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You Sell On eBay And You Don't Have Your Own Website? Are You Crazy?
Whether you sell items on eBay as a hobby or for a part timeincome or even if you earn a full time living on eBay, nothaving a Website of your own to augment your eBay sales is likethrowing money down the drain.Look at it this way.Lets say that over a 10 day auction, 200 people visit your eBaySales Page and one of those visitors buys your item.Then what?What do your 200 visitors do now? Where do they go?Well, if your not directing them to another buying opportunitythen you have probably lost them for ever.Now, if you had a Website that promoted products similar tothose that you sell on eBay, you would be able to direct them tothat site and give them another opportunity to make a purchase.And it's so easy to do!On your eBay Sales Page you place a link to your AboutMe Page.On your AboutMe Page you add a link to your Website.eBay wont tolerate you sending visitors to a Website from yourSales Page, but they are perfectly happy for you to directvisitors to your AboutMe Page.eBays's policy on the use of the AboutMe Page is that you candirect visitors to a Website outside of eBay as long as thatsite provides further information on the item you are auctioningor selling.More information about eBay's AboutMe Page and Sales Pages canbe found at http://pages.ebay.com/services/index.html. So, lets go through a brief scenario!Let's suppose that your selling "How To" CDs and DVDs on eBay.You set up your Sales Page for a particular "How To" CD or DVD .Let's assume in this example that it's a CD or DVD that teachespeople "How To Grow Award Winning Roses".After describing the DVD you would add a line or two to yourSales Page explaining that the visitor can find out more aboutgardening "How To DVDs" by visiting your AboutMe Page . Then youwould include a link that will take them to your AboutMe Page.It's a good idea to include this information at the beginning,middle and end of your Sales Page. AboutMe PageOk. So you've set up your AboutMe Page to briefly describe someof your other product titles.You could include an opt-in form here to help build your mailinglist. You would definitely include a link to your Website.Hopefully your eBay Sales Page has done it's job and you havesold the "Award Winning Roses" DVD at a good profit.But what about those visitors that didn't buy? All 199 of themin this example.Perhaps that particular DVD wasn't quite what they were lookingfor....
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...Not to worry!You have offered those visitors an alternative and some willvisit your AboutMe Page to see what other products you have,Some will click on your link and visit your Website.Some of these visitors to your Website will see products thatthey are interested in and buy.Even if this only happens with 2 out of your 200 visitors youwill have made more money than you would have done if you didn'thave a Website. WEBSITES and DOMAIN NAMES How do I get a Website?It couldn't be any simpler to get your own Domain Name andWebsite than it is nowadays.WYSIWYG You could go for a WYSIWYG EDITOR (What You See Is WhatYou Get) site builder where you fill in the "blanks" with yourinformation. See www.ephox.com/default.asp for a WYSIWYG EditorLEADING EDGE EDITORS You could use one of the leading edge brandproducts such as Dreamweaver at www.macromedia.com or MicroSoftFrontPage at www.microsoft.com/frontpage/.DIY CODING You could learn to write HTML (Hypertext Mark UpLanguage)if you wanted to. A good tutorial can be found atwww.htmlgoodies.com/.A good HTML Editor can be found athttp://www.evrsoft.com/1stpage2.shtml (this is what I use andit's free).OUT SOURCE You could pay someone else to do it for you and agood place to find someone is www.elance.com/ DOMAIN NAMES You will want to choose and register your ownDomain Name.A word of warning here. Don't use a free hosting account foryour Website.You will not be able to use your own domain name and if you wantyour business to look professional and be taken seriously youmust have your own Domain Name.You can buy a unique Domain Name for as little as $8.00 per yearand you can find out if the name you want is available bycarrying out a search at most hosting sites for exampleNamecheap at www.namecheap.com HOSTING There are many hosting sites to choose from and asearch on your favourite search engine will bring up many.The most important thing here is that you get what you pay for.By now, most people are aware of free web space. I'm all forgetting something for nothing but a time may come when youchoose to promote products or services belonging to you and thisis where the need for you to own your own Website becomesparamount.A Website belonging to you is a must if your business is to betaken seriously. WHAT WILL IT COST Website hosting can cost from nothing toupwards of hundreds of dollars but I would suggest that a gooda...
...erage fee would be about $20.00 a month for Hosting.The monthly fee will largely be dependent on what services andoptional extra's you need, my advice would be to start out withan inexpensive package and upgrade when you need to - butremember, you "get what you pay for".If you think that you may need technical help, or you might havequestions that you need answering, be sure to pick a hostingcompany that can provide that level of support. You will have to decide how important this is to you.My minimum requirements of a hosting company would be one thatbacked up it's servers on a daily basis (that way my preciousinformation is protected) and provided secure server access sothat my customer's details such as credit card details etc werekept confidential. FREE WEB HOSTING SERVICES Why pay for hosting when there are somany free Websites?The main problem with free Website providers is that you willnot be able to use a Domain Name belonging to you, and as wehave already discovered, your very own Domain Name is a must ifyou are considering running a business on the Internet.Other problems are:1) Unreliability:Your Website could be off-line for days or even weeks.Complaining won't do much good; you're not paying anything forit after all.2) Short life span:Free sites are notorious for closing down after a few months andall of your hard work disappears along with them.3) Other people advertising:Your Web Host will earn money from putting other peoples adds onyour site, something which you have no control over.Do you enjoy visiting Websites that bombard you withadvertisements that are not relevant to your needs and then sendyou off to another site just when you think you have finished?I don't think so and neither will your visitors.I've said it before and I'll say it again. We all like something for nothing.But, in the long run, when it comes to promoting your businessvia "your" WebPages, you're better of paying.My advice, if you're really serious about owning a BusinessWebsite, be prepared to spend about $14.00 per month on hosting. So.Don't let the visitors to your eBay auctions pass you by!1. Get your Domain Name2. Decide how your site will be created.3. Get a Hosting Account.4. Enjoy all that extra money you will be making.For further information on modifying your ebay Sale Page andAboutMe Page including the HTML coding required visitwww.ebayvisitorvalue.com
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