For individual and small sellers, profit can quickly be eaten up by auction or storefront listing fees. With more "eBay alternatives" on the scene today however, sellers are able to take advantage of not only new places to list items in auction format, but also free Web stores where you can easily showcase your items and tell prospective buyers more about you.

While there is no denying that an auction format will usually bring the most traffic on these marketplaces, you can also promote your own Web store on classified ad sites and many other online and offline spaces. Here are the details on three free, easy-to-use Web stores, plus five promotional tips to get you started — for free, of course.

eCrater Stores
eCrater.com offers online merchants access to both a free Web store builder and a free online marketplace. When using eCrater hosted services you get free Web site hosting, a free Web address (yourname.ecrater.com) or you can use URL forwarding if you already own your own domain name. You can also use eCrater's administrative tool to better manage your online store. Unlike some other free Web storefronts, with eCrater you don't have to subscribe to get extra features.

Sudden Impact: eCrater. (Click for larger image.)

One main area of concern when using a free Web store is that many will only allow you a specific number of products, then, once you have reached that limit you must pay additional fees. eCrater stands out in this regard because it offers sellers an unlimited number of products in an unlimited number of categories.

It supports both PayPal and Google Checkout, up to 10 images per product, promotion categories, order management, unlimited disk space and it offers many more features at no cost. If that isn't enough freebie goodness to satisfy you, eCrater also automatically creates and submits product feeds to Google and also supports Google Analytics, which you can use to track your store's traffic.

PlunderHere eStores
PlunderHere offers online sellers a marketplace at which to buy and sell, with both auction and immediate purchase options for buyers. PlunderHere also has a Basic eStore that is free for registered users. When using PlunderHere for your Web store, you get all the tools required to customize the store and you can use a free PlunderHere Web address or your own URL. You can also cross-promote items and list fixed-price items that wouldn't appear in regular search results on PlunderHere.com, much like eBay Stores. 

Plunder for Profit: PlunderHere (Click for larger image.)

PlunderHere eStores allows you to customize the display and content in your store plus add personal details as well as information on your policies and what you are selling.

On the marketing and payment fronts, buyers can do keyword searches from within your store and. PlunderHere promotes your feeds through Froogle, Google Base, BidHopper, BidFind and Google Sitemaps. It offers support for Google Checkout and PayPal. While sellers are not charged to list any item, all sales incur a small 2.5-percent final value fee. Not bad considering you won't owe PlunderHere any fees unless you actually sell something.

(Continue to Page 2 for Blujay Web Stores and Five Promotion Tips)