How I Went from $0 to over $5000 per month in sales on eBay by crafting the perfect listings!
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The key to selling successfully on eBay is having a great product and a great listing to go with it. The best part about eBay is the sheer size of the platform, and I’ve found that there really is a buyer for everything. If you list your products for sale and find that it sits without selling, the reason is very likely that your listings need improving. On the flip side of that, I find that pretty much anything will sell successfully as long as the listing for that item is a great listing.
When I first started selling on eBay, I was completely new to the platform and didn’t really know anything – I had never even used the website to make a purchase. After a lot of trial and error, I’ve learned an incredible amount that I want to pass on to you to help you with your online selling success.
So once you have your eBay account set up and you’re ready to sell, your first step is to decide what you’re going to sell. I wrote this post talking about exactly how I got started selling on eBay, and it’s still the exact strategy that I recommend! Once you know what you’re going to be selling, there are a few simple keys to success that will take you from starter to successful while selling on eBay.
Craft a great listing
Pictures
Photos are so important to your listing because they’ll make the first impression with your potential buyers. You don’t need to be a skilled photographer with expensive gear to take good photographs – I definitely couldn’t be further from this! But you do need to make sure that your pictures are good enough. The only camera I have ever used to take photographs for my eBay listings is my iPhone camera, that’s it! I just make sure that I wipe off the camera screen on the back of my phone, and I’m ready for a photo shoot. Your pictures should be clear, bright, and in good quantity. eBay allows multiple photos for each listing, and I recommend including at least several. I always include one of each angle of the item that I’m selling, closeups of any interesting characteristics or flaws, and closeups of important details (like the size and material tags for clothing items; serial numbers for electronics, etc.). The goal with your photographs is to supply potential customers with enough visual information so that they’ll be confident enough to buy from you. Dark and blurry photos leave them questioning the product, and they’ll be likely to move on to the next one. Your photo setup doesn’t need to be fancy – I like to take simple photographs of my clothing items on a hanger in front of a blank wall. If you want to get fancy you can purchase a simple backdrop like this one or this one. I take most of my photos using natural light in combination with this lighting kit. It was super affordable and allows me to continue taking photos when the sky outside is in less than perfect conditions for taking photos.
If you want to see the other reselling products that I use and recommend, I put together a list of the best products here.
Title
eBay allows 80 characters to be used in the listing title, and I always like to use as many as possible. Keep it simple and factual, and only include the keywords that you think someone will use to search for your items. For example, “L@@K pretty black dress ON SALE” isn’t a good title, but “Talula Aritzia size medium black mini party dress” is a great title that will pop up in a lot of different searches on eBay
Listing specifications
eBay will autofill a lot of the specifications automatically based on your title information, but I always like to fill out as many as I can because it helps get my listings in front of as many eyes as possible when people are searching for specific criteria
Description
I use my description to bolster the visual information I already provided from my photographs. I use the same keywords that I used in my title, and I also include any other details that I want the customer to know. I mention whether or not it’s in great condition or if there’s a small flaw they should be aware of, I include a couple of basic measurements (length and width) so that they can double check if my specific item will fit them properly, and I include any other tidbits that may have been overlooked in the photos such as if the garment has pockets, extra buttons sewn on inside etc.
Price
I like to price fairly because I’m in the selling business, not the storage business. I may be able to get an extra $4 for something if I hang on to it for another 5 months, but I’m not interested in that. If I can make a great profit that I’m happy with, that’s the price I’ll be selling it for. You have a few pricing options on eBay, and I like to utilize all of them. You can list as an auction and you may get multiple bids on your items which will drive your sales price up. When I list auctions, I always set the starting bid price as the lowest that I’ll be happy to accept. Some people start auctions at 99 cents, but then they’re out of luck if no one stumbles across their listing. The other option that you have is a fixed price. You set the price that you want, and you can either turn their Best Offer option on or leave it off. If you turn it on, people can send you price offers and you can either accept, decline, or counter their offer
Quantity
You’re not going to make a full time income on eBay unless you have enough products listed to support a full time income. If you stick with this, you’ll be able to build up your inventory over time. I started making a full time income on eBay when I had around 800-1000 items listed. It seems daunting but I acquired this inventory slowly over time so it really didn’t feel like a mountain that was too big to climb. Each listing needs the right buyer, so if you have 1000 items listed, you’re far more likely to get the right buyer for your items multiple times every day.
If you have the best possible listing created, anything that you list should be able to sell. Don’t overthink everything and worry about your listing being perfect, because it really doesn’t need to be! As long as you have the above points covered, your products will find a happy buyer and your sales will start rolling in.
If you’re new to eBay, you can sign up for your free seller account here!
If you enjoyed this, read my post detailing how I quit my office job and started selling online full time!
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