eBay Tips For Selling #1: "What, Exactly, Am I Going To Sell?"

The first thing you need to do is decide what you are going to sell. Ask yourself what excites or what interests you? Your chances of being a great success on eBay can more than double if you become an expert about a certain product because the people who buy from you will respect you for your product knowledge. You won't get repeat traffic if you sell junk or your product is not any good.

Here are some things you should think about when you are narrowing down the field of what to sell on eBay.

* Sell items that you are comfortable with and that you know. You will not be able to sell an item that you don't know about because you won't be able to describe it properly and you won't make any money.

* Think about the things you like to buy or what you like to look at when you go window shopping and that should give you a good foundation as to what you want to sell.

* And if that doesn't work, listen to what the people around you are buying. Their choices can give you invaluable information.

eBay Tips For Selling #2: "Can I Make A Profit?"

The next step is finding out where to buy those products you feel comfortable with, figuring out if you can make a profit with them and if you can post them on eBay. The merchandise you want to sell on eBay should be easily shipped and if they are, then you are in business!

If you think no one will buy what you have to sell because it's too weird, think again! You can sell a lot of ... unusual ... items on eBay and the return on investment is better since you usually don't have to stock the items you are listing. Be different by finding a need and then filling it instead of selling what everyone else is selling.

eBay Tips For Selling #3: "What About Sales Tax and Incorporation?"

The IRS will want their cut and sooner or later you will have to pay so be sure to set some profits aside when the tax man comes knocking. If selling on eBay is going to be your job then registering as a business is a good idea.

eBay Tips For Selling #4: Adhere To The Boy Scout Motto

The Boy Scout motto is, of course, "Be prepared". You are not going to be stunning successful on every eBay sale. Learn from your mistakes and dump the low-profit items quickly. Selling on eBay will be a challenge and things will go wrong sometimes (like life!), but if you have prepared for every circumstance you can envision, your business and pocketbook will grow.

If you have faith you will succeed at making money with eBay and with relatively low up front fees, if you decide its more work than its worth, you won't be out that much money.

It's not that hard to survive a recession in style with eBay auction selling. But being unprepared is not the yellow brick road to success either, so learn as much as you can, limit your risk and pay attention to the advice above.