When I tell people that I sell on eBay for a living, many people are surprised. “You can do that? Does your business do well in this economy?” My answer to both of those questions is “yes.”

You see, I’ve tried both online and offline business models, and eBay is the only one that worked for me. I had a painting business where I had 15 people working for me. You’d think that with so many employees, I’d be able to make a significant profit. Not true. What happened was I paid all my employees and at the end of the day, there wasn’t anything left for me.

eBay was a radical shift from this. I didn’t have to pay everyone else first. I had no employees, no overhead expenses. I didn’t have to worry about driving all across the city to deliver paint cans and move my crews. The hassle was gone. All I had to do was sit in front of the computer for a bit, and then when someone paid, take a few minutes to put my item in a box. I could see the exact results for everything that I put in. I would put time in and get results out. It was so liberating.

I’ll always remember when I made my first sale on eBay. It was a Friday night and I was going out for dinner with my family. I looked at the PayPal account before I left and it said $0. So we went out and had a nice dinner. When I check the PayPal account again, there was money! It was so exciting to see that I made money while I was doing something completely unrelated. I went out for dinner and made money! I’m still amazed when I wake up in the morning and found that I’ve made money while I sleep.

So what’s the conclusion? Yes, you can sell on eBay. Yes, I feel that creating an eBay business is one of the best businesses you can start. It’s up to you to decide whether you want to do it too.

Joel Holmes is an eBay PowerSeller and Entrepreneur who has been making money on eBay for more than 3 years. Before you start to sell on eBay, you need to check out his excellent free eBay Business Start Up Kit, showing you step by step how to learn to sell on eBay.