Secrets to Making a Killing on Ebay

Ebay gives people a chance to buy anything they want to buy, sell anything they want to sell, and perhaps get rich trying. Everything can be done at home, with very little investment.

Are you ready to earn money through Ebay? All you need are seven simple strategies.

First: Study the market. Ebay is not only an online bidding and shopping center. Some companies actually post their wares on Ebay to see how much people are willing to pay for it.

To market test your product, post it three times with three different starting bids: one comfortably low, another at the price you expect it to fetch, and a third comfortably high. Monitor each product post and see how fast the prices rise with the bidding.

This way, you know how much people will be willing to pay to purchase your product. There is a caveat to this, however: you can incur the wrath of people on Ebay if you choose to terminate bidding of your two other products should you choose to retain and sell the one for which you got the best price.

Second, sell something old but new. Now this may sound strange, but all it means is that you have to sell something that has a use or a following, something that is unique without being obscure. Ebay is filled with hundreds of thousands of people loud and proud of their wares. You can't sell something anyone can find in the nearest grocery store, but you can't sell something no one will know about either.

For instance, you can sell Used Ball Pen Art – it's something you certainly can't pick up at the local Wal-Mart, but it isn't something everyone might be interested in either. If you are unsure, see Strategy Number One. If you believe in your product, however, move on to Strategy Number Three.

Research. Some sellers make the mistake of calling their product certain things: plaid when the pattern is checkered, large when it is actually medium, brand new when it has a tear across its front. Make sure you know everything about your product, so that if someone is finding something specific, they stumble upon your wares. Don't make the mistake of advertising something your product doesn't have. Do so, and your buyers – and everyone else on Ebay – will walk away very unhappy.

Fourth, take a great picture of your product. Showcase its best side, but show any flaws it might have without highlighting the flaws or hiding them. When you have taken the picture, crop it to include only your item, then shrink it down to 72 dpi to make it load faster. This will allow buyers to not only see your item, but see it quickly. If it loads too slow, buyers will turn away in impatience. If you have no picture, you will appear unwilling to sell and wary of showing your product.

So what have you got to hide? Take out that camera and snap those pictures!

At this point, you are ready to get your item onto Ebay, so list your product correctly. What some sellers do is to put their items in the most general category, thinking that more people will see it. This is not true for Ebay, since buyers will be searching for specific things. Put your item in the general categories, and you could miss out on those precious page views.

Sixth, work on your writing. Ebay requires you to have a written description of your product, along with an auction title. Make your written description short and true, and your auction title specific. Remember that some buyers may not have the right Internet speed – and patience – to wait for your picture to load, so you have to grab them immediately with a delicious description.

As a rule, the best descriptions are those which will answer any questions your buyers might have.

Your product is now online and ready to be sold – but how do you sell it right, and when do you stop the bidding? It's all about timing.

Know when Internet traffic is loose so that you can post your item without much difficulty on your part, and know when traffic is high so that you don't terminate bidding when people are actually trying to get through to your site but are stuck in an online traffic jam.

So, seventh, watch your market. Watch TV, so you know when popular shows are on. Chances are, people won't be at their computes during that time. Watch the Weather Channel. In harshly cold or harshly hot weather, people will be indoors surfing the net.

Marketing is all about timing, and in selling, timing is everything. Ebay is no exception, and it can be a great place to earn cash if you strategize and plan.