Social Marketing on Squidoo to Generate eBay Sales

Squidoo is a remarkable resource for Internet marketers and eBay entrepreneurs. It's what's considered a web 2.0 site that allows users to create "lenses," which are individual pages situated on the Squidoo.com domain that promote a specific topic.

You may be wondering what's so great about that, when thousands of other sites allow you to do the same thing. But Squidoo is unique. Not only do they make it incredibly easy to create a web page, ripe with graphics, content, and interactivity, but they allow - and even encourage you - to use the page to make money.

Squidoo is actually far more conducive to making real money than any other site that has come into popularity in recent years.

This is the biggest reason Squidoo has risen to fame so rapidly and why Tiffany Dow penned the eBook "Social Networking on Squidoo", which was endorsed by an endless supply of high-profile Internet marketers thanks to its step-by-step instructions on how to market the right way on Squidoo. I purchased this eBook in 2007 and it taught me a lot of what I know about how to generate eBay sales using Squidoo.

Squidoo has finally created a site that can be used for commercial purposes in addition to being a valued consumer resource and wealth of free information. Thousands of smart marketers have flooded to the site to take advantage of the free tools available to them.

A few other web 2.0 sites allow a minimal amount of marketing to take place, such as HubPages. But they're far stricter about the number of outgoing links you can have, and they have other rules, which make it harder to use the site for your own personal profiting potential.

Squidoo Can Be Used In Many Ways

Squidoo can be used in many ways such as promoting services, products, or affiliate items through your lens. You can have multiple accounts and on each free account, you can have an endless supply of lenses.

You can cross-promote your lenses. Build one master topic lens, and then branch out to build a number of more targeted lenses. Squidoo helps anyone be an expert on any subject, and Google love to Squidoo is once again rampant, helping lenses acquire page 1 rankings in the SERPs for many competitive keywords and phrases.

eBay Top Sellers can also effectively promote their eBay Stores or auctions through Squidoo, using built in eBay modules (building blocks) that Squidoo offers. Some modules give the lensmaster a share of co-op earnings through AdSense and some module profits. But you can also use text and image links to funnel traffic directly through to your own domain or eBay Storefront.

Create Traffic to Your eBay Listings

In summary, Squidoo is the ecommerce equivalent of WikiPedia. At no financial expense, you can position yourself through Squidoo as the "go-to" authority for your business, create substantial targeted traffic to your eBay listings, and improve your search engine placement on Google.

For my money, the best thing you can do for your business today is to purchase the eBook below and follow its tips and techniques religiously.

Once again, the eBook is called "Social Networking on Squidoo" by Tiffany Dow.

Next up, I'll demonstrate the power of Squidoo upon your eBay business.

How to Use Facebook Business Pages to Generate Sales

From time to time, I will share with you specific examples from my personal eBay business of how social media helped me generate sales.

Over the weekend, my Facebook Business Page on the Cellerciser Rebounder, the main product that I sell on eBay and elsewhere on the Internet helped me generate a couple of sales. I'll explain in detail in a moment in this blog post how one of those sales came about.

But first, I want to point out how good customer service contributed to these sales as well.

On the Cellerciser Rebounder Facebook Page, a member by the name of Joanie-Leigh who had purchased a Cellerciser from me on eBay under my TheBestRebounder account had written on the wall about how her knees were hurting following her rebounding routines.

I called my customer and arranged a time for David Hall, the creator of the Cellerciser to call her and address her issues. Following the call, here is what Joanie wrote on the Cellerciser Rebounder Facebook Page:

"Well! I must tell everyone how impressed I am with the service I received today. I wrote here about my sore knees - both Gregg and David have contacted me! I spoke with David for at least 30 minutes. He explained what might be happening with my knees and gave me some alternative exercises to try! And continued to remin...d me that he was there for support and to call whenever I had questions. How about that! just reinforces my desire to make this work!"

Yesterday afternoon, I received a question to my eBay account from a member named Karen who wrote: "I am considering this rebounder. How would i know its a 2010 model when I get it? How does it differ from the (Name of Competitor Brand removed) - I'm considering that too." Thanks Karen.

I responded to her questions adding at the end of my communication, "Feel free to peruse my feedback to see how others are satisfied with the Cellerciser. Also, go to google and type in the words "Cellerciser Facebook" and read the Cellerciser Rebounder Facebook Community page. The link to that page will show up near the top of the google search results page for that search. Another huge difference between the Cellerciser and other brands in general is customer service. You get a toll-free number that you can call in during the week to ask questions any time. Sometimes, you can even speak with the Cellerciser creator David Hall on the phone. In any event, let me know if you have any other questions or concerns. Enjoy your evening. Best regards, Gregg."

Within 30 minutes, the customer wrote back, "Thank you Gregg! I have been doing a lot of research and this confirms my choice! I'm ordering it right now and can't wait to get it!!! Thank you thank you thank you. Karen."

When you get your Facebook Business Page rolling, you will be able to use it as I do to show potential customers how others view your product. If you have a great product like I do, then you'll be able to use it to close sales.

Next up...using Squidoo.com to Generate eBay Sales

Research Can Greatly Improve Your eBay Sales

I don't think I'm telling you anything new when I say that those eBay sellers who have at their immediate disposal the right tools greatly improve their opportunites for sales success on the site.

One area where sellers who are really serious about making more money on eBay is investing in product research tools. Having solid research at your fingertips to consistently base your eBay listings on real-world listing data is a definite advantage for an eBay top seller.

Here is one of my favorite market research tools:

You may be asking at this point, "What does this have to do with Social Media?"

The answer is simple. Before you invest time, effort, resources, etc. into Social Media/Marketing, it's imperative to know whether or not your product(s) are going to provide a decent return on your investment.

With Terapeak: eBay Marketplace Research you have unprecedented access to hundreds of millions of auctions across the eBay marketplace in less than a second from any computer with internet and browser capabilities. You can learn about category performance, trends, buying habits and information never before available to the eBay user.

Terapeak: eBay Marketplace Research was the first to provide eBay seller, eBay category, eBay Motors P&A, and eBay international research.

There's no lack of eBay advice out there. Some tell you that to increase the closing bids of your auctions, use a low start price. Others will rant how you'll lose your shirt if you don't start higher. So who's right? They both are. Let me explain.

Every product performs differently at auction. A rule of thumb based in fact for one product may completely capsize your efforts if you use it on another type of product.

Start price is just the beginning. To make the most profit on each listing, you need to know what consistently works.

With Terapeak, you arm yourself with knowledge needed to predict future success based on many past listings.

Better yet, researching products you want to sell online only takes a few minutes with Terapeak. When you base your decisions on real data, you build confidence in your buying and selling choices. Trial and error are a thing of the past.

I've you used Terapeak before, please comment below about your experiences.

Next week, we'll discuss marketing your eBay business on Squidoo.com.

Have a great weekend!

Locating Products to Sell on eBay

There are a number of reputable places to find products to sell on eBay.

The hard part of doing so is determining which products can be repeatedly sold profitably on eBay in a timely manner before investing considerable time and expense.

If you've been struggling to find products to sell on eBay that can make you good money, then keep reading as you're going to find out how to get around this seller roadblock once and for all.

I've been selling on eBay for 12 years now and I can tell you first hand that there's a lot of useful information written about how to sell on eBay. HOWEVER, there's very little written on showing sellers how to locate profitable products that can be sold on eBay.

That's why I created this blog post.

I'm going to show you a tool that I personally use weekly that helps you:

• Research products
  
• Perform international research
  
• Trend eBay categories for two years
  
• Use Hot Searches to find Keywords and New Opportunities
  
• Research specific eBay sellers
  
• Find Hot Titles on eBay
  
• Build better eBay listing titles
  
• Determine top sellers and top titles for specific products
  
• Know when to schedule the end of your eBay listings
  and
• Find Hot Products to Sell on eBay

Not only does Terapeak Marketplace Research extensively cover these important selling-related topics, but they have several time-efficient videos that show you how easily it is to gather this information using Terapeak.

To give you a taste of what Terapeak can do for your business, check out this YouTube video on "Researching eBay categories to know what to sell":

If you're interested in learning more about Terapeak's capabilites, check out this link:

http://www.terapeakdemovideos.com

More tomorrow on Terapeak...

Example of Using a Facebook Business Page on eBay

I've been focusing the last few days on setting up a Facebook Business Page and using it to build your eBay business.

Today, I'm going to show you an example of what you can do with this page.

On March 23rd, one of the accounts that I work with closely "Munchels.com" is going to launch a consignment auction consisting of over 50 pieces of clay artifacts used in Judea during the time of Jesus Christ sufficient to accurately replicate the Last Supper table setting and scene.

In conjunction with the auction, Munchel's eBay Manager Skip Frye and I have put together a Facebook Business Page to announce the event:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Last-Supper-Collection-Holy-Land-Artifacts/358012838601

We then put together a Press Release that we later submitted to the foremost PR firm on the web call prweb.com.

Here's the Press Release word for word:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Holy Land Artifacts Collection Auction on eBay March 23rd

(Lakeland, FL March 17, 2010) -- What is thought to be one of the most extensive collections of artifacts from Israel during the time of Jesus Christ's Last Supper will be auctioned on eBay beginning March 23rd.

The owner of this unique collection is an accomplished historian with dual citizenship in both the United States and Israel. As a youth, he became fascinated by the ancient Holy Land and decided to become a historian with a particular interest in the lives of Yeshua (Hebrew for Jesus) and his followers in Roman Palestine. His lifelong goal became to seek out and acquire intact clay pottery used in Judea during the time of Christ sufficient to accurately replicate the Last Supper table setting and scene.

The Last Supper Collection Auction as it is being called consists of more than fifty bowls, plates, drinking cups, pitchers, oil lamps, a large amhora, and a chalice (one of only three known to exist from this time period) -- all made and used in Judea during the Roman era. Each piece comes with a Certificate of Authenticity from several dealers of antiques in Jerusalem, some of whom are members of families that began the study and sale of antiquities well before the modern State of Israel was founded in 1948. These relationships, along with a growing knowledge of Judean artifacts, allowed the historian access to ancient objects rarely seen.

After discussing how best to share this fragile clay ensemble with the world, the owner and his wife are unable to personally finalize such details due to his deteriorating health. The two of them have decided it's time to pass the torch to someone who has the vision and resources necessary to complete the mission.

For the first time the public will soon have an opportunity to view and bid on this precious Judeo - Christian treasure which has traveled so many years and miles to America. Munchel's has been commissioned to sell this wonderful collection of ancient Judean pottery on Ebay beginning on March 23rd with the auction scheduled to last 10 days.

Over 30 photographs of the artifacts to be auctioned in The Last Supper Collection can be found on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Last-Supper-Collection-Holy-Land-Artifacts/358012838601

Media Contact:

Skip Frye
Munchels.com eBay Manager
Munchel's Fine Jewelry and Coin
3227 South Floria Ave.
Lakeland, FL 33803
(863) 797-9050 or (863) 619-6269
ebaysales@munchels.com

###

That's it. I'll keep you posted on how this auction turns out.

Facebook Business Pages

In the past week I've discussed a few ways eBay sellers and eCommerce business people in general can use Facebook to build their brand and business.

Again, here is a great information source with a direct link for creating a Facebook Business Page:

http://www.allfacebook.com/2009/06/facebook-business-account/

To save you a bit of time, here is an example of a Facebook Business Page that is growing by leaps and bounds and involving its "fans". It's a page by a laptop computer company in Utah and Nevada called "PC Laptops".

Here's the link to their page:

http://www.facebook.com/pclaptops?v=app_7146470109#!/pclaptops?v=wall

The PC Laptops page will provide you with some ideas on what you can do with your page to engage your "fans" and keep your business in front of your customers all the while subtly reminding them to come back and buy from you.

Using some of the ideas from PC Laptops, I'm growing my very own Facebook business page for the Cellerciser Rebounder. The Cellerciser is a popular premium brand of mini-trampoline aka rebounder. In case you missed it before, you can check it out for yourself:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cellerciser-Rebounder/9884873941

If you're an eBay seller and you've put together a Facebook Business Page for your eBay product or eBay Store, then feel free to tell us in a sentence or two about it in the comments area below this blog post and post a link to it so all of us can check it out.

Thanks. More later...

Have You Established an Account on Facebook Yet?

Last time, we touched on the emergence of Facebook as the premier pay-per-click advertising alternative on the Internet today. In case you have taken the time to review Feedback Ad Power, I highly recommend that you check out the video found at the web address below:

http://www.fbadpowerguide.com/

I imagine that nearly everyone who is reading this has already established a Facebook account, but very few Internet entrepreneurs and eBay business owners have invested the time to create a Facebook business page. Below is a YouTube video detailing how to set up a business page:

For those of you who are pressed for time, here is a article that provides info and links to set up a business page on Facebook without having to set up a personal account:

http://www.allfacebook.com/2009/06/facebook-business-account/

By no means have I perfected the Facebook Business Page, but my page is usually ranked in the first page of free organic Google search results for my main search keyword. If you feels so inclined you can check out my Facebook Business Page for the Cellerciser Rebounder, a product I sell on eBay and other places on the Internet:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cellerciser-Rebounder/9884873941

In the near future, I'll touch on some of the reasons this page is so effective for your eBay business.

In the meantime, have a good week of selling!

Facebook is a Relatively Untapped Gold Mine of Traffic for eBay Sellers

I recently had a good conversation with a Sports Memorabilia and Autograph Dealer in the southeastern part of the U.S. where we discussed how his eBay business is performing.

In light of the current eBay promotion going on where Fixed Price listings cost only 10 cents to launch, this seller converted all of his Store Inventory format listings into Fixed Price in early February. He mentioned that he was happy to see his sales double for February 2010 over a year ago at the same time.

We went on to discuss this and that. As the conversation began to wind down, he told me that where he could really use help is figuring out how to get more traffic to his listings. This is a concern that nearly every seller expresses at some point or another.

There are several ways to drive more traffic to your eBay business. As the title of this blog entry suggests, I'm going to talk about Facebook as a traffic source right now. However, there are more ways than ever before to bring traffic to your eBay listings and I'll cover some of those methods in upcoming blog entries.

Right now, I'm going to briefly discuss advertising on Facebook. Many eBay sellers have tried pay-per-click advertising on Google, Yahoo, Bing, and other search engines with mixed results. Facebook also has pay-per-click advertising and several Internet marketers are reporting that they are getting excellent results at a fraction of the cost that they were spending on Google Adwords.

Why does Facebook advertising work?

Because...

1. Facebook has enormous traffic. Over 39 BILLION page views a month.

2. Facebook now has over 400 million members--over half of them check in to their accounts every week.

3. You can TARGET your ads so that only people who really want your merchandise see your ads.

4. Facebook is relatively simple to use and fast, you'll be getting killer traffic in just a few hours.

5. Facebook ads are one-quarter to one-half the cost of Google Adwords.

...and several other reasons.

Below is a link to a video made by a prominent Internet Marketer Ryan Deiss about Facebook advertising. The video is not perfect by any means but he has put together an impressive user-friendly program to get you started with Facebook Advertising so you won't make any costly mistakes. I have personally bought this program with my own money and use it myself.

Click the link below and Ryan will explain the whole thing:

http://www.fbadpowerguide.com/

For anyone who purchases Ryan's Facebook Guide, I am interested in sharing ideas and strategies in a Facebook advertising mastermind group. Let me know if you would like to be included in this group.

More later...

Welcome to the Top Rated Seller Strategies Blog

Greetings and thanks for stopping by the Top Rated Seller Strategies blog.

This blog is geared to provide insights, tips, techniques and strategies to grow your eBay and other ecommerce businesses.

My name is Gregg Birkner and I'm a Top-Rated Seller on eBay selling under the User IDs of "dealmania!" and "thebestrebounder".  I'll pass along many of the strategies that I employ to sell successfully on eBay.

During the day Monday through Friday, I'm employed in the eBay North American Customer Service Headquarters in Draper, Utah as a Top Seller Account Manager (TSAM). Many of you reading this blog may have talked with me on the phone. All told I figure that I have spoken with over 10,000 eBay PowerSellers and Top-Rated Sellers in the nine plus years that I have worked at eBay.

From time to time, I will include the input of some of my eBay Account Manager colleagues as well as some sellers on eBay.