eBay® PowerSeller Business Practices FOR DUMMIES®

Chapter 15. Your Web Site: Expanding Beyond eBay

Once you've got the hang of selling on eBay and are successfully running an eBay store, you can start to look into producing an additional revenue stream on other Web sites. With the experience you gain selling on eBay, you can start your own little (hopefully not "little" for long) Web site. Items you sell from your own Web site will not have the eBay fees incurred, so even if you're paying a reasonable monthly fee for the site, profits will land in your pocket.

Your eBay store is important to your business, but it doesn't replace a wider-ranging e-commerce Web site. You should establish your own presence on the Web. And although you should link to your site from your My eBay page, don't miss out on the rest of the Internet dollars out there.

Consider these results: According to a study by the Graphics, Visualization, and Usability Center, nearly three-quarters of all U.S. households have Internet access, and more than 85 percent of users say they find new businesses through Internet search engines. Statistics don't lie (well, okay, they can be misleading, but not in this case): You need to be on the Web.

It seems that everyone these days has a blog or a My Space or Facebook page. The Web has so many sites with pictures of people's dogs and kids that I assume you have some sort of Web presence off eBay.

You can start small and start for free. Yes, the space for a Web site comes free from your ISP (I even have one with embarrassing ...