If you have tried to boost your feedback by buying 1p ebooks, or seen just how many ebooks there are for 1p, you may wonder why they are doing it. They will be loosing money for each time an item sells.
Well, there are many different reasons why this is done. One which I will discuss now, is one which I have been having success with - afilliates.
We all know ebay's unique ability to generate traffic. Online marketing is all about traffic, get it anywhere you can!
Now, here's what I have been doing with my 1p auctions. Getting traffic to affiliate websites. I will sell for example, ('where to download mp3s for free'). For the 1p, I will sell the ebayer a link which I email to them (my afiliate link). This takes the buyer to a website which charges say £20 membership fee for free music downloads (nb - completely legal). If they buy this membership, (and they don't always), then I will get a percentage, say 50%. Thus I've actually made £10 from this 1p listing.
Not a bad profit (15 pence to list are only costs).
To find a good affiliate program, run a google search!
Friday, 11 May 2007
Wednesday, 4 April 2007
Dropshipping Scams Review
Hi All,
I've just been dabbling in dropshipping, and am getting so frustrated, I thought I'd write and let you know some bad ones, two infact:
1 - theselect, I paid £50, yes £50 for memebership to their site. I know customer service is excellent, but I don't think their products have very good margins, and there's hardly any of them. For £50 I was most unimpressed, all their flashy stuff to make you want to join is a bit too good to be true.
I've just been dabbling in dropshipping, and am getting so frustrated, I thought I'd write and let you know some bad ones, two infact:
1 - theselect, I paid £50, yes £50 for memebership to their site. I know customer service is excellent, but I don't think their products have very good margins, and there's hardly any of them. For £50 I was most unimpressed, all their flashy stuff to make you want to join is a bit too good to be true.
Wednesday, 7 March 2007
Wholesalers Review
There are many wholesale directories online, some are really useful, others are small and don't really offer very good discounts. I have been a member of a few different directories in the past, and I'd like to show the best here.
Wholesalerhub - www.wholesalerhub.com/uk
Offers 14,000 listings, and a small join from of £3.99 per month. This directory contains only UK wholesalers, many of which don't have a website so you need to visit a warehouse. This can be a bonus as you get more exclusivity as not so many people will bother visiting lots of warehouses etc.
UK wholesale directory - www.uk-wholesale-directory.co.uk
Offers 2,500 listings, but small joining fee of £9 for lifetime membership. You do get 2 free ebooks bonus on joining, however this wholesale website is small.
UK Wholesaler - www.uk-wholesaler.co.uk
Offers 5,000 listings, and includes dropshipping directory. £24.99 for lifetime membership.
Wholesalepages - www.wholesalepages.co.uk
Huge directory with 65,000 listings, from £3.99 per month to join. Offers dropshipping directory, USA/France/Hong Kong and asian wholesalers aswell as UK wholesalers, and many more. Very easy to navigate around and find what you're looking for. This is the best of the bunch.
Wholesalerhub - www.wholesalerhub.com/uk
Offers 14,000 listings, and a small join from of £3.99 per month. This directory contains only UK wholesalers, many of which don't have a website so you need to visit a warehouse. This can be a bonus as you get more exclusivity as not so many people will bother visiting lots of warehouses etc.
UK wholesale directory - www.uk-wholesale-directory.co.uk
Offers 2,500 listings, but small joining fee of £9 for lifetime membership. You do get 2 free ebooks bonus on joining, however this wholesale website is small.
UK Wholesaler - www.uk-wholesaler.co.uk
Offers 5,000 listings, and includes dropshipping directory. £24.99 for lifetime membership.
Wholesalepages - www.wholesalepages.co.uk
Huge directory with 65,000 listings, from £3.99 per month to join. Offers dropshipping directory, USA/France/Hong Kong and asian wholesalers aswell as UK wholesalers, and many more. Very easy to navigate around and find what you're looking for. This is the best of the bunch.
Friday, 2 March 2007
10 X more Ebay Sales???
Here's a new idea which I'm trying at the moment. I once saw somebody selling a product on ebay and their listing had 2000 hits. Their sales were doing brilliantly, they had sold about 100 items. I looked at their listing, it was fairly plain, good item description, but a standard cheap listing, not a featured item etc. So how did it get so many hits, and so many sales? There were lots more people selling the same thing, who got one or two sales. This ebayer was getting traffic from somewhere else.
So I thought, if I can get more traffic to my listings, there's a better chance that things will sell. Also, if I was attracting buyers from elsewhere then they would see my listing straight away and not see my competition. I looked into buying traffic, but that has never worked, I always seem to get conned.
Then it dawned on me. If I am making £10 profit on one item, I can afford to pay £5 per item sold on adverts pretty easily. Google ads are highly targeted. They only show when a user searches for something. After I listed an item (with multiple quanity in case a lot sell), I have set up some google ads (www.google.co.uk/adwords) which point to my listing. I have used google adwords before - you pay every time someone clicks on your ad.
On the ad itself, I always put the price, then it stops people clicking who aren't interested in paying. I am concerned however that I will end up spending £1 a day (my budget) on ads which will get me nowhere.
However, I am hopeful because the items are for sale on ebay. Ebay is a widely recognised brand and bestows trust to the consumer, so when they see this item for sale, they are more likely to buy.
Does it work? - I don't know yet but I'll post up what happens. I'm currently waiting for the ads to go live!
Pete
So I thought, if I can get more traffic to my listings, there's a better chance that things will sell. Also, if I was attracting buyers from elsewhere then they would see my listing straight away and not see my competition. I looked into buying traffic, but that has never worked, I always seem to get conned.
Then it dawned on me. If I am making £10 profit on one item, I can afford to pay £5 per item sold on adverts pretty easily. Google ads are highly targeted. They only show when a user searches for something. After I listed an item (with multiple quanity in case a lot sell), I have set up some google ads (www.google.co.uk/adwords) which point to my listing. I have used google adwords before - you pay every time someone clicks on your ad.
On the ad itself, I always put the price, then it stops people clicking who aren't interested in paying. I am concerned however that I will end up spending £1 a day (my budget) on ads which will get me nowhere.
However, I am hopeful because the items are for sale on ebay. Ebay is a widely recognised brand and bestows trust to the consumer, so when they see this item for sale, they are more likely to buy.
Does it work? - I don't know yet but I'll post up what happens. I'm currently waiting for the ads to go live!
Pete
Thursday, 22 February 2007
Making Money with no stock
There is a highly saturated market out there for selling digital and information products. These are e-books and website subscriptions and software. Basically anything which you give by email. This means an unlimited supply of stock and no overheads. The only money you will need to spend is on advertising.
Where can you get hold of information products. Well, you can buy wholesale rigts to some e-books and software. If you do you can then very easily sell things on ebay. However there are a few websites which offer you the opportunity to sell their information product for a cut (typically 50%). The advantage of this is that you don't have to worry about the support and emailing the product to people. That's all dealt with by the original seller. You do need to drive as many people as you can to you advert though.
I'll start by telling you what these websites are: www.clikcbank.com and www.paydotcom.com. Sign up for both of these, then browse their "marketplace". Here you will see lots of peoples websites selling various things. What you have to do is "create a hoplink" for a product which you want to sell. Click on the "create hoplink" link and enter you username. This will give you a unique link which, when other people follow they go to the vendors website, but their clikc is tracked and if they buy the product, you get a healthy percentage.
So you have a product, but where can you plug this? Where can you place your link? It's simple. Advertise. And what is the best way to advertise? There are several ways to advertise. website and search engine adverts, your own website, but the easiest I've found is by buying an email list. I have bought a lifetime memebership to a list of email addresses which have signed up to be in the list and are expecting "offers" to get sent through. This means that once a day I can email these people with an advert or offer. What offer? - well I just say what I'm selling and include my clickbank or paydotcom hoplink. Therefore, if they are interested, they'll follow the link and buy the product giving you a percentage. I have bought into a list of over 3 million people. The sheer size of this list means I am always likely to get a good response.
This website is www.safemailservices.com but there are others lurking around. Have a look at clikcbank and see if there are any products which you might like to sell. Try and sell products which have a good ad and which have a unique subject as that often gets a better response.
Where can you get hold of information products. Well, you can buy wholesale rigts to some e-books and software. If you do you can then very easily sell things on ebay. However there are a few websites which offer you the opportunity to sell their information product for a cut (typically 50%). The advantage of this is that you don't have to worry about the support and emailing the product to people. That's all dealt with by the original seller. You do need to drive as many people as you can to you advert though.
I'll start by telling you what these websites are: www.clikcbank.com and www.paydotcom.com. Sign up for both of these, then browse their "marketplace". Here you will see lots of peoples websites selling various things. What you have to do is "create a hoplink" for a product which you want to sell. Click on the "create hoplink" link and enter you username. This will give you a unique link which, when other people follow they go to the vendors website, but their clikc is tracked and if they buy the product, you get a healthy percentage.
So you have a product, but where can you plug this? Where can you place your link? It's simple. Advertise. And what is the best way to advertise? There are several ways to advertise. website and search engine adverts, your own website, but the easiest I've found is by buying an email list. I have bought a lifetime memebership to a list of email addresses which have signed up to be in the list and are expecting "offers" to get sent through. This means that once a day I can email these people with an advert or offer. What offer? - well I just say what I'm selling and include my clickbank or paydotcom hoplink. Therefore, if they are interested, they'll follow the link and buy the product giving you a percentage. I have bought into a list of over 3 million people. The sheer size of this list means I am always likely to get a good response.
This website is www.safemailservices.com but there are others lurking around. Have a look at clikcbank and see if there are any products which you might like to sell. Try and sell products which have a good ad and which have a unique subject as that often gets a better response.
Monday, 15 January 2007
How to Make money from purchasing regular items
I would guess that about half the new things selling on ebay can be purchased cheaper elsewhere. Ebay sellers certainly don't install as much trust as a respected shop chain. Yet still, shoppers like to buy from Ebay. And the reason for this is exclusivity. Think about it, if you want a computer, you'll probably go to PCworld or Ebuyer. However, if you want to buy something more obscure, you think, "where could I possibly buy anything like that". Everyone knows that you can buy anything on Ebay, so that's where they look.
So what is the point to knowing this? My point is that you need to find items which are slightly unique, something which you couldn't instantly think of where you might buy it from. You also need to asses other ebay sellers to see if the item is being sold on ebay already. If it isn't, then you're in for a winner! I used to buy items like this from Argos and sell at a huge markup on ebay. It's so easy. All you have to do is find a subject area that you're interested in such as golf. Do a little research into what products are new on the golf scene. If you find one which is a little obscure or unique such as a motorised golf bag with wheels; and no one is selling it already on ebay, then you have a gold product. Search the net and see where you can buy it for the cheapest, buy one and sell it on ebay.
I use this strategy all the time. I now use wholesalers wherever I can to maximise my profits. But it works so well. After a while, it becomes easy to find new products as you begin to learn what will sell well.
So what is the point to knowing this? My point is that you need to find items which are slightly unique, something which you couldn't instantly think of where you might buy it from. You also need to asses other ebay sellers to see if the item is being sold on ebay already. If it isn't, then you're in for a winner! I used to buy items like this from Argos and sell at a huge markup on ebay. It's so easy. All you have to do is find a subject area that you're interested in such as golf. Do a little research into what products are new on the golf scene. If you find one which is a little obscure or unique such as a motorised golf bag with wheels; and no one is selling it already on ebay, then you have a gold product. Search the net and see where you can buy it for the cheapest, buy one and sell it on ebay.
I use this strategy all the time. I now use wholesalers wherever I can to maximise my profits. But it works so well. After a while, it becomes easy to find new products as you begin to learn what will sell well.
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