Getting Started on EBay

eBay is hands down the largest online market place. With a presence in 39 countries and more than 84.5 million active members worldwide – it’s a great place to build your business.

How much can you make on eBay? Well according to data released by eBay the total value of items sold in 2007 was just under $60 billion. Doing the math that comes out to more than $1900 per second. With more than 50,000 categories your products can surely be represented on eBay and your profits can certainly grow. Let’s take a look at how to make it happen.

Steps to Get Started

Getting started on eBay is easy and can be broken down into several steps. All your information is saved so if you need to spread the process out over a couple of days, it’s no problem.

#1 Registering your account: Visit eBay.com and click on ‘register’. Enter your information including your user id. It’s free to get started.

#2 Investigate your surroundings: Once you’re registered you have access to all the sellers, including your competition. Search for sellers in your industry, investigate their stores and take a look at how various store owners position themselves.

Note that there are three different levels of store, Basic, Premium, and Anchor. Each store offers a variety of features including, logo, promotion boxes, store description, categories, search box, categories and gallery view. Check out how your competition optimizes keywords and positions themselves in the market.

#3 What store level do you need?: As stated above, there are three store levels. The Basic Store begins at $15.95 per month. A Premium Store runs $49.95 a month and an Anchor Store, designed for high volume sales and 5000 listings a day, runs $299.95 per month. Not to worry if you’re uncertain about which size store to choose, you can begin with a basic store and upgrade as your business grows.

#4 Building your store: Now the fun starts! Pages you’ll want to include in your store are your about us page, your home page, and of course your listings and catalog page. You can also add a policies page, FAQ, and any additional information necessary for your particular products – a buying guide or size chart for example.

To make your store really stand out, consider utilizing the eBay design services or investing in a predesigned store or customizable template.

#5 Drive traffic to your store: eBay offers a wealth of marketing tools and resources including email marketing, a basic store offers 100 email newsletters a month. You also have keyword tools and resources, business cards, flyers and other print material design help, advertising programs and cross promotion features all to help build your business and drive traffic to your store.

eBay is an outstanding resource for internet marketers. Where else can motivated entrepreneurs have access to millions of customers from around the world and all the tools and resources they need to grow their business? Visit eBay and get started building your store today.