How to Start an eBay Store and Use It Creatively - By Dana E. Smith

Consistently ranked as one the twenty most popular websites, eBay is a magnet for both buyers and sellers. From a seller’s point of view, it’s a marketing dream. Tens of thousands of people visit eBay every day and most of them are eager and willing to buy something if you have what they want. Better still is the fact that there’s no tooth-and-nail competition for top search engine listings here. Just eBayers in substantial numbers, all looking for something to buy. Your job is to determine what they want, find it, post an auction and make money.

That being said, there’s no doubt that some eBay sellers are much more successful than others. Most sellers start out selling personal items from around the house that they no longer want. Once that well runs dry, the wheat separates from the chaff. It’s the sellers who really understand eBay who go on to Power Seller status and more.

Really successful eBay sellers seem to excel in several different areas. They know how to pick and source hot products and are very selective with respect to the products they sell. Power sellers also know how to write good ads. They know what people want to hear and they give it to them. Finally, successful sellers never stop learning how to put eBay to work. The more you learn about eBay and some of the tools it has to offer, the more you can earn.

One of the good examples of this is the eBay store. There are many good reasons to start an eBay store. Once you have your own store, it’s a lot easier to cross promote items and get your wares in front of more potential buyers. It will also cost less to list items and you can even automate the whole listing and feedback process using a tool like eBay’s own Selling Manager or Selling Manager Pro.

In a certain sense, however, an eBay store is more about marketing that it is about selling directly. If you can make this marketing mindset your own, you can use it to make profits on eBay that go far beyond your earnings from actual auctions. This mindset is about building a relationship with your customers, which really means building a list of contacts who will go on to buy from you time and again.

One way to accomplish this with an eBay store is to use the feature that allows visitors to sign up for your store newsletter. This gives you the chance to send email to anyone who signs up on a once-a-week basis with information about new products, discounts or other special promotions. You also get to add a link to your newsletter opt-in page on every auction you run. As your list grows, you can market to it and earn more money than you can with auctions alone.

As an eBay store owner, you can also add a link to your auctions that allows other eBayers to add your store to their list of favorites in their “my eBay” profile. Once someone adds your store to their list, eBay will automatically email them a list of your auctions once a week at absolutely no cost to you. It’s a great way to stay in touch with potential buyers and ultimately sell more products.

These are just a few examples of how the creative use of an eBay store can help you build an eBay business that will grow profitably for many years to come. Of course, you won’t find these strategies on eBay itself because eBay provides help mostly on the nuts and bolts of setting up a store. Fortunately, there are a number of excellent online resources that explain how to start an eBay store and how to use it creatively.

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