Lesson 1: It´s HammerTime!

Ready to take your eBay sales to a whole new level? Now that you have the most comprehensive eBay research tool available, along with thousands of your competitors´ mistakes and successes and this 10-lesson course, you are ready to power up your auctions!

Hi, I´m Steve Nye, and as an eBay Certified Consultant, I am really excited about teaching you how to use HammerTap to get what you need out of your eBay auctions. My goal is to help you succeed using HammerTap, so please let me know if I can be of any assistance to you. Simply drop me an e-mail.

This symbol in the lesson means that I have a nifty research tip or important insight for you. Often in these tips, I will also point you to other resources that will help you become a more powerful seller. Many of these resources are companies we have partnered with in an effort to bring you all the tools, education and support you need to be successful on eBay. We trust these companies because they focus on our primary goal—providing you with the education and support to be successful.

Let´s get started, cause it´s HammerTime!

This Course

During this 10-lesson course, you will get up close and personal with HammerTap and in the end, will be an eBay PowerBroker. What´s a PowerBroker? A PowerBroker is an expert at using a competitor´s wins and losses to identify specific ways to make more money on every listing. The best way to learn how to get the most out of HammerTap is to complete this course, and don´t worry, we´ll have a lot of fun too!

You will receive these lessons in your e-mail every Tuesday and Saturday, or at the end of the lesson you can click the link to advance to the next lesson. (That´s what I did. I sat down for about two hours and when I was through, I really knew my stuff!)

Some other great educational resources are available in our online education center.

Meet HammerTap

In a nutshell, HammerTap lets you look at a group of closed eBay listings to discover:

• Whether a product will sell and for how much
• Ways to increase a listing´s chances of selling
• Ways to boost your profits on each listing
• Market trends for your specific product
• The size of the market and your specific competition

I know what you´re thinking. This is all really great, but how does it work? HammerTap uses licensed data directly from eBay to research market information on your specific product, a category or a specific seller. This takes out all the guesswork for you as you create your listings.

Let´s take a brief tour.

When you first open HammerTap, a welcome screen opens, giving you resources for education, support and partner companies.

The top navigation bar allows you to select which type of search you wish to perform: product, category, or seller, all of which will be covered in the next lesson.

Once you perform a search, five result windows open, which will also be discussed throughout this course.

Here, you´ll discover everything you need to decide what to sell, to increase your selling success, and to maximize your profits. It´s just a matter of understanding which questions you need to ask and where to find the answers.

In the next 30 days, you´ll learn the answers to these questions, and more, for your eBay listings:

• What auction type should I use?
• Which ending day will bring me the greatest success and profit?
• How long should my listing duration be?
• What starting price will create a bidding frenzy?
• What keywords should I use in my titles to hook buyers?
• What listing features will work, and which ones can I live without?
• Which category will give my listing the greatest amount of exposure?
• And much more!

I look forward to plunging into our next lesson, and getting started on answers to some of these questions. Until then, please complete the following quick assignment.

Assignment #1: Check out your resources

For this assignment, I want you to become familiar with the resources available to help you get the power to profit. Check out the following resources:

• The HammerTap Auctionography: This weekly newsletter, which will be e-mailed to you on Mondays, will give you the latest ways to use eBay research to your fullest potential.
• The Seller´s Resource: From product sourcing to eBay authors, this gives you a wide array of resources for all of your eBay needs.
• Webinars and Workshops: Join us for live research training and monthly eBay Community workshops.
• HammerTap Community: Check out the latest in research news and events within the eBay marketplace.

CONGRATULATIONS! You´ve completed Lesson 1. Have questions? Our support team is standing by to assist you.

Look for Lesson 2 in your inbox in a day or two. Or, if you can´t wait, move forward to Lesson 2 right now.

Or, return to Power to Profit Tutorial Home Page