Earning Money Online - With Ebay

You’re probably thinking, “great, not another article on how to make money on Ebay.” Well, this isn’t one of those, sort of. This is an article on how I earn money using Ebay with some tips on how to simplify things and how to maximize profits.

As I stated in my article, Earning Money Online, Ebay was the source of my first dollar ever earned online. No, I didn’t frame the dollar; I spent it right along with the thousands of dollars I’ve earned there since. Ebay has been a consistent earner for me since I began selling on there in 2002. And lately, it has also started earning me some decent returns through the Ebay Partner Network as an affiliate marketer.

Over the years, I have found that there are several ways to earn money on Ebay.  Things I had around my house and garage that I no longer wanted, needed, or had use for, became the source of my first selling experiences with Ebay.  I started with a bookshelf full of paperback books that I knew I would never read again.  I listed 20 books, each in its own auction, and I was surprised when all but 5 of those books sold.  As soon as the listings ended, I relisted the 5 that didn’t sell and added another 50 to that list.  Selling books was a boom for me.  There was no real effort, no special templates needed, no pictures to take or upload (unless the book being listed had no stock photo) and only a few minutes of time for each auction.  The payout was fantastic.  The only thing I hated about it was taking all those packages to the post office to mail them.

In just a few weeks I was running out of books to sell.  I started into my hardcover collection and they sold just as well as the paperbacks.  When I exhausted the books I was willing to part with, I started hunting more to sell.  I had a pretty good idea of what was selling so I kept an eye out for the good stuff.  I wanted to maximize my profits too so I had a limit on what I would spend per book.  I found a treasure trove of books at a thrift store I ventured into so I mapped out the locations of all the thrift stores that were nearby and they too were loaded with great deals.  I was paying 49 cents for a paperback and 99 cents for the hardcover books.  I found even better deals at yard sales and garage sales and also at flea markets. 

Finding books to sell became like a part time job for me.  I only made my complete rounds to the thrift stores once a week and I waited until the weekends to go to the yard sales, garage sales and flea markets. This sort of became a hobby for me that actually paid a dividend, enough to pay for a good weekend out on the town.

Soon I became more ambitious and ventured out to different products to sell.  Selling other products than books took more time and effort.  Like selling clothes for instance, I had to give a detailed description and add multiple pictures.  As you may know, the first picture loaded on Ebay is free but additional pictures cost 25 cents.  The additional costs meant I had to start my auctions at a higher rate. 

I soon discovered that by using my own HTML I could add as many pictures as I wanted without any additional cost to the auction.  That’s because Ebay was charging a fee for hosting the pictures but by using HTML and a free picture hosting site, like Photobucket.com I could bypass the additional Ebay fees.  Finding the right template for my auctions was easy, I just did a Google search for “free Ebay auctions templates” and I had my choice.  Learning basic HTML was easy too, there are many online tutorials. And getting a free HTML editor helped me learn what I needed to in order to get the templates look and feel the way I needed them to.

I’ve pretty much gone full circle with selling on Ebay.  I’m back to just selling books and my own digital products.  If I didn’t have an offline job, I’m certain I could make a living just selling on Ebay. I’m comfortable earning what I do with Ebay, which is between $200 and $400 every month.  It only takes me a couple hours a week to find and list the books I sell and that leaves me more time to work on my other multiple streams of income.  

Selling products through auctions is not the only way I earn money with Ebay.  Several months ago I was accepted the Ebay Partner Network which then allowed me to start earning through affiliate sales.  This meant that I didn’t have to just rely on selling my own products, I could promote other peoples products and earn a commission. 

Becoming a member of the Ebay Partner Network is difficult. The EPN has changed their affiliate revenue model to that of a pay per click. EPN wants quality referrals rather than quantity now. If you are a writer on Hubpages.com and have been rejected by the EPN then you have probably been told to just wait it out and reapply at a later date. Sadly, this probably isn’t going to be enough. What you really need to do is start several self-hosted Wordpress blogs, blog about and add Amazon products to your posts (you are an Amazon affiliate, right?), and build your traffic to your sites. Cross reference your product posts with articles that you write here on Hubpages.com (if you’re not a member join here). Doing these things will build up readership and make some Amazon sales. Then, once you have about 50 product type articles on Hubpages.com and traffic to your most productive blog is at least 35 unique visitors per day, reapply to the EPN but use your blog as the site you are requesting to be considered along with your Hubpages.com account. Is this a sure fire way into the EPN? No, but at least it will show the EPN that you are driving traffic and that the traffic is going to their biggest competitor.

As an affiliate of EPN, I can say that it is a significant earner in my multiple streams of income. I only started to heavily promote Ebay products in August of 09’ and I’m seeing 20 to 30 clicks a day. It may be just a coincidence that the shopping season is approaching but I plan to continue promoting Ebay products until I’m earning as much as I do with Adsense.

• Check each category of Ebay pulse to find out the hottest selling products.  Ebay Pulse changes frequently so check back often.
• Paperback and hardcover books especially if they are from a popular author.  Children’s books sell real well too.
• Jeans sell really well too.  I have found real success selling jeans for larger people.  I have a theory that larger people are more comfortable buying jeans online than going into a store to try things on.  Also, keep an eye out for designer Jeans.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone into thrift stores and found a pair of men’s Gucci jeans that I could purchase for $6 and turn around and sell them for 15 or 20 times that amount.  Thrift stores are gold mines for finding products to sell.
• The next biggest seller for me has been maternity clothes.  Women know how expensive these items are and they search for bargains on Ebay.  Keep an eye out in your local classified ads, Craigslist, yard sales and garage sales.  Thrift stores know they are big sellers too and put a premium on these items so there will not be much wiggle room on listing them.

• Get a free account at Photobucket.com to host your pictures.
• Search for a free HTML editor like HTML Kit.
• Search for a free Ebay auction template so you can add multiple pictures for free and make yourself look more like a professional seller. Looking professional ads trust. Acting professional gets return buyers and word of mouth advertising.
• Create an “About Me” page and place links to your niche Wordpress blogs.
• Create severalself-hosted niche Wordpress blogs and link them together and promote them on Hubpages.com.