eBay-Basics-Course

Indulge in some guilt-free shopping this month - eBay is giving away SG$200 every week to one lucky shopper! All you have to do is buy items from participating sellers' listings with our special Shopping Spree logos, and you could be in the running to shop for free !

Learn more about the eBay Shopping Spree:-"http://pages.ebay.com.sg/shoppingspree"

Selling to the world just got more rewarding !

Never tried selling to the world ? There's no better time than now to start !

From now till 15th July 2007, eBay SG are giving away a total value of up to SG$36,500 in Paypal cash prizes.

The more you sell, the more you earn ! Be among the first 100 people to verify your Paypal account and you can win a pair of movie tickets.

Click and view for more details :-"http://pages.ebay.com.sg/rewards

You can request an eBay member's contact information during an active transaction. Also in a successful closed transaction, winning bidders and sellers can request each other's information. To request contact information, click Search ,and click Find Members, type the user ID of the member and the item number in the option boxes, and then click Submit. eBay tells you that it has processed your request and e-mails you the contact information.

Please take note that It is against eBay's rules to ask a seller to sell you an item outside the eBay system, also, transactions outside the eBay Web site do not offer the same protections that eBay offers, such as buyer protections , dispute resolution, mediation, and feedback etc.

You can use eBay's My favorite Search feature to have the system regularly scan for a certain type of item even while you sleep !

Give your search with a name of product, eBay system will do the search to locate that particular product without having you to perform multiple manual searches. This technique is especially useful when you are not in a hurry,and can take your time to find an item over days, weeks or even months.

Designate how long you want eBay to e-mail you the daily results of the search--with options ranging from 7 days to 12 months.

When you find the item you want, you can delete its "Favorite Search "to make room for new Searches.

If you especially like items from a specific seller or store, and you want to quickly and easily view new items,you can save them as favorites. In the "My eBay" page, click the "Favorites" tab, and then click "My Favorite Sellers/Stores". Click "Add new Seller/Store", and type the seller's user ID or the store name, then click "Save Favorite "

eBay SG is ranked No. 1 by visits among all Singapore websites in the Hitwise Shopping and Classifieds - Auctions category.

eBay SG is a Hitwise Number 1 Award winner for the quarter ending ending January - March 2007.

The Hitwise Number 1 Award recognizes websites from over 160 industry categories that are leaders in their industry

PayPal is pleased to announce the launch of new customer support phone numbers in Singapore, making it easier for you to reach them when you need help or have a question.

To contact them , simply login to your PayPal account, click the ‘Contact Us’ link at the bottom of any page and then click the ‘Service Center’ link in the ‘Help by Phone’. You’ll be able to see the new phone number right away.

Anyway the number that you can reach them is : 65-6510-4650

Important Note: In order to view the new number, you must be logged in your PayPal account and have Singapore as your country of residence. Also, if you already have an assigned account manger, we would encourage you to continue to contact him/her directly for inquiries.

Look for more enhancements coming later this month!

The first wave of Baby Boomers turned 60 this year and as many approach the traditional retirement age of 65 they are finding that (a) they are still vibrant and don' t want to stop working; and/or (b) their life expectancy has been extended and they will be dead broke long before they are dead and gone.

As a result Baby Boomers are not slowing down now that they're approaching what once would have been considered their "golden years." If you were a man you expected to retire at 65 and die at 75; and if you were smart you banked enough dough to see you comfortably through that stretch. We figured we'd get at least 10 good leisurely years before the grim reaper shows up without having to worry about money. Turns out, we were wrong.

Leave it to modern medicine and Mother Nature to throw a monkey wrench in our plans. People are living longer, which is one of those good news/bad news scenarios. It's good that you're living longer, but it stinks that you have no idea how you're going to finance all that extra life. Who wants to live forever on a diet of crackers and cat food? Certainly not me and I expect, not you. And do me a favor: if you see me thirty years from now passing out buggies at Wal-Mart, please, just kill me where I stand. You'll be doing me and all Wal-Mart shoppers a huge service.

Personally, I think Viagra is the reason men are now living longer. Let's be honest; if a man thinks there's still a chance of getting lucky when he's in his eighties he'll hold on for dear life. And women are living longer because they know old men couldn't survive without them. We'd never find our car keys or our pants or our reading glasses or our way home from the drug store.

Being your average, white male in good health, I can now expect to live into my eighties if I can avoid an unexpected heart attack, getting creamed by a runaway truck, or the wrath of my lovely wife (who I believe is actually killing me a little every day).

And by the time I get to eighty years old someone will have discovered a pill that extends my life into the hundred and ten range. Personally I don't think I want to live to be a hundred and ten. I'm crotchety enough now in my forties. Imagine what a pain in the backside I'll be fifty years from now.

All kidding aside, older Americans are finding that they have the time, energy, desire and, sometimes, the need to start their own business. I talked about the insurgence of older entrepreneurs in this column two years ago and as I predicted then, the trend toward elder entrepreneurship continues today.



A report from Barclays Bank showed that older entrepreneurs are responsible for 50 percent more business start-ups than 10 years ago. This amounted to around 60,000 business start-ups in 2005 alone. The report further showed that only 27 percent run the business as the only source of household income, with 51 percent supplementing their pension.
Other key findings showed that third age start-ups account for 15 percent of all new businesses, and third age entrepreneurs are three times more likely to be male than female.
Americans over 60 are the fastest growing segment of Internet users and many are starting online businesses.
I talked to "Boomer Expert" John Howe, 63, of Dallas, TX, who has started an organization designed to assist Baby Boomers who want to learn more about entrepreneurship and making their older years more fulfilling and profitable. Howe publishes the weekly electronic magazine for Boomers found at Boomer-Ezine.com. I asked: How are boomer entrepreneurs different from younger entrepreneurs?

"Boomers have the benefit of the lessons that many bumps and scars of life taught them," Howe said. "They are more conservative than the younger group. Patience is a trait that one learns with age. When we are young, we tend to shoot from the hip a lot. A little age teaches you to take aim and fire.

"Boomers also have more money to invest in their venture than the younger group, but the fact that this money is from retirement savings makes a Boomer conservative. The Boomer will study the opportunity and do a lot more homework before jumping in."

Howe makes a good point. Boomers are more careful with their money because they have less time to rebuild their fortune than someone who goes belly up at 25. I asked Howe why he thought so many Boomers were starting businesses. Was it out of desperation and need or because they enjoy the challenge?

Howe responded, "I believe it is a mix of all of these. It also depends on the person. A major concern is that modern medicine will make us live longer and we will outlive our savings. When we started saving 30 years ago, many planned savings for living a shorter time that we are now projected to live."

And why are so many boomers now looking at entrepreneurship as a way to supplement their retirement income?

"Some, like myself, cannot think about not having a challenge to wake up to everyday," said Howe. "Sitting around without a definite direction is not my idea of retirement. I am also not doing this for free so it is also profit motivated. We Boomers made a lot of money over the course of our lives, but many lived for the moment and did not plan for retirement like they should have, or they suffered in the stock market downturn and lost a considerable amount of their savings."

In the end, Howe believes, the decision by Baby Boomers to start a business comes down to energy and economics. "If the desire and finances are there, there is no reason someone over 60 should not consider becoming an entrepreneur."

This article contribute by Tim Knox

==================================================================================

Have You Ever Wanted To Be An eBay Seller Working Out Of A Home Office And Selling Products Around The World ?

Start Your Own Business As An Entrepreneur ! Approximately 1.3 million sellers around the world use eBay as their primary or secondary source of income. (Source: ACNielsen International Research, June 2006)

What Are You Waiting For !

Sign Up Today ! Click Here:- "http://www.hot-computronics.com/ebay.html"

Training Will Be Delivered Using The Most Up-To-Date Training Materials, So You Know You're Learning To Make The Most Of eBay To Increase Your Revenue.

Learn How To Sell On eBay The Right Way ! Learn To Sell Like A Pro !

"I’ve been at this for years, and have become very successful in my Internet business. But let’s face it, folks. If I knew what was going to sell well on the Internet tomorrow, next week, or next month, I wouldn’t be writing this article. I would have retired and purchased a small private island by now. In the retail business, whether you are online, in a physical store in the local mall, or at a roadside stand, it makes no difference; choosing the products you are going to sell is always the hardest part of getting started.

I can’t whip out a crystal ball and tell you what to sell. However, I can tell you about the biggest mistakes that I see new Internet businesspersons making, all the time.

Too many people are fixated on four things:

Selling only products they like.

Selling only products they know a lot about.

Selling only products they think are “Cool” or “Sexy”.

Selling only products they think “The Hottest Products on the Internet”.

I get four basic emails from people who are stuck in this rut, and I can pretty much tell that right off the bat, by the way the email begins.

An Email from a person who only thinks they can sell what they like starts something like this:

“Dude, I’m like, a Sk8ter, and I need to find a drop shipper for, like, Sk8tboards + wheels + stuff”.

The first problem this person is going to run into (aside from the fact that he needs to learn how to write a business email!) is a problem for all four types of people here. There may not be a drop shipper for the products they want. We’ll talk more about that in a few minutes, though.

The second problem is “tunnel vision”. This person may actually find a drop shipper for “sk8tboards + wheels + stuff”. If he does, great. However, someone who has such a narrow vision of the Internet Marketplace will never branch out and fulfill his own potential in the Internet Marketplace.

Say he does find the drop shipper he’s looking for, and opens a store. Because of the narrow vision that led him there, he’s likely to stick with that store, and that store alone. He’ll make some money, but unless he gets really lucky, he won’t make a really good income out of it. He’ll piddle along selling “sk8tboard” stuff forever, when he could have done so much more.

What he needs to do is broaden his scope. If he’s interested in “sk8ting”, wonderful. But instead of focusing on just that, he should explore selling all kinds of sporting goods.

Sam Walton, the revered Founder of Wal-Mart, was once a starting quarterback on his High School football team in Columbia, Missouri. He also liked to play basketball. Can you imagine what would have happened if Sam Walton never tried to sell anything besides football and basketball equipment? There would probably be a pretty big store in the US selling just footballs and basketballs today, because Walton was a very good retailer. But it never would have grown to the size and scope of Wal-Mart today if Sam had allowed tunnel vision to crowd his overall view.

It’s okay for our “sk8ter” buddy here to open an Internet store that sells skateboard equipment. Niche marketing is a good thing. But in his overall business, he should look for other products with which to eventually open other stores as well. One store leads to two, two lead to four, and so on. Never get stuck limiting your entire business to just one type of product!

An Email from a person who only thinks they can sell what they know about goes like this:

“Hey there;

I’ve been riding horses all my life, and I own a small stable where I teach riding. I’m opening an Internet Store where I’m going to sell all kinds of stuff that other riders will want to buy. I’ve got to find a drop shipper for saddles and Western Wear and such”.

Again, this person’s first problem is going to be that he may not find a drop shipper of the products he knows so well. But, we’ll get to that in a bit.

His second problem is similar to the first person’s problem, but not exactly the same. This person isn’t fixated on selling only what he likes; he’s just a little bit scared of having to learn about something new. He’s obviously going where he feels safe. That’s okay, but let’s remember what I’ve mentioned twice so far: he may not find a drop shipper for the products he likes. Genuine drop shippers do not grow on trees, folks. There isn’t one for every type of product. It’s very important to keep that in mind when you start out!

So, what does this person need to do? He needs to understand that being in business is about learning new things every day. New ways to market, new software to get used to, simpler ways to do his monthly books, etc., etc., etc. Learning new products is just as critical. Again, never limit your business to just one type of product. You don’t have to like what you sell. You just need to make money selling it!

An Email from a person who only thinks they can sell what’s “Cool” goes like this:

“Hi;

I’m looking for a drop shipper of electronics, like MP3 Players, Plasma TVs and such. Please tell me where to find them.”

A request for drop shippers of electronics is a dead giveaway. Almost everybody who starts an Internet Store wants to sell electronics. It’s the Cool, Sexy market, and even if you never sell anything, you can show your friends your site and say, ‘Dude, I can get you an Xlent deal on the hottest new stuff!

Electronics, like any other Cool or Sexy market on the Internet, is not the place for most people to start. That market is absolutely flooded with other people who already had the same idea, and the profit margins have plummeted. Why? Too many inexperienced Internet sellers. They start price wars, figuring they’re going to clean up by undercutting everyone else’s prices by a little bit. Problem is, the next guy comes along and undercuts the first one a bit. Then the third person comes along and undercuts the second. And so on.

Pretty soon all you have left are tens of thousands of people trying to sell electronics for pennies more than what they pay for them, just to advertise a slightly better price than their competition.

Not good.

The person who wants to sell Cool and Sexy stuff needs to understand that they are not out here to look Cool or Sexy. They’re here to make money. Four Slice Toasters and Propane Camp Stoves aren’t sexy, but they sell and their markets are not overcrowded, and that’s what the goal is.

Finally, an email from a person who thinks they need to sell only the Hottest Products on the Internet goes like this:

“Hello;

Can you tell me were I can find out what the Top Selling Products on eBay are? I want to know what everyone else is selling and get in on it.”

BAD IDEA!

Look at it this way. If you were in a giant field filled with nothing but concession stands selling Salted Peanuts, what’s the smartest thing you could do? Set up yet another Salted Peanuts stand, or set up a Lemonade Stand?

I’d sell Lemonade, wouldn’t you? :o)

In our business, we look at the Lists of Top Selling Products on the Internet, too. Then we run the other way as fast as we can. We don’t want to be just another face in the crowd selling the same thing as everyone else. We want to think about products that may be complementary to the Hottest Sellers, that not many other people are selling.

If everyone and their Grandmothers are selling Salted Peanuts, we want to be the ones selling Lemonade. :o)"

** This article contributed by Mr. Chris Malta, Founder/CEO of Worldwide Brands, Inc

====================================================================================

Have You Ever Wanted To Be An eBay Seller Working Out Of A Home Office And Selling Products Around The World ?

Start Your Own Business As An Entrepreneur ! Approximately 1.3 million sellers around the world use eBay as their primary or secondary source of income. (Source: ACNielsen International Research, June 2006)

What Are You Waiting For !

Sign Up Today ! Click Here:- "The Basics Of eBay Selling"

Training Will Be Delivered Using The Most Up-To-Date Training Materials, So You Know You're Learning To Make The Most Of eBay To Increase Your Revenue.

Learn How To Sell On eBay The Right Way ! Learn To Sell Like A Pro !

Have You Ever Wanted To Be An eBay Seller Working Out Of A Home Office And Selling Products Around The World ?

Start Your Own Business As An Entrepreneur ! Approximately 1.3 million sellers around the world use eBay as their primary or secondary source of income. (Source: ACNielsen International Research, June 2006)

What Are You Waiting For !

Sign Up Today ! Click Here:- "The Basics Of eBay Selling"

Training Will Be Delivered Using The Most Up-To-Date Training Materials, So You Know You're Learning To Make The Most Of eBay To Increase Your Revenue.

Learn How To Sell On eBay The Right Way ! Learn To Sell Like A Pro !

You can use the Completed Items only option in the Advanced Search tab to research the final selling prices for different types of items for the last two weeks.

As a seller, this information allows you to estimate what market prices you can expect for your owns, similar items. Knowing an item's
recent market price helps you avoid buying inventory at a price that is too high to yield a profit.

Viewing the highest prices shows you the items that can make you the most money; viewing the lowest prices shows you what items to avoid selling.

Please take note that items that do not meet their reserve; or asking prices, are not good reflections of a particular item's market value, nor should you use them for research purposes.

When you use the Gallery feature, you can show eBay shoppers a miniature image, or thumbnail of your auction item when they browse or search in lists of items.

According to some reports, you can get from 25% to 200% more bid by using the Gallery feature. At a cost of only US$0.35, or US$0.01 (eBay store listing), the Gallery feature may be your best investment in your auction beyond the basic listing fees.

Because your items are competing against so many other items on eBay, any that you do to help them stand out increases the chances that people will bid on them. Some shoppers browse through so many pages of listings so quickly that they may not even take the time to view your items if you do not use the Gallery feature.

Scammers using eBay's "Ask Seller a Question" feature to help them harvest email addresses in order to perpetrate fraud. The "Ask Seller a Question" feature is designed to allow potential buyers to ask sellers questions without either party having access to the other's email address, but is now being exploited.

The technique involves asking the seller a question about an "identical item" they saw listed on eBay, and includes a link to the supposed listing. Unwary sellers who go to view the item by clicking or pasting in the link are taken to a spoof site, where they are asked to sign in again (it is not unusual to have to log-in to eBay for different tasks). They then may unwittingly enter their eBay User name and password into the spoof site, which is designed to harvest the information for fraudulent activities such as account hijackings.

Most of us put a lot of thought into the titles for our eBay auction listings. After all, the title is usually the first thing potential bidders see. But the browsing buyer doesn't always parse what's in the title, especially when she's been scanning lists of auctions for an hour. Sometimes not even the most attention-getting words or phrases will arrest the eyes of a weary or distracted searcher.

Fortunately, there is another element of listings that buyers see at the same time as the title, and it can be more attention-getting than the title. I refer to the opening bid. Numbers, especially numbers preceded by a currency sign, can draw the eye faster than text. And numbers are faster and easier to comprehend.

The obvious way to get attention with your opening bid is to make it outrageously low. Perhaps $0.01. (This assumes that you aren't trying to insure yourself against a low bid by adding a $20 handling charge to, say, a small item that costs only $2 to mail.) There's nothing like a leading zero to make the scanner pause. However, a lot of people use this trick, perhaps so many that it's not as effective as it once was. The same is true of $0.99, which to the seller is the same as one dollar, while supposedly fooling the buyer into thinking it's much less.

But you can still play around with prices for effect. Try jarring buyers' eyes with some unexpected numbers in an opening bid, like $0.43 or $0.37. Since a low opening bid is in effect a token bid, $0.43 or $0.37 is the same as $0.01 from the seller's perspective. But either of these is new, or at least different, to buyers - different enough to make them notice.

Odd numbers in higher opening bids can get attention, too: $7.38 rather than $7.50, for example. Because of the retail pricing structures we all grew up with, most of us have a tendency to use -49, -50, -95, -97, -98, or -99 when we set a dollar fraction in a bid, so any number other than those is likely to stand out.

If your opening bid strategy turns out to be ineffective and you have no bids after two or three days, don't despair. You can use price changes to get buyer attention. Try lowering the minimum bid (or Buy it Now price) by a few cents, or maybe a dollar or two. When a buyer encounters your listing for the third day in a row, he will be less likely scan on past it if it has a different bid.

You can use this tactic alone, or in conjunction with altering the listing title. It can be particularly effective when people have your auction on their watch lists. A new price may jar them into going ahead with a bid, especially if the decrease is significant. This may lead to a cascade of bidding as other watchers see that they may lose their chance at the item.

Lowering your minimum bid repeatedly may also generate some excitement, especially if you note in your auction description and/or title that you will be dropping the minimum daily. Lower the amount in small increments. Doing the same thing with a fixed-price or Buy it Now listing can prompt buyers to jump in and grab the item before someone else gets the sudden bargain.

Alternatively, you can raise the minimum bid. As with lowering the amount, the number change can catch the eye. There may also be a psychological effect; sometimes people think that a higher price means greater value.

Article by Michael A. Banks. Author of " The eBay Survival Guide: How To Make Money & Avoid Losing Your Shirt."

eBay has acquired StumbleUpon for $75 million. StumbleUpon is described as giving people a new way to discover relevant and entertaining content based on personal preferences and community recommendations and is an early-stage company with approximately 2.3 million users.

By allowing its community to rate the content, StumbleUpon gets smarter as it is used and provides an increasing level of relevance over time.

According to eBay North America President Bill Cobb's announcement on the eBay Announcement Board, StumbleUpon will run as a separate business unit within eBay Inc.

"Although there are no definite plans to share at this time, as the site evolves, we'll be exploring the possibilities for synergies between StumbleUpon and eBay marketplaces, Skype, and PayPal."

US Daylight Saving Time begins on March 11th at 2:00am on Sunday 2007, and will end on November 4th, 2007 where most States in USA will change their clocks forward by one hour.

Daylight time begins in the United States on the Second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November.

On the second Sunday in March, clocks are set ahead one hour at 2:00 a.m. local standard time, which becomes 3:00 a.m. local daylight time.

On the first Sunday in November, clocks are set back one hour at 2:00 a.m. local daylight time, which becomes 1:00 a.m. local standard time.

These dates were recently modified with the passage of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, Pub. L. no. 109-58, 119 Stat 594 (2005). Starting in March 2007, daylight time in the United States will begin on the second Sunday in March and end on the first Sunday in November.

Not all places in the U.S. observe daylight time. In particular, Hawaii and most of Arizona do not use it. Indiana just recently adopted the use of it beginning in 2006.