I would like some tips on my eBay store please

About three weeks ago I started an ebay store. Does anyone have any helpfull advice to get more traffic and sales. I have sold 41 items out of 162. Thats alot of ebay fees. I am only making $5-10 an item. If anyone has any advice please let me know. If you want to check out my site it is at:

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Well for one thing 5 to 10 dollars an item in profit is good. Thats not bad at all. What kind of advise do you need. Id be glad to help if I knew more of what you want

I guess I just want to know if I'm on the right track. Selling 41 out of 162 items is alot of unsold items. Thats 121 unsold items
(say $2.00 an item listing fees=$242)
(say $7.00 profit an item=$287) After adding in fees on sold items, I lost money or broke even. I would like to get my sales up in the 70% selling. Am I just expecting too much too fast? What are some of the best ways to advertise my store? Should I try to get away from ebay because of fees, or will I lose too much traffic?

You need to find a way to lower your listing fees. If your dropshipping items and need the security of higher starting bids and reserve amounts then you will have a much lower selling rate. If your paying $2.00 for listing fees then your retun rate is too low. Try finding a way to buy the product in bulk to save money and find ways to lower your listing fees.

If you have a lower feedback score. Eg under 500 then you will struggle for a bit. The best advertising for a store is ebay keywords and also using google adwords to advertize your store address.

Other things would be to buy bulk items like clothes and small dollar items that have very low listing fees and can generate even more flow into your store so ebayers can see your products.

You can goto liquidation.com for items such as this and buy bulk items for decent prices. Usually you can get lots of clothes in 500 piece increments for under $600 and you can use your profits for this.

As far as listings I average a 40% selling rate. But I can sell 400 items easily a month and still turn great profits. Normally 4-10 dollars an item. But I list close to 1000 items a month and my listing fees are only around 400. The only reason My average sales percent is low is because I list all my actions only for 1 day. And I scheduall them to sell at key times.
Right now.
My item costs average $1,200
My sales average is $3,200
And my fees average $400 per month.

I keep my fees low. Its just something you have to do in order to maximize profits.

I just listed 16 items for $21. I only go with gallery picture and have been going fixed price auctions. I also started listing only $50 and under items. I don't think I get enough traffic to list only in ebay store. I am thinking of getting into buying in bulk. My feedback is only 33 but 100% positive. In my traffic reports, friday is my best day actually night. Should I list friday morning and only do a 3 day auction or do I need 7 days for exposure during week? Should I do regular auctions without buy it now, just start price a couple dollars more than my cost to keep fees down? Have you heard of SMC dropshipper?

I looked into SMC and unless you think there is a big demand for novelty items like 'WOODEN MOTORCYCLES ' i just would not mess SMC I researched 10 of thier items and there were tons of people trying to selling them on EBAY and only about 10% were selling ....Jimmy what is the beneft for doing 1 day only auctions ? i have only tried them a couple of times and it didnt work welll for me -thanks

OK thanks,
I saw an ad and was woundering

I'm in the beginning phase of setting up my own website. I'm thinking of using Yahoo business solutions. I was going to start with the $12 a month plan. Sounds good to me. Any ideas? Input? Other good web hosting ideas? I would appreciate it!

I have a pro-store. Prostores are affilliated with ebay so their pretty easy to set up. You can take all your auctions and send them to you're store. I have it set up as my ebay store right now. I thought that was the simple way
so I would not have to set up shipping, taxes, and payment. I will try that later.

I use Auctiva.com for image hosting for eBay. This helps keep some of the listing fees down if using more than one picture. They also put that neat scrolling picture gallery on your listing at the bottom of the page. The free templates they have are nice too. I did not like their checkout system or the postal insurance they offer, so I do not use those. But you could save more money using their insurance.

Does anybody know of or use another service like Auctiva.com?

Thanks,
I signed up for Link hidden: Login to view. I have never even heard of it before. Thats what makes this forum so helpful. Do you have any tips before I get started?

I just listed 16 items for $21. I only go with gallery picture and have been going fixed price auctions. I also started listing only $50 and under items. I don't think I get enough traffic to list only in ebay store. I am thinking of getting into buying in bulk. My feedback is only 33 but 100% positive. In my traffic reports, friday is my best day actually night. Should I list friday morning and only do a 3 day auction or do I need 7 days for exposure during week? Should I do regular auctions without buy it now, just start price a couple dollars more than my cost to keep fees down? Have you heard of SMC dropshipper?

The absolute best way is to start your bids at 99Cents that way your guaranteed immediate bids. If you have a high starting big and a reserve amount your fees are literally doubled. If you have a 99 cent start bid and a reserve amount set you can save about 35% on listing fees. But the absolute best is 99Cent start and no reserve. As a reserve auction can stop bidders from keeping interest.

Some of the best closing times is friday late around 9PM and sundays between 6pm and 11pm. And a 7 day auction would definately gain much more attention to your auction.

I think everyone in america has heard of SMC by now. If I were you I would visit this site before jumping into SMC.

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I am too big of a wuss to start out at 99 cents without reserve. I just listed a couple items at my price without reserve. I will list same items at 99 cents with reserve at my price and see what does better. Most of my items have map price set so it won't let me start below that. (another reason to quit dropshipping) I will take a chance with one of my cheaper items and list 99 cents no reserve.