No matter how big a website gets, there’s always room for improvement, and there will always be other places that you can drive traffic to that website. Ebay is one of the most visited websites in existence, yet, you can still get lost in the shuffle on this giant buyers and sellers marketplace. Once your sales have started to hit a plateau, you may want to consider finding new buyers outside of Ebay. You can find a whole new market on the web by increasing your backlinks to your Ebay store.
Here’s a list of ten places that will drive traffic to your Ebay store through content marketing, social networking, and interaction:
1.Facebook. People love socializing, playing around with applications, catching up with friends, and being nosy on Facebook. Where do you, as an Ebay seller, fit into all this? First, you can take advantage of your friend list and ask them to join your Facebook fan page for your Ebay store. If you don’t have a fan page for your store, go set one up now! You can post links to your Ebay items, your store pages, and notify interested people about your current sales. Keep it up to date and you’re sure to have plenty of new people fanning your page.
2. Twitter. Like Facebook, this social website has major clout with buyers. Use your current friend list to leverage your Ebay store, or set up an entirely new profile for your store and start networking with people interested in your niche. A word to the wise: only tweet your own link when it’s appropriate, or you’ll be known as the neighborhood spammer (and your followers will leave you!).
3. Squidoo. The great thing about Squidoo is that you can advertise not just your products, but you can break it down into very specific categories. Use the Ebay module, and refer sales to your store. You’ll even earn a royalty for referring buyers to your own stuff! Write up some informational pages about the products you sell, and make the pages useful. While you’re at it, write a few of them, and link them together. Then, post them on Facebook, Twitter, and through email. It’s sure to drive some traffic, and over time, drive some referrals. The more lenses you create, the better the chance of driving traffic and referrals.
4. Hubpages. Like Squidoo, you can use the Ebay “capsule” to drive buyers to your page. Sign up for the Ebay Partner Network to begin, but make sure you’ve already had quite a few Hubs published (they tend to be picky on who they allow into the program). You can separate your item by genre/niche, and write in lengthy detail about those items. Provide buyers with buying tips, guides, and share your overall expertise. It’s also not a bad idea to link your Squidoo lenses and Hubpages together.
5. StumbleUpon. This website may not have all that many buyers, but the increase in visitors from StumbleUpon can be encouraging, to say the least. Try stumbling your pages related to your Ebay items as well.
6. Wizzley. This site for writers is much like Squidoo and Hubpages, in that it is a content based website to showcase brilliant writing of any type. If it relates to the items that you sell, why not create pages on Wizzley to direct traffic towards your store? The site also has a generous compensation program for Ebay, Adsense, Amazon, AllPosters and other websites, so you’ll earn on anything you create in addition to funneling traffic towards your website.
7. EzineArticles. This website has major search engine clout. EzineArticles frequently show up in searches. While you won’t get paid for your articles, you will get a valuable backlink to your store in the resource box at the bottom of the page. Try writing a few articles about the items you sell, and see if it results in any traffic. It can’t hurt.
8. Blogger. Also known as Blogspot, Blogger is a free blogging platform to showcase your writing. This is a great opportunity to provide searchers with some additional information about your products, all the while linking back to your Ebay store and Ebay pages. A tip for using Blogger: Post often, and keep posting. Blogger seems to reward blogs for posting content regularly with a decent amount of traffic.
9. WordPress. This is the publishing platform that most online writers choose, whether it’s a free WordPress.com blog, or a self hosted one of your own choosing. This site, even when used for free as at WordPress.com, has a lot of respect with search engines and readers. If you’d really like to promote your best items and the entire niche you sell, this is a great place to share what you know. Remember, you don’t have to choose just one of these sites — you can use all of them to promote your store. The only downside is WordPress.com does not support ads, so you will not earn on anything you create here.
10. Your Own Website. What better way to really define your presence on the web than to create something from scratch? Choose your own domain, plan out the content that you’d like to place on the site, and start linking to your auctions and products using Ebay Partner Network. This can also drive some affiliate sales as a nice bonus.
Intro image courtesy of Photobucket.
Besides the websites listed, there are hundreds of different free blogging platforms out there to promote your store.
