Increasing Traffic to Your Website or Online Auctions

One very simple way to get your ebay store listings found on the internet is by putting them on Froogle/Google. This is a very simple process, and it is FREE!!! That is my favorite word!!! All you need to do is type in froogle in your google search box. There is a Google store connector that you need to download. From here, you just click and download all of your items from your store into the store connector. When someone types in an item that you carry in your store, your items will be shown closer to the top of the search page, or in some cases, at the very top!!! I have had mine come up as a comparison with other items identical to mine, but mine was the lowest price. I cannot imagine anyone not using this free advertising tool. It would be totally foolish not to take advantage of all of the free networking and advertising available to online store owners. Check this out and see the difference it makes.

You don't have to be a journalism expert or a well known author to write an ebook. Ebooks are written every day, about subjects that are informative, instructional or just plain fun. All of the ebooks you see offered above were written by women who are just plain "Moms", who had an idea and went with it. The great thing about writing an ebook, whether it be about taking terrific photos, a cookbook of Mom's favorite recipes, to grooming your dog properly, you can write about what you know. I wrote the "Good Things Come In Great Packages - A Guide to Packing and Shipping Glassware, because I had so many of my customers complain that they had received glass items not well packaged and damaged in transit from other dealers. By the feedback that I was getting, I figured I must be doing something right when I am packing, so I decided to write about it. Once you have decided what to write, and have it all written and titled, you can either sell it on your website, or give it away free as an incentive to buy other items from your online store. I am giving a free Wedding Favor Craft ebook with the purchase of two toasting goblets during the months of May & June, to encourage sales to brides to be. You can do the same. It doesn't have to be 100 pages long. It can be 5 pages or 10 pages, no matter. Ebay no longer allows the sale of ebooks, but you can copy yours onto a cd and sell the cd in your ebay store or put your ebook on your website, blogs, Myspace, links to it in your emails to customers, friends and family. Even make a lens about it! To get started, there is a second edition of "How To Write An Ebook" by Danna Crawford, that you can purchase at her website www.askdanna.com. It can be a very useful tool to get traffic into your store and to your sites. Try your hand at it. You never know! You may become the next Stephen King!

Have you ever heard of Sellerscircle??? This is great place to join. It is a community of people who want their online stores to be seen and more traffic sent their way. Sellerscircle.com lets you add all of your ebay listings to your page. You can also join groups (I joined the Nebraska sellers group), you can invite friends (their friends see what you have in your store)and you can blog about your store or anything else you want.

Another great place that is similar is Auctionrssfeed.com. All of your auctions are put on a RSS feed, so that everytime your store is updated, the RSS feed picks up the new items automatically. All of these sites help get your online store out to the search engines, which is the goal with onine marketing. It is ALL FREE!! Why spend tons of money on pay per click, when you can get the same results for free??? Keep checking back here or bookmark my lens, as I will be adding more free marketing ideas and sites as I find them. Trust me, they work. I have noticed the increase when I check my ebay traffic reports, and many of my visitors are from these sites. All it takes is a little time and a little effort. It is worth it if you want to be successful. Isn't that our goal???

The following are direct excerpts from the Reliabid Website and Press Releases.

Company History
"The People Behind ReliaBid
ReliaBid is the brainchild of two highly experienced eBay users- a veteran eBay PowerSeller and a budding "PowerBuyer". Established in January 2004, and introduced to the public in June 2005, ReliaBid's objective is to ensure that online auction sellers eliminate non-paying bidders and receive payment for their transactions quickly and consistently."

"ReliaBid's founders, Mohamed Ramzi Ismail and Jonathan Eric Rosen, began working on the idea shortly after finishing their graduate work at the George Washington University's Duques School of Business. Mohamed formerly served on the staff of the World Bank, providing guidance to governments on private sector development and innovation. Jonathan joined ReliaBid from Gartner, where he advised high-profile CIO's in the Executive Programs practice. Both share a lifelong passion for entrepreneurship."

ReliaBid's Mission
"The founders of ReliaBid recognized that the services designed to combat online auction fraud were mostly geared towards dispute resolution and buyer protection, and that online auction sellers lacked a service which afforded them with a comparable level of security. This realization led to extensive research into the needs of online auction sellers, the result of which is the ReliaBid Seal Program."

"The focus of the ReliaBid Seal Program is to provide online auction sellers with a highly visible deterrent which they can use to warn potential buyers of the consequences of not paying for an item. In the rare event that the seal's warning goes unheeded, ReliaBid offers online auction sellers an additional set of tools which provides them with an avenue to collect payment for their goods. Overall, the ReliaBid Seal Program has been proven to significantly reduce the instances of non-payment and auction bidder fraud."

Success and Progress
"The unveiling of ReliaBid's service at eBay Live! 2005 generated an overwhelmingly enthusiastic response from auction sellers, who immediately recognized the value of the service. Since then, ReliaBid has affirmed its commitment to offer solutions to online sellers.

Below is a press release from August 2006 about the effectiveness of Reliabids Seal and Service:

RELIABID PROVEN OVER 99 PERCENT EFFECTIVE
IN ELIMINATING NON-PAYING BIDDERS IN EBAY AUCTIONS
(ARLINGTON, VA) August 9, 2006 - With the number of reported online auction fraud cases rising
daily, one company is dedicated to tackling the problem head on. ReliaBid, Inc. (ReliaBid) is positioned to end a key element of online auction fraud: eliminating non-paying bidders from today's marketplace.
The company's Annual Effectiveness Review confirms the proven nature of its innovative solution, with
the ReliaBid Seal Program demonstrated to be over 99 percent effective in deterring non-paying bidders
from the company's members' auctions.
"Although non-paying bidder rates vary significantly within the industry, nothing has been proven to be more effective at drastically reducing the number of non-paying bidders as the ReliaBid Seal Program.
The seal itself is just that effective. Once an online seller enrolls and becomes a member they are seen as taking a stand for themselves and their business, thus deterring those who are not serious and will not pay. At the same time the seal increases our members' credibility and appeal to potential buyers," explains ReliaBid CEO Jonathan Rosen.The ReliaBid Seal Program works by automatically inserting a seal into all the ompany's members'auction listings, reaffirming the message for buyers that if they bid, they are should be committed to completing the transaction. What makes this program so successful is that it has the means to back up
the seal: In the rare event that online auction sellers do not receive payment on their items, they have the option of starting a collection against the non-paying bidder. However, ReliaBid members' in the past year only started a collection approximately once out of every 62,000 auctions listed, once again speaking to the value of the seal.
The extreme effectiveness of ReliaBid's Seal Programs makes it the perfect tool to allow online auction sellers to protect themselves.

If you really want to get your online store or website noticed, you have to put it out in front of the public. Just like the brick and mortar store hangs a sign outside to let customers know what they are selling, you should "hang" your sign everywhere you can on the internet. Do banner exchanges with networking friends on MySpace, join Reallysmartdeals and get up to 20 banners seen free of charge, put banners on your ME page on ebay that go to a specific category in your store. Be creative! There are all sorts of ideas and places to leave your mark! Add it to your signature on your business emails. A colorful and catchy banner is one of the best ways to draw attention to your website or online store. Check the links that I have added for sites that offer free bannermaking. It takes less than 5 minutes to make a banner, and the HTML code is written for you. All you have to do is substitute your web address in the correct spot, right click, select and copy. Save it in a folder on your computer so that you have easy access to it. Banners can be made to advertise special sales, free offers, a specific category in your store, a specific item or the home page to your store. Make them and use them as much as possible. The more your banners are seen, the more your name will be recognized.

If you have an ebay store, one of the things you do not want to miss is Ebay Radio. Jim "Griff" Griffith, Dean of Ebay University, is the host of the radio show, which is on every Tuesday 11:00am to 2:00pm Pacific Time (2:00 to 5:00pm Eastern time). The show is also on Sunday afternoons. Griff covers all of the current hot eBay topics, has alot of wonderful guests, who always have great ideas and lots of information to help you out with your ebay experience, plus he gives the latest updates straight from eBay! The best thing, is that if you have a question or are having a problem with some aspect of eBay, you can call in and talk directly to Griff during the show. If he doesn't know the answer to your question, he will find out the answer for you. Now, I know alot of us work regular jobs too, and are not home at this time to catch the radio show, but never fear!! All of the shows are archived, so that you can go back and listen to anything you may have missed. Or, you just may want to hear a guest speaker again to pick up more tips. Just click on the archives and listen! I guarantee you will enjoy every minute of the show. Griff makes it fun, entertaining and most of all informative. Drop in and give a listen. I am including the link below, in my list of great sites to utilize for your online store.

There is a special group on eBay for those who listen to Ebay Radio (Jim (Griff) Griffith's show. Come join the group and join in the fun. You will receive an email reminding you of the broadcast, plus a heads up on what will be on the segment, and who the guest speakers will be. It's easy to sign up, and costs nothing! Come join us!!!

Every person who owns and runs their own business, whether it is a consulting business or an online store needs to be organized. I have found the most fantastic organizational day planner ever! I have tried several other brands, and either they were too complicated, or had only areas for dates and not much room for notes. The Planner Pad's funnel down system gets you organized and keeps you organized. It is the most user friendly planner I have ever used. Plenty of room for notes, appointments, to do lists, phone numbers and even goals and projects pages! It is available in spiral bound 8 1/2" x 11" or 8 1/2" x 6 3/4" or also in a loose leaf with a binder. The introductory package is a fantastic value, so click on the banner below and check it out. You have nothing to lose, since they offer a unconditional guarantee for first time users! It's what I use, and so should you!

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