Your Questions About Email Marketing Tips

Jere answers:

Tell them voice to voice (so either in person or by phone); that can be followed up by an email or letter.

I like to ‘script’ my response and to modify it for the agency: e.g. If someone had a very good proposal but it didn’t quite fit, I talk about the other pitch had that made me select them (experience in working with a company in our industry or…); if it was an agency with a bad idea or a proposal that didn’t follow our ‘brief’ at all, then I often will say that.

In all cases I try to give the losing bidders enough information to change or improve next time. That’s fair.

Jere answers:

Apply on the school websites and email a cover letter/resume to the Dean.

Jere answers:

You can go to ebay for a tutorial for the basics on how to be a seller:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/selling-basics.html

But to get to the nitty-gritty………………..:

There are no secrets………..just common sense + hard work!

Be honest and accurate in your descriptions – One-sentence descriptions are for lazy sellers. One paragraph should be sufficient for most items. My general guideline is the more expensive (read higher priced) an item, the more you should ‘talk it up.’ It won’t be time wasted. Use lots of adjectives in your descriptions. Adjectives make prose and your items come alive. Without them, prose is dull and your items less appealing. Just add a little ‘sizzle’ and even have a little fun with it. In short, make your descriptions stand out above the crowd.

Be professional – use good English with no spelling errors – AVOID ALL CAPS TEXT

PICTURES:

Including one picture is a MUST, more pictures for higher priced items. Make sure your pictures are clear. There are far too many pictures on ebay that are dark. If prospective buyers can’t see your items clearly, your items, more than likely, will not fetch the closing prices they deserve. To remove darkness, use any photo editor to add some brightness and a wee bit of contrast.

Eliminate clutter. Prospective bidders don’t want to know what kind of cereal you eat or what kind of kitchen table or bedspread you have. Use a SOLID backdrop when taking your pictures as you want to focus all of the attention on your item. In short, the one and only thing you want in your picture is the item being sold. A SOLID white or light blue backdrop is best. However, there are certainly items that won’t show well on a light backdrop. In these cases, use a darker backdrop. And for gosh sake, don’t even think of using a plaid blanket as a backdrop for your pictures as I once saw on ebay. You should also crop the photos in your photo editor. Good pictures can add 5% to 10% to final closing prices.

GOOD DESCRIPTIONS + GOOD PICTURES = GOOD PRESENTATION. This is what you should strive for.

COMMUNICATION:

GOOD Communication is a must – Always notify buyers when you mail their items. It is not only a courtesy you would want and expect as a buyer but it is also both good customer service and good business practice. After all, you are the ‘President & CEO’ of your ‘company’ running your business but using ebay as your selling medium. In short, conduct your business so that it reflects well on you as a person. Treat everyone as a human being, not a living being and this includes people who have inquiries about your items, not just your buyers. Prospective buyers making these inquiries could ultimately be the winning bidders and possible repeat customers.

TIPS TO MAXIMIZE PROFITS:

Do not limit your auctions to one country. SELL WORLDWIDE. The reason is elementary. You now have access to the largest market ebay has to offer. Limiting your auctions to only one country also limits your potential profits. A basic business tenet is, ‘the greater the potential market, the greater the potential to maximize profits.’ But do note in your listing that PayPal is the only form of payment you will accept from overseas bidders/buyers. Through experience, you will learn that there are certain problem countries. Italy seems to be one of them. Mail sent to buyers in Italy very often ‘mysteriously disappears.’ If this is the case, just note in your listing you sell to all countries EXCEPT (name(s) here).

However, if you decide to limit sales to only one country, such as the USA, never say NO when you receive an email asking if you would ship to Taiwan, Germany, Australia or wherever. The reason is that you have a ‘FISH ON THE HOOK!’ This person will bid! When he or she does, this may force a previous bidder to enter another, higher bid or force later, first time bidders to come in with higher bids. So always say YES to these emails if you want to maximize your profits. But do say that PayPal is the only form of payment you will accept from these overseas bidders

Avoid selling ‘nickel and dime’ items. People who list and sell a steady stream of items that close for $5 or less are wasting their time. Less expensive, similar items ($5 or less) are best sold as a group to save time. If you have a large number of these cheaper, similar items, divide them up into sub lots of three, four or five.

More expensive (higher priced), similar items are best sold individually to maximize profits. There are ebay ‘vultures’ who just love to swoop down on similarly grouped items in one listing. When they win these auctions, they turn around and sell the items individually and, in most cases, get one and a half to 2 times and sometimes three times what they paid for them on an average item basis. I know this works. When I had more time (read unemployed), I was one of these ‘vultures.’ This is one of those situations where the parts are worth more than the whole. However, do be cautious if you venture into this arena. You have to know your merchandise. Stay in those areas you are familiar with. You can’t jump in blindly to any and every auction that has grouped items.

If you can buy a large lot of similar merchandise for $100 to $300 and turn it around for $150 to $900, it works out very nicely, indeed! Most buyers of these large lots will be vultures as well so you could be ‘butting bids.’ Keep in mind that the higher the closing price at ebay, the less your profit on the turnaround. It’s not an exact science and it does take a little experience to really know what you’re doing but you can’t be afraid to go out on a limb. That’s where the fruit is. When I see an auction of grouped items it tells me loud and clear that the seller is far more interested in getting rid of their stuff the quickest, easiest way possible and ‘be done with it’ rather than in making a decent profit or profit at all.

If you wish to do your listings offline, download the Turbo Lister program free from eBay. You can then upload them ‘en masse’ anytime.

Lastly, keep in mind that experience is the best teacher. Start off slowly listing only two or three items and see how that goes for you. Once you get your feet wet and gain confidence, start listing more items on a weekly basis. You will soon learn the ins and outs and the dos and don’ts in short order and ultimately settle on a system that works best for you. The more items you list, the more items you will sell, the more $$ you will make and the harder you will work. Nothing in life comes easy and that includes becoming a successful seller at ebay. If you are conscientious and put in a little extra effort, you will do well. If you are lazy or indifferent in selling your items, you won’t. Good luck & happy selling!

Jere answers:

YES YOU CAN! I did and it was an easy transaction…..Real estate agents, are a bit overrated! Sorry but true…

First off, you have to have your home ready to sell…..Make sure everything is s p i c and span….Try to remove any personal items, and even remove furniture if it looks too cluttered…..Make sure the front of the house is trimmed and cleaned up….If possible plant some flowers to make it inviting…..The key is to declutter and remove items which make the home look cramped…..You want to make the home look as spacious as possible….

About marketing, you need to place an ad in the paper, and have an open house…..If someone comes in and makes an offer, make sure they have there financing in place, otherwise they may tie up your house waiting for financing….Once they make the offer, take it to your attorney and have him look it over, he will also guide you on the disclosure form, termite report, survey report, and other documents you will need to sell it….My attorney charged me $275 for his fee and it was money will spent! If the buyer doesn’t know how to ‘make an offer’ you write up the contract with your attorney’s help and present it to the buyer….

Best of luck and if you have any questions, please feel free to email me….

Jere answers:

The best way is to rank well in the search engines (organic search results, not the pay per click). SEs can be a big source of traffic. The key is to create the best content in your niche. If you have good content, other websites will gladly link to you and offer your site as a resource to their audience. Check the on-page factors and be sure to get linked from authority sites in your topic area.

If you’re only going to read one how-to guide to get to the top of Google, the BEST and most comprehensive resource I found is WebmasterWorld.com’s Brett Tabke’s advice “Successful Site in 12 Months with Google Alone” http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum3/2010.htm

Other ideas:

1. Create the best content you can. Your content is your best advertisement – if visitors love your content, then they will go back and spread the word to others.

2. Make it easy for users to recommend your site. Viral marketing is very important — and easy to tap on the Web. But give your users the tools. Get a Recommend this Site script from websites such as cgiscripts.com and similar directories of scripts. Some even go as far as giving incentives to those who recommend the site to their friends.

3. Send out press releases. While outfits charge as much as $650 per release, there are free press release submission places on the Web. Press releases allow you to (a) attract media attention; (b) get more back links to your website without sending each website an email request; and (c) get more visibility especially if your press release gets in Google News or Yahoo News. PRWeb and my website accepts free press release submissions, among others.

4. Submit articles. Write articles and submit them to websites accepting author submissions. You get exposure for your business; establishes you as an authority in your field, and allows you to get backlinks for your website. Here is a VERY COMPREHENSIVE list of sites that accept article submissions http://answers.yahoo.com/question/;_ylt=AqmzHU_wN2q8JvMJ6ttE0ewjzKIX?qid=1006022407481

5. Syndicate your content. Use blog or RSS feeds to distribute your content. Everytime you update your content, those who are receiving your RSS feeds will get the latest info from you as well. Here is a link to Resources for Marketing Your Blogs and RSS Feeds http://www.powerhomebiz.com/onlinemarketing/blogs.htm