Forex 101: An Educational Guide for Beginners

New in the Forex market? This market may sound really complicated and scary to tackle but it’s not. Just like in any kinds of trade, you make money when you buy low and sell high. Forex trading is simply trading currencies in the Forex market. Forex is the largest financial market in the world. It generates trillions of dollars of currency exchanges everyday and it operates 24 hours a day and seven days a week therefore, also making it the most liquid market in the world.

In the world of Forex, trading in this very liquid market is very unique compared to other financial market like stocks. Since the Forex market operates 24 hours a day worldwide, which starts at Sydney and ends in New York, trading is not centralized in one location. You can trade in Forex whenever you want regardless of the local time.

In the past, Forex trading was only offered to large financial institutions, like banks. And, it was also only offered to large companies, multi-national corporations and large currency dealers. This is because of the large and extremely strict financial requirements the Forex market imposed. This means that individual traders and small businesses are not able to participate in this liquid market.

However, in the late 90s, Forex was made available to individual traders and small businesses. This is due to the advances in the communications technology. High speed internet made it possible for people to enter the Forex market and have become one of the best make money at home businesses.

Forex trading is getting more and more popular each day. Besides, who wouldn’t want to trade in the largest and the most liquid financial market in the world? Trading in Forex will certainly give you the opportunity to earn a lot of money. However, trading in this ever liquid market also has its risk. It is a fact that many people who traded in Forex lost a substantial amount of money and some of these people are seasoned traders.

Benefits of Buying on eBay

Are you one of the millions of Americans who prefers to shop online? Shopping online is popular because it is quick, easy, and convenient. It is also popular because, when shopping online, you have a number of different options, as there are a number of different retailers that you can choose to shop online with. One of those is eBay. If you aren’t already shopping on eBay, you may want to look into it, as there are a number of benefits to doing so.

Perhaps, the greatest benefit of shopping on eBay is all of the products that you have to choose from. eBay isn’t like a traditional retailer. They are actually an online auction website. eBay has other internet users sell products that they have to consumers, just like you. With this type of set up, eBay has an unlimited number of products to choose from. For instance, you can buy real estate, cars, clothing, toys, pet supplies, home décor, entertainment items, and much more on eBay. Basically, anything you are looking for, within reason of course, you should be able to find on eBay.

Another one of the many benefits to shopping on eBay is that you have a number of sellers to do business with. As it was previously mentioned, eBay allows all internet users to sell items that they no longer need or want to own. Over the past few years, the popularity of eBay has reached an all time high. This is what has lead to an unlimited number of eBay sellers. Since many sellers are selling the same products or similar products, you should have the option to choose who you want to do business with. When buying a product online, particularly one that is offered for sale by a number of different sellers, you are advised to examine product costs, shipping and handling costs, as well as each seller’s feedback. Doing so will make shopping on eBay a positive experience for you.

It is also important to note that eBay is easy to use. In fact, ease of use is one of the many other reasons why eBay has become so popular in recent years. As an eBay buyer, you need to create a free eBay account. That account will allow you to buy on eBay. Once you are a registered eBay member, you can easily start searching for products that you are looking for. For instance, if you are looking for a particular music CD, you can just type the artist name and album name into eBay’s search box and you should be presented with a number of auctions which have your CD available for sale. If you are only looking to spend a certain amount of money or purchase a CD that is located in the United States, you can perform an advanced search. An advanced search makes it easier to find what you need.

The above mentioned benefits, to doing your online shopping through eBay, are just a few of the many that exist. In fact, even if you are unsure as to whether or not you want to start shopping on eBay, you are advised to at least examine it. eBay guests can navigate the site to get a taste of what items can commonly be found for sale on eBay. With a large selection of products, a number of sellers to choose from, and ease of use, there is a good chance that you may find yourself doing the bulk of your online shopping on eBay. And, if you end up doing so, you will definitely not be alone.

eBay Sellers: The Importance of Paying Your eBay Fees on Time

Are you an eBay seller? If you are, have you been selling on eBay for long? If you haven’t been, you may still be trying to figure out the ins and outs of eBay. If that is the case, you may be looking for a little bit of assistance or advice. One of the important things to remember, when selling on eBay, is the importance of paying your eBay fees on time.

When it comes to paying your eBay fees on time, there are a large number of sellers who wonder exactly why it is so important. While this may not seem like something that you would ask yourself, it is actually asked quite often. Yes, eBay, like many other businesses, gives you a grace period, which is a few extra days to make your payment; you don’t want to go past that period. If so, there will be consequences. As an eBay seller, those consequences may be costly to you.

One of the most common consequences of not paying your eBay fees on time involves having your eBay seller account suspended. For you, this means that you will not be able to sell anymore items on eBay, at least until you pay your fees. Depending on the situation at hand, if you have any auctions running at the current time, those auctions may be canceled, possibly incurring additional fees for you. That is why it is extremely important that you pay your eBay fees on time.

Another reason why you should pay your eBay fees on time is because it is easy to do. When paying your eBay fees, all you really need to do is log into your account, go to the link labeled “eBay fees,” and follow the instructions from there. When it comes time to pay your eBay fees, eBay should send you an invoice, but you don’t have to wait until you receive that invoice. If you want to make sure that you stay on top of paying your fees, to prevent your seller account from being suspended, you may want to think about occasionally paying your fees, whenever you have the money to do so.

eBay can also offer you assistance, when it comes to paying your eBay fees. When you first setup your eBay account, you have the option of having your fees deducted right from your credit card, which you may have used to help setup your free eBay account. If you used a credit card to help setup your account, but you don’t want to have your fees deducted from your card, you can also make alternative arrangements. Those arrangements may include having your fees deducted from something else, like another credit card or your checking account. Or, you could stick paying your fees on your own, whenever they are due.

As you can see from above, there are a number of different ways that you can go about paying your eBay seller fees. If you are an active eBay seller or one who relies on eBay for income, you will want to definitely make sure that you pay your fees on time. Since you have a number of different ways to go about doing so, there isn’t any reason why you can’t pay your eBay fees and in a somewhat timely matter.

Essential Tips on How to Learn Forex Trading

Many people who have decided to enter the forex trading should educate themselves first. It is very important to know even the basics of forex trading to gain success, but this is no guarantee, not by a long shot, you need to know more than the basics to even have a fighting chance of succeeding. There are different ways to learn forex trading. You can join online services, enroll in a forex trading school, become an apprentice of a forex trader, or do it alone. However, doing it alone involves a lot of risks especially for beginners.

For novice traders, it is much better to choose the safer ways of learning forex trading. You are going to benefit from experienced instructors who are already trading forex in real times. In this manner, you are being acquainted with the real market conditions. You are given the chance to see the actual processes and decisions which you can later on adopt. Nevertheless, it is your own strategy that will win you up.

There are six simple steps that novice traders can follow to achieve success in the forex markets.

1. Right attitude. The traders who are successful in trading forex takes on the attitude of doing what it takes to achieve success. This stresses that success lies on the person who are trading forex itself. It does not matter if you read forex trading tip sheets or listen to forex trading guru. It will become invalid if you don’t possess the right attitude for success. You can conduct experiments on your own for two weeks together with other novice traders. They are often called as turtles. Learning forex trading is avoiding the trap of believing that you can actually gain success by following someone else. Just get the right knowledge and develop a strategy of your own.

2. Right method. It should involve long term trends. Keep in mind that the trend on big currencies lasts for months or even for years. It is your responsibility to lock yourself into these trends to make huge profits. It is best suggested to use the breakout methods to catch long-term trends. This method is already proven by leading trading systems. Good software is also recommended for use. It allows the trader to test the trading method that was chosen and later on trade it on real times. You need to know proper charting and mapping. There is already available software that will aid you regarding market moves. It will allow you to calculate the best times for selling or buying when you are able to read forex market charts.

3. Right discipline. The traders should discipline themselves by strictly following on their developed methods even when losing period’s strikes. It could teach them new techniques on how to survive the forex markets even when downfalls strike.

4. Right knowledge. The traders can quickly learn the breakout method, however, they should also overcome psychological pitfalls involved in forex trading. It is recommended to read motivational books that mainly focus on this matter.

5. Take the risks. The common mistake done by most forex traders is trying to restrict the risks. In the end they may suffer great losses because they are being blocked out in the forex market. The trader’s direction is right however the trade does not have enough room for downsides. Always remember that in forex trading risks lays the rewards. There is a difference between rushing in taking risks which are already calculated. It only allows you to wait for the right opportunity.

6. Trading in isolation. The trader should learn this to keep focused. Remember that if you are open to the views and opinions of others, it may discourage you if you find it very different. It does not necessarily mean you follow the opinion agreed upon by many traders, because most often, many traders acquire losses.

Forex market is considered the largest market in the world. It is operational twenty four hours a day, five days a week. Its processes are been carried out in real times without boundaries. The trader’s success also depends on the right decision making. Learning forex trading have no barriers and entry points so you need to have better understanding before plunging into business. Although some people suggest that learning forex while trading is the best, but it is always your decision to choose the best way to learn that will suit your needs.

Forex Trading Platforms: Trading Forex Right in the Comforts of Your Own Home

Trading in financial institutions is one of the best ways to earn money. It is also one of the most promising career choices that people make today. With the opportunity to earn a lot of money, more and more people who are interested in trading in the financial institution have left their jobs to get a piece of the action in the financial market.

Today, the Forex market is the best choice for people who are considering making a career out of trading in the financial market. Besides, who wouldn’t want to trade in the largest and the most liquid market in the planet which involves all the countries in the world?

The Forex market operates 24 hours a day with currency exchanges that can go as high as 2 trillion dollars each trading day. Also, it is the most liquid market in the world which also means that traders can enter the market anytime they want and get their profits easily.

In the past, Forex was limited to large financial institutions and multinational companies. Only banks, central banks and large companies were allowed to participate in the Forex market. However, thanks to modern communications technology and high speed internet and decreased sanctions in the Forex market, ordinary people can now trade and participate in the world’s largest financial market.

Because the Forex market is now open to everyone and because it is a very profitable industry, online Forex brokerage firms began improving their services and accessibility. They now also designed different trading platforms suitable for different Forex traders. Not only has online Forex brokerage firms made their trading platforms accessible, they also began and still continuing to improve their software.

They also allow people to register with a Mini Forex account that can let them trade with a minimum margin of 100 dollars only or even less. If you are interested in joining the Forex market, you only have to have a few things to get you started. First, you need a computer with a high-speed internet connection. The high-speed internet connection is very important for an effective trade to work. It will also minimize the risk of slippages that can cause you to lose money. So, if your area doesn’t have any high-speed internet connection available, you should forget about trading in the Forex market online. This will only make you lose a lot of money.

Second, you need to choose which Forex brokerage company you should hire. These companies will provide you with the Forex trading platform that you can easily download and install in your computer. The Forex trading platform is simply a software program that is essential for an online Forex trader. It is important for you to choose a trading platform that you are comfortable using. You should also make sure that the trading platform you choose provides accurate and up to date real time information, security, and stability.

It is also recommended that the trading platform you choose should provide information on at least 16 currency pairs, execute orders with just a click of the mouse, have charting tools to perform technical analysis, and should also have a recording feature that will store your trading history. With all these features, you can really improve the way you trade in the Forex market and also minimize the risk of losing money.

Look for a Forex trading platform that is simple to use and easy to understand. If you wish to know more about the Forex trading platform that a Forex trading brokerage firm offers, you can consider opening a dummy or practice account. By doing this, you will never risk real money on trades while learning the ropes. You will also get hands on experience on the Forex trading platform and really determine if the platform is for you or not.

Risk management is also a very important feature that you should look for. If it takes too long to select a risk management order, you should consider looking for another Forex trading platform. These are some of the things you should look for in a Forex trading platform. With a little practice in the dummy account, you can be sure that you can get the hang of it in no time at all and start making money through online Forex trading with a reliable Forex trading platform.

Ebay Store Features

Imagine a storefront all your own, where buyers could go to browse through your merchandise. Your items could be displayed for a month, or even indefinitely. Low cost bulk items for which individual listing fees wouldn’t be economical could reside in the store until you removed them. You could have control over hundreds or even thousands of listings, plus image hosting and customizable pages. All of this can be had by opening an Ebay Store.

Ebay stores are a good solution for bulk sellers who don’t want to spend their money on recurring listing fees. Sellers of antiques, collectibles, and other slow-moving items will benefit from the Ebay stores’ “Good ‘Til Canceled” feature. This allows you to list items indefinitely, subject to listing fees every thirty days. If you anticipate that your goods will take some time to sell, it could be worth your while to use an Ebay store rather than traditional auction listings.

Ebay stores also come with a host of features that allow you to manage your listings, host your images, customize your pages, and market via e-mail. At the time of this writing, a basic Ebay store costs $15.95 per month. Basic Ebay stores come with five pages, 300 product categories, 1MB of image hosting space, and built-in ways to promote your store. The Premium and Anchor store subscriptions cost more, but offer more features and space.

The Markdown Manager is a popular feature. Ebay sellers who use the manager can offer their products at discounted prices. Of course, this is a great way to attract the attention of buyers, or to clear out items that haven’t performed as well as anticipated. Ebay stores also offer sellers the choice of putting their store “on vacation”. That is, when sellers won’t be able to manage their items for whatever reason, the store can be taken temporarily offline until the seller returns. This feature is convenient and helps prevent Ebay sellers from feeling like they are chained to their computers.

Ebay encourages store-based merchants to think outside the auction block when promoting their stores. Ebay recommends e-mail marketing to keep in touch with your buyers through messages and newsletters. Promotional flyers can be created and included with shipments. Blogs and other web sites can be used to showcase Ebay store, thanks to marketing widgets. Keyword managers make sure your store will get a good page rank in search engines.

Ebay is a marketplace for the 21stCentury, but some of the old rules still apply. Sellers must first grab the attention of buyers. The products must be superior to (or less expensive than) those offered by competitors. And customer service is still paramount. With Ebay stores, online sellers have a convenient way to achieve their goals.

Forex Trading Course: A Must for Forex Beginners

In the world’s largest financial market where exchanges reach up to trillions of dollars each day, many people would really want to participate in this market. Aside from being the largest financial market in the world, Forex is also the most liquid market in the world where trades are done 24 hours a day.

A lot of traders have become very rich trading in the Forex market. And, many people who trade in the Forex market everyday have found a great way to replace their day jobs. Some even became millionaires almost overnight by just trading in this financial market. Trading in the Forex market can be very attractive. However, you should also know that there have been people who suffered extreme financial losses in the Forex market. It is true that the Forex market offers a very good money-making opportunity to a lot of people, but it also has its risks.

It is a fact that people who didn’t have the right knowledge and skills trading in the Forex market suffered huge financial losses and some even went into debt. So, before you enter the Forex market, it is essential that you should have the necessary knowledge and skills as a Forex trader in order to minimize the risk of losing money and maximize the potential of making money.

Many people who were successful in the Forex market have went through a Forex trading course to get the knowledge and skills needed to successfully trade in this very liquid and very large financial market. In a Forex trading course, you will learn about when it is the right time to buy or sell, chart the movements, spot market trends and also know how to use the different trading platforms available in the Forex market.

You will also be familiarized with the terminologies used in the Forex market. Even the basic knowledge about trading in the Forex market can be a great help with your money-making venture in the world’s largest market. There are different Forex trading courses available, all you need to do is choose one that suits your needs as a trader. There are crash courses where all the basic things about Forex will be taught to you in a short period of time, full time online courses, where you will learn all about Forex through the internet and there are also full time real life classroom courses where you can learn the ropes about Forex in a real classroom with a live professor.

You can also become an apprentice. However, in order to learn a lot about Forex as an apprentice, you need to make sure that you have a seasoned Forex trader who can share a lot of things to you about the Forex market. Here are some of the basic things you should look for in a Forex trading course in order for you to get the sufficient knowledge about Forex trading:

• Margins
• Leveraging
• Types of orders
• Major currencies

A good Forex trading course will also explain a lot about the fundamental and technical analysis of charts. As a trader, knowing how to analyze a chart is an essential skill that you should have. So, when you are looking for a Forex trading course, you should look for a course that offers fundamental and technical analysis instruction. Stress plays a vital part in Forex traders. Knowing how to deal with stress is also a skill that you should develop. A good Forex trading course should teach you how to deal with stress and trade effectively and efficiently.

As much as possible, you should look for a Forex trading course that offer actual trading systems where students can trade real money on the Forex market or at least trade on dummy accounts in a simulated Forex market. This hands-on experience will greatly benefit you. Besides, the best way to learn about anything is by actually experiencing it. Live trading and simulations should be offered in a Forex trading course.

So, if you plan on getting involved in the Forex market, consider finding all these things in a Forex trading course. Developing the right knowledge and skills in trading in the world’s largest and most liquid market in the world will definitely help you make it to the top and achieve your dreams as a Forex trader.

eBay Data and Research – How Important Is It?

eBay is a business anyway you look at it. Sure, it is a great deal of fun for both the buyers and sellers, but when you look at it from another view point, you will see that it is a business from the seller’s point of view, the buyer’s point of view, and eBay’s point of view. 40 million dollars a day travels through eBay.

Selling items on eBay successfully is an art, and eBay offers many different forms of Data and Research to ensure that you are selling the right items, to the right people, in the right way. Some of the data and research is not free, but much of it is. The available resources include hot items by category, eBay Pulse, merchandising calendar, sales reports, marketplace research, buyer behavioral report, and the eBay solutions directory.

These tools are quite easy to use, and the information that can be gleaned from them is extremely valuable. The Data and Research tools are all accessible through your seller’s account, by clicking on the ‘Advance Selling’ link. Learn to use those tools, and get your piece of that $40 million eBay revenue each.

Buying On eBay: The Importance of Checking Feedback

Are you interested in using eBay to shop online? If you are, you are definitely not alone, as eBay is one of the most popular online marketplaces. As you likely already know, eBay is an online auction website; an online auction website that allows internet users to post items that they have in their possession, but not longer want or need, for sale. While this tends to give you a large number of products to choose from, it can make getting scammed on eBay relatively easy; however, there is a way that you cannot fall victim to some of the most common eBay scams. That way involves checking feedback.

If this is your first time using eBay, you may not necessarily know that buyers and sellers are able to leave each other feedback; in fact, they are encouraged to do so. Now, if another eBay buyer, just like you, were to have a positive experience, like they got their item in a timely matter and it was what they expected, they would be likely to leave a positive feedback. Positive feedbacks are marked with green circles with plus signs in them.

On the other hand, if an eBay buyer has a negative experience, like they never received their item or it was in poor condition, a negative comment may be left. Negative comments are market by red circles with negative signs in them. In addition to positive or negative comments, eBay buyers are also able to leave neutral comments, which are commonly used when a problem arose, but the seller in question fixed it in a timely matter. Also, next to the positive, negative, or neutral markings, eBay buyers can also leave comments.

Although you might not necessarily think about it, the feedback that an eBay seller has can give you insight into the type of service that you may receive. As a way, this feedback serves as reputation for an eBay seller. When shopping at a traditional retail store, there is a good chance that you wouldn’t shop at a store that is known for selling poor quality products or a store that has poor customer service. The same thinking should be applied when using eBay. You don’t want to business with an eBay seller that has a number of poor feedback ratings, as it is a sign of what may come.

If you are interested in examining the feedback of an eBay seller, you can easily do so. When visiting an online auction listing page, say a listing for a new set of hair clippers, in the right hand corner there should be a “Meet the Seller,” section. That section has information on the seller’s eBay feedback, as well as a link that you can click to see each individual feedback rating. You are urged to click that link.

When examining an eBay seller’s feedback, you need to remember that it is not uncommon for a seller to deal with disgruntled customers; customers that may leave negative feedback for no reason at all. That is why it is not uncommon to see a few negative feedback ratings; however, be on the lookout for any eBay seller who has an excessive number of them or a new eBay seller that has a large number of negative feedback ratings, as they are someone you should try and avoid.

In short, examining the feedback ratings or comments of an eBay seller will only take a few minutes of your time, but it may end up saving you a considerable amount of money. When shopping on eBay, it is advised that you use your best judgment. A number of negative feedback ratings may be a sure sign that an eBay seller may be out to scam you, in one way or another.

Automated Forex Trading System: Faster Execution Means Increased Trade Volumes

The concept of automated Forex trading system is mind-catching. Before the automation of the Forex market, exchange-traded futures market was the first to switch on automation. Then, the traders on the Interbank spot FX market decided to catch up with the latest trend and moved too to the new system.

Automated Forex trading system enables traders to execute their trade on spot Forex market automatically and anytime of the day, based on existing technical indicators and custom trading rules. There are various features included in the automated trading system, such as:

• Automatic trailing stops especially if the trader is losing in a particular trade position
• Account equity management
• Stop and/or limit orders
• Discretionary market orders and
• Various technical analysis indicators within your discretion for enabling trend-following systems.


Automated Forex trading systems supports most of the following indicators (the technical support will depend on the technology used as well as the available features of the system):

• WMA (weighted moving average)
• EMA (exponential moving average)
• SMA (simple moving average)
• VMA (variable moving average)
• TMA (triangular moving average)
• TSMA (time series moving average)
• WATR (wilder’s average true range)
• VHF (vertical horizontal filter)
• Standard deviation
• Trailing stops
• Mass index
• Fixed limits and stops, and others.


The success of the automation process to the Forex market is attributed to several factors, such as the following:

• Its ability to perform or execute trades in real time. Because of the automation, a trader can close trades within a few milliseconds. It is impossible in manual systems, as previous trades are normally closed after several hours. In addition, there are also instances wherein a trader incurs several losses in a row that prevents him from making any fresh transactions. Thus, with automated Forex trading system, this problem could be avoided.

• Its ability to greater diversification. With automated trading system now in place, a trader can trade in various local as well as international markets within varying time zones. In other words, you can place trade or close deals with different traders from various markets around the world even at the middle of the night.

• Its ability to analyze short-term data. This feature is not available in manual trading system. Thus, traders using automated system have the bigger advantage since they can predict market trends in less than an hour.


If you will consolidate the features as well as the benefits of automated Forex trading system, it will give you a solid conclusion: with the Forex market on automation, you will be able to place more trades on a single day, thus increasing the average volume trades daily.

To further clarify the conclusion. Let us take the following scenario: If you are trading using the manual system, you will notice that it takes time before a trader confirms if he will accept your deal or not. He will look on the market condition first as well as the exchange rate of the currencies that you are trading with. Thus, if it takes time before a transaction will be finalized; there would be fewer trade volumes.

Now, if you are using the automated Forex trading system, the evaluation of exchange rates and market conditions could be done within a few minutes, since Forex data are now updated in real time. Probably after less than an hour, you will be able to take your position whether you will push through the deal or not.

If a Forex transaction per trader is averaging within an hour, a single trader can place as much as 8 trades within the regular trading hours (if he is following the day trading schedule) and additional trades beyond the regular trading hours. There are thousands of traders in just a single market who can place such average number of trade per day. Combining it with the number of Forex markets around the world, the figure is just huge enough.

In addition, the technology is changing continuously, thus there is a tendency that the average number of trades per day will increase, thus a possibility of increased trade volumes on daily basis. With faster trade execution, that is a certain possibility. Be thankful, the Forex market is now at the helm of automation. Transactions are now faster, and earning money through Forex trading is now easier.

FOREX Investment Strategy

Forex is by far the most widely traded commodity in the world. The major currencies traded are: EUR/USD, USD/JPY, GBP/USD, USD/AUD, USD/CHF and USD/CAD; they make up the bulk of currency trading. While the barriers to entry are low and there's a 24 hour market for major currency pairs, making a profit in the forex market can be difficult, especially without a good investment strategy. The challenge for most is defining a strategy.

Fundamental vs Technical Analysis
There are two primary schools of thought in trading strategy: fundamental and technical analysis. The strategy you employ depends on the asset being traded. While fundamental analysis helps to identify the general direction of a nation's currency, it is generally not as helpful to the trader as technical analysis in forex. This is due to the high liquidity in the market. It is not unusual to be trading in less than tenths of a cent. With increments this small, visual aids (technical charts) can help a great deal more than fundamental indicators (inflation rate). View a one minute, one day, one week, and one month chart of the same currency. Take note of pivot points (points when the currency changes direction) and support (bottom) and resistance (top) levels.

Demo Account
Set up a demo account. Try at least three demo accounts before signing up with a broker. The trading platform can play a huge part in the execution of your strategy. For some traders it may define the strategy. Some platforms may seem more intuitive and others will offer more up-to-date data feeds. Ultimately, the platform you choose should play to your dominant strategy. Make a few trades in each platform, compare spreads, and make a consistent profit before opening up a real money account.

Stop-loss
Trade with insurance. Setting a stop-loss is a little like buying health insurance. You don't want to get sick, but if you do, it's nice to know you're prepared. A stop loss is an order set at a certain price point that will automatically unwind the order if the price is hit. Use shorter ranges for shorter duration trade windows and longer ranges for longer duration trade windows. It may hurt to hit your stop-loss, but at least your book will live to trade another day.

Common Items Found for Sale on eBay

Are you interested in doing your online shopping through eBay? If you are, you are one of millions of Americans who are. What is nice about eBay is that you can find just about anything on there, within reason of course. If you are interested in shopping eBay, but you never have before, you may be wondering what type of items can be found on eBay. If you would like to learn more, you are urged to continue reading on.

When it comes to eBay, as previously mentioned, you can buy just about anything, within reason. What that in mind, there are some popular items that can be found on eBay. One of those items is entertainment items. When speaking of entertainment items, you will find that the word “entertainment,” encompasses a handful of different items. For instance, there is entertainment memorabilia that be found online. These memorabilia pieces commonly include movie posters, signed merchandise, and so on. Entertainment also includes items such as DVDs, VHS tapes, CDs, television sets, DVD players, VHS players, radios, gaming consoles, as well as video games. Basically anything that you can use to entertain yourself can be associated with entertainment.

In addition to entertainment items, one of the next most commonly purchased items on eBay includes clothing. In today’s society it seems as if clothing keeps on rising in costs. Even traditional discount department stores are starting to charge more for their clothing. With clothing on eBay, it is nice because you can find a wide variety of different clothing pieces, for all different types of people. For instance, you can find casual clothing, elegant clothing, or school or work uniforms, all for men, women, children, babies, and toddlers. In fact, eBay is also well-known for their large selection of plus size clothing. Many of the most popular clothing pieces found on eBay are name brands being sold in new and used conditions at discounted prices.

Home and garden items are also commonly sold on eBay. As with entertainment items, home and garden encompasses a number of different items. With the home part, it is not uncommon to find home décor pieces, such as pottery or wall art, available for sale. Also, furniture, bedding, bathroom supplies, and kitchen supplies, can commonly be found for sale on eBay. As for the garden part, a wide range of gardening supplies and accessories can be found for sale on eBay. For instance, you can purchase gardening tools, gardening books, garden statues, and other landscaping décor pieces.

Toys are another popular item type that is regularly bought and sold on eBay. What is nice about toys is that many come in new and used conditions. If you are interested in buying toys for your children and you are like most parents, you don’t have a problem buying used, as the toys will start to show wear from your own children soon enough anyways. That is why toys are some of the most popular items sold on eBay. As with clothing, it is common to find a large selection of name brand toys available for sale.

One thing that you may not realize that you can buy on eBay is real estate. Yes; real estate can be listed for sale on eBay.com. A large number of for sale by owner home sellers use eBay to quickly sell their properties when they think that they are reaching a dead-end or when they need money in hurry. As with purchasing any item on eBay, when buying real estate, you are advised to do the proper amount of research and use your best judgment. Another big item that can regularly be found for sale on eBay is that of vehicles. A large number of vehicle owners are turning to eBay to sell their vehicles; many of which are in excellent condition and others to be used for parts only.

As you can see, there are an unlimited number of items that can be found for sale, at any given moment, on eBay. What is amazing is that the above mentioned items are just a few of the many that can be found. Even if you have yet to register an eBay account, you can start examining the many products that you can buy.

An eBay Seller's Checklist.

Being a seller is a lot of responsibility, and sometimes you might feel like you're not doing everything you should be. This simple checklist will help you keep on top of things. Have you found out everything you possibly could about your items? Try typing their names into a search engine - you might find out something you didn't know. If someone else is selling the same thing as you, then always try to provide more information about it than they do.

Do you monitor the competition? Always keep an eye on how much other items the same as or similar to yours are selling, and what prices they're being offered at. There's usually little point in starting a fixed price auction for $100 when someone else is selling the item for $90. Have you got pictures of the items? It's worth taking the time to photograph your items, especially if you have a digital camera. If you get serious about eBay but don't have a camera, then you will probably want to invest in one at some point.

Are you emailing your sellers? It's worth sending a brief email when transactions go through: something like a simple "Thank you for buying my item, please let me know when you have sent the payment". Follow this up with "Thanks for your payment, I have posted your [item name] today". You will be surprised how many problems you will avoid just by communicating this way.

Also, are you checking your emails? Remember that potential buyers can send you email about anything at any time, and not answering these emails will just make them go somewhere else instead of buying from you. Do your item description pages have everything that buyers need to know? If you're planning to offer international delivery, then it's good to make a list of the charges to different counties and display it on each auction. If you have any special terms and conditions (for example, if you will give a refund on any item as long as it hasn't been opened), then you should make sure these are displayed too.

Have you been wrapping your items correctly? Your wrapping should be professional for the best impression: use appropriately sized envelopes or parcels, wrap the item in bubble wrap to stop it from getting damaged, and print labels instead of hand-writing addresses. Oh, and always use first class post - don't be cheap.

Do you follow up? It is worth sending out an email a few days after you post an item, saying "Is everything alright with your purchase? I hope you received it and it was as you expected." This might sound like giving the customer an opportunity to complain, but you should be trying to help your customers, not take their money and run.

Being a really good eBay seller, more than anything else, is about providing genuinely good and honest customer service. That's the only foolproof way to protect your reputation. Of course, you might be wondering by now whether it's really worth all the hassle to get a good reputation on eBay. Won't people buy from you anyway, and couldn't you just open a new account if it really comes down to that? Our next email will set you straight.

Alternatives to Google Adsense

Google AdSense is the most powerful Internet marketing tool. It allows businesses to advertise their services. When you place these advertisements on your website, you share sales commissions with Google. But there are different online advertisers.

AdBrite
AdBrite is one of the biggest AdSense competitors. As a website owner, you can manually approve the ads that appear on your site. As an advertiser, you can decide which sites host your ads.

Chitika
Unlike AdSense, which targets ads based on your website's content, Chitika targets ads based on the visitor's search keywords. Chitika ads are not visible to those who visit your site directly without the aid of a search engine.

Kontera
Kontera is an in-text advertiser. It works by highlighting specific keywords in your website's articles and linking those to relevant advertisers.

Bidvertiser
Geared toward small business websites, Bidvertiser offers a low payout minimum payout of $10 as of August 2009.

Clicksor
Similar to AdSense, Clicksor utilizes its technology to target ads based on your content. It offers different ad formats, including in-text, banner and pop-unders.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate Marketing is a derivative of Internet marketing where the advertisement publisher gets paid for every customer or sales provided by him. Affiliate marketing is the basic for all other Internet marketing strategies. In this type of marketing, affiliate management companies, in-house affiliate managers and third party vendors are effectively utilized to use E-mail Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, RRS Capturing and Display Advertising for the success of the product.

The web traffic can be traced with the help of a third party or own affiliate programs. A lot of work is involved in this process. At first marketing by this method involved lots of spamming, false advertising, trademark infringement, etc. But, after the invention of complex algorithms and advance security this has been regularized to make it safer for doing business and shopping online. This even led to the better scrutinizing of the terms and conditions by the merchants. Affiliate marketing became more profiting with the opening of more opportunities but at the same time it also increased the competition in marketing.

Due to this pressure in house affiliate programs for merchants became a thing of the past and were replaced by out-sourced programs. The companies that offered this service have expert affiliate and network program managers who have various affiliate program management techniques. These affiliate networks have publishers associated with them who help them with the advertising part.

Affiliate marketing was started by cdnow.com who had music oriented websites. They placed list of music albums on their site and they paid others if they put those links in their websites when a visitor bought their album through their site. The first company to link with cdnow.com was Geffen Records. Two months later, Amazon was offered by a woman that she would sell Amazon’s books on her website and she should be paid a certain percentage in return if she sold Amazon’s books through her site. They liked the idea and started the Amazon associates program. It was more of a commission program where they received a commission if a visitor clicked their links and banners on other’s site and bought anything through it.

Since its invention, the affiliate network has been adopted by various businesses like travel, education, telecom, mobile, gaming, personal finance, retail, and subscription sites, the most common being adult and gambling sectors. In UK alone, affiliate marketing produced £ 2.16 billion.

The compensation methods used are Cost per sale (CPS), Cost per action (CPA), Cost per mile (CPM) and Cost per click (CPC). The first two are the more famous methods today. This is because in CPM and CPC, the visitor which turns up on a particular website might not be the targeted audience and a click would be enough to generate commission. CPS and CPA have a compulsion that the visitor not only clicks on the link but also buys something or signs up for some service after it which proves that he is among the targeted audience.

Only in the above case the affiliate gets paid. So the affiliate should try to send as much targeted traffic as possible to the advertiser in order to increase his/her returns and for this reason affiliate marketing is also known as performance marketing because it totally depends on the performance of the affiliate. The affiliate team can be differentiated from a sales team from the nature of their jobs. The job of the affiliate team is to drag targeted traffic to a point and from that point it’s the job of the sales team to influence the visitor to buy the product or the service.

This is a very effective kind of method because the money is being paid only when results have been achieved. The publisher incurs all the cost except that of initial setup and development of the program, which is incurred by the merchant. Many businesses give credit to this method of marketing for their success.

Adsense and the Surfer

AdSense is an easy program to grasp: it's a great form of an advertising bringing a lot of benefits to every person in the chain. And of course, seeing the results it can have on a business (and a publisher) people encourage this form of publicity. For the browsing audience this is probably the most straightforward model available, because they can be directed to a lot of new sites they wouldn't have otherwise found. Needless to say, if you have an AdSense banner on your site, and a large number of visitors you'll know it offers a great financial benefit.

But why does it work for the people clicking the links, as opposed to a standard approach? It is aided by today's society. With bloggers and information based articles on the internet, people may be encouraged to complete purchases, which adsense can provide links to relevant suppliers whilst also benefiting the publisher.

And the good thing about this is that it works for site visitors as well. In fact Google realized that by pleasing the people who are looking for something, and directing them to what they need faster, everybody wins. It is because of this that a lot of websites promote through AdSense in both content and search. They do it because they ultimately learned that it works for everyone.

If we look in the past, we can realize that this kind of publicity has a great impact over the people, especially in the last few years. When we enter on a web site and we see a graphical banner, our first idea is to cancel it out of our mind, because it's of no concern to us.

That's why traditional banner advertising is wrong. It's precisely because people are becoming savvy that they don’t look at a flashy banner because they think they'll be losing their time with it. We've gotten accustomed to banners that don't interest us. And we're accustomed to them having nice graphics. So we naturally associate the two things and think that a banner with nice graphics has nothing to tell us.

But we might look at a text-ad because we've grown accustomed to them being targeted at what we're looking for. Basically these advertisements have marketed themselves into being looked at by any visitor. This is a typical "no fluff, just stuff" situation. And in the end it means the visitors will see what they're interested in, not some random cool graphics you throw at them.

As stated above, site visitors adopt this advertising mechanism, because it is efficient in leading them to pages of interest and can offer ton of things they really want to see. Someone coming across an article on adsense was probably looking for shoes or doing research on shoes when they came across the article.

And most importantly for everyone, including visitors, this scheme can only improve as the process gets further refined to make ads more relevant to what you're looking for, not just a couple of keywords on a site. Nowadays, it is because of AdSense that Internet surfers are looking after more interesting related things from banners, and the companies behind the site (Google and the advertiser) need to have better ideas to display, as expectations have increased a great deal.

So could "Do no evil" actually work in today's cut throat competitive marketplace? Well, as you can see it can and it does. And you, as a visitor are the one who gets to enjoy this the most. Advertising becomes less of a burden and more of a benefit, and is still a benefit you can choose to ignore. Less obtrusive banners; banners that you're actually likely to be interested in and click means you'll be less annoyed by surfing the web and feel like you as a visitor being offered a relevant service.

Although some may feel reluctant to read articles that are there purely to compel consumers, undoubtedly without this consideration they are useful. Ultimately the adverts mean that you don’t have to go back to your homepage every time you are compelled to complete a purchase.

Adsense Alternatives 2

Bidvertiser www.bidvertiser.com
Like AdSense, Bidvertiser displays text ads in your page. But the difference lies in the fact that advertisers bid over your advertising space, ensuring you earn as much revenue as you possibly can. This also means that bids will increase over time, earning you even more cash. You also get a great way to customize your ads with a very easy to use tool and detailed reports on your site's status.

Quigo AdSonar www.quigo.com
Achieves relevancy by placing a filter according to your site's categories. It also offers you on-line reports of your site's status and the possibility to add your own custom ads replacing ads that don't gain you any revenue. The setup is very simple, in a similar fashion to AdSense's and quite customizable as well.

Vibrant Media IntelliTXT www.intellitxt.com
Vibrant Media IntelliTXT offers user-activated ads, highlighting certain words within the content of the page and presenting relevant ads when a user hovers his mouse over them. It uses a pay-for-performance pricing scheme and can easily be used along with other advertising methods, because it is unobtrusive. It places you in full control, allowing you to easily integrate it within your site with some simple JavaScript.

Nixie www.nixxie.com
Nixie claims to hold a technology that can read and understand your site, enabling it to display the most relevant content to your site. Besides text ads, Nixie also features price comparison listings as well as live auction advertising. It's very easy to implement and has a good payment policy as well.

MIVA AdRevenue Xpress www.miva.com
MIVA AdRevenue Xpress is targeted towards small and mid-sized publishers. It implements Search Box functionality and also features things like a Category Directory as well as the handling of 404 error pages. It can be integrated with your page using a simple on-line wizard.

Fastclick www.fastclick.com
Fastclick offers you an impressive 65 percent of what it makes from a click on your website. Payments are done monthly, via PayPal or through checks. The ads can be formatted as you wish, and Fastclick even offers a free support serice for its members and no fees are required to register with the service.

ContextWeb ContextAd www.contextweb.com
ContextAd offers the possibility of contextual ads for dynamic pages, meaning ads will change as soon as your page does. It's very easy to use and free to sing up for and offers a transparent payment policy. The ads are fully customizable and real-time reports are available 24/7.

AdBrite www.adbrite.com
Offers publishers the possibility of integrating text ads in their pages. These are done on your own rates, with the websites you approve by hand so it bares some similarities with a classic advertising scheme. You also have the option of adding a "Your Add Here" button that buyers can immediately click to ad space on your page. It can also be used in conjunction with Google AdSense, maximizing your CTR and offering advertisers the possibility of showing their links in your Google AdSense space. You have full control over the look and feel of your adds and finally, you get an incredible 75% of what the advertiser pays for on every click.

So, as you can see there are many offers for this kind of advertising, and many hybrids based on AdSense like advertising. Also, a lot of services can work together with AdSense to earn you an even greater amount of revenue for your ad space.

Adsense - Pros and Cons

You have that site on-line for quite a while, its generating a good number of hits every day and you're thinking whether or not to use AdSense advertising on it to make it generate some form of income. Well this is a description of the pros and cons of this approach to Internet advertising. AdSense has definitely hit the Internet like something from another planet and people are very excited about it everywhere. There are negative aspects to Adsense and alternatives to consider.

AdSense is generally a great tool for webmasters. Whereas, they would use to worry about how to raise enough money to keep their sites profitable, or at least keep them on-line those worries are gone. AdSense allows webmasters to forget about those worries and concentrate on creating good content for their sites. In fact, the emphasis is now on creating quality content (often associated with the top-paying words) which will bring you many visitors.

AdSense can also very well integrated with your website, it's easily customizable in terms of colors, size and position which means you can experiment with it in any way you like to maximize your income. AdSense is a very good means of generating a constant revenue on your site. All you need to do is create some quality content and keep it updated constantly and you can literally live off your website. A lot of people are doing just that nowadays with AdSense, so it's become sort of a business in itself.

It's also a great program because you can have the same account advertising on all your pages. This is great for webmasters wit a lot of content because it means they don't have to create many accounts unnecessarily. But as stated, above, there are some negative aspects to advertising with AdSense and here's a small list of such cons.

Clearly the largest negative impact the AdSense program can have on you is through Google closing your accounts. Most of the time this happens because of so called 'click fraud', which means somebody would be producing artificial clicks on your page. There's one really nasty side to that. It doesn't have to be you making those artificial clicks. It could very well be your competition doing this in order to shut you down, or the competitor of whoever is advertising on your page, looking to drive their marketing costs up.

The earning AdSense brings you are by no means constant. In fact, they're not even close to that. Anything you do to your site could end up being a big mistake costing you a great deal of money. It's that kind of pressure that has a negative impact on you. First of all, you constantly need to make sure your site is in the spotlight of search engines when people are searching for whatever it is your site is about.

If you fail to do that you won't have any visitors, and that of course means you won't have any AdSense revenue. In a way this is nothing new, as any form of generating revenue on the Internet with advertising has such a drawback. And finally, another major problem is that you constantly have to feed your site with better and better content. Now, of course, certain sites are very well geared towards doing this but with some types of content this is rather hard to achieve. This is often why the services of a copywriter are employed to generate more and more content.

When writing original content, the best thing a website owner can do is research a topic thoroughly and then return to writing with lots of information they can out in their own words, and show their own opinion on. So there are the pros and cons of using the AdSense network for generating profits through advertising. Now the choice of whether or not these work for you is yours.

Adsense Alternatives

Many people have started using Google's AdSense program, but there are some who find it a bit too uncertain or simply not suiting their own requirements from an ad program. But thankfully for such people, there are many alternatives to AdSense which attempt to alleviate some of its shortcomings. Here is a list of the most noteworthy ones from the lot with a description concerning each one.

AllFeeds www.allfeeds.com
AllFeeds has a great pool of online advertisers to choose from. It also features many display formats that you can choose from. These include banners, buttons, XML feeds, DHTML pop-ups and so on. It also features real time reporting of your ad status. The site will mail a check every month, provided that you earn more then $25.00, while rolling over earnings for the next month if you don't. Another interesting thing about AllFeeds is that it integrates with Google AdSense, maximizing your earnings with AdSense.

MarketBanker www.marketbanker.com
MarketBanker allows you the unique possiblity to set the pricing for your site. It also allows you to allow or reject any link that appears on your site (although AdSense itself does a very good job of this as well, with URL filters) There's also a statistics section which will allow you to see how well your site is doing. The ads are small just like AdSense's and they're just as easy to set up. Also, registration for MarketBanker is free.

BidClix www.bidclix.com
BidClix is different because it has advertisers compete for clicks on your site, which in turn is meant to generate the highest possible profits for your page. It also has a very large pool of advertisers which ensure there are plenty of people to choose your site. However, it does require more polish on site contents then AdSense. As most sites, real time statistics are available and its very easy to get started with this service, but it's also very flexible.

Chitika www.chitika.com
RealContext uses Artificial intelligence to retrieve the most relevant ads for your page. And there's an extra feature which makes RealContext unique as well. Keywords are selected based upon which previous selections payed off and which didn't. That means there's a constant feedback process that ensures you gain better revenue from your ads. It also supports blocking certain adds and child-safe filtering and many more options.

AdHearus www.adhearus.com
AdHearus is a very feature-packed contextual ad provider. As with AdSense, advertisements are targeted but it doesn't stop here at all. The ads are very flexible, you can select from text-ads, banners, rectangles, pop-ups, pop-unders or skyscrapers. You can also display your own ads, through rotation, both on your site and on other affiliate sites, which makes AdHearus a hybrid with conventional advertising technologies. There's a very comprehensive on-line real time reporting feature and, as usual with such services, starting out is free and it's a breeze.

AffiliateSensor www.affiliatesensor.com
Has highly customizable ad blocks, which you can make for yourself with an easy to use on-line interface. You also get realtime reporting with clicks-by-domain, page and refferer. There's integration with Google AdSense as well, through the google_alternate_ad_url so AffiliateSensor can be used as a substitute for Google PSA's (Public Service Ads).

Kanoodle Bright Ads www.kanoodle.com
Kanoodle's offering allows publishers to get ads related to topics or segments, and not the traditional keyword oriented ads. The site also groups publisher sites with advertisers by hand to ensure high-revenue generating ads. And speaking of revenue, the amount of money you receive is a clear 50% share of the amount of money Kanoodle recieves for an advertiser.

TargetPoint www.targetpoint.com
Oriented more towards content publishers. It offers full control over the look the ads, statistics over your site's overall performance and better revenue. It's free to register and you earn a guaranteed 60% of the total revenue. You can get payed with Paypal of Bank checks and (most times) wire transfers as well.

Clicksor www.clicksor.com
Clicksor will earn you as much as 60% from the amount of money your website produces. What you get is about the same as AdSense, there are targeted text ads, you can view the revenues from your website in real time. You can receive money via PayPal or through a check every two weeks, provided that you have earned more then $50. If you haven't made that much, your earning roll over to the next period.

Adsense is for Everyone

When Google's AdSense appeared, there were a lot of people who doubted Google's idea would be marketable and actually generate any profits. Yet as we stand here today it's probably the most well known pay per click venture in the world. Yes, all those nay sayers ended up eating their own words in the end. And that is because the folks at Google never go and do something without assessing whether or not it will be profitable, or exactly how profitable it is.

But of course, as you might very well know, AdSense isn't just profitable for Google. It's also profitable for the people who advertise via AdWords and very profitable for publishers who use it to make earnings which are sometimes just enormous.
So one must ask himself why this is such a good deal for everybody. And the question in itself is very justified because you hardly ever come across something that's profitable for everyone in the chain. So why would AdSense be any different.

Well, AdSense is where it stands today, giving benefits for everybody in the game because it exploits a gap in the Internet's advertising model. You see, the Internet is a very interactive environment, and its interactions come from the people who are browsing. They choose whether or not to follow a certain link and the term "navigating" is probably the most precise one at describing this situation.

So AdSense is great because it links together buyers and sellers. Yes, you have to hand it out to Google for a brilliant idea. They know there are people out there that want to buy stuff and people who want to sell them what they're interested in. And Google AdSense helps members of the two categories find each other.

It works for the visitors, because the model is very transparent. You don't see a huge graphic banner which tries to lure you into buying something. You just see a few words. And if you like what you see you can just click it. It works because visitors don't have that feeling of someone trying to lure them into spending money. Ironically, however, they're wrong.

It works for the AdWords advertisers because their ads go everywhere. Not only will they find themselves listed in Google's search which gets gazillions of hits per day, up front without working as much for SEO and waiting so much. Their ads can reach any website that deals with anything similar to what they're trying to sell. Now you must realize they could never pull of such great advertising by themselves. And that brings us to the thing that makes Google's AdSense a publisher's best friend.

It comes from the fact that the ads are contextual, that they somehow related to the keywords you deal with on your page. Because people or on your site, which deals with a certain topic, you already know they're interested in that topic. But, hey, wait a minute, Google knows some companies which want to sell your visitors something related to their topic. Google wants your visitors, you want Google's advertisers and the visitors just want to buy stuff. And that is the essence of what makes AdSense a great deal for everybody.

This is by far the most profitable hook-up deal you're ever going to see anywhere on the Internet. So you have to appreciate Google for realizing a killer deal. You have to appreciate how well thought out, yet simple this scheme really is. Sure, in practice it has a few quirks but those are minor and, up to this point everyone seems to be enjoying Google's AdSense.

How to Edit Photos for Ebay

A photo says a thousand words on Ebay. You could have a fantastic product with the best sales copy, and never sell a thing without a fabulous photo. Likewise, you could have a horrible description and still sell several products with a great photo. Although the first step is to take a wonderful picture, an equally important step is editing that photo. Editing photos is part of the job of a good seller.

Instructions:

1) Transfer your digital pictures to your computer and open up your free editing software. Typically software comes with your computer or your digital camera with purchase. If you don't have photo editing software, there are some free versions you can use online.

2) Use the red eye reduction capabilities. Photos with real people tend to do very well on Ebay. You do not want red eyes in your photos. The flash of the camera can cause red eyes. All you have to do to remove it, is click on the box next to "red eye reduction" on most photo editing software programs.

3) Adjust the color and light. Typically there is an area in editing software that allows you to lighten, darken, and adjust color. In general, you want the colors in your photo to closely resemble the colors in real life. You also want the photo to be as light as possible without changing the color hue.

4) Resize your photo to be around 420 x 640 pixels. Digital cameras produce photos with high resolution. Unfortunately, photos with higher resolution take too long to load on dial-up computers. This might cause people to click out of your auction before seeing your picture. Typically you can resize your photos by clicking on "resize".

5) Crop the photo. Click your mouse arrow on the top left hand corner of the photo you would like to remain seen. Then drag the arrow down and to the right. You will create a box. This box will be the only area seen in the photo on Ebay.


Tips and Warnings:

Take photos of all your Ebay items at one time. Then you can edit them all at once to save yourself some time. Don't zoom in on a photo in your photo editing software. This could cause blurriness. If you need a closer picture, zoom in the camera before you take the picture.

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An eBay Seller's Checklist.

Being a seller is a lot of responsibility, and sometimes you might feel like you're not doing everything you should be. This simple checklist will help you keep on top of things. Have you found out everything you possibly could about your items? Try typing their names into a search engine - you might find out something you didn't know. If someone else is selling the same thing as you, then always try to provide more information about it than they do.

Do you monitor the competition? Always keep an eye on how much other items the same as or similar to yours are selling, and what prices they're being offered at. There's usually little point in starting a fixed price auction for $100 when someone else is selling the item for $90. Have you got pictures of the items? It's worth taking the time to photograph your items, especially if you have a digital camera. If you get serious about eBay but don't have a camera, then you will probably want to invest in one at some point.

Are you emailing your sellers? It's worth sending a brief email when transactions go through: something like a simple "Thank you for buying my item, please let me know when you have sent the payment". Follow this up with "Thanks for your payment, I have posted your [item name] today". You will be surprised how many problems you will avoid just by communicating this way.

Also, are you checking your emails? Remember that potential buyers can send you email about anything at any time, and not answering these emails will just make them go somewhere else instead of buying from you. Do your item description pages have everything that buyers need to know? If you're planning to offer international delivery, then it's good to make a list of the charges to different counties and display it on each auction. If you have any special terms and conditions (for example, if you will give a refund on any item as long as it hasn't been opened), then you should make sure these are displayed too.

Have you been wrapping your items correctly? Your wrapping should be professional for the best impression: use appropriately sized envelopes or parcels, wrap the item in bubble wrap to stop it from getting damaged, and print labels instead of hand-writing addresses. Oh, and always use first class post - don't be cheap.

Do you follow up? It is worth sending out an email a few days after you post an item, saying "Is everything alright with your purchase? I hope you received it and it was as you expected." This might sound like giving the customer an opportunity to complain, but you should be trying to help your customers, not take their money and run.

Being a really good eBay seller, more than anything else, is about providing genuinely good and honest customer service. That's the only foolproof way to protect your reputation. Of course, you might be wondering by now whether it's really worth all the hassle to get a good reputation on eBay. Won't people buy from you anyway, and couldn't you just open a new account if it really comes down to that? Our next email will set you straight.

Alternatives to Google Adsense

Google AdSense is the most powerful Internet marketing tool. It allows businesses to advertise their services. When you place these advertisements on your website, you share sales commissions with Google. But there are different online advertisers.

AdBrite
AdBrite is one of the biggest AdSense competitors. As a website owner, you can manually approve the ads that appear on your site. As an advertiser, you can decide which sites host your ads.

Chitika
Unlike AdSense, which targets ads based on your website's content, Chitika targets ads based on the visitor's search keywords. Chitika ads are not visible to those who visit your site directly without the aid of a search engine.

Kontera
Kontera is an in-text advertiser. It works by highlighting specific keywords in your website's articles and linking those to relevant advertisers.

Bidvertiser
Geared toward small business websites, Bidvertiser offers a low payout minimum payout of $10 as of August 2009.

Clicksor
Similar to AdSense, Clicksor utilizes its technology to target ads based on your content. It offers different ad formats, including in-text, banner and pop-unders.

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Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate Marketing is a derivative of Internet marketing where the advertisement publisher gets paid for every customer or sales provided by him. Affiliate marketing is the basic for all other Internet marketing strategies. In this type of marketing, affiliate management companies, in-house affiliate managers and third party vendors are effectively utilized to use E-mail Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, RRS Capturing and Display Advertising for the success of the product.

The web traffic can be traced with the help of a third party or own affiliate programs. A lot of work is involved in this process. At first marketing by this method involved lots of spamming, false advertising, trademark infringement, etc. But, after the invention of complex algorithms and advance security this has been regularized to make it safer for doing business and shopping online. This even led to the better scrutinizing of the terms and conditions by the merchants. Affiliate marketing became more profiting with the opening of more opportunities but at the same time it also increased the competition in marketing.

Due to this pressure in house affiliate programs for merchants became a thing of the past and were replaced by out-sourced programs. The companies that offered this service have expert affiliate and network program managers who have various affiliate program management techniques. These affiliate networks have publishers associated with them who help them with the advertising part.

Affiliate marketing was started by cdnow.com who had music oriented websites. They placed list of music albums on their site and they paid others if they put those links in their websites when a visitor bought their album through their site. The first company to link with cdnow.com was Geffen Records. Two months later, Amazon was offered by a woman that she would sell Amazon’s books on her website and she should be paid a certain percentage in return if she sold Amazon’s books through her site. They liked the idea and started the Amazon associates program. It was more of a commission program where they received a commission if a visitor clicked their links and banners on other’s site and bought anything through it.

Since its invention, the affiliate network has been adopted by various businesses like travel, education, telecom, mobile, gaming, personal finance, retail, and subscription sites, the most common being adult and gambling sectors. In UK alone, affiliate marketing produced £ 2.16 billion.

The compensation methods used are Cost per sale (CPS), Cost per action (CPA), Cost per mile (CPM) and Cost per click (CPC). The first two are the more famous methods today. This is because in CPM and CPC, the visitor which turns up on a particular website might not be the targeted audience and a click would be enough to generate commission. CPS and CPA have a compulsion that the visitor not only clicks on the link but also buys something or signs up for some service after it which proves that he is among the targeted audience.

Only in the above case the affiliate gets paid. So the affiliate should try to send as much targeted traffic as possible to the advertiser in order to increase his/her returns and for this reason affiliate marketing is also known as performance marketing because it totally depends on the performance of the affiliate. The affiliate team can be differentiated from a sales team from the nature of their jobs. The job of the affiliate team is to drag targeted traffic to a point and from that point it’s the job of the sales team to influence the visitor to buy the product or the service.

This is a very effective kind of method because the money is being paid only when results have been achieved. The publisher incurs all the cost except that of initial setup and development of the program, which is incurred by the merchant. Many businesses give credit to this method of marketing for their success.

Adsense and the Surfer

AdSense is an easy program to grasp: it's a great form of an advertising bringing a lot of benefits to every person in the chain. And of course, seeing the results it can have on a business (and a publisher) people encourage this form of publicity. For the browsing audience this is probably the most straightforward model available, because they can be directed to a lot of new sites they wouldn't have otherwise found. Needless to say, if you have an AdSense banner on your site, and a large number of visitors you'll know it offers a great financial benefit.

But why does it work for the people clicking the links, as opposed to a standard approach? It is aided by today's society. With bloggers and information based articles on the internet, people may be encouraged to complete purchases, which adsense can provide links to relevant suppliers whilst also benefiting the publisher.

And the good thing about this is that it works for site visitors as well. In fact Google realized that by pleasing the people who are looking for something, and directing them to what they need faster, everybody wins. It is because of this that a lot of websites promote through AdSense in both content and search. They do it because they ultimately learned that it works for everyone.

If we look in the past, we can realize that this kind of publicity has a great impact over the people, especially in the last few years. When we enter on a web site and we see a graphical banner, our first idea is to cancel it out of our mind, because it's of no concern to us.

That's why traditional banner advertising is wrong. It's precisely because people are becoming savvy that they don’t look at a flashy banner because they think they'll be losing their time with it. We've gotten accustomed to banners that don't interest us. And we're accustomed to them having nice graphics. So we naturally associate the two things and think that a banner with nice graphics has nothing to tell us.

But we might look at a text-ad because we've grown accustomed to them being targeted at what we're looking for. Basically these advertisements have marketed themselves into being looked at by any visitor. This is a typical "no fluff, just stuff" situation. And in the end it means the visitors will see what they're interested in, not some random cool graphics you throw at them.

As stated above, site visitors adopt this advertising mechanism, because it is efficient in leading them to pages of interest and can offer ton of things they really want to see. Someone coming across an article on adsense was probably looking for shoes or doing research on shoes when they came across the article.

And most importantly for everyone, including visitors, this scheme can only improve as the process gets further refined to make ads more relevant to what you're looking for, not just a couple of keywords on a site. Nowadays, it is because of AdSense that Internet surfers are looking after more interesting related things from banners, and the companies behind the site (Google and the advertiser) need to have better ideas to display, as expectations have increased a great deal.

So could "Do no evil" actually work in today's cut throat competitive marketplace? Well, as you can see it can and it does. And you, as a visitor are the one who gets to enjoy this the most. Advertising becomes less of a burden and more of a benefit, and is still a benefit you can choose to ignore. Less obtrusive banners; banners that you're actually likely to be interested in and click means you'll be less annoyed by surfing the web and feel like you as a visitor being offered a relevant service.

Although some may feel reluctant to read articles that are there purely to compel consumers, undoubtedly without this consideration they are useful. Ultimately the adverts mean that you don’t have to go back to your homepage every time you are compelled to complete a purchase.

Adsense Alternatives 2

Bidvertiser www.bidvertiser.com

Like AdSense, Bidvertiser displays text ads in your page. But the difference lies in the fact that advertisers bid over your advertising space, ensuring you earn as much revenue as you possibly can. This also means that bids will increase over time, earning you even more cash. You also get a great way to customize your ads with a very easy to use tool and detailed reports on your site's status.

Quigo AdSonar www.quigo.com

Achieves relevancy by placing a filter according to your site's categories. It also offers you on-line reports of your site's status and the possibility to add your own custom ads replacing ads that don't gain you any revenue. The setup is very simple, in a similar fashion to AdSense's and quite customizable as well.

Vibrant Media IntelliTXT www.intellitxt.com

Vibrant Media IntelliTXT offers user-activated ads, highlighting certain words within the content of the page and presenting relevant ads when a user hovers his mouse over them. It uses a pay-for-performance pricing scheme and can easily be used along with other advertising methods, because it is unobtrusive. It places you in full control, allowing you to easily integrate it within your site with some simple JavaScript.

Nixie www.nixxie.com

Nixie claims to hold a technology that can read and understand your site, enabling it to display the most relevant content to your site. Besides text ads, Nixie also features price comparison listings as well as live auction advertising. It's very easy to implement and has a good payment policy as well.

MIVA AdRevenue Xpress www.miva.com

MIVA AdRevenue Xpress is targeted towards small and mid-sized publishers. It implements Search Box functionality and also features things like a Category Directory as well as the handling of 404 error pages. It can be integrated with your page using a simple on-line wizard.

Fastclick www.fastclick.com

Fastclick offers you an impressive 65 percent of what it makes from a click on your website. Payments are done monthly, via PayPal or through checks. The ads can be formatted as you wish, and Fastclick even offers a free support serice for its members and no fees are required to register with the service.

ContextWeb ContextAd www.contextweb.com
ContextAd offers the possibility of contextual ads for dynamic pages, meaning ads will change as soon as your page does. It's very easy to use and free to sing up for and offers a transparent payment policy. The ads are fully customizable and real-time reports are available 24/7.

AdBrite www.adbrite.com
Offers publishers the possibility of integrating text ads in their pages. These are done on your own rates, with the websites you approve by hand so it bares some similarities with a classic advertising scheme. You also have the option of adding a "Your Add Here" button that buyers can immediately click to ad space on your page. It can also be used in conjunction with Google AdSense, maximizing your CTR and offering advertisers the possibility of showing their links in your Google AdSense space. You have full control over the look and feel of your adds and finally, you get an incredible 75% of what the advertiser pays for on every click.

So, as you can see there are many offers for this kind of advertising, and many hybrids based on AdSense like advertising. Also, a lot of services can work together with AdSense to earn you an even greater amount of revenue for your ad space.

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Adsense - Pros and Cons

You have that site on-line for quite a while, its generating a good number of hits every day and you're thinking whether or not to use AdSense advertising on it to make it generate some form of income. Well this is a description of the pros and cons of this approach to Internet advertising. AdSense has definitely hit the Internet like something from another planet and people are very excited about it everywhere. There are negative aspects to Adsense and alternatives to consider.

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AdSense is generally a great tool for webmasters. Whereas, they would use to worry about how to raise enough money to keep their sites profitable, or at least keep them on-line those worries are gone. AdSense allows webmasters to forget about those worries and concentrate on creating good content for their sites. In fact, the emphasis is now on creating quality content (often associated with the top-paying words) which will bring you many visitors.

AdSense can also very well integrated with your website, it's easily customizable in terms of colors, size and position which means you can experiment with it in any way you like to maximize your income. AdSense is a very good means of generating a constant revenue on your site. All you need to do is create some quality content and keep it updated constantly and you can literally live off your website. A lot of people are doing just that nowadays with AdSense, so it's become sort of a business in itself.

It's also a great program because you can have the same account advertising on all your pages. This is great for webmasters wit a lot of content because it means they don't have to create many accounts unnecessarily. But as stated, above, there are some negative aspects to advertising with AdSense and here's a small list of such cons.

Clearly the largest negative impact the AdSense program can have on you is through Google closing your accounts. Most of the time this happens because of so called 'click fraud', which means somebody would be producing artificial clicks on your page. There's one really nasty side to that. It doesn't have to be you making those artificial clicks. It could very well be your competition doing this in order to shut you down, or the competitor of whoever is advertising on your page, looking to drive their marketing costs up.

The earning AdSense brings you are by no means constant. In fact, they're not even close to that. Anything you do to your site could end up being a big mistake costing you a great deal of money. It's that kind of pressure that has a negative impact on you. First of all, you constantly need to make sure your site is in the spotlight of search engines when people are searching for whatever it is your site is about.

If you fail to do that you won't have any visitors, and that of course means you won't have any AdSense revenue. In a way this is nothing new, as any form of generating revenue on the Internet with advertising has such a drawback. And finally, another major problem is that you constantly have to feed your site with better and better content. Now, of course, certain sites are very well geared towards doing this but with some types of content this is rather hard to achieve. This is often why the services of a copywriter are employed to generate more and more content.

When writing original content, the best thing a website owner can do is research a topic thoroughly and then return to writing with lots of information they can out in their own words, and show their own opinion on. So there are the pros and cons of using the AdSense network for generating profits through advertising. Now the choice of whether or not these work for you is yours.