eBay Selling Strategies: 4 Ways To Improve Your DSRs

Is improving your DSRs at the top of your list of eBay selling strategies?

If you’re not averaging 4.7 across the board, it should be.

It’s never been more important you score top stars in all of the four areas related to an eBay transaction: "item description," "communication,""shipping times," and "shipping charges." Otherwise your listings just won’t get the exposure they deserve under eBay’s Best Match Search.

Most eBay sellers score high in the first two areas, but fall short in shipping. Shipping time can be especially difficult because some buyers transfer dissatisfaction with the post office to your DSR score!

But there are steps you can take to prevent this from happening.

Here’s our top four eBay selling strategies for taking charge of your Shipping Time DSR:

1. Get your item in the mail fast. To help you speed up the process, create a streamlined shipping area. All you really need is a table and shelving unit to drastically cut down on the time it takes to package your items.
2. Give your buyer a postal "play by play." Be generous with your shipping time estimates. Then when their item arrives early, they’ll be pleasantly surprised. Then let your buyer know where their item is at every stage during the shipping process: when you’re going to ship, after you do ship, and during if you know where it is! Follow up with them after a few days to see if they’ve received their item yet.
3. Ship with a service that offers tracking. Depending on the item, you may want to ship through a service that allows you to track the item’s whereabouts. Then you can let the buyer know where their item is at any time.
4. Get delivery confirmation. Some shipping services will let you know when the package has arrived; for example, when using a PayPal label with the US Postal Service for Priority Mail and Express Mail packages. Just look into your local shipping services to see if they offer this option.

Use these eBay selling strategies to ensure top marks on your eBay shipping time DSR… and get the extra exposure your business needs to be a success.

Selling Digital Products WITHOUT Breaking eBay’s Rules

We used to recommend that new eBay sellers sell digital products such as eBooks to build up a good feedback rating.

It was easy to do — buyers would get instant product — you would quickly get established as a seller and boost your feedback scores.

eBay changed the rules and now electronic products can only be listed using eBay’s Classified Ads, which cost $9.95/month and don’t qualify for feedback.

But there is a way you can still selling digital products on eBay… converting them to a CD and selling them as physical products.

Of course you lose many of the advantages of selling downloadable products (such as no shipping fees, no inventory to handle, etc.), but this strategy is still a great way to boost your detailed seller ratings and get started on eBay.

Plus, now that there are way fewer digital products available on eBay, so it’s likely you can command a higher price for things like eBooks on CD.

This strategy isn’t likely to make you loads of money — in fact, you might only break even or perhaps make a small loss. But it can be a great way to generate leads, establish relationships with customers, and keep them coming back for more… so you’ll be much more profitable in the long run!

So how do you go about putting your digital products onto CD and selling them on eBay?

1. Decide how you’ll sell digital products on CD

First you need to decide how you’re going to use digital products on CD in your eBay business.

Will they be your main product? Or will you offer them as a bonus with something else? Perhaps you could use them to generate leads for future sales. Or you could use them as an "upsell" — an extra product that you can add to an order for a few dollars.

It’s also important to research existing digital products on CD being sold on eBay. When you’re looking at what’s already out there, ask yourself these three crucial questions:

• Is the item scarce? The problem with eBay’s old policy of allowing people to sell eBooks and other digital products was that it seemed like EVERYONE did it! That meant there were thousands of similar digital products for sale, often for just a few cents each.

  But the good news now is that there aren’t many digital products on CD for sale, which means you’re likely to encounter much less competition.

• Is the item desirable? Do people want to buy your digital product on CD? Or can they easily instantly download something similar elsewhere? Desirability is linked to scarcity, because an item’s scarcity often makes it more desirable.

• Is the item in demand? Do people NEED your digital product? Are you selling authoritative information they can’t get anywhere else? Patterns, product manuals, scrapbooking templates and other unique and hard-to-find items translate well to CD, because people will overlook the slight inconvenience of waiting for a CD to get them.

Click here to find out what’s hot on eBay.

To research what’s already available for sale, click here.

2. Find a CD duplication service

Burning digital products to CD can be a tedious and time-consuming process — so why not get the job done quickly and cheaply by a professional company?

This can be well worth it if you sell a lot of CDs — because you can negotiate better rates for larger orders. Plus, some CD duplication companies can also take care of your fulfillment.

Here’s what you need to know BEFORE you select a CD duplication service:

• What format you require (audio CD, data CD, or DVD)
• How your CDs will be packaged (options include plastic cases, paper envelopes, cardboard sleeves, and clamshells)
• What text or graphics you need printed on your CDs and packaging
• How many copies you need
• Whether your order is a one-off job — or you’ll need more copies in the future
• How quickly you need your CDs produced
• Whether the duplication company complies with International (ISO) quality standards

So what can you expect to pay?

Well, prices tend to depend on the size of your order, but here’s an example of typical prices for different quantities of standard 74-minute/650MB CDs with text logos and covers with one side of printed text:

• 10 units: Total cost: $46; Cost per disc: $4.60
• 100 units: Total cost: $148; Cost per disc: $1.48
• 1,000 units: Total cost: $1,090; Cost per disc: $1.09

Duplium (http://www.duplium.com/) is a good option for North American sellers — or you can search Google for a suitable company in your area.

3. Build your own website and sell your digital items OFF eBay

If you still want to sell your digital items as downloads rather than on CD, but you’re worried you won’t sell enough using eBay’s Classified Ads, you should consider setting up your own website.

You’ll need your own domain name, such as www.mysite.com, and a web hosting package that gives you some virtual "space" on the Internet to store your website. When choosing your domain name, keep it related to your business, and consider using words that reflect your eBay user ID or eBay Store name.

Visit www.marketingtips.com/webhost to learn more about registering a domain name and purchasing web hosting for your first site. Then you have to build your site. Here are the three easiest ways to go about it:

• Bebiz: The best option for setting up a simple — but effective — money-making website is our own BeBiz program (http://www.bebiz.com/). BeBiz is an easy-to-use interactive program that guides you every step of the way as you create your own Internet business — and it’s ideal for building a website to sell digital products. It also includes full video tutorials that walk you through each step — removing every single barrier standing between you and your own successful online business. A huge advantage of BeBiz is that it goes beyond just setting up a website and shows you how to attract the search engines so you can get lots of traffic.
• Free website templates: For a simple one-page website, search Google for "free website templates" and choose something that reflects your business. Then just fill it in.
• Create a blog: Blogs are easy to create and maintain, and they can be really useful for selling and/or promoting your eBay business. Google’s Blogger service (www.blogger.com/) makes it easy to create a blog that’s simple to update with information about the products and services you offer. And it’s free!

Your own website can be great for boosting your eBay business as well as giving you an extra outlet to sell your products.

By linking to your eBay listings or eBay Store from your website, you can get more people to look at your items AND improve their search engine ranking.

Plus, if you sign up as an eBay affiliate in the eBay Partner Network, you can actually get paid by eBay for driving traffic to eBay listings!

The days of selling digital products through regular eBay listings may be long gone — but these new strategies can help you build relationships with customers, prove yourself as a reliable seller, boost your DSRs, and make you more profitable in the long run!

And digital products are still one of the most profitable things to sell on your own website — so you should definitely check out how http://www.bebiz.com/ can help you create another stream of income outside eBay!

 

This article appeared in our Bidding Frenzy Newsletter (subscribe to it here). You’ll get the latest information on eBay selling techniques — Free!

eBay Auction Of A Lifetime

When Ian Usher of Perth, Australia separated from his wife, he decided it was time for a fresh start.

But he didn’t just want a vacation, a new job, or even a new house.

Ian decided it was time for a new life. And to do that, he needed to get rid of his old one.

So he put it up for auction on eBay!

At the time of writing, Ian’s life has attracted a top bid of AUS $390,300, with more than three days of the auction remaining.

Ian is offering almost everything from his life in the auction - except his name and identity. The winning bidder will get his three-bedroom house, car, motorbike, jet ski, lifestyle… even his job at a rug store and his friends!

Ian, meanwhile, intends to catch the first plane out of town to begin his new life.

Not surprisingly, the auction has attracted attention from all over the world. But without putting your entire life and possessions up for sale, what can you learn from Ian to generate lots of interest in your own auctions?

Tell a story

People love to read unique and interesting stories online - and telling a story in your salescopy is the best way to make your potential customers curious about you and your product.

Telling a story also gives you a chance to relate to your reader so you can gain credibility, earn their trust, and overcome any objections they may have - all while you make your sales "pitch."

In Ian’s case, he has used his eBay listing, his website (www.alife4sale.com), and YouTube videos to tell readers about his life and background – and give them daily updates on the auction

Read the Bidding Frenzy Issue #29 newsletter for more on how to sell rare or collectible items on eBay.

Use videos and photographs

Ian has included dozens of pictures and videos in his listing to cover every angle of his life. Check out his YouTube channel at http://youtube.com/user/ALife4SaleVideos.

Photographs are great for adding depth to your salescopy, but videos can help you connect with your potential customers in a completely different way from words and pictures.

Don’t just use video for the sake of it, though - make sure you "add value" to your listing. For instance, you could show your product in action to help potential customers imagine themselves using it.

Develop your own website off eBay

You can use your own website outside eBay to sell your products as well - or to simply direct potential customers to your eBay listings.

In Ian’s case, his site (www.alife4sale.com) serves the purpose of providing more in-depth information and driving traffic to his auction.

You can even earn money from eBay without selling ANYTHING yourself - by signing up to eBay’s Partner Network affiliate program at www.ebaypartnernetwork.com.

As an affiliate, eBay will pay you commission for any sales that result from people clicking through to eBay from your site. You can easily create your own website with BeBiz - our complete Internet business builder. Check it out at www.bebiz.com.

Top 3 Takeaways from eBay Live

1) The new feedback system is here to stay

In the keynote Address, John Donahoe was quick to address the recent controversial changes to the marketplace. "Change is hard, but essential."

The rationale?

• Attract more buyers, so sellers - and eBay - succeed
• Create a healthy vibrant "people’s" community

The new feedback system is meant to "do right by people who do the right thing" and reward behaviors that give buyers what they want.

And eBay says the new system is working. Average DSRs are higher across the board:

	4.6 and higher	4.8 and higher
January 2008	60%	15%
June 2008	67%	33%

Sellers who make buyers happy as reflected by high DSRs get more visibility in search and higher Powerseller discounts.

2) eBay pays more attention to marketing

There was an increased emphasis on marketing at eBay Live. Besides eBay store marketing and tools classes, renowned Internet marketers Seth Godin, Jay Berkowitz, and Andy Sernovitz also contributed.

Looks like they’ve finally caught on to what we’ve been teaching our clients for years: Actively promoting and marketing your eBay business is the ONLY way to grow and achieve real online success.

3) eBay is becoming a contained system

eBay’s introduced a number of new policies that are making it pretty much impossible to promote your off-eBay website.

Let’s take a look at eBay’s latest no-nos:

• No linking off eBay: Linking from any eBay page (including your About Me page or eBay blog) to an off-eBay page is no longer allowed.

  You CAN still link to a web page with more information about an item you’re selling on eBay, however, that page can’t have any navigation links on it - period (even if the navigation links to another information page).

  Meanwhile, eBay is displaying Yahoo PPC ads at the bottom of the search results page - driving traffic away from YOUR listings and off the eBay site (while offering eBay a new revenue stream). Those sponsored links directly contradict eBay’s own rules!

  When questioned by one of our Advanced eBay Mentors, eBay said only that they were testing the ads, and would be looking into ways for eBay sellers to purchase this type of advertising on their site.

• No giving out your email address.
  Starting in September, emails between buyers and sellers will rerouted through eBay’s system and given an anonymous email address. The only exceptions are those related to actual transactions.

  And as part of this new email system, you’ll no longer be able to include your email address in your listings.

  According to eBay, "anonymous email addresses are becoming an industry standard that adds an additional level of safety."

  This makes some sense for buyer to seller communications sent through the eBay system. But not allowing sellers to provide a contact email address in their listings seems to be more about making sure all emails are confined to the eBay marketplace.

There was a lot of talk at eBay Live this year about eBay being a platform for sellers’ growth. Clearly, this is restricted to growth on eBay only.

Facebooking with eBay

You can now list your eBay auctions on Facebook.

If you haven’t already signed up to Facebook and have been wondering what all the fuss is about, it’s one of the most popular social networking sites on the Internet today.

Facebook members post information about what they’re doing or thinking, news, photos, their interests… just about anything really. You can also become "friends" with people you know, or people you meet through the website.

Your friends are automatically updated when you add information to your profile, which allows them keep an eye on what you’re up to.

If you’re already a Facebook user, you’ll be familiar with the News Feed that shows up on your Home page — this is where your friend updates appear. It looks a bit like this…

 

 

You can see that all sorts of information is posted in the News Feed, including advertisements. Most Facebook members check their Home page regularly, so they know what their friends are up to.

The News Feed is also interactive. If you notice a friend joining a group that appeals to you, for example, you can click the link and check it out for yourself. (The linked text is blue.)

 

So, what does this all have to do with eBay?

Well… now you can show your eBay listings in the Facebook News Feeds. That means all your Facebook friends will see your auctions when they appear… which instantly gives you a much larger audience.

 

Here’s how it works…

Go to your selling preferences in My eBay to link your Facebook profile to your eBay account, or use the link on the "Congratulations" page after you’ve listed an item through the Sell Your Item form.

After that, whenever you list a new item, it will automatically be included in Facebook News Feed.

If you’ve never shared a listing with Facebook before, you’ll get an invitation whenever you successfully list an item.

Once you start sharing, all the items you list for sale on eBay will continue to be sent to Facebook, until you turn off sharing in My eBay.

If you don’t want to share, click Cancel on the confirmation page rather than Confirm.

To stop or re-start sharing, you can go to My eBay and edit your sharing preferences whenever you want.

 

However…

There are a couple of things you need to remember, though. eBay’s shill bidding policy doesn’t allow bids from anyone who has more access to your item information than the general eBay Community.

This means your friends aren’t allowed to bid on an auction-style listing.

But if you want your Facebook friends to be able to buy your items, simply list them as Buy It Now or for a Fixed Price.

It’s still okay to offer auction-style bidding on your items, but your Facebook friends just won’t be able to bid. eBay recommends that you block bids from their eBay accounts.

 

Will this turn into more sales for you?

Well, as always we suggest you make sure all the basics are in place for your listings before you try anything else.

We’re talking about descriptive and vibrant item descriptions, great pictures, the right keywords in your title, and good Detailed Service Ratings at the very least! But it’s always good to remember that social networking sites like Facebook continue to rise in popularity… and that’s a market you can’t ignore forever.

In fact, Facebook’s members in the US alone increased by 98% from 2007 to 24.9 million unique users by the end of March. So in all likelihood, you already have a bunch of friends on Facebook, even if you haven’t used it yourself.

It looks like eBay will allow listings to be displayed on other social networking sites if the Facebook venture is successful, so this is definitely a strategy to keep an eye on for the future.

For more info, check out eBay’s Help page.

 

If you’re looking to start an Internet business… WITHOUT a website WITHOUT a ton of start-up capital WITHOUT being a computer techie, and WITHOUT a ton of business experience! … eBay is the perfect place for you! PLUS — if you have an EXISTING Internet business — you’ll learn how to boost your sales by expanding into eBay’s giant online auctionplace of 2,000,000 shoppers a day, with over $1 Billion in purchases made in 2006! So if you’re keen to earn life-changing wealth in the world’s largest marketplace (I’m talking 241,000,000 registered users who are PSYCHED to spend money online), then check out my new Insider Secrets to Selling on eBay!

 

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