Sorry for the long absence. It's been a busy month, and now finally slowing down again.
The question for the week is... Is social selling right for you?
First, social selling is any effort to sell a product within a group of interested friends. It's the same strategy as Tupperware parties of the old days, or Mary Kay makeover parties today. You find your social group, push your stuff on them, and someone usually buys it... even if they do it only to make you feel good about the effort.
There are quite a few venues where you can sell within a community of collectors, shoppers, and other merchants, but also many of those will help you go bankrupt while you are trying to succeed.
Many sites cater to very low priced merchandise, such as used books, quilt patterns, and secondhand clothes. Quite a few other social selling sites cater to everyday general merchandise within the community, from electronics to sporting goods. Think about it: when you go shopping for everyday products, do you go to the store filled with strangers, or that place they know your name?
What to look for:
Look at your user ID number when you register, or the site membership numbers if available. If it's below 1,000, you are probably wasting your time. Most sites now start with 1 (padding memberships used to be the norm) so if there are 10,000+ you can assume there are lots of active members, or the site is very visible.
Can you bring your reputation with you? A site like Bonanzle or IOffer lets your eBay feedback travel with you, but smaller sites like alsoshop.com or hibidder.com will let you bring feedback scores from 10 other sites to their site. This will make or break you, as I can attest to. I had 10 customers in a year on a site with about 20,000 members, but with Bonanzle I have had many times that. It's also important to remember that unless you sell to a seller, you probably won't receive feedback from the customer, so your imported score becomes even more important.
A perfect example of a small success with social selling in the past was with a site called Wagglepop. Before I left the site after a string of disagreements with the owner, I was able to sell over $5,000 in 7 months. That's not a living by any means, but only 1 in 10 eBay sellers reach that in 7 months. I stuck with the community, helped other sellers, and marketed my store at the site and had some mild success.
A more recent example is on Bonanzle, where my sales in 2 years have barely reached the $5,000 from my 7 month Wagglepop stint (only about $100 of $5,300 came in the first year.) The difference is my activity in the community. I rarely chat with the other members, where I did with many of the Wagglepop members over the phone regularly. I don't really put my booth link anywhere, but with Wagglepop I had the link up everywhere I visited. In fact, my only sales are from Google's Shopping results, and only from there for the past year. Could I do better? Maybe, but I no longer have the free time I once had with Wagglepop.
That's it for social selling this weekend, and I hope this gets your feet wet on the topic.
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Monday, May 10, 2010
What do you love? - Archive May 2010
The last few articles dealt with managing your own business, and the "what if's" that will inevitably happen. Now it's time to talk about something more uplifting for your business.
Here is the article: http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/04/smallbusiness/amish_business_success/index.htm
Wow, so all it takes is selling what you know, which is what Amish business owners do well. If you know and love fishing, sell fishing gear. If you know and love cooking, sell kitchen gadgets. If you know and love cars, sell car parts. Seems pretty simple doesn't it? Most US businesses that fail, do so because the owner lacks the knowledge and/or passion for the service or product offered. The Amish succeed because they only operate businesses doing what they know and love, and pass on their joy to their customers.
Now, what do you know and love?
Are you selling it?
If not, when are you going to start?
I ran across this on CNN, and there is a great video story about Amish businesses. The 5 year failure rate is less than 5%, while the rest of the country struggles with at least a 50% failure rate.
Here is the article: http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/04/smallbusiness/amish_business_success/index.htm
Wow, so all it takes is selling what you know, which is what Amish business owners do well. If you know and love fishing, sell fishing gear. If you know and love cooking, sell kitchen gadgets. If you know and love cars, sell car parts. Seems pretty simple doesn't it? Most US businesses that fail, do so because the owner lacks the knowledge and/or passion for the service or product offered. The Amish succeed because they only operate businesses doing what they know and love, and pass on their joy to their customers.
Now, what do you know and love?
Are you selling it?
If not, when are you going to start?
Saturday, May 1, 2010
You run yours, forget about theirs - Archive May 2010
This year I have broken ties with a group of business owners. I have been involved with them for about 3 years and was really believing in a lot of what I was "taught" about my business. Well, that stopped a couple months ago.
Here are three things I have learned from that experience.
Here are three things I have learned from that experience.
- There are hundreds of people willing to lend an opinion about your business. Those same people are always willing to help until you disagree with their opinions. Once that happens, you are cast away as a misinformed idiot who has no clue how to run a business. Trust me. I know all too well.
- There is no one, I mean no one, who understands your business. I don't care how long they have run an identical business, they don't know how to run yours. If you try to follow their plan, it won't work because it is their plan. You have to formulate your own plan from scratch, taking the best of the best ideas only to fit your business.
- If any person who advises you makes a habit of attacking other business owners, avoid their opinions. If you don't, you will fall into the same line of thought. I used to write regularly on a e-business attack and flame forum regularly with the same "advisers" I am speaking of, and I took their attacks as my own. While doing this I not only let my business slide (actually slalom) down the hill, but I also took myself to a personal low point I didn't know I could reach.
The whole point of this post is to give you one piece of advice, the only thing I will ever tell you that you must do to be successful:
Make your business yours. Treat it like your home, keep it clean, neat, and organized, and always be prepared for the collapse.
Talk to you soon!
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Is it time for a change? Archive April 2010
Something every business must evaluate periodically is their ability to dissolve their business, and start fresh with a new service or products. I talked about this last year when my sales dropped by 25%, but never applied my plan. Now, I don't have much choice.
That's where I am today. We visited Movie Gallery today because we wanted to rent a new release that wasn't in Redbox, and we didn't want to wait a week for Netflix to have it back in stock.
There was a sign on the door that said (not verbatim) "We are closing. We do not know when, and it was not planned. We will not be receiving any new movies."
The lady working said all stores are closing with their bankruptcy.
Wow. The first movies we ever rented came from Movie Gallery, and they will be gone by summer.
This brought me to the realization of several issues with my business:
1. If customers won't pay $4 to rent a movie and copy it at home (come on now, you've done it...) they sure as hell won't pay $20 for me to ship a copy to them.
2. Most people who rented movies now use Netflix. I do too, and I sell movies. I can watch any one of over 20,000 movies every day on my computer, or have 3 of over 60,000 of them in my mailbox tomorrow, for $16 a month. That's less than my price for a single new release.
3. The only way I ever sell a single movie is to make nearly nothing on the sale, or the shopper will be buying from a much bigger competitor that can get a lower price.. If I sell a movie for $10, I am lucky to make a buck after the processing fees, and if it is on eBay, I just can't sell a new movie and make a profit anymore.
4. DVD sales weren't killed by Blu-Ray, they were killed by Netflix.
This is the year that my 8 year business selling movies, since July 2002, will come to an end. It's no longer feasible to make a minimal profit. Fortunately, I have a primary income to support my online selling addiction, so I can experiment. If your business is on a downswing, your options may be more limited.
This is my plan:
I have found a specific audience to target, and while there is competition, there is a very simple way to insert my brand into the market.
I already have a decent amount of knowledge regarding suppliers, and have expanded my sourcing for the products. There is a very good margin on these items with an average selling price of $40 within the niche.
I will continue to use my same supplier for movies as needed, but I am preparing to unload a large number soon via Craigslist. Hopefully, I can raise a good bit of cash, plus my credit will help greatly to go on a new track.
So, let's look at your business.
Are your sales less than 75% of last year? Mine were there in 2009, now they are less than 10% of that.
Are your profit margins slipping because of increased competition?
Are you prepared with a backup plan to make up your lost income while you restructure?
The reality is simple. I have sold movies, only movies really, for 8 years. My sales were once over $50k monthly. My sales for April have been less than $500. That's 1% of my sales in 2006, and 10% of my sales from April, 2009.
It's time to plan my exit from the DVD market. I'll stay on top of it, so stay on top of yours and don't let your stubbornness get in the way of profit.
That's where I am today. We visited Movie Gallery today because we wanted to rent a new release that wasn't in Redbox, and we didn't want to wait a week for Netflix to have it back in stock.
There was a sign on the door that said (not verbatim) "We are closing. We do not know when, and it was not planned. We will not be receiving any new movies."
The lady working said all stores are closing with their bankruptcy.
Wow. The first movies we ever rented came from Movie Gallery, and they will be gone by summer.
This brought me to the realization of several issues with my business:
1. If customers won't pay $4 to rent a movie and copy it at home (come on now, you've done it...) they sure as hell won't pay $20 for me to ship a copy to them.
2. Most people who rented movies now use Netflix. I do too, and I sell movies. I can watch any one of over 20,000 movies every day on my computer, or have 3 of over 60,000 of them in my mailbox tomorrow, for $16 a month. That's less than my price for a single new release.
3. The only way I ever sell a single movie is to make nearly nothing on the sale, or the shopper will be buying from a much bigger competitor that can get a lower price.. If I sell a movie for $10, I am lucky to make a buck after the processing fees, and if it is on eBay, I just can't sell a new movie and make a profit anymore.
4. DVD sales weren't killed by Blu-Ray, they were killed by Netflix.
This is the year that my 8 year business selling movies, since July 2002, will come to an end. It's no longer feasible to make a minimal profit. Fortunately, I have a primary income to support my online selling addiction, so I can experiment. If your business is on a downswing, your options may be more limited.
This is my plan:
I have found a specific audience to target, and while there is competition, there is a very simple way to insert my brand into the market.
I already have a decent amount of knowledge regarding suppliers, and have expanded my sourcing for the products. There is a very good margin on these items with an average selling price of $40 within the niche.
I will continue to use my same supplier for movies as needed, but I am preparing to unload a large number soon via Craigslist. Hopefully, I can raise a good bit of cash, plus my credit will help greatly to go on a new track.
So, let's look at your business.
Are your sales less than 75% of last year? Mine were there in 2009, now they are less than 10% of that.
Are your profit margins slipping because of increased competition?
Are you prepared with a backup plan to make up your lost income while you restructure?
The reality is simple. I have sold movies, only movies really, for 8 years. My sales were once over $50k monthly. My sales for April have been less than $500. That's 1% of my sales in 2006, and 10% of my sales from April, 2009.
It's time to plan my exit from the DVD market. I'll stay on top of it, so stay on top of yours and don't let your stubbornness get in the way of profit.
Friday, March 19, 2010
Before you waste your time... - Archive March 2010
This article contains information about websites that are no longer in operation.
Time is a precious commodity for an online seller. It's sometimes the only cost we never factor into our business. I have spent 14 hours a day in from of a computer listing consignment items on eBay with my prices too high, and saw almost no return on my investment. For that 14 hours I don't think I even made $50.
There are some sites that you can spend hours and days listing your wares, and never see a return worth those hours you spend. There's a great way to judge your sales potential though. You can guess that visits have a lot to do with sales. Without the browsers, there are no buyers. Unless the site has a 1:3 visit:listing margin over the past several months, it is not worth your time.
One of my favorites right now is Bonanzle.
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/bonanzle.com/
The average visits are 1.12 million for last month, . Their total listings are 2.8 million, which is better than a 1:3 visit:listing ratio.
Another interesting note is at the bottom of the Compete statistics, their 5th highest referrer is Paypal. This likely means that the 5th biggest traffic draw is a redirect from Paypal after making a purchase. The other 4 are high traffic websites eBay, Facebook, Google, and Yahoo, which shows a great organic grassroots marketing strategy.
Another one that comes as a surprise to me is Webstore.com.
With 129k listings, they receive 160k visits monthly. That's better than a 1:1 margin, and most sellers should be able to see results from their time on the site.
Next, let's take a look at an example of where not to list and expect results.
Wensy has over 250k Listings, but their site only receives 63k visits a month, giving it a 1:4 visit:listing margin. While the site specializes in coins and collectible cards, not many sellers will find success with this site.
Time is a precious commodity for an online seller. It's sometimes the only cost we never factor into our business. I have spent 14 hours a day in from of a computer listing consignment items on eBay with my prices too high, and saw almost no return on my investment. For that 14 hours I don't think I even made $50.
There are some sites that you can spend hours and days listing your wares, and never see a return worth those hours you spend. There's a great way to judge your sales potential though. You can guess that visits have a lot to do with sales. Without the browsers, there are no buyers. Unless the site has a 1:3 visit:listing margin over the past several months, it is not worth your time.
One of my favorites right now is Bonanzle.
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/bonanzle.com/
The average visits are 1.12 million for last month, . Their total listings are 2.8 million, which is better than a 1:3 visit:listing ratio.
Another interesting note is at the bottom of the Compete statistics, their 5th highest referrer is Paypal. This likely means that the 5th biggest traffic draw is a redirect from Paypal after making a purchase. The other 4 are high traffic websites eBay, Facebook, Google, and Yahoo, which shows a great organic grassroots marketing strategy.
Another one that comes as a surprise to me is Webstore.com.
With 129k listings, they receive 160k visits monthly. That's better than a 1:1 margin, and most sellers should be able to see results from their time on the site.
Next, let's take a look at an example of where not to list and expect results.
Wensy has over 250k Listings, but their site only receives 63k visits a month, giving it a 1:4 visit:listing margin. While the site specializes in coins and collectible cards, not many sellers will find success with this site.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
March Madness site reviews: eCrater - Get your first online store today 100% free. - Archive March 2010
This was my first post back after a long break from writing, in March 2010.
My first ecommerce website was built on eBay's ProStores platform. It was slow and cumbersome, and a nightmare to customize with their online Dreamweaver-clone app. Listing was a pain because html wasn't allowed. No bulk listing tools were available.
It's no wonder I abandoned the shop, moving it to PrestoStore after a year.
Today, as I work with heavily customized OScommerce sites (that I spent countless hours customizing) I look back and wonder, why didn't I jump straight from ProStores to my own cart? Or even better, try out that new free marketplace/store site everyone on PSU was raving about, eCrater.
Don't get me wrong, I would no sooner trade my websites for eCrater. But eCrater could have changed my whole business model if I had given it a shot in 2006, instead of setting up at another overpriced web hosted cart.
eCrater offers everything simple about online selling. You get a fully functional Paypal/Google Checkout cart, instant Google feeds, a branded site with your own logo, and nothing fancy to get you tied up over design. It's all about adding your products for sale, selling them, and adding more. It's so simple, a treeman could do it.
You can import directly from your eBay listings, which works well for sellers of renewable products (replenished new items, handmade jewelry, homemade soap, etc.) You also have the option to use a pretty simple bulk import tool by creating an Excel file. If you choose to list one by one, you can list each item in under a minute in most cases.
The site's dedicated ownership has built eCrater from the ground up, with two things in mind: Simplicity and functionality.
The best sellers are having a hundred sales a month, and some of the lowest volume sellers who work on their stores find at least a dozen customers a month.
Want to know more? Read the seller's successes and opinions on their eCrater stores.
http://www.powersellersunite.com/about31303.html
eCrater will be a force as long as it's sellers continue to thrive. It's rich community, strong base, and simple features make eCrater a great place to start your very first non-eBay webstore today.
My first ecommerce website was built on eBay's ProStores platform. It was slow and cumbersome, and a nightmare to customize with their online Dreamweaver-clone app. Listing was a pain because html wasn't allowed. No bulk listing tools were available.
It's no wonder I abandoned the shop, moving it to PrestoStore after a year.
Today, as I work with heavily customized OScommerce sites (that I spent countless hours customizing) I look back and wonder, why didn't I jump straight from ProStores to my own cart? Or even better, try out that new free marketplace/store site everyone on PSU was raving about, eCrater.
Don't get me wrong, I would no sooner trade my websites for eCrater. But eCrater could have changed my whole business model if I had given it a shot in 2006, instead of setting up at another overpriced web hosted cart.
eCrater offers everything simple about online selling. You get a fully functional Paypal/Google Checkout cart, instant Google feeds, a branded site with your own logo, and nothing fancy to get you tied up over design. It's all about adding your products for sale, selling them, and adding more. It's so simple, a treeman could do it.
You can import directly from your eBay listings, which works well for sellers of renewable products (replenished new items, handmade jewelry, homemade soap, etc.) You also have the option to use a pretty simple bulk import tool by creating an Excel file. If you choose to list one by one, you can list each item in under a minute in most cases.
The site's dedicated ownership has built eCrater from the ground up, with two things in mind: Simplicity and functionality.
The best sellers are having a hundred sales a month, and some of the lowest volume sellers who work on their stores find at least a dozen customers a month.
Want to know more? Read the seller's successes and opinions on their eCrater stores.
http://www.powersellersunite.com/about31303.html
eCrater will be a force as long as it's sellers continue to thrive. It's rich community, strong base, and simple features make eCrater a great place to start your very first non-eBay webstore today.
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