How to Sell With Market Places You Choose

How to Sell With Market Places You Choose

Have you chosen the market place you would like to start selling with? There are many options available out there, and you will have to choose what feels good to you. Make sure you research them a little bit before you sign onto one. 

Etsy is for handmade, upcycled repurposed, vintage, art, and supplies. An alternative to this is Artfire. Etsy has really taken off from where it started back a few years ago when there was just 400,000 active sellers which it is now up to more than a million, and counting. Other alternatives to look into would be Ebay, Amazon, Storenvy, Indiemade, Zibbet, Ecrater, and there is plenty more to consider. It depends on the type of products you intend to sell, if you want to sell straight out, or if you prefer auctions like what is offered at Ebay. Some will be free to list, some will have small final value fees, some will offer different payment processors that you can choose to offer with your shops, and many other things. 

Once you have chosen the place you would like to start with, and have set up shop with your shop name, policies, shipping, and etc. You will then want to get started with pictures of your products for you listings. Make sure that your pictures are bright, crisp, and clear. With good pictures your products will be noticed. Remember that the photos are a very important part of your customers first impression when they visit your shop. 

Next you will want to work on proper listings for your products you are offering. Remember as you do this that the customers cannot touch the product you offer. So, you will have to describe a physical experience for them. If you do not take the time to list your products properly then the customers will not give you the sale. 

Don't make your listings like they are going to be on craigs list. Customers won't go for that. They like to have the descriptions in full so that they do not have to spend all their shopping time asking you questions. Instead welcome them into your shop just like you had a physical storefront. When they click on your picture they want to feel that you have taken the time to respond to their interests. 

This is all a part of building your shop. With the early stages of your shops you will have time which is on your side for you to do things with. You could start a blog with the same shop name, or if you already have a blog maybe you would want to use that for your shop name. Use Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram. Set up some social media accounts, and spend some time establishing those places as well. As you get busier you will be able to choose the places that are more enjoyable, and that you find benefit with too. It's all a part of building your small business. 

Think about one of your favorite places that you like to visit, and shop with. Remind yourself of the atmosphere, and the surroundings it has that you so enjoy. This is what you would like to incorporate into your own shops so that your customers will want to take a part of your business home with them.  As your business grows you will refine things along the way. 

Keep in mind that the market place you choose is just a starter home for you to build with. Also, do not be disillusioned by business takes off the minute you open shop. It takes time, many things to learn, mistakes will be made, but it will grow with patience and work of it. Visit with Lisa at Market Your Creativity to learn from her experiences that she shares with everyone. 

Thanks for visiting with LilacsNDreams in learning some ways to start our online businesses. I enjoy it, and hope to see you again soon. Have a Happy Day everyone!

Picture Products Photography For Selling Online

Picture Products Photography For Selling Online

Hello Everyone, and Welcome back to LilacsNDreams! Selling online is being continued with Picturing Products With Photography. I am not expert with this issue. I learn as I go, read advice that others share, and am able to share a little bit of what others have taught me along the way. Not to worry if you have been dealing with this as it is a revolving topic that is often discussed among many other sellers. 

Keep in mind that your pictures are the first thing that customers will see as they enter into your shops. You can teach yourself to take good photos, and the best part of this as that your eyes become the lens through which everyone gets to see your products. Your pictures will help you keep the customers in you shop to continue further looking, and clicking through your shop. 

For those who make, or sell items that will be worn will find that sometimes using models is a good thing. When using a model you can give the customers a better image of how the product will look as they would use it themselves. Some sellers feel that using a model will give the impression of the items made have then been used. Most sellers won't sell the items that have been worn. So, then maybe instead you might want to use manniquins, manniquin heads, or maybe even some manniquin hands too. Depends on the product that you are offering what your choice will be. 

You want to try to simplify your backgrounds, and your drops. When the customer enters, and sees your pictures you want their eyes to focus with the product that you are offering. If your backgrounds were to get to busy, or to creative the customer will be searching for what is the actual product being offered. Try to keep your pictures bright, clean, and clear for the customers to view. The more professional it looks, the better presentation all around it will be for the prospective customer to view. 

If you have a simple looking product try using mabye some kind of scrapbook paper, linens, doilies, and something light yet appealing to your product. 

Make sure that your backgrounds, and your backdrops have mainly a matching theme. Switching things with the backgrounds is fine, but try to make them blend in with the different pictures that you are showing. A little variety can be good for your listings with the attention that it brings to the eyes of your customers. 

Lighting is something that can be difficult to work with. Many suggest using as much natural light as possible is good for your pictures. This is where you will need to experiment with your pictures using different times of the days, using indoor and outdoor pictures, and finding where you can get your best shots at. I know one product that many work a little bit more with to picture is jewelry. It can be done, takes a little time to find what works for you, and looks so nice when you have found what works for you too. 

When you are working on your pictures one thing you will have to keep in mind is that this step does take patience to do. You might want to consider it being an all day event when doing this. Remember, this will be the first thing that will matter to future customers visiting with your shops. There is a lot to learn, and to experiment with in taking pictures; focus, backgrounds, backdrops, lighting, angles, etc. So, take a deep breath and allow yourself the time, the space, and remember the patience it will take to achieve this skill. 

When you can visit Market Your Creativity, and see what she is sharing over there with these business issues as well. 

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend, and for those who watched the Super Bowl that you enjoyed it as well. Thanks for stopping by LilacsNDreams, and hope to see you all again soon. Have a Happy Day!

ABout Me Page, Me Page, Personal Me Page

About Me Page, Me Page, a Personal Me Page

When we set up shop some where, set up our blogs, even setting up our own websites we often question...along with many other things.....but we wonder if we should do a personal page that is about us. Is it really necessary, does it get read, and does it really help us by doing this. I use to ask the same questions myself. Most of the time I would complete this page because I felt the impression would be I do not complete everything in full, and I didn't want anything over looked. 

I do believe that this Personal Page should be done by everyone. Does haven't to be anything real long, real lengthy, nothing fancy, don't have to give a life story completely either. Filling out this page is your time to share your story, and your style. This page will reflect more on who you are in a personal way.  

If you walk into a store don't you kind of look around to get a feel of the place? If you are interested you walk in further to see more, right? Upon your purchase if you meet the owner it is nice to converse with them, get a feel for the kind of person they are, and if you leave on a good note feeling comfortable about the whole situation you will probably return.

Many of us sell online. It has it's advantages compared to having a brick and mortar store which we see over time. Selling online can be hard not only because customers cannot see the product in person that they are interested in, they cannot feel it, and they do not see us the sellers. When we describe our products we try to include everything we can think of for the customers because they can not be there to see it, or feel it. We should be doing the same with our personal pages too. This is a time for us to share our stories of who we are, how we got started, to show our interest in what we do, why we like what we do, and to also give a sense of our style as well. We want our customers to have a comfortable shopping experience with our stores, and this is another process that should be included. 

Is this a rule for us to do? No, it is not. When we do things for our shops we try to do it with having a customers eye view of it. This is something I have seen mentioned before, asked about, and thought I would share my view on this with you. 

Thanks so much for visiting with LilacsNDreams, and hope you enjoyed your visit as well. If you have something you would like to share you are always welcome to do so with the comments. Love to hear everyone's ideas, and perspective with things too. Take care, and have a Happy Day!

Ebays Yearly Spring Seller Changes Have Started

Ebay Yearly Spring Seller Changes Have Started

Happy Monday, and Welcome to LilacsNDreams! How many of you deal with Ebay? Do you only buy there, do you maybe auction there, or are one of the many many sellers that they have? If you are a buyer you might notice changes with different things as time moves along. Some you might like, and some you might not. As a seller there are many things to face, and always changes when dealing with Ebay. 

I started Ebay in 2004 as my first venture of selling online. Whew! Did I have fun too! I enjoyed what I did, enjoyed finding things to sell on ebay, treasure hunting and thrifting were always a blast to do for this venture, I enjoyed some of the extra cash, and really enjoyed selling online because of ebay. As time as gone along ebay has made changes. Some have been drastic, and some are disappointing and questionable too. For me what use to be fun, and enjoyable has really become a heartache selling there. 

Every year Ebay has their spring changes they do. Generally it is a price increase for selling there of course. They are now at 10% they charge on your final value fee of what you sell. No more listing fees, or at least not for the first 50 listings. Those first 50 are free, and then they will charge a listing fee after that. If you have stores with ebay you will also see some changes for you. Then there is the final value fee you pay with your shipping cost that you charge. 

This year by July 1st you will see most changes have gone into effect for what they have notified of. I recently read with Ecommercebytes for those who have signed up with ebay, have accounts with them, but have not been active for a long time that they would like to expire those old IDs. Interestingly ebay has been around for about 18 years, and some of us have had our user IDs for like forever. If you want an account there it has been frustrating for some who choose a name they like, and find out it is already taken. Even more frustrating is to find the person is no longer registered with Ebay, has not had an active account for 2, 3, 4+ years, and so on. So, emails are being sent out to those who have been inactive too long to determine if they keep those user IDs, or if ebay is expiring them. 

Another thing I have been dealing with when I am relisting items myself to ebay is another new change. You will have your listing price of items, and some of us along with a listing price/auction price will also include a buy it now (BIN) price too. Some people don't like to auction, and would just rather buy the item now which is fine. Ebay is now enforcing with sellers that if you have the buy it now price it is to be 30% more than your listing price. Say what? Seriously? Not quite sure what it is to them about this new rule, and why it is being enforced. Isn't ebay making money from the sellers no matter what they do? So, upon relisting items if I want the buy it now, and they don't like the amount I have because it is below the 30% they are not letting relist items till I change that. To me this is disappointing, and as mentioned before, the fun of selling on ebay back when I started is not anything like it use to be. 

There are more changes, but I promised myself I would not write a book with this posting to you all. So, do you sell on ebay? How do you feel about the changes that they have been making? Have you found other market places that you enjoy selling with? Would love to hear from some on this issue, and would be happy for us all to discuss this a little. 

Also, I just wanted to note to those who are buyers. I am sure it is frustrating sometimes when buying there, but please do not have ill feelings to all the sellers for some things that you see. It is no longer our items to sell as we use to. For us to sell on ebay we have rules to follow, and if we don't we cannot list, our items are pushed to the bottom of searches, or sometimes they do not allow our listings.

Thanks so much for sharing your time at LilacsNDreams today everyone. I love having you visit, enjoy hearing from all of you, and it's always a pleasure coming by here to catch up. Hope to see you again soon. Happy Day to everyone!:)  

Ebay Alternatives, Other Online Selling Sites and Auctions

Ebay Alternatives, Other Online Selling Sites and Auctions

Hi! Glad to see you visiting with LilacsNDreams! Ok, I admit today I probably should have done a bit more with my growing list, but give me some credit. I did get some listings done at eBay. Special ends Saturday that I am part of, and I have more to list there, relist, revise listings, and etc. 

It's that time of year that eBay is having their spring changes, fee increases, policy changes, and the usual. We are soon going to experience having a 10% final value fee with our listings, and don't forget that crazy charge they do with shipping cost too. We are going to keep the 50 free listings a month, and I think I read after the 50 free listings it would be like a .30 fee to list. Then, there is the changes with the pictures that they are now doing, and will go into effect by July 1st. They would like us to use white backgrounds, and pictures should be 500+ for pixels. They do not want to see watermarks on the pictures, or at least have them across the items being shown. The picture rule came about since mobile users are becoming more, and more with their usage and purchases. Trying to help out with that area which I can understand. 

When I joined eBay in 2004 it was fun, enjoyable, a learning experience, but also a money maker too. As time has gone along the fees increased, the rules change, the policies change, and so on. The sellers dissatisfaction with eBay, and their strategy to drive small sellers from the site sends them out searching for other places to sell. The obvious answers we first get are Amazon, and Craigslist. Don't stop there as there are many others out there, and many other solutions that can be used too. 

• Bid Start
They have auctions here of collectibles, very strong in stamps - coins - sportcards - comics - and games. You have to visit their sites fee page for more details for some numbers. This is a successful site for stamps, and coins. They have expanded into collectibles, and seem to be growing.

• Bonanza 
They have fixed price store format with a wide range of mostly used products including vintage, and collectibles. They have free listings with low fees. 

• eBid
Here they have auctions with a variety of products. It appears they have $49.49 lifetime fee, 0 listing fees, 0 final value fees, 5 free photos, 5 free eBid stores, uploads to Google Shopping, unlimited listings, and For Life. This is a functional site with growing buyer/seller base.

• eCrater
This is also a fixed price store format with a wide range of products. They have zero selling fees, no listing fees, offer use of Paypal and Google Wallet for payment options. The is a growing site with moderate sales. They allow sellers to link to their own websites here too.  

• Etsy
This is a fixed price place with handcrafted items, art, supplies, and vintage items offered. Their listing fee is .20 which is for a 4 month listing. Final Value Fees are 3.5%. They are also a growing site with a loyal following.  

There are many many more to mention, and if you google eBay Alternatives you will see different suggestions that are made, different opinions shared, will hear the good, the bad, and you know the routine. Ruby Lane which is for vintage, collectibles, antiques, and high end products of this sort. Shopinterest is newer, and comes off of Pinterest which is a growing social bookmarking/pinning site. There is Addoway, and others that could also be mentioned too.  

None of the sites gets near the traffic of eBay, or Amazon. Therefore it could be difficult to make a living on all, or any of them. Best use for these sites is to expand your business beyond eBay by adding additional channels to sell in. Since most have either lower, or no listing fees there is no incremental cost, or risk to add any of these sites. You know that saying "don't keep all your eggs in one basket" True it is. 

These are decisions that each individual seller needs to decide on themselves. Are you happy with one venue, do you feel you need more, and if you need more how much more do you need? I have seen some stretch themselves too thin with too many shops. I have seen others have just enough that works for them, and they can manage too. It is a decision that is up to us, and what our goals are for selling online. Yes, I do still at eBay, and use the 50 free listings every month. I also use the specials that they offer for listings too. Yet, I do not limit myself to eBay either. I have a shop with Ecrater that I need to work with, and have enjoyed using. In fact, with some customers from eBay I have had them go to my eCrater shop if they want a better deal for an item that I can make the numbers work with the fees of using paypal/google wallet, and etc. I also have a small shop with Etsy too. Between eCrater, and Etsy I have done some sales along with eBay too. For me it is enough to move inventory I have, for what I do, and where I feel comfortable. 

I got a little bit winded today I see, but hope this was of some help to those who question their sales with eBay. Hope it helps others who have thoughts of moving on, or having another venue that they are considering using too. I wish you all well with your sales, your decisions, and sending you all the best of luck with this. 

Thanks so much for visiting with LilacsNDreams, and hope to see you again soon. Take care, and Happy Sales to All. 

Market Places, Venues, Ebay, Ecrater, Etsy, Artfire, Ruby Lane, and More

Market Places, Venues, Ebay, Ecrater, Etsy, Artfire, Ruby Lane, and more.

Welcome to LilacsNDreams, and Happy Hump Day to all of you visiting! Having one of them days with thoughts going through my mind, and thought I would come by here to visit with all of you. 

I, like many others, spend time surfing the internet. We do it to read, learn, catch up on things, compare, and one of my favorite things is to shop. Besides shopping I also like to sell online too. There are many places out there to shop online with, to sell with, and there is no way I can know all of them either. You have your market places with auctions, some do not do auctions, you have big venues selling online, small venues, your big businesses, and quite honestly a lot of shopping is done online with many places. Some have ventured off having their own websites, and are doing well. Others have tried websites, and found it to be more than they wanted with cost, upkeep, coding, and so on.

There is so much out there to choose from, so much to see, and of course never enough time to see it all. So, when you go shopping online where do you go to? Or, if you are a seller where is your preference to sell at? Is it Ebay with auctions there, and of course buy it nows too. Do you visit with Ecrater where you can use Paypal, or Google Wallet to check out with. At least a little more payment selection is offered. Do you go to Etsy for handmade homemade items, or maybe you visit Artfire for that too, and can use Amazon Payments there. Then, there is Ruby Lane where you can purchase your vintage antique collectibles. So many places out there, so much to see, and how does a person keep it straight, right?

I guess I am just in a slump right now with the change of the seasons. I haven't done too much lately to really make any sales with any of my shops. I do ebay periodically, I have inventory growing at Ecrater, and I have things also with Etsy too. Artfire has not done too much for me for quite some time, but I still show things there which keeps my name out there for others to find. I have family staying with us right now which off sets my schedule of things a bit too.

Sometimes a person can do too much with different market places, and then again not enough too. I was one that had things sitting everywhere. Over time I have been pulling things away, and trying to simplify by just having 2-3 places that I sell with, and shop at too. I found that I enjoy having more time to work with the shops, am able to work on more projects, can spend more time promoting items amongst 2-3 places, and I am actually getting more views with keeping it simple too.

So, for whatever reasons where do you sell at, where do you like to shop with, what are the advantages and disadvantages, and etc? Would love to hear some input with this a little bit. Always nice to have views through the eyes of others. 

Thanks so much for visiting with LilacsNDreams today. I enjoyed you stopping by, and hope to see you again soon. Take care, and have a wonderful Wednesday Hump Day!

LilacsNDreams Shoppe Page Being Updated on Blog

LilacsNDreams Shoppe Page Being Updated on Blog

Hello, and Welcome everyone to LilacsNDreams! Shopping in stores, Online Shopping, Thrift Stores, and so on. We all enjoy shopping them, and we all enjoy bargains too. Online Shopping is a very hard business to deal with, takes a lot of work, a lot of time, and eventually over time depending on what your goals are things can be good for you too.  Yes, having a brick and mortar store is also much work, and that I won't deny. But, there is a bit of difference from the physical to online as we learn over time too.

I am a slow bloomer I guess. I have done Online Sales since 2004 where I first started with Ebay. I enjoyed the hunting of products, finding good deals...some of them stayed home with Me:) But, I always enjoyed shopping, and digging for just the right items to be offered at Ebay to sell. Since then I have moved on. I still sell occasionally with Ebay, but I have moved more products over to Ecrater, Etsy, and some things with Artfire too. Lower fees, better sites, little bit more control of things you can do, and more opportunity as well. As I moved on I also had the need for something else I should be doing. I then got into repurposing, upcycling, recycling, and reusing items to make different pieces for the home. I adore vintage, glassware, pretty things, and have been enjoying what I have done so far with different pieces. I am selective with items found to use, and sometimes I think I am too selective. But, if I would be happy to have it used/displayed with my own home, then I feel it is ready to offer to others as well. 

At some point I thought it would always be a great accomplishment if I could have my own website too. Whew! Has anyone ever really checked into those, what it takes, the cost of things, all the coding, the complications, the different hosts being offered, domains, shopping carts, etc, and etc. It can get really spendy. Well, I am one who has always tried to save a penny where I could, but still have the advantages of what some others might be offering too. I do have a website I have been working with slowly....very slowly really. I have enjoyed working so much with my blog, and what I can do with it. The more I learn, and teach myself the more I enjoy it. As many of you can see at the top I have tabs to different pages I have added with my blog. I did these pages in a way that we could all still interact on them, and that when I wanted to make changes, add things, remove things, and etc....that they would work for what I needed them to do. So, right now I am doing the best way I know to do things, what I have taught myself, and making things simple for everyone too. 

As of today...still a working progress, and things will change as I move along with it. My secondary page to my blog that I focus with is my LilacsNDreams Shoppe. Here I have always shown pictures of items I am offering in my shops, and I leave clickable links for everyone to visit so that they can view more pictures, see more details, and so on. Wasn't trying to hide anything from anyone on this landing page of my blog, my main page here, but I also did not want this to become all about business with my blog either. That is where different pages I wanted were slowly added in for different interests, and to keep some things a bit separate from the next one as well. 

Anyway, I have now started to add buy it now buttons to items I am showing on my Shoppe page. No shopping cart yet, it is all a working progress for me. Learning, trying things out, and looking at shopping carts as well. Paypal offers them, and there are others that also offer them for sites as well. But, for me it is a start, a working progress. So, when you get a chance hop on over to see what I have done so far with my LilacsNDreams Shoppe page. If you have any ideas please share them as I am still learning, and many others are also learning as well. Some day (one of my goals) I am hoping to mostly be selling from my Blog/Website, and not having to deal with the extra shops, rules, glitches, and etc. Anyway, till then....have a look, and I hope you enjoy what I have started with so far. 

Take care everyone, and thanks so much for visiting with LilacsNDreams. I know I generally don't post on Tuesdays, and this comes a little later in the morning than what I schedule, but hope it finds you all doing well. I am sure the rush is on in preparations for the holiday, travel, and etc. Be safe everyone, and enjoy!:) See you again soon. 

Social Media Selling and Best Practices

Social Media Selling and Best Practices

Hello, and Welcome to LilacsNDreams! Happy Hump Day to all of you visiting with me today! I know you often see things about Social Media, and there is a lot out there to read about this particular subject too. There are many choices for Social Media. Some use Social Media for ways of advertising their venues, showing links to their shops, so they can have back links to maybe their blogs, keeping in touch with family and friends, meeting new people, learning, sharing, and so many more things. 

I have often read about Social Media being an important factor for those who sell. There are many choices we can use for Social Media such as Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, and of course our Blogs too. I have recently made a sale that came from my Shoppe Blog page, and of course am thrilled with it too. Feels better than dealing with one of the other venues, and is much more personable dealing with customers too. Anyway, back to the subject at hand. Please read on everyone.

There are some general tips to consider when looking more into Social Media, and putting them into use for your business. 1) Evaluate the available tools before you start 2) Genuinely contribute to the conversation 3) Create a separate account for your business 4) Start small 5) Listen and engage 6) Cross-promote your social media channels 7) Do Not expect instant results.

Whew! I could write a book just about this alone with these tips, and then sharing a little bit about the places mentioned. Actually, there was some good things, and points that came within my Ebay Seller Information that I received. If you click on the link, and follow to that being shared by Ebay you will understand it more, get some good things from it, and hopefully it might help you just a little bit more in knowing what places maybe you should use, where to focus your energy with, and so on. I will note that in this list they did not mention anything about Pinterest, but I would also recommend that as a place to also consider in using with your social media as well. The place is growing, and is slowly expanding out with all that they are doing too.

Over time I have narrowed down which Social Medias I use, which ones I participate with, seen the ones I benefit more with, and which ones are helping me. Everyone will have their own choices, and own opinions of what works. Remember, the choices are yours to make, and use what you are comfortable with, and what you see is working for you.

I wish you all a wonderful Wednesday or Hump Day! Thanks so much for sharing your time with LilacsNDreams, and hope you enjoyed it. See you all again soon. Take care, and have a Happy Day!

Google Shopping Keywords and Selling on Ecrater

Google Shopping Keywords, and Selling on Ecrater is something to consider. 

Hi All, and Welcome to LilacsNDreams! I have been gone all day again on Wednesday. Busy busy busy. Each time I have a day like this I make sure to still stay up at night to read my emails, read messages to me, check my shops, and of course read what is being shared in all the forums I like to frequent, and roam through. 

Many of us who are sellers have many shops. Some of our shops are all in the same place, some of us use different venues to sell with, and some of us also have websites that we like to sell with as well. Some day I hope to be more active with my website, or maybe just do everything from my blog here too. Anyway, I am getting ahead of myself there a little bit.

One of the shops I have is with Ecrater. I have slowly...and I mean slowly been adding my inventory into this shop. My vintage collectibles, items found when thrifting, and I have also been adding in my items that I repurpose too. Ecrater is free to list, no final value fees, has been around for a while, and they do offer choices of paypal and google wallet as payment services to use too. As some of us, or many of us are aware soon Google Shopping will be completely different for use. In order for our products to show with Google Shopping you will have to pay to be a part of it. I have heard it can get quite spendy too. I have never really worried too much about Google Shopping as I am seen in Google Organic searches, found in yahoo searches, product images show at The Find, and etc. But, let's admit it, the more we can get seen by others, the more exposure, the better chances of sales, right? In the forums at Artfire tonight another seller there who also sells on Ecrater shared something interesting with all of us. TheLivesAndLovesOfMaggieTheCat shared this with us: 
                   "For all who are or are considering opening on eCRATER I just learned that the admin is paying Google for minimum key word bids so our items will still be picked up by Google Shopping. How is that for a totally free site?"

WOW! This is good news, and even more incentive for me to start working harder on those listings I have slowly been adding in there. With this kind of announcement it is time for me to step it up a bit more with the Holiday Shopping fast approaching for us too. 

So, for those who are sellers visiting with LilacsNDreams, and if you use Ecrater I hope you find satisfaction with this announcement as I did myself. I wish you all well, and many happy sales to you too!

Thanks for sharing your time with LilacsNDreams, and hope to see you again soon. Take care till the next time everyone. Toodle Ooohhh....