The very first step is to create an eBay account. Most of you will already have at least bought an item on eBay, or perhaps even sold an old CD. In that case you can skip ahead a little, as before I can talk about how to make money on eBay, I will talk through the process of creating an eBay account.
Creating an eBay Account
Open a new window and navigate to the eBay website. In Australia, this is http://www.ebay.com.au and in the USA this is http://www.ebay.com. If you happen to live elsewhere in the world then visit the USA website and scroll right down to the bottom. You will see a list of countries. Click on your country and you will be directed to the appropriate eBay website.
Next, near the top of the page, click on the link that says "register". Registration is free and shouldn't be too difficult to complete. When the next page loads you will need to enter your name and address details. Scroll down a little further and you will need to choose a user name and password. Your user name is how you will be identified on the website, so make sure you choose something appropriate. Buyers will want to search for your items, so it would be a good idea to perhaps make your user name relevant to the business you wish to start, or at least something simple and memorable. Scroll down a little further and have a quick read of the User Agreement and Privacy Policy. Once you are happy with these, tick all the boxes and click Continue. From here, complete the rest of the registration process and your account will be ready to use.
Setting Up Your Account
You can navigate to your eBay page by clicking on "My eBay" in the navigation bar at the top right of the screen. If you are not already logged in then quickly enter your user name and password. Initially your eBay page may appear very busy and overwhelming, but once you begin to use eBay daily you will find that it is all quite straightforward.
To set finish setting up your account, click on the "Account" tab, or the "My Account" link on the left. Then begin to work down the links on the lefthand side of the page to set everything up with your details. Start with "Personal Information" and "Addresses". Make sure all the details here are correct, as this controls where your payments will be sent, where your purchases will be sent, and how you will pay your eBay fees and for items that you have purchased.
PayPal
If you have not already got a PayPal account, then take the time to set one up now. Visit http://www.paypal.com and create a new account. Follow the instructions to verify your address, and to link to and verify at least one bank account and credit card.
These days eBay requires you to offer PayPal as a form of payment, so you must have access to a PayPal account. This is also the quickest and easiest way to get paid and pay for items - in fact it is the only payment method that I offer for the majority of my auctions. PayPal also makes it very easy to track which items you have received payment for, saving you huge amounts of time once you are selling regularly.
Feedback
eBay uses a system of peer ratings, shown as a feedback score. This score is composed of a number and a percentage. Each time you sell an item the buyer has the opportunity to leave you a rating of either positive, negative or neutral. Of course, if you treat your customers well you can expect to receive almost entirely positive ratings. The number in the feedback score represents the number of individual buyers that have left a positive rating for you. The percentage represents the relationship between the number of positive and negative ratings you have received. It is important to keep the percentage very high (my rating has never dipped below 100%, however anything above 98% is very good).
To initially build your rating, I would suggest browsing eBay and purchasing a number of items. Sellers also have the ability to leave a feedback rating for a buyer, but only a positive rating or no rating at all. Sellers cannot leave a negative rating for a buyer. Go ahead and make a few purchases. These don't need to be at all costly, but do make sure that you pay promptly so that you get your positive feedback score.
If you can build your feedback score and maintain a high percentage you can expect to sell more items and at a higher price.
I'm ready!
Once you have completed these steps, you are now ready to begin learning how to make money on eBay!
No comments:
Post a Comment