Experiment To Constantly Improve As An Ebay Seller
Selling on eBay is constantly evolving, and this guide provides only foundational knowledge. Once youre comfortable with the basics of selling on eBay, its time to experiment to learn how to make your listings more competitive and discover new ways to reach customers and help your business thrive.
Start by analyzing your account data with this guide to tracking and applying metrics for better growth it will help you identify areas where you can experiment with new ideas.
For example, if you always create fixed-price listings, try auction listings to see if your profits increase. Or, if your listing isnt generating much interest, tweak your item description or test out a promoted listing to see if it increases sales.
You can also experiment with shipping options like Justin Dube did. As he completed more and more eBay sales, he found that using eBay Labels and offering free shipping on all orders transformed his business and, ultimately, made it sustainable.
Dont be afraid to try your own tests to determine what makes your own listings most effective when selling on eBay.
How To Sell A Domain Name
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There comes a time in the life of every domain when its ownership must transfer hands. The reasons for selling a domain can vary greatly maybe the company is no longer being in business, or the domain was bought in bulk and never used. If you’re looking to offload your extra domains to make some spare cash, or if you’re sitting on a premium domain name worth a goldmine, see Step 1 below to learn how to sell it.
Set Up Shipping Options
Once youve set your price, youll need to set up shipping options for your product. Aim to make your shipping policy as attractive as possible, whether thats offering two-day shipping or free returns.
In the world of Amazon Prime, convenient shipping is an expectation of online buyers that you must deliver on to stay profitable.
Beyond meeting buyers expectations, offering a strong shipping policy increases the visibility of your products on eBay. With the marketplaces search engine, buyers are able to sort products with short shipping times that meet eBays Guaranteed Delivery guidelines. To qualify for EGD, a listing must have a same-day or one-day handling time.
To set your shipping policy, fill out the following information in the listing tool:
- Type of rate: Select a flat rate for all buyers, a calculated rate based on the buyers location, freight shipping for large items that weigh more than 150 pounds, or No shipping: Local pickup only.
- Carrier services: You can choose from a variety of carriers and their services, including USPS, FedEx, and UPS.
If you are offering international shipping, youll also have to choose a type of rate, but youll have only two options: flat rate or a calculated rate based on the buyers location.
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Prepare Your Domain Listing
Once youve chosen your marketplace its time to optimize your listing. A lot of sellers just upload their URL and call it a day. However, you can maximize your chances of selling your domain by making it more attractive.
For example, does your domain have any existing traffic? Does the domain have considerable age? Does your domain have any existing authority?
Sell Your Domain Name At Auction
If youre in the market to sell your domain name quickly, there are few auction sites waiting to help make it happen. These sites operate in a similar fashion to online auction sites such as eBay. You create a listing, set a reserve price or min openings bid and in some cases a Buy It Now price. The majority of buyers on domain name auctions sites are domain name investors so you have to be prepared to sell your domain name at so-called wholesale or reseller price levels which usually is between 5 to 15% of the retail price of a domain name. As an example, I sold TechTuna.com, a domain name I purchased for $10 in 2016 for $69 to someone at an auction site who then listed the domain name for sale at BrandBucket.com where it sold for around $2,000 shortly after.
NameJet is another domain name aftermarket company, operating an auction platform mainly popular among domain name investors. The site has a large number of buyers and moves a huge number of secondary domain names every day. Not everyone can list domain names for sale on NameJet but the site provides an online option to submit your domains for consideration for an upcoming auction. In order to provide the highest quality of domains to their buyers, they do not auction all names submitted your names are forwarded and reviewed by the NamesJet team. To submit your domain name you will need to have an active account first. Commission on a successful sale is 15%.
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Domain Trading: How Can You Make Money With Domains
If you choose the right domain name, it can be worth a lot of money. It doesnt matter what kind of website you have published at the web address. In principle, you dont even need a website to start actively domain trading, since the address itself is the thing with value. If you own a domain that others are keen to claim, you could even make a fortune with it. But how? What do you need to do to sell a domain?
Register a domain name
Build your brand on a great domain, including SSL and a personal consultant!
Private registration
Why You Might Want To Run A Domain Name Auction
If youve reached a point where youre no longer interested in your website or dont have the time to keep it up, selling it may be your best course of action. You should be able to get back at least some of the money youve put into it. In some cases, you may even be able to make a profit.
Some domain names can be quite valuable, depending on keywords they include, what Top-Level Domain they use, and other factors. If youre also selling your website and its content, you may stand to gain quite a bit of money.
Rebranding may also lead you to sell your domain name, even if youre keeping the rest of your online real estate. If the first web address you chose has turned out not to be such a great fit for your online business, it can be beneficial to register a new one and move your content over to it.
You can then sell your first domain to make back some of your initial investment. Auctioning it off may be particularly fruitful due to the flexible nature of the pricing structure for this type of sale.
At an auction, buyers may feel encouraged to place bids on domains with low minimum prices. However, as time goes on, you stand a chance of eventually selling for more money than you might make by simply listing a specific cost in a traditional sale.
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The Difficult Parts Of Starting An Ebay Business
Unfortunately, some aspects of starting an eBay may prove challenging. Still, it is possible to overcome these hurdles and create a successful business. Anticipating these challenges beforehand will increase your chances of success.
The first obvious hurdle is high competition. eBay is saturated with vendors. Many of these vendors most likely already sell the kinds of products you hope to stock. So youll have your work cut out for you attracting a steady stream of customers.
This is especially true in the beginning when you dont have customer feedback to boost your credibility.
eBay also imposes selling limits for new vendors. These limits make sense from eBays perspective. New sellers need to build credibility by providing high-quality products and maintaining high service levels.
But the limitations can make it challenging to be profitable right out of the gate. Furthermore, this limit is based on potential sales rather than actual sales, which many new vendors find arbitrary.
An eBay business is still worth starting, even with these challenges. So if youre ready to set up your business, heres how to go about it step-by-step.
List Your Domain Name For Sale On Domain Marketplaces
If you made it all the way here youve already learned about the importance of capturing direct visitors to the domain name with a landing page first and foremost. But this does not mean that listing your domain name for sale on domain marketplaces wont add value. Many of the large marketplaces have repeat buyers and a so-called distribution network in which they partner with other websites such as registrars to put your domain name in front of potential buyers across the globe.
Sedo: operating since 2001 and with over 18 million domains listed, Sedo is one of the worlds largest domain marketplaces. The site itself reaches around 2 million visitors per month but they also promote your domain across a large number of partner sites. Listing your domain name for sale with Sedo is free but you pay a commision between 10 and 20% when your domain name sells.
Afternic: founded in 1999 and listing more than five million domain names available for sale and handling more than 75 million domain searches each month Afternic is a force to be reckoned with. This marketplace is owned by GoDaddy which is where it gets its big advantage over similar sites. When you list your domain name for sale at Afternic it will also show up as a premium domain when people will search for it on the GoDaddy.com website. Listing a domain name on Afternic is free but you pay 20% commission for a successful sale.
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Hosted Ebay Ecommerce Storefronts
Small business owners looking to start online sales face a big challenge: how do you get your products or services online, offer a shopping cart and manage inventory without hiring IT professionals or spending a small fortune to get started?
This is also a challenge for entrepreneurs, home-based business owners and eBay sellers who are interested in managing their own ecommerce website. For these reasons many will look to start their first ecommerce venture using a hosted storefront solution.
In choosing a hosted storefront service a small business owner can test the waters and spend less money to obtain ecommerce website functionality and IT support. With a hosted storefront, there is no need to spend money on hardware or the software to manage the ecommerce site. You also benefit from having little IT costs as hosted storefront providers will also offer technical support.
Another issue that small business owners face in managing their own ecommerce website is security and compliance issues. To run a professional ecommerce website, you must comply with industry ecommerce standards and regulations in order to accept, store and process customer credit cards online.
The right hosted storefront provider will take care of all of these key functions and provide web space, assist with domain name registration and SSL certificate registration tasks . It will also handle the task of securely backing up your website and data.
1. BigCommerce
2. Mive Merchant
3. ProStores
4. Shopify
Use An Escrow Service For The Safe Transfer Of The Funds And The Domain Name
When buying or selling a domain online, using a licensed and bonded escrow service will reduce the risk for both the buyer and the seller. Using an escrow service to handle your domain name sale guarantees you get paid and the buyer gets their domain. All of the domain name marketplaces and auction sites referenced throughout this guide offer their own, free escrow service as part of their platform so when you sell a domain name through one of these sites, all you have to do is make sure you are able to transfer your domain name the moment it sells. But if you sell your domain name through direct negotiation with a buyer or you are using the service of a brokerage firm you should always transact through a licensed escrow company.
The way a domain name escrow works is that both parties agree to the terms of the transaction, which include the domain name and sale price. The Buyer will then have to submit a payment for the agreed amount into the escrow account. Once the escrow service has verified and secured the payment, you are instructed to transfer the domain name to the buyer. Once the buyer confirms they have possession of the domain the funds will be released to you.
The most commonly used escrow companies for domain names sales are Escrow.com and Payoneer Escrow.
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Creating An Ebay Business
Weve already discussed in some detail the opportunities eBay brings. Its not just an auction site for getting rid of your unwanted goods and instead, puts you in front of millions of potential buyers. With that said, why not start your very own eBay business?
Whether you use eBay as your sole business or simply as a side project to help bring in more income, the platform is easy to get a hang of, especially for those starting-up.
In this section well run you through the reasons for starting-up your first eBay business and help you understand everything you need to know to ensure success.
Increase brand awareness
Owning a high-street shop may put you in front of a few thousands potential customers living in the area. Online, on the other hand, gives you the power to advertise to millions. You no longer have to sell to a particular region and can instead sell to other towns, cities, counties and even internationally.
Unlimited opening hours
Unless you opt against a social life, youll probably operate opening hours of somewhere in the region of 9-5. The chances are though youll be working more than this to keep a flourishing business. By turning to eBay, customers can find your products at all hours of the day and night, so in effect youre never closed for business.
Add more products to stock
Develop your niche
Make your customers life easier
Save time & money
How To Choose A Good Ebay User Id For Selling
The biggest obstacle to becoming successful as an eBay seller is branding. You do have the advantage of operating under the eBay brand, which is substantial but your ultimate goal should not be to have your customers say, “I bought it off of eBay.” Your goal should be to have your customers recognize and appreciate your own brand. When considering eBay username ideas, remember that eBay is just a selling tool, so do not make the mistake of relying too heavily on eBay for driving your sales.
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