One of biggest obstacles to building a successful eBay business may be stiffness of competition. Many sellers sell identical items and price wars often get ugly, but that's to be expected in a free market place, which is exactly what eBay is.

You may be only store in town that's selling that one of a kind, custom made just for you, broke mold after they made it, Dale Earnhart Memorial Bobble Head Action Figure (Earnhart fans would string me up if I called it a Doll), but do a quick search on eBay and you'll probably find a hundred others just like it.

So, can you build a profitable business selling on eBay?

Certainly, thousands of people have done it and so can you.

Here are a few tips to help get you started.

Sell Quality Products Don't sell junk! Leave knick-knacks and fake leather jackets to less informed. You should offer only quality products at a fair price.

Research The Competition Once you have your product in mind, don't invest a dime on inventory until you have spent some time on eBay to see what competition is doing. If you want to sell motorcycle helmets, for example, you should look at current auctions to see how many others are selling similar helmets and what prices they are charging. This step is vital since you may discover that you can't compete with current sellers on price or there is simply no market for what you have to offer.

Start Slowly Many people believe that more items they have for sale on eBay better. They will invest thousands in inventory and spent hundreds on listing fees (yes, eBay charges you to list items for sale and collects a final fee if item sells). Those are folks that usually end up with ten thousand Ginsu knives forever in their garage.

Test, Test, Test A fair portion of eBay auctions result in no sales, so it's best to test waters before jumping in with both feet.

List a few items and see how they sell. If an item doesn't sell, list it at least twice more. Some items might not sell first time, but may second or third, then sell steadily from then on.

If an item gets no bids first time, consider adjusting your price or your terms. If an item sells well, keep it in stock and then experiment with another item.

Do Your Homework eBay is too broad a subject to be covered fully here, but there are a multitude of books available that can help you start an eBay business. In fact, I bet you'll find most of them for sale at this very moment at eBay.

What's my bid…

Here's to your success.

Tim Knox tim@dropshipwholesale.net For information on starting your own online or eBay business, visit http://www.dropshipwholesale.net

4. Pay per click (PPC) search engines - if you wish to generate traffic to your web site immediately, set up a Google Adwords or Overture campaign.

http://payperclicksearchengines.com

Email Marketing

5. Create a newsletter - most folks don't buy from you immediately but need to be contacted several times to put them in buying mood. Place a subscription box on every page of your web site. Send out your newsletter every two weeks to keep in touch with your subscribers. Be sure to include original content (not rehashed content) along with new products you wish to introduce to them.

6. Email Course or tutorial - set up an autoresponder that will deliver quality information over a period of seven days. This means you have multiple chances of contacting your visitor and promote your product or service at same time.

7. Ezine Ads - create an ad for your product and find ezines that cater to your target market. Write several ads and track them until you find one that pulls well.

8. Signature file - include this all your online and offline correspondence. Set up your email client so that it does this automatically each time you send out an email. Include your name, who you are, what your business is about, a way to subscribe to your newsletter, your web site address and your email.

Link strategies

9. Write articles - ezine publishers are always looking for original content. You can include a link back to your web site in your signature file. If several ezine publishers (that may have thousands of subscribers) publish your article, you can get hundreds of links pointing back to your web site.

10. Reciprocal linking - get links from other sites that compliment yours. ie if you just offer web design and someone else offers search engine optimization you could exchange links with each other, thus adding to quality of each of your sites.

11. Forums - offer your help to other forum participants then leave a link back to your site in your signature file. Popular forums are spidered regularly by search engines, thus giving your site a link boost.

12. Offline marketing

Not all your customers are online. Market offline by including your web site information on all stationary ie letterhead, and business cards. Place ads in newspapers, trade publications, send out postcards, fliers and get involved in local organizations such as Chamber of Commerce. You can even set up your own local club or be a guest speaker for others.

Continuously evaluate, test and refine your web site marketing strategies so that you can apply them to any product. These are keys to building a successful online business.