Editor's note: This is the second column in a six-column series giving advice to beginning entrepreneurs.
In my opinion, the creation of eBay has been the cause of the greatest entrepreneurial revolution in the history of the world -- a revolution that has proved greater than the creation of the Internet, the typewriter and even the quill pen.\nThe reason I'm partial to eBay is because my first successful venture was an eBay business I started in eighth grade. My company, Viddiot, specialized in selling used video games to buyers on eBay. The lessons I learned selling on eBay have proved priceless. I highly recommend starting an eBay business because it will teach you how to market your product, interact with customers, deal with electronic payments and deal with suppliers.\nThe greatest feature of eBay is it advertises the item description listing of the product you're selling. A well-advertised listing can make the same product sell for twice as much as a poorly advertised listing. EBay advertising is just like any other type of advertising: In order to be successful, you must be testing all the time. Test your auction layout, pictures and the wording you use in your listing. I've found it beneficial to stuff your title with many keywords. The more likely your listing will come up in a search, the more likely your item will receive more -- and consequently higher -- bids.\nA seller's customer service on eBay is unparalleled. Because eBay does not tolerate customer dissatisfaction, it weeds out the bad seeds very quickly. EBay customers are very educated and price conscious and therefore prove to be very difficult to deal with. EBay buyers will hassle you about mistakes in your listing, delays in shipping and virtually anything you can imagine. The key to customer service is patience: Never retaliate negatively to a customer complaint. Be prepared to take a loss and refund listings. More importantly, be prepared to learn something from each customer interaction.\nIn 2002, eBay ended its battle with PayPal and purchased the company for $1.5 billion. With PayPal, the leading online service for electronic payments, you can send money to some place across the world within a few seconds. Better yet, it's the cheapest way to charge credit cards, and it is a powerful tool in fraud protection. PayPal is very intuitive and easy to learn. Running an eBay business without PayPal is like running a steakhouse that doesn't accept credit cards. I do not recommend it.\nThe most valuable experience of being en "eBay-preneur" is learning how to deal with suppliers. You can find suppliers virtually anywhere for your business. It's best to find large suppliers that can send you the same product time after time. Viddiot used Blockbuster as a primary supplier of video games. This worked because Blockbuster wasn't looking to profit from its video games. At the time, Blockbuster was only in the renting business and didn't sell games for a profit. Find a business that needs to get rid of inventory every month and it will prove to be a gem.\nIn my opinion, eBay is the most competitive market in the world. I believe that if you can compete on eBay, you can compete in any market. Why? Because eBay has an unlimited amount of suppliers in every individual market. It creates fierce competition which, in turn, cuts prices and profit margins to razor thin. This makes many eBay industries unprofitable. Only the fittest survive. Though it is difficult to make a profit on eBay, it is very possible. However, it does take a lot of forethought and innovative strategy. EBay gives an unprecedented amount of information for both buyers and sellers. Utilizing data from auctions that have already ended can give a seller powerful market data that can tell you if your product can make it on eBay or anywhere else. Utilize all of eBay's informational and technical tools, and you'll gain a lot of insight and real-life business experience. \nComing next week: How to leverage effectively.
