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Make Online Auctions a Home Business
Everyone is aware of online auctions nowadays. We all know someone who has bought or sold something on an Ebay online auction site. But how many people know that this hobby can be turned into a profitable business? The fact is online auctions...

AUCTION TIP: A Basic eBay Listing Template
The following article pertains to anyone who is looking to start an online auction business on eBay. Please feel free to use it for your ezine, web site, or any other electronic or print publication, with the following exception: You may NOT use...

eBay Auction Seller's Guide to Finding Hot Money Making Products
(c) Leroy Chan - All Rights reserved You might be one of the thousands of individuals who open a trading account with eBay and dream about making auction selling a full-time home-based business. However, before that dream can become a reality,...

eBay Listing Service : Make Managing Your Auctions Easy
Do you want to have a lot of auctions going but don't have time to keep track of them all? Trust me, you're not alone. With more and more people making significant portions - if not all - of their income from their eBay auction websites the need has...

How To Write eBay Auction Descriptions That Get Bids
The first thing you need to do is write an auction title. This is the most important part of your auction. If your title doesn't interest anyone no-one will read your ad. You could have written the most compelling auction description ever...

 
The top 10 reasons why auctions fail on eBay

Are you finding that auction after auction fails to attract any bidders or buyers? It happens to the best of us sometimes - take a good look at these things to see if any of them could be making your bidders avoid you.
The starting price was too high: People don't want to have to make a high bid before anyone else has - you should always start your auctions low and let the bidders bid them up.
The fixed price is too high: If you're just selling with Buy it Now, then of course your items won't sell if they're too expensive. Try reducing the price a little each time the item fails to sell.
No picture: Most buyers are reluctant to bid on something without a picture, and that goes even more for high-value items. Think of it from the buyer's point-of-view: would you want to bid on an item when you've no idea what it looks like?
You had a reserve: Reserve prices scare away buyers like you wouldn't believe, not to mention costing a percentage of your final sale price. Avoid them like the plague.
Bad spelling and grammar: If your titles are spelt wrongly, then no-one will find your auctions. If your descriptions are incoherent, then no-one will know what you're talking about. Always run your text through a spelling and grammar checker before you put it up on eBay.
Too much for shipping: You might be expecting people to pay more for shipping than they're prepared to. Give them a few cheaper options that will take longer, or use cheaper materials.
Negative feedback: If you got negative feedback on your last transaction, expect things to be slow for a while. Try selling cheap things for a while to get your account back in good standing.
Nasty terms: Don't write things all over your auction like "I will only accept returns in PERFECT condition" or "Serious bidders only, no timewasters!!" This is entirely unnecessary and just makes you look difficult to deal with.
No PayPal: Many buyers simply avoid any seller who doesn't accept PayPal as a payment method - they can't be bothered with the hassle of anything else. Even if you don't like PayPal, you should accept it if you want to business on eBay.
The items were bad. You will have to accept that there are some items no-one wants - perhaps they were hyped to begin with, but now people had heard that they're useless and stopped buying. Before you come to this conclusion, though, check everything else you can, and check if anyone else is managing to sell it. If you're sure, try to return the items, and buy in some new stock.
About the Author
Paul is Head of Training for a major UK Charitable Organisation with a wealth of experience in personal development, management development, e-learning and operational management. In addition he owns PK eBooks (http://www.pk-ebooks.co.uk) two sites specifically aimed at those who want to successfully sell on eBay http://www.ebay-profits.co.uk and http://www.info-entrepreneurs.co.uk

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