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terrysgentlyused
Posts: 103
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Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2009 3:09 pm Post subject: |
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I think it really depends on what you are selling. Books are a tough sell because it's a very saturated category. Even Barnes and Noble didn't come up until page 4 in a google search when I used one of your book titles with author.
I think this is definitely an area where you are going to have to do your own promotion.
I have this store with books and sales are few and far between but it's not my main store and I'm just unloading so not a big concern. I also list at Amazon and even there, with their name recognition and advertising, the sales are few and far between because there are so many competing for the same sale. Even rare books don't sell well.
My other store here is doing great. It' a different category altogether and my items show up on page one quite often .
Even advertising like the big boys do doesn't help sales if you're buried in hundreds of similar listings.
I don't know what the referral to the forums is about - I personally love ecrater. I have had better sales here than I ever had at ebay! And I came here because it was free, profits are mine!!! I don't want that to change.
Good luck to you! |
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AustinDridge
Posts: 26
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Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2009 3:23 pm Post subject: |
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Many thanks
I agree with most of your points but what is fristrating with me is that I have over 450 items listed here and only one sale in about 3 months despite a large number of hits The hit level seems to have nothing to do with the picture or lack of a picture however I have stuck a map of a relatively minor Civil War Battle and it had more hits than anything else
At the same time I have sold at leat 30 books on Amazon while the same items were listed here I suspect it is the level of traffic and the point of ads would be to bring the level up some what here Income for me is a key factor I am on SSDI and they are simply not giving me enough
Austin |
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GoneFunky
Posts: 1331
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Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2009 3:36 pm Post subject: |
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AustinDridge You might consider some free ways to advertise your store specifically. I've done some local ads through newspapers that were very inexpensive, also the classified sites are a great way to get your items seen quickly. Oodle and OLX both allow store links in your ads, and it's free to list. It gets some more links on the internet to your stores, which Google likes, and you get some visitors as well and hopefully more sales!
My traffic was very good the past few weeks, averaging close to 400 visitors a day, with little tiny sales! LOL Getting people to look and people to buy is often two different things. Increasing your daily traffic will improve your chance of selling. Do you use GA in your store? Once you start doing some promoting, that is a great tool for letting you know what is bringing in potential customers.
As far as Amazon is concerned...I sold a book there a couple of weeks ago that was $20. I had it marked down in my eCrater store for $10...go figure. People shop on Amazon for books and don't necessarily search Google for the best price.
Books are just tuff, the market is so competitive. |
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homeandbodyessence
Posts: 290
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Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2009 3:52 pm Post subject: |
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AustinDridge or Mods,
Just curious, on AustinDridge store home page, instead of "Featured Categories", I saw "Random Stuff". How did you change that?
Thanks,
Val |
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homeandbodyessence
Posts: 290
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Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2009 3:53 pm Post subject: |
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Oops, I meant "Random Products" |
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acread moderator
Posts: 11986
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Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2009 4:12 pm Post subject: |
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homeandbodyessence wrote: | AustinDridge or Mods,
Just curious, on AustinDridge store home page, instead of "Featured Categories", I saw "Random Stuff". How did you change that?
Thanks,
Val |
If you choose 4 or more categories to feature (upload pics and select location for button on homepage) you will have "featured categories".
If you feature less than or no categories you get "Random Products".
To feature your category go to Categories in your account click on the edit button next to the category you want to feature upload image from your computer (using browse button) then select position on homepage by clicking in the small round (radio button) below one of the free spaces and click on "update". Or do all this when you create a Category or subcategory.
To remove the featured category just edit the category and click on the radio button under the very first square (I think it says "none" above or below it) and "update". |
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poopsheet
Posts: 4865
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Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2009 7:21 pm Post subject: |
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I'm inclined to think there's something to the previous advice about items without pictures. If I came across a store that carried items I could find elsewhere and so many items were missing pictures I wouldn't give it much of a look.
Quote: | For legal reasons (and yes I have checked) it has to be done from ecrater Why will they not do it if we provided the money and the support? |
You mean your advertising must be done through eCrater? This is a new one on me. |
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poopsheet
Posts: 4865
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Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2009 7:25 pm Post subject: |
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AustinDridge wrote: | I also had a friend check on some of the search engines and how ecrater rates with them He took several products and found that none of the ecrater stores appeared on the first four pages of the search This means that for all practical purposes expecting traffic from the search engines is hopeless. This has nothing to do with key word or the type of product since he tried a number of products of various type and used a number of different key words to search that relate to the product This is not good news |
I searched "wayward west" "william barker" (http://austindridge.ecrater.com/product.php?pid=5288749) on Google and it's the fifth result on page 1.
On Yahoo it's the first result on page 1.
I'm not so sure you should rely on your friend's research. |
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cherrysbebe
Posts: 5
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Posted: Mon Nov 23, 2009 7:13 pm Post subject: |
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Ukraine - you've given some good perspective for us newbies, thanks. |
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