There are many eBay sellers who start out full of good intentions about making money of this global, multi-billion dollar auction site and yet, despite obviously large numbers of success stories there are even more tales of long hours and frustration with little to show for it at the end.

Why are so many hard-working eBay sellers not making the profits which are there?

The simple, honest answer is because most eBay sellers are not researching their product ranges and when they do, they are not looking at what is selling today and tomorrow – they focus on what was sold yesterday, last week or last month. This is a crucial error I see time and time again. You must make sure you do not fall into the same trap.

I have mentioned two excellent resources which analyze sales listings on eBay and will tell instantly from the millions of transactions which ones are selling high profit products and the relative and actual volumes. If you are serious about identifying which products are selling right now you need to use one or both of them – TERAPEAK and HAMMERTAP.

When you know what products are selling right now on eBay and the prices being achieved, you give yourself a powerful strategic advantage when it comes to placing your own listings. Knowing what customers are buying today is much more useful than what customers bought yesterday or last week. By keeping yourself in the loop with which listings are successful and the volumes which are being moved you are able to plan very effectively.

Many ebayers develop their product lines using what they believe customers will buy because they themselves buy the product or have some emotional affinity for a brand or type of product. Intuition has its place in business, but if you are going to develop a business which will consistently deliver products in demand to thousands of customers, you have to apply more than gut instinct to the situation.

By developing a rigorous approach to which products carry the most margin and will sell, you increase your turnover of initial capital and return greater profits. You must carefully assess what the market is doing before you list your products for sale, and ideally you are looking for what customers will want the moment you list them … and the day after … and the day after that too!

By keeping your pulse on consumer demand, you can plan your listings so you know what time and day it’s best to place the initial listing, how long you want it to run and what quantities you are going to commit to (if this option is available). This is a vital point as well; you discover a great selling product only to list a volume of one – but in fact 10 customers want to buy this product – you may have made some profit but you lost out on 9 more sales!

In our next report we are going to be looking at how you must focus your product range not only on those which are going to sell but also building a related sales range which provides great cross-selling opportunities and allows you to shut out the competition by building your own niche in the market. Hope this post was of help to you.

Wishing You Rippling Success! I am looking forward to your comments

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