Selling and buying items with online sites such as eBay, Craigslist and Kijiji can help you become a better marketer. Even if your business doesn’t have product to currently sell on one of these online services, but you personally do, you’ll quickly learn how to be more creative in your ad writing, pricing and bidding skills.

If you’re not in a service business and actually have a tangible product, why not put it up on a free service like www.craigslist.com, or better yet, www.kijiji.com and see what type of interest there is in your product. Although both of these businesses are essentially free, local, community classifieds, you might be amazed by what you learn…and how you can transfer that knowledge back to your business. Even if you’re not prepared to put your ‘real’ products up on one of these sites, take the plunge and try to sell something out of your house that you don’t want anymore….and see how many people show an interest in your product.

Winnipeg businesses take note – this is smart and effective way to test the local marketplace.