Ebid and advertising.

[baconsdozen]

After a great deal of though I have changed my mind about advertising.despite ebay seemingly determined to commit Hari kari the numbers on ebid just aren't growing.Regular users and posters are trying to promote the site all over the place but I think it's time for a reality check,and the reality is all the efforts are bringing in little real rewards.
I'm not knocking anyone,least of all the names famaliar to all of us who have made enormous efforts to promote the site.
I think its time for a push by ebid themselves,there are still far too many people who haven't heard of the site and the variety of items is still pretty dire and will hardly attract the casual looker to come back again.
I've always said advertising isn't needed but I don't see any real progress as we are and it has to be time for a different approach.
Any other suggestions?

[astral276]

After a great deal of though I have changed my mind about advertising.despite ebay seemingly determined to commit Hari kari the numbers on ebid just aren't growing.Regular users and posters are trying to promote the site all over the place but I think it's time for a reality check,and the reality is all the efforts are bringing in little real rewards.
I'm not knocking anyone,least of all the names famaliar to all of us who have made enormous efforts to promote the site.
I think its time for a push by ebid themselves,there are still far too many people who haven't heard of the site and the variety of items is still pretty dire and will hardly attract the casual looker to come back again.
I've always said advertising isn't needed but I don't see any real progress as we are and it has to be time for a different approach.
Any other suggestions?

Who would you target - Buyers or Sellers?

What would the advertising achieve?

Attract Sellers? They arrive and find there are not enough Buyers to support them all - and so they leave never to return.

Attract Buyers? They arrive and find what they want is not available because of not enough Sellers - and so they leave never to return.

I'm sure everyone, including eBid, would love a one shot fix to make the site really take off.

I wish I had the answer (I would sell it to G&M for an exorbitant figure) but I don't. I don't believe advertising is the answer though.

[adruml]

After a great deal of though I have changed my mind about advertising.despite ebay seemingly determined to commit Hari kari the numbers on ebid just aren't growing.Regular users and posters are trying to promote the site all over the place but I think it's time for a reality check,and the reality is all the efforts are bringing in little real rewards.
I'm not knocking anyone,least of all the names famaliar to all of us who have made enormous efforts to promote the site.
I think its time for a push by ebid themselves,there are still far too many people who haven't heard of the site and the variety of items is still pretty dire and will hardly attract the casual looker to come back again.
I've always said advertising isn't needed but I don't see any real progress as we are and it has to be time for a different approach.
Any other suggestions?

Just watching the forums I see sellers come dont see the action, complain then stop listing. To reach a level of even 40 million members wont be accomplished through self promoting or because ebay raised their fees. If eBid doesnt take advantage of the disgruntled mess ebay has stirred up then something is seriously wrong here. IMHO.

[suesjools]

Who would you target - Buyers or Sellers?

What would the advertising achieve?

Attract Sellers? They arrive and find there are not enough Buyers to support them all - and so they leave never to return.

Attract Buyers? They arrive and find what they want is not available because of not enough Sellers - and so they leave never to return.

I'm sure everyone, including eBid, would love a one shot fix to make the site really take off.

I wish I had the answer (I would sell it to G&M for an exorbitant figure) but I don't. I don't believe advertising is the answer though.

Couldn't agree more. An instant fix would be great, but from what I've seen (re: eBay ads on TV, the Net, you name it) advertising isn't helping eBay's sorry situation, only an internal reworking of the system currently in place would do that and, from what I've read on the forums, they don't seem to be willing to even consider doing that. I'm not sure if the same is the case for eBid, though I have to add that my sales have increased quite a bit lately, so maybe things are picking up, just slow enough that we can't see it.

Just my 2 cents...

Best wishes for many sales to all,

[adruml]

Couldn't agree more. An instant fix would be great, but from what I've seen (re: eBay ads on TV, the Net, you name it) advertising isn't helping eBay's sorry situation, only an internal reworking of the system currently in place would do that and, from what I've read on the forums, they don't seem to be willing to even consider doing that. I'm not sure if the same is the case for eBid, though I have to add that my sales have increased quite a bit lately, so maybe things are picking up, just slow enough that we can't see it.

Just my 2 cents...

Best wishes for many sales to all,

Have to disagree. In spite of ebays greed sellers are still selling there. You have read it over and over again right here in the forums, sellers listing here and there then having to end auctios here due to them selling on ebay.

[baconsdozen]

Maybe an introductory offer,like join for a few weeks at a lower figure with the option to lfe membership at the end of the intro period,or providing you list over a certain number of items and sell nothing for some months a partial refund.
I don't know either what the solution is (or even if there is one) but I thibnk ebid has to start looking for something to kick start things.

[astral276]

And it has been proven on other sites that a massive advertising campaign costing a small fortune can be the death of a site.

What if it did work and masses of people joined? Could the eBid infrastructure cope or would the site go back to the old days with dead hamsters strewn everywhere?

[MagnetsAndHangers]

Maybe an introductory offer,like join for a few weeks at a lower figure with the option to lfe membership at the end of the intro period,or providing you list over a certain number of items and sell nothing for some months a partial refund.
I don't know either what the solution is (or even if there is one) but I thibnk ebid has to start looking for something to kick start things.

You have a pm

[adruml]

And it has been proven on other sites that a massive advertising campaign costing a small fortune can be the death of a site.

What if it did work and masses of people joined? Could the eBid infrastructure cope or would the site go back to the old days with dead hamsters strewn everywhere?

The entire idea is in fact to get masses of people to join. That is normally what advertising campaigns are for. However a one time ad campaign will be the death of any site or business. After all these years McDonalds still advertises and believe it or not people still eat that crap. White Castle, Nissan, Toyota, GM, Burger King, Taco Bell, ebay, Amazon, Overstock, and the list goes on and on all participate in regular advertising and if I'm not mistaken all have been extremely succcesful. Toyota had a mechanical issue ran some ad campaigns came out smelling like a rose. BP had a oil disaster ad campaigns quickly put that fire out.
There have been several Big Box hardware stores in the past who had started their business with huge ad campaigns became succesful and greedy and stopped their advertising only to close their doors a few years later.
Advertising works to gain business that point can't be argued. Whether or not this site can handle an influx of members is something we as members don't know. We don't even know if the owners desire a large auction site, what their intentions are or what their goals are.
With as many times I have seen posts requesting advertising and yet to see any forum comment by the owners it does make me wonder if there is any intention of growing big. If the intentions are in fact to grow and grow rapidly now is the time. With disgruntled sellers on ebay looking for places to go eBid is the best alternative in regards to listing abilities, freindliness, fees but not in regards to sales. You have to think about it, these sellers may have been on ebay for years selling their items no matter how they listed them without promoting themselves at all. They come here list their items then continually close the auction due to the item selling elsewhere. Buyers, of course they will flock to ebay, they are protected like a lion protects their young, they can do no wrong and cannot receive a negative feedback no matter what they do.
So what do we do as sellers knowing this? Sit back and promote eBid and ourselves? Our prices should be lower here due to the low fees but I don't beleive low enough to make someone "jump ship" without a life preserver; buy here when they can buy elsewhere with zero reprocussion possibility. No, we need an ad campaign to get millions aware of eBid all at the same time. The campaign would have to run for a while to allow enough time to "get our shelves stocked" so to speak. It will take some time to get sellers on board and fill our categories so while the ad campaigns are going buyers come and will eventually see a fully stocked auction site right now we are not stocked. Listing more of the same item is helping our listing numbers but not helping new seller sales.
Advertising campaigns target buyers as well as sellers. The problem we have getting the word out individually is to tell 100 or 1000 people about eBid then when they come to visit there isn't enough for them to choose from (we are low in a lot of categories) then they move on to yes you guessed it ebay where you can find everything even a half eaten cheese sandwich.

[dardonboi]

And who gets to pay for this? This site has very low fees for sellers. I can't see at the present charges that the money for a major advertising campaign is there.

Who do you think pays for E**y's advertising? It is sure not the stockholders. It is sure not the CEO. It is the sellers and the buyers indirectly.