Hi All, Firstly loving this community, I've read some really useful topics and people have been really helpful - All good! I've posted before asking about general marketing tips and asking for feedback about my site www.bidburglar.com but I'm not sure how to target my most important audience - eBay users. I've already been banned from an Auction discussion forum for just posting a link and very politely letting people know that the site exists! No hard sell whatsoever. Anyway, I've learnt that that's the wrong tack to take, tail between legs and all that, but where else do I find eBay users (apart from eBay) and let them know about my site? I would love to plough a few k in marketing and SEO but the purse is empty at the moment Any tips? Thanks in advance DG
I am sorry but i don't see what your tool offers really as you can make your highest bid in Ebay and will continue to raise against other bids untill you are beat out....
xboxundone, "Bid sniper tools" are as old as ebay. It helps you to not get in a bidding war by biding in the last seconds even you are not online. But I know there are a few good sniper tools available for free. As a suggestion, drgreen, I think Burgler is not a good word in the ebay world were everybody is afraid of scams.
I was thinking this, but i personally wouldn't be too bothered. Maybe others would. I would use an adwords campaign for this. I have never used adwords but i think this is the sort of thing it is for.
xboxundone You're entitled to your opinion but hundred's of thousands of people use online sniping sites on a daily basis and apart from sniping there are other benefits to be gained from using the site. It lets you pull out of a bid without being penalised (up to 5 minutes before the auction ends). It helps you steer clear of emotional bidding wars, enabling you to control yourself, and your money. It saves you loads of time. With the multi-add feature you can find lots of the same items. If you win one, the other bids are automatically cancelled. It hides your bidding from other bidders. If you’ve found a really good bargain – you don’t want to draw attention to it. Relax. Bidding is kept secret. It stores your bidding history, what’s been won, what’s been lost and at what price. This is really useful information that eBay deletes after just 3 months. We're also going to roll out an sms alert service soon. The site's started to move and people are signing up everyday. Someone even won a BMW using the site so they've obviously got confidence in us. Thanks for the suggestion Notting, we did think about this but the word snipe also has negative connotations but it's widely used both for the software and online services. Also we made sure our cartoon burglar looked really friendly and approachable - lovable rogue type thing Obviously some people will be put off but we're pretty sure they will be in the minority. We did quite a bit of research on this! Myamar, thanks for you input, for interest, which sniper tools are you referring to, I'd be interested to take a look. Thanks for the feedback, it's good to hear. DG
I like the "bidburglar" brand...reminds me of Googspy a bit... You might want to check out your high ranking competitors' backlinks etc. to see opportunities where you would like to buy advertising or look for partnerships/link exchanges etc. Since there are many competitors offering free versions, what is your added benefit to justify the paid model? Is there any other ways you can bundle value, perhaps partnering with another para-auction product or service? Soon enough you'll be able to add your signature in this forum (10 posts).
Hey Roxyyo, Nice ideas, I'll get onto the bloggers for sure! How do I go about checking my HR competitors back links? Haven't got a clue. Our SMS alert service will help give us that extra edge and most of the free services have their limitations e.g no less than a 9 sec buffer which allows manual snipers to get in, limit on snipes per week...... Also our aim is to make the site as user friendly as possible and hopefully attracting people who are new to the concept of sniping. Still a long way to go but as Confucius said 'Every Journey Begins with a Single Step' Thanks for your thoughts DG
Guess i should have doug into the site more.... As after reading all that it does sound appealing a usefulll... maybe if there is a way to portray more openly to your average visitor... as like me many may look at it and say like i did ebay somewhat has this... when infact it is a different side of if and is more beneficial to the bidder... just trying to provide feedback
I have been using auctionsniper. I learned about it when the editor of a used book forum strongly endorsed it. Another program called timeblaster helps find interesting auctions and has a clickable auction sniper link. The auction info transfers to auctionsniper so you don't have to fill it in yourself. We never bid directly on auctions anymore for all the resons mentioned before.
Understood these sites. Ebay has all these tools, and sniping is just plain wrong. But that is my opinion. When I put in a bid for an item, I have a pretty good idea of what it is really worth (sometimes just to me) and I will bid at once this amount. So if someone bids higher or snipes me, then they have paid more than it is worth. Case in point...was buying a certain item that the mfg sells all day long at their site for $299, free shipping. The item was on ebay with a starting bid of $1, had shipping costs shown of $15. So I jumped in and bid at the start, $284. Making it a break even venture if I won. Someone got it at the last few seconds, but they paid more than the item was worth. And then...I got a second chance at the item for my bid! Because the winner backed out (probably found out his bid was way more than it was worth).
Well each to their own I say, the world's a big enough place The site got over 1000 uniques in 12 hours yesterday, quite pleased really.... Long way to go though...head down... DG