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ecrater long term traffic slide, getting ready to close up
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MoonwishesStore
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Posts: 17389

PostPosted: Fri Apr 19, 2019 5:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Just wanted to be sure you knew. No problem. Now you do. Your post under your own thread was perfectly appropriate.
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pickychicky



Posts: 1552

PostPosted: Sun May 26, 2019 5:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I know I'm seriously late to this party, but I just wanted to share an article I wrote about SEO basics. I know a lot of people find it difficult to grasp what "experts" are talking about, so I wrote an article that would be easier to understand and follow along.

While it is a somewhat lengthy article, it does cover every single one of the basics of SEO. I do not cover any of the more advanced aspects simply because those are the ones that are the most affected by algorithm changes. The basics are the core things Google will always give attention to as they are key factors to producing the best search results and their rules regarding those factors do not change, which is why they aren't affected by algorithm changes.

As a matter of fact, if you're optimizing these core factors properly, you might even find that you've gotten a bit of a boost from algorithm changes while others are demoted due to rules changed for other SEO tactics (the more advanced stuff, as well as all the gaming Google has to fight against).

The article does cover some things that do not apply here, like being able to rename image files, so you can just skip over those unless you have that ability on another site you sell on. The key things you want to focus on for your eCrater shop are the sections that cover what SEO is, the importance of quality, relevant content, and using keywords in titles and descriptions.

I've had many sellers thank me for helping them grasp the concept of SEO so they can finally understand what it is that they need to be doing. I know there are those out there who don't like to read long articles, but this one is crammed with valuable info; all of which was sourced directly from Google:

Key Tips on SEO in 2017 and Beyond: http://esellerscafe.boards.net/thread/1015/key-tips-on-seo-2017


Last edited by pickychicky on Sun May 26, 2019 3:58 pm; edited 2 times in total
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MoonwishesStore
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Posts: 17389

PostPosted: Sun May 26, 2019 6:41 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thank you for the post, I will try to read it soon. Back about the time I started here, I was able to get several new books on SEO to read and review. You are right about them being too, too much for some of us. One was on Keywords and I know I finally gave up at the end of the first or second page. I felt embarrassed until I read that pretty much everyone said the same thing. It was like going into one of those old college amphitheaters with a professor that started lecturing without even saying good morning or what the day's lecture was to be on and no note-taking allowed. It was like that whole book was covered with dust! Rolling Eyes Rolling Eyes

Thankfully not all the books that I got to read and review were like that and I was able to glean some good info. I don't know if this still applies, but about ten years ago a store that had been open for 6 months or more, got more attention after the 6 months had passed. My son who is self-employed started a website for what he did that seemed to lay dead there until the 6-month point had passed and suddenly he was getting the referrals that he needed.

One of the things that I notice on our forum here and others as well, is that some will try out other venues and after 1-2 weeks/months will decide to bail without seeing what the long-term results might have been. Now some venues I can understand that you made a grave error and it pays in time if nothing else to bail on a venue. We have had some posters that hop skip and jump through the entire internet 'selling' online. No sales after the first month or so and they leave and that was the only reason to go. Now if the places charge listing fees that is a reasonable reason to leave if you are losing money every month, but what would have happened if they stayed a longer period of time?

And some who came here to eCRATER with no listing fees, etc. and have nothing sell in a day or two and they can't understand why seems to think after a week or two to either put their store on 'ignore' or they literally forget about it.

Selling involves work and more than just listing items. One is learning the importance of SEO and read about it and put it into practice. So thanks for that link!
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pickychicky



Posts: 1552

PostPosted: Sun May 26, 2019 4:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

MoonwishesStore wrote:
Thank you for the post, I will try to read it soon... Selling involves work and more than just listing items. One is learning the importance of SEO and read about it and put it into practice. So thanks for that link!

Anytime! Do be sure to read it when you have time to take your time. It's laid out in a manner where each section ties into the next one. So reading it all at once is best so you are more likely to see how it all ties together. It's all really very simple, as I'm sure you'll agree once you've read it. Wink

You should also see how it really doesn't require much extra effort as you have to write titles and descriptions anyway. Once you get how Google wants you to lay out your titles, it will eventually become natural to you. It's the descriptions where it will require more effort, though, because you should have 2-3 brief paragraphs of quality, relevant content (keywords and their synonyms). However, if done properly, the work will certainly pay off in the long run.

Okay, enough yammering for me. LOL I just feel it's important to share and help others understand how it basically works because there is so much misinformation out there. You'll see just how wrong those self-proclaimed experts are -- and, no, I don't consider myself an expert. I just know how to do my research -- get it from the horse's mouth. Wink
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MoonwishesStore
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Posts: 17389

PostPosted: Sun May 26, 2019 5:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
Okay, enough yammering for me. LOL I just feel it's important to share and help others understand how it basically works because there is so much misinformation out there. You'll see just how wrong those self-proclaimed experts are -- and, no, I don't consider myself an expert. I just know how to do my research -- get it from the horse's mouth. Wink


Actually, a lot of it is just common sense which surprisingly seems to be missing in a lot of folks any more. Too many have also swallowed the misconception that selling online is EASY! Well, it is I guess if you don't actually want to sell anything. Over the years, I don't know how many people I have told that they need to beef up their titles and their descriptions. The worst was I saw one 'seller' that each 'title' was the same single word followed by a number and the 'description' was the same. Forty identical words with a different number! No clue exactly what they were selling. But you tell them they need more and they literally can't figure out what they need to write. But for sure a 6 character title and a 6 character description and a photo aren't going to get you anywhere. Even with a post such as yours, they are still lost. It is sad because unless they want to hire someone to hold their hand, they aren't going to make much progress.

Of course there is the other side of the coin, that they believe what they have done is perfect and they know what they are doing so don't bother giving them advice thank you very much. I have been selling online for over 17 years at this point. I am still learning, still tweaking and changing. Just because I have been doing this now for so long doesn't mean I have perfected what all I have to do. Especially since, things change, especially SEO! When I was still selling internationally, I made an effort to learn what the UK and AUS called certain items of clothing so i could put those words in the attributes if I didn't get them inserted elsewhere in the description. They also spell words differently than we do, so if you want to sell some pajamas you might want to write pyjamas as well. Smile My son once was telling me about a true story he had read, but I could tell at one point he was confused. It took place in the UK and apparently the girls were wearing jeans and pink jumpers. He couldn't get past our definition of a jumper here which is like a dress worn with the blue jeans until I told him in the UK a jumper is a type of sweater and then it all came together for him. Those are simple things, but some that can take some time to figure out.

SEO is important and unless we want to stick our head in the sand and ignore it, we aren't going to get too far without it. At least here we don't have to combine our listing with someone else's work and they may not have done a good jb of making up a page and who wants to spend all kinds of time trying to fix everything? Here we have the opportunity to sink or swim on our own with our own descriptions and titles and photos as well as promotions. For those that really can't figure out how to write out what they need to, they may do better on places like Amazon, assuming they have for sell what you are selling.
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Nagrasanti



Posts: 5

PostPosted: Sun Jul 28, 2019 3:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I would consider the slowdown of the overall national economy is to blame for slower sales. Nothing that anyone can do about it. Since the trade wars with China and other countries "we" don't like are responsible for higher costs of selling, I've seen major retailers go out of business for lack of enough sales to keep them solvent. In my case I am starting over with a new business model to make up for the lack of street sales in the last 5 years. I have working on pricing, more inventory, and more unique inventory. I have tried Etsy and eBay, and only recently started accepting direct credit charges after years of looking for a decent payment processor to do it. PayPal is not enough, since there are shoppers who hate it for some reason or another. Whatever the reason, I have not seen any sales anywhere in the last year. People are becoming stingy with their pocketbooks and adopting a conservative world view. I am also in a nuche market which is oversaturated by now. I don't see any reason to see the light at the end of the tunnel until the political situation evens out.
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MoonwishesStore
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 28, 2019 4:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I don't see that as anything to do with the political situation and as the threads aren't the place to discuss politics, that is all I will say on that.

The ONLY thing that I have consistently seen during 17+ years of selling that majorly effects online selling is when Google changes something big time. Even their last little 'change' of taking away G+ I have seen my sales go down. I have to figure something else out to help with that loss.

I know some love to have their ideas of all sorts of reasons for why sales are up or down:
1. It is raining
2. The sun is shining so everyone is outside
3. Springbreak - which I only thought affected college kids during a week or two each year - they aren't who I market to.
4. Tax time- and they had to pay
5. Tax time and they didn't get enough back to have a slush fund
6. Tax time and they got so much they bought a new car.
7. There is a blizzard outside
8. It is a long weekend and no one is home.
9. People are on vacation - some of us haven't had one vacation in 17 years unless you can count going to my son's wedding for a weekend.
and on and on and on. Everyone has theories and none of them have any statistics to back them up. It is all theories.

The Amazon forum has plenty of threads about slow and non-existant sales. One even started a 'survey' of who had sales that were down, who had sales that were steady and they completely left out who has sales that are UP! It is like some can't conceive of someone having good sales. With I don't know how many third-party sellers on Amazon, the vast majority never show up at the forum, but that doesn't mean their dales are dead.

People have a hard time seeing things from any perspective but their own. Currently, our sales are better than last year at this time. We are almost $1K ahead of last year at this point in time. We have hit our monthly sales goal 5 of the months this year and the two we didn't, we missed by $20 total for the two combined of hitting the goal. 2017 was even worse than in 2018. So I am happy about 2019. I may be sad if the last few months don't perform the same way, but we are going into a couple of our best sales months.
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MrsDsHandKnits



Posts: 334

PostPosted: Sun Jul 28, 2019 4:39 pm    Post subject: low sales Reply with quote

In all my years of online selling, I have seen sellers blame anything and everything they can think of for poor/lack of sales.
The fact is, successful selling is all about the product, the uniqueness of the product, price point of the product, supply and demand, target market,etc...
In 18 years of selling on eBay, 2018 was my worst year for sales(&/or the lack of sales). Have no idea why and found nothing that I could blame it on other than perhaps the products that I had been so successfully selling there for so many years simply weren't what buyers were interested in purchasing.
Sales for 2019 have seen some improvement, although sales on eBay are still low compared to sales prior to 2018.
Having to re-think what categories of products are best suited for any given selling venue, I am now putting my efforts on the categories I list on the different selling venues. For the time being, I'll still alternate a mix of categories on eBay, at least for the next 6 months and then will re-assess, but I will maintain just one category here on eCrater, and a couple of categories on another venue. Hoping that by dividing up the categories between selling venues will work better than having all the categories on all venues.
Now that I have started getting a few sales from eCrater, I am hoping my plan of action will be more fruitful and bring about better all-around sales that results in higher total sales volume.
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pickychicky



Posts: 1552

PostPosted: Sun Jul 28, 2019 8:29 pm    Post subject: Re: low sales Reply with quote

MrsDsHandKnits wrote:
The fact is, successful selling is all about the product, the uniqueness of the product, price point of the product, supply and demand, target market,etc...

This is so true and is why I'm moving in a completely different direction with my business. I quit selling third-party products years ago when I was forced to demote my business to a hobby, so I've just been selling the family's stuff, which seriously limits me to what I have to offer. So I'm going back to selling third-party products, but am not sure if I will get back to dropshipping (on my own site, that is).

This will allow me the flexibility to offer a wider variety of products that people are actually looking for.
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MoonwishesStore
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 22, 2019 4:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I realize that this is a pretty dead thread now, but the original poster was planning on closing up shop. I just checked his store that was connected to his screen name and saw that on his store in the home text he says the store is closed and has a link to eBay to find him. Now I have never seen a truly closed store that allows the store owner to use it for a way to push potential buyers off-site to go elsewhere. He cleared out his listing but his terms, about and contact page are still there. So the store isn't officially closed, just kind of pretend closed.
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