So your online auction business is up and running why not build your own ecommerce site!

Although this website is primarily about how to make money selling on ebay, you will find there are ways to supplement your ebay income. Selling on ebay gets your products in front of millions of people who visit ebay every day. That’s a huge audience. But what happens when you decide to start selling stuff on your own? Why would you want to?

Firstly, as already mentioned, ebay gets your products out there. Once your product is out there, you will develop a following. But can you get your customers to follow you all the way to your own website? Of course you can. With a little foresight and a lot of knowledge. I am not suggesting you leave ebay and start out on your own. It’s a bit daunting to go out on your own. Remember leaving the comfort of your parents home to live in a stark dorm room or small apartment?

But have you ever tried going back to live with your parents its a total nightmare

So how do you get your customers to visit your new website? Well ebay prohibits posting your website address on your ebay listings. Why? To prevent your customers from going to your website to buy the same product. If you leave ebay, ebay loses it’s cut of the action. And why would you want to redirect your customers from ebay to your own site?

For exactly the same reason: to bypass having to give ebay a cut of your profit.ebay links policy does however allow you to direct visitor to your about me page and a link from there is totally acceptable so start there.Also send the domain name in all emails to your customers and people that ask questions further drives traffic to your site.

As with most things on the internet its a numbers game the more people come to your site the greater the sales.

Also think about naming your store something .com and then buy the domain name.Over 10% of your customers will be curious enough to type it in the address bar on there browser just to see what comes up.

If you do decide to build your own website, there are so many things to consider. That includes, but is not limited to:

1.) Hosting. Where will you host your site? What type of hosting do i need and what requirements do I have? Linux or Window s??? we strongly advise this host there support is amazing and they really do help you every step of the way

2.) Domain name. Where will you purchase a domain name?same as above

3.) Website creation. How will your website be created? Will you do it yourself, hire another person,(£700 all in ssl 1 years hosting feature packed search engine friendly) or purchase a ready-made, “out of the box” website?

4.) Accepting payments. How to accept payments from customers for your products/services being offered..You will need a payment gateway provider.Paypal is the most well known and the rates are very favourable.Also again telephone suppport plus they are well known the world over allowing new customers to feel safe.

5.) Security. How will you ensure all of the information on your website is protected? Do you need an SSL certificate? For the £15 $30 it cost per year yes

These are the absolute basics to owning your own website. I will not claim to be an expert on the subject. This is all information I learned in the course of the last 2 years that I wish I knew before I started my own ebay business and website. I compiled all of the research and will present it to you here to give something back. If you sell on ebay and your own website, you will have a more work to do, but you will also make more money. Isn’t that the goal?Some ecommerce pakages can link upto ebay therefore making listing creation easier

I will try to post more about my suggestions soon. But for now, I have to tell you the very best decision I’ve made so far with all of my websites has been using eukhost for hosting. They arent the cheapest but just try the live chat at 3 am in the morning and see how quick they reply.I pay for service every time.

 

 

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