Hello <$firstname$>

This month eBay have been back in the news over the sale of Blue Peter badges and the decision to ban the sale of football match tickets on the auction site. They say that all publicity is good publicity in which case they should all be happy over at eBay.

There is an interesting case going on at the moment in the USA. The makers of the online game “World of Warcraft” requested eBay stop 24-year-old Brian Kopp from selling an information product "The Ultimate World of Warcraft Leveling & Gold Guide which he had written and produced. The guide contained tips on how to play the game.

The company claimed that Kopp was infringing its copyright and eventually got eBay to remove the listing and has Kopp suspended. After much back and forth threats Kopp is now taking the matter to court.

This highlights a problem in that large companies only have to claim breach of copyright and eBay tend to immediately suspend a listing. If Kopp loses his action one wonders how other authors of these type of products would stand legally.

In a recent issue I mentioned the proposed eBay Express that is due to be launched in the USA shortly. This week Auctionbytes .tv have produced a videoed interview with Scot Wingo which is well worth looking at. You can access it at http://auctionbytes.tv/features. I have always consider that Ina Steiner’s Auctionbytes.com web site is the very best eBay news site available anywhere and I am pleased to say that we have now added her auctionbyte.tv RSS feed to UKAuctionline. So that is another good reason for visiting www.ukauctionline.co.uk regularly.

This month I have been notified of a new auction sites that have been launched. This is www.bikebits4sale.co.uk a specialist a UK based motorcycle community and auction site. The online trading community to buy, sell, swop and auction motorcycles and everything related to motorbikes plus forums, shops, blogs, chat rooms, groups and clubs geared up to bikes and bikers.

I hope that you enjoy this month’s newsletter and find the articles useful and informative.

Dave

Can you boost profits significantly by adding audio to your E-Bay auctions? According to a recent article on a net business site the answer is a definite yes. In fact, one e-book author suggested that adding audio to your auctions could potentially increase bids by as much as 22% over auctions without audio.

A recent trend showing up on a lot of websites is the addition of an audio clip. The clip is a personal message by the author or the website owner encouraging you to take advantage of what they offer.

The psychology behind this technique is really Marketing 101. It's called personalization. An audio clip added to your Ebay auction allows you to personally tell the potential bidder about the product. Using your own voice allows you to make contact with the bidder on a personal level that written words cannot. Because, that's what your E-Bay auction really is...It's just a long written classified ad asking the bidder to make an offer to purchase your item.

Prior to the advent of the telephone the only reliable way to communicate long distance was by writing letters. It was not unusual back then for lovers to write each other daily or weekly. The decline of letter writing is a well documented event that coincides with the advent of the telephone. The power of the human voice to convey a message triumphs that of the written word.

With audio you can describe the item, tell the bidder why you are selling it or even communicate with them about your refund policy or provide your contact information. The possibilities are almost unlimited as a way to establish a rapport with the bidder.

There are some technical elements to adding audio to your E-Bay auctions. The simplest way is to upload a .wav or Mp3 file to a website and provide a link to the file. When the bidder clicks on the link his or her computer will automatically recognize the file and play it with the audio player on the bidders computer.

There are some drawbacks to this method. If the bidder's computer doesn't recognize the file it won't play. The overall effect is not as professional as it could be and it distracts the bidder. If you are a reasonably tech savvy type you can easily deal with the drawbacks of this approach.

For the rest of us, there are a number of software solutions and websites that will simplify the task of adding audio to our E-Bay auctions. These different programs and websites range from charging a one time fee to monthly fee's for the use of the program. The good news is that many of them will let try them for as little as $1 for a trial basis or let you download a demo version to see how well it will work for you.

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As you may know I recently took over Money Master Magazine which is now

published monthly online. For more details visit www.moneymasteronline.co.uk

One advantage of being editor of Money Master is that I do get sent some fine

products to review. One such product is a program called The DVD workshop which is a film of a seminar on how to make your own DVD products.

The program includes a very good section on how John Coksey sells an incredible

number of his DVDs on eBay. If you are involved in producing and selling information products on eBay or the Internet you could find this a cery useful program.

Back in 1997 I attended a seminar at the Wembley Conference Centre hosted by Manhattan Direct and featuring among others Bill Myers. Bill is an Internet marketer from Arkansas who has been one of the leading figures in multi media presentations for over a decade. At the seminar he was talking mainly about audio tape presentations.

Since then things have moved on as CD, video and now DVD products have all proved popular with the buying public. I openly acknowledge the debt I owe to Bill for the information that I learnt at that Product Creation seminar and it was as a direct result of this that I built up my own information publishing business.

I am telling you this so that you can understand how pleased I was to be asked to review one of Bills latest offerings “The DVD Workshop”. This in fact is a recording on 10 DVDs of a seminar that Bill hosted on how to produce and sell DVDs for profit. Although the seminar was held in the USA I did recognise at least one very British accent in the audience and everything mentioned on the DVDs will apply not only to the UK but anywhere else in the world for that matter.

Early on Bill explains how you can easily produce a DVD for around US$2 each that will sell for US$45 or more each.. Of course it is very easy for these gurus to make it all sound very easy but Bill aided by 2 other successful DVD producers John Coksey and Tim Kerber takes you through every stage of DVD production and marketing. There is also some easy to follow information from lighting expert Todd Marchese .

The DVDs outline the basic business model and this is followed by a discussion on the basic equipment that you will need and this is not as expensive as you might think. The technical aspects of DVD making are covered in easy to understand language. You are also shown how a simple lighting method using just 2 lights and a backdrop can achieve some very effective results.

Bill then covers planning, scripting and outlines a 12 step ‘zero cost’ approach to DVD marketing. Tim Kerber and John Cooksey then cover selling to corporate customers and selling DVDs on eBay. This I am sure is something that would appeal to many readers on MMOnline. The seminar finishes off with hints and tips on editing your DVDs and Bill demonstrates this by shooting a short training video and then editing it. Finally he covers how to create the packaging and labelling for your DVD.

As a bonus you also receive on DVD a copy of Bills “Producing How-To Videos for Profit.” This is a typical Bill Myers presentation where he just sits in front of his computer and talks to the camera and takes you step by step through the process. It is very much a quick version of what you will learn during the 10 hour seminar but even so I found this a useful disc.

My overall opinion is that this is an excellent program in which 4 experts show you exactly how to create and market your own DVDs. It is a business that can be potentially very profitable and you do not have to be a technical genius to master it.

That is the good news, but having said that the program is not cheap although at £267

it does in my opinion represent value for money.

The expenditure will not stop there, as you will need to purchase a video camera, lighting and some of the recommended software. By judicious purchasing and searching around on the Internet for some bargains I think you could be in business for a total expenditure of around £300 0n top of the cost of the course. This would include downloading the trial copy of the recommended software. As you build up your business you can add more equipment as you find you need it.

To many people investing £600 may seem like a lot of money but if you can produce a DVD for a little over £1 and sell it for say £29 or more then you would only need to sell 36 DVDs to recover your investment. But like all of these How to Programs it will not make you one penny if you just sit ,watch it and then do nothing. I am confident if you apply what is taught in this program you should be able to build up a profitable full or part time business.

My own thoughts having spent a pleasant weekend viewing the program is that the real potential lies in producing DVDs for niche markets and then selling them either through joint ventures or an affiliate marketing program. There are so many people out there who want products to sell but are not prepared to create it themselves that this offers a real opportunity for some people to provide the products.

For more information about “The DVD Workshop” contact Malcolm Samuels by CLICKING HERE.

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Who Else Wants To Be In The Top 5 Percent Of eBay Sellers?

Are You Getting Top Dollar In Your Auctions?
Are Poor Quality Photos Costing You Money?
Are You New To eBay and Want To Get Started The Right Way?

Do You Want To Take Your eBay Business To The Next Level,
And. . .
Make HIGHER PROFITS With LESS EFFORT? More information

Is The Ebay Customer Always Right?

By Kirsten Hawkins

I can answer this question for you right now: the answer is 'yes'. In fact, the answer is 'YES!' - the biggest yes you've ever heard. Of the course the customer is always right. If you want to be a successful eBay seller, you should go miles out of your way to make sure every single one of your customers is 100% satisfied, however much time or money it might cost you.

A dissatisfied customer will leave negative feedback, and negative feedback is to be avoided at all costs. That one piece of negative feedback will always cost you more than it would have to deal with the complaint, whatever the value of the items you sell. You should consider any positive feedback percentage under 100% to be an absolute disaster, and a personal failure on your part.

But What If...

But nothing! There is no situation where you, as a seller, should get into any dispute with a buyer. Here are a few common situations and how to handle them.

They say the item never arrived: Politely ask the buyer to wait a few more days to see if it turns up, and then email you again if it still hasn't arrived. If it still hasn't arrived, you should assume it was lost in the post somehow and offer to send a replacement if you have one, or give them a full refund otherwise. No, I don't care what that costs you. Are you serious about selling on eBay or not?

The item has been damaged in the post: You must offer to replace it or take it back for a refund without hesitation.

They say the item doesn't match the description: Resist the urge to email back with 'yes it does, you just didn't read the description properly'. Take the item back for a refund, and edit your description if you need to, to make any confusing points extra clear.

I'm sure you're spotting a pattern by now. Offering a refund will make almost any problem go away, and it really will cost you less in the long run. Remember, one piece of negative feedback will stay with you forever, while having a 100% positive rating is like owning a bar of solid gold.

You should always handle customers' complaints before they complain to eBay - in fact, you should email them pre-emptively to ask if they have any. Going through the dispute process is time consuming, reflects badly on you and is downright unnecessary.

Are you still not convinced? Think this would only work with cheap items? Well, you see, the higher the price of the items you sell, the more your reputation is worth to you. Let's say you were selling $10,000 worth of items each week, for example, and making a $1,000 profit per week overall. You might think that refunding one customer's $1,000 purchase would be a tragedy, losing you your whole week's profit. It's far better to look at it this way: if you don't give that refund, then not only will you lose the next week's profit, but you'll probably lose a few weeks' profit after that too. Now which option looks better?

I absolutely can't emphasise enough the importance of really believing that the customer is always right. But trying to make excuses for complaints isn't the only thing you need to avoid. There are a lot of pitfalls that you need to avoid if you don't want to kill your business before it's even started properly - and I'll show you in the next email what they are.

About the Author: Kirsten Hawkins is an Ebay and internet auction enthusiast from Nashville, TN. Visit http://www.auctionseller411.com/ for more great tips on how to make the most from Ebay and other online auctions.