a text pad. You want to separate eBay’s html code from what you’re going to work with.
Now take the html you just saved to the text pad and start re-working it. Change words, descriptions, html properties and so on.
Let their ad give you a starting point for your own. DON’T plagiarize the exact item description, of course. Just change it up a little. If you reinvent the wheel it may take several hours.

*Some sellers have a tactic where they charge unfair postage and packaging fees. If you’re contemplating using this technique… don’t.
If your shipping costs are a bit weighty… explain everything, and all in your item description in such a way that there can be no confusion…
If you charge handling, insurance or anything else- make it known too.

*Don’t just put up one photo of the item. If the item has a label attached, put up a photo of it also. If the item has a flaw, put up a close up photo showing the flaw. The more complete you are with photos, the more bids you’ll get.

*Enclose a slip of paper (maybe even a receipt) with your shipment with your eBay username and email address so buyers can contact you if there is any problem. Also use it as a reminder for them to drop you some feedback!

*Remember you are dealing with a live human being on the other end of the transaction. Treat them like one!

*If sending by post, send each package with a delivery confirmation attached. You’ll have no discrepancies whether or not the customer received their package. This is extremely helpful and it gives you piece of mind!

*Send an email to the high bidder with the number at the delivery confirmation slip and a link to the mailing company tracking website.

*Include the item number with your winning bid notice Customers often print your notice and send it in with the payment which has their email address, item #,and description.

*Ask your high bidders to email their shipping address ahead of time, so you can package the item and have it ready for immediate shipment.

*The minute you get your first bid (or when the item hits reserve), pack your item and pencil in what it is on the box. That ‘way, it is less likely that it will get broken or lost prior to shipping.

*Keep original envelopes from buyers filed away somewhere. These sometimes prove to yield invaluable information such as date postmarked, alternative addresses, etc.

*Buyers don’t like to wait for pictures to pop up & will move to the next auction if it’s taking too long. Follow the guidelines given in the auction help area so your pictures show up in an instant.

*If you want your new listings to show up in prime time remember there is a two to three hour delay in updates during the day and evening so do your listing in the late afternoon. Same holds true if you want to hit the breakfast crowd. The early lister catches the bidder.

*Printing receipts two to a page is a blessing. You get to keep one for your records the buyer gets one for theirs!

*Provide buyers with all the status you can, including an email as soon after the auction doses as possible with your address info and repeating terms and bid amount + shipping (and requesting their address info too), email them when payment arrives and advising when item will be sent (especially if you are holding it for a check to clear), email when item is shipped (request them to email you when it arrives) and a follow-up email if you don’t hear back. Status,status, status!

*Take the time to educate yourself about unfamiliar items you want to sell, even if you have only one and don’t expect to sell such a thing again. Do a search, or even email a fellow eBayer whose buying or selling patterns suggest they’re knowledgeable. You’ll write a better description and have a much better idea of what you can expect to get for your item.

*Leave feedback for buyers as soon after receipt of payment as possible. They have done all that is required from you to complete the transaction by sending in their payment and should not have to wait for you to complete your part. NEVER ask a buyer to submit feedback for you if you haven’t already left feedback for them.

*Get organized from the start as far as record keeping goes. Don’t throw everything into a pile telling yourself you’ll get it organized later.

*Use the eBay “end or auction” email to send the notification of winning bid notice to the high bidder. Delete the return address for eBay and insert the high bidders email address instead. This form contains all or the pertinent information you need except for winners address.

*If you make a mistake, admit it and find out what you need to do to make the sale a good one for the buyer.

*If you use lengthy descriptions, write them up first in a word processing program (with spellchecker). You can do this offline and then just cut and paste when you’re ready to list. This also saves you from getting to the very end of your listing and click review and find that eBay is down and for whatever reason, your back button isn’t working.

*If possible, have someone else proofread your auction description whenever possible.

*Always accompany your honest complete description with one or more photos, be sure photos are cropped and sized for quick loading and describe item(s) as if there were NO photo!

*Honesty is the best policy whether you are a buyer or seller. If you mess up, admit it and fix it. No one is perfect and reasonable people will appreciate your forthrightness.

*If the item is a gift, enclose a gift card. If the customer is a repeat, especially several auctions, include a thank you gift along the same lines. It doesn’t have to be expensive, just keep a box of “freebies” on hand for just these situations. Keep notes on all your auctions and any special requests the customer has, and do your best to help them, They always notice these things and always appreciate them.

*If you register on eBay in order to sell, it’s a good idea to participate as a bidder in a few auctions first. Experiencing the process as a buyer will give you a different perspective and it will provide the opportunity to rack up some positive feedback points.

*Don’t let any package enter the mail stream without someone paying for insurance on it unless you can afford to take any damage or loss. Always insure when the item is of value (for example: over £25) and pack it well. By law, the seller is to blame for broken items due to bad packing. Buyers have no control over how a seller packs an item. Rest assured, carriers hardly ever accept liability for broken items. It’s your job to see to it that they get their item in one piece and on time-
Make sure you do everything to see to it that this happens.

*An inexpensive scale is a great investment for any seller It will save you trips to the Post Office as well as money.

*Don’t be afraid to sell to foreign buyers but be careful when receiving foreign funds. Always insist that they pay by credit card, Paypal or send an international money order.

*Create your own About Me page. Its fun and reminds your trading partners that you’re a real live person – not just a faceless entity at the other end of their computer.

*If your items aren’t selling, don’t assume it’s the “summer doldrums”. Are your prices too high? Are your items readily available locally to bidders for less or the same money? Are your descriptions boring or incomplete? Fix it and relist and see what happens.

*Try using one of the free hidden counters available to track interest in items–especially if you’re branching out into new areas. It will help you determine when you’re getting the most lookers or show you that you’re not.

*Use “My eBay” to keep track of your monthly activity. The last day of every month, print out a history of that month, and eBay gives you totals on everything.

*Don’t be afraid to change categories during an auction. But do remember that there’s a time lapse for re-indexing.

*Create an HTML document with your selling philosophy, procedures and stipulations spelled out. Re-draft it until you have it to a manageable size (something that is short enough so that folks will actually read it).

*Ask others on eBay Q&A to critique your terms and conditions.

*Post your terms and conditions on every listing you create.

*When you get an email inquiry regarding general auction questions you can refer the person to your statement in any of your auctions (or on your “About Me” page) and save a lot of time for yourself short term as well as long term.

*Try and avoid grading terms like mint, near mint etc.. These terms mean all sorts of different things to different people in different fields. If the item is used but still looks nice, just say that. The truth shall set you free, The picture may be worth a thousand words but it never tells the story’. If you are too busy or lazy to describe an item, you are too busy to sell at an online auction site.

*The wrapping tape also ensures that the return address and the mailing address are not obliterated during handling. Never write a address on tape when shipping if it gets wet the ink will wipe off.

*Be accurate in the description and the email replies, just say what you are 100% sure about and put as many pictures as you can.

*End your auction in prime time when most or all interested bidders can participate. It increases the number of last minute participants and drives the price upward.

*Write your return address on more than one spot on the package in case the spot where the address is written is damaged.

*Check into your bank’s Internet banking features. It’s possible that you can use this feature to send payments and these checks are just as good as money orders because the funds are taken from your account when you request the check, not when it comes back for clearance.

*When sending heavy items, make sure the box you are sending it in is rated for that weight. You can typically find the weight limit in a circle printed on the bottom of the box. If it is a used box, subtract 10lbs from the number to account for wear and tear from its previous use.

*Don’t use all caps in your description. Its harder to read and some equate it to yelling at them. A lot of buyers won’t bother reading through very much of it.

*Learn some basic HTML – like how to break into a new paragraph or insert bullets to itemize a list of things. This also makes for easier reading and looks like you know what you’re doing.

*Put the buyers name and address INSIDE the package in case the outside label gets messed up.

*Use clear English and avoid using slang Statements when writing to international customers. English might not be their native language and they might have difficulties understanding what you are saying.

*Try listing your items as both regular auctions and dutch auctions to see which type of auction produces more sales and higher profits.

*Don’t close your auction down early just because there are no bids. Many bidders wait until the last minute to bid.

*Make your emails to potential customers friendly. This will help you create a larger group of customers.

*With some auctions you may be able to contact losing bidders by email and offer them a product at their high bid. You know they wanted the item because they took the time to bid. Creating a database of your bidders’ emails provides you a list of potential customers for new products, sale items and announcements. PLEASE NOTE: this is against eBay’s policies so attempt at your own discretion.

*Mail invitations to your auctions to your existing customers by email. Offer free shipping, discount coupons off future auctions or purchases from your website, free promotional giveaways and any other promotional scheme that would motivate visitors to check out your auctions or website.

*Don’t purchase any inventory unless you know that you can get your money back selling it. Refine your expertise of buying low and selling high. Become a master at steering clear of the bad deal…

*Nothing is more integral to your success with auctions than good research. Your goal is to uncover a source that few know about. Find the best items to sell and start tracking them down. Some items are consistently “hot”, designated by a flaming torch on eBay and various other symbols elsewhere. And scan around. Look for a text link called, “going, going, gone…”
Some of the absolute best items on the Internet are revealed right before your eyes- view the listings and find out what people want. This also gives you a quick glance into any current consumer trends. Use this info to help you determine the kind of products you’d like to sell. Remember look for the flaming torch. 30 or more is a good; very few make it this high. When you find a Dutch auction with this many bids, pay special attention. People really want this item. And you should really want to sell it.

*Your goal should be to own your own unique and successful product. Something you have complete control over, something you spin out of your own creativity. This isn’t easy, but it’s well worth your efforts. Unfortunately, this is far from being the case starting out. You sell something others own. Meaning your profit is always much less than what it could be. When you cut out the middlemen, profit comes much easier.

*Best Kinds of Product to Sell: The less cumbersome the fulfilment process the better. Anything that you can have drop-shipped is a good candidate. Information products (CD’s, software and ebooks) have the best potential online- but you need to be the maker. Profit margins are high since they are easily reproducible. Second, fulfilment costs are nil. A word of warning: competition is fierce selling information products on eBay – you can make money doing it, but their virtue is that it’s a stepping stone away from auctions.

*If you’re new on eBay, then concentrate on these 4 short-term goals:
1) Get experience selling some items from around your house. It’s a confidence builder and crucial experience.
2) Acquire some other items for resell from different sources such as family, friends, flea markets, online venues and so on. This helps you develop research skill in locating auctionable products.
3) Obtain 50 positive feedbacks to get a gold star. People start to trust you and bid more. Strive to keep your feedback slate clean…
4) And find a niche you have a passion for. Take some time to think this one over. It’s important to make certain it’s the direction you want to go in advance…

*If you plan on doing a good deal of business via a website, then you need a merchant account. Otherwise, you can get by without them. Remember, auctions are just a really great form of getting customers, a popular venue amongst many others. If you plan on expanding and becoming successful, you must have them, here’s why:
You can process a customer’s credit card manually.
You can take orders over the phone. The person can call in their information.
You get a huge boost in credibility. People trust you more- this results in more post auction sales.
You can process orders automatically and securely on your website. This is the biggest reason long-term.
You can take advantage of sales that other sellers miss. That means more money for you, but don’t rush out and commit to them until you see clearly that they are going to benefit you. The more business that comes directly off of the eBay site the less you need them.

* If you don’t want to get a merchant account or can’t afford one straight away, then you can integrate paypal (for payments) and DOBA (for dropshipping items – US residents only) into your existing website. If you don’t have an existing website, you can get one with Paypal and DOBA already integrated from sites like quickstorebuilder.com.
Other dropshipping sites include: http://www.dropshipper.co.uk, http://www.freelance-network.co.uk/drop_shipping/index.php, http://www.dvddropship.com, http://www.firstpointdropshipping.com and http://www.esources.co.uk.

*Be mindful of what you sell in terms of the amount of sheer physical effort you have to do, unless you’re an industrious Hercules. You are the embodiment of every department- executive, advertising, fulfilment, accounting, and customer support.
If you aren’t careful, you quickly approach your limits with this if you get semi-successful with it. Selling bulky and obtuse odds and ends for meagre amounts alongside continual searching for inventory, product fulfilment, customer concerns, paperwork, etc… quickly leads to eBay burnout. Leave yourself enough space in your business to improve your process and acquire better and better things to sell. And pay close attention to the amount of profit per sale for certain items. Profit margins need to be healthy enough to justify time being spent doing the work. If you’re selling material goods with low profit margins then prepare to work your tail off to get anywhere. Only if you’re able to generate decent return can you expect to make a good living at selling.

*Focus your selling. Sell a few related types of items in volume and sell them well whilst taking advantage of your customer base. This is an advanced approach to making money with auctions- few sellers get to this point because they remain on the level of hobbyists. But those who become focused do quite well for themselves.

*What Not To Sell: there are some items you should never attempt to sell on eBay or even anywhere online. Selling expensive, weighty items, with low profit margins is not a smart move. For example: don’t sell TV’s, heavy books and cast iron trunks… unless someone else takes care of the postage and/or delivery. Your aim is to sell cheap, popular, light items with high profit margins – preferably a product of your own.
You are safe selling items like books, CD’s, software, collectibles, ebooks, information, services and the like.

*When getting inventory, stay away from everyday items with low profit margins. You need to exploit eBay’s main strength: It is a unique venue that brings products to the market that people want but cannot find elsewhere. The other advantage is that eBay brings products to the market that people can buy more cheaply than locally. But unless you can find a product source that will produce the results, then you need to let the first strength be a guiding principle.

*How much can you expect to get for your item on eBay? All items have a semi-predictable “eBay value” that fluctuates within a certain price range.
Simply put, all items have a predictable cash potential. The less commonplace and valuable your item is, the more elasticity in this range.
Sentimental items like collectibles have a tremendous range… a particular item in a collectible auction might sell anywhere from £30-£300.
If you’re a good eBayer, make good ads, use photos and follow all the guidelines for maximizing your auction results then you can expect to hit the upper range of your items’ “eBay value”.
An extra £1.50 profit per auction is what makes you or breaks you.
As a rule: eBay value for common everyday items is below what you would find in retail. Try to leave those items to larger merchants.
Some items have a very low eBay value. Like computer monitors.
As you become more knowledgeable, you acquire a feel for an item’s “eBay value”. This ability comes with practice and patience and it certainly pays off when it comes.

*Set Your Auctions On Fire: The first day of the auction is critical. You want the majority of your bids on the first day. Your goal is to get 30 bids as quickly as possible. When your auction breaks the 30 bid barrier, your eBay exposure shoots through the roof for free. After 30 bids you’re a part of the current auction elites- prepare to make a lot of money if you get there within the first couple of days of your auction. Listing at any old time isn’t going to help your chances when doing
this. Don’t list in the evening, since this is an approach tailored for end of auction success. You want bids NOW.

The best time to list when attempting this is early Saturday morning around about 8am GMT if you’re in the UK.
If you have a mailing list, tell them you’re having a clear out of your inventory and give them a special offer like free shipping for bidding.
In the auction itself, try to make them an offer they can’t refuse and be sure to make a point out of your no-risk guarantee.
Throw in some easy piece of information that the bidder will be interested in that costs you nothing to provide.
If you get that auction up over 30 bids by Sunday night, that will give you over 8 days of very good exposure.

*Pick a heavily populated region for free exposure: Go local in populated areas for extra traffic. Whenever you’re creating your ad on eBay you’re given the option of placing your auction in a regional category.Try listing it in a heavily populated region. You may not live there but it really doesn’t matter. Some people scan the regional listings- don’t pass up the chance for easy extra traffic.

*One of the most powerful advantages you have on your side is your sales letter. It’s an art form that few master, and those who do go on to retire early.
To become this unseemly artiste you must know your customers minutest psychological intricacies and you must load your copy full of benefits and POWER WORDS, but not too many lest you blow them away. One thing you must remember: every word, every phrase, every picture and every breath you take needs to be telling the buyer in the most potent way – What Is In It For Them…
If you can communicate the emotional payoff they will get out of bidding on your item, then you stand a better chance of snagging the bid.

*Use Keywords in Titles To Increase Traffic: Potential buyers are likely to use certain predictable keywords to find items just like the one you offer. Saturate your titles with these words and watch your traffic and bids soar… The perfect title is a careful balance between item description, persuasiveness and keyword saturation.
The descriptive and persuasive element of the title is to attract the eBayers who are browsing… and the keywords are for the search engine users.
Because there are so many items on eBay, people usually find things using the search engine. If you want people to find your item, then place as many obvious keywords in your title as you can without making the title look weird. However, beware of keyword spamming. You need to find the fine line.

*Avoid This Costly Mistake: Check to see that your item title has no spelling errors. Buyers mainly use the search engine to locate their item of interest.
Search saves them lot of time and can pick up items placed in the wrong category. If spelling is incorrect, the search function fails miserably.
And some wiseguy out there will anticipate a spelling error like this and walk away with the bargain of the century by doing a search on such a likely spelling error.
With item descriptions, emails, titles and whatever else you write use a spell checker and grammar checker. Poor spelling and bad grammar will turn off some people.
If the errors are too gross, it upsets the flow of your message and confuses the reader. They leave with a bad impression of the author.
You want to make a great impression and get our message across. Always check and double check the things you write.

*When selecting a user ID come up with something memorable while at the same time descriptive of your type of business. It’s important but don’t stress about it too much; you can always change it later if you think of something more suitable.

*Someone else’s writing shouldn’t be a chore, including yours. Here are some principles to live by:
-Use a short opening paragraph. Fire your big guns as concisely as possible- don’t allow the readers attention to wander this early on.
-Short sentences make firm friends. Force something to be read by keeping it brief.
-Make your paragraphs less than 5 or 6 lines. Underline or bold important words or phrases. Some parts of a sentence are more important than others. Add pizazz to these parts.
-Include attention-boosters: questions, news items, etc… It’s your job to keep the reader awake and alert.
-Ask for the bid at the end of the description. It’s important to ask for the bid!
-Use positive language. The auction ad is not a good place to start conveying gloom and doom. Keep things optimistic regardless.

*Eight Customer Service Rules:
1) Your customers are everything. They are the lifeblood of your business.
2) Your customer is always right. Never tell them they are anything different. Referral business works both ways. Bad news travels 100 times faster than good.
3) Go the extra mile. It is worth more than all the paid advertising you can afford. Good customer service means healthy word of mouth advertising is coming your way.
4) Return emails fast. If you can’t, set up an auto-responder to tell your enquirers you’ll get back to them soon. Underpromise and overdeliver in everything you do.
5)Never criticize your customers directly or indirectly. It’s too easy to get irritated with an email. If they somehow do that, calm down and count to a million. Never, ever, answer a customer email in anger.
6)Make the auction process extremely simple for the customer. When you take that extra step to make the experience as smooth and as seamless as possible, you’re thinking about the customer. This will always pay off in the long and short-term.
7)Follow up the day after the sale and one week after. Ask if there’s anything more you can do for your buyer. This lets the buyer know that your primary interest is in their well-being…
8)Make your customer feel extra special. Do whatever it takes to let your buyer know that you appreciate their business- this makes the transaction a positive experience for both buyer and seller.

*Always Answer a Customer Email: Whether the customer is praising your product or complaining, recommend or questioning, he or she deserves a direct and friendly answer or response. The sellers who ignore one email tend to ignore a whole lot more. The ones who answer mail are consistent. On eBay, where feedback really counts, if you fail to answer emails, you will receive such comments as “unresponsive seller” or “bad communication” and so on. You will also earn yourself a poor reputation and lose respect in the online trading community. Keep your answers short, courteous, and to the point. Provide all relevant information and be friendly, but don’t get bogged down in long email conversations back and forth.

*Rapid fire Email Templates:You can anticipate many questions that people ask over and over…
Get ready to answer questions like:
• Has my item been shipped yet?
• When did you receive payment?
• How long does shipping take?
etc….
Create an email template and have it waiting. It’s not that these emails don’t matter, it’s just that you shouldn’t have to improvise a message every time you receive one that you’ve seen a million times. So, whenever you get a question from someone: sit down and answer it in full and all the necessary answers to all questions. Send this email and make yourself a copy as well. Use this as a template for that question in the future. You should never type that answer again.
Saves loads of time and the email will sound very personal.
*Final Value Fee Refund: If a timewaster strikes you, don’t forget to apply your final value fee refunds. This process is not as cumbersome as in the past.
Do this for all defunct auctions once a month to save time. And get these characters booted off eBay, you can report them when they back out of the agreement – some are repeat offenders.

*What Customers Want After an Auction: Your customer wants 3 things after the auction in order to be completely satisfied with your service:
1) They want all the necessary information in straightforward terms after the auction.
2) They want their goods shipped quickly and in one piece when they arrive.
3) If they have a problem or a question they want a quick answer from you.
If you do these three things consistently then building a great reputation is no problem.
There’s something else they would appreciate as well… At the end of the auction include the auction number with the end of auction notice.
Place the number in the subject line so you and your customer can easily track emails.
Your customer may also be bidding on multiple auctions. Or your customer may have bid a week ago and forgot about the whole thing. Doing this will prevent confusion for you both. This also includes any correspondence in the future.

*Create Your Own CD or DVD: Making a CD is the easiest way for you to create a product of your own.A good burner might cost you under £30 but you can make your money back lightening fast.Buy a few of the more popular titles off of eBay and start reworking the CD content… try adding an autostart menu for polish.
The only disadvantage is the competition, but that can be negated.

*Build a Post Auction CD Catalogue: One of your goals should be to build up a list of quality products that you offer the buyer in the end of the auction email regardless of what you sell. Hardly any of your competition offers more than 2 or 3 extra CDs at the end of the auction…It drastically increases the business you do and it will make the competition pretty much a non-factor.

*Create Your Own eBooks: If you like the idea of creating your own info-product, think about creating an eBook. The Internet is wide open for digital publishing. If you know something of value then someone else is willing to pay for it. You can sell it on eBay or your website. Just think, no shipping, no material costs… just pure profit.

*Putting a Photo Into Your Ad: No doubt about it, good photos for your auction ads do wonders for your final bids. It’s not hard to do it.
1. Get a digital camera. If you don’t have one, auctions are a great place to begin your search for a great bargain.
2. Take the picture. Use a nice white background…
3. Transfer picture into the computer.
4. Edit the picture. You may have some software that comes along with the camera to do this.
5. Upload the picture via a browser to a site like flickr.com or photobucket.com.
6. Insert HTML into the ad.
There are tons of little twists and turns to taking the pictures, editing them and getting them online.

*Editing Your Pictures: Once you take the picture you need to edit it. The basic thing is to reduce the dimensions of the pic- this will also reduce the file size in KB, making for a quicker load time. You can also do some other neat things to the image with software like Paint Shop Pro. Go to download.com for many more free options.

*Crunching Your Graphics: Sometimes image files can be huge, especially fresh digital camera pics. eBayers don’t wait around for huge pictures to load.
You need a way to squish the image without affecting the quality too much. You can do this with free software from irfanview.com

*Free Web and Image Hosts: Free web hosts give you some hard drive space on the Internet. You can use this space to put your images or build your own website.
It’s a good idea to go ahead and start experimenting with this. Later you’re going to want to compliment a Website with your online auctions.

*Master Basic HTML: If you’re going to be a great seller, you need to learn basic html.Every web page is written with it. It’s not effective to have someone else do this for you. Bare bones minimum is all you need. The payoff is professional looking ads translates into more sales.Need a tutor? There’s a really good interactive HTML tutorial at http://www.w3schools.com

*Use eBay Auctions As Traffic Generators: But use discretion. Link directly to your site with a free offer from the auction. From there try to get the email address. If you get about 10 to 15 regular auctions running you can see upwards of 50-75 unique hits a day from this. This translates into a lot of good, targeted prospects in a short amount of time. It’s one way to build up your mailing list quick and cheap. Of course, make sure you’re selling an item that can cover listing costs at least. These strategies work especially well for information products.
Caution: Whatever you do, don’t link back to your site undercutting the prices of your posted auctions. Only really bad sellers do that.
Auction sites don’t mind if you link back to your site – as long as you’re not avoiding fees in any way.

*Another Traffic Generating Tip: You could create an ebook or manual that is of use to your potential customers even if you sell a material product. An ebook that they can download for free from the auction site that has links back to your site. This needs to be something that’s freely distributable. These types of publications are called ‘viral ebooks’, and they will give your website a much needed traffic boost. You can only take advantage of this if you have a niche.

*Credibility is a big factor to online success. Buyers want to know that you’re a serious seller, someone who doesn’t take transactions lightly.
Build good feedback, answer emails promptly, avoid excessive typos, be thorough in your descriptions, have a sound sales policy and know your product like the back of your hand. If auctions are your hobby, treat them like a serious business and not like a hobby. Maintain a professional image. If you do, someday you will be a pro.

*One possibility open to you is to accumulate experience and offer your service to a local shop or business. They need help in all aspects of the auction process including making ads, listing, setting up customer databases and so on. Prepare a resume in advance and highlight your selling skills then contact local businesses that you might be able to assist. If you keep at it you will build contacts, experience and a good reputation. One way to get some experience is selling and buying by consignment. This is when you sell or buy items on behalf of someone else for a commission or fee that is consignment. The main advantages of this method of selling is no up front costs and excellent profits. When you consider the number of people in your area who have goods to sell but can’t due to a lack of expertise with online auctions, then you can step in. Start on a small level with family and friends then scale up. There are even ads for this type of service in the papers so it’s very viable.

*Select a Niche That is Right for You: If you define the market you sell to, then you’ve done something few sellers do. It’s not easy to go in another direction once you’ve started. It needs to be something you’re passionate about, something you can throw your effort into easily. If you can know the type of person you’re going to be selling to and the types of product you want to sell, your auction sales letters will be a hundred times more persuasive. Along with that, you’ll be in a superior position to take advantage of repeat business. Being specialized is a kind of lever that allows you exert much more force than you would be able to if you were ‘just selling anything’.

*Shoulder Every Ounce of Risk in the Transaction: This only works if you’re certain of your products’ quality otherwise it backfires. Risk reversal is one of the strongest free sales tools you have at your disposal. When you offer your bidders a satisfaction guarantee, you are telling them that you are confident that your product can deliver. If not, you are willing to shoulder the risk for them by giving them their money back. And that will put your prospects at ease. Very rarely do they ask for one unless your product is poor. If you give someone a good value, they will very rarely take advantage of you; the few that will aren’t worth worrying about. They’re so few and far between that it’s hard to lose sleep over them. This is one of the easiest and most effective ways to increase sales; if you have a good product to begin with, don’t neglect this technique. Many sellers don’t offer one when they could. A strong risk-reversing offer will clinch sales that pass others by.

*Order is the foundation of every good thing in business: The bedrock of success is organization and security. Strive for order in every aspect of what you do. If you’re lacking here, your whole business is going to be threatened. This includes things like keeping income tax and business expense records amongst other things. Order is business health.

*Serve Your Customer With a Passion: In business your customer is the only thing. You customer is far more important than any product you sell. They are even more important than the service you give them. Strive to give them quality at every level of the transaction. With online auctions most sellers have a hard time looking past the initial sell. Some believe after the initial bid the relationship is over. That’s a tough way to do business and it doesn’t work for many. Look far beyond the first sell. It is only the beginning of a long and mutually beneficial relationship.

*Become an authority in what you do, wherever you choose to go with your online auction business. If you sell CD media supplies, you want to be thought of before anyone else. It’s your goal to become the supplier of whatever good or service you provide. This isn’t easy and it usually takes a lot of effort to get to that point, but when you become an authority in your field, a whole new universe of business and opportunity is opened up to you. You’ll begin to gain access to special resources that wouldn’t otherwise be available to you. Others in your field will network with you. You’ll be able to anticipate trends in your corner of the market and act with them.

*Credibility Is a Key Factor in Selling: Become trustworthy. Remove every doubt about your credibility any chance you get. You can do this through presenting yourself positively in every way through your feedback, by being passionately devoted to your business, by being an expert, by making great complete ads and answering emails quickly. The credibility factor is a critical ingredient for online sales success. You have to use every means available to you to build your prospective customers’ trust.

*Harness the Power of Technology: Use existing software and services on the Internet to handle repetitive tasks. And keep on the lookout – new ones pop up every day. This will free you up to grow your business to the next level. Leveraging means getting everything you can, out of the amount of effort you put in. Cost-effective tools abound for helping you do that easily. When you use existing tools and methods for freeing yourself from repetitive tasks, you compress time.
That means you get more work done with less energy… and as a result you make more money.

*Maximise Gains, Minimise Waste: George Bernard Shaw once said: “There are only two qualities in the world, efficiency and inefficiency, and only two sorts of people: the efficient and the inefficient.” Maximize results while minimizing your expenditures. Test ads to get more for your advertising money. Look for better ways to do business. So much can be done to get better and better returns. Try different things; if an ad works test to see if you can do better.

*Increase Your Products Value With Bonuses: Everyone who browses eBay wants a bargain. Take advantage of this mindset. Best way to make a person feel as though they have gotten more than their money’s worth is to give them extras that are beneficial… This special something needs to be something that you can offer immediately at no extra cost.
Include helpful information of interest to them. See to it that they get more than their money’s worth – this makes the transaction a win-win situation.
You get higher bids while they get extra value.

*Make your listing standout by making your titles longer than your competitors using “_” or the underscore.
Consider the following scenario:
1999 ALFA ROMEO 145 T-SPARK 16V BLUE
OR
1999_ALFA_ROMEO_145_T-SPARK_16V_BLUE
A small difference but the main point is that the eye is attracted to the longer title.
Since most of your competition now does this, it’s best that you do so and try to come up with creative strategies to S-T-R-E-T-C-H your title out.
You can couple this technique with the bold option for a little extra. This will drastically increase the visibility of your auction listing without costing you too much.

*One great free way to promote your auction business is by using an email signature. These are six to eight lines at the end of your email messages.
All email programs support them and should be easy to setup. Take advantage of this cheap and effective means of advertising your listings. Just have the URL point to your “My eBay” page or your website. You can use a signature to promote your auctions, website or whatever you feel is necessary. Considering the number of messages you send and receive, you don’t want to pass this up. This is free advertising. Every chance you get, tell people about your auctions that are likely to be interested. Actively drive traffic to your auctions and make more money. This is especially true on Dutch auctions. Also, use signatures and post to appropriate newsgroups and message boards. Point them towards your “About Me” page or your website.

*Dutch Auctions: One of the big keys to earning a fortune on eBay is by running Dutch auctions. This is when you list an item in lots. You always want to keep your eyes peeled for opportunities to acquire and sell products that lend themselves to the Dutch auction format. What makes Dutch auctions powerful is your ability to crunch time.
*Packing is straightforward. While it looks nice to pack things as professionally as possible, it costs time and money too. In order to get the item to the customer in one piece, make sure the box is securely closed and nothing is rattling around. Whether you want to pay insurance depends on the value of what you sell. The same applies with delivery confirmation. Just remember when you add these little extras you also have to spend time at the post office.
It depends primarily on what you’re selling. If your products are very valuable then insure it. Most sellers don’t insure. Newspaper makes fine packing material. It’s cheap, it’s handy and it gets the job done. Save packing material and boxes from any other shipments you receive. Because of logistics, always try to sell small, light items. If your items fit, then you have an infinite number of handy boxes at the local post office. Of course, you can have them delivered. If you need anything bigger, ask a local business- they throw them away all the time. Pack well. A good dependable box and some newspaper is all you need normally.

*My eBay Page: Don’t overlook the significance of creating a ‘My eBay’ page. You can use the page to give prospective buyers important information about your business, products, history and much more…In your online business, your ‘My eBay’ page can be used it along with your website as the centre for your promotional activities.
Include your contact info and a good sales message that encourages them to visit your auctions or wherever your product is being offered.
Persuade the reader to scroll down the page where they will see your feedback and current auctions. You’ll receive a boost in credibility – something you can never have too much of.
You’ll also get a little icon beside your username that bidders will see when they visit your auction. People click these things to find out about you and your business.
Your “My eBay” page is an important sales letter. Perhaps the most important one you can make in your auction business. Your auctions come and go – it doesn’t make much sense to promote a link that disappears after 7 days.

*Using a Newsletter: A great way of staying in touch with customers and potential buyers is to offer a newsletter dealing with their interests say every week or month. The topic of the letter needs to be something dealing with the niche you choose. With a good newsletter you build trust, give out information that is helpful to the reader, and promote your auctions. You can create an avalanche of traffic when your newsletter goes out promoting your auctions.

*Collecting Email Addresses: You’re going to want to build a list of prospects at some point in the future (such as a newsletter mailing list) when you become focused in your online auction marketing efforts. One way to do this is to offer some free information related to your field on your ‘My eBay’ page in exchange for the prospects first name and email address. Simply add a form to the end of that page. If you want to get daring put it on the very auction page itself. In order to add forms to your pages and build your list, you need an easy to use tool- they abound, look around. Just do a quick search for free email form scripts.

*It’s crucial that you begin backing up your data today! Murphy’s Law is always waiting for you to slip. Get a good surge protector and external hard drive to make quick backups and you’ll be able avoid most disasters.

*Save Time At The Post Office: If you don’t have much time to spend at the post office, prepare in advance. You can take care of all your postage needs from the comfort of your own home. You can do this by buying an inexpensive scale and printing postage from your PC. Also, look into having a mail service come by to pick up your packages.

*Auction Database: When making a customer database create a system and stick with it. You only need to keep track of a minimal amount of info such as email, name, address, bid amount, etc… It’s up to you to decide what info to include. Use a simple spreadsheet program to keep track. Excel is perfect for this though there are free spreadsheet programs available on the internet. Just do a google search.

*Stopping Auctions Gone Bad: If for some reason you need to stop an auction you can. However, it needs to be an emergency. Reconsider doing this with auctions you have paid advertising for as refunds are not available. To do this simply cancel all bids placed on the auction, leave an explanation and then end the auction itself.

*If you want to get anything done prepare to beat back the influx of information coming your way. Focus, that’s what it’s all about- and there are a 1,001 distractions online and off. One way to stay on course is with a business planner. Keep track of important tasks you need to do to make your business grow and to make money. And remember to prioritise tasks. You have two levels of task priorities:
• Things that must be done now to stay existent (taxes, etc.)
• Things that bring the most profit.
Everything else is a low-level concern. Keep notes as they come to you. Maybe consider a digital voice recorder to dictate ideas.

*Building up a good feedback record on eBay is a number 1 priority. It’s all about consistency and endurance – you won’t create a phenomenal record overnight.
Always remember to:
• Treat your winning bidders like royalty.
• Sell them a good product; send it to them in a timely manner.
• Actively pursue positive feedback from winning bidders.
Roughly 40% of bidders leave feedback if you don’t prompt them at all. Let them know that you want feedback.
You can get that up to about 90%. This is a must at the start- you don’t have to hound people anymore after your record builds.
People will be much more likely to do business with you if you have a good history.
Make it your goal to never get a negative comment. This is hard to do but very impressive with the buyers.
If you get ‘negged’, correct the mistake and move on, it’s not the end of the world. It happens sometimes, but don’t overreact to it.
Kindly reply to the response with a rational explanation for the problem and your buyers will overlook it when they glance your profile.

*Don’t waste your time leaving comments here and there one at a time as deals settle. Instead, just do bulk feedback sessions once or twice a month. Create a spectacular comment and use it over and over. You could also include a link to your website.

*Boost Your Profits By 30%-40% Per Sale: Upselling is a technique that works like magic with online auctions. This is something extra you offer to the customer in the end of auction email. In short, it works if they want what you offer.
Here are some guidelines to help you benefit from offering upsells:
• It must complement the product they bid on. This ensures that it’s something they would probably want.
• Show them the benefit of buying.
Hopefully, this product costs you little if anything to offer. Otherwise it’s going to be impossible to make it worth your while.
Information and consumable products are good types. Offering an ebook that’s relevant to them is the paradigm upsell as it costs you nothing to make or deliver.

There are 2,598,960 possible combinations of cards in a poker hand you can be dealt. In brackets below next to the ranking of hands, are the number of possible hands of that rank in 2,598,960 possible combinations, and the chances of getting one in percentage probability:

1.Five of a Kind (with a wild card or joker): Five of a Kind is only possible when using wild cards and is the highest possible hand. If more than one hand has five-of-a-kind, the higher rank wins; e.g. five Aces beat five kings, which beat five queens, and so on.

2.Royal Flush (4 possible hands in 2,598,960. Chance to get one: 0.000154%): An ace high straight-flush is called a Royal Straight Flush or Royal Flush and is the highest natural hand.

3.Straight Flush (36 possible hands in 2,598,960. Chance to get one: 0.00139%): Straight Flush is the best natural hand. A straight flush consists of five cards in sequence and of the same suit.

4.Four of a Kind (624 possible hands in 2,598,960. Chance to get one: 0.0240%): Four of a Kind is a hand that contains of four cards of the same rank. The hand with the highest rank of four-of-a-kind beats other four-of-a-kind hands. If there are many wild cards, as used in some game variants, there could be two four-of-a-kind hands with the same rank. In this case, the hand with the higher ranking fifth card wins. This rule applies to hands that tie, such as a pair or two pairs. Dead heats split the pot.

5.Full House (3744 possible hands in 2,598,960. Chance to get one: 0.144%): Full House is a hand consisting of three-of-a-kind and a pair. Again, where wild cards are used, ties are compared first by the three-of-a-kind ranking, then the pair.

6.Flush (5108 possible hands in 2,598,960. Chance to get one: 0.197%): Flush is a hand consisting of cards that are all of the same suit in any order.

7.Straight (10,200 possible hands in 2,598,960. Chance to get one: 0.392%): Straight is a hand consisting of 5 cards in sequence, such as 5-6-7-8-9. An Ace may either be high (A-K-Q-J-10) or low (A-2-3-4-5).

8.Three of a Kind (54912 possible hands in 2,598,960. Chance to get one: 2.11%): Three of a Kind is a hand similar to the four-of-a-kind hand, except that if the remaining two cards are a pair, then it becomes a Full House.

9.Two Pair (123,552 possible hands in 2,598,960. Chance to get one: 4.75%): Two Pair is a hand that contains two pairs only.

10.Pair (1,098,240 possible hands in 2,598,960. Chance to get one: 42.26%): Pair is a hand that contains one pair only.

11.High Card (1,302,540 possible hands in 2,598,960. Chance to get one: 50.12%): High Card is a hand that is none of the above and is a weak hand. If no player has a pair or better, then the hand that contains the highest ranking card wins. If multiple players tie with the highest card, then the second highest card decides, followed by the third and so on.

How the wild card can be used depends on the game you are playing and the rules. A wild card can be defined as a joker or standard card that, by player agreement and/or dealer’s choice, can be used to represent any card desired.
When a joker is in play, it usually can only be used as an Ace or to complete a straight or flush. It cannot be used as a true wild card, for example, as a king to make KK75X play as three kings. When playing for low, the joker becomes the lowest rank not already held, so 864AX is played as 8642A, with the joker used as a deuce.
Wild cards add an additional hand, five of a kind, which normally ranks above a straight flush. They can also cause confusion when two players hold the same hand composed of different wild card combinations. The standard rules of poker do not distinguish between such hands, but some players prefer to rank hands using fewer wild cards above less ‘natural’ versions of the same hand.

In most games players must ante a nominal amount just to have the cards dealt. Once the cards are dealt, the betting starts. Players bet into the pot in the middle of the table and it is done in turn clockwise.
The player with the highest rank showing is the first to speak and to bet. He can either bet or check. By saying ‘Check’, he passes the decision to bet to the next player who can also check. If all players check, then it is the end of the round. Everyone opens his cards and the highest hand wins.
Only after one player places a bet the real betting starts. Each player in turn can either ‘Call’, ‘Raise’ or ‘Fold’.
To fold is to pass or drop out of the round and not play.
To call means willing to match the bet and the same amount must be placed on the pot.
To raise means to match the bet and add an extra bet.
For example: you start with a £5 bet. If someone else raises £10, he puts £15 in the pot. When your turn comes again you need to add £10 difference to the pot to stay in the game, and if you want you can also raise or even say ‘Pot’. Pot is a raise to the maximum, which means to bet the same amount as the total money available in the pot.
If there are no more raises and all the cards have been dealt, then it is the end of the round. Everyone opens their closed cards and the highest hand wins the pot.

Tips and Strategies to win:
Choose seven-card-stud poker in preference to five-card poker. Five-card offers limited opportunity to use your ability as it is worth staying in only if you are dealt a strong first hand.
In seven-card-stud poker stay in after the first three cards if you have: three-of-a-kind, a high pair, a middle pair, a small pair and a high card, three to a possible straight, three to a possible flush.
In stud poker on the last two bets and in draw poker on the bet before the draw, calculate the odds against you (how likely your cards will improve), and if the return is greater than the odds (making a relatively small bet for a big pot), make the bet.
Hands that are heavily favoured to win, even without improvements, are known as ‘Locks’. With a lock hand keep as many players as possible in the pot for as long as possible.
In Caribbean Stud Poker, bet/raise if:
You have a pair or better.
The dealer shows 10 or less and matches one of yours, and you have an Ace-King or better.
The dealer’s card is less than your fourth highest card and you have an Ace-King or better.
The dealer’s card is an Ace or King and you have a pair of six or better.

You can’t lose what you don’t put in the middle. If the smart play is fold, then fold.

A poker player faces some tough decisions on many occasions. He usually has four choices to make: check, bet/call, raise or fold. To make a wise decision, the player needs to establish the approximate expectation of each possible move and choose the one that has the best return, if any, or simply fold.
Calculate the odds against you, and if the return is greater than the odds, make the bet. If the odds are in your favor, bet as heavily as you can.
Because there is a lot of psychology involved during a game of poker, psychological strategy is very important.
Regularly varying your play is considered a good poker tactic. This means that sometimes you have to ‘bluff’ and you should do it tactically, not just for the sake of bluffing. The aim is to make it harder for the other players to be able to ‘read’ your cards or guess your intentions when it matters.
Therefore, the most important thing a poker player must do is not to form a pattern of play.
The next important thing is body language and talk. Both of these can reveal a lot of how strong (or weak) your hand is.
Remember, poker is about being able to win big pots, not just getting the highest hand. Being able to disguise your play is probably the most valuable asset you can have as a poker player, closely followed by the ability to memorize played cards and be constantly aware which cards are ‘Live’ cards.

Winning at Online Poker using Poker Bots:
A poker bot (poker robot) is a program or software package that is connected to an online casino and makes decisions about the current hand that is being played and acts accordingly as if you were playing the hand yourself.
Here are a few interesting articles on poker bots:

Thisismoney article
wired article
msnbc article

There are many different poker bots available on the market. Some are free and some are chargable either as a one-off or a subscription basis. However, a lot of them are scams as well. The best site for poker bot reviews can be found at www.purely-poker.com/pokerbot.htm

How does it work?
1. Upload your video.
2. Revver pairs your video with a targeted advertisement.
3. Share your video across the web. The more people see it, the more money you can make.
4. Revver split the ad revenue with you 50/50.

The difference with Revver is that sharers earn money too! If you help spread Revver videos, you earn 20% of the ad revenue. The remaining money is split 50/50 between the video creator and Revver. Revver have built all sorts of cool and easy sharing tools to help you make your work go viral and earn more money.

Metacafe
Metacafe is a video and media sharing community on the internet. Metacafe users upload and share thousands of new videos every day. The Metacafe community of reviewers filters out the noise and promotes the most favorite items. Metacafe offers a desktop application, mainly targeted at users who are “video addicts” and download many of the videos every week. The desktop application is capable of downloading high-quality media to the local computer while the computer is idle.
Metacafe features user generated videos, funny videos, Internet videos and viral ads as well as sports and news-related media. Some of the other features on the site include flash games and sound clips.

Metacafe provides over 450,000,000 videos every month, to almost two million registered visitors and 120 million visitors monthly, with 17 milion unique users each month.

Metacafe users upload to the website’s severs and share their videos. The videos are then distributed to a community of volunteer reviewers, checked by the company’s reviewers to filter-out explicit images and mark some items with “adult” flags, and then distributed to all users by two main methods:
* Website Distribution – Showing the new videos and top videos and updating constantly. It is also possible to embed the clips into blogs and private pages.
* Client for Windows – A free downloadable application that enables the users to build and manage their own video library by optimizing their bandwidth to download and upload only when the computer is idle.

A viewer can call up a video, watch it, rate it and send it to his friends by email or messenger. All ratings are stored and the site shows statistics for videos by the Highest Rank, Most Viewed, Most Discussed, and Most Recent. Additionally, the site shows a list of top submitters and top producers.

Metacafe’s system is different from most other video sharing sites in that the content on the website is first reviewed by special reviewers and only then posted to the site. This helps in limiting the non-quality videos at the expense of lengthening the wait between the video’s upload and it’s availability on the Metacafe site. Also, Metacafe has a special anti-duplication algorithm, which reduces the possibility of duplicated videos. As such, every video is posted only once, which eases finding the videos.

In October 2006, Metacafe announced its Producer Rewards program where users of this program are paid for their original content. Metacafe pays $5 for every 1,000 videos an item gets, after the first 20,000 views.
In the first two months of its run, Metacafe paid over $10,000 to five individual producers each, where the highest-paid producer received almost $25,000. The program has proved to be a success, and is constantly generating numerous quality videos.

“Freeformers” were identified as displaying different attitudes towards many aspects of life, including their money, and Zopa has developed a credit referencing process that goes beyond credit bureau information in order to establish consumers’ attitudes towards money, as well as their credit-worthiness. This extends their ability to offer credit to this freeformer group, who may have irregular incomes or short-term cashflow requirements, but who may not be offered credit through traditional methods of credit referencing.

The service matches people that want to offer to lend money with people that need to borrow money. Matching is done on a many-to-one basis, such that no one lender is exposed to any single borrower. Bad debt risk is taken by the lender, and priced into the rate offered to borrowers, although debt recovery processes are available.

Variously likened to eBay and Betfair in the UK press, Zopa is an addition to the emerging group of peer-to-peer services enabled by the internet.

Launched in 2005, Zopa is led by a management team that comprises many of those that founded Egg in the UK.

Putting your money into Zopa won’t make you rich as there is currently a maximum limit (£25,000) to how much you can lend to borrowers. However, it is an interesting concept and you could make a few extra pounds.

The company is based in London and backed by Benchmark Capital and Wellington Partners. Both borrowers and lenders are charged a 0.5% fee by Zopa on the funds for each transaction (although founder members are exempt from this charge). Go to zopa.com for more information.