Do I need to bring traffic from outside of eBay?

[Roscoe]

Yes and No is the correct answer to your statement.

They may be redirecting to Ebay to gain more credibility. People believe in "testimonials otherwise known as social proof."

Testimonials on your own site don't mean squat compared to Ebay where they have more credibility.

The ONLY way to know is to TEST. Without an A/B test, I can not say for sure which produces better sales.

If after testing it was determined that selling via Ebay was costing them a ton of money, then you may want to buy thier website and traffic.

At minimum you could see where they get their traffic from and swipe it.

[stanislav]

Well I did research and surprise surprise apparently these 3 top rated sellers with thousands of feedbacks are all one and the same company (I looked at their source code). They have .com website too. They also sell on Amazon. The amount of products they sell every day is staggering (used TeraPeak to find out). The most aggravating thing is the fact that every single product they sell I am able to import from China. Exactly the same product! And like I said I did try to sell the same product as any of these top rated sellers do but I am only able to sell one a day while they sell 100s everyday. I also noticed that they have myspace website, facebook website. I also found a few random blog articles promoting their products under their company name. Once again it leads me to believe that in fact what really sets these top sellers apart from the rest is SEO. Someone is definitely bringing them traffic from outside of eBay directly to their eBay store.

Originally Posted by accutinting

Stan,

I very slightly agree with you on this but there is some agreement. One of my items is very unique and I have a heavy hitter competitor that blows me away on this item on ebay. They were selling 20-30 a day more then me(this is a large number gap for this item). So when I first discovered this I started looking into every aspect of my competition, as I always do. After quick research I found my competitors real website and immediately noticed "VISIT OUR EBAY STORE" and "CHECKOUT WITH PAYPAL" this quickly answered my question that my competition might be the biggest idiot I know. So he has a website that is receiving good traffic without ebay and paypal but yet they turn around and tell there customers hey go there so I can let them take control of my business.

I doubt it's necessary to go into details on why this is a perfect example of a great product but non-educated ownership, probably inherited the company haha.

So Stan I agree this can happen but the chances are very slim and mainly root to the above stated reasons from other users. One more thing Stan, Do a quick search of this item on ebay/amazon and let me know the numbered results. I think if you give us the number of other people selling your exact product, then we can really count out "other reasons". Let us know

[Roscoe]

Now you're talking my language Stan.

Mirror what they do. If it works for them then swipe what they are doing.

If you know how to market "online" using Press Releases, Blogs, Youtube, SEO, social sites, etc... then driving more traffic to your Ebay products is a piece of cake.

I definitely need to look into this Ebay stuff. I would prefer to do Drop-shipping, high net profits, and not much competition.

As much hands off as possible. My job would be to drive traffic and make my Ebay products look pretty.

Now go after them and hit them with everything you got.

[imjustme]

Originally Posted by stanislav

Yes I understand, they do get extra exposure (traffic) for being top rated power seller with thousands of feedbacks but this can only be accounted for a fraction of their total items sold per day.

You're wrong there. I am selling the same item on different accounts. One is a "Top-Rated" PowerSeller, the other one is an "Above Standard". The Top-Rated sells about 50-60 items per day, while the Above Standard sells about 7-8 items per day. The same products, the same photos, the same prices.

The difference in exposure that Top Rated accounts get is huge.

On my Top Rated accounts, I'm on page 1 in the last 16 hours of the auction, without even receiving a bid, while on the Above Standard account I only make it onto page 1 in the last 10 minutes if there's a bid. If there's no bid, it ends somewhere on page 8 or 9.

[rsot]

@stan, what kind of product or category listing you having this problem with?

[Roscoe]

Originally Posted by imjustme

You're wrong there. I am selling the same item on different accounts. One is a "Top-Rated" PowerSeller, the other one is an "Above Standard". The Top-Rated sells about 50-60 items per day, while the Above Standard sells about 7-8 items per day. The same products, the same photos, the same prices.

The difference in exposure that Top Rated accounts get is huge.

On my Top Rated accounts, I'm on page 1 in the last 16 hours of the auction, without even receiving a bid, while on the Above Standard account I only make it onto page 1 in the last 10 minutes if there's a bid. If there's no bid, it ends somewhere on page 8 or 9.

Ssounds similar to Google rankings. Page one gets all the views, while page two has zero hits.

[AllAboutStealth]

Originally Posted by Roscoe

Ha! I don't Ebay, haven't been to the site in years. But I will bet anything you are 100% incorrect.

I Guarantee there is something about your competitors that makes them Stand out from YOU.

You many not see if but Buyers do.

I doubt Sellers are bring spending money on Paid Traffic.

Maybe they have repeat buyers.

Maybe the seller has an Autoresponder or Newsletter and stays in touch.

I guarantee if I saw their Site vs Yours I'd see a big difference.

Most businesses don't know how to Market, problem #1.

He is 100% right! Marketing is key on ebay, amazon is who ever offers lowest price..... I have a few items that I sell about 20% more expensive then the competition.... Guess who sells more?

[Sandy D]

Originally Posted by rsot

@stan, what kind of product or category listing you having this problem with?

I dont think Stan would want share this info because it would be a dead giveaway of a type of item/product he is asking about and create him possibly even more competition.

[stanislav]

Originally Posted by Sandy D

I dont think Stan would want share this info because it would be a dead giveaway of a type of item/product he is asking about and create him possibly even more competition.

No offense to you RSOT but I have noticed that you repeatedly ask others similar questions. If you are not willing to help please don't pretend like you do. Why would anyone here would want to disclose in which category or what products they sell? That's a dead give away and you know it.

[keithy72]

Type in the product you are selling as if you were looking to buying it, I bet you find that the power seller is on the first page and you wont be, his/her listing will be there permanently and will feature on the first page.

Remember ebays default search criteria is "best match" these are usually put in order depending on seller status, feedback score, traffics, listing end time, amount sold just to mention a few. Most people wont even go past the first page or 2 and most buyers don't even realise how ebays search engine works.

It is hard to get onto that front page, you might need to try reducing your price slightly at first the people who will search past the first page will see you are cheaper, as you get more visits and sell more and get closer to the front of the search screen slowly put your price back up and aim to stay near the front of the search screen for what you are selling.

Of course this is only my opinion, thats what the forum is all about, but I have had similar problems as yours in the past and if you can afford to drop the price at first (presuming it is buy it now) just so you break even then gradually put it up I think it would be worth it in the long run.

Good luck with it.

[stanislav]

Originally Posted by imjustme

You're wrong there. I am selling the same item on different accounts. One is a "Top-Rated" PowerSeller, the other one is an "Above Standard". The Top-Rated sells about 50-60 items per day, while the Above Standard sells about 7-8 items per day. The same products, the same photos, the same prices.

The difference in exposure that Top Rated accounts get is huge.

On my Top Rated accounts, I'm on page 1 in the last 16 hours of the auction, without even receiving a bid, while on the Above Standard account I only make it onto page 1 in the last 10 minutes if there's a bid. If there's no bid, it ends somewhere on page 8 or 9.

No I am not wrong. I wish I was though. In order to sell a lot you cannot rely on TOP SELLER ACCOUNT alone, good graphics, description etc... You need to advertise your store outside of eBay to bring more traffic. This is what sets apart Top Rated Power Sellers who make millions of dollars every year versus another Top Rated seller who makes under 50 grand.

[stanislav]

You have a good point keithy72 and I am not disagreeing with you but once again, being on the first page will not make as big of a difference as advertising your eBay store outside of eBay. 3 Top Rated Power Sellers, each selling only a a few models/varsities of the same product. They sell around 900 items a day while I struggle to sell a few a day. Same product, same quality! You can't tell me that just because their product shows up on the first page it makes such a big difference. I have seen a few other Top Rated sellers and they don't sell anywhere close to what these 3 are, even though their products are on the first page. If you know how to advertise and good with SEO you can literally become a millionaire within 12 month.

[Roscoe]

Originally Posted by stanislav

If you know how to advertise and good with SEO you can literally become a millionaire within 12 month.

Everything comes back to Marketing.

I would not call it Advertising or SEO. Rather a continous Campaign to drive traffic to your Ebay product.

YouTube

Facebook

Twitter

Press Releases

Your own website with SEO

Paid Traffic (PPC, PPV, etc...)

Social Sites

Blogs

Banner Ads

Media Buys

Email marketing

Newsletters

etc...

It appears to me that making money on Ebay is easier than people make it out to be.

You need to put in the WORK to Market YOU.

[stanislav]

I thought about doing Google Shopping and Facebook campaign but it's expensive. You wont get much from inventing 500$ in your campaign .

[Roscoe]

Originally Posted by stanislav

I thought about doing Google Shopping and Facebook campaign but it's expensive. You wont get much from inventing 500$ in your campaign .

I'm not sure what you mean by "expensive."

You can set-up a Facebook page for Free. (you can then start an Ad campaign for a few dollars per day targeting prospects)

Create a Blog for free.

Twitter for free.

Youtube videos free.

Electronic Press Releases are free (you need to write the copy)

Email marketing can get started for free.

Other social sites, free.

Electronic Newsletters, free.

You can be a "Guest Blogger" on a site related to your product, free.

Start small, when you start making more sales which hopefully means more profits, then roll those profits into Paid campaigns that produce a ROI.

[Sandy D]

Originally Posted by Roscoe

I'm not sure what you mean by "expensive."

You can set-up a Facebook page for Free. (you can then start an Ad campaign for a few dollars per day targeting prospects)

Create a Blog for free.

Twitter for free.

Youtube videos free.

Electronic Press Releases are free (you need to write the copy)

Email marketing can get started for free.

Other social sites, free.

Electronic Newsletters, free.

You can be a "Guest Blogger" on a site related to your product, free.

Start small, when you start making more sales which hopefully means more profits, then roll those profits into Paid campaigns that produce a ROI.

I like your style Roscoe

FREE
=
frugal
=
profits

Heck of a combo!

[Roscoe]

Originally Posted by Sandy D

I like your style Roscoe

FREE
=
frugal
=
profits

Heck of a combo!

I thought you might like it Sandy.

It's about leveraging 3rd party sites and driving eyeballs (traffic) to your product or service.

Pinterest is great also.

I'm a Marketing Guru and teach this to my students. I better know what I'm doing.

This company became an overnight sensation by blending crazy objects such as iPads. They've made Milllions and Millons of dollars off FREE YT videos. This video alone has over 15 Million views.

Will It Blend? - iPad - YouTube

Will It Blend? - iPad - YouTube

[stanislav]

I heard Facebook campaigns sometimes are even better than Google. Is it true ?

[Roscoe]

Originally Posted by stanislav

I heard Facebook campaigns sometimes are even better than Google. Is it true ?

FB is a marketers dream. No site on the planet has traffic that is more "targeted" than FB. They collect more data on members than any other site.

That's why I don't FB personally. FB is very dangerous in regards to identity theft.

But for marketers, it's a dream come true. I know several marketers who earn over 1 Million per month from FB.

FB marketing is completely different from Google. Members go there to socialize, not buy stuff. People search Google to buy stuff, not socialize.

If you have the right product FB can be amazing.

[stanislav]

Yes this is correct. I have a friend who does marketing on Facebook for big companies. He bought apartment within 4 month because he made a lot of money. I guess Facebook is good to sell intangible products like ebooks , ringtones etc ...

[GhostWhoWalks]

Hey Stan glad to see you got it worked out.

I was going to ask you for this sellers store link but then again. It's rude to ask on this site what category you sell or what your competition sales so I didn't want to butt in. I was going to write too you that "SEO" is probably the KEY! And I was thinking maybe you are a new seller but then I seen you had over 700 posts and over 80 thanks by other members so I figured you already have a lot of exp and many stealth accounts. So the only thing I could think of is SEO and then you finally found it. Proud of you Stan!

I can look at my competition and see why they are making more sales then me, but I want to take things really slow. I have a lot of competition at least over 125 of them! There are months I sold only 40 and some months 165. TRS gives me more sales. But also what really gave me that TRS was doing some SEO work I found from other sellers and did it with my account and it worked. But really glad you found out the reason. And him doing 100 sales vs your 1 sale per day is really a lot! You might spend 40 items per day just to pay off google for keywords and the 60 other products are profits. Who knows I don't know, up too you to find out. Me personally I seen that ebay offers enough traffic for my category. I did find my competitions website and did a search on them, with SEO skills I learned and those website bring them 0 views! Maybe 1 or 3 per month in sales = nothing to worry about!

So now you know what to do. But who knows if it's worth it or not to do what his doing and so on. No idea, not my product, I don't know the profit margin, that's up too you really good luck on it.

One thing that I read on here that I liked was you saying you can get stuff out of China. I am very worried about getting stuff from China as in who too trust and then I read stories on here about people losing items due to post office and others stealing it and so on. I wanted to ask you a tip on how to find someone TRUST WORTHY out there in China. I plan to go to Hong Kong for any business out of China. I read if you are white like we both are they'll jack up the prices on us! So that's going to suck. But yeah you seem to find it, must take a lot of time and work with resach any tips on how to find good suppliers out of China?

Also there are tips and tricks too use to drop the price for a bit to get more sales for 1 auction, then once you have sold about 100 or 200 of these items move the price up by .20 cents each week it will build you up. That's one SEO trick I seen my competition do! There are tons more SEO tricks that I don't want to share on the open forums really. I got on the front page within 2.5 months wasn't a lot of hard work, but just took time to get pu there. I lost front page when I stopped a SEO trick I learned on my own. And I use to get 5 to 12 sales per day from just 1 auction then I took down the SEO trick and only got about 2 sales per month! I didn't drop the price I just offered 50% more of my product to people for the same price after 3 months. I dropped the amount product and still sold, but when I stopped a SEO trick it all dropped! I didn't care really too me it's just a test to see if it works or not.

Yeah 900 a day is really a lot now. I was thinking 100. But 900 is really a lot! I would say a lot of accounts but then again drop the price, but his way of getting traffic is SEO to his website then traffic to his ebay account! If I had traffic to the site I wouldn't put them on ebay I would keep it to my site with less fees and problems! There are sites stan if you want, I can give you 1 site to show you all the links he has all over the web pointing too his website only. PM me if you wish to have it. I know you will! :P It will even tell you what rank his website is in the world and so on. I use it for everything! If they post it on the forums you'll know what one it's on.

Roscoe is my favorite memeber on this site along with GB! But Roscoe is right, use those free ways of earning extra traffic to extra profits and use the profits to make a good campaign! I only started out with $2500 invested for ebay and got $25k in sales in 12 months and expand my products and items. But I don't pay out of my own pocket. As you said you can get stuff from china! Maybe find another way of making more money with other items until you can build up very well with traffic on ebay from other items to point at 1 auction so you can sell maybe 40 or 60 per day until you can figure out a better way. Or have enough money to do what the other guy selling 900 a day is doing!

That blend video was so funny, it will sell because you see the MAFIA NEEDS IT! lol

I have seen a lot of products on youtube make things sell very well, just depends on what really.

Try paying someone on facebook Stan who has 5+ million fans to post a picture of your product with your website or auction on it and people will click the like button on it! And you'll get tons of views from it. I wouldn't waste my time on fb personally for my stuff I would just rather pay someone who already has the traffic on a fan page! Unless it's a product people can keep coming back too you for more! You can make a fan page Stan for FB! Without personal information being given away! Another reason to love Rocoe he knows people who made a million per month thanks to FB I am still trying to figure this one out lol.
----------------------
And also Stan, maybe try getting 20 sellers to resell for you and you just pay them 10% or 15% profits. And all you do is "package and ship" until you build up your SEO website like they have.

[GhostWhoWalks]

I sent you a PM check it out.