That’s one of the beauties of Internet Marketing, it allows us to take time out when life’s hurdles present themselves.

Onto The Blog Post:

Now that Christmas and the new year festivities are over it’s time to crack on with making plans for what we wish to achieve this year. If you haven’t created a plan yet maybe seeing mine will help you get one started.

Personally I’ve never made any plans for my Internet Marketing and have just done what I knew needed doing, but over the past year or so I’ve come to realise how important it is to have a plan to work from. So between Christmas and new year I sat and got my ideas written out on paper and got them into some sort of order so as to map out my plan for 2011. I then transferred my plan to my new whiteboard, a Christmas gift from my daughter, and placed the whiteboard beside my desk so that it is in my face every day.

I started creating my plan by picturing what it was I wanted to achieve this year: A full money making and list building system starting on eBay, leading onto a multi item website and ending with a product on Clickbank or Paydotcom. Most of which will be fully automated, with the exception of the eBay sales that need posting, which I do anyway.

So how did I construct my first ever plan? That’s a good question, I’m glad you asked

I took a piece of paper, turned it landscape and down the right hand side I listed the titles of each component of the end product. For example: Main product; Video series and eBook. Salespage, Bonuses, Opt-in list, Mini course, Affiliate tools, Thank you page, Up sells, Exit script and discount page.

From there I worked backwards and listed what I would need to do to be able to create the product and how to promote it on auto pilot: A free eBook for an email address, with an offer of the main product upon confirmation of subscription to my email list and a follow up series of emails promoting the main product.

Still working backwards I then started detailing the business side of things that the main product was going to be about. It got really scary at this point as I was now starting to see exactly how much work would be involved in creating the business. But building a new business is somewhat like building a house, it starts with the foundations, which need to be solid if you want it to stand the test of time.

Obviously I’m not going to reveal the business side of things just yet but I can say that it involves creating a multi item website with single item sales pages, thank you pages, opt-in list with follow up series and up sells.

Then there’s the eBay side of things, which comes in 2 parts. The first part being my own eBay listings, which I’m nearly geared up for, I just need to create a few videos, individual salespages, thank you pages, add the opt-in form from the multi item website and add a few up sells to the thank you pages. The second part of eBay is to create a resellers package, to enable people to start selling my work for me, which will contain everything I use for my own listings as well as a few extras.

Take a look at my whiteboard, please don’t laugh at its size, I’m only 4’6” and if I got a full size one I wouldn’t reach the top anyway

There you have it, my plans for 2011. Having a plan in front of me will enable me to be more focused on the tasks at hand. Just as I’ve never made plans before I’ve never really worked out my time management, as I do what I can when I can on a daily basis, but if anyone has any tips they could pass on please do so in the comments below.

I may be a little slower than normal replying to comments as I’m spending most of my time at my mothers side, but I will reply to all comments as soon as I can.

Until next time, start planning your future

With this in mind I thought that I would bring a free ebook to your attention. The eBook is called Newbies Auction Profits and was written by my online friend John “Ed” Edwards who also wrote Skincare Profits Auction Goldmine. As I said Newbies Auction Profits is totally free of charge and can be downloaded from this post.

I have read the eBook and can tell you that it is 19 pages long and is full of good solid info without all the fluff that many people include to bulk out their products. Ed has included illustrations to make it easy for you to follow his guidance, with examples of everything he tells you.

As it is only 19 pages long I urge you to download it, print it out and read it during the new years holiday. Then when you’re ready to start the new year you’ll be armed with a plan of action for starting your eBay careers.

Create your own video Slideshow at animoto.com.

To download the eBook right click on the image below and select Save as

Alternatively: Download Newbies Auction Profits here

My best tip for reading the eBook is to print it out and make notes as you read through it, highlighting areas of instruction so as to create your very own instruction manual.

Until next time, enjoy the new year festivities and the free eBook.

This got me thinking about those people with listings that receive a low amount of bids, if any at all, and how they could improve the quality of those listings. I have previously written posts offering advice in this area, but an eBook that I had read, on this very subject, came to mind.

The eBook is called Magic Auction Words and was written by Randy Smith. Anyone that knows of Randy will know that he is one of the leaders in writing sales copy, with his skills and services being called upon by people such as John Thornhill, Dave Nicholson and Lee McIntyre, to name just a few.

Randy was intrigued as to why some listings on eBay were getting a low amount of bids, if any at all, while identical items on other eBay listings were receiving huge results, even when they ended within an hour of each other. He started comparing the listings to see what the differences were and found that some were using the same images so he turned his attention to the words and phrases being used within the listings and their titles. As a result he wrote…

This 40 page eBook has been divided into the following 5 chapters:

1. Why these Words and Ways to Benefit from them.
2. Examples of using Words & Phrases
3. Over 1000 Magic Auction Words and Phrases.
4. Closing Statement
5. Make Money from this ebook.

From which you will find:

• Tips from the very start to help you gain the maximum benefits from the content of this eBook with simple instructions to follow,
• Examples of successful and non successful listings of the same items, along with a detailed analysis of each,
• A huge list of Words, Power Words & Phrases that will grab your prospect’s attention, INFLUENCE them to visit your auction page and PERSUADE them to bid on or buy your products.

If you follow Randy’s guidance and apply it to your auction listings you will see a marked improvement on your sales, of that I have no doubt.

In fact, Randy has written this with eBay auctions in mind but you can apply these words, phrases and methods to any of your salespages, blog posts, Articles or pretty much anything you do and you’ll see an improvement

Magic Auction Words is priced at $10.00 and in my opinion worth at least 3 times that, remember its not the eBook you’re paying for but the years of experience that Randy has passed on through its content, and that my friends is worth much more than $10.00

oh and don’t forget Chapter 5, where Randy explains how you can Make Money from this ebook, giving you a double ended result

If you’ve read Magic Auction Words let us know what you thought of it. How much did it help you?

Until next time, take care..

Whether you’re an eBay buyer, eBay seller, have an eBay business or have never been on eBay before you really should check out the new look Goofbay.

Goofbay is a website dedicated to helping people get results on eBay and it’s totally FREE of charge

Listed below are some of the features you’ll find available to you and I highly recommend that you pop over and check it out. As I said, Christmas is around the corner and we can all use a little savings right now.

eBay Sniper: A fantastic tool for making purchases in your absence. You basically tell the sniper the item number and how much your maximum bid is and they will place the bid for you in the closing seconds of the auction. The real beauty of the sniper is that it will only enter the amount needed to win the auction regardless of your maximum amount. Say for example the item is at £55 and your maximum amount is £100, if £60 wins the auction then that is what you’ll pay, saving you £40 and time spent on the PC.

Other Features include:

eBay Buyer Tools:

• Bid History Tool
• Seller History Tool
• Feedback Checker
• Best Offer Tools
• Buyer Shortcuts

eBay Seller Tools:

• Most Popular Tool
• Price Finder
• Seller Shortcuts

eBay Search Tools:

• Misspelling Search
• Bargain Search
• Not In Title Search
• Exact Search
• Local Search
• Impulse Search

The Goofbay Community containing:

• The Goofbay Forum,
• The Goofbay Blog
• Goofbay latest news
• Downloads
• Tell your friends
• eBay Store Directory

As you can see there are plenty of features on Goofbay and it is totally free of charge, so grab yourself a coffee and head over there. Have a little look around and try some of the features out.

My favourites are:

Not In Title Search; this little beauty allows you to find bargains that have been listed incorrectly by not including all the relevant information in the item title. The tool is unique to Goofbay and no other site searches this way. Say for example you search for a PS3 Game, Goofbay will display the items that do not include PS3 or Game in the title, which usually go undiscovered on eBay and result in a low amount of bids.

The Misspelling Search; does exactly what it says in the title. It will search eBay for items that have been listed with misspellings and typo’s in the title, which is especially handy at this time of year In fact many people are using this tool to supply them with items to resell on eBay correctly and they’re making money regularly.

If you have children then no doubt you already have a list of gift ideas. When you’ve made your coffee grab that list and check out these 2 special search features. Have a quick search for the items on your list and see what money you can save. But remember Goofbay is not just for Christmas, it should be your life long companion for eBay success.

Wishing you the very best of luck,

Barry

A quick catch up:

I’m sorry for my recent absence and lack of blog posts this month, but as my regular readers know I had to go into hospital for an operation at the end of August and have been in bed recovering since then. The operation and recovery both went well, however I’m still in a lot of pain so whether the operation was a success or not is still unsure.

I’d like to say a huge “Thank You” to everyone that has left comments, sent tweets and emails with your well wishes. They really have meant a lot to me and have helped lift my spirits every time I’ve received them, thank you.

Onto the blog post:

The Newbies Guide Part 11: Adding Products With Resale Rights To Your Website. Including: A Gift, A Guide and A Video

We’ve all come across products with Resale Rights and a few people have got in touch asking me how to add them to their websites, so I thought I’d put this video together to show you exactly how easy it is to do.

I also thought “what better way to demonstrate than with a Brand New Product of my own?”, which is Fully Brandable to include Your Name or the Name of Your Business, Your Domain Name and Your ClickBank ID.

Internet Marketing For Newbies

Which I’ve made free to my subscribers.

Current subscribers: Please check your emails for the download link.

If you’re not a subscriber and would like a FREE copy of Internet Marketing For Newbies simply subscribe to my mailing list and you’ll be able to download this, and other products, once you have confirmed your subscription, remember It’s Fully Brandable!

During the video I show you everything you need to know to be able to edit the pages and upload them and the product to your website. I also show you how to fast edit the salespage with notepad and load the the salespage onto Turbo Lister for listing on eBay.

I realise that many people starting out don’t have a website, so to help you out I am allowing you to use my links for the images on the salespage so as to give everyone a chance of making sales. Details of the links are revealed in the video.

During the video I make reference to The Newbies Guide and show you how to search my blog for each part that you may need, but to make it easier for you I’ve placed the links below:

The Newbies Guide Part 2: HTML Editor program (Free Download) and basic HTML editing.

The Newbies Guide Part 7: Adding Payment Buttons Via PayPal

The Newbies Guide Part 9: Filezilla FTP (Free Download) and Uploading your website.

I hope that you enjoy the video and as always I welcome your comments.

You can toggle the display to fit full screen by using the toggle button in the bottom right hand corner of the video.

I welcome all of your comments and will reply to them all. If you need any help please just ask.

Until next time, take care…

This post is going to be slightly different to my normal posts, in fact what I’ll be doing here I have never done before……more on that in a moment.

I sell information products, both on eBay and from my websites and I have recently found a jewel that I just have to bring to your attention, especially if you also sell (or are thinking of selling) information products.

Whether you are an established eBook writer or a newbie with an idea to create an eBook something you are going to need are

eBook Graphics

I personally have only ever used Planet Divinity, No that is NOT an affiliate link, my earning money is not the point of this post….

I could go on and tell you about the Cheap Prices, the Quality of Work Produced or the Speed at which it is delivered, but that’s not the point of this post….

I could go on even further and tell you that Planet Divinity ask a series of simple questions and from your answer they will produce a first class cover, but that’s not the point of this post either….

Ok, I can hear you…”What is the point of this post and how is it going to be different?”

Let me explain…

The point of this post is to Save you money on your “eBook Graphics” and pass on a free lesson that I have found. It’s different because……….I’m going to ask you to go and read someone else’s blog post.

My last couple of posts have been about blogging and to demonstrate the benefits of visiting blogs I want to bring a post to your attention. As you know I spend quite a bit of time visiting other blogs and when I found this post it instantly took first place for the Best Free Lesson I have found online this year!

Before I tell you who and where I want to ask you to do 3 things:

1. Open your mind to future products
2. Think of all the old PLR material you have sitting on your Hard Drive
3. Clear your desk for 18 minutes; 2 minutes reading and a 16 minute video.

Oh, sorry there’s a 4^th, make your self a coffee, come back and get comfortable, then click the following link to Sally Neill’s Blog Post.

If you like the video please leave Sally a comment saying so and she may make more for us all to share.

If you have also found valuable lessons that are free for everyone to see please leave a comment below and let us all know about them, if you include a link i will check them before publishing your comment, thanks.

Until next time, take care

Today I would like to cover keywords and keyword spamming. Keywords are used all over the internet to increase search results, but today I would like to concentrate on eBay.

As you know the use of keywords plays a large part in being a successful seller on eBay. By placing the relevant keywords in your titles and descriptions your items have a much better chance of being discovered in the search results.

More views = more sales.

Because keywords play such an important part of our listings and their success some people are keyword spamming to try and increase their sales. This is a major No No on eBay and, when caught out, will get your listings removed.

So what is keyword spamming?

Basically keyword spamming is when people enter keywords into their titles and descriptions that have nothing to do with their product but could influence the search results.

For example:

Some people selling non branded goods try adding a few brand names to their listings so as to get the item found in more search results, remember More views = more sales.

Let me elaborate a little: A non branded denim jacket saying something like: Heavy Duty Denim Jacket bla bla bla Not Levis, or Heavy Duty Denim Jacket bla bla bla similar to Levis

Or The latest film title on DVD bla bla bla not Blu-ray.

I’m sure you get the picture.

Some people, knowing that keyword spamming is not allowed, try and get clever by including non relevant keywords in white text on a white background so that they are not seen by the human eye in the hope that they’ll slip through the eBay team assigned to checking the listings. This is a waste of time as eBay have software that also checks the listings, and the software sees all text, regardless of its colour, and flags up the offending listings.

It’s against eBay’s policies to do anything that manipulates the search or browse experience on eBay, this includes all parts of your listing: Title, Sub-title, Pictures, Item Details and Descriptions.

When eBay catch you doing this they will remove your listing and give you a warning. If you have further listings in the fixed price fromat their position within the listings could also be reduced, which will obviously affect your sales. If you continue trying to list items in this way, or try to hide your text, (white text on white background), your account will be suspended.

So you see it really isn’t worth the risk.

If you struggle to find successful wording for your listings then my good friend Randy Smith can help. Randy noticed that some listings, of identical items, were having mixed results. While some were selling like hot cakes others weren’t even being bid on. Being an inquisitive guy Randy looked into why this was happening and spent time researching it. As a result of his research Randy has written Magic Auction Words, which is a massive collection of MAGIC Words and Phrases that will grab your prospect’s attention, INFLUENCE them to visit your auction page and PERSUADE them to bid-on or buy your product!

It’s the perfect reference if you’re auctioning-off products or services to regular consumers, businesses, auction buyers and sellers, marketers, entrepreneurs, MLMer’s, affiliates, web masters, executives, investors, opportunity seekers, etc.

By having this ebook on your desktop, You’ll be able to Save Hours of thinking about what to write and you’ll Discover How to Work Less to get those visitors to click on your links.

Once you’ve read Magic Auction Words you could use Randy’s persuasive words and phrases in a variety of ways….

….pop over and see exactly how. I know you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Until next time, take care.

We are all aware that eBay are forever changing things on their site.

Over recent years the changes to their feedback system and policies have seen some sellers throw the towel in and give up.

Some of those changers were:

• Restricting the sale of digital download items, music, eBooks, images etc as they believed these sales could lead to feedback manipulation.

• Removing the ability of a seller to leave Negative feedback for a buyer. Which for many sellers was their protection from buyers being over excited and leaving negative feedback. Or if negative feedback was left some buyers would use threats of returning the negative feedback unless the buyer removed it from seller.

• Adding the DSR (Detailed Seller Rating) feature, where a buyer will rate the seller on 4 key areas: Item description, Communication, Dispatch Time and P&P charges. Scoring from one to five, with five being Top Marks. The sellers DSR is then calculated and their fixed price listings are then placed on the eBay pages according to how good their DSR is. Which basically means if you have a good DSR your items will be well placed, but if you have a poor DSR your listings will be lower in the listings.

eBay’s feedback system is under constant scrutiny, discussion and criticism, with sellers claiming it to be unfair to them. Well I’m pleased to be able to tell you that eBay are concerned about their feedback system being exploited and are now actively working to protect sellers from buyers who misuse or abuse it.

A small minority of buyers have been known to:

• Threaten the seller with negative feedback unless the seller provides goods or services not included in the original listing.
• Purchase many items from the same seller and leave them negative feedback regardless of the buying experience.
• Leave abusive feedback.
• Leave positive feedback but score the seller a low DSR.

When buyers are found to leave a large amount of low DSR’s they are now being sent an email explaining the impact of low DSR scores to the seller and informing them of how feedback should be left. Should they continue to leave low DSR’s, or if they are found to be in competition with the buyer, the feedback left will be removed and the buyers account, and any related selling accounts, will be suspended.

As a seller you are also protected because eBay ensure that a single buyer does not have a disproportionate impact on a seller by causing them to lose their status, such as eBay Top-rated, or preventing them from gaining it.

There are some measures that you can take yourself to help protect your feedback.

If you receive negative or neutral feedback you can ask the buyer to revise it once you have corrected the problem. Drop them an email asking what the problem was, and remember you must always remain polite in your emails and stick to what was stated in your salespage and your returns policy. A genuine buyer with a genuine complaint will reply and tell you exactly what made them leave poor feedback, they’ll also welcome the fact that you want to try and correct it.

You will also find some petty buyers won’t reply to your emails to let you know what was wrong, especially if it was a cheap item. Well did you know…..

…..You can block individual buyers from being allowed to bid on your items. Type Block Bidders into the help pages on eBay and follow the simple guide.

You can also block buyers from buying your items. If you set your buyer requirements to block buyers with unpaid items or policy violation reports recorded against them it’ll help keep some of the unsavoury buyers from your eBay door. Type Buyer Requirements into the help pages on eBay and follow the simple guide.

Don’t be to strict though, we all had to start somewhere and it’s the unsavoury buyers we want to keep away from not the newbies that haven’t gained Feedback yet!!

In the event that you do receive poor feedback you can also send the buyer a Feedback revision request, but please note that for every 1000 feedback scores in any given 12 month period you can only request 5 revisions. So use them sparingly. You must also have resolved the issue with the buyer and explain to the buyer why you are requesting the revision.

While I’m pleased that eBay are now trying to protect sellers I feel that they still have a long way to go before they have levelled the playing field. But at least they are moving in the right direction, remember eBay are treading a very fine line trying to please buyers and sellers alike.

If you are having problems with a buyer pop over to this eBay help page and see what you can do about it. Like eBay say “If sellers don’t tell us about their problems, we won’t be able to prevent a buyer from doing the same thing again”.

For the Uk:
http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/sell/report_problem.html

For the US:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/report_problem.html

For other countries: Copy and Paste the above link into Notepad and replace the extension (.com or .co.uk) with the extension that you use for your usual eBay site.

Visit the page now and Bookmark it, you never know when you may need it.

Remember your Feedback IS your eBay reputation and you need to protect it at all times.

In the last video we dealt with uploading your website and testing that everything worked as it should do. If you suffered any problems or are stuck in any way please let me know and I’ll help you through it.

If on the other hand you have completed the uploading process then Congratulations you are now online and ready to go, pat yourself on the back: You’ve got your website online for the world to see….

…..Now that your website is online and ready to make sales we need to start generating traffic to it.

Now, I’m not an expert in traffic generation but I know a man that is. As I said in the last video, I have had to get special permission to create this video as I’m showing you the members only area of Total Web Traffic.

Before we get to the video I would like to thank Dave Nicholson for allowing me to create the video and for making a special offer available to my readers, more on that below the video.

During the video I show you what Total Web Traffic has to offer and towards the end of the video I show you some of the results that I have had from following the course.

Please watch the video and feel free to leave your comments afterwards. Below the video you will find a link to the special offer that Dave Nicholson has made available to us.

Dave’s Special Offer: Total Web Traffic Discount

As always, if you have any problems you can either leave a comment or email me for assistance.

Until next time, take care

Many people have then become disheartened and have left eBay without trying to research their market. There are various ways of researching your market on eBay to help you find items that are selling successfully. But what if I told that there is an area of eBay where people are actually queuing up for items, and telling us what those desired items are?

Want it now: Is an area of eBay where people who cannot find what they are looking for, or cannot be bothered to look, list details of the items that they want to buy. There are literally thousands of listings there but what you are looking for in this area is either high value items or repeated listings. Repeated listings mean that many people are looking for the same items. If you can source those items you will obviously make lots of sales, and if you can find them at the right price your profit will increase dramatically.

Finding repeated listings can be time consuming. There is software out there to make it easier for you, but that costs money. Unfortunately you will have to spend either your time or your money on this, but it is worth it. Use some of your time first to check it out, and decide from there.

Ok Barry, how do we find the want it now section on eBay?

Log into your eBay account and click on the help link in the top right corner. On the following page just enter Want It Now and click search. You will then see a selection of topics relating to Want It Now, click on the top one and it will take you to an information page where you will find a link to the listings.

Wow Barry there are literally thousands of listings there. How do I sort through that lot to find the repeated listings you spoke of?

This is where the time factor kicks in. All of the listings are placed according to the time and date that they were listed and it could be that there are weeks between repeated listings. So we need to filter that information and we do this using Notepad and a spread sheet, as follows:

1. First of all copy and paste the complete page of listings into a notepad doc. This will copy listing title, responses and the date of the listing.
2. Next, open a spread sheet using Excel or a similar program.
3. Now switch from notepad to spread sheet, cutting and pasting each listing title from the notepad to the spread sheet. Placing all of the titles beneath one another in the spread sheet cells.
4. When you have completed that, with only the responses and listing dates remaining, you can close the notepad doc, without saving it.
5. Return to your spread sheet and save your work. Now click the top of the column to highlight all of the cells with the titles in.
6. Now click the Data tab from across the top and select Sort by A-Z.

The titles will then be rearranged into alphabetical order, allowing you to spot repeated listings with relative ease. As I said this can be time consuming, but the results will speak for themselves.

If you find that to time consuming then check out the AuctionYen Video that will show you some software that will do all the work for you.

Until next time, Best of luck
Barry