Use eBay to Generate Website Traffic

If you want to get traffic to your website, where do you start? 

Some might say that you need to market on social media, buy some advertising, or find an SEO company. 

But if we’re being honest with each other, all of this stuff is expensive and time-consuming. And who knows if it’ll even work.

That's why today I'm going to show you a better way: using eBay as the site for your online store! My last article about how "eBay for Sellers" has changed drastically in the past few years generated one of my best traffic days ever.

Here’s another article on the same topic from me a couple of years ago.

That post is still an excellent resource, so I won’t go into the details. But over the past couple of years, eBay has made changes to their rules and policies that have some significant implications for sellers.

The first way eBay has made life difficult for sellers is by discontinuing Promoted Listings and rolling out the Dynamic Search Ads. These are a lot more complicated than just setting up a Google Adwords campaign and should probably be left to experienced online marketers who specialize in eBay advertising.

So instead of promoting my own eBay listings via advertising, I’ve decided to drive traffic to my website by promoting other people’s products — and earn a commission in the process.

I’ve been able to get some really good results with this strategy. Here are some screenshots of my earnings from one month in October 2014:

In addition to making money from this passive income, I also got a nice bump in website traffic .

And that leads me into the second way eBay has made life difficult for sellers: requiring 100% positive feedback.  Now, having lots of positive feedback is obviously great for seller credibility, but it can be time-consuming and expensive.

It also may not be possible, depending on what kind of products you sell. There are some markets that are rife with negative feedback scams from competitors or disgruntled buyers.  So how can you get around these limitations?

You actually might not have to worry about 100% positive feedback if you promote other people’s products and deal with them directly.

If you’re selling your own product, eBay and PayPal frown upon giving your customer’s personal information to a third party for follow up sales.  But if you’re promoting someone else’s product (and getting a comission on each sale), it’s much safer to send your customers to the seller’s website.

In fact, if you promote products with a high profit margin, you can afford to give your customers a discount and still make a healthy commission. I did some quick math and realized that I could profitably offer my visitors a 10% discount without losing money.

The best products for this strategy are eBay items under $50. You want to ensure that your desired commission is at or above the merchant rate of 4%, so with shipping it's under $50.

Conclusion: So there you have it. 

 eBay can be the site for your online store.  You can generate traffic to your website using eBay.  And you can promote other people's products and earn a comission on every sale.

I hope you found this article useful! Thanks for reading!

I hope you found this article useful! Thanks for reading! This article was not sponsored by eBay, but I did receive a bonus check in order to write this piece — as well as the affiliate sales from the companies mentioned in the article.