posted on April 28, 2004 08:07:38 AM new
My 30 days are about up and I am trying to decide if this will work for me. Knowing where the lookers come from, does not help me. Fortunately, I am also finding that we've got the keywords covered. I guess having written ads in another life, helps!!!
I have learned that most hits come from searchs of keywords in the title only instead of title and description, from the whole site rather than a catagory and ending today instead of currently running or newly listed.
The time of day and the day of the week is what I found most interesting. We get most hits between 6 & 7 PM PDT. The rest of the daytime is pretty evenly spread out between the hours of 6 AM and 11 PM . Anywhere from 3% to 5% for each hour increment.
The day of the week surprised me. As expected Sunday (19%) is the best followed closely by Monday (18%). Then Sat (14%); Friday (14%); Tues (14%) & Thurs (11%) and Wed (9%) is by far the worst.
I hate that it does not function on real time and there is a several hour lag in their postings. I understand the part about a listing not showing up until it has been hit, but I expect a listing to go away once it closes and not stay as current for hours after.
So I am not sure I want to sign up. I know some of you love it for the keywords but how many are using it and how many have dismissed it as interesting, but not worth the extra fees.
Thanks, Louise
[ edited by HerbsCraftsGifts on Apr 28, 2004 08:08 AM ]
posted on April 28, 2004 08:18:42 AM new
Hi Louise ... thank you for posting all of this to ponder ...
where you say, "The day of the week surprised me. As expected Sunday (19%) is the best followed closely by Monday (18%). Then Sat (14%); Friday (14%); Tues (14%) & Thurs (11%) and Wed (9%) is by far the worst"... do you mean those days and percentages were for hits, or were they for increase in sales you made?
posted on April 28, 2004 09:00:18 AM new
I'm using it and like it a lot. I signed up a few days after I started using it.
The hit pattern pretty well matches what Herbs found. Days of the week, time of day, title only, etc.
The keywords have been very helpful. When I first started, I revised a title or two based on the keywords people were using. The changes increased hits and the auctions ended up with multiple bidders.
posted on April 28, 2004 01:45:10 PM new
I did the 30-day free trial. By the end of the 30 days, I wasn't even checking the results any more. I had learned pretty much everything View Tracker (this was version 1) had to tell me in the first 15 days.
It was useful, yes. But is it useful continuously? I think a case could be made for "No". I sell sterling silver jewelry, with no large variations in the product offerings, so the results I'll get from here on out probably won't be so very different from what I got in the first 15 days.
This is why I haven't signed up.
I did learn two very important things, but I am not going to share them here only to potentially enable the competition.
--
Answers to Questions Nobody Asked, #10:
Joseph Stalin gave up a promising singing career because murdering tens of millions of his fellow Russians sounded like a lot more fun.
posted on April 28, 2004 03:17:52 PM new
I'm still in the trial phase, but I'm going to definitely purchase it. I am trying out a new market and can use all the help I can get. Also, I always come across some things that I'm totally stumped on keywords for and this will help me to polish the title and listing.
posted on April 28, 2004 06:51:00 PM new
I don't think the "day of the week" is an accurate assessment, because I have found that most people check my auctions on the "ending first" day. So as I don't usually list on the weekend, hits on those days are almost nil, but the more auctions I have closing on a particular day, are the ones with most hits. I think the only way to have an accurate reading would be if you listed the same amount of auctions on each day of the week.
posted on April 28, 2004 08:01:33 PM new
Is there something different you need to do if you post through Vendio? How do you get what you have to cut & paste into HTML?
posted on April 28, 2004 08:59:36 PM new
I signed up but then I thought better of it. I find that Sundays and Mondays are the best for me. I think if you are trying to get the stay at home mom days would be better than nights to start auctions. Just speculating.
posted on April 28, 2004 09:28:55 PM new
jake: Thanks for mentioning that. It's the Omniture stuff, right?
I wonder if we're going to be charged for that in the future.
Anyway, the keywords pretty much correspond to what View Tracker was telling me, though I'm surprised I'm getting so many page views when I have so little in my Store. I keep adding stuff but then it sells. Dang it!
--
Answers to Questions Nobody Asked, #50:
It's not true that aspiring pitcher Fidel Castro once tried out with a Major League team.
posted on April 28, 2004 10:17:49 PM new
I have a question. I"d like to try the 30-day free offer but I'd like to start it with my current auctions, which have 4 more days to run. Does anyone know if I can go in and add that html to my current auctions and get some information about the hits that way? Or do I need to start fresh with a new group of auctions?
I looked at their website and it's not clear whether I could do that.
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posted on April 29, 2004 12:27:09 AM new
You should be able to paste the code into your descriptions. I should think it would work right away or within a couple of hours anyway.
posted on April 29, 2004 04:50:48 AM new
Roadsmith -- Yes, you can. I did with mine when I first started. There's a link at the top of the page that says get your code. Just copy it and paste it into your auctions that are currently running.
posted on April 29, 2004 07:21:14 AM new
I don't visit Auction Watch too often, although I try to come over at least once a week, simply for things such as this.
I was not familiar with View Tracker, but have just gone to their site, and will at least try the test.
I find it is always worth the time it takes for me to visit here once in a while - even we eBay "old timers," can learn things.
We have found regarding on line sales, that it is a NEVER ending learning process, if nothing else, keeping up with current technology, adjusting to the ever changing Search Engine formats, etc.
posted on April 29, 2004 07:33:12 AM new
I'm using the 30 day trial currently.
Information is very interesting, though I doubt I'll sign up for pay service.
I sell 98% books & was extremely concerned about eBay's senseless "rolling up" of categories, and implementing their "product finder" alternative..
The View Tracker info I've found most useful is, first, people are still managing to find my books. There are lots of hits, or views, obviously a certain percentage from repeat visitors.
It is also very interesting to see HOW the potential bidders are finding my auctions.
Most are searching All eBay, the next just title keyword, the next title & description keyword, a smaller percentage doing advanced boolean searches, and the bottom or smallest percentage actually using the product finder, only about 2% of people finding my auctions use that -- which confirms what I was thinking, that eBay's support of this was absolutely crap, that their party line "most users find this a better way" is crap, that it doesn/t work, yada yada yada.
My bids are kind of slow this week, but admittedly I did not put my best stuff at all up for auction. I have 79 items running, with 29 being "Watched", though of course in the end, it's only bids that matter, so knowing how many people are peeping through my window doesn't help at all.
One book has taken off, with multiple bids and lots of visits.
So anyway, View Tracker is providing some interesing info. I think obviously the only approach to books on eBay now is concentrating as thoughtfully as possible on KEYWORDS in both title and description. For instance, one of my current books is on old west ghost towns, and I listed all of them from the contents page in my description -- and one potential bidder did a bolean search using about 50 keywords at once, that's how he/she got to my auction!
What eBay has done though with their category roll-up and product finder, is KILL category browsing. I used to do that a lot, even if I wasn't interesting in buying, just pick a category and look at all the listings, and take a look at those that sounded interesting. You can't do that now with books, and I think this will definitely hurt or kill obscure items that do not have obvious keywords.
Product Finder obviously sucks, does not produce accurate results, is anti-intuitive and hard-to-find for new users and probably most long-term users, and at 2% acceptance, it will be a very long time before it grows (if it does) to a higher level of use. In the meantime, booksellers (and sellers in other categories, such as records & movies) are going to see a drop in their sales in certain areas.
As I said, I was pleased with View Finder to see the total hits are very good, unfortunatly I can't track those potential bidders who could not find my books.
posted on April 29, 2004 04:00:52 PM new
Andale counters does something similar for $2.95 a month with a 30 day free trial- I haven't used it yet I want to save the free trial period for a time I have a load of listings- right now I just have few-
posted on April 29, 2004 06:59:44 PM new
The weakness of Wednesday and Thursday is very probably tied to television. For years the networks have worked hard to make those 2 nights their big guns, especially Thursday because of advertising patterns.
Soap flakes, foods and pharmaceuticals can
and do run anytime, but on Thursday and now, Wednesday, a class of advertisers arrive that bring bucks a plenty- movie studios.
The technique used for several years to promote a movie is to blitz the airwaves in the days before the opening so heavily that come Thursday/Friday people are raring to go see the latest extravaganza from Hollywood- without waiting for reviews.
This way a total turkey can take in a surprising amount of money before the word gets out.
The networks accomodate that plan by making Thursday the Powerhouse night - and that popular programming draws people away from their computers and ebay.
posted on April 29, 2004 08:54:25 PM new
Herbs? Lucy? Can one of you who is using View Tracker help me here? I had a really hard time getting onto the 30-day free trial; the people there helped me to the extent that they manually loaded my personal information because my computer wasn't letting me do it.
. So now I am logged on, but I cannot find the logo/button which I can click and copy for the auctions I want to put it into. The html is there, but that seems awfully bulky to use for 36 different auctions.
Where exactly can I get that?
AND, how do we insert it into our auctions? That is, if I pull up a current auction, how do I know where to click it in? (Hope I'm making sense here.)
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posted on April 30, 2004 04:53:06 AM new
You have to revise the auctions that are now running one by one, unfortunately ( I didn't even bother - just did a couple when I first signed up to see what it would look like).
To insert in current auctions: Right click and copy the code from View Tracker and then paste at the end of your item description (make sure you have the description set to the HTML mode).
posted on May 1, 2004 11:04:51 AM new
New question about ViewTracker, for those of you using it now.
I notice that 16% of the hits my auctions are getting are coming from "direct link," which I assume means they're looking at some of the items in my Vendio Gallery. Do you think that could be correct? I have no other direct linking in any of my auctions. Just wondering. I'm trying to decide if the Vendio Gallery is worth it for me. . . . so far I think it is but have no real proof aside from many more bids and hits.
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posted on May 1, 2004 11:13:20 AM new
Could be from your Vendio Gallery. Direct link can also come from an email sent by eBay to alert someone when a particular item is listed.
posted on May 1, 2004 12:07:36 PM new
I have 18% of hits from "direct link", and I don't have Vendio gallery. I also get quite a few "browsing anonymously" I have no idea what that is.
posted on May 1, 2004 04:44:33 PM new
What have I learned from View Tracker?
That not all eBay lookers have any sense.
One of my auctions (doll clothes pattern) is set for snipe by 2 different visitors. It's not a big-deal item. I don't understand why they don't just put in an opening bid. ???
Another auction, the one that has real value (mermaid charm) has one bid and is on watch by just one visitor.
Makes no sense to me... the 14K mermaid charm is a very nice item at a low opening price. She's worth a lot more than $12.50, I'd think. How come more people haven't at least put her on watch?
posted on May 1, 2004 05:34:13 PM new
The only thing I learned from View Tracker is that the people who search using the key words in my title are finding my auctions. I don't need to pay to find that out. I want to know the keywords that are being searched that I'm not using. View Tracker won't tell me that.
I also learned that the days I have the most auctions ending are the days that have the most views. No day is any better than the other six. The best time of day to end an auction is between 10 and 12 PM Central Time.
I don't think it's worth paying for.
Debbie
Be kind. Everyone is fighting their own secret battles.
...Author Unknown
