Breaking eBay Ground aka Making Money on eBay Step 1

As promised, here’s the first step in my new series on making money on eBay by starting an eBay business.    

For those of you who’ve already started building your eBay foundation, these first few steps will be either a good review or insanely boring, however you want to look at them.  But if it’s any consolation, my next series will be more advanced, okay?  

The reason I’m starting from scratch is that I’ve learned over the years is that it’s much better to give people too much information than not enough!  And when it comes to making money on eBay, oftentimes the more information you can acquire, the better.  

Plus, for those of you who may be feeling slightly (or massively?) overwhelmed at the thought of starting an eBay business, you can complete this first step very easily and will hopefully feel pumped up at the thought of continuing this process and pushing through to the end.

Another little tidbit I’ve learned from years of coaching people on starting and improving their online businesses is that your attitude is EVERYTHING -- it’s the WHOLE ball of wax.  I don’t care how much or how little you know about the internet already, about ecommerce, business, marketing, accounting, or even computers. All of that can be taught.

What CANNOT be taught is determination, optimism, tenacity, and endurance.  And those qualities right there almost always determine who succeeds at this and who doesn’t.  I have helped elderly people who started out knowing absolutely NOTHING about computers create and build thriving, successful eBay businesses, websites, and affiliate blogs, and all they had when they started was the determination to succeed, the endurance to never give up, and the optimism to believe they could do it.

So if you consider yourself to have most or all of these qualities, by all means, keep reading!  Because now we get to the “all of that can be taught” part!

TASK #1 - JOIN, JOIN, JOIN!

Ok, now here’s what I meant about starting off very easily -- the first step in starting an eBay business, in making money on eBay, is to join the club(s), dude!

By that I mean, “Get out there and sign up already!”  Sign up on eBay, PayPal, and Gmail, for starters.  You need ALL 3 OF THESE ACCOUNTS, and this will gradually become clear to you as you go along.  In the meantime, trust me! :)

Signing up for all 3 of these accounts should be very easy and straightforward, but if you run into any difficulty, don’t hesitate for one instant to contact customer support on each of these websites -- that’s what they are there for!

The steps to making money on eBay by starting an eBay business aren’t always going to be this easy, so enjoy this one while you’re doing it!

Here are just a few helpful tips to (seriously) consider while joining the “clubs”:

1. Sign up for a PayPal Premier account, NOT a Personal account.  eBay won’t allow you to sell items on its website unless you can accept ALL forms of PayPal payments, credit cards as well as bank accounts, and you can’t accept credit card payments through PayPal unless you have a Premier account.
2. Be smart and forward-thinking when coming up with both your Gmail email address name as well as your eBay User ID.  Don’t use your first and/or last names, don’t use the word “eBay” (it’s not allowed), and don’t use the obscure combination of letters and numbers eBay and Google might suggest for you -- it will most likely be way too forgettable.  Think advertising, folks, think marketing -- come up with a professional business-sounding email address and eBay User ID.  Just don’t choose the same name for both, though -- that can be a security risk.
3. One very easy way to come up with a cool Gmail or eBay username is to take your initials and add something like “enterprises” or “ventures” to the end of it.  It works really well.
4. If, in a moment of weakness, you lose yourself and select a Gmail username and/or eBay User ID that is NOT ideal, don’t beat yourself up about it.  You can always open a new Gmail account, and you’re only locked into your eBay User ID for 30 days.

Have at it, younglings! I'll see you all on the other side (or when I post the next step)!