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