Dropshipping On Ebay - The Drawbacks

Dropshipping On Ebay - The Drawbacks
On the face of it, dropshipping seems the perfect way to do business; no stock to carry, no packages to wrap and mail, minimal paperwork - how good is that?

In reality though, things are never so simple. Dropshipping is a great concept but making a profit from it, isn't so easy.

One drawback is the upfront fees that some dropship companies charge, you can see their point, it puts people off from ordering stuff for their own use at reduced prices.

But for resellers it's not so great, you have to fork out the fee before you get sight off their prices - before you know what the profit margins are. There are some dropshippers who don't charge upfront fees but the drawback here is; loads of other ebay traders are offering the same products and that leads to another drawback - the amateur element who price products at a little more than cost price.

To test this, check out the free dropshippers, choose a product that you fancy selling then estimate how much you could sell that product for on ebay and make a reasonable profit, taking into account ebay and Paypal fees.

Go to ebay and type the product into the search box and in all probability, loads of other people will be offering the same product at a lower price than you would. I do this excercise regularly and am amazed at the prices people list at. I do the maths, total cost price including shipping cost, eBay final value fee and Paypal's slice of the pie and often see that the seller is only making a few cents profit - have thay failed to consider final fees or are they just stupid and happy to work for nothing and in doing so, kill the market for everyone.

I've found products at free dropship sites that are not being offered by anyone else on ebay and I've listed them with reasonable profit margins and sold plenty until noticing that sales suddenly dry up. A quick search usually reveals that someone as listed the same product with a tiny profit margin and cut out the competition (me), what's the point? At this stage, I stop selling the product - I'm not prepared to work for nothing, I'll leave that to the idiots, there are plenty about!

Another problem with dropshipping is the pricing, that is to say, the price dropshippers charge for the products. In a lot of cases, when you check out the selling prices on eBay, you'll find that you can buy products from sellers on eBay cheaper that from the dropshipper. Usually in this case, the sellers are not fools or amateurs, they are people who buy at wholesale prices or job lots or import the products direct. If you've got the buying power, this is where the profits can be. Not everyone has the buying power though and that's why dropshipping looks so attractive.

Dropshipping can be profitable but you have to do your homework and be prepared for someone to jump on the bandwagon and steal your profits in an instant! Your homework should consist searching out lesser known dropshippers. Check their products and prices and check their reputations. If you find lesser-know suppliers you have a better chance of holding on to your place in the market and your profits. The amateurs won't take the trouble to find sources, they will use the well-known companies, you will have the edge.

So, dropshipping can and does make money but you have to be on the ball and keep one step ahead - never take anything for granted. For more info about dropshipping and finding products to sell CLICK HERE.

SELL EBOOKS ON EBAY AND MAKE MONEY DESPITE THE FOOLS WHO VIRTUALLY GIVE THEM AWAY.

Ebay banned digital downloads to stop people from selling ebooks for 1 cent just to get Feedback. But the fools are back!

Now people sell ebooks on CD to comply with ebay rules. CDs have a higher percieved value than digital downloads but this has been undermined somewhat by the amateurs selling CDs for a litle over cost price.

You may have purchased a new ebook package with resell rights and decided to offer one or more of the ebooks on eBay. You check to see if anyone else is selling the same titles and you will no doubt find that there are but for peanuts.

When you look at the selling price then deduct the cost of blank CD, packaging, postage, eBay final fee, Paypal fee and not forgetting time taken, the seller is left with virtually nothing. Any idiot can work for nothing! By the time they have burned CDs, packaged them and and made a trip to the mail box, they will be lucky if they are working for a dollar an hour.

I buy ebooks quite regularly from eBay and am amazed that there is no back-end sale follow up. The CD arrives, usually with the ebook title scrawled on with marker pen and nothing else. A great opportunity missed!

How can you compete with the brainless few who degrade the value of perfectly good ebooks? The obvious answer would be to produce and promote your own information products but that option isn't for everyone and similar products at rock bottom price could take away a lot of your sales. However, this is a good route to follow if you have info that people need but no-one else is offering.

There are other ways to profit from ebooks on eBay. If you have a title that you want to sell but others are selling it for peanuts, you could put together several ebooks on the same theme (check the resell right to ensure you are allowed to do that). Call it a complete package or call the other titles free bonuses - offer more than your competitors.

You could offer it at a higher, more realistic price and hope the 'extras' pull in the orders. Or you could offer the package at cost price like the amateurs but with an upsell.

Don't just put the ebook/s on to the CD but create a sales letter for something else and put that on the disc as well in the form of a file. If someone is prepared to pay for your information product, then they are likely to buy more. Give the file a compelling name to make people want to open it.

If you have a web site, you could put details of it in the file and include a link to it. If you don't have a web site or product of your own, find an affiliate product to promote. Write a sales letter extolling the virtues of your affiliate product or use extracts from the affiliate pitch page and add your affiliate link at the end. You can add links using Microsoft Word or similar editor. It would be a good idea to convert your sales letter to a pdf file so that it is accessible to all. Free pdf program are available online, I use Primo.

And, set yourself apart from the amateurs - print labels for your CDs. Labels don't cost much, you can get them from eBay. The labels don't need to be fancy, just ebook title and maybe a URL to your website or blog or whatever. A printed label inspires more confidence than one scrawled in marker pen - doesn't it!

So, you can still make money from ebooks on eBay even though the fools are back, you just need to be a bit creative.

MAKING MONEY WITH EBAY'S CLASSIFIED ADS Part 1

I've been using eBay Classified Ads since they were introduced and continue to do so. They only cost about $10 for 30 days, which is pretty cheap considering the traffic that eBay generates.

There is no bidding on or feedback given with clasiffied ads but there are certain rules which are a bit hazy.

Basically, they can be used as a contact medium. You can include your email address and/or phone number for people to contact you about what you are advertising. You are not suppossed to add a Paypal button or an autoresponder web form or links to external websites.

Here is their general policy regarding links:
One link to a page that further describes the item being sold in that listing
One link to your email address that opens an email client for potential buyers to ask questions about the item in that listing

You will see some classifed ads that go against the policies, whether or not you decide to do the same is up to you.

Here's what eBay says about doing so:
Breaches of this policy may result in a range of actions, including: Listing cancellation; Limits on account privileges; Account suspension; Forfeit of eBay fees on cancelled listings; Loss of PowerSeller status.

I'll come back to the policies in a while. Now I'll get down to how you can use Classified ads to make money. it doesn't matter which country you live in, you can use eBay's classified ads but (at the current time) you have to do it through ebay.com, the US eBay. Go to ebay.com and log in as you would any other eBay site.

Only certain catagories accept Classified ads. The Everything Else catagory and the sub catagories within it does. Here we are dealing with information products so that's fine. You list your item in the usual way then when you reach Choose how you'd like to sell your item you'll see three tabs: Online Auction - Fixed Price & Classified Ad. Click on Classified Ad to continue. If you don't see a Classified Ad tab then the catagory you have chosen doesn't support them, you'll have to try another catagory.

I use eBay Classified Ads to promote Clickbank Affiliate products. Clickbank is free to join and carries thousands of products you can promote and earn commission from. without having to stock anything.

I choose a product to promote and create my affilate link for that product then list it. To list it I create a heading for the listing, it might be the product title or it might be a search term that people will use to look for it. For the ebay image I usually use one from either the affiliate sales page or one that is supplied with the affiliate tools provided with the products.

When it comes to the item description, I copy and paste some or all of the affiliate sales page and paste it into the item description field on eBay (leave out the payment link, people can use it on the actual affiliate sales page). Then at the bottom I add a link. This is where we come back to eBay's links policies.

Ebay states: 'One link to a page that further describes the item being sold in that listing'. From this do we assume the affiliate products sales page falls within this remit? I do and add my affiliate link to the sales page for people to click to get further details about the product. As an alternative, you could create a blog, which is free with Blogger and describe the item further on this blog with a link to the sales page.

That is about as much as space allows here, I've given you the basic rules, it's up to you how you interpret them. You can get more in-depth info about using eBay's Classified Ads from various ebooks about the subject, a good one is
"Auction Classified Cash" by Tracey Edwards

Remember eBay can change the rules at any time so keep an eye on them or visit this blog regularly (there's a Bookmark link on the right), I'll be posting any eBay policy changes.

Check out part 2 of this article when added.

MAKE YOUR EBAY LISTINGS STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD AND MAKE MONEY

I've seen loads of eBay listings that scream amateur. If you're just selling junk from your attic it doesn't matter that much but if you are aiming to make you living on eBay, you need to project a professional image.

Check other peoples listings to see what works and what doesn't. Some people use a large typesize and CAPITAL LETTERS throughout. This looks rubbish! They must think that by listing in this gets attention - it doesn't, it turns people off. I've also seen professional listings full of clutter. Basically, prospective buyers want to be able to read what they are getting for their bucks without straining their eyes or searching all over the page.

They also want to feel confident in making their purchase - that's why a professional looking listing will score greatly over an amateur looking one.

The easiest way to present a professioanal image is to use templates. There are plenty of free templates online, you can find them through Google. Visit a few free template sites and select templates that suit your products. The templates are usually in the form of html code with areas for you to add your descriptive text and images. You simply copy and paste the code into eBay's html editor (item description).

Pictures are great salesmen so you will want to add some. You will need to have your pictures hosted, I use photobucket which is quite easy to use. You copy and paste the images 'direct link' into the template html code where indicated.

Its' worth learning a bit of html which isn't difficult, it enables you to include a few cool professional additions to your listing. A good place to start with html is "ebay Add HTML To Your Listings", it makes basic HTML easy and includes lots of fancy gizmos to liven up your listings.

If you would like a copy of this ebook, I can supply it for £1 (about $1.50US) via Paypal, to order CLICK HERE

So to sum up, keep your eBay listings neat, tidy and easy to read and professional. Look at other peoples listings to see what works for you and what doesn't. Add images, people like to see what they are buying or bidding on.