How To Make An Extra £9,000 A Year

Not long after writing an article on How To Be An Internet Entrepreneur, a very useful guide on how to build a successful Internet business landed on my desk.

The eBay Business Handbook by Robert Pugh is an easy-to-read treatise that does exactly what it says on the cover. It explains in plain English everything that you need to know about getting started on eBay. More importantly, it will show you, step-by-step, how to adopt a professional approach to make money on the Internet auction site.

Right from Chapter 1, Pugh provides invaluable tips on how the novice eBay trader can tap into the buying power of 125 million registered users in 31 countries. He explains what type of things you can sell on eBay, and what items you should steer clear of -- and why you should avoid them. For instance, selling items that are targeted at only one country will severely restrict your market. Meanwhile, high value items may attract undesirable interest from fraudsters.

Pugh recommends that you may initially want to stick to small, easy-to-post, items that are cluttering you house. For example, empty ink-jet cartridges can fetch about £5 a pair. And even the small complementary bars of soap that you pick up in hotel rooms have a value on eBay.

But what you are trying to achieve in the early stages is not to make money, as such. Instead you are aiming to establish a respectable feedback score. Pugh explains that this is vital when you want to auction more expensive goods later on. Additionally, you will need a good feedback score if you ever want to make use of some special eBay features such as the "Buy It Now" option.

I found Pugh's insight on the timing of an auction especially enlightening, too. I never appreciated that the launch date, time and duration of an auction can play an important role in improving your profit margin, but I do now. Pugh suggests that if you are selling children's toys, then aim to end an auction before children go to bed. It seems children can persuade their parents to make that extra bid if they are still awake, but the opportunity is lost once they are all tucked up.

The book is also packed with other useful tips that novice and experienced eBay users can benefit from. These include the psychology of an auction, how to include extra photos for free, and lots of simple tricks to make your auction site stand out from the rest. And for people who want to take their eBay trading to a higher level, the book has a useful guide on brand-building, how to write a business plan, tax, and the importance of having a unique selling point.

I will certainly be keeping this book close at hand when I make my first foray onto the online auction site shortly. I don't expect to become a Titanium Level Power Seller overnight -- that will require selling £95,000 worth of goods every month or over a million pounds a year. But a Bronze Level Power Seller is something to shoot for. That's a more modest £9,000 a year, and an extra £750 a month will not go amiss. Problem is, how I can achieve that before Mrs. Kuo notices that all the furniture in the house has been sold on eBay!

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