As I said at beginning of this article, if you are getting fed up of doing eBay 'thing' or if you just don't fancy idea to start with, there is a wealth of alternative opportunities available online. My own solution was to get rid of one aspect of eBay trading that I didn't enjoy - packing and shipping - and start to produce and sell digital products which could be delivered to customer automatically. I still have to write sales pages and build websites, I still have to deal with emails etc but I don't have to handle any physical products (neither do I have to deal with payment collection because that too can be handled automatically by software).

Of course my products are very relevant to eBay sellers and indeed, there are numerous individuals and companies out there that have made a fortune off back of eBay without ever having sold a single product on auction site. I am sure that there are numerous other problems that eBay users have that could be solved with a new piece of software or a particular service and if idea takes off, there are 135 million registered users on eBay to market to!

eBay provides a wonderful opportunity for hundreds of thousands of people but it isn't for everyone and if you find yourself frustrated/bored with same old routine everyday, start to look for something outside of eBay world.

Message of Value – Many times there are things that you do that don’t get communicated. Extra that you provide or services you think should be included. Your positioning might just rest in more effectively communicating what you do. I know an office furniture dealer that has adopted message – We Make Your Business More Valuable – to communicate all things they bring to party. Now, everything they do is focused on delivering on that statement. Everyone else in industry sells furniture.

Unique habit – I know a financial planner who has his client’s car detailed right out in his parking lot when they come in for their annual review. They can't help but rave to their friends about this unique touch.

Guarantee – Can you offer a guarantee so strong that no one else in your industry would dream of doing it. This one frightens some people but, you probably guarantee your work anyway, you just don’t say so. Come out and boldly announce that you guarantee results and watch what happens!

Customer Service – Everyone knows story of over top customer service provided by Nordstrom’s Create your own over top customer response system and word of mouth advertising will flow liberally. One of greatest ways to kick this off is to over deliver on your first customer contact. Give them something more than you promised, give them a gift, give them a related service for free.

Against competition – Many times you can create your category niche by looking for holes in offerings of your competitors. If every one in industry fails to address a certain problem, boldly grab on to solving that problem and use your competition as point of difference.

Clues to uncovering your difference

Look at your current clients. What common elements exist among your best clients? Interview your clients. See if they can tell you why they chose to work with, why they stay, why they refer? Study your competitors more closely. What do they do that you could do better, what don’t they offer they you could, how do they position themselves?

Communicate difference

Once you find your chosen strategy or combination of strategies to differentiate your business, all of your advertising and promotion should be centered around shouting about that difference.

Commit to it, stay at it and resist temptation to wander off in next new direction. Building a brand, and that’s what I’m talking about, takes time and patience. The payoff, however, is what differentiates winners from losers in this big marketing game.