Teaching Others To Sell on eBay

By: Skip McGrath ©2007

Many of my readers are new to eBay, but I have plenty of readers who are experienced PowerSellers and have lots of knowledge to share with others. I get calls all the time from people asking if they can buy a few hours of my time to teach them to sell on eBay. I would love to help these people –and some of them have offered me over $100 an hour to work with them, but the truth is I just don’t have the time. Between our eBay businesses –we sell and deliver about 100 items a week. With that plus my newsletter, writing books, posting to my blog and writing articles to keep fresh content on the web site, I just don’t have the time.

I have, however, found time to put on a few small local seminars and once taught a class at my local community college and a local senior center. Although I don’t have time to do this very often, I have found it both enjoyable and profitable.

This article is not aimed at people who want to make a full-time living teaching others to sell on eBay, but as you will see this is a great way to make some extra money and to supplement your eBay business.

You don’t have to be a master presentation expert or great public speaker in order to teach others. If you are reasonably comfortable speaking in front of a group and can create a presentation that is organized and logical you will be surprised at how easy it is.

The real trick is knowing your material. A few times in my life I have tried to give a presentation where I tried to wing it. The results were predictable. There is no substitute for study, organization and preparation.

OK – so you know how to sell on eBay, but where can you get the materials to teach with. This isn’t as hard as it sounds. You can of course create power point slides and handout materials, but there are some other ways.

You might want to look into becoming an eBay Certified Education Specialist. This is an excellent, highly organized program that offers both a curriculum and materials to teach. There is one major drawback to this program that I will cover below, but it is worth taking whether you are going to use their materials or not.

Here is what eBay says about the program:

1. Sign up to become an Education Specialist trained by eBay to teach "The Basics of Selling on eBay" curriculum.
2. Receive "The Basics of Selling on eBay" Welcome Package including instructor manual, one Student Manual (Adobe Reader Req.) and Instructor Presentation CD.
3. Take the online course and learn how to teach "The Basics of Selling on eBay".
4. Complete the course and receive your certificate, the official "Education Specialist trained by eBay" logo along with additional resources.
5. List your classes in the Education Specialist online directory.
6. Be eligible to participate in other curriculum such as Beyond the Basics and the Buying Course as well as additional services such as the Business Consultant Program - when certain conditions and criteria are met.

Now I did mention that there was a downside to the program. Very simply, eBay says that since they are teaching you how to sell on eBay and you get to use their materials, logo and other resources, then you can’t use any other materials, recommend other websites or services and so on. Here is eBay’s policy:

The title “Education Specialist trained by eBay” may only be used when You are using the content and curriculum that is provided in this program and that You are authorized to teach.

This may or may not be a drawback for you. In my case, I can’t use the educational specialist name, logo or material because I prefer to use my own books and materials and refer my students to various third-party sources for goods, services and materials that are not part of the Education Specialist materials.

But, even though, you may not want to teach using eBay’s materials, you might still want to take the course so you get a good grounding in how to teach an organized class. Just be careful if you develop your own material, not to plagiarize any of eBay’s materials. You will have to create your own or get them somewhere else.

The other drawback is cost. eBay charges $149 for the basic program and $49 year to remain in good standing. This is not that much. The material is excellent and if you want to teach you can easily make this back in a short time.

How Can I Make Money Teaching Others About eBay?

There are several business models. One that I have used successfully is to offer a free class and then sell my books and materials. I did a two-hour introductory seminar at my local library a few months ago and sold several hundred dollars worth of my books at the end.

Another model is to give a short free-seminar or class at your local library, community center or senior center and then invite people to pay for a longer seminar (all day) or a series of classes. You don’t really have to charge that much to make some pretty good money. If you got ten people to pay you $99 for an all-day seminar you would make almost $1000 for a single day’s work. Do this once a month and that is some very nice extra money.

Another model I have seen comes from people who own eBay Drop Off stores. These folks make money by selling products for people on consignment, but they also make money putting on classes in their store one or two evenings a week. The income from teaching the classes helps pay the overhead for their store.

If you would like to start teaching others how to buy and sell on eBay and need some materials, I also sell my instruction manuals wholesale to people teaching classes. For example you can purchase my New Basic Sellers Guide to eBay for 50% off of the $19.95 cover price if you purchase in lots of ten. This book has been used this way by a number of teachers.

Once they complete the class you can offer your students the opportunity to buy The Complete eBay Marketing System for $97. If you purchase at least ten copies up front I will also give these to you at 50% off (+ shipping at cost). Or if you don’t think you can sell at least ten, you could set up a link and have your students order them online through my affiliate program, which would pay you a 40% commission on each sale.

Another way to make money is with the eBay affiliate program. If your students sign up to sell on eBay through your eBay affiliate link, eBay will pay you commissions on a percentage of their sales. You can get more information and sign up for the eBay affiliate program here.

So there you have it. You can start sharing your knowledge for fun and profit.