Has anyone here actually done it - been brave enough to move from auction site selling to their own website? If so, what was the final straw that made you go-it-alone? How did you choose your host and did you plunge in head first and build your own site, or did someone else do it for you? Most of all, how long did it take for sales to start happening?

Kate

Hi Kate.

I have a slightly biased view here but I will say this. The move from an auction site to your own site is a big step. For most people the auction venue is the first step into online selling and this is often due to a lack of understanding of how to create and run sites. There is nothing wrong in this. People are experts in their own fields and are not all programmers. Through frustration of Ebay sapping the profits or lack of sales through other auction venues it becomes increasingly attractive to run your own site.

Please take this into consideration. When you have your own site, and it is exclusive so you can do what you want, when you want. Without rules laid down by Ebay or others then this is only the first step. It is a pro active step. But it is just a tiny step. Because then you then have to drive people to the site. There lies the problem. If you want to use the site purely to cater for people who you personally can manualy drive to the site through emails or personal marketing, then remember you can do this with an Ebay shop, or an Ebid shop etc... However only you can weigh up the financial benefits.

The only thing I can say here without seeming to be unfair in any way is to ask yourself this. When the site is done, how will I get traffic to it? Because it will be down to you alone to do this. With auction sites, even though you are one of many traders this marketing problem is down to others.

I hope this helps a little.

regards

Lee

Interesting post, Lee, if a bit on the cautionary side. Yes, caution is needed, but I think that in coming to an information site such as this, people have already shown that the venture of of opening their own web store is something they've already given some careful consideration. There are pitfalls to every new endeavour and in reality the risks of trading from one's own website are far less than they would be if it was a bricks and mortar shop. No lease, no by-laws, no roadworks to stop passing traffic - and no sneaky shoplifters to walk away with the profits.

Driving traffic is, as you say, a problem, but how to do that is something else this website is here to address. Adwords are expensive, especially for a shoe-string site, but they aren't the only means of driving traffic. One, as you aready mentioned, is to wean customers over from auction buying to direct purchase. Another is to start out with the right SEO in place rather than putting off until later something that should be done at the very beginning.

Then there's the question of auction-site shops vs own web-stores. A close look would show that except for powersellers, auction shops are the more expensive choice. Ebay removed shop visibility, now they have removed sub-categories. Sales have plummeted yet again but the same fees have to be paid each month for an ever decreasing return. Then there are the St. Elsewhere shops. No listing fees and a modest monthly 'rental'. Sounds good. Except that St. Elsewhere sites have to fight for traffic with just the same effort that solo traders do, and mostly the promises made end up being jam yesterday, jam tomorrow, but never jam today.

My own advice for what it's worth - probably absolutely nothing like everything else that comes for free - would be, if you have a dream, follow it, open your own store, work like the devil, never relax for a minute when it comes to creating a web presence, and learn everything you can about becoming a darling of the search engines. It can be done, not by everyone, but who can say where success might come if a dreamer never tries?

Just my own two'pennorth.

Kate

kate
let me ell you my story.
we own a number of businesses one of them is silver jewellery manafacture and wholesale distribution plus some retail.
we set up a website as a retail sales site for our items as well as a taz and ebay outlet. despite spending thousands of pounds advertising the site. after 18 months we decided to cut our losses and close the retail online outlet and concentrate on just tazbar and ebay. since then and after much advise from lawrence, lee and richies posts and emails and a few others (nb we also own a hosting company) we have decided to launch another enterprise in retail jewellery in november as well as our ebay and taz stores. hence the reason we are here, ie to learn and offer our advise and to help anyone else . its about sharing experiences and about learning as much as possible.
not all advise will apply to every business and not all advise will work. most of all not everyone will feel comfortable out of the comfort zone of an online mall like taz or ebay.
we marketed wrong we used mainly adwords the wrong ones and in a very competitive sector which we are in to get the keywords we wanted in took thousands for small return. with keywords in google or wherever else they key in any competitive market plae is to look for a mix of keywords which will include expensive ones but also not so expensive for example silver in expensive as a keyword but the phrase sterling silver turquoise set necklace is not very costly and will bring in buyers looking for that product. where on silver we had people looking for tankards to darts. hence wasting clicks.
i will shut up now nuff sed

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Then I will point out that if this site had been available at the time you went into your first webstore, and if you had found it, there would have been a wealth of advice and help on hand to assist you in avoiding the bad errors that you made. That's what the forum is about - helping those who want to move from auction site sales to owning their own website. No one has suggested that every online shop that's built will be a howling success, but I have to point out this - they will have a much better chance of doing well by looking for advice here than by either going it alone, or consulting with those who have little or no knowledge of how web commerce works. I hope that explanation of the site's purpose helps.

Good luck in your future trading activities.

Kate

Hi Kate

I couldn't agree more.

Without this forum i would still be stuck with a bad host~it wasn't bad as such just that it couldn't offer me what i needed.

Without this forum i wouldn't have been able to put it right.

Ok,back to the opening question.I am hoping to make people more aware of me and my business by opening my own store~nothing wrong with auction sites as such,it's just i need to move on.I need to trade more than i am or it's not worth running part of my business online.

I am right in the middle of making the leap so i can't answer some of your questions but i will say this~without this forum i wouldn't have got this far.


Thanks everyone



Debs
xxxxx

AdWords are all very well, but you cannot beat a good organic placement on the SERPs which takes good SEO, quality incoming links and hard work. You need to get out there and sell your business on other sites, it takes time but is worth the effort in the long run.

Whether to go for your own store, an auction site or both depends on the type of person you are and the items you sell. If your items are highly varied and not aimed at a specific market then an auction site is possibly the best place for you as your product range will be too varied to market easily, but if you're focusing on a specific market then your own independent store can work very well for you.

If you have many of each item then go for every sales outlet you can find. You will often find that the sales you make on an auction site will be followed later by a sale on your own site. The auction sites can be a good way to introduce new and loyal customers to your business, though you should never abuse the P2P site's T&Cs by marketing your own site on their's. Often a simple URL on your invoice will suffice to introduce that customer to your own store.

If your have a one-off, or just a handful of each product then you're usually better off leaving them on your own site if trading on more than one venue.

Marketing is more involved with your own site than on a P2P venue as they will do much of it for you, but it will be generic marketing and not aimed at your product range. If you're lazy, you can just list your stuff on a P2P site and quite possibly make a sale or two. If you do the same with your own store then you will struggle to get traffic and therefore sales.

You need to market it yourself and aim for a very targeted market. As Paul said above, don't just aim for simple common words such as "gold" or "silver", use whole phrases that are specific to your products. It is possible to run a successful site with a very small or even no marketing budget depending on what you trade in. The less competitive your market is, the easier and cheaper it will be. If your market is highly competitive then you may need to outlay more to rise above the crowd, but always remember, Google is your best friend and like all friends you should get to know it well!

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Lawrence

Excellent points Kate. There are many so called experts out there who will promise to help you. But it is very difficult to find one who doesn't have a hidden reason for doing so.
It is far better to take advice, where you can, from people who have either won or lost by what you are about to consider. If that person has nothing to gain and they are genuinely there to help you, then you will get the best advice.

Nice to see you back, Lee, and thanks. I think the most common hidden agenda is the hope of transferring money from the beginner's bank account into that of the 'expert' offering advice. And never more so than in the overcrowded world of SEO Consultants. It's like being offered an infallible horse-racing system - if the system is so good how come the offerer hasn't already made a fortune for himself from its use?

Kate

I made the transition orm auction site to website very quickly when I think about it. I was clearing the kids wardrobes out last summer when a friend suggested I sell their clothes on ebay.I couldn't believe how well they went.I then started to look for my kids but I wanted new clothes.I couldn't believe how many stores were on ebay but nothing still caught my eye. My husband is a software engineer and had his own 'gaming forum'.He was bored so set me up with my first site, I was hooked after that. I was so naive at fist.I didn't have a clue about keywords etc . It wasn't until after christmas that I really got stuck into it and started to research everything.By April my hard work was paying off and sales were coming in, I now have daily sales which I still can't believe.
My dream is to make my own things and sell not just in my site, but via other sellers too.I want to walk in a shop one day and see my things!
I want my own small boutique too, has to be somewhere magical like in bamburgh or alnwick in northumberland.
The way I look at is if you don't try you never know. I have my site which is moving along nicely, I am waiting for small premises to store my goods and start producing.I have invested in a new sewing machine and overlocker, patterns are drawn ad fabric is now waiting to be cut!
Only problem I have is fitting it all in. If I can cover my wages though from my day job then I will be happy
Once I see someone wearing something I have made then I will have realised my dream

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