By Suzanne Arant-Wells
Entrepreneurs, small business owners, and online marketers have discovered how to capture the eBay segment of the consumer market for lead generation, and for building their customer base. You might not want to bother with eBay - learning the system, understanding the policies, and managing another project - but using eBay for lead generation can be quite effective. Many sellers are not on eBay for profit, but for harvesting customers.

You may not realize that out there in cyberspace, are real people who always turn to eBay first when making a purchase. The purchase may be a consumer item like a computer, an intangible item like a how-to eBook, or a service such as web design. If you have a presence on eBay when these customers come, you have the potential to reach them, sell to them, or direct them to your own website for future sales.

Large retail sellers often use eBay as their bargain basement or clearance center, not to make huge profits. These sellers understand the power of post-transactional marketing opportunities. Sell an inexpensive or clearance item to a customer, he completes the transaction, ship the item to the customer, and you have his contact information in your database forever.

It may be worth your time and effort to set up an eBay store for this reason. All eBay sellers are allowed to place a link to their own website on their About Me page. You can also post ads for your product or service on eBay’s Classified Ads, which also allow outside links that can go directly to your website. eBay Classifieds start at an affordable $9.95 for 30 days, and any sales take place outside of eBay so no additional fees are involved.

Take some time to learn about using eBay as a lead generation tool and for building your customer base. After all, eBay offers 240 million users ready to buy on a single website.

Learn more about eBay selling by visiting my website at ebaysellingcoach.com.

Suzanne Wells is an eBay Power Seller, author of “The Stay-at-Home Mom’s Guide to Successful eBay Selling,” eBay Consultant, and mom of 2 in Atlanta, GA.