Selling products on eBay can be a very lucrative business, and starting an eBay business is fairly simple and affordable. So why do so many people fail? It is not WHAT they sell - it is HOW they sell it.

New sellers do what everybody else is doing. They blend in with the crowd of other sellers and do not stand out. They invest in hot-selling products but never get noticed by buyers to sell anything or make any money.

So how do you stand out? There are two main ways.

1. Sell the most popular eBay products at deeply discounted prices or offer higher value "package deals".

2. Sell unique or hard-to-find products that cannot be found at your local store.

Popular Products:

So first, if you decide to sell the hot-selling products on eBay, you are going to have lots of competition. The way to stand out is to offer a lower price than everyone else or put together a multiple product package which offers more value than the other competing products for auction.

A. By offering a lower price, you will attract more buyers and can easily start a bidding war. The excitement and interest that a bidding war creates will generally give you a selling price that is higher than it would be if you had originally listed the product for sale at a high price. Once people have started bidding, they do not want to stop. Your goal is to get them started.

B. If you put together a package with multiple products, make sure that the products relate to each other or can be used together so that they add value to your offer. (Is your buyer likely to want both of these products?)

Keeping your shipping price low will increase the value even more, and you can get many more buyers this way. You stand out because you are delivering more value and added convenience to your buyers. They can make one purchase instead of several.

eBay Pulse is a resource on the eBay website that shows you which products are selling the most. It is updated daily, so it is a good place to find out the types of products that people are buying right now. Another helpful tool is the World Wide Brands newsletter. It is free at their website, and you can get lots of success tips about selling on eBay as well.

Unique Products:

On the other hand, if you choose to sell hard-to-find products, you can demand more money simply because you will have less sellers to compete against - maybe even none!

This does not mean that you should list your unique products at an expensive price, because eBay buyers are looking for deals. This simply means that you do not have to discount your products, because buyers will be happy to have found your hard-to-find products at all, that they are willing to pay full price.

In either case, you want to include a variety of product photos and a detailed product description for each item. Customers are much more likely to buy something when they can see it.

Also include keywords in both the listing title and description so that buyers can find your listing more often when they search for it on eBay. This means brand names, model numbers, color, size and even common misspellings as well.

Where to Find Products:

To find products to sell, you can get great discounts from wholesalers. You can find a large number of wholesalers online using a wholesale search engine.

You may also decide to minimize your workload by working with a drop shipper. Drop shippers charge a fee in exchange for their service of packaging and shipping products for you. You benefit by not having to purchase inventory up front or having to do the work of packing and shipping.

There are also some membership sites which give you access to multiple drop shippers in one location. This is a good option for sellers who want to sell multiple product types or brands.