The Top Four Things You Must Do to Help You Start Your Own eBay Home Based Business

Perhaps you have read about the stories of people starting a home based business on eBay. Maybe you've had some success with online auctions, and now you're ready to take it to the next level. Perhaps you're an eBay veteran, and you just need a quick review of a few of the basics.

Here it is, the top four things you must do to help you improve your profits at eBay.

1. Here is the single most essential tip. Ensure that you spell your item correctly in the listing! Way too many people lose money on eBay because of a misspelled word. When the item is misspelled, potential buyers have a very hard time finding the item. This lowers competition from bidders and causes someone to win the item for cheap.

2. Write a strong description of the item! Be sure your listing title uses keywords that are search engine friendly. Also, if your merchandise has a UPC code, then place that in the title. And ensure your your description gives a lot of details about the product. You want to persuade the buyer that he or she is getting a really good deal. Finally, ensure that you don't have any typos or bad grammar in your description. This will cause buyers to look elsewhere.

3. Ensure you place your product in the proper category! When people search for products, they often begin with the eBay search bar. Then, if they get a large number of results, they often click on the category title for the product they are looking for. This filters the search results so that only the desired listings are shown. If you put your product in the wrong category, then it will not be shown.

4. Use a picture! When was the last time you bought an item without looking at it beforehand? Exactly! Buyers like to see what they are bidding on. Just be sure your photos are good quality. Most importantly, make sure you photograph the item in a well lit area.

When you're comfortable with these four tips, you can start implementing some actual business strategies.

Here is a good example: Buy products from Amazon.com and sell them on eBay! Did you know that you can find cheap, barely used textbooks on Amazon.com and list them on eBay? For some crazy reason, people will pay more for textbooks on eBay. Try this experiment for yourself. Cut and paste this code "0121822028" into the search box at Amazon.com. This is the item number for a popular college biology textbook. You'll discover that the retail price for the textbook is $150-$200. Next, check out the Amazon.com Marketplace prices. They're much lower than the retail price! Next, do an eBay search with the same product number and look at how much profit you can make!

What about dropshipping?

Can you really make money on eBay with no products to sell? Yes, you can. Here's how you do it. You basically act as an intermediary. You search for items that are available for purchase on the internet at a discount, and you list them on eBay as if you were the owner, yourself. Don't worry. There's nothing immoral about this. In fact, it's becoming more and more common these days. You can think of it this way. You're offering a needed service to those who aren't very skilled with internet research. You're finding inventory that they couldn't find on their own. Now, there's a little risk involved with this strategy, but we'll get to that in a minute.



When the item sells on eBay, you'll get an email notification. The next step is for you to place an order for the actual item from your source. In some cases, depending on the source, you can have the product packed by your supplier so that it appears to have come directly from you. This is often true in the case of dropshippers. In other cases, you'll want to have the item shipped directly to you; then you can send the item to your buyer. This incurs some shipping costs, and it takes longer for your buyer to get the item.



The best way to avoid this risk altogether is to use a drop shipper and to actually buy some products from the drop shipper, who then sets the items aside for you. When the inventory sells, the drop shipper packages the item and ships it for you. This virtually guarantees that you'll never receive an order only to find that your supplier is out of stock. Though, there is a little risk with this method, too. Once you buy the product, you own it, even though it's sitting in the drop shipper's warehouse, and if the market price drops for that item, you're out of luck. You may have to sell the product at a loss.



The author is a successful entrepreneur and blogger who enjoys helping people make money (sometimes a lot of it) through honest work. She is a prolific writer and loves to share her ideas, though she only reveals her best tips in her blog. The current focus of her blog is eBay businesses: eBay Home Business. The author also has an article at: eBay Home Business.