Take a Picture of what Online Auction is

Take a Picture of what Online Auction is All About
An online auction is a market place stationed in cyberspace. Imagine if your whole neighborhood puts up a yard sale where you can purchase goods by bidding on them, auction style. Then one day, they decide to do the neighborly thing and invite their kinsmen from other neighborhoods to participate in this exciting event.

That is how online auction happens, except on a much bigger scale. An online auctioning website is one worldwide business where pretty much anyone with a few bucks to spare, or those with debts that need to be cleared up, can buy or sell products in the comfort of their own living rooms.

All you need is a computer and the ever reliable Internet to get online, a simple but functional website built to allow you to showcase your items, and of course an item to auction off such as card collectibles, toys, records, antiques, furniture, artworks. The list goes on and on. The online auction phenomenon also revolutionized the way collectors acquire their goods. This is the place where collectible enthusiasts flock from all around the world to get their fix.

Are you still looking for that one elusive Gretzky rookie card that would complete your collection? Why not try surfing the net, and check out the numerous online auction websites that are out there waiting for you in cyberspace. You might just find what you're looking for.

Arguably, the biggest and most famous of all online auction sites is eBay, which was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995, as part of a personal bigger site called "Auction web". The site was principally owned by Echo Bay Technology Group, the consulting firm of Pierre Omidyar. But when he tried to register the domain name EchoBay, Pierre found that it was already taken, so he shortened it to what we know now as eBay.

The headquarters of eBay is located in San Jose, California, where currently Meg Whitman is serving as eBay's president and CEO, and has been serving since March 1998.

There are many other online auction websites out there, such as: Yahoo, Auction fire, To BuyYa.com, and many more. Most of these sites require you to register and charge a selling fee.

Basically an online auction operates on the principle of bidding on a merchandise in order to acquire the goods. But you don't just get what you want by just bidding. You have to be the highest bidder in the end, and outlast, outwit, and outplay all of the other bidders with the allotted time given to you once the bidding war starts.

In the end, after becoming the mighty high-roller, not only do you get that beloved item that you fought so heroically for, but also, bragging rights. Once you've made the acquisition, simply pay for it via an online payment service such as paypal. Other online auction websites do one on one transaction through e-mail.

Knowing how engaging could online auctioning get, the thing is that it is not all smooth sailing. There are a lot of hazards along the road that you need to watch out for. For example, there are some fraudulent online merchants who sell bogus items. There are also those who take your money, but never send you the items that you bid and paid for. And there are those really bad rabbits who have no intention of buying at all, but bid nonetheless to jack up the price. This is called the notorious "shill bidding".

So you really have to keep your eyes open and make sure you study the online auction website that catches your eye, before you start dishing out the dough. You might want to read the consumers' feedbacks from previous transactions. These usually appear on the online auction websites. Online auction forums are also helpful in throwing many tips for an auction aficionado's safety and enjoyment.

Now that you've pretty much got your bases covered. It's time to try your luck at an online auction. Who knows you might just have the Midas touch, and turn everything your hands bid on into gold.


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So What's Your Idea?You've got this far. It's

So What's Your Idea?
You've got this far. It's time to ask yourself: what exactly do you plan to do? What's your big home business idea - and, more importantly, how is it going to make you any money? There are quite a few ways to figure out whether your idea is a good one or a bad one. Basically, it all comes down to the practicalities of the thing.

Do You Have the Time?

There are only so many hours in a day, and you want to save some of them for yourself. If you're planning on, for example, making small products and selling them, will you really have enough time to take orders, make them, pack them up and post them? If you're not careful, you can find yourself doing tedious work all day and all night for $2 per hour.

Remember that time is money: the only way to make the income you want is set an hourly rate you're happy with, and then work out pricing as your rate plus expenses. If you don't have enough time to do the work, then increase the rate or hire someone who does. It's simple supply and demand.

Do You Have the Qualifications?

One of the traps that people most often fall into is wanting to take a skill they have and turn it into a business, without realising that their customers will expect them to have formal qualifications. Sure, you were a full-time mother for years, but people would still like you to have a child-care qualification. This goes double if you plan to become some kind of therapist - if you don't have the qualifications, how are people supposed to know that you're not just making it up as you go along?

What's more, qualifications serve to create scarcity in the market. A business will do better if only qualified people can provide its services than if any joker can. That's why people like doctors and dentists command such high wages: they have to study for years to get their skills, which creates scarcity in the marketplace.

If you already have the skills, you should find it easy to pass the tests - and who knows, you might learn something new. Enrol on an evening course at your local college (try to avoid 'distance learning', as the prices are usually stupidly high compared to what you get out of it). It can be good fun, and you'll probably end up with some good contacts in your chosen industry. Many people have started better home businesses by creating a 'network' of others they know doing the same business in the local area. This lets everyone specialise in their best area.

Do You Have the Space?

If you're planning to have deliveries to your house and then send items out to people, you need to think it through very carefully. Do you really have enough space to act as a warehouse? Will you be cutting the size of your home in half for the sake of your business? It's also worth considering whether you can really let big delivery lorries drive up into your road without doing some damage - there's nothing worse than getting your first delivery and finding that the lorry didn't fit in your street and the boxes don't fit in your house.

The best way to solve this problem is to make sure that your home business doesn't require any inventory. Home businesses where you provide a service - whether it's over the phone, on the Internet or in person - almost always work out better than ones that involve you packing and posting things.

Of course, even for more service-oriented businesses, space can still be a problem: if you plan to be a fitness trainer from home, make sure you have somewhere to put all that fitness equipment!

Money, Money, Money.

Consider the kind of expense you'd need to go to when you start your business, as well as the day-to-day running costs. Then, and this is the vital part, work out the maximum number of customers you think you could deal with, and cut it in half (you won't actually get that many customers, at least to begin with). Work out how much you'd have to charge each of those customers to break even for your first year. If the price comes out far too high, then it's time to think again.


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