Question
I would be interested in any basic information, thoughts or links you might be willing to share about gateway websites for eBay Stores.
When I opened a Store in Dec. 03 I had the feeling that a gateway website site might be a good companion. More instinct than any thought through plan.
I registered my Store name as a URL but have done no more.
eBay has made Stores an easy next step for sellers that have sufficient inventory of a nature that lends itself to being grouped into a Store.
A gateway website is not as easy. It should be simple to start and maintain. Low start up and ongoing expenses.
Beyond the why, how and where are questions of what should be the minimum format and content.
I, and likely others, could benefit from an easy first step into a working website.
Phase 2 might include adding to the website any number of the options for expanding content, increasing search ranking, including listings from other sites, starting a free standing store and all the other additions that might make the site a destination rather than just a gateway.
I'm getting ahead of myself here and should return to the fundamentals.
What is a gateway website?
Why might it be useful to an eBay Store user?
How can one be established with little effort/knowledge and low costs?
What are the minimum components that provide current effectiveness and support future expansion?
Suggested checklist?
Suggested service providers?
Cost projections?
What are the negative or why shouldn't we bother?
Answer
did you sign up for that freebie website form vendio
or that other company, that might help
what is a gateway website anyway?
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Answer
reston_ray, could you condense your question down to one sentence? I'm not sure I understand what you're asking. Are you looking to build your own web store? Looking for ways to drive traffic to your eBay Store? Or something else?
http://tekgems.com/images/logo/tekgems80.jpg · · Web Store · eBay Listings ·
Answer
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> What is a gateway website?
Why might it be useful to an eBay Store user?
How can one be established with little effort/knowledge and low costs?
What are the minimum components that provide current effectiveness and support future expansion?
Suggested checklist?
Suggested service providers?
Cost projections?
What are the negative or why shouldn't we bother? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
I don't know about you, but I'm not doing ANY advertising for eBay. My website is a way for people to give me money directly, without eBay getting their grubby little paws on a penny of it. I have taken merchandise that I couldn't sell on eBay for $1.99 and listed it on my site for $10+, and it's selling.
I had an eBay store and closed it. I didn't want to run auctions to drive traffic to it. I'd rather take the $10 a month that I'd pay for the store fee, and just run $10 worth of auctions.
I've always kept my website very segregated from my eBay sales. And, as I had hoped, my website sales became profitable enough for me to all but give up eBay.
I will run the occasional auction, especially when I get something unique that just lends itself to the auction format, but I can't keep up with the website and the auction process anymore. One had to go, and it was eBay because it was the least profitable.
I think Fatcow.com has some kind of a store building promo going - you might try there for starters. There are a gazillion small business e-commerce sites out there, most can be had for less than $200 a year. If you look hard, you can probably do even better than that.
You asked how can one be established with little effort/knowledge and low costs. To get "established" with a website, you need to read & learn ALL YOU CAN about search engine placement and optimization. There are companies that do it for you, but if you want to do it on the cheap, it can be done. Read, read, and then read some more.
Hopefully Sharon will come along. She designs GREAT websites, and also does hosting, and has shopping cards, and her rates were extremely reasonable. She also has great customer support - she's just plain wonderful.
Hope I've helped a little.
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Melinda
Answer
To have a URL, in my case www.AuldIreland.com, that open to my eBay Store and make it available on the Internet so that I may use that URL in printed form, business cards etc., and start to benefit from search engines.
When I opened an eBay store I picked a name that I was also able to register with GoDaddy.
Just parked now but I could place it with any website host and have the eBay Store open when it is clicked/entered.
An alternative would be to have a simple website, maybe just one page, which opened when www.AuldIreland.com was clicked.
It could say , welcome, we have..., please click here to open my store, please bookmark, YADA, YADA and leads to my eBay Store.
In time I might add more content, make use of keywords, Adwords, links and whatever would make it attract visits from the Internet.
Later I might include links to auctions at other sites and/or add a store.(maybe disconnecting the link to the eBay Store)
Sorry, I wrote this as one sentence but it didn't look quite right. As usual, the less I really understand the subject, the more I have to say to try explaining it.
Answer
The strategy that might work for now is to create a link on your main web site called "Products" that sends the buyer to your eBay Store. Long term, I think running and promoting your own web store will benefit you more.
> How can one be established with little effort/knowledge and low costs?
Some web hosts offer ecommerce packages that is included as part of web hosting. Miva Merchant, osCommerce, and ShopSite a few packages that are included with your account. So, going this avenue would more about learning a process rather than building your own web store.
> What are the minimum components that provide current effectiveness and support future expansion?
1) web host with web script and database capabilities (Perl/Php and MySql or ASP/MS Access) - PHP/MySql combination have more free solutions available.
2) shopping cart (and inventory catalog)
I started with Mal's eCommerce (mals-e.com) and still use their services today. You could look at OptionCart.com which interfaces with Mal's eCommerce for a small cost.
3) credit card/gateway interface
For the beginner, Paypal is perfect. They now let buyers pay without registering with Paypal which makes entry into receiving actual credit card payment very easy. Mal's free shopping cart gives you the Paypal real-time checkout at no charge.
> Cost projections?
1) Time - varies depending on technical ability
2) web hosting $10 to $20 per month. Starting at 100 megs disk space / 5 Gb monthly bandwidth.
3) Credit card processing fees (2% to 6% of order total)
> What are the negative or why shouldn't we bother?
The only negative I can see to running your own web store is that you can't just stop listing any more. With eBay, if you want to take a break, you just stop listing and you're done. But I think keeping more of your hard earned money is important.
http://tekgems.com/images/logo/tekgems80.jpg · · Web Store · eBay Listings ·
Answer
Ray-
Why not just redirect your URL to your eBay Store? Your host can do that, and keep your URL in the browser address bar if you want. Also allow you to insert your own meta tags and such.
For example, I have one of my URL's redirecting to my Auctiva Gallery:
www.automemories.com
(which is filled with eBay store stuff)
Answer
Ray you are getting some good advice here. I think Melbays thoughts are the same as mine. Ebay has gotten about all the money they are ever going to get from me. One thought is your ISP some provide storage for small amount mine charges $5.00 a month. That way you could build a very basic site and see if you are cut out for it. Later you could use your dotcom. Having a dotcom is not a big deal. I built a couple of basic websites in notepad and one ranks higher than my dotcom.
My website www.cobalthaven.com
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Thank you for your help and encouragement.
I very much want to be less dependent on eBay and tried to make the jump to a stand alone website.
I crashed and burned. While I'll be glad to share the what and how I did a long list of steps incorrectly, when or wherever it would be helpful to others, I won't clutter this thread with all of the details.
I decided to start over and follow a slower path with smaller steps.
I also attempted to ask questions in a way that might help others who haven't yet tried and learned by making mistakes, as I have.
While many have made the jump from eBay to a free standing website I think a larger group are taking a slower path of moving from auctions to a eBay Store.
Once that step is made, and the ongoing process of learning how to promote the Store on eBay is undertaken, a next step could be learning how to independently promote the Store on the Web.(This is the point I'm at.)
From there I see the development of the web presence into a full site with, in time, an independent store (and less dependence on eBay) .
Early choices can be important in making this process work smoothly.
For example, in picking a eBay Store name, I tried to find a name that represented my product theme, was available on eBay, was available on the Internet to be registered as an URL and completed the name registration with GoDaddy before opening the Store.
In theory I can promote the present Store and eventually expand into a stand alone website with it's own store while maintaining the name continunity.
Again thanks and I'll be back as soon as I figure out what the next question is.
Answer
Sounds like you have a good, well-thought out plan. Please keep us posted on your progress. The first hurdle in something like this is "A PLAN". Sounds like you'd done that.
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Melinda