With eBay making so many changes and so many eBay sellers becoming unhappy now may be the best time to start an eCommerce website. A while back eBay was a great place to get your feet wet so to speak with selling online, you could open up an eBay store, customize it and get sales almost instantly and actually make some profit. Starting an eCommerce website took a little longer, almost like a steam locomotive, it had to build up steam and there was some time before you could really see sales from it.

We are not seeing that now, we are seeing a lot of people doing a lot of work on eBay only to make a small profit, things do change. In my opinion if it’s not broke don’t fix it but who am I? The bottom line is even back in eBay’s prime when life was better on eBay you were still in business with eBay. You did most of the work, the listing, the advertising, the packing, the shipping and the good folks at eBay sat back and collected a profit plus they were partners in your customer base.

Several years ago there were some top power sellers that left eBay, they took the money they spent in eBay fees per month and put it toward internet marketing, pay per click and different things. They were able to double in one year what they did on eBay. Personally I think more people should have followed their example then.

With the rise in popularity of social media marketing there has never been a better time to make the transition from eBay to your own eCommerce website. You will not only save in eBay fees but you will also own 100% of your client base. You will also be building an asset that later on you can sell or pass down to someone else unlike an eBay business that you don’t really have ownership to.

If you have not started selling on eBay yet and you’re just thinking about it you may want to think long and hard, there are other options out there. If you do currently have an eBay store you do want to take advantage of what you have if you are making sales. Spend a little time and money to make it professional but keep in mind not to put all your eggs in one basket. Focus on the long term goal of your own website and build something that will belong to you and only you.

I thought I was done ranting about the people offering cheap design services but I guess I’m not. I think out of all the things online this is probably the worst thing, I will go as far as saying these people and companies are scammers.

I did another Google search and I came up with some great stuff, here are just a few:

Web Design at $10/hr
Web Design/Programming NO Freelance
Satisfaction Guaranteed, Staff 80+

This is great! 80+ staff all working for $10 an hour, wait, has to be less than $10 an hour because I’m sure for a staff that large they have some overhead, right? Maybe it’s just me but don’t McDonald’s pay almost as much per hour?

Web Designers - $199
xxxxxxxxxxxx.com 100% Full “Custom” Web Design. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed!

Really? $199 and it’s fully custom and 100% satisfaction? Oops, what about the 228 rip off and scam reports?

The bottom line is that cheap website designs that will do something for your business other than destroy it just don’t exist!

As a consumer please educate yourself and ask the following questions before you choose a designer:

• What research will you do?
• Will you research my competitors?
• Will you research my target market?
• Will it really be custom or are you using a pre-made template?
• Will you be able to assist me with updates and additions after the project is done?
• How will you help me market my website?

This list could go on for a while but the questions above will get you started.

I have done professional website design and owned Proimpulse for more than eight years but it seems we never stop getting calls and emails from unhappy people that went the cheap route to get started then had to get a professional to clean up the mess.

I will go on record saying that it takes a little money to get a professional website and it also takes money to market that website unless you are an internet marketing expert then you will still have your time involved.

Falling for the myth that you can go into business on the internet for a couple hundred dollars will get you nowhere fast. On the flip side if you work with a professional spend money for quality work and service I can promise you that your efforts will pay off seven fold.

Personal branding is a term that a lot of us are hearing today and I think its something we are going to be hearing a lot more of in the future. What exactly is personal branding? There is a great definition of personal branding here.

Is personal branding really a new thing though? It may be new in ways it is being used now but as far as being a new idea, no, I think personal branding is a very old idea that most businesses have gotten away from. As a matter of fact I will go so far as to call personal branding “old school”.

Personal branding to me is getting to know the person behind the business, not trying to hide behind the face or logo of a business. Anyone can create a business name and a logo and hide behind that but the fact is real people should not have to hide behind a company façade, that is being an outright coward.

Did you ever have those light bulb moments? You know when the light just seems to come on and something that was so evident yet was hidden just hits you in the face? This is one of those times.

Years ago the business owners before us practiced personal branding, they built relationships with their customers and they did it on a very personal level. Hop in the time machine and go back several years, go in the old country store or to the insurance office or some other establishment, what do you think it will be like? They will call you by name, they will make you feel important and they will ask about you and truly be interested.

The bottom line is the cold hard fact that you are your business, not the name or the logo you hide behind. I am Proimpulse (Me, Anthony McMurray), not the name that took me 2 weeks to come up with over eight years ago, not the logo I designed. Seriously, who is Microsoft? Bill Gates. Who is Amazon? Jeff Bezos. Who is McDonalds? Ray Kroc. Who is Kentucky Fried Chicken? Colonel Sanders. You get my point.

Now I have never talked to any of these people in person but my point here is we have come full circle and we are getting back to the old ways of doing business we just have a better vehicle which is social media.

Are business names and logos important still? Yeah I think so, we will continue to need those but we need to open ourselves up and let people know there is a human behind them.

Another great example of personal branding is something that happened to me not long ago. My dear wife made the statement “It seems like a lot of your old friends never call you unless they have a question or issue with their computer or something involving the internet”. At first it really upset me and I thought to myself if they can’t call me just to say hello they were they ever really my friends to start with? A few days later I was with one of my long time friends (a police officer) and I decided to confront him, I told him what my wife said and his answer blew me away.

His reaction made so much sense I had to laugh at myself for thinking the silly selfish thoughts earlier. His words were “When we call you and ask you a question about the computer or the internet its not that we just come to you when we have a problem it’s the fact that we come to you because you are our expert in that field, the same reason if you have a law question you call me. Besides, we are guys and we think different than women do.”

The world is cold enough as it is, we all want to feel important and feel special. I love to walk into a business and have the owner say “Hey Anthony, how’s it going?”

I look back at the many testimonials that clients have sent to me and it amazes me what they say, “Anthony was…” or “It was a pleasure Anthony”, or “I called Anthony and he…” Was I really that blind? Have we become that cold and insensitive?

I know personally I am focusing on getting back to grass roots of getting to know people and the way business should be, what are you going to do with it?

We have all head the old saying “keep your friends close and your enemies closer” but have you ever thought of this in the world of online business? Online business can be very competitive but there is a way to still make good of it. I think competition is healthy but you get to a point where lost income is just lost income because no business is going to close 100% of the leads.

Think of this, you are a unique company with a unique niche but you are not the only one on the internet doing what you do. You have a competitor that also offers the same services you do but both or you are still going to be different in some ways.

Instead of being in a “battle royal” all the time why not talk with your competitor and see if you can work out some kind of partnership. It could be a very healthy partnership if you are both trustworthy and are willing to work at it.

It could be that someone contacts you and you just don’t mesh or they need your service but also need a service that your competitor also offers. Do you lose the lead just because you don’t offer everything they need or would it be better to have a partnership with your competitor so you can still offer their services as well?

Also different personalities make the world go round, we have had prospective clients contact us that after talking with them a few minutes we just knew it would be a train wreck for them and us if we took them as a client. On the other side of the picture this was a good client, (just not good for us) but good for someone so we make a phone call (or email) and talk to a partner design firm, they got a new client, we helped a client and the favor was returned later.

The bottom line is we worked together, even though they do what we do. Most important the client was taken care of.

This should be a two way street mind you, being a design company we get a lot of people contacting us that are offshore requesting to become a partner when really all they are asking for is to become a contractor.

Now, which of your competitors can you form a partnership with that will benefit you both?