I've finally worked it all out!!!

campdave

mrs_sparrow wrote: »

I sell 1500 products (and that is without the clearance, you can add another 2500 onto that), the competition is very high in the market I sell. Ridiculously high. There are no real specific keywords for what I sell, apart from the obvious ones and they have a 'recommended CPC' of £6.86.

I have tried setting a CPC allowance of £2 a day - the same as my ebay store price - but it has been refused. Have I called them? No, I don't have the time as I am moving over my stock to Amazon and, as a sole trader, I also have to have a life.

I have decided I am tired of working all possible hours for no money so I am putting little effort in - I will list it, if it sells, it sells, if it doesn't it does not matter as I have enough to pay the bills out of my personal money. I figure I have a month of work now to get my site, Amazon and eBay listed and then I am just going to let things run as they are.

My eBay sales used to be £1200 a week or more - this week, £199 and I have MORE items for sale today than I did back then.

I would not include the monthly fees (which have whittled down to very little now anyway) as when you sell something on eBay, yes you have fees, but you are guaranteed to take in some money - on Google, you are not as you get charged for the click, whether they purchase or not.

I really don't wish to sound patronising, but if it's so stressful, it might be worth looking to get out of whatever area you're currently working in and get a 9-5 without the stress, or investigate a different market to sell in.

giantmutantbroccoli

Have I called them? No, I don't have the time as I am moving over my stock to Amazon and, as a sole trader, I also have to have a life.

It took me approximately one and a half hours to get my first campaign set up on adwords, with them on the phone. I manage it entirely by myself, with about two hours work a fortnight - and that's with a product list that changes day to day.
I am trying to help you out a bit by offering what I hope is information that could help your business, by the way, I'm not here to argue with you about the vagaries of how google works or sell you some kind of service, or somehow force you into doing something you don't want to do. Using adwords could help your business, but you sure don't have to justify to me why you don't want to do it.

I kind of agree with campdave here, you sound like your business is really stressing you out for very little return - so why are you doing it?

mrs_sparrow

campdave wrote: »

I really don't wish to sound patronising, but if it's so stressful, it might be worth looking to get out of whatever area you're currently working in and get a 9-5 without the stress, or investigate a different market to sell in.

Patronising? Presumptious, yes, patronising - no not really.

I have a disabled child - working for myself suits as my 'job' revolves around him and my other child. If I work he would have to go to some kind of after school care that takes children with disabilities, and let me tell you, there are very few that do. So, that aside this (used to) keep me sane instead of sitting here twiddling my thumbs, watching Jeremy Kyle and eating too many biscuits. It has worked for 12 years but, despite paying my money, my site is being cut off for the likes of Argos and Debenhams. When I had my website selling on Google Shopping there was no INR or defect rubbish to worry about, someone bought something, you sent it, it arrives, it was great. Only Google started asking for money. Only great if you can afford it.

So I moved back onto eBay, it was doing well, selling 2-300 items a month then all of a sudden, down to 10 items a week now!! What do you suggest I do with the 3000+ items I have in stock if I go back to work (assuming I can find a job that works around my children and hospital appointments - I have another child who looks like they are about to have major surgery and a 9 month recovery time). It's all very well in principle, to suggest going back to work - the reality though is very different for some people.

My husband works - I liked doing this, it was my independence, my 'thing' to do other than being a full time carer and unpaid house cleaner!! Do I need to do it? No, not really. Do I want to? Yes, I do. If I close though, I need to sell my stock.

However, you are right. I in the last 6 weeks, have opened a pop up store locally, all inclusive lowish rent and it suits. It works around my kids. It is great. I love it!! Do I have enough customers to make it worthwhile..... we will see.

I am tying up some loose ends which will no doubt take around a month to do in all, the stock I have will be all I have now unless someone comes into the shop and orders something in and pays for it. I will plod along on a basic shop and do what I need to do, I already dropped my dispatch days from same day to 2 days. I can't be bothered to put myself out anymore quite frankly.

However, when you have so much money sitting in stock and your site is cut off for no particular reason it is pretty worrying and stressful. All the crap buyers claiming INR aside, I have 100% feedback and am a Powerseller and TRS. Both of these ratings I will be losing in the next few months as sales have dropped by so much.

Could I have been sitting here 3 months ago and telling you I would today be sending out 3 parcels every other day when I was sending 30 a day before? No way, what reason is there fr me to be cut off? I know I am not the only one, I am taking heart in that. I bought new stock in because I was selling out of the old stock - and now cannot shift it for love nor money. So what's going on? Makes no sense whatsoever.

So yes, it is stressful and it is worrying. I'd have thought this is the same for everyone in the exact same situation I am.

mrs_sparrow

giantmutantbroccoli wrote: »

I kind of agree with campdave here, you sound like your business is really stressing you out for very little return - so why are you doing it?

As above.

A) because I like working for myself
Because getting 'a proper' job is not an option for me because of my demands on my time
C) Because I have around 3000 items in stock to get rid of now and it is not selling on eBay
D) Because it gives me a purpose instead of 'just' being a full time carer and unpaid house cleaner/taxi driver/wife/mother/dogsbody

I am sure there are more. Especially the one where I've spent 12 years doing this and working hard to build my reputation for big companies to come wipe their shoes on me on their way out and leave me with no outlet to sell because Google favours them and not the small retailer.

mrs_sparrow

giantmutantbroccoli wrote: »

It took me approximately one and a half hours to get my first campaign set up on adwords, with them on the phone. I manage it entirely by myself, with about two hours work a fortnight - and that's with a product list that changes day to day.
I am trying to help you out a bit by offering what I hope is information that could help your business, by the way, I'm not here to argue with you about the vagaries of how google works or sell you some kind of service, or somehow force you into doing something you don't want to do. Using adwords could help your business, but you sure don't have to justify to me why you don't want to do it.

So, will you share your CPC conversion rate? How much do you pay Google each month for Adwords? And how much do you make from those sales, profit, not income?

campdave

mrs_sparrow wrote: »

Patronising? Presumptious, yes, patronising - no not really.

Sorry if my post caused you offence, I tried to phrase it to sound constructive, perhaps it didn't come across that way.

Obviously I had no knowledge to your personal circumstances, nor can I suggest what to do with your stock. All I have gone on is your post here and others you have made. At some point, you need to decide whether to persist selling items you currently are struggling to sell, or to see if something else works better.

I don't have all the answers, and I don't profess to know any more than anyone else on this thread, or board - but at some point, all the work and stress for minimal return aren't worth it.

You obviously have skills and drive to have made it work in the past, and I'm sure you can do it in the future, but it might need a change of tack.

giantmutantbroccoli

So, will you share your CPC conversion rate? How much do you pay Google each month for Adwords? And how much do you make from those sales, profit, not income?

Sorry no, I won't share my budget, or my profit. It wouldn't be relevant to your business in any case. My clickthrough rate runs from 3% for generic keywords to 15% for specific local keywords, and my average cost per click is 25p.

All of this information could be more relevantly obtained by a phonecall to adwords - if you want to know if it could work for you, phone them. They'll be in a much better position to explain and help you out, given that I only know the strategies that work for my company.

I don't really understand what's happened here. I was trying to be helpful, not annoying, but it seems I've only succeeded at the latter.
It's absolutely 100% none of my business whether you do or don't use adwords, or any other online service for that matter, so I'd much rather not spend my time trying to justify to you why I find adwords to be a useful service for my company. It works for me. It might work for you. The end.

RFW

giantmutantbroccoli wrote: »

All of this information could be more relevantly obtained by a phonecall to adwords - if you want to know if it could work for you, phone them. They'll be in a much better position to explain and help you out, given that I only know the strategies that work for my company.

If you've not used Adwords before they offer some decent incentives too. Bing and Yahoo do too. I've not used either of those, but I know Yahoo are building up a search engine presence again.

It also might be worth looking at setting up a new Ebay account, maybe just use a few items initially and see what happens.

I have had similar problems with Ebay and still haven't really ever solved them. I do run two accounts again and tend to switch between them with some effect. Over the last couple of weeks I've barely sold on Ebay and have had to increase some prices on Amazon as items were selling too quick, it's much the same stuff too.