How to Use eBay Classified Ads to Generate Traffic, Build Your List and Increase Your Profits
One of the biggest problems for anyone who has an on-line business is getting enough traffic to their website. Having a business on eBay solves this problem as eBay gets as much traffic as most businesses will ever need. But there are drawbacks to running a business on eBay instead of from your own website, such as eBay’s rules and eBay’s fees. If only there was a way to siphon off some of eBay’s traffic to your own website…
Well, there is a way! It’s called Classified Ads. (Actually there are local classified ads several ways but I’m just going to concentrate on this one in this article). eBay introduced the Classified Ad format as a way for sellers to promote and advertise their business and generate leads.
If someone buys a product through an eBay Classified Ad, they are buying direct from the seller, not through eBay. So any sales generated as a result of the advert are not recorded by eBay and so cannot contribute to the sellers total for such things as PowerSeller status. Nor can any feedback be left on eBay for such sales.
Classified Ad listing fees are higher than auction or Buy It Now listings but there are no final value fees to pay. The cost of the advert on eBay is likely to be SIGNIFICANTLY lower than the cost of placing an ad in a newspaper or magazine. And, based on the amount of exposure and clicks that you are likely to get, an eBay advert is likely to cost a LOT less than you would pay for a Google AdWords Pay Per Click campaign.
Used correctly, eBay Classified Ads can be an extremely effective marketing tool. They are ideal for: driving traffic from eBay to your own website (if you have one); promoting affiliate products and building a mailing list. Let’s look at each of these in turn…
Your eBay Classified Ad will show up in eBay’s normal search results along with all the other listings relevant to the search. Your advert can contain your own payment button or links to your own website. In this way you can make sales direct (not through eBay) to people who are searching on eBay. So you have diverted eBay’s traffic to your own website or to your own payment button.
You can’t sell products as an affiliate through normal eBay listings. But your Classified Ad can contain your affiliate link. If people click on your affiliate link in your advert, and then buy the product that you are promoting as an affiliate, you will receive your commission. So you don’t even need to have your own website or your own products to make money on eBay using this format!
eBay only allows Classified Ads in a few categories. And those categories vary from country to country. At the time of writing, eBay.com (US) has the most extensive amount of categories that allow Classified Ads. The option to use the Classified Ad format is only available if you are listing in an appropriate category.