Archive for July, 2009

Today starts Part #2.1 of “how to find out exactly what to sell on eBay for insane profits”. In last weeks blog post you learned “what” a “supply number” was, the importance of it and “how” to accurately ”drill down” and get it.

So let’s pick back up where we left off and get the correct “supply numbers” using my same example of “golf shoes” ….

If I was going to just sell “men’s golf shoes” then I would need to “drill down” further and collect the supply number just for “men’s golf shoes”. But for our example I plan on selling golf shoes for men, women and youth so it won’t be necessary for me to “drill down” any further.

So I will just grab the total supply number for men, women and youth golf shoes which turns out to be 4,122.

How To Search eBay Correctly

Now take the top #3 on your DHIP list and search eBay by doing the same. Write down the “supply number” next to each one that you research. If you’re market is narrow like “men’s golf shoes” then just write down that supply number for “men’s golf shoes”.

But if your market is broader like “golf shoes” then make sure that you write down the total supply number for all those sub-categories combined as in my example above with men, women and youth “golf shoes”.

eBay Side Note - So Pay Attention!

And as you research each one on your DHIP list I also want you to pay SUPER CLOSE ATTENTION to any potential “niche markets” that you may spot that may have huge potential. Here’s what I mean….

eBay Golden Nugget - So Listen Closely!

Looking at the same exact example from above, what do you see now?

Search eBay Correctly

Do you see that (#4 in bright red)? It’s unfortunate but 98% of eBay sellers mistakenly miss this by flat-out overlooking it simply because they believe that finding out what to sell on eBay surely couldn’t be that easy.

Both “women” and “youth” show some low supply numbers which means that there might be possible “niche markets” here that may be untapped. Or then again it could mean that there isn’t a market here at all and that’s why nobody’s selling in it.

Either way you wouldn’t know until you “researched” the market and “weighed” it to see if it would be profitable enough to build a successful eBay business.

I just wanted to bring that to your attention as you search eBay going through your top #3 so that you’ll keep your eyes peeled for possible niche markets (they’re everywhere once you’re consciously aware). This is how I have built several of our most profitable eBay businesses.

True eBay Story - Learn From It!

I’ve been doing this so long that I can spot a hungry market within minutes of exploring it but I wasn’t like that when I first started.

Do you remember a few blog posts ago when I shared with you about our carburetor business and how my ignorance nearly cost us our first six-figure eBay business to the tune of $251,093.51?

Well – when I first explored drag racing and finally realized that there was “other markets” within markets from “drilling down” deep into all those sub-sub-sub-sub categories, the “supply number” for carburetors was only around 75-150. Which means that there was only about 75-150 auctions listed at any given time selling carburetors.

And do you know what that little voice inside my head said when I saw those low supply numbers? Something very stupid like ……

“Duane, there isn’t anybody selling carburetors so there must not be a market for it or otherwise everybody in the world would be selling them”.

Can you believe I said that ?????

My own ignorance cost me a bundle early on but I learned quickly from raising skinny kids. I wanted to share that with you because the only time that YOU’LL really pay attention and see these opportunities is when you’re researching.

Just like one of my mentors once told me….

“Very rarely will a good idea interrupt you”

In other words you have to be thinking about it, paying attention and consciously aware of what’s around you at all times. Awareness is a crucial part of success and it’s one of your “senses” that needs to be sharpened every day if you’re going to make money on ebay.

eBay Golden Nugget - So Listen Closely!

Listen, don’t get caught up and start chasing every little niche you may find. What will happen is that a month will go by and you will have not accomplished anything because your master DHIP list just grew to 300.

Now there’s nothing wrong with having a large master DHIP list to have multiple choices or to build multiple businesses from but when it causes you to get caught up in the “paralyses of analysis” – you’ll become paralyzed by analyzing all the numbers.

And when that happens you’ll lose your focus and become confused about which direction to go in, what to do next and or what eBay business to start with.

So follow this simple rule ….

If they fit one of your Top #3 then add them to it but if they don’t fit then put them on your master DHIP list. You don’t want to get distracted here because you can always come back to them later.

Okay, let’s finish getting up the “supply numbers” for each of your Top #3 and if you spot some potential untapped “niche markets” with low supply numbers then just add them to your master DHIP list.

Focus all of your energy and efforts on your Top #3 and when you’re done your chart should look something like this:

eBay Secret Weapon

Okay – that’s it for this post. You definitely don’t want to miss next weeks post as I will be taking you behind the scenes with me and showing you one of our little-eitty-bitty eBay test businesses that generates $150,000 (+) per year.

I’ll be sharing how you can still make money on eBay even in this so called recession by practicing one simple technique.

And if you haven’t already done so, make sure that you’ve signed up directly below to receive the Advanced Blog Notifications and claim YOUR FREE copy of ……

“How To Avoid The 7 Deadliest eBay Sins And Profit”

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Chat Soon,

Blessings – Duane Hope

P.S. Go ahead and post a comment below and let me know your thoughts about todays training. And if you think this information will help someone else make money on eBay – then feel free to share it with them by using the “Share/Save” button directly below 8-) .

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Research eBay Markets

Today we’re going to start Part #2 of “how to find out exactly what to sell on eBay for insane profits”.

(Side Note:  If you just stumbled on this blog or you’re just getting started with our trainings then you need to start here on “how to make money on eBay” or you’ll get left behind)

By now you should have createdexpanded and prioritized your DHIP list. Now it’s time to “Research The Market”. And this process is broken down into three action steps…..

  • Action Step #1: Research eBay

  • Action Step #2: Research Google

  • Action Step #3: Research Competition

Our focus today is going to be in Action Step #1 which is researching eBay to collect the “supply number” for each of the Top #3 on your DHIP list.

Now I’m pretty sure that you’re probably asking yourself “what the heck is a supply number” and “what does it have to do with finding out what to sell on eBay” ?

So before we blaze off getting the “supply numbers” for your Top #3, I’ll need to fill you in on what a “supply number” is and more importantly - how to accurately “drill down” and get it.

So let me explain what it is first…..

The “supply number” represents the amount of “supply” that’s available to consumers in eBay’s marketplace for whatever category they’re searching in.

But - to you and I, when it comes to making money on eBay….

It’s A Gold Mine!

Here’s what I mean…..

The “supply number” is essentially the amount of “competition” listed on eBay at any given time for that particular category. And this is very valuable “insider information” (you’ll see why in just a second) but only if you know how to use it.

The “supply numbers” are never exactly the same from day to day. They are always changing by the minute as old listings end and new ones start which is normal. You’ll find that for the most part the numbers remain somewhat consistent within a few hundred to a few thousand depending on the popularity and level of competition in that category.

Now here’s the valuable part that I mentioned a second ago….

If you know how to use these numbers correctly, then it’s like having the secret numbers to the combination that unlocks the vault to a never ending supply of what to sell on eBay.

In other words, it’s the magic number that YOU will need when it comes time to “weigh” your markets against one another to decide on what to sell on eBay that will allow YOU to create wealth in.

Now before we can get started collecting the “supply numbers” for your Top #3 - it’s very important to understand that the “research” that you do here must be accurate.

And that’s not all either….

As we “drill down” into categories, sub-categories and sub-sub-sub-categories it will be extremely important that you pay close ATTENTION and make double sure that you’re in the right category BEFORE you collect the “supply numbers”.

If you’re not then you will gather the wrong numbers and if that happens you will make the WRONG business decisions when it comes time to decide on what to sell on eBay.

So let me walk you through the correct process of “drilling down” using one of my hobbies (golf) that was on my DHIP list.

Now golf is a pretty “broad” industry so back a blog post or so ago when we were “exploring” our markets by clicking on categories, sub-categories and sub-sub-sub-categories - I added to my DHIP list different products/ideas that interested me in the “golf” market (I hope you did yours too – if not you’ll miss out BIG time).

My DHIP list looked like this:

Golf>>>>>

  • Golf Bags

  • Golf Balls

  • Golf Clubs

  • Golf Carts

  • Golf Shoes

  • Golf Clothes

  • etc., etc., etc., …..

How To Drill Down And Research eBay Correctly Step #1

Let’s “drill down” together so you can see the actual process of getting there. From the image above I would now click on “golf” and it would bring me to the next page that may look something like this ….

How To Drill Down And Research eBay Correctly Step #2

From the image above I would then click on where it says “Clothing, Shoes & Accessories” and the next page may look like this ….

How To Drill Down And Research eBay Correctly Step #3

And then finally I would click on where is says “shoes” like what the above image is showing and the next page may look like this ….

How To Drill Down And Research eBay Correctly Step #4


Keep in mind that there are several different ways you can get to any category that you’re searching for on eBay. I’ve just shown you one way but regardless this is how you “drill down” to make sure that you’re in the correct category before you collect the “supply number”.

Okay – that’s it for this post. You don’t want to miss the next post as I will be walking you step-by-step showing you how to…..

  • Grab Your Supply Number

  • What To Do With It

  • How To “SPOT” Potential Niche Markets (98% of eBay sellers mistakenly overlook this)

And if you haven’t already done so, make sure that you’ve signed up directly below to receive the Advanced Blog Notifications and claim YOUR FREE copy of ……

“How To Avoid The 7 Deadliest eBay Sins And Profit”

Subscribe
Name:
E-mail:

 

 

Chat Soon,

Blessings – Duane Hope

P.S. Go ahead and post a comment below and let me know your thoughts about todays training. And if you think this information will help someone else make money on eBay – then feel free to share it with them by using the “Share/Save” button directly below 8-) .

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Okay, today we’re going to pick back up on the “market research process” to find out what to sell on eBay by knocking out the last two action steps in “exploring the market”. And those are “expanding your DHIP list” and “prioritizing your DHIP list”

If you haven’t done action step #1 (Creating Your DHIP List) then you need to do that now or otherwise you’ll be left behind and have no clue on how to find out what to sell on eBay. You can do that here.

Action Step #2:  Expanding Your DHIP List

Very Important eBay Side Note

Take your master DHIP list out and log onto eBay and then type your first one in the search box like this example below. We’re going to search each one – one at a time.

Search eBay

In this example I typed in golf. Now press the search button and lets see what we can find. When the next page comes up I want you to start paying attention to things like….

  • What kinds of different products are showing up?
  • What types of categories are showing up?
  • What types of sub-categories are showing up?
  • What types of sub-sub-sub-categories are showing up?
  • What types of products are showing up that compliment the ones on your DHIP list?
  • What types of products are showing up that are related but different than the ones on your DHIP list?

Here, let’s take a look…..

How To Find What To Sell On eBay

The purpose here is to help you see “past the door” and expand your thinking to see opportunities that are on the other side of your master DHIP list that you’re not aware of just yet.

On several of our businesses, we may  have started out with “golf” (example only) but after “exploring the market” we found other products/ideas that we would have never thought of.

Listen closely……

Many times what you start out looking for is totally different than what you end up with. Just like with our own true story earlier about “drag racing”. We started out there but by “exploring eBay” it opened my eyes and got me to seeing, thinking, and understanding the possibilities of what to sell on eBay.

And what I ended up with was quite different than what I started out with which lead us to making money on eBay with our first six-figure business that brought in $251,091.53 in just under 12 months.

That’s why I want you to write everything down that you see and make NO decisions yet as to whether or not you think you can make money on eBay with it. It isn’t time for that.

Take your master DHIP list and “explore the market”. Do each one and do them one at a time. And as you explore each one write down ALL the other possible products/ideas that you see.

This should take you at least an hour to do each one. And that’s why it’s called “exploring the market”. Have fun with it and don’t get in a rush on this. It’s perfectly okay if this takes you one day or one week.

Action Step #3:  Prioritizing Your DHIP List

Once you’re done, take your master DHIP list and passionize it (okay, thats a word that I made up)! What I mean is to go through your master DHIP list and prioritize it with the TOP #3 that you’re most passionate about, the most interested in and or would have the most fun doing as a way of making money on eBay.

Those will be the ones that we research first from your master DHIP list and the reason why is simply because it doesn’t make sense to start where your heart isn’t the happiest!


eBay Golden Nugget

I wanted to point out that you will need a simple chart to help you stay organized so that you can record and then review all of your information intelligently at a single glance. This really helps especially when it comes time to “weigh” and “decide” on what to sell on eBay as far as your market.

When I first started I did this with a sheet of paper and drew some lines on it with the edge of a book because I didn’t know how to use Microsoft Excel (yes, I was that dumb). Now I use Microsoft and I have an image below of what that looks like.

eBay Secret Weapon

I used this to keep up with all the information about the top #3 on my DHIP list. You will notice other information on there that will become important in the next coming weeks. I would encourage you to have something like this even if you had to hand write it on a sheet of paper like I did.

Okay – that’s it for this post. You don’t want to miss the next post as I will be starting Part 2 of the “market research process” which is ”researching the market”.

And if you haven’t already done so, make sure that you’ve signed up directly below to receive the Advanced Blog Notifications and claim YOUR FREE copy of ……

“How To Avoid The 7 Deadliest eBay Sins And Profit”

Subscribe
Name:
E-mail:

 

 

Chat Soon,

Blessings – Duane Hope

P.S. Go ahead and post a comment below and let me know your thoughts about todays training. And if you think this information will help someone else make money on eBay – then feel free to share it with them by using the “Share/Save” button directly below 8-) .

Share/Save/Bookmark

Post to Twitter

Categories : Market Tips
Comments (2)