Hello <$firstname$> and welcome to the issue 34 of UK Auction Line.

I would like to particularly welcome the many new subscribers to the UK Auction Line Newsletter who have registered since our last issue. It is nice to have you aboard.

This is the first of our new style monthly issues and as so I have tried to pack as much in as I can. I am pleased to say that Paypal seem to have sorted out the problems they had when they updated their site. For about two days it was very hit and miss and caused some problems but by the weekend everything seemed to be back to normal.

The UK was not alone struggling with Paypal , The USA, Canada and Germany all experienced similar problems. What did seem strange was that by way of apology Paypal announced a “free fee “ on 28th October by way of apology. Strangely though this only applied to the USA and Canada. I wonder why they did feel it necessary to make the same gesture to customers in the UK and Germany.

On Friday 5th November, The Times reported that some eBay users had been double billed for goods or wrongly charged on direct debit payments. EBay have apologised and said that there had been problems with the UKs direct debit system but the problem was being fixed. Effected customers were being refunded.

By now you may have seen the series of eBay advertisements that have been appearing on TV. It will be interesting to see what effect they have on sales and the number of new registrations. I recently had an opportunity to view the TV Ads that eBay use for the USA and Germany. In the case of Germany it appeared the Ads were targeting sellers whereas in the USA they seemed more aimed at buyers. I have to admit that I thought of the three the USA ads were the most memorable.

Fortune Magazine, the influential US business and investment magazine in a recent article about Meg Whitman , the CEO of eBay has stated that eBay is the fastest growing company ever. Which is quite some achievement.

Further category changes were introduced on 8th November and details of these can be found in the Community area of the eBay site. EBay say these changes are necessary because of the increased number of items being listed so I suppose that can only be a good thing. I think at the moment there are about 9000 categories available on eBay.co.uk, which compares to over 30,000 on ebay.com.

We are now approaching what is traditionally the busiest time for selling on eBay
so I hope that you are all busy listing and selling items.

Talk to you again next month

Dave

By Dave Bromley

As I mentioned in the last issue of the UK Auction Line Newsletter, I booked to attend the eBay University day at Sheffield. As I arrived at the event I was not quite sure exactly what to expect. It had been described as a day aimed mainly to help Power Sellers get the maximum benefit from the eBay system. From what I understand all the Power Sellers were contacted first and offered a place at the event and then the remaining seats were offered to non Power Sellers through the Community Pages of eBay.co.uk.

Registration was from 9 am and the serious business of the day started at 10 am until 5 pm with about an hour break for an excellent light lunch. I was very impressed with the organization, the registration was very quick and smooth and the waiting cup of coffee very welcome after the drive over from the Easy coast. One unexpected treat was that every delegate was given a cloth style document case containing copies of all the Power Point presentations that were being used during the day and an eBay pen.

The delegates were welcomed by Dan Wilson, the eBay Community Manager and for the rest of the day he and his team gave us some interesting presentations covering most aspects selling on eBay such as creating a strategy, eBay shops, using selling and management tools provided by eBay and Paypal. Although the day was actually aimed at “top sellers” no one could fail to go away armed with information that they could use to build their own eBay selling business.

One aspect that really impressed was the enthusiasm that Dan and all of his team had for eBay as a company. I came away with the impression that it must be a very good firm to work for.

The cost for the day, including lunch and the coffee breaks was just £15 and I think you would be very hard pressed to find better value anywhere. This is especially true for some people who received a variety of eBay promotional gifts as prizes for the quick fire competitions that were held throughout the day. Needless to say I was far too slow to win anything!

What was almost as valuable as the official program was the opportunity to network with the other 130 or so attendees. Selling on eBay is a very solitary past time and so it was really good to talk to other sellers. On every interesting couple twho attended the event were Kirstie and Andrew whose eBay id is postalsupplies. They have built up a fantastic eBay business (nearly 10,000 positive feedbacks) supplies packaging materials such as bubble wrap and jiffy bags to other eBay sellers. They arev an inspiration to anyone who is wondering if they really can build up a full time business selling on eBay. Also their prices are very competitive and well worth taking a look at.

I have deliberately not said too much about the information that we learnt that day because I think that every subscriber should take the opportunity to attend an event for himself or herself. The program for next year is being drawn up at the moment and as soon as I hear any details I will let you know. It is also worth keeping your eye on the community boards and if there is an event near you rush and register. I a sure you find it worthwhile.

I get so many complaints these days about Parcel Force and the Royal Mail that I thought I would have a look around to see if there were any alternatives. That was when I discovered . The company with its headquarters in Bolton offers a very real alternative and its one of the few services that has been approved by eBay.

For £8.99 it offers next day delivery throughout the UK for parcels up to 25 kg and that has got to be attractive if you regularly ship out larger items. I was talking recently to Steven, the General Manager and he really impressed me with the way the company seem to make the customers their first priority.

The Company offer a tracking service, which complies with Paypal requirements, and there are some attractive discounts available. If you display a Parcel2Go logo on your listing or recommend friends to use the service you can make even further savings. You can even make money by joining the companies affiliate program.

If you used the Parcel2Go service and included a flyer in each parcel you sent out I am sure you would get some people visiting the companies web site and if they started to use the Parcel2Go service you would get a commission.

Because I sell mainly small items such as CDs I have not used their service yet
but having talked to some of the Power Sellers at the Sheffield Meeting they were very enthusiastic and complimentary about service.

From my experience Parcel Force can take up to 5 days to deliver and the service does not operate over the weekend. Comparing the two services there is real cash savings with Parcel2Go for any parcel over 8Kgs. For next day delivery the savings are even greater. The Post Office will charge £18.95 for anything between 2kg-10kg, almost £10 more and unlike Parcel2Go they do not deliver on Saturdays.

If you have had experience of Parcel2Go or any other alternative to the Royal Mail
I am sure that fellow subscribers would like to hear of your experiences.

To learn more about here:

During my time as an eBay ® consultant, people have asked me many questions. Often, people ask questions that are contrary to the success of their business, and it’s my job to redirect their thoughts in a more appropriate direction.

Consider the following question: “I have all of my items listed and I’m not getting as many bids as I’d expected, should I lower my pricing?”

I cringe when I hear this question, yet I understand why people ask it. It’s logical that, if something isn’t selling, it must be too expensive, right? Wrong!

There are several answers to this question, none of which are to lower the price. Today, I’m going to address a key factor that anyone can implement to increase their sales––a call to action in their item description.

What is a call to action?

A call to action is a very simple word or phrase that tells your “browser” what they should do next. This may seem obvious, but one of the biggest mistakes you can make as an eBay seller is to sit back and “hope” that your browser will become a buyer.

It is important to put aside your need to be subtle in your ads. Instead, come right out and tell your potential customer what they should do next. You can use words or phrases such as the following:

*Bid Now and Save

*Bid Now, Don’t Miss Out on This Incredible Deal

*Buy Now, Before the Price Gets Too High

*Bid Now, Quantities Are Limited and Moving Fast

*This Is a Hard-to-Find Item, Bid While It’s Still Here

You get the idea. Your product may have a special element, which will make this part easy. But, even if your product isn’t unique, you can still come up with an effective call to action.

Increase your sales immediately.

Using a call to action is not something new and it is more than just an idea. This method of selling has been repeatedly tested over time. Experts report that you will increase your sales by 80% simply by telling your browsers what to do next.

Bonus Tip.

Remember, you also have the option of giving potential customers more than one call to action. For example, assume that you have an eBay ® business selling collectible trains and you get a visitor who is looking for one particular item. This browser comes to one of your listings and sees that it isn’t the one they’re seeking. Because your “buy now” call to action might not work here, you’ve lost this person as a customer, right? Wrong again.

You have two things you can do at this point. The first is pretty well known and practiced, which is to direct the potential customer to a complete list of related items. Provide a call to action, such as, “If this item isn’t what you’re looking for, please visit here (link to your entire list of auctions on eBay ® ) to see all of my train-related listings.”

The second, and my favourite, is to invite potential customers to sign up for free information. Provide a call to action, such as, “Visit my About Me page and discover how to receive free, weekly tips about buying collectible trains on eBay without getting scammed.” Collecting names of those who are in the market for your type of product is absolutely priceless.

Watch for an upcoming article about creating and using newsletters to increase Internet sales.

==============================================

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Marketworks

I have been going on about the benefits of About me pages ever since I started this news letter. Considering that it is does not cost anything I am amazed at how few sellers actually use this tool.

Anything that helps make more sales for higher prices should be grabbed with both hands and there is a wealth of evidence that an About Me page can help you do this.
So the first mistake many people make is not to have an About Me page at all.

The second mistake is to rely on the little “me” symbol to attract visitors to your About Me page. I don’t know who coined the phrase “If you’ve got it , flaunt it” but that is true in this case. In every listing you should put a line of text to the effect,
“To learn more about me visit my About Me page.” You can even mention it twice if you want to, there is no point in having an About Me page if no one gets to visit it.

What are the big advantages of an About Me page. Obviously it gives you a chance to tell the potential bidder a little about your self and/or your operation. I always believe it is a good idea to add a picture of yourself as again this helps to promote the feeling that the buyer knows you and will be more inclined to buy from you..

But just as important it is the only place on eBay that you can put a link to either your own web site or an affiliate program you belong to. Imagine if you are selling a model train set on eBay. A potential bidder goes to your About Me page and discovers a link to your web site which is full of model train sets for sale do you think he would click the link? The About Me page can be a great way of attracting traffic to your web site.

Talking of web sites if you have one do you provide a link to your auctions or eBay shop from that site? If not, why not? It is a two way process. When people have visited your web site send them to your auctions, if they visit your auctions try and get them to then visit your web site. It can have quite an effect on your sales.

Anyway I will get off my soap box now.

More next month.