Special Note: On May 13th, I will be participating
in the 13th Annual Revlon Run/Walk For Women(running
with my daughter on her company team) to further the fight
against women's cancers by raising money through pledges
and donations. Please click on the link below to visit
my personal page and make a donation. Your one-hundred
percent tax-deductible contribution will help fund important
research into the causes of and cures for women's cancers.
The personal donation page for Marsha Collier can be found
at
https://www.revlonrunwalk.com/la/secure/myWebPage.cfm?pID=320133
Are you confused by all the tools and features eBay
has to offer?
By Marsha Collier
Whether you're a new or veteran seller, the great thing
about eBay is that you have lots of options to choose from
to help you sell better. The only problem with this is that
sellers often find the many offerings available to be very
confusing. I get e-mails from sellers all the time who've
become bogged down with the choices and are wondering if
they're properly investing their time and money into the
right tools. What should they subscribe to? What should
they do?
There are so many tools and features to choose from that
this dizzying display can cause the average seller to begin
to question their own sanity. In this column, I'd like to
tell you about a few of the most important (and often overlooked)
tools and how to integrate them to boost your bottom line.
Turbo Lister. This super eBay software that resides
on your own computer is free, and is an excellent tool to
use for almost any size seller. It's a must-have listing
tool, allowing you to input hundreds of listings at once
and launch them on the site in one huge bunch. It's a great
tool that I've seen used by beginners as well as high-level
PowerSellers. To download your own free copy of the newest
version, go to http://pages.ebay.com/turbolister2/.
Selling Manager and Selling Manager Pro. I honestly
don't know what I would do without my own trusty Selling
Manger Pro. Both versions of Selling Manager replace the
Selling area in your "My eBay" pages. They help
you in your listing management by supplying you with many
tools to automate your sales. These reasonably priced products
are worth their weight in gold as they expedite many of
your eBay tasks (including automating feedback!) and will
save you hours of time when it comes to organizing your
business. The Pro version adds the features of inventory
and bulk relisting, among others. The products are reasonably
priced (the standard version is $4.99 a month and the pro
version is $15.99) and are available free for eBay Stores
subscribers (see below). Get the low-down at http://pages.ebay.com/selling_manager/products.html.
Sales Reports and Sales Reports Plus. Here are more
valuable tools that can make you aware of just how successful
your eBay business is. Even the basic version will supply
you with key performance metrics for your business, including
data on total sales, average sale prices, your fees as
a percentage to sales, and much more. Many sellers don't
have a clue that these reports exist because eBay requires
you to sign up for the service in order to get the basic
reports at no cost. (Sales Reports Plus is free to eBay
store owners.) So what are you waiting for? Go sign up!
Get all the details at http://pages.ebay.com/salesreports/welcome.html.
eBay Stores. Somehow eBay stores has become a mystery
to sellers. It shouldn't be. Opening an eBay store is just
the same as considering a brick-and-mortar store--you don't
open up one if you don't have a regular source of merchandise.
I highly recommend an eBay store to anyone who's serious
about selling on eBay--but only after they've become established
on the site. Don't open a store as a beginning seller. You
really need to learn the rhythm of an eBay business before
you open a store. Sell at least 50 items a month, have a
good source of merchandise, and prepare to be creative when
it comes to servicing your customers. Find out more about
the various levels of eBay stores at http://pages.ebay.com/storefronts/seller-landing.html.
ProStores. eBay's newest offering is possibly the
most misunderstood. ProStores are not a replacement for
your eBay store; ProStores give you your very own e-commerce
enabled website. They work in concert with your eBay sales
and your eBay store. In my eBay classes, I always teach
that once you get the hand of eBay selling, you need to
open an eBay store. Once you have your eBay store management
mastered (and are running a successful enterprise), it's
time for you to expand and open your own website. It's
the website part that causes many sellers to stumble. eBay
sellers aren't usually masters of HTML and the idea of
running and setting up a website is a huge, daunting task.
ProStores supplies you with practically everything you
need to set up a website. If you want help you can always
search eBay for ProStores support or website graphics and
you'll find people who'll help you make it perfect. You
won't find more reasonable website hosting, especially
when you consider that it includes a shopping cart and
e-commerce specialties. You can jump aboard with ProStores
for as little as $6.95 a month. Check out the details at
http://prostores.com/.
eBay is coming up with great new features each day. A serious seller needs to
keep up and I'll always try to keep you up-to-date in this column. A new feature,
eBay Express, will be available soon. Next month I'll give you all the details
on how you can sell and succeed on eBay's new "Express" venue.
