eBay is awesome and everyday more and more people are participating. So what if you want to become a successfull eBay seller? - Where do you start? Well here are some pointers for you that will have you going in the right direction.

First and most important Honesty and Reputation. Sure you can make some fast money on eBay but start getting negative feedback and the cash flow will vanish in a flash. If you want a growing sustainable income from your eBay activities then you must make sure you have a solid reputation as a reliable honest seller that delivers good value.

Let's start with your listings - they should be uncluttered, easy to read, informative accurate and explicit. Buyers are not looking for fancy bells & whistles, mutlicoloured fonts and the like. Your listing should convey a sense of professionalism not be a show ground for your HTML or graphics skills.

Your item description should accurately reflect the item and its condition. If the item is damaged or incomplete then explain this. If you don't then you will get negative feedback no doubt about it. A basic tip is the description can never be too long as long as it is describing the item.

If you're selling a lot of items then you need to aim to keep your listing fees down. An easy way to do this is host your eBay pictures yourself. If you have already have a website then devote some of your hosting space to your listing pictures. For those that don't have their own web site check to see if you have free space provided by your internet service provider. If you don't have any free webspace you can use then consider buying your own domain name and web hosting. It doesn't need to be expensive the very basic package is all you will need.

Make sure you list your item in the right categories to maximise your chances of getting lots of views. If your not sure what the best/right category is then see where the competition are lisitng their items.

If you are selling items such as DVDs, software and designer labels, make it clear that your items are genuine and not pirate copies or fakes. Aside from the legal issues selling fakes as genuine goods will hurt your reputation.

Don't be tempted to set too high a starting price. Aside from pushing up your lisitng cost you will also turn away potential buyers hoping to bag a bargain. Far better to have a number of interested bidders as they can end up starting a bidding war that will drive your price up.

Don't try to make profit on shipping & handling charges. Nothing puts me off from buying more than seeing inflated shipping & handling charges. Now this doesn't mean you take a loss on S&H just be fair and reasonable. Also make sure your S&H information is clearly laid out so that potential buyers can easily see what to expect.

Your item title is vital. If you want lots of people to view your item then the 55 characters available for your title are all you have at your disposal to generate interest. Don't waste them on special characters or non value words. Think of what you would type in to the eBay search bar if you were looking for the item.

Check your item title spelling. Items won't sell if potential buyers can't find them because you've misspelled the item's title. Use manufacturers name and model number within the title if applicable.

Start your auction so that it ends during a 'peak' buying period. In general most would agree that Thur evening through to Sunday afternoon tend to be good times to have your auctions end.

Have a system - you want to minimise the time you spend preparing listings and getting them loaded to eBay so make use of automation tools. Turbo Lister which is free from eBay is a great tool for cutting out the repetative grind and making the job of getting listings uploaded simple once you have things set up. Other areas to automate are your emails to winning buyers and if you are selling digital items (eBooks, Software etc) you can automate the product delivery side of things as well.

Ok that's enough for now. Not a definitive guide but hopefully it has given you somethings things to think about. There are mountains of material available online to help you further with your eBay activities some free some you have to pay for. If you want a load more free information then you will find a load of good articles here ==>http://www.need2knowabout.com/ebay.htm

Now, time for you to get started, remember, build yourself a good reputation.

Good luck.

Anne Milne
http://www.need2knowabout.com