Can You Make Money Selling on eBay? 

The quick answer to this is a resounding yes. You can make money selling on eBay if you want to get rid of some personal items, you’re thinking of doing drop shipping or want to increase sales for your small business products. eBay is estimated to have 182 million users worldwide so that’s a lot of market opportunity we are talking about. 

If you Google online, it’s not uncommon to read stories about a college kid making thousands a month as a side hustle or a regular guy who quit his 9-5 job to sell on eBay and subsequently generating millions in income revenues. These stories are inspirational nevertheless, but you need to know that they don’t happen overnight.

If you are just using eBay to sell some home junk, you may make a few extra bucks – just not a lot. Those who are really cashing out on the platform are go-getters. They may start off small, but when you can flip items twice to ten times the original price, the business opportunity is evident. 

So what makes them different from other sellers and how can you adopt their strategies to make it work for you? Here are some ground rules that have proven to work for most successful sellers;

1 – What Items to Sell on eBay?

Finding the right product to sell can either make or break your presence on eBay. You can’t just list something and expect it to sell. In order to find a buyer, you need to know what people are shopping for on eBay and that takes a bit of research. 

There are a few ways to do this; 

1. Look for products that are selling like hotcakes. You can usually find this on the listing itself.
2. Use a keyword tool to determine what terms people are actively searching to buy online.
3. Target hobby products – there’s always a beginner to experienced buyers within the group.
4. Target common goods with popular brands – there’s always a demand for this category. 
5. Target seasonal products – these items are sure to sell when the time comes. 
6. Sell something that you like or familiar with – it helps you to connect better with the buyers. 

There’s no such thing as a perfect niche, but the more you stick to these criteria, the more likely you are going to pave a strong foundation for your success on eBay. 

2 – Where to Get Products to Sell on eBay?

Once you’ve identified a niche, there are a ton of ways to source for products near and far. For side hustlers, you can start with; 

• Personal stuff that is lying unused in the house or garage. 
• Browse through flea markets. You can find a lot of interesting goods at low prices. A great option for finding collectible and antiques. 
• Visit the thrift stores or consignment outlets to get hold of discounted items on a different range of items. 
• Take advantage of going-out-of-business sales. You can find good quality items at a very affordable price. 
• If you have creative hands, you can make and sell your crafts online – you just need to spend time producing them. 

For those who aim for a bigger profit margin, you should look at these places instead. 

• Get in touch with a dropship supplier so that they can ship directly to the customer. There’s no need to stock inventory. 
• Buy wholesale and shop the goods in bulk at a discount. 
• Work with a manufacturer that can produce white/private label products for your brand.  

Do not rush the process during this stage because the careful selection of products and their sources is crucial. Even though eBay is notably known as an online garage place, that doesn’t mean you can sell trash. Products with values will always get customers than those that don’t present any in the first place. 

3 – Optimize Product Listings on eBay 

Ebay is home to billions of products and getting buyers to notice your offer can be a tough ordeal, not unless you know how to optimize your listings. What this means is besides pictures and a few simple words, you need to provide a thorough title and description for an item. 

The title should contain keywords that people are searching for (one of the key points mentioned for niche selection earlier) and the description should highlight the details, specifications, as well as benefits if any. 

It’s almost like writing a mini sales copy to attract the shopper’s attention as they browse through the crowded marketplace. But what’s more important is that this information will tell the eBay algorithm to pull out your listing when someone is searching for that specific item. This is very similar to what we see on the Google search results. 

Years ago, sellers have to do this manually, but with recent technology, you can use software to do it instead. Not only will this speed up the process, but it also streamlines the optimization, makes your eBay storefront more professional looking and help to manage your inventory all in one place. 

CrazyLister and Sellbrite are some of the software worth investing in if you are planning to go big with your eBay business. 

4 – Get Traffic to Your eBay Listings

For any type of business to make a breakthrough with selling, it will need traffic and relying on eBay to provide you with one isn’t the smartest move. Traffic must be actively acquired and there are two ways to go about this. 

The free traffic method lets you drive visitors from the search engines using a WordPress site. Whenever you post something – whether it’s an article or a video – the content will get indexed on the search engines. The more content you have, the higher you’d rank on Google. 

When someone discovered your site through Google, you can easily channel the visitors to your store on eBay. This feature can be further enhanced by using specific plugins to integrate your store on the site for a better user experience. 

Having your own site gives you a lot of control over marketing such as collecting emails, create a following on social following through your own Facebook page and ultimately, boosting your authority in that niche. The good news is that, once you have a stable business, you can create an online store right on the website itself. 

So you should definitely get one if you haven’t done so already. Use this tool below to build a WordPress blog for free. This lets you pay for a spot on the top listing inside eBay 

Also, if you are thinking about using a third party like Google to point towards your listing on eBay, many experts find this method to be ineffective. You could be spending a lot of clicks that don’t convert or sending visitors to your listing and they end up buying from someone else on eBay. Facebook ads, on the other hand, seem to convert better.

Is eBay Selling for You? 

After reading all this, it should be evident that selling on eBay isn’t a walk in the park. Those with retail experience will have an added advantage because they will be more familiar with the process. If you’re on this side of the business, you can certainly make money selling on eBay by following the guides I’ve shown earlier. 

However, if you prefer not to manage products or simply want an easier way to start an online business, you should try affiliate marketing instead. There are no inventories involved and you earned purely from sales commissions. You can choose any niche you like, selling any number of physical or digital products that are helpful to other people. 

For more training on how to get started with affiliate marketing, do check out my recommended training platform here.