I've been on Ebid for a few years, but not really done anything with it except for copying my listings across from eBay. Averaged less than one sale a year up to now, but I've decided to do my level best to make this a viable selling venue for me.
Apart from Ebid, I sell on eBay, Etsy and Amazon. Mostly eBay and Etsy. Obviously the fees, especially on eBay, are a problem, and my sales on eBay have been in a steady decline for years. It seems that the more I pay in fees, the less exposure I get. Ebid may not have the same level of built-in traffic, but I like the fee structure and they're not always mucking around with the system here. So the aim is to eventually make this my biggest selling venue. Reading the forums on here, it's quite clear that the successful sellers are the ones who know how to promote themselves. So here's what I've been doing for the last two or three months:
First of all, I've been posting some of my listings to Facebook groups, but I haven't had any success with that method so far. On the other hand, it doesn't cost anything only takes a minute to do.
I've also got a domain name (esswad.com) which points to my Ebid shop. I used Paint to design a simple shop logo that incorporates that domain name. I designed a very simple flier that tells customers that I've got a shop with over 1,000 items in it, and inviting them to visit it. It incorporates the shop logo. I sell various vintage items, including books and View-master reels. So I got some card and designed some simple bookmarks which incorporate the shop logo, and I enclose a bookmark with each book order. Some of the View-master reels that I resell don't have the original paper sleeves with them, so I make my own up and include the logo on them, too. The fliers, bookmarks and View-master sleeves all cost pennies each to make, so it's a cheap way of advertising my shop.
So now every time I make a sale on eBay, Etsy or Amazon, I enclose a flier, along with a bookmark or View-master sleeve if applicable. Using the rival sites to publicise this site, and hopefully attract some traffic to my Ebid shop.
And I've just had my first success. A few weeks ago, someone bought a vintage magazine from me via eBay. I included a flier with the order, and today, he's registered on Ebid and bought four more magazines from me. So it's definitely a viable method. It's not difficult to design a suitable flier, I just knocked one up on my word processor and I can print six of them on an A4 sheet. A cheap and easy way to get some targeted advertising going on. If I keep on sending fliers out hopefully I'll be able to bring some more customers over from the dark side. I suspect having a short domain name is going to help too.
Does anyone else have any ideas for improving on what I'm already doing?