Hi Adam,

Thanks for your message. It’s a pleasure to be able to reply to you, as I
believe ebays TA program is one of the best opportunities available for
users to make a living online.

So what can eBay do to improve the businesses of independent Trading
Assistants. I’ve set up a few websites for Trading Assistants & am drawing
from my own experience with these comments.

1) Motivation.

There’s so much hype which we all read about how easy it is to make millions
online, a lot of people give up without putting in any real effort. I deal
with a lot of people who think that by launching a website they’ll be able
to retire with a week or so. As we know Adam, it’s simply not going to
happen that easily. Instead of putting in the work they deserve to make it
succeed, they get frustrated quickly & after a few weeks they simply give up
& let there business die.

So most importantly is something to motivate users to give their business a
proper go & give it the publicicity it needs. Perhaps something along the
lines of a

- A “Blueprint for a successful Trading Assistants Business”, specific steps
they could try to maximise there efforts.
- A discount for newly registered trading assistants on listing fees,
something along the lines of 20% off for the first 30 items listed (within
30 days). This will help them establish their business initially.

Once a user has a proper go at establishing their business they will
normally succeed & be pleased with the results. It’s giving them the initial
push to get them started that’s the hard part.

2) Business cards

Personally I know a few TAs who have had a lot of success with business
cards. B/Cards seem to be mainly bypassed these days, with the likes of
email, sms, to communicate. However they are still a very effective
marketing tool. Perhaps eBay could even supply a basic eBay trading
assistants business card in the form of a .GIF or .JPG, users could then
edit with their own contact details & distrubute them.

3) Success Stories

Offer TAs some success stories of users who have built up their TA
activities from nothing. Those who’s businesses are now thriving. Nothing
motivates people like success stories.

4) Terms & Conditions/Disclaimer forms/Legal Forms

Many TAs go to great lengths hiring freelance writers to draft Terms &
Conditions for their business so they are protected should any accidental
damage happen.

Maybe eBay could offer a basic version of some legal forms for these TAs to
use initially. If they want to edit them at a later date or get something
more complicated they could, but it appears to me this is a top priority
for the majority of TA’s when starting out.

5) Newsletter?

Does eBay offer a newsletter for TA’s? I know ebay.co.uk does not so assume
that eBay.com doesn’t either – Doing so would keep eBays TA program active
in the mind of potential TA,s. It would also encourage users who have lost
interest in the program to give it another go.

Specificially about marketing a trading assistants business I can offer the
following tips.

1) Charity Auctions. I’ve recently helped a client perform a (A/B) split
test as a Trading Assistant. One offered his normal services, the second
offered a service where 20% of the final auctions fee was donated to a
registered charity BEFORE his fee(s) were deducted. The charity offer
increased his business by 29% for the month of the test. His end user
customers seemed to be killing two birds at once by helping charity &
themselves at the same time.

2) Track your results! Try to include some kind of reference number in every
ad you place so you can quickly see what ads work & which don’t. Ask
customers to quote a reference number. This will enable you to stop paying
for unproductive ads & maximise your effort with the ones that work.

3) Business Cards. Give them to friends, family, collegues, even strangers.
Everyone has stuff they keep meaning to get rid off. Even as an established
eBayer I have tons I’ve stuff I keep meaning to auction but haven’t got
round to it yet. If I had a number to call a local TA who came to collect my
stuff it would solve my problems!

4) FREE local papers, Most local papers, publications offer free local ads.
Use them placing weekly ads in each one.

5) Niche! Pick what catagory you want to operate in. More & More people are
approaching me to setup a TA website specialising in cars, antiques, & they
want to only specialise in one particular area. This is great & although it
will decrease the amount of items available it will offer you more
credibility with potential clients who want just one or two items auctioning.

6) Finally network, T.As should visit car boot sales, local raffles & try to
form relationships with other sellers in their community. Doing so will
bring a constant stream of business towards them.

I hope this is of some use to you. Please let me know if I can be any more
assistants to you.

Kindest Regards

Mark Kenny
Trading-Web-Solutions

http://www.Trading-Web-Solutions.com

– end of email —

Have I missed anything out? If so let me know & I’ll forward the suggestions to eBay.