by Altaf Sahibzada

Created on: May 06, 2009   Last Updated: May 15, 2009

Of several online money making opportunities, Ebay and Amazon are two excellent sites. They provide solid avenues for earning online income by creating professional online stores. Amazon's aStore is opened by its Associates (free to join). There are some essential differences between the two.

In case of Ebay store, you should have your own products to sell. If you have your own products and you want to do your own business online, you can create a store with this internet auction company. Thousands have opened their profitable ebay stores.

On the other hand, with Amazon's aStore, you are essentially working as its affiliate. You can create an aStore featuring Amazon products. If you want to sell these, you can create a store with products of your choice. You cannot sell your own products in that store.

If you don't have your own products, you can sell affiliate products. Amazon will help you to build a store with all the features embedded in it. You can embed it in your own website or link it. The process of creating this store is very simple and one can have a store within minutes.

Another important difference is that while there is a cost liked with creating an ebay store, Amazon aStore is free to create. In case of the former, there are also listing and other fees. In the case of the latter, you get paid if any products get sold from your aStore.

Potential for profits from the former depends upon your products and the margins they generate. In case of the latter, you get a referral commission generally from 5 to 15 percent of the sale price.

Under Ebay, you will be responsible for entire shipping and handling buyer queries, while as under Amazon, you have nothing to do except to promote products. All other issues are taken care of by the company.

Under both the schemes, you will have to promote your business. However, it is easier under ebay. The advantage with this is that it attracts millions of buyers to the site and one can put one's store in front of millions at a nominal cost.

Profits can also be different under the two. While you can determine your own prices and profits under ebay, you will have to be contended with referral commission under the other. Under the former, you can also determine your own products.

There is more competition for Amazon products. In case of ebay, if you have hot products, your business can be very profitable. Many a time, seasonal products provided by Amazon sell well.

In any case, online stores provide business opportunities which any one can operate with nominal cost. That is the beauty of internet. If any one is serious about online selling, the two types of stores can be handy. Both are very easy to set up and operate. Both have the backing of reputed companies.

Doing business online is fun. Any business demands hard work and promotion. There are hundreds of businesses that one can do on the internet. One can choose any business depending upon one's qualifications and aptitude.

Learn more about this author, Altaf Sahibzada.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.