Forum Moderators: buckworks
Well, I figured this forum is as good as any to get down and dirty regarding where you really *need* to be selling online, and where is a waste of time. You *need* to be somewhere that consistently over-time has producted sales.
Obvious:
1. Your own website - gives you control, and endless possibilities
2. Ebay - your own website, but without the control. But eBay fronts all the marketing costs
3. Amazon - if it's a new or unique product, create an item detail page
4. Google Adwords (and other PPC) - may not seem obvious, but to ignore the power of search is silly. make sure you're visible for the most targeted keywords. (see WebmasterWorld ppc forums)
Not so obvious:
5. Feeds - shopping.com, shopzilla, nextag have had proven success. I'd love to see a list of others people have had consistent success with.
6. Affiliates - letting other people sell your products - this may be the best ROI of anything
Waste of time:
1. Small PPC engines that are not niche specific
2. Mass emailing other websites trying to get them to sell your product
3. Putting up your site and letting it sit there hoping/assuming people will come and buy. You are better of not wasting your time on the site at all.
Well e-commerce experts, where else would you say are *musts* to sell your widgets online?
But it depends what you are selling. Eg we sell a unique product so none will ever search for it, as people don't know it exists.
There is a slight clash with 2 of your points. Obvious 1 your own website, then Waste of time 3 your own website !
Blogs with articles that mention your product have been great for me to get hits. Facebook also drove many hits to my site (but it is too expensive). Google Adwords has got me about 5 hits in 6 months (it is too hard to use and they don't put the ads up when they should)
You also forgot to add Selling your products on Ebay auction site (not a shop etc).
ebay in partcular, with Amazon not that far behind, are, IMO, snakepits. I do not do business with either. Kind of unfortunate for ebay, because unique and hard to find items can be had there. Between personal bad experiences and endless stories of others, there is just no way I would go back.
On the not so obvious, not a personal fan of #5 and $6 only viable if margins are huge. ROI is totally dependent on fat margins with lots of fat.
Agree with all three waste of time points.
Digmen1 drives home a nail with "But it depends what you are selling." That question drives the answer to your question. Who wants what you sell, and where are they? That's where you put the marketing money and the time to make personal connections.
I live on micro-niches, but I have to market that way and hook into the 'leading' groups or proponents of the niche. On the plus side, joining societies and buying newsletter advertising can be highly effective and cheap. On the downside, you need to know what the reach is (membership), and you have to build market and brand at the same time because market penetration will max out pretty fast. If a lot of the marketing is essentially targeting the same customers repeatedly, it needs to be a big-dollar, big-profit item or, even better, a consumable in a market that you can takeover and then milk a cash cow that delivers small but consistent amounts of profit.
