How to improve your eBay stores visibility

As a seller you know that it's very difficult to get enough traffic to your eBay store. Visibility off of eBay's network is the key to generating more page views. This ultimately will equate to more sales and revenue. Some of the various tools you should be using is a website, Facebook, eBay Blogs, Twitter, Blogger, Yahoo 360 and YouTube. Later on we will discuss how to effectively use these tools.

Paypal Has To Report To IRS (eBay Sellers)

The new Housing and Economic Recovery Act signed into law requires Paypal and others to report to the IRS. This law will take affect in 2011 and will be reported in 2012 for the 2011 tax year.

You are excluded from having your info reported if:

1. If you receive less than $20,000 a year in payments; and
2. If you have less than 200 payments.

You will have to make sure you keep good records. For more information visit the offical Paypal Blog for more information.

DSR's Shipping & Handling Charges

In my experience I don't like the DSR's but I can see how it could be useful to help keep sellers on their toes. However, I think Shipping & Handling needs to be reformed. I usually don't charge enough to cover the shipping charges once you factor in paying 3.5% to Paypal and the material used to ship the items. The flaw is that I don't think buyers understand how expensive it is now to ship an item. I usually get marked down on the DSR's for my shipping charges. This is funny because I lose money on shipping. That is my gripe.

Ebay Snipe Programs

Why use a snipe program?

When an eBay auction is placed it usually does not end for days. One person places his maximum bid. Later another person comes along and bids until he is the highest bidder. During the course of an auction this process often repeats itself many times, it is known as a “bidding war” and it drives the price of an auction up.

To avoid the “bidding war” people have started bidding another way known as "snipe" or "sniping". They wait until the final moments of the auction to submit their bid. Doing this often ensures that they get the item at the lowest price possible, but there are problems with this method. The first problem is that you have to be online at the end of the auction, this can be a tremendous time waster. The second problem is that you also have to compete with others that may have a faster connection than you do. The process of placing the bid takes time so unless you time your bid just right, there is a good chance someone else will outbid you or time on the auction will run out.

We use Powersnipe they are the best that we have used.

Blog Directory

Ebay Boycott

(FORTUNE Small Business) -- Ever since eBay (EBAY, Fortune 500) announced changes to its feedback rules and fee structure last week, sellers have been irate, exploding onto message boards and blogs with discussions about how the new policies will affect their businesses. But when the idea of a strike was floated, some sellers and buyers decided to get more organized about expressing their displeasure.
A discussion thread on eBay's own forums with the title "Sign the pledge_no sales Feb 18-25!" has received 4,000 posts in nine days, many expressing members' intentions to join the boycott. The strike is scheduled to overlap eBay's planned Feb. 20 launch date for its new policies, which include fee hikes, a 21-day hold on some funds sent through its PayPal payment service, and disallowing sellers from leaving negative feedback for their buyers

Below is a list of links to sites about the Ebay boycott and strike.

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?start=0&threadID=1000636290&anticache=1211943433673

http://money.cnn.com/2008/02/15/smbusiness/ebay_strike_update.fsb/index.htm

http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/02/ebay-boycott-3.html

http://www.powersellersunite.com/

http://blog.auctionbytes.com/cgi-bin/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2008/2/1203209274.html

http://digg.com/business_finance/Ebay_Sellers_Boycott_gains_traction_competing_sites_grow

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9874447-7.html

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/techinvestor/corporatenews/2008-02-24-ebay-strike_N.htm

http://mashable.com/2008/02/27/ebay-boycott-extended/

http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2008/02/20/ebay-boycott-having-minimal-effect

Ebay's Reason for 2008 Feedback Change

The eBay Feedback system was originally designed to provide a simple, honest, accurate record of the buyer's and seller's online experience to ensure safe and satisfactory trade. It was driven by the belief that through a transparent reputation system, members could hold each other accountable. Over time, we found that the transparency of the Feedback system made some buyers reluctant to hold sellers accountable. For example, buyers fear retaliatory Feedback from sellers if they leave a negative Therefore, we've made a number of changes to eBay's Feedback system to continue to improve accuracy and accountability. These changes should help to differentiate and reward sellers who provide a positive buying experience on eBay