Sure people will uncover your auctions from searching on Ebay. Let’s go beyond that. ‘Way way way beyond that!

Ebay is only one site on the Internet. A site bigger than Godzilla on steroids, mind you, but a solitary site all the same.

And don’t forget, when people search for the model horses you’re selling, you’ll be competing against all the other vendors who are marketing the same things.

So what can you do? Simple! Get to where your customer base is lurking….and your competitors are not. Generating a sterling reputation for yourself via other online sites can bring you a vast targeted visibility…for free.

That's why you want a free personal auction site.

You have many choices for one! They include:

ISP member page

Are you currently accessing the Internet from an AOL, MSN, Earthlink etc. account? If so, you probably have free webspace already waiting for you!

Consider AOL. Go to their community site at http://hometown.aol.com . Search now for

model horse

See all those personal model horse pages? If you're an AOL user, you can take advantage of their free community space and build your own personal auction site there.

Now, keep in mind, I do NOT mean people will bid on your auction there! No no no! I mean that you will highlight your passion and your model horses there...and then include a direct link back to eBay so visitors can see your model horses that you have for sale.

Free sites on places like Geocities and Bravenet

Did you know that there are dozens of sites online that will offer you free webspace (with the caveat that they can put up banner ads about their services on your pages)? Not only that, but you can then index them within the communities that already exist for additional visibility as well.

One such free site is http://geocities.yahoo.com . Visit there now - you'll see a comprehensive directory with dozens of categories, ranging from Business and Finance to Home to Family to Sports to Culture to ….just about anything you can imagine.

What's that I hear you ask? A category for model horses? Well of course! You can see it at

Home > Member Pages Directory > Hobbies & Crafts > Models > Horses

Gad I love the Internet!!!!

But I digress.

Your own domain name

Your own domain name is something that you own entirely. You choose the name! You don't have to worry about extra banners or other drawbacks that the free sites demand.

There are two fees generally involved with getting your own domain. One is the registration fee, which is anywhere from $8 to $35 a year, and the hosting fee, which generally is also from $8 to $35/month, depending upon the packages you choose.

From the very beginning of my marketing online back in 1996, I've used my own domain name. For me, the benefits are undeniable - I am in total control of anything my visitors see. I can configure numerous email addresses like sales@barbaraling.com or ebay@barbaraling.com . I can set up any number of useful marketing scripts without worrying about if they're prohibited on the free sites. Thus, I look at the overall $200/year fee to be an investment for me. I use AllWebCo myself.

Remember! Ebay is huge. Definitely. Humongous. Massive. And there are meeyons and meeyons of visitors to the site every day.

That's the good news.

The bad news is that out of those meeyons of visitors, chances are only a small, teeny tiny number of them are looking for what you have to sell. Wah. Let me repeat that. Even the huge amount of traffic that Ebay enjoys will not guarantee you success as an online auction entrepreneur. To increase your profits, you should tap into the rest of the Internet as well.

What's the rest of the Internet?

You name it, if it's online, it's part of the Internet. Anything, everything.

Let me repeat that. If it's online, it's part of the Internet….and depending upon what it is, your customers might be hanging around there this very minute!

Gaming sites, gambling site, family sites, chats, forums, webrings, classifieds, newspapers, stock quotes, sports betting, TV fandom, anime, gardening, porn, advice columns…..everything online is part of the Internet.

So. Let's take a step back now and view the broad vista in front of us. You have your favorite online sites. Your customers have theirs. The thing is, you need to discover where they are…and how you can get yourself noticed in a positive fashion. One place they're always at is Google, the best search engine today. You can get straight in their face by ensuring your high profit personal online auction site shows up for all of their targeted queries (ie, suppose you sell model horses. You would want your site to be present in the top ten for the query "model horses for sale", for example).

But, like Ebay, that takes care of only one site. It doesn't address the rest of the Internet at all. To do that, we need to examine:

Where Your Online Auctions Fit In

Let me reiterate a key fact I mentioned earlier. You have your favorite sites. Your customers have theirs. Your goal is to ensure you ferret out where these sites are and how your online auctions fit into them.

And here's the answer! You find them by searching for targeted communities like forums, mailing lists, chats, etc., and become part of that community. You set up a one-click method for anyone to access all the great offerings you have, and embed that in your email signature.

Once you are part of a community, you generate trust by answering questions of your customers and being all-around helpful. Portraying yourself as a SME (subject matter expert) will coax your audience to want to learn more about you and your offerings. After all, it's common sense - from whom do you prefer buying? Some stranger, or a person who has proven their expertise and customer service time and time again?

Free site templates

Okay, so now you know the benefits of a personal auction website. How the heck can you build one?

Easy! First off, do you know how to craft webpages? If you need a tutorial, you can find some great ones at:

http://www.davesite.com/webstation/html/

http://www.htmlgoodies.com/primers/basics.html

Next, you can pick and choose from dozens of free site templates at FreeSiteTemplates.com. A JimWorld production, it provides great layouts you can incorporate into your own personal site at no cost.

What about the design? Well, you probably want to include pages like:

• Main Page - What visitors will see the instant they come to your site

• About Me - This will describe your passion for model horses and why buyers should consider your models.

• Testimonials - Happy customer testimonials are one of the most important pages you can have! It's human nature to think...okay, that person was happy, I guess I'll be, too.

• Order - This will take viewers directly to your model horse auctions via your Unique Seller Link.

• My Model Horses - This page will list briefly what you have to offer and have offered in the past.

• Contact Me - How people can contact you

• Resources - Most important! Your resources page will help you achieve high visibility in search engines. On this page, you can include links to model horse forums, webrings, live showings, etc.

Once you have your site created, you want to make sure you implement as much viral marketing as you can. There are wonderful free guides and forums about this at:

• JimWorld

• GetHighForums

• WilsonWeb

• Guerilla Marketing

For a complete guide to making your website appear in the top ten for your marketing needs, visit eBay Search Profits, my guide for increasing the overall auction profits you can make.

Okay, it's time to stop and take a breather. We've gone over your auctions, your personal website, your proactive marketing...what else can you do?

Plenty! One of the best ways to increase your success is to watch and learn from the masters. And that's what the next chapter will do!