Ebay is a great place to start your own online business. First things first. If you don’t have an Ebay account you will have to go to Ebay.com and follow the necessary steps to open an account. Same goes for Paypal.com. If you choose, you can link your Ebay and Paypal accounts together to help streamline some of the billing processes. Ebay fees and shipping fees will be taken directly from your Paypal account so you won’t have to worry about keeping your Ebay account in good standing.

Assuming you already have an Ebay and Paypal account it is fairly simple to get started.

Login to your Ebay account and scroll over the “sell” tab on the top of the page. Then scroll down to the “sell an item” link and click on it. Here you can choose what category in which you will list your item. Click on “Browse Categories”. Now choose which category fits your item the best. Say “Books>Audio Books”. Click continue. Now you can enter an ISBN, author, or title, if you wish or just “continue listing without a product”. Now you are to the point of creating your listing. Start by creating a title for your listing. Create a description for your item add photos and set a price. Continue to fill in the blanks. If this is the first item you have tried to sell on Ebay just follow the rest of the directions and take your time and you will get it. After you have listed a few items you may want to have a go with Turbolister, which can help streamline the listing process dramatically. You can create tons of listings and save them and have them ready to list over and over again with just a couple of clicks.

There are a lot of things to consider when you start selling on Ebay. What are my costs? Where am I going to get the merchandise I want to sell? How much should I sell my items for?

Well your costs can vary. When selling on Ebay you will have 4 major costs. The cost of ebay fees, paypal fees, shipping costs and the cost of your merchandise. Ebay fees for example can vary depending on how much your item sells for, and which type of listing you choose to list it as. A fixed price listing cost more than a auction style listing. Click here for Ebay fees. Paypal fees can also vary depending on if you are set up for standard payments or micropayments. And your shipping cost can vary depending on the weight of the package, where the package is going, and which carrier you are using to deliver the package. Using the United States Post Office, a first class package weighing between 1 and 3 ounces will ship anywhere in the United States for $1.64, but this price is being raised in 2013. When starting out you may want to keep the cost of your merchandise down so start by selling stuff that you no longer need or have lying around the house. This is a good way of generating a little cash without spending any money at all.

So How Can I Make a Profit?

While you are selling off your unwanted merchandise, you need to search for anything that you can make a profit on. You can search on Ebay itself and find plenty of good deals on bulk quantity items and then break them down and sell them. You can also find stuff on Craigslist.org and garage sales. I would recommend finding a product that you have a continuous supply of. So let’s say you find a supplier for 9 volt batteries. Now you can start selling them and you will quickly get a feel for what it will cost you in shipping and fees, now you can apply the same model for other items of similar weight and size.

Patience is a virtue, perseverance is key. There is plenty of information out there there on the Ebay forums and other websites just do some research and spend some time and before you know it you will be making money on Ebay.

Check out a cool Ebay ebook here!