All your site really needs to be is clean, simple, and well-structured. It does not have to be fancy. It does not need to be complicated. And it certainly does not have to be expensive, despite what the pundits say. But it must not look like a dog’s breakfast. Your credibility will go…

bye-bye!

The best way to recognize good site design from bad is to do some surfing. You will know when you have found a good page, and its opposite. How? Just pay attention to your feelings as you surf. If you find yourself frowning or saying, “What’s going on?” a fair bit — sit up and take notice. Ask yourself… “What’s the problem here?… Where do things fall apart?”

Amazing graphics don’t make sales. They increase page loading time, so your visitors arrive (if they even bother to wait) impatient and irritated. Even if your graphics are especially compelling, all they do is distract the customer from making the purchase.
Not good!

Your logo doesn’t need to be elaborate. Visit the following examples. These are the top 6 “e-tailers” and their corresponding logos… (Source: PC Data Online)

Amazon.com

Ticketmaster

CDNow

See anything spectacular? I sure don’t. Simple. Easy to read. Functional. And that’s all your logo needs to be. You don’t have to be a graphics expert to create a satisfactory logo.

There are buying strategies for buying if that is your end goal, but we’re assuming you’re here to learn how to buy to sell at a profit. Obviously, in order to sell, you need to have things to sell – which in general you will have bought not too long ago. It is important to purchase early (ahead of your planned sales) and wait for the right time to auction merchandise.

In this new articles serie, courtesy of MSS2002, we will try to present you a step-by-step system to get your own website running. We’ll cover all the steps, from creating your website to hosting your domain name. Follow the guide !

Getting started on the Net is becoming easier and easier. Barring the SEs’ gradual move towards paid listings, it’s also becoming cheaper. Things are improving on an almost daily basis.

What are the absolute necessities to get started?…
• A HTML editor (preferably a WYSIWYG one)
• This book (congratulations, I see you have it already!)
• A graphics editor
• Own domain name, plus hosting fees
• The odd “how-to” book for technical issues
• A business plan.

Feedback

As previously mentioned eBay has a unique feedback system, allowing buyers and sellers to post comments and feedback on their recent auction experience.
Each transaction allows you to give a single rating to your trading partner – positive, negative, or neutral.

The trend is on your side. The Internet is exploding with growth!

Within the next 3 years, experts predict Internet sales will reach an amazing $103 trillion dollars! A larger portion of this than you may think will be generated by auctions run by success-minded marketers just like you. The Internet is the hottest new way for the average person to get rich leveraging the Web in the shortest amount of time possible. It’s amazing what an auction – a form of competition – does to people and their buying process.

What are the methods of payment?

You can generally pay for an auction the same way you would pay for anything at a local business – cash, check, credit cards depending on the preferences of the business (in this case the seller). For many years before the broad-based establishment of online payment systems, money orders were the most popular form of payment on eBay because they are easier to get than a certified bank check — they are also usually cheaper — and they represent “guaranteed” money, which a personal or business check does not.

Internet auctions started as a hobby for a few computer people in the San Francisco area to have a “virtual swap meet” and get rid of some things they had, and find some things they wanted. In just ten years, this fun little idea has become a multi-billion-dollar enterprise and a global phenomenon, and amazingly, presents one of the best low-risk opportunities in history to start or grow a business! The potential is unlimited and still growing.

Plus, the bid process also tells you a little about the moneymaking opportunities of a market. As a loose rule, if the max bid results are between 30 cents and $2.00, it’s a good indicator that people are making money in this market. I call this my “magic window.”

Over $2.00 means that the competition is too fierce for my tastes, but depending on your market and eventual product selling price and demand, it may make sense for you.

You’ve probably already heard of the Plug-in-Profit (to which many refer simply as PIPS) Internet Buzz. If not, let me just quote what Stone Evans, the founder of PIPs has to say about his program :

I will personally build a money making website for you
that’s 100% ready to take orders and pull in massive residual profits.

Quite tempting isn’t it ? Especially for the student full in debt I was at that time…
Well -I was tempted, and I remember that I’ve spent half an hour reading thoroughly through the sales pages, and this further raised my interest…

But as a student in debt, I was obliged to spend another hour doing several searches on the Internet about “Stone Evans”, the founder of Pips. I wanted to know who exactly was this “altruistic” person promising me quick cash and fully-loaded e-commerce websites for quite nothing.

Who Is Stone Evans ?