You're making money on eBay, but not enough to drop that 40-hour-per-week job in the "pit".... here are a few simple, inexpensive solutions to help you build your eBay hobby into a real business!

Professional Listings
We've all seen them - the gorgeous html listings with tables and diagrams and charts!  But not everyone has the time or money to invest in html training or expensive pre-programming.  If you want the professional look EASILY there's one program you need - Microsoft Word OR Works Word Processor.  You've used them before - now use them to design a professional listing.  Just set everything exactly the way you like - with the fonts, colors, italics, indentations, margins, and tables you think look best.  Then press "CTRL+A" to "select" the entire page(s), "CTRL+C" to "copy" everything, and move your cursor into the "Item Decription" window in the Sell Your Item Form.  Press "CTRL+V" to perform a  "paste" and the entire page you created in Works/Word will appear!  Put a great big picture with a "supersize" option in the gallery part of the page  and a few smaller ones at the bottom, and your listing now has instant credibility!

No Pictures Of Your Item?
You've just lost a sale.  How many thousands of items languish unsold because the seller had no picture?  There is NO excuse.  You can now get 2 MP and 3 MP digital cameras for about $50-$60 if you shop around.  You can even get a digital CD of your normal camera's prints for as litle as $5 at many photo processing labs. What are you waiting for!  If you don't have pictures in your listing, you are asking a total stranger to "take your word for it."

Toll-Free Number
Ever read an entire listing only to find that the only way to contact the seller is through eBay mail? Ever felt frustrated at the end of an auction, knowing that there's only 1 hour left and the seller hasn't answered your all-important query?  If you've felt this way, chances are your customers have felt that way, too.  Rather than displaying your home phone or cell number for every Tom, Dick, and Harry on the internet, set up a cheap toll-free number that rings to your home phone or cell.  There are tons of reputable companies offering per-minute US toll-free as low as $.05 per minute.  Even if you get five hour's worth of toll-free calls a week - and at first, you won't - that's only $60 per month - a wise investment in Internet Commerce.  A toll-free number gives you legitimacy online.  It lets customers know you are willing to answer their questions for FREE and that you care about customer service.  When an eBayer sees that toll-free number, they know they are dealing with someone who takes their eBay business seriously.  It's instant credibility for you and will help you convert "shoppers" into "sales."

Be Adventurous!  Start Accepting PayPal...
PayPal costs sellers money.  It's true!  But is 3% really all that bad?  If you make $5 profit per sale, and ten more people buy from you because you accept PayPal, you only paid $3.30 to PayPal and made $46.40 more than you made before!  Just about anyone would rather buy from a stranger using a protected, private form of payment.  Would you send a complete stranger your persanal check, with all of your financial information - name, address, and account info - printed on it?  Of course not!  Don't expect your customers to, either.  Money Orders aren't reliable - they are counterfeited easily, which leaves YOU paying bounce fees at the bank.  Get PayPal and save yourself the headaches - and inspire confidence in buyers.

Packing, Shipping, and Wrapping
It boggles the mind that some sellers do not offer gift wrapping.  If your item fits in a shipping box, it can be gift-wrapped.  This year, on December 27th or 28th, go out and pick up gift wrap of every kind - shiny foil, masculine, feminine, holiday-themed, striped, plain, etc - for $1 per roll.  Grab ribbons and bows for $1 per yard, dig through bins of scotch tape at only $.50 each - STOCK UP.  Then start offering your customers gift wrap for only $1 extra.  That's cheaper than a gift bag from the store - so they'll go for it.  Congratulations!  You've just gone "the extra mile" for your customer at it was EASY!  (HINT: Pack bows in small plastic bags you pack along with the box so they don't get crushed/ripped in transit.)  Always pack carefully and offer delivery confirmation as an automatic option.  USPS "track & confirm" is less than $1 per package and lets your customer log into USPS online and see EXACTLY where the package is!

One Last Thing...
The helpful people on eBay have established the eBay University to give you tips, advice, and FREE lessons to help you sell more effectively.  They didn't do this to be nice -- eBay makes money if YOU sell more!  So let them teach you how to be an effective seller by logging into the eBay University and choosing lesson plans that work for you!  Also, make time to read through some of the workshops pertaining to listing, selling, and research. you can find everything you need at the eBay Community Hub

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