posted on January 13, 2005 12:38:05 PM new
I was wondering what is allowed with regards to promoting a Vendio store. I understand there is a small link in the auction ad, but what I was wondering if we are allowed to have wording in the ad to promote the store and if we are allowed to have an additional link from my About Me page to the store? eBay sellers and Vendio folks can respond.
posted on January 13, 2005 05:30:33 PM new
Hi Toyspast,
eBay is pretty strict when it comes to third party sites. You might want to review their terms of service. The banner link inserted by us is allowed by eBay but I'm not sure that you can have wording that points to the store without them seeing it as a breach of their TOS.
posted on January 14, 2005 07:55:41 AM new
Here is what I do and it is 100% OK with ebay.
I use the "See my Gallery" for more auctions and link to my ebay items in my vendio store. I saw someone else do this and just copied their html, but made changes to color and font size. This allows people to see the other 8000 items I have.
Second, I have a link in my about me page to my vendio store. I also have a store on ioffer and link it to both ebay and vendio.
I am trying to get the refer html code in both vendio and ioffer listings but find that I am having problems. Will figure that out later.
Good luck.
Beth
www.vintageads4u.com
posted on January 14, 2005 08:09:34 AM new
Vintageads4u, may I have your eBay user ID so I can see what you've done? Have you had contact with eBay regarding how you've done things? I say that just because you've been doing it, doesn't mean it's okay - it might mean you haven't gotten caught yet. 8-) I would like to steer users into a Vendio store, because 1% is a lot better than 8%!!!
posted on January 14, 2005 08:55:16 AM new
Straight from ebay:
Links from your About Me Page
You may link to your own Web store or Web site. However, you may not directly offer any non-eBay merchandise on the About Me page itself.
eBay does not permit its users to place the following types of links on your About Me pages:
Links that directly offer any non-eBay listing or merchandise on the About Me page itself.
Links to other online trading sites or pages, including auctions and fixed-price formats. Learn more
Links to sites offering the same merchandise for the same or lower price (including the Buy It Now price).
Links to sites offering merchandise or information not permitted on eBay
On your About Me page, you may link to your own Web site or individual Internet store where you are offering to trade, sell or purchase your goods or services. However, you may not link to any page within online trading sites that offer goods from multiple sellers either in a fixed price or auction format.
And:
You may include links to your About Me page in your listings. These links are in addition to the About Me icon provided in your eBay listing by eBay. However, you may not include language within those links that promotes items or other Web sites.
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In other words, the 2 click rule. One click to a generic web page (I just set up a geocities free page) then one click from that page to your store.
posted on January 14, 2005 09:28:18 AM new
I read all that stuff on the eBay site, but it does not fully explain what you are allowed to do. So can you say something like this on your About Me page: "Please visit my Vendio Store for more outrageous deals" and then provide a link.? Or what is allowed? And what am I allowed to say on my auction page to move people to my About Me page? I might want to offer discounted or free shipping in my Vendio store. Am I allowed to say anything like that on the About Me page?
posted on January 14, 2005 11:20:00 AM new
Anything saying even remotely close to being "you will get a better deal at my ABC Store" is in violation of ebays rules. They want you to link to a page that says nothing about better pricing than on ebay.
What I have seen done in the past is a write up on the ME page that tells a little about them selves and then a link to an outside web page for more history or shipping or their store mascot or what ever. Then when you go to that page a lot of them are just "Click here to enter my web site and then when you do you are in their web store.
Ebay does not want to make it easy for you to advertise selling anywhere but ebay.
Another thing that I have been doing is enclosing a business card size piece of paper with my Vendio Stores address on it in each package that I ship out. At least that way even if they do use Vendio as a portal back to ebay I get a credit for them having come through Vendio. (I can't remember how much but it does show as a credit on your ebay bill.)
Hope that this helps a little. I know how frustrating this is.
Kevin
[ edited by Kevinatgrannys on Jan 14, 2005 11:21 AM ]
posted on January 14, 2005 11:47:09 AM new
Thanks for your input, Kevin. It is okay to direct people to your Vendio store in email correspondence after a sale? Like in the post-sale winner notifification or when they click on the check-out for Vendio?
posted on January 15, 2005 08:51:14 AM new
Beth, Thanks for your information. You sure have a lot for sale!! Good job! I have a couple of questions. Do you have it set up differently than if you had the Vendio Gallery link supplied by Vendio? In that link, you would just go into the Vendio store, correct? The way you have it set up, you're kind of going into your eBay store (or a facasmille) but have on the left a bar that shows you have over 8000 items instead of the 500+ you have on eBay. The buyer has to click on "view all items" or other link you have at the top to go into your Vendio Store. I'm guessing maybe that's why they approved the bigger link, but not sure how you set it up that way. If you can tell me in simplified language, that would be great. So has the Vendio store been good for you. Do you sell a lot out of it? Back a few years ago, I tried one for a bit, but never sold anything out of it, but since then, I've gotten a bit more savvy and learned a few more tricks, so I'm hoping I can figure a way to make it work for me. This raise in the eBay fees is forcing me to figure out alternatives. Thanks for your help.
