Understanding Blogging vs. eBay Business for Monetization

READ LATER - DOWNLOAD THIS POST AS PDF >> CLICK HERE <<

Spread the love

For anyone with a keen interest in making money online, certainly, there are a plethora of different ideas that may be considered. Blogging vs. eBay is something I’ve had a good deal of experience in over the past 5-10 years.

I started eBay back in 2011 and I have been blogging on and off since about 2010 but more prominently since the beginning of 2020 (just before COVID).

Now this has been something that has been pretty fresh on my mind lately because eBay has kept me pretty busy. Since the beginning of 2022, I made the decision to start selling EVERYTHING rather than just in my PC Cooling niche and it has had quite an impact.

But in regards to blogging, I really don’t think this is something people should overlook either. Since I began my 1st website In January/February 2020 one thing that has definitely become clear to me is the potential.

Doing both is maybe not really the most productive thing. I would say if you can just put your time into just one thing this is probably for the best. Like, if you really want you can move on to something once you’ve grown your business to be profitable but STILL…

Let’s take a look at this…

Understanding Blogging vs. eBay Business

Table of Contents

When comparing blogging and eBay there are a lot of things in common. Both require investment to get started. You can start both for free but to really grow legs you need to invest.

With blogging, you can start for free on a platform such as Blogger or Siterubix but really if you are serious about this you will want to get a domain and a hosting plan. You will also want to pay for tools such as Getresponse/Aweber etc. for email marketing and I would say a lot more when you consider other tools and virtual assistants.

*For eBay, you can create a free account. You can list your first items for free but if you really want to make a go of it you will want to invest in inventory for your store.

*You also need to make sure you have packaging and as you progress there will be other things you might want to consider such as storage and subscriptions.

In Hindsight…

Each can be further developed with time spent and extra investment although eBay typically will make you money a lot faster than blogging. However, Blogging has many advantages over eBay. If you can make a profitable blog there is a lot more freedom. Many bloggers use this as an opportunity to TRAVEL THE WORLD!

I started blogging as I wanted to make more money. If you check out my home page you can read all about my latest stint at blogging. It’s been 4 years pretty much since I started blogging again in 2020 and the reason why I’m still doing it is a very lucky first month.

However, eBay is definitely a HUGE deal for me so I will get back to this soon. I will definitely share a few tips about eBay for those interested but first, let’s take a look at blogging…

Diving Deep into Blogging: The Pros and Cons

There are a lot of good reasons why someone might consider blogging as an occupation.

Really I’ve not had the greatest success at doing this personally compared to eBay. My problem I think has been I think because I’ve not given one project my full focus. Yet, as I said earlier in the article I have seen the potential and I have had my wins.

You can make a commission or revenue from ads and you don’t have to do anything. With eBay, you have to hold physical stock and you must meet customer’s demands but if you can set up a successful blog you don’t need to do anything like this.

You also don’t need to commit any time you don’t want to. You can work whenever you want to. Whereas with eBay you must get your orders out on time to keep your account healthy. The more you satisfy eBay the more sales you should get.

Although there is a HUGE con to blogging. You need to put a lot of time into making it work. Many in their first few months won’t even make a penny. I still have months now where I don’t make money but plenty of people DO make this work.

This blog post I think highlights this pretty well. It’s from Wealthy Affiliate, an e-learning platform that also provides hosting and other resources for bloggers. It’s a selection of different success stories from its members.

*Note I myself am a member of WA I haven’t had a lot of success here personally but others definitely have (as you will see from the blog post shared above). Try It Free HERE!

In my opinion, this is a great way to get started with blogging but about eBay…

Starting an eBay Business: the Benefits and Drawbacks

The benefits of eBay (I think) are pretty clear. If you have the internet but no money you can join for free. It is a very popular marketplace where countless people can find the items you list for sale and it really is quite easy to make your first sale.

The drawbacks become more apparent as you go on. There are the fees – be very careful about postage for heavy items and make sure that you don’t list items for too low.

[After you make your first few sales you can use this calculator]

That is one drawback and I think another big one is the clutter.

For me, this is definitely the biggest drawback. In my eBay store at the moment I have books, VHS, CDs, DVDs, Video Games, Electronics, Tools, and various bric-a-brac.

In my flat, I literally have stuff everywhere. Just the other day I bought a HUGE job lot of Lego. Almost 40 sets including big Lego Star Wars and Lego City sets and the whole lot I got bagged together. This is a good example I think of the sort of mess that might come up. You really get into some situations here but I was actually very excited to get this.

So Should You Save Yourself The Hassle?

You don’t get all this hassle with blogging and if you can make it work it is the better option if you value your living space (at least in the beginning).

[Check Out This Free Resource (EBook) To Get Started With Blogging Today]

*This is my own eBook I wrote and I think it explains things pretty well. If you’d like to read it. All I ask is that you sign up for my emails.

Keys to Success in Blogging and eBay Business

Whatever you decide to do the road to success is paved with the same principles;

Passion
Commitment
Dedication
Research and
Resourcefulness.

Having the right success mindset in both areas (and many others) is key to your progress.

However, other success factors are;

1.) High Quality Content

On eBay, you want good photos and listing titles and in many cases good product descriptions. Even investing in a good store design could be something else.

With blogging, it’s also important to write good-quality content. Using good complimentary graphics will help keep your readers engaged and this is key to SEO.

2.) Consistency

In both cases, you must keep going through the good times and the bad. For eBay resellers, you want to try and keep a Top Rated Seller status – as this not only bumps up your listings but also saves you money on fees. And with blogging, Google likes to see activity but not just this the more content you produce the more money you’re likely to make.

3.) SEO and Marketing

SEO definitely is very important to bloggers. Getting to page 1 of Google is the license to print your own money. Especially if you have the right things in place. Although you can do very well too from other methods of marketing such as social media and email marketing.

eBay is a bit different in terms of SEO. Its website already has HUGE domain authority but you can benefit from marketing in many ways. Youtube for many eBay resellers is a very big deal as can be Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

I actually love watching these videos as very inspiring and it definitely does make a difference for the people who use these channels.

4.) Customer Service

This is very important for eBayers. Neutral and Negative feedback is the last thing you want. eBay says it does not affect their algorithm but it definitely does. Also, you must get your orders out in time to retain a top-rated seller status.

*Blogging doesn’t really require as much of the same approach but if you have a store on your website people will ask questions. Then this becomes important but otherwise replying to comments is very important. The more you can get people to engage the better it is for SEO.

{Read My Post About SEO HERE}

Real Stories of Success and Failure in Blogging and eBay

Earlier in this post I shared a link for a blog post about successful bloggers with Wealthy Affiliate. I will share some of these links below. I’ve personally not had these levels of success. Really I think I’ve spread myself a bit too thin by doing too many different things but perhaps these success stories might persuade you to take this up;

Really when getting to this level with blogging the only reason you will even want to consider eBay is as a hobby or for helping to clear out clutter but STILL getting to this stage is a lot of hard work. It’s not that eBay isn’t but it’s definitely easier to make a modest income in doing short term.

Although, you can be very successful with eBay. $100K a year is definitely possible. Many people make this and much more by expanding their operations.

YouTube has plenty of videos of resellers who have been very successful with eBay.

It’s definitely doable. At the moment I make around £4K GBP before fees and shipping costs. Just short of $50K a year. Maybe £35K which could definitely be more if I put the work in but if I could make this with blogging instead I would have much more freedom.

So Deciding What’s Best For You: Blogging or eBay Business?

This is totally up to you. I would actually recommend doing eBay whilst you develop your website. You will need to pay for a few things if you start a blog.

By all means you can pay maybe £200 for 1-2 years of hosting and a domain but actually coaching is very important too so for this I would suggest paying for something like Wealthy Affiliate or the Affiliate Lab. The ROI might take 1-2 years but it’s big money if you can really get the ball rolling.

It is the perfect career for traveling as well. eBay does allow 14 days to take orders whilst you’re away but you can blog from anywhere in the world with just your laptop.

What you decide is up to you. I actually love eBay and finding things that I can 10x my investment on. I got some DVDs just this week for free that I made £40 off, I made £80 from a trolley dumped outside my flat a few months ago but I made $500 in my first month blogging. Not done that ever since in 3 years lol but it is possible.

In Conclusion

Understanding Blogging vs. eBay. Should you do both? I guess this is one question a lot of people will be wondering about. I would say YES you can but based on my own experience of about 4 years to really be successful in general it’s best to focus on ONE THING! Even if you decide to go on the blogging route just work on one website.

You can probably manage that actually I’d say. One day blogging, one day eBay, and so on but with blogging don’t start making one website after another. This was where I went wrong I think the more projects you work on together the more your time is divided.

Really reselling too can benefit without the distractions but on the contrary, I will say it’s a good source of income whilst you work to build your other business in blogging.

That’s what I do and I guess will continue to do for the foreseeable future.

I shall finish this blog here but if you have any questions please feel free to drop me a comment below.

Helpful Resources / Related Links: