REMEMBER WHEN eBay USED TO BE A GREAT PLACE FOR SMALL SELLERS TO BECOME BIG SELLERS? Unfortunately, recent changes at eBay have made online auctions less reliable and profitable. So where can you sell when you can’t sell on eBay? Online auctions are the past; fixed-price selling is the future. It’s time to move beyond eBay and first-generation online selling and start Selling Online 2.0. Second generation online selling means migrating from eBay to other online marketplaces, including craigslist, Amazon, and your own e-commerce website. You’ll need to make some new plans, learn some new skills, and change some of the things you do--but you’ll find that there’s more money to be made on your own than relying on traditional eBay online auction sales. Put together a plan to maintain your sales level and profitability--to counteract eBay’s changes Discover how to shift from auction sales to fixed-priced listings on the eBay marketplace Find out if running an eBay Store or selling on Half.com makes sense for your business Learn out how to sell locally on craigslist and other online classifieds sites Discover how to sell fixed-price merchandise on the Amazon marketplace Find out how to launch your own e-commerce website--and promote your online store Learn how to sell products across multiple channels--and manage multichannel conflicts Introduction 1 What’s in This Book 2 Who Can Use This Book 3 How to Use This Book 3 There’s More Online... 4 Making the Move 4 I BEYOND ONLINE AUCTIONS: CREATING A SUCCESSFUL ONLINE BUSINESS 5 1 The Problem with Online Auctions 7 What eBay Used to Be Like... 7 Why Is eBay Abandoning Smaller Sellers? 10 Changes Are Afoot--and You Probably Won’t Like Them 12 Emphasizing Fixed-Price Sales over Auction Sales 12 Changes to the Fee Structure 12 Changes to the Payment System 14 Changes to the Feedback System 15 Changes to Search Results 15 eBay’s Deal with Buy.com 16 How Do eBay’s Changes Affect You? 16 2 Planning for Selling Success 19 Planning for Life Beyond eBay Auctions 19 Asking--and Answering--Key Questions 20 What Type of Merchandise Do You Want to Sell? 20 How Much Money Do You Want to Make? 21 How Do You Intend to Manage Your Business? 23 Where Do You Want to Sell? 25 Conceiving a Business Plan 26 Understanding the Components of a Useful Business Plan 28 Mission 29 Opportunity 30 Strategy 30 Organization and Operations 31 Strengths and Weaknesses 31 Financials 31 Writing Your Business Plan 32 Implementing Your Business Plan 33 II FIXED-PRICE SELLING ON EBAY 35 3 Migrating to Fixed-Price Listings 37 Why Fixed-Priced Sales Are the Way to Go 37 Comparing Fees 38 Comparing Listing Lengths 40 Factoring in Customer Demand 41 Different Ways to Sell at a Fixed Pric 42 Understanding eBay’s Fixed-Price Listings 43 Understanding eBay’s Buy It Now Auctions 44 Understanding eBay Stores 46 Understanding Half.com 47 Creating an eBay Fixed-Price Listing 50 Creating an Auction Listing with a Buy It Now Price 51 Managing Fixed-Price Sales 52 Before the Sale: Setting the Price 53 After the Sale: Payment and Shipping 53 4 Fixed-Price Selling in an eBay Store 57 What Is an eBay Store? 57 Benefits of Opening Your Own eBay Store 59 Challenges of eBay Store Selling 60 Understanding eBay Store Subscription Levels 61 Understanding Insertion Fees and FVFs 63 How to Open an eBay Store 63 Further Customizing Your eBay Store 67 Managing Your eBay Store 68 Listing Merchandise for Sale in Your eBay Store 70 Handling eBay Store Sales 71 Marking Down Your Merchandise 72 Viewing eBay Store Reports 73 5 Fixed-Price Selling on Half.com 77 Getting to Know Half.com 77 Understanding the Half.com Shopping Experience 79 Understanding Half.com Fees 80 Listing on Half.com 81 Pricing Your Half.com Items 83 Calculating Shipping and Handling Charges 84 Managing Half.com Sales 85 6 Promoting Your Fixed-Price eBay Sales 87 Promoting Your Fixed-Price Listings on the eBay Site 87 Optimizing Your Listings for eBay Search 88 Linking from Other Sites to Your eBay Listings 90 Promoting Your eBay Store 90 Seeding Listings into the Traditional eBay Marketplace 91 Enabling Cross-Promotions 91 Creating an Email Mailing List 92 Linking to Your eBay Store 94 Adding a Stores Widget to Your Blog or Website 95 Creating a Listing Feed 95 Exporting Your Listings to Search Engines and Shopping Sites 96 Advertising on the eBay Site with AdCommerce 97 Advertising Across the Web with Google AdWords 99 Promoting Your Store in the Real World 101 Promoting Your Half.com Listings 102 III SELLING VIA CRAIGSLIST ONLINE CLASSIFIEDS 105 7 Online Classifieds: Are They Right for Your Business? 107 Understanding Online Classifieds 107 Examining Major Online Classifieds Sites 110<...