Hello to everyone on this fine Xmas eve. I guess most people are probably socializing with their families and friends at this moment, but my wife is a nurse and unfortunately she had to work this evening. The good part about that is that I now have the time to write this installment on "Ecommerce Beginnings - Part II". The reason I mentioned my wife is really to thank her. I'm sure you have heard the old saying about every great man having a great woman behind him, prodding and guiding him along, haven't you? Well in my case the part about having a great woman behind me is definitely true. My wife has been the inspiration for all that I have accomplished during this past year (my first year spent developing an ecommerce presence). To my wife and my love I say: "Thank you - from the bottom of my heart for everything that you have given me and for your patience while I have spent many hours working away on the computer during the past year!" Now, the part about a "great man", well, I think we'll leave that one alone, but this past year (actually the last 9 months, but who's counting) has been a great learning experience for me in regard to "how and what" is needed to set-up and run a home based ecommerce business. Tonight I'll share some interesting parts of this journey with you.
The most surprising revelation that I have had during my internet journey is the huge amount of time I have ended up investing in this project and how much work it has involved. I thought since everything was online that it would be much easier than the old "brick and mortar" type business. Surprise, surprise, surprise, it is different than the brick & motar world, but still a lot of work, but I wouldn't trade one second of it for anything else. I have found this to be extremely interesting, educational and a lot of fun. I guess the part about it being fun plays right into the saying: "it's a lucky person who is able to work at something they enjoy." I have definitely found something I truely enjoy here.
I started in an area that thousands of other people have started at - with eBay! The number one internet auction site. I figured that would be a good point to begin my ecommerce education. Everything about eBay makes it a natural to begin with - high amount of traffic, ease of use, tons of "how to" information right on their site, PayPal to handle the financial transactions, etc., etc.
Like most things in life what appears to be fairly simple and straightforward isn't. Ebay was no exception. As most people who have tried eBay are probably aware of, there is a whole cottage industry designed to support your efforts to do business with them. By nature I tend to over-analyze things to make sure that I have checked out all of the available options and finally to select the best fit for me. This was no exception. Through trial and error I made some key decisions:
opened both a buying and a selling account on eBay
opened an account with Paypal
developed a listing template (purchased template development services from an ebay listing - very inexpensive: $37 for a complete template package that makes you look professional)
developed an About me page on ebay for marketing purposes (an option that is way underutilized by most people. If you sell on eBay make sure you develop your About Me page!)
selected a free service named Auctiva to host my pictures with, create my templates with and to schedule my auctions with. They offer additional free auction services also. You can find them at: www.auctiva.com Their site is a little balky at times if you try to access them during peak useage times, but other than that they have been outstanding. This service saves you on average .75 to $1.00 on every auction listing vs. doing it straight through eBay or by using one of the multitude of other services that are available. I am not passing judgement on the other services as to whether they are good, bad or whatever. Auctiva is just the service that met my needs and has served them well to date.
selected some products to start listing (I have a good size collection of 78 RPM records from the 30's, 40's and 50's - all big band jazz, that I have been listing)
did some research on pricing strategies (there are numerous strategies to choose from depending on your end goal. Some people try to get maximum price, some start out with a low price just to drive traffic to their About Me page and/or to their off eBay site (that's me) etc.)
started listing auctions on eBay
Note: I'm not listing my link above for any other reason except to show as an example.
That's it for this week. Next week I'll tell you about a few of the other services that are available to make your eBay experience work smoothly. Good night and Merry Xmas to everyone!
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