In particular at present, it is the newly created blog on the Yearn2earncash.com website that is taking up so much of my time.

It is also from there that I plan to continue much of the work that has been started here.

At this present time there are a few “satellite sites” as I like to call them, which are presenting content, and linking back to the main website for further information.

Frankly speaking I would rather now have all of the content I present on these individual blogs posted on the one main blog, that I alone control, without having to fear the dreaded removal of a blog for breaking some obscure rule.

I like to present information as it is, without the worry that my true speaking will result in the entire removal of a blog containing months (even years) of work.

On a blog that resides on a website that I own, it will not be possible for anyone to close down my blog simply for giving away information that many would prefer kept secret.

Of course there are other reasons for wanting everything all on the one blog. It’s not just the prospect of a blog closedown.

It’s just far easier to have everything in one location, as then everyone can find all my information from the same starting point, without having to search all over the internet.

And so, as this is almost certain to be my last blog post, I have to say farewell to some of you, and hope that most of you will continue to look for some of your answers at my new Yearn2earncash.com website blog.

Goodbyee! (Blackadder style)

Last year I personally spent several days writing content to promote EBay traffic xplosion. I had heard that it was an offer that converted like “crazy” – to use the words of Nicholas Baron, the product creator.

One year later and not one sodding person has ever upgraded their account from “free” to premium. What’s even worse is that EBay traffic xplosion does not even seem to be functioning now.

The website just doesn’t work anymore. You cannot login to check your stats and you cannot even contact them to find out what’s wrong.

Even new members cannot access a free copy of the EBay traffic xplosion ebook anymore. So I have now had to start removing all images that link to the site, and changing all of my other links around the net.

Actually changing links hosted on my website is just a matter of altering the redirect within the HTML page to another URL, so that’s not too bad.

Now anyone that clicks on a link somewhere online that used to go through my affiliate link to EBay traffic xplosion will simply go to a page explaining it’s no longer available and offering them an alternative product.

The major work was going through all of my accounts online and making sure that I removed any graphics advertising it – I don’t want to be linking to something no one can get hold of anymore!

But I cannot do anything about those links that are from various articles and press releases all over the net – apart from changing the redirect as explained above that is.

So what’s the point of this post? I guess I just wanted to let you know that sometimes no matter how much effort you put into promoting something online, like a product that would appeal to eBay account holders, problems can occur that are out of your hands.

That does not mean you should give up though. Just because this one particular eBay product did not work out, it does not mean that there aren’t many others that can be substituted in its place online.

And should there ever come a time when you can no longer sell a particular item that you have been successful with on eBay – then simply find either an alternative supplier for that item, or find an alternative item altogether.

You can easily contact all of your current eBay customers and let them know that you have alternative stock that might be of interest to them.

Anyway my ebook alternative to EBay traffic xplosion is called “Skyhigh Auctions” which you can download from my Free money making online downloads page, and will really help you to start profiting on eBay.

EBay is still very important to me, as is this eBay blog and the advice that I can pass on to others (Advice that I am happy to share either by email or using EBay messages, should some of you still have any doubts, concerns or problems using your eBay account).

Indeed I have been working on a few eBay listings templates myself just lately, so eBay has never been out of my mind for long.

The reason I have not been posting is simply that I have been so busy with my main website where you can make extra money online through a variety of methods (Not just eBay) that I just failed to make the time for this eBay blog.

But that is no excuse for not posting often, and I do hope to be posting again soon. In fact one of the most important things you can do with your blog is to continue to post on a regular basis so that people do not forget what you have to offer them.

The same can be said of the way you run your eBay account. You should list items for sale on a regular basis, all to help people remember how well you run your eBay account, and how great the service is that you provide.

You should also continue to send EBay messages to your previous customers using the eBay messaging system (Providing they don’t ask you to stop that is!) on a fairly regular basis to keep them updated with what your business can offer them, and also to help develop your relationships with them.

You never know when an eBay customer can become a supplier of other products you had not even considered selling, or even when an eBay customer can become a potential business partner.

In fact to take things even further, there is nothing wrong with you sending anyone EBay messages through the eBay messaging system (Providing you don’t repeatedly spam them, that is!) to make enquiries about something that they can provide you or vice versa.

The main point of this blog post is that doing something on a regular basis, even if not done very well, is better than only doing something occasionally.

That is very good advice… what a pity I never follow my own advice! But as I said above, I have been immensely busy with my website Yearn2earncash.com and the information it provides.

The product that has and still is taking up most of my time is my free Clickbank guide “Clickbank Confidential”, which as you can probably tell was designed to give you the information you need to profit from Clickbank products.

Despite being a free guide, I wanted so much information in it that It took far longer and required much more effort to finish than I expected (And even now, it is still being revised for a third time to include even more information!)

If you can spare the time away from your eBay account, I would love you all to visit my website and take a look at the free Clickbank guide and let me know what you think.

Was it worth all that time that I neglected my loyal eBay blog readers? (I look forward to an avalanche of EBay messages on this one!)

It is at this stage that you would appreciate a customer support number to phone to get help. Although hidden away very well, and requiring rather a lot of jumping through hoops, eBay do provide a customer support line.

They simply require that you click through several links, at each time presenting you with possible answers, in the hope that they can possibly avoid you having to contact them.

This might make them sound like they cannot be bothered to deal with you, but the problem is more likely to be that they simply do not have the resources to deal with the number of customers that they have on a daily basis.

If you really require the eBay phone number you can start by going to the following page:

http://contact.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ContactUsNextGen

Then clicking on “see more topics” at the bottom of the short list of possible questions.

From there you would be best clicking on “technical problems” on the left and then “problems with the eBay site” on the right.

Then simply click on “I want to report a technical problem on the site” at the bottom of the screen.

You will at this stage notice that the blue “call us” button has been displayed at the right of the screen, that you can now click on to get help with eBay technical problems.

This is only really used for technical problems, with the rest of the help page being satisfactory for most other issues that arise.

For help with eBay on other non technical issues you can visit this page:

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/index.html

It is at this page that you can get virtual help from “Louise”, which is just another of those web services created to present the help that is already available in a new way.

The keywords you type in will be checked against a database of the most likely questions, and their answers presented to you in a friendlier manner than a basic webpage.

If you have received any strange email supposedly from eBay requesting personal details, then you should not follow any instructions within it.

Remember, just as with any other decent business online, they will never email you requesting any details, and any email received that seems suspicious should be considered spam.

Only ever sign into eBay from their website (as found by searching Google for “eBay”) and not by clicking on any link in an email.

Doing so is the only way to prevent the spammers from getting their hands on your login details. The eBay Account Guard is another that you can get help with eBay. It is part of the eBay toolbar.

It warns you when you are on fake websites, and also lets you keep track of your account and the listings you are bidding on.

More on the eBay toolbar can be found by visiting:

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/ebay_toolbar/index.html

Now you might be wondering how eBay makes their Money. There are several ways that eBay makes money from their website, as eBay have created a host of different fees that sellers have to pay in order to give their listings greater exposure on the website.

The full range of different fees that sellers have to pay to eBay can be studied by checking out this page:

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/sell/seller-fees.html

In addition eBay also profits from advertisers on their website, but the vast majority of income comes from the thousands of listings ending every second.

Buyers do not pay anything to eBay – they only pay the sales price plus postage (if any!)

Despite the variety of fees that eBay introduce, and all of the many rules and regulations that they have regarding which items can be listed, it is always worth using eBay for listings, as this gives you access to a huge potential audience for your goods.

One of the most frequently asked questions is how Safe is eBay? Next time I would like to write a short post all about that (the short answer being it is safe!)

A SHORT URGENT PLEA FROM ME – PLEASE CHECK OUT THE AMAZINGLY TALENTED

DANIELLE MERCIER ON YOUTUBE WHO WRITES AND PLAYS HER OWN MUSIC.

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When you first get used to eBay it seems like there might be quite a lot to do after you find out you have won the eBay listing you were bidding on.

In fact it’s quite simple; you just need to send the seller your payment as soon as you can after the auction end.

The main reason for sending the payment quickly, of course is to get even better feedback from the seller after the listing ends, but then if you were the seller of an item, wouldn’t you want to receive your money quickly?

Another good reason for trying to pay your seller quickly is simply because they will only be sending you your item once they have received your payment, so the quicker the better!

But how do you go about paying for your EBay winning bids? That will depend upon the methods you have at your disposal.

The obvious choice for anyone on eBay is PayPal. PayPal is one of the most popular options for paying on eBay, and in fact eBay now own PayPal.

Also, since every seller must now accept PayPal as a method of payment for an EBay winning bid, it makes sense to set yourself up with an account provided your country can use PayPal (which is now most countries in the world, thankfully)

Your payment is sent instantly via the internet, and all you have to do is login to your PayPal account by your web browser to confirm that you want to send the payment.

The money is taken either from your debit or credit card to the seller’s PayPal account, with a debit card being the primary method, and the credit card being a backup payment method.

When you pay via PayPal, you are covered by PayPal’s own insurances and guarantees in addition to those provided by your own bank.

You can still pay for your EBay winning bids via Cheques and Money Orders (but this is not recommended and will likely be phased out soon).

This is an extremely old fashioned way to pay, and will not only lead to an increased delivery time for your item, but it is also considered to be insecure.

Although it’s true that a cheque can only be cashed by someone with the right account name, eBay want to see these outdated methods of payment removed all together, so you might as well move to PayPal as soon as possible.

The delay alone (waiting for the seller to receive the cheque through the post, take it to the bank, and then bank clearing time) is enough of a reason not to want to pay via this method.

Pay for your EBay winning bids via money transfers and direct bank deposits (an option, but one to use only when you really trust the seller).

I hesitate to recommend this as an option because it is fraught with danger – but can have benefits in terms of fees.

There are still some sellers around that may ask if you will pay them using a wire service like Western Union, or ask if you will give them a direct bank deposit simply by giving you a bank account number and asking you to pay money into it.

(Up until recently I still offered this as a payment method myself – the reason being that it is cheaper to receive money in this method, rather than pay PayPal fees, yet payment can still be received quickly. Trouble is you are perceived to be a dodgy seller, and so it’s best not to offer this option!)

It is difficult (though not impossible) to trace any of these transactions in the event of any trouble, so this method is really one to avoid as you are the one taking all the risk just to help a seller save on their fees.

Yes, sellers will often cut you a cheaper deal for doing so, but is it really worth it?

Another method that might save you some money is to pay in cash, but this is an even worse method than the one above, as there is absolutely no way to trace cash movements.

There is also the risk of receiving a nasty knock on the back of your head, your money taken and still not receive an item for your trouble!

This was a method I sadly had to accept (not happily) when selling gig tickets on eBay years ago – every sale (especially those at night as it was going dark) was one which caused me to feel a good deal of concern, to put it mildly!

Hopefully we have now answered your questions regarding how to pay for your EBay winning bids.

In answering these types of question, we usually create a few more questions, so next time I might cover some of the more frequently eBay questions.

The reason for this is simply because they would much prefer that every transaction ends in the successful sale of the listed item, and they do not really want to encourage people to retract their bids.

However, if you really do wish to know how to cancel your eBay bid, then it can be done provided you meet certain conditions that they set out.

For example you will be allowed to cancel your bid if you have simply entered the wrong amount into the bid box. If you had only planned to bid $120 put typed in $1200 then you would be able to withdraw your stated bid.

You could even bid again the correct amount if you so wished.

Another good reason why you would be allowed to cancel your eBay bid would be if the item’s description had changed since you placed your bid.

It can happen where a seller updates their information, and you realise that the item is now no longer suitable for your requirements, which is something that eBay realises. In this situation eBay will allow you to withdraw your bid.

Even not being able to contact the seller after the end of the listing would be a good enough reason to cancel your eBay bid. After all it’s not your fault that they will not reply to your attempts to find out how to pay for the item.

Someone else placed the bid using your account: This situation can occur either if your account has been hacked or if a family member places the bid using your account. Again in this situation, eBay allow you to cancel eBay bid by withdrawing it.

How to retract your bid.
EBay have created an eBay bid retraction form, which you can find simply by searching the eBay help area for “bid retraction” (without the quotes). You will need to fill in this form in order to withdraw and cancel your eBay bid.

You should of course only retract your bids when you have good reason to do so, as eBay keep a publicly visible record of every time you cancel a bid. Your feedback profile will list all the bids you have withdrawn, which might make future transactions less easy.

It’s not just the possible difficulties of not looking like a troublesome eBay member that you have to deal with. There is also the possibility that if you use the eBay bid retraction feature too often, eBay might just ban you!

Frankly, to get your eBay account banned, you would have to really abuse the eBay bid retraction feature by choosing to cancel eBay bids quite often, but its certainly something to be aware of before filling in that form.

Of course, if you contact the seller and both of you agree to a mutual withdrawal of the sale, then that should be fine, as the seller would not wish to risk getting negative feedback from a buyer that is not happy with the item they receive.

They will also get a refund of their listing fees, so it is not going to cost them anything of than time to relist the item.

The process is called an “unpaid item dispute” but as both of you is agreeing to cancel the transaction; the name is really more alarming than needs be.

Provided you explain your situation to the seller, and be polite to them, you should find that all ends well, with no penalties incurred on your part.

Next time we should go back to basics by looking at what you can do after winning an auction.

If you are prepared to think strategically, which is not something those without the right attitude will be doing, then you can outwit your competing buyers and scoop the best price for yourself.

Here is the EBay business strategy that many others have had success with, and you can too:

Make the majority of your purchases in the summer months.
This particular EBay strategy is quite simple when you think about it. Summer is the time when many people are out enjoying the nice weather and forgetting to check out the listings on EBay, so many potential bargains will slip through the net!

Place odd bid amounts on listings.
A rather more ingenious EBay business strategy, but not too difficult to get your head around when you think about it. You can often simply outbid people by a few pennies, rather than larger amounts. This is one of the most popular eBay buying tactics.

Last second bidding.
Without shadow of a doubt the most popular EBay business strategy you will come up against. Knowing the exact time the auction ends (accurate to the second) will allow you to place a bid with only seconds to spare which will not allow your rivals any time to outbid you.

Use this particular EBay strategy with extreme caution as a mistiming may result in your bid arriving at eBay’s computers a split second after the official auction end, thus not being a valid bid.

If you do bid too early your competitor will have time to outbid you, and you may not realise they have done so before you yourself run out of time to place another bid.

I would have to state that this particular EBay business strategy is best used with software that can manage your bidding for you, and would have to recommend Ezsniper as a browser based alternative.

Ignore all the advice regarding safe buying.
This is a strategy only for the very bravest eBay buyer. As all of the advice you normally read, mine included, tells you to buy only from those sellers that have great feedback, good images and well written listings, you might just be missing out on bargains from sellers that do not fall into this category.

For example, new sellers will have low feedback, may not be very good at writing listings and may not take very good pictures. But that does not mean that they are not selling a great item at a great price. But I cannot deny this is quite a risk, as you could easily be conned employing this tactic.

Avoid auction fever like the plague.
Okay fine, not actually an EBay business strategy, but something you must be very careful of every time you login to eBay. It can be tempting to just keep bidding ever higher amounts for an item if you really want it.

However, this will only cost you lots more money than if you are simply patient. You do not know that the seller that has listed the item does not have loads of that exact same item in stock. It could simply be an EBay business strategy of the seller to only list one item at a time to increase the apparent rarity of the item, thus increasing its appeal and price.

Its worth checking on previous seller feedback to see if they do have a habit of splitting the items they sell into different time periods for exactly this reason. Should you discover that they do this, simply bide your time and bid the next time they list something.

Obviously despite the EBay business strategies listed above, you may still find that there are times that you have bid on something, and immediately realised that you have made a mistake doing so.

Believe it or not, you can actually change your mind and cancel your bid, but only if you have a good enough reason. Next time I would like to cover what you can do if you change your mind.

Your choice might be within just the one listing or alternatively it may be between different listings of the two different types.

So should you use that EBay buy it now option or just keep on trying to outbid everyone else? The answer to this question lies in weighing up the advantages and disadvantages of that choice.

The Advantage when you use Buy it Now is that you will know the exact amount that you have to pay should you click on the BUY button – you might even be able to negotiate on the price if you are allowed the option to “make an offer”.

You do not need to struggle with any last second bidding frenzy that is now the norm on eBay with all popular items.

The Disadvantage with using the EBay buy it now option is that you will almost certainly be paying a higher price for the item, especially with more valuable items.

You see sellers often start their auction listings at a lower price to attract bidders, which often gives you the opportunity of getting a bargain providing there aren’t many bidders after all.

There is some argument that it takes some of the fun out of bargain hunting on eBay when you just keep using the EBay buy it now option.

If you just keep using the EBay buy it now option, rather than getting involved in actual auctions, then you might as well just buy your items from any other website or high street shop on the planet.

Of course, there are few times when using the EBay buy it now option would actually allow you to get something cheaper, rather than getting caught up in the “auction fever” of other eBay members.

Frankly, as with many other things online, it’s a personal choice perhaps made with the help of the “price v convenience” question.

Sometimes though, it just makes sense to use the EBay buy it now option straight away, for example when you see a listing where the current bid price is almost as high as the Buy it Now price, then you would just want to end it there and then.

You could use this same tactic in those listings where the seller has started their Buy it now price at a level that is not much higher than their starting price for bids.

You would not go through all the trouble of bidding, and would just instead secure your item and be done with it.

There are many different tactics that you will learn for beating your eBay competition, as you progress online.

After all, it is important to remember that many of the buyers you come up against on eBay are occasional buyers, and don’t really know what they’re doing, at least not as well as you by now.

Keep reading and learning from this blog and you will go far. Next time we will have a look at the tips and tricks you can use on eBay.

When you purchase anything from a seller on eBay, you are taking the risk that they will actually give you the promised item in return for your money.

Regardless of the guarantees and promises of safe trading that eBay make, there are still risks. There are still people who join eBay as sellers with the intention of conning others.

This is why you always have to check the eBay seller’s feedback rating. Their feedback rating lets you see quickly their history as an eBay seller, and allows you to make the decision of whether to buy from them or not.

(The feedback system is not a guarantee in itself though. It is only a guide to what you should expect from the seller. I myself once purchased a SCRUBS DVD from a seller with fantastic feedback, and a long history of importing large quantities of brand new stock into the UK for sale on eBay. Unfortunately, the seller suddenly decided to make lots of sales in one week, without any intention of sending out the goods. As a result of this, myself and other buyers were left out of pocket, and the eBay seller suddenly stopped using eBay.)

So as you can see buying on eBay always carries a higher risk than buying from a recognised high street shop or even a quality website, and you want to reduce that risk.

You reduce your risk level as much as possible by closely checking on an eBay seller’s feedback ratings. The eBay seller’s feedback ratings can be found next to their username, either on the item description page, their “about me” page or their “myworld” page.

There will also be a coloured star next to the username, provided they have earned at least 10 positive feedback comments.

Any eBay seller that has a “shooting” star next to their username is a seller that you should be able to trust, as they have truly massive feedback (after all the coloured stars have been achieved by a seller, they then go all through the same colours again, but this time the stars are called “shooting” stars).

You should take notice of all the comments, both positive and negative that is shown on their feedback profile, which you access by clicking on the feedback number next to their username.

Basically, the higher the number the better, although what really matters is what percentage is positive. Just don’t buy anything from someone with a percentage below 99% as this means that there is a problem once out of every 100 transactions this member is involved in.

Not all negative feedback may be the fault of the seller, in all fairness. Sometimes buyers with little patience don’t like having to wait for items delayed by postal problems, and leave unfair negative feedback that is out of the sellers hands.

Just go through all the comments, replies to comments if any, and use your own judgement as to whether you really want to take a risk with that particular seller. If not find the same item from another eBay seller with better feedback.

Next time we should take a look at the different auction types, as this is something we haven’t looked at in much detail.

So let’s get straight on with discussing your feedback rating, and how that will affect the people that might be considering buying from you.

The rating itself will play a massive part in the decision of whether to risk buying from you on eBay or not.

Every positive or negative feedback comment left on your eBay account will alter your feedback rating higher or lower respectively.

So, for example an eBay member with a feedback rating of 37 might have 40 positive ratings and 3 negative ones.

However another seller that is selling the same item might just have a feedback rating made up just 37 positive comments.

They both have the same score, but which one would you buy from? The one without any negative comments from buyers attached to their eBay account, of course!

And you can bet that all your buyers will feel the same way regarding your eBay feedback rating.

This is why it is so important to try to increase your positive eBay feedback as much as you can, whilst trying to decrease your negative feedback comments as much as possible.

To help you do this, try the following simple steps:

1. Always leave feedback for other members that you transact with, because will increase the chances that they will remember to leave feedback for you.

2. If they don’t leave you a feedback comment its always worth contacting them to make it look like you are showing interest in whether they really liked their item or not. In actuality, you are also giving them a push to enter some feedback comments just like you have done for them.

3. Pay your sellers as quickly as you can, because all sellers love to be paid quickly, and they will likely enter this in their positive feedback comment for you.

4. Do not become a problem customer for your seller. In other words do not expect them to be able to get the item to you too soon after receiving your payment.

There are all sorts of delays in postage and customs that can prevent you from receiving the item as quickly as the seller first estimates.

If you insult the seller you buy from because of something that was not actually their fault then this is unlikely to end up with you receiving positive feedback.

It is important to remember that whether or not you are the buyer or the seller, the feedback you receive is still counted towards the overall rating on your eBay account, so unless you go to the trouble of running two eBay accounts (one for buying and one for selling, which you are allowed to do) you will want to make sure you treat your sellers well in any transaction to avoid their negative comments for you affecting your chances of selling later on.

In other words be a nice buyer – its good for you!

As it’s so important for a seller to have a good eBay reputation figure my next post will be all about sellers’ feedback ratings (and hopefully on time this time!)

CHECK OUT MY NEW IMPROVED EBAY ABOUT ME PAGE

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