Stay motivated even when things are rough!
Let’s face it, some aspects of selling on eBay can and will become monotonous over time. Some of the likely candidates of monotony induced boredom include: listing new items and order processing/shipping. You will be listings dozens, hundreds or maybe even thousands of items for sale on eBay. Each item will only differ in title, description and photo. You will also be shipping dozen, hundreds or thousands of items. Each of those packages needs the item and a shipping label. Wash, rinse and repeat.
Unfortunately, I don’t have a magic bullet cure for monotony. I do have three tips that may assist your battle of managing the stress of repetition and the daily grind.
1. Find appealing (but not TOO appealing) background noise
Your eBay background noise could be: television, movies, radio, music, books on tape–whatever floats your boat. Choose something that you like, but not something that you love. What’s the difference? If watching Game of Thrones demands your full attention and you find yourself hanging onto every word of dialogue (and every decapitation), then Game of Thrones is not good eBay background noise for you.
Also remember that you require background noise, not background picture. Foreign language films with subtitles or silent movies demand a lot of reading and visual attention. Even some modern English movies like WALL-E or Gravity are primarily visual. Your visual attention needs to be focused on listing or packing your eBay orders. Sorry adorable Pixar CGI robots, French New Wave Cinema (unless you are fully fluent in French!), and most Charlie Chaplin films. None of you are good candidates for background noise!
Try checking your local library for movies or television shows on DVD. DVD rental from the library is often inexpensive or sometimes even free. Some alternatives to library include: Netflix, Red Box, or Amazon Prime.
Make sure you are maintaining your accuracy. If you find the quality of your work on eBay declining in accuracy, switch to a different form of background noise. If switching to another form of background noise still doesn’t help, the you might just need to work in silence. Your orders and their accuracy should always comes first
2. Set Goals and Stick to Them
Setting goals is especially a good idea when it come to making new listings. Make a goal for the number of items you want to list each day. For example, tell yourself you want to create five new listings each weekday. Make a realistic goal that you can stick with. You can always increase goal number later if you’re reaching your goal easily.
3. Make a Schedule and Stick to It
Set aside some eBay time each day. Either keep a regular schedule (e.g. 6-7am every weekday before you take the kids to school) or block off time during the day whenever you find a spare hour or two. Just make sure to allow adequate time for you to get everything done. Most of your eBay time will be spent packing/shipping orders and listing new items. If you’re a relative new seller, listing, packing and shipping will take your longer than seasoned veterans. Why? Because you’re new at this. When you’re still figuring out how things work you are slower.
In addition to listing, packing and shipping, you will also occasionally need to field questions from buyers and even put out a few fires. Problems shouldn’t happen very often, but when problems do arise they can eat more time that you might expect. Reading and responding to messages between you and buyer can easily swallow up hours of your time. Be patient even if you feel like pulling your hair out and remember to ALWAYS stay polite and professional. Problems can be your fault, the buyers fault, the post office’s fault, mother nature’s fault, etc. Frankly, sometimes it doesn’t matter who’s at fault. Just fix the problems as best as you can and treat the buyer with respect even if the buyer is being rude to you. Ninety nine percent of buyers send reasonable and respectful messages. Yes, that one percent is out there. Sorry. All you can do is smile and fight rudeness with kindness and professionalism.
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Selling on eBay, like anything, can become a daily grind. Using background noise, setting reasonable goals and keeping semi-strict schedules can help keep sellers on track and motivated to take on the world of eBay!