Adam Ginsberg put on quite a show in his eBay session. For those who’ve not seen Adam speak… it’s an experience. All of the speakers showed confidence, but Adam just oozes it.
Adam’s session started with Mark Anthony Bates introducing him. Now, Mark Anthony describes himself as ‘the coaches coach’ and what he seems to do it coach speakers on how to sell effectively from the platform (i.e. exactly what Adam was about to do)… and he certainly did a great job of lending credibility to Adam.
Adam’s job was to sell his training/coaching program on ‘being wildly successful on eBay’… and before he was half way through his pitch there were people signing up (without even hearing how much he was going to charge) - he was good.
So, what did we learn from the session? Well, of course the best stuff is kept for the course, but a few anecdotes about mistakes people make on eBay:
Terrible pictures
A picture says a lot and a small or unflattering picture isn’t going to help your position. The picture of a shiny kettle which reflected the naked man taking the photo, probably isn’t the best way to start a bidding frenzy - and yes, this was real.
Bad descriptions
When you create an auction you include a title - that title contains keywords that are used as a part of the search… so, its kind of important to at the least say what your product is. Adam showed some examples of property on eBayRealestate.com where advertisers had missed out key worlds like ‘house’, one example read something like ‘family of four’ (presumably meaning ‘a house suitable for a family of four’) - ooops.
This kind of description means that far fewer people find the listing… and so are ideal for bargain hunter in the know.
Incorrect spelling
Again, the title is key. Misspelling your keywords is both good and bad.
Firstly, someone may misspell the keyword when running a search. So including common miss-spellings is smart. But, leaving out the correct spelling isn’t.
Adam cited a new computer described as a ‘Laptoob’ instead of a ‘laptop’ - that one was a bargain!
Bad layout
Adam showed before and after examples of layout. Where a property with an uncompelling layout was bought cheap and then re-listed using the same pictures and content, but a professional layout, re-sold for a health profit.
In absolute summary, because eBay is so huge ($21,000m in sales, 247+ million registered members, 1,371m listings in 37 countries) there is huge scope for buying cheap from badly listed products and reselling for a profit.
The crux of Adam’s promise for this event, seemed to be:
- I can teach you how to build your your list through eBay - and so build your Internet business
- You can make a good income part-time
Though I’d have to say that the overall effect of this session was probably too much for me. There were a few common sales techniques employed that were surprisingly crude (like increasing the number of spaces available from 27 to 37 as they were about sell out, because of ‘pressure from the organisers’, hmmm), that spoilt the rapport for me… but my impression is still that Adam certainly knows eBay!
Enjoy…
-Mark
Mark Quirk is a director at Know It Use It Ltd
http://www.ValuedClientSystem.com - From Prospects to Customers to Valued Clients
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