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Author: Laura_Brito, Contributing Editor
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| MASS EMAIL LISTS
Another thing that you can do is have a Mass Email List. There are many sites on the internet that will help you manage something like this, but you have to be careful that you do not overdo it. No one likes to get spam mail, so I would try to make sure my customers opted into the email list. You could use this list to tell them about your advances in your art or for some big event like a showing in a gallery, or to invite them to see a new portion of your website. I would not use a mass mailing to tell them you are listing new auctions. That could become annoying and you need to be sure you do not put off any of your customers for any reason. Have you ever considered a Daily Diary Webpage? Many people like to read and keep up with you as an artist. But again you have to be careful with this. Never put in offensive or negative items. Talk about your advances in art or that you are in a slump (lightly), what new things you are doing, what nice things your wife or husband did for you, about your children, grandchildren, and yes, pets. Post pictures to allow your customers to feel like they know you. It can help you forge a connection with your customers. |
| Extra Options
You can add a load of options to your auctions and it can get very expensive. I have found that many of these extras don't add enough to the auction to warrant their price. For example: The Bold Option makes your title appear in Bold Print. While this does make it stand out, I do not think it is of that much value because most people scan the listings by looking at Gallery Images. The Bold Feature costs $2.00 for each listing while the Gallery feature only costs .25 cents. The Highlight Feature costs $5.00 and it makes your title appear as a Yellow Bar with the text within it. Again I feel this is not of great merit and a Gallery picture would be much more important. For $19.95, you can have your item featured in the Gallery Listings. This puts your item on the top in a Gallery search and doubles the size of the Gallery picture so it will stand out more. I have never used this feature so I cannot tell you if it works or not, but I suspect that probably just the regular Gallery picture for .25 cents will do the trick. Don't confuse the Gallery Featured $19.95 with the Featured Plus option which is also $19.95. This option puts your item at the top of category searches and usually results in higher views but not always in better bids. There is also Home Page Featured which will put your listing on the Front Page of Ebay ($99.99). If you click Upgrades to your listings you can find out more. You can also list your item in two categories instead of one. I do not use this option because it doubles your listing fees and listing upgrades. Then you have the Buy it Now option which is a great value (5 cents per listing). With a Buy it Now price fixed, the viewer is able to buy the item immediately and end the auction process. This option disappears if a viewer makes a bid instead of purchasing, however. I can't tell you how many times I have sold an item for the buy-it-now price. When pricing my buy-it-now, I usually raise the price about 1/2 of the starting bid. |
| Selling online is a big cookie to chew all at once, but if you take it slowly you can eventually market yourself well. Just take time to look around and learn as much as possible about the tool you are working with. It is sort of like our art. I know most artists are just sponges soaking up all info and techniques that they can use to improve their art. Same goes with selling.
I am going to tell you about something that happened to us on Ebay. Like most stories it has something to teach you. I know it taught me a few things. |
| Ebay is mighty and powerful. They like to tell me they are partners in business with me often. Well one morning I woke up to find my accounts and listings were gone. Ebay had shut us down. We couldn't figure out what had happened. I kept trying to contact Ebay through email only to become frustrated at the wait for them to respond, and then I would only get a canned response from them. I finally called Ebay and got a live person, but this person only told me I had to deal with my problem via email. Ebay does not have real phone customer support; they only deal with support via email. More often than not you will get a form email from them. Also they are never specific in answering questions, usually the answer is vague. I believe that they are vague on purpose. Their rules change often so they do not want you to have something in writing from one of their representatives just in case they decide to change something again. I have even sent them a numbered list of questions only to not have any answered, it is very frustrating.
Since this is how we make our living, Ebay had put me out of business!! My mistake was relying on Ebay and Ebay only to make my living! I wouldn't have been hurt so badly (financially) if I had been maintaining other forms of business, but I had neglected my other options and thought that Ebay was the end all. I hadn't put up much on my website in a long long time; I stopped posting items on Amazon, which is a good place to sell as well. The other site, JustBeads.com, sells very well in my case and I am sure there are other options for Paintings and Scuptures. My problem stemmed from a 5 year old account that was closed because of a change in my business. I had somehow forgotten about it and neglected paying off a portion of it. It had finally caught up with me after 5 years. I had to pay it in full with interest in order to get my other accounts turned on again. This had taught me a very valuable lesson. If you sell alot on ebay, pay your Ebay bill weekly so it doesn't grow to big. Plus, do not make Ebay your only option. It is by far the best auction site, but if you don't work for 2 weeks (that is how long it took to fix the problem) you can end up with big problems! It was a very bitter 2 weeks for us. They connected all of our accounts. So even though my daughter is an adult and has her own account, it was shut down. Same with my son and husband, even though I was the one responsible for the bill. It was a very scary experience. A lot of people strive to make their living online, but knowing all that I know today makes a big difference. I made many mistakes in the past that having someone to mentor and guide me I would have avoided. Also thinking before acting is very helpful! Roll your ideas around in your head. There are still many ideas that have not been used or thought of in respect to online sales. Don't think for a minute that it has all been done before, because that is really not true. |
| Quick Jump: | ||||
| B i o g r a p h y | |
| Laura Brito | |
| Laura Brito began her career in art at a young age. She went from drawing to painting in oils by the age nine, and won a major art contest, in the Orient where she lived, when she was fifteen. Painting was not her only medium. Photography became a passion that led to a semi-professional career in that field. The rights to thousands of her photographs have been sold over the years. Though she still finds a use for her camera her interest in hot glass opened a new career for her seven years ago. She now sells her work through her website. Her knowledge in the hot glass medium has grown over time while working in the medium, and she is happy to share information. Anyone interested in hot glasswork can find further information on Laura's website as well as the Glass Art Forum at WetCanvas! | |
| E-Mail: laura@beadful.com Web Site: http://www.beadful.com/MyaArtGlass/ | |
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