REMEMBER WHEN eBay USED TO BE A GREAT PLACE FOR SMALL SELLERS TO BECOME BIG SELLERS?

Unfortunately, recent changes at eBay have made online auctions less reliable and profitable. So where can you sell when you can’t sell on eBay? Online auctions are the past; fixed-price selling is the future. It’s time to move beyond eBay and first-generation online selling and start Selling Online 2.0. Second generation online selling means migrating from eBay to other online marketplaces, including craigslist, Amazon, and your own e-commerce website. You’ll need to make some new plans, learn some new skills, and change some of the things you do--but you’ll find that there’s more money to be made on your own than relying on traditional eBay online auction sales.

• Put together a plan to maintain your sales level and profitability--to counteract eBay’s changes
• Discover how to shift from auction sales to fixed-priced listings on the eBay marketplace
• Find out if running an eBay Store or selling on Half.com makes sense for your business
• Learn out how to sell locally on craigslist and other online classifieds sites
• Discover how to sell fixed-price merchandise on the Amazon marketplace
• Find out how to launch your own e-commerce website--and promote your online store
• Learn how to sell products across multiple channels--and manage multichannel conflicts

Introduction 1

What’s in This Book 2

Who Can Use This Book 3

How to Use This Book 3

There’s More Online... 4

Making the Move 4

I BEYOND ONLINE AUCTIONS: CREATING A SUCCESSFUL ONLINE BUSINESS 5

1 The Problem with Online Auctions 7

What eBay Used to Be Like... 7

Why Is eBay Abandoning Smaller Sellers? 10

Changes Are Afoot--and You Probably Won’t Like Them 12

Emphasizing Fixed-Price Sales over Auction Sales 12

Changes to the Fee Structure 12

Changes to the Payment System 14

Changes to the Feedback System 15

Changes to Search Results 15

eBay’s Deal with Buy.com 16

How Do eBay’s Changes Affect You? 16

2 Planning for Selling Success 19

Planning for Life Beyond eBay Auctions 19

Asking--and Answering--Key Questions 20

What Type of Merchandise Do You Want to Sell? 20

How Much Money Do You Want to Make? 21

How Do You Intend to Manage Your Business? 23

Where Do You Want to Sell? 25

Conceiving a Business Plan 26

Understanding the Components of a Useful Business Plan 28

Mission 29

Opportunity 30

Strategy 30

Organization and Operations 31

Strengths and Weaknesses 31

Financials 31

Writing Your Business Plan 32

Implementing Your Business Plan 33

II FIXED-PRICE SELLING ON EBAY 35

3 Migrating to Fixed-Price Listings 37

Why Fixed-Priced Sales Are the Way to Go 37

Comparing Fees 38

Comparing Listing Lengths 40

Factoring in Customer Demand 41

Different Ways to Sell at a Fixed Pric 42

Understanding eBay’s Fixed-Price Listings 43

Understanding eBay’s Buy It Now Auctions 44

Understanding eBay Stores 46

Understanding Half.com 47

Creating an eBay Fixed-Price Listing 50

Creating an Auction Listing with a Buy It Now Price 51

Managing Fixed-Price Sales 52

Before the Sale: Setting the Price 53

After the Sale: Payment and Shipping 53

4 Fixed-Price Selling in an eBay Store 57

What Is an eBay Store? 57

Benefits of Opening Your Own eBay Store 59

Challenges of eBay Store Selling 60

Understanding eBay Store Subscription Levels 61

Understanding Insertion Fees and FVFs 63

How to Open an eBay Store 63

Further Customizing Your eBay Store 67

Managing Your eBay Store 68

Listing Merchandise for Sale in Your eBay Store 70

Handling eBay Store Sales 71

Marking Down Your Merchandise 72

Viewing eBay Store Reports 73

5 Fixed-Price Selling on Half.com 77

Getting to Know Half.com 77

Understanding the Half.com Shopping Experience 79

Understanding Half.com Fees 80

Listing on Half.com 81

Pricing Your Half.com Items 83

Calculating Shipping and Handling Charges 84

Managing Half.com Sales 85

6 Promoting Your Fixed-Price eBay Sales 87

Promoting Your Fixed-Price Listings on the eBay Site 87

Optimizing Your Listings for eBay Search 88

Linking from Other Sites to Your eBay Listings 90

Promoting Your eBay Store 90

Seeding Listings into the Traditional eBay Marketplace 91

Enabling Cross-Promotions 91

Creating an Email Mailing List 92

Linking to Your eBay Store 94

Adding a Stores Widget to Your Blog or Website 95

Creating a Listing Feed 95

Exporting Your Listings to Search Engines and Shopping Sites 96

Advertising on the eBay Site with AdCommerce 97

Advertising Across the Web with Google AdWords 99

Promoting Your Store in the Real World 101

Promoting Your Half.com Listings 102

III SELLING VIA CRAIGSLIST ONLINE CLASSIFIEDS 105

7 Online Classifieds: Are They Right for Your Business? 107

Understanding Online Classifieds 107

Examining Major Online Classifieds Sites 110

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