eBay Success Secrets from Seth Godin

eBay's the place to be if you want to get rich quick, right? While there's no doubt that many people have made quite a killing from selling on eBay, it certainly isn't effortless or easy. As with all things of value, becoming a successful eBay seller takes time, research, effort, planning, and dedication. Folks who want to have a chance need to first understand the eBay environment they're venturing into. As marketing guru and bestselling author, Seth Godin, puts it, "eBay is a haystack"; meaning BIG, VAST, ROBUST, and something in which you can easily get lost if you don't have a plan.

In a recent podcast interview, AuctionBytes editor, Ina Steiner, talks with Seth about his new book, "The Dip: A little book that teaches you when to quit (and when to stick)". During their discussion, Seth talks a little bit about the way he sees eBay commerce:

"eBay is a haystack, and your auction is a needle. You can sharpen your needle all you want, but it's still going to be a needle in a really big haystack. I think the way you win is by getting out of the haystack." (emphasis mine)

He then goes on to mention specific ways of doing just that. Basically, Seth suggests that eBay sellers and storeowners market their brand, and themselves, on places around the web such as, Squidoo (which he founded), Twitter, and blogging. Hubpages is another great resource (duh).

Seth Godin is a very well established marketer and there's no doubt that he knows his stuff about product promotion and brand marketing. I'd like to expand on his idea of marketing outside of eBay to include cost-effective product advertising as well.

eBay sellers have tons of listings, especially if they have a store. While Seth's suggestions are great for marketing the seller, it is also important to market the seller's products as well. Blogging about each individual listing is just too time consuming to be a valuable use of time.

There are services, such as ClassifiedFlyerAds.com, that allow eBay sellers to advertise all of their listings online in one step, simply by using the file feed or RSS feed of their listing inventory. The system automatically places each listing into its own web page and posts them to over a dozen online search directories.

With seller marketing and product marketing combined, an eBay seller has a real chance at success.