I am starting a Hi Def tvs and accessories business. We have had a local photo store for years, now we’re getting into the HD market. Our niche: internet prices, savvy consulting, delivery, setup, installtion all at lowest prices.
We are already using craigslist. What about cost/benefit of: local radio ads?, promotions through other local retailers- and which kind?, mailings?, we do have a limited website currently, but we sell local only- so how to SEO for that?
We are also Ebay powersellers/drop-off site and use Constant Contact to email blast our existing local customers with deals.
Other ideas on product line and pricing would be helpful.

Thanks in advance.

Technorati Tags: benefit, constant contact, craigslist, ebay, hd, hi def tvs, internet prices, lowest prices, niche, photo store, promotions, radio ads, thanks in advance

How To Effectively Promote Your Ebay Store

To really maximise your eBay ebook sales you need to be promoting your eBay store.  eBay stores get less exposure than normal eBay listings and therefore will not yield great sales for you unless you promote them.  There are many ways both on and off eBay that you can promote your eBay store.  This article outlines some of them:
1) Ebay Auction Listings:- eBay Auction and Buy It Now listings get the main exposure on eBay.  When someone does an eBay search for an item all the eBay Auction and Buy It Now listings are displayed first.  Then after these the eBay Store listings are displayed.  Since these Auction and Buy It Now listings are getting the most exposure it makes sense to run a few of these and insert a link to your eBay store inside the actual description.  This works especially well with Auction listings as people often click the link so they can buy the item instantly from your eBay store rather than wait for the auction to end.
2) Ebay About Me Page:- The eBay About Me page is one of the best free opportunity’s eBay provides to promote yourself.  Every time someone on eBay sees your eBay ID (whether you bid on something, leave feedback, or buy an item) there will be an About Me logo next to it and some people will click this logo.  Despite this, it really is one of the most under utilised tools on eBay.  If you do not yet have an eBay About Me page yet then get one NOW.  Use it to write about your eBay store and tell people why they should buy from you.
3) Ebay Reviews and Guides:- These are a relatively new addition to eBay but they are still a great way to promote your eBay store for free.  The reviews section allows you to write product reviews such as CDs and DVDs.  The guides section is more relevant to eBay sellers as it allows you to write guides on just about anything.  There has got to be some topic that you can write a guide on so get righting now.  When people read your guide they are presented with a link to your eBay store which is again more free exposure.
4) Ebay Seller Cross Promotion:- I outlined in the last article that with an eBay store you can cross-promote your items.  Recently eBay has also added the ability to cross-promote with other sellers.  This is very easy to set up and eBay manages the whole process for you.  All you have to do is go to the “Cross-Promotion Connections” area of My eBay and then use the request cross-promotions link in order to set them up.  If the other seller agrees then a box promoting their products will appear on your listings and vice versa.  This is a valuable way to increase your eBay sales and also generate more traffic to your eBay store.
5) Search Engines:- As I mentioned in my last article you get an actual URL with your eBay store.  This URL gets listed in the eBay stores directory and search engines which means extra traffic for your eBay store.  What’s more eBay allows you to pick your search engine keywords so you can be listed under the categories that you feel are most appropriate to your eBay store.  Getting listed in the search engines is a great way to bring in customers from outside of eBay and maximise your sales potential.
6) Store RSS Feed:- When you access the home page of an eBay store you may notice a small RSS box in the bottom left corner.  If you click on this RSS box then you will be shown your store’s RSS feed.  Now I myself am not an expert in RSS but I do know that it is another way to promote your eBay store easily and effectively from outside of eBay.  You can get some free software that submits your RSS feeds to the main RSS directories by doing a search on Google.
7) Blogging:- For those who don’t know a blog is a weblog.  It’s basically like an online journal where you post your thoughts, comments, or whatever else you want.  Blogging is an excellent way to get traffic to your eBay store.  Quite a few websites offer free blogs which you can sign up for and then link back to your eBay store.  Post in it regularly to gain exposure and your blog should soon become a great source of traffic.
Article Submission:- There are 100s of article directories out there that will you can submit your articles to, and if accepted you are allowed to have a live link back to your website or eBay store in the author resource box.  This is a great way to generate traffic to your website in the long-term as not only do the search engines index your article, but people also reprint these articles on their websites complete with your author resource box (and live link back to your eBay store).  The longer your article is online the more it will be reprinted and so the more traffic it will generate.
Hopefully this article has opened your eyes to some of the free and effective promotion methods for your eBay store.  At first the fact that eBay Stores do not get as much exposure seems like a major problem but by putting a little effort into promoting it yourself, it can be much more successful than any eBay Auction listing.  Till next time good luck with your ebook sales and take care!!!

Technorati Tags: ebay, Effectively, Promote, store

(Coupons to use on their website?)

Also, any good sites to find their purses cheaper? (I already tried Ebay)

Thanks!!

Technorati Tags: coupons, ebay, purses

Free Advertising for Your Website or Ebay Business

I know most eBay sellers are always looking for a great opportunity to link their online stores with relevant websites and get free online advertising.  Finally found an online business listing with basic FREE advertising services.   104Inc provides endless opportunities for branding, networking and increased exposure.  All I had to do was visit 104inc.com and click on register at the top right of the website.  You fill out your business details and add your website link.  Your profile will be reviewed and then added to relevant domains for free advertising.  If you want to see a complete list of 104 branded sites you can click here .

You can never go wrong with free advertising and what I loved the most about their product is the Geo-Targeting technology, individuals and businesses alike can maximize their potential by easily being located, regardless of size or popularity.  Geotargeting is the practice of customizing an advertisement for a product or service to a specific market based on the geographic location of potential buyers. Every country, province, state, county or city in the world can constitute a niche market for certain products or services at certain times.  On 104inc.com, geotargeting can help small businesses to compete with national brands and can ensure that large corporations effectively make use of their advertising resources.

This was exactly what I was looking for to promote my eBay business and thought I might share with the rest of the eBay community.  Hope it helps!  Please leave comments if this was helpful and feel free to contact me if you have any questions.  Enjoy the FREE advertising.

Find More Online Advertising Articles

Technorati Tags: Advertising, business, ebay, Free, website

I am giving product sample for free in my website. So, it should be a lot easier to get attracted and manage SEO for my site.
I need a distant partner to help me out with this.
Drop me a mail and I will give you details.
Thanks for your reply. Yes, I do have absolute unique selling position. It is a piece offree genuine ruby which people are buying in eBay and have to pay S/H US$ 10.00. But my website is simply giving away free. No gimmick, no obligation to buy.

Technorati Tags: ebay, gimmick, mail, obligation, reply, ruby, unique selling position

Promote Your Business with eBay

EBay is an online auction and shopping website which is used for promoting the website or products and services of a company. This website is popularly used for exposing business of all sorts over the Internet. A marketer gets an opportunity to introduce his business to a larger set of audiences through this widely used site. Marketers use this as a platform to generate maximum traffic towards a company website. The result of this site is that one can easily extract maximum revenue through online promotion. The site of eBay is very beneficial and effective in bringing business to an enterprise. Many people from different parts of the world have access to this site for purchasing products or for bidding. A marketer can fetch a number of customers and expand the customer base of an enterprise. You can also promote your website through eBay promotions. This is possible as it increases the website traffic and target visitors. In this way, you can also increase the web page visibility as well as exposure of your business and earn popularity for the business. It also helps you in augmenting the web page subscriptions and video views. A marketer can make a web page interactive in nature by linking the same with the eBay web page. In other words, you can easily and smoothly enhance the interaction with your customers or clients. As the page ranking of this particular site is high, an entrepreneur can easily index the web pages of his company site. Consequently, the page ranking of your site increases and the search engines consider your company site relevant and pertinent. A marketer gets a chance to expose his products or services of an organization with ease as well as convenience. Such a website enables a person to fully tap the Internet potential and generate maximum amount of revenue for an organization. You can get a chance to convert the visits of the target customers into sales of a company.

More Promote My Website Articles

Technorati Tags: business, ebay, Promote

Using a Blog to Drive Traffic to your Ebay Store

eBay has over 233 million users in their online marketplace community. eBay provides a safe trading marketplace for us, but eBay is also very competitve. There are ways to use the internet to drive more traffic to your store.

Blogs are a great, free, fun, marketing tool. Blogging began as a way for individuals to write public daily journals, or have an on-line diary for the world to see. Eventually, blogs started showing up in searches on search engines, so the marketing sector jumped on the benefits of blogging. There are many free sites where you can start your own blog. If you have knowledge in a certain area, start a blog and talk about it. Your blog doesn’t have to be about your eBay store, but it helps drive traffic there if that is your goal.

The purpose of a blog is to create a place on the internet to promote your website and drive traffic to it, to communicate with your customers and target audience, as well as to network with others in your field. Post intelligent, useful information about your topic and then put a plug in about your business. Give away tidbits of information for free, and then can post a link to your site, blog, or specific products that you sell. Encourage interest in the products you sell in your eBay store and provide a link.

Your blog posts will come up on search engines. You can go on the internet and use material that others post – I often use quotes from Entrepreneur Magazine and Business Week. Just be sure to give credit to the author and publication if you use an excerpt form someone else’s work.

You can also use a blog as a mini-website and add your affiliate links, Google Adsense, and other advertising to create a passive stream of income. It is important that you write on it regularly, at least 3 times a week, to keep it updated and keep fresh info going to the search engines. You should also seek out other blogs that are in your same industry or niche, and and leave comments, and leave your website or blog address, it is imbedded in their code and you are spreading yourself around the internet – FREE advertising. When leaving comments, be sure to read the post and leave an insightful comment, not just comments like “Good article.”

I can’t tell you how much a blog really works – I have received paid consulting jobs and made other fantastic business connections just because the right person visited my blog and liked what they read, or because I visited theirs and left a comment and they in turn, checked me out. Also, if others in your field find you and like your blog and your info, you can trade links and boom – more free advertising.

If you find a blog you like, offer to write a guest post for them, more free advertising. Just make sure you are offering quality, intelligent information and then add a link to your site or your blog at the end, in your signature. Your “give” is the article, your “take” is where you leave your links in your signature.

I make it a habit, part of my weekly routine, to comment on other people’s blogs a few times a week. I even keep a spreadsheet of the “good” ones, those with lots of other comments, and visit those regularly. Then, the other commenters will see you, and there is more traffic to back you – and the opportunity to make more great business connections.

Every eBay seller should have a blog dedicated to their eBay business. I have 3 blogs for 3 different target audiences: For my eBay consulting business (target audience, eBay sellers), a pet blog (I have affiliate programs where I earn money on selling pet items), and a business blog for work at home moms.

Technorati Tags: blog, Drive, ebay, store, traffic, using

I am thinking about setting up an online business and also selling at different events that coincide with my selected products. It will be mainly "gift-type" merchandise.
Does anyone have any advice or suggestions on how to get started, ideas on marketing, search engines,where to buy products, etc. Will I need a license and how hard is it to set up a website? It’s all so overwhelming! I don’t want to do Ebay–so overdone!
Also, does anyone have any success or failure stories about themselves or others that they’d want to share?
Any help is appreciated

Technorati Tags: ebay, failure, marketing, search engines, selected products, setting up an online business

I’ve sold things on Ebay for over a year and always managed to make ends meet. Around the time they made changes to the site this spring, my sales dropped sharply for no reason, cutting my income in half. I assumed maybe it was the economy and added more listings to make up for it.

Over the last 2 months, it’s only gotten worse; I go several days without a single sale when I was making 10-20 sales a day on average a year ago. I couldn’t figure out what the problem was until a friend looking for one of my buy it now items couldn’t find it in the search engine and mentioned it to me. I got suspicious and asked several friends and family members to try and find both my buy it now and auction style listings on their computers by searching for the names, but none of them found anything until I gave them listing numbers. No wonder my sales have fallen to nothing; people can’t buy something that they can’t even see!

I wrote Ebay twice and got automated responses about how items that have just been listed take a while to show up, but some of these are items that I had up for over 2 weeks! My items aren’t just buried in the back of the search results either; some of the items I sell only return a single page of results, which I’m not on anywhere. Not a single person that works for Ebay has contacted me, and nothing has changed. I went into the forums and found several other sellers with the same problem and none of them had resolved it either. Many of them were talking about giving up on Ebay completely and abandoning their small businesses.

Meanwhile, they’re trying to charge me seller fees for items that nobody can find. If they aren’t going to take me seriously and fix this issue, should I try to file a dispute with Paypal to recover the fees that I’ve been charged? Is there any legal action myself or the other sellers in this situation can take to recover our losses?
Did you read my post? Like I said, it’s NOT because there are more sellers and I’m being pushed back in search. Some of the items I sell are unusual and don’t have a lot of competition, only producing a single page or less of results from other sellers when you search for them by name. How can it just be that they’re being pushed back in the search when there’s no more than one page of results and I’m not on it anywhere?

Technorati Tags: auction style, ebay, economy, family members, friends and family, losses, paypal, search engine, seller fees, small businesses

Ebay Ebook Success: 7 Sources of Blog Content

In my previous articles I discussed things you need to consider before you begin blogging. Once you have considered these factors you should be ready to start your blog. However, there is one more critical factor – content. Where are you going to get your blog content from? What type of content are you going to provide? In this article I try to answer these questions by discussing seven sources of content for your blog.

1) SELF WRITTEN CONTENT:- When starting your blog you should definitely be consider writing your own content. Why? Because it is free and it also provides your blog with a dose of your own personality. You do not have to write every single post yourself because this can take a lot of time. However, there is no reason you cannot write an occasional article or product review for your blog.

2) EBAY LISTINGS:- Since your blog is a supplement for your eBay business it makes sense to highlight eBay listings on your blog. Do not fill it with all your eBay listings or your readers will quickly start to see your blog as one big advert. However, the occasional post about one of your eBay listings that you feel requires additional attention is fine. For example, maybe you have a new ebook out? Perhaps you have just listed an ebook in your eBay store which contains some really insightful information? Your readers are interested in ebooks too (that is why they are reading an eBay ebook blog), so they will want to read about some of your eBay ebooks. If done correctly, blogging about your eBay listings can improve the appearance of your blog and generate interest from your readers. Just make sure you do not overdo it.

3) ARTICLES FROM THE DIRECTORIES:- I have discussed in my previous articles how article directories can be a great sources of traffic. Well they can be a great source of free content too. Have a search through the article directories for articles on the topics you are looking to publish and then republish them. The only thing you have to make sure of is that you include the author’s resource box so that they receive the credit for writing the article.

4) PRIVATE LABEL RIGHTS (PLR) ARTICLES:- PLR articles are sold to a limited group of customers (let’s say 50). These 50 customers then have exclusive rights to use these articles for web content, email content, part of an ebook or whatever else they wish. PLR articles can be a great way to get content for your blog quickly. Although they usually cost a little money, they have an advantage over articles from the directories because of their limited distribution. Instead of publishing a directory article that has potentially been used by thousands of people, you can publish a relatively unique PLR article. Plus, you can make changes to the PLR article, giving it a unique spin for your blog.

5) OUTSOURCED ARTICLES:- If you are not happy with other people having the same PLR articles as you and you do not have the time to write your own unique articles, outsourced articles are an option. Simply, find a good writer (ask for a sample of their work before agreeing to purchase any articles) and then agree a fee per article. They will then write unique, relevant articles which you can post on your blog. The disadvantage with outsourced articles is that they will cost more than PLR articles.

6) EBOOKS:- As an eBay ebook seller you should have plenty of ebooks with resell rights and giveaway rights stashed away on your computer. Why not give some away on your blog? Your readers will really appreciate getting free ebooks that they can then go on to resell in their eBay stores.

7) YOUTUBE VIDEOS:- Interactive websites are becoming increasingly popular and YouTube is no exception. On YouTube you can find videos on almost every topic including selling ebooks on eBay. All the videos on YouTube contain code to embed the video, so all you have to do is copy and paste this code into a blog post and voila – you have video on your blog.

I hope these seven content sources are beneficial to you and your blog. Even if your blog is not related to eBay and ebooks, you can use many of the sources quoted above. Now that you have the sources you just need to take action. Start posting today and watch your blog grow.

Technorati Tags: blog, Content, ebay, ebook, sources, Success