Selling Tips

Whether you have a store or auctions, getting traffic to your items is one of the keys to success of your sales.

Traffic = Sales = Money

Lets say you just opened an offline store (brick and morter). You fill it with incredible merchandise, hang your sign outside and wait for the customers to come and buy. If you wait for someone to stumble by the store you are only going to make a few sales here and there.

What do offline store owners do?

They advertise in the newspaper, get a website, put there number in the yellow pages, hand out business cards, tell all their friends, perhaps do TV commercials or radio.

The same applies to online stores and auctions in that you get your sign (logo/banner) out there on the Internet. Get people used to seeing your banner and want to come into your store/auctions add you to their favorites and sign up for your newsletters.

Whats your Sign look like?

I came across a flyer the other day in a parking lot that was advertising a concert in our town. The flyer was in black and white and a bit blurry. I immeditely thought, small time band, just getting started or they were teens. Had I picked up a flyer that was in color, showed off the band in a great light, and inspired me to attend, I would have been more intriqued.

Very Important - When you put out a banner for your store or website be sure it represents you in the best manner.. This is the first thing people will see and that will reflect if they want to visit your store or website.. A blurry or badly designed banner can make all the difference in your traffic and sales.. There are some free banners makers on the internet - go to goole.com and put in free banner makers. If you do not have a banner maker or do not know how to do your own banners, do take out the time and money to have somone do it for you.. In the long run it will be worth every penny!

Bring Them Back To Your Store!

When you ship your items include a business card about your Ebay Store! A thank you card with your store card stapled to it. You do not have to spend a lot of money on them either.

I use Vista Print. They offer 250 cards you design right on their site and all you pay is the shipping. They also have postcards that you can design for your store that you can include.

Check them out for other great deals.

Do you have a MySpace page? (Highly Reccommend)

MySpace is one of the largest marketing places out there! It does take a bit of work to get your page together, but not with out great sites that offer free backgrounds and graphics. I use Pyzam.com and Photobucket.com for both! Make a page just for your store and show off what you are selling. MySpace is a great marketing tool in that you make friends.. lets say you sell beauty supplies, than find the people on myspace who would be interested in beauty supplies and ask them to be your friend! You are targeting an audience that has an interest in your product and again you could be gaining repeat customers.

Click Banner below to see my MySpace page and ask to be my friend!

What can you do within your ebay store to advertise?

When I am running auctions I include a link on that auction to my store for a simular item or just for them to visit my store! You can make these links up within your store editing. Click the link Manage My Store ( Look along the left side of your My Ebay page) and click on the HTML builder. Follow the instructions and see how easy Ebay makes this!

I put advertising and a few banners for friends on my About Me page.

For the custom pages in my Store and you will see a link called Top Sites for Traffic. Yes, the top sites offer a lot of places for you to add your store as well as my top site just for Ebay stores:} I have found that putting my ebay store into google and coming up with it at some of these top sites!!

Join Top Sites that allow your content to be on theirs! See my Top Sites Page for more info.

The key to sales that has worked for me is Traffic :}

What are you selling?

I visited my local dollar store last spring and found some adorable Knomes. They were a dollar each and there were 4 different ones that I could make into a batch of 4. I put a set up on auction for 7 days and started it out at $4.99. They sold for $14.99! I ran back to the store and grabed 3 more sets ( they were going fast). I put two in my store for $14.99 and they sold. I ran the last one in auction and got $25.00! I think what worked here was I had a product in season for spring and they were not available at every dollar store.

I had purchased other items from my local dollar store and have had them sit in my store for a year with hardly a look.. Are you selling items that will sell? It is a trial and error thing, but once you start really focusing on your products and what you will invest your money in, you will find the incredible items and make money.. Just because something is cheap for you to buy, does not mean that it will sell for a large profit all the time. I can't say that the Knomes will sell again, but if I could find them again I would give it a try..

Are you Blogging? Blogs are generally for information. I have come across a few that only have what a person is selling.. I go to blogs to get information that is helpful.. Talk about your products in a blog.. Do you crochet? Give tips about your craft and yes, advertise your products with a link back to your store or a special sale you have going on. Your readers will appreciate it and may turn into repeat customers... Click here and check out this great blog by Dawn Dell of Dell Realty at BlogSpot.com

Do you Squidoo?

When I first heard this question I was puzzled.. what is a squidoo? It is a great place to blog and make money! They do not call it blogging though they call it making a lens.. Again this is a great way to show off your knowledge and what you sell.. You can write an article on anything you like and add affiliate items to you lens, they even have an ebay item box that you can add your items too.. Click on the banner below to get started today and be sure to visit my Help for Marketing your Ebay Items group for the free ebook on how to do Squidoo!

I had a very dear friend call me the other day, who I helped set up a store for over a year ago.. Her store took off well and she offered antiques she had around the house for sale. She called me over the summer to say she was closing her store that she would re-open for the Holidays.. By the beginning of December she called to say the store was not working. She was not making sales and concerned about her Ebay fees.. She had an antique item that she started for $4.99 on auction, forgot to put a reserve and it had one day to go. The item now had a bid of $4.99.. I told her to go on over to my MagiesPlace.info site and advertise it there and than go on over to my Free Ad page on the site and advertise the item on all the places there. She called the next day very happy that her item sold for $75.00 :}