How to buy the best laptop: Pick Your Specs

1. Choose the Right Size

Before you look at specs or pricing, you need to figure out just how portable you need your laptop to be. Laptops are usually categorized by their display sizes:

• 11 to 12 inches: The thinnest and lightest systems around have 11- to 12-inch screens and typically weigh 2.5 to 3.5 pounds,
• 13 to 14 inches: Provides the best balance of portability and usability, particularly if you get a laptop that weighs under 4 pounds.
• 15 inches: The most popular size, 15-inch laptops usually weigh 4.5 to 6.5 pounds. Consider this size if you want a larger screen and you're not planning to carry your notebook around often.
• 17 to 18 inches: If your laptop stays on your desk all day every day, a 17- or 18-inch system could provide you with the kind of processing power you need to play high-end games or do workstation-level productivity.

2. Check That Keyboard and Touchpad

The most impressive specs in the world don't mean diddly if the laptop you're shopping for doesn't have good ergonomics. If you plan to do a lot of work on your computer, make sure the keyboard offers solid tactile feedback, plenty of vertical travel (distance the key goes down when pressed, usually 1 to 2mm) and enough space between the keys.

Look for an accurate touchpad that doesn't give you a jumpy cursor and responds consistently to multitouch gestures such as pinch-to-zoom. If you're buying a business laptop, consider getting one with a pointing stick (aka nub) between the G and H keys so you can navigate around the desktop without lifting your fingers off the keyboard's home row.

3. Pick Your Specs

Notebook components such as processor, hard drive, RAM and graphics chip can confuse even notebook aficionados, so don't feel bad if spec sheets look like alphabet soup to you.

Here are the main components to keep an eye on.

• CPU: The "brains" of your computer, the processor has a huge influence on performance, but depending on what you want to do, even the least-expensive model may be good enough. Here's a rundown. 
  • Intel Core i5: If you're looking for a mainstream laptop with the best combination of price and performance, get one with an Intel Core i5 CPU. Models that end in U (ex: Core i5-7200U) are the most common.  Those with the a Y in the name are low power and have worse performance while models with an HQ offer four cores.
  • Intel Core i7: High-end performance for gaming rigs and workstations. Models with numbers that end in HQ or K use higher wattage and have four cores, allowing for even faster gaming and productivity. There are also Core i7 Y series chips that have lower power and performance.
  • Intel Core i3: Performance is just a step below Core i5 and so is the price. If you can possibly step up to a Core i5, we recommend it.
  • AMD A, FX or E Series: Found on low-cost laptops, AMD's processors -- the company calls them APUs rather than CPUs --  provide decent performance for the money that's good enough for web surfing, media viewing and productivity.
  • Intel Atom: Found on very low-cost laptops -- think $250 and under  -- Atom offers basic performance but more battery life than Celeron/Pentium.
  • Intel Pentium / Celeron: Common in sub $400 laptops, these chips are a little faster than Atom, but offer worse battery life. If you can pay more to get a Core i3 or i5, you'd be better off.
  • Intel Core m / Core i5 / i7 "Y Series" -- Low-power and low heat allow systems with these processors to go fanless. Performance is better than Celeron, but a notch below regular Core i5 U series.
• RAM: Some sub-$250 laptops come with only 2GB of RAM, but ideally you want at least 4GB on even a budget system and 8GB if you can spend just a little more. For most users, 16GB or more is overkill.
• Storage Drive (aka Hard Drive): Even more important than the speed of your CPU is the performance of your storage drive. If you can afford it and don't need a ton of internal storage, get a laptop with a solid state drive (SSD) rather than a hard drive, because you'll see at least three times the speed and a much faster laptop overall.
  Among SSDs, the newer PCIe x4 (aka NVME) units offer triple the speed of traditional SATA drives. Sub-$250 laptops use eMMC memory, which is technically solid-state but not faster than a mechanical hard drive.
• Display: The more pixels you have, the more content you can fit on-screen, and the sharper it will look. Most budget and mainstream laptops have 1366 x 768 displays, but if you can afford it, we recommend paying extra for a panel that runs at 1920 x 1080, also known as full HD or 1080p. Some higher-end laptops have screens that are 2560 x 1600, 3200 x 1800 or even 3840 x 2160, which all look sharp but consume more power, lowering your battery life.
  MORE: Why 78 Percent of Laptop Screens Suck
• Touch Screen: If you're buying a regular clamshell laptop, rather than a 2-in-1, you won't get much benefit from a touch screen and you will get 1 to 3 hours less battery life. On 2-in-1s, touch screens come standard.
• Graphics Chip: If you're not playing PC games, creating 3D objects or doing high-res video editing, an integrated graphics chip (one that shares system memory) will be fine. If you have any of the above needs, though, a discrete graphics processor from AMD or Nvidia is essential. As with CPUs, there are both high- and low-end graphics chips. Nvidia maintains a list of its graphics chips from low to high end, as does AMD.
• DVD/Blu-ray Drives. Few laptops come with optical drives, because all software and movies are downloadable. However, if you really need to read / write discs and your laptop of choice doesn't come with a built-in DVD drive, you can always buy an external one that connects via USB for under $20.

4. Don’t Skimp on Battery Life

If you're buying large, bulky notebook that you'll use only on a desk near an outlet, you don't have to worry about battery life. However, if you plan to use the laptop on your lap, even if it's at home and or work, you'll want at least 6 hours of endurance, with 8+ hours being ideal. To determine a notebook's expected battery life, don't take the manufacturer's word for it. Instead, read third-party results from objective sources, such as our reviews.

MORE: Laptops with the Longest Battery Life

5. Plan Based on Your Budget

These days, you can buy a usable laptop for under $200, but if you can budget more, you'll get a system with better build quality, stronger performance and a better display. Here's what you can get for each price range.

• $150 to $250: The least-expensive notebooks are either Chromebooks, which run Google's browser-centric OS, or low-end Windows systems with minimal storage and slower processors, such as the HP Stream 11 and the Lenovo Ideapad 100S. Use these as secondary computers only or give them to the kids.
• $350 to $600: For well under $600, you can get a notebook with an Intel Core i5 or AMD A8 CPU, 4 to 8GB of RAM, and a 500GB hard drive, all respectable specs. However, at this price, most notebooks don't have an SSD, a full-HD display or long battery life. There are a few noteable exceptions, such as the Asus VivoBook E403Sa and Lenovo ThinkPad 13.
• $600 to $900: As you get above $600, you'll start to see more premium designs, such as metal finishes. Manufacturers also start to add in other features as you climb the price ladder, including higher-resolution displays and SSDs.
• Above $900: At this price range, expect notebooks that are more portable, more powerful or both. Expect higher-resolution screens, faster processors and possibly discrete graphics. The lightest, longest-lasting ultraportables, like the Apple MacBook and the Dell XPS 13, tend to cost more than $1,000 (although you can get the Dell for less if you don't opt for a touch screen). High-end gaming systems and mobile workstations usually cost upward of $1,500 or even as much as $2,500 or $3,000.

MORE: Best Laptops Under $500

6.Mind the Brand

Your laptop is only as good as the company that stands behind it. Accurate and timely technical support is paramount, which is why Laptop Mag evaluates every major brand in our annual Tech Support Showdown. This past year Apple came in first place, followed by HP and Samsung.This past year Apple came in first place, followed by Microsoft and Samsung.

Support is only part of what makes a notebook brand worth your money. You also have to consider how the manufacturer stacks up to the competition in terms of design, value and selection, review performance and other criteria. In our 2015 Best and Worst Laptop Brands report, Apple placed first, followed by Dell and HP.

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3 Tips for Creating Sponsored Content That Engages Consumers

We’ve all heard the complaints and are well aware of the stigma in regards to sponsored content -- consumers don’t want to engage with these types of posts because they recognize they are seeing an ad. But is this really true? Does every consumer on the planet shy away from sponsored posts on social media and digital platforms because they know it’s an ad? Or maybe -- just maybe -- is the manner in which these sponsored posts are displayed what drives consumers away?

We recently completed a data study on Instagram to dig deeper into sponsored content vs. non-sponsored content engagement rates, including likes and comments, segregated out by follower count. Data shows that sponsored content, whether a social post, a blog or a video, is engaged with equally in comparison to non-sponsored content, when done the right away.

Here are three tips to boost your sponsored content and ensure you are getting the engagement from your consumers that you seek.

1. Unnatural product placement.

We’ve all seen these. You’re scrolling through the feed of one of your favorite influencers, looking at pictures of their everyday life, and then wham -- you are treated to a close up picture of 15 different protein bars and a caption saying how much the person loves them. While it may seem like a good idea to prominently feature the product, this is highly unnatural. Your consumer wants to see the product being used in the influencer’s element. If it’s a clothing item, wear it; if it’s a food or beverage, have it next to you while you’re doing some other activity. The idea is to make it feel less like an ad and more like an item that just happened to be captured in the photo.

2. Poor photography.

This feels like a no-brainer, yet it’s one of the most common mistakes made by brands and influencers within sponsored content. Whether you’re looking at a sponsored post or your friend’s latest Instagram picture, no one wants to stare at a blurry or poorly cropped photo where it’s difficult to determine what is going on. Whenever possible, utilize an HD camera to ensure the best visual quality you can. It’s also helpful to use a small tripod, especially when your arms aren’t long enough for that perfect selfie.

3. Text on photos.

Any time I see content with a text overlay, I assume it’s an ad or a meme. Again, you want your content to look natural -- don’t type over it in big white block letters with the product name. Keep your text limited to your caption, but don’t go overboard there either. Data also shows that utilizing too many hashtags makes a sponsored post feel spammy and results in decreased engagement.

When your sponsored content is not high quality content, you’ll see a significant decline in engagement, particularly in comments. When your sponsored post is of poor quality and just feels like an ad, your consumer is less likely to engage with it. But when your sponsored post is properly placed, doesn’t include too many tags, utilizes sharp photography, and feels organic and native, you have a content tool that is statistically proven to generate results for your brand.

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10 Free SEO Resources Every Marketer Should Use

Image credit: Shutterstock

What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

SEO is a marketing discipline focused on growing visibility in organic (non-paid) search engine results. SEO encompasses both the technical and creative elements required to improve rankings, drive traffic, and increase awareness in search engines. There are many aspects to SEO, from the words on your page to the way other sites link to you on the web. Sometimes SEO is simply a matter of making sure your site is structured in a way that search engines understand.

SEO is, at its core, a way to use technology to your advantage, and there are lots of technologies that exist to make that route easier and simpler to follow. Some of these exist as paid platforms, but there are plenty of free options for the frugal marketers and entrepreneurs of the world -- and they happen to be some of the best tools, regardless.

These 10 tools are free, easy to use, beneficial and available to everyone:

1. Google Analytics.

Google Analytics is the granddaddy of all free SEO tools -- and you can tell it’s good because it’s offered by Google itself. Completely free to manage dozens of different websites, all you have to do is install a custom generated analytics script on your site to start tracking tons of detailed information about your traffic, including where your traffic is coming from, the behavior it takes on site and even monetary factors like your conversion rates. It’s one of the best tools for figuring out how effective your campaign really is and ways you can improve in a number of different dimensions.

2. Google Webmaster Tools.

Google Webmaster Tools is a nice complement to Analytics, providing you with more in-depth and technical information about your site’s current performance (as well as recommendations for changes within the search console). With Webmaster Tools, you’ll get warnings if your site is down or broken, or if you’re in violation of any Google policies. You’ll also be able to access information like how Google is indexing your site and recommendations on onsite SEO factors like your title tags and meta descriptions if they aren’t in order.

3. Open Site Explorer.

Moz’s Open Site Explorer has a more specific function than analytics, specializing in the analysis of inbound link profiles. Sometimes professed as the “search engine for links,” Open Site Explorer exists to help you uncover and analyze all the links currently pointing to your site. This is incredibly valuable for determining your domain and page authority growth, as well as spying on competitors to determine what SEO tactics they’re using. It’s best used as a way to weed out bad links and identify your strongest potential paths for backlink development.

4. Google Keyword Planner.

Google’s Keyword Planner is meant for use with AdWords, but it works just fine for organic keyword research too. With it, you can generate tons of new ideas for target keywords and phrases, discovering information like search volume and competition level for your prospective targets.

5. Moz's Keyword Explorer.

While it is beneficial, Google’s Keyword Planner isn’t perfect. Moz’s Keyword Explorerattempts to bridge the gap with a number of extra keyword research tools, such as more accurate information about factors like search volume and more concrete recommendations for which keywords to go after.

6. BuzzSumo.

The free version of BuzzSumo doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of the full version, but it is worth using for your content strategy. Here, you can investigate the popularity of various content topics and discover influencers who can help support your campaign.

7. SEMRush.

Again, SEMRush has both a free and paid version, but the free version is still helpful. Here, you’ll be able to investigate your relative SEO positions and your competitors’ positions, guiding your tactics in more competitive directions. SimilarWeb deserves an honorable mention here for these capabilities as well.

8. QuickSprout.

QuickSprout offers the best free SEO audit tool on the web, so it deserves a place in this list. Use it to analyze your website’s SEO, traffic and competition metrics with the click of a button.

9. Spider View Simulator.

Google indexes sites in its search engine through the use of spiders, or web crawling bots that scour the Internet for information. These spiders can be directed in a number of ways, both positive and negative, to form an impression of your site. For example, they may skip over an entire section of your site if you accidentally block it. Spider View Simulator allows you to see your site the way a spider would, so you can identify and prevent these problems proactively.

10. SERPs Rank Checker.

Just a decade ago, search rankings were the number one indicator of SEO success, but thanks to Google updates like Panda and Hummingbird, keyword-based rankings aren’t quite as predictable, linear, or reliably valuable as they once were. Still, it’s helpful to see your ranking patterns for your target keywords over time, and since Google won’t offer you that information directly, your best bet is a tool like SERPs Rank Checker. Here, you can monitor your rankings for a number of keyword terms and phrases, and see how you stack up to the competition.

Together, these tools can help you plan, execute, measure, and refine your SEO strategy in easier and more productive ways. There’s a learning curve with most of them, to be sure, and not all of them are going to suit your brand or your personal preferences, but each of them has something unique to offer, and since they’re free to use, there’s no risk in trying them all out. Experiment with these tools to see how they can best fit into your strategy, then use them regularly for the best effects.

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Glossary – A Few Web Internet Marketing Terms

Some Internet Marketing Terms

It helps to know the jargon when you venture into new territory, like internet marketing.  To make the most of your online marketing strategies, familiarizing yourself with the terms in this list will help in your conversations and further research:

Above the fold:  Content and/or ads that appear on a page before a viewer needs to scroll.

B2B (business to business):  Companies and sites that market to other businesses.

B2C (business to consumer):  Companies and sites that market to individual customers.

Banner ad:  A graphic ad that links to the advertiser’s site.

Call to action:  A marketing technique that asks prospects to take a specific action.

Cookie:  Identifying code downloaded to recognize repeat visitors or track online activity.

Conversion rate:  The percent of site visitors who take a particular action or make a purchase, often called converting browsers to buyers.

CPC (cost per click):  Amount actually paid for a click-through to a site from an ad.

CPM (cost per thousand):  The advertising cost to reach 1,000 viewers or listeners; allows comparison among various advertising methods.

CTR (click-through rate):  The percent of people viewing an ad who click on it.

PPC (pay per click):  Payment method for online ads in which advertisers pay for each click-through, rather than by number of impressions or flat rate (see CPM).

ROI (return on investment):  The amount of money earned (or lost) as a percent of the amount invested.

SEO (search engine optimization):  The process of making a website search-engine-friendly to improve ranking in search results.

SEM (search engine marketing):  The combination of SEO with paid search marketing through PPC, paid inclusion, or paid appearance.

SERP (search engine results page):  Short for search engine results page, the Web page that a search engine returns with the results of its search

Social media:  Two-way communication channels online for networking, sharing news and views, contributing content, and soliciting comments from customers and prospects.

URL (uniform resource locator):  Address designating the location of information on the web; includes a registered domain name.

Widget:  Small application tool placed on a website to add value.

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How to Choose Good Clothes

Going clothes shopping can be difficult and confusing. Sometimes you head to a department store with an idea in mind, but once you get there you have no idea where to start. There are so many different styles, cuts, sizes, colors and brands that you may feel overwhelmed. Having an idea of what looks good on you will make choosing good clothes much easier.

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How to Figure Out Your Body Type
To figure out what type of body you have, stand in front of a full-length mirror. Imagine drawing a line around yourself on the glass. What shape is left behind? Most women are one of 4 common body types: pear, apple, hourglass or rectangle.
 
Your Body Type: Pear Shape
If you have a smaller bust and arms, a well-defined waist and tend to carry weight in your hips, butt and thighs, you're probably a pear shape. This body type is the most common, so it should be easier for you to find clothing that flatters your figure! When dressing for a pear-shaped body, you should try adding a bit more volume up top by choosing pieces that minimize your bottom half to help balance everything out.
 
What to Wear: Draw attention away from your extra-curvy lower body by highlighting what you've got from the waist, up. You can do this by choosing jeans and trousers that are darker in color, and pants with lower, thicker waistbands to help minimize your bottom. In order to visually add more weight to your bust, shoulders and arms, look for tops that are slightly A-line with details like stripes, polka dots and other eye-catching embellishments. A sweetheart neckline is also a good bet because it will enhance your bust, drawing the eye upward. Low-slung tunic tops are also great for pear shapes! These trendy tops minimize the look of wider hips. Scarves and belts are also good accessories for you, but make sure you wear them just below your natural waistline in order to create a look of more weight on top as well.  
 
What not to Wear: Pear shapes should avoid faded jeans as they bring more attention to the hips, waist and butt. Tops that cling to your body tightly may sound like a good idea since they accentuate your smaller top half, but they'll also make your bottom half look even bulkier--so skip them! You should also minimize any attention-grabbing details on your pants, like extra pockets and big prints. Pockets and busy patterns create the look of additional weight, which will result in your body looking disproportional.  

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Multiple Amazon Accounts

Review the below new notification send to numerous Amazon sellers in recent days.

Subject: Multiple Accounts Policy

Dear Seller,

Amazon’s policies prohibit a seller from operating or maintaining multiple accounts; however, we understand that in certain circumstances, sellers may need to own multiple accounts.

We would like to ask you a few questions:

Do you have multiple Amazon selling accounts?
Have you opened or operated more than one seller account in the past?
In addition to your seller account, do any other members of your household also have a seller account?
In order to protect your account, please reply to this email with the following information:

The email address(es) associated with each account you own
The email address(es) associated with each account owned by members of your household other than yourself
The reason(s) why you need each account
If you own just one account, have never owned more than one account in the past, and no one else in your household has or has had an account, please disregard this notice.
What You Should Do
Respond to Amazon truthfully, following their instructions. Indicate the dates you received the email from Seller Performance allowing a second account, if you have it.
If you have a dormant account that you have not used in a long time, terminate it. Then it will not show up as a related, and potentially active, account.
If you have an account that you opened to separate out different business entities, you need to ask yourself if you ever asked to get approval, and if Amazon properly annotated that account at the time. The only way to know or prove that Amazon actually annotated is to produce the email they sent you assuring you that they have done so. Anything else is just an assumption.
If you have family or friends or anyone signing in from your location, or even selling from the same house, provide Amazon with enough info to distinguish the accounts from each other. They can already see this in the tools, in most cases, and may be ready to act on it if they consider those account profiles to be too similar to each other.
Secondary accounts and accounts in the same household should not sell the same products if you want to stay off the radar. Best practice is to sell in different categories.
Don’t try to game the system by masking your sign-ins and don’t make excuses for why you are one of the sellers who can ignore the email.
The Right Way To Use Multiple Accounts
You need to specify “legitimate business reasons” for a separate account and email Seller Performance requesting approval.

You need to show a significant business need for separate operations of different businesses
What’s considered legitimate? You need to show a significant business need for separate operations of different businesses, or a need to separate inventory or accounting processes, and also demonstrate that the different businesses don’t share financial or tax ID information.

Amazon is interested in preventing unfair competitive advantage across all categories. Sharing inventory, suppliers, and locations or sign-ins won’t be a good idea if you have two accounts doing more or less the same work. Having a different bank account, a different name on the account, or different physical addresses is not enough. You must demonstrate entirely unrelated operations and an understandable reason why you need them to function apart from each other. Anything else will be thought of as an excuse and means extra work for them.

Make sure you have written confirmation that Amazon annotated your account with the approval. This is not something to contact Seller Support about. Note that they do not necessarily say in their message that previously approved and annotated accounts are exempt from this query.

If you have two or more accounts and can’t produce an email acknowledging and approving them, well, Amazon’s now very interested in what other accounts you operate, and why. They want to hear which ones you may have run in the past, even if you’re no longer using them.

They also want to know if your friends or family are running a business similar to yours, especially from the same location. They may someday want to know why you’re not following the overall policy if you aren’t producing the email approvals and legitimate business reasons for extra accounts.

Why Are They Doing This Now?
On the surface, this looks like a renewed interest in separating out who in what household operates which accounts, and why. Or, if you opened a second account for your own reasons and did not know they considered that against policy, here’s your chance to take action yourself before a warning comes in. I don’t think they are going to go after approved accounts, but they could be looking into which “legitimate business needs” are valid, and which are not.

Unapproved accounts could spell competitive advantage for sellers looking to game the system
Amazon wants control over who can have another account, instead of leaving it open to debate, discussion, and a seller’s own decision or judgment. This loophole existed years ago when I worked in Performance and Policy, and it stayed around right up until now. Amazon appears keen to find any unapproved accounts that could spell competitive advantage for sellers looking to game the system. They’re also looking to reduce unnecessary work reviewing extra accounts in the future.

In my time at Amazon, sellers often presented explanations without regard to whether or not their reasons presented them with an unfair advantage in their category, or in general. When I approved requests for second accounts, I made sure to annotate each one, stating the other account was OK’d. In the absence of that wording now, investigators may look over related accounts in the course of another investigation and conclude that the seller took it upon themselves to open one up for their own reasons.

If Seller Performance approved your request for another account, then you have a paper trail documenting that permission. Ostensibly, the reasons for that approval are clear in your account annotations. Is Amazon simply re-confirming that you still have a legitimate need for that extra account? Time will tell. Don’t forget, more accounts for you means more work for them. It takes Amazon time, but they eventually find time to clean up everything when it comes to policy violations.

Where Does that Leave You?
Think you can outwit the Amazon tools for detecting related accounts?

You can try that out, but if there are consequences later, embrace those as tightly as you have the effort to evade Amazon’s tools. Asking “how will they know?” has rarely worked long-term in the past. Don’t try it now, either.

Anyone with approved accounts established for valid business and legal reasons should have no problem providing email addresses and details about such accounts. Everyone else needs to decide what kind of risk they want to take heading into the peak holiday season with more than one account.

Accounts that were established to create a backup plan just in case you’re suspended do not belong in operation. Best to take the hint here and move it on out of existence. If you have orders to fulfill, by all means do so. But do not leave active listings up solely because no one has yet bothered you about running two accounts.

Found on: http://www.webretailer.com/lean-commerce/multiple-amazon-accounts/

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Buy from ebay but receive from amazon

Have you ever bought an item on eBay then received a package from Amazon, with a gift receipt inside?

Maybe you’ve come across DS Domination, or another site like it, promising to teach you how to run an automated ecommerce business?

Or if you’ve dug deeper you may have found tools for repricing eBay listings when prices change on Amazon, or even for automatically purchasing items from Amazon.

If you’ve encountered any of those, you’ve dipped a toe in the frankly murky world of “Amazon to eBay arbitrage”. In this post I’m going to explore it in depth. Yes, it’s dominated by get-rich-quick schemes, but that’s only part of the story. Beneath all that, there’s an interesting phenomenon going on, with innovative technology available and genuine businesses in operation.


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From Pocket Money to Spending Millions on Amazon
British scientist Ben Hovell started arbitrage selling on eBay in 2008. He bought an item on eBay, only to have it arrive in a box from Amazon.co.uk. Ben then discovered that the item was cheaper on Amazon than on eBay, and pieced together what had happened:

He purchased the item on eBay
The eBay seller purchased the item from Amazon, and entered Ben’s address for delivery
Amazon shipped the item
The eBay seller kept the difference
It’s important to understand that this isn’t Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) and the seller does not purchase the item in advance. The key is that the item is only bought from Amazon once a sale has been made on eBay. Amazon is effectively being used as a drop-shipper.

Having understood the basics, Ben decided to get into the arbitrage selling business himself:

Hard drives were very expensive at the time, so I listed ten on eBay and copied the prices from Amazon, with a bit added on. Then I sold one, which was wonderful. I sold another one a week later, which was wonderful again.
The next sale did not go as smoothly. The price had gone up on Amazon, and he lost money on the sale. Amazon actually makes millions of price changes every day, which creates a major challenge for arbitrage sellers. But Ben stuck with it, checking Amazon’s prices every morning and changing his price on eBay accordingly.

The next step was creating a piece of software to check Amazon prices three times a day and if they had changed, create an upload for eBay’s File Exchange system to update the prices. With this automation in place, Ben scaled up his business, and had hundreds of eBay listings running:

It had gone from a hobby to a little more serious. We are talking about £100 or £200 in profit per week. Not a living, but worth having. I realised my constraint on growth was twofold: one, I needed more eBay listings and two, I needed to update prices more frequently.
Next Ben commissioned more powerful software to check prices every hour, and found a company in India to outsource the work of writing eBay listings. Both constraints were resolved, and the business “just ballooned and ballooned.”

Sales were growing rapidly, and both eBay and PayPal fees started to go down thanks to volume discounts. By using an Amex credit card with cash-back, the Amazon purchase price was in effect lowered by 1.5%, reducing costs further. At this point Ben employed someone for 2 to 3 hours per day to place orders on Amazon – up to fifty a day – and was making tens of thousands of pounds in profit a year. He was spending millions of pounds on Amazon.

What did he sell? Anything and everything on Amazon’s bestsellers lists, as long as it was priced between £50 and £500. There was no other market research – listing was so cheap it just wasn’t worth refining it further. He’d list everything on eBay for the Amazon price plus a percentage and a fixed “fee”, a kind of commission for handling the transaction.

But then things changed:

It got increasingly difficult to buy. Amazon said “hey, this isn’t for personal use”, and stopped me from buying. I don’t know why it happened, there’s no dialogue there. There are ways to get around it but I decided that it wouldn’t last forever and went back to being a scientist. That was in 2012.
Ben’s style of arbitrage selling was based on high volumes, and clearly it can be profitable. With good software and outsourcing, it seems like he found internet marketing’s holy grail of a “passive income”. So what’s the catch?

It’s a zero-sum game with a race to the bottom. Not everyone can make money doing the same thing. But arbitrage selling will continue to exist as a niche, run by people with the willpower and programming knowledge to do it. It’s like trading on the stock exchange, which still has arbitrage with fast frequency transactions, and we still have arbitrage in the betting markets. It’s exactly the same game and will always be there. It just happens to be doing it with consumer goods.
Ben is now working on making his software public, and free, using Amazon affiliate links to generate an income from it. The service, which will be at huge-river.com, will be able to create new eBay listings based on Amazon products. It will then check Amazon every hour and update the eBay listing if the price changes, or end the listing if Amazon goes out of stock. It will work for eBay and Amazon US and UK.

End to End Automation
So arbitrage can work, providing high customer satisfaction and generating a profit, but is it a “real” business? Generating a large chunk of income from a personal cash-back credit card, while profitable, doesn’t seem like a great business foundation. And crucially, if you are not adding any value to the transaction then there’s nothing to stop a competitor doing exactly the same thing, and a price war will soon begin.

To find out more I spoke to Doug Feigelson of Zinc Technologies, who make a software tool called PriceYak.

PriceYak calls itself “the most advanced repricer for eBay”, but what it really specializes in is – you guessed it – Amazon to eBay arbitrage. It’s particularly interesting because it automates more of the arbitrage process than any other tool out there, to the best of my knowledge. This is what it can do:

Create eBay listings from Amazon products
Reprice eBay listings when Amazon prices change
Automatically order sold items from Amazon
Post tracking information back to eBay when the order is dispatched by Amazon
Automatic ordering from Amazon is the biggest deal here, because nobody else does it (a notable exception is an Amazon buying API provided by Segemai Technologies).

Doug was also an arbitrage seller himself before getting into the software side:

About six years ago I was selling a lot on eBay, and realised I could do arbitrage from Amazon to eBay. I was learning software and could automate a lot of it. The part I loved about it was writing the software, and the part I hated was customer support and calling eBay when there were problems with the account.
With 200,000 listings on eBay, and over 100 orders per day, Doug was the seventh-largest bookseller on eBay. He had automated buying from Amazon, while other arbitrage sellers were limited by the need to place orders manually. With ordering taken care of, Doug found customer support was making the biggest demand on his time. Many eBay sellers will be able to identify with time-consuming problems like wrongly classified returns, policy violations, selling restrictions, and long calls with eBay seller support.

Having moved on from selling to software, Doug works with many arbitrage sellers. I asked him about the perception of Amazon to eBay arbitrage today.

It’s a very legitimate way to run an eBay business. There’s a niche real business there, and a whole aura around it of Multi-Level Marketing (MLM), and people just trying to get rich selling the information. We really hate that. It’s really annoying and very noisy. There’s a lot of people out there who are not looking to do any work, but it’s a real business and you need to put real work into it.
In terms of strategy, PriceYak’s sellers fall into two main camps. One strategy is to have a relatively small number of listings, perhaps a few hundred, and work on the titles, photos and descriptions, creating original content such as detailed buying advice. “Those guys get a lot of sales on the few listings they have”, explained Doug.

Margins can be as high as 20% above the Amazon price, although around 8% is more typical. On average, PriceYak’s customers sell about 1% of their inventory a day, so a seller with 1,000 items on eBay might get around 10 orders a day.

Another strategy is to list as much as possible. eBay’s selling limits can be a real barrier here, as they restrict the number of active items for sale, and can only be increased once a month. Sellers following this strategy will compile a list of popular products, and create eBay listings in bulk using an automation tool. A lot of sales can result, but margins are smaller and there can be a high demand for customer support. Some high volume sellers only break even, and make a small profit from credit card rewards.

So what’s the future like for arbitrage sellers?

Nothing’s permanent. Everybody knows that the niches come and go. Maybe they have a product category where they’re doing very well, but that usually won’t last more than a couple years. It shifts around. That being said, none of the really serious sellers are scared of the people who buy a get-rich-quick video and dabble with it. Those people are generally not committed enough to be a threat. The most successful sellers are not necessarily the ones with the most experience or talent, they’re the ones with the most commitment – the ones who’ll wake up every day and answer the support questions without fail.
It’s the more committed sellers that PriceYak serves, and it’s staying firmly in the area of Amazon to eBay arbitrage selling. Recently they improved the speed at which eBay listings can be created, and also introduced a blacklist of brands who have made VeRO trademark infringement claims on eBay against their sellers – so future listings featuring that brand can be avoided.

PriceYak has three software engineers working for the company full-time. On their site it’s not clear at first glance about what the software does, but it’s well known on forums for arbitrage sellers.

Amazon to eBay Arbitrage Selling FAQs
Isn’t it unethical?
Opinions differ. This form of arbitrage is similar to drop shipping – ordering direct from a wholesaler, but only when a sale is made. Like drop shipping, no stock is held by the seller. Drop shipping is well-established, widespread, and used by many well-known retailers, particularly for bulky and expensive items. Nobody thinks drop shipping is unethical.

But the key differences are that Amazon is a retailer anyone can buy from, and the arbitrage seller does not tell the buyer they will simply purchase the item from Amazon on their behalf. That’s what puts this type of selling in an ethical grey area.

Of course, you can argue that there’s nothing stopping the buyer from checking the price on Amazon themselves, and that’s true. And there’s no obligation on sellers to say if a better price is available elsewhere – it would be absurd to expect that.

Still, even with all the rational arguments going in its favour, Amazon to eBay arbitrage has an air of injustice about it. It’s so far removed from the way people expect a retailer to operate, that I doubt it will ever be seen by everyone as an honourable way to do business.

Don’t eBay buyers get upset when they receive their order from Amazon?
Yes, sometimes, but it doesn’t happen very often. In fact it’s surprisingly rare. Some arbitrage sellers refund the difference if a buyer complains, which normally prevents negative feedback and can be built into the cost of doing business.

One seller who uses this model, the_book_i_want, is a Top Rated Seller on eBay with 99.8% positive feedback. While they do have negative feedback from buyers who were boycotting Amazon, or felt cheated because they could have paid less, as a percentage of their total feedback it is very low.

Why don’t people buy from Amazon if it’s cheaper?
Most of the time, they just don’t look. There are many different buying habits, and checking prices on both eBay and Amazon isn’t all that common. Some will go direct to eBay, believing it will always have the best price. Others might compare prices, but a comparison between a high street store and eBay, for example, may favour eBay even if the product is actually sourced from Amazon and marked up.

Another possibility is that eBay’s Global Shipping Program makes a product available to an international buyer who is either not able to buy directly from Amazon, or who finds Amazon shipping to be prohibitively expensive. The buyer may know that the item is cheaper on Amazon but still choose to buy on eBay. The seller then arranges for shipping from Amazon to eBay’s domestic warehouse, and leaves it for eBay to arrange shipping to the buyer abroad. That’s how the Global Shipping Program works.

And finally, a buyer with a balance in their PayPal account (from the auction of unwanted gifts or hobby items, for example) may choose to buy on eBay to make use of their balance. While it’s more rational to withdraw the money then buy from the cheapest retailer, it might be more satisfying to spend the balance directly.

Won’t sellers get banned if they cancel orders?
Yes, if sellers cancel too many orders then eBay will limit their sales or even ban them completely. Using a repricer specifically designed for Amazon to eBay arbitrage addresses the risk of price changes happening before the sale is made. Once an item has sold the price is fixed, but there remains the risk of price changes on Amazon until the order is placed there.

Arbitrage sellers need to avoid order defects like any other eBay seller, so some will take a loss if Amazon prices go up before they place their order. Others will cancel the sale, and risk being penalized. Flawless automation of changes to price and availability, and automatic ordering, are the only way to mitigate the risk completely.

Don’t the description and photos belong to Amazon?
Yes, they might. Or possibly the first seller to list that particular product on Amazon, if they took their own photos. To avoid complaints, some arbitrage sellers write their own descriptions, and source photos that can be used more freely, such as the manufacturer’s.

Arbitrage sellers are unlikely to take their own photos, as they rarely handle the items themselves.

The Future of Arbitrage Selling?
Amazon to eBay arbitrage is much more common than most people think. Sellers who do it don’t advertise the fact, so they are difficult to identify. Perhaps they have feedback that mentions receiving a package from Amazon, or use Amazon images directly in their eBay description, but very few buyers would notice either.

But there is a bigger concept to arbitrage selling than just buying from Amazon and selling on eBay. Whenever there is a sufficient gap between the price that buyers will pay, and the price that a retailer will sell at, arbitrage becomes possible. Sometimes this will be in cross-border selling, with products that are expensive or unavailable in the buyer’s country. A listing on their local eBay site, in their own language, will make the product seem much more accessible.

Consider also that the source of products doesn’t have to be Amazon, and the target marketplace doesn’t have to be eBay. A seller could list on New Zealand’s TradeMe or Poland’s Allegro, but source products from Nordstrom or Walmart in the US. A forwarding service can handle international shipping if it’s not offered (or too expensive) direct from the retailer. Zinc Technologies already provides a flexible buying API with support for several different retailers, making it easy to automate the ordering part of the process.

Today, most would agree that Amazon to eBay arbitrage is a covert practice – those who do it certainly do not shout about it. But perhaps, in a few years’ time, we’ll see a world where every product, from every retailer, anywhere in the world, is available on every marketplace.

In that world, with all products available everywhere at a competitive price, exorbitant local prices will become impossible. All thanks to arbitrage sellers, once dismissed as shady middlemen, adding grease to the wheels of international ecommerce.

Found on: http://www.webretailer.com/lean-commerce/amazon-to-ebay-arbitrage/#/

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