eBay killed me - What's next?

[ebay4death]

Need some help here. I have sold only on eBay for the past 12 years. I am sick of making an account... making real good money for 3-4 months... then getting kicked and being poor for a month or two.

Here are the numbers... I have 100,000 unique products in my inventory. On eBay, my fees were around $4-6k per month while bringing in 15k-25k in sales. At one time, I was giving eBay 20k a month and making 60-80k per month (back in 2000-2003). We all know eBay is a different place these days.

My question is this.... if I post all of my items to my own website and use google, should I expect the same sort of return? Better than eBay? If I spend that much on adwords, what kind of return can I expect? Can I expect a good amount of sales with a google data feed and no adwords? I'm not in a position to throw money at this and fail.

What I am looking for is a life after eBay. I see discussions about Amazon, iOffer, and others. I need something consistent. I have a good product that sells. Nothing illegal... just can't stay on eBay because I have accounts that I owe a lot of money on. My performance and product has always been very good.

I never set up a website because I always made sales on eBay. Of course, with pleasing customers and paying eBay fees... I never had time to set up my website and give it a try.

So, if eBay was no longer an option for you... what would you do? Amazon seems to be just as bad as eBay. I know it depends on your product, but I just want to end the hassle and just sell. I also don't want to juggle multiple stealth accounts and tired of asking friends if I can use their eBay account. I'm done with it. But, I'm not ready to get a job. I need to figure a way to pull in 20k in sales a month. I have the product.. just not the place to sell.

I can't wait to hear suggestions and ideas. If you have a website, what is your breakdown of sales on your site vs. eBay. Thank you for your help. Please, share as much info as you can. Thanks.

If you were making that much money I don't understand how you could be broke, and not be able pay your ebay fees. I know how you feel, what we all want is freedom, and the only way to do this is by creating your own website. You should purchase aspkins book Webmaster Blueprint – Learn How to Build & Market Your Own Business Step By Step! and go from there.

[ebay4death]

Thanks for the reply. The problems started back in 2007 when eBay was going through its own changes. I had a solid account for 7+ years. The fees just got away from me and I owed a lot.

I got into a cycle where I was listing more and more items to pay for the previous months invoice. At the same time, eBay was losing buyers. So, my sell through rate was dropping. That was not a good formula.... more listings and less sales. Hence.. the ever growing eBay bill. Rather than working out a payment plan... they just shut me down.

Then, I had to run one stealth account after another. During those seven years, I calculated that I paid eBay more than half a million in fees. You would think they would want to work with someone like myself. I was in the top one percent and being invited to eBay dinners and events in San Jose. eBay can be cut-throat and not care about the sellers that help pay their salary. So, I'm done... I have to move on.

I will check out that book. In your opinion... can a smaller operation with a website pull in the same numbers as an eBay account? I know all products are different... but what has your experience been?

Thanks

[pod]

Originally Posted by ebay4death

If I spend that much on adwords, what kind of return can I expect?

Getting eBay traffic is not easy. However you say the products are unique. You throw 5-10K a month at adwords you will get a ton of traffic. You could try put eBay behind you completely. But some tests would be prudent. If you can budget 5-10k in adwords and not have it kill you if you don't make it back in a month, I would say go for it. Thats a very nice adwords budget for sure. And if the products have an audience you will do well

Not everyone shops on eBay. No matter how big their traffic is, they are still small percentage of the consumers out there. There are billions of them running around out there...

[lostsub]

You have a huge inventory of unique items that's for sure. Have you considered looking for a partner? Someone who is really savvy on setting up a complete ecommerce website would probably be worth their weight in gold. It may take a while to find the right one because a lot of people exaggerate their abilities. Maybe you can find someone who would do it on a percentage basis for the first year at least? Then go from there.
It seems a shame you're not online right now marketing and selling your products.

[jeffweico]

Google Adwords can work wonders, but you MUST have a well-designed website that is easy to use and looks professional. If it looks shabby, people will not trust you.

Then, be careful when deciding what keywords to buy. Newbies tend to buy into very broad phrases to get more impressions and - they think - more traffic. But that is not the goal. The goal is to attract visitors who actually want to purchase your product. Targeting is the KEY to success.

For example, if you sell Donald Duck comic books, you would not really benefit from buying the phrases "comic books" or "Donald Duck" - you would be much better off with buying something like "Donald Duck Comics". Even "Walt Disney Comics" might be too broad a term. You have to experiment a little to see what works for you.

Also, with eBay, you can make an account today and have sales almost immediately. It takes longer with a website. But the results are worth it.

[MadSam]

Very true Jeff. The other side is, if you do use AdWords you have to be smart with the advertising words you use or you'll be bleeding your budget on wasted less targeted traffic. In my opinion aspkin and pod are very good at their AdWords descriptions so feel free to drop in on that.

[jerry]

Yes, adwords does bring in customer put you have to work on it daily to keep everything up to date.

You have to choose phrase keywords to get specific traffic as Jeff suggested.

Also new competitors come in and drive the prices up for popular keywords then you have to find new keywords to suffice for the keywords you lost because the prices went to high for you to make profit on.

It takes about 3-4 weeks for you to start several adwords campaigns ranging form 2k-3k well performing keywords and it takes time to think up enticing text for your listing so people will buy your item.

Here is a good article on getting started with adwords:

Top 11 Money-Wasting AdWords Mistakes - Entrepreneur.com

[pod]

Originally Posted by jeffweico

The goal is to attract visitors who actually want to purchase your product. Targeting is the KEY to success.

Like Jeff, Jerry and Mad point out, the campaign itself needs to focus on the right traffic, not just heavy traffic. I was once paying too much for a general term and 70% of the clicks were not my market. They keyword itself fit my product 100%. But it also fit many other products too. So that was a wasteful learning experience.

Originally Posted by jerry

It takes about 3-4 weeks for you to start several adwords campaigns ranging form 2k-3k well performing keywords[/url]

I disagree with that to some degree. Obviously you don't want to throw buckets of money at google blindly and you want a smart campaign. And that takes a little time to hammer out. But with adwords your visits, clicks and sales will spike in just a few days. Heavily. I have ran some tests this summer with turning ads on and off and the results were extreme and loud and clear. And I have seen spikes of 500% within 48 hours of a new campaign being active

A - Adwords works. Very well
B - Adwords can be painfully expensive.

Just need to find that sweet spot where the ad and the costs/profit balance out

[jerry]

It took me about 3-4 weeks to fine tune my adwords campaign and choose all the keywords.

I played around and tested my campaigns with the $100 voucher I received from adwords.

Yes, I do agree for some it'll take more time, but it also depends on what your selling.

Also I would like to point out that higher priced items in the $300-500 range do not sell as quickly on your website than ebay.

[pod]

The fine tuning is the biggest job for sure. And I suspect it never really ends. I have racked my brain into a headache more then once

But traffic, good or bad are pretty instant.

[jerry]

The longest I've spent fine tuning all my campaigns was 11 hours and believe did I have a headache!

Traffic is okay but right now there are to many competitors in my niche and profit isn't as good as it was four months ago.

[dburnside]

you got shut down of ebay for not paying fees? why dont u just pay them and get back on?

[mochacolaclassic]

If you're selling on eBay, you're selling to an already established customer base. It's much like owning a franchise. You must play by their rules to a T and they reserve the right to pull you from representing their brand. For this, you are never truly secure..

You should have put some money aside and outsourced a complete eCommerce site to a developers group over in India or something (great work from my experiences) Then, you can use eBay, iOffer, Amazon, whoever and whatever.. to market your website! Always make sure their is a message attached to all of your packages in some way, that suggests visiting your website. Perhaps you offer discount incentives to repeat customers, freebies,... either way.. if you're not paying the additional fees that you would be otherwise to these selling venues, you'll have extra cash to put into your marketing strategies.

If you can truly make yourself standout.. promote yourself on a professional level.. and affiliate yourself with other eCommerce sites, blogs, organizations that may be involved with your niche..

Then a website is far more profitable for you. You can grow.. and grow your business.. without having to conduct business in the rear-view mirror.

For me.. eBay is always there... it's consistent and it connects me to prospective customers regularly. However, if my eBay account were pulled today at this very moment.. my revenue would not completely vanish.

This is what not keeping all of your eggs in one basket really means.. in my opinion.

[imthatguy]

ebay4death

If you want a e commerce website set up I can do that . I also work for a SEO firm so I can get you ranked on first page of google for multiple keywords.

We also handle PPC campaigns as well. We handle clients who spend upwards of 5k a week.

With these combination's you should have no problem getting your website off to a great start and getting rid of your inventory

[ebay4death]

Thank you for all of your posts. I have spent the past few weeks building a website and a new plan of attack. My google launch is set for this week. If I need any help... I will be back.

[dragon girl]

Hello

I am from India and i sell on ebay.I purchase my most of the item from USA.I would like to know what you have in you inventory and what are the prices?