The eBay business model is one of the greatest success stories there is. eBay used the simple concept of just bringing together buyers and sellers on a one-to-one basis in a worldwide marketplace to form a trading community. A successful model? Absolutely. It started in 1995 under the name AuctionWeb in California and was sold for billions just three years later in 1998 when it went public.



These facts about the eBay business model make fascinating reading:

This year over 2 billions items will be listed for sale.

Daily thousands join the already registered 200 million users.

Transactions to the value of $400 billion have been made since eBay started.

$50 billion dollars are now spent each year which averages out to $100,000 per minute.

Half of all persons who use the internet visit the eBay site at least once in a month.

eBay has over 2 million visitors a day.

and lastly, many people from all walks of life, from different cultures and backgrounds, have taken hold of the eBay business model and transformed their financial situation, allowing them to live in ways they could only dream about. Having achieved financial freedom, men and women can now work from home and pursue other goals in life which are meaningful and worthwhile to them.

Is it any wonder then that there continues to be huge interest in the eBay business model? Could it be for you? Have you ever wondered about starting an eBay business? As stated before, the concept is simple. Buyer meets seller. A price is agreed upon and the transaction carried out. To make a profit simply get products at a lower price and then sell them at a higher price. That's it.

However, although the concept is simple, creating a successful eBay business model for yourself is not so straightforward. There are pitfalls and dangers to avoid. There are certain methods and principles you need to employ. All of this requires time and effort to learn and practice. There are numerous resources on the net that can give you a good education. (See resource box)

Here is one eBay strategy that is overlooked and very few are actually doing this. It revolves around the misspelling of item descriptions. From the millions of items that are put up for sale, there are always a number of mistakes made in the listings. Perhaps the seller just rushed to put the item up and didn't check the spelling. The seller may not speak English as a first language so they may not even realize the item is spelled wrong in the title or description.

How can this factor be utilized? If the item is not spelled accurately, it is unlikely it is being found by many people. This means few bids, and generally low bids. By searching out and identifying these items, a low bid can be made and the item acquired for a lower than normal price. It can then be resold at a higher price, with of course, the accurate spelling in the title and description.

There are even free services available that will check out misspellings for you. Particularly prone to misspellings are unusual sounding brand names. For example, the name Ericsson, for the mobile phone manufacturer, is sometimes misspelled as Ericson with one s, or even Ercsson, and there are many other variations. Just type 'ebay misspellings' in your search engine to locate these free services for research.

Using this lesser known method, you can find quite large differences in price with the same items selling on eBay. If you are a bargain hunter, look out for misspellings and incorporate this untapped goldmine into your eBay business model.

How the eBay business model developed makes for a very interesting read. Beyond satisfying your curiosity however, you may want to examine it further with a view to establishing a second income stream for yourself. It is good to have a financial plan with ways and means of adding more income streams in view of the uncertainty of the times on the global economic front. The eBay business model may just be the opportunity you are looking for.

Copyright (c) 2009 Michael A Jones