Question
I've been keeping a close eye on how things have changed this week vs the first week with VT script in my auctions. I changed all my listing titles to include terms that I know are used in more successful auctions (LE S/N COA), and I believe I'm seeing tangible results from that. These terms aren't being used to search for my auctions at all, but I believe they are encouraging more people to actually look deeper because I have more Watchers this week than I can remember ever before.
Currently there are 60 watches noted by eBay (could be far less actual Watchers, of course), and this compares to 18 noted by VT. At this point last week, I had about the same number of views as I have now with far less Watchers, so I can't attribute the increase in Watches to increased traffic. I'm thinking it's the titles that have increased "serious" interest, and the fact that I added 50 new items to my store. These new items only account for nine of my watches, so there isn't that much credit due them, either.
I'm going to include Sellathon script for one more week to decide if I want to continue using it or not. I doubt I will, I've learned about all I can learn from this program. It's been a benefit, clearly, but I see it becoming a huge problem if I ever need to edit the code, and especially if eBay has any more hiccups like they had today where ALL script was being blocked. Unless VT could identify watchers and bidders by user name (this will never happen), it's of little further use to me.
Answer
Tomorrow, after auctions close, I will be cancelling my subscription to VT. At the present, my stats related to watchers stands at 80/20, eBay report vs VT report. Pretty clear to me what that aspect of the service is worth. There is no word for less than zero, is there? I've had about 7,000 hits both weeks, though in this second week I didn't put the script into most of my store items.
I've learned a great deal over the past two weeks about how my auctions are found and how people move across them. These bits of information are worth the price, even if they don't paint a whole picture. What a seller REALLY needs to know is not available this way. For instance, it would be invaluable to know which watchers become bidders (yes, I am convinced some do), which eventual bidders spent more time browsing and which ones were just cruising by and bought anyway. I can't know which of my former buyers are watching and NOT buying, either. I do know that people search for me in large numbers by name, and that is encouraging.
My VT experiment has been very useful, all in all. I'm anxious to see if my discoveries are reflected in others here who are also trying it out.
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I've yet to revise one product line in my store to include the code, so I'll probably keep ViewTracker for a few months. What's amazed me is how little keyword searches are used. I have good keywords and fully expected that to be how most of my buyers find my items. But no, it's about 10%. There really is no method that's used more than another-it's spread over direct links, links from other auctions, links in emails, browsing categories, browsing my store, keyword searches etc.
I'm not really sure what to do with this information. Actually, I need to promote the store better, and have auctions end every day for the browsing categories people. I usually have a bunch end two or three times a week so I'll spread it out.
Monika
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Be sure to look out for ViewTracker code changes. Every now and then eBay tinkering requires VT to change their code. No real harm done, but VT won't work until you revise the code in each listing. I always check their site before I put new auctions up, just in case.
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I think in order to be applied, most information of this type of needs to be taken in context, or is dependent on correlating data (that may or may not be provided) to be useful. For example, If you find that only 10% of your auction hits are generated by key words, you might errantly get the impression that proper keywording is commensurately worth only about 10% of your attention. When in fact, even though only 10% percent of your prospective buyers found you through keywords, this group nevertheless represent 90% of your actual sales. Effective keywording being far, far more important than the small percentage of hits indicate.
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Thanks for the tip, toke.
Long-gone, I certainly won't stop working on good keywords, but that's good advice. Some of the links in emails and in other people's auctions are based on keywords, so I know it's more than the 10% in general searches that are affected by them. Besides I like for my titles to be as descriptive and readable as possible.
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Yes, that's where VT falls short of being truly helpful in all it purports to do for sellers. Raw facts don't give you enough data to know precisely where to place your emphasis. Incomplete raw facts are little better than guesswork, but they are better than not knowing at all.
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Besides I like for my titles to be as descriptive and readable as possible.
At various times I have seen the suggestion here (at here) that a title does not need good syntax, or to make sense per se, as the keywords are more important for people to find the item. I personally feel that a title should indeed be "readable", ideally looking literate and competent. I don't feel comfortable with titles that are a hotch potch of "key" words but don't necessarily make sense. Sometimes it makes it hard to determine what the item is, and at other times it makes it look like the seller is not competent or even literate. Neither inspire the confidence to bid - in the latter case, while poor literacy has meant that I have found bargains in my early days on Ebay, some did not arrive, I suspect because they were actually addressed incorrectly. I think that "readable" is an important aspect to title writing, in spite of some of the advice I have seen here in the past.
Kind Regards, Kevin