How to market your eBay store or listings on the internet - for FREE
By Suzanne Wells /eBay Power Seller
Are you getting the word out about your business on the internet? You don't have to know all about meta tags, SEO (search engine optimization) or RSS feeds (although it never hurts to learn) to drive traffic to your eBay listings. Here are some fun, free, EASY ways to do it:
Participate on message boards outside of eBay. Find other forums with people who use these types of products you sell, and interact with them. For example, if you collect baseball cards, find some forums where you can chat with other collectors. Include the link to your eBay store on your posts. Listen to what others say, you might learn something new.
Write your own blog. There are many free sites where you can start your own blog. Again, if you have knowledge in a certain area Anything really, start a blog and talk about it. You can post a link to your store or specific products that you sell. Most importantly, your blog posts will come up on search engines. You can go on the internet and use material that others post – I often use quotes from Entrepreneur Magazine and Business Week. Just be sure to give credit to the author and publication if you use someone elses work.
People find my eBay store all the time thru my blog. I've gotten job offers and requests for interviews from visitors to my blog. Use popular key words in your blog titles so that the search engines will pick up on them and your posts will come up in searches. For examples, my blog is about selling on eBay. Some of my posts are titled:
How to sell children's clothes on eBay
Where to find products to sell on eBay
Learn to sell on eBay
Participate in Yahoo Answers. If you aren't familiar with it, Yahoo Answers is a forum where people post questions and want real answers from real people. Portray yourself as an expert in your field – post intelligent, informative answers and include a link to your store or blog. People will come to you for more information. You can even post answers to questions about every day things – parenting, gardening, cooking, whatever you like. There are thousands of new questions posted every day. It is a great place to share information and help other people. And you will never go wrong helping others – it will come back to you.
Encourage your eBay customers to sign up for your newsletter. eBay Selling Manager has a feature where you can use their templates to create newsletters to send to your customers. Email marketing is now the #1 way to reach people. Even if they don't rush right over to your store and buy something, you are getting your name in front of them and they'll remember you. Think about the sales ads you get in your mailbox. You may not buy from JC Penney every time you make a purchase, but Penney’s sure doesn't let you forget about them. Keep your name in front of your customers and advertise seasonal specials, shipping specials, whatever you want. And ASK your customers to sign up for your newsletter. They might not know that they can. If you don't ask, you don't get. Build that newsletter list – it can be a very valuable tool. Think about it – even if you add one person a day, which would be 365 people a year that you can market to with just the click of your mouse.
Happy Selling!
