Online Sellers -- Affordable Google Advertising is Here.

Konica Minolta Dimage Z3 4MP Digital Camera with Anti Shake 12x Optical Zoom

This post is a duplicate of my post on My Blog Utopia.

I know, I'm not supposed to point out the advertisements on my blog as part of Google's TOS, but now that Google has launched the PPA network through adSense, I'll take a chance by pointing them out this one time.

For bloggers (publishers) the ad units are called Google Referrals and on The Seller Evangelist you will find them on the right sidebar, just under my subscription link. Feel free to click on them and and look around the advertisers site because they are no longer paying Google (and me) for the click, instead they are paying for a completed transaction (of course if you you do like what you see make sure to purchase something). In effect, they are removing any chance of click fraud.

This helps the advertiser control their ad spend, by tying a dollar amount to an action, (subscriptions, purchases, etc.) and it helps the publisher by paying a higher dollar amount for the referral. In essence, Google has created an affiliate network.

I wouldn't suggest that publishers get rid of their PPC (pay per click) adSense ads completely but this allows them to diversify their advertising inventory and should be a win-win for everyone involved.

This also represents an excellent opportunity for online sellers to manage their Google advertising dollars, by tying the advertising amount to a completed result. For example, let's say an eBay seller is currently paying eBay $2.50 for a completed sale, that amount can vary depending on conversion rates for that item. With Google PPA, a seller can sell that same item on their website and say they will pay $1.75 for a sale of that same item, give the customer a 25 cent discount on the sale and still make 50 cents more for the sale than on eBay. For media sellers, this is a savior because they can now afford to advertise with Google and draw traffic to their own website. Had this program been available in 2005 when Glacier Bay was trying to convert to web sales, I would have chosen to stay in business.

I'm really looking forward to this as a publisher and if I was still a seller I would be all over this.

Be Prepared for Another eBay Store Fee Increase!

According to Scot Wingo of ChannelAdvisor, eBay is preparing to raise store fees once again. You can see Scot's take here at his blog eBay Strategies. The increase, that Scot predicts, seems very high to me but is possible when you consider that last years Stores Fee increase didn't move enough listings off of eBay and as Scot says "stores continue to grow much faster than core. eBay hit the brakes, [ Last July] they slowed down and now they are climbing again. ".

So, what is a store seller to do? My suggestion is to plan your exit strategy now. I don't suggest moving everything until the fee increase becomes a reality but you need to be prepared. Find a webstore that fit's your needs and sign up for Google AdWords using PPA (Pay Per Action) Keep your high volume items on eBay and move the rest to the webstore. With PPA you only pay when there is a sale and you can set the terms.

This strategy will be beneficial regardless if eBay raises store fees or not.

Why Adding Google Checkout to eBay is Good for Sellers!

I've written several articles on the PayPal - Google battles over online payments and won't go into those same issues again -- I will add some links to those articles at the end of this post. What I would like to discuss is the need for Google Checkout to be accepted on eBay from a seller's perspective. Remember, I'm The Seller Evangelist so I look at issues from the seller's perspective.

I came across another article on Google Checkout today and something struck me. According to eBay spokesman Hani Durzy "It's our responsibility to encourage payment systems that have a historical track record and desire by community to use it," Durzi said. "Google Checkout has very little historical track record ...we see a very low level of interest." The first part of that statement is funny. Google has had a year to fix the technical issues with Checkout and is now available on 100 of the top 500 shopping sites on the Web and Google itself has a tremendous track record as a company. So that argument is pointless but what about the statement “we see a very low level of interest." The idea that sellers don't have any interest in Google checkout is like saying “Jared, doesn’t like Subway sandwiches” Does eBay really expect us to believe there is little interest in offering this service?

When I was selling I spent close to 4% of Gross Sales -- including S&H -- on PayPal fees and I was getting PayPal’s best rate. The percentage was high because we had a low AOV (Average Order Value) so the 30-cent transaction fee hit us hard as a % of sales. In 2004, my best year on eBay, I spent close to $180,000 in PayPal fees; do you think I wouldn’t have any interest in adding Google Checkout and their no fees promotion?! You have to be kidding me! I would have jumped at adding a no fee option. So the idea that sellers don’t want Checkout is ridiculous but where eBay gets wiggle room is that eBay buyers have shown little interest in adding Checkout. Pardon me, but buyers aren’t interested because they don’t have the option. Give them the option and see how fast they adopt it.

I can tell you this; Google is not going away so at some point they will work out a deal with eBay to include PayPal in Google Checkout in exchange for allowing Checkout to be accepted on eBay. This would be beneficial to both buyer and seller and is inevitable.

Recent articles on the Google - PayPal battles:

• GoogZilla Vs. King Ebaydorah the Three Headed Monster!
• PayPal Vs. Google Checkout!

And there's new guy coming into the payments area:

• Microsoft's Micro-Payment System May Save Web 2.0

Can EBay Be Used as a Customer Acquisition Tool?

Sellers! Change Your Thinking About EBay!

Let's talk about Customer Acquisition as a concept. Sellers who sell on eBay need to change their mindset, even sellers who are presently happy with the world of eBay. My suggestion is quit thinking of eBay as your home on the Internet and start thinking of it as a marketing tool. You are not "eBay sellers" you are online sellers who happen to sell on eBay. Repeat after me; I am an online seller and I sell on eBay -- I may need to start a 12-Step program for eBay sellers --remember, even if eBay is presently your only sales channel, you are using eBay to bring you customers. This change in thinking is crucial if you are to take control of your business. Change your mindset. You sell online! I know it can be difficult, but eBay is changing and right now we don't have a clue what it will ultimately look like. Look out for your business, eBay is looking out for theirs.

Ebay still brings tons of high value traffic to their site-after all they are the world's largest auction site, but the times "they are a changin" now that eBay has introduced Sponsored Links, purchased Shopping.com, and announced they are adding Half.com listings to CORE search, I believe it is becoming clear they want to become to shopping what Google has become to search-Google's recent innitiaves with GoogleBase and Google Checkout may hasten this change, but that is yet to be seen. Whether or not this actually happens sellers need to start looking at eBay as an acquisition tool rather than a destination. The key to this strategy is to open your own webstore/website for your product. Because of the lack of transparency in eBay's Store Referal credit, eBay stores should not be considered your webstore but a marketing tool just like CORE auctions. If eBay ever develops a transparent Store Referal system then sellers may be able to consider an eBay Store over their own independent website.

Pardon me for a brief diversion OT: In Oct. I wrote that eBay Stores should become a hosting solution that feeds listings to multiple marketplaces and should have it's own shopping cart. There are currently far more eBay Stores than they will ever hope to have with ProStores and eBay Stores are much easier to work with. eBay could charge sellers a tiered monthly hosting fee based on inventory in their store and let them list according to their own marketing plan. Each TSE would have its own listing profile and listing/FVF fees. If sellers choose not to list on these TSE's, that will be there decision, they can find some other way to get shoppers to their Store items (Google AdWords or possibly Yahoo Sponsored ads on eBay). Enable sellers to feed their listings to eBay CORE, Stores, Express, Shopping.com, Half.com, Motors, Classifieds etc.

Since there is no movement by eBay to implement an idea like I've detailed above and there is no business reason to market to a Store that charges 10% FVF I would suggest launching your own WebStore. There are many WebStore options at present and many more on the way that offer low cost entry. MonsterCommerce, Yahoo Stores, Amazon WebStores, and eBay's ProStores offer entry level WebStores. These stores will help you list your product and facilitate transactions but be aware they are not marketing tools. You will still need to do the work to bring shoppers to your listings.

So, how can you bring customers to your WebStore from eBay? Unfortunately, since the eBay marketplace is very unsettled at this time I'm not going to mention hard and fast rules for moving eBay customers to your website, but I will provide some basics. As the "New" and I hope improved eBay is unveiled I can get down to more specifics. If I read the tealeaves correctly, eBay might be facilitating customer acquisition in the future, so if you have your own webstore now you will be able to quickly make use of the new eBay (of course maybe I read those tealeaves in my dreams).

In 2005 we launched our own website at glacierbaydvd.com. We had limited expectations for the first year, and we spent a great deal of money to develop the website and integrate it with our software, much more money then I expected or what I would suggest anyone else spend. My plan was to take the first year to grow sales at the website organically by reaching out to our existing customer base, through word of mouth, and through SEO (Search Engine Optimization). I was pleasantly surprised that we soon had regular sales. There wasn't a day that went by that we did not sell five or more items, not 900 to 1,000 a day like our eBay sales, but an acceptable start for a new website. Because we had been losing money since early 2004, we could not spend anything on paid search so growth was going to be limited. (I believe, had I made the decision to launch the website a year earlier I might still be in business selling media products today just probably not on eBay. What do they say? Hindsight is 20-20.) Unfortunately we also had some problems with SEO so all of our web business came from word-of-mouth or existing customers. At this time I didn't have a clue on how to move our eBay customers to our website other than the basic ideas of including our web address in every email, etc.

That experience, though, taught me some very important lessons and revealed some roadblocks in marketing to our existing customer base. Over our five years of selling on eBay we had built up a customer database of over 400,000 buyers, but we found it very difficult to move a large chunk of our eBay customers to the website. We had good success with eBay newbies and some longtime regular customers but the vast majority of our customers preferred eBay. We offered shipping incentives and lower prices on the website but not much worked, so I began to analyze the problem and came to the conclusion that the problem was the eBay buyer.

Ebay buyers are a unique crowd: They are very comfortable with the site and are generally not inclined to try something new like a website. EBay is the only real venue for auctions (I know this upsets some of you, but it is true), and the majority of eBay customer's purchase through auctions. EBay's feedback system also keeps those customers coming back to eBay because they want to see the unique feedback number increase. If you get a chance, look at some of your current customer's feedback and check their feedback received from sellers. You will more than likely see feedback from your competitors, which means those customers bought from your competitors too. This happens a lot in the Media Category. One other barrier to moving customers to your website is eBay's TOS (Terms of Service). Please read it carefully, so as not to violate any rules, though I suggest you get as close to the edge as possible.

Fortunately, for sellers listing on eBay today, some of these issues are changing. Today's EBay buyers are more willing to venture out to other sites because of a decrease in trust in the eBay marketplace. It may take several orders before they move completely but if you treat them well they will be more inclined to try you again over an unknown seller on eBay. New eBay customers are your best option, you can identify them by their low feedback. Often, low feedback buyers scare sellers; I would suggest these are the buyers you should target. Your regular customers should be easier to move as long as your WebStore/WebSite makes for a pleasant shopping experience.

So, now that you have changed your mindset you can look at eBay as you would Google Adwords, or Yahoo Paid Search or any other marketing tool. In fact with the introduction of sponsored links in search you can now send eBay customers to your webstore and away from eBay.