One of the most important and essential things you must do as you begin reading articles about online auctions is to establish a place where you can work and keep your "stuff". Few things will make business fail faster than not having a place where you can organize your references and auction materials. Having your workplace in a den or a home office where it is out of the way of daily living is an ideal situation, however not a requirement. If necessary, your workplace can be in your bedroom if it can be kept isolated and undisturbed from the other areas and activities in that room.

Making your workplace on your kitchen table is not a good solution, as you will have to setup and tear down your working area, which increases the likelihood of lost or misplaced information. This will lead to a lot of frustration for yourself and others who live with you. If you live alone, or have no other space this option can work in the short term, but the long term goal should be for a more secluded work area. Even if you do not have the ideal solution for your workplace right now decide on a place that you can use in the short term, and make long term plans for something more permanent.

Your workplace should have the following:

1. A computer, printer and a scanner.
2. A good camera, either digital or 35 mm.
3. A place for files, a small filing cabinet or filing draw with manila folders is ideal.
4. Desk space (this does not have to be a large space, just room to work).
5. Internet access.
6. Notebooks for keeping track of items, addresses and financial.

Contained in these articles are a great deal of information for you to review and absorb. In order to make these articles effective, please proceed through each one in the order they are presented. The remaining articles can be found by following the link at the bottom of the page. This will keep you focused on learning and implementing the material in its proper order.

This article is meant to be step one in your step by step approach to online auctions. It will help to prevent information overload, keeping you from becoming confused and bogged down. You must give yourself time to read, absorb and implement the information presented here. From experience, we know you wanted to start making money yesterday. We understand and appreciate that drive. At the same time the old saying, "haste makes waste" really fits here and too much haste is actually an impediment to your success!

Even if you have past experience with eBay auctions and are only looking to improve your auction skills, we suggest you start with the first lesson and work through as if your were new to online auctions. There may be information that will prove useful to your auction skills that you have not encountered in your previous auctions.