First things first - set up accounts

First things first. When you start to sell on eBay you need some basics: an eBay account, an email account, and a Paypal account.

You probably have bought some things on eBay so you have an account with some feedback. That is good since people will be more likely to trust you if you have some positive feedback.

A separate email account is not required but it does keep things sorted out for you. Your ISP probably offers you multiple accounts or you can go to http://www.Yahoo.com or http://gmail.google.com/ to get a free email account.

Paypal is essential to sell on eBay. It's the only method I use for Payment and with a Premier account I can accept credit cards, checks or direct transfers from bank accounts. People who use eBay are used to using Paypal. Becoming Paypal Verified puts another level of trust out there for your customers.

A digital camera is pretty necessary to get the photos you need without spending a fortune. You also need to get a photo editing program. EBay University recommended Irfanview which is a free download at: http://www.irfanview.com/

he other thing they recommended at eBay University is Notepad for lots of things, even creating listings because it adds no formatting or other characters. I store all kinds of things there, html cheet sheets, listings I am likely to modify and reuse, backgrounds in html format, lists of book titles, wording I may want to paste into a listing, etc.

To use: click start, all programs, accessories and notepad should be in the drop down. If you can't find it there you can search for it from the start button and then double click the result that shows as an application.

To work with Notepad, once you open it, just type in the small window. I like to check word wrap under the format drop down so it doesn't run off the page. I have a shortcut on my desktop too since I use it pretty much every day.

It's very handy and doesn't close when you get one of those horrible "Microsoft has encountered an error and needs to close" messages that make me want to scream.