Bonanza might be worth another (or new) look

[val2525]

Interesting change:

www.ecommercebytes.com/cab/abn/y15/m11/i30/s04

[Deleted]

Thanks Val, I think I might finally open a store there. I've gone back and forth for quite a while.

[sunsetpainter]

Thanks Val. I've been kicking around the idea of selling on Bonanza too.

[RetroMonde]

I saw that too and thought the same thing but I'm maxed out on how thin I can spread myself. It will be worth watching to see if Bonanza steps up their game. Serious sellers are waiting for a serious venue to take eBay's place... Bonanza is a decent place to sell. But they'll need to do some advertising to get name recognition with shoppers/buyers or it's all for nothing. The person that takes eBay's place will also need to assume some of their marketing.

[val2525]

I think Google has it set now that your stuff is NOT seen in search if you didn't pay. Not even organic searches.

Case in point: my hunt for shoes using Google.

I typed in every possible key word combination, including brand, style (I'd have settled for any one of 4 possible styles), color, etc. Even generic searches. It appeared the shoe was not made in brown. Did this the entire weekend. I finally went to a bookmarked shoe retailer yesterday, looking for something else. While on the site, I clicked on the brand I'd been hunting for, out of curiosity. To my surprise, the style/size I wanted WAS available in brown. Yet this retailer never showed up in any of my searches. NEVER. They did show up a time or two on other brand searches in the paid ads on the right side. But NEVER in search results.

If I'm reading the results (or lack of) correctly, I think Bonanza may be on to something with the new paid service.

[Deleted]

Well it sounds good: "we've seen the average enrolled store more than double sales per day compared to its daily average before TTP:" But honestly what were the daily averages before? Double zero is still zero. One a day doubled is still not impressive. Now if they were having good sales before (are there people that have steady sales there?) then that would be interesting.

[RetroMonde]

Val said "I think Google has it set now that your stuff is NOT seen in search if you didn't pay. Not even organic searches." (Quote doesn't wanna work for me now). Like Thrifty would say, "F-ers". I'll need to explore whether I'm getting any Google action on my website where my aprons are available on a sub-domain. I'm not paying now and don't think BC pays either, at least not for the basic level I have. This pay to play stuff sure feels like paying the mob for "protection." I'll pay if I have to but will resent it. And what's the point of killing yourself over KWs if it doesn't help in organic searches?

What about Etsy? Are they paying for searches for us with our fees? I know my listings get found by Google cause it shows in analytics. Maybe Bonanza will take a cue from them- a positive move imho.

[val2525]

I don't know that for sure, retro. But I did find it interesting that I searched for Impo brown booties all sorts of ways, with other mixes of key words, etc. and only found them by accident when I went to a retailer website to look for something else (not a google search, just saved bookmark). The picture caught my eye. Yet the words "Impo", "bootie" and "brown" were all in the retailer's listing for those boots. I even searched by three specific styles, including the specific style I purchased.

I honestly don't think Google is playing fair with product searches. You don't pay, you don't get seen. Can't prove it, but my experience sure seems suspect to me.

[chapeaunoir]

I've seen a lot of Etsy stuff come up in google searches.

ETA: Bonanza certainly has the right idea for their infrastructure - strip non-essentials and focus on small business sellers.

[val2525]

I think I may give Bonanza another shot in January.

[Pantlandia]

I might list my stamps and postal history over there. Who knows...