If you sell products on eBay, knowing all the IRS tax obligations you have is a very important part of your business.  You have sales tax to collect on product purchases, quarterly estimated taxes to pay and of course the traditional year-end tax forms to submit every April.

Top Rated Seller Webinars recently had a webinar focused on key tax laws, IRS forms and possible deductions for online sellers featuring financial-industry experts Laura Messerschmitt of Outright accounting software and Cliff Ennico, attorney and best selling author of numerous eBay books.

Topics in the webinar include:

• The whats, whens, and hows of income taxes for eBay sellers
• How to handle the 1099-K you received from PayPal
• Is selling on eBay a “business” or a “hobby”, and does it matter?
• Calculating your income from selling on eBay
• Common deductions that eBay sellers take

Top Rated Seller Webinars is a monthly webinar series for eBay sellers that is sponsored by Stamps.com, Outright, PageMage, eBay Radio, Terapeak and Kabbage. Sign-up for a webinar today!

With the holidays in full swing and the end of the year getting closer, now is a great time to say “thank you” to the customers who buy your products or services. Most businesses forget this simple step and a small note can make a big difference in helping your business stand out from the competition and generating returning purchases.

Stamps.com has several features to help you easily communicate a note of “thanks” to your customers.

#1 Thank You Message in your Shipment Notification emails
Stamps.com will automatically send out a shipment notification email to your package recipient.  This email notifies the recipient that the package has been shipped and includes the delivery address, mail date, mail class, estimated delivery date, special services, and a link with the tracking number so that the recipient can track their package.

You also have the ability to include a customized personal note in the email. This is a great place for a short “thanks for your order” message.

Get more info on shipment notification emails.

#2  Send Newsletters and Marketing Materials
If you need a bigger canvas to communicate your message to your customers, try sending a newsletter on a regular 8.5″ x 11″ piece of paper for a quick and easy mailer.  With this option, you’ll be able to print your marketing message on both sides of the 8.5″ x 11″ piece of paper. On one side of the paper, leave enough room towards the bottom of the page (one of the three panels) for the address and postage to be clearly printed.   Using Stamps.com, you can print the return address, delivery addresses and correct postage on the empty panel.  Once printed, just fold the paper into a tri-fold, fasten the open edge with tape and drop it in the mailbox!

Get more info on newsletters

#3 Quick Direct Mailings with PC Postcards
These high-quality postcards are great for thank you notes, appointment reminders, invitations, and more.  And by using a postcard, you get to utilize the discounted first class postage rate of $0.32.

Using your favorite word processing program, you can print your marketing message on four postcards in one pass through the printer.  Then, on the opposite side, Stamps.com will easily print the delivery address, return address (optional) and postage on all four postcards.    If you are using MS Word, Microsoft has a number of templates you can use to customize the design on the postcards.

Get more info on PC Postcard
Buy the PC Postcard in Stamps.com Store

As the world becomes more technologically savvy with each passing year, the importance of having a website continues to increase. And while creating a website is becoming easier and more accessible through hosting companies like Domain.com, it is establishing the online presence needed to make that website powerful that can seem more complicated. How can you make sure your business website is found? How can you drive more traffic to your site? Here are some important tips to consider:

Tip #1 – First Things First. Get Your Domain
The best method of establishing an online presence begins with owning your own domain. Don’t just rely on social media to spread the word. Here’s why…Unless you’re lucky enough to have a completely unique name or organization name, you’ve got competition online whether you know it or not. If you’re a “Joe Smith” or other common name, there are many other Joe Smiths out there that also want to be found online, and they’ll beat you in search engine rankings if they’ve got a domain name and you don’t. So first things first, find and buy your domain name or your business domain name. If www.yourname.com or www.yourbusiness.com are available, snatch them up! If the .COM isn’t available, you’ve got many other solid choices such as .NET, .ORG, or .ME.

Tip #2 – You’ve Got Your Domain. Now What?
Owning your personal domain name is a big step towards being visible online. However, the driving force behind being found online is content. If you have a domain name but it isn’t associated with a website, you won’t get very far. Search engines and social networks alike both value new and fresh content and quality links to that content. A static website is a good start, but depending on your needs, a continuously updated blog might be a better choice. With the growing number of social networks and websites that your business can have a presence on, it is important to have a home-base to link back to. Think of a solid website with ever-changing content like the backbone of your online nervous system.

Tip #3 – Now It’s Time To Draw Others In!
The reality is social media networks are taking over the internet. And with the explosion of these networks has come the ability to be mentioned in many places at once online. The downside, however, is that only being mentioned in one place online is becoming increasingly ineffective. Creating a profile on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn and including your website name within that profile is a great start to generating traffic to your site. These are some of the biggest social networks, and they’re all great for connecting, sharing information and content and getting more visible online. If you’re already on the major social networks, consider some others that may be relevant to your interests:

• Flickr – A social network for sharing photos
• Dopplr – Share your travels online
• Yelp – Food buff? Review your favorite restaurants
• Youtube or Vimeo – Share your videos

Tip #4 – Finally, Get Searched!
Search engines are still the driving force for the majority of online traffic, so appearing within search rankings for the major search engines is key to getting noticed. This is where owning a unique domain name (like your own) comes in. Having www.yourname.com, among other factors, will help you rank high in search engines. Plus, those social networking profiles you’ve set up? They can also be a great way to increase the rankings for your name. The more places your name exists, the better. For example, twitter.com/yourname will rank well organically and you just might see your Twitter account jump up in the search rankings. If you’ve got a rare name, we challenge you to dominate the search rankings for your name!

Sign up with Domain.com to begin building your site and online presence. You can try it free for 30 days and it only costs $2.99 per month thereafter. Plus you’ll get a free 12-month domain name and a free JumpStart to your website.  TRY IT TODAY!

Outsourcing payroll is an excellent alternative to in-house payroll processing for today’s small businesses. Through a relationship with a professional payroll services provider, an employer can expect to realize several benefits, including consistency and reliability, a reduction in cost and workload, reduced risk, expanded offerings for their employees and peace of mind.

Payroll can be a time-consuming headache for many small businesses as keeping track of benefit accruals, garnishments, new hires and terminations, not to mention federal and state payroll tax changes, are often daunting tasks. And at the end of each year, small businesses spend a significant amount of time on W-2 and 1099 preparation, all the time rushing to ensure that they are sent out on time. Outsourcing payroll can reduce stress and free up many hours of time that can be spent on tasks that impact the health of the business and the bottom line.

Keeping abreast of state, federal, local and industry-specific regulation changes can be a significant challenge for most employers, small or large. A reputable outsourced payroll provider has a staff dedicated to keeping up-to-date on all of the changes that could affect payroll, ensuring that their clients are in compliance.

Payroll companies also have a full staff on hand to process payroll. This is a huge advantage for small businesses because payroll will be processed on schedule even if the owner or payroll manager is on vacation or has an unexpected absence. Outsourcing payroll functions increases consistency and reliability because payroll will be accurate and processed on time each pay period. It also ensures that the company’s payroll expertise does not leave if the payroll manager does.

When comparing the cost of an outsourced payroll provider to in-house payroll expenses, consider the amount of time spent on payroll-related activities as well as the costs of printing and distributing or mailing checks, computer software, training and support. Because most payroll providers handle all of these, outsourcing payroll functions is usually a big cost saver. And outsourcing does not have to be expensive; many professional payroll providers offer packages for small employers as low as $50.00 per month.

And then there are the costs involved in penalties for errors, omissions or late payroll tax filings. The IRS reported assessing 7.7 million civil penalties for employment taxes alone in 2011, totaling $5.3 billion in assessments. Businesses who outsource payroll and payroll tax functions can dramatically reduce the risk of incurring payroll tax penalties; most outsourced payroll providers will calculate payroll taxes, manage filings and payments and will assume the cost of penalties incurred due to incorrect calculations or late payments, as long as the necessary information and funds are provided on time.

In addition to printing and shipping checks directly to your door, most payroll companies also offer the convenience and security of direct deposit services. Because pay is deposited directly into employees’ accounts, having to put a stop payment on a lost paycheck and reissue it becomes a thing of the past. Many payroll providers also offer a paycard service for unbanked employees, usually at little or no cost to the employer. Both provide the security and convenience of paperless payrolls.

Many small companies find it difficult to dedicate the proper resources to knowing all the ins-and-outs of payroll. Outsourcing with a reputable payroll firm offers employers access to some of the leading experts on payroll and payroll taxes in the country. And with guarantees of error-free payroll, accurate tax filings and timely payments, the worry that many experience when it comes to the business of paying employees is eliminated, providing just the peace of mind every small business owner needs.

Terri Tennant is the senior director of business development for CompuPay Inc., one of the top-five payroll providers in the United States. Since 1980, CompuPay has worked with businesses with one to over 5,000 employees to streamline their business processes, improve productivity and save money through their offerings of easy, flexible payroll solutions.

Image: Courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The most common complaint I hear from ecommerce sellers is that they don’t have enough time. But really the bigger issue is how you use that time. Have you ever felt like a robot? You churn through your list of tasks – photographing and researching and describing and listing and shipping and responding and…repeat. Too often we don’t take time to really take a step back and evaluate our eBay business.

To help you deal with this challenge, you can use a simple exercise. It’s called SWOT. No, it’s not a new police show (there are enough already!) It’s an evaluation of your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

Short Term Pain = Long Term Gain

Take the time you’d be putting towards selling and focus on SWOT. Ultimately the investment in time here should pay off in a more successful business. Okay, so how do you do it? Hide yourself away from your kids and your cell phone. Get some paper and start writing.

Strengths – Looking inside your business, what helps you do well? Do you have good product sourcing? Perhaps you’re an expert in a particular category? Maybe you create great looking listings? For those eBay sellers, do you use a nice eBay selling template for all of your listings? eBay listings that look professional will make you more credible in the eyes of prospective buyers.

Weaknesses – Don’t worry if you have more weaknesses than strengths, it just means you have a great chance to improve! Maybe you are bad at time management? You don’t have a strong knowledge of keywords or Best Match? Have you taken the plunge into social media?

Opportunities – Look outside your business. Have you wanted to find a new product category to specialize in? Do you have expertise that you could use to create a presence in social media? Or perhaps expand to new marketplaces?

Threats – Today or in the future. Is there a competitor who’s undercutting your pricing or growing faster than you? Are you a small seller without back up to run the business if you’re unable for some period?

Time to Prioritize

You probably have a big list by now. The next part of the process means choosing the most valuable items. Maybe a strength that you want to exploit. Or a weakness you need to finally eliminate. Or an opportunity you’ve had in the back of your mind for a long time but have never taken the plunge. Pick one or two that will have the biggest impact on your business.

The Tough Part – DO IT!

Break the one or two items into small tasks with dates. Now it’s Nike time – Just Do It! After you’re done, evaluate the results. Now pick one or two more and do it again.

Take the time to go through the SWOT process with your eBay business. To help, there’s a free SWOT guide in our eBay seller resources section. It has a lot more examples in each area and more tips on being successful. It’s free so check it out!

About the Writer: Chris Taylor is VP of Marketing at Page Mage. Page Mage, a recipient of eBay’s 2011 Ecosystem Champion Award, offers Billboards, a “Top 10 Most Popular” application for free custom eBay listing templates for eBay sellers looking to stand out from the competition.