Researching The Products You Sell

Before deciding on products I will sell in my niche stores, I thoroughly research EACH and EVERY one. I start with the Google Adsense tool for starters to see the demand and how I will attack it from an SEO perspective. Next I move on to Terapeak for the supply and sale through ratio of the product. Then I move on to Amazon, to search for the identical product, the reviews of the product and the average price. Lastly I search for the product on major niche retailers in the niche and also looking if the have affiliate programs as well I can take advantage of. I am notating prices along the way. When going through each product on all of these sites, I am looking for some features and benefits to include in the content for the product page. Some finished and live eBay auctions often have great product information that can extracted as well. By thoroughly researching the products in this method, you will also start to understand the niche as well if it is foreign to you.

Price And Sell Through Rate Matter

I have sold a ton of things over the years with the EPN program. Sites built around cheap odds and ends all the way up to automobiles. It is not new news that the more expensive the product, the better the commissions. Not saying that you can not build a good income with lower priced items, it just takes more of them. I would rather convert 1 surfer to buy a 100.00 item then I would one that buys a 1.00 item. All in all, it is just one surfer we are talking about. The more I can get out of them, the better. I do a ton of research with the Terapeak service on every niche. It tells me everything i need to know about sell through rates, ending prices, categories they were sold in, keywords used by eBay users and the list goes on of useful features.

Here is a demo with the word laptop bag per yesterdays post. Play with all of the settings and filters to see just how useful it is. Here are some videos as well to show everything you can do with Terapeak. It truly is a great resource to have at your disposal.

EDITED TO ADD: Forgot the quotes around laptop bag

Phooey On The Summer Slow Down

It is that time of year again when the chicken littles of the niche store building process come out and spread the notion of Summer slow down. Let me first say that if you were tied to just one niche or one brick and mortar store, your niche could be affected. When you throw BANS into the mix, there is no reason to moan. You are not limited to anything except your own imagination. The truth is people continue to buy and sell things on eBay everyday. If they are buying, then you need to find what they are buying and put that item in front of them. You have an endless inventory of products right at your fingertips and a proven platform named eBay handling everything. My numbers in June broke all my previous monthly records and I only added one new store during that month as I was busy going back to neglected stores that needed attention. If you are blaming a season on not making any money, then you need a check up from the neck up. People still buy during the Summer and some niches even get better than normal, it is up to you to find those niches and get them in front of people. A very under utilized tool is the Terapeak service. this is one of the best paid services a Build A Niche Store user can have. Now go find those hot niches before Fall comes as I hear a Fall slow down is also on the way followed by a Winter slow down.

Instant Niche Business Profitability Research

Often times new instant niche business BANS users jump right into building a niche store without knowing if it is even profitable or enough of the items are being sold. I highly suggest you research your niche products using Terapeek and get get an idea of the average selling price and monthly sales volume for each item you will be focusing on. After finding the eBay average selling price you can visit the eBay calculator site and insert the average selling price in the opening and closing price boxes and then uncheck the include PayPal fee checkbox and click on calculate fees button. Take the end calculated number and times it by 55% and this is what you stand to earn on average per sale. I usually shoot for items that will average more than $25.00 per sale on eBay. Also you you want to take notice of how many items are selling during a 7 day period. Hopefully the number you are looking at is over the 50% rate with at least 200 listings per week.

A must have Free BANS Tool

I was going through my bookmarks and came across a link I think everyone should have. EBAY keyword tool of auctions that have ended on EBAY. You should really take a little time to play with this and learn how to drill down on some of the keywords. Last night alone I found a great keyword phrase to build my next store around. You always want to look back and see if there are constantly enough products you are focusing in on being listed as well. This tool is not a secret, just one that probably is lost in your bookmarks, as it was mine.