Since the start of the company eBay has continued to grow over the years and everyone knows that they have the opportunity to run a small home based business by selling on the website. Ebay is the top auction website online with millions of buyers and sellers so its really easy to get ahead here if you know exactly how to do it. I have a close friend by the name of Kathy who has been a eBay powerseller since 2001, she started out selling her husbands useless items that had been piling up in her garage then she saw that opening for building a large income and how easy it would be. Kathy started off not knowing anything about selling techniques,drawing customers,sending invoices,I mean she knew exactly nothing but she learned from her first selling experiences on the online auction site and grew a business that now earns her over $380,000 a year in income. If you are serious about taking this venture I am going to lay out everything that she did so all you need to do is follow the steps making sure to read and re-read everything.

Getting started with Paypal

1. Make sure you register with paypal the exact same information as you did with ebay,link both accounts together.

2. Become verified asap, this is necessary to become a successful seller because it builds trust between you and the customers.

3. Never withdraw all money from your paypal account because you will want to be able to issue a refund if the situation arrives so you wont be left any negative feedback.

4. Always issue tracking number immediately to paypal and to customer,paypal also issues to customer but do it anyway to make sure they receive it.

5. Never ship larger value items without signature confirmation, in case of problems paypal will want to see more than just a regular confirmation. It is okay to ship lower value items with regular shipping confirmation.

6. Do not give anyone access to your paypal account, scammers will take over and cause you to lose your ebay account. This is why paypal requests that you notify them of suspicious emails requesting your info immediately,you will be held liable if you don't.

7. Require all customers to have verified ship to addresses especially if they have little or no feedback. Un-verified customers can always mean trouble.

Listing On Ebay

1. Research your item before starting a listing, you may know the price you paid for it but the value could be much higher and if your listing is not started at the right bid you will lose money.

2. If starting a listing at a high bid price it is okay to run auction for 3 days, if starting at a lower price you should run auction for 7 days. This will cut down on eBay fees for having to re list items that did not sell.

3. When selling designer and brand name items you want to make sure they are authentic to prevent problems in the future. It is good to have receipts or proof in case it is requested for verification as in most cases.

4. Describe all details of items exactly as they are, new or used,big or small,be as accurate as possible so customer knows exactly what they are receiving by purchasing from you.

5. Use good quality photos, you never want to use fuzzy photos because customers will shy away feeling you are indeed hiding something.

6. Check customers feedback that are bidding on your item because if you see that they have been problems to other sellers you can immediately cancel their bids to prevent them from being a problem to you.

7. Respond to all questions promptly because this also builds trust, the quicker your response,the better you have of getting a new customer.

8. Never respond rudely to a potential customer even if they are rude to you but please hold any threatening emails for later use of proof to present to paypal or ebay if needed.

9. After auction ending when sending invoice don't forget to thank customer for purchase immediately.

10. Confirm ship to address 2x and double check that it matches the paypal address customer has on file.

11. Alert customer of exact day item will ship,customers prefer to receive items quickly as possible, they don't want to wait 7 days, not even five if possible. They will praise how quickly you ship and new customers will see this.

12. Leave your feedback after auction is over and customer has made payment, if your product is genuine as auctioned you have nothing to fear and customer will leave you excellent feedback when they have received item.

13. Never worry too much about competing with other sellers because customers choose who they purchase from by a variety of things such as distance,feedback,quality and not just by pricing. The further the distance the more shipping a customer will pay so if they are choosing not to purchase from you because your pricing is higher they will be paying the same purchasing from someone else who is further away. They never want to wait too long to receive purchases.

15. Enjoy yourself, run specials, free shipping, 2 for 1, things like this can draw customers faster than you think.

16. When you've pretty much got everything else down, open a ebay store so you have items listed all the time which will in fact save you time and listing fees. Be prepared to keep busy shipping orders and check your account at least twice a day.

17. Always pay your Ebay selling fees, keep everything up to date

I've Sold Everything from Home,What do I Sell Now?

1. If you have run out of things around the house to sell then congratulations you are now at the mid point. You're more experienced and ready to become a pro home based ebay business owner. First you must do research on the type of products that have been selling good.

2. Now you will have to find a supplier that can offer you the best pricing for buying wholesale or in bulk. You can also look into drop-shippers but it is a suggestion that its better to buy these items yourself to cut out the middle man and pocket all your profits.

3. You will now how to become professional minded, you don't want to spend more on the items you are purchasing than you will actually make selling them. You also don't want to buy too much of the same item because now is the time to try new things and new selling techniques.

4. Establish a relationship with your local USPS Postal service or a shipping provider, in doing this you will want to make arrangements with them to pick up your packages once or twice a week saving you the trip to mail anything off.

5. Keep all tracking numbers in a special folder to look up easily,this is very crucial.

6. Also keep contact numbers for all suppliers

7. You may want to get help with packing and keeping track of everything if it becomes too much for you to handle on your own, make it a family business or ask a few friends, you're the boss now.

8. Take days off if you need it but state in your auctions or store that you will be gone for a while and orders will not ship until you return. Customers will still order from you as long as you're not gone for months or years.

If you have read this in entirely then you have a good idea of how everything goes, listed below are some of the drop shippers and wholesalers Kathy has been using to purchase computers,name brand clothing,shoes,jewelry and more. Yeah she pretty much does it all and is great at it,you can look into them if you choose,she has used these companies for years so they are reliable and offer best pricings. Maybe you'll become her competition in a short while, we'd like to hear from new sellers and how its going for you all.