Auction Information

5 Ways to Drive Traffic Away from Your EBay Auction


eBay is a one-stop solution to any one who wants to make money online. Whether you just selling a few unwanted items from around your house or your want to develop a work from home business, eBay removes many of the obstacles for you. Not many other websites can help you drive targeted traffic towards your sales, process the order on your behalf and accept payment though paypal. All you need to do then is dispatch the item to your winning bidder.

And let's not forget the biggest advantage over selling on eBay. The majority of users have money in their hand just waiting to find the right item.

So if eBays so great why would you want to drive traffic AWAY from your auctions?

Well there are a few reasons why you'd be better off selling from your own website, rather than though eBay. Firstly & most importantly, think of all the listing fees & final value fees you could save if everything you sold on eBay you could sell on your own website. Personally it would save me thousands of dollars per year alone in listing fees.

Secondly, you'll be protecting yourself from eBay policy change. Imagine you were selling thousands of ebooks weekly and then suddenly eBay policy changed to prevent any ebook listings.

Overnight your business would simply disappear & your income would vanish. It's the same with listing fees - A sudden hike in fees could wipe out your business & profit overnight.

With any business, especially an online one you need to safeguard yourself against measures that are out of your control. So by driving traffic away from your auctions to your own website you'll slowly start building up an alternative source of revenue. The following methods can be used on eBay. Some are on the borderline of eBay policy & you should check out any policy violation before using them. Saying that, a huge proportion of sellers use these on a daily basis.

1) Image Hosting

All the best sellers have auction templates developed to maintain a professional listing. And of course those sellers ALWAYS use images or graphics to accurately show the condition of the items their offering.

eBay itself allows you to upload the images to their servers, other commercial & free services are available. However really you want to store any images on your own server. Not only will search engine robots follow the links from your listings to your site (helping in improved visibility in any search engines), but many browsers will show the address of where the images are loading from in the status bar - For instance "Loading Image From http://www.visitmyshop.com" or "Waiting For http://www.visitmyshop.com". This is a great way for your visitors to see to become familiar with your site.

2) Feedback

Many sellers include their own website in the feedback comments they use. Strictly it is against eBay policy but many Powersellers use comments like "Thanks for your custom from http://www.Visitmyshop.com" as standard. This is perhaps one of the widely violated policies on eBay. I've never known of anyone receive a warning for this policy, but use it with caution as you could be the first.

3) Email Address.

eBay allows your listings to contain one email link address, in addition to the "Ask The Seller A Question Link" they already provide. Use the opportunity to show the an email account associated with your domain name for example sales@visitmyshop.com. The only condition about showing your email address is the one shown must also be your registered email account with eBay. Before you list it, make sure they match up.

4) About Me Page

eBay actually allows you to link to your own website from your About Me page, as long as the actual page does not directly offer to sell items. Therefore make it an information or about us page that you link to, BUT one where visitors can easily navigate to your catalog of items for sale. Additionally drive traffic to your About Me Page by including a link on every listings, for example "Click here to learn about me". An average basic shop on eBay will get over 1500 item views within a month. If you can drive just a small proportion of these to your about me page & then to your site you'll certainly see a difference in your non-eBay sales.

5) User Id

While eBay does not allow your user id to be that of an website, you should have it as closely to resembling your site name as possible. You CAN NOT attach .com, -com or *com to the end of your user id - this is strictly against eBay policy. However nothing would stop your id being VisitMyShop. The idea is to get your eBay visitors comfortable with dealing with you away from eBay.

I hope these tips help you drive traffic away from your auctions towards your site & lessens eBays grip on your business. Remember, Ignorance is not an excuse eBay accept if you do violate their policy. While you initially get a warning for policy violation continuous offences may result in your account being suspended. Having said that, eBay mostly rely on policing from other users to enforce their policy so as long as no reports you should be in the clear.

Good luck with your eBay activity.

Copyright 2005 Auction Resource Network

Jason James is a 10 year Internet marketing veteran and an eBay Power Seller of 4 years. His website "The Auction Resource Network" reveals his inside secrets and sources that help him pocket over $10,000 a month on eBay.

Get your FREE 14 Day "eBay Secrets" eCourse here: http://www.auctionresourcenetwork.com


MORE RESOURCES:

Tepid jewelry auctions show wealthy holding back
Reuters - 7 hours ago
Rene Weber of the Swiss bank Vontobel said the unusually sober auctions showed economic jitters have begun to affect the spending and shopping patterns of ...


In need of cash, states auction goods online
BusinessWeek - 1 hour ago
Like most other states, New York also holds traditional auctions off-line for vehicles and equipment and had brought in $3.5 million by the end of October. ...


Extraordinary Art Auctions in Italy for Design, Modern and ...
MarketWatch - 11 hours ago
Two catalogues will be published for these auctions in Italy. The first, devoted to Design, contains about 165 lots made between the 40s and 70s. ...


London Auctions of All Things Russian
Wall Street Journal - 11 hours ago
By LLECTING MARGARET STUDER RUSSIAN SALES dominate the coming week at London auction houses as paintings, royal Fabergé, imperial silver, porcelain and ...
Faberge, Wealthy Russians Face Tests at London Auctions Bloomberg
all 3 news articles


Industrial Online Auction Company AssetNation, Inc. Formed
MarketWatch - 10 hours ago
Each site's home page will feature listings and tabbed browsing for auctions closing soon, the most active auctions and the newest auctions posted to the ...


Galleries wonder whether fair will draw collectors
CNNMoney.com - 4 hours ago
Sluggish sales at recent auctions in New York may be a sign that the years where collectors paid exorbitant prices for high art are over. ...
Roundup of events during Art Basel Miami Beach San Jose Mercury News
all 25 news articles


US company auctions 300000 UN carbon credits
Reuters - Nov 20, 2008
Phil Adams, president and chief operating officer of World Energy, said that auctions allow sellers to get the best price they seek because brokers ...


ABC News

The painful consequences of abandoning asset auctions
Economist, UK - Nov 20, 2008
Holders of toxic mortgage-backed securities had pinned their hopes on the American government’s plan to buy large piles of the stuff through auctions as ...
Fox Biz Anchor 'Frustrated' by Misuse of TARP Business Media Institute
More Evidence Of TARP Error istockAnalyst.com (press release)
Volte-face Structured Credit Investor (registration)
Sovereign Society
all 260 news articles


GeoCities 2.0 auctions self on eBay
Register, UK - 1 hour ago
In the summer of 2006, at the height of the digerati's Web 2.0 frenzy, social networking startup Kiko.com sold itself on eBay. ...


African Tea Prices Post Biggest Fall in 4 Years (Update1)
Bloomberg - 16 hours ago
The weekly auctions sell tea from most African producers excluding South Africa and countries in west Africa. Tea is also sold at auctions in Colombo, ...
African Tea Prices Fall 14 Percent at Weekly Auction in Kenya Bloomberg
all 3 news articles

Auctions - Google News

home | site map
© 2006