Unless you're a hermit tucked away in a cave somewhere and have no contact with the outside world you will know something about eBay - the world wide online auction website.

I love eBay. I can pick up great bargains as a buyer or make some money as a seller without having to get bogged down in all the techno stuff associated with having my own website based business. And as for making money on eBay well, if you get it right then it can be a real income provider. But how do you get it right?

Let's assume you have done a bit of eBay buying and selling but now you fancy having a bigger slice of the action. You want to start making some real money and grow a profitable eBay business. First thing to ask yourself is 'Am I capable and committed enough to devote the time and effort to setting up, maintaining and growing an eBay business?'

Too many people are drawn in to believing that you can make a fortune online doing virtually nothing - put in a couple of hours a week and watch the money roll in! Forget it! It isn't going to happen. If you want to earn a full time income online then you need to be prepared to put in full time hours and more. Sure you can start off slow devoting what time you can to it but somewhere along the line you will need to crank up the hours.

Right your committed, you know it's going to need a lot of work and you know you have the ability so you dive in and give it all you've got and as is often the case you get nowhere! So before you give up your day job or pile a lot of money into an eBay business, sit yourself down and start putting together a robust plan because without one your running on hope and you won't know you've been derailed until its to late!

The first things to get sorted are - How much money do you need to make? How much money can you invest? How much time can you put aside for it? What are you going to sell? You need to be honest with yourself when you are answering these questions as these are key elements of your plan.

When it comes to what your going to sell make sure you're not trying to be an online department store selling anything and everything - much better to be focused on a particular market.

Now that you know what it is you think you will sell it's time to do some market research. You need to get a handle on who will be your customers? What level of interest exists for what your going to sell? What level of demand exists? Is demand constant or seasonal? What's the typical profit margin? Your aim here is to confirm that there is a profitable sustainable business that can be built around what you plan to sell.

Profitable and Sustainable are going to be key things you will need to demonstrate if you plan to get outside investment or financial assistance for your business.

Let's assume you have your outline plan and it holds water. Now you're going to need to start detailing it which is all about defining how you're going to operate. Let's assume you're going to be selling physical goods rather than digital ones. You need to determine where you're going to get your stock? How much stock you need to carry? Where will your stock be stored? How will you package and ship it? What price will you charge? What are your competitors charging? What profit per sale do you need to make? How will you list your products to make what your offering more desirable than your competitors?

You need to start thinking about auction titles which are fundamental to your success - get them wrong and you don't get sales because no one looks at your listing!

Now it's time to step back and re-evaluate your plan. Does it work financially? Does it work from a product perspective? Be honest and if you have to rework your plan to make it work then do it. If your plan works then your set to succeed it doesn't then kiss your eBay business goodbye!

Right we have a viable plan what next? Before you start setting up your auctions make sure you are familiar with eBay (and PayPal) policies, rules and regulations and make sure you are protecting yourself properly from fraud.