Need your opinion of a website.

So ... I was selling flower seeds for quite a while on ebay , amazon ... I am planning to build a website also .. ebay fees are high + you have some competition there. With a website at less I am the only guy.

How would you approach this marketing?

1. SEO on Google ?
2. Social Marketing on Facebook? 50%+ of USA/Europe population live in a house, not apartment ... so they need flowers or heirloom seeds
3. Direct marketing ?...

Thanks, and sorry for my bad English

 

Social media sites like Facebook would be the right place for you to promote the business. Then direct marketing and SEO will give additional boost to your business.

 

Don't give up on eBay just because there is competition there. You have to keep in mind the buyers, they go to eBay because they know that they can find products to buy there. With a new web site no one will know you exist at first, it will be a long and difficult road to get sales happening there.

My advice is always to find out where your buyers hang out and then advertise there. If you know that there are buyers on eBay then you should make sure you advertise there. Companies advertise on sites like eBay, Etsy, Amazon, etc. because they know that their buyers are looking at those sites.

I would next look for ezines that cater to your audience and see if they accept advertising, I almost guarantee that they will. Then look for other places where your buyers might hang out.

Pinterest might be a great place to promote your web site once you build it. Get some great photos of flowers from your seeds, at Pinterest the more professional looking the photo the better. Also putting articles on your site talking about how to use your seeds to improve the look of a home would work well and links to those articles would be perfect for Pinterest.

But my biggest advice to increase sales, if you already know where a market is (like eBay) try to improve your marketing there. That is the fastest way to increase sales. For instance if you are selling individual seed packs try some new listings with sets of seed packs designed for a whole garden. Or create an informational DVD on how to use your seeds and add that to your listings, of course if you have a better offering than your competitors (a DVD for instance) you can charge more as well.

 

Ebay is not only the way and don't limit your influence. Expand your product by building a website that is optimized to your targeted users. Use blog sites and social media sites to reach your targeted audience by providing them interesting and engaging content.

 

Don't do SEO unless you have an established website/business. If you're going to sell flower seeds I think pinterest & facebook are good tactics. They have lots of female audiences and your target prospect are likely to be females, no?

 

Don't do SEO unless you have an established website/business. If you're going to sell flower seeds I think pinterest & facebook are good tactics. They have lots of female audiences and your target prospect are likely to be females, no?

 

Immediately i'd be on Google Adwords, Bing Ads, and forums.

If you can find similar sites in your niche (but NOT competitors), see if they offer advertising space on their site, and place an ad there

You should also start a blog too. I can see this kind of site/project becoming a social hub for your email and blog followers.

 

very nice

 

I would stay on eBay as you try to build up your website. You can do both at the same time and there will be synergies in that eBay will drive some buyers to your site. I would stay away from SEO. It is getting to the point where the search engines are changing their algorithms so often and so dramatically that the effort/investment needed for SEO is not worth it. Focus on more stable marketing.

 

You need to stay at ebay or go to amazon or either of the websites. The reason is simple, you know people are going to come on that sites and they find products genuine there as compared to a website which is still struggling to breath. You can link or throw away the traffic to your main website from ebay itself for more products. This way you can get benefit from both.

 

Social media would be the best way to promote your site nowadays. Get a Facebook business page and start an ad campaign. Also get a twitter page and tweet like hell.

 

not sure if someone mentioned this or not, but the strategy is that your site should complement your ebay.
Some sellers do it well, their ebay name, and website name all have similar branding. Paying "adsense" you have to pay per visitor right, but done well maybe 5-10% (complete estimate) of the people that see your ebay listing will come to your site. So while ebay has fees, it can still earn you a direct sale on ebay, and drive you some highly relevant traffic.

You do a ebay page that has your site name, and logo on it. And each sale you do via ebay, package it with marketing material promoting* your site. Offering a discount, or even a buy one get one free, if they order direct from your site.
(A simple thankyou, or printed receipt with your company branding is enough)

But this is what I would be doing, push your name, company, branding on platforms, be it ebay, or other, directly make cash from these systems, and try to get 10% of recurring sales directly from the clients.

For your website, I like the idea of a blog, growth tips, seed recommendations for different climates, photos of established healthy plants, etc. For me, this would help to establish you as a quality source of information, and push seeds almost as a secondary thing?

Depending on how big you are, (and costs etc), doing a mailout to all former ebay customers, include a small packet of seeds, and do some nice promotional material, such as prove your knowledge of the plant (photos of how it looks), and promote your website as being a great resource place for plant information, and for growers. This marketing should be effective, its directly at the people that are interested in your product, and have already used your product. If this is a little expensive to do, just do it for 5-10 clients per week /month.

These are all the things that I would consider PRIOR to doing SEO, and directly paying for ads to gain direct customers.

 

Start with Social Media then go with local directories. After that, work on SEO and slowly advertise your products on different platforms.

 

If I were you I'd look at Facebook groups. Good way to find people interested in your niche and make contacts.

 

You need an integrated strategy. My suggestion: SEO + good promotional strategy (including SMM)

 

This is the best advice! Especially the part about using a blog to gain traffic, and the seed recommendations for each climate. Really help your customers and use your blog as a way to teach them how to grow plants. Maybe even have a community where people can log their growing journeys?

 

you want to build a new ebay or amazon? are you kidding bro?

 

he hasnt said anywhere that he wants to create the next ebay or amazon. Right now, he claims he is 100% reliant on these platforms for selling his products, and most of what he earns is lost in fees.

He just wants to branch out, build a small ecommerce website so that he can sell his products to a few people and this way selling his products is not 100% reliant on ebay / amazon with hopefully less of his money lost in fees.

IMHO, its a great idea.

 

Promoting through social networks is better. Seo is not a easy task it requires lot of effort.

 

You can have a site in tandem with eBay. Unless you are buying ads, it will take awhile to rank a website. This way you still have your business on eBay while promoting your website.

I would set up a site that has both a shopping site and a tutorial section. I would start making short tutorials using both text and video. I think tutorials on YouTube linking to your site can get you traffic too. I would create a Facebook Fan page and a Pinterest account. I would create interesting visuals that you could add to both Pinterest and Facebook. I would also add your YouTube videos to your Facebook Fanpage.

I would also see what are the top forums in your niche. I would join the community and start posting with a link in your signature to your website. If you are also interested in continuing your eBay business and if you have a eBay store, I would also add these links to your Facebook Fanpage, Pinterest posts and the forum signature.

If you know what you are doing then paid ads will bring traffic to your site and if you want your eBay store faster then SEO. There are things like guest posting on other blogs in your niche to also bring in traffic. There is a lot that you can do. It just is a question how involved you want to get.