About Corey Rudl
Corey Rudl was the founder and President of the The Internet Marketing Center and MarketingTips.com. He is one of the most well known names in internet marketing. Over the last several years Corey has built his into five highly successful businesses.
With the help of his affiliates, his web sites attract 2 million+ visitors per month, generating over $12 million of sales each year.
Unfortunately, Corey unexpectedly passed away while enjoying another of his passions in life -- car-racing -- on Thursday, June 2, 2005. His tragic death at the age of 34 was an incredible shock to his family and friends, and to the online community around the world, where Corey was widely respected as an innovator and a trail-blazer who had led thousands to find success of their own.
A pioneer of e-commerce on the Internet, Corey started his first online business in 1994 with just $25 in start-up capital. He successfully turned that small investment into a multi-million-dollar business by effectively pioneering results-driven Internet marketing strategies.
Attracted by his evident success, business owners in great numbers began seeking Corey out to learn more about his philosophies and the methods he created. In response to this demand, Corey founded The Internet Marketing Center, which is now a multi-million-dollar corporation that shares its Internet marketing strategies and software solutions with countless entrepreneurs and businesses worldwide.
Corey maintained his success by testing new strategies on a daily basis. He developed the ability to forecast market trends and predict (if not create) the "next big" success strategy. As a result of these accomplishments, his Internet Marketing course, "Insider Secrets to Marketing Your Business on the Internet," is one of the most successful and useful "How To" guides in print today.
Used by tens of thousands of small businesses worldwide, and currently in its third edition, this 1,000+ page comprehensive Internet marketing guide has been deemed by many circles the "Internet Marketing Bible."
His innovative software solutions and marketing recommendations drew over 1.8 million unique visitors to his web sites every month and generated over $6.6 million every year.
The #1 best-selling Internet Marketing course online for more than 7 years running, the "Insider Secrets to Marketing Your Business on the Internet" Click here
The Timeless Wealth Secrets #4
Profiting From Online Auction Sites
By Corey Rudl
You can create a bidding frenzy and sell more products on large online auction sites if you follow this eight-step plan from our Internet marketing expert.
What's all the hype about online auctions? Why are we hearing so much about them? Are they really profitable? And how can you get involved?
Online auctions have effectively created a giant virtual marketplace where people can gather to buy, sell, trade and check out the goods of the day. They're enormously popular, high-traffic venues where start-ups and auctioneers alike can begin selling product almost immediately, with...
No overhead or upfront costs
No sales staff or distributors
No Web site of your own
No initial investment (you'll pay between 2 and 5 percent of your final sale price to the auction site)
In this massive marketplace that, according to Forrester Research, will generate an estimated $48.5 billion in sales by 2006, the auction site that rules the game is eBay. eBay leads the online auction industry with a more than 60 percent share of the market, while its closest competitor, Yahoo! Auctions, is only half its size. Amazon.com Auctions follows at a distant third.
According to the Neilson Ratings, eBay is among the top ten most-trafficked sites on the Internet--and with three million items listed in 3,000 categories and 1.5 billion page views per month, that's not hard to believe.
The amount of traffic these sites attract make online auctions an ideal place to capitalize on readily available, widespread exposure. However, I must warn you: The competition is fierce in popular categories, and your product can easily get lost among the hundreds of listings.
So whether you're selling a knick-knack or two or becoming a full-time baseball card dealer, there are a number of things you must do to harness the volumes of traffic heading your way and generate the highest profits possible. That's why I've created an eight-step game plan for selling products through online auctions to help you make the most of this potentially valuable marketing medium.
Step 1. Select your site. First of all, you have to think about which online auction site you want to use. eBay is the obvious choice because of its reputation and the amount of traffic it receives. But different auction sites tend to cater to different markets. For example, eBay has 25,000 laptops for sale but almost no birdfeeders, while Amazon has 750 birdfeeders but only a handful of laptops.
To determine which site is best for your product, check out the top three or four in your field--look at specialized auction sites as well as the big ones I've mentioned above. There are hundreds of specialized online auctions that cover the spectrum from antique books to business liquidations.
Amazon has the reputation of being a bit less user-friendly, but if you're selling a birdfeeder-related product, you may find an established market here. On the other hand, you may have better luck selling your item on an auction site that has less direct competition. Your best bet is to test both.
Check out item quantities and bid lists to see how much demand there is for your product. While you're there, you might even want to try bidding on a few items to get a feel for the process and the competition involved. (But don't ever bid on an item you don't plan to buy!)
Step 2. Choose your products. Are you going to sell unique, one-of-a-kind products item by item? Or do you have a product you can sell in quantity? Is there a demand for your product? (This is less of an issue for one-of-a-kind items.)
What kind of profit margin do you expect to be making? (This can determine whether or not you'll have to sell in quantity.) In the world of online auctions, niche markets are responsible for 43 percent of total sales. Not bad, hey? But don't disregard the remaining 57 percent that covers nonniche markets! The bottom line is, you can make money with both.
"Fad items" are where you can really cash in quickly. Remember the Beanie Baby phenomenon? People went nuts and bid literally thousands of dollars on them! It would be difficult to build a site and try to generate traffic around a fad item--by the time you were done, the fad might already be old news.
Collectibles are the bestselling items at auction sites, with computer hardware and event tickets in second place, and toys and books hovering around third. But while popular items may be easy for you to sell, you could also make a killing on a unique item with a high profit margin. Believe it or nor, people are making money hand over fist from specialty items like cigars and lobster.
But auction sites give you an instant audience at a low cost, so if you spot a trend, you can hop on the wagon as quickly as possible.
once in each auction. However, on eBay you must have a "feedback rating" (see Step 6) of 50+ and you must have been registered for more than 60 days before you can choose this option.
Featured items. On most of the larger auction sites, you can get your item rotated through the site's homepage as well as listed in the "featured items" section for about $20. For approximately $15, you can have your item appear in your category's "featured items" section, or simply at the top of the list. You can also have your photos displayed in a gallery for about 25 cents, or featured as a large photo at the top of a gallery for close to $20.
Step 3. Look at listing options. The next thing you need to think about is how you'll sell your product. Auction sites typically offer a variety of listing options for you to choose from, including:
Regular listings. A regular listing is just that--you pick your category and your product gets listed in it. While this is the most common (and really the least effective) way to list your product, you should definitely start with this option. You'll want to see how your product does before you decide to spend money on featured listings.
Reserve price auctions. If you place a "reserved price" on your item, it means that you've specified the amount at which it should sell. This is done to prevent "auction sniping," which happens when bidders lay low until the very last moment, then grab your item without starting a bidding competition. Reserved price auctions can be to your benefit, but they may discourage bidders who are looking for the best deal.
Dutch auctions. Also known as "English auctions," these are one of the best ways for people selling in quantity to place their products because you can list multiple identical items at
You also have the choice of listing your items for 3, 5, 7 or 10 days--and, of course, you always have the option to re-list at the end of this time. The standard option is a 7-day listing with an automatic re-listing for a specified period of time.
Step 4. Choose your category. Explore the product categories on the various auction sites to broaden your perspective of what goes where--you definitely want to be specific, but you don't want to limit yourself. While you're doing this, check out the competition in different categories and have a look at how much bidding is going on. Whatever you do, do not try to gain more exposure by placing your product in unrelated categories. Your online auction site will probably close your account if you do.
The very best way to decide which category your product should be listed under is to do a search on similar and related products, determine which ones sell best, and see which categories they're in. You'll usually be able to pick one main category and one sub-category--use this method for both. And be sure to check to see how easily your product can be found using the site's search tools before you settle on a category.
The #1 best-selling Internet Marketing course online for more than 7 years running, the "Insider Secrets to Marketing Your Business on the Internet" Click here