Making the Leap - Page 3 - eShop Forums - eCommerce Help Forum for Shopping Cart Owners.

Lawrence · #21 (**permalink**) 13-10-2007, 05:52 PM

There is no need to make a complete break from auction venues especially if you are making a profit on them. You can easily run your own store and have a presence on various P2P venues simultaneously. You can also use the sales from these venues to market your own store by including a link in all of your emails and sending a flyer with each delivery. They can be a good marketing tool for your own site.

sunnycreatives · #22 (**permalink**) 20-10-2007, 12:21 AM

Just an update really.

My on-line store is just about ready to go live.

Is there somewhere here I can put a link so you can all see what I have been up to?

I paid for advertising in a charity handbook a while back but just before the handbook got sent out I had to give away all my stock as my landlord said it was a fire hazard!! - so the charity had to change the add from me selling childrens clothing to selling 'a wide range of gift ideas' only I hadnt lined up any suppliers.

That's all sorted now so I am spending hours every day populating all the categories and I havent had anyone do a trial purchase to see if the checkout does what i want it to - my son has volunteered to do that for me.

I list on several small sites because I sell more on them than I did on eBay - well - I make more profit at any rate since my customers pay me money and not peanuts

Dippy · #23 (**permalink**) 20-10-2007, 03:11 PM

Hi Sunny, you can put the link in your siggy, and theres a section called Review my Site too.

sunnycreatives · #24 (**permalink**) 20-10-2007, 03:41 PM

Hey - thanks Dippy - I couldnt see for looking - I should be the one called Dippy

Dippy · #25 (**permalink**) 20-10-2007, 03:56 PM

Nothing wrong with being called Dippy

Looking forward to seeing your site

Mines on hold for a variety of reasons, so I am taking alot of pleasure in seeing other peoples blossom, and looking forward to being able to do mine as soon as poss.

Lawrence · #26 (**permalink**) 21-10-2007, 02:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sunnycreatives

Is there somewhere here I can put a link so you can all see what I have been up to?

Put a link in your sig. Most of the referral hits this site receives are from my sig links on other forums. If you place a link in your sig on every forum you visit that allows commercial links then you can generate quite a bit of traffic for your site.

alana · #27 (**permalink**) 06-11-2007, 11:07 PM

Wow this is a great and informative thread.

Well I opened my Alana's Cherished Treasures in March of 2006. My first sale happened two months after it opened.

I was still on Ebay at the time and had two Ebay stores. I closed one and spent another year doing a whole lot of never ending research and learning about getting traffic, content writing, meta tags, etc etc. etc.. including learning how to use my shopping cart.

Then I opened Alana's Books And Magazines in November of last year. I closed my Ebay store at that time.

I have been fortunate and get regular buyers and I am making more sales on both my websites than I ever did on Ebay the whole six years I was there. I am also saving tons of money.

My websites are what seems like constant transition and I recently moved to a dedicated host and did a couple of tweaks here and there that never end, but I am really much happier running my business my way.

I agree it is a lot of hard work, I am now venturing off to do major content changes on my home pages and articles.

Running your own business is very rewarding but it is not like running auctions on auction sites and someone said there are three type of buyers out there. So so true...

Thank-you for this thread! Great topic.

Alana

Tinkerbell · #28 (**permalink**) 07-11-2007, 08:10 PM

Hello Alana!
I love your site by the way, especially all those vintage sewing patterns.

alana · #29 (**permalink**) 07-11-2007, 09:23 PM

Tinkerbell, I love your site too, love the color theme. Thank-you for the compliments. I see you are using a zen cart. Those are nice carts.

I am using a Candy Press ASP cart and it has been very modified over the past two years. LOL. Feel like nothing on my site is real anymore. Just about everything has been customized and modified and I am working on re-writing the home pages and 25 new articles on the products I sell for both my sites and my blog.

I love this forum and it feels good in here. I am doing pretty good on both my sites. Cherished has been up almost 2 years and Books celebrates it's first year this month.

I make about 5-8 sales a week on Cherished and Books is slow but moving at an average 2-4 sales a week.

I do love not being on other venues and running my sites my way. Waking up in the morning knowing that my sites will still look and feel the same way I left them without a ton of other unknowns that I got on Ebay and other auction sites.

I am glad I did open my own sites, but the work on them is never ending!

Alana

Tinkerbell · #30 (**permalink**) 09-11-2007, 06:28 PM

You are doing well with your sales Alana, its a a start.I have a pattern now where some days I have a lot of sales then quiet for a day then busy again.Always seems to be the same days too.It means I can plan things better too.

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