7 Tips on how to use Ebay “profitably” in your Michigan real estate investing business
I love Ebay.
It is the fastest, cheapest, easiest way to attract hundreds of people toward you in Michigan – people who are already looking for you to business with. Unfortunately, like every thing simple to use, most investors muck it up. I am talking about the “Classified Ads” type of auctions that Ebay let you run to get your Michigan business in front of thousands and thousands of investors / home buyers / private investors INSTANTLY.
Here are my 7 tips to make Ebay really work for you:
1. Don’t forget what Ebay is REALLY for – generating leads. Think of your Ebay ad as a giant, glittery OPEN sign for your real estate investing business in Michigan. Nothing more. Nothing less. You are not going to convince anybody to do business with you – buy a house; do a wholesale flip; call you interested in deal partnership.
Ebay is about LEAD GENERATION. Remember this core thing in your head all the time and your Ebay ads, cheap as they are, will make you happy.
2. Ebay users are used to clicking not writing – when you ask them to email you stuff like a email letting you know what they want from you – you are asking too much from them.
3. You must have a website setup with a form to collect information from the people coming from Ebay. For example if you are using to build a Wholesale Investor list – you should have a form page setup (Godaddy.com is a great / cheap place to do this - $10 domain names, $4 per month websites which come with drag and drop features) to collect name, address, phone number, email, what kind of house they want to buy etc.
4. Use the counter that comes free with your Ebay ad as a great tool for seeing which Ebay ads work better than other.
I have tested lots of ads over the years and it is amazing to see how much a little tweak can literally double the response and a wrong word in the title of the ad (the most important part of the Ebay ad because that is how people find you) will destroy a perfect good ad.
5. Use pictures – big, glorious, day light bright, beautiful pictures. Digital pictures don’t cost anything, yet most investors use wallet size, cell phone camera quality horrible looking pictures. I love using color pictures in everything I do – everybody likes looking at pictures, me and you included.
If you don’t have a digital camera (?) buy a cheap one from Amazon for under $100. Never take pictures of houses near dusk OR on a gloomy cloudy day. Daylight has magic in it. Use it.
6. Don’t put your phone number on your Ebay ads. People are on Ebay all times of the day, 24/7, so when they see your ad in the middle of the night, they will make a note to self about calling you next morning and 9 out of 10 times they will forget. Life will get in your and theirs way. Much better to ask them to join your list first.
7. This a BIGGIE – what I have found bumps make a Ebay ad truly fly is to cut and paste the AD again on your webpage where you are dropping your Ebay leads at. Why? Don’t worry about it. Just do it and you will see a bump in your response in your Ebay ads immediately.
Go today and spend some time on Ebay and see there is a very healthy real estate “market” that exists on Ebay, a true nationwide market that you dip your toes in very cheaply, tonight.
Amazingly every time when I teach Quick Start Bootcamp, only 1 out of 10 people have ever seen real estate section on Ebay. It is a good place to go and spend some time. You will like it.