Can I find another outlet for my product? Got my site and EBay.

Is there any place else I should consider?

[darren01]

Hello,

I run a mildly successful website where I make and sell my own widgets.

Sales come from my site and eBay. However, during different points of the seasons, especially now, sales are not so good.

I sell from my site and offer the same goods at a discount at eBay.

From time to time I have sales on my site.

If I only had one more outlet for my products my income and life would become more improved.

I looked at Yahoo! merchant sites and they seem simular to owning a regular one except they make it easier.

Can't sell my stuff at half.com because I wouldn't be able to afford staying in biz selling at such low prices.

Would there be a place that I overlooked? It would have to be with little or no start up costs.

I am unable to work and my internet biz is my only income. Has been that way since December.

I have also entertained the thought of duplicating my site. You know, sell the same thing from a different URL.

Anyone have good experiences doing that?

Any advise will be great!

Thanks in advance.

Darren

[Essex_boy]

Dont duplicate your site, Google may attach a penalty which will hit you hard.

Is it possible you could sell you items through a local store? On a commission basis.

I know you say your unable work but are you able to have a market stall?

Just some ideas.

[gramski]

I have also looked at other options for selling and I found the thing that paid off most was to keep doing my site and eBay but to expand them.

For example I started listing on Ebay UK as well as US, started offering my widgets in GBPounds and Euro as well as US$. I also used adwords and overture to direct the buyers to the "local curency" page and it seemed to be very effective.

One other thing I did which was more effective than I thought it would be was to take some small classified ads in some very specific niche websites and magazines. These were aimed at specific hobbyist type buyers and most of them still run successfully after 18 months.

[brucet]

If you have a Featured Store on eBay you could look at Amazon Marketplace and Yahoo! Store. They are quite similar, and similarly priced. If you are just using eBay auctions or have their Basic store package, you may find the others a bit expensive.

[Morocco]

Try some shopping portals

[darren01]

Essex_boy stated;
Dont duplicate your site, Google may attach a penalty which will hit you hard.

Is it possible you could sell you items through a local store? On a commission basis.

I know you say your unable work but are you able to have a market stall?

Just some ideas.
---
Hello,

Thanks for the tips.

By duplicating my site I was thinking about selling the same products from a different domain under a different name.

The two sites would be entirely different but same products.

What do you think?

There is no way to sell through a local store as the local area's economy is depressed and mostly what we have left are the ilk of beer halls and weightlifing rooms.

I am having a BIG market stall right now. Should have brought in 3 times more money this month that I have.

Can't figure out what happened. Not one order since Sept. 11th! Getting very worried.

As for eBay UK, it is a great idea!

How do I list the prices in Euro and UK pounds? Is there a site that lists currency conversions?

Please let me know.

If eBayUK can pull in the kind of money I already make at the other eBay then my problems are solved (except for the market stall).

Also, shopping portals were mentioned. Can you IM me with a list of your favorite ones I should check out?

Thanks for your help.

Darren

[gramski]

If you want to check conversion rates for currencies xe.com has all the latest rates.

I use the paypal Buy buttons on my site (not a shopping cart) so I have different pages for Euro and GBPounds.

You can list on ebay UK by going to ebay.co.uk and listing your items. All listings on ebay.co.uk are in pounds. If you put your location as UK your items will show on the ebay UK local search. You should put your actual location as well so people are clear where their items are coming from. I think its essential to do the listing in pounds and put the postage costs in pounds also. Make sure your paypal account is set up to accept pounds and you won't have any problems.

[edited by: gramski at 10:42 pm (utc) on Sep. 16, 2004]

[gramski]

Oh - also about shopping portals - set up a Froogle feed so your items are listed there. I don't get all that much traffic from froogle but it is free (so far) and it does get some sales. The yahoo shopping feed is too expensive in my opinion - anyway you can get ads on the yahoo shopping with overture if you really want to have a presence on yahoo.