Nov 25, 2009

The Basics of Making Money with Blogs And AdSense



by: Mal Keenan
Google AdSense is undoubtedly the most popular Pay Per Click (PPC) program in the industry today. By enrolling your site under the said program, AdSense will display a series of ads on your pages. You stand to earn every time a visitor of your clicks on these ads.
 
They don’t have to buy anything, mind you. They just have to click on the ads and nothing more. These ads are by no means random. They are contextually relevant, meaning, they are assigned based on their relevancy to the subject of your site.
 
Could a blog substitute for regular sites when it comes to making money through AdSense? Yes people, blogs can also be provide an additional income stream through AdSense! In some aspects, a blog is a more efficient tool for this purpose.
 
There are people online today making six figures per month from Adsense alone. Unbelievable but true!
 
There are three determinative factors for the success of a site enrolled under the AdSense program.
1. The Cost Per Click (CPC) that is carried by the ads assigned to your site.
2. The number of page impressions, or simply put, the amount of traffic that passes through your site. If you garner a lot of page impressions, you have a better chance of acquiring a lot of clicks.
3. The Click Through Rate (CTR), which is the number of clicks your ads get per the number of visitors that visit your pages. The higher your CTR, the more you stand to earn.
 
CPCs are a given. If you’re dead set on a subject for your blog, then you will just be attracting a certain group of ads. But if you wish to make a blog for the primary goal of making money online, then you have to choose the right keywords before everything else.
 
Basically, your blog will be assigned certain ads based on the keywords prevalent in its entries. There are some keywords that will attract ads that pay high, and there are those that will attract ads that pay low. The trick is in finding the high paying keywords around which you will create your blog.
 
Here are some tips that will help you find those keywords with relative ease:
* Create an account at www.adwords.google.com . Adwords, of course, is the advertising partner of AdSense. When you become a member, you could take a peek at how much the going rates are for certain keywords.
* Visit www.adsensearena.com . This is one of the very few sites that give information about high paying keywords for free. It would rather be kept a secret by those who discovered it, so keep it quiet;-).
 
The number of your page impressions really depends on the traffic that you can generate for your blog. Blogs would have an easier time with this because, as we’ve previously discussed in past lessons, search engines love them. But of course, this is not set in stone. If your competitors, for example, are also using the blogging strategy, then you’re all in equal footing.
 
To get the edge, do try David Pankhurst’s special report on How To Conquer Your Niche With Wordpress. David will share some absolutely mind blowing techniques that will tremendously boost your blog’s page rank through a simple manipulation of the Wordpress software. Check out his report at http://www.malkeenan.com/top10tricks.
 
Increasing your CTR is an entire subfield in itself! There are a plethora of strategies dedicated for this purpose. We have discussed some of these tactics in my newsletter, as well as my own blog at http://www.malkeenan.com/blog . These include the choice of ad design, the placement of the ads, and the colors to be used, among other things. I’m telling you, increasing your CTR has become a science of sorts in recent months!
 
About the author:
Get Your Hands on My FREE and Exclusive 7 Day Blogging Report by Sending and Blank Email to mailto:freeblogreport@getresponse.com In this Report I Reveal All The Secrets for Creating and Running A Successful Online Blog, Including Blogging to Niche Markets. 
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The Basics of Blogging to Niche Markets



by: Mal Keenan
In the previous article, we discussed how blogs can help you generate traffic for your main website. But what if you don’t have another site? Or what if you want your blog to be your main website, the exclusive carrier of your moneymaking ventures?
 
This can be achieved, of course. Such is the versatility of web logs.
Standalone blogs are best utilized for online businessmen or women who have decided to pursue what many people call as nicheing. Yes, the word is ungrammatical, but it is a term that many Internet marketers have come to embrace with fondness. 
 
Nicheing involves the creation of many sites that cater to particular niches. Niches, of course, are very specialized markets, most of which are so obscure that they do not garner the attention of businesses, hence creating high demands with low supplies. The purpose of nicheing is to find these markets and provide for their needs. These enterprising businessmen would earn through the following ways:
 
* Creating and eventually selling products that aim to serve the said niches.
* Selling existing products that the said niches need.
* Providing for information that the members of the said niches can access for free, and enrolling the site that contains the information in a Pay Per Click (PPC) program like Google AdSense.
 
Regardless of what path the online entrepreneur decides to take, he should first create a site that serves as the repository of his commercial methods. Niches can be very rewarding. Since there is but a few competitions in the field, your search engine placement is sure to be higher than usual. Traffic should also be at a sustainable level since the members of a niche have nothing else to visit. This will mean a greater possibility for more sales, if you’re selling a product, or a higher Click Through Rate (CTR) if you’re enrolled in a PPC program.
 
Now, making a site can be quite cumbersome. You have to deal with the aspects of web design, graphic creation, and content writing among other concerns. What more when you have to create numerous sites for numerous niches?
 
Thankfully, blogs will make things a whole lot easier for you. Every online marketer who has attained success with niche marketing can attribute this to their proper exploitation of blogs. Whereas it would take you a couple of weeks to come up with 10 websites, it would only take you a couple of hours to come up with 10 blog sites. The sheer convenience and ease of web logs have made nicheing a very potent business model.
 
Blogs can very much substitute for a regular website. As we have previously discussed, high quality content is, ultimately, what will drive traffic to your site, and this kind of content can easily be carried through a blog. Also, you don’t have to change the entire page whenever you want to update your content, as you would with a regular website. With blogs, all you have to do is to write your update in a designated box and press the publish button. Of course, different blogging software have various features, but none comes more loaded than Wordpress (www.wordpress.com).
 
Blogging is the way to go if you want to create, and maintain, several niche sites. And Wordpress is the weapon of choice for most Internet marketers. To fully realize the potentials of the medium, therefore, you should be able to exploit all the features that Wordpress does offer. Again, David Pankhurst’s excellent report on powerful Wordpress secrets (http://www.malkeenan.com/top10tricks) will help you excel in this area.
 
Look out for the next article, where we’re going to discuss how you could efficiently integrate the Google AdSense program into your blog, and make it a passive income generating machine.
 
About the author:
Get Your Hands on My FREE and Exclusive 7 Day Blogging Report by Sending and Blank Email to mailto:freeblogreport@getresponse.com In this Report I Reveal All The Secrets for Creating and Running A Successful Online Blog, Including Blogging to Niche Markets. 
Need Million Free Traffic to your webs ? Please visit Search Engine Optimization Tips  
Need Extra Money At Home ? Visit Make Money At Home, Or Affiliate Revenue Tips. 

Related Posts :
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13. 6 steps to Adsense Domination 
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The Auction Phenomenon



by: Joe Clare
Online Auctions such as eBay have really grown in popularity over the past few years. And it's easy to understand why. From a buyers perspective when you browse eBay you can find just about anything you might be looking for. From collectable to clothing, from automobiles to the odd and weird. It's listed for auction on eBay. And from a sellers point of view if you have something that is worth selling, you are bound to find a buyer for it at eBay. 
 
As explained in my book "eBay Marketing Wholesale SourcePak" eBay is a community of members who can buy/sell items locally, nationally and internationally. And while eBay has over 100 million members there are rarely any real problems between buyers and sellers. I believe much of this can be attributed to the eBay feedback. 
 
Feedback is where buyers and sellers can leave comments on their experience with each other. Whether is was a good or a bad transaction, you can read about it in the feedback. Now I won't lead you to believe there are no problems at all, because that would not be right. But all in all things run very smoothly. 
 
Harris Poll did a survey regarding online auctions that I found quite interesting.
43% of participants said that they bid at online auctions looking for bargains, 23% said they are looking for hard-to-find items and 21% were looking for collectables. 
 
When it came to how confident buyers are at receiving their purchases, 54% were confident and 40% were very confident they would have no problems receiving their product. This compared to only 1% who was not confident. 
 
51% of those surveyed said they always, check feedback before buying from a seller and 36% said they usually do. Only 3% said they never check. I've got to believe that this 3% are newbies. 
 
A whopping 83% of participants said they had bid and purchased items. With 51% saying the average value of the product bought was up to $50.00. 24% said the value was $51. - $100. and 21% said $101. - $500. 
 
66% paid for their items by personal check, cashier check or money order to the seller. While 44% paid by credit card using the third party payment service listed on the auction. And 59% said they had never experienced a problem with their purchases. 
 
Considering eBay recently reported $14.87 billion in annual merchandise sales, there is generally very little problems between buyers and sellers. That is one of the reasons eBay makes such a great Home Based Business. 
 
Happy Selling!
About the author:
Joe Clare is an active Netpreneur and eBayer! He is the author of numerous articles on how to make money online and be successful on eBay! Check out his latest Best Selling eBook "eBay Marketing Wholesale SourcePak" Your Passport to Success! at http://www.ebooksnsoftware.com
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The 5 Simplest, Cheapest and Easiest Money Making Ideas for Your Online Business



by: Glen
Essentially there are 5 tremendously powerful methods to make money online. These methods were not always available but have only become available due to the large amount of internet commerce being conducted each and every day online. While it is possible to make money, and lots of it, using other methods, these are in my opinion the best for 3 reasons. 
 
First, they are some of the cheapest methods around. Imagine running a business for an entire year where your total cost was less than $1 a day. Secondly, these methods are fast to implement. Some of the methods can have you up and running in hours, if not only a day or two. Lastly, these ideas are simple. When it comes to working online, simpler is better and complex is dead.

5 Simple, Cheap and Easy Money Making Ideas. 
 
ONE. Making Money the Google Cash Way.
Google Cash is a term coined by Chris Carpenter. In his amazing ebook, he teaches you how to start a profitable advertising business by using Google Adwords to promote products to web searchers on the Google search engine. 
 
The strategy is simple. You create ads to attract interested people. When they click on your ad you are charged for that click. The visitor is directed to your site where you can sell them products. The advantage is you get to leverage the Google traffic. You can purchase clicks for as low as 5 cents. Lastly, done properly, you can test dozens of different ads and campaigns allowing you to perfect your selling system. 
 
TWO. Making tons of money selling someone else's stuff.
Affiliate marketing is the manner in which you market a product for someone else, known as the merchant. In return for providing a qualified buyer, the merchant agrees to pay you a commission. The beauty of this type of business is that you can take advantage of hot products, you can easily create a large cash flow by setting up dozens of small income streams promoting hundreds of products. In other words, the business is scalable. 
 
Once you learn to make money selling a product for one merchant, you can reproduce that for another. For this to work, the critical step that you need to master is getting traffic. You can use the Google Cash method or start your own site. Getting traffic, either inexpensive or free will be the lifeblood of your business. 
 
THREE. Turn Treasure into Dollars with eBay.
In case this is your first week using the internet, I will briefly explain eBay. They are the world's largest online auction system. People from all over the world, lots of people, using it each and ever day to sell everything from toasters to Hummers. 
 
In order to make money on eBay, you research what is selling at the moment, source that product for at great price and then start creating auctions. Of course, that all sounds easy, but the truth is there is a lot of work involved, especially if you have to ship all those products from your house. If you are organized, can research or can use the software to do that research for you, and can negotiate with suppliers than you can really make money with eBay. 
 
FOUR. Drop Ship It.
The thought of storing boxes and boxes of products at your house may have you running away from eBay. Thank goodness there is something called Drop Shipping. A drop shipper is a wholesaler who will sell you their products at near wholesale prices and ship them directly to your customer. World Wide Brands maintains a directory of wholesaler and drop shipping companies giving you access to over 2 million products to sell on eBay. 
 
The good news is that once you have access to your own products, you can now use the first three methods to market them. Do you see the power now? Maybe you used the first two methods to market someone else's product. Now you can get a better profit margin by drop shipping your own products using these same methods. 
 
FIVE. Write yourself rich.
The first 4 methods involved selling someone else's products for a commission or profit margin. If you want to make the most money, you have to produce and sell your own products. An exceptional item to sell online is information. In particular, ebooks, software, audio and video products have incredible profit margins. But, you think, you have no writing skills. What are you to do? Easy, hire people to do the work for you. 
 
This is an amazing way to leverage the skills of someone else. Pretend you have an idea for a new software program. There are many resource sites where you can hire people to work for you. Depending on your product idea, you can get the software coded for $100, $200, maybe even $300. Then the product is yours to resell. You can keep 100% of the profits. 
 
You can do the same thing writing a book. Writing is not that hard. Maybe you produce a newsletter. You could combine your articles into an informational ebook. As with software, you can even hire a ghost writer to do the work for you. Once you have your product, you can enlist the power of a site like Clickbank to help you sell it. 
 
There you have it. The 5 best ways of making money online. It is now up to you to master one or more of these ideas. A great idea is to start with one method and become masterful at it. Next, spread out to another and then another. Next thing you know, you will have streams on income flowing into your business. 
 
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About the author:

Glen Jansen, the author of "The Best Money Making Ideas" free ebook, helps internet marketers and budding home business entrepreneurs find 5 of the easiest ways to make money online. Visit www.1st-in-earn-extra-income.com for more free information and money earning articles. 
Need Million Free Traffic to your webs ? Please visit Search Engine Optimization Tips  
Need Extra Money At Home ? Visit Make Money At Home, Or Affiliate Revenue Tips.

Related Posts :
13. Is It Possible To Make Money From Blogging?
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TEN TIPS TO SELL TRAVEL ON EBAY



by: ellen mc nulty
Becoming a seller on ebay can be daunting. Becoming a travel seller can be impossible, unless you know the secrets. My tips on selling on eBay can apply to all categories of items, but some steps are unique to selling travel. 
 
The travel industry is highly regulated on EBay, as it should be. High standards keep out disreputable sellers and scam artists, and adds to your own company’s trustworthiness when you are approved by eBay.. 
 
1. Before you are even thinking about selling travel on eBay, it is important to get a username and email address just for eBay. Registration is free and only takes a few minutes. Register as a seller and you can use the same username to buy as well. Choose a name that reflects what you sell i.e., “Bermudabound” rather than “sexyblueeyes”. Other eBay members will come to recognize you by your User ID, so it's a good idea to choose one you'll want to use for the long term. 
 
2. Your eBay name has sunglasses (i.e., read “shady character”) for the first 30 days, so don’t try to sell anything while you are wearing shades. Use this time to buy on eBay and learn good practices from other sellers. 
 
3. Set up a PayPal account. EBay buyers feel more confident purchasing something from a seller who accepts PayPal. According to PayPal, “Listings that offer PayPal are 6% more likely to sell and experience a 5% average increase in final price.” Go to www. Paypal.com. Get a business account. Registration is free. 
 
4. In the first 30 days, buy small items on EBay, pay for them promptly. I have always found eBay sellers to offer good values, provided that you check their feedback listing first. 
 
5. Pay your seller promptly, because then you will always get positive feedback from your seller. Your feedback profile is the most important aspect of your reputation at eBay. Feedback is extremely important on eBay, as your future buyers can evaluate you at a glance. Even one strike against you counts heavily. Your feedback score also helps later with qualifying to run banner ads on eBay, and to have eBay pay some of your advertising costs. 
 
6. Create your “About Me” page on eBay. Use this page to tell other eBay users about yourself and your interests, your experience and your products. 
 
7. While you are waiting the 30 days, also become a) ID verified and b)square trade approved. a) Get ID Verified through eBay as an extra sign of security for buyers. When a member gets ID Verified, a third-party company working with eBay confirms the member's identity by cross checking their contact information across consumer and business databases. You'll see the ID Verify icon in verified members' profiles. 
 
B) The Square Trade Seal is one way for sellers to show bidders that they are committed to high selling standards and have had their identity verified by a third party. You will need a credit card and your IATA, ARC, or seller of travel number. Both are requirements for selling travel, and you must place these numbers as the first lines of your ads on EBay. All members listing airline tickets, cruises, vacation packages, or lodging must be participants in the Seller Verify by SquareTrade Program. This program combines verification of sellers with ongoing monitoring. For instructions on this, go to eBay.com. 
 
8. When you are ready to list your items at auction, sell small stuff first, building customers and credibility. Sell all items with no reserve, at the lowest price you can afford to accept, and fill all orders promptly. 
 
9. Choose carefully what you will sell. You cannot sell some travel certificates, and all listing must list the exceptions, blackout dates, and extra taxes and shipping charges. Travel agents, and other businesses selling travel services are regulated in eBay. 
 
According to the eBay rules for selling travel, “Businesses and individuals who sell and/or arrange air or sea travel or accommodations (but do not directly provide the travel service themselves) may list air and ship related travel items (i.e. airplane tickets and cruise trips), along with accommodations, on eBay only if they are licensed as sellers of travel lawfully able to do business in all 50 states and they themselves will be booking the travel for the winning bidder. 
 
Their listings should clearly set out their California seller of travel license number as well as any other license information required in other states. It is against eBay policy for travel clearinghouse affiliates, that are not actual agents booking the travel themselves, to list travel auctions on the site. Sellers are required to include the following disclaimer in all listings for travel exactly as it appears below and in a text size and color that can easily be seen and read by all bidders: 
 
"By listing this auction I verify that I am the actual travel agent or travel provider and not a third party affiliate. The travel/accommodations in this auction will be booked directly through me and not an outside agency. I also verify that, other than the government taxes and related government fees stated within the listing description itself, there will be absolutely no additional fees, charges or after auction purchases associated with booking the travel within this listing." 
 
For travel services other than air or sea travel, businesses and individuals may offer gift certificates or coupons that are issued by a specific provider of travel, such as a gift certificate to a particular hotel. They may not, however, offer travel club memberships or "choice travel" certificates.” 
 
10. Build a store. EBay stores are free for the first 30 days. Afterwards, they are $9.95 a month. According to eBay, Store sellers see on average a 25% incremental increase in sales the 3 months after opening their Store.” 
 
Here is where you can list all those other items that are higher priced, but good value at a low listing fee - at about 02 cents, rather than $4.80 for an item over $500. Auction and Fixed Price listings appear in your eBay Store as well as in eBay Search and Listings. The store allows your buyers to peruse your other items in addition to your auction items. Go to: http://pages.eBay.com/storefronts/openbenefits.html 
 
For examples of travel stores on eBay, take a look at: http://stores.eBay.com/Travel-Ireland-and-Britain_W0QQsspagenameZMEQ3aFQ3aSTQQtZkm
http://stores.eBay.com/Himalayan-International-Tours_W0QQsspagenameZMEQ3aFQ3aSTQQtZkm 
 
About the author:
Ellen Mc Nulty is President of Lynott Tours, specialists in travel to Ireland and Britain. Ellen assists retail travel agents in listing their wares on EBay. Lynott Tours has been selling travel for 35 years, and can be found on the Internet at www.lynotttours.com
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Starting an Ebay Business --- An Online Business Model that Works



by: Bill Platt
THE REALITIES OF AN INTERNET BUSINESS 
 
Millions of people are still coming online each year, and many of those people come to the Internet with dreams of making their financial dreams come true. 
 
The truth is that building a website to sell products and services is not the easiest way to make a living online. A lot of specific knowledge or money will be required to be successful with a standard website. 
 
You must acquire skills --- or pay someone who already possesses those skills --- in the following areas:
� Graphic design
� Copywriting
� HTML design
� Perl or PHP programming
� Database programming
� Marketing research
� Promotions 
 
When this is understood, most people throw their hands up in frustration and walk away from their entrepreneurial desires. 
 
Maybe cash is the problem; maybe the desire is just lacking.
If you have reached this point yourself let me offer one piece of advice... 
 
DON'T THROW AWAY YOUR DREAMS JUST YET 
 
More people than I can count are making a successful living online, and none of them own their own website or send a single commercial email to anyone. 
 
How is this possible?
Two words, "Ebay auctions."
EBAY MAKES IT EASY
Ebay covers all of the difficult technical issues. And more importantly, Ebay already has floods of visitors eager to purchase your wares. 
 
Ebay has provided everything you need to operate a successful business online with three exceptions:
1. Products to sell
2. Time to list the products in the Ebay database
3. Cash to acquire the products 
 
CHOOSING THE KINDS OF PRODUCTS 
 
Before choosing your products, you should ask yourself what you enjoy the most. You may enjoy cats, NASCAR or even antiques. You should select products consistent with what you enjoy for two reasons. 
 
First, you bring to your presentation a real appreciation for the products your are offering.
Secondly, a job you hate is one you will quit. A job you enjoy doing will be one that you will want to keep forever. If you are starting your own business, the hope is that you will be doing it for a very long time. 
 
I personally know people who have generated a nice living on Ebay selling cat-related items, NASCAR memorabilia and antiques. 
 
FINDING THE ACTUAL PRODUCTS TO SELL 
 
I recommend against diving in and spending thousands of dollars buying products that you may or may not be able to sell. 
 
A drop-shipper is a middleman who is willing to permit you to buy an individual product, and then they will put your business name on the return address of the product package and handle the actual delivery for you. 
 
By utilizing a drop-shipper, you can speed product delivery to the client without risking your own cash to keep a product in inventory. If you are lost as to how to find a drop-shipper, consider subscribing to the drop-shippers directory: http://thePhantomWriters.comdrop_shippers_directory.html 
 
Through this site, you can get all of the information you need to find drop-shippers from which you can order over 500,000 products from over 1,000 brand names. 
 
LEARNING TO LIST YOUR PRODUCTS AT EBAY 
 
Learning to use Ebay is pretty easy and straightforward. Ebay has put forward a lot of effort to help people to become successful. For example, Ebay has an entire area of their site devoted to the online entrepreneur. 
 
To get an overview of all of the services and tools that Ebay provides to sellers, you may visit:
http://pages.ebay.com/services/index.html 
 
Ebay also delivers courses and strategies to help you to be more successful:
http://pages.ebay.com/sellercentral/index.html 
 
THE IMPORTANCE OF CASH FLOW TO YOUR SUCCESS 
 
Ebay provides tools for both buyers and sellers to rate one another. The speed of delivery is one of the most important factors that sellers are rated on. By providing quick delivery, your buyers will give you a good rating --- and more shoppers will bid on your products. 
 
Ebay recently purchased PayPal.com to help facilitate purchases for their buyers and sellers, and they have integrated the two systems together. 
 
Unfortunately, getting the money from your PayPal account to your personal account generally takes four days. Even with a merchant account, the time gap is nearly the same. This time gap expands the turn-around between the transaction and delivery of the product unless you take action to speed the process. 
 
If you were doing high volume, you would want to minimize the handling of a transaction to reduce the chance for a foul-up and to increase your ratings within the Ebay system.
But how can this be accomplished? 
 
MANAGING CASH FLOW 
 
While you could rely upon credit cards to get the job done, it is not something I would recommend. Paying credit card interest rates to process your customer's purchase, is an unnecessary burden. 
 
Instead, put a sum of money into a dedicated bank account with a debit card attached to it. When you verify a transaction has been credited to your PayPal account, then use your debit card to immediately process the order with your drop-shipper. 
 
But, how can you do it this way on a tight budget? 
 
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO THE RESCUE 
 
Let me ask you this. Do you have a 401(k) account?
Experts advise that you not touch your retirement savings for anything other than retirement income. That is good advice. Fortunately, it is possible under special circumstances to acquire loans against your 401(k) accounts. 
 
Beginning in 2002, even the self-employed small business owner with no employees could open his or her own 401(k), called a solo-owner 401(k), and borrow from it just as employees with big companies can. 
 
Weigh this option against the others available to you. It only makes sense to take out a loan rather than to take a hit in heavy taxes and penalties for drawing your retirement money early. Seriously, consider taking advantage of our historically low interest rates to meet your cash flow needs. 
 
To learn more about creating and borrowing from a solo-owner 401(k), please visit:
http://www.investsafe.com 
 
IN CONCLUSION 
 
It is wise to choose your new business venture based on a model that has proven itself over the long-term. Ebay has been proving its concept since 1995; helping thousands of people build a successful and very profitable business. 
 
The time to act is now. Choose the product line that will give you the most satisfaction and then get busy. Your success awaits you. 
 
About the author:
Bill Platt's newest project is http://LinksAndTraffic.com
Are you tired of the hard work and gamble of writing and distributing your own articles for the purpose of building links to your website? Are you frustrated with reciprocal link building processes? Do you still need links to your website? Through the "Links and Traffic" system, we guarantee our link building services. We guarantee linking results! And, we are not talking about renting a link to you for a month... No, the links we will get for you are permanent links to your website. 
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Nov 24, 2009

Six Steps Towards Successful Buying at eBay Auctions



by: Stephen Reynolds
Buying on eBay can be very rewarding, either in terms of being able to pick up items cheaply or for hunting for hard to find items. Although generally the experience is good, there are instances where things can go badly wrong. These tips, based on experience over the last seven years, should help to avoid some of the potential pitfalls. 
 
1. Make use of the various tools provided on eBay to ascertain the target price of items you are interested in. A simple way to do this is to 'search' for completed items. 
 
2. Always check that there are no hidden costs associated with your potential bargain. These may may include unspecified unspecified postage costs, or paypal fees chargeable to the buyers. If in doubt e-mail the buyer and if you don't get a response then don't bid. Remember that when buying from overseas postage costs can be significant compared to the price of the item and also for more expensive items you may be liable to customs fees. 
 
3. Check out the seller's feedback. You should be aiming to buy from sellers with feedback of at least 98 per cent - if it is less and you are interested in an item read the feedback comments to satisfy yourself that the buyer provides a good service. In particular, read the neutral and negative feedback posts to try to work out what may have gone wrong with previous transactions. 
 
4. Don't get carried away and end up bidding more than need or want to. Some items appear very frequently on eBay and it may be worth setting yourself a limit and waiting for the next one to come along. 
 
5. If you find you are often being outbid at the last moment, consider using a sniping software which you can use to automatically submit a bid in the last few seconds of the auctions. 
 
6. Where possible, use Paypal to pay for items on eBay. The sellers get their payment quickly, and there is a degree of protection for buyers if things go wrong. eBay (via My eBay) provides a number of tools for monitoring progress on your transaction. 
 
About the author:
MusicShopper.info is a great resource for music lovers. Providing information and resources about music shopping, it also has an extensive range of music reviews, music competitions and giveaways, and a popular discussion forum. It is also an important music reference source with a music website directory of more then 1,000 hand-picked sites listed. MusicShopper forum and newsletters subscribers are entered into monthly draws for Amazon voucher. Please click here for more auction related articles. 
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Shill Bidding: How Scumbag Bidders Rob Honest Sellers Like You



by: Sydney Johnston
How Honest Sellers Can Be Robbed By Dishonest Buyers 
 
Shill bidding deal is a 21st century version of a confidence game. The purpose of shill bidding is to buy merchandise at an artificially low price which can then be resold for a healthy profit. It involves either two different buyers or one buyer who possesses two different eBay IDs. 
 
Shill bidding is often easy to detect and therefore is usually more successful with an inexperienced seller who doesn't know what to look for. We can't know for certain, but most likely shill bidders look for sellers with low feedback because they know a more experienced seller might realize what is going on. 
 
Shill bidding is only worthwhile with an expensive item. If you are selling many low priced, high-volume items, shill bidding will not be a concern of yours. 
 
Let's use an extreme example so that sellers can easily identify the shill building pattern and be aware of what it looks like. Forewarned is forearmed, and all that. 
 
Let's pretend that a seller has an antique doll for sale. She has seen a few other dolls similar to hers and she knows she can expect approximately $300 for this doll. Our unscrupulous bidders also know that $300 is a reasonable and legitimate price and they want to get it for much less. The seller decides to open the bidding at only $9.95 to encourage collectors to flock to her doll auction. 
 
Basically the way the scam works is like this: 
 
Buyer A will open the bidding at $9.95.
His confederate, Buyer B, will offer an inflated bid, above and beyond the true value of the doll. Let's say he builds $350. 
 
The purpose of such a high bid is to discourage all legitimate prospective buyers from even getting in the game. Obviously, genuine collectors and buyers will not be interested in paying in excess of $300 if that is what the doll is really worth. 
 
There may or may not be a few intervening builders between the placement of the opening bid and the absurd one. If there are any bids, they will be nearer the opening bid of $9.95 and therefore will not raise the price very much. In fact, our dishonest pair might be happy if someone else bids, because more bids make the auction look more legitimate. 
 
The auction will hang there in eBay limbo until only hours before the closing deadline. Shortly before the conclusion of the auction, Bidder B will retract his $350 bid. Since he and Bidder A are in communication with each other, Bidder A will know the exact moment that the high bid is canceled. He will then raise his bid just above the highest one, if any, so that he is now the highest bidder. 
 
Our dishonest pair hopes that no other sellers notice this last minute retraction and place bids. If an honest bid is placed, they can afford to top them because they still have lots of financial room to play with. After all, even if the bidding rises to $150, they can still double their money on a $300 doll. 
 
The result: the dishonest bidders won the doll at a fraction of its value. The shell-shocked seller is left in a daze, wondering what happened to her glittering auction profits. 
 
In a variation on this practice, Bidder B may allow the auction to expire with his bid of $350. When the seller contacts him for payment, he will ignore her requests until she gives up and realizes she is never going to get her money. 
 
eBay has a "Second Chance" program. In the event that a buyer doesn't live up to his obligations, the seller can offer the item to the second highest bid - which belongs to Bidder A and is artificially low. 
 
If an honest seller sees this kind of pattern in one of her auctions, she can recognize the possibility of some dishonesty going on and take steps to verify the extraordinarily large bid. Sometimes such a high bid is totally legitimate because it is from a collector who is determined to own the item for sale.

Fortunately, shill bidding deal is relatively easy to detect and it isn't common anymore. At one time it was much easier to pull off this kind of fraud than it is now. Any seller who has a question, however, should feel totally justified in contacting the high bidder and asking some tough questions. Without satisfactory answers, it is certainly wise and prudent to contact the Bay and discuss the situation. In this way, no seller will never be ripped off by dishonest shill bidders. 
 
About the author:
Learn how to sell on eBay with 16 hours of online instruction taught by a 10 year eBay veteran. Own an eBay business instead of an eBay hobby. http://www.auction-genius-course.com
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