Ramping Up 2013 – February

If you are a member of the Facebook group, then you saw many of the members post their sales numbers for the month of December. With Amazon continuing to grow by leaps and bounds and eBay making more changes to help compete with sites like Amazon, online selling is a great way to create income. It is never too late to start. Over the next few months, I will be sharing tips and ideas to help prepare you for success. Many of these are simple things that Here are a few things you can do to get ready for the upcoming season:

1. Create a (social) media frenzy If you are not using social media to help market your online store, you should start. If you use Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest for personal posts, consider peppering in a few posts that market your store to your network. If you wish to open new accounts, try to name them as close to the name of your store as possible. Include your logo or a common picture on every profile. Doing so helps you create a brand. Your buyers will begin to recognize you and become interested in what you are offering. Remember not to flood your followers or friends with your store information. Post a few times a week. Make sure you mix some posts that show your personality with the posts that share your store or listing information. Also, start following others. Often they return the favor and their followers may find you through that connection. To make this a successful venture, make sure you set up a plan or schedule for staying in front of your fans and followers.
2. Consider new wholesale partnerships Take the opportunity while sales are not overwhelming you to look at possibly using wholesale partnerships. If you are already a reseller for a company or two (or more), look at expanding your line to include a new supplier. This is the perfect time to try them out. Watch how they deliver, monitor their customer service, and take the time to review their product offerings in depth. Look for product and company reviews online. If this is a new venture for you and you don’t know what to sell, take a look at things you would buy. Find things that you know about.
3. Consider selling St. Patrick Day itemsIncrease your income for future product sourcing by selling items for St. Patrick’s Day. Many people go all out for this holiday and are always looking for unique items that feature the holiday. If you are planning to sell by Amazon, you may want to get those items in quickly! If you are selling by eBay, there is no time like the present to start listing them!

Even if getting ready for Holiday 2013 is not your current goal. These tips can help you become successful.

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It's Not Too Early To Market for the 2013 Holiday Season

Is it too early to start thinking about the 2013 holiday season? I don't think so. The holiday seasons are one of the most crucial times for an online business that wants to obtain higher sales. It's not enough to send out a post every now and then, or to tweet a few things every couple of weeks. Bringing in the holiday sales through social media means being persistent and carefully guiding traffic towards the sales page or website and not just at the end of the year.

While major retail chains are bringing in the holiday dollars both online and offline, there's still plenty of room for businesses to wrap the rest of consumers in through social media outlets.
For those that plan to actively seek customers for this coming holiday season and want to put their best sales foot forward, or for those who are not sure where to get started, here are a couple of steps that can be taken to ensure your business receives the most profit:

Engage Your Customers As anyone whose put their business out there in the online world of social media already knows, it can take some serious time and effort to gain a loyal and consistent following. Be efficient by finding an online tool that allows you to send the same message through each social media outlet, maximizing marketing capabilities and minimizing time spent doing so. Be honest with each message that's put out there, and stay away from looking like a company that just wants the customers cash. If possible, try and promote or talk about other relevant ventures or topics, to appeal to a larger audience.

Build The List Building a list of emails and names should be the first thing on your mind considering the upcoming holidays. These emails and names could easily be converted into conversions, sales and returning customers. And because customers who have already purchased from your business are valuable resources, it can be a good idea to offer them generous discounts or savings.

Website Revamp A part of being well prepared for this busy time of year means making sure the website that is associated with the social media account, contains all the necessary elements to bring in the most sales. Try to add as much new content as possible. This is a great time seek out product reviews and recommendations. Later in the year, you can try to give the website a temporary holiday cheer by adding in Christmas colors and reminding everyone that Christmas is near. Meanwhile, make sure there's a designated spot on the website for the opt-in email box, and make sure it's clear and visible for everyone to see.

Go Mobile Many webmasters continue to underestimate mobile shopping, and it's causing them to lose out big. For those trying to squeeze in every possible sale, it's vital that their content be visible through mobile devices. Be sure to measure and track the performance of sales that come through mobile devices. If things turn out better than expected, then this would be an excellent indicator that it's time to stay just as focused on mobile devices and mobile optimization. eBay and Amazon have versions on their websites that are designed to be easily viewed on mobile devices. If you have another online store, check with your provider to see if it is mobile-device-friendly.

Building a customer base and successfully marketing your business is something that cannot be achieved during the last few months before the holiday season begins. Start now. Deploy a few of these tips or all to help build your customer base for the upcoming holiday season. Over the next few months, I will share more details and other tips to help you and your business be more successful!

Let's have an incredible 2013!

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Pinterest Is Now Open For Businesses

Image courtesy of TicketBud

Up until recently, the online social community, Pinterest, has only granted personal accounts on their website, banning commercially-driven accounts that promote business and brand. Pinterest is now open for businesses and allowing commercial websites and companies to legally join the site to help with boosting their success and showcasing products, new content and even services that they have available to offer and provide.

What is Pinterest?
Pinterest is a free online social networking community that allows members to post and share various links, photos and websites with their followers and to save for their own future references as well. By creating various virtual "pinboards", users can easily store recipes, DIY projects and even tips on saving money all depending on their own interests and reasons for becoming a member of Pinterest.

Who Uses Pinterest?
Pinterest is used by everyone ranging from stay at home parents who enjoy bookmarking and saving recipes to frugal and savvy members who prefer stockpiling tax tips and how to save money guides. Pinterest is also useful for prkmoting your listings or stores. You can drive traffic to your individual items to help drive sales.

How Does Pinterest Help Businesses?
Pinterest allows businesses and websites alike to post photos and links to specific content or even to various products and services that are currently being offered through the company itself. With Pinterest, business owners can also add keywords and tags to each item that is virtually "pinned" to help other members of Pinterest locate what has been uploaded and shared. The more virtual "pins" a post receives on Pinterest, the more popular it becomes and the more visibility it receives site wide with the members of the community. Using Pinterest saves money and time when trying to reach a new audience or even when looking to expand your current one.

To sign up for a business account, click here.

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How to Use Pinterest to Market Your Business

By now, I am sure you have heard about the news social media tool known as Pinterest. Pinterest is a way to bookmark (or pin) various items you like around the net. The pins are arranged in what is called a pinboard which is basically a webpage that shows the images of the items you like. It is something like a virtual vision board. Once pinned, your Facebook friends and people you may not even know will be able to view your pinboards and see what it is you like.

Did you know you can use this new tool to promote your business? CopyBlogger recently posted many ways to use Pinterest to market your business. Here are a few ways that will help you get the word out about your eBay or Amazon business:

• Add your business URL to your profile when you create your Pinterest account.

• Feature your business name on your profile. You may even want to use your business name as your username.

• Pin lots of stuff. Do this a few at a time on a regular basis instead of pinning lots of items at one time.

• Use lots of images on your blog so you have items to pin to link to your posts.

• Pin other Pinterest users by using “@username” (example: @ebaycoach) in your descriptions.

• Like other people’s pins.

• Create seasonal boards that relate to your business or brand.

• Add the “Follow Me On Pinterest” button to your website.

These are just a few of the ideas Copyblogger has shared. To view the entire article, click here.

You can find me on Pinterest here! I'd love to see what you have been up to.

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eBay Newsletter Feature - It's Free!

Don't worry, you don't have to write a newsletter right away. But it is a good idea to start building the list so you can send out newsletters to a captive audience when you are ready. Your newsletter can be about anything you want including special sales (using Markdown Manager), new products, or any cross marketing such as announcing a Facebook fan page or your Twitter profile. Here is how to add the newsletter promotion box:


This is just another free marketing tool that eBay provides. You might as well use it!

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