As the world's premier auction site, and though in constant competition with Yahoo! Auctions, eBay is a great place to start a home business, earn some extra spending money, or a lot of money, all the while selling things in your home, garage and through wholesale distributors.

All that you basically need to make money on eBay is a computer, an e-commerce site (which you can create in eBay) and a working knowledge of how online auctions generally work. With the eBay marketing program, people just wanting to clean out their homes or those serious about starting a small home business selling various products and earning small or large amounts of cash, eBay is a great place to start.

Using the tools offered through eBay's web site, individuals can start selling in as little as ten minutes. General information for creating an eBay account or starting your own eBay Seller Storefront is offered in the various "How-To" sections of the website. So whether you're selling electronic equipment, collectibles, jewelry, clothing or vintage Barbie dolls, you can definitely learn how to make money on eBay by following a few simple steps.

? Take the time to browse through eBay and see what types of items people are bidding on or selling. You can perform a search to see how many listings may be found in various categories, such as electronics, clothing, games and so forth.

You can also find popular items being sold at other auction sites by doing a Google search on your favorite search engine. If you're a collector of any type of item and you want to start selling, or if you want to know what types of products are sold most frequently on not only eBay but also other auction sites, take the time to perform a thorough search.

While you want to offer what people are buying, you also want to find something that's a little different than the items 555 other people are selling online. There are oodles of selling opportunities in eBay, but in order to generate sales, you must know the public demand for various products. This is the best way to make money on eBay, and not just break even.

? Check out the eBay Site Map. This page lists numerous categories for sellers and buyers as well as tutorials on how to bid, list an item, build a store and address shipping and insurance issues.

Another great method to earning money through eBay is to add affiliate links to a personal website or a friend's website that will direct them to eBay storefronts. This is a proven commerce resource that can earn you extra cash to help pay for minimal product listing fees on eBay.

Monthly store fees and listing fees can be written off as a business expense on your income taxes if you're serious about learning how to make money on eBay, so keep receipts and packing and shipping expense lists for your end of the year bookkeeping efforts. Generate extra income, have fun selling and most of all, make money online with eBay.