posted on August 14, 2004 10:26:23 AM new
I'm at a turning point in my life and need to decide if I can make enough money in online sales to keep doing it exclusively. To make a long story short my regular day job is no longer (company dissolved our program) and I'm going through orientation right now for another job that I know I'm going to hate. I also applied with the State (of Wisconsin) to do my old job as an independent contractor which I would love (and the money is better), but I would have no health insurance and you can only bill the State once a month so I would have to re-do my budget. I will find out if I'm "accepted" in a couple of weeks.
Meanwhile, I started selling on Amazon Marketplace which is going well depending on the item (some of the items I have are selling for less than what they cost me, so I don't list those there). I also started doing Z-shops at Amazon, but I have had no sales there, and I have my website which I can't get to place anywhere in a search engine even after tweaking it for close to a year, so I have minimum sales through that (and I put a 10% off coupon in everyones ebay package for the website).
Where else am I missing? I deal mostly in exercise videos, dvds, golf equipment, wholesale/liquidation items in bulk. I tried yahoo a few years ago and did nothing there.
[ edited by ihula on Aug 14, 2004 10:27 AM ]
posted on August 14, 2004 10:43:41 AM new
I actually have some good sells through ioffer. The price is right and you are found in Google and Froogle pretty quickly. Some don't like it but I have never had any problems.
Beth
www.vintageads4u.com
posted on August 14, 2004 01:09:26 PM new
On amzn marketplace,you have to remember that 15% commision,else you could be losing money fast.
amzn zshop is a waste of time,may be during xmas you could have a few sales.
It sounds like you need to find something else to sell.
-sig file -------we eat to live,not live to eat.
Benjamin Franklin
posted on August 14, 2004 01:20:11 PM new
I took into account the 15% commission and don't sell the items there that I can't make at least $5.00-$10.00 on after the commission. We ship about 100-150 items a day, so I think the items we sell are good, but we don't make a lot of money on each item. I'm trying ioffer for the bigger lots and we'll see how it goes. I just bought 1000 DVDs, so that is taking up a lot of room and is tying up cash - so I want to move items faster. I figure the best way to do that is by more internet exposure.
posted on August 14, 2004 01:37:23 PM new
try craiglist or whatever like jack suggested.
other places to look into would be rubylane and yahoo shopping.but dont hold your breath.
another venue would be to appeal to ebay wannabee who think one can still make a fortune selling on ebay-have you tried local ads??
-sig file -------we eat to live,not live to eat.
Benjamin Franklin
posted on August 14, 2004 01:48:52 PM new
I tried a lot of search engine submit places and never got in any searches.
I finally found out that if you get links to your website on someone elses, they show up pretty quick. The more you get, the better you position in the results. I just searched for link exchange and found several places. You just have to put a page on your site with links back to them.
posted on August 14, 2004 07:29:19 PM new
Thanks - I'm going to try Link-exchange and see if that helps my site ranking.
I haven't tried local ads, but maybe I'll try craiglist. It's more profitable for me to sell them piece by piece rather than the large lots, I was just hoping to find other venues to sell items on consistently.
posted on August 15, 2004 05:28:13 AM new
at one time cross linking was the thing to do,now they said it really makes no difference,what makes a big difference is PAY PER CLICK or like Yahoo/overture calls it-COST PER CLICK.
-sig file -------we eat to live,not live to eat.
Benjamin Franklin
posted on August 15, 2004 06:18:53 AM new
Hi..re: Craiglist...up front we've never tried it - but, I've ready many posts about email harvesting and it being such an open site, that it is a spam and heckler's dream.
Has anyone else read about that?
thanks
posted on August 16, 2004 01:28:25 PM new
ihula: You're shipping 100-150 items a day and not making enough? Wow, you should either find more profitable items or raise your prices. Back in the good ole days of ebay when I was shipping 100+ orders per day, I felt like I was rich! Had more money than I knew what to do with. Now I don't even ship 100 orders per week, but still am getting by. I won't sell anything for much less than $10, it just isn't worth the time and effort for doing pictures and descriptions. I figure its better to sell less at higher prices than more at lower prices. Less work involved for same profit.
posted on August 16, 2004 02:03:18 PM new
She sells exercise videos -- hopefully, she is getting them for $0.5 or less, as I can't see selling them for more than $5 each.
When you subtract feeBay & PayMal fees, what's left over??
I used to get decent bucks for videos (hence my name) -- back in 1999!!
Ralphie won't let me sell ANYTHING I donna make at least $10 total net profit, and aim for $25 to $50...
“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we! They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.” ~ GWBush White House 8/5/4
posted on August 16, 2004 02:28:24 PM new
Craigslist has been good for me locally for large items that I wouldn't want to ship. We've actually bought appliances at estates and sold them on craigslist for good money.
Craigslist also offers an anonomys feature so you don't have to give out your email address to the general public. Craigslist forwards the email to your address. I've never had one spam after listing on craigslist.
As for ebay buying a part of craigslist... That would be a major bummer, but at the same time, I think that would help people like me whether ebay closed it down to stop competition or if they started to charge people. I've used their site for years, and it has grown tremendously. I sell vintage furniture, and find it discouraging the amount of people who call me up to make an offer on a piece of furniture and all they really want is an appraisal so they can list it on craigslist and make more money on it. I don't have a problem with them wanting to make more money, or list it on craigslist, but I do have a problem with people who don't have any desire to really sell it to us in the first place. Classic scenario... Guy comes in and says, "I have a 60's Leather Sofa", he shows me some pics. I tell him I think it looks like vinyl, but he insists it is really good leather. So I ask, "how much?" He says, "well I think you could probably get $500 for it here." So I go over to see it, and sure enough, it is 100% naugahide (aka vinyl). I offer him $250 cash or $350 trade, which really is alot for us to pay for a vinyl sofa, but I wanted it for myself instead of reselling it anyways, and I figured I'd cough up a little more than normal. The guy says, "well I think I'll sell it on Craigslist." First, he thought it was real leather and we could sell it for $500, we find the tag that tells us it is 100% vinyl, and he turns down our offer to tell us he'll sell it on craigslist. This was two weeks ago. Fast-forward to this weekend, and I have someone who wants to sell us a dining room set. We waste 2 hours to drive 45 miles to see their stuff, we make a very nice offer, and guess what pops up in the conversation... yep, craigslist, and the worst part is that you can tell their scheme, "so what would you sell it for in your shop?" or my every so favorite, "if you were me, what I get for it if I sold it on my own."
These people simply want a free appraisal, and I'm not going to do it any more. The other classic on craigslist is the make an offer without ever seeing it type. I list a sofa for $300, then get barraged with emails, "will you take $150? or another classic, "i'm a poor college student, can you donate it to me and deliver it to?"
posted on August 16, 2004 03:51:58 PM new
Ugh, home from another boring day of orientation.....
I think I overestimated what my hubby ships. I just was emailed my sellers report and it said I only sold 1526 items last month, and I sell about 50 a month through Amazon, so that only comes out to about 50 a day. It sure seems like more
I would love to find something different to sell. We were going to rent a warehouse and start buying truckloads of items before I was "redeployed", so that idea was put on hold until I can figure out our monthly expenses. Hubby loves doing the videos and DVDs because they're easy to ship and it gives him more free time. We actually buy them from the distributer, so we buy them from between $5.00 and $8.00 each and resell them for $10.00-$15.00. Not a huge margin, but I love doing the same thing over and over again - makes listing them a piece of cake. I can't do unique items, work full time and raise 3 boys (2 are in soccer)- I don't have enough time to breath now as it is.
I used to sell videos that I bought from a liquidator, but they only had a few dollar profit margin and took up too much time, so we aren't ordering from him anymore.
posted on August 17, 2004 08:19:09 AM new
I just started listing on Amazon yesterday as I am overrun with inventory. I didn't realize some of the stuff I have is selling that high, I figured it was going for peanuts. If I shipped 100-150 a day I'd be rich.
posted on August 17, 2004 09:53:10 AM newI have my website which I can't get to place anywhere in a search engine even after tweaking it for close to a year, so I have minimum sales through that (and I put a 10% off coupon in everyones ebay package for the website).
With all the work you've put in on your website, you must make it pay off.
If you want search engine views you'll have to pay for them. Try Google Adwords. You may not be able to buy words that would make it worthwhile; I can't, because Google is already overrun with sellers of similar goods. But take a look anyway.
Run a contest. That's a tried and true technique for getting eyeballs.
posted on August 17, 2004 10:06:41 AM newThese people simply want a free appraisal
All:
And yet every day in this forum and elsewhere, I see people given this advice:
"Take it to a jeweler. He can tell you if it's real gold."
"Take it to an antique dealer, she'll tell you how much it's worth."
If you follow through and get the free inspection or appraisal you seek, consider the possibility that the person on the other end is (like Rusty) too polite to tell you to your face that you're a bloodsucking timewaster. But he or she is likely thinking it.
posted on August 17, 2004 10:34:10 AM new
Google Adwords are expensive. Be prepared to pay big time if you use them. You would be better off using eBay adwords.
It's not going to do any good to give anything away, if no one sees it.
When you sell on eBay, be sure to put your website address on every e-mail you send out. Right under your name. Also, have some business cards made up. Put one in every package you send out.
If a customer ask you about another color or size that you have. Tell them they can buy it direct from your website and give the address.
On your listings put your website NAME in the location. Don't put www or .com, just the name. Instead of www.amazon.com, just put Amazon. Mention the name somewhere in the description...like we carry such and such at YOUR BUSINESS NAME. Just be sure to leave off the www and the .com.
Be sure to use your e-mail address from your website. [email protected]. eBay folks will figure it out. If they get interested they will start looking for you. Put a coupon in your packages for free shipping or a discount on purchases from your website.
Customize your auctions, so that when a buyer clicks on one of your auctions, they will know it is yours. You want your business to stick in their brains. If they start searching for something you sell, you want them to think of you first. If you don't have it on an auction, "Oh, maybe you have it on your website." What is the name of your website? It is right there on the auction in the location, in your e-mail address and it is mentioned somewhere in your auction description.
Join some web rings. And join some discussion groups. Yahoo Groups has hundreds of them. Find the ones related to what you sell. Most have a links page where you can post an ad.
This last one will take a little work, but it works. Every time you get the chance go into Google and do a search on your website and your items. Find yours even if it's on page 5002 and click on it. Get your friends to do this also. Once you find it on page 5002, you will know to go straight to that page. You move up by number of clicks, so start clicking.
It may take a while for your site to move up on the search engines, but it will. You will have to be patient.
Debbie
I haven't forgotten the banner thing either. Just been busy. Will get with you on it later today.
Be kind. Everyone is fighting their own secret battles.
...Author Unknown
posted on August 17, 2004 10:53:30 AM newIt's not going to do any good to give anything away, if no one sees it
Don't quit your day job.
Do you have any idea how many sites are devoted to links to FREE STUFF? Me neither, but there are easily dozens of them. I've visited many over the last couple of months.
Your site gets listed for free.
Try a Google search for FREE STUFF. Write down some URLs.
You want eyeballs? Give something away. They'll come. The web world is full of people who'll click to your page to check out the FREE offer.
posted on August 17, 2004 10:59:20 AM newPut a coupon in your packages for free shipping or a discount on purchases from your website.
You weren't paying attention: ihula already does this and it hasn't proven effective.
Unfortunately, it's only a 10% discount.
ihula, check out _Marketing for Dummies_. Small discounts or low-value coupons really aren't any better than no discount at all because they fail in their goal: getting the buyer's attention.
Co-op marketing (web rings, banner exchanges, getting your buds to click on your Google result) doesn't work, either.
posted on August 17, 2004 11:49:23 AM new
Teacher...get off your high horse.
For one thing YOU DON'T MAKE ANY MONEY giving things away. Did it ever occur to you that if she gives more than 10% she many not make anything? And so what if I forgot about one line in 10 or 20 post. At least I'm trying to help. And I'm not criticizing every one else who's doing the same thing. I was and for the most part still am at the same place ihula is right now. I KNOW how she feels. I know how important it is to get other people's thoughts.
And by the way, my website was in the #1 spot on Google for about 6 months this past winter and hasn't been off the first page in the last year so don't be telling me "Don't quit your day job." I'm doing just fine. And I did it without any help or advice for the likes of you. YOU are NOT the know all, end all of every tread.
If you know so freaking much about everything there is to know, then let's see some auctions or a website. Not just your high a** attitude. PUT UP OR SHUT UP.
Be kind. Everyone is fighting their own secret battles.
...Author Unknown
posted on August 17, 2004 12:43:13 PM new
Actually the free idea may work for me. I have tried the 10% off with 2 sales, then I tried $10.00 off a purchase of $50.00 or more with no takers. I was going to offer free standard shipping next (which would really cut into any profits), but I have some Exercise Walking CDs that are coming out of my ears (I get them for next to nothing and I regularly sell them on ebay for $6.99-$9.99) that may be good incentive for the people that buy exercise equipment, and some little Hawaiian figurines for the people that buy that catagory. I think I'll try that for the next batch of coupons that I print out.
Thanks for all the help everyone....I'm off to the employment classifieds again.
posted on August 18, 2004 06:13:40 AM new
Been doing great on AMZ. I sell books, CDs, DVDs, software, small electronic items.
Doing "ok" on Half.com considering Ebay is not supporting it.
Nothing hardly on Bidville, sold 5 items the whole year.
One book sold this year at halfvalue.com
Occasionally I sell on Ebay, but for every 4 items I list, only 1 sells, so I pretty much stay away from Ebay unless I know I have something really hot.
Doing fairly well on Craiglist.com. But that's mainly local, however, I do (buy/sell) outside the local market.
For me, it's AMZ, Craigs, and half.com.
http://lwright.biz/index.html
