How you treat bidders is crucial to building up and maintaining a loyal customer base for your online auction business. The best approach is to be nice to bidders and competitors alike, even when some of them are not being nice to you. Avoid anger, even if it seems richly deserved. Stay focused on listing items that buyers will find irresistible and on shipping quickly when the winning bidders pay. Experience shows that a genial, laid-back approach can work very well in online auction sales, even for dedicated Power Sellers who are determined to keep expanding their operations.

Profit and Pleasure

In any self-employment business, you can work as long as you want to, as hard as you need to, or as little as you desire, and no boss will nag you, except yourself. You define the scope of your workdays. Unfortunately, some people can't handle this much freedom and let their businesses flounder, while they have fun.

Business and pleasure can mix very well in online auction selling. But fun must be balanced with dedication to the daily tasks and details necessary to keep a sales enterprise running. In other words, don't get sloppy with your bookkeeping, don't be slow to answer questions from potential bidders, and definitely don't be slow to ship a winning bidder's purchase.

Try, each day, to give at least passing thought to these necessary questions:

• What will I sell next?

• When will I list it?

• How long should I list it?

• Have I researched similar listings and made notes on descriptions, photographs, and selling prices?

• Do I have the right shipping boxes and packing materials?

• Can I add a payment method or shipping method that will attract more bidders?

• What other types of items can I offer that may help expand my sales base?

You can simplify your work efforts and workdays by auction site automation features, as well as payment services such as PayPal. You can schedule your auction listings so that most of your labor — listing, invoicing, and shipping — involves just two or three days per week. The rest of the time can be spent on enjoying life — and finding more items to sell. Each time you post a group of items to sell, start working immediately toward your next auctions.