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Most folks just set back at this point and wait for the end of the auction. As a business owner, you can’t afford to do this. You can use tools such as Sellathon’s View Tracker we covered back in Step 9 to get detailed information on what’s happening with your auction. Also, when you have 50 or more auctions running, it becomes more and more difficult to monitor who is bidding and whether or not you should be accepting their bids. One of the tools I use is the FREE Feedback Analyzer to examine the history of a person’s feedback received, as well as feedback left. The FREE Feedback Analyzer can give you early insight as to whether a bidder is likely to leave you negative feedback, as well as their track record overall.
For example, if a given buyer has left TONS of negative feedback for others, I would be hesitant to sell to them...they might give me negative feedback for some obscure reason? So...that being said, Feedback Analyzer simply collects a given members feedback comments and separates them into 3 grids. Where, one grid contains the positive comments, one contains the neutral and the last contains the negative. Plus, you can save the comments from each grid as HTML, CSV, or plain text. If you are familiar with HTML, you can analyze YOUR feedback comments and save the positive comments as HTML. Then format the table as desired in your favorite HTML editor and include the positive comments in your auction descriptions to raise your client's confidence to buy from you!
Once you enter the eBay user ID for the bidder of interest:
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Select either “Feedback Received,” or “Feedback Left for Others,” radio button followed by the Analyze Feedback button. Repeat with the opposite radio button. Following is an example of negative feedback that has been left for ebestdeals4u by others:
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If you saw similar feedback from a bidder on one of your auctions, you might be a little leery to conduct business with this individual.
If the person you are checking feedback on has a number of pages of feedback on the eBay site (897 pages in the example above), it could take a very long time for you to see all of the feedback for that person. After you have a few lines of data, use the ABORT button to stop the analysis.
If you remember back in the Residual Income section of Step 2, we discussed the new way to make money on eBay; Residual Income. It involves constant contact with your bidders and providing a means to drive them to your website for repeat business. Let’s review the procedure:
| 1st – | You List Your Item for Sale |
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| 2nd – | People bid on your item. | |
| 3rd – | You send an email to the individuals bidding on your item thanking them for their bid and encourage them to let you know if they have any questions. You email has links to your eBay About Me page and your website. There might be a short blurb about signing up for a no-cost newsletter covering a topic based around the item you are auctioning. | |
| 4th – | Someone wins the bid. | |
| 5th – | You send an email to the non-winning bidders on your item thanking them for their bids. You email has links to your eBay About Me page and your website. You include a short blurb about signing up for a no-cost newsletter covering a topic based around the item you are auctioning. They signup for the newsletter. | |
| 6th – | You contact the winning bidder providing them with payment and shipping information. Your e-mail thanks them for their bid and provides them with details about how you plan to complete the transaction. Your e-mail has links to your eBay About Me page and your website. You have an offer in the e-mail that indicates your eBay store or website has a related item they might also be interested in. You also include a short blurb about signing up for a no-cost newsletter covering a topic based around the item you auctioned. | |
| 7th – | They pay you. You ship the item. Immediately following shipment of the item, you send them an email containing information about how their item was shipped, tracking number (if applicable), when they might expect to see the item arrive. You ask them to contact you if they haven’t received the item within a reasonable amount of time. You have an offer in the email that indicates your eBay store or website has a related item they might also be interested in. Your email contains links to your eBay store and website, and an offer to sign up for a no-cost newsletter covering a topic based around the item you auctioned. | |
| 8th – | The person receives the item, emails you that they have received it. Positive feedback is left for everyone. | |
| 9th – | The person is pleased with the transaction and your attention to service. They signup for the newsletter, and order the related item they have now seen an offer for in your 3 previous emails. | |
| 10th – | Several of your bidders receive your weekly or monthly newsletter. The newsletter contains information they are interested in. It also contains offers for other related items. | |
| 11th – | Some will buy items advertised in your weekly or monthly newsletter, or from your eBay store or Website. You Smile! This is residual Income! |
With every e-mail, you have the buyer’s attention. They came to you with their interest in your auction. Their initial interest in you auction has provided you with valuable one-on-one time to sell your ideas or products. I would hate to be a cold call salesman (one who just goes from business try to sell their wares without the benefit of knowing if the potential buyer will be interested or not). There’s noting cold call about this process. Simple concept, but it takes initial effort on your part during the sale, and then follow-up with simple weekly or monthly effort to produce a newsletter with additional offers.
