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.

You may have considered using eBay stores for your business but before you set up an eBay store there are some key things you need to keep in mine in order to get the most success.

Store Name – Naming your eBay store is very important, you might be tempted to put your business name in your store but fight this urge. You only get a few characters so choose wisely and remember this is not traditional brick and mortar. People search eBay for products not business or personal names so “Anthony’s Cool Store” would not be a good name but “Website Design Success” because I have used key words in my name. What ever you sell is what you want to use in your name, in key words.

Appearance – eBay provides pre-made store design templates to choose from but the problem is everyone else uses them too; there is nothing to set the look of your store apart from others. There is a design template in eBay stores that is easily customizable, take this template and add your own custom design or have a professional store designer create a custom design for you. Potential customers will notice the difference, they will also get the feeling that you really care because you have taken time to set yourself apart from other eBay sellers.

Custom Pages – This is something a lot of eBay store owners waste but one of the most important things for SEO purposes. Each level of eBay store subscription provides you with custom pages, don’t waste them. Set up your custom pages to talk about your products and use text containing your key words to describe your products. Remember to write for your readers first and search engines second.

About Me Page – This is your spot, it’s a place where you can really connect with your potential buyer and let them get to know you. Take full advantage of this section and add information about you, how long you have been in your market, how you got started, why you are selling on eBay, how you feel about customer service, etc. People love to deal with people on a personal level so let them get to know the real you!

I just read a great article on logo design; Niki Brown could not have said it better! Seriously people wake up and smell the reality; you really do get what you pay for. Niki talked about the cheap logo mills but its not just logos, this happens with website design and eBay store design as well.

I have done several web and eBay searches to look for companies (or individuals) that offer really cheap website design or eBay store design. I came across some real winners! I’m not going to link any of those folks here because frankly I don’t want to advertise for them and I think they are doing more harm than good.

First of all, if anyone can design a website for you for less than two or 3 thousand dollars and do it in just a few days you are getting a cookie cutter thrown together mess of code that will do nothing for you. You will probably end up with a template that looks like hundreds of other websites or eBay stores.

How much time goes into designing a good website or eBay store? At least a couple to several weeks and that is taking into consideration that the client is available to answer questions, approve changes and communicate during the project on a timely manner.

Rome was not built in a day and either should a professional website or eBay store!

As buyers please do your research, get the facts and compare apples to apples or go ahead and fall for the low end cheap stuff but have fun when you need support or you need updates or if you need marketing. If your cheap-o designer didn’t charge you much they sure didn’t do any research on your project before they started and they sure won’t be able to do any research to help you do any marketing. Then again, if they sold you a cheap design you may not be able to get back in touch with them again after your project is done anyway.

Setting up an eBay Store is one of the easiest ways to kick start your online business and build your brand. Here is the formula:

Set up an eBay store (basic level at $15.95 per month).You can easily set up your store on eBay in a matter of minutes and be selling soon after. The beauty of eBay is that you have customers waiting to buy your products. We have seen clients start making sales as soon as a day after listing items in their eBay store.

As you set up your store pay close attention to what you name it, make sure you get some key words in your store name and separate them with hyphens. Also, you want to go buy a domain name at some place like GoDaddy and point it to your eBay Store. This will not only make it easier to market your store but will help get some age and use on your domain name for the sake of the search engines.

Once your store is set up you might want to add a custom eBay Store design to it. Having a custom designed eBay Store will build credibility and let your visitors know that you really do care about them and your business. It will also set you apart from your competitors that are using the generic templates that eBay provides for their stores.

Now you want to optimize your eBay Store, you are allowed to have custom pages and you should take advantage of them. Use these custom pages to talk about what you are selling, making sure you use good key words in your text. I have seen many eBay Stores show up very high on Google searches.

If you have a good product with a good price point you should start getting sales. Some people like to sell from their store for a while but then they see that they are paying a lot of fees to eBay so it’s time to add to the formula.

Set up or have a professional set up a custom ecommerce website for your business. Remember that domain name you pointed to your eBay Store? That is what you want to use for your website. Forget about using ProStores or Yahoo Stores, you don’t really have the flexibility or control to design, optimize or market these the way you need to.

Since you have started building your brand already with your eBay store you want to make sure your website matches the look of your eBay Store, same logo, same name, same colors, etc.

You want to get those people buying from you on eBay converted over to your website. eBay is very strict about linking directly from eBay so to be safe you need to a little old school. Let’s say you have someone purchase an item on eBay, you will be shipping it to them so here’s what you do. (You will need a shopping cart that will let you generate coupon codes.) Generate a coupon code for a dollar amount or a percentage off, take that code and add it to a “Thank You” note that you will drop in with the package you are shipping. Thank them for their purchase on eBay and tell them as a token of your appreciation you have included a coupon for a discount on their next purchase from your website. They can use it or give it to a family member or friend.

You will start converting people from your eBay store (Where you are a partner with eBay, they are owners of your customer too.) to your website, they will be your customers and yours alone. Now you are building a solid business that is an asset, you can keep it or sell it, it and the customers belong solely to you and you used your eBay Store to get you there.