Ebid and advertising.

[Gothicina]

One problem is when most people demand advertising they mean, they want adverts that will benefit them.

So those from the USA, would expect adverts in the USA, Uk in the UK, Australia in Australia, France in France, et al, you get my drift.

So how do you prioritise?
Australia because their economy is recovering fastest?
UK, because that still has the largest userbase & is more established?
USA, because it potentially has more customers?

Pick any one, & members from other Countries would feel they, & their needs are being sidelined.

So you're not talking about newspaper, magazine, radio, tv adverts in one country, you're talking about them in at least eBid's 21 member Countries.

The budget required for that, would be enormous & would probably require price hikes, that would shadow any made by eBay in the last few years.

A few years ago, eBid set a challenge, for members to come up with a more effective use of their advertising budget, than the web ads, google adwords etc the Guys were using, I don't seem to remember that anybody did.

[MPS16]

It's like my own website! It cost me £50 for life!

People need to use ebid for what it is and stop whinging that it's not what they want.
If they want to help themselves and ebid do one thing and do it regularly.
List and list and list!

Today I have used eBid to buy and pay for 20 items from 2 different sellers.

Who says nothing sells on eBid

[adruml]

The cake plate thing is an analogy of the lack of total choice on ebid. Buyers coming to ebid looking for cake plates would find only 32 items, 62% of them being mine.

So if ebid advertized great cake stands or whatever else as available on ebid and loads of potential buyers were attracted; say 100 would love a nice cake stand. Well at least 68 of them would be disappointed.


As for growth I have contributed massively in percentage terms to certain catagories. But it's green shoots growth. It's not substantial and it's not significant to anyone but me. If I am successful at selling cake stands I won't have a monopoly for long as others would notice and compete. (It's quite easy to make a cake stand)

Most of my sales come via google, so ebid is the best platform bar none for that!

Google brings them into one of my stores. Once there they can browse over all my stock across five stores via embedded links.

It's like my own website! It cost me £50 for life!

People need to use ebid for what it is and stop whinging that it's not what they want.
If they want to help themselves and ebid do one thing and do it regularly.
List and list and list!

I couldn't agree with you more. If eBid is not what they want....
Problem is whenever there is seller movement from ebay to eBid folks here get excited about it then the sellers come for a while test the waters then abandoned ship.
Why because they expected something similar to ebay. Why isn't this site (and I dislike using similar because eBid should be different) similar to ebay because of exactly what you said "lack of total choice on ebid."
I understand your analogy and agree this is why sales are not as abundant as on ebay. They have everything you can possibly imagine here is very limited but still nice items. As it stands now there isn't enough variety or competition for what is available here to create a place for buyers to shop.
Folks are teed off at ebay and rightfully so. They are looking for a new home. I have always been under the impression members here want the site to grow and grow enough to have buyers use eBid as their main purchase search. I could be wrong but that is the impression I got.
As I stated before even if we do attract hundreds of thousands of sellers/buyers on a weekly basis how do we keep them here? If we don't have the items to sell buyers won't be here, if we don't have the buyers then sellers won't be here.
Hmmm, if there was a way to all of a sudden overnight get up to 100 million listings filling all categories then buyers would come becuase this would be where the items are. That's not difficult to understand at all. The growth experienced on eBid will take years and years to eliminate what we have read in these forums in regards to newbies disgruntled about lack of sales. I came over just last September and yes I had the hopes of cutting all ties with ebay unfortunately I need sales to keep going and self promoting for what I look for in sales just isn't enough. Not really sure what the answers are to everbodies concerns I'm not even sure where eBid is headed or wants to head. I will say however when I see any posts regarding advertising or any way to get more and different items here I will definately throw a few comments in.
At 53 I do not have the luxury of Fishing as much as I would like to but with the way of the world I had seriously thought about retiring early, selling the house moving to a much smaller home next to waterways and exist off interest, savings, capital gains and online sales. Then just fish and sell online. So would I like to see eBid gain the attention ebay has had? You betcha I would. Whatever the fees may be years down the road the more important factor on eBid is how the sellers are treated, listened to and sometimes taken care of.
There are a huge number who I am sure feel the same as I do in regards to ebay. I'm just saying we really should get them here.

[MagnetsAndHangers]

It's like my own website! It cost me £50 for life!

People need to use ebid for what it is and stop whinging that it's not what they want.

Exactly what I have been saying for the past couple of years - number of sales were not on my mind when I handed over 50 notes - it has it other uses for me.

[Gothicina]

Without knowing it's present sales, capacity operating budget that is a pretty loaded question. If you would like to give me some parameters to work with I can better TRY and answer.

Most likely via Television where shows are shown here US and abroad few during prime time (expensive) but most during the daytime shows most watched and after prime time shows. Daily for a week off for 2 weeks on a week off for 2 weeks on again then 1 week monthly for 6 to 9 months.
I would find the filler slots needed and use those as they are inexpensive but still have decent exposure.
More importantly is the Jingle needed. Something after hearing a few times sticks in everybodies head. Hear it for a week then youy don't for 2 weeks hear it again for a week then off agin then just a reminder every week out of the month should keep it alive.
Quick stab at the cost 4 to 5 million

If you're offering I'm sure the Guy's wouldn't turn you down.

eBid is a privately owned Company, I seriously doubt they could raise, anywhere near that amount, & as I pointed out before, you are only talking about advertising in the USA, so what about the other 20 Countries?

The following posts from Gazza, made back in 2007 may make things clearer, to those of you who do not understand about eBid, or how they run their company.
http://www.ebid.net/forums/showthrea...l=1#post523543
http://www.ebid.net/forums/showthread.php?97474-eBid-Marketing-Challenge!!&p=561457&viewfull=1#post561457

[NoDakKlassics]

TV is needed in the US, are there any demographic stats for buyers? Gotta know who the market is. I know you can get demographics when advertising on Facebook. I'd pull google advertising $$$$$$ and throw them at FB.

Ohhh...By the way, how do you contact IT and Marketing?

[HerMajesty]

Prob help tab, top right of this page.....open a support ticket and tell them what you want. It's a small enough company it will get to where you want it to go....

[bykimbo]

If you're offering I'm sure the Guy's wouldn't turn you down.

eBid is a privately owned Company, I seriously doubt they could raise, anywhere near that amount, & as I pointed out before, you are only talking about advertising in the USA, so what about the other 20 Countries?

The following posts from Gazza, made back in 2007 may make things clearer, to those of you who do not understand about eBid, or how they run their company.
http://www.ebid.net/forums/showthrea...l=1#post523543
http://www.ebid.net/forums/showthread.php?97474-eBid-Marketing-Challenge!!&p=561457&viewfull=1#post561457

Funny isn't it, how every now and again we get a spate of visits from marketing and business gurus who are inexplicably available to tell the boys all the things they're doing wrong because they've chosen to spend their time flogging stuff online instead of relaxing at their Caribbean holiday home bought with the multi-millions their expertise has already, undoubtedly, got them? *wicked grin*

[burgyeb]

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.

Agree with much of what is said here.

[burgyeb]

If you're offering I'm sure the Guy's wouldn't turn you down.

eBid is a privately owned Company,

The following posts from Gazza, made back in 2007 may make things clearer, to those of you who do not understand about eBid, or how they run their company.
http://www.ebid.net/forums/showthrea...l=1#post523543
http://www.ebid.net/forums/showthread.php?97474-eBid-Marketing-Challenge!!&p=561457&viewfull=1#post561457

This is true and well, but this is 2011 and members of the site need a clear understanding of eBids mission, goals, and intended strategies now and in an ongoing manner. This helps people to feel a part of things and to more easily commit to an organizations direction. I am personally comfortable with the direction eBid is going, but the issue of transparency of vision & goals impacts members and is important.