Busy Week

It’s been a busy week on EBay and my website, sales have been going well. I’m especially pleased with the ever growing sales from my website. My SEO is paying off. I’m constantly working at promoting my site using classic SEO strategies and they are working, I’m seeing more and more regular visitors and what’s even better is that they are buying. The real beauty of having your own site is that when you make a sale you get to keep all the profits, no feebay to take a chunk of it.

In the long term having your own site is what you should be aiming for. You can use eBay to drive traffic to it. When I make a sale on eBay I can then contact the customer and give them details of my site. This is when the real promotion begins. With each sale I get the full details of the customer. These details are logged in a database which I can use to send monthly offers to.

This growing list of customers is a gold mine. It doesn’t take long to build a large list up. You can soon get the lists into the thousands and then begin marketing to them monthly. Think about it, if you have a list for arguments sake of 1000 customers and you mail them some offers, if 5% take it up that’s 50 sales instantly.

By examining the customer’s buying habits you can target specific products to them. You already have the priceless advantage that the customer already knows you and trusts you. It’s a well known fact in marketing that it is easier to sell to a past customer than a new one. The list you can build through eBay and your website is valuable to your future success. It will, when it is big enough become a source of regular monthly income and should be guarded.

When I make a sale on eBay it is just the beginning. I then seek to lead the customer to my website with the aim of getting them to use it regularly. It takes time and eBay is essential to the development of a young site. It can be done without eBay but you can promote it much faster by selling on eBay.

It’s a common strategy used by businesses. Many even sell items at cost price just so they can get the name on their list which they will up sell to later. It’s not a strategy I would use. I always price to achieve my margin once all eBay’s fees have been deducted.

I’m going to be spending some time over the next few days adding some new products and ensuring the prices are right on products already listed. You should ensure you factor in all the costs associated with selling on eBay not forgetting PayPal costs before setting your price. I’ve read a few cases of sellers discovering after months of selling that they have not been making a profit because they did not factor in all the fees. Don’t let this happen to you. Until next time….