Hey folks, I have a music gear auction site at gear-vault [dot] com and I'm just not getting sellers. I've been doing specials and posting on guitar / amp message forums to the point of getting warnings from moderators. I've given away guitar stuff and I'm about broke giving away free stuff. People come for the free stuff then disappear. I'm at witts end to get folks to come sell on my site... This site is a great idea and I get a lot of PMs and Emails and phone conversation with members who think the idea is brilliant, but it's like they don't have interest in taking advantage of this free site. The site is powerful on Google, It doesn't take long for google to find the content and bring it up on the top 3 pages of any specific item. My site has over 37,000 back links... I'm a respectable member on many message forums, and I have an affiliate site at http://guitarfinder.net (and more being built) I need someones help getting my site rollin'- I'm thinking it needs a bunch of social bookmark and blogs based on about how beneficial it is to sell at the site. If the sellers come, content is built, and buyers will follow. thanks
have you thought about contacting local guitar stores in your area, and some of the ebay stores that sell a lot of guitars through ebay? Perhaps offer them a free deal for 6 months (they list for free, maybe no selling fees either) - make it too good to refuse..... I think you will really need to initially give away your sites services to a few big fish, in order to get the smaller fish to follow Good luck!
I'm not sure there's an overnight solution. Yes blogs are great, fresh content, give-aways, social bookmarking, a bunch of squiddo pages, authority sites, etc. Try www.text-link-ads.com - I've never used them and not affiliated with them in any way - I just heard they were pretty good. May be others could comment as well. Either way, its going to take a lot of time. I dont know anything about your site but obviously you're competing with the dominance of EBay. I wish others like you would stick to it and knock them off. Good luck!
Bottom line is niche auction sites are nearly impossible, Im sorry but it's a fact. People like the multiple category concept of ebay... they are going to go where you can find other items and where you can find an exisitng base of users.. it's just not easy to break into auction try classifieds or something else
Wow, lots of great advice! I actually just made the site free today, but have been offering free to "special" people... i.e contact respectable forum posters with good re-pore who like to flip gear. And I thought it would make them feel special that they are cool enough to get the services free... But no avail, they just dont seem to respond. I have not contacted music stores, not sure how to write up a email without coming off as spam or a door to door Tupperware salesman. mountainlife, the site can be used as auction, classifieds, trades, or offers... it's quite powerful. I think the niche site will work because across the forums I hear more people complain about ebay (in the niche of guitars and amps)- One can sell one amp on ebay and pay damn near a full pays wage on fees alone! Thus raising their price on ebay to try to get their price. Buyers are paying more to accommodate this. It's a cycle.. I think in my niche, people could save $50 - $75 on one sale, thus selling quicker since they can sell cheaper. JM2C