Ebay, Your Website and Boosting Sales

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Use Ebay to help boost your sales and create a comfort zone for your customers. Ebay is a very "sticky" website. People who visit Ebay, browse the site for a long time looking for what they want and any deals they can find. A big reason for this is - trust. Ebay is very particular in their auction standards and policies. Many o­nline businesses do not utilize Ebay and take advantage of the exposure they can get. I am going to list a few tips o­n using Ebay to help boost your sales. When you place your product o­n Ebay for auction using the method I am going to tell you about. You want to sell your item for the SAME price as you do o­n your website. Your aim should be - Send people from Ebay to your website sales page (not the order page, Ebay does not allow this). A typical Ebay auction for this would be to: Set up your Ebay ad Place a link to "read more about this product/service" which will send people to your sales page. Again not a buy now page or order page. Place a note to bid now o­n Ebay. So, in the end you will have the link to your sales page and a link or direction to use a bid now o­n Ebay. Remember, both links will offer the product at the same price. This way, if someone does not want to wait until the auction is over they can get it from your website right away. Plus its good idea to put a reminder for people to read about you o­n your "me" page o­n Ebay. This also helps gain the customers trust. People are more comfortable buying o­n Ebay. There is more credability with Ebay, people can watch the auction and they can see your feedback scores. Plus they have all the buying guarantees that come with buying o­n Ebay. All this greatly increases your chances of making a sale. Two more quick tips when doing this type of selling. 1 - Make sure you set a reserve price for your product if you decide to start bidding low. I personally set bidding low so it draws attention to the auction. But some bidders do not like reserves. So try both and see what works for you. 2- Put a link o­n your sales page back to your Ebay auction for the product. This again gives the customer the comfort of buying through Ebay and will increase your chances of closing the sale. (Just remember to change your link whenever your auction dates change.) By trying this method of selling o­n Ebay , you can gain a boost in sales as well as help brand yourself for your product and get people to visit your website. Give this a try, but remember that how you present your product or service will in the end, determine if you close the deal. ------------------------------------------------------ Author: Jim Hoffman is cofounder of Inet Goodies. A group of internet help sites, dedicated to helping people succeed o­nline through SEO, marketing, hosting and traffic. Visit the flagship site at http://seogoodies.com. Or sign up for a great five part course o­n making money o­nline for newbies. Send an email to mailto:ostorm@pushbuttonresponder.com