Making Money Online Without Relying on Ebay - Part I

Whether you're part of the continuing exodus fleeing increased fees and reduced revenue at eBay or are just looking for a business you can start the old-fashioned way with sweat equity, there are ways to make money online without totally relying on eBay.

Getting Started

Many former eBay sellers are settling in well at Ecrater.com. Ecrater offers free estore hosting, free sub domain name and a choice of prebuilt web templates.

Complete the simple registration form and confirm your registration via the followup email. Once you've confirmed registration, you're ready to set up shop and start selling. If you have more than 100 actual inventory items to list, you can use the bulk loader and upload them all at once. Items will appear in Froogle. Bulk listing isn't available for those using dropshippers or promoting affiliate products. Adult products are allowed.

Newbies

If you are totally new to making money online with ecommerce, there's plenty of help to be found in the Ecrater frequently asked questions, the forum and the getting started help section. The simplicity of Ecrater makes it a good starting place for beginners.

Need Inventory?

Need something to sell in order to make money? There are wholesalers on Ecrater if you prefer to stock inventory and do your own packing and shipping.
If you'd rather let someone else handle shipping, Ecrater recommends Doba and World Wide Brands for locating reliable dropshippers.

Making money means processing payments. Ecrater provides payment options including Paypal and Google checkout. Google also provides a shopping cart, another important feature of selling online.

Is Free Really the Way to Go?

Internet marketing gurus swear that you should avoid free hosting. That's easy for them to say. One, they've made enough money hosting and selling domains that they can afford professional stores, and two, when vendors take advantage of free hosting, they aren't making monthly payments to the gurus.

There is a bit of truth in the advice to avoid free hosting. Free hosting can vanish at any time, sending your business, and your possibly proven money maker, to oblivion.

So how do you make money online with free stores and avoid the oblivion risk? Get your own domain name and use that name at the free site.

Example: Your store name is Pat's Pet Products. You register PatsPetProducts.com. Domain names can be found for as little as $9 a year. When you set up your Ecrater store, use Pat's Pet Products. Your store address will look something like this: http//wwwpatspetproducts.ecrater.com

If Ecrater goes out of business for some reason, customers will still find it easy to find you because your name remains. You can get hosting for your domain name and continue making money.

Sweat Equity

The sweat equity you'll be putting in? Promoting your store. Getting traffic. Blogs, free classifieds, press releases, email and everything else you can think of. If you've already established a presence with your store name and can continue using it, you'll gain ground faster. Building traffic isn't easy but it can be done. Don't forget to email existing customers and let them know where you've moved. Offer moving specials and encourage customers to tell friends and family members.

Multiple Sites

Have several interests? You can open multiple Ecrater stores. You will need a separate email address to register each store. You can use the same order notification email address for all of your stores, simplifying order fulfillment.

Life After eBay

It is possible to make money online after Bay. Change is rarely easy and if you're a seller who's been with eBay for a long time, you may be reluctant to step out on your own. Ecrater.com makes it possible to take that step without paying heavy moving expenses. You can even keep your Ebay seller name at Ecrater if it isn't already in use.

Some sellers are using eBay on a limited basis to drive traffic to their new Ecrater stores. They've slashed their eBay listings to a minimum and are using both listings and the About Me page to generate traffic to Ecrater and continue to sell online without paying so much in fees.

Powersellersunite.com is a community created to help former eBay sellers find alternative sites. They offer advice, tips, tools and support. Membership is free. You do not have to be a powerseller (or former powerseller) to join.

If you're considering a change or just want to try your hand at running an online store, give Ecrater a try. If you're experienced in personalizing websites, Ecrater may not be for you. No HTML is allowed. However, you can take advantage of another free store hosting service where you can customize things more to your liking. Get the scoop in Part II.