eBay has been a huge money-maker over the years for a lot of people.
One of the best things about eBay (and an auction business in general) is that people who would normally shy away from starting any other internet business (believing it to be too complex), are able to make serious incomes from home without a website or a list.
Not only
that, but eBay itself is self-generating when it comes to traffic.
You don't need a huge ad budget for people to find your auctions.
If you want to go into business on eBay, you've got several approaches to choose from.
Some are more difficult than others. Let's take a look at this method.
Auctioning Physical Goods:
Physical products are what most people think of first.
You can sell just about anything on eBay, from major electronics, to cars, to that rusty old wagon that's been sitting in your garage for like 5 to 10 years.
Now, the obstacle that you face here is finding products to sell, and finding them at a low enough cost for you to make a profit selling them.
What are some of the ways you can acquire products to sell?
1. Wholesale - You'll need a business license (usually a state-tax resale license) most of the time to buy products from wholesalers.
In many cases, you'll also need a good chunk of cash to spend because wholesalers often have a minimum you must order to get the best prices.
2. Drop shipping – You may or may not need a license with wholesale drop-shippers.
It depends on who you're working with.
The trick with drop shipping is that you never touch the physical product, nor do you have to buy it before selling it.
Instead, you auction off the product beginning at the base price quoted to you by the wholesale drop shipper.
Once you've made the sale, you then pay the drop shipper and have it the product shipped directly to the customer.
There's also a third-method, but it’s pretty time-intensive.
If you enjoy bargain hunting, you can acquire products via garage sales, estate sales, dollar stores and the like.
You also have the option of bypassing online wholesalers by traveling to various wholesale product shows, and purchasing your products there.
Auctioning Digital Products:
You can also auction digital products, like ebooks, software, special reports, etc.
To be on the safe side, you'll usually want to deliver these products on an actual, physical CD.
eBay claims that digital downloads are not permitted, but it seems to enforce that rule sporadically.
What types of digital products might you sell?
• Your own ebooks, software, artwork, music, etc.
• Resale rights products you've acquired
• Products you've created from the public domain
The public domain product gives us a good example.
You can actually use this to break into niches which are normally served only by physical products.
Let's say you've discovered that sewing machines are hot items on eBay.
Now, as you might expect, people who buy sewing machines will also be looking for sewing patterns they can use in their projects.
As it turns out; there are tons of old sewing patterns books floating around in the public domain.
These patterns can easily be dropped into an ebook and sold via auction.
Would that really sell? Yes, in fact, one marketer I know of has already done this exact thing.
Other Products:
If ebooks aren't your thing, there are additional digital products you can sell.
For example, if you're good at creating website templates, you can sell those.
You can, in fact, create whole websites, monetize them and then turn around and sell them as turnkey businesses.
Your product choices for eBay are really limitless.
You just need to zero in on a hot niche, locate your products start setting up auctions.
Wishing you success.
One of the best things about eBay (and an auction business in general) is that people who would normally shy away from starting any other internet business (believing it to be too complex), are able to make serious incomes from home without a website or a list.
You don't need a huge ad budget for people to find your auctions.
If you want to go into business on eBay, you've got several approaches to choose from.
Some are more difficult than others. Let's take a look at this method.
Auctioning Physical Goods:
Physical products are what most people think of first.
You can sell just about anything on eBay, from major electronics, to cars, to that rusty old wagon that's been sitting in your garage for like 5 to 10 years.
Now, the obstacle that you face here is finding products to sell, and finding them at a low enough cost for you to make a profit selling them.
What are some of the ways you can acquire products to sell?
1. Wholesale - You'll need a business license (usually a state-tax resale license) most of the time to buy products from wholesalers.
In many cases, you'll also need a good chunk of cash to spend because wholesalers often have a minimum you must order to get the best prices.
2. Drop shipping – You may or may not need a license with wholesale drop-shippers.
It depends on who you're working with.
The trick with drop shipping is that you never touch the physical product, nor do you have to buy it before selling it.
Instead, you auction off the product beginning at the base price quoted to you by the wholesale drop shipper.
Once you've made the sale, you then pay the drop shipper and have it the product shipped directly to the customer.
There's also a third-method, but it’s pretty time-intensive.
If you enjoy bargain hunting, you can acquire products via garage sales, estate sales, dollar stores and the like.
You also have the option of bypassing online wholesalers by traveling to various wholesale product shows, and purchasing your products there.
Auctioning Digital Products:
You can also auction digital products, like ebooks, software, special reports, etc.
To be on the safe side, you'll usually want to deliver these products on an actual, physical CD.
eBay claims that digital downloads are not permitted, but it seems to enforce that rule sporadically.
What types of digital products might you sell?
• Your own ebooks, software, artwork, music, etc.
• Resale rights products you've acquired
• Products you've created from the public domain
The public domain product gives us a good example.
You can actually use this to break into niches which are normally served only by physical products.
Let's say you've discovered that sewing machines are hot items on eBay.
Now, as you might expect, people who buy sewing machines will also be looking for sewing patterns they can use in their projects.
As it turns out; there are tons of old sewing patterns books floating around in the public domain.
These patterns can easily be dropped into an ebook and sold via auction.
Would that really sell? Yes, in fact, one marketer I know of has already done this exact thing.
Other Products:
If ebooks aren't your thing, there are additional digital products you can sell.
For example, if you're good at creating website templates, you can sell those.
You can, in fact, create whole websites, monetize them and then turn around and sell them as turnkey businesses.
Your product choices for eBay are really limitless.
You just need to zero in on a hot niche, locate your products start setting up auctions.
Wishing you success.
