I’m not an eBay expert, but I imagine that with the built in audience at eBay, diversifiying is sound advice.

But will this work for a small ecommerce business? Probably not.

Unless you’re a Fortune 500 company, there’s a good chance that you can afford to diversify effectively and compete on quality (as opposed to lowest cost).

My advise to small business owners is to focus in on the one (or two related) things that you’re great at.

If you sell an amazing baby sling, don’t try your hand at cloth diapers and baby clothes as well. Focus your efforts on branding and marketing your sling.

When the economy is better and people are spending more money, then you can look at selling complementary items.

What have you done that has helped your small business in this economy?

One of the most effective steps I took toward polishing my image as an eBay store owner was adding business cards to each and every package I send out to my customers. This killed two birds with one stone, actually:

I needed to give my customers something they could physically hang on to in order to remember me. I also needed a way to easily identify the bonuses that I included in each package. Up until that point, I had been including splashy invoices and just writing “Lagniappe” on the bag holding the bonuses to fill these needs.

The solution was simple, brilliant, and highly effective:

MOO MiniCards!

At the time that I ordered my first set of MOO mini-cards, I wasn’t very design savvy at all, so I kept mine incredibly simple. I chose the MOO Text MiniCards and created a card that simply said “Lagniappe” on the front and included my name, contact information, store name and URL, and eBay ID on the back, as well as a simple “Thanks” graphic, available right in the MOO options.

However, for you more design-savvy folks, MOO allows you to upload your own graphics for use on all of their products. You can match your cards exactly to your store banners, logos, etc. When I order from them this next time, I will most definitely be doing that, and I’m not even that much more design-savvy than I was before.

I also bought some stickers using MOO’s ready-made designs to use to tape the cards onto each bonus bag. (Again, MOO allows you to custom design your stickers if you prefer.) These I coordinated with the color scheme of my store, as well as the tissue paper I use in each shipment for packaging.

Viola! I had a polished way to identify bonuses and also a very hip business card for my customers to keep. All total? I think it cost me 20 minutes and $20.

But you? Aah, it can cost you even less.

With BlogHer and a handful of other blogging conferences coming up this summer, I contacted MOO and asked them if they would help me answer the question of “Where is the best place to get business cards to promote my blog?” and offer a discount for our readers. Their answer was a resounding, “Yes!”

Without further ado, here are your discounts, exclusively from Sparkplugging, Velveteen Mind, and Blog Nosh Magazine:

1) moo48Q

• 15% off entire order for NEW MOO customers
• valid until end of June

2) moo8BE

• 10% off entire order for existing customers
• valid until end of June

Please note that these codes are only good through the end of June. Also, MOO is located in London, so they use the British date stamp for their projected shipping date. If they they tell you your order will ship on 12/6/08, that is actually June 12.

I can’t recommend MOO MiniCards enough. And if you ordered them in the past but were disappointed when you realized that they didn’t fit your regular business card holders, MOO was listening. They now offer MOO MiniCards Holders, so you can carry your cards with you in style.

They have everything you need to be prepared, polished, and ready to promote your eBay store, your eCommerce business, your blog, or your self. They are perfect for crafting and to use as gift tags, too, which is the next use on my list for these.

Enjoy and be sure to send pictures of your MOO cards so we can share some of your designs! Also, I’ll be taking a photo of all of the MOO cards people give me at BlogHer this July, so be sure to track me down and hand me your card so I can show it off and link to you, your blog, and your business!

Now go! Design! Promote! Think big!