| Antique Business News #17 October 2003 |
Antique Business News #17 October 2003
Online marketing tips for Antique Merchants,
Auctioneers and Antique Show Promoters.
--Unsubscribe info at bottom of page
--In This Issue of ABN--
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1. My Rant About Online Advertising
2. Last Months "Hot" Antiques & Collectibles
3. Converting Online Visitors into Buyers
4. Are you Well Listed in Search Engines?
5. Helpful Resource List
6. Questions? Comments? Ideas?
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1) My Rant About Online Advertising
Here's something that gets me fired up. There are still businesses out there with Web
sites, that don't advertise online. Its as if the Web is a necessary evil. They stick to the
same print ads they have been running for years, while more and more of the
people they are trying to reach are going online. Then they complain that the Internet
has destroyed their business, but do nothing to embrace the opportunity that the Web
brings. Yes, you can reach customers on the Web cheaply and effectively. If you don't
feel comfortable buying online ads, talk to others about your concerns at the online
marketing forum that is mentioned at the bottom of this newsletter. With an online ad
you can buy one customer, reading your ad, then clicking on it, for as little as $0.05.
When you buy a $100 print ad, will they guarantee that 2000 people will actually read
it? That's the kind of opportunity you can get from Web advertising.
Here are some venues that you can get running quickly with almost immediate results,
for very little cost. With the Holiday shopping season upon us, this is a perfect time
to test the waters.
1. Google adwords at adwords.google.com, Overture.com and Curioscape.com are quite
affordable and can work quite well if you keep your ads extremely targeted. Don't run
generalized ads. Promote specific items or specific categories of items. These programs
are set up so that you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. Remember, its easy
to get people to click on your ad, the hard part is getting them to convert on your
offer. Converting a customer means they buy your merchandise or buy tickets to your
show or show-up at your auction. Experiment with different types of wording. Remember
to keep it VERY specific. Traffic is good, converting traffic to sales is better.
2. Online Classifieds in high traffic areas like AOL classifieds at classifieds.aol.com
, the TIAS Exchange at TIASExchange.com and Auctionbytes Classifieds at
http://auctionbytes.com/cgi-bin/classifieds/index.pl can be cost effective and highly
targeted. Avoid free ad sites, you get what you pay for.
For just a few dollars, you can get some customer for the Holidays.
Give it a try....Phil
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2) The "Hot List" of Antiques & Collectibles
Last months (September's) "Hot" antiques & Collectibles
These top ten lists are based on hundreds of thousands of searches
by people using the online search engines at the indicated Web sites.
Here are the top ten search words used at http://www.TIAS.com .
This site specializes in offering a broad range of antiques and collectibles
Avon -- http://tinyurl.com/dw9q
Cookie jars -- http://tinyurl.com/dw9e
McCoy -- http://tinyurl.com/dwa3
Pyrex -- http://tinyurl.com/dw9z
Depression Glass -- http://tinyurl.com/g9ti
Roseville -- http://tinyurl.com/dw9m
Carnival Glass -- http://tinyurl.com/dw9v
Dolls -- http://tinyurl.com/dwa6
Milk Glass -- http://tinyurl.com/dwai
Fenton -- http://tinyurl.com/dwau
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Here are the top ten search words used at http://www.AntiqueArts.com .
This site specialized in "high end" Antique and Art
Limoges -- http://tinyurl.com/dwb1
Nippon -- http://tinyurl.com/dwbg
Staffordshire -- http://tinyurl.com/dwbj
Transferware -- http://tinyurl.com/dwbn
Chairs -- http://tinyurl.com/dwbc
Tiffany -- http://tinyurl.com/dwbe
Desks -- http://tinyurl.com/dwb0
Tables -- http://tinyurl.com/dwb6
Mirrors -- http://tinyurl.com/dwba
Sofas -- http://tinyurl.com/dwbh
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Here are the top ten search words used at http://www.Kovels.com .
This site is a free online price guide to antiques and collectibles.
Dolls
Books
Avon
Bottles
Plates
China
Furniture
China Dinnerware
Roseville
Toys
Past hot lists can now be viewed online in the ABN Newsletter
archives. To view past months hot lists, just go to:
http://www.tias.com/abn and select a newsletter.
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3) Converting Online Visitors into Buyers
Conversion rates was a major issue on the minds of retailers attending
the eTail2003 conference last month in Boston. The average conversion
rate for the ecommerce industry is about 2-3%. Conversion is when a
visitor to a Web site makes a sale, or has been "converted" into a
paying customer. MyEZsale gives the low-down on the eTail2003
conference and reveals lessons learned by large retailers so you can
apply them to your ecommerce Web site.
http://www.myezsale.com/cab/abu/y203/m08/mes0007/s04
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Are you Well Listed in Search Engines?
Over the past few months, the major online Malls have seen about a million
Web pages dropped from the Google search engine. No one knows why
and Google is not talking. It has become much more difficult to find antique
and collectible items online at Google. Since 85% of searches online come
through Google, its extremely important to monitor and understand your
Google listings.
So how many Web pages does Google have listed for your Web site? This
is an important number to know, so that you can track how effective your
site is working with the Webs most popular search engine. You should track
and record your search engine saturation at least once a week.
The easy way to do this, is to use a Web service like Marketleap. Just go
to http://www.marketleap.com in the left column, under "free search engine
marketing tools", select "Search Engine Saturation" and fill in the form as
indicated. Or you can go directly to Google and enter a search similar to
site:your-url.com "unique word or phrase on every page"
As an example, for the Tias.com Web site, a search in Google could look
something like:
site:tias.com "TIAS"
The number of pages will appear in the upper right corner of the search
results page. Write it down and record any changes that appear each week.
If you start to see your numbers decline and don't know why, there are
online resources available that might be able to help you such as
Webmasterworld.com . Be prewarned that asking Google for help via their
online help system, will get you lots of form letter responses, but not much
in the way of specific help.
Happy tracking....
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Helpful Resource List
1. Bulletin board to discuss online marketing
http://www.auctionbytes.com/forum/phpBB/viewforum.php?forum=15&132
2. Online archive of past ABN newsletters and the "Subscribe to ABN" Link.
You can also use this links to send a friend a copy of this newsletter.
http://www.tias.com/abn
3. Check the link popularity of your Web site at:
http://www.marketleap.com/publinkpop/
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Questions? Comments? Ideas?
We want to hear from you. Send your email to ABN@tias.com
If you have a marketing idea that we publish here, we'll send you
a free nifty, pocket tape measure and magnifier. Take a look at:
http://pages.tiasexchange.com/7283/PictPage/1920895801.html
One per customer.
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Thanks for reading. Feel free to forward this to a friend. To subscribe
use the link in the "Helpful Resource List" shown above. Please note
that stories and other information from readers may not be checked for
accuracy and may be edited prior to publication. ©1995-2003 TIAS.com Inc.
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