Personally delivered to you by the author of
"Selling on 'the River' - The eBay Seller's Guide to Amazon.com"
It's been a few weeks since the last issue. I've been very busy creating my store on eCrater, and I've set up about ten Build A Niche Store sites -and they're making money! Etsy.com is still on the list, along with Amazon and eBay tips.
Please vote in the poll in the far right sidebar for what you're most interested in seeing in future issues.
...now for the newsletter.
In This Issue
- Free Images in Your eBay Listings?
- A Great Tool to Learn HTML
- Are they really giving all of this away?
- How to Make More Money on Your Yard Sale Treasure
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1. Free Images in Your eBay Listings?
eBay is not known for giving anything away for free. But with a little know-how you can add as many photos as you'd like to your eBay listings, all for free.
As you may know, the first photo on your eBay listing is free, but each one after that costs you $.15. If you list 20 listings with a couple of extra photos each, you just spent an extra $6.00. In a recent eBay class, my students wanted to know how to include photos within the item description. There are a few methods, but I'll share mine to get you going.
Step 1: Sign up for a free Photobucket account. Photobucket is a site that allows you to store your images on their site. You can decide how you want to arrange them, but they allow you to create albums to keep things organized. Once you've signed up, you should upload images you want to appear in your eBay listings.
Once you've uploaded your images, you'll see each one has its own "web address" or URL. In fact, each image you look at online already has its own address. Now yours will too.
Step 2: Write your description in eBay's Sell Your Item form. Note that you have two tabs above the window where you enter the description. One is "Standard" and the other is "HTML". You can flip back and forth between the two while you're creating your description. The HTML view shows what you've written, along with the HTML tags.
Step 3: At the point where you would like one of your photos to appear, copy the URL from the appropriate photo on Photobucket. (Note: You may want to have two browser windows or tabs open so you can switch back and forth between eBay and Photobucket.)
Photobucket gives you a few choices as to which link you'll need. You should choose the "HTML Code". All you have to do is click your mouse once over the code and it will be copied for you automatically.
Step 4: Now go back to eBay, and make sure you have the HTML tab selected above your description. Paste your HTML code at the point where you want your photo to appear.
You'll notice your HTML code includes < and > on the ends. The image tag will have img src= before the address for your photo. Photobucket should have automatically included this for you.
Step 5: Go back to the "Standard" tab on eBay and look at your photo. If it's way too big, you can adjust the size by adding the width or height attribute. (You don't need both.) Back on the HTML tab, find the part of the tag that says "img src=". Add a space after "img" and type width="450" followed by a space. Leave the src and following code the same. Now you've set the width for that photo at 450 pixels. If you want it bigger or smaller, just change it again. Take a look at it in your "Standard" view.
You can also adjust the photos right, left, or center in the standard mode. Just click once on the photo in the Standard tab, and use the buttons on the editing bar to align the photo as you wish.
That's all there is to it. Once you do this a few times you can add as many photos as you'd like. The good thing is, it doesn't cost you a thing! You can see an example of this in one of my listings, look at my Chicago Bears book.
2. HTML Can Make You Money
HTML is simply a language. It is the language your Internet Explorer or Firefox browser uses to display this page right before you. As we just saw, learning a little HTML can save you money right away. But knowing a little more can actually make you money. I am a big believer in having your own website or blog - or both. Knowing HTML is crucial so you can make work on your own sites without having to call the "internet guy."
When I look at new products, I use the "Mom method" of judging the difficulty and usefulness. If my Mom could use it, and would use it, it should work for average users. I found this product called "One Hour HTML" that I think passes the Mom test. Using this material, you should be quite capable of handling basic HTML in a very short time. He offers a full guarantee, so it's risk free. Give it a shot, visit One Hour HTML.
3. Are they really giving all of this away?
A few weeks ago, a company that I have a lot of respect for, Worldwide Brands, sent out a survey to their customer list and asked what their main concerns were.
Almost 75% of them said they were worried about how the recession will affect their business.
So, Worldwide Brands went to work and created videos, audios, and tutorials to show their customers what they needed to do to grow their online business in troubled times. (I'm even in video #2!)
Initially, this content was only available to their customers, but for the next few days you can get access to it for free. I took the time to watch the whole thing, and believe me, it's worth watching. I was encouraged by all the free advice.
You'll get case studies, free tutorials, audio interviews, and free videos showing you exactly what you need to do to take your online business to the next level no matter what the economy looks like.
Click here to watch the first video and sign up for their in-depth video series.
4. How to Improve on Your Yard Sale Treasure
There is still good stuff to be found at yard sales if you keep your eyes peeled. I picked up a box of books for about $10 at a local rummage sale and found this Chicago Bears - An Illustrated History. I was a little disappointed to find that it was not going for much on Amazon or eBay. Generally under $10. On top of that, it didn't have a dust cover. So I set it aside to list it later.
Once I got through the box, I was even more disappointed. I had a bunch of gold books that were pretty worthless. I finally got back around to the Bears book and opened it to get the ISBN. Then I saw the names inside. Here is the lesson for buyers of books: don't assume every name is the former owner's name. I thought, "Oh great, not only is it not worth much, it's got the name inside too." Then I looked a little closer, and saw "Best Wishes..."
It turned out to be Mike Ditka's autograph. On the other page was the signature of former Bears quarterback, Jim McMahon. Wow! Maybe the $10 I spent will pan out after all.
Increasing Your Item's Value
I still had one problem. The book didn't have a dust jacket. That really reduces the value of the book for collectors. Then I thought, "Well if they're not going for much on eBay, I may be able to fix that." I found the same book with a nice dust jacket for about $5.95 plus a few dollars shipping. I won that auction and once the book arrived I took the dust cover off and put it together with my autographed copy. Now as you can see, I've listed it on eBay.
Amazon or eBay?
I picked eBay because I cannot figure out how much this would be worth at a fixed-price. If it wouldn't have been for the signatures, I would have listed this on Amazon for about $5. But eBay is still the place for collectible items. I will let the market do its job. Add my item to your Watch List and see how it turns out.
