[meteorite-list] ALTERNATIVE dealing with eBay Fraud! JASON, be carefull what you say about my meteorites on the Meteorite List, I am warning you...
From: Galactic Stone & Ironworks <meteoritemike_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat, 2 Mar 2013 20:59:48 -0500 Message-ID: <CAKBPJW9OC1BdMpo3qqY7ywSuQi=4s2PgQKdmxWhsw2oA9kr13Q_at_mail.gmail.com> Hi Jodie and List, My method of driving traffic is pretty simple - invest heavily in social media, message boards, mailing lists, and any other venue where you can insert your URL without it being spammy. I stop short of spam, because I hate it so much. It's not digging ditches, but I spend at least 8 hours a day, every day, driving traffic online. It is time-consuming, but one can make a routine out of it. And once you start getting thousands of friends/followers/connections on each of those social media sites, the traffic will then start generating sales. I just got to a point where eBay was not cost-effective for me. My method is not for everyone. If you hate sites like Facebook or Twitter, then it won't work for you. You have to embrace these new venues and utilize them. Pinterest is the hot social media site now, and I have already started generating sales from there. Also, take advantage of sites that offer you a free store, like Bonanza and eCrater. With Bonanza, you only pay a fee when an item sells and that fee is small compared to eBay's final value fees. I generate regular sales from both of those sites as well. Let me qualify the above with this - if you are someone who has a dedicated traffic base on eBay, then your experience is obviously different than mine. Some sellers, like Adam and Greg Hupe, have an established eBay following and that is obviously a worthwhile venue for them to sell. But, for someone new or without a dedicated following, eBay is no longer the sole venue to consistently generate revenue for small businesses. My experience with eBay was always hit and miss, so giving it up as a seller was a no-brainer for me. Here is a good link for gauging what is hot on eBay - http://www.whatsellsbest.com/active/collectibles.php Notice, meteorites are not mentioned anywhere in the top listings, search terms, or sales for the overall site. Meteorites are an after-thought on eBay, if they are noticed at all. But Jodie touched on something else as well - setting yourself apart from other sellers, and that is almost impossible to do on eBay because your listings get lost in the overwhelming masses of millions of listings. If eBay were to lower their fees and adopt a "pay only on sale" policy (like Bonanza), then I would go back and give it another try as a seller there. But as it stands now, I will only buy on eBay. If you see me selling anything on eBay, it's either the Christmas shopping season or somebody needs a kidney transplant. Best regards, MikeG PS - thanks again for keeping us updated with the Chebarkul info. :) -- ------------------------------------------------------------- Web - http://www.galactic-stone.com Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/galacticstone Twitter - http://twitter.com/GalacticStone Pinterest - http://pinterest.com/galacticstone RSS - http://www.galactic-stone.com/rss/126516 ------------------------------------------------------------- On 3/2/13, Jodie Reynolds <spacerocks at spaceballoon.org> wrote: > Hi MikeG, > > I've never studied your market, so I have absolutely no clue how you > drive traffic, what your traffic volume is, what your sell-through > looks like, or how you manage your pipeline - so I'm just going to > take your word for it - I honestly don't have any interest, vested or > otherwise, in learning your [collective-your] market. > > The general topics of eCommerce, shopping carts, running ones own auction > engine, > interfacing to merchant gateways, that sorta thing - I have "some > experience" there. > > We run our own heavily modified OSCommerce servers, but that is a lot > more like "rocket science", just maintaining them is full-time work > for multiple people. > > "WeBid" is fairly easily integrated into most shopping carts that you > control the source-code for and allows you to offer a bidding engine, > as I say, there are others (including some specifically integrated > into the OSCommerce platform). > > We don't sell on eBay anymore because it's just too difficult to > differentiate ourselves, our money is better spent driving our own > traffic - but that's after years of experience in our own market, I > can't speak to yours at all. > > --- Jodie > > Saturday, March 2, 2013, 4:51:11 PM, you wrote: > >> Sure, eBay has a massive traffic base. > >> But, the vast majority of those visitors have zero interest in >> meteorites. > >> At any given time, the amount of visitors on eBay who are looking to >> purchase a meteorite is a tiny percentage of the overall traffic base. >> By paying eBay fees, you are basically purchasing access to their >> other visitors, in the hopes that somebody will purchase your wares >> who wouldn't have normally seen your offering outside of eBay. That >> holds true for people buying iPhone accessories, DVD's, laptops, and >> sports jerseys, but the amount of those visitors looking to buy a >> meteorite is vanishingly small. I would bet, that at any given >> moment, this mailing list has just as many (or more) members than >> people on eBay buying meteorites. This List has what, a 1000 members >> or so? I would be highly surprised if there are a 1000 people on eBay >> right now buying meteorites. When dealing with niche items like >> meteorites, paying for access to eBay's traffic base is a game of >> vanishing returns. > >> I drive more traffic to my store listings each day than eBay draws to >> my meteorite auctions. I would post a 7-day auction on eBay and it >> might get 50 views, or 100 if I was lucky. In that same period of >> time, I get triple that on my website. > >> Now, eBay is great for buyers. I love being a buyer on eBay. eBay >> caters to me, kisses my feet, fans me, and feeds me grapes. I can be >> a total buffoon and buy fake items with little or no caution or >> research. And when I get burned, I can file a dispute with eBay, get >> my money back and keep the item. It's a win-win for buyers. > >> Best regards, > >> MikeG > >> PS - want to free yourself from the chains of eBay? Use HighWire >> eCommerce - http://app.highwire.com/?ref=meteorite > >> I have been using HighWire for almost 5 years now with no problems and >> very little downtime. It was the best thing I ever did when it comes >> to trading meteorites - it gives you a selling platform that you >> control. I don't have some eBay clown looking over my shoulder and >> nitpicking my listings or strong-arming me for ever-increasing fees. > > > > > >> On 3/2/13, Jodie Reynolds <spacerocks at spaceballoon.org> wrote: >>> Hi Don and List, >>> >>>> Yes there will be a set price and yes you can still use PayPal to have >>>> Buyers >>>> purchase your meteorites, but Bam...no eBay fees, no negative feedback >>>> no >>>> bull crap! >>> >>> Maybe a little closer to "rocket science", but if you still want to >>> offer bidding, there are open-source bidding engines out there that >>> can be installed on your site allowing for a very similar experience >>> to fleabay without the negatives you note. >>> >>> You're still going to need to generate your own traffic which is what >>> eBay is really offering, but you can simulate the experience. >>> >>> I've set up WeBid (http://www.webidsupport.com) on numerous sites, >>> and it's pretty capable these days. Of course, there are others both >>> free and not-so-free. >>> >>> Just a thought to answer a limitation you noted. >>> >>> --- Jodie >>> >>> ______________________________________________ >>> >>> Visit the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com >>> Meteorite-list mailing list >>> Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com >>> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list >>> > > > > > > -- > Best regards, > Jodie mailto:spacerocks at spaceballoon.org > >Received on Sat 02 Mar 2013 08:59:48 PM PST |
 StumbleUpon del.icio.us reddit Yahoo MyWeb
|