If you were to build a table, would you consider building one with only one leg? How about if you were building a business model, would you build a business model with only one leg? I think that the table analogy is a good one for business models. At some point the number of supports may become too many, but one is almost certainly too few.

People ask me,” can you make good money with an eBay business?” That question makes my cringe, just a little, every time I hear it. You see anyone who has an eBay business has an online business, since eBay transactions after all take place (at least in part) online.

So a much better question, in my opinion, would be…”can you make good money with an online business?” The problem with the first question is that it can cause a kind of tunnel vision that I find limiting. If you are thinking only in terms of eBay there is a potential danger of missing the bigger picture.

There are several benefits that selling on eBay offers business owners, however I think that the primary reason that sellers go to eBay is as a monetization channel. That is, eBay provides a means for sellers to turn whatever there auction item is, into money.

Online business offers several additional monetization channels including Google Checkout, Yahoo Stores, as well as Clickbank, just to name a few. In studying each monetization channel you will discover each one has its own strengths and weaknesses. This kind of research will help you discover which monetization channel(s) would benefit your business the most. This kind of research may seem like extra work to you, and in all honesty… it is.

It’s kind of like the difference between an automatic transmission and stick shift. An automatic transmission is easier to learn how to drive, and there is a definite convenience in that. A stick shift on the other hand is trickier to learn, but it offers you far greater control in terms of driving experience. You may be tempted to opt for convenience over greater control when it comes to running your business, but then you will always have to wonder if your competitors decided to opt for convenience or if they were willing to put up with a little extra work to gain an edge.

If you ask most sales and marketing guru’s they will tell you that it is much easier to sell to someone who has already bought from you then it is to land the first sale. Since this is the case a huge part of online business involves Customer Relations Management (CRM). Having your own webpage, in my opinion, offers you far greater flexibility and leverage when it comes to the CRM portion of your business then only conducting business on eBay.

I am not talking about the kind of fancy databases that medium and large scale businesses use to maintain there relationship with there customers. I am talking about tools that small businesses can reasonably employ, not only to stay in contact with customers and leads, but to develop new leads as well. These can include websites generating low cost SEO traffic, email newsletters powered by web based auto-responders, and blogs with RSS feeds just to name a few.

Most of the tools that I have mentioned are possible with an eBay Store. Your eBay Store for example can gain you low cost SEO traffic. I believe however, that maintaining your own domain name and hosting offers you far more SEO options then an eBay Store does. eBay Stores also offer you the option of using an RSS feed to keep customers informed of the items that you are selling. Personally though, I would much rather maintain an RSS feed connected to my blog where I can control several content options in addition to the items that I am selling.

eBay Stores come with email marketing tools, however once again, I would prefer to use a third party email auto-responder. First off, with a third party auto-responder I could monetize my email leads with monetization channels outside of eBay. Secondly a third party auto-responder would offer me additional methods for gaining new leads. For example, in addition to placing opt-in forms on multiple websites, I could put my opt-in form on social networking sites such as MySpace. Third, if I was not using eBay as a monetization channel, I would not need to be bound by eBay’s policies.
                                                                                                                                                                    Another reason that people do business on eBay besides from the ability to monetize there auction items is eBay traffic. In terms of developing a good business model, I would prefer that eBay traffic be an additional source of traffic for my business as opposed to its main source.

Don’t get me wrong an eBay Store can be a great addition to your online business, I would just be careful about using one as a quick fix for all your online business needs.

For more information about promotion options available through eBay Stores visit eBay’s website at

http://pages.ebay.com/storefronts/promoting.html
                                                                                                                                                                          For more information about email marketing options available through eBay Stores visit eBay’s website at

http://pages.ebay.com/help/specialtysites/email-marketing.html