If you think eBay might be a good place to make some extra cash, then you're right. With 157 million shoppers, and 100,000 new users each day, eBay is a hot market. It is an excellent place for potential sellers of all experience levels to quickly and inexpensively set up shop. The user-friendly environment makes it a great place for the budding entrepreneur to learn the ropes while taking very little financial risk.



This article will provide tips and warnings of potential pitfalls that will assist you in setting up your eBay seller account. Following these instructions will lay a solid foundation for the long-term success of your new eBay venture.

Setting up Your Seller Account

There are two important things you should consider prior to setting up your eBay seller account. The first is what email address you will use, and the second is what your User ID will be.

You should avoid using a free email address for your account if at all possible. The best solution is to use an email address on your own domain, the second best solution is one with your internet service provider (ISP), and the final and lest favorable solution is to use a free email address such as hotmail, yahoo mail, or gmail. I recommend using separate email addresses on the same domain for your eBay and PayPal accounts (we'll talk about PayPal later). This will help you keep your auction and payment communications separate.

You should think carefully about your User ID prior to registering with eBay. You are going to want to brand yourself in a way that your customers remember and recognize you. Your eBay User ID is an important element of the branding process. You are free to change your User ID later, however this is not advisable if you can avoid it. Changing your User ID may result in your customers not being able to find your auctions later.

When selecting your brand or User ID, you should consider what you will be selling and what image you want to present to your customers. If you already have another business that your eBay business will tie into, then you will want your eBay User ID to reflect that. In that case your ID should probably be your existing business name, or an abbreviated version of it.

If you will be selling primarily collectibles, then your eBay User ID should reflect that in some way. If your focus is cheap items in general, then your ID should emphasize cheap (my first eBay User ID was 99_cent_guy, and all of my auctions started at 99 cents). If you're going to specialize in college textbooks, then your ID should indicate that in some way. Ensuring that your User ID reflects what you sell will assist greatly in ensuring that existing and potential customers are able to find you when they want to purchase what you are selling.

The use of website addresses (URLs) and email addresses in eBay User IDs is prohibited. I have personally found a way around this by using an asterisk before and after the URL (*www.yourwebsitehere.com*), however doing this could result in eBay requiring a change to the User ID.