life after ebay :)

[Mrjibbles]

Hi All

Ebay has been quite successful, fees went up as most of you know so looking to go website way. Dont alot of thinking on different areas but obviously, there is only so much research you can do until you bite the bullet and go online outside of ebay to find out what sales are like, even if it means waiting a few months to pick up

My question really is then, how many of you have come from ebay , gone website way and found sales low, same as ebay or better....

Cheers

Rob

[.Spiralling.]

I'm still making the transition from ebay over to my own site. It's been running since August, but I hard a hard time convincing regulars to make the switch. I was still selling more CDs on Ebay than from my shop, but I decided that this was OK.

Every listing has a link to my website, explaining that I don't stock my full range on Ebay. Every feedback comment I leave has my url. Every buyer gets added to my mailing list (which they can of course opt out of). I've found that my mailing list is delivering the goods now. When I send a mail to all my previous Ebay customers telling them about new stock, they flock to my website and buy from there.

I'm gaining better visibility on Google now too, so am getting more traffic that way.

I don't think the transition from Ebay can be a quick one, but I hope eventually to be able to leave it altogether.

[Mrjibbles]

Hi There

good to hear its working for you even if slowly.

Ebay is my sideline so maybe not as stressful as you but its exciting nether the less to go the website way.

My fee's are £400+ a month , so i see that as quite a bit of PPC

good luck for the rest of this year and cheers for your reply

Rob

[Comspec]

I am not up and running yet, but i have been researching for some time.
The feeling I get is that you cannot move away from ebay immediately, because you need it to drive traffic to your site (as per spiralling's post above).
It will probably be more of a gradual reduction on ebay until your site is getting the hits you need.
Good luck
Mark

(btw, There are numerous excellent web designers on here who will happily quote you for a site if you need it - leave a post in the Tenders section).

[weddingcrafter]

Every listing has a link to my website, explaining that I don't stock my full range on Ebay. Every feedback comment I leave has my url. Every buyer gets added to my mailing list.

You are asking to get banned from ebay - all these activities break ebay rules and your competitors will report you.

[Mrjibbles]

Thats a over the top comment

Ebay have no hold over anyone, they are not god.

Even if I was moving away from ebay which Im not (I just badly explained my post to read that way). I have no intention of leaving ebay, just combining and spending less on ebay fees. My website will be having a link back to my ebay shop, so both sides win.

If you read the business forums , many powersellers talk in there about their activities in and outside of ebay. They are all trading happily without any trouble

Rob

[Mrjibbles]

whoops! I thought you were having a go at me

Just realised it was the poster with the url's on his listings

Ebay have been known to knock out every listing someone has with a url on, so if you are a powerseller with hundrededs of listings, thats alot of money to loose...

Aplogises again, i will put my size 13 feet back where they came from

Rob

[awebapart.com]

One of my clients we set up a post-ebay website for is embarking on the same route as you (www.iwantanewpairofshoes.com (http://www.iwantanewpairofshoes.com)).

I would advise that you run both activities in parallel for quite some time.

You could get banned from ebay doing the obvious things that ebay can easily find out about, so I don't recommend these, but more subtle things like including a business card with the products you send out is better practice.

Although ebay dont like you linking out from ebay to your site, there isn't a problem with linking from your site to ebay, to do things like state on your website what your ebay history was and what your feedback was, then link to your ebay profile. This will give new visitors to your new website better confidence in you.

[Malcolm Cooper]

eBay fees are forcing many to think this way. My wife is very successful with Doll's House stuff but her fees are running at over £120 per month and really eBay are just creaming off the best of any profit. Now she's investing £50 per month advertising in doll's house magazines web listings and she's been invited to write an illustrated article in one of them about making miniature flowers.

The first ad in one magazine generated as much business as eBay and her site http://www.lorraineminiatures.com/dollshouse-store/ is doing very nicely. She now plans to remove all but a couple of items from eBay.

This is a niche market though. It may not work the same way for everyone.

Malcolm

[Mathew]

I like ebay and doing what I do it still give me a good return. My issue is paypal there fees just upset me. Are there other option out there that offer quick payment like paypal but without the fees

[Miranda]

Several people have suggested I ought to try eBay - but as my site was around before ebay was in the Uk, I've never got around to it, and the website seems to do OK without. I think it's perfectly possible to build up a good trade without ebay, but like the dollshouse miniatures, I'm in a niche market. I think it could be a lot more difficult in a more general product marketplace.

[zibulsky]

i did the same thing, moved from ebay to own site, sales dropped dramaticaly so i went back on to ebay with some suttle hints to my web site, sales have picked up and i have found that i can command higher margins on the web site.
ebay in my view has become the place to buy and not sell, due to the competition
i was once stpped from ebaying due to shrill bidding
at thet time i was selling 50 items per day then went to work one day to find shop shut so to speak!
i had a hell of a job proving this was not to do with me, eventually i won
but what a lesson i decided then i could not have this happen again and moved full web site
it is easy to fall back to ebay but to think they could close you down made me stick at it
now i am 99% web site sales i only use ebay to test the market for certain products
good luck i hope this helps

[Mrjibbles]

Thats a very interesting reply because i had the same thing late last year

girlfriend bought something using her id for her friend , but because it was the same address they cut me off. I was lost, and panicked. Got it back in the end but they werent easy to convince and had to wait 7 days

Good to hear you are doign well

Sales have slumped on ebay, even for competitors. Maybe that time of year so money going out of pockets like wildfire. At least with ppc , people are clicking so at least they are coming in the idea to buy..

All the best

Rob

[ActivateInvestigations]

I left ebay (and a fairly profitable shop) when they hiked the fees up, after I kicked up a stink (and did my fair share in the petition group)! What annoyed me was that ebay had said they were down on profits, down to something like a quarterly profit of $250mil.

Like anyone would be unhappy with that?! Damn, I know I wouldn't!

I had a niche, as the one and only qualified crystal therapist selling crystals. I know its not everyones taste, but my arguement was that if Nasa send astronauts into space with quartz crystal (incidently, the same quartz in your watch and computer chip), there must be something in it. Plus I thought they were pretty!! But hey, thats just me, it was only a hobby anyway!

Anyway, I know that some ebayers were talking about going to ebid. I thought it looked messy and confusing so didn't bother Other sellers I know have turned to their own websites but since they are not great at knowing internet marketing, their business has either ground to a halt or slowed right down.

I'm glad I banjanxed feebay, they obviously didn't give a rats what the sellers were saying!!

Ria

[Mrjibbles]

Thanks for your reply, interesting that you were selling something totally different to every other tom dick and harry but a shame to they pulled the carpet out under peoples feet

Website started this end and first sale today. Is a second income so not living off it but still a thrill to get

Good luck to everyone this year as everything in this day and age seems to be getting so competitve .. rat race is a bit of a understatement eh

All the best

Rob

[Mark-UK]

if u wanna go it alone my sites for sale www.houseandleisure.co.uk