WhatReallySellsBlog.com

There’s an ebook that will be selling on ClickBank soon. I haven’t actually seen it and I don’t understand exactly what it’s about but I recommend that you don’t buy it.

How absurd is that statement?

That’s just what one internet marketers is telling his subscribers. Only he’s talking about a new opportunity called Exponent Trading.

In a nutshell Exponent Trading is a company that trains people to become ebay consignment sellers. They provide training, support? and the tools to manage your auctions.

But, there’s also a MLM aspect to Exponent Trading: you can bring in other people under you and train them and you will earn a commission on their sales. This goes several levels deep (I can’t rememeber off the top of my head how deep)

Terry Gibbs sent an email out to his subscribers today telling them to “just say NO to Exponent Trading Company.” Quoting from his email Terry says…

Over the past few days I’ve been contacted by a number of people asking me to join the latest eBay fad. All the people who contacted me told me The Exponent Trading Company was a chance to make some good money off my list.

None of them could explain how it would benefit my readers, just how I could profit from telling you about it. I looked at this “opportunity” and I’m saying NO THANK YOU.

You can read Terry’s entire post on his blog here:
news.iwantcollectibles.com/reviews/exponent-trading.shtml

I’m not completely sold on Exponent Trading either. Not yet. BUT, I am willing to give them a chance. So I signed up. I haven’t decided if I’m going to promote the opportunity to my list or not. If it’s something I think will be good for my list you better believe I’ll promote it. If not I won’t. And I’ll let you know why.

But, I’m NOT? going to set here and bash a company without checking them out throughly for myself. Whether I have a competing product or not.

And “checking them out” doesn’t mean spending a few minutes pursuing their website and faq. It means buying the product and putting it to the test. I feel that it’s my duty to my subscribers to spend my own money and more importantly my time to check something out before I recommend it (or not) — As publishers, internet marketers, whatever you want to call us isn’t that what we’re supposted to do?

I’m one of the people Terry’s referring to that called him. But, I didn’t ask him to join. I asked him if he wanted to get on a conference call with me, Skip Mcgrath and a couple of other people to discuss Exponent Trading. He told me why he wasn’t interested so I dropped it and we talked about other things.

Now, personally, I think Terry Gibbs is a genius. I don’t just mean a “genius” the way internet marketers throw around the word “genius” when talking about their internet marketering buddies. I’ve had many telephone conversations with Terry that have lasted for hours and hours just talking about eBay and internet marketing, business and life in general. I know a genius when I see one and Terry’s a genius.

And he knows his stuff too. Terry’s been a consignment seller for years. He’s written a manual on consignment selling that he’s now giving away for free to prove that he’s not bashing Exponent Trading just because he has a competing product.

I respect that but I don’t think it really proves anything. People have to go to his website to get the book. He’ll still get people to sign up for his list. He’ll still sell stuff on the backend. It’s smart marketing but trust me — Terry’s getting something out of giving away his Consignment Book.

(I’ve been giving free access to my eBay training videos for almost a year. You can view them here and there ain’t nothing to sign up for: www.30dayauctionchallenge.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=11

BTW, the forum is closed to new users because of spammers running amuck but you can still read all the posts and watch the videos)

Plus, why the heck would Terry PAY for a Google Adword ad for the keyword phrase “Exponent Trading” UNLESS he’s tring to stir up a little contraversy and drive traffic to his site?

Anyway, to Terry’s question — what exactly is the benefit of Exponent Trading?

I’ll answer that but first let me ask you a questions: Out of all those books and courses and videos and audios that you’ve bought over the years have you actually done anything with the knowledge? Have you even read or watched or listened to them? Be honest now! I know I’m guilty of buying stuff and never even looking at it so don’t be ashamed to admit it.

We all have lives outside of the internet. We’re all busy ALL the time. Who has the time to filter through all the stuff and figure out what we need to do?

I think THAT is the benefit that Exponent Trading brings to the table. Providing not just the opportunity but also the training, the motivation to do something and the support to fall back on when things don’t go as planned.

Some people don’t need that. They have no trouble jumping into the deep end of the pool and figuring out how to swim before they sink.

But for the rest of us — we do need that extra help. We need the training. The support. The motivation. Heck, just knowing you can pick up the phone and call someone when you get stuck! That’s huge.

I’ll be checking out Exponent Trading over the next few weeks. I’ll let you know what I find out. Good or bad.

James

I just received an email from a subscriber who asked…

“What suggestions do you have regarding writing copy fast? ”

She is referring to the auction descriptions and how much time it takes to write them.?

Here’s my reply to her:

Yes, writing descriptions for multiple listings can be time consuming.? One thing you can do is take more pictures and let them do the talking.? Then just add a few sentences about the condition and point out anything unusual or noteworthy (features, included accessories, etc.)? ? Just make sure your pictures are not too large.? I have some lessons on www.30dayauctionchallenge.com that show you how to take pictures.

The most important things about your listing are (in this order):

Product Itself (is it a product that people want?)
The Title (you have 55 characters to both describe the item and include keywords that people will search for)
Gallery Picture
Pictures in the auction
Description

See how far down the description is on the list?? Get the other 4 things right and you can scrimp on the description.?

Try using an assembly line technique:

1)? ? ? ? ? ? Take all the pictures for all the items at the same time.
2)? ? ? ? ? ? Crop and prepare the pictures and upload them to your picture hosting service.
3)? ? ? ? ? ? Use a template to prepare the auctions.
4)? ? ? ? ? ? List the auctions on ebay using Turbo Lister.

I have lessons that cover most of this at www.30dayauctionchallenge.com

James

If you’ve ever wondered where all those phishing scams come from check out this post on Brian Krebs blog:

http://snipurl.com/u18y?

James

Great news guys:? For the entire month of August I’m going to help you get your auction business off the ground.? My goal is to help as many people as possible list their first auction and make a profit within 30 days.?

I’ll be creating step by step videos that you can watch to help you with the mechanics of listing items, writing keyword packed titles, growing your feedback fast, etc.? We’ll also have a discussion board were you can go to get help from other ebayers.? Finally, we’ll have teleconference calls on various auction topics.? ?

Best of all — it’s all free and you won’t even have to sign up for anything.?

More details later…

James

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http://pages.ebay.com/buy/bigticket/index.html

This is mostly real estate, businesses for sale and vehicles but occassionally something unexpected will show up.? For instance, check out these two:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6049821442&category=50340

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6272172482&category=14895

Somebody please explain that “Ruinscape” thing to me.? I’m at a complete loss.

James

I’ve created a new video that shows you a free eBay related service that allows you to bid using your cell phone. The cool thing is if you sign up and use this service one time they will deposit $20.00 in your Paypal account.

Go here to watch the video:

http://www.emergencycashgenerators.com/unwiredbuyer/

James

I’ll be hosting an Mpire Business Center Teleclass on June 28th called? ” How to Drive External Traffic to your eBay Auctions”

Many people use eBay to drive traffic to their websites.? ? And that’s a great technique because eBay is a gigantic traffic generation machine.? ? But you can also generate more sales and drive up the final price of your auction items by tapping into external sources of traffic and driving this traffic to your auctions.? ? We’re going to discuss the many benefits of driving external traffic to your auctions and show you how to tap into free and low cost sources of external traffic almost effortlessly.?

Stay tuned for complete details and call in number.

James

Someone asked a question about Beanie Babies after I had already prepared the questions that I asked Jenni in our interview so I emailed her the question and she was kind enough to respond.?

Here’s the question and Jenni’s answer:

Question:? ? My friend has a closet full of Beanie Babies.? All with tags and bagged.? He realizes that the price on beanie babies has dropped through the basement.? Any chance they will ever come back?? Also, what happened?? Why did prices drop so dramatically??

Answer:? ? Just like in any other market – trends come and go. Certain toys will be incredibly popular for a season or two and then they will get oversaturated in the market (or on ebay) and the value will start to go down. When the supply exceeds the demand for an item, it drops significantly in value. I think this is the case with Beanie Babies – they were very hot on ebay a few years back… but, have been oversaturated. As more people discovered they were hot, more people started selling them. Soon you could find them everywhere and people lost interest. The hottest things in the 70’s and 80’s are making a come back now… (Care Bears, My Little Pony, Cabbage Patch Kids to name a few). If this type of cycle continues, my guess would be that Beanie Babies that were hot in the 90’s will make a come back in another 10 years or so. (Please note, I make no guarantees on this – just my opinion bases on current trends)

Although there are plenty of Beanie Baby auctions that are not doing well at all (one listing that completed in the last 30 days had 82 Beanie Babies – some mint condition – end at just over $40), apparently you can still make some money on Beanie Babies. The condition of the item, whether there are defects in the manufacturing, and whether the item is discontinued (or retired) will affect the value of a Beanie Baby. Some defects can actually raise the value of a Beanie Baby (such as tush-tag errors). And, of course there is more value if the item is in mint condition and retired. You can look at collector guides online (check out the Toy Reference Guide included as a bonus to the summer Toy Guide package) to determine how rare the Beanie Babies you have are.?

If you missed my interview with Jenni go here to listen:

http://www.kickbuttideas.com/huntedtreasure/

James

Check out this auction:?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=8279289006

Pay attention to the image in the mirror at the very end of the video.?

I’m betting the seller did this on purpose to create a viral effect (ie: get people to link to his auction like I’m doing here)? ?

At the time of this post there were 1271 views to the auction with 8 days left.? Will be interesting to see where it ends up.?

James

Sorry I haven’t been posting lately.? I took a little break after launching “Where To Find Truly Profitable High Demand Products to Sell on eBay”? and went to Virginia to visit my mom and brothers and sister and nieces and nephews.?

I got back last week ready to roll my sleaves up and get back to work and found that my computer had? s l o w e d ? d o w n? t o? a? c r a w l.? Looks like I have some insepid spyware that is intercepting my keystrokes and doing all sorts of evil stuff.? ? I hope people who write these spyware and adware programs suffer a long and painful death.

Anyway, my computer is ancient? (i’ve been putting off buying a new one because I know I’m going to? lose 2 or 3 days during? the transition process) so I’m getting a new one.? I called my computer guy and he told me I needed a? mega warp variable speed something or other and? a? co-processing vector spaculator, etc, etc.? I said, “will it load Word without soiling itself” and he assured me it would.?

So, I’m getting it next week.? I think it comes with a cole slaw attachment.?

Speaking of, “Where To Find Truly Profitable High Demand Products to Sell on eBay” — if you’ve already got your copy — Congratulations!? I just pulled down the website so it’s no longer available.? I may decide to offer it again but if I do it will be at a much higher price so you guys got a great deal.?

James

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