The rules for self-promotion at auction sites change regularly for good reason and, sometimes, for no reason at all. Take eBay for example. They no longer allow you to post links directly to your web site unless the sole purpose of that link is to provide more information on the specific item that you are offering in the auction.
While restrictions such as this one might seem to be a barrier to your goal of building your non-auction business using the tremendous traffic-driving potential that a good auction listing can create, there are loopholes that you can exploit.
Most auction sites, eBay included, allow you to link to a profile or "About Me" page. There are currently no restrictions that prohibit you from linking that page to your main web site. Now, the question is how to turn this loophole into cash.
One of the easiest strategies (at least in theory) is to post a rollicking good auction item that draws thousands of eyeballs and makes every one of those tire-kickers click on your "About Me" page. I said "at least in theory" because, heck, if we all were able to do that every time we posted an auction we wouldn't be worrying about building our non-auction business. We'd be too busy spending all of that money we were making. However, there still are ways to get some decent results.
One of the best ways to draw traffic to your auction and, by extension, to your About Me page is to run what I term a loss-leader-clone auction. That's where you find something that is running hot on your target auction site, buy one from your sources, and run it as an auction with no reserve price and bids starting at a penny. If you've chosen the right product, and you've listed it correctly, then the eyeballs will beat a path to your auction and your About Me page as well.
The strategy needs a bit more examination however. Your About Me page needs to be a well-worded mini-sales page that compels the reader to click on the link to your main site. Once the main site is reached you will need more good copy and a strong offer that "can't be refused". In fact, I would recommend that you create a special landing page that only people who have clicked from your About Me page will see. That way you can create a whopping offer that you don't have to offer to your regular visitors.
The next thing that you need to consider is the price of whatever you are offering on that special landing page. It either needs to be well within the impulse price range of $4.95 to $19.95, or it needs to produce such a good profit margin that you only need to sell a few. Our strategy gets blown to bits if you lose money on the auction item and you don't make any money on the landing page either -- so plan accordingly.
In summary, our path to using online auctions to build your "Regular" business is pretty straight-forward:
1. Create an auction with a hot loss-leader to attract attention.
2. Create a compelling About Me page and link it to your main web site.
3. Create a compelling landing page with an almost too-good-to-be-true offer that is either within impulse price range, or produces enough margin that only a few sales are needed to offset the loss that you may experience on the initial auction.
Finally, don't forget the cardinal rule: GET THEIR EMAIL ADDRESS! Offer a newsletter, or free download, or something that results in your getting their permission to mail them something in the future.
If you follow these suggestions, you should end up with a lot of auction-driven traffic going to your main site as well as incremental sales to make it all worthwhile.