Bill-Bainbridge.com

You’re probably reading this because you know you can make money from eBay. Well, what you know is correct and what this article will teach you will help you even more. Read on to know how to set-up your eBay business in five easy steps.

Your unique Idea!

The first step in starting up your eBay business is to have a unique item that you can sell, though that maybe very hard to do. Among the millions of listings on eBay, there is no product or idea that you can think of, that is not yet listed. This maybe 95% correct, but it always worth a try. Your unique idea should be one you are passionate about. This could be a hobby, an industry or a service that you are very interested in.

Know your Competition First!

After researching your competition, search through the eBay listings for similar items. Again, 95% of the time, items on your list are already being sold. Don’t you worry about that. That’s the beauty of free trade – everyone can sell the same item, and the consumer has the option to choose, whichever one he or she will take. It is ideal for you focus on the item that is closest to your heart, and has the least listings on eBay. This will give you a better chance of competing in the market.

Make Your Listing Visual!

To make your listing more appealing to your visitors, take a digital picture of your item and include it in the ad. Don’t matter how good and detailed your listings are, it is best to have a picture of the item, which will say everything, nothing more, or nothing less. Try to research on the highest hitting listings, and see why their visual representation is appealing to their surfer.

The Right Price!

The power of the dollar is always at work in eBay. Because you allow interested parties to bid on your product, every dollar counts. Some recommend starting your price at $1, which if you were in the shoes of the buyer, sounds very appealing. But you must make sure that you are selling an item that will eventually be bidded to the price that you like, say $500, even if it start from a dollar.

Online Payment!

PayPal is eBay’s partner in it’s payment system. And to be successful in you eBay business, you must be a member of PayPal as well. It is easy to set-up, in fact, you can do it simultaneously with your eBay membership and security is highly rated. Fees are also very reasonable.

Lastly, if you want to be successful selling on eBay, check out The eBay Fortune! When I first started on eBay  2 years back i applied what I had learnt from The eBay Fortune. Today I’m selling full-time on eBay and making a very decent income. You too can make it to, you just have to do it right!

To Your Online success

Bill

To really maximise your eBay sales you need to be promoting your eBay store. eBay stores get less exposure than normal eBay listings and therefore will not yield great sales for you unless you promote them. There are many ways both on and off eBay that you can promote your eBay store. This article outlines some of them:

1) Ebay Auction Listings:- eBay Auction and Buy It Now listings get the main exposure on eBay. When someone does an eBay search for an item all the eBay Auction and Buy It Now listings are displayed first. Then after these the eBay Store listings are displayed. Since these Auction and Buy It Now listings are getting the most exposure it makes sense to run a few of these and insert a link to your eBay store inside the actual description. This works especially well with Auction listings as people often click the link so they can buy the item instantly from your eBay store rather than wait for the auction to end.

2) Ebay About Me Page:- The eBay About Me page is one of the best free opportunity’s eBay provides to promote yourself. Every time someone on eBay sees your eBay ID (whether you bid on something, leave feedback, or buy an item) there will be an About Me logo next to it and some people will click this logo. Despite this, it really is one of the most under utilised tools on eBay. If you do not yet have an eBay About Me page yet then get one NOW. Use it to write about your eBay store and tell people why they should buy from you.

3) Ebay Reviews and Guides:- These are a relatively new addition to eBay but they are still a great way to promote your eBay store for free. The reviews section allows you to write product reviews such as CDs and DVDs. The guides section is more relevant to eBay sellers as it allows you to write guides on just about anything. There has got to be some topic that you can write a guide on so get righting now. When people read your guide they are presented with a link to your eBay store which is again more free exposure.

4) Ebay Seller Cross Promotion:- I outlined in the last article that with an eBay store you can cross-promote your items. Recently eBay has also added the ability to cross-promote with other sellers. This is very easy to set up and eBay manages the whole process for you. All you have to do is go to the “Cross-Promotion Connections” area of My eBay and then use the request cross-promotions link in order to set them up. If the other seller agrees then a box promoting their products will appear on your listings and vice versa. This is a valuable way to increase your eBay sales and also generate more traffic to your eBay store.

5) Search Engines:- As I mentioned in my last article you get an actual URL with your eBay store. This URL gets listed in the eBay stores directory and search engines which means extra traffic for your eBay store. What’s more eBay allows you to pick your search engine keywords so you can be listed under the categories that you feel are most appropriate to your eBay store. Getting listed in the search engines is a great way to bring in customers from outside of eBay and maximise your sales potential.

6) Store RSS Feed:- When you access the home page of an eBay store you may notice a small RSS box in the bottom left corner. If you click on this RSS box then you will be shown your store’s RSS feed. Now I myself am not an expert in RSS but I do know that it is another way to promote your eBay store easily and effectively from outside of eBay. You can get some free software that submits your RSS feeds to the main RSS directories by doing a search on Google.

7) Blogging:- For those who don’t know a blog is a weblog. It’s basically like an online journal where you post your thoughts, comments, or whatever else you want. Blogging is an excellent way to get traffic to your eBay store. Quite a few websites offer free blogs which you can sign up for and then link back to your eBay store. Post in it regularly to gain exposure and your blog should soon become a great source of traffic.

Article Submission:- There are 100s of article directories out there that will you can submit your articles to, and if accepted you are allowed to have a live link back to your website or eBay store in the author resource box. This is a great way to generate traffic to your website in the long-term as not only do the search engines index your article, but people also reprint these articles on their websites complete with your author resource box (and live link back to your eBay store). The longer your article is online the more it will be reprinted and so the more traffic it will generate.

Hopefully this article has opened your eyes to some of the free and effective promotion methods for your eBay store. At first the fact that eBay Stores do not get as much exposure seems like a major problem but by putting a little effort into promoting it yourself, it can be much more successful than any eBay Auction listing.

Lastly, if you want to be successful selling on eBay, check out The eBay Fortune! This is how I started my first eBay sales 2 years back by applying what I learned from The eBay Fortune. Today I’m selling full-time on eBay and making a very decent income. You too can make it, you just have to do it right!

To Your Online Success

Bill