Selling Online

How Stuff Works explains everything you need to know about e-commerce: how it works, why there's such hype, and the steps you need to take to start running your own online business, including tips on how to start building your own site.

Entrepreneur.com has a section on e-business that contains several articles on how to start a business online. The page lists various topics (for example, “Finding Funding for Your Site,” or “Increase Your Online Sales”) so you can go directly to the article that interests you most.

Tips 4 Selling Online is written by Gregg Edwards, an Internet entrepreneur who updates his blog with the latest information about products and technology related to selling online at auction or through your own storefront. The blog has a bit of a sales pitch tone to it, but ultimately can be a resource for taking your online sales to the next level.

Microsoft’s Small Business Center lists five simple tips you should read before you try to open an eBay store for your business. The tips are essentially a guide to trial and error and will help you take the baby steps before jumping in.

eBay is probably the biggest and best-known online auction market. Its slogan is, "Whatever it is, you can get it on eBay," so it follows that if you have any "whatever," eBay is the place to sell it. It's easy to use, free to get an account, and provides lots of options and plans for sellers. You can also use eBay on a trial basis.

Ubid is an online auction site devoted to the sale of brand name items at extremely reduced prices. Items typically sell at a 20–80 percent discount off MSRP, and bidding can start as low as a dollar. Anyone can sell on Ubid, but its sellers are primarily merchandisers and store owners looking to dispose of overstocked items.

Overstock.com is known primarily for selling overstocked name brand items at a discount, but it also has an auction Web site similar to Ubid. Although a large number of the sellers are Overstock merchants, there are options for independent sellers, too.

Amazon.com , the Internet's most popular seller of books and CDs, offers an online auction in addition to its regular sales site. Amazon's auctions cover pretty much every basic category you can think of, but the site is smaller and the experience less overwhelming than eBay.

Auction Fire advertises itself as an alternative to eBay, but it is considerably less advanced in terms of features, aesthetics, and bidder traffic. However, listing items on Auction Fire is completely free, so it’s a good place to get your feet wet.

eBay offers "eBay University" to teach the new seller everything she needs to know before embarking on the eBay experience. You can look up live courses in your neighborhood, order educational DVDs, or watch free videos.

The Get Rich Slowly blog is a self-described “personal finance forum” written by an average person who’s trying to save money and manage it wisely. After trying to raise a chunk of cash on eBay to make debt payments, he wrote these 13 tips.

Cribnotes is a blog written by a Boston Law student with a variety of interests, one of which is actively selling on eBay. His eBay FAQs were written in response to questions he got about his own sales, but the page was so popular that he added a guide, “How to sell on eBay” to his blog.

The Queen of Auctions is the official Web site of Lynn Dralle, a woman who’s made an extremely successful career out of selling stuff on eBay. Dralle is an eBay “power seller,” author of multiple books (including the one listed above in Dulcinea’s Insight) and articles, holds two business degrees, and has a history of making over $100,000 a year on eBay. She’s the author of two guides to eBay commerce, iBuy and iSell, both of which are endorsed by eBay. On her site, she offers free articles, tips, and information about her books, appearances, and press releases.

The Queen of Auctions is the official Web site of Lynn Dralle, a woman who’s made an extremely successful career out of selling stuff on eBay. Dralle is an eBay “power seller,” author of multiple books (including the one listed above in Dulcinea’s Insight) and articles, holds two business degrees, and has a history of making over $100,000 a year on eBay. She’s the author of two guides to eBay commerce, iBuy and iSell, both of which are endorsed by eBay. On her site, she offers free articles, tips, and information about her books, appearances, and press releases.

ECommerce-Guide.com is a site full of e-commerce news, reviews of products, and helpful tips for your online business. The section on eBay offers general “essentials” as well as frequently updated articles about changes in auction policy or on the site.

Equinux is an award-winning software development company for Macs. The designers there have created iSale, a program that helps you manage auctions on eBay from start to finish. The software keeps you organized and informed about everything related to your sale, including recording the listing fees for your ads and reporting the number of people visiting your auction. You can explore the software on the Equinux site to see if it's right for you.

Auction Essentials 4U sells, for a small fee, services to help you sell your goods at auction sites. Services include image hosting, ad templates, ad storage, and tutorials. You can also showcase your ads on the Auction Essentials site for increased publicity.

Half.com is run by eBay and is a discount marketplace for books, CDs, DVDs, and video games and systems. You list your items for free and Half.com handles the transaction for you. When an item is sold, you ship it out and get paid by direct deposit into your checking account.

Cash for Books is less glamorous than Half.com, but it gets you money a lot more quickly. All you have to do is enter the ISBN numbers of your books and then send them to Cash for Books. The company pays the shipping, and three days after your books arrive, it sends you a check.

StubHub , another division of eBay, is the place to go if you want to sell tickets to sporting events, concerts, and plays. It's not an auction so you set the asking price for your tickets, but you can always change it if there are no takers. Once someone purchases your tickets, StubHub sends you a prepaid FedEx envelope so you can get them to the buyer. Or if you’re in too much of a hurry to wait, you can send your tickets to StubHub in advance and have the site complete the transaction for you. StubHub takes a commission off your ticket sales, which varies depending on the event or price of ticket.

Zunafish helps you connect with other users to swap CDs, DVDs, books, videos, and video games. You make a list of stuff you have to trade and then search the site to make a separate list of items you'd like. If you can find a match, you contact the other member and make a trade.

BarterBee.com is another trading site for CDs, DVDs, and video games. You can "sell" your stuff for points that you can use to buy other items on the site. Unlike Zunafish, you can stock up points for items you sell and choose what you want instead of setting up trades directly with another user. You can become a member for free, and listings cost nothing.

TradeAway.com lets you list any item you want to offer for barter or cash—including real estate and vacation homes. To post a listing, you pay $9.95 for 180 days. Simply cite the value of your item, include your personal "wish list," and other users have the chance to make you offers.

Craigslist , listed in the “How do I place an online classified ad?” section of this guide, also has a section for bartering. You can offer exchanges for pretty much anything and everything you can think of, including services, apartments, and of course, your stuff. There are no guarantees for success, but with so many users you’re bound to find someone who needs what you’ve got. The “barter” section is the first item under the "for sale" tab.

Swaptree is a swapping site for books, CDs, DVDs, and video games. Sign up for an account, enter the ISBN or UPC number of what you want to trade, and Swaptree uses an algorithm to find stuff you can get in exchange. Print mailing labels from the site and mail your item, then choose the item you want to receive in exchange—all for just the cost of postage. The site is currently in invite-only beta phase but if you visit and enter your e-mail address, you can expect an invitation.

Etsy.com is your place to buy and sell handmade crafts online. You get a free account and online store, where you can list your items for as little as $.20 and keep them up for four months. The site takes a 3.5 percent cut of your sales but helps you market and promote your stuff.

Scoopt.com is a site that helps you sell your snapshots to the press. You become a member of the site and then carry your camera around. It can be a digital camera, a disposable camera, even your cell phone. When you take a picture, send it to Scoopt. For one year, Scoopt has exclusive rights to your picture and tries to sell it. If and when they do, you get 40 percent of the profits.

Register.com allows you to register a name and address (also called a URL) for your Web site. Type in your desired Web address and if someone else hasn’t already used it, purchase it from the site for a few dollars a month.

Web.com offers a variety of Web design and business marketing packages with a domain name included in the package. For $11.95 a month, you can use the Site Builder software and choose from 300 templates or design your own site. For $19.95, you can also get marketing help, and for $59.95 you’ll get additional e-commerce software.

Shopify is a service that does all the work of setting up an online store for you in exchange for a small percentage of your store earnings (either 2 or 3 percent, depending on your store’s income). Choose from among several designs and then Shopify sets up your store, accepts payments, and tracks orders.

osCommerce provides Open Source e-commerce solutions, meaning that people in the osCommerce community contribute to the site with software, money, and other resources. Because it’s collaborative, the site allows you to set up your own online store for free, unlike other e-commerce sites that charge a monthly fee. However, since osCommerce is currently more a “project” than a service, it’s best to get involved only if you have a little bit of experience and can easily integrate their software into your site. If you’re up to the challenge, it’s a comprehensive and inexpensive place to begin setting up your store.

StoreFront.net is the Web site of LaGarde, a company devoted to helping businesses expand online. If you're just starting your Web site, you'll want to select the "E-Commerce Foundation" section, which is designed specifically for small businesses. If you're a larger, more established company, you should visit the "Enterprise E-Commerce" section, which focuses on the needs of midsize businesses. StoreFront works as a full-service program, meaning the people there will advise you and do a fair bit of the work. As a result, you'll pay fees similar to those you'd pay for a regular consultant.

Actinic is a well-reviewed British company very similar to StoreFront; click on the U.S flag for the American version of the site. Actinic has services for professional Web designers, a catalog of tools for merchants, and a shopping cart program that helps you build and manage your own site. You can try it free for 30 days.

eBay does more than host online auctions: it also provides full support to customers interested in opening an "eBay store." When you open up an eBay store, you'll get increased visibility, be able to track and manage your own sales, and use design templates offered by the company. Monthly fees start at $15.95.

Build A Niche Store (BANS) is a software program that helps you do just that. If you're interested in opening a store as an eBay affiliate, BANS can help you do it in a more cost- and time-effective manner. Users claim they get more search engine hits with their niche stores, and site owners who have been unsuccessful in the past say they started turning profits within days of opening their BANS sites. It does cost around $100 to build a store with BANS, but you can use the software to build as many stores with as many domains as you want, without having to pay again.

CafePress will host a store selling T-shirts, mugs, posters, bumper stickers, and other items bearing your design. CafePress takes care of all logistics, and your merchandise only gets printed up when people buy it. CafePress has a standard price that you, the seller, pay for each item, but you choose what to charge your customers and pocket the difference. You can also make CDs and publish your own books through this site.