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How do we earn money if our website like eBay?
Posted: Sun Jul 30, 2006 7:34 am
by joseph
Hey... how does eBay earn money? I mean, if I'm going to put up an eBay like site then how do I earn money aside from the ads? Do I get % from each transaction made? and where could I find the best script for this?
Posted: Sun Jul 30, 2006 7:36 am
by feyd
ebay gets a cut of the sale. It's all laid out how they charge on their site's informational pages.
Re: How do we earn money if our website like eBay?
Posted: Sun Jul 30, 2006 8:22 am
by RobertGonzalez
joseph wrote:Hey... how does eBay earn money? I mean, if I'm going to put up an eBay like site then how do I earn money aside from the ads? Do I get % from each transaction made? and where could I find the best script for this?
OK, piece by piece:
how does eBay earn money?
This is a loaded question with a lot of possible answers. eBay is making money from a number of sources, but the two most known and prominent revenue streams are insertion fees and final value fees. An insertion fee is the amount charged to a user to list their item for sale. A final value fee is what is charged to the user when their item finally sells. It is a percentage of the final selling price of the item.
They also make money on advertisements, on listing software, subscriptions to stores, and several other eBay specific products and services. Also keep in mind that eBay owns half.com and Paypal.com (in addition to others), so they are also making money from them.
where could I find the best script for this
You don't, you create it. Just like they did.
Posted: Sun Jul 30, 2006 9:10 am
by joseph
Jesus Christ!

I'm not going to program an eBay like script, it's going to take me another hundred years for me to finish that kind of script myself. But I thought I saw an auction php script somewhere they sell it for $200+ I think.

so expensive.. What are these e-commerce pack included in the cpanel used for anyway? Weren't they used for selling and buying stuffs like eBay or Amazon?
Posted: Sun Jul 30, 2006 11:26 am
by alvinphp
$200+ is nothing considering you would make hundreds of millions when your site gets as big as ebay.
Posted: Sun Jul 30, 2006 11:42 am
by RobertGonzalez
Seriously, if a site is going to make millions of dollars, it is going to take a little more than $200 bucks.
If all you are after is a simple auction script, take a look at hotscripts.com and see if they have something you can use. But be prepared to do some major work if you plan on taking your site big time.
Posted: Sun Jul 30, 2006 6:38 pm
by alex.barylski
Just a bit more honesty...
You site isn't going to become eBay, especially with a premade $200 script...
You'll be lucky if you even turn a profit, take my advice...
Either give up now, before spending money or start thinking of ways to improve eBay and start working on it...
eBay has the community, which is what makes it awesome, not the power behind the scripts...how do you plan on building community when most people would just say, why not use eBay???
Posted: Sun Jul 30, 2006 9:33 pm
by joseph
You got your point there! But I think I might as well try at least start with a small community. Of course, I have to find a free script instead and do some major changes to it. So all I need is time and effort, and a little fee for getting a hosting account. Do you guys think E-commerce pack that is included in most cpanel has the same features like the eBay and Amazon?
Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2006 12:08 am
by daedalus__
I am going to say that all successful e-stores are built from the ground up.
Whether that is completely true or not, I have no idea but it seems like it.
Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2006 12:13 am
by RobertGonzalez
joseph wrote:You got your point there! But I think I might as well try at least start with a small community. Of course, I have to find a free script instead and do some major changes to it. So all I need is time and effort, and a little fee for getting a hosting account. Do you guys think E-commerce pack that is included in most cpanel has the same features like the eBay and Amazon?
I think the ecommerce apps in most cpanels are meant to be used with a shopping cart of some sort.
Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2006 8:40 am
by panic!
No offence to the original poster, but I don't think alot of people really have much idea about how much websites cost to develop; reminds me of a phone call I got recently.
caller:I want a site kind of like iTunes, where I can sell mp3s etc.
me: right , how much have you thought this out, do you have anything written up.
caller: yeah, i've got something that I sent do another company but the quote they gave us was, much more than I could afford
me: ok....and how much are you looking to spend roughly?
caller: well we were thinking around £200-£300 max.
me: um, ok well I'm kinda busy at the moment with stuff so you're gonna have to call me at a later date.
(£200 is around $400 dollars by the way).
Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2006 10:13 am
by Luke
Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2006 10:27 am
by RobertGonzalez
The Ninja Space Goat wrote:I've dealt with this too. Why do people think that all you need is a cheap little website to become a millionaire?
Because a few years ago that was all you needed. Moving forward...
Please keep this discussion from becoming a personal insult thread. The original poster seemed to have gotten the point before the last few comments were made...
joseph wrote:You got your point there! But I think I might as well try at least start with a small community. Of course, I have to find a free script instead and do some major changes to it. So all I need is time and effort, and a little fee for getting a hosting account. Do you guys think E-commerce pack that is included in most cpanel has the same features like the eBay and Amazon?
Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2006 10:37 am
by Luke

sorry... I wasn't trying to insult the OP... actually I kind of forgot what the original question was... and was just responding to the last post. my apologies.
Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2006 10:39 am
by jayshields
I think it's pretty close to impossible to make serious money from an auction website now that eBay has grown so large. It doesn't matter if your website is twice as cheap or twice as easy to use. It's all about marketing, and in my opinion, when it comes to marketing, whoever has the most money will make the most money; if it's put to use properly.
If you're looking to make serious money from anything online these days the number one thing you need is an original idea. You see social networking websites coming up left, right and centre nowadays, but none of them will out-grow MySpace; it's the same principle with eBay.