You may be thinking I already have an Ebay account, or I don't need your advice for starting an Ebay account. It is as easy as signing up.
If this is what you are thinking, please read further. If you have already thought of everything I am going to share with you here, then you are that much ahead of the game. If not, you can save yourself some grief by at least considering the information below.
READ ON.....
Even if you have an existing account, now maybe the perfect opportunity to open a new one. Most people start selling under an account they currently have. This is not the best choice.
You need to plan your Ebay business with your future in mind. The goal of most Ebay sellers is to eventually open a website to begin selling outside of Ebay. While this maybe more than a year away, it is important to setup your Ebay account to promote your future website right from the start.
Most of us start Ebay accounts for the purpose of buying or selling a few items around the house. Most of us didn't start our first account planning on starting a major business or using it to eventually promote our own website. Most of us choose a user id that is easy for us to remember. While that maybe okay for a personal account, it is not the best idea for your business account.
Think ahead! What is your business going to be called? If or when you eventually open a website, what is the domain name of the business going be?
If you are going to be selling DVD's, I'd come up with a business name that includes your primary product in the title. The name of your business can include anything from your name, geographic location, or anything you choose. Some examples are California DVD, Jennys DVD, Dollar DVD, 1 Cent CD, etc.
Once you know your business name, you can open your new Ebay account. If your business is going to be called California DVD, the perfect User ID for your new Ebay account will obviously be CaliforniaDVD.
The reasons are obvious. Once you are an established seller moving lots of product on Ebay, some of your customers will want to order product directly from your website. If you named your user id after your business, you'll be easy to find.
A LESSON FROM EBAY'S LARGEST DVD SELLER...
Take Ebay's biggest seller jayandmarie. This seller moves tens of thousands of CD's and DVD's a month. If one of his customers wanted to find his website outside of Ebay, the obvious guess would be jayandmarie.com .
You may be thinking, this doesn't apply to me. I don't have any plans of starting a website. My advice is don't limit yourself.You have no idea where your business will be in 1 year from now. It is much better to plan ahead. Besides that, unless your current account has 1000's of feedback, you have nothing to loose by starting a new account.
You may also be thinking, I'll keep my existing account and just change the name. This may or may not be an acceptable alternative. The main drawback to changing your name is the icon ebay will place next to your user id letting the whole world know you just changed your identity. For some reason, bidders will avoid your items while that icon is next to your name. Your sales will drop tremendously for the few weeks that it is in place.
If you are determined to keep your existing account, and don't plan on selling anything for a few weeks, then changing your name may be an alternative. For everyone else, please follow step one below.
WHY IS THIS THE FIRST STEP...
I recommend starting a new account for your first step, so you will have time to establish the account while you are researching suppliers. You are going to need shipping supplies to ship your products. Purchase them with your new account! It will give you the perfect opportunity to build your account feedback.
There are so many things you can do with this account to build your feedback while you are busy getting your business going. If you are low on cash, use your new account to sell some items around the house. If you are like the rest of us, there are plenty of things of value laying around that are no longer used.
STARTING A NEW ACCOUNT IS EASY...
CLICK ON THE EBAY LINK BELOW. It will take you to the Ebay Home Page. From there, you'll see "Hello Sign In or Register" near the top of the page. Just click register and follow the instructions to setup your new account.
If you don't see, "Hello Sign In or Register" at the top of the page, but see something similar to "Hello Your Current User Id", then you need to click "sign out". Then you can click on the picture below and will be taken back to the Ebay website where you will see "Hello Sign In or Register" at the top of the page like the rest of us.
Besides affiliate marketing, the most profitable home business is an eBay affiliate business. But don't dive into it right away without some basic knowledge of how the the business works. Believe me, if you don't have some basic understanding of how eBay works you will drown. Buy a book that gives you the basics on how to get started. There are many good books on the subject so you have a good selection to choose from. Otherwise, there are some very good articles on the internet written by eBay experts. All you need to do is go on any search engine and in the search box type "ebay how to profit" or "ebay business" and a number of results will show up. You can also go to any article directory such as Article City or any ezine directory and in the search box type ebay. A list of articles will then show up.
The Benefits of Running a Business on eBay
Targeted Traffic. People searching on the internet who are specifically looking for a product that is on your website would be directed to a landing page featuring your eBay store or auction page. Because the name EBay is branded you have a huge advantage. Who hasn't heard of eBay?
Millions hit eBay websites. 79 million searches conducted daily on eBay will certainly enhance your online marketing campaign. Listing on eBay will save you on traditional advertising giving you huge savings.
There are communities and discussion forums and it is to your advantage to get involved. There is such a large community of other eBay affiliates helping each other out. You can get a wealth of information from those forums even with some seasoned pros contributing to the community.
Learn from successful people. As a partner you are provided with a variety of free tools and support to get your business off to a good start. In 1995 10,000 people traded goods. Now, eBay has more than 135 million registered users and ½ a million are making a full or part time living as affiliates. In 2004, statistics indicated eBay's annual gross merchandise sales exceeded $34 billion and $1.2 million of that was in the business and industrial categories. Getting started is quite simple and eBay has a step by step guide to help you become successful. This is crucial for beginners. You gain access to many tools and strategies that will optimize running your website, its effectiveness with the search engines and on the internet. You have access to their learning centre at anytime. Your success is their success. It's the perfect win-win situation. eBay is constantly evolving to match the world of e-commerce. As partners you both succeed. What a perfect business partnership. Some affiliate partners make up to $25,000.00 per month. But this didn't happen overnight. It took work to build up a business that would generate that type of income. Some people will have the time and energy to devote more time to their business so that they start to generate an income. Everyone is different so your results will be unique to you.
So to recap:
eBay is a brand name that you as an affiliate would be partnered with.
You are provided with a large variety of free tools and support to help you succeed making your business more profitable and efficient.
Targeted Traffic. Millions of people hit eBay websites and there is something for everyone.
You have a large community of other affiliates, some of them being seasoned pros.
Getting started is easy and eBay has a step by step plan to get you off to a good start. Here's to your success.
Both Brent Crouch & Sudesh Kumar are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Brent Crouch has sinced written about articles on various topics from About Branding, Shopping and Football. Brent is the owner of . He has spent the last 3 years teaching others how he took his startup business to over 1.5 Million Dollars in reven. Brent Crouch's top article generates over 6600 views. to your Favourites.