Use An Online Auction As Your E-Commerce Business Partner

There’s a need for something different.

Home-based entrepreneurs using the Internet must have some Web presence in order to make sales for the business they are promoting. For this reason, most affiliate and multi-level businesses provide their associates with ready-made Websites.

This will certainly get you in business quickly, but how will you actually make sales? There are so many similar sites out there, prospective customers can be turned off when they see one. They have just seen too many exactly like it. Why would they buy from your site rather than another identical one?

This is why many knowledgeable people say you need to bring people to a unique site, one that will then send your visitor on to your actual sales site. This original site of yours should have some valuable information for a Web surfer. If you have provided useful information on your original site, maybe your customer will be more inclined to buy from you than from 10 sites exactly like yours that they have already seen.

Another popular idea is to join a portal mall that sends customers to places where they can buy everything imaginable. The idea is great, but some of the same obstacles as for affiliate replicated sites arise. Everybody in the world seems to be pushing exactly the same thing. Plus, not everyone is willing to buy something without actually seeing and feeling the product.

There are also businesses who provide turnkey e-commerce sites. The sites come with shopping carts and merchant accounts already provided. Most even furnish products, but others allow you to insert your goods into the template they provide. Again, every site is almost like many others, so yours won’t be unique.

With these obstacles in mind, perhaps it’s time to consider a different business model!

Consider an online auction to sell your products. Why?

Most auction sites heavily promote their URLs. That will at least get prospects to the site where your products or services are listed. It’s up to you to research what others are doing with similar items and write your descriptions so customers can find you. Proper use of search terms is important because that’s how you will be found.

Another excellent advantage of auction sites is their payment facilities. This relieves you of the necessity of getting a merchant account or arranging some other payment platform. It saves you money, and you get paid quickly!

People are likely to immediately think of eBay when online auctions are mentioned. It certainly was the first one and continues to be the largest auction site on the Internet. When it first began, eBay was a place where you could sell tons of closeout items and collectibles for money. You can still do this, but it’s more difficult. Most of the larger companies now put their own overstock items on eBay rather than selling to outsiders. So many items are listed every day, duplications of offers are rampant; and that means extra competition for you.

The point is that auctions are hardly problem-free havens for merchants. Learn all you can and put in the time so you can succeed. If you neglect your research, you will never have a profitable business of any kind.

You may also want to consider auction sites other than eBay. You can even host an auction on your own Website. Below, are some options when considering online auctions for your business.

Use An Existing Site As Your E-Commerce Business.

• eBay (www.ebay.com/) is the largest online auction site.
  • You can use their regular site for your business or subscribe to eBay Stores www.stores.ebay.com/?ssPageName=HSL01.
  • eBay has a number of country-specific sites as well.
    
  • Getting customers to the eBay site is no problem. They advertise everywhere. With 12 million items available every day and tens of millions of registered users around the world, eBay draws tremendous traffic.
    
• Amazon (www.amazon.com) is much better known for books, but they have three specific auction sites as well.
  
  • Their zShops area costs $39.99/mo for up to 40,000 items. It also offers a storefront where all your items may be seen. You can run quite a sizeable operation here.
    
  • Marketplace is very good for selling items similar to Amazon items; your things are listed right beside regular Amazon items. This is an advantage because a purchaser may realize they can buy a very good used item for much less than the original.
    
  • The regular Auction section may be used for items not normally sold on Amazon.
    
  • You must have an account with Amazon and sign in to list auctions.
    
  • The sign in account enables you to be paid with several options.
    
• Yahoo! (www.yahoo.com) is the search engine where many Website owners wish to have a high search rank. It also has a significant presence in the auction field. There are regional international Yahoo! sites, too. auctions.shopping.yahoo.com will show many sites in individual countries. This is especially important if your goods are attractive to the international market.
  
• Software giant, Microsoft, also hosts the MSN auction. The site actually features uBid and eBay rather than a proprietary site: shopping.msn.com/softcontent/softcontent.aspx?scmId=978. MSN has several other specialized auctions as well.
  
• Aaands.com (www.aaands.com) is a nice-looking site claiming over 29,000 registered users. It does not appear to have much activity, but it’s worth a try. You can list a plain ”for sale” item at a stated price on this site, much like a classified ad.
  
• The aquarium fish auction site (www.aquabid.com) is an usual site. There is a large selection of items and a reasonable number of bids.
  
• Auction Saloon (www.auctionsaloon.com) is an attractive site. It does not show much activity however.
  
• www.auction4it.com is a nice Canadian site with some activity. There are not so many item categories.
  
• www.buynsellit.com specializes in antiques and collectibles. There are many sellers but not too many buyers. However, judging by the number of sellers, there must be some activity at times.
  
• www.auctionarms.com/ is an online site featuring firearms and a lot more. It has outdoor-type collectibles, clothing, gear, and other interesting items.
  
• The International Auction List (www.internetauctionlist.com/Results.asp?CategoryID=13&LocationID=0) carries a long list of every sort of auction you can think of. There are many international sites such as Russia, Romania, UK, Germany, and others.

There are hundreds of auction sites on the Internet. Find some new ones and see what they offer. Try several sites and see what works for you. Do not be discouraged if everything you want to sell isn’t grabbed immediately. With a little experience you will see what people want.

Expand Your Business With Your Own Auction. Here’s How:

Check out www.resma.net/?id_category=69 for several auction programs for your Website.

Prices range from FREE up to $200 if you install it yourself. Complete installation by the seller can cost up to $500. There are four versions including the free one. The site has other auction software and many Website resources.

EveryAuction is a free auction program from Every Soft www.everysoft.com/auction/. This is what you need to get your site going with this program:

• A place to host your site. This could be your own Web server or a Web host somewhere.
• Access to a machine that supports CGI scripts and has a Web server running Perl 5 or above.
• Some hard disk space. 1 MB of space is fine for beginners but more may be necessary if your auction becomes popular.
• Time and patience. A typical EveryAuction installation only takes a few minutes. The software is fully functional after you install it but you may want to make a few changes to suit your needs. There also are plug-ins for you to try.

The following E-commerce Directory of auction programs offers some that are quite pricey and some sites that are no longer available for various reasons: www.onlineorders.net/links/Auctions/. 

What else is essential to run a successful auction e-commerce business? The successful auction seller is a shipping expert. Most sites have a way for buyers to rate sellers. If they receive damaged goods from a seller, what kind of a feedback rating do you suppose they will give? 

What do you need to be a good shipper? Get a reliable postal scale that is capable of weighing the items you sell. A good five-pound scale will cost about $40. Though you can find the information on the Internet, go to your local post office and ask for their latest rate schedule. It helps to be able to quickly determine rates at your fingertips.

How to ship:

• For many items, Priority Mail is the most reliable.
  
• The USPS store ( shop.usps.com) lists all the Priority Mail supplies. Most of these are FREE! It’s a great service to all who ship goods.
  
• Priority Mail items do not have to be shipped in post office containers. For oversize goods, an excellent substitute is recycled boxes from the grocery or whiskey store. They just have to be properly marked.
  
• For a small extra charge, you can trace your shipment on the post office site. This eliminates most delivery disputes.
  
• For more expensive items, you can offer insurance. The buyer usually pays this fee.
  
• UPS (ups.com/) is a wonderful carrier.
  
• You can figure the charges right on their site.
  
• Drop-off locations near you are also listed.
  
• Schedule pickups at the UPS Website.
  
• If you sell large items, you will need to contact a trucking company.
  
• Most buyers are unwilling to pay for air delivery, so we don’t discuss it here.

You must attract traffic to your auction.The larger sites attract their own traffic. eBay, Amazon, and Yahoo! all advertise everywhere. Normal daily traffic to their sites will at least bring prospects close to your auctions.

You still need to promote your individual items. Remember the auctions have short lives, about seven days in most cases. Your efforts should be made recognizing the time limits. If you have a list of opt-in e-mail addresses, send your item URLs to them with a little description. Use your e-mail signature showing auction URLs to all your e-mail recipients. 

Advertise in your normal channels if there is time. List your items with their auction URLs on your Website. If you have a store on one of the auction sites, be sure to link it to your Website and link your Website to your store.

Choosing what to sell:

• Sell whatever you have decided to promote in your main business. Auctions have a bit of everything, including services, for sale.
  
• Your hobbies and crafts may be good products. Most active hobbyists make more things than they can keep. Selling some of them is an excellent way to clear space and support your hobby at the same time.
  
• E-books are considered prime products.
  
• Write and publish your own e-book.
  
• If you can’t write one yourself, buy the rights from a wholesale outlet like www.blackmoreandblackmore.com/.
  
• Go to yard sales for auction items. These are sources of many antique and collectible items.
  
• Sell collectibles from your own collection or buy them from a product source.
  
• Buy products to resell from wholesale and overstock sources:
  
• This site provides a CD and an e-book for $12.97 that purports to list thousands of drop shippers and other sources of resale goods: www.max-info.com/whole.html.
  
• Here is a seller of many overstock, closeout, and novelty items at low prices: www.mbkwholesale.com/.
  
• For many other product sources go to: (http://www.wholesale411.com/cgi-bin/ bidsearch/search.cgi?keywords=products)