Selling Collectibles and Other Stuff Profitably In An Economic Depression

storm888

It's not easy and it's labor intensive. But, it can be done.

A few years ago, I mentioned the use of "portals and landing pages" to
drive shoppers to your EBAY stores and other selling venues. The basics
of the scheme are simple: Use an online page with logo-links to send
shoppers to your listings or stores. Broadcast your page to ALL search
engines - with appropriate keywords/tags - and wait for the traffic.

It worked then and it works now.

Today, there is another scheme that has merit.

Using free classifieds to drive shoppers directly to your online listings.

The Basics: Run free ads in sundry online-classifieds that direct to
your sales venues. List items - not stores - and link directly to those
listed items. If you have multiple stores, you can link to your portal/blog/
landing page, but I am finding ITEMS are much better at creating sales.

There are TONS of "free classifieds directories" online.

sample free classifieds directory

CL works great, but it is restrictive and your ads have to be monitored
closely to prevent "flag attacks" by competitors. Also, don't list duplicate
items in different markets, or you will be bammed quickly. Using several
"disposable" phones is also recommended, if you have more than one
venue.

The smaller classified sites work well, but you must be in LOTS of them
to duplicate the kind of traffic a CL listing will generate. There are paid
and free submission services that can reduce the workload a little, but
mostly you will have to stay on top of your ads YOURSELF; labor, yuk.

You can start small, but the more ambitious your efforts, the more
traffic you will generate. (Some links to some listing venues, like
EBAY, may get flagged at some classified sites. The use of a portal or
landing page - it can even be a blog - will avoid that problem.)

EDIT ADD: When using the BIG classifieds, be mindful that credit-card
thieves patrol them. Be careful of chargebacks. Using google-checkout
or PayPal or AMZN-payments you should be fairly safe. Also, don't
list electronics, cell phones, or computers; guaranteed scam magnets.

YIKES! All that sounds like a Don Lapre infomercial! It's not.

........................................................


I am still trying to crack the code on "social media."

Doing it right is VERY labor intensive. It does NOT work if your output
is not creating INTERESTING/ORIGINAL content. Trying to crank out
such content is tuff; saint's forbid you should get "writer's block."

BUT, I have NEVER seen such traffic at listings and venues as that
created by posting to social media. As I have previously noted,
turning that traffic into SALES is a mystery. I have gotten some
sales, but not a TON. (Maybe if I was not doing it, my sales would
be even worse. I dunno.)

In this economy, you gotta try everything.

Big80s

Great info, Storm! Thank you for sharing.

handyman

Do you have an example of a splash page storm?

EAsports

Sheetz Coffee has a splash page

storm888

<< <i>Sheetz Coffee has a splash page >>




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That's pretty, but for our purposes it is too complex.

An ultra-simple page is easiest for most of us to build
and operate; AND, it is less aggravating to the folks we
have brought there. REMEMBER: We only want them
to click a box-link and move to either the item or the
store that we are advertising.

Any page more complex than this, is prolly too complicated
for our purposes.

sample



I like at least four different store/item links on a page. The links
should be logos that match the name of the store/item that you
are using in your ads.

More than six links on a page looks like a department store. Not
good for what we are doing.

If you have only one store, the page should have ONE link to that
store AND a link to the item that you are advertising. (Your item
links can be relabeled in a minute, when you advertise a different
item.)

An item box-link can simply say, "Here is the item you want,"
or "Here is the item you saw on Craig's List, " or "Here is the
item you are looking for." etc.

NOTE: For most non-EBAY venues, you can send the shopper
directly to the item you are advertising in the classifieds. Some
of the classifieds "prefer" that you don't link to EBAY, some
don't care, and some care sometimes. If your ad gets poofed
quickly, you will know they care and you will need to use a splash/
landing/portal; all the same concept, for our purposes.

IF the page is properly optimized, you can submit it to the search
engines and folks may find it when they look for whatever it is that
you are peddling. (iselltradingcards.com - as an example - could
be your portal with links to several of your selling sites.) I would
NOT use the same page for my classified customers, but you could
have a link to isellcards.com on the page you are using to direct
classified shoppers to individual items.

Recap: I like a SIMPLE static page with big box buttons that are
CLEARLY marked for the shopper to click and get to her item fast.

.....................

A blog page could be just as good, tho it can distract the shopper
from her goal: Find the item she just saw in the classifieds.

If you use a blog, it should be focussed on the kind of stuff that
you are advertising. But, if it has complex articles, it may defeat
the shopper's journey by holding her captive to reading.

The faster the shopper wants to get away from your landing page,
the better for the seller.

handyman

Great, its nice to hear what worked for you so far and thanks for being so specific. Its all great advice! Good luck on getting those conversions through social media. It's a long going debate if it's worth the effort, but it seems to be the next big internet marketing band wagon. Maybe because it's free?

storm888

<< <i>...... Maybe because it's free?.... >>



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I think folks who think it's "free," prolly aren't doing it right.

I have been using the social sites for a pretty long time to
do stuff that is "fun." That kind of effort is "free," but
having to churn out stuff that you may not be interested
in - just to attract folks that might buy something from you -
bears its own cost in time and mental energy.

Your content has to be geared to the interests of the folks
you think are your customers. I seldom sell stuff that I am
particularly crazy-fond of; that means I have to write about
stuff that does not always ring my chimes. Sometimes, I
even have to read stuff that is not interesting to me; in order
to write stuff that MIGHT be interesting to my targets.

I don't really think of anything that violates the commandment,
"Don't do anything you don't wanna do," as being "free."
BUT, if SM is not the "future" of ecom, it is at least the next
phase of it; AND, folks who aren't doing it are prolly leaving
money on the table.

......................................

Like amyjademermaid said, "Isn't this just another way of stalking people?"

The twitter traffic effect is pretty easy to test. After you get a few hundred
followers - takes about a month if you are glib and know how to pretend
to be "sincerely" interested in other folks doings - simply tweet an existing
listing, along with a comment that is appropriate.

"I saw the swellest (whatever) after lunch. I'm tempted. Hate temptation.
LINK TO THE ITEM."

Wait an hour and look at the EBAY counter. It is sometimes SHOCKING.

Pumping on twitter is a math thing. If ten of your followers retweet your
comment and ten of their followers retweet the first retweet......... etc............................
you are going to get traffic.

I speculate - but can't prove it - that if folks had the kind of cash they
had in 2003 - 2005, there would already be a TON of twitter millionaires.

MANY folks never tweet their own merch. They have tweet-buddies that
they tweet for; in exchange, their tweet-buddies tweet for them.

Many folks "Have Twitter, Will Tweet" for a fee.

tweets for sale

TIP: Don't mix biznez with fun on twitter. If you have thousands of followers
devoted to subjects that you find "fun," start a new account and build a new
set of followers. (The exception to that rule, obviously, is if you are a rock
star/movie star, it is OK to try to sell your cds/movies to your existing gang.
Otherwise, build a new gang. Even some of the stars don't pump their own
stuff; they have tweet-buddies, too.)


.......


In the first post of this thread, I failed to explain to newbies why
the "portal page" was first used for EBAY sales.

We used to get 75% off of FVFs, if the buyer came from another
one of our "sites." The portals became our "sites" and we saved
HUGE money with the 75% discount.

How times have changed.

Now, sellers must put up with horrendous abuse and hope against
hope that they might qualify for a 20% FVF discount.

And, we are having to contemplate the use of portals EVEN to get
enough traffic on EBAY.

It ain't the old days no more.

handyman

Thanks again for your detailed responses. I didn't realize that there were twitter streams for sale on ebay.

stevek

Very interesting thread. One thing for sure about internet marketing is that it is dynamic...ever changing...and does take a lot of work and experimentation to succeed.