Getting started on eBay can be overwhelming for the newcomer who has no idea where to begin. That’s why it’s helpful to look at those who have built successful businesses in this venue. To get to where they are now, the most accomplished entrepreneurs all learned to do six things. All six require willingness to study and learn — but then, so does being a successful online retailer.

1. Identify Emerging Markets
An emerging market is one in which the bid rate is growing at a faster pace than the listing rate. Unlike a hot market, which has reached its capacity, an emerging market still has room for growth. Don’t chase after hot-ticket items with saturated markets. You’re looking for neglected niche markets with greater demand than supply. Http://Andale.com and http://Hammertap.com offer market research tools that can show you what’s selling and what people are looking for.

2. Look at Your Competition
Find out who the big sellers are in your category, and look at what they do to put themselves on top. While it’s okay to borrow some of their more successful tactics for your business, don’t become a carbon copy. Distinguish yourself by catering to your particular sub-niche. Being unique allows you to build a following of loyal customers.

3. Set Your Prices
The first place to look is your competition’s prices. Bear in mind that the greater the range you average, the more reliable that average is going to be. Again market research tools can give you your item’s average selling price and also show you all the factors that influenced prices. They can interpret the data for you and show you how to get the most for your item — the best day and time to end an auction, which listing features draw the highest bids, etc.

4. Know Your Seasons
Seasons affect trends and, therefore, sales. By recognizing and anticipating the trends, you can make wise product sourcing choices. Look at your product research. In what season does an item not sell well? — that’s a good time to source it. Stock up now and bring it out later, when you know you can get the most for it. If you know a product’s seasons, you’ll know the best time to list it.

5. Create Effective Titles
Picking keywords for your listing titles is not unlike picking keywords for search engine optimization. You want words specific to your market. Generic words cause your listings to get lost in the crowd. Gregg Gunn, of market research giant http://Terapeak.com, says, “Pick keywords that are unique to your category. You don’t just want a ton of exposure — you want the right exposure.” Terapeak is beta testing a product designed to help you create optimal titles for your merchandise based on eBay data (http://www.Terapeak.com/TitleBuilder).

6. Keep Records
Don’t just look at last years’ sales results — look at how products fare from year to year and season to season. Over time, you’ll see trends emerge. Gunn states, “It’s long term thinking, not just day to day.” Studying longer time periods provides you with a better understanding of how seasonal trends affect your market. This, in turn, lets you analyze your current market circumstances and make smarter business decisions.

If you’ve got a question about your E-Biz, someone else has probably already asked it. Matthew Hedges, customer support manager for product sourcing experts http://www.worldwidebrands.com, and author of The Online Research Guide to Picking Products That Sell, answers the six most common product sourcing questions he gets from customers looking to start an E-Biz:

1. Will suppliers care if I’m a new online retailer working from home?
Generally no. Says Hedges, “They want to get their product out to consumers as much as possible, so they’re looking to open new accounts.”

2. How can I convey to a supplier that I’m a serious professional, not a fly-by-night home business?
• Before you call or email questions to a supplier, read their web site. The answers are often right in front of you. Wasting their time with questions you could have easily found answers to yourself reflects poorly on you.

• When you contact a supplier — get to the point. Wholesale suppliers are busy people. They want to help their retailers but don’t have time to chit-chat. So get to the meat of your question as quickly as possible.

• Proofread and spell check your emails. An email full of typos, sentence fragments, and run-ons doesn’t convey professionalism.

• Be patient. Just because a supplier doesn’t respond to your questions the same day you send them is no reason to get agitated. If they think you’re going to be a demanding customer, chances are they won’t work with you.

3. I found a supplier I want to work with — what’s my first step?
Your first step is to check for an online account setup form and fill it out. Real wholesale suppliers need proof you’re a legitimate retailer to give you access to their actual wholesale pricing structure and set you up with an account. You’ll need a registered business name and tax ID to work with real wholesalers. Obtaining these documents is easy — just contact your local County Clerks Office.

4. I only want to sell popular name brand items — how do I get a supplier?
You can’t afford to limit yourself to selling only brands you recognize. Your research should predicate your product line. Many brands you’ve never heard of are very popular within certain demographics.

5. Should I be focusing on “hot sellers” like iPods, gaming consoles, designer clothes, and DVDs? Can I drop ship them?
Once everyone knows an item’s hot, the market becomes saturated. The demand is there, but the supply is too. Everyone tries to undercut everyone else, and the profit margins get really slim.

Beyond that, the manufacturers of these items set astronomical buying minimums — say $100,000 each contract term. You could mortgage your house to meet the minimum, and your wholesale prices would still be much higher than those of the big chains that get additional discounts for spending millions with suppliers.

Finding a supplier who’ll drop ship these items individually is almost impossible. It’s cost-prohibitive for them — especially in clothing where the return rates are usually high. And again, your wholesale rate for one item won’t let you compete with sellers buying in bulk.

6. There’s an item I really want to sell, but I can’t find a supplier who’ll work with me — what now?
Keep looking. If after you’ve researched, you still can’t find a supplier for that particular item, don’t give up altogether — just consider other product options. There are millions of products you can sell. Hedges advises, “You can find items that let you compete, but you have to base your product choices off your market research.”

A lot of successful websites depend on returning visitors to account for a major part of their traffic.

Once you have a visitor it is well worth keeping him or her coming back.

Returning visitors are easier to convert into paying customers because the more often they return to a site, the more trust they have in that site. The credibility issue just melts away.

Hence, keep your visitors coming back to your site with the following methods:

1) Start a forum, chatroom or shoutbox

When you start a forum, chatroom or shoutbox, you are providing your visitors a place to voice their opinions and interact with their peers — all of them are visitors of your site. As conversations build up, a sense of community will also follow and your visitors will come back to your site almost religiously every day.

2) Start a web log (blog)

Keep an online journal, or more commonly known as a blog, on your site and keep it updated with latest news about yourself. Human beings are curious creatures and they will keep their eyes glued to the monitor if you post fresh news frequently. You will also build up your credibility as you are proving to them that there is also a real life person behind the website.

3) Carry out polls or surveys

Polls and surveys are other forms of interaction that you should definitely consider adding to your site. They provide a quick way for visitors to voice their opinions and to get involved in your website. Be sure to publish polls or surveys that are strongly relevant to the target market of your website to keep them interested to find out about the results.

4) Hold puzzles, quizzes and games

Just imagine how many office workers procrastinate at work every day, and you will be able to gauge how many people will keep visiting your site if you provide a very interesting or addicting way of entertainment. You can also hold competitions to award the high score winner to keep people trying continuously to earn the prize.

5) Update frequently with fresh content

Update your site frequently with fresh content so that every time your visitors come back, they will have something to read on your site. This is the most widely known and most effective method of attracting returning visitors, but this is also the least carried out one because of the laziness of webmasters. No one will want to browse a site that looks the same over ten years, so keep your site updated with fresh bites!

A lot of successful websites depend on returning visitors to account for a major part of their traffic. Returning visitors are easier to convert into paying customers because the more often they return to a site, the more trust they have in that site. The credibility issue just melts away. Hence, keep your visitors coming back to your site with the following methods:

1) Start a forum, chatroom or shoutbox

When you start a forum, chatroom or shoutbox, you are providing your visitors a place to voice their opinions and interact with their peers — all of them are visitors of your site. As conversations build up, a sense of community will also follow and your visitors will come back to your site almost religiously every day.

2) Start a web log (blog)

Keep an online journal, or more commonly known as a blog, on your site and keep it updated with latest news about yourself. Human beings are curious creatures and they will keep their eyes glued to the monitor if you post fresh news frequently. You will also build up your credibility as you are proving to them that there is also a real life person behind the website.

3) Carry out polls or surveys

Polls and surveys are other forms of interaction that you should definitely consider adding to your site. They provide a quick way for visitors to voice their opinions and to get involved in your website. Be sure to publish polls or surveys that are strongly relevant to the target market of your website to keep them interested to find out about the results.

4) Hold puzzles, quizzes and games

Just imagine how many office workers procrastinate at work every day, and you will be able to gauge how many people will keep visiting your site if you provide a very interesting or addicting way of entertainment. You can also hold competitions to award the high score winner to keep people trying continuously to earn the prize.

5) Update frequently with fresh content

Update your site frequently with fresh content so that every time your visitors come back, they will have something to read on your site. This is the most widely known and most effective method of attracting returning visitors, but this is also the least carried out one because of the laziness of webmasters. No one will want to browse a site that looks the same over ten years, so keep your site updated with fresh bites!

This article is from your MYB Consultancy for small business owners, in fact any business owner

Online Business Education – Operational Risk Management Training

Impatience drives me crazy when I see small business owners being impatient. Working as a business consultant as I do, I see this all the time. If my business owner client is to get the best value from our work they will need to get some balance into their ways, otherwise impatience will hold them back from being the successful business owner they want to be.  Who wants to be held back?   NOT you.

Patience is a virtue – isn’t that what we’ve always heard. Don’t be too patient though, don’t use it as an excuse to be lazy.

The right balance of patience will help you move forward to improved results. Take a look at these 5 Top Reasons why:

1.You need to complete what you start. Impatient people often don’t complete what they start and therefore don’t make too much progress. In business you need to finish each of your goals. Completed goals bring you a great sense of success and achievement. Successful people complete tasks.

2.You need to stop and listen. Impatient people don’t often take enough notice of what their people are saying around them. In business you need to hear what these people are saying. Rather than just an OK result, pool ideas to achieve a more powerful outcome. Successful people listen.

3.You need to plan. Impatient people often just jump in and get started right away. Part way through the job they find too many problems they hadn’t anticipated. It’s easier to complete a task when you plan what to do. You can enjoy yourself more when you make plans and achieve them. Successful people plan.

4.You need to consult. Impatient people don’t stop to ask others what they have found out about similar tasks. They often make decisions without learning some facts. Facts are very helpful when you are taking actions to develop your business. Don’t just go along with your limited ideas; be like successful people who consult. Successful people consult.

5.You need to share. Sharing ideas with the people around you helps you more than you think. It motivates people to make suggestions and provide you with support. No business owner can achieve success on their own. Sharing with a team of people helps you and it helps them. Successful people share.

When you have a new idea or task to do, remind yourself to “control yourself”. You need to become more patient to be more successful. Use these 5 Top Reasons as your guide. Business and personal growth is the linchpin for great business owners. Take advantage of FREE online business coaching and maximise your Operational Risk Management Training opportunity. Success is what you and I both want for everyone.

Impatient business owners should say this over and over “control myself”

More tips for becoming a successful small business owner can be found at my website: www.businesscoachingsite.com

An aggressive linking strategy can deliver repeated website traffic for your MLM business.

Getting your site on as many major internet “intersections” as possible, when you target the correct markets, will deliver ongoing website traffic to your MLM business. The repeated exposure will help:

1. Increase the Google page rank of your site

2. Increase the website traffic received when users do organic searches

3. Increase your exposure and visibility as an expert in your niche

Most important now is the relevance of your links. It is all about quality, not quantity. Link swapping, which was once very popular and widespread, has become almost obsolete.

An ideal link has these properties:

1. It originates from the home page of a high ranking web site related to the topic of your site

2. The proper keywords are contained in the anchor text of the link

3. There are only a few outgoing links on the the page your inbound link is coming from

Assuming your links adhere to these rules, here are a few more requirements to increase the effectiveness of your links in driving website traffic to your MLM business:

1. The more high ranking relevant sites that link to yours, the better

2. The more closely the content of those sites relates to the content of yours, the better

Here are five key steps for your link-building strategy:

3. Give away free content

Another effective method for increasing website traffic for your MLM business is to write quality original articles that other people can post on their blogs, newsletters and websites.

Your articles should always contain a resource box with a link to your website. If you are marketing an affiliate program, never use the affiliate url in your resource box. Instead, purchase a good domain nameand redirect it to your affiliate url.

4. Request links from other site owners with relevant sites Although this method is not as effective as it once was, it will still result in increased website traffic to your MLM business.

5. Provide testimonials to other website owners When your testimonials are published, it adds more credibility to your links.

6. Purchase ezine and newspaper ads This can be a quick way to expose a targeted audience to your link and get a fast influx of website traffic for your MLM business.

The person whose site has the most quality, relevant links wins the internet marketing game. Your goal is not just to increase website traffic but to also increase sign ups and sales. So make sure to use all of the methods for marketing your business online to achieve reliable and lasting results.

For the savvy investor, there is a great deal of money to be made in the real estate market. If you are planning to invest in real estate, one thing you will want to do is to work on finding exceptional real estate deals that will make you a great deal of money in the long run. Believe it or not, finding phenomenal real estate deals is actually easier than you think. However, it does take a great deal of work and commitment on your part. There are many things that you can do to find great real estate deals and some of them include taking the time to look, knocking on doors, mailing out postcards, using mailing lists, and purchasing newspaper ads.

1. Start Looking – One great way that you can start finding extraordinary real estate deals is to be persistent in looking for them. If you are not finding great deals on real estate, you are not working hard enough. While being a real estate investor allows you to work your own hours and provides a great deal of flexibility, you still will have to put in a great deal of work to be successful. Since you basically work for yourself, your success is going to be up to you and the amount of work that you put into your job. If you persistently look for great real estate deals, you will be sure to find them.

2. Knock on Doors – If you want to find some of the best real estate deals out there, you may want to try knocking on doors. Before you go out knocking on doors, be sure that you have done your homework at the courthouse to find the places to go where homeowners may be having a financial problem. After you come up with a list of local people having financial difficulty, you can go out and start knocking on their doors and can offer your help. If you choose this method to help you find great deals, remember to be sensitive to their feelings and try to avoid mentioning or even alluding to the possibility of foreclosure. Be personable and friendly with the people and let you know that you care about them and want to do what you can to help. Taking time with people in financial trouble can help them and help you get a great real estate deal as well.

3. Use Postcards – Another great way that will help you find exceptional real estate deals is by sending out postcards. While sending out postcards to those who are in the process of foreclosing on their home is a good thing, remember that more than likely they have already been receiving a great number of postcards from other investors already, and yours may be overlooked. There are more effective ways to use postcards to your benefit. Be sure to send out postcards to various people who could be in financial trouble, such as those facing bankruptcy, going through divorce, or even to landlords just out of eviction court. If you are creative and take extra initiative when you are sending out your postcards, you are more likely to get outstanding results.

4. Mailing Lists – Many times realtors will send out flyers or postcards to various places in a certain area, and you can use mailing lists just as realtors do to help you find phenomenal real estate deals. You can actually purchase lists that come by zip code, and then decide where you would like to purchase property and start sending information to these addresses. While this may seem like a hit and miss way to find a great deal, it is a great way to open up your options and find a great deal from out of the blue.

5. Newspaper Ads – One way that many investors overlook to get great real estate deals is by using newspaper ads. Many investors neglect using this method because they feel that it is too expensive for them to use. In neglecting this method, many investors narrow their potential and miss out on great deals that they could have had if they would have taken out an ad. While it can cost a bit of money to advertise in a local newspaper, this is a great place to get the word out about what you are doing. If you only get one deal each year from using newspaper ads, you will get back more than the money that you paid for the ad for that year. Be sure that you do not limit your options by neglecting this great way to find excellent real estate deals.

Investing in real estate is an exceptional job that allows you to help people out while making money yourself. This job relies solely on you and how dedicated you are to making it work. Your income in real estate investing will be totally up to you and will depend on how hard you are willing to work. The options and the potential to make money in this business is limitless, so it all depends on you. If you are willing to use extraordinary ways to find great deals, you will find phenomenal deals that will have you making a great living. Remember, it all depends on you!

The idea of being mere passengers on a ship meant to sail to the farthest points does not appeal to people who like to put their destiny into their own hands. They have the desire of maneuvering the ships themselves, of being able to be the ones to take it anywhere they want to. Being aboard a ship on its way to a particularly great destination is something each and every one of them dreams of, and the knowledge that they have the capacity to steer it themselves is what makes them actually want to.

Perhaps this is the reason why more and more people are succumbing to one of the most popular businesses around – affiliate marketing. It is because in this business, there are no bosses to order the employees around. There are no deadlines to meet and no clutter of work do to. One only needs to be equipped with the tools needed to succeed in a business such as this, and he is bound to get what his heart ultimately desires.

Just what are the things needed to be able to succeed in affiliate marketing? What must one have within himself to be able to do well in this industry? There is a lot of competition involved in affiliate marketing, and to be able to rise above the norm, one must be equipped with just the right stuff necessary to propel him forward. There are five things one must ultimately possess if he wants to achieve the glory he is yearning for in this business, and these five things are a must for him to possess to be able to stand out among the rest.

The very first quality one must possess if he wants to try his hand in affiliate marketing is the willingness to learn and be trained. Treading through unfamiliar territory is scary stuff if one is not properly equipped, and he might get lost amidst a jungle of the unknown. Learning the tricks of the trade is also an important aspect of the game, and one’s willingness to know it all will give him far better advantages in the business than he could ever imagine.

The second quality one must possess is the willingness to invest time and effort even if direct results do not seem at all apparent. Although several months may pass without good news, it is important for one who has his foot in the industry to hold on and wait. It is this quality which would save him from giving up after investing a lot of himself in the business.

The third quality one must possess is self-determination. If one wants to conquer the affiliate marketing world, he must have the ability to push himself ahead. Never having to say die is a quality each and every affiliate marketer should possess, and the ability to motivate oneself into scaling greater heights is an ability which would actually take an affiliate marketer there.

The fourth quality one must possess is discipline. If one knows how to teach himself to work everyday with all the energy he can muster, then he is close to achieving what he has set his heart to having in the first place.

The fifth and last quality one must possess is optimism. Negative attitudes and hearsays should not discourage an affiliate marketer from pursuing what he has to in order to make life better for himself and for everyone concerned. Neither should anyone influence his attitude toward the business, because once in it, it is a must for him to be the captain of his ship and the master of his soul.

The ingredients to success in a business such as affiliate marketing are diverse and manifold, but the most important thing one needs to be able to make it big lies in himself alone. It is he who has the capacity to do everything to be able to realize his prospects, and the desire which fuels his heart in doing so is the gasoline which should keep the engine going.

Affiliate marketing is all about putting one’s fate into his own hands. The right attitude is the key to being able to steer one’s ship into that part of the ocean where a certain kind of serenity can be found, one that permeates the atmosphere as the ship sails calmly on.

The mere thought of SEO is enough to send most webmasters into a flutter.  A good ranking in the search engines is a sure-fire way to make money from a website, yet it is not an easy task.  But while the exact ranking algorithm used by top search engines is one of the world’s best kept secrets there are some basic principals you should always keep in mind:

1. Site Design

The structure of your site is important because this is how search engines see how each page relates to another.  When your site is spidered, the search engine will quickly be able to judge the relevance and quality of your site from the sitemap.

Creating a good site map involves naming pages using your top keywords, while at the same time ensuring you are giving it an accurate and succinct name.  Keyword spamming has penalties! Google’s sitemap is a good example at http://www.google.com/sitemap.html.

2. Optimize for your audience, not for the search engine.

Search engines prefer sites on a specific subject because specialized information is more beneficial to search engine users. So, for example, your site would have a better chance of ranking highly if it was dedicated specifically to lamp shades rather than home furnishings or lighting in general.  This is because someone searching for ‘lamp shade’ would be better satisfied with a website full of information specifically relating to lamp shades, rather than a general home furnishings site with only a paragraph or two dedicated to lamp shades.

Many sites have been successful by focusing solely on providing a website that meets the needs of their audience, rather than the needs of the search engines.  If possible, survey your users to find out what they want out of the site and if they have any suggestions.  The more you know about your audience, the better the design you’ll be able to create.  Make it easy for visitors to interact on the site and for you to answer their questions too.

3. Label your internal text links and image alt tags

Why? The main reason is that search engine spiders can’t read images. Anything without text means nothing to the spider.   Other benefits of labeling images include the ability for the image to be searchable in browsers such as Google Image search.  Image text also enables visibly impaired visitors to use your site more effectively and it helps to generally improve the text content of your page for search purposes. An image label is just a clear description of the image using keywords. Just don’t include too many keywords in the alt text as there are penalties for keyword stuffing!

4. Update your site regularly

Your site ranking will be enhanced if the search engine spiders can see it is being updated frequently.  Aim to add new content at least once a week to create a living site. The more frequently Google has to come back to respider your site, the better you will rank. Pages that don’t change will eventually be downgraded in favor of sites whose pages are fresher.

5. Link to Subject-related sites

Good quality backlinks are vital to SEO as these tell the search engine spiders that the site is popular and/or important.  Backlinks are links that are directed to your website from another site. Thus, linking to relevant sites is a great way to increase your search engine ranking.  If you can, try to implement circular linking, where the sites you link to also link to each other and back to you again.  For example, you link to Site A and Site B, who both link back to you and also link to each other.  The more clusters of links you can get like this, the more relevant your site will be deemed to be.

Did you realize that broken links can actually harm your search engine optimization?  If you set up a link, and your linking partner pulls that link in 6 months time, your ranking could reduce.  Thus it is critical to check your links regularly to ensure that you are being linked back to.

Search engine optimization is not something that can be done once and then left alone. It requires constant effort and attention.  The best way to keep up to date with new SEO developments is to continue read commentary and recent articles by SEO experts.
In general, remember that the top websites are always the ones people want to use, such as the BBC, eBay, Apple, and NASA.  If your main priority is creating the best website for your users, then you are on the right track.