posted on June 16, 2001 08:44:54 PM new
I have started questioning myself more and more lately regarding whether auction selling is really worth it now. I'm still selling 75% of my listings on average. But, profit margins are continuously being reduced by the addition of increased fees from Ebay, Paypal, the post office etc. The final prices I'm getting at auction are lower than they were a year ago. Let's face it, it also takes TIME to prepare auction listings.
My question is, would time be better spent building and promoting a website rather than at auction? This might seem to be a better investment in the future rather than spending valuable time listing items at auction. Who knows what the future holds with auction listings? The competition is getting stiffer not only from other sellers, but also from larger companies whom Ebay is continuosly attempting to bring onto their site.
Also, if you sell used items like me, you have to prepare a unique listing for each item since I generally only have a limited supply of any one item. With a website, you can promote a specialized group of products of which you have a larger supply. Also, there's the potential for multiple income streams since you can profit from adding affiliate linkages to your website.
For multiple reasons, it seems that it could be more profitable in the long run to concentrate on building a solid web business rather than dealing with the ups and downs of the auction business. Any opinions?
posted on June 16, 2001 09:18:52 PM new
I used to sell used kids clothes on eBay and I think you are going through the same revelation I went through about a year ago. Writing a unique description each time and taking a picture of every thing does take a lot of time.
You always have to look at time spent vs. money earned, and also factor in how much "fun" you are having (as opposed to how much it seems like work). For me, it seemed like I was doing waayyy too much work to be making only $100-$200 per month, and I got out of it.
I think some people sell on eBay as a fun hobby and so it may not matter as much to them. I personally am in it only for the money, and I have to be able to justify the time spent with the money made.
The user whynot has written some lengthy and interesting posts on the ebay storefronts threads. Perhaps s/he will also respond here. The essence is that a website can be a great way to sell stuff but you must work hard to promote it and get it in the search engines so people can find it. And in the category of used clothes, I don't think you'd have much better luck on a website vs. eBay, but that's just my opinion.
posted on June 16, 2001 11:32:39 PM new
Yes, I do believe the internet is actually entering the real world so to speak. Everyone needs to make money in order to provide services. Websites that could previously provide free services because they made their money from advertising can no longer do this.
In evaluating what type of services to use for your auctions think about what's worth spending the extra money. Do you use an auto-lister? If so is it one you have to pay to use or would a free one work just as well? Image hosting--do you pay to have images stored? Free image hosting sites seem to be becoming scarce as hen's teeth but I know of quite a few still in existence.
If you accept electronic payments, do the extra bids make up for extra fees incurred, or is the extra fee worth the savings in time of hand-processing mail-in payments, filling out deposit slips, stopping at the bank and making deposits?
For my own auctions I chose a small site (can't mention it here) where I could host my images for free, manage my e-mails for a very small price and print out invoices and shipping labels. I downloaded a free program to use for bulk listing. This cut down on much of my time spent working on listings.
If you build a website do you have HTML or other editing skills and the hours it takes for the planning and development of a site? Or do you have the funds to hire someone who does?
Don't count on affiliate programs for income--quite simply without thousands of visitors to your site it can take more time managing affiliates than they're worth. As I mentioned above, the entire on-line world is changing drastically. The program I'm signed up where I manage my affiliate accounts has undergone a complete restructuring and will no longer pay out on 'click-throughs'. This means that every ad I have on my site must produce a lead or a sale before I see any income.
It's a changing world we're living in and I'm really glad that I'm only now entering some aspects of it because I won't have to 'adjust' to those changes quite so much. I've been in the auction industry for nearly two years now but have spent just the last few months with a few new endeavors.
posted on June 17, 2001 02:29:32 AM new
I am going through the phase of setting up my own on-line store/website. I do books mostly, so I will register with ABE, and that will get at least 2/3 of my inventory noticed, as well as providing me with exposure to search engins and more. I have a copy of the new Microsoft Office XP for Corporate, which has Frontpage~suppopsed to make Web building simple (have not tried it yet, as I just loaded everything in yesterday). I also have a new candle business that is owned and operated by a close friend of mine, and am the "head of sales" so to speak. Sell INTERNATIONALLY!!! It gets lots of exposure, and the hassles are minimal. Ebay is SLOW this time of year in most catigories, so as sellers we have to be creative in everything we do. I will not joke with you: I work a RT job 55-65 hours a week, and have been spending 2-6 hours a night working on my web based end, so it is work, but eventually it will be worth it. I was fortunate to get help from someone, so if you'd like some help, just email me~I will do what I can to lead you in the right direction as a bookseller took the time to lead me.
posted on June 17, 2001 05:28:46 AM new
I have just about finished with my website, coded it mostly all by hand and designed it all by myself.. (Ok, I did swipe some code from a free site I had set up previously.. )
Anyway, I had no prior knowledge of html when I started about 6 months ago with the free sites, they had templates to use.
I eventually found the templates too constrictive and decided to modify them to suit my needs.
I registered my domain name, found a low cost host, changed my ebay ID to that domain name, set up a bunnnnnnch of items on my site and listed a few test items on ebay to see if I could generate hits.
I have registered my domain with several search engines (free ones, I can't pay just yet), and am currently waiting to reap the benefits of my labors.
Now... when I say labors, I mean LABORS! It was a lot of work getting the layout just the way I wanted it. There were probably easier ways to do it, but it is done now. As Wallypog pointed out, it might behoove you to hire a designer.
You can get a pretty good editor free with netscape (Composer). That is a good basic one, there are also others like Coffee Cup which are a bit more complex. Even with an editor, you will still need a basic understanding of tables and frames, when and where to use them, what browsers support them and all that.
The point to all my rambling is this, be prepared to spend lots of time. You will still have to write descriptions and take photos of each of your items. If you want to set up a shopping cart, that is a whole different batch of work. Then the key is promoting. I'm still working on that one, as I continue to build my web inventory. (LOTS and lots of items yet to catalog!)
Your original question, is it worth it?
Well, I sure as heck hope so after all the work I've put into my own site!
Even though the competition is stiff on eBay, at least you are seen there. I plan on using eBay in conjunction with my web site to see if I can have one hand washing the other. (Being very careful about the clickable links! )
posted on June 17, 2001 06:00:55 AM new
You can use the site below for free shopping cart software and setup. It's totally free and easy to setup after you have products up on your site. They have a backend database that stores the website orders for you in addition to other very nice features like email sale notifications and forwarding, easy PayPal and other payment service integration, etc. I used it for my collectibles website. The link is:
Why pay for things like shopping carts when you can get it for FREE?
You can also use free Webhosters for your site like Yahoo's Geocities when you're starting out. Your out of pocket website expenses can be ZERO if you use the free resources out there.
Obviously the part that requires real work and innovation is driving traffic to your site. eBay and Yahoo's Shopping Mall already have that, but you're going to have to work and work and work to build traffic. It's not impossible as many others have done it, but it's an art and not a science.
It's not a bad idea to do both auctions and a Website, and maybe a Storefront at Yahoo or eBay too, to maximize exposure. If Amazon ever kicks itself in the butt and gets its act together there's another 20 million potential viewers for your wares. How many users does AOL and Microsoft have and why haven't their Storefronts fared better?
All of these analysts are saying eCommerce is going to explode in the next 10 years and we might as well prepare to get our little piece of the action. In addition with all of these dropshipping companies out there, you don't even have to deal with the aggravation of handling inventory! You can be the middleman, the facilitator, like eBay, Yahoo, Amazon and all these other venues are trying to be! With dropshipping the key is to deal with the LOWEST COST supplier or the competition on eBay and other venues will eat you up! That's why dealing with dropshippers like AppleGiftStores is bound to be a failure since they're really a middleman and their supplier is the one you ought to be dealing with direct --- and you can quite easily!
posted on June 19, 2001 05:32:38 PM new
I like the auction format because in some cases I don't know how much to price my items. I like to see what people are actually willing to pay for the items. I wish eBay's fees were lower, then it would be more worth it.
If you are making a website to switch to only selling stuff off of the website only than you might want to consider that now with many of the major search engines it can cost you up to $200 to get the site listed just at one search engine, since it would be considered a business site listing.
Selling things on eBay used to be a really good way to promote websites, but not anymore.
posted on June 19, 2001 06:49:06 PM new
eseller was the shopping cart hard to figure out? Do you have to have a merchant account? That might sound dumb but I was wondering about using one of the online payment sites.
With dropshipping the key is to deal with the LOWEST COST supplier or the competition on eBay and other venues will eat you up! That's why dealing with dropshippers like AppleGiftStores is bound to be a failure since they're really a middleman and their supplier is the one you ought to be dealing with direct --- and you can quite easily!