Want to make sure you get what you buy on ebay?

Steps

1. Avoid buying products that are 1p, when they are blatantly not worth 1000% of that.

2. Find the product you want, and before you bid, check the sellers reputation figure. If its less than 90% Don’t bother, you can be sure that that item is for sale with another seller.

3. Read all details about the product to make sure that it is not broken, or missing some part of it. If details are vague, saying a phrase like, “may be missing a part,” or, “some part may not work,” do NOT buy the product.

4. Before bidding, check how they will deliver it, for example, first class post. You will then know how long it will be until your item is delivered.

5. When you’ve won your bid, make sure you pay, the quicker you pay, the quicker you get your item.

6. Wait for the length of time that you were told your item would be. E.g. If you paid by check, figure out how long it will be until it will arrive to the seller, then add the time it takes the item to get there. If it’s pay pal, just use the time you were given from the time you paid.

7. Give the seller 5 days grace, random reasons might have caused a delay.

8. If you don’t receive your item, contact the seller. They will be able to tell you the progress on your item.

9. If it has been a long time since you paid, and you contacted the seller. Its maybe time to involve ebay?

Warnings

* If in doubt, contact the seller to ensure that the item is not bootlegged, or another copy.

If you are dealing with a seller who has high volume, you may have to scroll through scores of pages to find negative feedback. There’s an easier way to go directly to the negative feedback at the free service provided by Toolhaus

Steps

1. Copy the seller’s name before you leave eBay.

2. Go to Toolhaus.org (see External Links)

3. Paste the seller’s name into the Negative/Neutral Feedback edit box and click the “Received By” button.

4. Results for one of the top sellers (with several 100,000 of feedback comments) were available in seconds, showing several 1000 bad feedback comments. This should help identify if there is an underlying problem to be avoided.

Make More Money with eBay’s Affiliate Program

Steps

1. If you’ve been on the web for a while, the chances are that at some time or other you will have taken part in an affiliate program. They generally work by giving you a URL to send people to their site that contains your affiliate number, and then giving you a small amount for each person who comes in using your link and signs up or buys something.

2. eBay’s affiliate program follows this basic formula, but with a few twists.

3. It pays a lot. Each user who follows your link to eBay, signs up and then bids on anything within 30 days will earn you $20. Most affiliate programs will only give you something like 10 percent of the user’s first purchase. What’s more, for each existing eBay user who clicks through from your site and then places a bid or buys something, you’ll get 10c.

4. You can be your own affiliate. If you just link to your own auctions with your affiliate link number from your own website, then you’re getting money without sending buyers to anyone except yourself. There aren’t many affiliate programs that can say that.

5. So Where Do I Sign Up?

6. You can visit eBay’s affiliate program at eBay. Once you’re there, just click ‘Join the Program’. You will then be required to sign up for Commission Junction, which is free.

7. How Can I Get People to Click the Links?

8. eBay suggest a number of ‘business models’ for their affiliates. Before people can click your affiliate links, they need to be at your website. There are two ways to get them there using a search engine, which eBay refer to as ‘natural’ and ‘paid’ search.

9. Natural search: This is when someone finds your website in a search engine’s normal results, either because something you wrote is relevant to them or you used SEO (search engine optimisation) techniques. Be careful not to use any dodgy methods to get a high search engine ranking, though, or eBay might come after you and keep your affiliate money.

10. Paid search: This strategy involves paying for traffic to your website or directly to eBay, by buying ads on search engines. If you go for this option, it’s actually worth placing ads on the less popular search engines instead of the big ones: they’ll have similar click-through rates as a percentage, but the cost typically won’t be anywhere near as high.

11. Content: What you can do is just have a normal website, with articles on a variety of subjects and perhaps a community forum. Run the website for pleasure, but place the occasional eBay affiliate link there.

12. Newsletters: Don’t ignore the potential of putting your affiliate ID in each time you send out a newsletter. You can get 10c for every bid it generates with no extra work, which could be enough for the email to pay for itself, whether it leads to any sales or not.

13. Sadly, our time together is nearly at an end, but there is one thing that I have left to show you. It’s called the featured gallery, and it could help your sales. Look out for the next article!

The right ad can either make or break an Ebay auction or sale. Follow these steps to writing a successful one.

Steps

1. Put yourself in the buyer’s shoes. Ask yourself: What would I want to see in that ad? What would make or break the sale for me, as a customer? Make sure you provide that information, every bit of it.

2. Be honest, be accurate. Dont call a Used item Brand New or Mint.

3. Provide all necessary information, including condition, age, brand names and all relevant info. But keep it tight. Don’t go on and on. You are writing an ad, not a novel.

4. Provide photos. You don’t have to be a pro, just take decent, clear photos. Photos do sell products. Some bidders will only look at the photos.

5. Do your research. Know what you are selling. Know comparable prices. Start your opening bid with a price you can live with and if you know your price is below other comparable models in similar condition, say so.

6. Never assume the buyer is an expert and will “automatically find” your item . Explain what makes it special. Is it one of a kind? Is it rare? Is it priced below market value? Whatever sets your item apart should be mentioned.

7. Use the right keywords. Be specific. People look for specific items and get frustrated by looking at a ton of unrelated items. Help the right bidder find your item.

8. Look at completed auctions for similar items and see what titles and keywords caught bidders’ eyes and got the highest bids. Learn from them. Use the same or similar keywords. Again, help direct the bidders who want your item (or ones like it) to your ad.

9. Group ads for similar items in the same week and stagger the starting times by a day or two. Tell bidders that you have related items on auction. This will encourage them to look at your other items and up your chances of multiple sales this way. Every related ad you have is just one more chance for a bidder to see all your items.

Tips

* Can’t stress it enough, think like a bidder and write a clear description and provide enough photos.

Warnings

* Don’t rip off someone else’s photos or copy their ad word for word. This can get your ad pulled.