Why does ebid not have main stream advertising

[baconbuttyman]

I agree with you. It is totally unfair for new members to be charged a different rate of FVF. I cannot think of anything which would discourage new members than to know that they will be charged more than existing members. I'm afraid that this is one of Julie's perennial kites which she flies at regular intervals.

can we keep on topic please, this thread is about advertising, not fee structure

[johnwash1]

Sorry. I don't understand.

Time you learned how to google, Tony. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiped..._didn%27t_read

[rokins_toys]

Cheers baconbuttyman and all the other "positive posters". Yes, my post is on the long side but there are a lot of points that need to be made as it is not something simple that can be summed up quickly. A tiny minority of sellers see advertising as a bad thing because they naively see it as a way for fees to unnecessarily increase but as I pointed out, smart, strategic small scale advertising in the right places keeps advertising costs down while boosting sellers and shoppers here boosting over all sales for all sellers as more and more shoppers come here, increasing revenue from existing fvf's without the need for the fvf's to increase. ebid does not even need to advertise on the TV at all as there are plenty of other far cheaper methods out there that work just as well as TV advertising.

Is eBid scared of trying a failing? That is a risk everyone takes in business. If you do not take the risk, you do not know for certain what the outcome will be. You can sit around theorising on the different outcomes, making predictions etc. in charts in business plans but you will not have the solid evidence and solid answers until you get out there and do it. Sir Richard Branson among many others did not get to where they are by not taking risks. They will have had bad times, lost money, but they persevered in the end by taking the necessary risks. Yes I am taking a risk by buying additional items from other lines that I am yet to take delivery of. It is going to cost me a couple of thousand pound for this tiny amount of stock but I know even using brand name and barcodes etc. the sales on these items will be glacial slow because people will head straight to my competitors on eBay/Amazon and pay a higher price for the items for non-existent "free" shipping lol.

It is time eBid started taking those risks too. It has been over ten years of stagnant sales for the vast majority of sellers here in Britain on eBid and obviously other sellers around the world too. As a businessman myself I can sympathise with their concerns about the sheer lack of sales here. I see many threads about poor sales and people advising to do this that and the other, but those things are not working for the vast majority because they are silly little tactics that do not work in the big picture. Advertising will fix the stagnant sales problem.

It is about priorities. Why spend thousands of pounds on items given away for free in buddy point auctions that most of us can never bid on anything anyway because we do not get enough sales/feedback to gain the points needed to bid on things to stand a chance of winning in the first place. Buyers signing up have no chance of being able to win a buddy point auction because they are in the same position as the majority of sellers when it comes to a severe lack of buddy points lol. When you add up what has been spent on the phone app and expensive items given away for free in buddy point auctions, that's money that would pay for advertising on a popular British national radio station which due to online streaming have listeners around the world (US, Canada, Australia etc.) like Heart FM does. Money that could get a quarter page advert in a newspaper like the Daily Star which has a substantial national readership (which is bigger than the readership of the Daily Mail, Times etc.) and banners on that paper's website which again are seen by people around the world online because the Daily Star website has members from around the world like most national British newspapers do.

These are two very simple and very effective advertising methods that are cost effective that will bring the medium and bigger businesses here because they will see eBid is advertising in real places that are getting to millions of people in Britain creating the customer base they will require for their vast stock. Without this advertising these sellers will not come to eBid regardless of what eBay does and eBay knows it and eBay do not feel threatened by eBid and never will until eBid plucks up the courage to get off the bench and take part in the game by advertising.

eBid have had over 10 years to build up advertising in such a way through newspapers and radio and if eBid had of done this say 7 years ago when these methods would have been cheaper than today, then we would not have a new thread practically every week about a lack of sales and the majority of sellers calling for some advertising lol.

[Juliebabe25]

I agree with you. It is totally unfair for new members to be charged a different rate of FVF. I cannot think of anything which would discourage new members than to know that they will be charged more than existing members. I'm afraid that this is one of Julie's perennial kites which she flies at regular intervals.

The fact is that ebid have locked themselves in by promising seller + members free listings and only 2% fvf fees.
So that probably does not give ebid enough money to advertise.

Maybe new members would think the opposite to what you suggest and think "great I don't have to pay $99 to join ebid"

[Juliebabe25]

can we keep on topic please, this thread is about advertising, not fee structure

Its all about the fee structure.
If ebid had 10 million in the bank I am pretty sure they would spend some of that on main stream advertising.

[bluebedouin]

........
eBid could very easily afford a radio advert on somewhere like Heart FM or another British national radio station, of which, they stream on the internet which people in America and around the world do listen to British radio on the internet just as I have listened to American radio stations via their internet streams. So advertising on British radio will reach far more people in more countries than they realise it will. Radio advertising is far cheaper than TV advertising........

Can I refer the honourable gentleman to this thread.
Although Gold are still going they have closed a few of the local stations & Heart comes under their umbrella.Obviously the prices have increased since then but a conservative estimate would possibly be about £65,000 for a weeks advertising.
The radio runner site isn't active so an updated calculation can't be done

....eBid can afford to advertise in Britain in newspapers and build that up to advertising on the radio, then in a few years time, build that up to TV advertising.
.....

Do you know something we don't?!

[bluebedouin]

The fact is that ebid have locked themselves in by promising seller + members free listings and only 2% fvf fees.
.....

Exactly how have they "locked themselves in"?

[Posbear]

I would happily pay 5% fvf if there was regular advertising.

5% of a sale is better than 2% of no sale.

[FirstGreenIsGold]

The kind of eBid advertising that I'd like to see ...

eBid banners show up on the other websites that I visit.

The other day I went to the WalMart website to see if they had a certain DVD available on line. Tonight I went to another website (fan forum) that I visit. There was a WalMart banner ad, with about four products in the ad, and one of those products was the DVD that I had searched. A reminder.

What are those banner ads called? Are they difficult to create? What do they cost?

I'd like to see eBid adverts showing up all over the internet.

[baconbuttyman]

Its all about the fee structure.
If ebid had 10 million in the bank I am pretty sure they would spend some of that on main stream advertising.

Ok fair point
rules are changable, look how ebay changes the rules like the wind direction, Rokin has hit the nail on the head in BOTH posts, great ideas and great reading, it's about time Ebid, its a loop tho, if ebid dont have the money, then they need to charge more fee's, but with out sales, sellers cant pay fee's, with out advertising sellers wont make sales, with out sales, ebid wont make money from fees, and the loop goes round.
Ebid need to step up to the plate, as said, all these selling techniques that people say, google sales etc, dont work, if they did, there wouldnt be so many sellers with out sales, and to the average seller like me, it's a lot of work for no return