When Sydney Johnston has a live eBay audience she loves to ask a really easy question. And every time everyone gets it wrong. It has to do with perceptions. Those that work successfully with Internet business are those that can think outside the box.

The road to success online is directly related to your ability to think differently and open your mind to the possibilities.

Sydney Johnston was in on the ground floor with sites like eBay but she has never viewed it like the general public tends to. The question she asks her live audience sounds like a no brainer: “What is eBay?” But, it’s a trick question.

What she is after is feedback from the audience as to their perception of eBay and what it brings to the table and most often peoples minds are limited as to it possibilities.

That’s the whole point. She wants them to see where they are and then she invites them to climb outside the box and share a new view of one of the five most trafficked websites in the world.

She is guiding her students to recognise eBay as much more than just a site selling goods via auctions.

Here’s how Sydney stumbled onto the real potential of a site like eBay. “I started selling not real rare but a hundred dollars and up books. I accidentally built a list of about 250 serious book collectors and I started sending out emails.”

This is where innovators take what eBay has to offer and run with it. Most people see eBay as the beginning and the end. Many think of it is the place to sell single items and nothing more.

People who understand marketing see it differently and despite the huge numbers that visit the website these people are a tiny minority. The field is wide open and is unlikely to change.

eBay can be the magic bullet to endless streams of eager customers who can be sold again and again but only to those switched on to understand this.

It’s all in that additional communication.Few eBay business owners grasp this opportunity and this has shown little likelihood of changing any time soon.

For people like Sydney that sale is just the first step in a long and hopefully mutually satisfactory relationship.

Success on eBay is about tying products together and expanding the newly formed relationship.

If you sell a set of pearl earings what other items would the customer also be looking at buying in the future maybe a matching ring or bracelet.

Successful marketers see that initial transaction as an introduction that requires diligent follow up. What are you going to do differently today to change how you make money on eBay today?