Aug
30
eBay: The Perfect Business?
Filed Under Sellers' Insights
eBay is the perfect business, but it may not be the perfect business for you. Think about eBay for a few minutes. They are easily among the elite corporations on the web. With an average of 19 million listings, they represent a substantial amount of the internet’s electronic commerce. Yet they carry no merchandise, they don’t concern themselves with creating ad copy to market the merchandise sold on their site, they don’t bother with packing or shipping, and they don’t worry about returns or other consumer relations issues. They outsource these e-commerce functions to the seller. In fact, they get the sellers to pay them money for the privilege to accomplish these tasks for them. As I said, eBay is the perfect business, but it may not be perfect for you.
So you should ask yourself, “Who owns my eBay business? Me or eBay?” What would happen to your business if eBay tripled their rates tomorrow? Or they changed their default search algorithm in such a manner that your auction listings never made it to the first page, despite the time remaining or low current bid? What would happen if circumstances outside of your control restricted your ability to sell on eBay or the site crashed? If you depend entirely on eBay for your customers, you should have significant concerns. If you don’t own your traffic, you really don’t own your business — eBay does.
I’m not saying that eBay is evil, or you should abandon it or anything silly like that. You should seriously consider multiple streams of income. It’s the old “eggs in one basket” analogy. I decided long ago that I was interested in developing income from other online sources besides eBay. I still actively sell on eBay, but have branched out to developing several web sites that were originally designed to promote my auctions and develop a customer list. These have turned out to be very lucrative, outpacing my auction income significantly while actually reducing the amount of time and effort I needed to bring in the money.
Are you a niche eBay seller? Do you focus on a niche that you know and love? You could easily channel that knowledge and passion into developing a website that focuses on your niche. With patience, support and some effort, you could create an online presence that ranks well in the search engines for your particular niche, bringing hundreds of like-minded internet visitors daily who want to learn more about the things you sell. You now own this traffic - not eBay! And you can direct these visitors (who are now impressed with your knowledge and authority on the subject - don’t underestimate this factor) to your auctions on eBay, other auction sites, or your own e-commerce solution (cutting out the middleman altogether!). You can also develop a mailing list of potential customers who desire periodic updates and your insights, and maintain a relationship with folks who might not ever return to your website. Provide them with useful information while you remind them of your current offerings on eBay or elsewhere. That is owning your business!
I didn’t have any web development expertise when I started. However I found several resources online that helped me get started. Good old trial and error was one of my main teachers (you gotta love the School of Hard Knocks). One resource I wish I found much earlier was Site Build It! from SiteSell. Created by Ken Evoy, these people don’t just sell Web Hosting (although that is included), they teach you how to brainstorm a profitable concept, develop content that attracts search engine traffic, and provide the tools easily create a modern internet presence (without technical skills) - all with the support to help you succeed in diversifying your online income. Click here learn more about freeing yourself and your business from dependence on eBay.
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