We can sum these tips up by saying it’s all about making it as easy as possible for people to buy.

Item as described

• Always include at least 3 high resolution pictures no less than 400×300 in size.
• If you don’t know how to take a professional picture, read a book about it or one of the many excellent free articles online.
• Be honest: don’t make something seem like it’s worth $400 when it’s only worth $4. Being disappointed with quality is a big reason for neutral feedback. Surprisingly, buyers don’t actually assume it’s going to look cheap just because they paid hardly anything!
• Avoid designer brands – the genuine articles can be hard to get hold of, and fakes are a big cause of negatives.
• If selling liquidation items, make sure condition described in full and you use plenty of pictures so people know exactly what they are bidding on.

Communication

• Set up an FAQ Page to answer common questions and explain the steps involved in purchasing an item from you.
• Over-communicate – set up automated emails to go out to say thanks when you receive payment and to tell the buyer you have shipped their item. These can be very easily set up through Selling Manager Pro.
• Use your About Me page to tell your buyers all about yourself and your business. Include photos of yourself, your family and your premises to help remove the anonymity of the internet.

Shipping time

• Opt for speed over low price to improve this DSR. A domestic shipment should arrive within 3 days for maximum customer satisfaction.
• Use Selling Manager Pro to inform the buyer their item has been shipped and send them the tracking number. This reduces the chance you’ll be blamed for any delays caused by the postal service and is generally good communication practice.

Shipping and handling charges

• These days it’s best to lose money on shipping and increase your item price to cover the cost, rather than making your profit on the shipping.
• Top sellers use Express or Priority Mail Services for super speedy service and offer great combined shipping deals. Having regular free shipping offers will also help boost your feedback on this DSR.

Like it or lump it, eBay have now officially changed their policy on Feedback. From now on, sellers are unable to give buyers negative or neutral feedback, only positives.

The reasoning behind what has been an extremely controversial move is that eBay believe buyers have previously been too scared of retaliation to give honest feedback. The idea is that removing the negative option for sellers will encourage buyers back to fold and bolster the increasingly flabby eBay brand name.

It’s been noted by many commentators that the eBay sellers most concerned by these changes have been those with small to medium businesses. What this says to us is that the feedback changes will most affect sellers without proper business systems in place.

For smaller sellers, eBay’s changes mean that it will be harder to get away with rushed descriptions and grainy photos or taking shortcuts with packing and shipping.

But will businesses actually be ruined, as some sellers have claimed?

The short answer is yes. Up until recently, eBay has welcomed sellers of all levels with open arms. People who knew less than nothing about business were encouraged to make a go of it – and many did. The feedback changes mean that the bar is now set much higher. Sellers who’ve previously managed to get by will now find it requires more effort to maintain the same level of sales. If they don’t lift their game, then their business will suffer, no doubt about it.

What people need to realize is that eBay’s move is part of a general trend back to ‘the customer is always right’ way of thinking. When you think about it, the majority of other truly successful auction sites also have tough policies for sellers. Amazon is one of the top ecommerce sites in the world, but only allows buyers to place feedback. It also has a very lenient approach to refunds and anecdotal evidence from Amazon sellers suggests that it’s not uncommon for refund requests to be honored no matter what the circumstance. Another very popular eBay alternative, UBid, also sets the bar high. Seller requirements include being a registered business, having a proven business track record and providing three references.

Let’s face it: buyers like their shopping experience to be consistently good. And as the economy slows down, we must try even harder to win the loyalty of our customers with better service. As money becomes more precious, people will look for a higher quality spend.

To our minds, eBay is still a relatively easy way to start a business. It’s far less risky and potentially more profitable than buying a Subway franchise for example. Sellers have just got to take a bit more responsibility for ensuring that their buyers get a professional experience.

In the long-run there are three things you can do to ensure that your online business remains profitable:

1. Look at your business processes and find more ways to automate and provide a better customer experience.
2. Sell on multiple auction/classified sites. It’s never wise to put all your listings in just one auction site’s basket.
3. Set up your own website – this is the only way you’ll get complete control. But it also means you have to take complete responsibility too.

Watch out for our upcoming post on Easy Ways to Improve Your Feedback DSRs, appearing here in a few days time…

eBay has done it again.

Yesterday they announced a massive change to digital download listings that will completely overhaul the way those of us selling eBooks do business.

From March 31, eBooks and other digital download products can no longer be listed in auction format. Instead, they must be listed as a Classified ad.

Okay, fine, you might say. Except for when we tell you that selling via Classified ads means no feedback.

Because Classified transactions take place outside of eBay, the feedback option is nullified. And this is one big ‘uh-oh’ for any seller trying to build a good reputation or achieve powerseller status. 

For many of you, this announcement is going to come as a nasty shock.

But before you let the doom and gloom sink in, remember that survival in business means adaptation. Also from what I’ve seen over the years, every so called ‘shock’ in eBay, Google or any other online income source usually helps some people while hurting others.

You can use this situation to your advantage as many eBay sellers will not know what to do and will give up following this latest announcement.

Luckily for you, as a member of Sky High Auctions you’re up to date on what to do.

My first suggestion is that you list your eBooks as classified ads. You won’t be able to earn feedback points, but you’ll still get the most important thing from your eBook sales… qualified leads!

Now as far as feedback is concerned, you can still sell your eBooks (or other digital items) on CD or DVD, if you list them on eBay as a physical product.

While this does mean that you can’t automate this part of your business entirely, the upsides more than make up for it.

For starters, up-sell opportunities are now going to be tripled. Yes, tripled. Physical items are taken way more seriously by customers, so there’s going to be more chance of your other offers being viewed and actioned. And don’t let’s forget that this is actually the most important part of selling digital items anyway!

I suggest that you sell your physical product cd’s for $7 + shipping and handling (which should be pretty cheap). That equate to a similar profit after costs are taken into account, as to selling ebooks. And you should get quite a few leads out of this.

You can still sell some of your physical products at higher prices (e.g. a 5 cd pack on self hypnosis for $30+ etc), but in general, as taught in the Sky High Auctions lessons, you’ll want to sell this kind of package on the backend, after selling someone a lower priced product. These leads are invaluable.

For those of you doing big digital product business and worried about the time required to burn and ship CDs, you can outsource this to Disk.com or you can check out a solution offered by our friend Dave: he teaches you how to create an auto-run CD and get someone to burn and drop ship them for you! Nice one Dave – we like anything that gets other people to do our work for us.

You can find Dave’s awesome Quick & Easy Info Product Creation Guide right here

There’s no doubt about it: this is a pretty big shake up for all of us digital product sellers. But we’re very excited about the solutions we’ve put in place and can only wait with baited breath to see how the results pan out in our bottom line over the coming weeks.

Sky High Auctions is the latest product that claims to make Internet auctioning easy. In fact it says it’s the easiest system to follow on the market for learning how to build a successful eBay business. This is a big call! There are hundreds of variables to consider when starting and running an online auction business, can Sky High Auctions really answer all those questions and doubts?

Well it goes a very long way to living up to its claim. Sky High Auctions is the most comprehensive eBay Course I’ve seen when it comes to building an eBay business from scratch. It covers everything from registration, listings, finding niches, and most importantly selling. The members area is packed full of information for anyone who wants to start an eBay business up or would like guidance with the one they are already running. This is just one of the benefits of Sky High Auctions: no matter the stage your business is at there is bound to be something of use to you.

Let’s take it from the top: For the absolute beginner there are over forty video lessons with accompanying text. This may seem daunting at first but each lesson is broken down into easy to view segments. There is a great amount of detail in each lesson so it pays to watch the more complex ones a couple of times. 

These videos run from the very simple ‘How to list your first item’ to the more advanced ‘8 Steps to Powerseller Status’. Of course those already accustomed to selling can skip the basic lessons and move straight to the advanced tutorials. However, I would recommend watching all the videos as there are some great little tips that are relatively unknown.

Sky High Auctions really covers all possible bases, not only is there a massive amount of general information that can be applied to all auction sites and countries there is also some great specific info like separate lessons on Tax Basics for UK and US sellers as well as how to register a business in the USA, UK, Canada and Australia. This is information that all self-employed business people should read and because Sky High Auctions doesn’t assume that you know everything all of the nitty gritty points are covered in detail.

The support area, like the rest of the Sky High Auctions is comprehensive, and successfully answers the question that so many sellers want to know; If I buy this won’t I be in competition with all the others buying this? This is a totally valid concern and Sky High Auctions has the definitive answer; No. It is not the goal of Sky High Auctions to create a thousand online business doing and selling the same thing. Sky High Auctions gives the background to make creative business people that are flexible and not committed to following one route to ’success’. What it provides are the tools and the know-how to make money full-time on eBay in your own style.

What really excited me about Sky High Auctions, aside from the totally open-ended approach to online business, was the fact that there are fantastic bonuses in addition to the vast library of lessons. Included are fascinating interviews with eBay experts on a variety of subjects from Drop Shipping secrets to increasing profits from using liquidation and surplus stock.

These concepts seem intimidating but they are made ever so simple. There is a lot of buzz about Drop Shipping and Sky High Auctions goes straight to the expert  Dr Ross Malaga – The Dropship Professor to get the definitive answer on anything and everything to do with Drop Shipping. He really makes it sound like child’s play.

It is very heartening for up and coming sellers to hear about the pitfalls and the successes of eBay Powersellers like Jimmy Huber. Again, the experts don’t tell you that there is only one way to succeed but provide a plethora of options with real life examples to boot.

Not only is Sky High Auctions the easiest guide to building a successful eBay business – taking you from day one to the day you need to get a warehouse for your stock - it is also the most comprehensive and comes with a whole host of beneficial bonuses.