I hear a lot of stories about people making a living selling items on eBay – and from the sound of it, some of them are doing pretty darned well. In fact, in an article posted on our Resource Center, writer Christopher Elliott suggests millions of people today rely on eBay for at least part of their income.
However, Chris also points out that the road to eBay riches can be fraught with peril if you don’t know what you’re doing. But he doesn’t leave you hanging; he’s talked to lots of experts and compiled seven tips you really ought to know if you’re going to sell on eBay.
But did you know …
I’d like to piggyback on Chris’s excellent piece with an eBay tip or two of my own. Hopefully by now, you know about Store Manager, our e-commerce service that lets you create a fully customized online store with the look and feel of your Microsoft Office Live Small Business Web site. Like all of our tools, it was designed to be pretty intuitive, meaning you don’t need advanced skills to get a store up and running.
But did you know that in addition to using Store Manager to list and manage your products on your Web site, you can use it to list products to eBay? You can also:
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Monitor the status of your active eBay listings
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Download eBay orders placed by customers
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Manage those orders from within Store Manager
In other words, by synching eBay with Store Manager, you not only greatly increase the reach of your products —but you have one convenient place where you can manage it all from. For anyone just starting out in the eBay/e-commerce world, it’s a smart way to go because you’ve got our Help and Support resources available if you need them. And even if you’re a pro, I bet you can appreciate how much time you save by consolidating all of your product management tasks.
So here are two action items for you:
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TIP: If you activate Store Manager before Aug. 31, 2008, you’ll get your first month free and a reduced price ($14.95 a month) for the following 12 months. So if you’ve been thinking about e-commerce, the time’s right.
Now it’s your turn. If you’ve had experience selling on eBay, what advice would you give a beginner?
Monte Enbysk