Over the past eight years I have been buying and selling items on eBay for myself and, more recently, for small businesses. In that time I've learned a few tricks to help get maximum profit for items with just a few tweaks during the listing process. Here's a checklist to use when listing your items:

• List the item on Sunday
• Know the item you're listing
• Research what similar items have sold for
• Be honest with your description
• Be realistic with what you expect to get for it
• Avoid most eBay add-ons
• Get a good starting bid, avoid reserves, use Buy It Now
• List the item for maximum visibility
• Be as descriptive as possible
• Use quality photographs
• Explain any flaws
• Spell check
• Explain shipping & handling fees up front
• Create a disclaimer
• Reply to all questions in a timely manner
• Ship fast
• Use PayPal
• Promote your auction

List the Item on Sunday

Listing a standard seven day auction late Sunday afternoon into early evening will give you the best chance of a great auction selling price. More people are likely to be home and you will get the exposure of the remaining part of that day and the entire following Saturday. If you live on the east coast of the United States, list it somewhere between 6 and 9pm. This will give people on the west coast ample time to see it. Ideally, you want as many people to see it in the last few hours as possible, which is when most people make the decision to buy.

Know the Item You're Listing

Sounds silly, but many people don't know exactly what it is they are selling. Say for example you are selling a toy you bought for your toddler but they hate it. You threw out the box when you gave it to him, so you lost a lot of the information about it, what age group it was for, etc. Without that information, you cannot make a solid, descriptive auction. The information should be available on the manufactor website, so search for that. Likewise, if you are selling something like a handmade wood bowl that your grandfather gave you, list that it is a handmade item and that it is one of a kind (if it truly is).

Who doesn't want to make a little extra cash these days? The price of digital cameras is dropping on what seems to be a daily basis. Why not put yours to some use? For the past five years, I have been selling royalty-free stock photographs and will share my thoughts, ideas and concepts with you, along with some suggestions for getting started.

What is stock photography?

The Wikipedia entry for stock photography states:

Stock photography consists of existing photographs that can be licensed for specific uses. Book publishers, specialty publishers, magazines, advertising agencies, filmmakers, web designers, graphic artists, interior decor firms, corporate creative groups, and other entities utilize stock photography to fulfill the needs of their creative assignments. By using stock photography instead of hiring a photographer to perform on location shooting, customers can save valuable time and stay on budget.