Advertising in theCrater

After a bit of delay, my first eCrater tips newsletter is now available.

If you are subscribed to my eCrater Tips newsletter, you should be receiving it shortly via email.

Otherwise, feel free to pick up a copy from my eCrater store.

This issue covers:

• Keyword Research and Ideas
• Taking advantage of eCrater RSS feeds
• Filling in inventory gaps
• Ideas on eCraters Featured Product functionality
• Getting yourself on Google Maps
• Making your item thumbnails show up properly
• A review of my comic store

It was a bit rushed and is my first newsletter, but hopefully at least someone out there will find it of use.

These past couple of days I have spent updating items on my Privateer Hobbies eCrater comic store, doing some product research via Google Base, and writing a mysql/php utility to allow me to take the items I have up on eCrater and publish them directly to Google Base.

The tweaks to my Privateer Hobbies store are primarily to increase the keyword usage in order to be placed a bit higher in Google Products and search engines in general. The main problem that I am running into is that I like to have my policies included in my listings since items on eCrater show up in the Marketplace…where people cannot access my stores help pages.

If keyword density is a factor, then I may well be killing the ability for my items to show up in the first couple of pages by including so much information. Fortunately, with my new php/mysql tool I will be able to tell very shortly which way shows up better. If my hunch is correct, and keyword density is a decent factor, then I will be trimming my policies out of my listing and perhaps replacing them with a short line such as “Select my Store Link above and then my Terms page for full details on shipping, getting free comics with coupons, charitable donations, etc.”

The tool I made is a very basic database created to hold product information. It is tied to a simple set of pages for displaying what is in the database, adding, editing, and removing items from it, and generating RSS2 xml files for Google Base. I put up one file earlier today so I should be able to start seeing what kind of difference in ranking there is between items with policy information and items without. If there is any interest in a tool like this, feel free to let me know…I might decide to take the time to clean it up a bit and place it on my Experiments in Selling store.

For the first newsletter ( coming up here tomorrow or the next day ), I am going to cover:

• some basic keyword research
• the use of keywords in a product description
• an interesting way to help with both search rankings and product placement for those who sell items that they have ready access to
• a roundup of blogosphere news related to eCrater this past week
• an idea for turning more browsers into buyers
• a review of one of my own stores ( as much to take notes on what I need to do to clean it up as anything…but I figure it will be a good place to start for store reviews )

I may touch on a couple of other items, but that should give me enough for this week.

My special report covering how to use one alternative payment method and digital delivery system with eCrater is now available.

To get it, simply “pay” for any of my free eCrater reports by using the “Digital Delivery” method. By doing so, you will get:

• The report you selected
• Bonus #1: The Professional PDF Guide
• Bonus #2: My special report on digital delivery and an alternative payment system with eCrater

And, you will get them via the very method that I use to give discounts to customers and automatically deliver digital items to them.

Try it out and you might be pleasantly surprised.

Additionally, both items work well whether or not you have a web site and can even be used for direct selling via e-mail or even ebooks.

Grab a manual now to try it out and see how to do it:

• How to setup an eCrater store
• Setting up your eCrater store to sell
• Marketing your eCrater store online
• Advertising your eCrater store with eBay

Alternatively, buy them out of my eCrater Store via a normal payment method and I will send you both special reports via email.

A while back I started using an alternative payment method with my eCrater stores so that people who had no cash to spend could still buy what I am selling. It was interesting, but I was always working on other things and never really bothered to promote it.

That changed when I opened my new eCrater store: Experiments in Selling. While I was writing the first four manuals to put up in it, I started seeking out a digital delivery mechanism that could be used with eCrater without too much hassle for customers…and I found one.

After using it, I realized that the combination of this digital delivery method and alternative payment system work flawlessly together and so that is what I decided to write my 5th report on…which is now finished and being prepped to be distributed via the very method that it writes about.

I have decided to do something a little different than I have done with the first four reports and only provide it to those who decide to pay for one of my free manuals.

Oh right…and my eBay store is now history. R.I.P.

Now it is time to go watch a movie, kick back for a bit, and get some sleep. Perhaps tomorrow I will start in on the 5th free manual I have kicking around in my head…

I have sold on eBay for quite some time now, but have been pushed closer and closer to abandoning it altogether over this last year.

The increasing fee hikes have so far been my primary reason, but until these last few months, they have been worth tolerating because I made more sales there.

I guess if I had a huge inventory of products and could afford to pay the monthly store fees, the listing fees, the selling fees, and the extra paypal fees, I wouldn’t do much more than complain about it. However, I have traditionally sold sporadically and my best month there to date has been about $800…of which eBay took around $200 between their fees and the PayPal fees.

All things considered it was still worth it, though I think they have been skirting the edge of my limits for a while.

Tonight however is the last straw. I logged into my account to see this:

Lowered Search Standings

The first thing that crosses my mind is the fact that this morning I had a “raised” search standing…so how in the nine hells could I possibly have a lowered search standing with only one new feedback?

Clicking the big glaring red bar, I see this:

I was still scratching my head for a minute until I realized that in the last 30 days, I have only had about 3 feedbacks, partially because I have not been selling a ton of items there due to working on other projects. Still, I get dinged because the post office and packaging providers are raising prices due to gas? Thats a bit stupid in my book.

Perhaps there is more to it, so I check the requirements for raised, just in case:

Uh oh, it looks like one of my customers was at least slightly dis-satisfied with my shipping time. I get that every little bit, especially since people tend to buy on thursdays and fridays…resulting in my not sending things out until the following monday ( our podunk post office isn’t open on saturdays ).

Now, I could see average search standings, but with my average ratings in all areas being between 4 and 5 on a 5 point scale, having my search standings set to lowered is pretty damn insulting.

I guess eBay simply is not for us small time sellers anymore. Imagine if I took a month vacation and had no sellers…my ratings would all be at 0 and I would probably get a nastygram. Somehow I am thinking that eBay has forgotten who is the customer here. While it is true that they provide a service, those of us who sell there are the ones who pay them…so why they are treating sellers more and more as if we are their employees is quite beyond me.

All I can say at this point is I am going to be more than happy to move the last of what I have there over to eCrater and close my eBay store tomorrow.
I guess what irks me the most is the fact that whoever is running the place must be asleep at the wheel. Personally, I don’t like leaving money on the table as it really isn’t the best of business practices.

Since I wrote my first eCrater manuals in part to outline what I want to do with my Experiments in Selling store, I went back through them to make sure I did not forget anything.

As it turns out, I forgot a few things, which I have now remedied:

• I had forgotten to put my eCrater store widget up. ( it is now to the left )
• I had forgotten to put useful eCrater related links up. ( look to the right )
• I had forgotten to fully tweak the names of my products in my store.
• I had not yet submitted my new eCrater store to relevant directories, so I went through the free PR5 and PR4 directories and submitted it. I will get the the lower page rank directories soon, but figured I should at least get the larger ones taken care of.

On another note, my second experiment ( right, I need to post a bit about that up here tomorrow ) has now paid for itself not only for the first month, but for the next two months as well. Since it is only through the halfway point now, it is looking pretty good. With the changes I will be making to it tomorrow after the initial overview I put up here, I expect it to start doing very well. You can see it in action here if you want.

These last few days have been a bit crazy as I have taken quite a few things and put them all together.

Therefore, I am taking a brief respite and cleaning up my house ( yes, it is in shambles and the wife is getting back tonight ).

As for what has been accomplished over the last few days, here is a quick overview:

• My new eCrater store is now online ( Experiments in Sales )
• The four manuals I have been working on are complete ( see links to the right )
• My second and third squidoo lenses are up ( see Squidoo Lenses to the left ), both of which need some love, but I’ll get around to it over the next few days.
• I provided a few tips for a couple of people over at the eCrater community who are not making sales.
• I got a bit more reading done on both selling and law.
• I updated my first squidoo law lens
• I managed to become a zombie for lack of sleep.

So, with that last thought I am done taking a break from taking a break and headed back to clean.

From here on out, updates made here will concern random thoughts on selling, information on how my current four selling experiments are going ( #2 is doing pretty well, but that is for another day ), and information I think might be interesting to fellow sellers as I stumble across it.

“The Professional PDF Guide” is a manual which I have purchased resell rights to and am making available to those interested in writing newsletters or ebooks.

It is the manual that I used to start making my manuals, using only free tools. The directions are clear, concise, and to the point. Why pay a bunch of money to create ebooks when you can make them easily for free?

There is only one option for acquiring this manual directly from me:

EiS eCrater Store	Free Digital Delivery	Steal this manual
Not Available		Not Available
N/A	Use this option to get a copy delivered to you directly by trying out someone else’s product or service, many of which are free. This way you get a free trial of a product or service that interests you as well as my manual. And the one providing the product or service pays me. You win. I win. They win. If you are able and willing to give it a try, you might be pleasantly surprised.	N / A
-		-

However, if you pick up any of my free eCrater reports via the “Free Digital Delivery” method, this guide will be included for free. Look at the links under “eCrater Reports” to the right to review them.

“Advertising your eCrater store with eBay” is a manual that I have written to help those just getting started with eCrater to get everything setup quickly.

There are three options available for acquiring this manual from me:

EiS eCrater Store	Free Digital Delivery	Steal this manual
For this option, simply visit my eCrater store. As with everything there, you can grab a copy before you buy to make sure that it has some value to you. Please consider paying my asking price if you find the information useful.	Use this option to get a copy delivered to you directly by trying out someone else’s product or service, many of which are free. This way you get a free trial of a product or service that interests you as well as my manual. And the one providing the product or service pays me. You win. I win. They win. If you are able and willing to give it a try, you might be pleasantly surprised. If you use this method to get the report, you will also get the following two reports absolutely free: 1) Professional PDF Guide 2) How to implement this payment method and digital delivery with eCrater	Simply download a copy from my site here. If you find it worth paying for ( or worth getting for free ), please consider coming back and using one of the other two methods to get it. After all, if no one ever pays for my time, effort, and energy then I will eventually focus it elsewhere
Buy @ eCrater		Snag a copy
Why do I offer to simply let you grab a copy? Because that way you pay only for what you find useful. Rather than deal with refunds, returns, etc., I prefer to get paid once my customers are satisfied with my products.

“Marketing your eCrater store online” is a manual that I have written to help those with eCrater stores get the word out about their stores.

There are three options available for acquiring this manual from me:

EiS eCrater Store	Free Digital Delivery	Steal this manual
For this option, simply visit my eCrater store. As with everything there, you can grab a copy before you buy to make sure that it has some value to you. Please consider paying my asking price if you find the information useful.	Use this option to get a copy delivered to you directly by trying out someone else’s product or service, many of which are free. This way you get a free trial of a product or service that interests you as well as my manual. And the one providing the product or service pays me. You win. I win. They win. If you are able and willing to give it a try, you might be pleasantly surprised. If you use this method to get the report, you will also get the following two reports absolutely free: 1) Professional PDF Guide 2) How to implement this payment method and digital delivery with eCrater	Simply download a copy from my site here. If you find it worth paying for ( or worth getting for free ), please consider coming back and using one of the other two methods to get it. After all, if no one ever pays for my time, effort, and energy then I will eventually focus it elsewhere
Buy @ eCrater		Snag a copy
Why do I offer to simply let you grab a copy? Because that way you pay only for what you find useful. Rather than deal with refunds, returns, etc., I prefer to get paid once my customers are satisfied with my products.