Any Ebay Alternatives That Work?

RFW

Brooker_Dave wrote: »

Yes.

http://www.alibaba.com/trade/search?IndexArea=company_en&SearchText=uk&atm=&f0=y&country=UK

World's biggest online marketplace - and growing (unlike ebay)...

Putting aside the growth comment (Ebay's last global market figures showed around 20% increases) Alibaba is a completely different marketplace. As far as the OP goes the only vintage clothing you can sell from the UK is by the container load in bales, so still not sure how Alibaba is relevant to this thread.

choille

Yes, I did take a look at alibaba & it seemed to be to buy containers of 2nd clothes from China which isn't what I was looking for, but thanks for your input.

I will try & set up a website of such that I can maybe use as a showcase & then somehow direct folks to it.

I'm not a facebook person & struggle understanding all the hype & even don't use it at all - bit of a Luddite, but I will definately look into a website.

Flyonthewall

choille wrote: »

Yes, I did take a look at alibaba & it seemed to be to buy containers of 2nd clothes from China which isn't what I was looking for, but thanks for your input.

I will try & set up a website of such that I can maybe use as a showcase & then somehow direct folks to it.

I'm not a facebook person & struggle understanding all the hype & even don't use it at all - bit of a Luddite, but I will definately look into a website.

Social media is a very useful tool for advertising. You may not understand the hype, but there's a lot of people and it can bring you business so it's well worth considering. You would need to set up a facebook page for your business. It's really simple, basically just clicking a few buttons.

You would then just need to add a bit of information about you/your business, a link to your site/selling platform and after that just remember to add updates/statuses to it. Ask family and friends to like the page and share it and be sure to link to your facebook page from your site. People will click like and that advertises it while meanwhile you are keeping fans of the page up to date with what's going on.

You can do a similar thing on Twitter. Create an account, follow some people and just add updates to it. People will then follow you. You can write the same for Facebook and Twitter. Again link to your Twitter from your site.

lovinituk

Brooker_Dave wrote: »

Yes.

http://www.alibaba.com/trade/search?IndexArea=company_en&SearchText=uk&atm=&f0=y&country=UK

World's biggest online marketplace - and growing (unlike ebay)...

Dave, are you really that slow?! Alibaba is no comparison to eBay. I said it above, Alibaba is a trade website for buying in bulk, I should know - I use it to find new suppliers. Have you ever purchased anything from there because it doesn't sound like you know what it is? Joe Public from the UK can't list single items for sale on Alibaba so why you are even comparing it to eBay is beyond me! Try thinking before you post.

forgotmyname

Setup your own website or blog site and then link to youtube for video reviews on the items or similar.

Then youtube links to your site/blog and hopefully pushes the traffic up.

More links and more traffic will help it pop up in the searches.

stindle

put loads of money into fbook adverts before and no takers. seems you can pick your target audience but how do you know its shown to the correct people? Gumtree is hit and miss, free-ads works better for me but can't beat your own site and google. Much harder work with seo and back linking etc but well worth it after a few months of hard work.

RFW

stindle wrote: »

put loads of money into fbook adverts before and no takers. seems you can pick your target audience but how do you know its shown to the correct people? Gumtree is hit and miss, free-ads works better for me but can't beat your own site and google. Much harder work with seo and back linking etc but well worth it after a few months of hard work.

I've actually found Facebook advertising works better for us than Google, Twitter or some magazine advertising we've done. Most advertising is more miss than hit there isn't a magic formula. As someone mentioned above using social media is more about engaging with people rather than just putting a picture up saying "buy my tat".

lovinituk

I've found Facebook advertising to be quite successful too. The secret is to narrow your target audience right down. No point in spamming tens of thousands of people and wasting the impressions when its much more productive to target a couple of thousand of those that are more likely to be interested. A good picture and tag line are also essential otherwise it just looks cheap and/or spammy.

Flyonthewall

Interesting to see that facebook advertising works so well for some. Haven't tried that personally but I know that as a user I always ignore the ads.
Looking on my facebook there are 7 adverts. A moment ago none of them were in the slightest what I'd be interested in. It then changed and there's one that caught my eye because it said amazon and was an image of an electronic and, well, I like electronics/gadgets/tech but I quick glance showed it was nothing I was interested in.

Now they've changed again and there's 6. The amazon one I mentioned before and 5 adverts I have no interest in.

I never actually realised how often them adverts changed. No clue why it thinks I'll be interested in any of them.

lovinituk

Flyonthewall wrote: »

but I know that as a user I always ignore the ads.

That was the reason I always gave myself for not trying it before. I hate Facebook with a passion and wouldn't use it if it wasn't for the business. One day I was given a voucher by Facebook for some free advertising so gave it a go. I was pleasantly surprised with the results. I forget that some people spend half their lives on there! And my target market are likely to be very heavy Facebook users.