5 WAYS TO DRIVE TRAFFIC AWAY FROM YOUR EBAY

5 WAYS TO DRIVE TRAFFIC AWAY FROM YOUR EBAY
AUCTION
by: jason james
copyright 2009 auction resource network

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.

about the author:
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

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