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Money To Be Made On
Ebay Part 5
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eBay - Part Time or Full? How to Decide.
Going full-time as an eBay seller is living the dream: making a
real income, working from home, being your own boss and all the
rest of it. It's the promise of a million scams, and it's finally
come true - at least for some.
What they don't tell you in the success stories, though, is that
becoming a full-time eBay seller is by no means for everyone. You
really, really ought to try it part-time before you even consider
taking it up full-time, and even then, caution is advisable.
Before you burn your suit, here's a list of questions you should
ask yourself.
How Much Do I Earn From eBay Now?
Work out how many hours a week you spend doing eBay-related things
(be honest here), and divide it by the average amount of profit
you make in a week. If you were doing full-time hours, would you
earn as much as you earn now?
Do I Have a Good Job?
Think about what you might lose if you give up your job to focus
on eBay. If you're in a well-paid job with good promotion
prospects then it's well worth reconsidering: you might get a few
years down the line and wish you'd stayed in your traditional job,
as you'd probably be the CEO by now.
Would I Really Make Much More Money?
Unless you're selling a large quantity of small goods, most of
what you do on eBay will be waiting for auctions to end - and you
can wait at work just as easily as you can at home. This is why
whether you would make more money on eBay really depends on what
kinds of items you're selling - for low value items, going
full-time could be a good move. For high-value ones, the chances
are you'll hit the limits of how much money you have to invest in
inventory long before you hit the limits on your time.
Is my Home a Good Place to Work?
Quite apart from anything else, you might find that the dream of
home working is more of a nightmare in reality. People can start
to depend on you to get things done that need to be done during
the day. If you have a wife and children then they can resent the
fact that you're in the house but refuse to have anything to do
with them for large parts of the day. Giving in to any of these
things and stopping work for a while will cause your profits to
fall.
Can I Survive if it All Goes Wrong?
In the end, would you be able to get by if you had a month or two
where you sold literally nothing? Or would you be desperately
looking around for a job and cursing the day you ever discovered
eBay? That's the real test.
If you made it through all these questions, then I guess you're
cut out for the eBay life - and even if you didn't, you'd be
surprised just how far you can get part-time.
How to Think Like an eBay PowerSeller.
So what's a PowerSeller? PowerSellers are the people on eBay
who've made it, recognizable by the little 'PowerSeller' badge
next to their name. You've probably seen these people around - and
to succeed on eBay, you want to think the way they do.
How to People Get the Right to Call Themselves
PowerSellers?
eBay gets to decide who can be a PowerSeller and who can't, and
they have strict requirements. To get in at the minimum
PowerSeller level, you must have a feedback rating of at least 100
(minimum 98% positive) and sell at least $1,000 worth of items
every month for three months in a row. There are different levels
of PowerSeller membership as you sell items of greater value:
$1,000 total is bronze, $3,000 is silver, $10,000 is gold, $25,000
is platinum and $125,000 is titanium.
If PowerSellers ever fail to meet the required amount of sales, or
their feedback falls below 98% positive, then they lose their
PowerSeller status. In short, the only people who get to be
PowerSellers on eBay are the people who have been successful for a
good while, and are on track to stay that way.
The Shop and the Marketplace.
This is the most important part of understanding how PowerSellers
think. They don't see what they're doing as being some random
bazaar, or a hobby - instead, they see themselves as a business.
Put it like this. If you run a stall in a marketplace, the chances
are that you have a general area of business, but you mostly just
sell whatever you can get your hands on that week. If your dodgy
buddy got his hands of a job lot of something at a discount, then
that's what you'll be selling. This might be fun - and when you
have a good week, you'll have a really good week - but it's no way
to run a real business in the long-term.
PowerSellers think far more like shops. They sell the same things
again and again, every week - regular stock for regular customers.
They do 'boring' business things like keep inventories and
budgets. They know what they're going to be selling, how much they
buy it for and how much they expect to sell for. Just like a real
shop, there can be hard times sometimes, but their income is
stable and their business can grow slowly.
The best advice I can give you on thinking like a PowerSeller is
this: don't take long-term risks for short-term gain. Look after
your reputation, manage your selling properly, provide good
customer service and the rewards will come to you in due course.
And you'll get a little badge next to your name that makes people
trust you more!
One possibility that you might have realized so far is what eBay
can do for any other businesses you might have. Remember, millions
of people visit eBay every day - why keep everything separate when
you're starting to tap into that kind of power?
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This video series will show you how to take any resell
rights or affiliate sales product, and set it up so that it
is ready to sell. After you view this video series, you'll
be able to take those resell rights products you have
collecting dust on your computer and turn them into
automatic cash generating machines.
Read more here >>
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