Yesterday, on the way home from meeting with a local client, I was thinking about how great it would be if I could sit down, pull up a chair and just chat with all the people in my online community. Just a spontaneous, sit down and chat kind of thing.
Then I thought to myself, “Why not have a LIVE blog chat and invite everyone over to my home on the web to talk?”.
So I decided to do one today and you’re invited! 🙂
Join me here at this post on Friday, Oct 8th at 1:00pm PST, 3:00pm Central, 4:00pm EST and we’ll talk. Let me know what’s going on, ask questions, share your thoughts, tips, or ideas! Business, life or both!
Just post directly below on the comments link and I’ll answer as many questions as I can.
You’ll need to refresh your page to see the answers and any new questions.
See you at 1:00pm Pacific! Post directly below!
-Lisa
Hi Everyone and Welcome! to my 1st LIVE Blog Chat! If you’ve posted here before, you’ll see your question appear immediately below. If this is a first time post, we have to hit the approve button in the WordPress admin panel for your comment to show up. So if you don’t see your comment there yet, don’t worry it is will appear shortly.
I’m going to take the questions in the order that they’ve been posted and the replies should be threaded, meaning my reply should appear right under your question.
For those of you who can’t stay for the entire live chat, that’s OK, we’re glad you’re here. You can stop back later to pick up your answer and see what else we’ve been talking about today!
Be sure and refresh your page to see the answers and the new questions!
-Lisa
Hi Everyone,
WOW! With 50 posts, I’d say that our 1st LIVE Blog Chat was a resounding success!
Thanks to everyone who came by to chat! Your questions and comments made this a rich experience for all!
I had a great time and it sounds like you did as well!
We will definitely do this on a regular basis! 🙂
I’m officially going to “close” our one hour chat (after 2.5 hours! – wow, time flew!) but I’m always here at my blog with new posts and responding to your comments to my posts…
And we will be back with our 2nd LIVE Blog Chat soon!
Watch for a new post on Saturday about the use of tactics versus strategies in your business!
-Lisa
How can I protect my product on the internet? Should I begin with getting a “Copy write”?
Thanks
Hi Mysti,
Do you have an information product or a physical product? If it is an information product, then you need to post the copyright symbol © in the footer of your document.
If it is a physical product that you have created/invented then you’ll want to look into a patent/trademark for the product/product name.
So it really depends on what your product is.
-Lisa
Hi Lisa,
I’m at work right now and won’t be able to be part of your live blog chat as it conflicts with office hours. Great idea though! I wish I could be part of it!
However, I’d like to submit a question. I will be contacting an SEO writer to have her write several articles for my eBay Guides and submit them to ezines, however, I have a concern, let’s say I have traffic coming to my eBay store due these articles, I’m thinking that my visitors might go to my competitors (doing some comparison shopping let’s say). Hence, in advertently I will be directing traffic to them at my expense. Should my thinking instead be, that I have more to gain then lose if I dont’ persue this?
Hi Monica,
Great to see you here! BTW, the holiday versions of your line are sizzling hot! If it’s too late to get them wholesale, listen to the audio I just posted in the Holiday Selling Guide private site and use that strategy to grab some inventory for the holidays. : ) Exciting stuff.
On to your question! The benefits of driving traffic to your products/store with content marketing far outweigh the potential disadvantage if a customer were to go to a competitor and comparison shop.
Here’s why –
1. Shoppers will comparison shop anyway. But if they find you through content marketing, you already have a place in their head as the first place they found the product. The fact that you have content on the web makes you more credible to your visitors. And the know, like and trust factor is a BIG factor in whether or not they will buy from you.
2. You’ll attract more people from all over the web with content marketing, than if they just find you through one path (eBay search). So the volume of visitors you get will rise (than if you just leave being found through eBay search,.)
3. And most importantly is the marketing mindset – when you are marketing you have to put yourself out there where people can see you and give it all you’ve got. Be a leader in your offerings, your promotions and your product line. That will always attract more new customers to your store.
And finally, some people will always shop on price alone, but the customers you want to cultivate are the ones you can build a long term relationship with!
So go for it! Shout it from the rooftops and tell the world about your great products. PS: Martha Stewart is giving you some help – she has a line of these now too.
Have a great weekend!
-Lisa
Do you have any plans to put up a forum on the Power of 10 site? It would be great to be able to share ideas with fellow students.
Hi Valerie,
Welcome to the Power of 10 Product Sourcing home study course! We have thought about that! As well as something else we have cooking that I think other people would love! Since we just launched the home study course a few weeks ago, we wanted to start with the Q&A calls and then ramp up. But we’ve had other people ask about this as well! So I’m glad you stopped by to ask. BTW, the Q&A call was phenomenal – so many good questions – and the replay will be posted this afternoon!
-Lisa
As you know, I was already consolidating listings, ahead of eBay’s recent change announcement (the 4th for 2010). So, most of my “like items” were already in a single listing, showing a quantity available as appropriate, even items being sold in groups of 2, 3 or 4 of the same thing.
Just finished today with clearing the stragglers, as a result of eBay’s follow-up email of a download file (happened a few days ago), showing the listings that I had not gotten to yet.
Overall, fairly efficient, especially since I already had a process to consolidate listings in my shop (including some text to put in the listing), and haven’t been adding onto the pile of excess listings for quite a long time now.
In the long run, I think this is better for customers. I had someone thank me recently for having a listing set up this way, because they could make their purchase, obtain the shipping and pay for it quickly and easily.
Once in a while, I get someone who has trouble finding the shipping tab, so they cannot find the information. But in general, I think it’s a learning curve that benefits buyers, and sellers, because they can more easily see if I have, say, 8 of a particular soup bowl, without having to search out additional listings.
And…while there *was some action required on my part* to get this project finished before the Oct. 26 deadline, this activity has a side benefit of letting me pick out some items that could benefit from having new listings created, with new, high resolution photos which will allow buyers to zoom in and see the details. Not everything, but a small group of carefully chosen items that can benefit from some extra exposure.
Any word on the vine about how this is going overall, other than the timing could have been better?
Hi Sally,
Congratulations on accomplishing this! Especially since it came with short notice, right before the holidays. And congratulations on your new newsletter that I saw you launched when I was over on Facebook. I am already signed up and so excited to see the first issue. If you’re up for me doing a review of it in my next video for our Email Marketing for Ecommerce Sellers course, let me know!
I agree, right now on eBay customers are flooded with duplicate listings. As you know was one of the big issues that we talked about in the eBay Elephant call…
The only downside to the de-dupe policy for fixed priced listings is the loss of ability to split test prices/photos/headlines/subtitles/listing descriptions – which is such an important thing to be able to do.
So far we have not heard word about the results/impact on this latest policy. But we should be seeing some indicators within the next 30 days. This along with the new eBay Buyer Protection email campaign and the new listing promotions will change the balance again.
-Lisa
Hi Lisa, loved your webinar on the 5th. Wondering if you are going to have any additional Replays on your site, since we only got to page 18.
Also, i have been getting an amazing amount of email sign ups since i changed the location of my sign up box on my website. But, even though I have gone from 2 to 6 new subscribers a week to a whopping 169 this week alone, I am wondering why none of them has taken advantage of the 20% off that I give them for signing up? I know they are getting the emails, just wondering if its possibly something else I am doing wrong. And also, Would it actually be better for me to concentrate more on Ebay, rather than my website? Thanks
Hi Auralee,
Yes! We’re posting the whole call! After we hung up, I recorded another 1.5 hours of Q&A! It will be posted this afternoon. What we did, since the coaching call was so long, was to split the call out into segments based on topic. When you log into the Holiday Selling Guide now, you’ll see the first four segments with the corresponding handout pages. It makes it really easy to listen to and implement.
Congratulations on the wealth of new sign ups since you moved your email sign-up box! That is a HUGE increase!
A couple things with email marketing campaigns. On average it takes 7 emails before a customer will buy. So what you’ll want to do is follow up with your new subscribers and remind them about the 20% off coupon. Do this in your next newsletter. Also, did you put an expiration date on the use of the 20% off? If not, change your sign up bonus of 20% to have an expiration date. Give them a few weeks to make a purchase.
People by nature will procrastinate and so if you offer people 20% off with no expiration date, they will hold onto it. But with an expiration date, people are more focused on using the discount. Another thing – the email marketing studies show that a dollar off amount is more effective than a percentage.
So “Save $10 on your next purchase” is more effective than “Save 20%”. I’d recommend trying the dollars off approach and see if that improves conversion.
Additionally, with 10/10/10 coming up, everyone should be thinking about doing a 10/10/10 promotion this Sunday. Tie your promotions into events and holidays.
Regarding eBay versus your website -depending on where you are currently getting the highest conversion to sales – you’ll want to focus your energies there. If you are getting higher conversion on eBay right now, focus all your attention on all out marketing on eBay. If your website is generating more sales, put eBay on as much auto-pilot as you can and focus on your site.
And focus on merchandising and marketing the core 20% of your holiday inventory!
-Lisa
This past summer I started selling books on Amazon. Those books that were worth “nothing” ie $0.01 on Amazon, I started putting on eBay in my store .
I am now afraid that my used books are overwhelming my store which was mainly silver jewelry and statues. Shoppe at the Misty Moon on ebay.
I have over 1000 books that do not fit on Amazon but are worth something. I paid maybe 0.03 or less each at garage sales.
Your opinion. Oh, I have just uploaded all my sales to Addoway and now I have two sites with books overwhelming jewelry. Help!
Sharon
Hi Sharon!
I agree you want to get those books out of your beautiful eBay store. If you are making sales on eBay, I’d recommend opening a 2nd eBay ID just for the books. If the books are not selling on eBay, you might try listing them on half.com (which of course is owned by eBay and the listings will be posted on eBay).
The most important question I have for you – you said that the books are worth something – have you found a marketplace where they are selling at higher used prices?
That’s what we need to determine in terms of making sure it is worth your time to market them.
PS: We have a Business Strategy Session questionnaire coming your way shortly! I am looking forward to meeting with you on Thursday!
-Lisa
Hi Lisa:
I’ve been selling on eBay for almost 10 years and have also been selling on Amazon, Bonanza and eBid for quite a while now. Still, the majority of my sales come from eBay. I am increasingly concerned about diversification and am ready to set up my own website.
I’ve done lots of reading, but am absolutely overwhelmed by the options and how to get started. Because of the number of listings I maintain among the various selling sites (several thousand), I don’t have a lot of time to devote to the nuts and bolts of setting up a site. I am well aware of the difficulty and work involved in attracting visitors to a site, so am also concerned about putting in a lot of time (and expense) on something that may or may not produce sales any time soon.
Should I just continue to focus on the various auction sites (with all their fees) or does it make sense to put the effort into my own site? If the latter, do you have any recommendations on where I can find step by step instructions on how to get going?
Thanks so much!
Cheryl
http://www.crownshop.net
Hi Lisa! I don’t have a question right now, but just wanted an oppurtunity to thank you for all of the suggestions you’ve given me to help me increase my sales in my eBay store.
I’ve either implemented some of them (great results by the way), or plan to use more of them at some point in the near future.
Hi Bev! Thanks for stopping by! Great to see you here. : ) I appreciate you letting me know. You should very proud of yourself for implementing things step-by-step and doing it one thing at a time. So many times people try to implement things all at once and they end up implementing nothing. Which of course gets no results. That’s why I’m such a big advocate of Action Appointments. Scheduling time on the calendar each day and making an appointment with yourself to get specific tasks done.
If I didn’t schedule Action Appointments with myself, I’d get nothing done. LOL!
In fact, that’s how I came up with the idea/term Action Appointments – was because when I started my business and my daughter was 4 months old and my son was 4 years old, I could see that without scheduling Action Appointments for my business, I wouldn’t get anything accomplished.
So good for you for taking it step-by-step. You will make a LOT of progress this way!
Have a prosperous week!
-Lisa
Hi, Lisa! Just wanted to pop in and say hi to you :0) It’s been too long! I just left my job last Friday, 10/1, and have been slowing getting back into the swing of things. This first week off, I’ve been taking it kinda easy, catching up on sleep. I will be ready and rearing to go next week. Thanks for doing the Fast Biz Results Video for my business. Haven’t looked at it yet, but will start implementing what you suggested next week.
I was wondering, if you would ever consider doing a series of training sessions with sellers like myself, who mostly sell unique, one-of-a-kind items, so that we can fine tune our businesses and learn how to tailor our marketing to our unique selling position?
Hi Serena!
Congratulations on making the big move to full-time entrepreneur! One of the things I talked about in the Fast Biz Results video you purchased was how to transition from being a full-time corporate professional to an at-home entrepreneur. You’ll find it really helpful. And I’m very glad you took some time off this week. It will take a bit more time for you to wind down from your busy corporate life.
I’m very interested to hear more about what areas of fine tuning for your unique one-of-a kind business you’re thinking of. Jot your thoughts down and send them over to my support team and http://whatdoisellsupport.com
Marketing for a unique one-of-kind business – I have that class already in my head : ) because I work one on one with so many sellers of unique, one of a kind products. I can definitely see doing a program on that.
In fact, listen to your Fast Biz Review video – I actually address that in your video and gave you a great branding idea that will help with your marketing, and even a cool new name for your new full-time business and your brand.
I’m so excited for you in this next chapter of your life!
-Lisa
Hi Lisa, My husband & I own a fishing tackle retail store. We are a small business. We want to set up a ecommerce store and want a blog where we can included content. I read your info. on blogs making sure the host were Cpanel, etc. I’m a little confused. We talked with a web designer to build our website, but after reading alot of your articles have decided to build with WordPress. Searching WordPress, I’ve found ithemes, shopperpress, etc. I do plan to take Christine Hill’s WordPress class when she teaches it again. However, in the meantime, what do you suggest? Where do I start? I don’t want to start randomly purchasing and finding later, I needed something different. I want a plan. Help! Debbie
Hi Debbie,
Depending on how many products you have, WordPress may be right for you. I definitely wouldn’t hire a web designer to build your website. These days, ecommerce changes so fast that if a company isn’t eating, breathing and sleeping ecommerce the site won’t keep up to date. The site that I highly recommend that you look at is http://bigcommerce.com
Big Commerce is the fastest growing ecommerce platform and for very good reason:
1. It’s scaleable. You can start small and grow your business.
2. It is very highly search engine optimized
3. It incorporates content marketing (VERY important)
4. They submit feeds to comparison shopping engines
5. They are integrated with Mail Chimp as an email service provider – which is one of the top email service providers for ecommerce sellers.
6. It’s easy to set up and the design is customizable when YOU are ready – it’s not necessary to start.
The price for a small amount of inventory is very good. They also are integrated with eBay if you want to push out listings to eBay.
We’re going to be interviewing the CEO of Big Commerce, Mitchell Harper in a month or so – when his travel schedule settles down.
They also have a free trial.
If you do decide to go with WordPress, the only them I recommend is ShopperPress because they have all the top payment processors fully integrated.
iThemes is a great company with great themes – Cory Miller and the gang at iThemes are fantastic. But for a real ecommerce site, I recommend Shopper Press – but first I’d look very closely at Big Commerce.
PS: And then keep a separate WordPress blog to drive traffic.
-Lisa
Hi Lisa! The traffic to my website is slow and I’m very concerned about it. I’ve been working on a blog and just completed it and published my first post last night. I just received my first few furniture pieces that are custom designed and need some ideas other than the blog for promoting my new line. My blog is here: http://dollfashionsandfurniture.com. I plan to list the furniture and change the home page of my website this weekend. Any ideas?
Thanks!
Paula
Hi Paula!
Love your new product line! And your blog looks great. Congratulations on your first post! To drive traffic to your products – I have several strategies for you:
1. I would list the furniture on eBay
2. Take a look at Amazon. You can still sell toys on Amazon this year IF you use Amazon FBA. You’ll need a pro-merchant account $39.95 per month and an UPC # for the products (which you can get for like $20)
3. YouTube videos! Definitely! 1 video and I bet you can get a 1st page ranking on Google for doll furniture. Because there are very few videos for doll furniture.
4. Google Adwords or Microsoft Ads (pay-per-click) – Driving traffic to your website with paid traffic will get you traffic the quickest.
5. We need to see a press release about your new product line. We will be doing training on this in the Business Growth Group this month!
And of course, continue to blog.
I’d also post an eBay Guide on why you should buy quality wooden doll furniture over the cheap, plastic, uber expensive stuff that is out there at all the big box stores.
-Lisa
Thank you Lisa! I can always count on you. You have no idea how much I appreciate all your help!
Paula you’re so welcome! 🙂 You have a great year ahead!
-Lisa
Hi Lisa,
I have been thinking of outsourcing a website template design for my horse site, and perhaps selling the template to other horse sellers or horse product sellers. I have never found a good template designed just for the equine industry. They tend to be too simple or too complex with little functionality like a simple pedigree template page with designated place holders for pictures and video. Maybe a little generic horse graphics too, what do you think hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Hi Dale,
I’ve been thinking about your biz since you last had that great sales month!
#1 question for you about your proposed business plan –
Do other horse sellers or horse product sellers want a website template? That market research needs to be done first. If the answer is yes, then it would be a potential product.
However, here are my thoughts – you are an expert when it comes to horses and selling horses.
What if you design some products around the #1 biggest problem that horse sellers and horse product sellers have?
My guess is that it’s how to market/sell horses beyond a local audience?
You see I think that with all you’re learning about marketing and your expertise with horses, you could parlay that into a business that helps other horse sellers grow their business.
So what I recommend (and do this before our next Monthly Progress Check Coaching Call) so you can let me know what’s going on – spend a couple weeks researching the market and frequenting horse discussion forums etc and see what horse sellers biggest problems are.
And actually where do they hang out?
Are they even online?
You may have to reach them through direct mail.
But I do think that there are other long-time horse breeders/sellers who are looking for ways to connect to a bigger audience.
BTW – have you brought in some new horse products? How are those sales going?
-Lisa
Thanks for the great advice, Lisa, no new horse product sales, but still getting calls on horses, did sell one last month.
Dale
Where can I get live WordPress help? (Besides a wordpress forum)
Hi Nancy,
If you need technical help (coding etc.) I recommend odesk.com
If you need a WordPress blog installed, we have an awesome blog set up and installation package for $150. We’ll install, set up and configure your blog and add your logo. This is a new service so we don’t have a sales page up for it yet, but you can purchase at http://wordpressbloginstallationandsetup.com or contact my support desk at http://whatdoisellsupport.com
If you need help with content marketing for your WordPress blog, then I need to get you plugged into some upcoming resources that we will be offering!
-Lisa
What should my daily schedule look like?
Hi Nancy,
You did say the magic word! “schedule” – EVERY entrepreneur needs one. I have a system I use called “Action Appointments”. I created it because I needed a way to keep my business on track when I started as a single mom of a 4 month old and a 4 year old. And I still use it today.
What I do is take my list of things to do and plug it into a calendar every day so I know exactly what I am going to be doing during the day. Otherwise, I would get nothing done! LOL!
As far as WHAT you should be doing the day –
It depends on your business model and where you’re at with your business…
But you need to make your priority actions SELLING products every day and MARKETING.
SELLING and MARKETING is what makes you money. They are your “big rocks” in your business.
Customer service is also a big rock.
Those three activities will take up a large portion of your day.
-Lisa
Just stopping in to say quick hi also! And happy to report that we just got a neutral removed because Intl buyer complained that we wouldn’t pay his customs fees. Gratefully I had followed your advise about putting in ALL my listings the recommended paragraph telling buyers that they should research customs charges prior to bidding. By having that in, Ebay rep was immediately able to remove the neutral (which complained about customs costs that I should have paid) and any DSR’s left with the feedback.
Score one for us for a change! Just a heads up that all International sellers (we are now avering 20-25% Intl sales) should be sure the recommended disclaimer paragraph is INSIDE your description. I was so excited when she removed it, and rep was SO excited because she said I was ONLY seller today whose feedback she COULD revise because we followed this recommendation.
THANKS as always!
Hey Maida!
Excellent news! Thank you for sharing this with everyone! It is SO important and as the rep says, no one does it. I know you’ve had that in your listings for a long time – ever since I talked about it on a class, and you’ve never had to use it – but when it came up, it was well worth it!
And thanks for stopping by to say hi. BTW, did you receive my big, long email I sent you a few weeks ago? Congratulations on your increase Int’l sales!!! You are truly a global business. And with your new Halloween line, you’ll have a whole new group of customers.
BTW vintage Halloween is so hot that the manufacturers are mass producing Halloween goods to look “vintage.” Be sure and tell Bill he should be blogging about your vintage and new Halloween products.
-Lisa
I started selling on eBay earlier this year. One common thread I keep hearing is that eBay is trying to ‘push away’ the smaller sellers. Is this true? Also, how can a seller protect themselves with the new Buyer Protection program?
Hi Dakota,
I’m glad you asked that question – because the public forums are filled with misinformation.
On the one hand, it is true that eBay is/has been courting a lot of big sellers, big name brand companies and big businesses over the past couple years and that has been their focus. They are also making it harder for small sellers to get started than it was even a few years ago.
That being said, eBay & Amazon are STILL the best place for a new online seller to learn the business and start selling. The benefit to eBay is that you can sell a much wider variety of items than on Amazon.
However, Amazon is the faster growing marketplace than eBay.
I don’t recommend small sellers who have never sold online before start with a website, because then you’ll have to learn how to generate traffic, build credibility, etc. First you need to determine if you like selling online. So keep doing what you’re doing!
Regarding a seller protecting themselves in light of the eBay Buyer Protection program. The best thing you can do is set a customer service standard for your business and provide excellent customer service. Some niche markets (like electronics) lend themselves to more problems than other niche markets (like sewing products). And it’s true, the potential for customer return is there.
But taking good photos, providing a very clear, accurate listing description and communicating and being available to communicate with your customers is KEY. Also, following up with them after the sale and confirming their delight with their purchase. This will all go a long way to eliminating returns.
-Lisa
Lisa, what would a 10/10/10 promotion best look like? (I’m a bit foggy from an awful sinus infection 🙂
Hey Maida,
Sorry to hear you have a sinus infection… 🙁
10/10/10 is October 10th, 2010 e.g. 10/10/10 🙂 and a great reason for a special promotion.
10% off, $10 off, etc., Free shipping when you buy 10 items. etc.
We’re running one on Sunday. It’s something fun to email your list about, blog about, Tweet about and post on Facebook. Ideally it will only last for one day – One Day only 10/10/10.
But there are so many special dates to tie a promotion into –
A couple weeks ago it was National Coffee Day. : )
-Lisa
Love it! Thanks Lisa. Did get your email – we’re proceeding slower than would like due to being sick for 2 weeks. Moving along now! 10/10/10 is awesome :))
Hi Lisa,
Great to be included in this live chat. Been doing ebay for 10 years and thought I had things pretty much down..now with all the new changes lately I just feel confused. I do have a facebook page EllesetteGoesShopping that I do have connected to my listings on ebay but I dont know how to take that further, nor to have people sign up for my newsletter for my ebay store. Please feel free to “friend” me all and any critique or suggestions are WAY welcome. Hello everyone from sunny fall wonderful Michigan!
Leana
Hi Leana,
Thanks for stopping by to chat! And congratulations on being a Top Rated Seller! All the changes are disruptive and can be confusing… The first thing I’d recommend is to start building a mailing list of your current customers. You can do that either with an off-eBay mailing list or by using salesinaclick.com (which keeps your mailing list on eBay).
You’ve got a great product line! I’d recommend that you start this holiday season by using Facebook and Twitter to let people know about special holiday promotions. And also spend time on Facebook and Twitter building up a following.
Your product line lends itself VERY well to content marketing.
Take a look at these articles I wrote recently at AuctionBytes on content marketing for ecommerce sellers.
http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abu/y210/m08/abu0269/s03
http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abu/y210/m09/abu0270/s04
In fact, also take a look at what one of my clients is doing at the new blog we just set up for her:
http://styleplusfashion.com
Also, be sure to utilize your eBay custom store pages and stores promotion boxes to promote your products/trends/fashions within your eBAy store!
This is the direction you want to go in!
-Lisa
Hi there!
I guess my biggest thing with online sales right now is how to get people to pay for what they buy! I am sitting waiting for payment for days that develope into weeks and still I can’t get contact from buyers. Sending invoices and messages isn’t helping. Because sales were so slow I canceled the Ebay store, and they went crasy right after that. But sales are no good if people won’t pay!
Hi Linda,
One of the biggest changes I wish eBay would make (and I don’t understand why they don’t!) is to require immediate payment. There is no where else on the Internet where you can buy something without paying!
If your customers do not pay within the designated amount of time, I recommend filing an unpaid item claim on the transaction. If they do not contact you and do not pay, I know that eBay is giving those buyers “strikes” against their accounts.
I’m glad your sales are up though! The other thing I would try is requiring immediate payment. And see how that impacts your sales. And keep in mind that buyers need to pay in a certain amount of time or they are in violation of eBay’s policies.
-Lisa
Hi Lisa
The auction is hard to require immediate payment on. I have 6 different stores going on different sights and have revamped what I was doing. I make kids clothing and spread my wings to some household and dolls clothing and it seems to have helped. I am also selling supplies and Do It Yourself Kits and that seems to help. Even places that they click a Buy Now on other sights, people are not paying. Some of them do not offer the immediate payment. I have not been at this long enough to figure out all the in’s and out’s of payments, but have had to use the claims in Ebay before. I just keep plugging away here, and hoping that people will pay something for all the work we sellers go to. I even found a woman to do a blog advertizing campain for me that will alst 2 months. That will get me right through Christmas this year. We also use facebook to its limits too. I contribue alot of the sales raising to this type of advertizing. Thanks and if you have anyother suggestions Please let me know.
Linda
Hi Lisa,
I’m sorry I missed your first online blog (darn Pilates!). It looks like a lot of good info was posted and I can’t wait to read it all.
I wanted to let you know how much I appreciate receiving your email, especially the most recent ones reminding me to set up my holiday shop! Guess what I’m doing this weekend – the holiday shop on my website.
Thanks and keep the great info coming!
Hi Nancy,
Thanks for coming to chat! I absolutely LOVED doing this blog chat too – and it looks like everyone else liked it as much as I did, so I will be doing more! Next time, I’ll let people know in advance. I literally decided to do this late last night!
And in that is a key to success in business! When you get an idea, go for it! Test it out, don’t over think it! Give it a try and track the results.
And I am SO glad you are setting up a holiday shop on your website. Be sure and feature your best holiday merchandise in prime real-estate area on your website!
-Lisa
Thanks Lisa! I will definitely take a look at bigcommerce.com. Thanks for all you do! Debbie
Are your 2 “favorite” online auctions sites eBay and Amazon? Are you recommending other sites? Artist and/or antique booths/mall sites? I namely sell vintage items.
How would you word a follow up to the buyer once the product has been delivered? “Hey…don’t ya just love it!” LOL
Hi Dakota,
Amazon is 100% fixed price marketplace and the fastest growing marketplace online. But I don’t recommend them for vintage.
For vintage I like eBay, ArtFire, Etsy & Bonanza.
eBay still has the most traffic. I really like ArtFire’s model for sellers.
In fact, check out this recent article over at AuctionBytes.
For a post sale email, you want to be sure and thank them for their purchase, tell the customer that you appreciate their business, let them know that they can contact you if they have any questions and then include a coupon/discount with a limited time offer for on their next purchase.
And then reiterate that you appreciate their business!
Short, friendly, professional and they will appreciate it, because few sellers do this!
-Lisa
So good to “talk” to you Lisa! You are one savvy lady and I really appreciate your help! 🙂
Hi Lisa,
Let me try this again! 🙂
Our business model is made upon order, so no inventory of products. Our product niche is in the home decor area, using artwork licensed from the artist. Items are larger ticket with an ASP between 100-200. Our items are pretty much …one and done. Once our product is purchased, we rarely have repeat customers.
We have over 2000 sku’s on Amazon, about 1,700 on eBay, and a catalog of designs on our website. We added an Amazon webstore a little over a year ago. It’s done ok, but we wanted our own storefront so we could be in control of running our business how we want to. We’ve just added our new storefront and currently have about 1,000 sku’s. The main question is … Where do we focus our attention? As we have no product inventory, we have the potential to add an unlimited amount of items.
We’re a very small company that’s currently selling 10-12K per month from all venues including our 800 #. Please respond to this one question, as it drives me crazy on a regular basis.
Thanks,
Dave
Hi Dave,
I just saw this question come in as I was about to officially sign off the 1 hour blog chat (LOL! 2..5 hours later!) but I do want to take a look at your post.
Kids are home from school now and they have social engagements that they need to get to… : )
But do check back here on Sat am – because I will post answer for you!
-Lisa
Thank you! 🙂
Hi Dave,
Take a look at the original post that you left – lots of good stuff for you!
-Lisa
Hi Lisa,
I just wanted to see if you had forgotten to post a response to my question. I look forward to reading your response.
Thanks,
Dave
Hey Dave,
You’ll find my reply right under your original comment now!
-Lisa
Hey Dave,
Just posted my reply under the original comment!
-Lisa
Hi Dave,
I took a look at your website – beautiful product line. Your problem in a nutshell is – marketing – . You have a great product but not enough people know you exist. When I did a Google search for the top searched keywords in your niche, your sites do not show up. You do rank well for the specific keywords on your website, but the most popular keyword phrases that people would use to find your products- your site is not ranking for, so not enough people are finding your site.
Google “google keyword tool external” and start by typing in the keyword variations that you can think of that are associated with your product line and you’ll see what I mean. I don’t want to use specifics here, because I you asked that I not.
Rather than adding more SKU’s, I’d focus all your efforts on marketing your existing sites –
Blogging, article marketing, press releases, Facebook, Twitter, blog commenting, PPC advertising, running special promotions, getting noticed in the media, etc. The money for your business right now, is in the marketing. You could easily double your revenues with some concentrated marketing.
There are some other changes I would recommend – your site is nice, but I’d like to see something more web 2.0 to showcase your beautiful products. And I’d like to see you move to WordPress. The site itself right now doesn’t do those wonderful product displays justice.
Testimonials on the front page, before and after pictures, customer stories, content marketing – on how to pick a design etc. will all lead to more visibility.
Also, I’d like to see you go back and look at your top competitors and see what they offer that you don’t and what they don’t offer that you do. It’s a surprisingly competitive niche, and so we need to know what makes you different than the other companies offering similar products.
Additionally, I’d look at design trends. What’s hot now? Colors, styles, designs? Make sure you offer those and write some trending articles about what’s hot. Help your customers pick their design. Position yourself as a LEADER in this niche.
You’ve got to get out there and market! market! market! Once you get that down in the next few months, then you can also bring in more inventory. But right now, it’s marketing, not product line or website that you need to focus on.
Oh BTW, as for which site to focus on – focus on the one that drives the most traffic/sales right now. Also look at profit margin. If you sell more on eBay but your profit margin is less, then look at the next venue with the higher profit margin. Especially in your niche, you want to get higher margins on the custom work.
(Maybe add a pre-done component at some point?) I’d prefer to see your website be the main driver of revenue and profit.
BTW, if you want to sit down and talk about more of this in-depth, contact my support team at http://whatdoisellsupport.com about doing a Business Strategy Session. You & I (and your team if you’d like) would hop on the phone and lay out an entire plan for your marketing!
You have a good product line, now go for it with your marketing!
-Lisa
Hi Everyone,
WOW! With 50 posts, I’d say that our 1st LIVE Blog Chat was a resounding success!
Thanks to everyone who came by to chat! Your questions and comments made this a rich experience for all!
I had a great time and it sounds like you did as well!
We will definitely do this on a regular basis! 🙂
I’m officially going to “close” our one hour chat (after 2.5 hours! – wow, time flew!) but I’m always here at my blog with new posts and responding to your comments to my posts…
And we will be back with our 2nd LIVE Blog Chat soon!
Watch for a new post on Saturday about the use of tactics versus strategies in your business!
-Lisa
I had to leave right as you began, and it looks like my question did not go through. This is a great idea, and I will save my question for next time. There WILL be a next time, right?
Connie
Hi Connie,
Thanks for stopping by! Yes, it was a great chat and I’ll definitely do it again!
-Lisa