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I would like to start an online business, I have tried e-Bay and Amazon and it has not worked for me for?

they have such high fees and seem to have too much control over your paypal and hold money with out disbursements when they please. Does anyone have an alternative way to sell online with out using the top two choices? I would like to open my own websit but they look too complicated and I'm worried I will not get the same traffic? Any suggestions...much thanks!

Public Comments

1. I wonder where you think the money comes from to keep these sophisticated, secure and heavily interactive sites going - eBay and Amazon. These sites are very costly to maintain and I'm amazed by the number of young people who expect a secure service for free. Seems very naive to me
2. You seem to have found the secret even if you don't want to face it. Amazon and ebay make their money by providing a market and supplying traffic. You can do it on your own, but that means you do it without their help. The reason Amazon and ebay hold payment is to ensure service by the providers - this is part of what builds traffic - there is a certain amount of trust engendered by the amazon/ebay imprimatur. Again, you can do without it, but don't be surprised if it takes you a while to build trust and build traffic. I don't think their fees are out of line with the services they provide. If you do, though, go for it. Just don't cry about the time and trouble it takes to ramp up to success. The common estimate is that it takes 3 years for a business to become profitable.
3. If I were you, you better try selling your stuff through social networking site such as facebook. I know lots of people who are making money through selling selling their stuff and promoting their business through this site. And the good thing is, it's free!!!
4. There are a lot of alternative sites to sell on, since you're not the only one who has started despising the ever increasing listing fees and the Paypal holds. Among the sites listed are Ubid, eBid Auctions, Oztion, Addoway and Bonanzle. You can also sell off site through fairs and garage sales. :)
5. I tried the whole ebay thing and it was very hard at first. I tried different types of categories from electronics to tools, but there was so much competition from "Power Sellers" etc it was hard to beat their prices. I have just joined up with Amazon but it seems like the same challenges as ebay. Starting your own website seems sensible there are many companies that provide tools to make building a website easier and offer hosting options as well. Driving traffic to your website is another story and a job in itself, but with some dedication and using the right tools and resources, it is possible. I have attached some links that you may find useful.
6. I started out making money online by selling stuff on ebay. Then I moved onto setting up my own site on Blogger and placing affiliate links (ebay, amazon, cj, clickbank, etc) on my blogger site. Then I finally bit the bullet and bought a domain and set up my own website using Wordpress (which is free). Setting up your own site isn't hard at all, there are plenty of tutorials online. Running your own sites isn't a "get rich quick" endeavor, it takes time to make money online but you can make a bunch of money and you won't have to worry about shipping stuff and dealing with customers.
7. You must realize that anything you do in regards to an online business is going to take work. It's not going to be create a website and then publish it and your in business. You are right in saying that you won't get the same traffic you have to work on getting that. You will still need to be seen by the search engines and the public at large and you need to sell product that people want and are ready to spend money on it. I would suggest you study up on how to get traffic to your website and you can do this by going to any article site and putting in a search for what you want and you should get plenty of articles to read up on. As far as websites you can pay to have one built for you or you can do it on yourself. A lot of people use wordpress and then buy a domain name then get hosting. Don't be too scared of building a website unless you get into web site software for a couple of hundred dollars using a blog is pretty easy to use and if you don't know how to use it you can find info on how to use it. There are other blogs you can use for free and you don't necessarily need to buy a domain name and get hosting. You can use the blog as it is and make it look like a website and sell your product from there. It still requires you to build up your own traffic but that's how it works. As far as getting into a different type of online business other than what you are currently doing I can only suggest a couple of ways you can go that are low cost to you and that of course requires you to to all or most of the work yourself. One is to do affiliate marketing where you market another vendors product for a commission when you make a sale or get into drop shipping, where you have a website you sell product from but you do not have to carry or ship the product yourself the company you deal with does this for you. This means you won't have to sit on unsold product. Put in a search for either of these or again go to an article site and search out article on the subject. Good Luck