Are you motivated?

People get sucked into ebay fairly easily.  Once they get the hang of listing and selling, they generally do one of two things.  They either see it as a fun thing to do once in a while, or they see the long term potential and strive to do more.    If you fall into the latter category, congratulations.  You are joining the ranks of sellers who want to control their income.  They want their freedom from corporate America, and to live life on their own terms.  But it does come with a price.  You cannot be lazy and expect to succeed in this business.

I often hear from sellers who constantly complain.  Ebay changes a policy, and the world is suddenly coming to an end.  The ebay community boards are full of people who do nothing but bash and trash talk.  They will even go at each other over things that really don't matter in the whole scheme of things.  These are the same people who cannot figure out why they don't get a lot of sales, and why they constantly have issues with buyers.  If they treat their buyers with the same mentality that they do on the discussion boards, it's no wonder.

Being self employed is not for everyone, and unfortunately too many people think because they sold a couple items they had around the house fairly easily that this is the norm for ebay.  When they set out to grow and try to earn substantial income, the reality of work hits them square in the face.  Most fail at that point and never push through to be successful.  You have to work at ebay as if it were your full time job in order to have a full time income.  There are no shortcuts.  There are stories all over the internet of someone who made millions on ebay.  What they don't say is how hard they worked at it and how long it took them.  It didn't happen overnight.

If you want to succeed at anything, you have to have drive and discipline.  You have to find ways to keep yourself motivated.  Sitting back and taking the low road will only lead to frustration, and possibly the end of your ebay selling career.  You have to think positive and enjoy the freedom that being an online seller provides.  Work hard when required and you will succeed.  Relax and you will fail.  I often see new sellers joining Facebook groups or following youtube videos.  It's ok to be with like minded people, just don't let them influence how you do business.  In order to do this full time and be successful at it requires you to earn your knowledge.  You can't expect other sellers to hold your hand and tell you everything you need to know.  Sooner or later you will get bad advice, and it can have dire consequences for your business.  Do your own research.  Use google and other resources to find answers.  These groups should only be there for support and friendship, not to be your business babysitter.

Another important detail that I think needs to be addressed is sales consistency.  When you are growing your ebay business, you will see a steady increase in sales.  It feels good, you are making money and you see the potential.  But inevitably you will hit that barrier where sales all of a sudden dry up.  Nothing for a day or two, or just a trickle.  You start to panic, and you try anything you can think of (or worse, what others are telling you to do) for fear of failing.  This is the exact time NOT to panic!

Ebay selling is a roller coaster.  You will have up days, you will have down days.  All that matters is the final numbers at the end of the month.  I have had weeks where it seemed things just crawled.  Yet at the end of the week I had really done decent in sales.  You have to average things out.  If you don't, it will drive you crazy.  I still get frustrated when sales are slow, it's just our nature to do so.  But I remind myself (or friends do it for me) that it's a cycle.  It will end and sales will pick up once again.

Thousands of people make a good full time income selling on ebay.  You can be one of them, but you have to stay focused and motivated.  When things seem to be going the wrong direction, that is the time to really dig in and focus on your business.  Stay the course and push through.  Thousands of successful sellers do it every day and so can you.  Enjoy the freedom that selling offers you and don't sweat the small stuff.  You can be your own worst enemy in this business.  I know several sellers who have shot themselves in the foot because they lost their motivation and focus.

You can do this.  You just have to have the desire, drive and confidence.  It really is as simple as that.