 And welcome back to the first your thoughts and comments of 2024 So here we are so another year another start on eBay and Today we're going to cover the last two or three weeks of comments your thoughts your responses and my reply is back And we're just going to bounce a bit of information around and hopefully we're going to gain a little bit of something from the video so we haven't Released any content or I haven't released any content for a couple of weeks up until the new year I took a bit of a break from the YouTube Content whilst I focused on family and friends and recharge the batteries as we all do need to do you know And obviously eBay was still continuing on so that was taking up a lot of time So I wanted to free up a bit more time for the family So we're back on it and obviously the comments may be a little slim pickings Compared to some of the longer Your thoughts and comments that we've had previously and I'm sure we'll have again as the year progresses on so let's get started with the first comment So Jackie Sicilian commented I bought a lot of Christmas decorations to decorate my ex-husband's house Planning to resell them, but should I discount them after Christmas is over or just hold them all till next season Now my choice for this was hi there. I think it's personal choice as to how fast you want to move the stock But I don't see why you should discount them to move them Decorations can sell all year round They just sell faster went out of season now and obviously with a discount now There are many people who sell Christmas or seasonal festive items and they do sell all year round You don't necessarily have to discount them Maybe a little discount might be good just to nudge them in the right direction Maybe a coupon or a markdown sale if that is something you can do on your store or your your account Possibly, but if you're not in a rush to turn around that's That product to get that that money back into the pot for reusing I Don't see why a massive discount should be needed if any People are always looking for Christmas decorations throughout the year spreading the cost To get everything they want for the next Christmas. I know for myself my sister Who lives in New Zealand is? Obsessed with Christmas. I mean she literally has There's about six Christmas trees now. I mean we're talking serious obsessed It looks like Santa's grotto on acid Every year with the decoration she has up and she's constantly looking for new things and new More decorations to put up so they do sell all year round So I mean it is personal choice, but you've just got to decide if you want a quick turnaround If you want to free up some of the capital or if it is just a long-tail item that you're happy to store But you want to get the most profit from at which point I would say little to no discount is necessary You just need to accept that it may be tied up in your stock for a while longer So that was on have sales have fallen, you know navigating the slowdown coping with slow Christmas sales Moving along to the next one. We have Lisa back a morse She says I am a 20 plus eBay veteran so I'm guessing 20 plus years Maybe I run for screen names. We can barely keep up with all of the sales that we have We don't run any stores. We don't run any promotions. We don't do Excuse me Just an heater off there it's minus two here in the office But when you're talking it catches and obviously dry throat, so that me two seconds. I do apologize Okay So yeah, so we don't do anything any different than we do done for 20 years The constant ringing of our cash register stresses us out. I wish we were all in that boat And has us running to the post office three to four times a day If this is not happening for you then eBay is probably not running in your favor right now This has been going on for several months. We change most items Are to offer international shipping and now it is even worse than ever meaning we are busier than ever And we have to take pauses just to catch up on our shipping I don't find your video relevant to the current eBay environment in the United States Well, everyone's open to their own opinion firstly I never said at any point in my video that it was specific to the United States United Kingdom France Germany Australia, so that's a big presumed presumption there unfortunately, but even so you're entitled to your opinion but I also I Call you out there because there are many many sellers who report back to me And many other YouTube content creators that are all Suffering a lot of low sales It's not everyone absolutely and I agree with a part of your account where it may just be the eBay Algorithm was not running in my favor throughout that time But hey, you know we take away from it what we can So let's moving along. We have another comment from Lisa again Gain momentum. Are you kidding us? If the site got any more momentum? We'd have to move out of our house and get a warehouse. Well, as I said, I'm glad your business is doing well Unfortunately, your experience is not the same for everyone. Please remember everyone sells many many different products Not everyone's business model is the same and there is no one-size-fits-all Just is what it is and One more comment from Lisa back or Morse again I am in a local friendly competition with two other eBay resellers who race each other to reach a hundred K in sales We all accomplish this easily well after 20 years of stabilisation and settling into your business and your your business strategy and That much experience I would expect nothing less But well done for each and the levels you're reaching. These are the sort of goals that a lot of us Die hard eBay sellers are wanting to achieve or possibly our version of that It may not all be the same for everyone But at least you're reaching the goals you want and that's what we all want to achieve at the end of the day We all want to reach reach the same levels that we The same goals that we set for ourselves. We all want to reach them and Exceed them if we can, you know, I mean on a comfortable level, you know, I mean that that is what that the name of the game You know, no one wants to fall behind Okay, I'm gonna have to work out this one. It's Moa Yadda Dettat How many impressions do I need to start to sell daily? I have 945 items Well, my answer to this one was quite simply this is a very subjective discussion And really depends on the products you're selling Also the price brackets you've chosen What will also pay play into this is your account health demand competition Visibility I'd love to give you a figure that there is just no Set figure and there's there's so many variables There's not enough information given from what he's saying or she's saying to formulate a response with much clarity beyond this now It depends if you're in a saturated market, you may get a lot of impressions But fewer sales if you're in a more niched market or if you have a Loyal following of buyers we starting to get a few multi-item Repeat buyers now on a regular basis, which is great. But again, it all depends what you're selling It all depends how you're running your business if you're Shipping very fast if you're shipping in a Protected box or however, it should be sent in a safe safe packaging If your prices are right if you're communicating with your customers, you know, I mean it depends it all depends Are you promoting? Are you using promoted listing off-site ads? Are you? Promoting social media are the other avenues that you're using to draw traffic to your page I can only give you an Example of myself I won't use my most recent figures because that'd be something I'd be covering in another video because there are some changes that I've been making to Basically escalate my traffic in a much more productive way but moving that aside generally And if I had say Let's take a third of that of say 350 listings Now most of mine are Multivariation so there's actually like about 28,000 38,000 listing items listed, but they're under about 350 listings. I mean very highly saturated markets Predominantly I do have some niche categories, but predominantly highly saturated markets. I do promote high Which I am also going to be covering in another video where I'm drawing down on that one, but that's originally from One of Polish Pete's videos and it's been working and I will feedback on that as well But I would get on average between promoted listings Impressions and organic impressions promoted, which are two different things I Would receive on average until recently around 150,000 a day mark in saturated markets and promoting rather high But again, it doesn't to some degree. It doesn't depending on what you're doing and what you're selling It doesn't matter how many impressions you get It does but it doesn't necessarily dictate how successful you are You could have very highly sought-after products at the right price with perfect descriptions items specifics lead images titles in a non-saturated markets Perfect customer Account health and you only need an average of say 10 impressions to get a sale on a product It swings and roundabouts and there's a very large scope with very little information given there But this that gives you an idea or there's some some information you can take from that awesome Polish Pete's back in the house I've got a feeling that the more and more sellers realized That promoted listing is ripping them off and they are switching off or lowering rates Which makes more space for others to get those impressions Mine are going up to in up to in the last five to seven days Now that was around my first video of 2024. Just saying is anyone else notice that the impressions had Raised slightly, you know, they started to increase a little bit better I just responded. Yes, Pete totally agree I'm following your strategy of gradually lowering my promoted listing rates I'm also testing out a few other a few off-site ideas for improving impressions and traffic that don't involve eBay grabbing portions of my profits as mentioned previously There'll be in a video coming within the next week or so So keep a watch out for that one Space Lords back in the house to wonderful to see you again there space Lord I also had a very slow December compared to normal after boxing day through to now things have picked up low Responses basically I hope that your sales grow growth continues for you and thanks for the info Which was good to know because I was asking what was happening with the impressions Quarter four sales I found that's quarter four on the whole was very very soft Compared to quarter three quarter three actually out give quarter four, which is strange in itself But understandable with all of the Sight parameter changes and software coding changes and Prioritizing of certain points within your listing etc. All those changes coming in over the Christmas period It's no wonder That it was going to be a soft quarter, especially now that they have From what I can tell and I will feed it out in another video also and possibly the live and unedited So keep track for those as well the site is actually From what I can gather from the multiple sources I've covered They are blocking Google Indexing unless The listing has been Promoted via the off-site ad Now I've proved that this is a possibility in a previous video this year and It's worth checking into for yourselves do your own research do your own due diligence But it's definitely true that this could well be the case And if anyone's wondering how It's very very simple. There is just simply a coding that will be put into the listing when it is Indexed or sent out to Google to be found when they prompt somebody promotes their listing through the off-site ads That's allows or doesn't allow Google ads or Google shopping to Have it indexed to be found Now that doesn't mean if you were to copy paste your entire title of your listing onto Google. It couldn't be found But it's definitely Reducing the visibility of their listings unless they are the kingpins of the promotion There are ways around this but not for this video so keep track Sublime 90 says I haven't had a sale in almost a month Well again, really sorry to hear the struggle But you're not alone and we are a community and I'll always hear to help In any way we can I hope things pick up back again for you very soon and We're all in different boats and depends Maybe how many listings you have how often you're on site? Who knows, you know, there could be something wrong with the account. I don't know. I'm not it's not saying there is But share share some more information there sublime 90, you know If you've got some more information, just put it on the comments below on this video And I can look into maybe sort of giving you some guidance From my perspective and obviously whether or not you want to take any of that information on is entirely up to yourself Hey fro Jeff back in the house too. Hi Karl can I ask what you are promoting as When you say you are slowly decreasing the amount and that you then suggest that you may be promoting higher than others That have decided to stop promoting which makes me wonder how high you are promoting my promoted listing campaigns expired December 31st Early in the AM and I didn't catch it until the 3rd and my sales seemed sluggish Start the year and I chalked it up to that But others are reporting a slow start to the year So I'm wondering if eBay hasn't done something in general again at the start of the year Thoughts as to how eBay is blocking their item from showing up on Google results. I Love that you are doing your own Google ads to compare against eBay's off-site ads Personally, I feel you need to have your own website at this point to drive traffic to your own store Have you thought about this great content Karl really? Thanks, Jeff Says I have been Excuse me. I have been for a while now promoting my promoted listing stands at 21% Very high. I know but in the categories. I am in the markets are very saturated But with this said in the last week or so I have seen a gradual uptake in tail sales. Thank you. Thankfully Even though I'm working on dropping the percentage it so far hasn't decreased the sales Whether that's due to new year sales or as a result of what I'm doing time will have to tell but rest assured I will share my results either way once I'm confident in the results as for The changes on eBay side is very possible as I did mention in a previous video that eBay are doing search updates in the early Part of 2024 as well as a category update And as we know they can cause positive or negative results in sales when they do this I will keep you posted as to my findings as they affect my account And a happy new year and a happy new year to everyone out there listening to this content as well So a bit of a long chit chat here. We have for us. So it says what makes you think that eBay would charge us for? to post of Off our social Networks if anything they should be paying us. No now this was around the eBay social media update posting That I did a video on now before I go into it. They have Made some changes now bringing out some changes Which if you want to check out what that's all about Have a look in the link. It should be above And as all the videos that are mentioned here, I will put link to it in the above for you Said so they used to promote off-site for free and have now introduced charging us for the option of what they did for free If off-site advertising goes as well in their eyes, they will then look to the next opportunity They wouldn't be spending as much as they are on social advertising if they didn't have a future step in mind They could offer geographic options to promote to etc If I am wrong, then great. We have a free avenue to promote for the future. That's off-site If they start charging, I wouldn't be surprised at all They could introduce two or three different options like they did with the promoted listings Jeff's response was I don't doubt your speculation has merit But if they somehow thought that charging us to promote on our own social networks That would be almost laughable. They truly would have sunk to a new low I absolutely agree. It would be a new low, but From a business perspective It could make sense. I said I couldn't agree more But I think the part they are most likely to push towards would be like the boost promotion that Facebook offers That's beyond just posting. I think the posting to social media will be a free as always will be But they will offer the additional boost promotion option for more coverage That you can really already see as an option directly available on Facebook now Just response, you are so smart. I think you will be right. You obviously have some skills in SEO I definitely need to learn more about that to drive traffic to district. Hope things are well, Karl Always enjoy listening to you Thanks for the compliments there Jeff and I listened to your your stuff too as well Don't worry. There's always things for all of us to learn from each other and that's the great part about this community We're all here for each other, you know, we all have views. We all have ideas some of them pan out some of them don't but it's down to our own individual due diligence to draw that information that's specific to us or to Just look further into finding out for ourselves So I've just put thanks for the positive words Jeff Think seem things seem to be stabilizing for me at the moment Just keeping fingers crossed I can build things back up and carry on along the journey to reach the goal of full-time income I'm sure it will be a fun journey Hope all is well for you too Now a new new member to the community is Benny Stratton Nice to have you here, Benny And we've got a few comments on here along the way. So I'll come to them as I see them Now the this particular post was from Amu6jo Now this was the eBay listings vanished off Google, which I covered Earlier on in this video here and he says why does this matter? I want to buy eBay products I go on eBay not Google Well the response back to that was Thanks for asking it matters because eBay only has a hundred and eighty five million users worldwide Google shopping has one point two billion Searches per month This is a massive market for potential Also, you are not buying eBay products You are buying products you want or need and using eBay because you are used to using eBay Which is great for sellers That can only get their products seen by eBay buyers But cuts out the rest of the planet of buyers that may not see or find your products that happen to be on eBay 49 percent of shoppers say they use Google to discover their new products So what I'm basically saying there is He says why does it matter As an individual that person specifically buys From eBay and that's fine But they're a dying breed Unfortunately, um And because eBay aren't Taking care of their Customer base or looking to grow their customer base in The ways that we all know they should be They're losing massive market potential Not only that but They are Pulling back even further by this whole off-site ad Limiting situation It's crazy in my view So, Benny Stratton was replied eBay life all add to your reply That there are probably segments of our world that think eBay has gone out of business Since they have not done any real tv commercials besides eBay motors and I do not count them I don't either For at least a decade or more again As the saying goes out of sight out of mind and this is 100 true the decisions by eBay's brass To never advertise the site as a whole ever again will be their true downfall. No company can survive without advertising Benny you've hit it right on the head unfortunately in order to Survive and expand in this world On this e-commerce platform and this world of e-commerce You're absolutely right and in the foot and to be fair in most things in life You have to advertise I mean blind me you've only got to look at the tv and you you've got big hollywood actors and actresses Doing tv ads in between your I'm a celebrity to get me out of here or the Kardashians and I mean whatever, you know, I mean the point being is It's big bucks and they wouldn't be spending those millions If it wasn't making them 10x Of their investment. There is a reason they do it So why ebay are not doing it? crazy case Next one along is frayer 777 nice to have you here frayer. Thank you Again around the listings vanishing off google Her comment was There was a lot of people that tried out the hundred off dollars off site ads myself included and seen their numbers go up Not included unfortunately I never opted in for it and my off site views and sales increased also As I'll come to that in just a moment, but those people are going to collate Those are going to collate it had to be free ebay hundred dollars to start draining their own money My views off site view page views and sales have dropped since the first When they ended it a reminder. I I never opted in for it I was getting sales almost like I used to before the manipulation of ebay site when everyone had their sales dropped by half Absolutely, right 100 degree spot on I never did the off site ads to start with and then I did Try it and I also tried some without the hundred dollar for it or hundred pound free for us Um Nothing I didn't get a single click off any of their off site ad campaigns, but then it's in beta Uh, they raised tickets and they they basically eventually came back and said we're not going to bother looking into it Uh, it is beta is going to be issues is going to be things and it's proved itself that they it's completely flawed at the moment So, you know, it's just not worth it regardless. Um But around the Your frayers sales increasing Absolutely, because you're going to be gaining impressions from within other people's listings And if those people are promoting you're going to be gaining impressions From them looking into other people's listings that are promoting off site and on site And you'll get your impressions from there as well. So absolutely once everybody's ran out on December 31st, there would have been a massive amount of drop Um Mine didn't but that's for another reason and I'll come as I say I'll come to that in another video Benny Stratton again, uh So around the google video saying at two minute to 24 mark technically you're not in google shopping You have to actually click the shopping tab at the top of the screen just below the search box This is where your buyers will go to shop not the scroll bar. I agree But even when you click on the google shopping tab and it brings you to you to google shopping eBay is like only 10 of the items on the first page When prior to april 2023 ebay had 90 of the first three pages How do I know this I have my own website and I search google daily to make sure items are coming up on google shopping I noticed the shift around that time april to may 2023 Way way less ebay items coming up and more Every other website coming up meaning eBay no longer had a stronghold on advertising in google shopping More ebay the more ebay sorry google wanted more ebay didn't want to pay This is all documented just google it ebay finally caved after google throttled them in search It's now happening all over again Uh google wants more money ebay doesn't want to pay We the sellers are the ones that get hurt financially with less sales Yes, that's that's definitely true. Uh, definitely true, uh, benny We are the ones that ultimately get hurt Uh big companies don't feel the crunch quiet as much when it's not a case of food on the table for them It's additional funding to invest in other companies as shareholders and as a business Whereas we are struggling to put food on the table and keep warmth in our homes and our family It's a struggle. It's definitely a struggle. Um, and I'll definitely look into it definitely for sure Another benny stratton one 840 it's very possible It's a very possible possibility something we should all think about I know for a fact websites can block google or other search engines from crawling their site So I would not put it out of the realm of possibility for ebay to do To be doing what you suggested or what I just stated blocking google from indexing their site. Yeah Absolutely, absolutely Benny again, uh, have you tried the end and sell similar? I just started doing that december 1st and my impressions and page views are up 60 and sales are up 50 percent Yes, tried it, but like many have found it its power to be dwindling over time On each end and sell similar. So now focusing on other avenues Uh, benny's response is ebay life. I'm definitely watching for that as that's what I have heard as well I'll keep you posted again Only one month in after hearing about it for years But always thinking it was a gimmick 100 believer now But some are speculating that ebay is doing something on the back end within the algorithm To make the end sell similar not have the same effect It once did or start to wear off over time. Yes, that is the case 100 that is the case benny for sure benny again 1659 100 degree even thought I have been reselling even though I've been reselling on ebay amazon and basically every other site that came comes along as well as my own website I do not think or feel as sellers on ebay platform website It's our jobs to promote their website It's their job to do that our job as sellers on any platform Are sourcing the items for the site and listing the items on that site That it is advertising and promoting or and promoting of the site is on the website It is on the website owner the owners of the platforms. That is why they are supposed to set aside some of their billions towards advertising budget Yes, yeah My personal view is that there's a few semi assumptions in there to start with to start with You're saying it's not their our job to promote their website. We're not promoting their website. We're promoting our listings That happens beyond their website But you are absolutely right. They are responsible to their shareholders and to their company survival to manage the advertising budget to Build their brand awareness And draw more customers to the platform where we can then promote and have our listings visible And then that draws into the whole Advertising budgets for our own budgets as businesses To promote our listings and our products above and beyond others that are doing the same is my view And another benny one 1735 Basic trial and error lol ebay should be paying all of us programmer fees for trying to figure all this out How to crack their code? Well, yeah, I mean this is it, isn't it? I mean there are so many things gone wrong with the site Who's going to see it more? We are We're going to see the issues more As sellers they will see certain aspects from the seller from the buyers will see certain aspects from the buyer side But we as sellers we know our account. We know our listings We know on a day-to-day micromanaging level What we get On a regular basis a certain time of the year certain time of the month certain time of the week certain time of the day What levels we see on that micro level? On the account so when something goes skew if we see it so they should be speaking to us They should be drawing into us for further Insights as to how it's affecting us As instead of having us on the outside and only looking at their Selected group of buyers it should be more Anytime they make a change personally. This is how I see it anytime they make a change That could impact the site They should Just send out a blanket Uh inbox message survey, however you want to look at it multi-choice answer questions, whatever We have made an X amount of information change How have you experienced has this affected etc etc and they could draw from us They could then from that survey Look at our account and see if there's anything account specific or if there's anything geographic specific Or category specific from there as opposed to their sandbox test and then throw it out I think it would work better personally, but you know Benny again 2449 I'm really glad that you've got so much information you want to share with us, Benny And I mean that seriously I really want more of you out there to be doing this the more information and more things we bounce off each other The more we can share and learn from each other They may all those points may not be relevant to everyone um, but there are certainly Aspects that can be drawn from each and every comment for sure Almost reminds me of video games nowadays if you want added Content you have to pay for additional bonus content. This is why I have stopped playing new and current games Uh miles. It was very simple really great comparison, Benny. I'm very true Space Lord again, and we're getting close to the end now. Good. Well nearly close Space Lord, uh, someone who is already annoyed at having to list items specifics And this was around the AI social media post updates Even when it's all in the title or category going to social media is an annoying extra step Also, there's nothing to stop you advertising on facebook in the exact same listing that you promote ebay one Then ebay gets no fees true But if you can do it from one place and save time that Is probably where they're looking at making it easier for you to do But again, there are ways to do it like you say to not have to pay eBay the fees Then ebay gets no fees if the sale is done via facebook Uh They would not be happy about that for sure eBay is playing with fire if they push this mingling of platforms They've already mingled and they have been mingling and they'll continue to mingle I also agree with the other comment that ebay should be paying us the advertise to advertise them Again, I think it's the understanding of what's actually being advertised And that is it. Yes. That is it for today. So again everyone. Thanks for the comments. Keep them coming. Keep it real