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Written by Paul Harris January 26, 2006 I run a small website and also market using eBay. My products normally sell for less on eBay, though the cross marketing is well worth it. That was until eBay cancelled my account and listings. It turns out that I was reported for putting in links to my website. I knew I shouldn't do it so got what I deserved... yet there are 1000's of ebayers still doing it - I guess my competition blew the whistle. What to do now... linking to non-commercial sites is allowed on eBay as far as I know, so my plan was to set up a separate web site which is purely informative about related products and sport. There would be links to my commercial website for interested parties. Does anybody out there have experience in this field Paul Harris bivvyman.co.uk Written by David Grant January 27, 2006 Great post, Paul. I am an independent eBay consultant with many years experience working with eBay sellers. Just last month, one of my Canadian clients experienced the same thing -- he was booted off eBay with what eBay called a Section 9 violation. Though Section 9 violation emails are common methods of email fraud, eBay does play this card on occasion. The Section 9 verbiage eBay uses is very vague at best. It's been over a month since my Canadian client was given the boot and eBay has yet to offer details. In my own conversations with Powersellers, it has been noted by many that there is NOT uniform enforcement of eBays policies. Powersellers with a direct rep are given more favorable treatment. To paraphrase a comment of just last week... "When I have a listing removed by eBay, I just call my Rep and it's back up in no time." Though eBay allows one "off ebay link" in an About Me section, it is an everyday occurrence to see eBay powersellers regularly referencing off-eBay content in multiple locations across many eBay venues. Another point to note: eBay as an organization does not watch auctions for policy violations. Rather, they rely on folks, mainly competitors, who will report a non-conforming auction. Most folks who blow the whistle do so to lower competitive pressure by having competing auctions pulled off. So, the short version -- eBay can and does boot folks with no notice and at times no legitimate reason... and yes, the rules depend in part by how much you pay eBay every month. Sad but true. One of the chapters in my newest eBay book addresses the need for folks to diversify their marketing strategies and not just "earn a living on eBay" for this very reason. If you rely solely on eBay and are subsequently booted, you are... well out of luck! David Grant Written by Eran Adams January 27, 2006 Paul, You now understand that you have made a great mistake: You have lost your eBay ID, which if you have done a lot of sales and positive feedback, is an asset, basically worth money. But never mind, that is in the past. Your problem is that you do not have a strategy for eBay. What professional eBayers do is to get eBay to re-direct the buyers to their own checkout which is part of their StoreFront website. This is legitimate, when you use the software of a certified eBay Auction Management provider. The StoreFronts and checkout of those providers may not be as powerful and reliable as your own website, but it is free. The way it works and the logic behind it is: (1) With all the respect to the experts in this digest, THERE IS NOBODY that can beat eBay in getting your products to the top of Google (And eBay UK gets more then 40% of the Internet buyers in the UK). (2) Your eBay marketing strategy should not try to attract browsers, only buyers (every High Street retailer knows it is easier and cheaper to get a repeat customer that a new customer). So, once a buyer uses your own checkout, they are YOURS: (a) You can bombard them with more items from your StoreFront on their way to the checkout. (b) Get them to sign to your Newsletter. (c) Send them a Promo Code that they can use in the next visit to YOUR store (With the parcel and in the e-mails that you send automatically as part of the purchase proses. (d) You can send them as many snail mail leaflets as you wish!!!!!! That may be a step backwards to many of the experts here, but the best way to build a business is to get the happy buyer to come back, and to tell others about it. And all means are kosher!!! And as you are sending them to proven buyers, we are not talking about a regular blind post campaign. Your action plan for now should be: (A) Get a new eBay ID and work like mad to create a high positive feedback (Just go to eBay and spend a few hundred pounds on one pound items). While you build your ID user: (B) Investigate the Auction Management providers (For the UK, you are limited to only two major players, Marketworks and ChannelAdvisor. The second one may be a little better, but very expensive for small sellers). (C) If you never used them, take 4 weeks off from the rest of your life to learn which ever of those you chose. And give up sleeping in those 4 weeks, it will be a very intense and possibly frustrating learning experience!!! (D) Open eBay Shop!!!!! Last words: * Do not give up your site. * Ensure your eBay Shop AND you StoreFront are similar or identical in looks and feel to your current site. * Use all the tools that eBay gives you (e.g. Shop Home Page, About Me page...) * Good luck. Eran Adams Written by Steve Houston January 30, 2006 Paul, Sure there are thousands of people doing it, but eventually they will get caught at it just as you did. It doesn't take someone to report this, a simple automated bot can catch it. What I found works for me is to simply say one of the following in the eBay listing: "Made by companyorsitename", or "Offered by companyorsitename". Then place a PPC ad for your company name via Google, Yahoo, etc. I've received a lot of traffic this way by people leaving eBay, doing a search which brings up my ad in first place and then they visit my site to purchase. It works well for me. I couldn't take the chance of losing out on the eBay sales. Steve Houston Written by R. Neilson January 30, 2006 eBay always gives you several warnings before they block you. They only block you if you ignore those warnings and continue to violate their policy. I sell on eBay and found the way to still promote my business and not violate policy is to use my web address in replies to questions about my product. Always include information that tells customers about my store and website when I ship them their purchases and in all of my PayPal receipts and payment confirmations. These are a few of the legal ways to drive business to your site. Remember that eBay wants all of the sales to go thru their website not off site. This is how they make their money. Would you want your customers to see a product you have listed and then go direct to the manufacture to make the purchase? eBay is going to start a second website in the next few months for fixed price buy it now auctions that might be of interest to you. It will include all fixed price auctions on eBay and all fixed price auctions in eBay stores. It will allow customers to make several purchases at one time from different venders and pay for all of them at the same time when they are ready to check out. This makes sure your purchase are paid for immediately. The only catch is you do have to have a minimum number of feedbacks and a high rate of positive feedbacks. Hope this helps. R. Neilson H. L. Supply Written by Geoff Thomas January 31, 2006 "... eBay can and does boot folks with no notice and at times no legitimate reason... and yes, the rules depend in part by how much you pay eBay every month. Sad but true." - David Grant Interesting point. I don't sell through eBay, but do occassionally have people refer to my commercial site in their eBay listings, justification of retail prices or for price comparison or discription and other links such as our hallmarking information pages. Could that see me barred from future eBay dealing? Worse, imagine the sabotage that unfair dealers could do by listing to their competitors commercial sites to get them barred. Geoff Thomas thomas-skipton.co.uk Written by Kenny Lau January 31, 2006 Do all that is allowed by eBay: Include your name, company name, phone number, and encourage Buyers to contact you through use of the "Ask Seller A Question" button on the listing page, even short customer testimonials. These may all help. Kenny Lau, Canada ecopurewater.com Written by Rick Gortatowsky January 31, 2006 Once eBay blocks you it can be rather troublesome to get them to take the block off depending on what occurs. They view external sites as driving traffic away from eBay and often attempting fee avoidance. There are certainly valid reasons for eBay acting in such fashion but at the same time it makes you wonder. If they let everyone get away with it then everyone would and eBay would lose massive revenue. However, your revenues to them are insignificant. It's not like you are a large sales corporation. They really should send a warning before any such action takes place and yes others do engage in same activities and eventually also get counciled or the boot. Discussing this is really beyond the context of the LED format as I could write a book on the subjects of eBay and alternatives etc. Perhaps I should :) Write a book that is. The prudent thing to do is email me direct. I can give you some clues as to how to deal with eBay as well as alternatives. There are alternatives? Yes. In fact, if there are any resellers out there reading this and you are a "Business" by all means, email us: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it Sincerely, Rick Gortatowsky Comments (0)
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