Archive for March, 2008
Getting testimonials from ebay for your website
Testimonials can increase your conversions and sales dramatically. They are a must. But you don’t need one liners - that only works on ebay because their is not enough room to truly describe the buyer’s experience. You need at least one paragraph when putting testimonials on your website. If you can get video testimonials, that is even better.
So how did I get testimonials from ebay for my case study? I used eBay’s email feature. I was selling my wine making kit on ebay until they suspended me for 30 days for having really slow shipment (My fault totally). But that didn’t stop me from growing. I took that as a positive and since I had a ebay store, I emailed all my buyers (Broadcasted email to all just by creating a template) and asked them for some feedback.
Understand that most people, even if they like your product, just don’t have time to respond - so I offered them a free gift (Free 3 months supply of yeast to go with the wine making kit) as bait.
Below is the copy of the email I sent them through eBay:
Now what I’m going to do is after each purchase, I’m going to send an email using eBay’s email system to each person who buys my wine making kit through ebay after exactly 14 days. This will not only build my testimonials for my website, but also help me improve my product further.
You don’t have to be an eBay Store owner for this as you can manually send an email such as above yourself - though an eBay store makes the job slightly easier. They even let your personalize emails which is an awesome start. This is a great way to improve your product, build relationships with your customers and get testimonials.
So the testimonials started coming in and I’m slowly adding them one by one. NICE 
Click HERE to see how it looks like on my case study site. I hope you like the web 2.o design I chose.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Proper market and keyword research part 1
Since my case study is in the early stages, I think its best to share the first step I took in developing the site. So in this post lets discuss the first step which is market research or in another words - keyword research. I basically went to 4 places.
Wordtracker
Aaron’s SEO Keyword tool
Google Trends
Install Hit Tail
With Wordtracker, I created a list of thousands of keywords using their tools. From now on when you create a site, always keep in mind that you want to be the ‘authority’ on that subject. I want to be an authority for beginners who want to dabble in the world of home wine making.
That is a niche by the way and that is my target market. If anyone else wants to try my product great - but I’m very clear on what my market is. The reason I want to create content on all those keywords is because its relevant to my target market and guess what? It will also bring tons of traffic - targeted traffic! All this information on your site will dramatically increase your conversions regardless of what you are selling. When a beginner thinks of making wine, I want them to come to my site - PERIOD. That is the mentality or mindset you should be applying to your business. Be the BEST in what you offer.
If you do proper keyword research, it should take you anywhere between 2 days to a week. Trust me, its time well spent as this is the most important step of them all. This is market research on the internet. You are going where the market is
Here are the steps I took (This is only available in paid version and TRUST ME every REAL internet marketer uses wordtracker):
Step 1 - Click on Keyword Universe
Step 2 - You’ll see a screen with the following information on the left side of the screen. Type in what you are selling, but in a broader more general sense - most likely the type of market you are in - in my case - it was ‘wine making’ or even ‘wine’.
Step 3: After you press submit, you’ll see a list of relevant keywords that real people are typing appear below.
Step 4: Now start going through the list from the top to the bottom. Plus once you click on a keyword, you will see even more relevant keywords - it’s INSANE! Now keeping your target market in mind, click on the keywords that are relevant to your market / website and add them to your total keyword basket. You can click on the ‘Dig’ button on the last column on the right to drill down even further for more keywords. This is madness - in a good way. Keep going back and fourth between the left column and right and keep adding keywords. Get them all!
So if you are not spending at least 2 days to a week using Wordtracker like this, you are not doing any research at all.
Step 5: Below you will see how I just used one word and added it to the basket. Just to show you how it works. I don’t care what your site is about, your keyword list should be in the thousands - easy.
Step 6: After you’ve added all of your keywords, then click on Step 3 (Blue arrow on the bottom right) and you should see the following screen.
Step 7: Now click on “Export Keywords” and download your beautiful keyword list in a spreadsheet format and SAVE it.
Step 8: Start creating content related to those keywords and take over your entire market! Plus track everything using Google Analytics so you can see what keywords matter and use them in future PPC or Pay Per Click campaigns. I also like to use keywords from my list as “anchor texts” when doing article marketing to create further deep linking.
In the second part, I will discuss a cool little trick I do on Wordtracker to get a boost in traffic on a regular basis and discuss the other 3 services I use as mentioned in the beginning of this post.
To learn more about this method of generating keyword lists, download this free ebook - It’s pretty much a case study of a pet website.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Suspended from eBay and loving it!
I got this email from eBay today and you know what, I’m glad I did
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Dear homebooze (junebeezy@wdclub.com),
We regret to inform you that your eBay account has been restricted from selling on eBay for breach of our Seller Non-Performance policy.
Our records show that you generate an unacceptably high level of buyer dissatisfaction in transactions in this account. Based upon inputs from the buyers who have transacted with you, this account falls into the bottom 1 percent of all eBay sellers with regard to buyer satisfaction.
Due to this breach, we are removing selling privileges on this account for a period of at least 30 days, and are ending any open listings. You will still be able to conclude outstanding transactions, resolve issues with your buyers and access emails in My Messages. However, you won’t be able to list any items with this account.
Here’s what you can do now:
Complete all open transactions, and settle any open issues with your buyers. You can access disputes open against you in the Dispute Console from My eBay. If you require assistance or information about the Item Not Received or Significantly Not a Described Process you can learn more by copy the following link into a new browser window:
http://pages.ebay.ca/help/tp/inr-snad-process.html
What happens next?
We will review your account again after a minimum of 30 days. If the level of buyer satisfaction with regard to this account has not improved significantly, further action will be taken, including the suspension of all of your eBay accounts.
Please be advised that this account restriction does not relieve you of your obligation to pay any fees that you may owe to eBay.
For more information about our Seller Non-Performance policy, copy the following link into a new browser window:
http://pages.ebay.ca/help/policies/seller-non-performance.html
Thank you for your cooperation in this important matter.
Sincerely,
eBay Trust & Safety
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This is what happens folks when you manage your business poorly. As soon as I put up my product on eBay, it literally started flying off the shelves. However, it was happening so fast that I was getting super late behind my shipments. Instead of getting my product within 3-5 business days, my customers were getting it almost a month late.
I think its great that the product is selling like crazy, but when the shipping is late - especially on eBay, you better watch out boy because eBay members don’t like it at all. Plus the negative feedbacks drive people away, whether the are just about how hurting the your shipping is.
So what am I going to do?
Exactly what eBay suggests, take care of business.
I’m glad that eBay has this feature because now instead of worrying about selling, I can finally sit down and setup a plan for shipping on time. The 30 days off of eBay would definitely help. Yes I’ve been super busy with various projects but that is no excuse - no excuses on this side.
Will I be out of business?
LMAO (Laughing my ass off!) - NO!
I was using eBay to ‘test’ my product and build my list (Which is at just over 100 right now). Plus I have over 800 transactions on eBay so anyone with a little common sense knows I’m a legit seller. At this stage and that amount of positive feedbacks, I’m never worried about the negatives one. I stopped worrying about negative feedbacks at about 300 positives I think . . .
However, what is not funny is when your customers shipments are late - so if you have a product that has the potential of selling like hot cakes, make sure you got a good shipping plan going with it.
Now that I have 30 days off ebay, I will setup a good shipping plan and I can further work on getting FREE traffic for my site (My 2008 Case Study). Just cause one door closes doesn’t mean you have to stop your hustle. Keep hustling and get your $hit tight:) - that is what I’ll be doing.
Popularity: 14% [?]