 Website Sales
You can certainly generate sales from your own website, but the challenges are different than selling on eBay.
eBay has built-in traffic. That is why they are valuable. With your own website, you will have to promote it to get visitors and sales.
Unless you have a very good understanding of HTML and META TAGS, you might want to go with a company that sells online store software, or pay monthly for it. I like Volusion ($100 per month) as it has many built-in features and some great videos that show you exactly how to use them to your advantage. I have also used Miva in the past, and they are very good also. There are several others, but I do not have experience with them.
This will take some time to set up properly. You have to input each item (or mass upload) and that is time consuming in the beginning.
Once set up, the most important thing is promotion. Nobody will visit your website just because you built it.
There are endless menhods to promote a website, but I would stay away from the shady stuff. You might get a quick traffic boost, but you could eventually be blacklisted by the search engines.
I would also stick to spending money for advertising that has MEASURABLE results. Whenever talking to a saleman trying to sell you web advertising, I would run like hell if they use the term "branding". They use this as an excuse for poor results. If you ask why you spent $1,000 with them for no hits and no visitors, they will tell you that you need to spend even more, that each ad impression is actually "branding" your website in the consumers mind. Maybe that works if you have a spare $20 million to spend, but not for the average small website.
Some of the things that have worked for me are Pay-Per-Click, an affiliate program, coupons, etc. Give the customer a REASON to buy from you - NOW. Everyone likes to think they are getting a great deal!
It also does not hurt to optimize your site for the search engines. There are several companies who do this, just check the BBB and the web to see if they have any complaints first.
Banner ads are a waste of money, at least in my experience. So are the "traffic brokers" who promise you a millions hits to your website for cheap. Yes, you will get the number of promised hits, but are unlikely to make any sales.
Social network marketing seems to be all the rage these days, but I do not have any experience with it. Blogging works for some people.
Write your own content for sale items rather than just using the manufacturer's description. Search engines like original content, and they see the manufacturer's description on thousands, or even tens of thousands, of websites.
My suggestion would be to continue to sell on eBay and build your website over time. I have several sites, and I can tell you that it can take up to a year before you start seeing any meaningful results. Many people will promise you "quick riches" if you buy their marketing services or information products, but most of these do not work.
Making you own website is a very smart thing to do, but it is not quick and easy. There are many things to learn, and true results take either time or money. If you are successful, it will be because you put a lot of time into it and/or a lot of money.
I would also suggest not waiting until you have a problem with eBay to do this. Start now, and also sell on as many other venues as possible. That way you are not at the mercy of any one website for your business.
Lastly, I would recommend selling QUALITY products. I don't care if they are ⊗⊗⊗⊗, but they better be GOOD QUALITY ⊗⊗⊗⊗! Repeat business and word of mouth can mean the difference between profit and loss. These are no cost sales, and they DO add up over time. Acquiring new customers through advertising is expensive (although it CAN still be profitable).
I hope this helps!
Last edited by jeffweico; 05-08-2010 at 08:55 PM.
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