Parts of Plants Worksheet	Plant Life Worksheet
Plant Life Cycle Sequence	Plant Life Mini Book

You might also like these printable worm alphabet letters or these easy tissue paper flowers, too!

Teach Your Kids Where Their Food Comes From

When I started writing for Classroom Jr., I asked some of my teacher and homeschooler friends what types of things would be most useful for them.  One of the responses I got was that because budgets are so tight, it’s pretty hard to find science experiments that are both accessible and affordable.  That’s exactly why one of my very first posts was Six Inexpensive Science Experiments for Kids (And Where to Find More).

So, now wherever I travel around the web, I always keep my eyes open for new ideas that fit in with this need.  While surfing Pinterest recently—I’ve also written about possibilities there with 3 Creative Ways Teachers Can Use Pinterest—I came across this super easy idea that I never would have even realized was possible.  Talk about a totally simple science lesson that using things you already have on hand!

Related Pages: Plant Life Worksheets, Toddler Friendly Gardening

Teach Your Kids Where Their Food Comes From

Sprouting various foods in the kitchen has a few practical applications from an educational standpoint.  Obviously, you can teach about the life cycle of the plant as it goes from seed to sprout to plant to bloom and back to seed.  It can be a great additional lesson when studying the seasons, as each aspect of the plant’s cycle is often correlates to the seasons and weather.  Finally, I love the idea of kids learning first-hand where their food comes from, beyond the obvious answer of “the grocery store!”

I was surprised to learn just how many things you can sprout and grow.  I don’t know why it hadn’t occurred to me that you could grow bean plants, for instance, but I just never would have expected they would even sprout!  I found lots of suggestions in this Martha Stewart post, of all things.  In addition to beans, they also recommended trying:

• Lentils
• Root vegetables
• Fruit seeds
• Spices (caraway seeds, mustard, etc.)

You can also use a variety of things you already have around the house for sprouting your seeds.  Some suggestions include discarded jars, clear canisters, egg cartons, pie plates, and even an aquarium.  Some will just need a moist paper towel in order to sprout, while others will do better with soil or perhaps a dish full of moist gravel.

If you want to take things to the next level and augment a lesson about agriculture, why not actually grow and eat food in your kitchen.  Consider different kinds of sprouts to add to sandwiches and salads, for example, such as alfalfa, broccoli, and peas.  Of course, herbs make a great window or even counter-top garden, as well.  You might have to specifically purchase seeds for these projects rather than using dried beans from the cupboard or caraway seeds from the spice rack, but it does make for a great science experiment.

Toddler Friendly Gardening

3 years ago, I never would have believed that I would have a child and that BABY would have her own garden.  Parenting is eye opening in so many ways and this Spring, I learned that my 2.5 year old can handle her own garden!

Related Pages: Make Garden Markers, Bird Feeder Craft, Kids Stick Crafts

Whether you have 10 acres or only a back patio, you easily create a TODDLER GARDEN.

My top choice for a toddler’s first crop:  POTATOES!

Potato Plant in Our Garden

Potatoes are hardy, plentiful and practically foolproof!  They grow quickly and can be harvested early (“new”potatoes) or left in the ground for larger potatoes.  This way, you child can provide food for the family over a longer period of time and let’s face it, potatoes are DELICIOUS!

Kids’ Gardening Materials & Techniques:

• Seed potatoes
• Now a quick note on potato seedlings.  For the simplest & cheapest toddler garden, you can use any ole potato growing a sprout.  HOWEVER, it is best to use disease free, certified seed potatoes bought from a garden supply store.  Using grocery potatoes or saving potatoes from last year’s crop will likely weaken the plants every year through easily transmitted plant diseases.  With that said, a few potatoes in a corner probably won’t hurt anything!  There’s a reason people call  me the “Lazy Green Mama”:)
•  Garden area:  either a small, sunny spot of open ground or a large barrel
• If using a barrel or large bucket: (ask for discarded food-grade buckets from your local bakery/deli!)
• Drill a few holes in the bottom and along bottom sides for drainage
• Place 2”of gravel in the bottom for drainage
• Top with about 6”of dirt
• If planting in the ground, it is recommended to plant potatoes in a long trench and back fill with the dirt as the plants grow.

Adding dirt as the potato grows

• Plant the potatoes with the sprout pointing UP.  Cover with a few inches of dirt and water gently (ahem…maybe your child can handle this…mine, not so much!)!  Place in direct sun and water about every other day.
• Fortunately, potato plants have large green foliage, so it should be easy for your toddler to identify weeds and gently pull them out of the dirt.
• As the plants grow, you can either harvest your small potatoes or keep covering the plant with soil to encourage more growth!
• Once your plant is about 5”tall, add more soil so that only the tip is showing.  Continue this until the plant yellows and wilts… time to harvest!

Adding even more dirt as the plant grows

• Small watering can
• We like to give our toddler a large bucket filled with water so that she can fill her watering can by herself.  Remember to never leave your child unattended around water!

Potato watering and trampling (Editor's note: Dogs are good at trampling, too!!)

• Small hand shovel (however our child prefers to use her hands for planting and weeding!)
• We prefer to give our toddler REAL tools whenever possible.  There are a lot of great resources for child sized real tools (check any montessori supply company)
• Sandbox shovels also work great

 Other great FIRST crops that are easy for toddlers and kids to grow in their garden:

• Strawberries
• Cherry tomatoes
• Lettuce

Please leave a comment sharing your toddler garden plans, triumphs and mishaps!  We’re in this together :)

Disney / Pixar's Brave Coming Soon in June 2012

I have yet to take my four-year-old to a movie in a theatre, but this may very well be the one that makes it happen.  Disney/Pixar is releasing Brave at the end of June, and it looks like it’s going to be a good one.  Just the visuals alone have been enough to suck me in, and I’m pretty much smitten with the red-haired heroine of this female-centered story.  I hear it’s supposed to be a bit dark—more in line with old-school fairy tales, though—so I’ll probably have to see it first to determine if it’s suitable for my little one.

Related Page: Brave Coloring Pages

The main character, Merida, is a princess by birth, but is much more interested in archery and being outdoors than she is in courtly customs.  Unlike your typical Disney princess, Merida seems pretty darn human, with a temper that gets her into trouble and courage that (we can pretty safely assume) gets her back out.  She ends up unleashing a curse on the kingdom, and it is up to her to be brave enough to do what she needs to do in order to stop it.

The movie is set in Scotland and is based on the fairy tale The Bear and the Bow.  Judging by the cast list and previews, we should be treated to some fun accents and great voice acting.  Merida was originally supposed to be voiced by U.S. actress Reese Witherspoon, but when she had to turn it down, the role was filled by Scottish Kelly Macdonald.  This is Pixar’s first movie with a female protagonist, which is enough of a buzz in and of itself.  If it lives up to amazing Pixar predecessors like Finding Nemo; Monsters, Inc; or Wall-E (all of which are massive favorites around our house), it has the potential to become one of those “instant classics” that every movie hopes to be.

The screenplay was written by Branda Chapman and Irene Mecchi, and Chapman was the original director until being replaced by Mark Andrews.  It was executive produced by Pixar staple John Lasseter.  The cast includes:

Kelly Macdonald as Princess Merida

Emma Thompson and Queen Elinor

Kevin McKidd as Lord MacGuffin/Young MacGuffin

Robbie Coltrane as Lord Dingwall

Billy Connolly as King Fergus

Craig Ferguson as Lord Macintosh

Julie Walters as Wise Woman

A beach theme is just one approach to take with your nature observation basket.

I loved this nature basket idea from Pink and Green Mama so much that not only did we set one up at our house, but we even expounded on it.  This is a great way to bring some nature into the classroom, as well as to practice those observation skills that are so important for science fundamentals.

Related Pages: Kids Beach Crafts, Fall Leaf Crafts, Stick Crafts

The basic idea is to have a specific basket into which you put a variety of nature-related items, along with a magnifying glass.  There’s pretty much no limit to what you might want to include.

• Leaves
• Pine cones
• Acrons
• Rocks
• Sand
• Feathers
• Etc.

The idea originally captured my attention because of her inclusion of seashells.  We recently returned from a trip to Florida, and our kitchen window is now lined with shells.  How great would it be to put them all in the basket and then encourage my daughter to really check them out?  She was able to get a close-up view of the tube feet on one starfish, as well as to compare the totally different appearances of two different species.

Comparing and contrasting seashells.

We’ve been working a lot on observing what is “similar” and what is “different” about objects, so this really reinforced that idea.  If you are teaching older kids, this is the perfect opportunity to introduce them to keeping observation journals to practice for upcoming science experiments.

To take the whole idea to the next level, we’ve decided to make the “nature basket” a permanent fixture, and I occasionally swap out the items during the night and refill it with new objects that revolve around a particular theme.  For example, we’ve just started some seeds for a small garden, so I filled the basket with a variety of items that teach about the growth cycle of plants.

Soil, seeds, roots, and flowers in our nature observation basket.

Checking out root systems and comparing lupine and coriander seeds.

This would be a great center to add to the classroom, giving students a chance to quietly explore while honing their observation skills.

Oh, and along the same lines, that same blog also has a great suggestion for a bird watching basket.

The Potential Role of Ebooks in the Classroom

The Digital Classroom Infographic

I will admit that I’m kind of a sucker for a well-put-together info graphic, and when I came across this one on the digital classroom, I just knew it should be shared on Classroom Jr.  I love my Kindle for many reasons, not the least of which is that it makes it a lot easier to read a book one-handed while nursing a baby.  Once I got the Kindle app for my phone, I found that I read even more books because I never forgot to bring my phone, even if I did forget to throw a book in my purse.

But, I’ve often wondered what ebooks mean for education.  How does it work when you can’t flip back through the pages to find what you’re looking for or if you can’t take notes in the margins?  I suspect, though, that my reservations are just a result of the fact that I grew up doing it a different way, and kids who were accustomed to ebooks wouldn’t find it strange at all.

Print Textbooks vs E-Textbooks

This infographic points out a lot of advantages of the electronic versions over their print counterparts.  For example:

• Ebooks cost considerably less (this could be huge for school districts, homeschoolers, and college students alike)
• Ebooks don’t take up physical space and aren’t heavy to carry
• Ebooks don’t use the same environmental resources that print books do

The infographic goes on to compare two of the most popular e-readers: the iPad and the Kindle Fire.  The Kindle seems to come out ahead as an e-reader, but you might want to take into consideration the fact that the iPad might have other functions that could also serve the student well in educational endeavors.  iBooks2 and Ibooks Author from Apple also offer some pretty interesting options for making the electronic testbook far more interactive than the traditional style.  It also allows professors to make far more affordable copies of their own textbooks than was previously possible with photocopying their own copyrighted works.

The final section of the infographic provides a really interesting look into “how classrooms are changing” in the digital age.  It mentions things like the use of projectors and tablets by the teachers, but also looks at how students can access information digitally and work collaboratively.

While this is certainly a basic overview of how ebooks can play a role in the modern classroom, it most definitely provides some food for thought for educators.  Technology continues to advance, we will watch as more and more of the things that we now consider novel or cutting age simply become integrated necessities in the typical classroom.

Easy, healthy, and fun snack that kids can help make.

In case you haven’t noticed yet, I’m pretty much addicted to Pinterest, and if you’re into crafting, you probably already know why.  A friend recently pinned a version of frozen yogurt dots from One Good Thing By Jillee.  I thought they looked awesome, and decided to make it a bit more of a “craft” rather than just a recipe; and this is what we ended up with.

Related Pages: Fruit and Cheese Kebabs, 20 Easy Summer Recipes Kids Will Love, Watermelon Recipes

What You Need to Make Yogurt “Dippin’ Dots” In the Freezer

• Yogurt
• Bananas
• Food coloring (optional, especially if you use fruit or berry yogurt)
• Plastic zip bags
• Cookie sheet
• Freezer

Ingredients for the yogurt dot freezer recipe.

Put about one half cup of yogurt, one half a sliced banana, and three drops of food coloring in a zip bag.

Let your little ones have fun squishing it all together. It's fun to see how different colors mix together and to get the bananas nice and squished.

Use your scissors to cut a small corner off the bag and use it to "pipe" the mixture onto the cookie sheet in quarter-sized blobs.

Put the cookies sheet into the freezer and let the yogurt dots set up for a couple of hours before removing them with a spatula.

Store them in an airtight container in the freezer. They melt pretty quickly in little fingers, so I just take out enough for a snack and leave the rest of the container in the freezer. Super yummy and fun to eat!

What I Learned the Hard Way:

#1. You really, really have to squish the bananas or else the chunks will be too big to fit through the hole when you’re piping the mixture onto the cookies sheet.

#2. If you used cheap plastic bags, they will probably leak.

But cleanup is so tasty!

Julia Roberts and Lily Collins in Mirror, Mirror

Mirror, Mirror stars Julia Roberts as the Evil Queen and Lily Collins as Snow White.

The Queen keeps Snow White captive in the castle after Snow White’s father has disappeared and is assumed to be dead. She is, of course, jealous of Snow White’s beauty and she has driven the kingdom into poverty proving she is the fairies of them all. Snow White discovers that the people of the kingdom don’t have enough food to eat because the Queen keeps taxing them to pay for her elaborate beauty treatments. She decides it’s time to take back the castle.

Enter the charming prince, played by Armie Hammer. He arrives at the castle and the Evil Queen has decided he is the one she is going to marry. He is rich after all and can pay for her lavish parties. The Prince only has eyes for Snow White, naturally. When the Evil Queen discovers the Prince is in love with Snow White she takes drastic measures to get rid of the beautiful princess.

As Snow White tries to escape certain death in the woods, she comes across the seven dwarves, who in this version, are thieving bandits. The dwarves teach Snow White how to fight and plan to take back the kingdom from the Evil Queen.

What Parents Need to Know About Mirror, Mirror

I was worried about taking my 5 year old daughter to see this movie, which is rated PG. She has seen PG movies in the past with mixed results. I worry about violence and scary scenes. There is some violence, but it wasn’t too graphic and almost silly. I sort of liked Snow White as a tougher girl character and not the usually princess that needs to be saved by the handsome Prince. There is one scary scene that my daughter hid her eyes during but all in all she loved this movie. She loves a good story and this was a good story, with fun characters and a happy ending. My 14 year old cousin also enjoyed it. I enjoyed it too. Julia Roberts is always fantastic and she was great in the role of the Evil Queen. I found the seven dwarves endearing and the Prince, well, charming.

Here’s the Mirror, Mirror Movie Trailer

Related Pages: Mother’s Day Kids Poems, Mother’s Day Kids Crafts

If I could do anything for my mother I would... Mother's Day Story Starter

My mother is great because... Mother's Day Story Starter

If my mom and I switched places... Mother's Day Story Starter

Simple and Cute Scrap Fabric Flower Headband Tutorial

There are few things that are cuter or more on trend in hair accessories than rosettes right now. They’re also surprisingly simple to make!

Related Pages: Silk Flower Barrette Craft, Cute Barrette Holder Project

How to Make a Fabric Flower Hair Accessory Headband

Supplies:

• Two strips of scrap fabric, 2 inches wide by 16 inches long
• Two pieces of tulle, 2.5 inches square.
• Scrap felt
• Beads or pearls
• Wire or elastic headband
• Hot glue gun or strong craft glue

Start by cutting out your fabric to the specified sizes. This is great for using up scraps, so don’t worry about straight lines.

To start your first rosette, take one strip of fabric, and fold it in half lengthwise. Fold one corner down, and begin rolling your strip of fabric in on itself.

As you roll your strip, you want to twist the fabric like in the photos above. Twist an inch or so, and roll it up, pinching firmly to hold it together. When you get to the end, leave about an inch or so of fabric loose.

Flip your rosette over, and put some hot glue on the back of the rosette. Fold the extra inch of fabric over the glue, and hold to join. When your glue has set, trim off the corners. There you have your first rosette!

Repeat with your second strip of fabric to make another rosette.

Cut a piece of felt that is slightly smaller than both of the rosettes Glue your rosettes onto the felt, and set aside.

Take one of your pieces of tulle, gather and pinch it in the middle, and fold it in half at the pinch. Put some hot glue at the pinched end, and glue it on the felt between your rosettes. Repeat with the other piece of tulle on the other side.

Next, put a dot of hot glue where the tulle meets the rosettes, and put a cluster of beads or pearls on the glue. Repeat on the other side.

Pick out your headband, and put a line of glue on the back of your rosettes, on the felt. Attach the headband, then glue another small piece of felt on top of your headband to cover to join and secure the rosettes.

You’re all done! You just made a rosette headband that looks cute on everyone, and can be made to match every outfit!

Thank you,

Jenn Cangelosi

If you would like to keep in touch, just stop by! http://boutiquebargains.com/blog/

Sign up for my FREE Selling in eBay Course

One of the biggest pros to selling on eBay is that it is fairly easy to do. Once your eBay account is created you can start listing items that you already have laying around your home. Listing isn’t hard either as eBay has a step-by-step process for listing your items to sell using either the Buy it Now or traditional auction format. eBay even offers a free download of a program that allows you to put your listings together even when not connected to the internet. Then after you finish creating your listings you just connect to the internet and upload all the listings at once.

Another major pro to selling on eBay is that anyone can do it. You don’t have to have exciting or even expensive items to sell on eBay. In fact there are lots of eBay sellers who are just selling items in their home that they just no longer want. Thinking about getting started selling on eBay, but unsure about how much you can make. Go ahead and try it out, and start lising unwanted items in your home. Auctions that tend to do well are those that are lots or groups of items like infant clothing and toys.

While I could probably list several more pros to selling on eBay, I’d like to take a little time and tell you about a few of the cons. One of the biggest cons to selling on eBay is the competition. As I said before lots of people have begun selling on eBay to make some extra income or even to make a living. This leads to multiple auctions for the exact same items. While as a buyer this is great for you, it can hurt you as a seller. When supply for your items is higher than the demand, you may not make as much money from selling your items as you might have hoped, if the item even sells at all.

Another con to selling on eBay is that there are fees associated. Although the eBay fees are considered farly low, they can still take away from your profits. However, there are ways to make the most of your eBay fees. For example, if you have a ‘hot’ selling item you can start your auction out at a lower price, as the fees are less for doing do, however this can be a gamble as there is no guarantee what your item will sell for. Perhaps, the biggest con to selling on eBay is the unknown, you never can really know if you will make money on eBay or even possibly lose money.

Obviously the decision of whether or not to sell on eBay is yours to make. Just keep in mind some of the pros and cons when you make that decision. Still not sure whether selling on eBay is for you? Try it out, that is the best way to find out if you will be successful or if you really want to be an eBay seller.

A dissatisfied customer will leave negative feedback, and negative feedback should be avoided at all costs. That one negative feedback rating will cost you more than it would to just deal with the buyers complaint, whatever the value of the items you sell. You should consider any positive feedback percentage under 100% a disaster, and personal failure.

But what about?

There are no buts, there is no situation that, as a seller, you should ever get into a dispute with a buyer. Here are a few common situations and how you might handle them.

The buyer says that the item never arrived. Politely request that the buyer wait a few more days to see if the item arrives late, and then ask that they email you if the item doesn’t turn up. If the item still doesn’t arrive, you should assume that it was lost in the post somehow and offer to send the buyer a replacement if you have one, or give them a full refund otherwise. Don’t think about the cost, if you are serious about selling on eBay then it is worth it.

The item gets damaged in the post. You must offer to either replace the item or take it back for a refund without hesitation.

The buyer says that the item doesn’t match the description. Resist the urge to email back that ‘yes it does, and they should have read the description properly’. Take the item back with a refund and edit your description if you need to, to clarify any points that might have been confusing.

I’m sure you have spotted a pattern in this. Offering a refund will make just about any problem go away. Believe it or not it will cost you less in the long run. Just keep in mind that one negative feedback rating will stay with you forever, while having a 100% positive rating is like having a gold status.

You should always handle customers’ complaints before they complain to eBay. In fact it is a good practice to email buyers pre-emptively to make sure they are satisfied. Going through the dispute process is time consuming, reflects badly on you, and is just downright unnecessary.

Still not quite convinced? Think that this only applies to those selling cheap items. Actually, the higher priced the items are that you sell, the more your reputation is worth to you. For example, if you were selling $5,000 worth of items each week, and making a profit of $500 each week overall. You might feel that refunding one customer’s $500 purchase would be devastating, because you are losing a whole week’s profit. However, if you don’t give the refund then you could not only lose the next week’s profit, but most likely a few weeks’ profit after that too. Now which would you rather face?

I absolutely cannot emphasize enough the importance of truly believing that the customer is always right.

Stock for Sale

When you have leftover stock or used items from another business, you could sell those items on eBay. This can be a great way of eliminating items that won’t sell. For example, items that didn’t sell in your shop, or items that you have found to no longer be in demand in the city or town that your business is located.

This can be a great way to make some money, if you know what you are doing. Of course you are already an expert in the items you are selling, as you already use them in your business. You are also assured of the high quality of the items you are selling as they come from your own stock. eBay is just a new market for you to sell your old inventory.

On top of that, you’ll be building a good eBay reputation that can help you as a buyer. If you should ever want something for your business, there is a good chance that you will be able to get it on eBay for a discount.

Sales and Advertising

This is where the power of eBay truly lies. As an eBay seller you are given an “About Me” page, where you are allowed to write anything you would like and link to anywhere on the internet. Meaning that you can use it to build traffic to your website. You just link to your website from the “About Me” page and link to your “About Me” page from every auction you list.

To get started creating your “About Me” page, click on “Community” in the toolbar. Then scroll to the bottom of the page and click “Create an About Me page”. You will next be given the option of entering your own HTML or letting eBay guide you through the process. All you need to do is describe a little about your website, add a link to it, and you are done. You will notice an immediate increase in traffic to your site.

Thousands of people swear by this technique to drive traffic from eBay to their website. Add a little persuasive sales copy on your website, and you may be able to sell directly to buyers, eliminating the eBay middleman. Even better is that all that traffic will be targeted, as those who click through were already interested in your auction to begin with.

This technique can be especially beneficial to anyone who already has an e-commerce site. Even if you don’t already, you may find it worth your time to set up a website that does nothing more than list your eBay inventory with a few dollars discount on each item and a PayPal “Buy Now” button for each item. Then make sure you have a link that reads “Visit my website for even more bargains” on your “About Me” eBay page and you are all set.

Hope you find success with these techniques to help grow your business.

Easily one of the biggest pros to shopping on eBay is the selection of products available for you to purchase. You can find almost anything on eBay, including clothing, baby toys, home decor items, game consoles, computers, vehicles, and even property. The items on eBay can be purchased in either new or used condition. Since many eBay sellers end up selling lots of the same or similar items, you are able to compare prices and get the best deals.

Another eBay shopping pro, is the ease of shopping on eBay. Once you register your free eBay account, you are all set to shop on eBay. Once you begin shopping on eBay you will find it pretty easy to find what you want. In fact, this is another pro for shopping on eBay, the ease of finding what you are looking for. Just a simple eBay search, or even an advanced search should turn up the an item that fits the description of what you are trying to find. View those items, and you can determine if you want to purchase one of them or not.

Even making purchases on eBay is easy to do. While eBay has rules for the sellers, they still allow some flexibility, such as how much sellers can charge for items, and what payment methods sellers will accept. Some eBay sellers are limited on the payment methods they are willing to accept, you will find that most are pretty flexible. For instance the most commonly accepted form of payment is PayPal.

There are several pros to shopping on eBay, but there are also a few cons you should be aware of. On of the biggest cons or downsides to shopping on eBay is that eBay is known to be home to scammers. While eBay does there best to eliminate these scams and protect buyers, like you, from them, there will always be a few that get past their security. Keeping that in mind and being cautious, you should to shop on eBay safely. The few eBay scams that you should be conscientious of involves sellers that advertise products that they don’t really have, sellers who claim that their item is in excellent condition when it is not, and others along those lines.

Another important con is the fact that anyone can become an eBay seller. That means that someone can become a seller with the intention of taking your money without delivering you any product can register an account with eBay and begin selling. eBay, of course, catches those sellers fairly quickly and most of the time their accounts are disabled. This again is something you just need to keep in mind and be aware of who you are doing business with. Be cautious of any sellers that have high negative feedback ratings or sellers who are extremely new to eBay.

eBay like anything has it’s pros and cons, especially when it comes to buying. Most eBay buyers still have a positive experience making purchases on eBay. If you are careful who you choose to buy from and what you choose to buy, you should be able to have a positive experience too. One that will likely bring you back to shop on eBay again and again.

PayPal is one of the most commonly accepted payment method on eBay. Despite the popularity of buyers using PayPal, there are still several sellers who don’t accept it as a form of payment. If you have not already set up a PayPal account in conjunction with your eBay seller account, you may want to take the time to do so now. It is still possible to make money on eBay without accepting PayPal for payments, but you increase your chances of success by adding it as an option. That is why I strongly suggest you at least look into setting up a PayPal account today.

When you do decide to get your PayPal account, you will notice that you have a choice between having a personal account or a business account. The best way to make the most out of eBay and PayPal is to get a business account, as this will enable you to also accept credit cards as a payment method. The only difference between getting a personal PayPal account and getting a business PayPal account is the fees. The fees from PayPal will vary, but you are charged a small fee every time that someone (an eBay buyer) sends you a payment.

Don’t let the idea of these extra fees from PayPal deter you. By also accepting PayPal as a payment method, you are more likely to get more sales, as well as higher ending bids on products you sell. Especially, since more and more eBay buyers are coming to depend on PayPal to shop online. This will make those fees seem nominal, as they easily pay for themselves over time and you continue to make more profit. Not to mention that from a business standpoint those PayPal fees can be tax deductible.

Of the many reasons that eBay buyers like to use PayPal, the most important is the sense of security they get by using their service. When a buyer uses PayPal to buy an item from you on eBay, they do not have to provide you with their debit or credit card number or their bank account information. This information is stored in the secure PayPal system. It’s also easy for eBay buyers to use, they simply follow the instructions on the invoice you send them from eBay, enter their PayPal sign in information, click a few confirmation buttons, and they are done. Without having to exchange any important information.

If you have not already begun accepting PayPal, you will want to consider the various benefits of doing so. To get more information about PayPal, go to their online website at PayPal.com.

There are over 100 million members using eBay. That number is astounding, and just think when you set up your eBay business that means that will be how big your customer base will be – right away. 100 million potential customers – 100 million people looking to spend their money with you as soon as you are up and running. The reach of eBay is impressive, but keep in mind that right now the market doesn’t know you exist. Truthfully, most will never know that you exist, no matter how well you do. 100 million is a lot of people.

The most successful eBay sellers started out as buyers, and I suggest you start this way too. Starting as a buyer gives you a sense of how everything works. It also gives you the buyers perspective, which can be helpful when you begin selling. Consider this time period as time spent doing consumer research. You will actually be studying how eBay works, from the customer’s point of view. It may not seem like it, but the eBay buyer experience will help to make you a better seller – from the beginning.

Pay special attention to the customer service you receive from sellers. Take time to think about how you, as a buyer, want to be treated, and take notes for later use. Take your time in this process and interact with each seller. Even get involved in some hot auctions to see what that experience can be like. Another thing to make notes of is the hot items you see selling, these will be useful later.

eBay is like any other business, you need to determine what people are wanting to buy to be successful. You will learn that there are specific items that sell really well on eBay – you will need to figure out what those items are. There are many resources to help you find out this information. The best place to start is with eBay’s sellers lessons. I strongly urge you to attend the eBay University as well. This will be your next step in the process. Once you have experienced being an eBay buyer, it will be time to learn how to be an eBay seller.

eBay has lots of useful information right on their site. study as much of it as you can. You will learn quite a bit and it will provide a roadmap to your success. The best part is it is completely free. Reading through these resources will help you to avoid making several mistakes that many others have already made.

Once you make it through this learning process, you should know everything you will need to get started. And you will be on your way to making money with an eBay business of your own.

The bad news is that the only way to beat a “sniper” is to become one yourself. The up side is that once you figure out sniping you can use it to your advantage, and win auctions at a much lower price than you would otherwise.

Sniping Manually

Sniping manually is pretty simple if you have lots of spare time and a reasonably fast internet connection. Start by writing down the ending tme for each item that you bid on, and then be sure to be sitting at your computer with the page up for the last vital minute of the auction. This will allow you to defend your winning bid, or even outbid the current winning bid.

The best tip for sniping manually is to make sure that you set your max bid as high as possible – otherwise you could still be automatically outbid, and the auction will be over before you can even bid again.

Another note – it is not worth even trying to compete against someone who has decided to use an auto sniping service. If their service is any good, then they will always manage to outbid you. If you really want to be a sniper, you will need to find one of your own.

Using an Auto Sniper

Just type “eBay sniping” into your preferred search engine, and it’ll bring back several online services that will be more than happy to snipe on your behalf for a small fee. Most will give you a free trial, so feel free to try it out.

If you don’t want to pay each time for use of the online service, then their are some types of software that you can use. Two that I know of are iSnipeIt (http://www.isnipeit.com) and SnipeRight (http://sniperight.com). These you pay for once and then you have free use for as long as you want. Once the software is installed on your computer, you just tell it what auctions you want sniped and the max amount you are willing to bid. The software then places the bif within the last few seconds of the auction. The disadvantage to using this software is that you will need to leave your computer on just about all the time, or risk missing the end time for your auctions.

An Alternative to Sniping

If sniping just sounds a bit too much like playing dirty, then here is another low-tech way to get around it. Just send an email to the seller of an item that you were sniped on. Let them know that you were sniped at the last minute but would really like the item. Chances are that if they have another one to sell, they will agree to sell it to you for the ending bid price.

Whether you choose to become a sniper or not, I wish you best of luck in your eBay pursuits.

I Never Bought Anything!

This scam can be one with the highest risk for a seller to be a victim of. In this case, the valid owner of the credit card still has control of the credit card – no one has stolen the credit card details. However, they may have realized that they can just call the bank that issued the card and say that their card is being used fraudulently and that they did not buy the item, and often the bank will just reverse the transaction without even doing an investigation. The only way to avoid this scam is to make all your sales through eBay, because they keep a record of the transactions.

The Unconfirmed Address

It can be quite easy for scammers to steal a PayPal account from an inexperienced user: all they need is the users email address and password. PayPal does their best to protect against credit cards registered with stolen accounts from being used to make purchases by listing a “confirmed address” for each buyer – an address that matches what the credit card issuer has registered.

Many scammer will ask you to ship to a different address – unless you are certain of them, this is a bad idea, as they could be trying to commit credit card fraud. Especially be wary of anyone who offers to pay a higher price and get overnight shipping, particularly if it is not even in the same country as the confirmed address. The scammer could be trying to make sure the item gets to them before they are found out.

It is up to you to be responsible for fraud on PayPal, as eBay’s preferred way to refund fraudulent payments to their rightful owner is just to reverse it from you! This is considered an occupational hazard of using PayPal, and sellers who have been burned severely at times go as far as moving to a rival electronic payment service. See http://www.nopaypal.com for more information.

You may have received flyers from other eBay sellers, they are basically a list of the items available in their eBay stores, usually including the default message: Thank you for your purchase! Please visit my eBay Store for more great items and friendly, reliable customer service. However, by learning more about how to use this feature you can make your flyer really stand out from the crowd.

You may be wondering how do I do that?

Start by logging into eBay and going to the Manage Your Store section of My eBay. Then click on My Promotions and you will see the Store Promotions Flyer option. You can automatically create a flyer using the settings and items from your eBay store. It can also be customized to your liking, like adding a border to make it more visually attractive. After creating a flyer, you can then print it as many times as you need to. Since the flyer will automatically update to show your latest items each time you print it, you may only want to print the flyers as needed.

What can I do with the flyers?

There are several uses for your eBay store promotional flyers. You could just hand them out on the street, although that may not be particularly effective. Most of the people walking by that actually take the flyer may have no interest in your products and it would just end up being a waste of time, ink, and paper.

Instead, put them in with packages of items sold: if you have been putting business cards or compliment slips in your packages, use your new flyers instead. Think of it as sending a mini-catalogue to your buyers.

Post or hand them out in your shop: If you have an actual shop or business site, then you can hand flyers out the customers so they know you also sell on eBay.

Send them to other businesses: look up addresses for businesses that may potentially need the items you sell, and send them a flyer for them to post.

Finally, if you sell on consignment, you can use the flyers to help get some new customers.