How to Make Money on eBay: The official pocket guide for Australian Sellers

how to

make

money

todd alexander

Australia’s leading eBay expert

the official pocket guide

for australian sellers

w t
o

ak
e

mon

P E R S O N A L F I N A N C E

Cover photograph: iStock
Cover design: Lisa White

Do  you  want  to  earn  an  income  selling  items  on  eBay?  Could
eBay  become  a  vital  sales  channel  for  your  company?  Did
you  know  50,000  Australians  earn  part  or  all  of  their  income
selling  on  eBay*,  and  for  a  growing  number  of  businesses  it’s  an
important sales channel?

For  the  first  time,  eBay  expert  and  employee  Todd  Alexander
provides  invaluable  advice  for  serious  sellers  to  boost  their
online  sales.  Written  in  clear  language  with  concise  step-by-
step  instructions,  this  official  guide  is  written  specifically  for
Australians.

How to Make Money on eBay is an easy-to-use, comprehensive
guide that includes:

•

tips for secure online selling

•

ideas for sourcing products to sell

•

advanced selling tools to save time and boost profits

•

tips for improving your ranking in eBay’s search results

•

marketing advice for increasing sales and ensuring repeat

customers

•

tips for staying ahead of the competition

•

the twelve eBay rules every seller should know.

Whether you’re an eBay novice or have been trading on the site
for years, this is the one guide you need to ramp up your sales
quickly and cost-effectively.

*AC Nielsen Research, 2006

EBAY_FINAL.indd 1

24/12/09 11:43:47 AM

Todd Alexander is an employee of eBay but wrote this book independently of his
employment. While recognising this book as ‘The Official Guide . . .’, eBay takes no
responsibility for its content and readers are advised that using the content of this
book does not necessarily mean that the reader will have success buying and selling
on eBay. The contents of this book contain the views of the author only and do not
necessarily reflect the views of eBay.

eBay International AG is the exclusive owner of all rights in the title to, interests and
good will in the eBay identification and use of the above in this book is by permission.

First published in 2010

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording or by any information storage
and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the
publisher. The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) allows a
maximum of one chapter or 10 per cent of this book, whichever
is the greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for
its educational purposes provided that the educational institution
(or body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to
Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) under the Act.

Arena Books, an imprint of
Allen & Unwin
83 Alexander Street
Crows Nest NSW 2065
Australia
Phone: (61 2) 8425 0100
Fax:

(61 2) 9906 2218

Email: info@allenandunwin.com
Web: www.allenandunwin.com

Cataloguing-in-Publication details are available
from the National Library of Australia
www.librariesaustralia.nla.gov.au

ISBN 978 1 74237 036 1

Set in 11/13 pt ITC Berkeley Oldstyle Std by Bookhouse, Sydney
Printed in Australia by McPherson’s Printing Group

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

vii

Introduction

No doubt the majority of Australians have heard of
eBay as a place to buy a wide selection of items, usually
at great prices. Compared to international markets,
Australia has been slow to adopt e-commerce, with
few of the major retail stores offering a comprehensive
online  offering.  Over  the  years,  eBay  has  become
the  primary  destination  for  the  majority  of  online
shoppers. Here are some statistics that will help you
to decide whether selling on eBay could provide you
with  additional  income—whether  that  is  personal,
or supplementary to your business:
• eBay has a global presence in 39 markets. Your

items do not have to be offered for sale in every
market, but you can add them selectively for no
additional fee.

• eBay has approximately 88.4 million active

members worldwide. In Australia alone, 5.35
million unique visitors went to eBay.com.au in
December 2008 (Nielsen//NetRatings Netview).

• On an average day for eBay Australia, a

baby item is sold every 24 seconds; a DVD
is sold every 18 seconds; a toy is sold every

How to Make Money on eBay

viii

18 seconds; and a piece of women’s clothing
sells every 6 seconds.

• eBay users worldwide trade US$2000 worth of

goods every second.

But the figures alone only tell part of the story.

The simple fact about eBay is that it grants you and
your business instant access to one of the busiest
shopping platforms on the planet. Your items can be
available for sale 24 hours a day, seven days a week
(regardless of whether you intend to work those hours
or not). Buyers love eBay because they can shop from
the comfort and safety of their own home at a time
that is convenient to them, and they don’t have to
fight over parking spaces or with trolleys that lead
them in the opposite direction.

The other thing eBay offers is transparency. At any

given time, you can see what items are for sale, who
is selling them, how much they sell for, and how
frequently they sell. This is the kind of information
most businesses would pay a lot of money for to find
out about their competitors or potential markets for
their products. This does mean your own sales are
open to inspection, of course, but smart businesses
work to streamline their business models so they can
continually stay one step ahead of the competition.

And so it is that very year, hundreds of thousands

of people clean out their garages and cupboards and
sell things they no longer need. Some trawl through
garage sales and markets looking for those rare or
unique items that might fetch a great price on eBay,
making a little bit of profit along the way. Selling on

Introduction

eBay is open to just about everyone—but how do
some people turn it into a money-making venture?

There are countless books, courses, e-guides and

the like that promise to teach you how to make
millions of dollars on eBay in your first year . . . all
from the comfort of your own home. Some even
suggest that you can do this working as little as one
hour a day. While these things might conceivably be
possible, the reality of the situation is that making
money on eBay requires a serious business approach,
as well as a thorough examination of the options
available to you, and a lot of trial and error.

In Australia, the most successful eBay sellers (and

some of them do sell more than $1 million worth
of items each year) are those with large warehouses,
multiple staff members and various supply channels
of stock, a lot of it from overseas. While not everyone
will need to start that big, knowing eBay’s advanced
selling techniques at the outset will help ensure you
get the finer details right from the very beginning.
Successful eBay businesses have displayed fantastic
growth rates, but they require careful planning and a
thorough knowledge of eBay’s systems and processes.
Like anything, making a lot of profit doesn’t tend to
happen easily—otherwise everyone would be selling
on eBay and we’d all be millionaires.

This book is an advanced selling guide for people

and businesses who want to use eBay to either estab-
lish an online channel to complement an existing
business, expand their online presence, or for those
wanting to start a business from scratch using eBay
as their primary channel. Before you get into this
book, it is advisable to read How to Use eBay/How

How to Make Money on eBay

to Use PayPal by Todd Alexander (Hachette Livre
Australia, 2008)—it covers all of the basics of buying
and selling on eBay Australia and using PayPal, the
online payment mechanism widely used on eBay.
There are also chapters on online safety, which are
a must for anyone buying or selling online.

Each chapter of this book is designed, in the

simplest way possible, to help ensure you are aware of,
and are using, the multitude of selling tools available
to  streamline  an  eBay  business.  Making  a  profit  is
not  only  about  securing  the  right  products  at  the
right price and being able to sell them successfully,
it’s also about ensuring you have a great reputation
and lots of repeat customers. More importantly, profit
is also about minimising your other business costs,
and when it comes to selling on eBay, one of the most
‘expensive’ is the time it can take to sell hundreds or
thousands of items. Not every tool covered in these
chapters will be necessary for your eBay sales. They
are provided here as options, and after reading the
book you should choose those that are most suitable
to  your  skills,  your  products,  and  how  much  time
and resources you have to invest in selling on eBay.
Establishing  the  right  business  systems  upfront  is
the only way to help optimise your performance on
eBay, and beyond.

Each month, more than 5 million people visit eBay

Australia (Nielsen//NetRatings Netview), and there
isn’t a single business in the country that would
turn down traffic like that! According to June 2006
AC Nielsen research, 52,700 Australians make their
full- or part-time living on eBay, and for more than
17,500 it is their primary or only source of income.

Introduction

Why not add your name to the list? Like any way
of making profit, nothing is guaranteed, but arming
yourself with the right knowledge is key.

Before we begin, there are four basic rules to

making money on eBay. Observe these, and you’ll be
well on your way to realising maximum profit.

Source the right products for the right price.

Provide the kind of service that separates you
from your competitors.

Market your products better than any of your
competitors.

Continually look for ways to improve your busi-
ness model.

Chapter 1

Safe trading tips for

eBay sellers

Much has been written about the dangers of  trading
online. In actual fact, selling on eBay or your own
web site  generates  no  greater  security  threat  than
starting your own retail or wholesale business. When
selling  online,  remaining  safe  can  be  achieved  by
using simple commonsense.

Passwords

As your eBay sales grow, you may need more than
one person to access your eBay and PayPal accounts.
Remember that anyone with your eBay password has
the  ability  to  alter  business-critical  functions,  and
even  has  the  ability  to  purchase  items  on  the  site.
Keep a record of all employees/colleagues who know
your eBay password, but never put the password in
writing or circulate it via email. The password should
be  a  combination  of  letters  and  numerals,  and  a
mixture of upper and lower case. For added security,
consider  changing  your  passwords  on  the  first  of

How to Make Money on eBay

every month. This means that only those employees
who need to gain access to eBay on a daily basis will
know it, and past employees, or those who have
changed roles, will not be able to maintain access.

In order to sell on eBay, all sellers must offer PayPal

(the eBay-owned online-payment mechanism). Your
PayPal password should be guarded more carefully.
Only those who are empowered to make financial
decisions for your company should be granted access
to your PayPal account as, once logged in, they can
transfer funds or pay for items bought online, and
they may also be able to gain access to your bank
account and credit card information.

Financial accounts

In order to limit the threat of loss, it is advisable to
open a bank account and a PayPal account and have
a credit card all of which are only used for business
purposes.  Limit  the  amount  of  funds  available  in
each  so  that  if  their  security  should  be  breached,
your loss is limited to a low amount. Some banks
now offer mobile phone password protection when
transferring  money  to  new  accounts,  while  your
credit card’s TCV number (located on the back of
the card) means a person must have the card in their
possession in order to use it.

Stay on top of your financial records. Always

double-check your financial statements and query any
unfamiliar amounts with your bank immediately.

For PayPal, you can limit the type of access

your employees can gain if you open a business
account. In doing so, different passwords allow

Safe trading tips for eBay sellers

different  employees  access  to  the  areas  of  the  site
you  specify.  Again,  if  you  see  any  activity  on  your
PayPal  account  that  looks  questionable,  contact
PayPal immediately.

Spoof mail

Spoof is an unfortunate reality of the online world.
Spoof emails are created by criminals to try to trap
you into entering sensitive or financial information
online. Once gained, your information can then be
used for fraudulent transactions. Recent developments
have made it easier for law-enforcement professionals
to track down online fraudsters, but the best way to
avoid being the victim of online fraud is to use
protection.
• Make sure all the computers you use for your

eBay sales are enabled with security software.

• Never enter your personal or financial

information into a website with which you are
unfamiliar.

• If an offer or reward sounds too good to be

true, it probably is.

• If you receive an email purporting to be from

eBay, PayPal or your financial institution, and
it asks you to enter your password via email,
report it as spoof (forward it to spoof@ebay.
com.au, spoof@paypal.com.au, or check your
bank’s spoof mail forwarding address).

• When making an online payment, make sure

the site uses a verified security gateway.

• To avoid receiving spoof altogether, create an

email address that is difficult to guess. For

How to Make Money on eBay

example, if your eBay user ID is ‘abc123’, don’t
make your email address abc123@hotmail.com
or your contact email info@abc123.com.au.
Online fraudsters have sophisticated software
to help them guess your contact information,
leaving you open to unsolicited email that
can be a nuisance or a threat to running your
business.

PayPal seller protection on eBay

PayPal offers sellers on eBay protection on qualifying
transactions in the event that the sale should be the
subject of a credit card chargeback, or when a buyer
claim is made through PayPal’s online dispute process
for items not received or significantly different to
what was described by the seller. Seller protection
is provided at no extra charge. In order to make a
claim, a seller must:
• sell an item on eBay and accept payment into

their Australian PayPal account (the item must
be a tangible good, not digital or a service, for
example);

• send the item via an approved postal service to

the buyer’s address, as stipulated on the PayPal
transaction page (approved postal services
include those that can provide proof of ship-
ment, an official acceptance by the shipper and
documentation showing the recipient’s address).

Note that where a seller cannot provide the neces-

sary documentation, and the buyer is able to prove
their item was not received or was different to as

Safe trading tips for eBay sellers

described, the seller will have to finance the cost
of providing the buyer with the refund. This is the
same as usually occurs for retail stores.

T i p :

✔

Check with your supplier in instances where a

product is broken or faulty, as they may also provide you
with a refund that you can pass on to your buyer.

The full list of eligibility criteria for PayPal’s

seller protection on eBay can be found at: https://
www.paypal.com/au/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/gen/ua/
ua-outside#spp-policy.

Budgeting for loss

Operating any business successfully means preparing
for some losses. Sensible business plans will calculate
an anticipated percentage of loss and include this in
their budget and performance targets.

For stock, this is commonly known as ‘shrinkage’.

Shrinkage occurs when a product is damaged or lost
in transit (from the supplier to you, or from you to
your customer), from theft or from an accounting
error (incorrect quantities received or sent). A sensible
percentage to plan for is around 5–10 per cent,
depending on the type and quantity of products you
plan to sell. If your business cannot sustain ‘writing
off’ that level of shrinkage, you should revisit your
profit margins to decide whether there is an adequate
market for your products.

Other losses than can commonly occur in business

are unpaid items that may have inadvertently been
sent to the buyer before payment was received, items

Chapter 2

Becoming an

eBay seller

Business registration

If you have not done so already, register as a business
on eBay. This may not seem an important or obvious
step but, increasingly, eBay is looking for ways to
identify which of its sellers consider themselves
businesses. In the future, businesses may be subject
to special promotional offers and specific marketing
support from eBay.

To register as a business:

• Click the ‘Register’ text link at the very bottom

of any eBay page.

• Next, click the link at the top of the registration

page that says: ‘Want to open an account for
your company?’

• Fill in the relevant information for your busi-

ness, and accept the terms and conditions at the
bottom of the page. Click ‘Continue’.

How to Make Money on eBay

• Choose your User ID. Remember to choose an

ID that reflects your business name and/or the
products you sell. Your user ID is how people
will come to remember you, so choose carefully.

• Create a password. Click ‘Continue’.
• Now check your email and follow the steps to

confirm your business registration.

If you are already registered on eBay and you would

like to change your account to become a business
account, here are the steps involved:
• Click the ‘My eBay’ link at the top of any eBay

page.

• Sign in to the site (if not already signed in).
• On the left-hand navigation of My eBay, under

the ‘My account’ heading, click on ‘personal
information’.

• On the next page, on the ‘Account type’ line,

click on the ‘Edit’ link on the right-hand side.

• Sign in again to confirm your identity.
• Next, type in your business name and select

your business type.

• Click the ‘Change to business account’ button.

PayPal tips for businesses

PayPal is the eBay-owned online payment system
widely used by buyers on eBay, and online in general.
As covered in Chapter 6, it is advisable to offer a
choice of payment options to your buyers, and some
eBay sites include a minimum requirement that you
must accept PayPal, or process credit card payments
through PayPal.

Becoming an eBay seller

Before you sign up to PayPal, you should be aware

of some of the key features that PayPal offers busi-
nesses. There are three account types to choose from
when signing up to PayPal:

personal;

premier; or

business.

It might sound obvious, but businesses should sign
up for a business account because it comes with the
following advantages:
• unlimited credit and debit card payment

acceptance;

• ability to accept subscriptions and recurring

payments;

• ability to accept mass payments (from multiple

buyers at once);

• multi-user access (see page 2); and
• ability to brand your PayPal account with your

business name.

PayPal charges a low fee per local transaction

(currently 30 cents) and a percentage fee of the total
payment (including postage). The percentage you
pay depends on your PayPal account and the total
amount of payments you have received into your
PayPal account in the previous month. Additionally,
you need to apply to have merchant rates assigned to
your account—it is a one-time application, and you
will automatically receive discounted rates as long as
you meet the minimum criteria of payments received
and have your account in good standing. These are
the fees applied to your total monthly payments:

How to Make Money on eBay

• Under $5000 = 2.4 per cent
• $5000.01 to $15,000 = 2.0 per cent
• $15,000.01 to $150,000 = 1.5 per cent
• Above $150,000 = 1.1 per cent

To apply for merchant rates you will only be able

to see the application form within your account once
you have achieved more than $5000 in payments.

PayPal also offers a special rate for accounts that

sell a large volume of low-value items. You need to
apply for micropayments and be aware that the rate
will apply to all of the items you accept payment for,
regardless of their value. The rate is 5 per cent plus 5
cents per transaction. To find out more information
and to apply, go to: https://micropayments.paypal-
labs.com/.

Selling internationally

One of the most powerful advantages that eBay brings
to sellers is the opportunity to list your item for sale
globally. Few other marketplaces have the power,
and the sheer buyer numbers, to match that
proposition. The even better part is that you do not
need to pay additional fees to have your item seen
by buyers in any part of the world.

Before you decide whether to list your item for

international sale, there are a few things you should
consider:
• If you speak another language, mention this in

your listings or even have parts of your listings
in the foreign language.

Becoming an eBay seller

• Think carefully about the currency you wish to

list your item in. If you list on eBay.com.au and
make your item available to another country,
your product will generally appear in Australian
dollars. However, if you go directly to the
relevant site (a full list is available on the eBay.
com.au homepage), your item will appear in the
local currency of the site you have chosen.

• Some sellers establish multiple user IDs, each

one specialising in the sale of products to a
particular eBay market.

• Make sure you are fully aware of the importing

laws and regulations in each market—do your
research thoroughly as otherwise you may be
inadvertently breaking the law.

• Research what tariffs may be payable on receipt

of the goods. Make sure your buyers are also
aware of these charges and who will need to
pay for these.

• Refer to the Australian Government website to

ensure you have all the relevant information, at:
http://www.daff.gov.au/aqis/export.

• The Australian Trade Commission is an

Australian Government body that assists small
businesses with exporting. Find out if you
qualify for assistance by visiting: http://www.
austrade.gov.au/.

Chapter 3

Sourcing products

to sell

Here is the plain and simple truth—every tip and
instruction in this book will not make you a success
without you sourcing the right product to sell on
eBay. Selling products with a proven market, at the
right price, and the right amount of supply are among
the key ingredients to ensuring your eBay success.

By success, the inference here is size of turnover

and amount of profit. You could specialise in selling
a small quantity of high-priced items, each with a
good margin. Take refrigerators, for example. Selling
five to ten each week at $2000 per item makes you
a pretty sizable business, and if your profit margin
is 10 per cent on each item you can see that you’re
well on the way. But you can also sell 1000 CDs each
week for $10 each. A turnover of $10,000 a week
sounds like a lot, but by the time you subtract all
your overheads . . . in actual fact your business may
not be sustainable in the long term.

Sourcing products to sell 13

T i p :

✔

When weighing up your business’s potential for

success, you should get professional advice from an
accountant or financial adviser.

Net profit is the amount remaining after all your

expenses have been subtracted. Here are some of the
business costs you need to consider, all of which eat
away your gross profit to deliver your net profit:
• cost of purchasing each item;
• cost of having the item delivered to you by the

supplier, unless it’s free;

• phone calls, letters and travel to your actual and

potential suppliers;

• eBay fees;
• PayPal fees;
• bank and credit card fees;
• postage and packaging costs not paid for by

your buyers;

• cost of printing flyers, invoices, thank-you notes,

etc., and the cost of the paper they’re printed on;

• other marketing costs (such as Google ads,

letterbox drops, print advertising, etc.);

• electricity costs of running a computer and

printer, and the lights over your head;

• cost of the petrol it takes to deliver your

products to the post office, and the cost of
maintaining your car to do so;

• cost of your computer and printer, and any

other equipment you use to make your business
professional—the telephone, fax, filing cabinets,
software, etc.;

• the hourly rate you pay anyone to help you (you

may have friends or family who help out for

How to Make Money on eBay

free, but the bigger your business gets the less
you can rely on free labour);

• cost of storage/warehousing (this includes

space in your house—if you can’t use it to
do anything other than run your business, it
becomes an additional cost);

• cost of items that are lost, stolen or damaged

(although some may be covered by insurance—
see Chapter 10); and

• accounting, legal and other professional fees.

. . . and this isn’t by any stretch of the imagination
an exhaustive list of overheads.

All of a sudden your $10,000 turnover a week for

selling CDs turns into $200 net profit, and for the
65 hours it takes you to sell and send up to 150 CDs
every day, you’re paying yourself the grand amount
of $3.08 per hour! Don’t forget to pay your taxes.

Being online, eBay is a transparent marketplace,

which means everyone can always see what products
you are selling and at what price. They can even see
the ones you’re not selling. This means that every
move you make can be scrutinised, and copied, by
new and existing competitors. This is why an online
business needs to continually evolve and always be
on the lookout for new directions.

Completed-items search

It may sound obvious, but the best place to start
your research for finding the right products to sell
on eBay is by conducting a completed-items search
on the site. Here, you will see a list of recently

Sourcing products to sell 15

sold and unsold items, their price, the seller, the
description, the postage costs . . . everything you
need to gauge why an item was or was not successful.
More importantly, you’ll also get to see how many
iems were listed.

You should at least start with a rough idea of

what type of product you would like to sell. If you’re
completely new to this, start with a product that
you’re a passionate user of—it will make your job of
marketing easier, not to mention answering questions
from your customers. You can browse an entire
category’s past sales to try to find clues that will
help identify inventory gaps on eBay. If you look
hard enough, they certainly do exist.

To conduct a completed-items search, click

‘Advanced search’ at the top of any eBay page, type
in your product keywords or choose a category from
the drop-down list, check the ‘Completed listings’
box and then click the blue ‘Search’ box. Items that
sold will show the amount in green, unsold items
in red, and multiple-quantity items that did not sell
out completely will be in black.

Here are some questions to ask when browsing

through completed items. They will help you find
whether there is a possible inventory gap that your
items could fill.
• What is the cheapest sale price? Do you have

enough gross margin to compete on price?

• Of all the products listed, how many sell? (Be

sure to include all the items within a multiple-
quantity listing.) If you source that product,
how quickly do you need to sell it? How often
does a product sell on eBay? (This is known

How to Make Money on eBay

as sales velocity—you don’t want hundreds or
thousands of products sitting there not selling,
because the longer they don’t sell the less cash
from sales you will have to purchase more
products.)

• Who is the seller? Are they located in Australia

or overseas? Is their feedback better than yours?

• What is the item title and description like?

Could you do a better job marketing the item to
prospective buyers? Good enough to have them
buy the item from you and nobody else?

• How much postage does a successful seller

charge, and can you compete?

Where you cannot find any history of the item you
want to sell, this does not necessarily mean you’re
going to make a fortune by flooding the site with
thousands of products. Search for similar items, try
alternative keywords and spellings, and perhaps even
check an international eBay site or conduct a search
on Google to see if someone has already cornered
the market in that item.

Networking to find products to sell

When I tell people I work at eBay, I am still amazed
by the number who say ‘I’ve always wanted to sell
on eBay’, and of these, the high proportion that
are business people who want to use eBay as an
additional channel to their existing sales. If you are
continually looking for new product opportunities,
as all successful business minds should be, always
carry your eBay business card with you. Take every

Sourcing products to sell

opportunity to explain to people that you run a
business selling other people’s products on eBay and
are always on the lookout for new lines.

Meeting possible leads is only part of the equation,

however. You should have on standby a presentation
ready to email or print and send to potential suppliers
that explains your business model, highlights some of
your previous successes and outlines the opportunity
for sales on eBay.

Communications with potential suppliers should

always be professional. If your eBay business looks
as though it is run out of a backyard garage, why
would a supplier choose you to extend their sales
when they could just as easily do it themselves?

Wholesalers and manufacturers

Once you’ve discovered what type of product you
want to sell, make a target list of manufacturers and
wholesalers you want to approach to provide you
with products. This will be a long, slow process, so
get ready to invest some hard yards.

A lot of companies you contact out of the blue will

not even return your calls—you need to be intelligent
about who you approach within the business. Start
with a sales and/or marketing director. A quick
internet search can often unearth the name and
contact details of relevant personnel within most
companies. Be realistic about where you start; if
you have zero feedback and have never sold on eBay
before, it’s unlikely you’ll get a multimillion-dollar
company to sell directly to you. Aim for a business

How to Make Money on eBay

that has enough product, but not too many products,
for you to manage as a re-seller.

Here are some basic concepts you should address

in your pitch to a prospective supplier:
• Who are you and what is your work history?
• What is eBay? A lot of businesses have still

not explored it fully, so think like a business
and relay some of the more compelling propo-
sitions eBay has to offer, such as the number of
members, quality of the search experience, the
feedback system, etc.

• Why is your eBay business a good choice for

re-selling this type of product?

• What is the potential size of the market for this

type of product on eBay?

• How can selling the product on eBay be

considered complementary to the existing
business—and not in conflict with their own
sales channels, or their other re-sellers?

• What terms and conditions would you expect

under a proposed agreement? What would they
charge at wholesale, and what would you sell
for on eBay?

• What are some examples of your eBay

branding? Remember, you have to sell yourself!

Internet searches

If you are patient, the right combination of keywords
in an internet search can reveal a host of local and
international websites that feature wholesalers and
their products. Some are open marketplaces, others
give you the opportunity to advertise your own

Sourcing products to sell

business  with  an  outline  of  the  services  you  offer.
We could provide you with a list of ten great sites,
but finding supply is one of the best-kept secrets on
eBay  and  if  every  reader  of  this  book  flooded  a
particular site, well, there wouldn’t be any competitive
advantage  anymore,  would  there?  Be  patient  and
creative with your searches and you will find some
opportunities.

T i p :

✔

Remember to be safe online! If an offer looks too

good to be true, it probably is. Merely having a website
does not mean that a business is legitimate. Before you
part with your money, consider using an escrow service
that will hold your payment ‘in trust’ and only release
it once you have indicated you have received, and are
satisfied with, the products.

Importing

Over the years, I’ve spent a lot of time working with
some of eBay’s most successful sellers. A consider-
able  number  of  them  import  items  from  overseas.
Importing brings with it a distinct set of opportunities
and challenges. Start by referring to the Australian
Government’s Customs website http://www.customs.
gov.au  for  important  information  regarding  your
obligations  as  an  importer.  There  are  a  number  of
documents, fees and rules you need to be aware of
before  beginning  an  import  business.  It  is  best  to
seek professional legal and accounting advice on the
implications of importing items from overseas.

Your next step should be to search on international

eBay sites. Chances are, other sellers have checked

How to Make Money on eBay

these sites to see what is available, and for how much.
What you really need to do is look for a gap in the
market—something that is not readily available on
eBay anywhere in the world.

Throughout the year, a number of organisations

hold importing conferences and exhibitions designed
to help Australians establish contacts with inter-
national businesses. You can also make contact
with various embassies that will refer you to trade
organisations within their country.

The experience of most other sellers is the need

to  establish  face-to-face  communications  and  rela-
tionships  with  foreign  businesses  to  help  ensure
a  smooth  working  relationship.  By  working  with
foreign government agencies, you’re more likely to
be assured quality leads than you are if you attempt
to establish contacts once you arrive.

Become an eBay trading assistant

Trading assistants are people who sell products on
eBay on behalf of other people or businesses. eBay
has a directory of all trading assistants, and although
the volumes can be relatively modest, it is a good
way to find some extra products to sell. While most
of the clients you provide this service to tend to be
people with several unique items left after clearing
out their houses, there is nothing to stop you from
promoting yourself as an eBay trading assistant to
businesses with high volumes of inventory.

Trading assistants enter into individual agreements

with clients and can set their own terms of trade.
Some take a percentage of the final price of the item,

Sourcing products to sell 21

for example, while others charge a minimum fee per
item, or a combination of the two.

To become a trading assistant, you must have:

• sold at least four items in the past 30 days;
• a feedback score of 50 or more;
• a minimum feedback percentage of 97 per cent

positive; and

• an eBay account in good standing.

Once you qualify and register as a trading

assist ant, you will be featured in eBay’s directory.
For more information and to view the directory, go
to: http://tradingassistant.ebay.com.au/ws1/eBayISAPI.
dll?TradingAssistant&page=main.

eBay file exchange

If you have an existing product catalogue and you
wish to upload your products to eBay without having
to familiarise yourself with eBay’s ‘Sell your item’ form
or other listing tools, the eBay file exchange may be
a suitable solution for your business.

Using the file exchange is free, but you must meet

eBay’s minimum seller requirements: you need to
have been registered as a seller on eBay for at least
90 days, and must have listed at least 50 items in any
of the three previous calendar months. To continue
using the tool you must maintain this minimum
number of listings.

How to Make Money on eBay

Features of eBay file exchange

The tool allows businesses to upload listings via
a CSV (comma-separated values) or tab-delimited
file. The exchange populates particular eBay listing
information such as item specifics, but presumes a
minimum knowledge of using spreadsheet programs
such as Excel or Access and will require some
familiarity with eBay’s selling fields, such as format,
duration, etc.

For more information on eBay file exchange go

to: http://pages.ebay.com.au/file_exchange/. For more
information regarding uploading products to eBay,
refer to chapters 5 and 7, and the solutions directory
featured in Chapter 9.

Chapter 4

Preparing and

creating listings

Item photo

The first thing buyers are generally attracted to when
they look for an item on eBay is the picture that
appears in search results. Buyers skip over listings
that do not have a picture and, similarly, avoid photos
of items that are blurry or too small.

If you have a professional catalogue of the items

you want to sell on eBay, you do have the option of
uploading images from your own website by using
the existing URL. However, the majority of new eBay
businesses will need to invest the time to create
eye-catching, competitive product images that pique
your potential buyers’ interest immediately.

T i p :

✔

Copying images and/or descriptions from other

websites or other eBay sellers may be infringing copyright
law and should be avoided.

How to Make Money on eBay

When taking a photo of your items, here are some

basic things to consider:
• Can you see enough detail of the product? Move

the camera towards the image, don’t use zoom.

• Have the product set against a plain (preferably

white) background.

• Use a tripod to avoid shaky hands and blurry

photos.

• Avoid using flashes; use natural light where

available.

• Place the product in situ. For example, for

clothing, it’s advisable to invest in a mannequin
or have a friend model them for you rather than
laying them flat.

Item price

Let’s put this as bluntly as possible: you could have
the best product and the best service in the world,
but if you don’t compete on price you will miss out
on sales. In Chapter 3, we covered the concept of
profit margin. To be successful on eBay you need to
ensure there is a market for your product that will
sell at the price that will make you a sustainable net
profit. Do your research thoroughly—on eBay, on
other e-commerce sites and even offline—to ensure
that you will be able to sell your products at a highly
competitive price.

It is true that some sellers will gain competitive

advantage by having the best reputations, the best
designed listing and by providing the best service,
but, especially in this economic environment, it is

Preparing and creating listings 25

the bargain that is going to attract the most buyer
attention. Remember most people shop on eBay
because of the perception that it has the biggest
range at the best value.

Smart eBay businesses also need to be agile. You

may start with one or even no competitors, but due
to how transparent the marketplace is, it won’t take
long before someone starts selling the same product
as you, and usually at a cheaper price. Make sure
you have some ability to discount if the situation
requires it.

Providing the best value for any specific product

will also assist your ranking in eBay’s search results.
See below.

Item title

The third thing buyers pay attention to is the title.
You only have 55 characters for your item title,
and you should use that space to the absolute best
of your ability to promote the product on sale. Not
only are superfluous terms such as ‘cool’, ‘l@@k’
and ‘w0w’ rarely searched for by buyers, but you’re
also wasting the potential to have your item appear
higher in search results.

Your item title should be a simple list of highly

relevant product keywords that buyers will search
for. Refer to Chapter 8 for tips on finding the most
relevant terms for your product. For example, ‘New
Apple iPod Touch 32GB MP3 2nd

Gen’ contains

more popular search terms than ‘Look New iPod
Touch—Cool for Kids’.

How to Make Money on eBay

T i p :

✔

Remember to include the obvious! Browse through

the DVD category and you’ll begin to appreciate how
many listings do not contain the term ‘DVD’, or listings
without the word ‘book’ in the Books category.

Item description

Now that your photo, price and item title have
brought your potential buyer to your listing’s ‘View
item’ page, you need to keep their attention and lure
them into a sale. At the top of the page, feature either
a larger, clear picture of the item, or immediately list
critical product details. Be factual and avoid flowery
or overly expressive language, unless your item is a
one-of-a-kind and buyers will find the background
story relevant and appealing.

Once you’ve described the item as factually, thor-

oughly and professionally as possible, clearly list
your payment and postage details. Include as many
options as possible and do not discourage or favour
any particular options. This is the buyer’s choice,
and if they favour a particular method they should
not be discouraged from using it.

Avoid excessive design, colouring, font sizes and

styles. It creates an impression that the seller is
unprofessional and in some cases can make it harder
for the buyer to read what you’re selling.

Finally, avoid terse, threatening or lengthy

messaging  around  your  trading  terms.  There  are
countless  sellers  out  there  who  go  to  great  pains
to warn you against buying their product. It’s fair
to outline your general terms of trade, as any good
retailer  will  do,  but  200  lines  of  bold,  capped  red

Preparing and creating listings

text yelling at buyers to beware will only turn more
of your prospective customers away. No business
can afford to do so and remain sustainable for the
long term.

Item categorisation

It is imperative that you categorise your item as
accurately as possible when you list it on eBay. Not
only will buyers be able to find it more easily, but
eBay’s search algorithm rewards listings of more
relevant categorisation by promoting them higher
in search results.

Category is the most obvious and important tool

of classification. Within the DVDs category, for
example, sellers are presented with around eighteen
sub-category options. If you list your DVD in a
category with the word ‘other’ in it (such as ‘Other
DVD genres’) then you will lose all buyers who
browse for that title within ‘Comedy’. Similarly,
miscategorisation may lead to your account being
limited by eBay (refer to Chapter 10).

Many categories also include ‘item specifics’.

These  are  important  product  attributes  relevant  to
the  category,  such  as  region,  format  and  condition
within DVDs. eBay recently introduced a new search
functionality  that  allows  buyers  to  select  multiple
product  attributes  to  refine  their  searches.  If  you
do  not  specify  item  specifics,  your  listings  may  be
grouped with other listings in the ‘non specified’
category—hardly appealing for buyers!

Finally, some categories include ‘pre-filled item

information’, also known as ‘catalogues’. These will

How to Make Money on eBay

pre-fill certain product features within your listing.
Wherever these are available they should be used,
as they help provide more relevant information for
buyer searches, and what’s more they can reduce the
time it takes you to complete a listing.

Choosing the right format

Getting the right picture, description and categoris-
ation  for  your  item  is  only  part  of  the  equation  in
attracting  more  buyers  to  your  listings.  Another
crucial element is ensuring you list your particular
product  in  the  right  format.  On  eBay,  there  are  a
number of formats/options to choose from. Below is
a list and a brief outline of what types of products
may be best suited to each.
• Auction: rare, high-demand, highly collectable

items of uncertain value.

• Auction with Buy It Now: unique items with a

recognised general value.

• Fixed price (Buy It Now): common products

with a widely known value.

• Fixed price (Buy It Now) with best offer:

common products that are often subjected to
haggling, such as appliances.

• Classifieds (only available in selected categories):

vehicles, services, real estate.

• Second-chance offers (available on all auction

and fixed-price listings): allows you to make a
second offer to buyers who have not actually
won your item.

Preparing and creating listings 29

Also bear in mind that eBay has different pricing

for different formats. Refer to the Appendix.

Best match: eBay’s search algorithm

On most eBay sites around the world, and in most
categories,  the  search  default  is  to  an  algorithm
called ‘Most relevant’ or ‘Best match’. eBay does not
reveal what the precise algorithm equation is, and it
does vary from site to site and, in some cases, from
category  to  category.  As  an  eBay  seller,  improving
your search ranking can make the difference between
being  a  successful  seller  and  one  who  struggles  to
compete with others in their category.

Best match was designed to encourage healthy

competition among sellers by rewarding those who
offer the best service and value with the top position
in search results, rather than defaulting the position
on a time-ending basis.

Below are eight tips for helping to improve your

ranking in eBay’s search. None are surefire solutions
to success, but being aware of, and attempting to
optimise your performance in, each of them will
assist your ranking considerably.

Value: eBay strives to drive value for its buyers.
If you are the most expensive seller, or the one
who offers the most expensive postage options,
the search algorithm is more likely to demote
your listings.

Relevance: make sure your item title is as
relevant as possible to the product you are
listing and, simultaneously, is highly relevant to
the name of the category you have listed your

How to Make Money on eBay

item in. For example, listing a DVD cleaner in
the Romance DVDs category will most likely
result in your listing being demoted.

Popularity: for fixed-price listings, your chances
of ranking higher are improved if your listing
has multiple items and has a recent history of
sales. For example, if you list ten identical shirts
in one listing and you sell three of the ten, your
ranking is likely to be higher than if you sell
five of the same shirt as five individual listings.
So in order to further boost your success, the
more of the same item you can sell within one
listing the better. You therefore need to compete
on price, service, photo, title, description and
so on to attract as many buyers as possible to
improve your sales of that item.

Service: a seller’s detailed seller ratings (see
Chapter 6) are critical to your ranking in search
results. Make sure you offer great service to all
your buyers so they rank you highly on item
description accuracy, your communication, your
postage costs and how long it takes them to
receive the item.

Changes: if you change any detail in your listing
it is likely to impact your ranking in a search.
For example, changing the price of your item is
likely to ‘re-set’ your listing as new, losing any
previous sales data you have gathered so that
your popularity ranking will effectively be lost.

Policy violations: if you are a seller with a poor
track record in eBay policies, you will most
likely be demoted in search rankings. It is
therefore vital that you understand all of eBay’s

Preparing and creating listings

listing and seller policies (see Chapter 10), and
that you do your utmost to ensure you never
violate them. Furthermore, if eBay contacts you
with a request to follow up a buyer complaint,
you should attempt to resolve the matter as
soon as possible.

Listing duration: for auctions, it makes sense
that those ending soonest will receive some
positive weighting in the search rankings. For
fixed price, however, the aim is to gather as
much sales history for an individual listing as
possible—a 30-day listing has a greater chance
of achieving this than a three- or seven-day
listing, for example.

Experience: while it is true that listings with
a sales history are likely to receive positive
balance in the search ranking, those fixed-price
listings without a history should attempt to
emulate the most successful items. This means
competing on price, service and relevance.

Chapter 5

Save time with

Turbo Lister

What is Turbo Lister?

Turbo Lister is eBay’s fast, free and easy listing tool.
It allows you to create professional looking listings
quickly and edit them in bulk. You can duplicate
listings to save time, and create templates for similar
products so that all standard information remains the
same and all you need to do is add product-specific
details. It’s much faster and more convenient than
listing directly on eBay, especially for businesses
with deep product ranges.

Setting up your template is the only time-consuming

part. Once that’s done it can be copied thousands
of times, with editing product-specific information a
simple function away. Turbo Lister enables you to:
• edit your listing quickly and easily;
• customise your options to create and edit new listings;
• add photos and preview your listings without

being connected to the internet;

Save time with Turbo Lister

• automatically insert payment terms, postage and

any messages you wish to include;

• set up templates so you only have to enter this

information once;

• schedule your listings to start whenever you

wish; and

• upload up to 3000 listings to eBay with a single click.

Who should use Turbo Lister?

Turbo  Lister  is  primarily  aimed  at  those  listing
anything  from  a  few  hundred  to  a  few  thousand
listings at a time. It is not recommended for businesses
with their own listing tools or inventory systems, as
in  this  instance  a  third  party  listing  or  inventory
tool may be more suitable. For information, see
‘Solutions Directory’ on page 127.

How do I download Turbo Lister?

Before you download Turbo Lister, first check to
see if you have the following computer system
requirements:
• Windows Vista, Windows 2000 or Windows XP

(Windows XP recommended).

• 450 MHz or faster processor (Pentium III or

higher recommended).

• 256 MB RAM.
• At least 250 MB free hard disk space is

required, but 500 MB is recommended.

• Internet connection.
• Internet Explorer 5.5 or later.

How to Make Money on eBay

To download Turbo Lister, go to http://pages.

ebay.com.au/help/sell/turbo-lister-install.html and
click on the ‘Download the Turbo Lister program
here’ link.

T i p :

✔

Because Turbo Lister is not an online tool, it

needs to be ‘sent online’ to eBay to check for relevant
updated information. Before starting a large amount
of work creating or editing your listings, you should
always check for updates to important information like
category numbers and fees. To check for updates, click
on ‘Tools’, then ‘Check for program updates’ in the top
navigation menu.

Finding your way around Turbo Lister

Most  of  the  actions  you  need  to  perform  in  Turbo
Lister  are  done  via  the  top  navigation  menu  and
the  sub-navigation  menu.  When  referring  to  the
top navigation menu, we mean ‘File’, ‘Edit’, ‘View’,
‘Tools’ and ‘Help’, just below the Turbo Lister logo.
The sub-navigation menu will not always be active,
but includes the pictorial buttons on the second line,
from ‘New’ through to ‘Help’.

Figure 5.1: Navigation menus

Save time with Turbo Lister

T i p :

✔

When you first open Turbo Lister, tips will appear

in a pop-up box. It’s worth leaving this enabled to check
for important updates and to learn handy hints. It can be
closed each time by clicking on the ‘Close’ button in the
bottom right-hand corner. To disable the tips, unselect
the ‘Show tips at startup’ box in the bottom left-hand
corner. To see these tips at any time, choose ‘Help’, then
‘Turbo Lister tips’ from the top navigation menu.

Figure 5.2: Tips pop-up box

Importing listings into Turbo Lister

The first thing you need to do is import your existing
listings (if you have any) from eBay so you can store
and edit them within Turbo Lister. To do this click
‘File’, then ‘Import items’, ‘From eBay listings’, from
the top navigation menu. Next, choose which of your
eBay listings you would like to import by checking
the relevant boxes. Then click ‘Import’.

Save time with Turbo Lister

Figure 5.4: Locating imported files

Note that you can also import listings from a file

on your computer. To do this, on the top navigation
click ‘File’, then ‘Import items’, then ‘From file’.

Creating a new listing/new template

Let’s start by creating a new listing from scratch. Refer
to Chapter 4 for more tips on creating a great item
listing. It is best to create a new listing by going to
the inventory and opening the ‘My items’ folder. Once
in the folder, click ‘New’, then ‘Create new listing’, or
‘New’, then ‘Create new template’. You will now be
taken to the fields you need to complete in order to
create a listing from scratch. However, note that you
can simply copy an existing listing and change the

How to Make Money on eBay

fields—it is very simple to do so and instructions
are listed on page 49.

Title

Complete the item title. Be sure to only use

highly relevant searchable keywords. You have
55 characters, so do not waste any space on
pointless terms such as ‘l@@k’ or ‘cool’. If
creating a template you may wish to leave this
blank or put in a generic label such as ‘DVD R4
new’ so you can add individual product details
later.

Complete the listing subtitle if you need to

add more information and have it appear below
the title in the search results list. Note that
this incurs an additional fee. Leave blank for
templates unless you have a standard subtitle
you want applied to all similar products,
such as ‘Australian seller, 100% feedback, free
postage’.

Figure 5.5: Inserting title

Check the ABC box to conduct a quick spell check.

At the top of the field, the ‘?’ will take you to Turbo

Save time with Turbo Lister

Lister Help

, and the ‘+’ allows you to customise the

fields

—we’ll cover these on page 55.

Category

Next, choose the most appropriate category infor-
mation for your item. If creating a template, you may
wish to leave this blank to add individual product
details later, or alternatively you can create a template
for each product that will share the same category
(e.g. ‘Comedy DVDs’, ‘Drama DVDs’, etc.).

Choose a previously used category by clicking

the drop-down arrow, or alternatively click
‘Select’ to see a complete list of eBay’s current
category structure.

Note that some categories are enabled with item
specifics

, which prompt you to choose from

a list of product descriptors applicable to your
item. Always use these where available as they
can help increase the exposure of your items.
Click ‘Select’ to add item specifics, or ‘Edit’ to
change them. If you choose a category that has
pre-filled information

catalogues attached to

it, you will be prompted to add brand, product
type or model to match your product with the
information eBay has stored on its servers. For
more information, see ‘Creating multiple items
with pre-filled information’ on page 53.

Create additional exposure for your category by
advertising it in a second category. Note that
this incurs an additional fee.

If you own an eBay store, choose relevant store
categories

. (See ‘Store categories’, page 100.)

How to Make Money on eBay

Figure 5.6: Inserting category

Pictures

Leave this field blank if creating a template, unless
you want all products to have the same image. To
add a picture:

Click on ‘Click to insert a picture’.

Find the picture on your computer and click
‘Insert’.

Add additional pictures by repeating the
process. Note that this incurs an additional fee.

Figure 5.7: Inserting a picture

Your product image appears here.

Save time with Turbo Lister

Item description

Imagine you are a buyer and include all the relevant
information you need to successfully sell your item.
For templates, only include information that will be
applied to all products, such as payment and postage
information.

You can type your description and use the
simple design in the box provided or, alterna-
tively, scroll down and click the ‘Description
builder’ button to edit font, colour and style,
and add additional design components.

Figure 5.8: Adding description and design components

Here, you can:

choose to use one of eBay’s inbuilt listing

designs. This is free for Turbo Lister users;

change the layout of the page;

How to Make Money on eBay

use one of eBay’s photo-upgrade options;

change the font style, size, emphasis, colour
or alignment. Also add bullet or numbered
points, or use indents;

copy or paste information from/to another
source;

choose one of eBay’s marketing inserts such
as ‘Seller’s other items’ for cross-promotion, or
your store logo (if you have one);

change the size of the page or conduct a spell
check;

alternatively, add in your own HTML code to
create a highly stylised listing;

and finally, preview how your item will look
on eBay.

Once finished with your item description, click
‘Save’.

If you want to add a custom label to the
product that only you can see, to help with
ordering or classifying your items, do so in the
‘Inventory’ field.

Scroll down to the bottom of the ‘Design’ or
‘HTML’ view to add a counter to your listing.
This will tell you the number of people who
view your listing while it is live on eBay.

Selling format information

For templates, only fill in the selling format infor mation
that will be the same across all like products.

Save time with Turbo Lister

Figure 5.9: Adding selling format information

Choose whether you want to list your item at
a fixed price (Buy It Now) or as an auction. In
some categories you can also choose classified
format.

Enter your price, or the auction start price.

Specify how many of this item you have for
sale.

Select the duration of your listing.

Bidder IDs are now anonymous on eBay so
there is no need to check the ‘Private listing’
box.

Next, choose whether you would like to add
any of eBay’s Listing upgrades to help increase
the exposure of your item.

How to Make Money on eBay

Figure 5.10: Optional listing upgrades

Under ‘Postage options’, choose the various
services you will offer to your local and (if
chosen) international buyers. There are two
postage options to choose from: calculate
postage and flat rate. If you choose to allow
buyers to calculate their postage you can:

Choose calculated postage to allow buyers

to self-calculate postage costs based on their
own postcode.

Enter in the weight of the item.

Specify any additional handling costs.

If you know the package size and type,

choose from the options listed and enter the
dimensions.

Save time with Turbo Lister

Figure 5.11: Item specifications for delivery

OR if you choose flat rate postage:

Choose flat-rate postage to all buyers.

Specify which postage services you offer.

Specify the cost per item, and for each
additional item.

Specify whether buyers can pick the item up
from you, and if that entails a cost.

Create combined postage discounts: this link
takes you to eBay to set up general rules
around combined postage for your listings.

Specify your domestic handling time (how
long it will take you to post the item once it
has been paid for).

Repeat for international delivery if you are
willing to send your item overseas.

Make sure your item location is correct.

To edit, click ‘Postage options’.

How to Make Money on eBay

Figure 5.14: Additional instructions or policies

At the bottom of the screen you will see a number
of options. The arrows (a) will allow you to move
into the next listing in your folder, if you have one.
(b) allows you to apply your Turbo Lister defaults to
this listing (more on that on page 56). (c) shows you
a quick preview to review all information. (d) allows
you to create another listing the same as this one,
meaning you can easily edit product details without
having to change other fields.

Figure 5.15: Program options

Once you are happy with your listing, click ‘Save’

or ‘Save as template’ in the bottom right-hand corner
of the screen.

Save time with Turbo Lister

Copying/editing existing listings

Now that you have created your first listing, everything
gets easier! You can copy (duplicate) and edit your
listings in bulk. This is especially important if you
need to perform a mass update of your listings based
on  changes  made  to  the  eBay  site.  To  edit  or  copy
multiple listings, simply hold down your ‘Control’
button  and  select  multiple  listings.  To  select  all,
highlight  any  listing,  right  click  your  mouse  and
click ‘Select all’. Let’s say you are selling a total of
five different DVDs, all similar to The Piano. In your
‘My items’ folder:

Click ‘Duplicate’ to create copies of this listing
and specify the number of copies you want.

To change the listing format of this listing, click
‘Change format’.

To upload the listing to eBay, click ‘Add to
upload’.

If you want to edit the listing in the template,
click ‘Edit’.

To edit in this line view make sure ‘Edit mode’
is checked, then simply double-click the edit-
able fields in each row. Leaving in ‘View mode’
will mean you can double-click on any listing to
access the template to edit.

In this example, The Piano DVD template has

been duplicated five times and the seller has gone in
to edit item titles, categories, item specifics, photos
and start prices. All other fields can be left the same
as they are all DVDs, and there are five copies of
each to sell.

How to Make Money on eBay

To preview how a listing looks, click ‘Preview’.

To print, click ‘Print’.

To delete, click ‘Delete’.

‘Synchronize . . .’ will update your Turbo Lister
information with eBay information.

‘View online’ will take you to eBay.

Figure 5.16: Editing listings

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If there are certain options you do not want to

see when creating or editing a listing, you can ‘turn off’
certain features or check boxes. To do this, just click
‘Customise’ in the top right-hand corner of the area you
want to streamline. This can help make it even faster to
complete a listing in Turbo Lister.

Save time with Turbo Lister

Bulk editing

To edit multiple listings at once, highlight all listings
you wish to edit. Choose ‘Edit’ from the top navigation
panel, then click ‘Edit multiple items’. You will then
be taken to a screen that allows you to edit certain
fields—these edits will be applied to all listings
you have highlighted. Beware that changing fields
marked ‘Multiple values’ will overwrite all existing
information for that listing.

In the description field, anything you write can

be added to the bottom or top of the description, or
replace it altogether.

You can change text that is common to all of your

listings (bulk edit) using the ‘Search and replace’
feature. Highlight all listings you would like to edit,
choose ‘Edit’ from the top navigation panel, then
click ‘Search and replace’. This is especially useful
if you need to change your postage information,
returns policy or payment information, if you have
included text about these in your item description.
For example, you can replace ‘We accept Bank
Deposit, Cheque, Cash and PayPal’ with ‘We only
accept PayPal’.

How to Make Money on eBay

Figure 5.17: Search and replace function

Note, you can choose to replace text in the listing

title, subtitle, your custom (inventory) label and/or
the listing description.

You can also mass edit your listings by exporting

them into an Excel (CSV) file. To do so, highlight
the listings you need to edit, click ‘File’ in the top
navigation, then click ‘Export selected items’. Once
in Excel, highlight the necessary fields, click ‘Edit’ in
the top navigation of Excel, click ‘Replace’, then follow
the same process as outlined above. Next, you’ll need
to re-import your listings back into Turbo Lister, so
in Turbo Lister click ‘File’ from the top navigation,
then ‘Import items’, then ‘From file’ to retrieve the
file from your computer.

Save time with Turbo Lister

Creating multiple items with pre-filled

information

Some products on eBay can be listed using pre-filled
item information. This works by accessing a stored
catalogue on eBay and returning product information
to add to your listing. To create new multiple items
using pre-filled information, on the sub-navigation
menu click ‘New’, then ‘Multiple items with pre-filled
information’. Choose the eBay site where you wish to
display your listing, then click ‘Next’. Then, choose
your  product  type  from  the  drop-down  list,  and
enter  the  brand,  product  or  model  number  of  the
item  you  wish  to  find  pre-filled  information  for.
Once you have completed your list, hit ‘Next’ and
Turbo Lister will access eBay to find the information
you require. You may be required to select from a
number of close-matching products for each keyword
you enter.

Sending your listings to eBay

Once you have finished editing and/or creating your
listings and you are ready to send them live to eBay,
highlight the relevant listings then drag them into the
‘Waiting to upload’ folder in the left navigation.

There are a number of options in the ‘Waiting to

upload’ folder. Click ‘Tools’ in the top navigation
to:
• send all listings to eBay;
• send selected listings to eBay;

How to Make Money on eBay

• send all listings to Selling Manager Pro (this is

an optional tool you need to subscribe to on
eBay; refer to Chapter 7); or

• calculate what your listing fees will be.

Alternatively, choose from one of the upload

buttons to change the order of the listings, schedule
your listings to start at a particular time, calculate
fees or upload your listings to eBay.

Figure 5.18: Upload buttons

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The ‘Activity log’ folder in the left navigation will

be active once you send listings to eBay. It shows you
the status of your listings, so if you ever forget what
you’ve done this is a good place to start!

Using Turbo Lister to organise your listings

You can create new folders to organise your listings
into similar product types, formats, or even which
eBay site you list on. To do so, on the top navigation
bar click ‘File’, ‘New’, ‘Folder’. Alternatively, click
‘New’ in the sub-navigation menu, then click ‘Create
new folder’. Another way to do this is to right click
where you want your new folder to be placed in the
left navigation—‘My items’, for example—then click
‘New folder’.

You can also move your listings between folders

by simply dragging them with your mouse.

Save time with Turbo Lister

You can change the order of your listings in any

folder. Just click on any of the grey column headers
to reorder your listings by the relevant field.

Figure 5.19: Reordering listings by column headings

To customise the number and order of columns

you would like to see within any folder, click ‘View’,
then ‘Customise columns’ in the top navigation. Then
check the box next to the column you want to see,
or change the order of the columns by moving them
up or down. Click ‘OK’ to save your preferences. You
will need to do this for each group of sub-folders
you create.

If you have a lot of listings and want to find

one quickly, you can use Turbo Lister’s ‘Searching
for items’

function in the top right-hand corner of

the sub-navigation menu. This will search for the
keyword(s) in all of the listings within the highlighted
folder. Click on the magnifying glass to narrow your
search to item title, or description, etc.

Setting your Turbo Lister options and

preferences

In the top navigation click ‘Tools’, then ‘Options’.
Each subheading here can be very useful for setting
standards across all your Turbo Lister listings.

How to Make Money on eBay

‘Personal information’

allows you to connect your

Turbo Lister with an eBay User ID and also a PayPal
email address for using payment.

‘Seller options’

allows you to choose which eBay

sites you would like to list on, access your eBay store
(if you have one), change the default ‘Create new’
setting within Turbo Lister, and default to one eBay
site and one selling format for each new listing you
create in Turbo Lister.

‘Defaults’

can be chosen for auction, fixed-price

(Buy It Now) and classified-format listings. Here, you
can create default text to appear on all your listings
(such as payment methods, sales policies, etc.) so
every time you create a new listing this information
will automatically appear. Choose default information
for description, price, quantity, postage, etc.

‘Advanced options’

can change the way Turbo

Lister works when updating and synchronising
your information. You can also set a Turbo Lister
password

within Turbo Lister options to make it

more secure.

Once you have set your new preferences and

options, remember to click ‘Apply’ or ‘OK’ to save
your changes.

Turbo Lister ‘Help’

More information about using Turbo Lister can be
found by clicking ‘Help’ in the top navigation menu.
In the ‘Help’ section of Turbo Lister you can browse
help topics or search for particular keywords. There
are also links to eBay ‘Help’ pages and an online
tutorial.

Save time with Turbo Lister

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From time to time, you may need to know what

version of Turbo Lister you are using. To find out, in the
top navigation click ‘Help’, then ‘About Turbo Lister’.
Within the text that appears, you will see ‘Version . . .’.

Backing up Turbo Lister

It is advisable to back up your Turbo Lister database
regularly to ensure you do not lose your information.
The default location of your data is in ‘My documents’
within the Turbo Lister backup folder. Alternatively,
you can choose to save it elsewhere—for example, on
your own computer. To back up the data, simply click
‘File’, then ‘Backup database’ in the top navigation.

You can also set backup reminders. Click ‘Tools’,

then ‘Backup reminder’ in the top navigation.

Chapter 6

Providing outstanding

customer service

eBay’s ‘Feedback’ system

Most people who have ever heard of eBay would
be aware of its online reputation system, known as
‘Feedback’. Feedback is a transparent customer rating,
there for all potential buyers to see—and it captures
what percentage of your sales have resulted in a buyer
giving you a positive, neutral or negative rating.

And while sellers receive a rating, there is also the

opportunity for sellers to provide feedback to buyers
too. However, eBay recently removed the option for
sellers to leave buyers anything other than positive
feedback.  This  decision  was  made  after  a  number
of  buyers  told  eBay  that  receiving  what  they  felt
was  undeserved  negative  feedback  drove  them  to
eventually  leave  the  site  for  good.  And,  when  you
think about retail generally, there isn’t an obvious
example of where a retailer has an opportunity to
grade buyers on their performance. The obligation on

Providing outstanding customer service

buyers is to pay for an item if they have completed
check-out. Once this is done, a professional seller will
automatically leave positive feedback for the buyer.

The old adage of ‘you can’t please everyone’ is

true even in business. You can offer one customer
a level of service they think is excellent and offer
the same service to another customer who rates it
as poor. Rating is a subjective process. It is more or
less inevitable that, the more you sell on eBay, you
will eventually receive a negative Feedback rating.
This is the nature of business, and the key is to learn
from the experience and take any necessary steps
you can to prevent it from happening again.

eBay’s detailed seller ratings (DSRs)

Buyers also have the opportunity to rate sellers on
four components of their performance:

the accuracy of the item description, and
whether the item was received as described;

communication;

time taken to receive the item; and

cost of postage/delivery.

Known as detailed seller ratings or DSRs, these

scores pit you against every other eBay seller on the
site and can heavily influence your ranking in search
results. You should monitor your ratings regularly,
and if you see a downward trend take every step
to understand why it is happening and rectify the
situation. Here are some reasons why you might be
given a poor rating:

How to Make Money on eBay

• You haven’t passed on postage savings or are

not competitive on postage.

• You have not used item specifics or the item

description to specify the condition of your item
accurately enough.

• Your product photographs are not accurate.
• You have not clearly conveyed the right infor-

mation to your buyers.

It is therefore crucial to set the right expectations

in your buyer’s mind before they choose to purchase
from you.

Setting the buyer’s expectations

As covered in Chapter 4, a surefire way of deterring
potential buyers is to list paragraph after paragraph
of complicated terms of trade. Even the tone of
your listing can deter buyers, or the fact that you
have used capped text—which online is interpreted
as ‘yelling’. Put yourself in the buyer’s shoes and
read your terms of trade as subjectively as possible.
Would you buy from someone whose item description
included threats to buyers if they do not pay within
a specified time period?

The more successful sellers on eBay are those

who  convey  concise  and  clear  terms  of  trade  that
are  reasonable,  and  are  presented  in  a  tone  that  is
both  professional  and  friendly.  Here  are  some  tips
for clearly setting the right buyer expectations:
• Describe your item in as much detail as

possible. This not only includes the condition
of the item, but the various product attributes

Providing outstanding customer service

that may result in your buyer being satisfied
or disappointed if not conveyed correctly. For
example, if you say ‘red vase’ but you really
should have said ‘maroon’, or if you’re listing
an electronic accessory and you fail to mention
the type of voltage or outlet required. Buyers are
purchasing an item they have never seen before
so be as explicit as possible in all aspects of
your description.

• Indicate how long it will take you to respond

to your buyer’s questions. Few sellers will be
online every minute of every day, so in your
listing outline your operating hours, including
those of your ‘customer support department’.

• Let your buyers know how often you go to the

post office to send your items (every single day?)
and/or give them a clear estimate of how long it
will take to receive their item.

• Let buyers know your standard practice for

leaving feedback (as soon as the buyer has
paid?).

• If you go on holidays, use ‘Holiday hold’ (see

Chapter 8) or end all of your listings, because if
you’re not around to answer emails or send the
item—even if only for three days—your buyers
need to know this.

• If you’d like to get paid sooner, add a message

to your listing along the lines of ‘we ship our
items directly to you as soon as payment is
cleared, so faster payment methods such as
PayPal mean you get your item faster. We
appreciate payment within two days of the item
being bought.’

How to Make Money on eBay

Communicating with buyers

As  mentioned  above,  when  you  list  an  item  for
sale on eBay you’re generally expecting someone
to  purchase  a  product  they  have  never  seen,  from
someone they have never met. Some buyers are more
cautious about the experience, while others want to
be expressly certain they are buying exactly what
they  want  or  need.  Buyers  are  encouraged  to  ask
sellers questions (ASQ) if there is anything about
the item, or the trade terms, they are unsure of. Be
prepared to answer these questions, and do so in a
timely manner.

Here are some tips on communicating clearly and

effectively with your buyers:
• Add an FAQs (frequently asked questions) section

to your listing, and your store if you have one.

• If you do not have a store, add an ‘About me’

page with your FAQs on it (for more infor-
mation see: http://pages.ebay.com.au/help/
account/about-me.html).

• Consider establishing an auto-responder to

your inbox if you are receiving a high volume
of emails and will take more than a few hours
to respond. For example, ‘Thank you for your
email. We will aim to respond to you within
eight hours, but you may also wish to see our
“Questions” page at . . .’.

• If buyers ask you questions about a listing,

even ones you consider a waste of time, add the
missing information to your listing/template—
and make sure you check the box that will

Providing outstanding customer service

automatically add the question and answer to
the bottom of the live listing.

At all times, keep your tone polite and professional.

Like any business, you will one day come across a
buyer who is rude and/or unreasonable . . . welcome
to customer service! The mere fact that you are selling
on  eBay  means  you  should  be  aware  of  customer
service  principles  and  ensure  you  uphold  them  at
all  times.  The  better  service  you  offer,  the  more
chances  you  will  have  to  retain  your  buyers  and
increase your sales.

Payment options

When you go to a store, isn’t it annoying when they
don’t accept the payment type you prefer to use?
Sure, you might follow through with the purchase
regardless,  but  you  generally  think  twice  about
returning  to  the  store  again.  The  same  is  true  of
eBay sellers—the more choices you give a buyer, the
more  potential  you  have  to  complete  a  sale—and
have them return as loyal customers.

Though you are within your rights to express a

preferred option, it is unwise to state violent objec-
tions to a particular payment method and, what’s
more, this may in fact be against eBay policy (refer
to Chapter 10).

How to Make Money on eBay

PayPal

As covered in Chapter 2, PayPal is the eBay-owned
online payment mechanism. Below are some of the
advantages of accepting PayPal:
• Buyers can pay you without having to share

financial information such as credit card or
bank account numbers.

• Both buyers and sellers may be protected under

PayPal’s Buyer and Seller Protection. Buyers may
be protected for up to $20,000 on qualifying
items, giving them peace of mind when using
PayPal.

• Most payments are instant.
• Payments received into your PayPal account

are easily reconciled with your eBay listings,
and PayPal is fully integrated into the eBay site,
meaning once a buyer has paid the item should
be marked as such within My eBay.

• Buyers can pay via credit card, bank account or

stored PayPal balance.

Bank deposit

While most eBay buyers are comfortable transferring
funds into your bank account, it is not a standard
business practice to allow customers to do so. As a
business seller, one of the disadvantages of having
buyers use this option is that often they neglect
to adequately label their payments and, if you’re
selling hundreds of items with the same price point,
reconciling payments can be exhausting. Buyers tend
not to be aware of how difficult it is to reconcile, and

Providing outstanding customer service

any subsequent delays in receiving their products may
result in the seller receiving negative feedback. It is
true, however, that a small percentage of buyers are
not comfortable using credit cards online and this
is one method of payment that is easily accessible.
There is generally very little protection available to
buyers using this form of payment.

Cash on pick-up

Some sellers on eBay charge buyers a handling fee for
coming to pick up their items. Think how you would
feel as a buyer if you walked into an appliance store,
paid for your item and then drove around the back
to pick it up only to then be told you have to pay $5
to have the staff member bring the appliance to your
van. You do not have to offer cash on pick-up, and if
you think the hassle of doing so is an inconvenience
then choose not to offer it rather than charge for it.
Some buyers deliberately search for items in their
local area, so if you don’t offer cash on pick-up you
may be limiting your sales.

Cheque/money order

If you would like to offer your buyers the option of
paying ‘the old-fashioned way’, make sure you clearly
communicate that there will be a delay in receiving
their items as you will wait for the payment to clear
into your bank account. Not every business seller on
the site accepts these payment methods, so consider
your target market and the likelihood they will use
this option.

How to Make Money on eBay

Credit cards

Credit card payments can be processed on eBay via
PayPal. Alternatively, you may already have credit
card facilities in your business, in which case you
can accept the buyer’s credit card details over the
phone or online.

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Sellers need to be aware of the fact that they

cannot actively discourage the use of PayPal on eBay,
and cannot charge additional fees for accepting a
particular form of payment.

Delivery options

Leave it up to your buyer to decide what they would
prefer. Carefully consider your pricing and offer the
following options:
• overnight or express post (some buyers are

prepared to pay a premium);

• standard postage;
• courier;
• insurance or registered post (for an extra cost);
• extra padding for an additional cost;
• dismantling of your products—use this option

selectively, but in the case of something as
simple as CDs or DVDs, for example, some
sellers offer to send only the disc and the insert,
which means the item can be sent for next to
nothing; and

• pick-up—some buyers love coming to pick up

their items.

Providing outstanding customer service

Free postage

In recent years, e-commerce companies have begun
to  appreciate  that  postage  was  impacting  their
ability to compete with offline retail. There has been
a trend to increasingly offer free postage to compete
with those stores that bombard television, radio and
print  with  news  that  they  are  on  sale.  One  of  the
benefits  to  operating  an  online  business  is  fewer
overheads; one of the disadvantages is the growing
need to absorb postage costs.

eBay is no exception to this trend. Increasingly,

sellers are being encouraged, and rewarded, for
offering free postage. More importantly, buyers
have come to expect it in most cases. It is therefore
ad visable to consider utilising free postage as one of
your business tactics. You can usually absorb most
of the costs in the overall price of your products.

Australia Post

Most people and some businesses assume that
Australia Post operates using a ‘one size fits all’
mentality. It is not the case. The more volume you
send, the better the price you receive. Some sellers
have an account, which means their items are
collected by Australia Post; others get access to a
priority queue. You need to check with your local post
office about the services they offer, but don’t fall into
the trap of checking with only one branch—not all
outlets offer the same services, so it’s wise to conduct
a thorough research. And don’t rely on the Australia
Post website to give the best information because it

How to Make Money on eBay

is rarely tailored to your specific needs. Just like you
should get to know your bank manager, get to know
your postmaster, and your local postie too!

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Don’t assume you know the most cost-effective

way of sending items. Ask many questions, and ask
many people. Some products can pass as letters rather
than parcels; others are calculated differently depending
on cubic size or weight. Experiment with your packaging
to ensure you are paying the lowest possible amount
per item.

Couriers

Most couriers offer fast delivery with reliable tracking,
which means you will know where your product
is at all times. Choose a courier company that is
professional, one that will enhance your reputation.
Some couriers offer discounts simply because you are
an eBay seller. Others quote standard price options
over the phone but are willing to negotiate once they
know what sort of volumes you could potentially be
sending their way.

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When you call a courier company for the first time

to get quotes, don’t speak to the person who answers
the phone; ask to speak to someone who manages
new business accounts.

Chapter 7

Managing your

inventory with

Selling Manager Pro

What is Selling Manager Pro?

Imagine  a  program  that  automates  most  of  the
pro cesses  on  eBay.  It  re-lists  items  for  you  when
the listing ends, it tells you when you’re running
out of stock, it automatically emails your buyers for
you  and  even  leaves  them  feedback—all  without
you having to press a single button. It might sound
too good to be true, but it isn’t. It’s called Selling
Manager Pro (SMP), and it’s eBay’s sales and inventory
management tool. Realistically, it will take you about
an  hour  or  two  to  dive  in  and  learn  how  to  use  it
properly, and a few hours to set up all your listing
rules, but once you’ve done that the amount of time
you spend performing basic post-sales processes is
greatly reduced.

How to Make Money on eBay

Features of Selling Manager Pro include:

• a display of all listings with their current status

(live, bids, sold, paid, feedback, etc.);

• bulk re-list options;
• automatic re-list options;
• invoices and packing labels;
• email and feedback default templates;
• bulk feedback; and
• tracking of any unpaid items.

Who should use Selling Manager Pro?

SMP is really aimed at high-volume sellers on eBay
who do not have their own listing or inventory
management tools, although some sellers who do
use external software still use some elements of SMP,
such as the automated feedback function.

How do I subscribe to Selling Manager Pro?

Selling Manager Pro can be used on any operating
system. The only other computer system requirements
are an internet connection and one of these browsers:
Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 or later, Mozilla Firefox
1.5 or later, Apple Safari 2 or later.

You do not need to download any special software

to use SMP; it is all available from within eBay. Once
you subscribe, all of your selling links within My
eBay will be replaced with SMP functionality. To
subscribe, go to http://pages.ebay.com.au/help/sell/
selling-manager-subscription.html#subscribing.

Managing your inventory with Selling Manager Pro

eBay has a basic version of the tool (Selling Manager)

available for free, but it lacks the advanced inventory
management features of SMP. Selling Manager Pro
is $9.95 per month, but is free for a 30-day trial
period. If you subscribe to a store (see Chapter 8),
Selling Manager Pro is free.

Selling Manager Pro summary

Once you have subscribed to SMP, within My eBay,
click on the ‘Selling Manager Pro’ link in the left-
hand navigation. Your SMP summary is a one-page
snapshot showing you all your listings, recent sales
and  outstanding  actions,  such  as  listings  awaiting
payment and postage. From here every link takes
you  directly  to  the  relevant  listings,  so  you  will
not need to scroll through your entire inventory to
see  just  those  listings  that  currently  have  bids,  for
example.

Seller dashboard

The ‘seller dashboard’ is also visible in the SMP
summary. eBay’s seller dashboard gives you guid-
ance to your performance as a seller, and highlights
possible areas for improvement. Given that your seller
performance can impact your ability to remain on
the site, and also the position your listings appear
in within a search result, it is imperative to ensure
your performance is acceptable.

How to Make Money on eBay

Seller dashboard features include:

• Detailed seller ratings: here, your DSRs are

compared with other eBay sellers over a 30-day
or twelve-month period.

• PowerSeller status: you can check to see

whether you can qualify as an eBay PowerSeller.

• Policy compliance: check here to see if you have

committed any policy violations.

• Buyer satisfaction: your customer service rating

is listed here.

• Account status: eBay will alert you here to your

account payment status.

It is advisable to check your seller dashboard

on a regular basis to ensure you are not in danger
of being suspended from the site, or having your
account restricted.

How to Make Money on eBay

information such as amount in stock, cost price (to
help calculate your profit), and you can manage your
products within folders.

To create a new product, click on ‘Inventory’

beneath the ‘Selling Manager Pro’ link from the
‘My eBay views’ options in the left-hand navigation.
Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on
the ‘Create product’ button.

Figure 7.2: Create a new product listing

All of this information is for your reference only

and cannot be viewed by your buyers. To create a
new product, complete the following steps:

Enter in the name of your product. If you do

not need multiple listings per unique product,
you may wish to group similar products
together, such as books or DVDs, for example.

Enter in your custom label.

Managing your inventory with Selling Manager Pro

Choose to save your new listing in an existing

folder or create a new product folder.

Specify the quantity you have available.

Enter the average unit cost, which is how

much you pay per item. This will assist you in
calculating your profit post-sales.

Enter your restock information and choose

whether to be alerted when you are low on
stock. If yes, choose the minimum quantity you
want to have available before being alerted.

Enter in the vendor (or supplier) information.

Enter any notes, such as how long it takes to

ship, where the item is located in your ware-
house, etc.

Click ‘Save and create listing’.

You will then be taken through to eBay’s ‘Sell

your item’ form to create an eBay listing for the
product.

Now that you have one listing template beneath

that product, it’s easy to create multiple templates and
edit them as needed. This way, all the information
you enter—such as start price, postage and payment
options, and your listing design—will be carried over
to all of the new duplicates you create.

Figure 7.3: Edit template screen

How to Make Money on eBay

Here is what you can do with a template by

checking the box next to ‘Template 1’:
• In the drop-down box, you can assign auto-

mation rules (see below), delete automation
rules, edit the template name (change it from
‘Template 1’), or delete the template.

• ‘Edit’ allows you to make changes to the actual

listing.

• ‘Sell again’ sends the item live to eBay.
• ‘Duplicate’ copies this listing exactly.
• ‘Duplicate as’ copies this listing but takes you to

the ‘Sell your item’ form to edit the information.

• ‘Create new’ starts a new listing from scratch.
• ‘Edit templates’ allows you to bulk-edit all your

listings (see below).

• ‘Move templates’ lets you move them to another

folder.

Editing your listings in bulk

eBay  makes  changes  to  its  policies  that  sometimes
result  in  sellers  needing  to  change  their  listings  to
comply. If you have 1000 products live at any one
time, you can imagine how time consuming it would
be to edit every single one individually. In SMP, you
can edit your listing templates in bulk. From within
the  product  folder,  check  the  listing  templates  you
want to edit, then click ‘Edit templates’.

On the next page, select which information from

your templates you would like to edit. This includes
basic information such as title, subtitle, etc. You can
make bulk changes to payment options, postage, poli-
cies, and so on. You cannot edit listing descriptions

Managing your inventory with Selling Manager Pro

here, but you can add more information to each
description. Click ‘Continue’.

Next, review your templates, then click ‘Save’.

Managing SMP folders

From the product inventory, you can manage your
product folders in a number of ways:

Use the drop-down box to view only products
in that folder.

Click the ‘Manage folders’ link to add, edit,
move, copy or delete product folders.

Use the inventory search field to locate items by
title, product name or custom label.

Click the ‘Store category’ drop-down box to see
products listed in particular store categories.

Check the ‘Status’ field to see products that are
either low on stock or out of stock.

Click on the relevant links in this row to sort
listings alphabetically, or by quantity in stock,
success ratio, selling price, custom label or date
submitted to eBay for sale.

Figure 7.4: Managing product inventory folders

How to Make Money on eBay

Creating listings quickly in Excel

If you prefer not to use eBay’s ‘Sell your item’ form to
create listings, with some basic knowledge you can
create thousands of listings quickly and efficiently
using Excel.

The first step is to select which type of listing

template you want to complete. Within My eBay,
scroll down the page until you come to ‘Seller tools’
in the left-hand navigation. Click ‘File management
centre’. Once in the file management centre, beneath
‘Upload’ click ‘Select template’ in the left-hand naviga-
tion. There are several templates to choose from, both
in CSV and Excel format.
• Product inventory template, like the one covered

on page 73.

• Item specifics template—choose a category you

wish to list in and the template will include a
list of ‘Item specifics’ for you to fill in, related
to the product you wish to sell. Completing
these fields is essential as it helps improve your
ranking in search results. If using this template,
once you have chosen your category you should
also download the ‘Item specifics definitions’
data to ensure your fields are accurate.

• Catalog template—selected eBay categories

import a catalogue of products for you to
choose from, matching the product code with
some basic information about it.

• Basic template—only use this for categories that

do not have item specifics, as there are no cata-
logue or item specifics fields for you to fill in.

Managing your inventory with Selling Manager Pro

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Before you start using eBay’s file management

centre, refer to the user guide here: http://pages.ebay.
com.au/file_exchange/SMP_FMC_User_Guide.pdf.

Once you have downloaded your blank Excel or

CSV template, you can fill in the necessary infor-
mation  for  each  field.  To  ensure  you  get  the  right
content  within  each  field,  it  is  advisable  to  create
one  listing  on  eBay,  then  download  that  listing  in
Excel so you can copy relevant fields.

To do so, in the file management centre beneath

‘Download’ click ‘Download Files’ in the left-hand
navigation. Choose which type of listings you would
like downloaded, and the email address you want
the downloaded file sent to. Click ‘Save’. You will
be notified via email when the file is available for
viewing, or alternatively click ‘Completed downloads’
after a few minutes.

Within Excel, you can now copy each line or field,

and use the ‘Find and replace’ functionality to easily
create hundreds, or thousands, of unique listings or
edit existing listing templates in bulk, but first read
more information about importing files below.

Importing your listing files

Be  mindful  that  only  those  files  that  are  complete
and  have  all  relevant  information,  and  with  the
right style of text, will be able to be uploaded to
eBay. It is advisable to test one or two listings first
before  spending  your  time  creating  thousands  of
listings  only  to  find  you  have  a  small  error  in  the
input fields. Remember to refer to the user guide

How to Make Money on eBay

here (http://pages.ebay.com.au/file_exchange/
SMP_FMC_User_Guide.pdf) before you start this
process.

To import or upload your new listing templates,

in the file management centre beneath ‘Upload’ click
‘Upload inventory’ in the left-hand navigation. Click
‘Browse’ to find the relevant file on your computer,
then click ‘Upload’.

Now that you have created your product and/or

listing templates in SMP, you can assign automatic
rules to each listing.

Listing automation rules

By using SMP’s automated listing rules, you can save
an enormous amount of time that you’d normally
have to spend managing your listings and inventory.
The rules available enable you to:
• keep a minimum number of listings active at all

times;

• schedule your listings;
• re-list once if an item does not sell;
• re-list continuously until an item sells; and
• re-list continuously whether it sells or doesn’t

sell.

To apply a rule to a listing or product, click

‘Inventory’ under ‘Selling Manager Pro’ in the left-
hand navigation of My eBay. To the right-hand side
of each of your listings, choose ‘Assign automation
rules’ from the drop-down box. On the next page,
select which rule you would like to apply, then click
‘Assign’.

Managing your inventory with Selling Manager Pro 81

Figure 7.5: Automation rules

If at any stage you wish to suspend your listing

automation rules, under ‘Selling Manager Pro’ in the
left-hand navigation of My eBay click ‘Automation
preferences’. Scroll to the bottom of the page to get
to the ‘Listing automation schedule’ then select the
dates you would like your automation suspended.
Click ‘Apply’. To change at any time, simply uncheck
the box and click ‘Apply’.

Managing active and unsold listings

SMP automatically groups together your listings,
depending on their status. Under ‘Selling Manager
Pro’ in the left-hand navigation of My eBay, click
‘Active’ or ‘Unsold’.

From your ‘Active’ list, using the drop-down box

on the right-hand side you can:
• change the format of the listing;
• assign new automation rules;
• sell a similar item (pre-populates a listing

template with the same information so you can
edit it to become another item);

How to Make Money on eBay

• revise your active listing;
• add to the description; and
• end the listing early.

From your ‘Unsold’ list, using the drop-down box

on the right-hand side you can:
• sell a similar item;
• re-list; or
• re-list as store inventory if your item was

auction or fixed price.

Using the buttons at the bottom of your list, you

can also add notes to the listing for your own infor-
mation, or save the listing to your SMP Inventory.

Managing sold items

In a similar way, SMP also allows you to manage your
sold items conveniently in one place. Often the post-
sales process can be the more time-consuming aspect
of selling on eBay, so it is important to automate as
much of this as possible.

Figure 7.6 shows the ‘sold items’ screen. There is a

lot of functionality on this page, and it’s worth getting
to know what each of the time-saving features are.
Remember that checking multiple listings will allow
you to perform a lot of these functions in bulk to all
selected listings. The ‘Sold items’ screen allows you
to do the following:

Search for specific buyer email addresses.

Search for sold items within certain store
categories.

Managing your inventory with Selling Manager Pro

Look for all listings that are awaiting payment,
awaiting postage or paid and posted.

Change the time period of sold items to look at.

After checking the box next to the relevant
listing, change the item to:

payment received;

posted; or

payment received and posted.

After checking the box next to the relevant
listing, choose to:

email the buyer;

print packing slips/invoices;

leave feedback for the buyer;

sell a similar item;

re-list the item;

send it to your archived folder;

download/export the listing to your
computer;

revise the actual postage cost of the item;

save to your inventory; or

add a note.

Click on any of the hyperlinked headings or
the symbols to change the order of your sold
items by:

picture/no picture;

record number;

buyer ID;

format;

total price;

sale date;

number of emails sent;

whether the buyer has completed check-out;

paid/unpaid;

How to Make Money on eBay

posted/not posted;

whether you’ve left feedback or not;

feedback left for you by the buyer or not;

whether the item has been re-listed or not;

whether a buyer has accepted a second-
chance offer or not; or

your custom label.

Use the drop-down box to:

sell a similar item;

view the sales record;

print packing slips/invoices;

email the buyer;

re-list the item;

send it to your archived folder; or

mark posted (if the item has been paid for).

Click on the record number to see the buyer’s
details, transaction details and notes.

Click on the buyer ID to see the buyer’s

feedback profile.

Click on the buyer’s email address to send

them an email.

Click on the item title to see the actual listing.

Click on the price to see transaction details.

Click on the number to see what emails you

sent the buyer, and when.

Click on any of the symbols to view the sales

status and notes for each listing.

Managing your inventory with Selling Manager Pro

Figure 7.6: Managing sold items

Leaving automated feedback for buyers

SMP allows you to automatically leave feedback for
your buyers when certain conditions are met. You
can leave a random comment from a list created by
you or eBay, and choose to do so when:
• the buyer has paid for the item; or
• the buyer has paid for the item and left you

positive feedback.

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Being a great seller and providing great service

means recognising what a buyer’s obligations are for
each sale. In essence, all a buyer is contracted to do
once they buy from you is pay for the item. It is therefore
advisable that businesses that want to be seen to be
providing outstanding service automatically leave positive
feedback for buyers on payment.

How to Make Money on eBay

To automate leaving feedback for buyers, under

‘Selling Manager Pro’ in the left-hand navigation of
My eBay click ‘Automation preferences’. Check the
‘Automatically leave the following positive feedback’
box, then choose which option you would prefer.
Click ‘Apply’.

You can change your stored list of comments by

clicking the link on this page too. You can store up
to ten positive feedback comments.

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Make sure you brand your feedback with your

store name or seller ID. Double-check your comments
for  spelling  errors  and  make  sure  the  message  is
professional  in  tone.  Don’t  use  CAPS  and  don’t  use
punctuation marks to make images like this, * * * *, as
they’re  generally  off-putting  and  don’t  enhance  your
business reputation.

Sending automated emails to buyers

SMP also allows you to send automated emails to
buyers—drastically reducing the amount of time and
effort required to provide outstanding service. Bear
in mind that some buyers elect to receive automated
end-of-item emails from eBay, so be careful not to
inundate your buyers with communication. The email
templates within SMP are fully customisable and can
be individualised for your buyers.

To automate sending emails to buyers, under

‘Selling Manager Pro’ in the left-hand navigation of
My eBay click ‘Automation preferences’. Check which
of the automated emails you would like to send, and

Managing your inventory with Selling Manager Pro

whether you would like to have a copy of the email
sent to you. Email types include:
• winning-buyer notification;
• payment reminder;
• payment received;
• item posted; and
• feedback reminder.

Once you’ve selected which email you’d like to

send, click ‘Apply’.

On this page, you can also edit each of the various

email templates by clicking on the ‘Edit xxx template’
link. Once in the email template, if you have a store
you can choose to include your store header. The auto
text insertion box (see page 88) allows you to insert
item- and buyer-specific information into your emails
so that each one appears individualised, adding more
professionalism to your communi cations. Check the
boxes if you would like to include payment informa-
tion and your cross-promotions (highly advisable).

Chapter 8

Branding and

marketing

All successful businesses spend time and resources
creating  a  brand  to  attract  and  retain  customers,
and marketing to get it known. On eBay, remember
that  unless  you  are  the  only  seller  of  your  type  of
product,  you  will  be  competing  with  hundreds,  if
not  thousands,  of  other  eBay  sellers.  Imagine  that
eBay  is  one  gigantic  shopping  mall  and  you  are
one of 80 electronics stores. How will you make
customers notice you first, and visit your store before
the other 79? Market your brand to your customer
demographic—if you’re selling electronics, your image
could be a tech-centred one, or if selling baby items
your image could be tailored to new parents.

On eBay, a lot of this hard work is done for you,

because eBay spends millions of dollars every year
to bring people to the platform. But once there, it’s
your responsibility to make your listings stand out
above and beyond everyone else’s, and a great way
of doing this is by using an eBay store.

Branding and marketing

What is an eBay store?

Stores allow you to display all of your listings together,
in one branded area of the site. It’s like having your
very own website on eBay, with all of your selling
policies, promotions and special marketing features.
When you open a store, buyers can click through
to your area of eBay to see everything you have for
sale. Store owners should take the time to create a
dynamic, stylish and strongly branded store to attract
as many buyers as possible—it’s about making your
eBay name as professional as you can.

In addition to these benefits each store level is

assigned a different fee structure, so it’s important
to choose the best one for your business. See the
Appendix for more information.

How can I subscribe to a store?

To subscribe to a store, go to: http://cgi3.ebay.com.
au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ChangeProductSubscription&
productId=3.

If you need to close your store, go to: http://cgi3.

ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?CancelProductSubscr
iption&productId=3.

Subscription levels

There are currently three different subscription levels
for stores.
1. Basic store ($14.95 per month)
• Showcase all your listings in your storefront.
• Drive buyers to your custom URL.

How to Make Money on eBay

• List in ‘Store inventory’ format for as low as

AU$0.40 for 30 days.

• Use ‘Merchandising manager’ to cross-sell your

inventory on your bid and check-out pages.

2. Featured store ($99.95 per month)
Get all the ‘Basic’ store benefits, plus the fol lowing:
• Cross-selling of your store inventory on all your

listings pages.

• Priority placement in ‘Related stores’ sections.
• Featured placement on the eBay stores home

page.

• Prime positioning in the top-level directory

pages where you have items listed.

3. Anchor store ($499.95 per month)
Get all the ‘Basic’ and ‘Featured’ store benefits, plus
the following:
• Showcase placement of your logo within the

eBay ‘Stores directory’ pages.

• Premium placement in ‘Related stores’ sections

of the ‘Search and browse’ pages.

Designing your eBay store

Once  you  have  subscribed  to  a  store,  you  will  get
access  to  the  design  and  functionality  of  the  store
via  My  eBay.  In  the  left-hand  column  of  My  eBay
you  should  see  a  list  of  shortcuts  down  near  the
bottom of the page, and one for ‘Manage my store’.
Alternatively, under the ‘Account’ tab at the top of
My eBay you will find a link to ‘Subscriptions’, which
will  take  you  to  the  right  page  to  edit  your  eBay

Branding and marketing

store. Under ‘Active subscriptions’, find the ‘Manage
my store’ link to take you to the ‘Manage my store’
menu.

Figure 8.1: ‘Manage my store’ link

In the left-hand navigation under ‘Store design’

are the various options you have to change the
layout or design of your store. To begin, click on
‘Display settings’. If you want to create your own eBay
store from scratch using HTML (a language used to
design web pages), jump forward to page 101 to the
‘Custom design your store’ section of this chapter.
The following information is for using existing eBay
templates to create your store.

How to Make Money on eBay

of your store. Consider using a name that reflects
the kind of products you sell, such as ‘Aideen’s
Homewares’ or ‘Jeffrey’s Tools’. Your store will also
influence how people find you when they search
for particular products on Google or other internet
search engines.

2. Store description

The store description also influences internet search
results. For example, if you were Aideen you might
write a description like the following: ‘Aideen’s
Homewares is your one-stop internet shop for buying
everything  to  do  with  your  home—kitchenware,
appliances, cutlery, crockery . . .’. Remember to
include  any  brand  names  that  you  sell.  Imagine
you  are  describing  your  entire  business  in  one  or
two sentences and that people will visit your store
based on what you tell them. Your keywords should
be  ones  that  regularly  get  used  on  internet  search
engines.

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If you go to Google, you can find a list of the

most frequently searched terms by category. Go to www.
google.com.au/insights/search/#—you can search over
the last 90 days, for example, or the past twelve months.
Choose from this list the terms that best represent what
you sell, but don’t use any that aren’t closely aligned
with your products or else you’ll waste the traffic coming
to your eBay store via search engines.

Branding and marketing

3. Store logo

Finally, choose an eBay-designed store logo, or add
your own (it must be 310 x 90 pixels in size). Again,
the logo should be pleasing to your target audience
and should ideally include your store name and logo
and/or branding (colours, style, etc.).

Once you’re finished, click ‘Save changes’ at the
bottom of the page.

Store theme and display

Now you’re back on the ‘Display settings’ page of
‘Manage my store’, scroll down to the ‘Theme and
display’ section. Here is where you choose the layout
of your store, and apply design colours.

Figure 8.4: Theme and display

How to Make Money on eBay

1. Store theme

Click on the ‘Edit current theme’ or ‘Change to
another theme’ link on the right-hand side of the
page. For new store subscribers this will say ‘Create
theme’. eBay gives you twelve colour themes to choose
from. Choose the design that is best aligned to the
type of product you are selling. For example, black
may not be the best colour if you’re selling girls’
clothing! Clicking on ‘Edit current theme’ will allow
you to slightly alter your chosen template’s default
colours, giving you the opportunity to create a truly
unique looking eBay store. Click ‘Save settings’ at
the bottom of the page to return to the ‘Manage my
store’ menu.

Remember, if you want to create your own theme

and design from scratch, read how to do so under
‘Custom design your store’ on page 101.

2. Left navigation bar settings

Back in the ‘Manage my store’ menu, you can now
choose which navigation options you would like
buyers to see when they come to your store. Click
on the ‘Change’ link on the left-hand side to alter
your store settings.
• Search box: enables buyers to search for

particular keywords when they come to your
store.

• Categories: shows either the categories you have

created for your store or the categories you have
listed your items in on eBay. Categories allow

Branding and marketing

buyers to browse all like products in your store
without having to conduct a search.

• Product finders: if you have a ‘Featured’ or

‘Anchor’ store, buyers can use a product finder
(also known as item specifics) to narrow down
their searches within your store by product
attributes, such as size, type, colour, etc.

• Buyer display options: allows individual buyers

to change the way they view items in your store
(changing to ‘Time left’ or ‘View by pictures’, for
example).

• Store pages: allows buyers to navigate their

way to your other custom-made pages, if you
have them within your store (more on this on
page 101).

3. Store header display

At the top of every store page you create is the store
header. By clicking ‘Change’ (see above) you can
enter additional text, pictures or navigation buttons
to help your buyers find their way around your store,
or promote certain features. For example, you may
have a sale and want everyone to know that it is 25
per cent off all items. Or you may wish to announce
the release of a new product.

Here, you can also choose which eBay header you

would like buyers to see at the very top of your store.
For example, do you want them to see the full eBay
header (which allows buyers to browse the entire
eBay site), or the minimal header which removes
this functionality?

How to Make Money on eBay

100

4. Item display

The ‘Item display’ feature lets you choose the default
way your buyers will see the listings within your
store—a choice between ‘list’ view or ‘gallery’ (picture)
view. Additionally, you can also choose the default
sort order of your store listings—ending first, highest
priced, lowest priced, or newly listed.

Choose the option that is best aligned with your

business model. For example, if you list everything
at auction, ‘Ending first’ would be the natural default.
However, if all your listings are bargain-oriented and
fixed price, you may choose ‘Lowest priced’ or, to
push your latest inventory, ‘Newly listed’.

Store categories

From the ‘Manage my store’ menu, click the ‘Store
categories’ link beneath ‘Store design’ in the left-hand
navigation.

eBay stores allow you to create up to 300 custom

categories. While for every item you list on eBay you
choose an eBay category, in stores you have more
flexibility. For example, you may wish to create a
category that collects together ‘sales items’, or eBay’s
category structure may not be as comprehensive as
you need so you could create ‘Blue T-shirts’, ‘White
T-shirts’, etc. Buyers will only see these categories
once they are in your store, and they are designed
to help them navigate through your items more
easily.

Branding and marketing

101

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Be mindful not to overwhelm your buyers

with too much choice, or continually change your
categories—both will only confuse prospective buyers
and likely result in fewer sales. Use store categories to
logically arrange your items in a way that buyers will
find simple to use and that will guide them to the most
relevant products.

To add a category, simply click ‘Add category’ in
the top right-hand corner of the page. Here you
can also reorder your categories (although keeping
them alphabetical is highly recommended), rename
categories, and delete ones you no longer need.

Custom design your store

From the ‘Manage my store’ menu, click the ‘Custom
pages’ link beneath ‘Store design’ in the left-hand
navigation.

Aside from the standard layout and store page

that is covered in previous pages, you can also add
selected custom pages to your store. eBay gives you
seven basic custom pages to choose from—including
ones that showcase your items, allow additional
pictures (perhaps of your warehouse, for example),
as well as special promotion pages.

This is also where you can create a new store

page from scratch, without using any of eBay’s pre-
designed templates. To do so, you need to know
HTML (a language used to create web pages). If
you’re unfamiliar with HTML there are many books
and websites that can help you, and once you get the
hang of it it’s not very difficult. Most designers and

How to Make Money on eBay

102

design agencies know the language and can create a
dynamic, strongly branded web page for your store.
To create a unique HTML page, enter the code into
the ‘1 Text Section/HTML’ field.

Frequently asked questions

Finally, every store should create a FAQs page. These
are common among most websites and anticipate
your buyers’ frequently asked questions. Enter your
questions and answers in simple, easy-to-follow
language. Consider questions such as:
• What are the postage costs?
• How can I contact customer support?
• How long does it take to receive my items?
• Can I pick up my item?

You can continue to add to these as more questions

are asked by your buyers.

The number of custom pages you can create

depends on your store subscription level. You can
also edit, delete and hide (deactivate) your custom
pages within this area of ‘Manage my store’, and
select which page will be the one buyers first see
when they come to your store—known as the store
homepage. Click ‘Apply’ at the bottom of the page
to save your designs.

Store promotion boxes

Throughout your store, you have the ability to display
promotion boxes on various pages. Promotion boxes
are an ideal way to keep buyers within your store

Branding and marketing

103

by showing them more of what you have to offer.
Remember that retaining your buyers is one of the
keys to making money on eBay, and your store should
promote all aspects of your business professionally but
let the products remain the true stars of the show.

From the ‘Manage my store’ menu, click the

‘Promotion boxes’ link beneath ‘Store design’ in the
left-hand navigation. You can use ‘Guided setup’ to
apply default promotion boxes, or click on the ‘Create
new promotion box’ button to design your own. The
three different types of boxes allow you to:

Advertise items (choose products that are newly
listed, ending soon, or on sale).

Link to other parts of your store (such as FAQs
or trading terms).

Impart general messages to your buyers (such as
payment information or links to signing up to
your store newsletter—see page 107).

First, choose the type of promotion box you

would like. Click ‘Continue’. Then decide where
your promotion box will be located on the page,
and which pages it will be visible on. Next, define
the box’s content and colour. This is also where you
give the promotion box a title. Note that the colours
will default to those chosen by you when you created
your store, but you can edit these at this step. And
finally, click ‘Save’ to send your promotion box live.
Repeat the process to create more.

How to Make Money on eBay

104

Bring more buyers to your store

Listing frame

If you have an eBay store, one of its primary objectives
is to keep attracting potential buyers, or ‘traffic’.
The more traffic that comes to your store, the more
cost-effective it is to run, and the more opportunities
you have to extend your brand awareness, build
buyer loyalty and, ultimately, sell more items. And
that’s the whole point of listing on eBay.

Listing frames show up in all your items on

eBay—so every time someone views one of your
items, they will see your store logo, store header, store
categories and links to your other store pages.

From the ‘Marketing tools’ menu, click the ‘Listing

frame’ link beneath ‘Store marketing’ in the left-hand
navigation. Then, from the ‘Listing page’ options,
choose which parts of your store you would like to
display within your item listings, and select the other
elements you would like to include such as logo,
search box and, most importantly, ‘Add to favourite
stores’ link (which allows buyers to find you again
easily from within their My eBay Favourites).

Click ‘Apply’ to add the listing frame instantly to

all of your current and future listings.

Search engine keywords

From the ‘Manage my store’ menu, click the ‘Search
engine keywords’ link beneath ‘Store design’ in the
left-hand navigation.

Branding and marketing

105

This feature will help buyers outside of eBay find

you when they are conducting searches on sites like
Google. It is imperative that you use only keywords
that are specifically related to the products you sell,
and remember that it can take 30 days or more for
search engines to find your pages. The importance
of this feature cannot be underestimated, and those
sellers who use it most effectively will gain a real
competitive edge.

For each page of your store, you have the ability

to add up to six search engine keywords. Do not
repeat the same word, as this is viewed as keyword
spamming and will be rejected by the search engines.
Try to be specific about the products you are selling,
and refer to Google to find the most popular searches
related to your category. It is also advisable to use
words that are synonymous.

Click on the ‘Edit’ link next to each of your store

pages, enter up to six terms or phrases and click
‘Save’.

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A great idea is to check out Google’s ‘Adwords’

feature, which shows you the most common searches for
terms similar to what you’re looking for. Did you know,
for example, that more people search for the term ‘eBay
books’ than they do ‘eBay book’? Find the tool at: https://
adwords.google.com.au/select/KeywordToolExternal.

HTML builder

Create attractive links to your eBay store to use
within your eBay listings, or off eBay on sites such
as Facebook, My Space or even your own website.

How to Make Money on eBay

106

Wherever people can find you online, they should be
able to find the products you have for sale—it’s all
about marketing your brand at any given opportunity,
and considering all of that exposure is for free you
have nothing to lose.

From the ‘Manage my store’ menu, click the ‘HTML

builder’ link beneath ‘Store design’ in the left-hand
navigation. Choose whether you would like to build a
simple link, an advanced link (more attractive design)
or an off-eBay link, then choose whether you would
like to link to a particular item, one of your store
pages or a search within your store.

Though this will take you fifteen minutes or so to

set up, that is a small investment to make given the
potential increase in traffic to your store.

Listing feeds: bring more buyers to your store from
outside eBay

Like search engine keywords, listing feeds allow your
store to be found and viewed external to eBay.com.au.
RSS feeds allow certain buyers to subscribe directly
to your store content and see whenever it gets
updated. If you advertise your store on Google or
on shopping comparison sites such as http://
au.shopping.com, you will need to provide files that
are constantly up-to-date.

To do so, from the ‘Marketing tools’ menu click

the ‘Listing feeds’ link beneath ‘Store marketing’ in
the left-hand navigation. Next, make your listing
feed choices, then click ‘Apply’.

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Now that you have designed a professional, appealing
store and helped to ensure you drive as much traffic
to it as possible, it’s time to turn to other store
features which will assist you in retaining customers.
Customers who have a positive experience buying
from you will want to return, and it’s a fundamental
of business success that retaining loyal customers is
cheaper and easier than attracting new customers.

Help secure repeat business

Mailing lists

eBay  stores  give  you  the  ability  to  email  your
customers free of charge. Just think of the possibilities
of sending highly relevant and appealing emails to
everyone subscribed to your database. You get 100
free  emails  per  month,  with  each  additional  email
costing  just  one  cent.  As  mentioned  earlier,  this  is
one of the key levers to eBay success—retaining your
customers and keeping them engaged.

Before you can send an email to buyers, you

need to create a mailing list. From the ‘Marketing
tools’ menu, click the ‘Mailing lists’ link beneath the
‘Email marketing’ link under ‘Store marketing’ in the
left-hand navigation.

You can create up to five different mailing lists for

your buyers to subscribe to. For example, you may
create a ‘New release’ mailing list, or an ‘Items on sale’
list. For simplicity, it’s advisable to only create one
list and fill it with items that are the most appealing
at the time you send the email. When you consider
just how many sellers there are on eBay, if every one

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of them had five mailing lists to choose from, buyers
would be inundated with emails. The secret here is
to name your mailing list in a way that will attract
buyers’ attention and lure them in. If you sell vastly
different types of product it is advisable to create
a different list for different product types—for
example, ‘Collectable books’ and ‘Hard rock CDs’.

Click ‘Create mailing list’, type in your appealing

mailing-list name, then click ‘Save’.

Email marketing

From the ‘Marketing tools’ menu, click the ‘Email
marketing’ link under ‘Store marketing’ in the left-
hand navigation. Click the ‘Create email’ button.
You have the opportunity to create up to 100 emails
each  month,  but  remember  not  to  inundate  your
subscribers. It’s best to send irresistible eye-catching
offers less frequently than it is to send run-of-the-mill
offerings  every  day  or  week.  As  a  general  guide,
once  a  fortnight  or  once  a  month  is  what  to  aim
for,  depending  on  how  regularly  you  change  your
product offering or prices.

Step 1: Decide what type of email to send

You have the option of creating six types of emails
to send to your buyers.

Welcome email: may be sent to new
subscribers. It is also advisable to hit them with
a special offer on sign-up to keep them engaged.

Ending soonest: orders your items by the time
they are due to end.

Branding and marketing 109

Newly listed: orders your items by the time they
are listed for sale on eBay.

Previous purchase: sent only to buyers who
have purchased a certain number of items
recently.

Items on sale: promotes discontinued products.

Custom email: create an email with any content
you desire.

Step 2: Choose the design and layout of the email

Remember to keep the design of your email the same
as the design (colours, themes) of your store. This is
important for brand consistency and building buyer
loyalty. Choose from the following layout options:
• Showcase and gallery view: shows some large

pictures and some smaller pictures of your
items for sale.

• Showcase view: shows only large pictures of

items for sale.

• Gallery view: shows smaller pictures of items

for sale.

• List view: shows what you have for sale in the

same list view as appears on eBay.

• Text only: write custom messages to your

buyers.

• Custom: use HTML to design an appealing and

professional-looking email.

Once you have chosen your layout, click

‘Continue’.

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Step 3: Choose who will receive your email and add the
content

• Check your relevant mailing lists (you will need

to have created these earlier, as per page 107).

• Choose how many (if any) purchases your

buyers need to have made in the past 90 days
to receive the email.

• Under advanced options, you can choose to

send to subscribers based on how long they
have been on your mailing list (you might
want to send a one-year anniversary email to
say thank you for their loyalty, for example),
or send to subscribers based on how they have
responded to emails in the past.

• Decide whether the email will be sent on a

recurring basis and whether to send more than
your limit of 100 per month (at an additional
cost of one cent each).

• Enter your subject line. Email subject lines

generally make or break their success, as buyers
tend only to open those with an appealing title.
For example, ‘Books for sale’ is not as appealing
as ‘Massive clearance sale! All books up to 80
per cent off’.

• Choose whether to show your store header

(more on this on page 99).

• Enter a personal message to your buyers, remem-

bering to keep it succinct and professional. Learn
from some of the emails you receive from other
companies, and make the tone of your communi-
cations consistent with your store’s image.

• Choose which items to feature in your showcase

(if you have chosen the showcase layout). You

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111

can do this manually by adding one item at a
time from your current list of items for sale,
or have them chosen automatically at random.
Also choose here whether to display them
horizontally or vertically.

• Choose how to display your item list and how

many items to include—they will be chosen
automatically depending on which type of email
you send (‘ending soonest’, ‘newly listed’, etc.)

• Choose whether to display your seller feedback

within the email—a must-do if you have 100
per cent feedback.

Click ‘Preview and continue’ or click ‘Save draft’

to come back to the email at another time.

Step 4: Check your email

Carefully check your email for spelling and gram-
matical errors. Make sure you have chosen the best
title and the most appealing products, and that your
email looks and feels just as professional as any you
receive from a large retailer. Let a colleague, friend or
family member check it too—make sure it’s perfect
before sending.

Click ‘Edit email’ to make changes, ‘Send email’

to send, or ‘Save draft’ to return to it later.

Pending/sent emails

If you have saved an email as a draft, or an email
has been programmed to be sent in the future, it will
appear in your ‘Pending emails’ list, which can be

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112

accessed from the ‘Marketing tools’ menu. Click the
‘Pending emails’ link under ‘Email marketing’ beneath
‘Store marketing’ in the left-hand navigation.

It will take up to a few hours after you send emails

for them to appear in your ‘Sent emails’ list. Once
they are visible, you can easily duplicate messages
to create similar ones, and view the results from
the emails you’ve sent. Click the subject line of the
email to see statistics such as number of recipients,
number of emails opened, number of bids/purchases
that eventuated as a result of sending the email and
number of clicks on the email.

T i p :

✔

You should always keep a record of the

performance  of  each  email  you  send,  and  optimise
the  title,  layout  and  offering  so  that  each  new  email
outperforms  the  last  one.  There  is  no  point  spending
time creating these emails if you do not intend to monitor
the  results  they  bring.  Remember,  only  the  ten  most
recently sent emails are displayed, so transfer the results
(and  examples)  of  each  to  your  computer  before  they
disappear.

Managing subscriber lists

You can view all your mailing-list subscribers in
one place. From the ‘Marketing tools’ menu, click
the ‘Subscriber lists’ link under ‘Email marketing’
beneath ‘Store marketing’ in the left-hand navigation.
Here is where you can also block certain subscribers
so that you can retain control over who signs up to
receive information about your latest offers.

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113

Promotional flyers

When you purchase from a major retailer they might
include a promotional flyer in the shopping bag, but
usually the bag itself and the receipt will include
the company’s logo. This is also a form of brand
awareness and helps businesses build a repeat-buyer
base. Remember, as we mentioned earlier—it’s more
cost-effective to bring a buyer back than it is to find
a buyer who has never purchased from you before.

Promotional flyers can be printed to be included

within the package you send to your buyers.

T i p :

✔

Only send flyers if you can print them in

colour—black-and-white flyers just don’t cut it and are
likely to cheapen your brand, making your items look less
appealing and thereby doing more harm than good.

From the ‘Marketing tools’ menu, click the

‘Promotional flyer’ link beneath ‘Store marketing’
in the left-hand navigation. Next, click ‘Create
promotional flyer’.

From the ‘Create flyer’ options, you have a

choice of:
• which components of your store’s design to

include in the flyer’s header;

• using a border with your store’s colours or

one of eBay’s pre-designed themes (make sure
you stay consistent with your overall store
branding);

• including a concise, professional and appealing

message;

• current items to display in an item showcase;

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114

• current items to display in a list view;
• including one or two of your promotion boxes; and
• including additional information, such as

returns policy or payment instructions. (Only
include customer-friendly information here.
If you have a 300-word returns policy, for
example, you’re likely to turn prospective repeat
buyers away.)

Click ‘Preview flyer’. Again, make sure you check

it thoroughly for spelling and grammatical errors.
When you’ve finished reviewing it, click ‘Save settings
and print flyer’. You can print immediately or save
it and send it to a professional printer if you do not
have a good quality colour printer.

Your flyer will be saved in the ‘Promotional flyer’

section of ‘Marketing tools’ for you to print again
whenever you need it, or edit before reprinting.
Consider using the flyer in the following ways:
• Include one with every item you send to buyers.
• Ask local cafes if you can leave some on the

counter.

• Do your own letterbox drop to generate more

local business—make sure your flyer includes
the fact that you’re local, and even include a call
to action, such as ‘support a new local business’.

• Take them with you wherever you go—you

never know who you might meet who you
could turn into a new loyal buyer.

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115

Other marketing tools

Markdown manager

Perhaps now more than ever, buyers are looking for
great value. Remember that, though you may be a
small- to medium-sized store on eBay, you are still
effectively competing with every retailer (whether
online or not) in Australia, so unless you have unique
items buyers cannot find anywhere else, your price
needs to be competitive. Sometimes, pointing out
your value by way of specifying a percentage off or
similar will attract more attention.

Markdown manager allows you to reduce the

price of your store items, and clearly marks them
for buyers to see that they have been reduced. From
the ‘Marketing tools’ menu, click the ‘Markdown
manager’ link beneath ‘Item promotion’ in the left-
hand navigation. Then click ‘Create sale’. Once you
have done this you will need to:
• create a sale name for your records (buyers do

not see this);

• choose a start and end date for the sale;
• choose either a percentage or dollar value

discount, and decide whether to include free
postage;

• decide which listings the sale will apply to. You

can choose specific categories, formats, or select
individual items yourself by clicking the ‘Select
listings individually’ link; and

• choose to automatically send an email to your

subscribers to inform them of the sale.

Once you’ve completed all the information fields,

click ‘Create your sale’.

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T i p :

✔

Sales should be used sparingly. We’ve all walked

past those rug shops or leather stores that permanently
display ‘Sale!’ signs. They tend to lose their ‘call to
action’ by permanently appearing to be on sale. Sales
should create a sense of urgency for buyers so that, in
their minds, if they don’t purchase right away they’ll be
missing out on an irresistible bargain that won’t appear
again for some time.

Cross-promoting items

Never miss out on an opportunity to cross-promote
your items to prospective buyers. If they’re searching
for a mobile phone, for example, they may be
completely unaware that you also sell phone covers—
unless you specifically point it out to them.

From the ‘Marketing tools’ menu, click the ‘Cross-

promotion’ link beneath ‘Item promotion’ in the
left-hand navigation. Click the ‘Manage’ button to
create or change your cross-promotion rules.

Here, you can choose whether to show buyers

who view one of your items, or buyers who bid on
or win an item, a selection of your other products.
Choose items from one of your own store categories
or from the categories they’re listed in on eBay.
Here, you can also change the default order of your
cross-promotions and delete them.

Promoting similar items: encouraging healthy business
competition

If you’re a confident business on eBay, you should
open yourself up to a little bit of healthy competition

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117

from some other sellers. Those with the strongest
branding, most appealing products and best service
will usually win. You have the opportunity to promote
your items with other sellers’ similar items within
certain eBay pages and emails. It’s excellent additional
exposure and, even better, it comes for free.

From the ‘Marketing tools’ menu, click the ‘Promote

similar items’ link beneath ‘Item promotion’ in the
left-hand navigation. Bear in mind that other sellers’
items will also appear on some of your own pages.

Favourite seller top picks

Some buyers choose to see their favourite sellers’
top picks either within My eBay or via email. This
is another opportunity to show your buyers your
latest and greatest products, or those recently listed
as sale items. Buyers can choose to receive emails
weekly, bi-weekly or monthly.

From the ‘Marketing tools’ menu, click the ‘Favourite

seller top picks’ link beneath ‘Item promotion’ in the
left-hand navigation. Choose to automatically select
from your list of items based on the criteria you
specify, or manually select specific items. If automatic,
at the bottom of the page click ‘Edit criteria’ to choose
whether your items will contain specific keywords,
come from a particular category and be within a
certain price range, and how they will be sorted for
the buyer. Click ‘Apply’ to save your settings.

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Using your brand on eBay emails

Customising end-of-auction emails

Some buyers opt in to receive emails from eBay when
they have won an auction or purchased an item.
These are known as end-of-auction emails. All these
emails sent by eBay are generic and contain general
eBay branding. Smart businesses use these to help
promote their own brand.

From the ‘Marketing tools’ menu, click the

‘Customise end of auction emails’ link beneath ‘Logos
and branding’ in the left-hand navigation. Next,
click the ‘Change’ link on the right-hand side of the
page. Choose whether to display your store logo and
whether to add a custom message.

The body of the email can include a number of

auto-text options from eBay. What this means is your
email  will  be  populated  with  relevant  facts  based
on the actual listing, such as the buyer’s name, the
item title, item price, and so on. Write your message
and choose from the drop-down list of auto-text
options, clicking ‘Insert’ each time you want a new
field  added.  The  email  has  a  2000  character  limit
and is free to send to all buyers who opt in to receive
the end-of-auction email—more free exposure for
your  brand  and  yet  another  opportunity  to  retain
customers.

Customising invoice emails

Another type of email sent by eBay to some buyers
is the invoice email, which is sent to those who
have opted in to receive an email about how to pay
for an item.

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119

From the ‘Marketing tools’ menu, click the

‘Customise invoice’ link beneath ‘Logos and branding’
in the left-hand navigation. Next, click the ‘Change’
link on the right-hand side of the page. Choose
whether to display your store logo and whether to
add a custom message.

Holiday hold

Imagine going to one of your favourite shops only
to discover it is closed. There is no sign to say why,
the door is just locked. Or worse yet, you buy from
an online store and don’t receive your item after
three weeks because they’re on a beach somewhere.
Most businesses close down over a holiday period,
and if you plan on being away from your store for
an extended length of time you need to let your
buyers know. Communication is the key to keeping
customers happy.

During this time, you can make your store items

unavailable to buyers and/or display a holiday message
within your store/in all of your listings.

From the ‘Manage my store’ menu, click the

‘Feature list’ link, then click ‘Holiday hold’. Check
the ‘Turn holiday settings on’ box, then choose where
to display your message, nominate whether buyers
will  still  be  able  to  purchase  your  items,  and  add
your message. Remember to be professional and
concise,  thanking  your  valued  customers  for  their
ongoing  support  throughout  the  year,  and  so  on.
Then click ‘Save settings’.

120

Chapter 9

Optimising your

success

eBay Sales Reports Plus

Sales reports provide you with a basic financial
snapshot of your listings and sales on eBay. They
are an efficient way of summarising your monthly
accounts and cross-checking them against your own
paperwork to ensure you have captured everything
correctly.

How do I subscribe to Sales Reports Plus?

There are two options for subscribing to Sales
Reports:

The basic Sales Reports program is free to
subscribe to.

Sales Reports Plus is $6.99 per month (the first
30 days are free) and offers more advanced
analysis, including sorting information by
category, format and buyer counts, and includes

Optimising your success

121

the ability to download information. Note
that Sales Reports Plus is free for eBay store
subscribers.

To subscribe, go to: http://pages.ebay.com.au/ education/
learn-to-sell-sales-reports.html. Once you have
subscribed, your reports will be available within My
eBay by clicking on ‘Subscriptions’ in the left-hand
navigation, then ‘View my reports’.

What information does Sales Reports Plus show?

Sales Reports Plus aggregates your sales history by
individual weeks (the most recent four weeks) and
by month (two months prior). All of your reports
for the past 24 months are automatically archived
(both monthly and weekly reports). To view them
click ‘Archived reports’ in the Sales Reports Plus
left-hand navigation.

Information in the sales summary report

includes:
• total sales in dollars;
• number of ended listings;
• number of ended items;
• number of sold items;
• average sale price per item;
• comparison of this month’s sales to the previous

three months and percentage growth;

• summary of eBay and PayPal fees paid;
• number of items unpaid for by buyers; and
• eBay subscriptions you began or cancelled.

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122

Information in the ‘Sales by category’, ‘Sales by

format’, ‘Ending day’, ‘Ending time’ and ‘Duration’
reports include the same information as above but
broken down by each of these differentiators.

You can also print the report by clicking ‘Print’

in the top right-hand corner, or click ‘Download’
to export the report to your computer. Wait for the
report to download, then click ‘Continue’ when it
is complete.

Traffic reports

If you subscribe to an eBay store, you get access to
free reports that show you where your buyers are
coming from, and how they are finding your store.
This will help you understand how to optimise your
store in search engines, and what products your
buyers are most interested in.

How do I find traffic reports?

To find your traffic reports, click on ‘Subscriptions’
under ‘My account’ in the left-hand navigation of My
eBay. On the next page, click ‘Manage my store’. On
the ‘Manage my store’ page, scroll down and on the
left-hand navigation under ‘Reports’ click on ‘Traffic
reports’. These reports are provided by Omniture and
you will need to sign in again (using your eBay user
ID and password) to get access to the reports.

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123

What information do traffic reports show?

• My summary: shows total page views, visits,

homepage views and most popular pages for the
current month.

• Site traffic: shows total page views, unique visi-

tors and total visits by day.

• Finding methods: shows which site people were

on immediately prior to visiting your store,
which search engines people used to find your
store, and which keywords buyers used to
search for and find your store.

Most of this information can be shown by rank, or
trended over time. To see trends, click on ‘Trended’
in the top right-hand corner of the page.

Reports can be printed directly from your screen,

or downloaded in Word, Excel, PDF, HTML or CSV
formats.

You can choose to see the current month, or use

the calendar in the top left-hand corner to see the
information correlating to individual days, weeks
or months in the past. To view a report covering a
range of dates, click ‘Range’ next to ‘Calendar’ in the
top left-hand corner.

Marketplace research by Terapeak

Terapeak is eBay’s market research tool. It provides
invaluable information around products, prices and
general trends on eBay. It highlights the drivers of
buyer demand and helps you determine the most

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124

effective way to list your products. The four basic
areas it covers are:

products;

sellers;

categories; and

hot products.

Terapeak can help you identify inventory gaps on

eBay, stay ahead of the competition on hot products
and give you a better insight into what buyers are
looking for. Imagine owning a retail shop and
managing to find out your competitor’s best-selling
products, how buyers find them and how their shop
is merchandised to optimise sales. In essence, that
is what Terapeak can do for you on eBay.

How do I subscribe to Terapeak?

It costs $24.95 per month to subscribe to Terapeak
with optional add-ons, such as ‘Hot searches’, starting
at $2.95.

To subscribe, go to: http://pages.ebay.com.au/

marketplace_research/.

What information do the reports show?

Product reports can help you identify the best way
of selling particular products based on keywords in
the item title. Seller reports, on the other hand, can
track your competitors’ movements, every single day!
If you want to stay ahead of the competition, this part
of the Terapeak tool will prove to be invaluable.

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125

T i p :

✔

While it makes a lot of sense to know what

your competition looks like, it is also vital that you
balance the amount of time you invest in researching
their movements. Obsessing about competition will just
distract you from the real task at hand—selling as many
products as possible.

To get started, simply enter the relevant keywords

at the top of the page, choose the relevant eBay site,
narrow your search by category (if applicable) and
select the date range you wish to cover. The report
shows sales results broken down by:
• average start price;
• average sale price;
• total number of listings;
• percentage sell-through (what percentage of

listings ended with a sale);

• which day of the week had the most sales;
• the most popular duration;
• the most popular time of day to sell these items;
• the most popular format;
• the most popular category;
• highest priced items;
• total sales (over the time period);
• total successful listings;
• total bids;
• bids per listings;
• average number of sellers per day; and
• the actual listings that match your search

criteria, which you can order by start price, end
price or number of bids.

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126

What is the title builder?

Within the product report, click the ‘Title builder’
link  in  the  left-hand  navigation.  Enter  in  the  most
obvious  keywords  for  your  product  and  the  tool
will automatically match those words with the most
popular terms also used by sellers listing the same
product.  Take  the  guess  work  out  of  using  your
55-character  spaces  in  your  item  title  and  let  the
tool do the hard work for you.

What can the category report be used for?

This report will help you get a complete overview
of the category in which your items are listed. It
shows:
• a list of all items;
• sales trends; and
• top sellers (which can be sorted by total sales,

total listings, successful listings, bids and items
sold).

What is ‘Hot research’?

‘Hot research’ looks at the entire eBay site of your
choice and ranks categories, searches, products and
titles by their success rate. This is a great opportunity
to help narrow your search for what products to sell
on eBay. The report highlights:
• the category with the highest sell-through rate,

plus a ranking of how high demand is growing
in that category;

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127

• a list of the most popular buyer searches on

eBay (by category); and

• a list of the most popular keywords in a title

(sorted by their sell-through rate, average price
and number of items sold). You can refine this
by category, or by typing in some keywords that
appear in your own item titles to see what other
sellers use to optimise sales.

‘Hot titles’ shows actual listings and the total

success of the listing, including how many successful
items it generated, bids, average price, etc. This can
also be filtered by category and specific keywords.

To find out more information, go to: http://pages.

ebay.com.au/marketplace_research/.

T i p :

✔

When using Terapeak, make sure you change

the default eBay site for every search you conduct to
ensure you’re researching the correct market.

eBay solutions directory

There are literally thousands of tools available to
help you optimise your eBay success. In fact, globally
eBay supports an entire cottage industry dedicated
to helping buyers and sellers be more efficient. Most
of these tools and services come at a cost, and any
sensible business operator will carefully balance the
return on investment with these options. Generally,
eBay does not support any particular provider, outside
of the tools it owns.

eBay does, however, grant supporting businesses

access to its solutions directory, and there you will

129

Chapter 10

Tax, legal and eBay

policy considerations

Twelve eBay rules every seller must know

To  protect  the  eBay  marketplace  from  illegal  and
unfair practices, eBay has a number of rules in place
in  regard  to  listings  and  sellers.  If  sellers  violate
any of these rules, the end result may be that your
entire  account  is  suspended,  all  of  your  listings
cancelled or you’re banned from eBay altogether. If
your listings get ended, all bids/watches on those
items will be lost and you’ll not only have to contact
eBay and take the necessary steps to reinstate your
account, you’ll also have to go through the process
of re-listing every one of your items. It’s a costly and
time-consuming exercise, and one that should be
avoided at all costs.

As per eBay’s user agreement, it is the seller’s

responsibility to stay up-to-date with the latest
policies and policy changes, but below is a list of

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130

commonly overlooked policies that every seller must
know.

Keyword spamming, or using keywords or
brand names inappropriately to attract buyers
to your listing to artificially improve your
ranking in searches, is prohibited. Examples
include ‘like Apple’, breaking up the names of
common brands like ‘Sass y Dress Bide Now’
for Sass + Bide. The simplest way to avoid
keyword spamming is to stick to keywords
that apply only to your item. Avoid terms
such as ‘like’, ‘similar to’, etc. For a full outline
see: http://pages.ebay.com.au/help/policies/
keyword-spam.html.

You may not include links in your listings to
pages that offer to trade or sell goods off eBay
or links to subscribe to mailing lists outside
eBay. For a full list see: http://pages.ebay.com.
au/help/policies/listing-links.html.

Limited use only of HTML and JavaScript is
permitted in your listings. For instance, you
may not include dropping cookies, redirects
or automatic pop-ups. For a full list see:
http://pages.ebay.com.au/help/policies/listing-
javascript.html.

Misleading titles, such as when you say a
second-hand item is new, is worth $X at retail
when it is not, is located in Australia when
it is not, etc., are against policy. For more
infor mation see: http://pages.ebay.com.au/help/
policies/misleading-titles.html.

Avid miscategorisation of listings. eBay has
over 50,000 categories worldwide, so you’re

Tax, legal and eBay policy considerations

131

bound to find one that suits your item. It is
against eBay’s policies to list your item in a
category unrelated to it. For more information
see: http://pages.ebay.com.au/help/policies/
listing-categorization.html.

Actions that avoid paying eBay fees are prohib-
ited. This can be done innocently, for example,
where you list a shirt and advise buyers in
your listing that you have matching hats and
to contact you for prices. For more information
see: http://pages.ebay.com.au/help/policies/
listing-circumventing.html.

There is a limit to how many identical listings
a seller can list. It currently stands at twenty
listings, and you cannot use multiple seller IDs
to avoid this policy. For more information see:
http://pages.ebay.com.au/help/policies/listing-
multi.html. eBay does allow similar items to be
sold within the one multi-quantity Buy It Now
listing. However, you can only offer a choice of
colour and size. If selling red and black shirts
in small and medium (that are otherwise iden-
tical) you must specify the minimum quantity
you have of each. For example, ‘10’ means you
must have in stock ten of both sizes in each
colour, i.e. ten red small, ten red medium, ten
black small and ten black medium.

Shill bidding occurs when a seller bids on his/
her own auctions, or has friends do so. It is
against policy because it artificially inflates
prices, which is unfair to genuine buyers.
Also be aware that you should not allow
genuine customers to bid from your own

How to Make Money on eBay

132

computer—eBay has tools in place to monitor
bids coming from individual computers. For
more infor mation see: http://pages.ebay.com.
au/help/policies/seller-shill-bidding.html.

eBay members are not allowed to interfere
with another member’s listings. This includes
offering to sell an item off eBay or emailing
another seller’s buyers to warn them against
buying from that seller. For more information
see: http://pages.ebay.com.au/help/policies/
transaction-interference.html.

Seller non-performance is when a seller

delivers an item that is not the same as was
listed, or provides sub-standard service.
The best way to avoid this is to provide as
much accurate information in your listing
as possible—don’t leave anything to the
buyer’s imagination. Also, if your performance
drops below an acceptable standard, eBay
may demote your exposure in search listings
and restrict discounts on fees or access
to promotions. For more information see:
http://pages.ebay.com.au/help/policies/seller-
non-performance.html.

eBay does not allow sellers to surcharge buyers

for using selected payment methods. Such
costs should be built in to the item price. For
more information see: http://pages.ebay.com.
au/help/policies/listing-surcharges.html.

You are not allowed to add GST on top of the

item price—all prices must be inclusive of
GST. For more information see: http://pages.
ebay.com.au/help/policies/seller-gst.html.

Tax, legal and eBay policy considerations

133

For a comprehensive list of selling policies on

eBay, refer to the information and links at this page:
http://pages.ebay.com.au/help/policies/listing-ov.html.
For example, if you want to list an item for pre-sale,
you must ensure that the buyer can receive the item
within twenty days of payment.

T i p :

✔

Important changes made to the site that could

impact how you sell on eBay will always be made at the
‘Announcements’ section of the site, located at: http://
www2.ebay.com/aw/marketing-au.shtml. You should
definitely bookmark the page and check it on a weekly
basis to ensure you do not miss information that may
require you to change your selling practices.

Tax implications

Any business or individual considering selling a
reasonable amount of items on eBay should speak to
a professional financial or tax adviser to ensure they
are complying with relevant laws and procedures.
Further information can be found at the Australian
Taxation Office (ATO) website.

Businesses of a certain sized turnover, for example,

may be required to register for GST, or may need
to have an Australian Business Number. From time
to time, the ATO will audit eBay sellers and contact
eBay directly for a history of sales and the necessary
documentation. There is no avoiding this, so the best
advice is to ensure you are complying with all tax
laws and policies from the outset.

How to Make Money on eBay

134

Prohibited and restricted items

As a seller, you are ultimately responsible for ensuring
that your item is allowed to be sold on the eBay site.
Additionally, you are responsible for ensuring the
legality of any item you sell. eBay has an extensive list
of items that are on its prohibited and restricted list,
and contravening its policies may end in your account
being suspended. Furthermore, illegal items may
end in prosecution, so seek legal advice on anything
you think might be considered questionable. Among
eBay’s restricted and prohibited items are:
• Aboriginal art and artefacts;
• used clothing;
• electronic surveillance equipment;
• food;
• human parts;
• lock-picking devices;
• police-related items;
• weapons and knives; and
• wine and alcohol.

For more information go to: http://pages.ebay.com.

au/help/policies/items-ov.html.

Legal advice

Establishing your own business, even if you’re starting
small from your own garage, can open a whole
minefield of legal considerations. Rather than be
perturbed by these hurdles, consulting a lawyer at
the outset could save you considerable time, money
and stress in the future, should a situation arise that

Tax, legal and eBay policy considerations

135

may have been avoidable had you known the relevant
law or statute. You should seek professional legal
advice before undertaking a business venture. Some
considerations include, but are not limited to:
• employment laws;
• superannuation laws;
• contracts for product supply and/or delivery;

and

• business law.

Insurance

Before commencing your eBay business, speak to
your insurance provider about the best options
available for you. Some things for you to consider,
among others:
• insuring your stock to protect from loss, theft

and damage;

• if operating from home, increasing home and

contents insurance to cover your eBay sales-
related assets; and

• insuring yourself for loss of income.

eBay’s user agreement

Before you begin investing serious time, commitment
and money into your eBay business, it is advisable to
thoroughly read eBay’s user agreement and privacy
policy. After all, by becoming an eBay member you
have agreed to be bound by eBay’s policies, which
means that if you breach any of them you may be
suspended from the site—effectively ending your
business overnight. It is standard business practice

How to Make Money on eBay

136

(and commonsense) to ensure you read, and fully
comprehend, any user agreement before agreeing
to its terms.

eBay’s user agreement can be found at: http://pages.

ebay.com.au/help/policies/user-agreement.html. Its
privacy policy can be found at: http://pages.ebay.com.
au/help/policies/privacy-policy.html. There are links
to both at the very bottom of every eBay page.

Where to get help

From time to time, you will undoubtedly need some
help getting your head around how eBay works. The
good news is you’re not alone! eBay has a multitude of
assistance available and it can all be found by visiting
the ‘Contact us’ page at: http://contact.ebay.com.
au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ShowCUPortal&_trksid=m38.
(There’s a link at the top of every eBay page.)

eBay also has discussion boards where sellers and

buyers meet to offer advice and tips and to discuss
eBay-related topics. You can find these boards at:
http://pages.ebay.com.au/community/chat/index.
html?_trksid=m38.

Some professional and amateur groups of sellers

have also formed to help each other. eBay does not
officially endorse any of these groups, but they can
be found online, or keep a lookout for mention of
them on eBay’s discussion boards.

137

Summary

There are no secrets to being successful on eBay. The
most successful eBay sellers are those who approach
selling on the site with a business mindset. Take a
realistic, practical approach to selling. In summary,
here are the main points:
• Ensure you can secure supply of your products

at the right price.

• Do your research to ensure there is adequate

demand for your product on eBay, which means
you will achieve the price you need to maintain
enough profit to recover all of the costs associ-
ated with selling on eBay.

• Use all of the marketing levers available on the

site to boost your selling profile and make your
products appear irresistible to as many buyers
as possible, and use the right strategy to lure
as many of your buyers back to your listings as
you can.

• Compete with other sellers on price, service and

marketing.

How to Make Money on eBay

138

• Make sure you are fully aware of all of eBay’s

rules and policies, and that you are abiding by
them.

• Continually look for ways to improve your

business model—source new types of products,
experiment with different selling strategies on
eBay and test your pricing.

In the past I have referred to eBay as a 10,000-page

manual. It is a complex site, but there is no reason
for any seller to understand every single aspect of its
operation. If there is a key to success, it’s knowing
what you need to know, and knowing what isn’t
so important to your business. You could spend
hours or days reading through pages on the site, or
teaching yourself new things, only to find they are
not applicable to your business. On the other hand,
there could be crucial information you’re missing,
which could mean the difference between moderate
or fantastic success.

Learn from other sellers. Look at how they promote

themselves and find ways to do it better. Take oppor-
tunities to meet other sellers and learn their tips for
selling success—you’ll be surprised how many view
eBay as a community and are willing to help you
along the way.

Try to teach yourself a new part of eBay each and

every week. Within one year, you’ll know 50 new
things.  Be  selective  and  choose  those  topics  that
are  most  applicable  to  your  business.  Try  selling
overseas,  try  listing  at  auction  if  you  never  have
before, learn more about your business by using one
of the research tools covered in these pages . . .

140

Appendix

eBay fees

In September 2009, eBay Australia announced that
it was changing its fee structure to assist businesses
by lowering upfront costs and thereby reducing the
risk of listing large quantities on the site. eBay only
made changes to its Buy It Now format and retained
auction pricing at the same level it has been for longer
than the past four years. There are now four different
types of pricing on eBay Australia.

For a full table of all of eBay’s fees, go to http://

pages.ebay.com.au/help/sell/fees.html

Non-store subscribers

Auctions—3, 5, 7, 10 day durations

Insertion fees based on start price of:

AU$0.01–AU$0.99

AU$0.30

AU$1.00–AU$19.99

AU$0.50

AU$20.00–AU$49.99

AU$0.75

AU$50.00–AU$99.99

AU$1.50

AU$100.00–AU$399.99

AU$2.50

AU$400.00 and up

AU$3.50

eBay fees

141

Final value fees based on sale price of:

AU$0.01–AU$75.00

5.25% of the closing price

AU$75.01–AU$1000.00AU

5.25% of the initial AU$75.00 plus
2.75% of the remaining closing
price (AU$75.01–AU$1000.00)

Over AU$1000.01

5.25% of the initial AU$75.00
plus

2.75% of the initial

(AU$75.01–AU$1000.00) plus
1.5% of the remaining closing
price (AU $1000.01–closing)

Buy It Now—3, 5, 7, 10 day durations

Insertion fees based on start price of:

AU$0.01–AU$0.99

AU$0.30

AU$1.00–AU$19.99

AU$0.50

AU$20.00–AU$49.99

AU$0.75

AU$50.00–AU$99.99

AU$1.50

AU$100.00–AU$399.99

AU$2.50

AU$400.00 and up

AU$3.50

Final value fees based on sale price of:

AU$0.01–AU$75.00

5.25% of the closing price

AU$75.01–AU$1000.00

5.25% of the initial AU$75.00 plus
2.75% of the remaining closing
price (AU$75.01–AU$1000.00)

Over AU$1000.01

5.25% of the initial AU$75.00
plus

2.75% of the initial

(AU$75.01–AU$1000.00) plus
1.5% of the remaining closing
price (AU $1000.01–closing)

How to Make Money on eBay

142

Store subscribers

For all store subscribers, auctions are charged at the
same rate as non-store subscribers (above) but Buy
It Now is charged at the following rates.

Buy It Now—3, 5, 7, 10, 30 day durations

Basic store

Featured store

Anchor store

AU$0.40

AU$0.30

AU$0.10

Insertion fees are charged as a flat single fee, regard-
less of start price or quantity of items within the
listing.

Final value fees are charged per item, based on the
sale price.

Basic store

Featured
store

Anchor store

AU$0.01–
AU$75.00

7.9% of the
closing price

7.4% of the
closing price

7% of the
closing price

AU$75.01–
AU$1000.00

7.9% of the
initial AU$75.00
plus

5% of

the remaining
closing price
(AU$75.01–
AU$1000.00)

7.4% of the
initial AU$75.00
plus

4% of

the remaining
closing price
(AU$75.01–
AU$1000.00)

7% of the initial
AU$75.00
plus

3.5% of

the remaining
closing price
(AU$75.01–
AU$1000.00)

eBay fees

143

Over
AU$1000.01

7.9% of the
initial AU$75.00
plus

5% of

the initial
(AU$75.01–
AU$1000.00)
plus

3.5% of

the remaining
closing price
(AU$1000.01–
closing)

7.4% of the
initial AU$75.00
plus

4% of

the initial
(AU$75.01–
AU$1000.00)
plus

3% of

the remaining
closing price
(AU$1000.01–
closing)

7% of the initial
AU$75.00
plus

3.5%

of the initial
(AU$75.01–
AU$1000.00)
plus

2.5% of

the remaining
closing price
(AU$1000.01–
closing)

Subscription
fees for stores
are charged
monthly

AU$14.95

AU$99.95

AU$499.95

Store subscribers also get additional fee benefits
including ‘Free gallery’ for Buy It Now (add a photo to
the search results, usually AU$0.59), ‘Free additional
photos’ in listings (normally AU$0.20 each) and
‘Gallery plus’ for AU$0.99 (adds a supersize picture
to the search results, normally AU$2.49).

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