Fed up with eBay?

Written by Richard Grady


Copyright 2005 Richard Grady

For many people, their first experience of working online involves selling products on eBay. This was how I got started back in 1998 and I know countless other people that have donerepparttar same.

However, it is important to remember that eBay is notrepparttar 137943 'be all and end all' - there is a much bigger online world out there. My reason for mentioning this is that I have spoken to three people this week who each make a decent full or part-time income on eBay but who are fed up with it and looking to move in other directions.

Having sold on eBay myself, I can understand why sellers do get tired/bored/frustrated withrepparttar 137944 auction site - it is highly competitive and it takes an incredible amount of hard work to succeed. In addition, it is normallyrepparttar 137945 case thatrepparttar 137946 more successful you become,repparttar 137947 harder you have to work. Listing auctions, handling customer enquiries, packing, shipping, sourcing/buying stock, keeping up with feedback, monitoringrepparttar 137948 competition - selling on eBay is a tough job and it is no wonder that after working in this way for a few years, many people wish they were back inrepparttar 137949 land ofrepparttar 137950 employed!!

Don't get me wrong, there is good money to be made on eBay for anyone willing to putrepparttar 137951 effort in and many people enjoy trading on this huge auction site. But it isn't for everyone.

Having spoken to numerous eBay sellers inrepparttar 137952 past, it seems to me that ofrepparttar 137953 ones that don't enjoy working on eBay,repparttar 137954 particular task that they enjoyrepparttar 137955 least isrepparttar 137956 packing and shipping of products. Funnily enough, this is exactlyrepparttar 137957 bit of trading that I grew to dislike too.

I (andrepparttar 137958 sellers I have spoken to) didn't have a problem with creating sales descriptions, dealing with emails, collecting payment (naturally!) andrepparttar 137959 other administrative tasks involved in running an online business. But wrapping things up and taking them torepparttar 137960 post office is something completely different and for me and many others that's where it all started to fall apart :-)

Differentiate and Dominate

Written by John Jantsch


Copyright 2005 John Jantsch

Quite often small business owners will ask me to revealrepparttar most powerful marketing strategy I have seen. I can say without hesitation thatrepparttar 137908 most powerful marketing strategy has little to do with advertising, direct mail, web sites, referrals or blogs.

No, before any of those things will really have any impact on your business you’ve got to uncover and communicate a way in which your business in different from every other business that says they do what you do. You’ve got to get out ofrepparttar 137909 commodity business. You’ve got to stake your claim on a simple idea or position inrepparttar 137910 mind of your prospective clients.

Here’s what I mean. I have a client that provides custom computer programming. Essentially, they use programming languages to build custom applications for businesses. What they do is often hard to explain and even harder to put a price on, making it difficult for a prospective client to compare different companies. As a way to differentiate their business, they have begun to offer something they call Perfect Coaching. Perfect Coaching is a unique blend of training and programming and, here’srepparttar 137911 key, no one else in their business is offering anything like it. Prospects likerepparttar 137912 sound of it and are asking to know more. It’s too early to tell but I suspect this point of difference will open a lot of doors for them.

Ways to differentiate

Let’s look at a number of tried and true ways to claim a unique point of difference.

Product – Can you offer a product that is so unique or even trendy that your business is associated with that offering? Or, can you extend a product and offer a valuable service to makerepparttar 137913 product more useful torepparttar 137914 customer.

Service – Same goes for a service. Many times this can berepparttar 137915 packaging of a service as a product. Consulting is often delivered on an hourly basis. Packaging a consulting engagement based on an outcome, with defined deliverables and fixed package price is a very effective way to differentiate a service offering. Don’t forget to giverepparttar 137916 service a powerful name!

Market Niche – Carve out an industry or two and becomerepparttar 137917 most dominant player serving that industry. A really nice bonus to this approach is you can usually raise your prices dramatically when you specialize in this manner.

Offer – Can you become known by an offer you make? I know an accountant that offer his tax preparation clients a 100% refund on their preparation fee when they refer four new clients. They arerepparttar 137918 100% refund tax guys.

Solve a Problem – Is there something that prospects in your market fear or seem to believe is universal for what you do? If so, focus on communicating how you haverepparttar 137919 answer. Painless dentistry for example. I know a remodeling contractor who found that what his clients appreciatedrepparttar 137920 most wasrepparttar 137921 way his crews cleaned up atrepparttar 137922 end ofrepparttar 137923 day. He began to promoterepparttar 137924 fact that he owned more ShopVacs then any other remodeling contractor onrepparttar 137925 planet.

Cont'd on page 2 ==>
 
ImproveHomeLife.com © 2005
Terms of Use