Thanks for stopping by and posting your thoughts. I really appreciate you sharing them with me.

Don’t worry – I’ve been where you’re at and you’re not alone.

Back when Heather and I started, we had no home, no car, no money and I peddled six miles one way every day to build my eBay business.

The best advice that I can give you is to make sure that you sell in the right “market”.

And the reason why is simply because the “market” will always determine your overall financial outcome….. PERIOD!

Get this right and you’re set for life – but if you get it wrong, then you’ll always find yourself struggling to make more than enough money.

Just remember – the “MARKET” is your very FIRST step in the success formula – NOT THE LAST!

I do have a course called the Auction Market Blueprint that will walk you step-by-step through this process but unfortunately it’s sold out at this time.

But if you like – I’ll keep you posted the next time I release it.

Have a super great week selling on eBay!

Blessings,
Duane
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Thanks so much for taking the time to share this information. You come across as a straight-shooter.

I lost my income two years ago and have looked into many online “opportunities” and decided to open an ebay store about one month ago. It has been slow going so far, but I haven’t given up. We are starting this store on a shoe-string, as I am so broke I can’t even pay attention. Your videos have given me hope, and I hope you continue to share your expertise with us.

Its good to feel we are not alone!

Thanks and Happy Trails
Clint

Great questions and I appreciate you posting your thoughts and concerns.

I’ll do my best to answer them but let me share with you ahead of time that my answers may not be what you want to hear. And the reason why is because I’m not the typical person who wastes time begging, chasing or trying to convince people to buy their products. Now I don’t mean that to sound mean, rude or ugly. It’s just that life is to busy for that kind of stuff….

1) Yes, you won’t find any “real” reviews about me or my stuff. As a matter of fact, you won’t even find a FB or MySpace account. And even though I could dominated the cyber space on “everything eBay”, I choose not to because I’m not a “spot light” person. I value my “quality time” with my family way to much to sacrifice it.

And besides that – I’m very content with my Private Coaching Program that I’ve never advertised for but yet there is a solid 3-6 month “pre-paid” waiting list of clients.

And the final reason why you won’t find any reviews is because up until last week when I release the Auction Market Blueprint, I have never released any of my products to the public before. My products have always been exclusively for my clients only.

2) As far as the stuff I teach – 93% of all my clients have been selling on eBay for at least 10+ years and they have never once seen what I teach before. And the reason why is because its “original” and can only come from years of mastering eBay.

The reason why the stuff you buy is like everybody else’s is because it’s rehashed basics that everybody teaches. And the reason why they teach that crap is because they don’t know how to find outrageously profitable markets, create irresistible offers, hoard up all the traffic on eBay and dominate entire markets seemingly overnight.

Here’s what I mean….

Back 10 years ago eBay was new and uncomplicated. You could throw anything out there and make money without even trying. It wasn’t sophisticated, competitive or overcrowded. It was EASY to make money.

And because of that – you had hundreds of people selling their course about “how to make money on eBay”.

But where are those people today? Have you noticed that they aren’t there anymore? Have you ever wondered why?

It’s because their basic stuff doesn’t work (never did).

You see, eBay’s not that same little flea market that it once was. It has evolved, gotten bigger, more competitive, more sellers selling, more listings out there, more big companies on board and so forth and so on.

And today, more than ever – you have to have “real” marketing skills, sales skills, traffic skills and conversion skills just to name a few.

That’s why our “test businesses” are ranked in the top 2 spots at Terapeak for the last six years with over 500 sellers selling in those markets.

I didn’t share that to brag – I shared that to prove a point that it takes more than dumb luck or basics to achieve those results.

3) As far as your competitors canceling each other out – well, it doesn’t work that way. You can ALWAYS beat the competition. But I will share this – if any of your competitors have gone through my private coaching program – then you may want to sell in a different market because they will be extremely hard to beat unless you can out “skill” them.

4) I understand your skepticism and its perfectly normal. Maybe the timing isn’t right for you. And if that’s the case then I would recommend putting your money away and just sticking with my free stuff on the blog for now. Implement what you want and if it helps you make more money – then you’ll know

I hope this has helped….

Have a super great week selling on eBay!

Blessings,
Duane Hope

I have been selling on eBay for 11+ years and have been at a Power Seller and Top Rated Seller for several years. I have purchased a couple books from well known sellers and most of the stuff they were teaching was just common sales strategies that I have been using.

One of my concerns is the stuff you are teaching might be some of the techniques I am currently using. However, I am always trying to find new ways to get more traffic and increase my sales, so you might show me some new ideas.

My second concern is if, what you are teaching, the techniques and strategies are being used my competitors on eBay, wouldn’t we be canceling each other out?

I anxiously await your response as I do have some interest in your product.

First: I added a bonus, improved the satisfaction guarantee, updated my old Windows XP screen shots to new Windows 7 screen shots to refresh the image and not look old, and re organized how the information is laid out, but I still have a lot to do.

Second: You’re absolutely right and I fully understand, but I figured I just throw a bunch of stuff from your book at all once, on eBay it helped (though on eBay I didn’t raise the price, I just added free shipping and transferred the cost of shipping to the product price), but from now on I’ll test just one thing at a time. I’ve also just programmed my sales page to show a sales graph for each product as well as for each source of sales (ebay, my website, affiliates), that’s how I was able to pinpoint the falling sales where specifically the sales of the standard version from my website that were dropping, so these new detailed graphs I programmed will help testing tremendously.

Third: I did allow at least 1 week with the changes and it kept falling so for now I halved the price back in hopes of stopping the fall. But you’re right that it could have been other reasons. Is one week long enough or should I test for longer? Even if another tests yields a sudden dramatic overnight fall in sales, should I still allow more than one week?

Fourth: I did add a bonus worth $12.99 but raised my price by $15 so it still ends up a higher price:value ratio. Should I add a bonus worth $29.99 and increase the price back up by $15?

Fifth: I still have a lot of work to do on my offer and other points so this is very likely.

Sixth: I think you’ve hit the nail on the head here (so much so that I’ll copy/paste part of your message), my website looks like it was made by a 5 year old because I have no design skills and it is indeed unattractive, unorganized, cluttered up and totally laid out wrong. And since that’s the case, then when I raised my price – people left.

And the reason why they left is because……
They didn’t see any “value” because it’s unattractive…..
They didn’t understand what they get because it’s unorganized…..
They didn’t understand your offer because it’s cluttered up…..
They didn’t know what to do because it’s laid out wrong…..

OK enough with copying your message, but you can see you have indeed hit the nail on the head with this point (not that the others aren’t also true).

One of my top priorities is to hire someone to redo my design from the bottom up.

I think it’s the combination of raising the prices and your 6 points that likely caused the drop in sales, when those 6 points will be addressed, then I’ll raise the price again.

Thanks a lot for everything, I greatly appreciate it.

I can only “assume” what’s happened or going on here since I don’t know your business or what you have applied. So please understand that anything I say below is “BASED ON EXPERIENCE” at this point.

And please don’t take what I say personally

First:
What exactly did you apply from the 7 DEADLIEST eBAY SINS to your website?

Second:
It sounds like you tested several things at once which is a no-no.

When you “test” – only test ONE thing at a time for a specific period of time and then “measure” the results. Never test multiple things at once because you have no way to track what worked and what didn’t.

Also, when you do test – you must allow ample time to measure the effectiveness. If you judge to soon – you loose!

Case in point…. I have many businesses that do well over the $500,000 mark annually but some days there are NO sales. If I just tested on those days – then my results would show that whatever I tested didn’t work. And if that happened – I would be broke right now!

When I test something – I only test ONE thing at a time for an ample amount of time. Then I make sure that everything I test is “tested” consistently against each other every time.

Third:
Your sales could have fallen off for numerous reasons like: bad traffic day, cart problems, server problems, un-targeted traffic, web browser problems, etc., etc., etc…

Fourth:
It could be that no one sees any “real value” in your offer or the “value” that you’re offering them isn’t what they really want. Sales will fall off immediately when folks raise the price without adding any “real value” to the offer.

Fifth:
It could be that you’re attracting ALL the poverty conscious people to your business by what you say in your copy and how you present them your offer. If you raised your price from $15 to $30 bucks and sales fell off – then its either YOU, YOUR market or YOUR offer.

Its ALWAYS one of those three or any combination of them.

Sixth:
It could be that your website is unattractive, unorganized, cluttered up and totally laid out wrong. And if that’s the case, then when you raise your price – people leave.

And the reason why they leave is because……

All they see is a “price” because that’s what they’re conditioned to look for first. But unfortunately, the price “DOSEN’T” do the selling. So they leave

Right now its very unfair to blame “raising your prices” as the culprit.

Remember, “assumption leads to failure”. You must never assume in business!

Blessings,
Duane

I tried a small experiment on my website with horrible results. I applied some of the things you recommend in the 7 deadliest eBay sins to my website and doubled the price.

That very day the sales of the Standard edition from my website stopped completely and my sales graph from my site has been in literal free fall since that day, so today I halved my prices back to what they were, but kept the other changes.

Why did doubling my price ground my sales to a complete halt for several days? I haven’t yet tried a higher price on eBay, but now I’m worried doubling my price there will also cause sales to grind to a complete halt.

So what did I do wrong for my higher price and better offer to cause my sales to free fall?

Thanks

You’ve got some great questions and I’ll do my best to answer them – but first I want you to remember this……

If you try to stay “inline” with your competitors – then that means that you have to actually take your eyes off of where you’re going to “look back” at them.

And when you do this – your are no longer FOCUSED on your market, what they need or how you’re going to deliver it to them.

I would personally be the “LEADER” in my market which means that I don’t look back at my competition. So trying to be “inline” with your competitors is counter productive.

Before you can decide upon your price – you must first decide what “type” of customers you want to attract to your business (I’ve already made you videos explaining this so make sure you finish watching them)

If you’re going to have a “lead in” product or a “basic version” – then make sure that it doesn’t scream “cheap” in price, quality and value to your customers.

And the reason why is simply because if your customer buys your “basic version” at a cheap price but sees “no real value” after using it – then they will never see the value in upgrading to a “higher version”.

Remember, price has very little to do with “value”…. so make sure that you are OVER delivering tremendous value in your “basic version” as well.

Knowing this, I would establish, structure, package and deliver my “basic version” with a price point of around $29 to $49 and my “higher version” at a price point of around $69 to $99. Of course, you have to see the value in these prices yourself, first, BEFORE your customers ever will.

Remember, be the LEADER in your market – NOT the FOLLOWER

Thanks for sharing your success….

Have a great week!

Blessings,
Duane

I applied some of your recommendations from your 7 Deadliest eBay Sins book to my listings and within days noticed higher sales, but I have A LOT more to learn and apply.

I had emailed you about the eBay auction sniping software I sell and you told me my price was too cheap and you guessed that I’m trying to keep my prices inline with competitors. Well it’s partly true, but I intentionally made a much more limited basic version of the software to sell at a price that’s inline with the competitors, but also have a better version which I sell for about twice the price but it’s still not much more since we’re talking under $20.

What would you recommend I do with my “basic” and “standard” versions? I was thinking of increasing the price of the basic version just slightly, but increase the standard version from around $15 to $30-50 to see how that goes for a few weeks. Of course as I improve my listings even more I’ll be able to charge even more later.

These videos really made me realize my price is way too low and my customers are getting much more than they are paying for as well as the fact that I am attracting unwanted customers, I always wished there was a way to filter out these bad customers, what you teach seems like it will do that AND increase my sales!

It’s interesting to note that my sales were the highest when my price was the highest, and were the lowest when my price was lowest.

Thank you very much for all the videos and information you share, it is really helping me slowly get my business to where I know it can be.

Thanks for stopping by and posting. I really appreciate the comment

I’ll do my best to keep bringing you great training about making money on eBay!

Best Wishes,
Duane Hope