eBay has many wonderful avenues to help you increase the flow of traffic to your store as well as to help you increase your sales. One of the easiest is called Cross Promotion. If you are not familiar with what this feature does for you, or how to access it, read on. I will take you step by step through the process.

First let us discuss who benefits from Cross Promotion Connections. You, of course, benefit from Cross Promotion. The real beauty of this, however, is that not only do you benefit, but you can help a fellow eBayer to benefit as well. Cross Promotion involves 2 people - you and one other eBayer. (Of course, you can Cross promote with more than one person.)

How do you benefit will be touched on next. I do not know if you have noticed or not, but when you go to an item description on eBay, about half way down, you see "Other Items From This Seller." You see approximately four other items that person has for sale. What happens when you Cross promote is that when someone bids on one of your items or receives an invoice from you, not only will it promote some of your other items, but it will promote items from people you are cross promoting with and vica versa.

What should you look for when choosing someone to Cross Promote with? While we all have certain things that are important to us, there are a few things that i think will be of import to most. The things I look for are the following:

1. What is the percentage of positive feedback a person has received? You probably will not want to Cross Promote with someone who chronically has problems. If you are considering someone who has less than 100% positive, look to see why. Actually find the negative comment and read it. Read the response from the person to see if the responded in a way that is acceptable to your ideals. We are all human and make mistakes. Not all buyers on eBay are cooperative. Just because a seller does not have 100% does not mean they are not a fabulous eBayer.
2. How well established is this person in the eBay community? You will most likely want to Cross Promote with someone who has been a round eBay for a while. Look at how many stars they have. Also, look at the date they became an eBay member. It is a good idea to Cross Promote with someone who has been around for a while. It will give you some indication that they are not fly-by-night who may possibly be looking to scam people. (Yes, those people do exist.) 
3. What sort of items does this person sell? The reason I believe this is important is two-fold. First, you will want to make sure that the person does not sell anything that you might find offensive. You do not want things showing up on your listings that you would otherwise not want to promote. Second, you may want to make sure that you are not in direct competition with the person. Many eBayers sell a variety of ever-changing merchandise. However, there are some that sell the same thing day in and day out. Third, if you Cross Promote with someone who sells a wide array of things, you are more likely to have your items introduced to a wider audience.

Now that you know these things, I will take you step by step through the set up process.

1. Go to "My eBay."
2. Look in the left hand column for the heading "All Selling."
3. Under "All Selling" find the link that says "Marketing Tools." Click that link.
4. You will be taken to a new page entitled "Marketing Tools: Summary." On this page, look in the left column for a heading that reads "Item Promotion."
5. Under "Item Promotion" find the link under "Cross Promotion" that says "Connections." Click that link.
6. You will be taken to a new page that has at least one button that says "Request a New Connection." Click on one of the buttons.
7. From here, follow the prompts through the rest of the process. When you are done, eBay will send a Cross Promotion request to the user you specified. With any luck, the person will accept and you will be Cross Promoting in no time. you will be notified when the Cross Promotion is in effect. You may also return to the page mentioned in number 6 above. When you scroll down, it will show you all your pending Cross Promotions as well as your active ones.

I currently Cross Promote with five wonderful eBayers: mya62002,  lindac864, biglakeonline, sunnielin, and andydanilchick. If you get a chance, check out some of the things they offer. A couple of them, mya62002 &  lindac864, have fully stocked stores and are wonderful examples of great eBayers! I honestly feel these connections have been helpful and I am sure that Cross Promotion will help you, too.

I hope this guide was helpful to you. If I left anything out or if you need further assistance, I would be happy to guide you. Just send a message to me via eBay.

Good Luck and Happy Promoting!!