A growing number of businesses are using auctions to attract a steady stream of customers. By listing on an auction site such as eBay, your business will be exposed to an audience of 22 million people in over 100 countries. But more importantly, it can reach people next door.

The small listing fees are a small price to pay for kind of exposure you get, especially on granddaddy of all auction sites, eBay. There are small businesses out there that get 80% or more of their sales from eBay.

And not all of sales happen on eBay - you can use your "About Me" page to drive traffic back to your web site. Then you can get your prospect's email address and sell to them directly, saving yourself some listings fees and commissions. And with eBay's feedback system, potential customers can get bona-fide firsthand testimonials from your previous customers.

If you want to sell multiple items, you can set up a Dutch auction. To make sure you earn a profit, you can set a minimum price, known as a reserve price. You can also set a "Buy It Now" price, which allows someone to buy item immediately without waiting for auction to end. And finally, you can set up your own eBay store for as little as $9.95/month.

There are many tips and tricks to eBay auctions -- so many that there are a slew of books and services and software programs just for helping people to manage their bidding and selling activities. Check www.geolocal.com for auction resources.

As far as reaching your local market, major cities are set up as regions on eBay. Consumers can easily search by region and category at http://pages.ebay.com/regional/hub.html -- "eBay Local Trading." This is where people will go if they want to buy something locally, such as furniture or something expensive.

At 5 years old, my kids have a healthy fear of water, and didn't want to get in pool at first. They liked *idea* of learning how to swim, but reality of getting into water up to their necks was scary. They wanted to have their lessons in wading pool. I tried explaining it's a little hard to swim in 12 inches of water, but try reasoning with three 5-year-olds. It was a slow torturous process getting their entire bodies into water. By time they got all way into water first lesson was almost over.

What does this have to do with local online marketing? As I listened to instructor try to coax them into water, it reminded me of conversations I'd had with small business owners about getting onto web.

"C'mon, just stick your feet in."

"See? That's not so bad, is it?"

"Now, let's do little bunny hops down steps. Hop! Hop! Hop!"

Little by little, they got used to being in water. Then, getting their faces wet. After a few lessons, they were jumping off side and having a great time. I had to practically drag them out of water.