Whether you are new to ebay or you’re a power seller, investing in your business makes sense.  You can start small by opening up a basic ebay store, or if you’re like Mike, you can take it a step further and have a professional company create a amazing new layout for you.  This posting is going to be a little different.  I have asked my good friend Mike to share his experience with taking his ebay business to the next level.  Not to long ago, Mike decided that he wanted to start selling some of his clearance items on ebay.  He quickly became aware of how quickly he could sell his products, and thats where his ebay business began.  He now sells enough product to order $50,000 worth of inventory at a time, and this gives him the advantage over his competitors.  Take a look at Mikes story below as he shares how he recently invested in his business:

Professional web design is one of the biggest expenses an online seller can incur. It is very easy to go down the rabbit hole of extra features and add-ons only to emerge with a $5,000 bill. I have lost more money than I care to remember after trusting as less than ethical web designers. Since I have just gone through this process again and emerged with a great site I wanted to share my experience.

I started the current version of my eBay business in December 2011. I had been running a stand-alone web store without much success and was looking to clearance some inventory. Much to my surprise, several of my products started selling well on eBay, and what looked like disaster in the making, has turned in thriving business and has proven that you can make a full time income selling online.

My goal for 2013 is to increase my sales year over year by 400%. If I can meet this goal, I will have entirely replaced my current income and will be able to devote all of my time to this venture. While it seems like a huge number, I look at what I accomplished last year despite of my disorganization and lack of experience and I know I can do it.

The first part of my plan was to consolidate all the sales channels under one cohesive brand. This was very important to me.  In order to meet my annual revenue goal I needed to leverage the goodwill of my eBay sales to generate new income via my other channels.

I have 4 sales channels. eBay, Amazon, a branded e-commerce site, and direct local sales. Each channel used a unique brand. My eBay username was different from my eBay store name, the e-commerce site operated under another, and Amazon used our corporate name whose primary business is not related at all. On top of that, there was no consistency in my eBay listings. I would just create them on the fly, and change styles with nearly every product. It was totally disorganized and not professional at all.

In November of last year I started researching options to redesign my e-commerce site and create a branded eBay store with a listing template. It took several weeks of research before I found the right firm, OC Designs Online (OCD) and that only happened due to a bit of luck.

eBay had launched a marketing effort that featured a store that OCD created. It was a clean, simple, and well-organized layout that did a great job conveying the store brand. I called OCD and spoke to Frannie, the owner. She easily answered all my questions, was willing to work within my time constraints and did not try and push add-ons or services that I did not need. Her prices were also BY FAR the most reasonable!

Initially I contracted to have three projects completed, an eBay store and template plus a Big Commerce store. The OCD team blew away all my expectations with the quality of their designs. Enci, my lead designer, perfectly reproduced my initial idea into a tangible product. In just a matter of a few days I had a new logo and store mock-up to approve. I was so impressed I also commissioned a new business card, postcard mailer, and HTML email template to support my marketing plans.

February will be my first full month under the consolidated brand and professionally designed store and from what I saw in just a short time last month I am very excited. My January sales quadrupled year over year and customer feedback has been great too.

As you can see, Mike invested in his business by creating a professionally branded ebay store with some extras.  He is already seeing his return on investment with his sales quadrupling in January  and February.  You can take a look at Mikes newly branded store HERE and his E-Commerce store HERE.  Also, if you are interested in checking out the service that Mike used, you can check out the OC Designs Online website HERE.  What have you invested into your business?  Comment below.

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Do you live in Hollywood or get to hang out with all of the famous movie stars?  You don’t? Well either do I, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t get all of their autographs.  I’m sure you have noticed that on ebay, an autograph of a celebrity can get you some quick cash.  Some celebrities can bring you in more money than others, but it really all depends on a few factors:

1. How famous is the celebrity?
2. How hard is it to get an autograph?
3. Did they sign something that falls into a niche?

I like to focus on the third question.  The more of a niche that the autograph falls into – the more money you can make.  Let’s take a look at one of my favorites.  Not to long ago I found a VHS tape of “Back to the Future 2” starring Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyed.  I was able to get both of them to sign the VHS cover with out me ever meeting either of them.  Here is a completed listing of a similar autograph on ebay:

This autographed photo sold for $100, so I’m assuming mine would sell for around the same.  So how did I get the autographs with out ever meeting them?  It’s simple, I sent the VHS cover to their homes and asked them to sign it.

One of my favorite websites is called “Fan Mail” (found HERE).  It’s a website dedicated to providing you with celebrities fan mail addresses, and they also provide photo’s of the celebrity to print out.  Here’s what you have to do.

1. Find a celebrity that you want an autograph of using the Fan Mail website (found HERE).
2. Find a photo of the celebrity (google images provides a great selection).
3. Print the photo.  I like to print my photos at a Target instant print store.  It’s low costing and it looks great.
4. Send your photo to the address that Fan Mail provided you.

If you live in US send a properly stamped and self addressed envelope (minimum size 8.5″ x 4″) with your request letter and a photo. You can include a piece of cardboard to keep the photo from bending in shipping and also add “Do Not Bend” on the envelopes. Send your letter and wait. On average, there is going to be a 3+ month wait for a response.

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