How To Increase eBay Sales and Conversions - Make Money
by Thomas Griffin
How To Increase eBay Sales and Conversions - Make Money
Thomas Griffin
Long term I always recommend dropshipping from your own website rather than auction and classified websites, mainly because of profit margins. However, using auction sites is a great way to build up a customer database and get used to running an online business. eBay is the website of choice for the majority of dropshippers due to the amount of shoppers on eBay, here are 5 really simple ways to increase your conversions (auction listing visitors becoming buyers).
1. Have at least 1 image, and it must be top quality. You must have at least 1 image of your product, this goes without saying. The higher the quality of the image the better, and also the larger the better, this allows potential customers to see the product clearly. If the photo provided by your dropshipper isn't very good you should buy the product and take your own photos (use a bedsheet to create blank background for photos). Taking your own photos can also give you a competitive edge.
2. Make your sales copy well laid out and clearly show each section. Using graphic headers for different sections is a great way to lay out your listing. Sections may include 'Product Description', 'Delivery', 'Returns', 'Guarantees', 'Previous Customer Feedback', 'Payments'. You can create these graphics with free software like Serif PhotoPlus.
3. Offer a wide range of payment options. Always offer paypal, but try and offer as many others as possible. It may be annoying taking cheques to the bank, but it is another transaction for the cashbook and another customer in the database who may buy again!
4. Tell the customer why to buy with you. The visitor doesn't want to know about you personally, they want to know how you can help them and they need to trust you if they are going to buy. So if your postage is '1st class recorded' and dispatched next day then clearly state it! Clearly state your '100% refund if unhappy' promise and also clearly show your positive feedback.
5. Pay attention to the little things. Pay close to attention to the small things and it will remove your listings rough edges and give you a professional listing. Spelling mistakes, bad grammar, ugly font, bad quality graphics and no information on returns all make your listing/business look unprofessional and the visitor will soon be clicking the 'back' button to see what others are selling.
These aren't the sort of tips you need to test and monitor to see if they are having an effect, if you have hundreds of listings running at any one time they WILL increase sales (unless there is something categorically wrong like a bad product/ridiculous price).
Thomas Griffin is the founder of Urbanload.com - The #1 eBay Dropshipper. Over 2000 resellers can't be wrong. Make money on with our (http://www.urbanload.com) eBay Drop Ship Reseller Program. Don't fall for scams and overpriced dropshippers. Choose only eBay certified (http://www.urbanload.com) Drop Shipping Companies.
Showing posts with label make money at home. Show all posts
Showing posts with label make money at home. Show all posts
Friday, June 18, 2010
Thursday, June 17, 2010
How Our Home Based Business Saved Us
How Our Home Based Business Saved Us
By Andrew Shim | Date Submitted: 09/17/05
Keywords: Home business, work at home, make money at home, money making ideas
More Details about home based business, money making ideas here.
Summary: If you had asked me two years before my wife and I began our home catering business whether I would consider being my own boss, I would have laughed out loud and scoffed at the idea.
If you had asked me two years before my wife and I began our home catering business whether I would consider being my own boss, I would have laughed out loud and scoffed at the idea. The company I worked for seemed to be doing well and I was recognized for the “creative genius� that I was. I was contented as a Web Developer in a multi-national corporation, lost in my own world in cyberspace. The pay was alright and there wasn’t any reason to think of other means of income. Looking back, I realized that I was in a comfort zone and being there shut my eyes to all the opportunities that were knocking at my door. Things were about to change though.
The signs were classic of a company in trouble. Emails instructing us to take cost-reduction seriously, profit sharing withheld, no year-end bonus, a freeze on all pay rises. Then, it was crunch-time. There was talk of “staff re-designation�. One year later, it became a full blown staff elimination exercise. No retrenchment benefits, no nothing.
My wife didn’t really think I was serious about the company being in trouble until I started having the “classic� symptoms of Middle-Aged-Man-With-Job-Threatened-Syndrome. I couldn’t eat or sleep worrying about how we would make ends meet on my wife’s salary as a kindergarten teacher, which wasn’t much. The stress and fear were taking its toll on my health.
It became clear that there was no way the company would keep me for more than a year and with job applicants half my age working for even lesser pay, my wife and I did some serious talking. We came up with a couple of ideas we thought we could do to earn extra cash and prepare us for the tough times ahead. We eventually decided to start our own home catering business, cooking and delivering dinner to people who were either too busy, didn’t have the time or the liking to cook.
Armed only with the confidence that my wife was a great cook, we started. Our first obstacle turned out to be our minds. We were so caught up in our comfort zone for so long that every little decision seemed like a monumental task. At the back of our minds, we didn’t want to be in the position we were in. We struggled with the fear of change and the unknown, but we carried on, telling ourselves that even if I did get another job, it was only a matter of time before the same cycle would repeat itself. We HAD to take this step and take control of our lives and our earning power.
We made countless mistakes in our first six months, but let me tell you… when we got our first customer, I felt such relief I slept like a baby that night. It was my first night of peaceful sleep in a year. It wasn’t the sixty dollars profit that we made. It was the fact that we had finally started to chart our own destiny, free from the whims and fancies of corporate management.
A year into our business, the inevitable happened. I was approached by my company to discuss “re-designation�. I told them that I knew what they meant and I was prepared to leave. I was the last one in my division to finally say goodbye. Thankfully, my wife and I saw this coming a year ago and readied ourselves for it, so when the time came, we just let go and set our sights on our home catering business.
It’s been almost two years now and we’ve gone through some really trying times learning the ropes of managing a home business. We’ve had to adjust our attitudes and daily lives but we’re doing fine, and our financial situation has gone from hopeless to healthy. What started out as a way to earn extra money has turned out to be our main source of income.
I hope my sharing gives you the encouragement and inspiration to NOT LOSE HOPE. I wouldn’t recommend waiting until you were in trouble before you considered starting your own home business, but maybe like us, it takes a storm to help us break free of our comfort zone.
Author's URL: http://www.positivemoneyideas.com
Andrew Shim is the owner and editor of PositiveMoneyIdeas.com a website which offers FREE <a href = 'http://www.positivemoneyideas.com'>Money Making Ideas</a> for those interested in starting their own freelance or home based business and PositiveTones.com a FREE resource website for <a href = 'http://www.positivetones.com'>Positive Living</a>. He and his wife run a successful home catering businesPT>
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