How to sell on eBay

Learning how to sell on eBay is simple and straightforward and I'm sure there can't be many people who haven't at least dabbled with the website.

Simply put it's a global, online marketplace ... instead of just being able to sell locally through ads in the local newspaper, eBay unleashes the power of the web to open up the rest of the world as a possible customer base.

So how do you harness that help you to make money online and is it worth it in the long run?

How to sell on eBay: The basics

At a very simple level, you can list odd items that you own on the site and if they sell and you're lucky, you'll either cover your costs or make a profit.

Nobody is going to build a long-term business this way, and that particular approach is best for the user who isn't really interested in making a steady income.

If you're going to do this thing seriously, you've got to get an online store and aim for a bigger selection of goods presented in a professional way.

How to sell on eBay: Set up a shop

There are many good things about setting up your own shop:

# You get a strong, professional presence

# You can add your own branding and banner

# Payment systems are integrated to allow you to easily manage the financial aspects of your business

# Sales categories and listing systems are organized in a straightforward way, making it easy to manage your online store

# You can set up an 'About me' page to enable you to build trust and a relationship with your customers and tailor your sales messages

# You get a variety of layout, presentation, image and listings options which help you to give your store a more customized look and feel

# You can redirect your domain name - something like www.my-great-store.com - to your eBay page, so that if you decide to get your own standalone online shop in the future, your customers already know where to find you.

How to sell on eBay: Build a good reputation

To create a successful business, you need a steady flow of repeat customers and a good reputation.

eBay.co.uk has a built-in feedback system and if you nurture and respect this by working hard towards getting good feedback scores, you'll soon establish yourself as a good person to do business with ... you might even become a 'Powerseller' and get the associated benefits.

To do this sellers must 'consistently sell a significant volume of items, maintain a 98% positive feedback rating and provide a high level of service to their buyers.'

Getting the stock for your eBay shop

Once you've got your online store, how do you make sure it's well stocked with attractive items.

You've really got three options here:

# You're a seller of hard goods with a physical store who also sells online ... in which case you have the stock already

# You're building a home internet business and you're happy to hold your own stock in your house or garage ... in which case you'll have your suppliers and stock set up already

# You're running a home internet business and you don't want to carry stock ... and in this case you need to know about drop shipping.

Drop shipping is a process whereby you advertise goods which are held by a third party. You take a commission when those goods are sold, but you don't actually hold stock and you simply pass on buyer details to the supplier.

The drop shipper even sends the items, with you taking the profit between the wholesale and the retail price.

How to sell on eBay: The disadvantages

There is absolutely no doubt that many people have done extremely well out of eBay and they continue to do so.

What though if the site were to fall out of fashion - by unfavourably changing its commission structure or just by being usurped by a better system?

It's not too hard to imagine somebody coming up with an auction system that integrates beautifully with a social networking site like Facebook ... and before you know it, eBay is old news.

In addition, you always have to pay fees to eBay and if you compare these with the costs of hosting your own online store, they can be pretty high.

Essentially, you are just an eBay employee, working on their behalf to bring in consistent commissions ... you don't own your traffic, it belongs to them.

If you're serious about building a long term home internet business, I'd always recommend that you own your own traffic and build a website with a dedicated domain name from the ground upwards.

You can find out more about this technique by downloading the free ebook above.

Other ways of creating an online store

Learning how to sell on eBay is not your only option when you decide to set up and operate an online store, here are 5 alternative options:

1) A company like softbizscripts.com will provide you with the software to make your own fully-featured ecommerce store for less than $100.

2) Mr Site Professional (PC/Mac) is a simple and straightforward software program that will allow you to set up an online store with a secure payments area.

3) Site Build It! not only helps you to build your online store, it also focuses on the process of bringing in customers. This is crucial to the success of your store of course ... no customers = no sales.

4) Use Zen Cart or another free, Open Source store builder such as CubeCart or osCommerce.

5) Start simple with ei42.com and opt for an online store which requires absolutely no technical knowledge on your part and which provides all the support materials you need - for free.

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