Here are just some of the questions that professional sellers have asked (and found out the answers to) and most of us don’t know:

• What can you find out about the buyers who are most likely to be buying on Trade Me?
• When are they most likely to visit Trade Me and push the “Bid” button?
• What are the hottest selling seasons and how can you take best advantage of that timing?
• What types of products sell best on Trade Me? And what’s particularly hot in 2010?
• Who are the top selling traders on Trade Me these days and what are they doing well?
• Where are the best places to source your products?
• How can you make your products truly unique?
• How can you really get noticed on Trade Me?
• What are the secrets of going viral and getting your listings heaps of traffic?
• How do you come up with Compelling Headlines and Sizzling Descriptions?
• What sorts of images will sell your stuff best?
• How can you get the most money for your products?
• How do you promote your listings to best effect?
• These days, should you be building a following through Twitter or Facebook?
• How can you try to squeeze an extra sale out of every listing with no additional promotional cost?
• How can you grow your Trade Me business without having a total meltdown?
• What are the best tools for automating your listings processes?
• How can you get your products out the door effectively and efficiently?
• How can you attract really favourable feedback from your customers?
• How can you turn today’s one-time buyer into a longterm satisfied customer?

If you’d like to get serious about selling, allow us to introduce our new course:

Course TM-1: Advanced Selling On Trade Me
This is a seven-week eCourse providing a comprehensive masterclass on selling on Trade Me. The course presumes you are already familiar with the basics of selling on Trade Me (if there are a few gaps, you can do your homework with our own TRADE ME SUCCESS SECRETS book).

This is an ONLINE-ONLY course — you can take part from anywhere, in your own time.

This eCourse is conducted on a web-based e-learning software platform, enabling course participants to proceed at their own pace, accessing materials online. This particular eCourse provides content in a variety of multimedia forms, including videos, slideshows, flash-based presentations and PDF files. No special software is required to participate.

Course lessons are released weekly, for participants to access in accordance with their own timetables. Interaction with the course tutor is enabled through the platform software tools (with telephone backup if required).

TIMING
This eCourse starts on Wednesday August 18, with the delivery to participants of Lesson One. New lessons are delivered weekly on Wednesdays.

COURSE CREATION AND TUTORING
This course has been created and will be tutored by Michael Carney, author of the best-selling book about buying and selling effectively on Trade Me, TRADE ME SUCCESS SECRETS (now in its second edition).

WHO SHOULD TAKE PART
Anyone who wants to sell as effectively and profitably as possible on Trade Me.

——————————————————————————–

COURSE CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION
In which we discuss the secrets of selling successfully on Trade Me, identify the various elements we’ll be discussing during the course and examine the skills you’ll need to have (or hire in) as your selling operation expands. At the end of this section we’ll be setting a self-assessment questionnaire to determine if you have what it takes to be a top Trade Me seller.

LESSON ONE: ABOUT THE BUYERS
We talk about the buyers, discuss what makes them buy (or not), review current economic conditions and explore their motivations (and how we can trigger the urge to buy). We also look at what times of the day and times of the week they’re most likely to visit Trade Me, what times of year they’re most likely to be looking for Trade Me deals — and how you can keep watch on their current interests. Your homework will focus on identifying the most likely buyers you think would be interested in your products — or choosing desirable buyers and then identifying their particular needs and wants.

LESSON TWO: PRODUCTS THAT SELL
We’ve gathered years of information on which products sell well on Trade Me. In Lesson Two we look at the products that always sell well and the items that are especially hot in 2010. We discuss some of the best places to source your products and look at the ways you can make your products truly unique. Your assignment for this lesson: pimp your own products — what can you do to make them Uniquely You?

LESSON THREE: TOP SELLERS & THEIR STORIES
We spoke to many top sellers when we put together TRADE ME SUCCESS SECRETS. In this lesson we explore who are the top selling traders on Trade Me these days and what they’re doing especially well. We also catch up with some old friends and ask them what they’ve learned since last we met. Your mission, should you decide to accept it: identify some of the key learnings that are relevant to you.

LESSON FOUR: GETTING NOTICED
Sometimes, it’s easy to see why an auction goes viral and picks up hundreds of thousands of pageviews. When Tana Umaga picked up that handbag and demonstrated Management By Hitting Out, the cybersphere went wild. But what happened to turn that Scary Washing Machine into a phenomenon? We talk to those involved and identify some of the strategies that make auctions sizzle. And we look at the increasing importance of Twitter and Facebook to get the word out. Your task: review some of your own auction listings to see which measure up.

LESSON FIVE: KILLER CONTENT
Words matter on Trade Me. If you don’t have a compelling headline, your listing won’t even get read. If you don’t have a sizzling description, you won’t get added to anybody’s waitlist. And if the accompanying pictures don’t make your item a must-have addition to your collection, fugeddabahtit. We take you through the processes and then turn you loose on your own listings.

LESSON SIX: HOW MUCH?
What sorts of prices should you set for your products on Trade Me, to give you a fair return on the time and effort involved? What are the little tricks for squeezing more revenue out of the site? When are loss leaders (such as $1 No Reserve listings) appropriate? We examine the numbers — and then encourage you to do likewise.

LESSON SEVEN: GETTING THINGS DONE
Once you reach a certain point on Trade Me, you need to introduce systems (unless you simply don’t want a life). We look at what’s now available to create your listings, post them quickly, get the products out the door — and then handle those after-sales deals such as feedback. We also look at how you can build a list of satisfied customers — and turn that happiness into additional revenues. Your homework will involve planning your growth strategy.

CONCLUSION
Time to turn all that learning into a planned sales programme. We give you the tools (or tell you where to find them).

——————————————————————————–

INVESTMENT

This seven-part eCourse is available for $297 +GST. However we offer two special highly-reduced rates:

JULY INTRODUCTORY HALF-PRICE SPECIAL
$147 +GST [totalling $165.38] if you book and pay before 5pm THIS FRIDAY, JULY 30.

AUGUST EARLY-BIRD SPECIAL
$197 +GST if you book and pay before 5pm ON WEDNESDAY AUGUST 11.

Bookings are confirmed on receipt of payment, which can be by cheque, bank deposit or credit card. We can raise an invoice in advance if you need it.

If you’d like to pay by Visa or Mastercard, here’s the link to sign up for the July Introductory Special (via international credit card processor PayMate): CLICK HERE TO PAY

If you would prefer to pay by American Express or by bank deposit, or require an invoice before making payment, please send an email to info@successsecrets.co.nz with your contact details.

If you’re paying in August, check back here for revised payment details.

(The service provider will be shown as Netmarketing Services Limited in your transaction and on your credit card statement)

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

• Your booking will be confirmed (if you have not received a confirmation within 24 hours, feel free to email info@successsecrets.co.nz
• Further Lessons will be provided at weekly intervals for the duration of the seven-week course

PS ACT NOW! We’d hate you to miss our JULY INTRODUCTORY HALF-PRICE SPECIAL
$147 +GST ($165.38 including GST) if you book and pay before 5pm THIS FRIDAY, JULY 30.

Related posts:

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2. Making Money Online So you’ve decided to get serious about Trade Me and...

Although these days we’re all pretty comfortable with the notion of buying and selling stuff on our favourite auction site, it still requires a leap of faith: we’re sending money to people we don’t know, for goods we haven’t seen.

Without some variation on the Feedback system , we’d be completely in the dark about the trustworthiness or otherwise of those on the other end of the trade.

The Feedback system isn’t perfect – but it’s a very useful guide to other members of the Trade Me community and helps keep us honest. Imagine how much better behaved we’d be in real life if we all had to walk around wearing Feedback ratings given to us by our colleagues and customers!

We had an enquiry from a reader which raised some useful questions about Feedback on Trade Me:

C.U. from Martinborough wrote:

“I’ve been wondering why everyone who’s browsing my Trade Me feedback (which is good and part of the ‘getting to trust someone’) can actually see what I had purchased or sold. I don’t (a) think it’s anyone’s business, (b) think it matters and (c) find it helpful if you’ve (for example) bought something as a surprise present.”

Thanks for the question, C.U. Firstly, to the issue of the surprise present: I’ve sold a few copies of my TRADE ME SUCCESS SECRETS book to bidders who intend to give the book away as a present — I usually know in advance because people ask me to sign the book “Happy Birthday [O So Lucky Recipient]“.

On those occasions, I usually hold off giving feedback until I receive it from the buyer, to avoid tipping off the recipient in case they have access to the buyer’s Trade Me account. Similarly, you should specifically ask sellers to delay feedback if you intend to give the item as a gift.

To the more philosophical question of why feedback should link through to item details:

If you’re a buyer considering whether a particular seller is trustworthy, even when they have a number of positive feedbacks it can be really important to see exactly how they gained those feedbacks.

A whole industry sprung up over on eBay, selling downloadable items for one cent each, purely to build feedback. As a result, it has been really easy on eBay to build a host of positive feedbacks with minimal cost and little effort [although the rules over there have since been changed to try to stamp out the practice].

Trade Me don’t allow downloadable items to be sold on the site, so that particular problem is avoided here in NZ; but you can still amass positive feedback for limited expense by buying a pile of $1 items, paying promptly and requesting positive feedback. Your feedback total looks good but you haven’t actually done much to deserve it. So, when you set out to sell a high-value item, the feedback numbers can mislead us about exactly how trustworthy you are.

In such circumstances, it’s really important for prospective buyers to have the ability to see for themselves exactly how you acquired that glowing feedback score.

Also, from a purely commercial point of view, if I’m a potential buyer interested in buying a widget from you, it’s useful information for me to know how much you earned from earlier widget sales. I don’t want to overpay!

So what’s the best way to give Feedback?

Some pointers on Feedback etiquette, firstly for sellers:

• Ideally, post feedback as soon as you’ve posted the item off to the fortunate buyer. You’ve completed your part of the transaction. Also, it’s another reinforcement to the purchaser that their item is actually on the way [and you do have the opportunity to adjust or delete your feedback if problems arise later].
• If you’re a high volume seller, on the other hand, you’ll need to streamline the various parts of your operation so probably can’t afford the time to give instant feedback. In that case, schedule time at least once a week for posting feedback on all that week’s auctions; 15 minutes should be enough.
• Try to be unique and creative when you leave feedback. Yes, you could just create generic feedback statements, such as ‘Great buyer, quick payment, A+++’, but you’ll make a better impact with more customised feedback. You never know when a few thoughtful words will lead to new customers.

For buyers:

• Wait for the safe arrival of your item. If it turns up in good condition and matches the auction description, give positive feedback promptly.
• If there are problems, try and resolve them with the seller before you resort to posting negative feedback. It’s easy to get into a feedback escalation situation, both buyer and seller posting feedback flames. Try not to go there.
• On the other hand, if the seller is a ratbag and simply doesn’t meet his/her obligations, you should seriously consider giving that red-face negative. The Trade Me community is self-policing but relies on all members to do their part.

If, despite all the above, you do get negative feedback:

• Learn from it
• Mend your ways if necessary
• You do have the right of reply posted directly below the feedback – use it wisely
• You also have the facility to post feedback on the trader – but try to avoid retaliatory feedback
• And of course you can (and should) try to rectify the situation — the trader has the ability to remove the feedback they posted.

Trade Me will not review negative feedback unless:

• It contains swear words or vulgarities (but note that Trade Me reserves the right to determine what it considers swear words, vulgarities or defamatory statements)
• It contains defamatory statements
• It contains the trader’s contact details, phone number, surname, email address or other means to individually identify the trader
• The trader placing feedback has been permanently removed from Trade Me for misbehaving
• The feedback refers to an ongoing investigation by Trade Me, the police, or any other authorised party
• Trade Me is ordered by the court to remove it

If you feel that any feedback has breached these terms, you can report it to Trade Me (as long as it’s not more than 30 days old).

And one more thing: you can be held legally responsible for damages to the trader’s reputation under New Zealand law. So keep your feedback factual.

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Selling on Trade Me is all about encouraging early bids and creating emotional attachments with the items. Your pricing strategy has a very real influence on whether early bidding is successfully achieved. To understand exactly what pricing strategies are right for you, you first need to understand the psychology of bidding.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF BIDDING

Scenario 1: The high starting bid
You have a widget for sale. You bought it for $20 and you think it’s worth $40. You list it with a minimum starting bid (same as the reserve) of $39.95.

After a few days you’ve attracted some casual viewers but no bids. Then a widget-lover finds the auction and looks over the listing details. He sees the high starting bid price and wonders to himself:

• Is this widget a must-have addition to my collection or just a passing fancy?
• Should I bid for this or save my money for something special?
• Is it really worth $39.95?
• Why isn’t anyone else bidding?

If his widget-addiction is strong, he’ll make a bid. If your product description is mind-boggling and everything else stacks up, maybe that could tip the balance. Otherwise, no sale.

Scenario 2: The $1 No Reserve Auction
Same widget, different pricing. You still think the widget’s worth $40 but this time you start the auction at $1, No Reserve. Right from the start, you get more traffic — your widget shows up in the Widgets category and also in the $1 No Reserve Category. You attract a few casual viewers who have some interest in your item. Since the price is so low, they’ll place a bid on it if they have any interest at all, or if they think they can resell it and make a quick profit.

That mere act of someone making a bid transforms the fate of your widget. Now it attracts more interest — someone’s bid on it; it must be worthwhile. More people see the widget listing and more bid on it. There’s an increasing perception of the value of the widget (based on bidding behaviour which is really the blind leading the blind).

The bidding gets up to $10 or $15 when those with a merely casual interest stop bidding. Now your widget-lover comes along. When you started the bidding at $39.95, the price was high and he had to try to justify the purchase to himself. Now it’s a low price, obviously a great deal — and a host of others are interested in the widget. But our hero is a widget-loving expert and right away he develops a sense of ownership — ‘I know and understand widgets; this one is mine!’ He bids $20 and becomes top dog, leading the bidding.

Enter Widget Lover #2. He sees the widget, he sees all the bids and maybe recognises the user name of Widget Lover #1. The opponent effect kicks in — a bidding war erupts. Up, up, up goes the price, past $30, past $35, past $40. Widget Lover #1 finally gets the prize, for $49.77.

Why was Widget Lover #1 willing to pay more in this second scenario? Suddenly he really wanted it — but might lose out. The widget’s relative value had changed as a result of the auction itself. It wasn’t just a case of ‘do I really need this widget?’ any more. Now it was serious: ‘I have to win this auction — this is my widget. I’m the widget-lover.’

So how do you tap into the psychology of bidding to increase the potential return on your widget? There are five primary pricing strategies used by sellers at the start of their auctions:

1. STARTING BID = MINIMUM AMOUNT YOU WISH TO RECEIVE FOR THE ITEM
(Often flagged in listing headlines as ‘Start = Reserve’ or ‘S=R’.) This is a fairly straightforward pricing strategy: set the starting price (and the reserve) at the amount you think the item’s worth.

Recommended when

• You’re selling an item that appeals only to a very small niche market. If you’ll only get a small number of bids for an item, make them count — and make them profitable.
• You have absolutely no idea what the item is worth. List it for the minimum profit margin you want to get for it (after factoring in your acquisition cost).

2. STARTING BID = $1, WITH NO RESERVE (HEADLINE SHORTHAND: $1NR)
Simply start the bidding at $1 and set the reserve at $1. [NB: A word of warning with this strategy: be mentally prepared to let your product go for as little as one dollar. Not every auction proceeds according to plan.]

Recommended when

• You’re selling an item with wide appeal. If you’re offering a product that potentially appeals to a large target market, casual visitors will be willing to bid on your item at an early stage because it seems like a great bargain.

3. LOW STARTING BID + HIGH RESERVE PRICE
You could start your auction at an attractive low price (even as low as $1) with a significant reserve price (say $40) as protection in case bidding is too low.

Recommended when

• You want to attract as much interest as possible in your auction, but don’t want to sell the item unless the bidding reaches a minimum level.

4. STARTING BID = ENOUGH TO COVER YOUR PURCHASE PRICE AND LISTING FEES
This pricing strategy (where Start also equals Reserve) is a halfway-house between strategies #1 (high minimum bid) and #2 (no minimum bid).

Recommended when

• You previously opted for a high starting bid strategy but your item failed to sell. You’re not prepared to try a $1 No Reserve alternative because you wish to at least earn back your investment.

5. STARTING BID = PERCENTAGE OF LISTED VALUE (AND START=RESERVE)
With this strategy you price your starting bid in relation to an existing price guide or published price. For example, you might sell DVDs and start all of your auctions at 60% of recommended retail prices. Or you might sell a collectable item such as stamps or comic books, where price guides and catalogues exist and you can quote them in your listings.

Recommended when

• There have not been any recent trades in the products you’re selling, so there are no Trade Me benchmarks with which to work.

MAKING A FIXED PRICE OFFER
At the end of an auction, the seller has one final opportunity to offer the item at a fixed price. It’s a blunt instrument – price is the only variable under the seller’s control at this stage. If you just want to be rid of the item, offer it at that legendary “price they can’t refuse”.

Otherwise, choose a price that you’d be happy receiving — if someone accepts, it’s a done deal.

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You can build a business on Trade Me by offering products at low prices — if you know where you can buy them cheaply enough. Conversely, if you’re a veteran collector of popular but hard-to-find items, you might be able to carve out a niche buying and selling the things you love (if you can bear to let them go).

But if you really want to succeed as a Trade Me seller, your best opportunity lies in offering unique, personalised items with a high perceived value, so that you’re effectively providing both uniqueness and a great deal.

Those unique personalised items can either be something you’ve created yourself or else could be otherwise ordinary products to which you’ve added personal value in some way. With the Trade Me online marketplace groaning with nearly a million and a half listings every day, you simply must have products that stand out — products that attract interested watchers and eager bidders and sell more profitably than the merely average offerings of your competitors.

One early trader who understood the importance of uniqueness was Arsenalboy, the seller of ‘the butt of the last cigarette officially and legally smoked inside Malt Restaurant and Bar in Auckland, 11.59 pm on December 9, 2004 before the smoke-free legislation came into force seconds later.’

First he gathered up the butt, risking life and lungs in the process. Then he created a certificate attesting to the genuineness of the artifact, and then framed and displayed the aforementioned items in a unique and pleasing manner.

Anyone could have done it. Arsenalboy did. The auction attracted what was at the time a precedent-shattering 139,627 pageviews and sold for an incredible, nicotine-stained $7,475.

There are scads of more recent examples (the Scary Washing Machine comes to mind), but hopefully you’ll see the point without us having to belabour it.

SO WHERE DO YOU START?
Adding significant personal value to your products can be achieved in many ways. Here are some of the most successful:

• Adding personalised extras to make ordinary items unique
• Finding unutilised niches for products
• Packaging multiple items into a single, more attractive package
• Offering your own unique knowledge in addition to the product
• Customising the Trade Me descriptions and product listings in a manner that reflects your own personality and style

If you’re struggling to think up ways to personalise your offerings, get some help. Grab some of your more creative friends and get them to brainstorm with you.

A QUICK GUIDE TO BRAINSTORMING
Where possible, get as diverse a range of participants as possible. You’ll end up with a broad range of experience and expertise and a more creative outcome.

• Choose a scribe to write it down, preferably on a whiteboard/flipchart
• Clearly spell out the nature of the problem to be solved (customising your Trade Me offerings), and specify any key criteria
• Keep everyone focused on the problem
• No criticism or evaluation of ideas during the session as this stifles creativity and discourages individuals from speaking up
• Try to get everyone to contribute and develop their ideas, including the quiet ones
• Have fun; be radical, impractical, foolish, free-flowing
• Don’t get stuck on any single train of thought
• Encourage participants to build on other people’s ideas

THE OBJECTIVE: TO MAKE YOU THE ONLY PERSON SELLING WHAT YOU SELL
That probably sounds optimistic at best, impossible at worst. But once you personalise your offerings — or at least personalise the way you present them — you will indeed be able to turn yourself into the only destination able to offer the brand called You.

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Spending too much time on Trade Me? Here are ten ways to tell if your flirtation with Trade Me is turning into a serious business — and, if you are indeed in that position, ten other things you should know to help make that business soar.

BUSINESS OR HOBBY – DOES IT MATTER?

If you’re running a business, your business expenses are deductible but you have to pay tax on your income. If it’s a hobby, you can’t deduct any expenses but then you don’t have to pay tax on your sales either.

Inland Revenue’s point of view, paraphrasing its published advice on the subject: the same rules apply, whether you’re selling on Trade Me or offline. If you sell stuff you don’t want or need any more, there are usually no tax consequences. However, if you sell things on a regular basis you might be regarded as being in business and consequently should declare the sales for income-tax purposes.

THE TEN TELL-TALE SIGNS THAT YOU’RE RUNNING A BUSINESS ON TRADE ME

As a general rule you’ll be considered to be in business (and should declare and pay tax on your Trade Me sales) if:

1. You acquired your products with the purpose of onselling them

OR

2.Your intention is to make a profit from your selling activities

OR

3. If your business involves dealing in such products

Note the ‘OR’ — any one of these conditions is enough to lead to the conclusion that you’re running a business on Trade Me. A key factor that Inland Revenue will consider when evaluating your case is how often or how regularly you’re selling on Trade Me. A high feedback count in a short period of time may be good for business — but it’s also a good indicator that you’re actually running a business.

Business or hobby — it’s one of the ‘grey areas’ of tax law. Some of the other issues that Inland Revenue (and the courts) consider if they need to establish whether an operation is hobby or business are:

4. Scale of operations

If it’s relatively large-scale, it’s probably a business. If it’s small-time, it could be a hobby.

5. Volume transactions

Many sales make business work. Just a few sales suggest a hobbyist (or a really lousy businessperson).

6. Commitment of time, money and effort

If you don’t have a life any more, it’s a business. If you’re only occasionally engaged in Trade Me-selling, hobby status seems likely.

7. Frequency of sales

Regular = business; occasional = possible hobby.

8. Financial results

Large sums of money changing hands, whether profitably or not, indicate a probable business venture. Small dollar values suggest you aren’t very good at this, and if it’s not just a hobby then maybe it should be.

9. Type of activity

If you’re dependent on Trade Me for your livelihood, tick business. If it’s mostly for fun, tick obsessed.

10. Buttoned down

Do you have systems and processes set up for your Trade Me efforts? Quacks like a business to us. Or are your operations loose as a goose? Then you’re either feeding a hobby or setting yourself up for a major business quack-up.

CONGRATULATIONS, IT’S A BUSINESS!

So your operation fits one or more of the Ten criteria above? Well done! Time to get even more serious about doing business on the site. Here’s another top ten list for your collection, this time of  10 key points to improve the prospects for your Trade Me offerings:

1. There are four wholesale levels when it comes to manufactured products: manufacturer, importer, distributor and intermediary. The further up the chain you have to buy, the harder it is to make money when you sell. Try to get as close as possible to the original manufacturer of a product. How? If you see a product you think would be a profitable seller on Trade Me, check the markings on the product and/or the packaging for point of origin. Then pick up the phone, ask for sales and start talking likely volumes. At the very least they’ll point you in the direction of the nearest importer or distributor.

2. Don’t be an early adopter. Never buy new or soon-to-be-introduced products unless you’re absolutely certain they’ll sell on Trade Me (based on historical results for similar products).

3. Don’t buy fad products, unless you buy at bargain-basement prices direct from the manufacturer or importer and you’re buying right at the height of the fad (which, frankly, is unlikely).

4. All products have life cycles. First, they’re launched, full of hope and excitement. Ultra-hot new products, where demand exceeds supply, can sell on Trade Me for a premium — if you’re able to find a dependable product supply source and can get in when demand is at its peak. (Guess wrong about a product’s popularity, however, and you’re cooked. Anyone want to buy a Catwoman plastic toy — we’ve still got a few hundred left?)

5. Not all products survive the launch phase. But those that do tend to become established then turn into a steady seller at retail. During this phase you’re unlikely to match the buying power of the large retail chains, so it’s not a good time to sell this product on Trade Me (except for pre-owned versions bought for a song and resold at highly discounted prices).

6. In the next phase of the product life cycle, sales begin to dip as customers move on to the next big thing. Retailers will start clearing stock at discounted prices — but not at enough of a discount to make it worth your while buying up product. Once again, this is a poor time to buy for resale on Trade Me.

7. Finally, the products fall into the liquidation phase, flogged off for pennies in the dollar. This is when you’ll be able to make a decent profit — so long as the product still has inherent appeal for potential purchasers.

8. Don’t buy products in volumes that represent more than 10% of the total quantities available on Trade Me. You won’t corner the market; you’ll just take a bath.

9. Don’t buy a product if there are more than 10 competitors selling the exact same thing on Trade Me.

10. Never buy a liquidation or end-of-line item unless it carries a well-known brand name.

For a whole lot more about running a business on Trade Me, may we direct you to Chapter Seventeen of Trade Me Success Secrets, available through our Trade Me Store.

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WHAT SHOULD YOU SELL ON TRADE ME?
For some, the answer to this question is easy: sell products that you know a lot about – and indeed, are passionate about. That could be anything, from coins of the nineteenth century to slightly used designer clothing. If you know your products well enough to be a little, um, obsessed about them, then you’ve probably already identified what’s a good deal and what’s a ripoff anyway – and often you’ll already know where to buy your specialist products for a really good price.

For others, the choice of what to sell is not so clear-cut. Many of us have passions that don’t easily lend themselves to profitable trading. Collecting the various ‘Thomas the Tank Engine’ models, for example, can be great fun and all-consuming—but the stock easily available to Kiwi collectors may not have a high resale value, at least not on Trade Me.

And that’s the point of this particular article. We’re exploring what it takes to make some reasonable dollars online, not just earn some spare change by selling off those odds and ends cluttering up your garage – or by parting with precious items that you’ve spent half your life collecting.

HOW MUCH DO YOU WANT TO EARN ONLINE?
Before you even choose what products to sell, you need to decide how much money you want to make on Trade Me – and how much time you’re prepared to devote to doing so. When we interviewed some of the top Trade Me sellers for the TRADE ME SUCCESS SECRETS book, they told us they were spending 60-70 hours a week on Trade Me related tasks, and listing 200-300 items a week. That total suggests that they were photographing and listing an average of 3-4 items per hour (not to mention wrapping and despatching perhaps one item per hour, based on selling one in every three or four items listed*).

*Across Trade Me, typically the sell-through rate averages around 25%. In other words, one in four auctions usually close successfully. That response rate is much higher for specific categories, as you’ll see later.

Of course, those top sellers were trading fulltime on the site – your goals may be somewhat more modest. Even so, you need to identify some key metrics before you decide on your product selection.

For example, if you want to earn $500 per week (before tax) from Trade Me, but are only willing to spend 20 hours a week working on auction tasks, then the following maths might apply:

• 20 hours @ 4 items listed per hour = 80 items listed per week
• Sell-through rate of one sold for every 4 items listed = 20 items sold per week
• Profit required on each item to earn $500 per week = $25 each

If you’re selling one product for every four listed, then each product sold must also include a listing cost allocation for the three not sold. Those costs (within general auctions) can range from 25 cents to $5 or more per listing, depending on your selection of promotional items, subtitles and other options. So your calculations need to take those into account (x4). And then there’s the success fee of 6.9% per sale item (up to $150). All in all, you could be looking at fees totalling as much as $20 for every four items listed (and one sold).

In other words, in order to clear $25 per successful sale, you may need to earn at least $45 more than your purchase price per item. Clearly you need to choose (and then buy) your products very smartly indeed. You also need to be very careful when deciding which promotional options to choose, to minimise your costs but maximise the appeal of your auctions (for which advice, may we point you to Chapter Eleven of Trade Me Success Secrets).

CHOOSING A PRODUCT 1: THE PRICE RANGE
Continuing with our example, then, if you’re wanting to earn $45 per item, you could perhaps be looking at selling products with a perceived value of (say) $150, which you need to source for around $100 each in order to achieve your desired profit margins. That clearly rules out a wide range of products; but still leaves plenty of scope for the imaginative mind (refer to Chapter Nine of TRADE ME SUCCESS SECRETS for strategies to customise each product and thus improve its perceived value to potential purchasers).

CHOOSING A PRODUCT 2: STUFF THAT ALREADY SELLS ON TRADE ME
Every week, around 1.4 million items are listed on Trade Me. Every week, around 350,000 of those items sell. Trade Me collects and kindly reports on which items are more likely to sell than others, and you’ll find that information (updated monthly) here: http://www.trademe.co.nz/Community/SellThroughRates.aspx .

We’ve been tracking these statistics since Trade Me first started publishing them in late 2005 (just in time for the first edition of TRADE ME SUCCESS SECRETS), which was a great relief – we weren’t looking forward to crunching the numbers ourselves, which would have required looking at some fifty thousand pages (every week).

What we found in 2005 – and it’s a result that remains true today – is that Baby Gear and Mobile Phones are consistently the most sought-after categories on Trade Me. A higher proportion of products in those categories sell on a regular basis than almost anywhere else on the site.

Of course, not everybody can sell Baby Gear and Mobile Phones, certainly not all the time (and the categories would plunge in terms of success rates if everybody tried). So we recommend you look at the monthly sales results by category (through the prism of your price constraints, of course)  and decide if any of those are for you.

CHOOSING A PRODUCT 3: FINDING NEW PRODUCTS AND TRENDS

Even though online auctions can consume your every waking hour, there is, in fact, life outside Trade Me, radical though that notion might be. If you want to identify hot products and categories before they begin to become popular on Trade Me, you need to start your searching elsewhere. Ten suggestions:

1. The Trade
Manufacturers are constantly bringing out new products, as they look for ways to increase their sales and meet the evolving needs of their customers. Don’t wait for these new products to hit the public arena before you hear about them. Talk to industry experts, read trade journals, go to trade fairs and exhibitions.

2. Read
Haunt your local library, bookstore or news-stand. Some of the hottest new global offerings are written up in international news magazines such as Time, Newsweek and Business Week, especially in regular Hot Products issues. For techno-business trends, sample Wired, Fast Company and (locally) Unlimited and Idealog. For more technical products, Popular Science and Popular Mechanics provide inspiration. In the world of fashion, you’ll find the many international editions of titles such as Vogue will spark ideas. Whatever your product category, there’ll undoubtedly be international magazines serving that interest.

3. Watch TV
In particular sample some of the magazine-type shows on CNN and BBC World. You’ll get advance warning of hot trends brewing offshore. If you’re interested in the latest entertainment-related products, check out shows such as E! News Live, Entertainment Tonight and The Late Show with David Letterman.

4. Web Trends
If you’re interested in broader trend analysis, a number of global websites specialise in new trends. Inevitably, many of the trends thus uncovered are still some time away from commercial reality in New Zealand. However, for a sneak peek at some of the opportunities you might be considering for next year, visit (and, where available, sign up for newsletters at):

• http://www.trendwatching.com/
  This site and its thousands of trend-spotters scan the US, Canada, the European Union, Japan, South Korea, India, South Africa, Australia, Brazil and 50 other nations and regions for hot, emerging consumer trends and related new business ideas. A monthly email newsletter shares these global observations, insights and new business ideas.
• www.springwise.com
  A sister site to Trendwatching, Springwise scans the globe looking for new business-to-consumer ideas, concepts, innovations and ventures that have already proven themselves in local or regional markets, and are ready for expansion, partnership, franchising or copying.
• www.google.com/trends/hottrends
  Search patterns, trends, and surprises — what’s hot and what’s not, according to Google. Search statistics are automatically generated based on the millions of searches conducted on Google over a given period of time: weekly, monthly and annually.

5. Closer to home: Kiwi ‘what’s hot’ lists
‘What’s Hot and What’s Not’ lists make regular appearances in many local newspapers and magazines. While some of the selected hot items are fleeting at best, bizarre at worst, others will provide the seed of an idea for a profitable product to offer on Trade Me.

6. Any and all magazines
Even weekly magazines such as the New Zealand Woman’s Weekly, Woman’s Day and New Idea are great sources of inspiration for what’s current. Squeezed in between those tantalising tales of celebrities in trouble you’ll find:

• Advertisements about products that you could also be selling
• Stories on common problems facing readers, which may inspire you to find or create profitable solutions
• ‘How to’ features, eg, beauty workshops — needs found, for you to fill
• Fashion accessories, for which you might have access to a low-cost source
• Letters to the editor, citing problems and opportunities
• Home and garden pictures, which can inspire you to create your own versions and sell online!

7. Mailers and advertising ephemera
Tear down that ‘No Junk Mail’ sign on your letterbox and enter the world of sell, sell, sell! Devour those advertising circulars. Pay particular attention to products that have pride of place on the cover or have a full page inside that’s all about them. Those are products that will sell strongly at retail and — if you can source them at the right price — are potential sales champions for you.

8. Network
Talk to shopkeepers and shop assistants. Ask them what’s hot in their store. Those that have been paying attention can point you towards some best-sellers — and probably some surprises. A word of warning: take any overly passionate endorsements with a grain of salt. These people are in the business of selling and may have you in their sights!

9. Searching online
Once you have an inkling of the type of product you might sell, search online via your search engine of choice. What exactly are you looking for?

• The latest news on the product (for example, you may find that it’s just been superseded, recalled or enhanced – which can mean there’s an opportunity to buy up last week’s models at heavily discounted prices, wsell them at a not so heavy discount and make good margins)
• Possible wholesale sources, if you plan to sell new items
• Insider tips from those who love (or hate) the product
• Sales figures from other markets
• Articles or reviews on key features, benefits and failings
• A whole range of possible insights about the product
• Customer reviews, which tell you lots of useful info about the product (which you can use to inform your listings)
• Tweets alerting you to hot news about product releases
• And a whole heap of stuff you’d never find out the old-fashioned way

10. Number crunching
Many leading New Zealand retailers are public companies, and required to publish regular reports on trading patterns. Read their quarterly, half-yearly and annual reports and review any historical sales data that’s available in those reports (sometimes it’s in the accompanying commentary, explaining anomalous results). Use this information where you can to identify product categories that have been historically popular at certain key periods, eg, Christmas, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Easter, etc.

CHOOSING A PRODUCT 4: WHAT ELSE?
Once you’ve identified possible products, you need to identify where to buy them, at a price that enables you make a decent margin. It’s never easy, but it is possible, as some of Trade Me’s top sellers reluctantly revealed when interviewed:

WHERE DO TOP SELLERS GET THEIR PRODUCTS?
We asked contributors to TRADE ME SUCCESS SECRETS where they get their products. They were understandably reticent — in many cases that’s the secret of their success — but we were very persuasive and managed to encourage a number of them to unlock their Book of Secrets, at least a little.

• One of our jewellery sellers attributes a large part of her success to an ‘Aladdin’s Cave’ of goodies which she discovered when she purchased a jeweller’s estate. The acquisition included items that had been in a storage cupboard for some 30-odd years. These were shop-new but very retro. These days she also sources products from offshore (from a variety of international suppliers based in England, Europe and the Americas).
• Another jewellery seller sources all of her products through the Internet. A lot of her ‘spare time’ is spent searching for products that no one else has, finding people with credibility and establishing good relationships with particular companies. She usually starts off purchasing a sample quantity of an item, to test the quality and the customer service of the company. If both measure up, she’ll start to build from there.
• Another top trader, who sells toys online, has a more direct source: a large extended family (12 kids!) so there are always unwanted toys, games, clothes, appliances, etc. The normal greeting is ‘Hi, is this any good to you?’ as they walk in the door waving whatever in the air!
• Yet another specialises in imported clothes and sexy lingerie. She reports that she does buy a little on Trade Me, but buys many of her products on eBay. Her particular niche: fashionable clothing and lingerie in larger sizes.
• A leading Australian Trade Me seller usually manufactures his own products (which include replica posters, pins and patches, replica and novelty currency — and Kiwi Million Dollar Notes), but sometimes gathers goodies from garage sales and markets.
• A Kiwi trader sometimes buys from ‘op shops’, and even occasionally buys sale items from shops. Her story is not atypical: many of the sellers we interviewed purchase products from local sources. A surprising number started out as hoarders, until they began drawing on their own collections to sell online. Friends’ stuff, markets and garage sales — as well as many of the other sources we identified earlier — were all fair game, and our top sellers were obviously able to make enough of a margin to make their Trade Me activities worthwhile.

As you can see from these reports from our experienced sellers, you can find resaleable products just about anywhere. If you just want to make a bit of pocket money, you don’t have to worry too much about regular sources of supply. But if you really want to build a sustainable business on Trade Me then you’ll have to put some serious effort into tracking down reliable suppliers, building relationships with those suppliers and (frankly) investing not just time but money.

For those who don’t particularly want to specialise in a single category, some other thoughts:

SOURCES OF SECOND-HAND GOODS FROM THE GENERAL PUBLIC

• School Fairs: If you have kids, start with the schools that they attend. If you volunteer yourself for the PTA organising committee, you’ll sometimes be able to wangle first look at the goodies to be sold, before the fair is open to the public. Of course, you will have to contribute your fair share of PTA work in return for this privilege.
• Flea Markets and Car Boot Sales: These highly localised markets attract a broad range of sellers, from the ‘clearing out the garage’ types to small-scale importers of knick-knacks from exotic destinations, but choose your purchases with care; some of these sellers you may never see again.
• Book Fairs: For those who believe they can earn good money from books, the country’s book fairs can be an inexpensive source of stock, but you’ll have to hustle; the best offerings are usually rapidly scavenged as soon as they’re put on display.
• Thrift Shops and Op Shops: We found 24 Salvation Army Family Stores and 20 St Vincent de Paul Society shops listed in the Yellow Pages; just some of the welfare organisations that operate these shops as community resources and worthy fundraising endeavours.
• Antique Fairs: Visit www.huntly.net.nz/antique.html for a list of antique and collectable fairs throughout New Zealand. If you know your antiques, these fairs can be valuable, but you’d be well advised to visit some of the more out-of-the-way regions if you want to unearth truly hidden treasures.
• Garage Sales: These humble events are always a mix of the good, the bad and the ugly. To find the real bargains, you’ll have to become one of those obnoxious individuals who turn up on the doorstep an hour before the scheduled start time. You’ll also make new acquaintances — the other earlybirds catching the worms, trudging along the same garage-sale circuits in search of the pot of gold hidden beneath the rainbow duvet.
• Inorganic Street Collections: The last bastion of conspicuous consumption, as neighbours demonstrate their affluence by discarding perfectly functional, um, kitsch for others to drive by, sample and adopt. Or, worse, leave untouched for (gasp!) the council to haul away. Alas, this acquisition process will not provide a steady flow of saleable inventory, but can provide a few choice items for the opportunist. Note, however, that in recent years councils have tended to pass regulations to deter activity by hawkers – check out the rules in your catchment area.
• And we would be remiss if we failed to mention the more regular supply of items that can be acquired if one is inclined to frequent the local Refuse Centre (that’s a rubbish dump with delusions of grandeur). Product quality might be an issue, but quantity and variety (certainly at a desirable pricing level) are assured.

LOCAL RETAIL OPPORTUNITIES
Trade Me is accessible to anyone with a computer and an Internet connection. As such, it’s a great shopping venue for buyers in more geographically isolated parts of New Zealand. Residents of far-flung outposts can now get access to products normally sold only in the larger metropolitan areas, while still enjoying their more pleasant lifestyles. Astute city-clicker sellers have noted this fact, and have been known to frequent their local retailers, buying discounted and sale items and reselling them online. Inexpensive products can often be found (with a certain amount of rummaging around) at stores such as:

• The Warehouse
• $2 Shops and other similarly named dollar stores
• Dick Smith stores (especially their repairs and returns tables)
• So-called ‘Category Killers’ — retailers that focus on a single product category, eg, Super Cheap Auto, Rebel Sport, Number One Shoe Warehouse
  

In fact, any retailer who has regular clearance sales should be on your list of potential product sources. If you know of retailers who have sales at a particular time of year (eg, Smith & Caughey’s twice-yearly events) you should add them to your calendar. New store openings are also a good source of bargain buying, but you need to be quick.

FACTORY AND OUTLET STORES
Although some ‘Factory Shops’ sell their wares at prices little different from traditional retail outlets, there are enough genuine factory shops out there to serve as a good source of products. The ideal factory shop will also be one of a kind and physically close to the factory it supports, so that few Kiwis have easy access to its lower prices.
SECOND-HAND DEALERS AND PAWNBROKERS
These classic institutions, which had the resale of second-hand goods pretty much to themselves in the days before eBay and Trade Me, can still be fertile sources of products to resell, although the dealers’ margins can mean it’s not always profitable to list them online. Second-hand dealers range in size and scope from single stores to national chains such as Cash Converters. Pawn shops occupy a lower profile in the retail sector generally, and are more likely to be found in areas bordering poorer households.

OPPORTUNISTIC EVENTS
There are, we are told, only two sure things in life: death and taxes. Estate sales, liquidations and bankruptcies are essentially the side-effects of both certainties, and while we naturally wouldn’t welcome such eventualities, they do tend to create opportunities. Typically, the recipients of deceased estates have little interest in many of the items hoarded by the dear departed, and will tend to dispose of them in bulk without worrying too much about the value of specific items. Similarly, receivers and liquidators are more interested in quitting chattels quickly than in realising optimal resale prices. Watch out for such opportunities: good profits can be made reselling the items individually.

ENDS OF LINE
We live in a disposable world of conspicuous consumption. Products with heaps of life still left in them are consigned to oblivion when new (sometimes only slightly) improved versions are introduced by manufacturers. But what happens to the old products? Where do superseded cellphones go to let their batteries run down? When the latest PlayStation rolls out the door, what happens to all those unused (but redundant) previous-generation consoles?

If you can find the right sources, perhaps some of those retired products could find new homes through your Trade Me listings. We can’t always afford the latest and greatest new product, and you could be performing a valuable public service by providing a new life to these obsolete senior citizens — and making a decent profit at the same time.

TRADE SHOWS AND CONVENTIONS
There’s nothing quite like the last day at a good trade show. Exhausted exhibitors, weary of the whole thing, just want to pack up and go home. But they’d rather not have to lug home all the products they still have on display, so they’re often willing to quit stock at a substantial discount. So if you intend to go to any tradeshow, make sure you leave it till the last day — and preferably the last afternoon. Then get ready to haggle.

RENTAL AND LEASING COMPANIES
Companies that lease out equipment, whether on a short-term or long-term basis, inevitably end up with used but often still serviceable products when the leases expire. They are bound to have existing arrangements in place to dispose of those goods, but will probably listen to a compelling alternative.

UNCLAIMED ITEMS
We’re a forgetful lot. We leave our belongings on trains and buses. We drop stuff into drycleaners or repair shops and never get around to picking them up. We send packages to the wrong addresses. We leave goods in storage. That’s why the companies reserve the right to sell unclaimed goods. To you.

CONFISCATED GOODS AUCTIONS
There’s something vaguely voyeuristic about bidding for goods that have been confiscated by police or customs. We tend to imagine all sorts of sordid tales about the former owners of these innocent household goods. Unfortunately, that morbid fascination also tends to make such auctions very popular, so bidding can be brisk for many items. Our best advice: get a catalogue in advance, if you can, and check out potential resale returns in advance. Failing that, turn up early, identify and inspect the items you could resell. If possible, work with a partner by cellphone to identify the prices such items are currently fetching on Trade Me. Subtract your costs and your margin and that’s your top bid price. Don’t bid beyond that point (sometimes easier said than done, if you happen to fall in love with a particularly choice offering).

CHARITY AUCTIONS
Auctions have always been a popular method of supporting good causes. They have become even more effective with the advent of Trade Me. Products are donated freely, all the dollars raised go towards the designated charities and everyone’s happy. Of course, not all products at the auctions achieve their maximum value. The high-profile offerings capture attention and bids, but some of the products slip through at bargain prices. That’s your cue.

TRADITIONAL AUCTIONS
While Trade Me auctions continue to draw more and more members, they’re not the only game in town. Traditional auctioneers still handle large quantities of goods, and they’re still a great place to pick up unexpected bargains. We recommend looking out for special-interest auctions (eg, those which involve the sale of complete stock and chattels of restaurants, industrial goods suppliers, contractors, etc). Typically, these auctions attract industry insiders looking for the specialist equipment available only at such auctions. The insiders generally have little interest in the everyday chattels common to all businesses — computers, fax machines, copiers, printers, desks, tables, chairs, etc — and such products can be purchased at much lower prices than if they were being sold at general office or computer-equipment auctions.

LOCAL WHOLESALERS
Where can you find genuine local wholesalers who might be willing to deal with you? You have to ask the right people. And that would be who? The local manufacturers who made the products or the local branches of multinational manufacturers for products made offshore. Specifically, you should call them up and ask for the sales department. Simply tell the person in that department that you own a retail business, and you want to sell some of their products. Ask them for a list of their wholesale distributors. They’ll have that information readily available, and should be willing to give it to you.

Next step: call the wholesalers they give you and ask about their terms — discount structure, minimum stock requirements, payment terms, etc. They’ll probably need you to set up an account, and you still have to deal with the issue of whether they will sell to a small home-based Internet business. Many of them won’t, so this research can take a great deal of time, but it is very important to your business that you do it right.

INTERNATIONAL WHOLESALERS
If you thought local wholesalers were tough to track down, just wait until you try to find genuine international wholesalers. The Internet is flooded with millions of people and organisations claiming to be wholesalers — a quick Google gave us 4,560,000 results — so you really will have to put in the hard yards. If you’ve identified a specific product you want to sell, the first steps can be the same as those we’ve suggested for dealing with local wholesalers: call the sales department at the manufacturer and find out their wholesale distributors. The next step, however, would be a lot harder: finding someone who’s willing to (a) deal with small orders; (b) ship stuff all the way over to New Zealand; and (c) overlook the fact that there’s probably someone in New Zealand who already has the distribution rights for this market.
LOCAL ONLINE AUCTION SITES
There are a small number of online auction and classified sites operating in New Zealand in competition to Trade Me. It’s fair to say these sites have been attracting relatively limited numbers of visitors and as a result the bidding on specific items is less frenzied. There may well be products listed on these sites that could be purchased cheaply and then resold on Trade Me.

INTERNATIONAL ONLINE AUCTION SITES
If you can cope with such issues as currency exchange, shipping costs and the higher risk of fraudulent activity, the world’s online auctions are a fertile source of products for you to resell locally. You should inevitably begin with eBay.com of course, and that may well occupy you enough. But eBay has many international offshoots. If you can handle languages other than English (or use the automatic translation options on Google’s browser bar plugin), you might well pick up some useful bargains on non-Anglo sites.

PRODUCT SOURCES ARE EVERYWHERE, BUT…
With a combination of knowledge, experience and imagination you can find potential product sources anywhere. But if it was easy, everyone would do it. It takes as much diligence and determination to turn an idea into a business on Trade Me as it does in any business venture.

PS That’s definitely all we have space and time for in this way-over-length article. If you want more, may we respectfully direct you to TRADE ME SUCCESS SECRETS, which covers the topic in even more detail. The second edition of this best-selling book is of course available for sale at our Trade Me store.

Related posts:

1. Brand New Online Course: Advanced Selling On Trade Me It’s been evident for some considerable time that there’s a...
2. Making An Offer They Can’t Refuse You’re listing a product to sell. What price should you...
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“Madam, that is indeed a Picasso long thought lost. It is difficult to assign an exact value until the assessors have examined it closely  — but the most recent Picasso sale was of his 1969 “Buste D’Homme”, sold at Sotheby’s last week for $10.4 million. So perhaps we should move this painting out of your spare bedroom and give it a slightly more secure home.”

Oh yes, we can dream. And TV series such as Antiques Roadshow encourage our imagination in such directions. But does it ever happen, especially on online auction sites?

Yes, it does. Film collectors are buzzing about the recent discovery on eBay of a lost Charlie Chaplin film, purchased as part of a collection of nitrate film bought for US$5.

Morale Park from Henham, Essex, purchased the can of film simply because he liked the look of it. He was amazed to discover its fragile contents: a previously unknown seven-minute film Chaplin film called Zepped.

The film features footage of Zeppelin airships flying over England during the First World War, and out-takes from three pictures that Chaplin shot with the film company Essanay, with whom the entertainer had a contract in 1914, before falling out.

An animated scene shows Chaplin wishing he could leave America to join his British countrymen in the war, before being taken on a cloud and deposited on an English church spire.

It also shows him sending up the Zeppelin, and an animated sequence of Kaiser Wilhelm popping out of a German sausage. There is a certification from Egypt, dating the film to December 1916.

Mr Park got his neighbour John Dyer, former head of education at the British Board of Film Classification, to look at it, and they concluded the film had been put together as a piece of war propaganda.

It is not known whether Chaplin was involved in the project or whether various out-takes were spliced together without his knowledge or consent.

David Robinson, author of Chaplin: His Life and Art, believed the film could be worth anything from £3,000 to £40,000.

Mr Park and Mr Dyer are currently in California making a documentary about the find.

Could this sort of thing happen on Trade Me?

Absolutely. Probably already does, in fact. However not every lucky buyer will recognise the importance of their new purchase.  So all those potential goldmines will end up in someone else’s attic, to be stumbled upon by future treasure hunters.

Well, anyway, that’s our dream.

Related posts:

1. Charity Auctions In Tough Times Trade Me is usually a pretty good venue for charity...

One that just caught our eye — sadly, too late to help market the auction but certainly time enough to offer a well-deserved bouquet to the organiser — was this auction for a truly wonderful visit to our jewel of the South Pacific, Queenstown.

On offer: “Three days of pure pleasure, action and scenic packed days at Queenstown for 2 people”

All money raised to be donated to the New Zealand Red Cross Samoan Earthquake and Tsunami Appeal www.redcross.org.nz

Over $2,000 worth of accommodation and activities, valid for 12 months at a time suitable to the lucky winner subject to availability.

Thanks to the kindness of the following local Queenstown businesses for their donations the package includes:

• Three nights accommodation for 2 people at Queenstown Motel Apartments in their honeymoon suite with lake and mountain views, a spa bath and breakfast or brunch at their favourite cafe. www.qma.co.nz value $820.00.
• Milford Sound Coach and Cruise for 2 people with Real Journeys from Queenstown. www.realjourneys.co.nz value $460.00.
• Travel on the TSS Earnslaw Vintage Steamship to Walter Peak for 2 people with Real Journeys. www.realjourneys.co.nz value $136.00.
• Skippers Canyon Jetboat trip on the Shotover River for 2 people www.skipperscanyon.co.nz value $218.00
• Lord of the Rings tour for 2 people with Nomad Safaris www.nomadsafaris.co.nz value $298.00
• Voucher for Dinner at The HMS Brittania Restaurant, The Mall value $100.00
• * Voucher for Dinner at Prime Restaurant www.primerestaurant.co.nz value $100.00.

Queenstown Motel Apartments owner Dianne Smith was behind the whole thing. You can read her story here.

Bravo, Dianne. Outstanding effort.

No related posts.

The first answer, the purist answer, is ‘No’ – you shouldn’t use either service just to flog your auctions. And especially ‘No’ if you intend to turn your Twitter and Facebook presence into Spam Sausage Machines, churning out endless updates fixated on your Trade Me listings. Epic FAIL.

Of course, if ‘No’ was all there was to the answer, that would make for a pretty short blog post. So let’s quickly point out that there are circumstances under which it can be both acceptable and desirable to harness the power of Twitter or Facebook to promote your offerings [you probably knew we were going to say that].

A MATTER OF FOCUS

Regardless of whether we’re talking about Twitter, Facebook or any of the many other microblogging or social networking services, the key question is focus. What’s the purpose of your online presence? To keep in touch with your friends? Just to have an outlet for your rants and raves? Or to help with your business or professional ambitions, whether it’s to further your career or just help you earn a decent crust?

You may not have even considered the question before – most people haven’t. Now’s the time to do so.

If you decide that all you want to do online is hang with your friends or indulge in a good old-fashioned soapboxing from time to time, thanks, nothing to see here, move along please.

Otherwise, let’s talk about developing a new online focus – specifically, on those products that you sell on Trade Me. We’ll assume that they’re all part of a related product portfolio – in other words, you’re not selling car batteries today, dolls’ clothing tomorrow [if you do dabble in what we’ll charitably call a “diversified product range”, you either need to reconsider your overall selling strategy or else develop separate online identities* for each collection of products].

*EDIT: You can’t use multiple identities on Trade Me, of course, but you can and should have different  Twitter accounts and Facebook Business Pages for your various offerings. And thanks, Tim, for pointing out that this wasn’t clear in the original post.

Your focus can be reasonably broad (eg “Baby Clothing”) or very narrow (eg “Bronze Age Marvel Comics”). Either way, we’ll presume that there’s sufficient interest in the product category within New Zealand that you’ve been able to build a viable market niche selling such products on Trade Me.

Identified your focus? Great. The rest of the process can be simply described in four steps:

1. Ensure that your online identity reflects your focus (eg your Twitter User Name and profile details are all about your passion for Model Railroads of the Twentieth Century; you have a Facebook business page that talks about your comprehensive Swatch collection);
2. Start regularly posting useful information (eg to your Facebook wall or to your Twitter account) about your chosen topic: “Ten Worst Movies Available On BluRay”, “My Favourite Scrapbooking Technique”, “How Open Source Software Changes The World”;
3. Actively build a database of followers by seeking out other service users whose posts and profiles indicate that they are interested in your category;
4. Every once in a while (about every 15^th tweet, for example), in the midst of all the other useful information you’re posting, mention a relevant Trade Me auction that might appeal to your followers.

The guiding principle: provide an ongoing source of valuable information about your specialist topic (setting yourself up as an expert in the chosen field), attract those interested in your field and then interject with very occasional commercial messages (but don’t over-pollute).

These things take time, of course – don’t expect to be an overnight sensation. But once you build an enthusiastic following in your niche, you can significantly multiply the effectiveness of your auction listings.

GETTING SPECIFIC: TWITTER

Twitter is the flavour of the year. The service’s popularity has exploded around the world, and New Zealand is no exception. Twitter’s share of daily visits in Aotearoa increased 305% from the start of 2009 until mid-April (the latest data we have available), at which point, according to researchers HitWise, it was our 49th most visited web site.

Twitter’s most endearing feature is its ability to multiply messages exponentially. To paraphrase a (very) old commercial: with Twitter, “you tell two people and they each tell two people, and they each tell two people,  and so on and so on …” and before you know it, your message has been retweeted around the world six hundred times, reaching every person on the planet (okay, perhaps not, but certainly you can reach far more than just those on your own list, provided your message is of enduring interest).

So where do you start on Twitter? Returning to our four-step process noted above, start (STEP ONE) by claiming your online identity on the site. Go to www.Twitter.com and attempt to claim your Trade Me user name as a Twitter ID (we’re assuming that your user name reflects your product focus). Note that you can have no more than 15 characters in a Twitter ID (and it’s first-come, first-served globally), so you may need to modify or abbreviate to fit.

• If your Trade Me user name is too long or not available, consider using a descriptive name (related to your product focus) in your Twitter ID – that will help people find you and understand what you do.
• You also get to choose a thumbnail image to accompany your user ID. Choose or create an image that reflects your focus (but try to give it a personal twist – people like to follow other people, not corporations).
• Twitter also lets you include a single biographical weblink to let people click and learn more about you. If you’ve created a meaningful, product-focussed profile on your Trade Me member page, use that as your link (and if you haven’t already fleshed out that page properly, do it right now).

STEP TWO: Posting. You have 140 glorious characters within each tweet – not very much to provide useful, meaty information about your chosen topic (which is why many Twitterers tend to include links to more detailed blog posts in their tweets). Remember, remember, your role is to position yourself as an expert in your chosen field of endeavour, so post useful information on a regular basis. Also be aware that some will be receiving your updates on their mobile phones (and may be paying for the privilege). If they don’t think they’re getting value for money, they’ll quickly stop following you.

STEP THREE: Building a following. In essence, you want to attract a core group of (ideally Kiwi) followers who are very interested in your topic, as many people as possible with a mild interest in your topic and a smattering of others who might occasionally become prospects for your products.

How do you go about doing that? We won’t reinvent the wheel – Promo Magazine covers the topic in depth with a useful excerpt from “Twitter Power: How to Dominate Your Market One Tweet at a Time” by Joel Comm (John Wiley & Sons, 2009):

How to Be Intentional about Creating Your Own Network of Experts

High quality followers can do different things. Some will be the type of followers who hang on to your every tweet, follow all your links, and buy your products.

You certainly want to have lots of those … but identifying them isn’t easy. Few Twitterers write on their bios that they’re looking to buy lots of products about Corvettes or football—or anything else.

What you can find very easily on Twitter, though, is experts.

This is really Twitter’s strength. The site is stuffed with people who have great information about particular subjects and are willing to share it.

Find experts on a topic related to yours and encourage them to follow you, and you’ll be giving yourself a massive and very valuable network.

Enter your keywords [in a Twitter search engine] and pull up tweets that contain that phrase.

You’ll then be able to see who’s talking about your topic and, by looking at the bios and reading their tweets, see which of those Twitterers are the leading experts. It’s much more efficient to identify the key Twitterers on the topic and get them to follow you.

If other people see that the expert is following you, they’ll assume that you’re also an expert and want to follow you too.

One way to succeed on Twitter is to hang out with the influence-makers. Find the top people in your topic on Twitter, and become a part of their circle.

When you’re one of the prominent Twitterers on the site, you’ll find it’s much easier to persuade people to read your tweets. In fact, you won’t have to do anything but make sure that your tweets are interesting, informative, and entertaining.

Read more at http://promomagazine.com/interactivemarketing/news/building-twitter-followers-0331/index1.html

STEP FOUR: Once you’ve built a useful following, you can afford to mention your auctions on an occasional basis.

AND WHAT ABOUT FACEBOOK?

Facebook overtook Bebo in April this year to become New Zealand’s most popular social networking site (Source: ComScore). Amazingly, Facebook has also (according to HitWise) overtaken Trade Me in the last month to become New Zealand’s second most visited website behind Google.

Facebook requires a bit more care than Twitter, because the site doesn’t allow you to register as anything other than an individual. However you can set up (free) a business page and populate that page with info about your products.

What to do next? John Marshall to the rescue:

Step One: Who Is Your Target Market? That’s the million dollar question. Lets say you were selling video games. You only want to add friends who play and buy those video games. Think of your target market.

Step Two: Find your target market. You ask how do I do that. It’s very easy if your target market is video games, you go to groups and search for stuff related to video games.  Once you find these groups of people you now have your target market in front of you.

Step Three: Build your following. It’s time to start adding friends and having fun. Here are a few things to keep in mind when building your following:

• Only add 50 Friends a day (If you go too fast FaceBook will tell you to slow down)
• Don’t use a program to add friends (Facebook will kick you out)
• Add a personal message when adding friends. (Draft a message, one that sounds professional, and keep it handy)
• Approve all requests for friendship from others.
• Join Groups in your target market (people will invite you from these groups)
• Join the conversation (Get out in the conversation and be seen)
• Write on your friends’ Walls.
• Link your FaceBook to other websites: your blog, Twitter, MySpace and YouTube.

Social Networking specialist Deltina Hay also provides some highly valuable advice for taking advantage of sites such as Facebook:

To avoid the scattershot approach, choose one or two social networking sites that fit your business well and invest the time to maximize your presence in them. Let’s explore what that might look like if Facebook is one of your choices.

Prepare your best information before you start.

Avoid the “I will go back and fill that in later” trap. Have all your necessary information on hand, ready to copy and paste on the spot. Complete a worksheet containing:

1. Key Terms:
Make a list of your best key terms and weave them into the rest of your worksheet items. Key terms are one, two, or three word terms that someone might use if they were searching for your business in a search engine.

2. General Information:
Your Name
Business Name
Email Addresses
URLs
Instant Messaging screen names

3. Biographical and Descriptive Information:
Short bio (50 words)
Longer bio (100 words)
Short company description (50 words)
Longer company description (100 words)
Business mission statement

4. List of Products

I based these worksheet items on a typical Facebook profile and page. If you choose a different social networking site, examine some completed profiles and base your worksheet items on them.

Create an account and thoroughly complete your profile

If you haven’t already, get a Facebook account. Completely fill out your profile using your worksheet. Under the relationships tab, choose “networking.” You can skip the personal and education tabs for business profiles, but there is no harm in filling them out. If you have an existing account, upgrade your profile information using your key terms.

But don’t stop there!

Facebook, like most good social networking platforms, offers many marketing opportunities for businesses, some for free. You can find these by clicking the “Advertising” link in the footer of the Facebook site, or by following this link: http://www.facebook.com/business/.

Since I can’t cover all of the marketing tools in one article, let’s focus on my favorite: The Facebook Page. It’s my favorite not only because it is free, but because it makes use of the many diverse Facebook applications.

Facebook pages are specifically for marketing a business or a product. They offer a way for a business to represent itself to the Facebook community in an authentic way. Facebook users can search pages the same way they search for people within the network community.

Create your page by going to “Page Manager” in the left sidebar of your Facebook profile, or by following this link: http://www.facebook.com/business/ and choosing Facebook Pages. Choose the best category for your business.

Use key terms in the name of your Facebook page!

It seems that the actual page name is the only text on a Facebook page that is used in a search. With that in mind, use at least two of your best key terms in your page name.

Populate your page with all of your best worksheet information. You may have only a few seconds to catch a reader’s attention, so put your best key terms forward.

Once your page is in place, add applications to help represent your company in your own unique way. To find applications for your page, click on “Applications” in the upper left corner of your page, or search for them here: http://www.facebook.com/apps/.

Applications are not difficult to install and are usually very easy to set up. Use this general rule of thumb when choosing an application: If you can’t figure out how to set it up after the second try, find another one. There is often more than one application available to accomplish the same task.

Applications Top Picks:

• My Flickr (http://apps.facebook.com/myflickr/): Display photos from your Flickr account using this application. These photos can include logos, product photos, photos from events, etc.
• Upcoming (http://apps.facebook.com/upcoming/): Add all of your events to upcoming.org, and you can easily display them on your Facebook page with Upcoming’s Facebook application.
• YouTube Box (http://apps.facebook.com/videobox/): Allows visitors to play your YouTube videos right on your Facebook page.
• Simply RSS (http://apps.facebook.com/simplyrss/): This allows you to display up to eight RSS feeds on your Facebook page and display the feeds from your business’s main site and newsrooms.

Implementing these applications creates an interactive page that also gives visitors a personable look into your business.

MORE READING

We’re really just scratching the surface of social network marketing in this article. We suggest you do your own additional homework as you go along (recommended tutor: Old Missus Google).

Anyway, back to the original questions: Yes, you can use Twitter or Facebook to promote your auctions, but only as a side-effect of your development as the Expert in your Chosen Field. BTW, you’ll find a few other useful side-effects along the way, as you develop and publicise your expertise. We’ll leave it to you to discover them!

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Yes, there’s still time to list some lunar droppings on Trade Me  — personal letter from Neil Armstrong, perhaps, thanking you for the flight training lessons — but the reality is that you should be planning a little further ahead. You should look at the promotional calendar in TRADE ME SUCCESS SECRETS to note the regular seasonal highlights of the next couple of months. Events peculiar to 2009 include the following movies (which just might lead to some merchandising sales opportunities:

AUGUST

Coraline and the Secret Door
Animated tale from Henry Selick, writer/director of ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’, based on the book by Neil Gaiman. Eleven-year-old Coraline walks through a secret door and discovers a parallel reality. Voice credits: Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher, Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French. Our view: distinctive animation and a quirky storyline may limit this movie’s mainstream appeal but it’s likely to attract a passionate following amongst young urbanites.

• Check out some of the available Coraline merchandise here.

G. I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra
The world’s favourite ‘poseable action figure’ turns into high-octane action with this big budget makeover. Your toybox will never look the same. Our view: the producers took a look at what Michael Bay had done to Transformers (explosions! mayhem! more explosions!) and chose the same route for G I Joe. This is an ideal vehicle if you want to reach males who like to watch stuff blow up.

• Already decades of G.I. Joe merchandise on sale on Trade Me, but if you have something rare, NOW would be the time.

Case 39
A social worker (Renee Zellweger) fights to save a girl from her abusive parents, only to discover that the situation is more dangerous than she ever expected. A mix of crime, suspense and horror. Our view: creepy, will appeal to twenty-somethings who like to be scared out of their wits.

• Good time to promote other Renee Zellweger stuff — posters, previous movies etc

Inglourious Basterds
In Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a group of Jewish-American soldiers known as “The Basterds” are chosen specifically to spread fear throughout the Third Reich by scalping and brutally killing Nazis. Blood-splattered Quentin Tarantino directs, Brad Pitt (sporting an atrocious Southern accent) stars — what else do you need to know? Our view: for those who enjoy blood, guts, gore. Best avoided if your brand has a weak heart or a tender disposition.

• Brad Pitt, Quentin Tarantino, what’s not to sell?

The Young Victoria
This year’s historical drama/romance with a royal theme: a dramatization of the turbulent first years of Queen Victoria’s rule, and her enduring romance with Prince Albert. Emily Blunt and Rupert Friend portray the two young lovers Victoria and Albert in what’s described as “a touching romance and a gripping human drama”. Our view: good association for products appealing to older women or those of a monarchist persuasion.

• Royal memorabilia rocks!

District 9
Peter Jackson produces this sci-fi morality tale of an extraterrestrial race forced to live in slum-like conditions on Earth suddenly find a kindred spirit in a government agent that is exposed to their biotechnology. Our view: set in South Africa, this film draws interesting parallels with apartheid. Given its local provenance, could do well with older Kiwi audiences.

• Time to sell off that Peter Jackson collection

SEPTEMBER

The Taking of Pelham 123
Denzel Washington, John Travolta and James Gandolfini star in this remake of the popular 1974 original and do a good job by all accounts. Armed men hijack a New York City subway train, holding the passengers hostage in return for a ransom, and turning an ordinary day’s work for dispatcher Walter Garbe (Washington) into a face-off with the mastermind (Travolta) behind the crime. Our view: pretty good for a remake.

• Anything from Denzel Washington, John Travolta or James Gandolfini (Sopranos)

Up
Animated adventures of 78-year-old Carl Fredricksen, who sets out (by tying thousands of balloon to his home) to fulfill his lifelong dream to see the wilds of South America. Currently topping the US box office. Our view: solid family fare, appealing to all ages.

• Look here for Up merchandise (books, soundtrack)

Aliens In The Attic
A group of kids must protect their vacation home from invading aliens. Think family movie, with the next holidays just around the corner. Our view: another family favourite in the making.

• Great toys from the folk who bought you AITA (see here to learn more about them)

Funny People
When seasoned comedian George Simmons (Adam Sandler) learns of his terminal, inoperable health condition, his desire to form a genuine friendship cause him to take a relatively green performer under his wing as his opening act. Our view: the writer/director Judd Apatow (director of The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up) says he’s “trying to make a very serious movie that is twice as funny as [his] other movies”. The trailer suggests a reasonable attempt.

• Adam Sandler and Judd Apatow. Lots of stuff around for both.

Imagine That
What if your daughter’s imagination… was the secret to your success? Eddie Murphy stars as a financial executive who can’t stop his career downspiral. Then he’s invited into his daughter’s imaginary world, where he magically finds solutions to his problems. Our view: terminally cute Eddie Murphy vehicle. Variety rated it “…an undemandingly pleasant, mildly amusing fantasy…” which has done average business at the American box office.

We figure the potential for the remaining September titles is pretty obvious:
Shorts
From Robert Rodriguez (director Of ‘Spy Kids’): A young boy’s discovery of a colorful, wish-granting rock causes chaos in the suburban town of Black Falls when jealous kids and scheming adults alike set out to get their hands on it. Our view: good appeal to the kids, with fun gadgets, silly jokes and town bullies who get their comeuppance. Useful association for family-focussed traders. Don’t forget the “Spy Kids” link.

G-Force
A specially trained squad of guinea pigs is dispatched to stop a diabolical billionaire from taking over the world. It’s animated, it’s from Disney, it’s the school holidays, there’ll be merchandise. Our view: this one should do good business, another family-friendly movie.

The Year One
Jack Black and a collection of caveman/historical parody jokes. Our view: not for the Rialto crowd.

Fame
An updated version of the legendary 1980 movie musical which centered on the students of the New York Academy of Performing Arts. Our view: attempts to catch the spirit of the original, the same passions and dreams that drive people to enter shows like American Idol. Should resonate well with Gen Y.

Happy planning!!

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