(I also need to do research to drive traffic to your specific ebay items, but this post is totally focused on driving traffic to your ebay store)
1. Include your Store URL in any and all printed material (business cards, invoices, Thank-You notes etc).
eBay automatically creates flyers, letterheads, envelopes here:
http://pages.ebay.com/storefronts/collateral.html
Be sure to use your Proper Store referral code URL:
The Store referral code is a pre-determined code added to the end of your Store URL. Using this code when drving traffic into your Store from outside of eBay will gice you a credit of 50-75%% off your Final Value Fees.
http://pages.ebay.com/help/specialtysites/referral-credit-steps.html
2. Include your Store URL in all follow-up emails to questions from customers about items, auction end letters, thank you emails, autoresponders, thank-you download page, etc.
3. Include your Store URL in any and all email correspondence (add it to your standard signature).
4. Promotional Items - Magnets, Pens, Key Chains, Pencils, Cups, etc with your Logo & Store URL. You could also purchase customized tshirts, caps, and jackets that you can wear.
(See CafePress.com to setup your own Promotional items)
Get a bumper sticker or license plate frame made with your eBay store name.
5. Submit your Store to Froogle (provided by Google)
The difference between Google and Froogle is that when someone performs a Google search the results returned will vary from products for sale to articles written about products and so on. Froogle is a search for products only. Therefore the results will concentrate on locating Stores who carry the particular product a buyer is searching for. It is *FREE* and easy to submit your Store to Froogle.
eBay automatically submits "Buy It Now" product listings to Froogle. eBay Sellers do not need (and can not obtain) a Froogle merchant account. All they have to do is sign up for the eBay export listings program:
1. "Manage Your Store" -> "Listing Feeds"
2. "Make a file of my Store Inventory listings available"
3. Click the Apply button.
Within 12 hours, eBay will create the file and post it to a URL based on your Store's URL - eg: mine is located here
Froogle FAQ: http://froogle.google.com/froogle/about.html
6. Join a Info Product Related Webring
I'll list the info product ones as soon as I find them! a Google Search should help you in the meantime.
I joined this one just now:
The eBay Friend's SiteRing
Some places to find related webrings:
alt-webring Ring list
Bravenet Site Ring Index
Ringlink Webring Directory
Ringlink Systems Directory
RingSurf Rings Directory
The Rail Trains
WebRing WebRing Index
7. Design a Refer-A-Friend Program.
"Refer a friend to my ebay store from my About Me page and get these 3 fabulous ebooks Free as my thankyou" (I can never resist these)
8. Reciprocal Links - Join up with other eBay Stores who sell merchandise that compliments your own. eBay allows you to link to up to 10 other eBay Stores on one of your Store pages. You could link to your other stores this way if you have more than one.
9. eBay Keywords - allows sellers to drive traffic to their Store from Customizable Banners at the top of the search results pages. (pay-per-click - minimum 10 cents each click)
https://ebay.admarketplace.net/ebay/servlet/ebay
10. Google Ad Words - (pay-per-click - minimum 5 cents per click)
Yahoo Sponsored Search - (pay-per-click - minimum $5 to start)
11. Create on-line Coupons.
Send Discount coupons to winners of your auctions as a thank you.
Or offer it on your website if you have one.
(need to find the ebay url where we can do this - will update this blog when I do.. else, please leave a comment if you know of one already)
12. Participate in "Share your Wares" Events - eBay conducts "Share Your Wares" and Street Fairs. Free.
... and eBay Stores Sidewalk Sale
13. Become Involved - Are you an expert of the items you sell? Become involved in different chat boards, discussion groups, collectors groups and offer your thoughts and opinions.
To enable your signature on eBay discussions:
1. Copy your image url from your photo host.
2. From any eBay discussion board, click on "Settings" at the top of the page.
3. Using the following code, substitute the url of your own.
4. Click on the "save" button. Your signature will now show up under every post you make.
14. Consider writing an article for a newsletter or on-line magazine. This is a great way to gain extra exposure, while educating the public about a particular topic or line of products.
15. Make use of your store opt-in Newsletter.
- monthly newsletter (special sales, upcoming items in your store, sneak peeks, and informative information about your products, etc)
16. Optimize your store for search engines
a) Choose a Store Name that includes keywords of the products you sell
b) Include keywords that describe the contents of your Store in your Store description.
c) If you use Custom Categories, make sure that you include product keywords that you expect buyers will search for.
d) Improve the ranking of your store on the major search engines by inserting keywords into your store. You can do this from within your store manager.
* Use 2-word or 3-word keyword phrases (Never single-word)
Will visit the following links and modify this post again with more Search Optimization tips for ebay stores:
Optimize your eBay Store for Search Engines & Comparison Shopping Sites
Optimize your eBay Store for Search Engines
17. Run Promotions & Contests
18. Become Seasonal. Shows potential buyers that you store is up to date and filled with new, fresh merchandise (Halloween, Christmas, Valentines, etc), Alternatively you could just add a holiday graphic to your storefront header.
19. "Did you know" strategy
Use the "Did you know..." mesage in your auction listings to let potential customers learn a particular fact about your business that sets you apart from the competition. Something unique and intriguing enough to get them clicking to your store.
"Did you know we are the largest supplier of *** on eBay?"
"Did you know we have over 100 different styles of *** in our eBay Store?"
20. Ideas for Links you can use in your Auction:
a. directing someone into a similar category within your store
b. general link to your Storefront
c. very specific "Buy it Now" link to identical store item
d. link to your About Me Page
e. your custom store pages
21. Graphics
Create graphic buttons for each of your store categories (and put them in all listings - auction & store)
22. Price an item starting it at the lowest amount possible, such as $0.01 with No Reserve (NR). The idea is to use this auction to generate a small buzz and bidding war. The auction could generate lots of links to your store. In the end, you should be able to take a small loss on the original auction, but generate enough sales via your eBay store to make it worthwhile.
23. That reminds me of similar tactic from the "secrets to a 1c auction" ebook that says to post an auction at 1c.. but make it only available to pre-selected users, so that other buyers have to go to your store to buy the item.
24. Use eBay's Merchant Kit to add your eBay content to your off eBay webpage.
25. Make an RSS feed available from your storefront:
1. Go to your store front and click on "Seller, manage Store."
2. Under "Store Marketing" on the left, click on "Listing Feeds."
3. Under "RSS Feeds," select "Distribute your listings via RSS." and click on the "Apply" button.
4. An RSS button will now be located at the bottom of your storefront for others to subscribe to.
26. Try better cross-promotions in your listings through NON-EBAY cross-promotional tools.
Out of the options I found online, these 3 look the best:
(all Free too)
http://www.egocentral.com/cgi-bin/ebay_cross_sell.cgi
http://www.auctionhealth.com/csw/ (easiest to use)
http://www.freeauctionscripts.com/crosspromotion/
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27. Add Custom Pages to your store
showcase items and specials, explain shipping and return policies, describe the history of your business, and so forth.
http://pages.ebay.com/help/stores/contextual/managing-custom-pages.html
28. Setup your About Me page
You can list to your personal website on your about me page, have free offers, subscription items, etc.
Read more about setting up your About Me page here:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/account/about-me.html
View my About Me page for ideas here: Pennys About Me Page
29. Setup your Store Listing Header which will go into every single ebay auction listing you have.
30. Join FREE eBay Stores Malls
You can link it from your about me page and websites.
http://xample.net/tozosmallnew.htm
http://www.avidcat.com/
31. Sample of your eBooks
Offer first 2 chapters free for all your ebooks on your About Me page and promote it in your auctions.
32. Register and assign a domain name to your eBay Store. You can assign any domain to your eBay Store through your store manager.
33. Upgrade your subscription level for more exposure on eBay Stores search pages, as well as other parts of eBay.
34. Create a free blog at www.blogger.com and review your ebay products and have a link to each of your current auctions in each post. Once you have a free blog, use Blog Announcer Pro to easily promote your blog and get in the top 10 search results of google & yahoo within 7 days or if you don't want to pay for a product so soon, you can promote manually to these blog directories.
35. New! Help drive traffic to your store using the new eBay Blog feature at eBay http://blogs.ebay.com/
My housemate is putting on a DVD that I wanna watch so I'll continue this research later.. gonna check out these sites after the movie:
More Tips To Help You Open an eBay Store
How to Deal with the outrageous ebay fee increase
"Traffic to your ebay store" Google Search Results
Increase Traffic to your ebay Store ebay Review
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