Online Auction Blog

Web Page Traffic: Generate Web Traffic With Your Signature File

If you want your web page traffic to pick up, here's a tip from our 365 traffic tips ecourse: use a signature file or 'sig' file as a way to generate web page traffic. Every time you forward an eMail to your family or friends (or maybe even your enemies! :-) make sure your signature file is posted at the bottom of your email. This sig file will, naturally, include some tantalizing and intriguing benefit about your products or services. The secret is to make your email "forwardable" so that all the people you talk with will pass your message along to others. When they do, your marketing will ride along. And realize that the message you want forwarded may not have a direct relationship to whatever you're selling, although it certainly shouldbe be totally alien. This method of generating web page traffic is both free and subtle since you're not overtly selling anything.

Is It Really GUARANTEED VISITORS You Want?

Do you want guaranteed visitors to your websites or web stores? If you answered, "Yes, of course", then you need to rethink your goals. What you really want is targeted hits or visitors. There are dozens and dozens of sites that will deliver guaranteed visitors to your site - but what they don't say is that these people may have, in fact most likely have, zero interest in your products.

Our 365 Daily Traffic Tips series have this to say: "When advertising, be sure that your ad is going out to your targeted audience, not the masses. It would be a waste of money, reaching people who are not interested. For example, unless your product is sports related, don't place an ad in a sporting magazine."

It seems obvious when you think about it that 'guaranteed visitors' will most likely just use up your bandwidth and bring you no financial rewards. So focus all your advertising and marketing on targeted hits, rather than just warm bodies.

Increase Traffic To Your Website: Get Traffic With Our 365 FREE Traffic Tips

If you want to increase traffic to your website, then you will need to become agressive about it, sort of like our two bikers to the left who look anything but passive. Well, OK, perhaps a better word is 'proactive', rather than aggressive, but let's face it - it's not easy to get traffic these days. Most folks are numb to ad messages and getting through that indifference to get targeted hits just ain't easy!

So check out our 365 Daily Traffic Tips series. The price is right = free. And it's quick and easy to read each tip and see if it applies to YOUR business.

Will each one be helpful? Naturally, not. There are tons of marketing methods out there - and many, perhaps most - of them work. But as business owners we have to be selective. Just because something works doesn't mean that I want to do it.

So, if you're want to increase traffic to your website (and I'm sure you're interested in making money online or you wouldn't be reading this) then rush on over and sign up. Choose what you want to use, discard the rest, and you won't just get traffic, but targeted hits which are the only kind worth having.

The Membership Site: Using Member Sites To Increase eBay Profits, Part 4

The membership website format that I prefer these days is infinitely easier than the ones in the past because the content for your members site can be created, put on autoresponder and sent out to your members - without attention on your part. It's a great way to increase your profits if you're selling on eBay - or anywhere else that you recruit interested customers, whatever your niche. We've discussed your content - now how do we deliver it to the subscribers of our membership site?

5) Delivering Your Members Site Content:

For my business, an autoresponder is a MUST! It will deliver content on any schedule you choose. Here is a screenshot from the autoresponder series I mentioned in #2 above:

Notice the 5th column ... it shows the day on which the message is sent out. (Column 6 is the 'hour" which I always set at zero). Currently, the messages cover 154 days and I will add many more soon. Once again, the point is - once it's done, it's done! AUTOPILOT INCOME! This is the e-a-s-y to run a membership site.

{Continued in The Membership Site: Using Member Sites To Increase eBay Profits, Part 5 }

The Membership Site: Using Member Sites To Increase eBay Profits, Part 4

5) Delivering Your Members Site Content:

For my business, an autoresponder is a MUST! It will deliver content on any schedule you choose. Here is a screenshot from the autoresponder series I mentioned in #2 above:

{Continued in The Membership Site: Using Member Sites To Increase eBay Profits, Part 5 }

Membership Site: Members Site Offers More Opportunities For Profit

Using already created content, which is loaded into an autoresponder, is how I am increasing my profits with membership websites. Selling on eBay is cool - but settling for one measly profit per customers isn't so great. Especially if I can set it on autopilot.

3) Where I'm Getting The Content For My Member Site :

I am doing the content for this series myself simply because this is my first membership site and I'm figuring out my methods along the way. I deliberately chose a subject I'm interested in so it's easy to write.

I recently bought version 10 of Dragon Naturally Speaking so that I can dictate my content. Using this awesome software cuts my time by about 2/3. Very cool. The accuracy isn't 100%, but it's darn good.

Note on that: I had Dragon version 7 years ago and was very unimpressed. However, I saw a couple of demos and decided to get Version 10 and am very glad I did. I found a good deal so if you're interested go to the bottom of this ezine for details. This code expires on September 30, though.

4) Making My Content Look Good:

Looking decent, at least, is important. I use a free program called Open Office, instead of Word. It will format your documents into pdf form, which is the format that is most recommended on the Net.

If you want to get fancier you will need a more advanced system. Adobe InDesign is the one graphic artists use and the most highly recommended. But it costs a gagging $699! I bought a program for $40 at Microcenter and it's called PagePlus9. The company, Serif, has a newer version now, but the one I have is quite adequate. I'm sure there are others (although not very many). What you're looking for is "desktop publishing".

{Continued in The Membership Site: Using Member Sites To Increase eBay Profits, Part 4}

Travel Opportunities are Everywhere

We're told almost daily that the economy is in shambles, or some other unflattering commentary about our national plight. Clearly workers who lose their jobs and many homeowners are individually facing an income and mortgage crisis. But does financial instability typify the average American home? It's an intense subject of debate during this year's Presidential campaigns.

If, however, the number of people taking expensive vacations during the summer and beyond are indicators of family financial health, we may be at least a little better off than some news stories convey. Either way whether struggling with money or well off, people clearly love to travel and take vacations as time and personal finances allow. A growing percentage are much more cautious about finding creative vacations ideas, such as a Grand Canyon helicopter tour, family vacations in Michigan, student travel deals, Ohio theme parks, and so many more ideas that are only subject to one's imagination.

If you can afford the time away, you will find some very nice vacation packages and lodging options right on eBay. There are hundreds, and several that I spotted look like sweet deals whether available by auction or BIN. You just need to be a little flexible in your destination. If you can do that, you will accomplish two desirable goals at the same time - an enjoyable vacation trip and one that is affordable. If you are looking for a little fun time away, take advantage of your opportunities right online.

Dripping Power Community Forum Is Back Online

We are happy to report that our community forum is back online after a "vacation". This web forum is specifically for our students and ezine readers who wish to use auctions to make money. But it's much more broad than that.

Approximately four years ago we began using eBay and simple techniques like article marketing to generate long term income. Our monetary goals were modest - only $10 per day for each small website that we constructed. But our long term goals were much more ambitious: to generate multiple streams of income that would endure over time. This is what we teach in our Auction Genius Wealth Plan. However, we soon realized that building a website to last involves keeping it "live" with new activity, new content, new treasure to intrigue our readers. Thus the Dripping Power system was born.

So, we have a new home for our community forum and all honest and serious online sellers are welcome. Spammers take note, though: this web forum is monitored and you will NOT be getting free junk links.

Treatments for Diseases and Ailments

With the relatively recent (earlier this year) eBay requirement to list downloadable electronic products - such as eBooks - in classified ad format, the number of information products in eBay has plummeted. No doubt this was the main intend with the policy change. eBay had previously been littered with thousands of low-quality electronic products.

But the shame of it is that there is so much valuable information on myriad subjects which will no longer be available in the world's greatest auction site. Many people will never miss, for example, "How to Make $1 Million in a Month." However, there is more vital information that will now need to be sought elsewhere. Practical medical knowledge is usually among those info products that are handy.

So now if you seek facts on a whole range of treatments such as remedies for menopause, treatment for depression, diabetes medical supplies, or even acid reflux food to avoid, well, you will likely no longer find it in eBay. You now need to seek them through a competitor. And that's disappointing.

The Membership Site: Using Member Sites To Increase eBay Profits, Part 2

The membership site has become an awesomely powerful tool for increasing my eBay profits, but not the "old" kind of member site that requires constant maintenance and effort. It's just too labor intensive for me. I prefer a newer kind of membership website that involves autoresponder emails on a regular basis.

1) Recruiting members:

I found my members from a Craigslist free ad so all I"paid" was some time.

2) What I offered my member site subscribers:

I offered them a free autoresponder series. Since I'm in experimental mode, I'd rather not share that series quite yet with the readers of this list (I don't want YOU to be guinea pigs! :-) but here's one that is just like it, except on a different subject and isn't advertising a member list:

http://metabolism-on-fire.com/loseweightfree.shtml

===> Why It's Almost IMPOSSIBLE To Fail With This Autoresponder Series ...

This autoresponder series is on weight loss and if you want to sign up for it, feel free - even if you're skinny! The point isn't the emails - it's how I use lots of autoresponder series as money makers. Every single message has an offer. Right now there are 34 messages but I have another 52 to add when I get around to it. It is mailed every week so that will be a total of 86 messages or almost two years of contact. Naturally, people will unsubscribe along the way or not read the messages and some people will never buy anything. However, I can COUNT ON sales from this autoresponder series and it's like a "free" membership site - once it's done, it's done and I don't have to do any more work on it.

{Continued in The Membership Site: Using Member Sites To Increase eBay Profits, Part 3}

The Clothes on Your Back - And More

There is an awful lot of "stuff" we purchase that is simply for fun, aesthetics, or other non-essential reasons. Certainly there's nothing wrong with that. But in contrast, there are indeed those categories of purchases that fit within the context of true needs. Clothing is one of them.

In the U.S., owning and wearing one basic set of clothing is both impractical and unfulfilling. There are so many colors, styles, and patterns of clothing that help us all to define who we are. Some range from basic specialty needs - such as big men's clothes and tall maternity jeans - to apparel that is a little more style oriented, like vintage tee shirts and custom dress shirts - and more.

You'll find it all in eBay. Whether your goal is to purchase clothing for yourself or sell what you have to others who have similar preferences, the auction marketplace offers and allows options beyond comparison. If the clothing choice you want isn't available today, it likely will be a few days later - though it stretches the imagination that your preference would not show up immediately. So unless you simply enjoy the time in shopping malls (ugh!), first search for your apparel online. It'll save you a lot of time.

The Membership Site: Using Member Sites To Increase eBay Profits, Part 1

For years I've been saying that selling on eBay just isn't that hard. But successful selling is done in niches and now that you've got a customer list, what do you do with it? One of the huge shames on eBay is that most sellers only get one paycheck from their buyers. One way I've been solving this problem recently is with a membership site.

Rhe hardest task in marketing is getting that customer. Once they've bought from you {always assuming you're honest and treat them fairly} getting them to buy again isn't that hard. Right now "continuity" programs are in the marketing news. That means getting customers into your sales funnel with an inexpensive product and then selling them progressively more expensive products in the same niche.

That's a great model, but there's a problem - what if you don't have those higher priced products to sell? Honestly, I haven't had any answer to that question in some niches and I know it's costing us money. I've had no answer - until the membership site concept that I mentioned in my last newsletter. Since then I've had a chance to learn more about the member site and I'm happy to share what I've learned.

What's Happened With My Membership Sites?

In my last issue I recommended a membership course that I am taking. You can read the details here. How has that turned out?

Well, I have my first membership site with 67 members at $7.95 each. Not much money - only $532.65 per month. But I don't want to grow it yet since this is my 'experimental' group and I have a lot to learn. Here's how I did it. {Continued in The Membership Site: Using Member Sites To Increase eBay Profits, Part 2}

Diseases and Key Knowledge

There are so many diseases afflicting humanity, it's virtually impossible to keep track of them all. No wonder health care is such a political football in the U.S. So when information is available to track their symptoms, this at least provides a level of familiarity to the average non-medical citizen.

We all some some fundamental familiarity with more common diseases like clinical depression, Alzheimer's, anorexia, arthritis, and so many more. But for most diseases that have names which can barely be pronounced, more organized and categorized information is needed.

eBay hardly serves a hard core wealth of medical information, but it does offer a number of resources for auction that can provide insights to anxious people who begin to experience abnormal symptoms which don't lend themselves to simple explanations. Some of the material I see out there doesn't necessarily look current - which is a down side of purchasing static material in a field that constantly changes. This is why medical software or website information that are routinely updated would be great options - especially if subscription options can be purchased in eBay.

eBay Shipping Changes: New Shipping Charges For Those Who Sell On eBay

eBay shipping changes were recently announced and one of the biggest changes is maximum shipping charges in certain categories. If you are going to sell on eBay in these categories you cannot charge more than those fees specified by eBay in:

* Books
* DVDs & Movies
* Music
* Video Games

For example, the maximum eBay shipping fees for individual books is $4 for most categories. Or the charge for DVD, HD DVD & Blu-ray or VHS (doesn't anybody REALLY buy those anymore?) is $3.The maximum for CDs is $3, whereas $4 is the max for video games.

Sigh. Just like the octopus of government that seems to grow daily, eBay rules are the same. Those who want to sell on eBay must tale the new eBay shipping fees into account when selling in this popular entertainment category.

A New Focus on Retirement Years?

The US population is aging - this is clear. I have seen estimations that within less than 30 years, there will only be roughly 2 workers contributing to Social Security for every elderly person receiving benefits. By contrast, the ratio in 1950 was 16:1.

Baby boomers have begun to retire. The next 2-3 decades will result in a significant shift of market products and services to address the needs of these people. The focus has already begun to move. Concerns for an increasing percentage of the population now revolve around Roth IRA's, retirement calculators, retirement homes, Medicare and endless other needs for those transitioning into their "autumn" years.

Given this explosive coming demand, I'm having difficulty locating almost any products or services auctioned in eBay that are specifically targeted to this segment of our citizenry. Oh sure, a retired person can search for specific items of interest like anyone else (think golf equipment, hearing aids, retirement homes, and so on). But what about a separate eBay category for those of retirement age? Until eBay itself provides such a specific category (if ever), the savvy eBay seller could do so with an under-the-radar marketing campaign to seniors. What an opportunity to corner a market for a few years while others catch up!