eBay Sourcing Resource - How to Reliably, Quickly Find Good Products

Online auctions are still a great way to make money online, but you have to be very careful about your pricing and you need to have reliable, genuine sources. One of the toughest challenges is finding a steady supply of high-quality, genuine goods at a cost low enough for you to turn a decent profit (after you subtract all your expenses and fees). While many sites claim to offer listings of wholesalers for eBay sellers, in reality, most of the information you will find is either out of date or untested.

It helps to have a community of peers and expert power sellers to sort through all the supplier information out there, so you can get feedback about what suppliers are reliable and who will work with small home based businesses and individual auction sellers. While you can find wholesalers in every part of the world, even just by looking in the phone book, most of them probably won't fit the bill for your average eBayer.

One option to find product sources is SaleHoo. SaleHoo describes itself as a global product sourcing community. Its updated directory has over 5,000 wholsalers and dropshippers for almost every type of goods. More than just a simple supplier list, SaleHoo has some advanced functionality. It gives you the information you want and it never makes you jump through any hoops to get the details, unlike other directories. You can organize and save favorites, and you can instantly search the SaleHoo forum database for community entries about a particular supplier. The supplier page also allows you to go straight to the whois database for more information, and it also allows you to register a complaint or leave feedback.

SaleHoo's forums are very active (over 40,000 registered members) and there is a lot of good information that is shared and posted by experienced sellers. The forums focus heavily on auction selling, so if you're just looking to get products for your own online store or shopping cart - there's not quite as much value. But overall, SaleHoo is probably worth checking out, particularly for people new to eBay selling.

Conversational Writing and eBay Descriptions - Marketing Mojo

We talk a lot about conversational voice and tone in these pages. Conversational style engages and persuades people. That's the gist of it.

A lot of businesses still shy away from this type of writing in their Web sites, eBay listings and marketing collateral.

I came across validation for the conversational approach in another book (which is great, by the way). It's called Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas On Presentation Design and Delivery.

Here's a quote from the book (p. 83):

"When you are in a conversation with someone you are naturally more engaged because you have an obligation to participate. You are involved. Formal speech and formal writing devoid of any emotion whatsoever is extremely difficult to stay with for more than a few minutes. Your conscious mind has to remind you to "stay away, this is important!" But someone who speaks in a natural, human, conversational style is far easier to stay engaged with."

I urge you, as always, to write with conversational tone and style. That means speaking as if in a one-on-one conversation, adding emotion, using imagery, and communicating as you would with a friend.

Me Blogging About RSS Photo Feeds -- Are You Blogging about Your Products?

If you’re interested in technology trends, I wrote an article for D-Link about RSS photo feeds. This kind of application is simple, like ring tones – hence the title of the article. Yet it’s so much more clever and elaborate.

I write blog posts for D-Link from time to time, and this is the latest one. Which reminds me… are you blogging about your products and services? It’s a great way to communicate with consumers, explore new ideas and uses for your products, and learn from your user/consumer community.

Online Advertising Trends Toward Social Media

Andrew Chen remarks on increasing CPMs for online advertising. Traffic and advertising is moving toward User Generated Content (UGC) sites like Facebook, MySpace and Flickr this year. Costs are low, and targeting is very granular. Are you advertising in social media? Comment to share your experiences.

clipped from andrewchen.typepad.com The quick summary in terms of the pros and cons for CPMs increasing: Pro: Technology and optimization is improving Pro: More ad dollars are moving online Con: The amount of available inventory is increasing My quick take: the problem is not just that the amount of available inventory is increasing - more importantly, this inventory is concentrated in social media, UGC, and all that fun stuff.

Target Niche Audiences with Facebook Advertising

If you haven't tried advertising in Facebook yet, it might be worth a shot. Facebook is the social network site that brings friends together according to interests, existing connections, networks and groups.

You can place ads and display them to anyone on Facebook based on demographics, interests, hobbies and so forth. It's a good way to reach very targeted audiences. User information is current, updated often, and accurate.. unlike a lot of direct mail lists, which can be outdated, inaccurate and expensive.

Since Facebook doesn't tie results to exact searches, your ads are not as granularly exact as something like Google AdWords. However, you can reach really targeted audiences for very little money. If you're selling archery gear on eBay, for example, you can run ads that only display to people who list archery in their profiles.

Barbara Boser writes more about Facebook advertising pros and cons here.

Check Your eBay Description Copy and Outshine the Competition - Fast & Easy Writing Quality Checklist

Whether you like it or not, selling on eBay requires writing. Some of us are better at this than others. One thing is clear, though. Those who use persuasive, clear communication get more $$$ in their PayPal account. That's the bottom line.

The following is a checklist I use to polish finished descriptions, flyers, direct email, direct mail, and all other kinds of customer-directed marketing copy. Whether your description is one paragraph or 20, this list will help you sell more, faster, and at a higher profit margin.

Post-Writing Quality Control Checklist

* Set the thing aside and let it sit for least an hour
* Read it again and flag stumbling spots
* Break up paragraphs to increase pace (variety is the spice of life). Go with short graphs first, then vary the amount of lines from 3-5. Sprinkle in some one line paragraphs, if possible.
* Break long sentences into two simple, shorter ones
* Eliminate extra words
* Eliminate “thats"
* Eliminate words with “tion” “sion” “ance” “ate” “able” “ment”
* Eliminate excessive adjectives
* Eliminate passive voice (this includes “is” “are” “can” etc.)
* Eliminate cliches
* Make cannot and is not into contractions for conversational tone
* Pay particular attention to commas, making sure they’re right (right for the particular customer, too)
* Make sure bullet lists start with either a “How to” phrase or a number or a powerful verb or…
* Write rhetorical questions into your copy that can be answered in the affirmative (YES!)
* Make sure you have some numbers for impact (specific numbers are better than generalized ones). Keep the % and the numbers themselves. Don’t spell out.
* Proof read on paper and mark it up
* Read it aloud

How 'Keeping It Real' Improves eBay Sales

When writing for the Web, for eBay, or for brochures and advertising copy, there are traps you can fall into. For example, your copy can begin to feel and sound *salesy.* This can be bad, because most of us - as consumers - have a built in aversion to overt sales-sounding pitches, attitudes and smarm.

Let me clarify something here. I don't think that there's anything wrong with "sales." This is one of the time-honored traditions in our culture that just so happens to make a lot of people wealthy. Look around you, and you'll see that the best doctors, lawyers, landscapers, babysitters, hair dressers and.. yes.. automobile purveyors are the best salespeople. It's about communication, relationships, confidence and competence, really.

It's also about being genuine. For small businesses, genuine-ness is fairly easy to capture because just a few people are running the show. Goals, strategies and capabilities are fairly clear. It's a little tougher for bigger organizations, where departments and "too-many-cooks" scenarios drive marketing communications.

Pushy, sales nuance -- the kind that we cringe at as consumers -- creeps into copy for a variety of reasons. As sellers (on eBay or anywhere else), we read all kinds of articles and blogs on how to be persuasive and infuse copy with energy and passion. Somewhere along the line the passion train goes off the tracks, though. Preposterous adjectives creep in, outrageous claims invade the pitch, and customers start to imagine diamond pinky rings on used car salesmen and the buddy-buddy demeanor of the time-share "service representative."

What's the trick to avoiding this scenario? Get real. Eliminate excessive adjectives from your copy (some copywriters say eliminate them all!). Find your genuine voice. Picture the prospect in front of you and be totally honest. Sometimes writing allows us to hide behind the words and say things we wouldn't typically. Treat your description as a casual conversation, and imagine a critical consumer in front of you who's just about to say "B.S" to your next claim. Then start writing your pitch/description/title/headline. The more real and factual you are, the more you will sell. That is a fact. And you'll avoid all the negative back-end karma that comes with over-promising and under-delivering.

Warning: Don't write less just because you have to keep it real. Remember, "the more you tell, the more you sell." Just don't over-hype things. If 100 people come to your listing or product page, several will be live, enthusiastic, closable prospects. These people don't want short descriptions and half-assed information. They get pumped up by all the details... so provide them. You'll do a disservice to your product if you don't.

eBay Design and Listing Comprehension - Another Marketing and Layout Tip

When you sell on eBay, the text should be designed to communicate.

Pretty obvious, right?

Well, some people make choices that work in the opposite direction. They choose fonts, colors and layout designs that hinder rather than enhance communication.

I'm going to touch on just a few tips here relating to background colors and font color. There have been a number of studies that back up the information that follows. If you’d like more detailed background info, I highly recommend reading “Type & Layout: Are You Communicating or Just Making Pretty Shapes” by Colin Wheildon.

1) Black text set on shades of grey makes for difficult reading.
2) Dark text on color tints makes for difficult reading.
3) Brightly colored text on light color tints is “the enemy of comprehension.”
4) Don’t use reverse – white or light text on a black or dark background. Especially with bigger chunks of text. People just can’t comprehend and retain the information very well.
5) Contrary to some “old school” assertions about black text on white background, it’s ok to put black text on light color tints. The light color can attract attention, in fact. Just don’t let the tint get too heavy. The darker the tint gets, the more reader comprehension suffers.

From “Type & Layout”:

“It is impossible to avoid the fact that comprehensibility of colored text increases as the color gets closer to black.”