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July 28, 2005
Paper Dolls Phenomenal Sellers On eBay
Did you play with paper dolls when you were a little kid? Yeah, yeah, I know you guys are too macho to have even considered such a thing, but maybe you watched your sister ...? Well, surprise! If you had held on to those paper dolls they would have sold for very healthy prices on eBay today. In fact, the paper doll cateogyr is one of the "hottest" I've ever seen!
eBay tells us that if there is a 40% sales rate in a category, it's considered very active. I tracked over 3400 paper doll auctions and realized there was a 94% sales rate, which is absolutely phenomenal! To say that demand is strong is like saying Titanic was a moderately successful movie. If you have any interest in paper dolls, take a look at some great selling items and think about this niche.
http://auction-genius-course.com/what-to-sell-on-ebay/paper-dolls.shtml
Posted by SydneyJohnston at 1:26 PM | TrackBack
July 27, 2005
Barbie Dolls Still Amazing Sellers On eBay
Barbie dolls have been amazing sellers in our culture every since Mattel introduced the first one in 1959. Mattel was started by Ruth and Elliot Handler in their garage. Ruth wanted an adult doll for children to play with, rather than baby dolls, which were the only dolls commonly available in the 50s. An all-male ad committee rejected the idea, but she persisted and the first doll sold 350 thousand toys @ $3 - quite a substantial fortune in the 50s. Since then, one billion+ dolls have been sold and Barbie is the most successful product in toy history.
http://auction-genius-course.com/what-to-sell-on-ebay/barbie.shtml
I've always loved dolls, so checking up on Barbie, I lots of other interesting doll best-sellers. Madame Alexander dolls have been around for 80 years and still sell well:
http://auction-genius-course.com/what-to-sell-on-ebay/madame-alexander-dolls.shtml
Cabbage Patch dolls have been around since 1978, and I distinctly remember a Labor Day craft show where I watched two grown women practically slug each other, fighting over one of the dolls and who was its 'mother" - they're never "sold" - only "adopted". What clever marketing!
http://auction-genius-course.com/what-to-sell-on-ebay/cabbage-patch-kids.shtml
Newcomer Bratz dolls are healthy sellers, too:
http://auction-genius-course.com/what-to-sell-on-ebay/bratz.shtml
If you're interested in this market, these dolls are perennial best sellers, although I haven't mentioned the very best doll seller of all. Stay tuned tomorrow for that bulletin.
Posted by SydneyJohnston at 8:37 AM | TrackBack
July 26, 2005
eBay USA: Greatest Entrepreneur Opportunity In The USA
eBay USA has become THE entrepreneurial mecca of America. According to a study by A C Nielsen International Research, commissioned by eBay, 724,000 people are earning their living from eBay. In the last study, done in 2003, the number was 430,000.
In addition, another 1.5 million people supplement their income selling on eBay.
Since there are 147 million users on eBay, this means that the other 144,776,000 users are BUYERS. Wahoo! Of course, this isn't really accurate since many users (like me) have multiple accounts, so the numbers aren't as high as they seem. Still, it's quite impressive.
The Nielsen study also revealed the in the first six months of 2005, eBay USA members sold approximately $10.6 billion worth of goodies. That's a lot of widgets.
Posted by SydneyJohnston at 8:18 AM | TrackBack
July 25, 2005
Online Auction Listings: How You Can Be Robbed Of Your Profits Whether You're A Buyer or A Seller
Do you realize that shill bidders can use your online auction listings to rob you of profits - whether you're a bidder or a seller? If you're a bidder, you can have the price artificially inflated, thus robbing you of profits, if you're buying for resale, or making the item w-a-y too expensive if you're a collector. And if you're the seller, scumbag buyers can steal your profits big time.
The only defense is to become educated on what to look for, the telltale signs that let you know you're being cheated. Once you understand how the game is played, you're no longer vulnerable:
eBay Online Bidding: How To Recognize eBay Sellers Who Dishonestly Bid Up Their Online Prices
eBay Bidding: How eBay Sellers Can Be Robbed By Dishonest Bidding
On the up side, shill bidding isn't really all that common, so your online auction listings can be quite safe if you're simply aware. Let these idiots gnash their teeth as you foil them!
Posted by SydneyJohnston at 2:22 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
July 22, 2005
eBay Rise A Staggering 53%
eBay just announced its profits and results from the second quarter of 2005 and they're amazing.
* Net income in second quarter 2004 was $190.4 million - this year $291.6 million
* Revenues rose to $1.09 billion from $773.4 million last year
* Second quarter traffic was 64.6 million, up from 48 million last year
* PayPal revenue rose 51 percent to $243.9 million. The total dollar volume of payments initiated through the PayPal system was a record $6.5 billion, a 49 percent increase from the $4.4 billion reported for the same period a year ago.
I've read several stories recently that life on eBay was coming to an end. Obviously not. In fact, errant nonsense!
Posted by SydneyJohnston at 7:37 AM | TrackBack
July 21, 2005
eBay Helps With 'What To Sell'
eBay is helping us to figure out what to sell on the famous auction site. With its resources and giant capital, it can do research that isn't available to the rest of us. Here are some helpful stats that it's provided:
* eBay traffic is heaviest on Monday & Sunday, so obviously, closing our auctions on one of those two days might pay off - although testing is always the only real way to know timing (or anything else) for sure
* eBay reaches more US citizens every month than any other "pure ecommerce property" (whatever that means)
* Visitors spend more time on eBay than any other shopping site and ebay claims the time is increasing. This statistic is dubious, I think. How can eBay possibly know the behavior of shoppers on any other site?
* More than 1/3 of all US Internet users visit eBay (Wow!)
* The majority of visitors enter eBay through the home page, which doesn't help us much. But the second most popular way is through a search page. Now that does matter!
* The most visited categories are:
1. Collectibles
2. eBay motors
3. Computers
4. Electronics
5 + 6. Clothes/Shoes + Toys
* Demographics for eBay users are:
1. Age: 45-54 (28%); 35-44 (26%); 55+ (22%); 25-34 (17%); 18-24 (7%)
This tells us who to focus on, doesn't it? And this statistic surprised me. I would have thought younger people would spend more time on eBay, but 3/4 of eBay users are 35 and up.
2. Income: $35-75K (31%); $25-50K (23%); $75-100K (19%); $100-150K (14%); $150K+ (8%); $0-25K (5%).
3. Gender: 53% male, 47% female
Fascinating stuff, although I always figure that income figures are suspect. But it gives us clues about where to focus our efforts. If your choice is between a teeny bopper product or clothes suitable for a 40 year old, choose the clothes.
Posted by SydneyJohnston at 1:12 PM | TrackBack
July 20, 2005
Google Helps Us Get Indexed With "Google Sitemaps"
Bless Google's little pea-picking heart, they've made it easier to get indexed in their all-important directory (if you're interested in playing the search engine game, that is). What you do is use software to create a sitemap in Google's chosen format (XML), upload your sitemap to your website and then let Google know of its existence.
https://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/docs/en/about.html
How hard is it to do? Honestly, I don't know since I have a tech who handles these chores for me. But it seems to be definitely worthwhile, since we're noting pages appearing in Google in less than a week. There are some "experts" claiming their entire site is indexed in 24-48 hours, but we haven't had such spectacular results as that. It's definitely worth doing, though, because it used to be weeks, or even months, before our pages appeared. Anything to speed up the process means more profits and we'll all raise our mugs to that!
Posted by SydneyJohnston at 2:12 PM | TrackBack
July 19, 2005
Yes, It's Christmas Time Again!
You've heard of Christmas In July? That is, often the brick & mortar stores have big sales. The timing isn't accidental because they're cleaning out their current inventory to get ready for the biggest season of the year, retail-wise. As an Internet mogul, YOU need to do the same ...
My friend Chris Malta has written a doozy of an article on this subject, so take it away Chris:
"I know, I know. It's July. But if you look, you'll notice you can't get swim suits in the clothing stores anymore...
I do this topic in my Newsletter every year in July. If you've been reading for years, you know that, and you may be able to skip this one. However, you may want to continue anyway, because a little reminder can't hurt!
If you haven't been reading for more than a year, please pay attention to this one. It's important. I like to think they all are, but some topics are a little more critical than others. :o)
The 2006 model year cars are out. If you try to buy a swim suit in your department store, all they have left are the ones that nobody wanted earlier in the year. The fall Home Decor stuff is in KMart. Wal-Mart is gearing up with warmer clothing already. Before you know it, the Halloween stuff will be on the shelves. That will all too soon be followed by plastic, motorized, smiling figures of Santa making arm gestures that could be considered questionable if you position him the wrong way in your yard.
The big retailers all know that this is the time to be gearing up for the biggest retail season of the year. The Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, let's buy a ton of gifts and fill up the closets with stuff we'll never use again Season.
The Holiday Season gifts may not be on the shelves yet, but you can bet your life that they're on the way to the stores' warehouses. The big retailers' Purchasing Agents are making deals as we speak for tens of thousands of Atomic Neutron Robo-Blaster Buddies, and Suzi Drinks Her Bottle and Calculates Your Income Taxes Dolls. Expensive Diamond Jewelry, Dad's Favorite Tool Kits and Car Seat Massage Sets are already flowing from manufacturers to wholesalers to retail warehouses.
The big guys do it, and you should to. That's how the big guys got to be the big guys in the first place. You have to plan well in advance for the products you want to sell during the Holiday Season. That one short, shining Season accounts for a whopping 60+% of all retail business for the entire year. Those who are prepared, make money. Those who are not wonder why they didn't.
This is also a great time to start an EBiz, if you've been thinking about doing so. You still have time to be up and running for the Holidays.
So, how do you prepare? Do some Market Research on products you think you want to sell this Season. To learn how to do that, listen to our Entrepreneur Magazine EBiz Radio Show this coming Monday...we'll be talking with Matt Hedges, Author of "The Online Research Guide to Picking Products That Sell!" If you can't listen on Monday, you can find the show in our Archives next week, at www.EBizShow.com.
Start looking for wholesale suppliers of products that will sell well as gifts, and that can complement your existing product lines. That way, you don't have much Search Engine Positioning or Auction re-tooling to do when the selling begins.
If you're already working with products you know will sell well during the Holidays, start talking to your Suppliers, and asking them what their inventory levels will be during that time on each product. You don't want to run out.
Ask your wholesale suppliers which products they are planning on stocking the most of...those will be the products that THEIR Market Research indicates will be selling well!
For the online Retailer, like you and me, the Holiday Season preparations stat NOW, so don't be caught by surprise this year...there will be competitors out there preparing right now!"
Posted by SydneyJohnston at 12:25 PM | TrackBack
July 13, 2005
PayPal & eBay Invade China
It's not news that the action in the world of commerce is moving to Asia, especially China, and PayPal and eBay realize that better than most. And this week, PayPal~eBay announced a new payment service for Chinese Internet users (second only to the US in number). PayPal will, of course, deal in Chinese currency and its new service is integrated with 15 Chinese banks and more than 20 different debit cards.
The PayPal option will be available on popular Chinese portals NetEase and TOM Online, and will offer the same on eBay's own Chinese auction site, eBay EachNet, starting September first of this year. eBay is investing $100 million in China in 2005, according to an eBay spokesman.
I see this as a good thing. The more the residents of our planet are wired into the world economy - meaning a nice life style that they don't want to lose - the less likely war is. People with nothing to lose are dangerous!
Posted by SydneyJohnston at 12:38 PM | TrackBack
July 12, 2005
A Delightful Weapon Against Spammers
Some mornings when I open my email and see the stream of often disgusting & obscene spam, I feel the urge to scream (or strangle!). But mostly we feel impotent to fight back, so it's always a pleasure to find an effective weapon against these slimeballs.
One of my absolute favorite writers lives on Fantomaster and he has a wonderful article about how to hit the damned spammers where it hurts - in their pocketbook. Pointing out that much spam these days sends its victims to toll free numbers, he says, "This will typically be a commercial call center running a wide spectrum of toll free numbers (both national and international) to entice victims to order by phone."
Ah. Toll free numbers - to us. Not toll free to spammers. He even gives us lots of tips to hurt the spammers more, such as:
* Calling more often hurts more than extended length
* Ask convoluted questions that can't be easily answered (“Give me three good reasons why I should trust you with my credit card data.”)
* "Tempting though it may be, don't just hook on your modem and set it on scheduled automatic dialer."
For more delightful thoughts on this subject, read the entire wonderful article:
Anti-Spam Tip #003: Hitting Spammers Where It Hurts the Most — In Their Pockets!
Posted by SydneyJohnston at 9:36 AM | TrackBack
July 11, 2005
Are We Slowly Poisoning Ourselves To Death?
This is a blog about making money on the Internet, with a focus on auctions. So I've wondered if health is an appropriate subject, but have decided that it definitely is. After all, if we're sick, we surely won't have the energy to focus on prosperity.
One of my favorite health writers is Mike Adams, a software company owner and fitness guru. I read everything he writes and often use his information personally. But his most recent article, "The mass poisoning of humanity: an exploration of human stupidity" is so powerful that I think the world ought to see it. Naturally, I don't claim to have the ear of the world, but I can do my tiny part. Here is Mike's amazing first paragraph:
"As human beings, we're the only species stupid enough to actually poison ourselves. As part of modern living, we create a wide variety of chemical toxins that go into the ecosystem through rivers and streams, the air, the soil and so on. Not only that, we actually synthesize toxic chemicals and then inject them directly into the food supply -- knowing full well that they are poisonous and are major contributors to the epidemic rates of chronic disease we are experiencing today."
To read the rest of this outstanding article, go here:
The mass poisoning of humanity: an exploration of human stupidity
Posted by SydneyJohnston at 9:24 AM | TrackBack
July 7, 2005
Creative eBay Auctions Are Alive And Well
The creative inventor of an eBay auction selling beach advertising sent me his URL.
Here's the deal: if you win his auction, he will walk up and down the beaches of Cancun with your logo cut into the botom of his sandals.
"I will walk 7 miles of beach every day for 7 days leaving your name spread out along 49 miles of beautiful beach."
He will also hand out your business cards and send the shoes to you as a souvenir. Very entertaining and very clever. It will be interesting to see if there are any takers. And the seller ought to be in good shape by the end of the trip, at seven miles per day!
Posted by SydneyJohnston at 2:38 PM | TrackBack
July 6, 2005
Free mp3 Downloads Going The Way Of The Dodo Bird?
Recently, tens of thousands of Net marketers were shocked to discover that the mp3 downloads they were routinely using weren't free after all. I didn't know this - did you? Apparently, there are royalty fees involved every time we use it.
Well, that isn't absolutely true. You don't have to pay a royalty fee if:
* It's for personal use or you're not using it for profit
* Your company earns less than $100,000 a year
That lets us out and we've been wondering what to do about this, and a really well-written article has given us some ideas.
Why Publishing MP3 Can Cost You A Fortune
Posted by SydneyJohnston at 1:42 PM | TrackBack
July 4, 2005
Wholesale Drop Ship Merchandise - Alias, What Do I Sell?
OK. You've made the decision that dropshipping might just be a profitable part of your biz model, so the next question is ... "What wholesale dropship merchandise is best for me to sell?" Cuz after all, if you get this wrong you're headed down an expensive and time-wasting road.
When making this decision, here are some (very general) questions you might want to consider ...
http://auction-genius-course.com/auction/wholesale-drop-ship-merchandise.shtml
