Making a Living from Your eBay Business, Second Edition

Book description

The power of online auctions is attracting hundreds of thousands--if not millions--of users who want to turn their eBay hobbies into profitable businesses. While turning an eBay hobby into an eBay business might look easy, making that business profitable is much more difficult. Not enough sellers treat their eBay sales as a business, and subsequently are disappointed in the results. To launch a successful and profitable eBay business, the detailed instructions in this book will show you how to get started. It will help you determine what kind of business you want to run, write an action-oriented business plan, establish an effective accounting system, set up a home office, obtain starting inventory, arrange initial funding, establish an eBay presence, and arrange for automated post-auction management. This book is a step-by-step guide for anyone serious about making money from their eBay sales. Unlike other computer-oriented titles, this is a straight-ahead business book that shows how to set up and run different types of eBay businesses, and how to maximize sales and profits while doing so. This book includes a section titled "Choosing Your eBay Business" that details six different types of eBay businesses you can start. Included in this section is a chapter on eBay Trading Assistants (AKA drop-off stores or consignment stores), which is the newest form of an eBay business.

Table of contents

  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Page
  3. Contents at a Glance
  4. Table of Contents
  5. About the Author
  6. Dedication
  7. Acknowledgments
  8. Tell Us What You Think!
  9. Introduction
  10. Part 1: Planning and Launching Your eBay Business
    1. Chapter 1. So You Want to Start an eBay Business
    2. Chapter 2. Researching Your Business Model
    3. Chapter 3. Creating a Business Plan
    4. Chapter 4. Evaluating and Arranging Funding
    5. Chapter 5. Establishing a Legal Business Presence
    6. Chapter 6. Setting Up a Recordkeeping System
    7. Chapter 7. Organizing Your Home Office
  11. Part 2: Choosing a Business Model
    1. Chapter 8. The Second-Hand Reseller
    2. Chapter 9. The Collector/Trader
    3. Chapter 10. The Bulk Reseller
    4. Chapter 11. The Retailer
    5. Chapter 12. The Manufacturer/Craftsperson
    6. Chapter 13. The Trading Assistant
  12. Part 3: Managing Your Day-to-Day Business
    1. Chapter 14. Purchasing and Managing Your Inventory
    2. Chapter 15. Automating Item Listing
    3. Chapter 16. Managing Customer Payments
    4. Chapter 17. Organizing Your Packing and Shipping
    5. Chapter 18. Dealing with Customers—and Customer Problems
    6. Chapter 19. Automating Auction Management
  13. Part 4: Maximizing Your eBay Sales
    1. Chapter 20. Increasing Sell-Through
    2. Chapter 21. Choosing the Most Effective Listing Options
    3. Chapter 22. Creating More Successful Auction Listings
    4. Chapter 23. Displaying More Powerful Photographs
    5. Chapter 24. Promoting Your eBay Auctions
  14. Part 5: Growing Your Online Business
    1. Chapter 25. Becoming an eBay PowerSeller
    2. Chapter 26. Selling Fixed-Price Items on eBay Express and Half.com
    3. Chapter 27. Opening an eBay Store
    4. Chapter 28. Launching a Full-Featured Merchant Website
    5. Chapter 29. Other Places to Sell Online
    6. Chapter 30. Managing Growth
  15. Part 6: Appendixes
    1. Appendix A. Accounting Basics
    2. Appendix B. Listing Abbreviations
  16. Index

Product information

  • Title: Making a Living from Your eBay Business, Second Edition
  • Author(s): Michael Miller
  • Release date: October 2006
  • Publisher(s): Que
  • ISBN: 9780789736468