Part of running a business is knowing your expenses, so that you can then track your profit. Do you really know how much you make per item per sale? eBay and Paypal fees are always changing, so you must take these factors into consideration when calculating your profit.

If you look at the numbers regularly, you can make educated business decisions about pricing adjustments and when it is time to stop selling an item and move on. I came across this free spreadsheet on the eBay Groups board. eBay member unclejoeadamson has it all figured out based on listing type, insertion fees, add-ons, promos, and Paypal fees. If you currently are not tracking your expenses and costs, or want to try a new system, download this spreadsheet for free and give it a try. The spreadsheet is in Excel, so it is very easy to work with.

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Post from: EveryJoe

Free Spreadsheet for Tracking eBay Profits

Check out Griff’s eBay Radio Show from October 21, where he interviews my friend and fellow seller Laurie DeAgostino. Laurie has been an eBay seller for several years, working at home while caring for her two small children. Laurie’s professional background is in retail buying, which definitely comes in handy as she runs her eBay clothing store, Jordan & Jack.

Laurie is also a member of the SAHM’s eBay Facebook Group, where she helps answer your questions about eBay selling, running a home business, organizational tips, and understanding the eBay market. (She is a tremendous asset to the group and always provides great insight and professional responses!)

Be sure to take 10 minutes and listen to the interview, you might learn something new from Laurie.

Post from: EveryJoe

eBay Radio Features SAHM Seller

I received this question from a reader this week:

“I am wondering if you must have a large inventory of items in order to have an eBay store? I would love to be able to sell the items I make myself on there (clothing and costumes, etc.), but I am not sure how to start out.”

No, you do not have to have a large inventory to open or operate an eBay store. Running all auctions and fixed price listings gets expensive. You can put items in your eBay store inventory for only a few cents for a 30 day listing. Having a store gives your items exposure for a very low price. There are different store subscription levels. If you are just starting out, you will want to begin with the basic store subscription which costs $15.95 per month.

First of all, start small. Buy a few things to learn the process and get a feel for how eBay works. eBay selling and working at home is not for everyone. And it is ok if it isn’t right for you. Sell some of your own things before you invest any money in other products to sell. Understand that eBay is more than taking pictures and typing on the computer – you need to be familiar with how to edit photos, shipping, customer service, and using Paypal.

If you are selling handmade items, you might want to look into a site called Etsy, “The place to buy and sell all things handmade.” Etsy is similar to eBay, however, the rules are slightly different. The platform at Etsy is fixed price items, no auctions, and each seller gets her own shop that can be uniquely customized.

Etsy charges 20 cents to list an item for 4 months. Once an item sells, the seller is charged 3.5% of the sales price. Sellers are permitted to sell anything handmade such as jewelry, clothing, handbags, baby items, accessories, and household items. Knock-off or counterfeit items are not allowed.Click here to read about selling on Etsy. This site is a good fit for crafters. Granted, eBay’s traffic is much heavier, (Etsy has just over 100,000 sellers) but Etsy has some unique offerings and is growing in popularity.

[Image Source: Flickr]

Post from: EveryJoe

Etsy vs eBay – Which One is Best?

Article writing is a technique used by bloggers to generate traffic to their blogs. eBay sellers can also this technique for increasing traffic to their stores. There are many sites where you can submit articles for publication on the internet such as eZine Articles, Articles Base, and Go Articles. You are not paid to submit articles, much like you are not paid to write your own blog, but there are several advantages to article writing.

First, these are quality links on quality sites. Article writing is much different than throwing up a bunch of your links on groups and forums. Take a look at my bio page on eZine Articles. I’ve only been submitting articles for about a year, and started as a way to direct traffic to my eBooks on eBay (when eBooks were still allowed). You can see that my articles have had over 15,000 page views in about 13 months. Not a bad return for submitting about 3 articles a month during that time.

Second, if you have a speciality niche, you can find potential customers looking for your product. Customers seeking what you sell may find your articles online when using search engines to find your product. For example, if you sell BMW collectibles, you can submit articles about BMWs. Some of your readers will end up in your eBay store for a look.

Third, article writing is free advertising. Just write some decent content that is related to what you sell online, and include your link at the end of the article.

Fourth, the purpose of these article sites is to serve as a source of content for eZines, newsletters, blogs, and websites. Article writing is viral marketing at its best – you want your articles to be picked up by other people and posted in as many places as possible on the internet. So, write your articles, put them out there, and let them take on a life of their own.

Learn more about how to write articles for the purpose of generating traffic for your eBay store.

[Image Source: Flickr]

Post from: EveryJoe

eBay Traffic Tip – Write Articles to Drive Traffic to Your eBay Store