Marketing your ebay store

So - what do YOU do to market your eBay store?



Nothing? I think that's what most people do. They set it up because they can't be bothered running auctions, don't want to wait for the auctions to end to sell something. And then? THEN there is a deafening silence.

It's only in Kevin Costner's brain or the movie Field of Dreams that you "build it and they will come". It' s not true in the brick and mortar world and it' s not true on eBay.

So how do you go out into the streets of eBay and drag folks in to your store to look at your stuff?

1. On the Manage my store page there's the RSS feed. Enable that.

2. Use lots of key words and custom pages to bring people in to read. If you use your custom pages to discuss ONE category that you list in your story...(one per custom page I mean), you have, with a basic store 4 custom page...so 1 for a home page and 3 for custom pages.

3. Buy PPC advertising? I haven't done that so if you have, post your ideas and results in the comments. I'd be interested to hear them.

4. Have a Squidoo lens and feed your store to that. I do that. It's got limited effectiveness until you start to drive traffic to the lens too. So now you've doubled your work. But at least making the lens and editing them is kind of fun.

So what else do you do?? I'll list some more ideas I have next time. Meantime in the comments post your ideas. Or email me. depressionglass@comcast.net

Ebay changes - some ways to make some sales

Okay, lots of folks want to know..(inquiring minds...ya know?) HOW can I make money on eBay?

With all the hubbub about all eBay's changes, I think a lot of us forget the single most important point about eBay:

YOU CAN'T SELL IT IF IT AIN'T LISTED!

Now, I've personally found, that when I went over 100 store items (as far as quantity on my inventory I mean) I started seeing more sales. When I went over 200, sales again went up incrementally. That was true with every 100th block I passed. The best was when I managed to get over 1000 items in my Ebay store for more than 10 seconds. (cause you do know right, that if you're aiming for 200, as soon as you hit 195, things will start selling out of the store. As soon as it goes over 200 items, more things will sell...it's Murphy's Ebay Law). As soon as I passed 1000 items, I got about 8 sales in the next 2 days. ! HALLELUJAH!

So - my personal motto is: (come on Dar, you know the words...! ) LIST MORE, SELL MORE!

I try to list 100 items a week. Since February I've had a problem doing that - I must have developed eadd..otherwise known as "Ebay Attention Deficit Disorder". I just can't focus on eBay.

Still my current goal is 35 new listings on Sunday evening and 10 every other day of the week. Which in theory, would get me darned close to 100 new listings a week. I haven't managed it more than once or twice in the last 3 mos. But I haven't given up either.


The second thing to remember, with auctions especially, if the right eyeballs are not on eBay that week, your item will not sell. So what to do?

I personally wait 10 days, relist the item and try to publicize it, (making sure I use the eBay referral code for that item or for my store) and then if it doesn't sell then, I put it in the eBay store for a while. How long? depends? If it's Christmas maybe for a while. If it's June, probably definitely for a while. If it's tax refund spending time, for 3-4 weeks.

What about stuff you put into your store and forgot? (OH don't tell me you never forgot about them? Baloney. I do so I know everyone else does. LOL I mean we are all human. Life intervenes). So when I look at my eBay store and stuff is sorted by ending soonest for me, then I end the item and relist it...or I change the title, the picture, the wording or the price. (NO I almost NEVER EVER EVER lower the price. An old real estate adage is to raise the price...so I do that and guess what? An awful lot of stuff sells. I mean it's unreal. AT HIGHER than they could have bought it the week before. But again, it's that thing about the "right eyeballs" seeing your item.!

How else can you make money from your items? I think through an affiliate code but I'm no expert yet on that. I'm just designing my first campaign. Maybe (I think there's a rule on this) you can't get an affiliate referral payment on your items. But you can get them on mine. I can get them on those of bookcornercottage, or my52cents or bigdaddysmoney...or you blog, or you make a website, you put a feed on it. And we'll see how we both do.

Oh - and you make Squidoo lenses of your items, my items, every blue dress on eBay etc. and you update those lens regularly, (something else I"m not timely or reliable about yet) and WALA! soon you have a nice little account building up in Squiddoo money.

So. that's my idea for today...just basic commonsense. Want to see what I'm selling? That top feed in the box on the right side? That is me...come on in and visit!
Beth

Have you see these...?? They are soooo cute

Ok, I don't make a lot of money on these and I got started picking them up by accident at an auction.


Annalee White Dragon with Hearts 1990 doll figure toy
Annalee Mobilitee 1988 Green Elf doll toy figurine
Annalee Mobilitee Fluffy Sheep Lamp Flowers 1992
Annalee Mobilitee 91 Hunter Camoflauge figurine doll
Annalee Mobilitee Sitting Santa with Sack Doll 1971
Annalee Doll Santa Claus w/ Christmas gift packages '89
Annalee Doll Santa Claus Painting Toys '90 Christmas
Annalee Doll Mrs Santa Claus with packages 1989
Annalee Christmas Choirboy Doll '93 Holiday decoration

These are all in my store on ebay - they are the sweetest little dolls and figures and decorations.

And I mention them cause I think they are soo cute!!

Another eBay Faux Pas...do they ever end?

Have you all seen this at the bottom of the eBay search page? I have no clue how long it’s been since I looked al the way down the search page...maybe 4 months – like when I last went to an auction and was looking for comps...but tonight I’m looking for completed prices on some of the less common books we bought yesterday...and found this:

We found other stuff close to what you're looking for

Now, maybe it’s me but...I can call my “stuff” STUFF but I think ebay should be referring to it as “we found more items” or “we found more selections simliar to what you searched for”

And I know I’m being picky when there are soooo many things wrong on ebay right now...but this one, this just annoys me.

I’m not selling STUFF. Maybe John Donahoe sells "stuff" from his closet or his basement. But I go to estate auctions and buy consignments directly from people liquidating estates and my "stuff" is MERCHANDISE and most of it is too expensive to be STUFF. STUFF comes from the dollar store. I’d like to think my “stuff” could go – a lot of it – on Antique Row on Pine St in Philadelphia.

What about the rest of you? Am I just being petty about this? (Don’t answer that, I know the answer...)

So some hints about making more money on ebay

Ok, this is supposed to be about making money on ebay (I've given up on the hope of FUN on ebay for the moment...)

So, first what are my credentials?

a) Silver level power seller (for the last 3 years straight and at times during the 8 years and 3 mos before that)

b) Been on ebay 11 years - primarily as a seller

c) Been making a living for the last 3 years on eBay - not a great one but paying the bills


SO on to some tips

#1 TIP of all time - List More Sell MORE

On ebay - volume counts - the more auction listings the more traffic I get. The more store listings, the more traffic I get. As part of that, let me remark that I have an ebay store...and every time I "cross" a hundred mark, my sell-through goes up a bit more. My sales increase.

When I got over 100 items in the store it went up.
When I got up to 200 items it went up.
The day I got the 500th item in there it jumped amazingly.

So list more - sell more


#2 Tip of all time:

YOU CAN'T SELL WHAT AIN'T LISTED!

Your mother is going "DUH, I told you that".

Seriously - put the Christmas stuff in the store now. Put the Halloween stuff in the store now.

Put the woolen sweaters in the store now. (You know it is winter in Australia right? So THEY are buying woolen sweaters when WE are just sweating. )

At Halloween you can put the stuff in auction or run a special. The week after Halloween have a "clearance sale" like the real stores do. BUT LIST IT. AND....Leave it listed. It costs a crummy 3 cents to keep it going for a month.

#3 - USE a spell checker and speak English (assuming of course you are listing on the US /UK/CA or AU sites and are reaching an English speaking market. )

Nothing ruins that initial impression as fast as bad spelling, bad grammar and not proofreading your material (and I'm guilty of all three on this blog sometimes so it proves my point. )

#4 - find, make, steal or buy an inventory system. Keep track of where things are so you can ship fast. I swear sometimes that people look at my listings and deliberately buy anything that doesn't have an inventory number. (those are the older listings pre-system and are very hard to find. LOL)

5. Put all your terms in your listing but say it gracefully. This crap with people saying IF YOU DON"T PLAN TO PAY DON"T BID..?? do you think people bid with the intention of not paying or maybe they bid, find out they are over extended and then are embarrassed by your nasty terms?

6. Have a return policy (this will soon be required) even if it says SORRY! No returns on this item

7. Take Paypal (I'd say take googlecheckout too if ebay would let us) because? BECAUSE, Silly, people pay faster, they don't have to give you their credit card info and they don't really trust us so they feel safer with ebay. (I know not everyone does but 80% of the buyers on ebay do)

And as a footnote - in 11 years 4 mos on ebay? I have NEVER had a bounched check. So if someone wants to send you a money order or a check? Say ok, THANKS!

8. Don't ship without insurance - I use a third party insurer for lower value items. it's so easy to report shipments to them. And for breakables, I buy insurance from the PO or the carrier. I do require it on my auctions (all of them...what if the stinkin' thng gets lost in the mail -not broke cause it's not fragile..just LOST - gone disappeared, never existed??)

Use my referral code please! http://www.dsiinsurance.com/transfer.asp?refId=130
and ask for a quote. Try them, you'll like them. VERY easy and pleasant to deal with.

9. List regularly - better to do 10 a day than 90 on one day and nothing for a month.

10. You really make your profit when you buy your item. So buy low, sell a little higher. Do not list an item for 99 cents when you paid $10 for it. And then what? You cross fingers and toes and pray that it goes higher? THAT'S just plain stupid. List for Cost plus Expense (the ebay and paypal fees/FVF fees) plus Profit. I learned this from ROY on AOL's small business forum and it's serving me well. (Roy used to have a blog but there was some family problems and I can't find his blog right now. When I do I'll post HIS 13 tips. They were excellent.

Recent eBay changes/unchanges

So, do you really think eBay management actually has a written plan?

No, I don't (thanks for asking)!

First they are going to make us have a handling time - but their editing tool doesn't work. I have 1200 listings (I took down 200 because of the new links policy...we'll get to that in a minute).

Like I said, I have 1200 STORE listings. If you want me to put a handling time, a return policy etc INTO them, you'd think that management would have ordered one of their many fine programers to FIX the edit function. NOT! (nope tried it again today to change 62 auction listings cause I put in the wrong paypal account name....NOPE..didn't get ANY of them to work...SIGH!)

Next (well second on MY list) they want all extraneous links OUT! Including my 3rd party insurance company who offers better, less-expensive, easier to use coverage than the almost as crazy as ebay post office. They want my EMAIL link out (but they want to rate me on my customer service which they insist on funneling thru their glitchy message system. They want my website link out of my ME page (where it's resided peacefully and uselessly for 11 years, cause who the hell reads the ME pages?)

They want any possible links to 3rd party service (like Auction listing or Photoservers) OUT. But wait, they are the ones who told me to use them?????????

I have a newsbulletin - THERE IS NO PLAN! If JD or LN get up and are PMS'ing...we get hit with some new stupid idea.

I have asked for years, WHO is in charge of STUPID IDEAS?? I mean they have "disruptive innovation" right? they must have a Dept. of Stupid Ideas...or maybe a "stupid idea farm"? Where they grow them? Like corn?

I want to be Director of Stupid Ideas. I have as many as any of the management team (just ask my husband and son). The onlything is...I have too much sense to implement my stupid ideas. I usually just float them on the river past husband's head during a baseball game. It's kind of funny to watch him try and deal with that and not lose track of the score. LOL

Seriously, here are some of MY stuppid ebay ideas:

1. Allow buyers and sellers to EMAIL each other - freely - on and/or off ebay - like the adults they are supposed to be

2. Allow sellers to offer any payment method they want - cash, checks, money orders, Paypal, credit card processing, GOOGLE CHECKOUT, Bidpay, Revolution Cash. Money moves merchandise.

3. STOP PUSHING FREE SHIPPING - (nothing's free.) If I offer free shipping I have to raise the starting bid, pay ebay more fees, and eat the rest of the shipping costs. It's hypocritical to keep saying buyers expect free shipping. They don't get it from me on Amazon why should they get it from me on ebay?

4. Set a better example in Customer Service. If ebay management wants me to offer free shipping, they could offer:
a) Free listings
b) free photos - like more than 1?
c) free ebay stores (I could use another $16 in my pocket every month)
d) free design elements, like the "gift" tag, the border on the pictures, the picture slide show they stole when I wasn't looking last month.

So do you still think management has a plan??

Exercise - It's so good for you!

Exercise

Inspired by my friend Deb’s new committment to Curves on regular basis, I went>to the state park with my 26 year old son today. He uses a fitness path they have there or just walks the trails around the park. He does about 3 mi.

So..I go. I’m fat, outofshape and have asthma so I start small on what I think is gonna be about a 1 mi trail. Supposed to take me 30 - 45 minutes. Of course, (I’m directionally challenged. I can read a map lke a wiz but I get lost in the sections of my hometown here – LOL). So I take off up hill and dale. Get to the middle of his fitness trail and realize that, to go back, it circles around. I look – that’s MORE uphill. The trail I just came along is uphill too for the first ½ mile to get back to where I started.

So I decided to keep going forward. I mean how far can it be? So I walk...(what you thought I had the sense to wear my watch or take my cell phone??? HA! I don’t>need no stinkin’ cell phone!). And I walk...and I rest (resting means standing still in one place til I can breathe again cause if I sit on the ground, I can't get back up...bad knees, bad back, BAD idea!) and I walk And I walk...and I rest and I walk And I walk...and I rest and I walk And I walk...and I rest and I walk.

And two hours later, I finally make it back to the stinkin’ car. (down hill the last 1 mile --- which by that time the old knee is achy...and downhill is bad for old achy knees...real bad). But here I am at the car? Where is my chauffeur???

Out with the ambulance and the rescue squad looking for me I guess. HE had water and he drank it all and left his hat on the seat so I know he’s been back and is done...WHERE is he?? Didn’t his mother teach him to stand in one place til she finds him??? I know her – I know she did (not that he listened back then either..).

20 min later he comes back>>>> He’s walked MY circuit (on top of his longer harder circuit) looking for my body in the gullies and under the logs, convinced I had had a heart attack and was laying in the leaves in the woods. Meanwhile if he’s gotten in the car, given up and gone home, he’d have passed me on the road 45 min earlier and we could have been done. LOL!

The good part of all this?? I lost 4 lbs water weight sweating up and> down all those stinking trails. Am I going back Friday ?? Yeah and this time I’ll use the city girl’s tried and true method...I’m printing out a stinking map of the trails. and I’m> taking my gd cell phone. (so I can call his father to come and get me.> LOL) Exercise – it’s so good for you!

What has this got to do with eBay, you ask? You have to be in shape to shop. You have to be in shape to walk in the godblessed HUGE venues they pick for eBAY Live. So I'm in training for 2010.