No matter what you sell online, or how you sell it, you will need to build a measure of trust with your customers. When selling through eBay, building that trust can be quite difficult people worry about being scammed quite a bit.

However, eBay sellers can use the 'About Me' page that comes with their eBay seller's account to start building that all-important trust.

The 'About Me' page on eBay will allow you to tell your potential customers more about you, your products, and your business. This page allows the potential bidders to see that you are indeed a real human being, and there is even a forum included which will allow you to have personal communication with potential customers.

You can use this page to provide information about why you want to sell various items, how you got started on eBay, and any other information that you want to share that might help build trust. The 'About Me' page can also be used to show your trading history on eBay. Having the ability to show that you have no refund requests or very few and that you've honored all requests is vital.

eBay is a lot of fun for both buyers and sellers but when it comes down to the wire, it is a business, and it should be operated as such.

The 'About Me' page on eBay is similar to the 'About Us' page that you see on the websites of major corporations. Corporations use their pages to give a brief company history, a brief explanation of their mission and standards, and vital information about the people running the company. Your 'About Me' page should have no less.

It is important to note that eBay does not make the 'About Me' page very accessible to sellers in terms of finding the page and how to add information to the page. To find the page and get it set up, simply go to: http://cgi3.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?AboutMeLogin and sign in with your user ID and password. You will be taken through the steps to get your 'About Me' page all set up.

You will be allowed to use an HTML page that you have created yourself, or to use the easy form that eBay provides. By using the form, you can enter information about yourself or your business, upload pictures, add your website links, allow your current offerings to show, and allow your feedback history to show.

Once you've finished creating the page eBay will email you the URL. You can share this URL with friends, family, and website visitors. You can even have it printed on promotional items.

While eBay will allow you to add outside links to your 'About Me' page, there are rules that must be followed.

Those links cannot point to any site that sells items outside of the eBay website. It may point to a site that offers more information about the items you are selling on eBay, as long as those items are only available through eBay not through the website.

Breaking this rule will result in removal of your 'About Me' page, listing cancellations, limited account privileges, account suspension, loss of eBay fees on cancelled listings, or loss of PowerSeller status.

If you have questions that eBay does not answer about creating your 'About Me' page, there is a discussion board set up for this very purpose. This forum is easily accessible when you are creating your 'About Me' page, and you will find all of the answers that you are looking for here. You may also choose to view other members 'About Me' pages to get some ideas.

Just remember that the 'About Me' page should be used to build trust between you and your potential customers. You should avoid making it look too 'corporate,' but at the same time, avoid making it look like an amateur home page as well.

CopyRight Ian D. Major 2005