View previous topic :: View next topic |
Author |
Message |
sapphiremistsheetmusic
Posts: 18
|
Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 12:22 am Post subject: I miss my Ecrater!! |
|
|
Last year on Ecrater....I was making steady sales
As of the last few months I hardly get any...I have way more items in my store than when i was doing well and still nothing is happening for me
I sell sheet music at a very low price in PDF Format
Any ideas or suggestions? |
|
Back to top |
|
|
zickit
Posts: 21857
|
Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 1:31 am Post subject: |
|
|
Are you using google attributes?
Have you searched you items on google web, google shopping, msn etc to see if and how you are rating?
What are you doing to bring in your buyers?
Quote: | Last year on Ecrater....I was making steady sales |
You have made 17 sales, 5 of those in the past month... so I'm confused about what you call steady sales. |
|
Back to top |
|
|
sapphiremistsheetmusic
Posts: 18
|
Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 1:42 am Post subject: |
|
|
I was making steady sales before i even realized that i should be using google attributes...ecrater fed my stuff to froogle and i was getting sales...i wasn't doing anything that you suggested and still i was selling
Now i am using attributes though...not sure about how to figure out my rating on the sites you suggested...can you explain?
Thanks
I just want to get things back to the way they were before!! |
|
Back to top |
|
|
zickit
Posts: 21857
|
Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 2:48 am Post subject: |
|
|
Quote: | I just want to get things back to the way they were before!! |
LOL, don't we all.
Google changes. Therefore when it made changes the apparance of the ecrater items seemed to have dropped in the pages ... meaning they used to be on page one of google shopping (froggle has been gone for years now) and now they appear much later in the pages.
Google claims that using google attributes and using google checkout help but there is really no evidence of this.
You really need to bring in your own buyers, that's what ecrater is all about. |
|
Back to top |
|
|
MoonwishesStore moderator
Posts: 17389
|
Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 11:28 am Post subject: |
|
|
Quote: | not sure about how to figure out my rating on the sites you suggested |
Not sure exactly what you meant by this, but your total sales showing on ecrater is 17 for the life of your store, although anything other than PP and GCO payments won't show as a sale. Of that 17 sales, 5 were within the last month. So it is confusing that you used to have steady sales and now nothing. With 5 sales in the last month that means you have had only 12 sales prior to that since you opened your store. So it seems you are actually doing better now than last year unless all 12 of those sales were last December.
You need to promote your store and what you have to the music community. Not sure where you got your pdf files or if you made them yourself, but I would be trying to make double sure that you are allowed to copy and sell them. The listing I looked at to see your sales, you were charging 99 cents for the download. That doesn't seem worth it for the effort to be making money especially at you would be losing 30+ cents to PP or GCO as their portion of the fee. So you are doing this for about 60 cents a piece?
Old ecrater or new ecrater, however you look at it, it hasn't changed but the internet is a dynamic place and things change all the time. You can't sit back and figure is something worked before then you don't need to look for new ways to market your business. You have to constantly be looking for new ways to get your business boosted and certainly can't depend on ecrater to bring in your sales as they don't market this site at all. It is your responsibility to do that. |
|
Back to top |
|
|
sapphiremistsheetmusic
Posts: 18
|
Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 1:24 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Hi Mooniwishes...i forget to mention that my sales dropped after i changed the name of my store....i wanted to start fresh
I make all of my own music...i was a violin and piano teacher for 20 years |
|
Back to top |
|
|
zickit
Posts: 21857
|
Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 2:20 pm Post subject: |
|
|
sapphiremistsheetmusic wrote: | Hi Mooniwishes...i forget to mention that my sales dropped after i changed the name of my store....i wanted to start fresh
I make all of my own music...i was a violin and piano teacher for 20 years |
When you changed your name ... did you re-submit your store URL to all the search engines? |
|
Back to top |
|
|
MoonwishesStore moderator
Posts: 17389
|
Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 3:23 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Quote: | I make all of my own music...i was a violin and piano teacher for 20 years |
More correctly do you mean that you make your own pdf's of the music? Having been a piano teacher has no bearing on anything other than these may have been your own copies that you had for practice and have now copied with or without permission.
Much of what you have for sale are very famous pieces. You don't mention anywhere that they are copyright free at this point or that you own the copyright. I do think that you need to mention that the pieces you have up for sale you are allowed to be making copies of and to be distributing them. If you are trying to sell an arrangement that is copyrighted by another musician you could find yourself in big trouble. I know I am leary of buying pdf files of anything when the sellers right to sell copies has not been established. I know even in our church to have the words of songs projected to the congregation, they need a special license. I guess I keep thinking that copyright law is very complex and you really have to be very sure that what you are doing is permisible.
I also note that in your titles you don't list the composers many times. Names of the piece and composer names are keywords that would help bring in lookers at least. |
|
Back to top |
|
|
sapphiremistsheetmusic
Posts: 18
|
Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 4:06 pm Post subject: |
|
|
What I am doing is arranging music that is in the public domain....I am most careful about this and strictly follow copyright rules
To be public domain music...the composer must have been dead for 70 years and/or the publication date has to be no later than 1923 |
|
Back to top |
|
|
sapphiremistsheetmusic
Posts: 18
|
Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 4:09 pm Post subject: |
|
|
@bigtallmensclothing
"When you changed your name ... did you re-submit your store URL to all the search engines?"
Yes I did |
|
Back to top |
|
|
thelivesandlovesofmaggiethecat
Posts: 10158
|
Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 5:05 pm Post subject: |
|
|
When ecrater began submitting our listings as individual stores and not as one site ecrater, my sales took a huge hit. When Google returns results based on relevance, my 10 vintage Coro necklaces can't compare to the thousands on eBay. I couldn't find my items on Google Products for anything although they were there if you searched by my store name.
Things have been improving recently and my items are higher ranked than before, but my sales are still way below the way they were before this change took place. Christmas sales for me on ecrater were 50% less than in 2009. |
|
Back to top |
|
|
sapphiremistsheetmusic
Posts: 18
|
Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 5:42 pm Post subject: |
|
|
@thelivesandlovesofmaggiethecat
When did this change in submitting stores happen? I want to figure out if that is around the time my sales went kaput!!
There are so many ebay listings plus amazon too...thats why i charge so little... hoping that someone might search my lowest to highest
I have a difficult time understanding google...how does one go about getting their items a higher ranking?
I sure have a lot to learn in marketing |
|
Back to top |
|
|
theartsandlettersofmaggiethecat
Posts: 2099
|
Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 10:03 pm Post subject: |
|
|
I think it was late Feb/March, but it may have been April. |
|
Back to top |
|
|
sapphiremistsheetmusic
Posts: 18
|
Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 10:20 pm Post subject: |
|
|
I just looked through my paypal listings and it started going down in February and March like you said |
|
Back to top |
|
|
sapphiremistsheetmusic
Posts: 18
|
Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 10:25 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Another poster mentioned:
"The listing I looked at to see your sales, you were charging 99 cents for the download. That doesn't seem worth it for the effort to be making money especially at you would be losing 30+ cents to PP or GCO as their portion of the fee. So you are doing this for about 60 cents a piece?"
I chose the price of 99 cents as i wasn't getting many sales...i was hoping that someone might do a lowest to highest filter and see my stuff...and it is very cheap
30 cents to Paypal is a lot (I don't use google checkout as I am in Canada)
I was more comfortable charging 1.25....anyone in agreement? |
|
Back to top |
|
|
|