To start a business on Ebay, it's great to know some things first.  I knew nothing, and lost money for the first 2 years.  I was lost on here, and there were not guides.

It's a little easier to start as a buyer, because then you have learned how it works.  And it's really  hard to start to sell, if you don't have a "Feedback Score" because no one knows who you are, or if they can trust you.

1.  Start Small, Stay SIMPLEl  So, to get going, start small.  Pick something you know something about, and can easily sell.  It helps if you have your idea already. 

2.  Make it Easy.  Next, make your listing easy.  People on here write so many terms, and details, it's almost discouraging. It should not look like the Bible, I was looking at one auction with about 30 paragraphs, and had to go take a break.   Too much crap in there - NOT NECESSARY.  

Be simple.  My listings say the item, a small description that is accurate, in short detail, that I ship to US only, new or used, final sale, and non smoking.   All of those other multi paragraphs on terms, and feedback and returns, and bad experiences, are not necessary, and detur the person from concentrating on the item.  I have never put all of that into my listings.  No one cares and it does not prevent anything both bad and good experiences still happen to everyone, despite overwriting of blah blah blah

3.  Accurately Describe Your Item. I only sell new things.  That's personal for me.  I don't like to sell something that I don't know the history.  If it's used, it may break, or be damaged, and then the buyer is going to be upset.  I stick with new, but many people on here sell used or antique items and are fine with that. For me, I only want new, but for you, it's whatever you feel comfortable with.

4.  Pricing - I remember listing items that cost me $7.00 and listing them for $4.99.  I assumed that there would be a huge bidding war on that item, and it would sell for the $15.00 that I wanted.  And I only got one bid, and had to sell my $7.00 item, pay the fee to list that, and sell it at a loss.  Yes, I cried.  Did I learn from that??  No, I assumed that was a fluke, and tried another item at a lower price than I paid for it, assumed that the new item would be bid on by several people and get to my desired price this time.  Did it?  No, it did not.  Yes, I cried again. 

What I realized is that I had to have confidence in my item and myself, and ask for the price I need to have, and if it was bid up higher, good, if not, at least I wasn't using all of my lost money on kleenex.  Some items don't sell, but then Ebay may not be the place for them.  But don't lose money. It does take a while.

It is not good to list your item cheaply to save in fees, and then mark up high shipping.  It is discouraged now by Ebay, and you are marked down for it because legitimate shipping charges are high enough, so the thing to do is make enough money on the product that you can afford the fees.  If you are only making a few dollars on an item, it's not going to be lucritive.  You have to find something you can double at least over your costs - all of the costs from fees to shipping, and the cost of the item.

5.  Learn your Market  Items that may sell on here, may not sell somewhere else.  It changes alot, so I always test the waters on things.  Meaning don't buy 4 dozen on a maybe.  Buy 2 or 3 single items, first see if it sells, then you can buy more.  Things are cheaper in bulk, but not if they don't sell.

Live Auctions get the most visibility, and are the most expensive.  But they work.  The larger audience looks on all of the live listings. 

Fixed price auctions enable the buyer to not wait, and know the set price.  But when you are starting out, live auctions introduce you as a business, and give more time for the person to see you are out there.  If you use a fixed price, and it sells in 2 days, then there's 5 days that others don't even know you are out there.

To find your category to list your product under, there are many ways to do it.  Every name in the title can put your item in another category.  for example:  if you are selling a pink t shirt, and it's Disney, you can type DISNEY PINK MICKEY & MINNIE MOUSE TSHIRT LARGE  your listing will end up in the Disney category, tshirt, mickey mouse, minnie mouse, and pink. 

For any items, you want your title to lead people to your item, so make the title appear in multiple categories.  That takes some learning.  You do not need to spend the money to list in 2 separate categories - that doubles the fees, but not necessarily doubles the chances of a sale.  If someone has what you want, they will bid.  It happens to me in one category since day 1.

6.  LEARN BEST TIMES TO LIST - THIS IS MAJOR

Watch when other auctions end, and see if they have bids on the items.  If you list out of the majority time for your shopping audience, you may not sell the item.  This take some homework.  All things sell better at different times.  And all time zones are looking that things.

7.  You need to be sure that you are selling something authentic.  By that I mean, you can't sell things that have copyright infringement issues.  If you don't know where your item is from, you need to check.  If you sell anything that violates trademark infringment laws, they will and have the right to close down your store.  So fake pocketbooks, etc, are highly visible on here.  This is a nationwide, international, worldwide audience.  And it's huge.  Merchandise is monitored, so even if you think you won't have a problem, you will.  Don't try it, you will lose your account.  And it's not worth it.  There are so many things on here you can make money with.

8.  If your item is seasonal, list it ahead of time. 

If things don't sell right away, don't forget there is a process, and you need to entice people to shop with you.  They need to trust you and to like what you are selling.  It is the lucky person who has the perfect item and starts making money right away.  That was not me.  I had no idea what to sell, how to list, and the price ranges that my things were worth.  I could write a book now.

9.  Save some Profit from this - If you start making money, you don't need to re-invest it all into more merchandise.  If you do, you end up with more and more to sell, and nothing in your pocket.  I ususally only revinvest a certain percent.  I did end up with more merchandise than money, and I learned the hard way.  It's easy to get excited and keep buying products, but the great thing is to learn from my mistakes, and don't overbuy.  I no longer overbuy, but it took a long time to get that part down.  I am a girl, I love to shop, and it was so much fun.  

10.  Use Insurance or Delivery Confirmation on everything.  If anyone claims they did not get it, you have proof you sent it.   Also, I don't even rule out the requests to ship oversees.  I do it.  However, I only use priority mail with a customs recipt.  Many people will ask you to ship first class or cheaper.  It can take weeks and weeks to arrive.  I won't do it because if it does not arrive, they are going to leave you the bad feedback, and you may have to pay them back, so I will ship it, but so that it works for both parties.  Do not let the buyer try to talk you in to saving them money because they will be first to say it never arrived..

11.  Feedback is a two way street. I am very reluctant to leave anyone bad feedback, I always try to work it out first.  If they are really bad, rude or don't buy the item, I still might not leave that negative feedback, it depends on the circumstances.  Because they can leave it for you as well.  I try to work with everyone.  There is a way to block bad bidders from buying again, and do it.  It's impossible to remember the user names, and they may wait to buy again, only to ruin your score for a deal from before.  In my Ebay, you can go to the site map, and block bidders - up to 1000 names.   And now sellers can't leave negative feedback per say, but if you have a really bad buyer, you can write NEGATIVE THINGS in the postive section, in all caps, and warn everyone else.  It has to be done, and it's sad, but some people just don't belong on here, and try to intimidate sellers.

12. Buying things on clearance in retail stores can be an inexpensive way to start also.  But be careful, sometimes items on clearance are odd sizes, won't sell on here either.  I sell alot of clothes, but some things I bought on clearance to resell on here, still have not sold.  That was a hard thing to assess, and even when I have marked these items down really low, they have not sold.

So bottom line, - try it, keep it small, keep it short and sweet,  be clear, take good pictures, and keep your profits in your pocket, not in inventory.  Have fun, and definately try it.