Build Your Business With Auctions
How to use online auctions to build your regular business!
Courtesy of BidBoosters.com The rules for self-promotion at auction sites change regularly for good
reason and, sometimes, for no reason at all. Take eBay for example.
They no longer allow you to post links directly to your web site unless
the sole purpose of that link is to provide more information on the
specific item that you are offering in the auction.
While restrictions such as this one might seem to be a barrier to your
goal of building your non-auction business using the tremendous
traffic-driving potential that a good auction listing can create, there
are loopholes that you can exploit.
Most auction sites, eBay included, allow you to link to a profile or"About Me" page. There are currently no restrictions that prohibit you
from linking that page to your main web site. Now, the question is how
to turn this loophole into cash.
One of the easiest strategies (at least in theory) is to post a
rollicking good auction item that draws thousands of eyeballs and makes
every one of those tire-kickers click on your "About Me" page. I said
"at least in theory" because, heck, if we all were able to do that every
time that we posted an auction we wouldn't be worrying about building
our non-auction business. We'd be too busy spending all of that money
we were making. However, there still are ways to get some decent
results.
One of the best ways to draw traffic to your auction and, by extension,
to your About Me page is to run what I term a loss-leader-clone auction.
That's where you find something that is running hot on your target
auction site, buy one from your sources, and run it as an auction with
no reserve price and bids starting at a penny. If you've chosen the
right product, and you've listed it correctly, then the eyeballs will
beat a path to your auction and your About Me page as well.
The strategy needs a bit more examination however. Your About Me page
needs to be a well-worded mini-sales page that compels the reader to
click on the link to your main site. Once the main site is reached you
will need more good copy and a strong offer that "can't be refused". In
fact, I would recommend that you create a special landing page that
only people who have clicked from your About Me page will see. That way
you can create a whopping offer that you don't have to offer to your
regular visitors.
The next thing that you need to consider is the price of whatever you
are offering on that special landing page. It either needs to be well
within the impulse price range of $4.95 to $19.95, or it needs to
produce such a good profit margin that you only need to sell a few. Our
strategy gets blown to bits if you lose money on the auction item and
you don't make any money on the landing page either -- so plan
accordingly.
In summary, our path to using online auctions to build your "Regular"
business is pretty straight-forward:
1. Create an auction with a hot loss-leader to attract attention.
2. Create a compelling About Me page and link it to your main web site.
3. Create a compelling landing page with a almost too-good-to-be-true
offer that is either within impulse price range, or produces enough
margin that only a few sales are needed to offset the loss that you may
experience on the initial auction.
Finally, don't forget the cardinal rule: GET THEIR EMAIL ADDRESS!
Offer a newsletter, or free download, or something that results in your
getting their permission to mail them something in the future.
If you follow these suggestions, you should end up with a lot of
auction-driven traffic going to your main site as well as incremental
sales to make it all worthwhile.
Printed with permission of BidBoosters.com :: BidBoosters.com helps power sellers and auction newbies save money, increase sales, and boost online auction selling success with professional templates, free embedded item photos, and insightful auction selling information. ........end of article.........
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