To eBay or Not to Ebay
by Gillian Tarawhiti
Community Training Centre
http://www.millionairerippleeffect.com

FACT:
eBay's Gross Merchandise Sales (GMS) 2003 - GMS, the total value of items sold, was a record $24 billion, representing a 60% year-over-year increase from the $15 billion reported in the full year 2002

FACT:
Over 79 million times a day, eBay users find products and brands of their choice.

FACT:
In the final quarter of 2003, reported and increase of 41.2 million active users, up 3.8 million from the previous quarter.

(Exerts from January 21, 2004 - eBay™ Inc. Announces Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2003 Financial Results.)

When I read the 2003 Financial Results, the first thing I thought of is 'what a lot of traffic'.

Think about it 79 million times a day people are looking at the eBay site for products or services.

And if you think anything like me . the next thought would be, 'can I drive some of that traffic to my site'

The answer is YES!

This scenario is the 'norm" in an auction.

• Seller lists item
• people visit auction
• some make bids
• highest bidder wins (one winner)
• product sold and delivered

Question: What happens to all the people who visited the auction and didn't bid or bid and didn't win?

Answer: Lost Revenue, Lost Opportunity

It doesn't matter what kind of service or product you are selling or decide to sell. There are TECHNIQUES that can help you DEVELOP constant flow of traffic, SALES and GENERATE LEADS.

If you use eBay solely as an auction site, then you will make a few dollars, a couple of thousand if you are bulk selling.

Power eBay Sellers know that they real money comes when you drive people from your auction sale to where ever else you need to send them. This of course should firstly be to your own website, but you can send them to affiliate sites just as easy.

eBay more that a giant flea market. You see, eBay auctions attract millions of TARGETED customers. You don't have to go in search of subscribers – they will come to you.

Response by

Hi,

Although you are not allowed to have links to your site on eBay, you can find creative ways around it such as using the 'About Me' page to direct traffic to your primary site and even changing your eBay name to reflect your website. The way around this is to put '*' at the begining and end of your URL like so;

*www.a1home-business.com*

Cheers,

Declan

My Response

Yes, you are right the 'about me' page is definitely and under utilised tool by most ebayer's. As a matter of fact, it IS a great way to drive traffic to your website or any other website for that matter.

I have seen some really great 'about me' pages that are set up like sales copy websites and then I've seen some really cruddy ones or a lot that have none at all.

I'm not to keen myself on advertising a website as a username on eBay as this has had some not to good responses for those using that practise...I see more eBAY sellers closing an account which bears there website due to ... for want of a better phrase ... tall poppy syndrome ... where others users post negative comments (unjustified of course) which have negative ramifications for the seller.

But anyway...great comment.


About the Author
About the Author
Gillian Tarawhiti, is Founder and CEO of Community Training Centre, an Australian-based Internet Marketing firm that works with individuals and organisations
© 2004 Permission is granted to reprint this article in print or on your web site so long as the paragraph above is included and contact information is provided to www.millionairerippleeffect.com.