THE avertising tips and hints thread.

in response Adrumi's post #154 on this thread http://www.ebid.net/forums/showthrea...=1#post1604521
How do you market your store/s??, social media?? if so which ones, other methods??, what are they and how well does it work for you where eBid is concerned??, Got any other tips, let us know what they are.


I have launched my self on twitter, facebook is ok but sites are local and there is sooo much compotition on these FB sites thats sales are hard to come by, either that or you get silly offers for things.

You can create up to 50 free pages on Google+

I use a few of the social networks, but trying to get comfortable with them one at a time. Currently working on Pinterest. It is easy to use; when I start a group of new listings, I post a few to Pinterest. I also try to plug my new listings here. Pinterest seems to be great in increasing views, attracting pins and likes, but not generating sales that I am aware of at this time. The increased visibility can only help, so time will have to be given to it to measure its effectiveness in generating sales.

Also using Twitter; same results as Pinterest.

Would like to use Google + more and work on developing the available pages. Along with this Google Analytics would be helpful. I'm willing to give social networkng a try and some time to prove itself.

You only need one profile page to start promoting your items on Google +.

I have a twitter account for Rokin's Toys but it seemed to be delivering nothing. Posting listings in tweets, then when those listings finally end having to re-tweet with the new links. Bit of a hassle to be honest. I was tweeting listings a lot to begin with but it was just not generating sales. Then just gave up lol. It is hard for me to target, especially collectors of action figures on twitter when I have no real way of promoting listings on Twitter itself. I have no idea how Twitter works when it comes to something you post and the availability for those posts for people whom are browsing through new posts.

I did start a Rokin's Toys page on Facebook as well. Same story as above, not generating sales. At least on Facebook there is a clearly laid out way for me to promote the page as long as I'm willing to pay the fees but when I break down the fees for their equivalent of what would be impressions/clicks it seems expensive for very little when having banners linked to my store on action figure collector sites would be far more beneficial to me. If I do not pay to promote the page then I have to rely on potential buyers stumbling by the page.

My pinterest has been the same experience as others, getting re-pins of stuff I have posted there by other people stumbling across my posts and it is generating views but not translating into sales.

I recently started on google+ but I have been too busy to sit down and have a good look around and get used to its functions etc. Is there a way to promote things I post on there is the one main thing I would like to know though. If I cannot promote my posts and have to rely on people stumbling by the posts then it will be the same story as other social media methods and not generating anything of any value for me.

I have to be honest, social media seems to be a lot of work for zero results or miniscule results for a lot of sellers. An increase in views means nothing if those views are not translating into reasonable sustainable sales growth. Some sellers may have time to sit there doing loads of stuff with social media which does bring a handful of extra sales here and there, but other sellers, especially proper business sellers, myself included, have business affairs outside of the net in the real world to deal with that takes up a lot of time so we do not have the time to spend on social media.

Up until now I have not been in the position to really start rebuilding the online side of my business and to be honest, it will be a struggle to do it now, the economy may be showing signs of improvement but the improvement is slow and small. That said, it has been over these past few weeks that I have been able to start thinking about targeting collectors of action figures via collector sites which can either be free to link my eBid store to or cost a very small fee for x amount of time, both through banners. But it is slow to get things moving there because I require information from these sites and they are very slow to respond, for example, one site in particular, I have emailed them twice now over the past two weeks for the information I require to get to work on banners and they have still not sent me the information I require. I have sent three emails in total and they have only ever responded to the first one letting me know they'll get me the information I require for banners sizes and potential prices. Still waiting. I will fire off another email to them again this coming Monday. This site in particular will be crucial for me because it is a British based collector site and it helps me target British based collectors of Star Wars action figures whom do not even know we exist on eBid and they head straight to eBay/Amazon to buy their figures often paying above retail prices per figure for the majority of figures and if I can get banners linking my store on this site I can drag those collectors away from the high prices from sellers on eBay/amazon.

Some sellers might want to think about targeting websites associated with what they sell, especially if they are selling collectibles of whatever nature or selling items relating to things like craft/knitting/sewing. And there's probably other sites for other items sellers are listing they should attempt to link up their store with even if it costs a small fee every month or a small fee for a fixed amount of clicks/impressions. There's no harm in giving these things a trial run for a good 6 or so months to give things a real chance of working for you. Not everything works miracles overnight, it takes time to build things up so sellers do need to be patient.

(QUOTE)Some sellers might want to think about targeting websites associated with what they sell, especially if they are selling collectibles of whatever nature or selling items relating to things like craft/knitting/sewing. And there's probably other sites for other items sellers are listing they should attempt to link up their store with even if it costs a small fee every month or a small fee for a fixed amount of clicks/impressions. There's no harm in giving these things a trial run for a good 6 or so months to give things a real chance of working for you. Not everything works miracles overnight, it takes time to build things up so sellers do need to be patient.[/QUOTE]

already tried this didnt work out - i was thrown off one site promoting vintage buttons (had quite a few sales) for advertising too much !!

pinterest, blogs, flyers to buyers, discount weeks, and listing on several different sites is all i have time to do over the next few months.

I used to use Twitter regularly, but haven't been able to access the page lately due to their new layout, (more pix than my old puter can handle - if anyone knows how to reset one's home Twitter page to 'classic' Twitter, minus the abundance of pix, please send me a PM). I've also pinned a bit on Pinterest and will probably continue to do so. Not sure many sales come from either of these, but it can't hurt to keep trying. :)

Best wishes for many sales to all,

[QUOTE=purplestevie;1609955]

pinterest, blogs, flyers to buyers, discount weeks, and listing on several different sites is all i have time to do over the next few months.[/QUOTE

Pinterest is SO easy to use, but whether it really works I have no idea. Looked at Google+ and still can't get my head around it. Twitter I use every day, but not just for plugging eBid :)

Occasionally use the eBid groups on Facebook, but as they're groups and not pages it's mainly only other eBid sellers that see your posts !

With special interest groups you have to be careful, as purplestevie says :) But have just started using the V & M blog again thanks to purplestevie - will see how that goes.

Sometimes feel I'm banging my head against a brickwall plugging eBid, but that happens all the time with my Family History research !

I recently left the Guests' computer in a hotel foyer with the ebid homepage filling the screen. Two moments effort and totally free (there was no sign in required!). If only the one person who closes it has now heard of ebid, it is progress.

I managed to drop into a conversation today with three people that I did a bit of selling on eBid,
"What's eBid?" they said.
So I put them straight. They all said they would give eBid a look. They also all had their own reasons for feeling a bit disgruntled with Feebay:
"It's not what it used to be"; "I've heard the (eBay) fees are sky high" were some of the reactions.
I do sense a bit of a mood in the public at large that is seeking an alternative to the omnipresent Feebay. Sometimes dropping eBid into a conversation is all you need to do!