Advertising?

[usedvideogames]

Does Ebid actually pay any money for advertising anywhere or are they hoping for a word of mouth thing?

I have no doubt that Ebid are dragging in a few sellers as we are all sick of Ebay and we searched hard for somewhere else to sell our goods, but your average buyer is not going to do that at all and surely a little bit of cash needs to be spent advertising Ebid!!

Surely even an old fashioned leaflet shoot would bring extra buyers in? I am sure this is a discussion that has been done time after time but I am a new Seller here and I couldn't find a similar thread!

I am happy that I have managed to make a sale on my first day here, but the buyer did happen to let slip that he had checked Ebay first and my product was slightly cheaper so I got the sale. What really concerns me though is the complete lack of views of products....my most popular items arent even getting the views that my worst items would get on ebay, so a definate need to drag in more people I think.

I used to run a website rather than sell on Ebay, but I have given that up now and will just focus on Ebid at the moment.

I will be sending an email to all of the customers that had bought something from me and mention that I am now on Ebid and to come and have a look etc, but I do feel more should be done by Ebid to promote themselves if they are serious in their aim to compete with Ebay, or even to place themselves as the second most popular auction site wouldn't be a bad achievment!

Okay...semi-rant moan over!! Other than this I do like the look and feel of Ebid and there are lots of friendly people on here who have helped me out already!

[lofty100e]

Hi, Well done on your sale, eBid have taken on a PR company to deal with advertising recently.

On the subject of people viewing your items, one of the reasons that you are getting less attention than you expected is that you are using the wrong format. If you set your items to a fixed time-period (3-10 days are the most popular) then select the auto-repost option. Auctions on eBid are ranked on time left, so as your items count down to their close they will get publicity on the front page. Whereas auction set to run till sold stay at the bottom of the pile and are only found when someone does a search for that item. I hope that helps you, also several of us have websites out there linke to our ebid stores.

Also untill your feedback here builds up you could do a link to your greedbay feedback using one of the feedback link sites.

Good luck

[greenmasons]

I agree with you, I do my best to spread the word of eBid to other people (potential buyers not sellers) but the number of times I go back to them and all i get is questions about eBay.

The fact that eBay advertise on TV and plaster themselves all over the internet means that it sticks in peoples minds. I'm no media expert but a good TV advert sticks in my mind more than an internet banner!
I understand TV advertising is extremely expensive but even over at Tazbar, correct me if im wrong, but I'm sure i read something about them doing a small TV ad campaign...and that's nowhere near as big as eBid in terms of listings.

The biggest hurdle is getting buyers over here. We all know why the sellers move onto eBid from eBay....but for buyers what is the big deal? On eBay they get Buyer Protection and No fees to purchase items. What does eBid offer to encourage buyers?

*Charity Auctions - YDC every month
*Buddy Points - Loyalty Points!!! Its popular at Tesco and it should really be brought to a buyers attention.
*Happy Hour & 1hr Auctions - Fast & Furious Bidding. Without the 8 day wait!
*Friendly Seller Shops - Word of Mouth & Customer Loyalty.

This is the kind of stuff that should be really brought to peoples attention, not the whole "Free to Buy"?! Of course it better be! It's "free" to make purchases on eBay its nothing new...and so not the biggest selling point of eBid.

How about "mini-Tv adverts"? Get your cam-corder out and make something for Youtube then ask them to feature it on the front-page.

And to finish I really think eBid should SERIOUSLY consider making Google Checkout the preferred payment provider. Buyers are really going to be put off paying 50p a time with PPPay and Google is now a Household name.

I'm starting a small training course in my Home Town to promote eBid to local people interested in selling on the internet...kind of like an eBid seminar. Get it in the local paper and Hey Presto! Instant Advertising that people actually read :-)

sorry for rambling on folks! You've just seen my entire thought process thrown onto this message lol

[lofty100e]

Yes TV advertising is very expensive. After the initial growth they fell away by changing the site and taking no notice of what the members wanted or expected (reminds alot of people of greedbay). As a result of this and a bigger mistake of parting companywith Lee, who was the customer-friendly face of the site. They are now struggling with less users.

Gazza has done a youtube vid in the past, no doubt it will get another airing with this thread. I agree it is a good idea also maybe to do facebook. Alot of our members are on those sites already although I haven't considered it myself; ther problem with blogs is that they need updating and I haven't the time to do that (to busy on here updating old and listing new items.

[greenmasons]

I *innocently* signed up to Tazbar yesterday just to see what it was like. There's a forum topic eBid vs Tazbar and everyone was saying how great the Tazbar layout is....WHAT!? Half of the front page auctions have half the title cut off and the area where you add your Item details is really confusing...but you know...no nit-picking from me ;-)

[dreamer60]

I also have an account with Tazbar, have been there a while, but my sales are better here than over there, they are maybe advertising but is not making much difference, as this is there 2nd tv campaign.

[lofty100e]

Did you really expect them to say anything else Greenmason? I also use it I will be selling photos both here and there (cheaper on here of course). I don't find their layout as user friendly, but that maybe lack of practice.

[greenmasons]

Maybe we could do some Youtube TV adverts? LOL get some background music a few actors and it would be really fun!
It could be like those eBay ones where all the friends are saying "oh I'd buy that off you, how much?" and the Seller could say "Well £5 on eBay because i have to pay loads of fees", but if you buy it on eBid i'll only charge you £4 because i have no fees to pay"...and everyone goes YIPEE!

Just a thought :-D

[usedvideogames]

Lol....I didn't know I was using the wrong format....I just wanted to plough right in and get my items on here!!

With regards to the advertising I also was thinking in my head that Facebook would be a really cheap option!! If you start a group on there along the lines of an ebay boycott/ebid promotion then I'm sure loads of peeps will Join! What I find with the groups on Facebook is that people join th groups not with the intention of participation in most cases, but they use them as a badge to kind of show off who they are!

That would be fine really as the more and more people that join the group the more widespread the word would spread and you'd have something about Ebid on everyone facebook profile!!

Of course this is in my own perfect little world and how well it would work in practice I dont really know. But it is worth remembering that it should be easy to do some sort of campaign through Facebook, Youtube, Myspace etc!!

Lol....i've now got to go through all of my auctions changing them to the proper time settings!!

[kengillam]

I had a look at Facebook yesterday, and it would seem that apart from joining a load of groups and spending an inordinate amount of time, I'm not sure what the benefit is.