Any Internet marketer will tell you that the public domain is a goldmine. But if you've only been making money on ebay, you might not know how to cash in this goldmine. The "public domain" is the collection of all documents that are publicly-owned. This usually includes really old documents and books, government documents and information, and documents created specifically for the public domain. There are thousands and thousands of documents currently in the public domain, many of which are easily accessible over the Internet. Before you can cash in on this goldmine, you must first find a product people are actively searching for on ebay. It could be information about building computers; it could be information about curing acne; it could be information about breeding dogs. There are dozens of possibilities. Once you have determined what type of product you want to create and sell on ebay, you should start trying to put together some public domain information for your product. Let's say you selected "dog breeding" for your product. You can start compiling information and pictures by searching for "dog breeding" on wikipedia.org and wikimedia.org. If the pictures and information you pull up fall into the "public domain," then save them in a folder on your computer. Next, search Google for publicly-owned "dog breeding"sites and government sites that have information about dog breeding. Add all of the information you find to the same folder. Organize all of this information logically and put it into a single word-processing document. Now go to www.pdf995.com, download the trial version, and use it to compile your public domain product in PDF format. Your next step is to take this public domain product and make money on ebay selling it. This is pretty simple. If you found a good market niche, you should have no problem making money on ebay. Sell the product as you would normally sell anything on ebay. Remember to pack your auction title and description with highly-trafficked, related keywords. Include a picture and long description for your PDF "ebook." Whenever someone purchases your product, you can simply email them an attached file with your product. If you want to minimize the amount of work you have to do, you can automate the download process by setting up a custom check-out with paypal that redirects your customers to a download page on your website (if you own one). If you don't own a website, you can upload the file to a free geocities.com account and direct your buyers there. You now will have a completely automated sales machine that will constantly make money on ebay. All you have to do is setup the auctions---and your machine will do the rest.

From Seller to Buyer: Shipping Details for eBay Auctions

Shipping details for purchases over eBay is actually a misnomer. eBay is not responsible for the shipping details of an item.First of all, it should be duly noted that eBay is an online market/transaction facilitator. It merely becomes a means for the buyer and the seller to meet. It is also a regulating body that helps develop fairness of trades among parties.However, the terms and details of the trade are subject to the agreement of both buying and selling parties. For most cases, the details of a trade – the payment modes, conditions, and shipping details are specified by the selling party. Taking note of, and understanding such is important to avoiding disputes over shipping details between buyer and seller.If the buyer does not pay attention to the terms stated here, he may find himself on the losing end of a trade. He must, therefore, be vigilant in studying the terms before agreeing to a trade. The buyer should also note that shipping is usually exclusive of the bid price he may have agreed to on the auction. He should weigh in the costs of shipping and handling when considering trades.Sellers on the other hand should ensure that the mode of delivery he specifies is convenient, cost-efficient, and attractive to most buyers.Buyers should review the shipping details for an item listing. He must specifically take note of insurance, shipping and handling charges, sales tax and return policy.In the case of insurance, if the seller does not specify any details for such, the buyer should discuss the possibility of including one in the purchase. One walks on the safe side if he does not assume that all will go well on the delivery.The buyer should also inquire about the return policy – the rights available to a buyer if desires to return an item for whatever reason may it be dissatisfaction, damage, etc.Depending on the size of the item and its location, shipping costs can add significantly to the total cost of the item. The buyer should make sure the shipping details are clear and fair before agreeing to them. The buyer should also take advantage of the safety mechanisms available to him. The buyer and seller should agree upon such and contact their shipping company of choice to request measures to address their delivery concerns.Again, the key component to considering the shipping details of an item over eBay is good communication.In the end, one could say that shipping plans over eBay items can be safe – as long as one takes great pains and meticulous methods to ensure a hassle free delivery.

The top 10 reasons why auctions fail on eBay

Are you finding that auction after auction fails to attract any bidders or buyers? It happens to the best of us sometimes – take a good look at these things to see if any of them could be making your bidders avoid you.The starting price was too high: People don’t want to have to make a high bid before anyone else has – you should always start your auctions low and let the bidders bid them up.The fixed price is too high: If you’re just selling with Buy it Now, then of course your items won’t sell if they’re too expensive. Try reducing the price a little each time the item fails to sell.No picture: Most buyers are reluctant to bid on something without a picture, and that goes even more for high-value items. Think of it from the buyer’s point-of-view: would you want to bid on an item when you’ve no idea what it looks like?You had a reserve: Reserve prices scare away buyers like you wouldn’t believe, not to mention costing a percentage of your final sale price. Avoid them like the plague.Bad spelling and grammar: If your titles are spelt wrongly, then no-one will find your auctions. If your descriptions are incoherent, then no-one will know what you’re talking about. Always run your text through a spelling and grammar checker before you put it up on eBay.Too much for shipping: You might be expecting people to pay more for shipping than they’re prepared to. Give them a few cheaper options that will take longer, or use cheaper materials.Negative feedback: If you got negative feedback on your last transaction, expect things to be slow for a while. Try selling cheap things for a while to get your account back in good standing.Nasty terms: Don’t write things all over your auction like “I will only accept returns in PERFECT condition” or “Serious bidders only, no timewasters!!” This is entirely unnecessary and just makes you look difficult to deal with.No PayPal: Many buyers simply avoid any seller who doesn’t accept PayPal as a payment method – they can’t be bothered with the hassle of anything else. Even if you don’t like PayPal, you should accept it if you want to business on eBay.The items were bad. You will have to accept that there are some items no-one wants – perhaps they were hyped to begin with, but now people had heard that they’re useless and stopped buying. Before you come to this conclusion, though, check everything else you can, and check if anyone else is managing to sell it. If you’re sure, try to return the items, and buy in some new stock.

Ebay and Paypal

E-Bay and Paypal are two giant firms which are involved in sales transactions of customers. E-Bay is an online portal in which buyers could auction and bid items for sale. On the other hand, Paypal is the most popular online payment system used through credit cards. The teaming up of both firms is inevitable because E-Bay provides the goods to be purchased while PayPal provides the resources to be used. E-Bay has indeed grown as the number one destination of online shopping through auctions. E-Bay offers a variety of choices when it comes to books, food, gadget, technology stuff, and many others. The variety and diversity of E-Bay makes it the most visited site whenever buyers are thinking of something to purchase. It is also a favorite destination for online shoppers who want to have a quality bargain of the items they want to buy. On the other hand, Paypal is the most reliable online payment system utilized whenever holding transactions. The firm claims that they have 16 million users worldwide. Despite of such successes for both firms, there are still many criticisms regarding the nature of both businesses. E-Bay is often criticized as a portal that is not pro-buyers instead, it some people consider it as pro-sellers. Some buyers accuse E-Bay as not being true to their business and does not really live up to their word. On the other hand, Paypal does not really receive a lot of complaints but when it does, no one seems to mind. This is because their customer service department does not do their job well. No one really assists the customers and when they reply, it seems like the customer waited for 20 years before an action was done. Due to the partnership of these two companies, many speculated that E-Bay would acquire Paypal. Many people were not in agreement to this deal because they believe that once E-Bay had acquired Paypal, the rotten service of the firm would eventually be more than worst. Aside from that, competition would also diminish in the market. Despite the said speculations, both firms deny that a joint venture or acquisition between the two companies would happen. Both firms insist that they would continue each other’s operations separately and not as a joint company. Both firms also expressed that their partnership between each other is solid but not to the point of collaborating with each other.

eBay feedback - Establishing and Maintaining Your eBay Reputation

If you think of eBay as a social forum, Feedback is your popularity rating. For every transaction that takes place on eBay, buyers and sellers have the opportunity to rate eachother by leaving Feedback. Also before engaging in a transaction with a buyer or seller, eBay participants can view a buyer or seller’s previous ratings in their Feedback Forum, and based on previous ratings and comments, determine whether or not they wish to do business with a particular buyer or seller.So how does feedback work??Each feedback rating consists of a positive, negative, or neutral rating, as well as a brief comment left by the buyer or seller. These ratings and comments allow other eBay Community members to get a good idea of how that rated individual does business and how previous customers who have bought or sold from them have been treated in the past. Feedback ratings are cumulative, adding ‘points’ to your Feedback score. One point is added for a positive rating, a point is deducted for a negative rating, and a neutral rating has no effect on the score. eBayers with a score of at least 10 are given a yellow star, and as you accumulate points you receive various stars of various colors, up to a score of 100,000 which gets a red shooting star. These stars are symbols of trust and reliability which other eBay members can use to evaluate you.Why would I get negative feedback?When a customer is dissatisfied with a purchase, or the way they were treated, this can result in negative feedback. Also, when a seller is unhappy with how a buyer behaved in the transaction, negative feedback can result as well. Things that may result in negative feedback are:-failing to make a payment for an auction you won, making payments late, or ignoring that you won the auction-misrepresenting a product you sell by lying or using a false picture in your item description-taking too long to ship a product to an eBay buyer, or failing to send the product although payment has been made-rude or offensive business practices-making a payment that is fraudulent, or making a payment with a check that is not good-anything that basically makes the buyer or seller unhappy with the transactionHow can I avoid negative feedback?Negative feedback is an ugly thing, and no one really likes to see it or get it. Fortunately there are several things you can do to ensure to your best knowledge, that you are doing everything on your part to avoid negative feedback. This simple and practical advice can save you a bad reputation, and ensure your eBay success:-Make sure the items you are selling are honestly represented in your item description. If you are using stock photos, make sure that it is EXACTLY what the item looks like. Do not fail to mention damage, malfunctions, or falsify factual information the customer needs to know-Be sure to mail all items and payments ON TIME. No one likes to be kept waiting, and late payments/shipments are a sure bet that you’ll probably never transact with that party again.-Respond to all correspondence and questions IMMEDIATELY. Online customers usually do not like to wait more than 8 minutes for an email response. While this response time may be a little extreme for some people, keep in mind that the faster you get back to a potential customer, the greater the chance that they will bid on your item once their questions are answered. This is why it is important to have a thorough item description which can answer any possible questions the customer may have.-It may seem like common sense, but it you receive a payment for an item, MAKE SURE YOU FOLLOW THROUGH! Either mail out the item within 24 hours or refund the customers money immediately. Hope this was helpful! Good luck and Happy eBaying!