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When I first decided to explore the possibility of using Ebay for traffic generation, what I was really looking for was a back-burner hands-off strategy.

Understandably so: our business life is already overtaken by humongous to-do lists, which let’s face it will never get done as it is. I remember one of my readers suggesting to rename them “wish lists” – for obvious reasons.

However, as I did more and more research, I started to realize that Ebay might actually deserve a much more prominent place in your online business than just generating a few quick backlinks to your site.

Here’s what I mean.

What is your primary goal of working your behind off online? That’s right – to MAKE MONEY.

What is Ebay?

It’s a online hub where people come with their credit cards out READY TO BUY.

See the correlation?

You want to sell… they want to buy…

Just to drive this deeper: according to the latest numbers, Ebay has about 1.8 BILLION users in 2010. Even if this number is not entirely accurate, any number in billions is entirely plausible and believable… and huge!

Doesn’t it make sense for us to go where the traffic is?

Time for a disclaimer: I am in no way an Ebay traffic generation experts. All I am doing in this post is sharing various traffic generation/link building techniques that I came up with during my extensive Ebay research. I haven’t had a chance to test them out yet, so it will be up to you to implement, test, and refine these techniques.

In other words, there is some work involved in this, but since not too many people I noticed are doing this, the payoff could be huge!

I assume that you already have an Ebay account; if not, that’s where you should start.

Set Up Your Ebay “Presence”

1. Account:

if you don’t already have one, create an account with your site name as your user name. Just like you would when creating any social profile.

If you already have an account, you can still change your user name for your site name.

For instance, I change my user ID to “TrafficGenerationCafe“. To do that, I went to

My Ebay => Account=> Personal Information =>User ID =>Edit

2. “AboutMe” page:

Make sure it has links back to your site and an opt-in form.

To learn how to do that, visit the following post:

3. “My World” page:

It’s accessible via http://myworld.ebay.com/

OPTIONAL: do the following 2 steps if you have actual products to sell or want to sell anything.

4. Open up a store:

Here’s the link: http://pages.ebay.com/storefronts/start.html

5. Add any digital products you’d like to sell.

Generate Traffic

Generating traffic through Ebay is all about funneling it properly.

Our objective is to direct all the traffic to your About Me page with your opt-in form there – best case scenario.

Second best is to funnel it through your MyWorld page, which can be connected to your Ebay store or your AboutMe page.

One thing for sure: whatever you do on Ebay, you want to make sure all roads lead to Rome – YOU.

Here are the two best strategies to generate traffic via Ebay:

1. Sell your products

In your listings, you are allowed to post any links within Ebay realm, which of course includes your About Me page.

You can sell simple guides on Ebay for 1 cent simply to have a listing out there to drive traffic back to your opt-in form.

Once you get someone to your listing, your job is to sell them on YOU, especially if you are using Ebay as a mere traffic generation machine.

Come up with a simple sales copy that shows off your knowledge on the subject and tell your visitors where they can get more of it, i.e. your AboutMe page.

I assume it’s self-explanatory, but I guess I need to mention it anyway:

THE ONLY place on Ebay you can use external links is your AboutMe page.

Don’t reinvent the wheel.

Copy successful listings and how they structured their offer. Figure out why they sold their product while another guy didn’t.

The smartest thing I’ve seen on Ebay was where a seller had an expensive product and they posted details for a webinar in the listing. They don’t have to pay Ebay’s fees and get new customers. Brilliant!

2. Write Ebay Reviews & Guides

http://reviews.ebay.com/

As it turned out, reviews on Ebay are not just about products. They can also be tips, advice, etc.

Take a look at this review I found that’s right up my alley:

Ebay Traffic generation reviews

Take a look at the links in red boxes:

-top left goes to her MyWorld page;

-top right to her feedback section, which is connected to her About Me page;

-bottom one goes to her Ebay Store, but can go to any one of your Ebay pages.

3. Additional Places to Spread Link Love:

Ebay Neighborhoods, Discussion Boards, Chat Rooms, Answer Center – you can find all these tools under “Community” tab when logged into your Ebay account.

Ebay Traffic Generation This & That

1. Domain Name

Purchase a domain name similar to your store. Forward the domain to your auction website. This will make advertising easier, as people have no problem visiting websites with real domain names.

2. Google Rankings

Yes, Ebay reviews and guides are included in Google search results.

Which means that with just a little bit of keyword research and on-page optimization your review just might end up on the first page of Google.

3. What To Avoid

Don’t bother with Ebay classified ads.

I tested them out and Ebay no longer allows you to include any links in your listings.

Not worth the trouble.

And now that you know about this incredibly underused Ebay traffic generation strategy, it’s time for a blatant plug.

As you know with post is a part of BlogEngage contest.

If you like what you read, don’t be shy and leave me a comment, send your followers a tweet, tell your Facebook friends about this awesome post you just read on BlogEngage.

Engage in other words!

Love it or hate it? Comment to show me that you’re alive!

ana hoffman seo link buildingana hoffman yournetbiz

About Ana Hoffman

Traffic, traffic, traffic... Can't do without it, but don't know how to get it? Ana does, and she freely shares her best insider traffic generation tips and secrets on her Traffic Generation Cafe blog. And don't forget to pick up Ana's infamous 7 Steps to Complete Search Engine Domination workbook at her blog as well - why not make money like all SEO gurus do? You can also follow her on Twitter and Facebook for even more traffic generation tips.

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