Making a part-time income from eBay
If you’re a regular reader of Magnet4Marketing you’ll notice that in my online income reports, I make a considerable amount of income from eBay. Some of you have kindly asked that I create a post on how to generate income from eBay, so I hope this post will help.
I’m not going to explain too much in detail on how to use eBay, or the technicalities involved in setting up an online store to sell products, but more about how to research and find products, or better still how to create a product of your own that you can sell on eBay. I’ll also include a link at the bottom of this post to an article I wrote some time ago, about promoting and increasing visibility and sales on eBay.
…eBay, the best selling platform… on the web…
I’m sure many of you know what eBay is and as far as I’m concerned it is still one of the most powerful platforms on the web for making money.
A lot of people complain about the selling fees and what have you, but let’s get straight to the point here, eBay is a very appealing platform because it’s huge, it get’s a lot of targeted traffic which means you don’t need to spend time and money marketing your own platform just to be able to sell your stuff, the hard work has been done for you. So the selling fees is nothing compared t what you’d have to spend building and promoting your own online store.
I have made as little as $300 a month and up to $2,000 a month on eBay, the amount of money you make depends greatly on how much time you’re willing to invest in making a real go with eBay, so let’s get started. I’ve titled this post how to make a part time income from eBay but realistically anyone can make a full time income from eBay.
Making an Income from eBay
Product Research and Creation
First of all you need something to sell… One of the easiest ways to make money on eBay is buying and reselling. Yes as you probably guessed you need to make an initial investment. There are plenty of places on the internet where you can buy items and sell them for profit on eBay, but you have to do your research carefully to find the best products that will sell well.
Research for the best selling products on eBay and then try and work out where you can get products to sell. Liquidation stock is a good place to start, just do a search on Google on where you can get hold of liquidation stock. You can also buy items on eBay and sell them back on eBay for more money, if you can spot a bargain of course.
The method that I use and would recommend is researching and creating your own products. This is much easier than trying to sell liquidation stock in my mind, but perhaps not as profitable. Here are some suggested ideas of products you might want to consider creating to sell on eBay (Without violating eBay terms) –
- Books and Guides (Printed Version)
- Information products on CD
- Software’s on CD
- Arts and Craft items
- Stickers and custom banners / decals
- Business cards / Custom stationary
- Royalty free Images on CD
- Royalty free music on CD
- Printed t-shirts and clothing
- WordPress themes and Plugins on CD
As you can see from the list you have quite a choice of the items you can create and sell to profit on eBay. If you’re wondering why I’ve placed digital products on CD, it’s because eBay does not permit the selling of digital goods for electronic delivery. OK, let’s get started.
Income from eBay: Research and Create your Product
This is not the fun bit but it needs to be done. First of all research and decide what you want to create to sell on eBay. If you want to put together a DVD containing 5,000 royalty free images that you’ve taken yourself, then do that. If you think you can create custom stickers and decals, then so be it. See what others are doing first; check out the completed listings to see how well these items sell for before going into production.
Income from eBay: Get an eBay and PayPal account
Get yourself an eBay seller account and PayPal account. If you don’t know what PayPal is then I’m shocked. Nevertheless here goes… PayPal is the most trusted and largest online payment service provider on the web. You can use it to accept payment for items not just sold on eBay, but your own website or blog too. You can find out more about PayPal here.
Income from eBay: List your items for selling
If you’re selling craft, stationary or artwork, ensure you create a fully detailed listing of each item. Highlight the features and benefits and select your price. Here are some points to remember –
- Use quality images
- Use an attractive, and descriptive title
- Create a well written description
- Check for spelling, punctuation and type O’s.
- List the product features and benefits
- List the product in the correct category
- Outline delivery costs and times clearly
- State your return policy / money back guarantee clearly
- Embed a video of your product to help enhance your listing further
- Host your images elsewhere to keep selling costs down
I would recommend starting with ensuring that the cost of each item you sell is at the absolute minimum. You want to start making money first before spending too much on selling fees. Don’t over do it either, if you’re just starting out, list only a few items in your first month. If you have no success you won’t be left with a monster bill at the end of the month. And you can go back to the drawing board not being completely broke…
If you’re selling CD’s and printed goods such as your own guides and eBook, business cards, brochures and stickers, you can list a single item with a quantity available, i.e. 10 available. This will save you money by not having to sell each individual item separately.
Once you start making a decent income from eBay you can then begin to list a few more items and build your income up slowly.
Selling on eBay can be addictive and it’s great fun too. I’ve been selling on eBay since 2004 and have earned well over $50,000 since starting out. But remember; don’t run before you can walk. Take one step at a time and you’ll soon be making a comfortable addition second or even full time income from eBay, good luck.
Image courtesy of Flickr user: MPK
