Today's Critique My Site feature goes multimedia! Mike at Big-Plush has been selling giant stuffed animals on eBay for two years and has recently branched out with an Estore at http://www.BigPlush.com. Mike said the site needs a lot of work, but he isn't sure where to start. In addition, Mike uses video on his website, and he's looking for advice from AuctionBytes readers.
"The major thing I would like to know from you and your readers, are what they sincerely LIKE... and what they sincerely HATE about the BigPlush.com site, and also more specifically... What are the three most important things we can do to improve the site? What's the single one thing about the site that we should ditch yesterday? What do they think of the video-preview and multiple photo concept we use?"
Mike got interested in including video in listings when he sold a used Endless Pool for $13,800. "This was significant because I had used video in the eBay auction, and the highest previous eBay price for that item in similar condition was $8,500." He has lots of questions about what readers think of the video, such as whether he should link to the videos so pages will load faster, or keep them embedded in the listing.
(Mike also said he's the guy who sold thousands of those "Pooping-Pig Keychains" on eBay in 1998 by including a short video of his hand squeezing the poor pink pig.)
When Mike decided to go multi-channel, he switched to Marketworks. He said that while it was very difficult to learn, once he did it was powerful, fast and saved him time. Last month he began using the Marketworks channel feeds to get his items on Overstock, Yahoo, Nextag, Shopzilla, Froogle/Gbase, and more, and he is also in the process of adding Amazon Seller Central.
"I am also getting my battle scars using Google AdWords paid advertising... as well as Yahoo Overture and Microsoft AdCenter. And the addition of Google Checkout has truly helped our sales."
BigPlush website:
http://www.BigPlush.com
Discuss the site here:
http://www.auctionbytes.com/forum/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=21908
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Note: Read comments for last issue's Critique My Site submission at
http://www.auctionbytes.com/forum/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=21798
If you would like to be considered for an AuctionBytes "Critique My Site" feature, let me know by emailing me at ina@auctionbytes.com.
