How to Self Promote eBay Listings

I have been asked to describe the different ways we promote our eBay listings  Many think we pay enough to eBay and they should be doing it for us.  Let me do an analogy that I have used several times. 

Imagine the largest shopping mall near your home.  There is probably an anchor store in it.  Around the holidays the mall will advertise the mall, the anchor store will advertise themselves, and every little business is there hoping to benefit from their advertising. I am that little store in the corner and I want to stand in the hallway waving at folks who are there in the mall already.  So it is with eBay, too.  I don't want to be the little store off in a corner just waiting for someone to drop by.  I want to go out and try to snag folks to visit me. 

Ways to do that - 

• A blog such as this one - see the top right corner - there is a link to my eBay store. Blogger (a Google product) is easy, WordPress (for the more computer savvy).  Write about anything that you can think of.  It is more important to get keywords.  A few ideas - a local restaurant; things and scenery from your town/city; hobbies; cooking hints. I found I had better luck (and better use of my time) just writing without researching the subject and am huge-ly surprised on the subjects that get searched on Google resulting on hits for the blog! ;
• Bumping - not sure how much they help but the more exposure I can get for my listings the better. Click link for my blog on what bumping is;
• Pinterest - A social media site where we do post listings on various boards, but be careful 2 ads for every 8 social posts.  Don't sell to your followers.  Build your followers based on your interests. Facebook Pinterest Addict group;
• Same thing goes for Facebook Shares.  Friends & family don't want to see your listings so be selective what you choose to share - same formula applies - 2 ads for 8 social posts on your wall;
• Twitter - same (sorta) as Pinterest - a social media site we also need to be careful not to spam
• Facebook groups - I own a closed group where you can share 2 listings every day.  There are several others too but mine is alittle different because we all click on the listing giving it a click up in eBay search and then can share on a social media site too. We approve all requests for membership to keep out the spammers and have to see something in the profile that tells us the potential member is involved with eBay. 
• Facebook seller group - I have another closed group for sellers to help each other brainstorm, problem solve and just be the water cooler where we can chat about our business.  Closed just means anyone can see who belongs but can not see the posts. There are many different groups each offering something alittle different from the other ones;
• And last is not really a way to self promote but very important for all eBay sellers - join a Meetup.com near you or attend an eBay event at least 1 time a year.  

Another hint is to have the .com for your eBay name or store and the .net for the blog. Then have that URL point to your listings or store.  When you want to share your eBay info you just have to give name.com or for blog - name.net.  

Speedy Bump Sites for eBay listings

What is a bump?  It is a program that was 1st designed to promote eBay listings. It has been expanded to eBay stores, blogs and several other things. The creator - John- is the owner of auctionbump and speedybump.

How does it Speedybump work? The item listing number is copy and pasted into a box and viola the listing shows up with the picture. 

Imagine a column of 25 boxes.  The bottom box is #1 and the top box is #25.  When you fill in the form with an active eBay listing number it will automatically insert that listing into box # 25.  The item in box #1 falls off - is bumped off! 

The number in front of each link is the number of items the owner of that page allows each seller to have on their page at one time.
 
5 - http://powersellingmom.com/
4 - http://theirishshamrockcompany.com/
3 - http://auctionbump.com/
4 - http://www.sassyssavings.com/ 
3 - http://sb55-graphics.com/
4 - http://www.magiesplace.info/
4 - http://catpurry.virtualonlinelearning.info/ (was Mystery Bump)
5 - http://www.seasonedwithtime.com/ebay-bump/
3 - http://buzzbumpadz.com/speedy-ebay-buzz/
4 -  http://justbumpit.info/
? -  http://learn2earnok.com/Featured_ebay_Stores___Webs.html
3 - http://www.advertiseyourauctionsfree.com/
? - http://www.paulajeansjewelryandcloset.com/
5 -  http://tucsontiques.com/advertising/free-ebay-advertising/
3 -  http://boostbump.com/

Why bump? I think that eBay is spending lots of money on branding and bringing folks to the site.  But with big box stores, and large commercial vendors - I - as a very small speck of sand on the eBay beach - can get lost.  So it is part of my job to help bring people to my store.  And one way I do that is by bumping. 

I have compared myself to a very tiny corner store in a very huge mall.  The mall does a lot of advertising but I need to do something to to get myself noticed,too.  Just sitting and waiting for folks to wander by is not enough for me.   


How do I get noticed? Several years ago I learned about branding myself on eBay.  What does that mean exactly?  To me it means that when someone sees my name or logo they know immediately who I am.  I bet right now if I say a big red bulls eye you would think Target.  That is the idea of branding.  So when I bump my scarves I hope people recognize the mannequin and know it is me.  


What to bump?  Now that is a good question.  I notice that some folks bump the same item over and over again on every bump site. I suspect for some that is the only listings they have and that is great. It is so nice to see them helping themselves.


I like to put different items on every site in order to give a broad overview of my offerings. Here's how I do it - I go to the list of all my listings and then sort by whatever - never by best match or ending soonest.  (Don't want to bump something that is ending today.)


It depends on my mood and what is happening - some days I will do a color like pink in Oct.for breast cancer awareness, another time highest price 1st, or just Christmas items, only scarves or rubber ducks or I follow a theme or holiday. Somedays I will do one of each of my largest category items per bump site. So it is really up to each seller to decide what they want to promote.  


How do we know results? - When you go to My eBay page on the right side near the bottom there is a link to traffic reports. Click on it (doesn't work all the time), go to finding methods and referring web sites.  It is really interesting to see how the report changes from month to month. 




Can I say an item I bumped today sold?  For the most part no.  Have I made sales within a category and 24 hours of bumping? Yes! Does it matter if an item that is bumped sells or not?  It would be nice but as long as people visit my store and buy something or know what I have so when they need it they can come back, I am satisfied.  


I can go through that whole list in 10 minutes.  Who can't afford 10 minutes a day to promote themselves and drive their own traffic? 


In the end we all have to be responsible for our own business and not totally rely on someone else to bring us customers.  

And we have to be so grateful to the owners of the bump sites for allowing us to promote ourselves on their page / blog.  Thank you bump site owners!!  

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