Monty Farnsworth

Is Ebay in trouble? All indicators are that they are. It has been reported that their traffic has reached a five year low. One of the reasons that traffic has been so low is simply due to Ebay starting their Ebay Partner Network or EPN as many marketers know it by. Because of low traffic many dealers are packing their wares and leaving. They blame high fees and the change in the in their feedback policy along with not enough visitors.

From an internet marketer standpoint I believe that Ebay leaving Commission Junction and starting their Ebay Partner Network should have been more carefully though out. Before, you just had to sign up with Commission Junction and start routing customers to Ebay. Now you have to get through the hallowed doors of Ebay Partner Network to start making money through Ebay. They have become very particular about who they allow to enter the hallowed doors of EPN and because of that they are leaving a lot of money on the table. 

It only makes sense that the more people you drive to your site the more sales you’ll be able to make. Why try and stop traffic? I honestly don’t understand EBay’s reasoning. It is to make sure that the person applying are honest in their dealings? But Ebay has more security sources available to the then most online companies. They have the resources of all of Ebay and PayPal to use and because of that fraud has dropped dramatically on Ebay. Other companies like Amazon have an Associate Program in place but they are much more lenient when approving associates to drive traffic to them. And because of that Amazon is doing very well in the marketplace.

So what should Ebay do differently? First and foremost get rid of EPN or change it to where you allow reputable Ebay sellers participate in it. They should also restructure their fees and become more competitive. The more you charge the more people you are going to be running away. Lower your fees and bring more dealers in to sell. Then they should also change their feedback system. Let the seller have some say. I personally have had several people over the years buy something but not pay for it. Sure Ebay will give me back my “final fees” but what about my listing fees? That money is gone forever. If a buyer has the possibility of negative feedback hanging over their head they might think twice about bidding. The ironic thing is that Ebay changed the feedback program to make the bidders feel more secure and hopefully bring more traffic to them. But then on the other hand they changed their associate program and severely stop a lot of traffic from coming to Ebay.  Here’s hoping that Ebay will soon change the way they operate their EPN program and make it more accessable to normal marketers and not just the “big boys”

Hopefully Ebay will start changing their ways and make it better for both the buyers and sellers.

Here is a website that list cell phones radiation levels.  Radiation Levels.  Very interesting to see how much radiation your cell phone is pouring into your head.  It’s kinda scary when you consider how much time some of the young people spend on their cell phones.  Hope you find this informative.  Monty

I have a 1934-D Peace Dollar listed on Ebay.  This is a rare silver dollar and graded at MS65 by NGC.  Good luck to all of you coin collectors out there.  Here’s the link:  1934-D Peace Dollar

I just got back from vacation at Disneyworld. It was quite the experience, very hot and a lot of people. Which I find interesting in this economic times. The cost of experiencing Disney for a week can easily run over $5,000 for a small family. So why are people willing to spend so much to stand in the sun for an hour to ride an attraction for a few minutes? You could say it’s for the kids but it’s quite amazing to see that there are few young children there. There were mostly adults and teenagers. Maybe it’s just a small chance to get relieve from the reality of the world and live in a fantasy world for a short period of time. I’m not sure. But I do know for sure that going to Disneyworld will give you an education on customer service.

Disney’s employees are called “castmembers”. When they are in front of people working they are considered to be “on stage”. And that includes everybody from the housekeeper to the executive. Their goal is to make you a “happy camper” so that you will continue to return and battle the sun and the people. It seems that every “castmember” you come in contact with greets you with a smile and a hello. They go out of their way to answer your questions and are pleasant in the process. The parks and the hotels are keep extremely clean. There is something called the “Disney Scoop” which basically means that if any castmember sees a piece of trash on the ground they are to reach down and “scoop” it up. And that mean everybody including executives.

So how does this compare to Ebay? Do you believe that their customer service is what it should be? Are they trying to make their customers happy by doing whatever they can to keep them coming back? Or are they just relying on that fact that they are they are “the only game in town” and you have nowhere else to go to buy or sell your products. That may be true in the past but things are starting to change. And with Ebays new changes that they have proposed, some of which are great and some are so-so, they might start being more concerned about customer service as they see their numbers start shrinking. Hopefully with they new changes we will start seeing a little bit better customer service from Ebay.

But the question remains, “Can a small business still make money on Ebay?”  The short answer is yes.  But you have to be smarter about how you approach selling on Ebay.  You have to be sure that the items that you want are the things that people are willing to buy.  Not actually only willing to buy, but willing to pay an amount for that will make you a profit.

Having been buying and selling on Ebay since 1996  I was one of the first ones to try out this new auction site.  I have since bought and sold thousands of items on Ebay and have obtained the PowerSeller title.  I say this just to let you know I’ve been around for awhile and have first hand experience on the changes that have occurred on Ebay.

One of the things I have learned for sure is what sells on Ebay but more importantly Where to Find what sells on Ebay.  I’ve tried numerous things and some I’ve had great success with and others have been a disaster.  Here are some of the things I’ve tried and some I haven’t because I wasn’t willing to take the risk.

Garage Sales and Thrift Shops can be a lot of fun.  But for the most part you get up early, drive all over town hoping to find a few good items that you can sell.  You end up spending a lot of time and gas money and usually end up with nothing.  Garage Sales are usually held by people that are trying to get rid of their junk.  Once in a while they don’t realize that their “junk” is actually a great Ebay item.  If they happen to be selling that rare item you also have to be the first one to find it.

Buying in Bulk, Wholesale or Liquidations.  This sounds good but usually you have to buy large amounts and most of these items have been brought back by consumers as returns.  A lot of those returns are because the item doesn’t work properly.  One other thing to consider is the fact that a lot of the “Bulk” dealers cherry pick over the merchandise and take the good stuff and then sell the remainder to unsuspecting buyers.  I find this approach risky and have thus far steered away from it.

Dropshipping.  Once again you are dependent upon someone else and if they will actually follow through with their part of the sale.  If you run an auction and after you sell the item you send the information to the dropshipper they could be either sold out of the product or for some other reason the product isn’t shipped then you are the one that gets the bad feedback and we all know that the feedback you receive will affect your business.

Check out my website that explains one of the best ways to make money on Ebay.  

So, what is the answer?  You have to find unique products that are at a high demand and not be dependent upon a middle man to supply you with them.  Those type of products are collectibles and antiques.  There are many collectors of so many different items that are more than willing to pay a premium for them.

Check out my website that explains one of the best ways to make money on Ebay.   http://www.SimpleWayToAuctionProfits.com

I have a rare Rookwood Frog King Trivet up for auction on Ebay.  You can check it out here:  Rookwood Trivet.  While your there check out all the other cool things I have for sale.

O.K. I thought it was kinda weird a couple of years ago when people were standing outside of AT&T waiting to get an IPhone. Bunch of losers with nothing else to do. Well, wouldn’t you know it. I finally decided to buy one. And I love it. I never knew something could be so cool. I am truly impressed, which is a change. I’m starting to feel like a total nerd. At least I didn’t wait in line for it. But some of the things I’ve discovered so far is a program called Shazam. Just hold your Iphone up to the radio and it will tell you the name of the song and who is singing it. Too cool. Another app. is Fandango which keeps you up to date on all the latest movies that are playing locally. Gives the movies, theater, times they are playing and you can even preview a trailer of the movie. Another one is G-Park. When you park your car in a crowded parking lot, just hit a button on your IPhone and it will remember where you parked your car. Trust me, I need this. O.K., O.K. So this might not be so impressive to a lot of you but remember I came for the era of black and white tv’s and where you had to go outside and turn the antenna in hopes of getting a decent reception. As I get to know this phone better I’ll keep you up to date. See ya.

Thanks for stopping by. If you have done so recently check out my twitter site. There is a link on the right side there, just click it. Have a great day.

There is a blood test that everyone should have.  It’s called the PLAC test.  The PLAC test is a way to measure an enzyme, Lp-PLA2, that determines how much life-threatening plaque you have formed in your arteries.  Even though your Cholesterol and  Triglycerides are normal you still might be at high risk for a stroke or heart attack.  So be sure your doctor orders it for you on your next visit or sooner.

Conficker, is potentially one of the nastiest worms to hit the Internet.  It is now downloading updates, which security analysts suspect to be keyloggers or other code designed to steal information from infected machines.

You can see if your computer is infected by going to http://bit.ly/3daj5s
If you can see all six pictures your computer is probably ok. If you don’t see all six, there is a short explanation at the bottom of the page.