Have you fallen into a comfortable routine of doing business? Mastering your computer and the technology involved with buying and selling online is exhausting. There's a lot to learn. Once you have it all figured out, it's pretty easy to become complacent.
Have you become reluctant to change? When you hear yourself saying, "I don't know why, that's just the way I've always done things," then you know it's time to take a look at what you are doing and why.
We've all decided to try our hand at buying and selling online. We work in an ever-changing, evolving marketplace. It's up to all of us to continue our education, or be beaten down by the competition.
Examine your entire selling process and shake things up a little to see what happens. Try some new auction templates, register and sell in a new venue, or experiment with different Google AdWords. Make a new banner and trade some links. Optimize your pages and submit them again.
If you need help, come to the Online Marketing Forum and ask for ideas! http://www.auctionbytes.com/forum/phpBB/viewforum.php?f=15 Jason from Fast-Pack.com, a shipping-supply company, is a regular participant in the forums. He wanted some advice about T-shirts he was designing to help promote his business. http://www.auctionbytes.com/forum/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=1665. Other members of the forum pitched in and gave him some excellent suggestions, not only on the logo, but on how to make the most of the T-shirts.
One poster said, "I run estate sales as well as sell from my own web-site and on e-Bay...and believe me, whenever I am going to be at an auction, antique/collectible show or hitting flea markets and garage sales, I make sure I have my logo showing on my shirt and business cards in my pocket. I manage to get 3-4 estate sale referrals a year this way; and it's not unusual for someone at another sale to ask "What do you sell?" when they read my shirt."
This is just one example of the useful advice you can find from networking on forums and demonstrates that two heads are better than one!
The Internet is the ultimate source for innovation. "Early-adopters" are creating new Web sites, new software and new opportunities every day. Investigate them. People are discussing fresh ideas all over the place. Take part in the discussions. Read all you can, take some risks and develop new relationships. Test your efforts and measure your results.
Remember, there is no guarantee that things will get better if you change them, but to get better, things have to change.
About the author:
Jim Crawford is a stay-at-home father, entrepreneur and Internet Marketing Consultant. He likes to think of himself as a "creative resource." Jim spends a considerable amount of time reading publications and researching Web sites in both the collecting and marketing industries, and enjoys networking with leaders in both. His Web site, The Collector's Marketing Resource Center, provides information about Web site design and marketing for the highly competitive antiques and collecting industry. Stop in for a free consultation http://www.CrawfordDirect.com. If you have a question about marketing your Web site, email him at jim @ crawforddirect.com
