How much would you pay to attend a course on eBay?

[OM2]

I'm developing a course on eBay.

I really wanted some feedback: how much would you pay?

Details:

1. You'll learn how to use eBay to become a Powerseller.
2. You'll learn other essential skills (like photography, image editing, where and how to post and other things).
3. You'll get license to use software that I've developed: allows you to create professional looking listings in a few minutes - take pictures and write a description... that's that's needed and you get a professional listing (as opposed to the normal amateru listings you get on eBay).
(The software is a million times better than any other eBay software company: I know because I've tested all of them!)

For the course:

1. You'll go away with a live shop and will have created several listings during the course.
2. Money back guarantee if you don't make back the money you paid for on the course in one year.

OK... I really want to charge £1000 for the course.
Tooooo much? Too little?

1. This is less than you'd pay for one of those 'make me feel good and motivated' courses.
2. Remember: you go away with a liv and running shop with several listings already made = the start of a business.
3. Less than the costs of starting an ecommerce shop.

I'd like some 'independent' replies!
i.e. if you are a self made millionaire and don't need to start your own eBay business: you can still answer by putting yourself in the shoes of someone who is contemplating starting an online business!
or: maybe you've already got an online business and don't need eBay: try and answer the question anyway. :)

You can buy about 20 books on eBay: my recommendation... go an buy some of these and read if you want to (though not essential).
My course: will teach eBay in unconventional ways different to anything else and will be hands on.

If too much: what would you want to pay?
If you're happy to pay: what's the maximum you'd pay?

ALL replies would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks.


OM

[JamieM]

To answer your question directly my answer is £0.00

However, I'm sure there is some value in this type of course.

Don't ebay do ebay university any more? I think £1,000 is far too much.

1. You'll learn how to use eBay to become a Powerseller.To what extent? You will help them find products to sell?

2. You'll learn other essential skills (like photography, image editing, where and how to post and other things)The first two can be learned very cheaply at a local college. You can simply read the instructions regarding where and how to post things.

3. You'll get license to use software that I've developedListing templates are not worth much.

This is less than you'd pay for one of those 'make me feel good and motivated' courses.Not necessarily and fairly irrelevant.

Less than the costs of starting an ecommerce shop.Not necessarily.

I don't think what you are offering is worth much more than £100. You can learn loads on the ebay website and discussion boards.

Sorry to be negative but this is my honest opinion.

[OM2]

Jamie: thanks for the replies.

OK: so the course is not for you (at any price) - I'm not trying to sell to everyone in the world!

Don't ebay do ebay university any more? I think £1,000 is far too much.
yes: eBay university is excellent.
i totally recommend it to all eBay sellers new or old.
you get 1500+ people attending the course each paying £50 - £70 a go.
it's brilliant: run by eBay staff.

however: what they teach you is superficial, thought still being excellent.
what my course teaches is very different: hands on training and experience of eBay and how to do essential things like market research on prices.

To what extent? You will help them find products to sell?
finding products to sell is *only* part of the whole thing.
users will certanly get advice on what to sell and where to buy from.

The first two can be learned very cheaply at a local college. You can simply read the instructions regarding where and how to post things.
YES!!!
You're absolutely right!
And while you're at it: take a course in Dreamweaver, Photoshop, accounting, book keeping, marketing and sales and anything else that seems good.
It's taken me 2 years of trading on eBay to figure some things.
Some things: yes... do lots of reading and you can learn.
Others: you *just* don't learn... you only learn by experiencing.
Some things are simple, some things are complex: it's all about knowing the tricks of the trade - that's what the course teaches you.

You sound like a talented guy: I bet you could be a car mechanic in less than 9 months if you put your head to it.

The choice: a few days on the course... or 12 - 18 months intensive learning and trading.
Question: how much is this time worth in monetary terms?
£1000 = less than what 12 -18 months of your time is worth I would argue.


Listing templates are not worth much.

Your problem: you're absolutely right!!!!
Just about ALL listing templates suck!
They're amateur and look rubbish!
The thing with eBay: you have to do a few things to your HTML code to create professional looking listings: this is very time consuming... it used to take me 2 hours to create a quality looking listing - with my software... this now takes me a few minutes.

There is one, *only* one credible company out there that gives professional looking eBay templates and shop design.
We've tested what they have to offer: it doesn't come close to what we have at an early beta stage.


Not necessarily and fairly irrelevant.

OK: I'll try and say it ina different way.
You can spend more going on a motivate me course: and you come away with nothing tangible.
My eBay course: you go away with a running business.


Not necessarily.

I disagree. If you are not a coder, then it wold be wise to invest in a proper shop that comes SEO optimised.
(Before you say it: eBay listings are SEO optmised thanks to their deal with google... that's another story and which is more fully epxlained in the course.)
Spending less than £1000 on an ecommerce shop (something that is supposed to make you money) is not a good idea.
(By profession I am a web designer and coder: so that answer comes from someone who knows.)


I don't think what you are offering is worth much more than £100. You can learn loads on the ebay website and discussion boards.

Yes: you definitely should use what you mention.
But as discussed above: how much is your time worth...?
I've been trading on eBay for 2.5 years: and I'm still learning!

Sorry to be negative but this is my honest opinion.
Your reply was great!

I think my course is worth £5000 actually. :)
But it's no use me charging this (or £1000) if it's not the optimum price that brings in the most revenue.

This might sound a bit funny... but the intention of the course is: for you to forget about eBay! The course and software makes it so that you don't need to worry about the technical and legal necessities of trading on eBay.
The course lets you worry onlyabout you doing your business: everything else is taken care of.

Any further replies wouldbe great!

Thanks.


OM

[Chris Kaday]

This course is not for me as I will never set up a business on eBay but I would love to use it for selling the occasional things and would really appreciate an easy guide to show me how. Maybe an eBay ‘light’ training course would also be a good idea with mass appeal.

[Page]

£0.00 for me also and the same may be true of many people on this forum. But they are also a certain group of people.

If you were trying to appeal to people looking to set up in business and who were not so tech savy and didn't know how to go about it then you may get a different set of answers.

Your course will be worth different amounts to different people. To some it may be worth £5,000 or more to someone looking at it casually just a £100.

So who are you thinking of pitching it at. The people on here? Housewives/husbands? The unemployed? Wholesalers? Curerent independent retailers?

How many hours is it going to take up and what is the study process. This also affects to whom it may appeal and be suitable.

What is the delivery medium.
One on one training - small groups - internet based. Again affects things.

You may need to split your course into different levels with an entry point of ??

[Lisette]

Given the budget that most wannabe ebay moguls start with I do not think you have any chance of getting £1000 for your course. Your best bet would be that you charge much less and then you take a percentage of future sales or something - but chances are that you will not be able to control this. I suppose your money back guarantee thingy where you say if they do not make the course fees back within the first 12 months could help here but people would have to trust that you would repay it [I personally have substantial doubts about those sites that offer my money back of $49 so I am not sure if people would feel comfortable here - although you could set up an escrow system] and also from your point of view it could be very hard to control this.

[ken_uk]

A busy power seller would probably be better of using a custom script that generates listings through the ebay api, pulling the relavent data from a database. Pointless using software to do it all by hand if you sell thousands of items. It should all be automated.

Photography, image editing etc advice is all available free of charge on many sites/forums etc on the net.

Templates etc are available from many sources and learning html, css, etc is a must anyways if you want the best results - a template will be used by more than one person, so you lose the uniqueness.

When and where to list comes mainly with experience, you can learn most of the 'shortcuts' from forums, but many areas of ebay are quite competitive, and one solution will not fit all areas.

One course will not be able to cover all categories on ebay in sufficient depth to do each category justice. You need to know the area you are selling in inside out, as you can bet a competitor already does....

Licence to use software - does not mean much unless you provide examples of the software's output, and a demo of the software for people to see for themselves what it does, same for saying its a million times better and you have tested all the competition. List what competition you have tested, and have comparisons of what yours does that the competition does not do, and how yours is a million times better.

As for price, you could probably shift a load of them at around a tenner each on ebay...

[JamieM]

Hi OM,

I applaud your optimism. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying there is not a market for this and it could be a valuable resource but I do think you need to revisit your offering and pricing structure. It would be better if you could spread the costs somehow. Maybe have an online subscription resource centre where members can log in as and when required. This will be better for learning as well as no one is going to be able to learn everything over a few days.

Have you seen the ebay course from IMC, one of the leading internet marketing companies? I think you should check this out if you have not already.

http://www.auctiontips.com/course.html

Hope this helps.

[Chris Ashdown]

I thought EBAY already answered many new users by being so easy

Most people who want to start a ebay business will start small with one or two items and slowly expand

If they are serious about opening a e-commerce shop then companies like ACTINIC offer cheap profesional routes to market for a few hundred pounds, I know i started with a £500 budjet to put a toe in the water

Best of luck but as they say on dreagons den "I'm Out" and I think a great number would not see it as good value,

[OM2]

guys: thanks for all the replies.
a lot of questions i need to consider and answer.
at the moment: i have the software ready... and the training course will be
written shortly.

i dont expect to sell the software or training to the whole world: a very small percentage will do fine.

there's one company that sells software that can be compared to what i have.
it's nowhere near as being sophisticated or as advanced.
this company has 300+ clients each paying on average £1500 just for the software (and redesign of shop and listings).
they recently (less than 12 months ago) received funding of £500,000 from investors.

there are about 3 or 4 other bigger companies that offer ebay related software: these companies are subscription based and charge £200 - £500 per annum for use of the software.

for the software alone: i know there's a market.

no one that i know of offers hands on interactive training.

[OM2]

A busy power seller would probably be better of using a custom script that generates listings through the ebay api, pulling the relavent data from a database. Pointless using software to do it all by hand if you sell thousands of items. It should all be automated.
erm: my software will also do many different types of automation.
one of the things it will do: make a powerseller's life easier and make the sales processing part take only a fraction of the current time.

Photography, image editing etc advice is all available free of charge on many sites/forums etc on the net.
yes: you are right.
as i said in another reply: one will have to go through the discipline of learning and learning the tricks of the trade.
for example: you can master photography and learn how to use a camera... but you still might not be aware that you need a light tent + daylight lighting to get best results.

Templates etc are available from many sources and learning html, css, etc is a must anyways if you want the best results - a template will be used by more than one person, so you lose the uniqueness.
yes lots of templates floating around: each and everyone being a cheap and nasty looking one!
learn html and css: erm... i beg to disagree.
the whole point of the course and software is so that you don't have to worry about eBay and the technical requirements - instead, you should concentrate on running your own business.
you should have to worry about messing around with html code and uploading and updating via ftp!

When and where to list comes mainly with experience, you can learn most of the 'shortcuts' from forums, but many areas of ebay are quite competitive, and one solution will not fit all areas.

One course will not be able to cover all categories on ebay in sufficient depth to do each category justice. You need to know the area you are selling in inside out, as you can bet a competitor already does....
i'm an experienced powerseller: learning from forums...? don't think so. one course covering *everything* - yes!! well as close to as possible.


Licence to use software - does not mean much unless you provide examples of the software's output, and a demo of the software for people to see for themselves what it does, same for saying its a million times better and you have tested all the competition. List what competition you have tested, and have comparisons of what yours does that the competition does not do, and how yours is a million times better.
yes: everything you say is correct!

As for price, you could probably shift a load of them at around a tenner each on ebay...
LOL. :)

[OM2]

Hi OM,

I applaud your optimism. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying there is not a market for this and it could be a valuable resource but I do think you need to revisit your offering and pricing structure. It would be better if you could spread the costs somehow. Maybe have an online subscription resource centre where members can log in as and when required. This will be better for learning as well as no one is going to be able to learn everything over a few days.

Have you seen the ebay course from IMC, one of the leading internet marketing companies? I think you should check this out if you have not already.

Hope this helps.
thanks for the reply.
the £1000: erm maybe i shouldn't have mentioned this to start off with!
this was a figure i plucked from the air.
i have to decide how much to charge... £200? £500 £1000?
hence i asked for some feedback. :)

autiontips.com??
please.
i cant stand those cheesy corny american get rich quick schemes.

[OM2]

I thought EBAY already answered many new users by being so easy
simple answer: no!
it's just pages of text nothing else.
you have a steep learning curve.


Most people who want to start a ebay business will start small with one or two items and slowly expand

sure: you maybe right.
these people wont be my potential customers then.


If they are serious about opening a e-commerce shop then companies like ACTINIC offer cheap profesional routes to market for a few hundred pounds, I know i started with a £500 budjet to put a toe in the water

i design websites for a living.
£500 may have worked for u.
for most people the same £500 will be money down the drain.


Best of luck but as they say on dreagons den "I'm Out" and I think a great number would not see it as good value,
thanks for everything said.
great number number of people not seeing good value?
i dont think so.
there are lots of ebay software companies charging a whole lot of money for their services.
heck: take away my training... the software does what all the others do and a *whole* lot more.

problem: the competition are estblished and have made a name.
no matter how good my product is: i'm still an unknown - for now.

[openmind]

Interesting idea but very hard to justify any over about £100 for the reasons already stated.

You can get a fully functional eCommerce store for less than a grand if you know where to look that is more flexible that the eBay stores and UK biased. (but then I am biased :D)

[OM2]

Interesting idea but very hard to justify any over about £100 for the reasons already stated.

You can get a fully functional eCommerce store for less than a grand if you know where to look that is more flexible that the eBay stores and UK biased. (but then I am biased :D)
thanks for the reply.
forget the course!
i want to sell my software service for £1000.
my main competition ar charging £900 for basic... and maximum of about £2500 + ongoing yearly subcritiption charges to continue to use their service.

so far: they have 300+ customers.
they recently got £500,000 funding from investors.

these guys: have already proven themselves so they can justifiably charge the amouns and get away with it.

now... add to my software: hands on training.

does it sound unreasonable?

no matter how logical i can make my offering...
it doesn't matter: i need to make sure other people buy it!

i know a place where you can rent an office for £25 a week, and you get 400 sqaure feet space.
but: it's in the middle of nowhere: nowehre near anything and impossible to get to.
it wouldn't make business sense to get this office.

the same arguement goes for your ecommerce shop.
your ecomemerce shop needs to look and feel good and be non templatey... it needs to be seo'd to the max.


heck: paypal have a really nice solution that u canuse to change ANY website into an ecommerce website!
u just put some code in the link of an item u want to sell: and paypal take care of *evertyhing* else.

[JamieM]

autiontips.com??
please.
i cant stand those cheesy corny american get rich quick schemes.

Maybe you don't like the long copy style in which it is sold (which works by the way) but the underlying content is a course which teaches people how to make money using ebay - exactly what you were planning.

What is the software company you refer to?

[Chris Ashdown]

my main competition ar charging £900 for basic... and maximum of about £2500 + ongoing yearly subcritiption charges to continue to use their service.

so far: they have 300+ customers.
they recently got £500,000 funding from investors.
.

Your starter indicated new users to e-commerce where you teach them the basics, yet from the numbers above it looks like they are selling software to proffesional companies,

I started with the lowest priced software and have moved to plus £2000 software but I could never have paid over £2000 for software to start with

Who is your target market, how experienced would they be, how much startup would they have to spend?

[Cleveregg]

My first thoughts would be any 'course' offered for sale on ebay would be 'dodgy' or just a waste of money.

Surely people wanting to sell on ebay don't have £1000 to spend on a course.

Please keep us upto date on how you do.

i wish you well.

Cleveregg

[OM2]

Maybe you don't like the long copy style in which it is sold (which works by the way) but the underlying content is a course which teaches people how to make money using ebay - exactly what you were planning.

What is the software company you refer to?

as i said in another reply: forget the course!!
i thought adding the course would make my offering different.
the replies i've got on here have concentrated on deciding whether the course is worth £1000 or not!!
as i said: there's companies charging more than this amount for a software solution *only*!

what is the software company i refer to?
sorry i can't tell you their name, it's confidential information.
(they're called frooition. look them up. dont tell anyone i told u.) ;)

there's other companies that are charing a lot of money for ebay related software, the major ones are:

andale, marketworks and channel adviser.
(there are a few other smaller companies: but they're not really worth comparing.)

[OM2]

Your starter indicated new users to e-commerce where you teach them the basics, yet from the numbers above it looks like they are selling software to proffesional companies,

I started with the lowest priced software and have moved to plus £2000 software but I could never have paid over £2000 for software to start with

Who is your target market, how experienced would they be, how much startup would they have to spend?
ya sure... i think u have a valid point.
my logic was based something along the following points:

- there are successful self motivating trainers that charge an arm and a leg: so it must be possible to sell a course on ebay for £1000!

- there are companies that sell franchises... people will happily pay lots and lots of money, like £50,000 to start a business... so heck... i should be ok marketing and selling my offerings for £1000.

the above 'people' are not everyone... and are not the majority.
i'm happy: as long as i get enough customers... even if this is 0.001% of the population!

the course and software: i'm definitely going to give a go!
i'll let you guys know how i get on. :)

[Cornish Steve]

How often and from where do you plan to run your course? What are your anticipated overhead costs?

[Page]

i'm happy: as long as i get enough customers... even if this is 0.001% of the population!


If you can reach this much you should be more than happy - you will be able to bathe in champagne - should you choose.

60,000 people at £1,000 a time is a bob or two. You may need some helpers though.:)

[Blush]

in all honesty, nothing, sorry:(
I don't like ebay to be honest so maybe I am the wrong person to ask, but I would far rather spend money on promoting my site:D

[watchman]

£0.00.....!

[Seaview1]

Just wanted to add to this that all the information that you need to sell succesfully on Ebay can be self taught. I have been trading successfully on Ebay for 7 years and now the revenue from our Ebay shops pays the wages of five family members who work for the business.
Our Ebay shops were setup and are managed by me and i have had no formal training and only attended ebay uni this year and found i didn't learn much that i hadn't already worked out for myself.
I had come up with idea of offering Ebay tuition on a one-to-one basis for say £10 per hour, that way i would be able to work at the level of the client.
I could start from basics and work right up to running a business etc etc.
The only thing that has stopped from doing this is knowing if there is actually a market for it and my own self confidence in my abilities. (I don't know if my knowledge would be enough)
I think that this kind of think probably does have a market but not a full on training course.

[matt_wilson]

yes, does eem rather too much when you can go to likes of eBay Uni. This is their version of that this year by the way. smallbusiness20.co.uk . Rich Ambrose from eBay is speaking about the new changes, should be good. AND ITS FREE. Just type in FREE as the promo code

[OM2]

hey thanks for sending the link through
still planning and developing our software + course

we've been in touch with smallbusiness20 and will prob exhibit at the event

with regards the course: main aim is to make money
happy to give away for free - if we can make sales from the software

[MH1]

Doubt the course would sell for much, if your software does what you think that is what you should concentrate on selling, simple enough too target existing powersellers and arrange a visit to demonstrate your software.

Like many others you have yet to identify your real market and clientel.

New people on ebay will not pay £1000, existing sellers who wish to free up a lot of time might.

I would want to evaluate your software over a couple of weeks, and it would have to be very good to make me want to buy it against more established players in the market place.

[Cheelsea]

We use ebay to sell some of our training course materials. It took me 1 day to open a shop and a business account on paypal. I havent done any other reading or training on it since and it is still selling and going quite smoothly. I am sure people would benefit from your course but £1000 is a huge amount of money especially for small business holders who have to work hard for every penny. I would rethink the rate if I were you.
Good luck
X C

[OM2]

thanks for the feedback: it's amazingly helpful
if i can get away with selling for £1000 i would try!
but if it's a better price to sell for £10, then thats what i'll sell for
the aim is to make money :)

the software: will be free for everyone to use
it will only be chargeable to serious sellers
the software give unmatched set of tools to create ebay listings

some of you have said that you started up in a small amount of time
that's whats brilliant about ebay: very easy to get started and sell to the world
BUT: there's a world of things that you simply wont know - these things, you could call them 'tricks of the trade', these things you'd only learn from experience.
i've been trading on eBay for 3 years now. i'm a power seller and make a nice income doing less than 30 minutes work a day (i kind of hate saying that - it sounds like one of those cheesy american get rich quick schemes).
BUT: i'd still admit, i'm still learning. learning a lot.

when all ready for launch... i'll definitely post back here to let you guys know :)

[ginantonic]

Our Ebay shops were setup and are managed by me and i have had no formal training and only attended ebay uni this year and found i didn't learn much that i hadn't already worked out for myself.
I had come up with idea of offering Ebay tuition on a one-to-one basis for say £10 per hour, that way i would be able to work at the level of the client.

I did the eBay university course 3 years ago, costing £90. A total waste of money, I agree, it didn't tell me anything I didn't already know, having sold on eBay for several years. At the time, my partner and I had a training company (he is a qualified adult education tutor) and offered eBay courses both for beginners (charging £10 for a 2 hour course) and to businesses wanting to set up their own eBay shops (charging £20 per hour, averaging 5 hours in total).
We had very little interest, even with extensive advertising, and when we contacted local colleges to use their rooms, were refused, only to find a few weeks later the colleges themselves started to offer eBay courses!
The general public weren't interested in paying at all, they expected it FREE.
What really pissed us off was that we were led to believe you could only "teach eBay the eBay way" and use their materials etc, AND ADVERTISE if you did their courses first. Not so, as we found several tutors advertising in the UK, and they were NOT registered with eBay. We contacted eBay about this, and they said it is perfectly OK for them to do this. So, it was a dead fish from the start for us. If you can make it work, good luck to you. But £1,000 is totally ridiculous! :rolleyes:

[Page]

Well going through the process of going into ebay at the moment - I would not pay £1000.

HOWEVER - I would pay for ongoing and one to one support by the hour or 15 mins etc.

To myself it is a simple sum. How I price my time and what leverage you could give on that.

Forums can do a lot but someone that really knows their stuff and is a consistent point of reference (opinions opinions) can be useful.

What would I pay?

I suppose I would expect a free 15 mins approx where I ask and they pitch.

Then it would depend on how good they were.

I would be looking to pay for guidance on where to find out info etc.

Is there a business model within that for the service provider??

[MH1]

i've been trading on eBay for 3 years now. i'm a power seller and make a nice income doing less than 30 minutes work a day

No offence, but becoming a powerseller is extremely easy to achieve, like yourself I have sold on it for years as well and like to do more than 30 mins a day.

Hopefully we will hear about this wonderful sw again.