Keep your eBay businesses focused by using multiple User IDs

eBay, eBay products, eBay stores, ebay income, ebay secrets, ebay tips, email marketing, online business, online products, online shopping

If you sell, or plan to sell, a range of different products in different categories, then you should consider setting up a unique User ID for each product line.

That’s because selling a focused range of products under a related User ID is more likely to help you retain a group of loyal buyers who know that they can get what they want from you.

For example, if you sell games and women’s clothing on consignment (two categories that don’t necessarily go together), you can set up a User ID for each. You could sell clothing under the User ID “trendychickwear” and video games under the User ID “thegamevault”.

The good news is that you can set up as many unique User IDs as you want, and you don’t need to worry about feedback issues, as we’ll show you later. In fact, you can use the established feedback of your older eBay User IDs to help you build new businesses.

When to set up multiple User IDs

There are many circumstances in which setting up another User ID is an excellent strategy, such as…

* If you buy goods on eBay, you should always use a different User ID from your selling one for three reasons:

1. It looks more professional to only have feedback from people you’ve sold to.

2. If you buy items to resell on eBay, using a separate User ID will ensure that your bidders won’t be able to see what you bought it for.

3. Your selling feedback rating won’t suffer from any mishaps when buying on eBay that lead to you receiving negative feedback.

* If you sell very different items like gardening equipment, baby clothes, and car parts, it’s more difficult to attract a group of loyal bidders. It will be difficult to establish your expertise in all of these categories at the same time. It’s much better to set up three User IDs that are appropriate to each category.

If you do sell a variety of unrelated products and also deal in a couple of specialist areas, you could set up a more general User ID to sell the unrelated items, such as “odds-and-ends” or “bargains-galore”.

* If you post on forums, you can set up a positing ID in case you don’t want to reveal all your secrets to other members.

Now, one reason why some sellers don’t set up multiple User IDs is that they fear they’ll have to start from scratch to build their feedback rating.

However, you can use good feedback ratings from your established eBay businesses to give your new businesses credibility. You can list all your businesses in your About Me page with links to your feedback ratings, and encourage prospective bidders to check out your feedback.

When you start up a new account for a new range of products you want to sell, you can state in your auction that you’ve been selling on eBay for some time and have an excellent reputation; then provide a link to your About Me page that contains samples of feedback you’ve received from customers.

How to set up and manage multiple User IDs

It’s easy to set up lots of User IDs. They can all be under the same credit card…just set them up in the usual way at www.ebay.com (click on the “Register” link).

All you do need is a unique e-mail address for each account. This is actually a good thing as it’ll help you separate your businesses and make sure that the e-mail communications referring to your different selling accounts don’t get mixed up.

You can set up free e-mail accounts easily with providers like Yahoo.com, Hotmail.com, and Gmail.com. We’d recommend that you name the accounts according to your businesses, such as odds-and-ends@gmail.com or bargains-galore@hotmail.com.

You should also keep track of your various selling accounts using a spreadsheet. This should include the eBay User ID for that account and the e-mail address that goes with it. You should also use separate passwords for each account and keep them separate from the other account details.

Build credibility

If you plan to focus on a few keys areas that are distinct from one another as you grow your eBay business, you should definitely consider creating a unique seller ID for each category you’re focusing on.

Doing so will allow you to establish your credibility and expertise with an eye to attracting your specific target market within each specific category. In the end, you will likely find that this is a far more effective technique than lumping all your disjointed product offers under one User ID!

And don’t forget: You can leverage your feedback ratings from your established businesses to help build the credibility of your new ones.

—————————————————————————
The Internet Marketing Center
Copyright © 1996-2007. All Rights Reserved.

S. Colon @ July 15, 2007