Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

When you started your business and had your product ready for market, how did you first try to sell it, other than word of mouth?  Did you book space at a trade show?  Run radio/newspaper ads?  What did you do first, and was it successful for you? 

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We had no money, and weren`t really sure if our product would even sell, so we started with eBay.

What I keep in mind, and I think what many people don`t value enough, is the "short-term" appearance of an eBay presence. Think about that UPS commercial where the three kids have a new company, put up their Web site, and get all excited when they get an order. Then they get 10, then 100, then thousands.

Then think about a restaurant. You spend all the time getting ready, then have the grand opening. If the food is good, you`re fine. But if it isn`t quite right, you`re screwed. Word-of-mouth on that first week or so, pretty much defines the future of the restaurant.

So how do you show up in public with a new business and  product, when there could be problems---a shake-out period? If you have the problems in public, word-of-mouth messes you up. But if you shut down for a week every month, to handle the problem-solving, people figure you`re weird or unreliable.

eBay offers you the opportunity to sell a few products, then disappear for awhile to examine your processes and marketing. Nobody thinks it odd if you sell for a week, then don`t sell, then sell again a few weeks later. It`s expected.

It helped us discover what worked, what didn`t, what processes were useful, which were pointless. It got us a sense of where we stand, how to compete, and what people would be willing to spend. We factored in the "flea market" bias, and that helped us figure out a pricing structure.

well our first product was primarily marketed through search engines. But we branched out to trade shows, etc. Personally we had very little luck at trade shows, thats a very competitive market and you better have one heck of an attention grabing idea to get people to listen.

Hi Craig,

I`m also thinking about selling my product on ebay - now that I know where to post SmudgeGuard under! So do you have any good tips to share for those of us thinking about selling on ebay? I`m curious to hear your full story of what worked? What didn`t?

Thanks!

Jeannie

 

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I think for us what worked was our photography. Kathy and I were bored a couple of summers ago, not to mention broke. We thought of learning how to use eBay, and posted an old clarinet. Of course the first problem was to have a picture.

We took some basic pictures, but I`d always had an interest in photography. I told her I had an old copy of Paint Shop Pro, but had never learned it....what with all the complicated stuff. So I put a copy on her machine, and revisited the copy on mine.

Over the next 6 months, we played and learned, found countless tutorials, experimented, and read some books from the library. We had little else to do for fun, so that became an obsession. And it paid off.

When we started selling office chair slipcovers, we had really great photos. That got us a lot of "viewers" for the ads, and a few "watchers" (people who mark the ad for notification of action). But no buyers.

Our next problem was to make our ads look interesting and exciting. We didn`t like the eBay templates, and wanted some sort of easy WYSIWYG editor. I tried a bunch, and eventually stumbled across Nvu (Mozilla team). Even then, it wasn`t so easy to use until we found a nice tutorial. That showed us how to use the status bar to put inline styles into place. And from there, we were ready to move.

Now we had great photos, an easy (sort of) way to do HTML, and I had my writing skills. We were able to put together ads that I tried to model after the many mail-order catalog ads I`ve seen. However, we still had a problem with office-chair slipcovers because they`re customized.

Then we sat down and pondered a different product. It had to be something we made, something inexpensive but that would sell for a decent price. It had to be a sort of commodity item---repeatable, not one of a kind. It had to be interesting, unusual, and fairly well understood.

Kathy had made some wind chasers, and thinking about patterns we came up with the thought of an American flag. That led to signal flags, and we were inspired. Now our problem was how to make them, and how much to charge for them.

We began trying to sell a single message banner: PARTY. Then we realized people would want different numbers of flags, spelling different words. Each ad we put up, we`d try a different approach to how we`d sell our a) messages, b) banners, c) words, d) phrases, e) flags.

Then we`d keep an eye on how many viewers we`d get, and how many watchers. EBay has a counter, but we found a better one. We found that people didn`t want a "banner." Nor did they want a "message." Instead, they had the most interest in "flags."

But here`s the thing: We didn`t invest an entire life and budget into building up a whole branding system for "messages." We could quickly put up a couple of ads, see what happened, see the interest, then abandon it if it didn`t seem interesting to people.

We gradually began to understand what emotional interest people had in the product. It was because we also decided to choose 1 product (the PARTY) banner, and put it up constantly. That meant a 7-day auction, which repeated over and over, regardless of if it sold. We wanted a constant presence, in the same category, so people could trust the fact that we existed.

The emotional appeal is in the colors, and the "secret message" idea, as well as the interior decor/design aspects of flags. B&Bs, people wanting to decorate a child`s room, and nautical themed interiors began to emerge as the basic appeal.

We were able to track and discover this appeal mostly due to the "Ask Seller a Question" function in eBay. People could ask us about their idea, which in turn helped us to fine-tune our advertisements, content, and even to develop new, offshoot product lines.

What it comes down to is the fast feedback we got. Each listing went only for 7 days, so we weren`t locked in the way we would be if we`d built an expensive Web site. If an ad didn`t work, didn`t say the right thing, wasn`t noticed, wasn`t interesting, or sold flags the wrong way, we learned it within 2 listings (14 days) and went back to the drawing board.

Because the ads were discrete items, we also could change them each listing time. So we`d learn something in HTML, try it out in an ad, see how it played, then keep it or toss it. Again, depending on feedback, we could change our overall presentation.

Eventually, all that modification and experimentation formed our basic concept for our first attempt at an actual Web site. We`d been using Village Photos to host our pictures, and now switched to our own domain. We took what we`d learned in Nvu on eBay, and began expanding it on the Web site. We made the site more of a "flyer," rather than a complete Web site.

And again, with growing interest on eBay, more feedback, and emerging requests for slightly different products, we were able to *slowly* add them into the developing web site.

I`d have to say that by "playing in clubs" on eBay, we got all sorts of practice and experience being in front of the marketplace---the audience. AFTER we had that sort of real-world experience, THEN we began working on a Web site and bringing to it our market experience.

All in all, I`d say that eBay is like playing out of town, where a Web site is like putting the play on Broadway. eBay allowed us to work out the kinks, find the best ways to appeal to people emotionally, explore the technology, and discover tools that would come in handy on our own site.

One last note: It doesn`t matter what category you post an item under. It only matters to eBay: not anyone else. Nobody browses categories. They only search for what it is they want. You have 55 characters in a Title, and if you understand database search queries, you can put the SmudgeGuard under any category, but use the Title to be found.

So I guess I`d have to say that using the Title in our ads helped us also to understand how Google and other search engines find results. That helped when it came time for SEO writing on both the Web site, and also other outlets we`re using (like SuN Marketplace).

Craig,

That is very valuable information! Thanks for your detailed reply! I really appreciate it!

So if you say that the category doesn`t matter and that the Title is most important, then do I just type in a title that has the best key words?  Doesn`t it have to make sense?

For example, would I just type something like this:

Wacom Glove, Left-handed, Tablet PC, sticking to, Smudges?

Just need to understand it a bit more.

Thanks!

Jeannie

 

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We do try to make a title that makes sense. No, you don`t actually "have to" make sense with it, but always remember that People come first, Computers come second! :-) After all, computers aren`t going to buy a SmudgeGuard....right?

If you download something like EditPad Lite (free), you get a character count as you type a line. That helps you play around within a 55 character limit.

Hi Kathy and Craig!

You guys have some great advice! I`ll start working on that very soon.

Thanks so much!

Jeannie

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Kathy,

What would you say is the best day to start the ebay auction on?

Jeannie

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Thanks so much Kathy! Your tips are very helpful!

Jeannie

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