eBay continues to change, and evolve as any good marketplace should.  It has grown from a place where you would sell your unwanted “stuff” and become a massive platform that hosts just as many mom & pop sellers as it does major online businesses.

Companies & individuals who want to run tests on items to see their marketability are also more often turning to eBay, its far cheaper than normal marketing campaigns & is a very grass roots way of connecting with the people. So whether you sell for pleasure or business, whether its for small or big companies here are several hot tips for selling on eBay.

1. Buy on eBay! Why do I suggest buying on eBay if the title of the article is How to Sell on eBay? Well, there are two main reasons.  First, the more you buy, the more you build your feedback score.  And secondly, the better you buy, the more you profit when selling these products on eBay.

I’m a huge fan of sniping to win auctions on eBay.  To get the #1 eBay sniping software, visit HotSniper (click this link now).   You’ll win 99.9% of the items you bid on - and you’ll be shocked at the results!

2. Sell Hot Items: as often as possible try to keep an inventory of ‘hot’ items in your eBay store. If your mainstay is decorative plates this may be harder to do… but it never hurts to ‘cross’ promote auctions & offer a variety of different items for sale in different categories. It is as simple as searching google or a tech blog like engadget.com to see what items (usually electronics or children’s toys) are selling really well in the world at large. Now all you have to do is figure out how to get them for cheaper & resell these kinds of ‘hot’ commodities for a nice little profit.

3. Paypal, paypal, paypal. All I can say if you don’t implement paypal as an option (or the only option in most cases) then you are falling far behind in the eBay rat race. Paypal takes credit cards, allows buyers a feeling of security & allows you the buyer to get your hands on your money faster. Its as easy as a few simple steps to sign up for either a personal or business account & costs nothing. Sign up for paypal now & you’ll thank yourself later.

4. Use Systems. Any business person will tell you the key to great success in the world of product pushing is systems. Whether you use something more complex like terapeak to track your competition & what sells on eBay or just do the leg work yourself & keep it all neatly collected in a notebook, make sure to implement systems in all your eBay goings ons. Track sales prices of items, then subtract the cost of the item & listing fees. This will show you whether you are really profitable or not, you’d be surprised how many ‘major’ eBay powersellers barely make a profit because of their lack of good systems that show them how to cut costs & optimize their success.

5. Invest in a Great Camera. Easy as it sounds, do some research, pick a brand & get a good digital camera so you can take amazing pictures. Because in this business the photos really sell the item. My personal favorites are the Sony cyber-shot line of cameras or the Canon Powershot brand, they take amazing photos, have a lot of extra features & are relatively inexpensive.

6. Push that 100% Guarantee. Always, always, always offer your customers a 100% guarantee. It inspires buyer confidence & leads to much more click throughs to your auction listing. I’ve noticed return rates when you offer a 100% guarantee actually go down! The biggest percentage of customers returning items you will have to worry about (if you sell a good product) is between 3-5%. That is worth the boost in sales the 100% guarantee will give you.

7. Ship Well. Thats right, this is not the place to skrimp. When you ship, make sure you pack it tight & pack it right. This motto will get you far in eBay business when your customers happily unwrap their well packaged and attractive items instead of opening a beat up box full of broken parts. Also don’t wrap in toilet paper, paper towls or rags… I’m not joking alot of sellers do this to save on packing costs. Use bubble wrap, tissue paper or packing peanuts when shipping items. Also double check shipping addresses & offer tracking for free if it is a higher end item so nothing gets “lost in the mail”.

Implement these Hot Tips & you will see a boost in your sales & a jump in customer satisfaction. Remember, selling on eBay is like a game… so play it right & you’ll go home with the most monopoly bucks.

And don’t forget, use HotSniper today - you’re going to LOVE IT!

Adam Ginsberg launches ShortenMe.net - another addition to the long list or URL shortening websites.  What is ShortenMe.net anyway?  ShortenMe.net is a URL shortener.  URL shorteners transform ugly, long URLs into short ones that you can email without fear of them breaking - or include in Twitter tweets without using up too many characters.

What the headings mean

• URL length shows how many characters (including the http:// at the front) the shortened URL generated for this site’s homepage was. The first figure is the base length (EG http://shortenme.net/ is 20 characters), the second number is the short code generated (this can vary from 4 to 6 characters at most services - popular services have used up all the 4-character ones already, so it might be good to start using a new service!  The result is that you can expect ShortenMe.net to change to 20+5 if this post is very popular!), and the final number is the total.
• Custom name - whether you can choose your own memorable short-code or not (rather than the random string of letters automatically generated). Not all services offer this feature
  .

It simple and easy to use.  For example, if I wanted to promote something at AdamGinsbergBlog.com I might use ShortenMe.net reduce the number of characters in the URL.  If you wanted to promote an Adam Ginsberg affiliate offer - or any affiliate offer for that matter, you could use a URL shortening service like ShortenMe.net to “mask” and shorten your affiliate link.

I purchased this service for 2 reasons.  First, I thought it would be cool to own a shortening website.  And, secondly I really liked the name.

So, try it out today and see how it works.  Go there now and have fun!

ShortenMe.net

Get the New Social Media Magazine FREE Today at AdamGinsberg.com

Starting September 1st 2009 for all new publishers and October 1st for all existing publishers, eBay Partner Network will start paying for clicks sent to eBay sites. The price paid will depend on the traffic’s quality — the more incremental revenue the traffic generates for eBay, the higher the amount paid per click.

This new program is called Quality Click Pricing

With Quality Click Pricing, eBay will pay publishers for clicks sent to eBay sites and the amount paid per click (EPC) on a daily basis will depend on the traffic’s quality. The quality of traffic will be assessed using a number of different factors, including revenue from sales and the long term value of new users, as today, but also eBay advertising and PayPal revenue and other user behavior factors. Essentially, the more incremental revenue your traffic generates for eBay, the more you’ll be paid per click.

The key is “quality traffic” - and if you can make this happen you will have massive opportunities to take advantage of the new eBay affiliate program payouts!

See Adam Ginsberg Live visit Success Workshops - Click Here!

Although YouTube is one of the most visited sites on the web and is the clear leader in web-based video sharing, it still has a bit of an image problem with business professionals.  When most people think of YouTube, they think of funny homemade videos or video clips from favorite bands or TV shows.  They don’t always think of YouTube as a solid marketing platform suitable for a variety of businesses.  Some even argue that YouTube isn’t a true social networking site, depending on how strict their definition of the term is.

Properly used, YouTube can be a wildly successful promotional vehicle for savvy marketers who know how to use the web to build their brand and connect with their audience.

YouTube’s popularity is a clear sign that users love the visual impact that today’s broadband access and advancing technology provide.

Founded in February 2005 and purchased by Google in November 2006, YouTube has become a web phenomenon and a household name in only a few years’ time.  in 2008 more than 90 million viewers watched 3.5 billion videos on YouTube, averaging 41.6 videos per viewer.  In just the last 12 months YouTube has experienced tremendous growth that demonstrates the numerous marketing opportunities that this communiation medium can provide.  It has announced partnerships with the BBC, CBS Sports, and Apple; released localized sites in Brazil, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Poland, Spain and the UK; and premeired its first international film competition, Project Direct, with works from filmmakers around the world.

YouTube was also a major player in influencing the 2008 presidential election with the YouTube You Choose ‘08 channel that enabled candidates to communicate directly with the voters.

YouTube clearly has a lot to offer savvy marketers, even those who don’t work for major corporations.  Steve, for example, is an up-and-coming musician trying to gain some exposure for his new band.  He’s heard that some youTube videos for popular artists and movies have received hundreds of thousands of views in a matter of days.  Steve would be happy with a fraction of this type of exposure.  He signs up for a YouTube account, gets his own channel and posts some of the band’s video clips and tour information.  To generate further buzz, he uses YouTube email and bulletins to spread the word, posts video responses to the videos of related artists and joins relevant YouTube groups.

Jennifer, the author of a new book, would like to use YouTube to promote the book with a book trailer.  With the help of her husband she creates a slick 3 minute video that’s designed to captivate the attention of viewers and encourage them to buy her book.  She posts her video to YouTube, tags it with the most appropriate keywords, and embeds the video on her blog and website.  In an effort to get even broader overage for her book, Jennifer also posts her video on teh other Video-sharing sites such as MSN Video, Google Video, Revver and Daily Motion.

In addition to the exposure it provides, one of the biggest advantages of YouTube marketing is that it’s free.  At no cost, YouTube enables you to:

• Host your videos, including movie trailers, book trailers, TV video clips, music video clips, software demos, presentation clips, political statements, instructional videos, and more.
• Promote your videos to a worldwide audience of millions of potential viewers.
• Create your own branded link. For example, check out Adam Ginsberg You Tube Videos
• Tap the power of social networking by allowing users to comment on and share your videos

Tag your videos with keywords that help your target audience

Even if you don’t have video content to post on YouTube, you can still benefit from its vast audience.  youTube also offers advertising opportunities for companies with an initial budget of at least $25,000 who want to target its demographics.  YouTube advertising options include:

• Display advertising, including skyscraper, leaderboard, large rectangle, and small rectangle banners.
• Custom brand channels
• Contests that encourage involvement and interactivity.

As of May, 2009, YouTube users were 54 percent male and 46 percent female.  Age ranges were spread rather evenly across all ages.  Note: twenty-one percent of YouTube visitors are over the age of 55.

YouTube can be serious business, and when you add to it the SEO benefits of posting videos online, you understand why the savvy marketer is using online video on YouTube in 2009 and beyond!

UPDATE: At a recent Search Engine Strategies conference an SEO guru talked of the value of video for improving one’s natural search ranking, and how engaging customers will be crucial in causing users to interact with your website.  Here’s what he said:

“…In the case of video, we believe that as one of the more important engagement objects, google has actually started to build it into the algorithm.  To us, that means if your website has engagement objects on it, video or mp3… it is going to be received y the algorithm better and your site will actually have an opportunity to rank better.

Now today, we haven’t seen it much as an incidence of ranking, mostly because not everyone is doing it… I don’t think we’ve yet seen even the tip of the iceberg.

In a year, if you don’t have video, if you don’t have engagement objects on your website, you are just not going to rank.  It will make you last among equals if you don’t have it.”

Adam Ginsberg Ponders:  “If the opposite of pro is con, is congress the opposite of progress?”

Adam Ginsberg Ponders:  “How is it possible to have a civil war?”

Adam Ginsberg Ponders:  “How do you draw a blank?”

Adam Ginsberg Ponders:  “If it’s zero degress ouside today and it’s supposed to be twice as cold tomorrow, how cold is it going to be?”

Adam Ginsberg Ponders:  “If light travels faster than sound, is that why people appear bright until they speak?”

Adam Ginsberg Ponders:  “Is there another word for synonym?”

Adam Ginsberg Ponders:  “How would we know if a word were misspelled in the dictionary?”

Adam Ginsberg Ponders:  “How do you tell when you are out of invisible ink?”

Adam Ginsberg Ponders:  “Shouldn’t there be a shorter word for monosyllabic?”

Adam Ginsberg Ponders:  “How come you press hard on the remote when you know the battery is dead?”

Adam Ginsberg Ponders:  “Why si the word abbreviated so long?”

Adam Ginsberg Ponders:  “What was the best thing before sliced bread?”

Adam Ginsberg Ponders:  “Why do we wait until a pig is dead to cure it?”

Do you have a question for Adam Ginsberg?  Ask Him Here!

PS - These were all gathered together by my amazing 12 year daughter who was creating her uniquely written camp newsletter. So, while I do ponder these thoughts, I certainly can’t take credit for making them - nor assembling them all into one place. It’s great to have awesome kids!