posted on May 7, 2001 05:39:34 AM new
I'm thinking about giving it a shot. I've been working on inventory and have thousands of pieces of inventory that are worth maybe $3.00 to $15.00 per item, plus I'll be adding more merchandise periodically.
There is a market for this type of junque, or I wouldn't be messing with it. But some of it will take time to sell, i.e., finding the person that needs it (vintage electronic parts). I don't necessarily want to link the website to my auctions.
Some of this inventory wouldn't do too well on ebay; some of it I already sell on ebay.
What about search engines? You pay them to have your listing show up? Or?
Is it effective?
I appreciate your input. Thanks in advance!
[ edited by loosecannon on May 7, 2001 05:44 AM ]
posted on May 7, 2001 06:02:45 AM new
Only problem with a fixed web site especially for small ticket items is constant updates needed to web page to keep inventory current.
You can probably get a Fee site that will do this for you automatically (shopping cart feature) but there is a fee once again sometimes per item sometimes monthly.
Joe B
posted on May 7, 2001 06:25:14 AM new
Loosecannon -
searchenginewatch.com explains search engines and how to get listed. DO NOT PAY FOR SEARCH ENGINE LISTINGS!
If you have your stuff in a database, such as ACCESS, there is freeware that can query the database and produce HTML pages Then you upload the pages.
For quick updates to websites, such as to mark and item sold until you can , there are programs that look like browsers BUT allow you to edit the HTML source. Doesn't work with all ISPs.
there are also free shopping cart scripts, but setting them up requires an ISP willing to let you run CGI on your site, and some knowledge of G\CGI to get it set up.
Realize a web site is WORK - a good productive web site is double work - BUT if done right, they do pay off, but it takes time - time to set up, time before the major search engines pick up your listing, time before your listing gets a decent place on a search engine's index, etc. etc.
We have 2 large web sites, and 4 sites total at the moment. We started out, years ago, having someone else create our original web site because we didn't think ourselves savvy enough to do such. At that time we didn't have FrontPage, etc.
During the first year of the first site we didn't do much, but business did drizzled in slowly even though it was advertised on our eBay listings (this is back in the stone age). The early part of the second year we were spending so much time telling our host the changes to make that I realized we HAD to learn to handle the site ourselves. Our webmaster, who through the 1st year, had become a dear friend walked me through the internal workings and I quickly learned how to handle the site, create and update myself.
Then I purchased SubmitWolf, which is a submission program to 1500 plus search engines, plus endless other areas. I realized just like a site, no one would promote us more often or better than we would do it for ourselves. Instead of paying some company a fee to submit a few times, I have my own programs and submit our sites to all engines at least once EVERY week.
The second year with our caring for the site, promoting with vigor, etc., the site really took off.
Don’t get sucked into someone else handling your site – no one knows your items like you do, no one can describe them as you can, and no one cares as much about selling them as you do.
4 Months ago I opened a new site, but with experience behind me, that site is already flying and producing more daily than our major site!
For a "newbie" to web sites, I'd highly recommend the "FATCOW" web site program, they provide tons of space, domain name, autoresponder, cart shopping, all at one yearly rate of $99 - and no percentage on sales or restriction as to what you sell. It is a step by step entry program, and a novice can easily do it. In fact you should be able to have a site hosted by FATCOW up and running in a day or two, then all that is left is promoting and the restocking of your site. You can find FATCOW on the world wide web at : fatcow.com
We take credit cards ourselves, so we don't have them run through a 3rd party acceptance program for the FATCOW shopping cart.
Realize how many www sites are being put up every day and how many fail.
BUILD IT AND THEY WILL COME, doesn't work when it is applied to web sites, even the big companies have discovered this.
Build it, work it, promote it, have good products at good prices, and good customer service and they will come, they will buy, and they will come back for more.
Because we handle as many and varied items as it sounds like you have, we set up our major site so that the various sections could basically “stand alone,” AND for example, we handle European Cut Crystal – that is one section – we also handle dragon and medieval collectibles that is another section – each of these sections, and all of the others we have can stand on their own, and I promote EACH, as a separate site, so that actually I promote about 12 web sites a week through SubmitWolf and Classify98, although many of these are free standing parts of our major site.
posted on May 7, 2001 07:59:27 AM new
Excellent Thread. I am just working on my web site. Actually, I should be working on it now and not reading AW boards, but I learn so much here. Thanks all for some very helpful information.
posted on May 7, 2001 10:26:23 AM new
I recently read somewhere that individual search engines were going to start, or had already started to charge for URL submission.
I think I had read it in an email from HTML goodies...
posted on May 7, 2001 12:38:16 PM new
JWPC -
FYI, some search engines (several of the MAJOR ones) penalize sites that are repeatedly submitted. They do this because of the rumor that new listings are given priority in the results.
You might do better spending the submitting time in creating attractive non-sales content and making sure you have good HTML structure.
LooseCannon -
To attract traffic, create some informational pages about the items you are selling ... how to ID, care for, and history of the widget is a good thing.
Plan carefully so you can add and remove product lines without remodelling the whole site.
Pay CAREFUL attention to absolutely impeccable HTML usage (proper headers, etc) for optimal placement. A properly structured page will blow the competition out of the water in most search engines. I've been tracking that parameter in search placement since 1995 and good HTML has always been a big factor in placement and appropriateness of results.
Then you upload the pages.