July 31, 2004
eBay Store: The Best eBay Store Shopping Experience
An eBay store, “Glitz N Glamour Jewelry”, won the award for eBay's best shopping experience of 2004.
According to the store owner, her policies are:
Customer service - Always be willing to go the extra mile. Your customer chose your store because you offered something special. Be sure to return the favor by treating them as a valued customer.
2. Professionalism- Never leave negative feedback, always follow up with a good explanation for those who do, and keep your customers informed.
3. Get Help - Check eBay store forums often for super selling practices and ideas from Powersellers and the eBay community.
What I liked:
1. She has really first rate pictures – clear, closeups, with great detail.
2. She uses lengthy descriptions, especially for eBay, where so-called descriptions are often only one or two sentences.
3. The owner expresses lots of personality, as in this description of how her business started: “Probably, as most fashion enthusiasts are, I soon became somewhat of a "shop-aholic". If I saw a jewelry piece or dress I liked, I couldn't help but to add it to my personal collection. Unfortunately, it was not long before I realized I had more jewelry and clothes than any one woman could wear - even if I had been able to change jewelry pieces and clothing sets 3 times a day, I still would not be able to wear all of it in one year. It was also then that I realized how much difference jewelry can make in a look (as clothing choices do for appearance) and thought of a creative idea where I would be able to continue to buy jewelry and share my fashion sense and jewelry choices with others. And alas, here it is. A store of my own with my own personal jewelry selections made available to anyone who dares to wear it - and flaunt it if you've got it!”.
4. And her best feature by far is her customer service page. It's well organized, clear, thorough and can be profitably studied by any online entrepreneur:
http://stores.ebay.com/Glitz-N-Glamour-Jewelry/Customer-Service.html
What I didn't like:
1. Her site needs to be kept up to date. For example, I clicked on the “Featured Items” icon on the front page and it leads to ... the front page.
Or, on the front page is a prominent statement that “It's Spring”. Uh, I don't think so.
2. The site navigation could be improved. For example, I accidentally stumbled on “watches” at the bottom of the customer service page. They are scattered throughout various “collections” that are mentioned on the front page, but it would be wise to make your items very easy to find. All merchandise in an eBay store should be easily found from the front page. There is very little reason for a customer to be checking the customer service page if they're not even considering making a purchase . If I were searching her site for a watch, I would be long gone before I ever found her merchandise.
Interestingly, the store owner clearly loves web design and offers a consulting service to folks who want an eBay store designed – or redesigned.
Posted by SydneyJohnston at 9:38 PM | TrackBack
July 30, 2004
Stomp The Search Engines
Do you find it tough to know who to believe on the net? There are zillions of self-proclaimed gurus and experts trying to convince us they are authorities on all kinds of topics.
So, when we find someone whose results are provable, we need to pay attention. And one of those verifiable guys is search engine authority, Brad Fallon.
In June, 2004, Brad made $156,037.54 in his Yahoo store. (Yep, that's one month, not year.) He sold 64,272 items with an average order of $116.36. And yes, and you can verify these astounding numbers for yourself:
http://stomper.auctionknowhow.com
Fortunately, Brad is now sharing his wisdom with the rest of us in a new product called “Stomp The Search Engines”. This exciting new series is a collaboration of Brad, owner of myweddingfavors.com, and Andy Jenkins, co-author of Yahoo Store Profits.
I know both Brad and Andy personally and they're both very cool. In fact, we're having a seminar together, here in Atlanta, on October 23 & 24, so if you'd like to meet the three of us in person, come on down to the southland. October is our most beautiful month and my favorite time of the year, so I can usually promise you a beautiful GA show, compliments of Mother Nature. (Now watch it rain the entire weekend!)
- - -
Don't Wanna Bore You
There are so many things that Brad has taught me, but I don't think there's any point in going over a list here. You're all grownups and you can read for yourself at the the Stomper site:
http://stomper.auctionknowhow.com
It's much more valuable if I give you a concrete and personal example of how the Stomper program has helped me.
I am planning on starting my first 'dropship-only' Internet store (meaning every product will be mailed by my supplier, instead of me. Wahoo!)
But, I would be nuts if I wrote a single word on a single webpage before scouting out my competition first. So let's assume that my store product is memory cards for digital cameras (it isn't really).
Go to google.com and type in this keyword phrase:
digital camera + memory cards
and you will see that there are 4,300,000 pages listed. Kowabunga!
In my pre-Brad days I would passed on this idea, figuring the competition was too overwhelming. But, as Brad rightfully points out, it really doesn't matter how many competitors we have. The reality is that we always have only 10 or 20 because if my store isn't on the first or second page I won't be getting much search engine traffic anyway.
So, the question becomes not the NUMBER of competitors but the QUALITY of my competition.
The top 5 sites for memory cards are:
#1: www.digitaldepot.co.uk
#2: photoreview.com
#3: www.shop.bt.com/icat/dpmemorycards
#4: www.psism.com/camera.htm
#5: www.picstop.co.uk
Thanks to my Stomper training, I now know how to do my due diligence and research on these sites. My question is: could I successfully compete with these sites and get my store on the first page of google, if I wanted to?
Question: do YOU think it would be hard to get on the first or second page?
Answer: after checking out these first 5 sites, I can tell you that getting on the front page for this search term is a piece of cake! Not hard to do if you know how. Thanks, Brad!
If I were truly interested in building a store selling memory cards, I could proceed with full confidence, knowing that I could get a lot of free traffic from the search engines.
This is a simple example showing why I can't recommend the Stomper too highly (don't you just love that name? :-) So, here's the deal ...
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FREE Class
For anyone and everyone who buys “Stomp the Search Engines” through my affiliate link, I will include you in a live class (live, so that you can ask questions until everything is crystal clear). There is one thing I knew how to do before the Stomper, and that is get traffic from writing brief articles. The joy of this method is that it's totally within your control – no links, no recommendations from outsiders – only you in charge. I've included some of my articles and their URLS below (results as of July, 2004).
This summer, which is always a slow time on the net, I have been averaging 300 visitors/day with a high percentage of these signing up for our ezines or our 11 day course. In fact, this experiment has been so successful that I am expanding it. Eventually, I will be getting thousands of visitors each day, instead of hundreds.
This is NOT from Brad's class, so it's not a repetition from the Stomp The Search Engines CDs.
The price of the Stomper is going up by $50 on August 3, so if you're interested, now is the time to buy. At the very least, get a copy of the fr** interview between Brad and Andy.
If you want to attend my search engine article live class, just send me a copy of your receipt and you'll be added to the list. After we have a few class members, we'll select a convenient date.
http://stomper.auctionknowhow.com
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
http://auction-genius-course.com/atv-auctions.shtml
AOL: page 2
MSN: page 2
http://auction-genius-course.com/chain-saws-on-ebay.shtml
AOL: 2
Overture: 1 (I am NOT paying for Overture!)
Yahoo: 1
http://auction-genius-course.com/ebay-motorcycles.shtml
AOL: 2
MSN: 2
Overture: 1
http://auction-genius-course.com/ga-tech-collectibles.shtml
AOL: 1
Google: 1
http://auction-genius-course.com/ebay-salvage.shtml
AOL: 2
MSN: 1
Overture: 1
Google: 1
http://auction-genius-course.com/rooster-collectibles.shtml
Google: 2
http://auction-genius-course.com/dept-56-on-ebay.shtml
AOL: 2
MSN: 2
Overture: 1
Yahoo: 2
Google: 1
http://auction-genius-course.com/ebay-sunbonnet-sue.shtml
AOL: 1
MSN: 1
Overture: 1
Teoma: 2
Yahoo: 1
Google: 1
http://auction-genius-course.com/ebay-fostoria-heirloom.shtml
AOL: 1
MSN: 1
Overture: 1
Teoma: 1
Yahoo: 1
Google: 1
http://auction-genius-course.com/barber-pole-auction.shtml
AOL: 1
MSN: 1
Overture: 1
Teoma: 2
Google: 1
http://auction-genius-course.com/market-research-wizard.shtml
AOL: 2
http://auction-genius-course.com/m&m-collectibles.shtml
AOL: 2
http://auction-genius-course.com/chain-saws-on-ebay.shtml
MSN: 1
http://auction-genius-course.com/ebay-case-study.shtml
Overture: 1
http://auction-genius-course.com/ebay-cars.shtml
Overture: 1
http://auction-genius-course.com/light-bulk-wholesale-directory.shtml
Overture: 1
Yahoo: 2
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
And as a little added bonus, I want to show you a website with a big, big mistake. You can see it here:
http://www.online-auctions-i.com/index.html
Can you see the error? It's one YOU don't want to make.
Posted by SydneyJohnston at 8:33 PM | TrackBack
July 25, 2004
An eBay Education From A Beanie Baby Auction
A beanie baby listing on eBay is one of my all time favorite auctions. It's funny, interesting, entertaining and loaded with lessons for anyone who sells online.
As the seller clearly explains "I DO NOT KNOW crap about these things" and amusingly challenges his buyers not to bid, if they are worried about authenticity.
Apparently the winner of this auction was 'Taisha', the same seller who wrote the threatening email on the listing. She used another ID to bid on his auction, even though he blocked her from bidding. She then claimed that 5 out of the 26 beanies were fakes and he was a criminal!
As one of my students said:
“I love how the buyer justifies having the second ID to circumvent his block as JUST a violation of Ebay's rules, but he violated a REAL law. Somehow, in the buyer's mind, that makes what they did OK. I guess ethics and morals come in different degrees.”
There seems to be an epidemic in our culture of people who don't take responsibility for their own actions! In fact, TV shows like that of Jerry Springer have elevated it to an art form. A personal example involves a free ebook that subscribers receive when they sign up for my ezine. Apparently, the link was broken last week and I got two emails about it in one morning. One mentioned the link and asked for a remedy. We fixed the link immediately and sent the polite reader his ebook. The other email was this one:
- - -
Subject line: SPAM Complaint
I WAS PROMISED "HOW TO SUCK UP CUSTOMERS FASTER THAN A VACUUM CLEANER ON STEROIDS" FOR SIGNING UP FOR 'AUCTION GOLD' BUT WAS TAKEN TO A PAGE TELLING ME THE ITEM NO LONGER EXISTS...
DON'T YOU THINK EVERYONE SHOULD NO ABOUT THIS ON DISCUSSIONS BOARDS EVERYWHERE? I DO!
- - -
My response was very courteous and professional – and very firm. I explained that this problem was a broken link and that the book did indeed exist. I also expressed my curiosity over how this was a SPAM complaint when HE contacted us and not the other way around.
I expressed my dismay over the aggressive and hostile stance he had taken, without even bothering to ask us about the book. And further, I politely told him that we would not be a good match, and I would make certain he would not be bothered by emails from us in the future.
In other words, I do not want him as an ezine subscriber or customer.
I received a reply from him which said he reacted that way because he had been ripped off in the past. Further, he “demanded” a copy of my book.
There it is - The Whine. He's been ripped off in the past, and that's a justification for rudeness and hostility. Have you ever been ripped off? If you haven't, it's because you haven't bought much of anything. I have wasted thousands of dollars on material that has gained me nothing. But you know what? I don't regret it. It's a necessary part of the apprenticeship fee that I paid to learn the net marketing business. I still buy things often – ebooks, software, services. But I rarely am disappointed anymore. Why? Because I've learned the business well enough to recognize value when I see it and I gained that knowledge by stumbling around, making mistakes. Some wasted money is a small price to pay.
As a little girl, once I got past the fairy princess and movie star stages, all I ever wanted to be was a teacher. To realize that dream cost me four years of hard work in college and many thousand of my parents' dollars. Further, once I had a teaching position I went on to get advanced degrees. That cost me many summers, most weekends, thousands more dollars and long days of going to class after working all day. No complaints – it's just part of the price I paid to do what I wanted.
So, why do people assume that having a net business should require no sacrifice or preparation? Once I was coaching a new auction student, explaining how she could get started. I asked her if she had any questions and there was a long, long silence. Finally, in a whiney voice she said, “That sounds like a lot of work”. Well, guess what. It is! And here's the analogy I used for her ... If I created a $10,000/month auction business and just handed it over to her .. free gratis ... what would happen? I can tell you that in a very short time it would all fall apart, because she didn't have the skills she needed to keep it going! It's like starting the first grade and being assigned to an algebra class. Skills build on each other and there's no way around the learning curve.
Back to our hostile email: an obvious question is - how can you get “ripped off” when something is free???
As for his demands for my book – what do you think? It's MY site, MY ezine, MY book. Do I “owe” him anything?
This isn't just a philosophical exercise. You, too, will face similar situations in your business life.
This is all a matter of perspective and I have a recent and concrete example.
The past couple of ezine issues have bounced back from one particular address. The response says that the man (let's call him Robert, which isn't his real name) no longer accepts email at all due to spam. The problem is that his old address isn't on the email, so I can't unsubscribe him. However, there is an website address on his email, so I went to his site, hoping to contact him that way. He does have a contact form but it requires such an incredible amount of personal information that I refused to spend the time.
And his site is the poster child for awful! I wish I could give you the URL so you could see what NOT to do. It's garish, amateur, ugly and focused totally on him, with a giant picture of the author dominating the page.
There are a handful of people on the net who have my total respect as net marketers. One of these is Jonathan, who sells high quality products and makes tons of money. I was listening to a recording of his the other night and he mentioned how valuable spam is! According to Jonathan, it is great market research in terms of demand, advertising and more. He says that anyone who just deletes it is missing a marketing education.
Wow, what a difference in attitude! Robert retreats behind the walls of his website fortress, refusing access to the outside world and making it really tough for potential customers. Jonathan, on the other hand, finds gold in the exact same situation.
“Who is right”? That is an unanswerable question.
But, “Who is effective”? ... ah, now that is a question worth asking. Jonathan is a dazzling success when measured in any possible way. And Robert? Of course I can't say for certain without seeing his bank account ... but I can almost certainly guarantee his lack of success.
- - -
More lessons from the Beanie auction:
1. If any auction ever proved the power of being colorful and real, this beanie auction does. People are tired of soulless, corporate writing and welcome personality, drama and flair. This seller really struck a chord with thousands of people.
2. In a later auction, he mentions that he had 350,000 page views of this auction. If that is so, what a WASTE!!! Reading over his feedback, you can see that he created many loyal followers and could have turned the publicity into long term, enduring customers who would have spent lots of money with him. Of course, maybe he didn't want to do that, which is perfectly fine. But, perhaps he just didn't know how?
Here is a comment that proves the power of what he did: “I just read his feedback and it's awesome! The guy is a genius and I'd be thrilled to make his acquaintance. I think I'll go bid on one of his auctions just to add a comment. LOL. When I saw his auction for the certificate, I slapped my forehead again, Why didn't I think of that!?"
{Addendum: the negative comment by the winner of the auction has disappeared in the last few days. Too bad – it was such fun to read. All his other feedback remains, however, and you can see that he was a hero to all of those who posted. The nastygram was NOT appreciated by his new friends and followers.}
Posted by SydneyJohnston at 1:02 PM | TrackBack
July 22, 2004
Can You Sell Services On eBay?
The overwhelming majority of the items sold on eBay and other auction sites are physical goods. There are a small number of exceptions, though, and one possibility that is usually overlooked is that of services.
Selling services on eBay may have some great advantages:
1. Depending on what service you are offering, there may not be any necessary inventory or equipment for you to store, unlike the space challenges of hard goods
2. Best of all, there is no advance expense. Unless your service sells, you have no responsibility. In other words, the only risk is your listing fee.
An important point is that you should only sell only those services for which you are already equipped. For example, one service on eBay involved selling personalized cartoons. There were a large selection of choices, in both professions and sexes, so if you were a woman school teacher, for example, you could buy a cartoon of a lady teaching a class, and it would have various personalized information on the cartoon, such as your name, titles of favorite books, and more.
The problem, though, was that the seller had to buy some VERY expensive software to make the cartoons (in excess of $1,000), plus the pictures themselves required special paper. He already had a business selling the cartoons, so eBay was a natural extension of his main business. However, spending this kind of capital just for eBay would probably be a risky proposition.
How can you know if your services will sell?
Like everything else, demand is the #1 consideration. One of my students tried unsuccessfully to sell Bible verses that he personalized with his own caligraphy. Apparently, the demand simply didn't exist.
But, there are some services that do well. Here are a couple of “ordinary” ones.
Example 1: (seller's ID removed)
http://auction-genius-course.com/listings/service.shtml
With this auction, the seller is offering to transfer your old video treasures to DVD. Most people know that old movies and tapes fade over time and that DVD offers a way to preserve them indefinitely.
This auction offers this company/seller a way to sell “extras” outside the $24.99 mentioned in the auction. Want a customized introduction? Add $5. How about a 10 chapter navigation menu? That will be an additional $20.
Auction #2:
http://auction-genius-course.com/listings/service3.shtml
A similar service involves having a photograph transferred to artist canvas. The seller wisely mentions that this service was sold on QVC for over $100, giving legitimacy to this idea. (Of course, it is very possible that it wasn't HIS service that was sold on QVC, but only a similar one).
I checked out the company information on google and located this seller's business:
http://vinyllettering.com/photo.htm
As you can see, selling on eBay is a terrific way to support an existing business and help grow your customer list.
Auction #3 and #4:
http://auction-genius-course.com/listings/service2.shtml
http://auction-genius-course.com/listings/service1.shtml
Now we get into some more creative areas. Our first example capitalizes on a trend for “mobile” advertising. He is offering the services of his car as an advertising billboard for the period of one year. This is a goofy sort of listing because the seller will move anywhere in the US, depending on the desires of the buyer (or so he says). But, he does illustrate that with a little creative thinking we can all come up with some auction items that require zero money.
Our second example is much more likely, because the seller is a pro bowler who tours on the women's pro bowling circuit and is seen by many people. To make her offer credible, she mentions that she has had coverage by such well known media as ESPN, USA Today and Sports Illustrated for Women. Again, it would cost her absolutely nothing to wear a logo by her buyer.
Services are a low cost way to have something to sell on eBay, especially if your offer goes along with any existing business you already have. As always, do your homework before spending any money on equipment or necessities for the service that you offer.
Posted by SydneyJohnston at 11:37 AM | TrackBack
July 17, 2004
Is Consignment A Realistic eBay Business?
Consignment is a pretty exciting way to do business on eBay. If you're unfamiliar with the term, it simply means selling products for someone else in return for a commission.
What's not to like? Since you have no inventory costs you will need very little capital and it's easy to get started – all you need to know is how to sell on eBay.
With the fame of eBay increasing daily, there's lots of money to be made. The best known is AuctionDrop, a professional consignment service. They have been so successful they raised $500,000 in venture capital and have recently negotiated a breath-taking deal with UPS. There are 3400 UPS stores and interested sellers can drop off their treasures location.
The way it works is this: the seller takes his object-for-sale to a UPS store who packages it and sends it to AuctionDrop. The UPS store has nothing to do with selling on eBay – it is simply the location for prearranged shipping. The customer pays to ship to AuctionDrop.
What is AD's responsibility? It evaluates the item, creates professional photographs, writes detailed descriptions, answers buyer questions, processes payment and ships to the winner. It also verifies against fraud, making the merchandise more attractive to buyers.
If the item sells, AD sends a check to the customer. If an item doesn’t sell, it will be returned to the customer at no additional cost.
eBay has a “Trading Assistants” program to help folks who want help selling their goodies. If you'd like to become a member, you can sign up here:
http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?GetTAHubPage
The requirements are that you have to have sold an item in the last 30 days, have a feedback rating of 50 or higher and have a minimum of 97% positive feedback.
Since the consignment business is thriving, perhaps it's 'too late' for the so-called little gal or guy? NOT! Starbuck's, for example, dominates the coffee market in the US, but they still represent only 16% of all the coffee outlets in the country. Considering the amount of coffee that Americans drink, the other 84% are making lots of money!
If you want to learn the business, the best source for information is How To Start And Run An eBay Consignment Business. It includes 200+ pages of everything you need to know, including how to find consignment customers, corporate sales, fees and costs, writing a business plan, setting up for mass production management software, how to integrate with websites and eBay stores and everything else you would need to know.
It also includes 2 CDs:
1. A tutorial on auction photos, including how to choose a camera, “Three Point Lighting”, key lights, bounce cards and much more.
2. A consignment CD with resources and links, including such basics as letters to use, advertising posters, consignment agreements and record keeping.
AuctionDrop's usual percentage for sales is 40%. Pretty nice for merchandise you don't own, right? It's definitely not too late to get into this game!
Posted by SydneyJohnston at 10:04 AM | TrackBack
July 14, 2004
What Do You Do When Everything In Your Business Is Going Wrong?
We all know that everything doesn't go smoothly in business or life – even though we passionately wish that it would. And when the inevitable disappointments come, are we going to let them defeat us or not? How are we going to handle them?
One way is to have a pre-arranged response. It's easy to be philosophical when we're peaceful and all is well. But, it's tough when we are under stress. So, why not plan ahead and find an idea, a phrase or a word – a mantra, if you will – that is meaningful to you?
That's what I have done, and it never, ever fails to lower my temperature and give me a sense of perspective. I gladly share my mantra, which is “Rule #6”. This is a delightful story from a favorite book called The Art Of Possibility by Rosamund and Benjamin Zander.
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Two prime ministers are sitting in a room discussing affairs of state. Suddenly a man burst in, apoplectic with fury, shouting and stamping and banging his fist on the desk. The resident prime minister admonishes him: “Peter,” he says, “kindly remember Rule Number 6,” whereupon Peter is instantly restored to complete calm, apologizes and withdraws.
The politicians return to their conversation, only to be interrupted yet again twenty minutes later by an hysterical woman gesticulating wildly, her hair flying. Again the intruder is greeted with the words: “Marie, please remember Rule Number 6.” Complete calm descends once more, and she too withdraws with a bow and an apology.
When the scene is repeated for a third time, the visiting prime minister addresses his colleague: “My dear friend, I've seen many things in my life, but never anything as remarkable as this. Would you be willing to share with me the secret of Rule Number 6?”
“Very simple”, replies the resident prime minister. “Rule Number 6 is 'Don't take yourself so damn seriously!'”
“Ah,” says his visitor, that is a fine rule.” After a moment of pondering, he inquires, “And what, may I ask, are the other rules?”
“There aren't any.” replies his friend.
- - -
This is much more than an amusing story. For me, it is a powerful reminder that whatever I'm upset about is really pretty trivial. It encourages me to laugh at myself, and gain a more timeless perspective on my life and work. Feel free to make use of Rule #6 or find a story or idea that is meaningful to you. But, find something, anything, so that when the storms hit you can see them for the nonsense that they truly are.
Posted by SydneyJohnston at 12:24 AM | TrackBack
July 13, 2004
“Become a millionaire for what it will make of you.”
We're about common sense. More specifically, about e-business common sense in this exciting and fast-changing new millennium. And so many want to become “rich”, to become millionaires on the Internet.
But we have fallen victims to our own absurd rhetoric. The Internet seems so easy. For centuries, wealth depended on land. Without fields to cultivate (hopefully, with someone else's labor), prosperity was only a vain hope.
With the growth of the middle class, there were options at last. But wealth still depended upon capital – money for a physical location; money for products to sell; money for labor to serve customers. And great wealth depended on really large sums of money to build factories, shipyards and railroads.
Fast forward to today and anyone at all can have a business. An average guy with a computer can sit in a spare bedroom and build an impressive-looking business for a few dollars. He doesn't even need a product in stock.
So it seems logical that a business so easily created ought to be easily successful. But it isn't. I receive constant email from folks who've bought a $29.95 ebook or a $49.95 piece of software – and can't understand why they aren't rich yet.
This total misunderstanding results in massive pain, disillusion and bitterness. Because the truth is that e-commerce is a b-u-s-i-n-e-s-s. A successful business has always demanded much, but the ease of creation has lead people to believe that the same rules that have always applied to business don't apply to the web. But they do.
If you want more, you must become more:
* More wisdom
* Better decisions
* A higher level of skill
* A clearer vision
* Dedication to constant and unending learning
I have to become more - and so do you if you want more and different.
No excuses.
No victims.
Just the way it is. Ignore this truth and success will continue to elude you. Embrace it and you're firmly on your way.
Posted by SydneyJohnston at 9:52 PM | TrackBack
July 12, 2004
Living In Internet Fantasy Land
A recent entry on a discussion board is simply too delicious to pass by:
- - -
“Will some of you please send me the names of some real wholesalers? I don't intend to get a resellers license so leave those out”.
- - -
This poor midguided person has zero hope of success with these kinds of tactics and here's why:
1. How likely is it that readers will rush to send him their best wholesale sources? Would YOU send your list, so that you can set up competition for yourself?
2. Almost no legitimate wholesalers will deal with someone who doesn't have a resellers license. In my home state of Georgia the law states that if a wholesaler sells directly to a “retailer” - definition: anyone without a resellers license – the wholesaler can lose its own business license. Does anyone truly believe that a wholesaler will risk the loss of its right to do business for a total stranger?
3. By his refusal to get proper documentation, this man has shown that he isn't truly a professional, committed to business success but is careless and foolish instead.
4. I am wary whenever I read the words “real” wholesaler. Generally, the writer means that “real” wholesalers should make sacrifices and zero profits so that their buyers can clean up on eBay and other online stores. Wholesalers have to make a profit, too.
This entry is not thought out and the mark of an immature and foolish would-be seller. He doesn't respect Internet business enough to even understand the way the game is played.
Posted by SydneyJohnston at 11:45 PM | TrackBack
July 11, 2004
The Best Looking eBay Store, 2004
Ebay users vote annually for the best eBay stores in 3 categories and the 2004 “Best Looking Store”, “thefrenchybee”, is indeed a beauty.
Selling indulgent products from France like lavender soaps, chocolate and herbs from Provence, we learn that gorgeous and mouth watering pictures add much to the success of any auction.
Secondly, the owner makes it easy to search. For example, when checking out the soaps (a passion of mine!) she makes it easy to spend money. I can look by 'Type', such as bars, liquid or laundry, or I can search by 'Scent', including such yummy smells as orange, vanilla or almond.
The Frenchy Bee's customer service motto is “ Be generous even when you can't afford it, it comes back tenfold.” Amen to that.
However, the profits from this store for the last 30 days or so are only $1207, so we might expect that The Frenchy Bee sells through other venues, and we would be correct, because they also use Amazon, Google AdWords, and of course, their own website.
Here's what we can learn from the Bee:
* Site design is very important and spend the time or money to acquire gorgeous photographs
* Sell through multiple channels
* Make searching easy on your customers, with as many options as possible without being confusing
* Focus on certain items with clearance specials or newsletters
And does it work? Well, I bought 3 bars of soap, so it must! :-)
Posted by SydneyJohnston at 8:49 AM | TrackBack
July 10, 2004
If Only I Had Saved My Childhood Comic Books!
Paying attention to current trends certainly pays off online and on eBay. An example is the Spiderman 2 movie, due to be released June 30. The first movie was a huge hit and we have no to reason to believe the seond one won't be, also.
Spiderman was first popular because of Marvel comic books and they remain so popular that an eBay seller with the ID of “highgrade60s” has found it worthwhile to put a banner on eBay advertising his collection of Marvel comics.
The sales of vintage comics is thriving, at least partly due to a new "grading" system. In the past, collectors were wary about buying old comics, because it was so easy to be cheated.
The only established comic book grader is a Florida company, Comics Guaranty LLC, or CGC. The grade is a 1-10 scale. This grading system has given new life to the vintage comic book industry, because collectors can feel confident about buying sight-unseen magazines. Some recent sales of Wonder Woman show the popularity:
* Wonder Woman No. 115, graded 9.2 by CGC, sold for $1,007
* Issue No. 122, graded 9.4, sold for $1,005
* Issues numbers. 127 and 128 sold for more than $1,000
According to the Comics Buyer's Guide, these four issues aren't particularly rare, or didn't have significant new characters. Instead, the prices are indicators of collector confidence due to the grading system.
There are even sites that analyze CGP books, like gpanalysis.com,and they help establish a more honest market for comics collectors and sellers worldwide. According to their stats, so far this month, 6,224 comic books have sold, for a total of $1,846,020.88, and the highest priced book sold for an amazing $47,150.
So, if you're a comic book fan, head on over to eBay and get involved.
Posted by SydneyJohnston at 11:52 AM | TrackBack
July 9, 2004
So You Want To Dropship?
There are many advantages to dropshipping when it comes to online sales:
* No out of pocket costs for your inventory, because you don't order the product until it is sold and paid for by your buyer
* Because you don't have piles of “stuff” stockpiled, your business is risk free.
* No warehousing, stocking or filled garages
* Huge inventory – multiple dropshippers
Sounds great, right? But, back to our original question: are all dropshippers honest and reliable? Well, naturally not. Might be honest but unreliable. So what can you do to figure out if you are dealing with an honest one. Here are some ways:
* Contact the BBB and other online agencies
* Ask a long list of penetrating questions
* Insist on references
* Check the Ses and other sources for information about the company
* Check forums and bulletin boards
This isn't an exhaustive list, but it does give you the idea.
And speaking of exhausting ... just the thought of doing all that makes you tired, huh? Me, too. That's why I deal with the Dropship Source Directory. With their full time research staff, they've done all that for us, in advance. Wahoo!
Posted by SydneyJohnston at 12:33 PM | TrackBack
July 8, 2004
Can You Get Away With Keyword Spamming On eBay?
There are two ways for a buyer to find an item on eBay: by keyword search or by category. By far the more popular of the two search methodologies is by keyword. This means that your auction title is all-important when listing on eBay. Your title should be loaded with keywords, keywords and more keywords. It doesn't matter if you're selling your treasure for five cents on the dollar or you are the greatest copywriter on the planet, if nobody finds what you're selling.
In case you're not sure what "keyword spamming" is, it means using words that aren't appropriate for an item in the title and listing. For example, if a seller is offering a watch that is similar to a "Gucci", (in other words, a knock off), he might use the word "Gucci" in the title, and describe it as "cheaper than Gucci", in his listing. His hope is that folks looking for a real Gucci will see his listing and somehow, magically, be coaxed into bidding on his watch instead.
Go to eBay keyword spamming to see a recent example of how a seller of a Nokia phone tried to 'cheat' by mentioning Siemens, Sony, Ericsson, Panasonic and Samsung, in an attempt to get bidders to look at his Nokia instead.
This practice was rampant on eBay in the early days, but no longer. eBay will definitely cancel an auction immediately for keyword spamming. Supposedly, for repeated infractions the seller will be suspended. To read eBay's rules:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/listing-keywords.html
Can you get away with this practice? Realistically, yes – at least for a while. After all eBay has millions and millions of listings, and the chance of the staff finding yours, unless it is prominently featured, is slim. If you are very successful, though, you can be sure of gaining attention from your competitors, at least one of which will certainly report you to eBay. So, keyword spamming in your title is definitely a short term strategy.
However, there IS a way to “legally” compare yourself with your competition inside your listing, and that is to use a comparison chart or table in your eBay description. In this example, a seller in the ultra-competitive diet pill category is favorably comparing her product to three others. Assuming that she is telling the truth about her statements, eBay has no problem with her listing. This is definitely a strong sales tactic.
So, keyword spamming is a short term tactic of dubious value, and has no place in a long term eBay business plan.
Posted by SydneyJohnston at 12:04 AM | TrackBack
July 7, 2004
Should All Sellers Be FORCED To Offer PayPal On Their eBay Listings?
The eBay grapevine swears that eBay is quietly “what iffing” to see how eBay sellers would react to a requirement that PayPal is offered on all auction listings.
I have had a PayPal account for many years and the experience has been profitable and virtually trouble free. But it is outrageous of eBay to try and force all users to use their own financing company. Sometimes eBay just changes the rules without consultation with its members, but occasionally it does ask our opinion. So, if you get a chance to chime in, you might want to vote for freedom of choice.
Human beings have a real problem with power. Just because we
Ebay needs to learn this, too. After all, it's the small mom and pop sellers who have caused the phenomenon that is eBay.
