I was e-chatting with an old Evil Empire buddy who had just made her first sale on Bonanzle and barely finished announcing it when she had another sale.
I quoted a favorite fiction character, Sophie Dempsey Tucker "nothing but good times ahead" and my friend immediately responded:
"Happy days are here again,
The skies are turning clear again,
Let us sing a song of cheer again,
Happy days are here again!"
This might seem a pretty goofy way for two middle aged women to be behaving but you have to realize where we are coming from.
For years my day started with checking my email, corresponding with buyers and potential buyers, packing and shipping orders and relisting on eBay. Seven days a week, eleven months of the year.
In the evenings, for a change, I was a volunteer on the eBay Answer Center, mainly on the Stores board. Almost all my online friends were eBay, we swapped pictures of babies and grandbabies, my sheep Larry had a fan club for gosh sakes, we sent Christmas cards, it was a community. All gone. Vanished in a swirl of bitterness and dust.
Randy Smythe wrote on his My Blog Utopia!
Soon after going public, eBay began to change and if you look at the site now you might say they've lost their soul.
It is an excellent and thoughtful post, go read it and leave him a comment.
If you are a small seller who was insulted by being told you had no track record because you were not a PowerSeller, driven out by Best Match and unfinding. Getting to a point where the ceaseless fee increases and micro-management of your business by a bunch of Ivory Tower dwelling MBA's with zero hands on retail experience are driving you into a depression? Sick to death of conflicting messages, bots and Live Helpless? I have a message for you! What once was lost has now been found brothers and sisters!
Come on over to Bonanzle.com I really like it. I have had sales, more sales than any place other than my website since May.
Bill, the CEO says
"We have at least tripled in traffic volume the last two months, and are well on our way to doing it for a third month. At the end of this month, our fourth month since launch, our daily unique visitors are projected to be in the neighborhood of the fifth most visited eBay alternative on the Internet. Except that every one of the other alternatives has been around at least two years longer than us. And our growth is almost entirely grassroots (not to mention our 50k items added in the last 30 days)."
Come on over, check us out it is free to list and FVF are extremely low and guaranteed to remain the same through 2010.
Nothing but Good Times Ahead!
Y'all come back
4 comments:
Hi, Henrietta, I was pleasantly surprised when you relayed our conversation--"Nothing but Good Times Ahead," and "Happy Days ARE HERE AGAIN!" (Just wanted you to know that I'm still reading your blog daily.)
I love the way you write.
And, Bonanzle has so many pleasant surprises, I keep getting happier as I find them!
Cheers!
Henrietta,
Great news about Bonanzle! The potential for that site to ... what am I saying? That site has quickly become THE up and coming venue to give the old guard a run for their money. It may be small now, but it's growing by leaps and bounds daily... and the creators of Bonanzle are just wonderfully likeable folks.
Would like to get the message out that an alternative like Bonanzle does require self-promotion... that's something I've been very slow to embrace myself, having gotten used to the "built-in" promotion that a site with (still) lots of eyes on it, like eBay, provides. I think that is going to be key to the success of sites like Bonanzle... we have to take active part in our own, and its, success.
And you, lady, do a great job in the promotion department. I'd like to "take a page" from your book. Keep up the good work!
Kathleen I agree and disagree with you in this post. Obviously all organic growth is good and talking about it to your friends and co-workers helps.
A vital difference between OLA & Bonanzle is that Bonanzle provides product feed to both Oodle and Google.
If a seller prices competitively and uses intelligent keyword containing descriptions, product WILL appear in Google Shopping search.
An example, go to google shopping and type in 'bookmark fiddle'
Henrietta,
Yes, I can see the difference. The buzz is pretty hot for Bonanzle via word of mouth right now, so there is a lot of visibility that may fade as the new wears off. And promotion of a venue by that venue is one of the things that is most encouraging about Bonanzle.
(And one of the most discouraging things about OLA.)
All that said, "even" on eBay I get more traffic when I promote (via blogs, etcetera). More sales? Maybe.
And I am in total agreement that the pricing/keyword combo has to be done correctly. That is one area I (and others using the alternative sites) really need to understand and put into action. I am inconsistent myself in those particular departments, and need to set up a methodical procedure to get consistent. Treat it like a business, etcetera.
(for the record I know better, but do I do better? Sometimes.)
I believe that unless a person is just lucky and selling items that are in great demand, getting the marketing down right is hard work... but hard work that can really pay off.
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