Succeed by NOT being unique on eBay

I'm talking about how MOST people approach eBaying.

Let me tell you how they go about it...what they do wrong...and what I think you should do instead.

In short, most people come onto the site with an pre-existing idea of what they want to do...BEFORE they even know whether it's viable or not.

For example:

A lady came to me recently with an idea for selling a certain kind of book. An original idea.

Just one problem: NO-ONE is currently doing this successfully on eBay.

Great! At least that's what some people would say.

But it ain't so...because what you really want to do is go after markets where someone has already proven that the sale of XYZ product can be made at a profit.

Another example...

Since the majority in my office is female, the conversation recently turned to
male strippers (as it always does amongst the female of the species).

Turns out, my staff want to open a male strip-joint in Manchester, near an area known as 'Gay Village' (I won't say why it's called 'Gay Village'. Hopefully you know or can guess why.)

Why?

The reasoning is because there's 'not one already'...which they think is a good thing.

Hmm. Maybe it is a good idea. But the fact that no-one is doing it can often mean someone has already tried and failed, or that it just plain won't work at a profit.

Don't get me wrong. I'm definitely NOT saying 'never come up with a new idea'...what I am saying is that it's safer to work your way into an established model of some kind - one that's already been proven to work.

Same on eBay.

I recently created a new income stream for myself, starting from scratch, and in only a few weeks, by going after an ALREADY-VALIDATED market.

I didn't pioneer or invent anything, and I wasn't remotely original. I merely went after something that I knew would have a great chance of success, as evidenced by the number of people currently operating successfully in that particular market.

In short, it works.

At least for me.

And, I hate to say this, but yes...

...it was actually very easy!

So...are you guilty of making things too difficult? If you are coming up with original ideas, and not validating your ideas first with current market research - you probably are.

What do you want to do instead? You want ALREADY VALIDATED Markets/
business'models' which you can go into.

In my opinion...there's absolutely no point going into a market where you are the 'first'. In Economics, people talk about 'first-mover' advantages. But I'm not sure how this would apply on eBay, if at all.

Fact is, I see no conceivable reason WHY it would offer an advantage if you were to
'go first'.

So don't. Especially if you are starting out. Go with what's already working - and reap the rewards more quickly, and with less effort.

Authour: Oliver Goehler