Vendio Banner at HOW and Offer

[crystal]

Hi,
When we were looking at industry areas for banner placement. I recommended HOW (which is my way of supporting how). Anyway, I wanted to explain the offer as Karyl had a question on pricing and what is free when she saw it and I wanted to clarify upfront.

First, the Vendio store is 100% free. That's free listing, free hosting, free images and no final value fee (success fee).

The Vendio Store is on the Vendio Platform. IF and ONLY IF you use the platform to list to eBay or Amazon there is a $10.00 per month charge for unlimited listings plus a small FVF (pricing on home page, big link, right on top). Additionally, we are waiving any Vendio Platform fees for AMAZON for the rest of this year.

I hope that explains it Karyl (and anyone else who might click and have a question).

In addition, as long as I'm here. I wanted to tell you that the store is full feature. Its not a "starter store" where we will sell you additional add on's or where you'll need to purchase other items to get it to work..its full function. Rather than rehash features. I'll leave you with a link so you can read what others are saying..(I particularly like Henrietta's Red Ink Diary)..

So here is the link: http://www.vendio.com/ecommerce/news

and one from brewsnews's that we haven't put up yet : Vendio Free Store, A Bargain or a Bust : http://thebrewsnews.com/2009/03/30/v...ain-or-a-bust/

Anyway let me know if you have any questions..

crystal
PS..Thread by request and permission

[LdyGreensleeves]

Thanks Crystal.

I've been tinkering with it a bit and am thinking of hosting it on HOW's server instead of Vendio. I really like the idea that it can be a stand alone.

Does it still work the same way whether on Vendio or different host? Do you know or could you find out how would it effect server load?

TIA

[crystal]

Hi LdyGreensleeves,

It works the same exact way no matter how its hosted ..

Crystal

[LdyGreensleeves]

Thanks Crystal...
From what I understand, I don't have to actually sell anywhere else at all right? So even though I don't currently sell on eBay or Amazon if all I want to do is have a small shop with a few things for sale this free store will do the trick.

Is it only integrated with eBay and Amazon ATM or are there other venues currently or soon to be available?

(BTW - please call me Karyl if you'd like. I don't mind, that's why I sign my posts that way. )

[Empires]

Ok so I got lost somewhere. So if we list with Vendio for Amazon or ebay, where are the customers coming from? Also, does it get entered into the Yahoo or Google searches? Blame yourselves for teaching me all this stuff.

And Thanks in advance for any answers.

[crystal]

Karyl,

You can do just that. In fact, many of our users sell on the store only.

Crystal

[crystal]

Empires,

I did say full feature store, yes?? ..We have three areas that will be of interest to answer your questions.

First, yes, we can submit your items to google product search (you have to enter your google account info..and if you don't have an account, you can click to get one). That's done every night. We also summit to shopping.com and shopzilla (however these are pay services -we don't charge to submit to them, but they have pay per click type thing).

Second, your pages and category can be SEO optimized on the fly. For example, when you create your category, you are prompted to enter Meta Tags and Descriptions. This is for natural search (and I can spend more time if you are interested explaining how to create the right meta tags and descriptions).

Third, we intergrate google analytics. Get a free google analytics account, and you can paste in the code for each page. This will tell you what keywords are working and how people are finding you so you can improve your natural serach (meta tags, and descriptions)..And again, I can spend some time talking about what the average person can do to improve natural search.

This is a great (imho) for a smaller seller to have his own customized, branded store that has the same features that costs thousands elsewhere (and these solutions are not usually integrated with anything).

And as long as I'm here....one of the unique aspects of the platform is that you can create your own custom listing form. In my account, right now I only have store set up, so my listing form is pretty short ..I call it my own one page lister and what I like best is that I am not missing fields and having to go back..since only the fields I use are visible, its a quick process..I bet when I get on a roll I can list 300 items a day.

Did that help?

Crystal

[crystal]

Karyl,
Forgot your other market question - We do plan to do just that, but its a ways out.

crystal

[LdyGreensleeves]

Thanks Crystal. Is there an RSS built in or offered so that a feed can be sent to a blog or website or even as an easy way to submit items to Google Base?

[Empires]

Crystal Thanks, I'm hashing.

[crystal]

Karyl..

We have a widget ..don't know if it will show here..if not I'll edit it out

okay could not embed here..so here is link that shows widget:

http://budurl.com/kncc

And other widgets like rss coming

Crystal

[toystover]

Hi Crystal! I have a couple questions ...looked on site but didn't find the info, but maybe I overlooked it. Anyway ...

When you sign up with a user ID, is that going to to be the name/URL of the store? Or is that just for the sign-in info?

I see it says you can use your own HTML, so am thinking you can use your own template ...is that correct? Do we have to have the images hosted on Vendio?

Thanks!

[crystal]

Hi Toystover,
You can use your user name or name your store anything you want. (ie there is place for you to name your store)

While we make it easy to customize our existing templates, you sure can use your own!!

Images used for the Vendio Store are free, so yes, you will want to use Vendio Image hosting for that...

Crystal

[toystover]

Hi Crystal, I already have free hosting with Suddenlink ...can I use that rather than Vendio? Thanks for the info!

[LdyGreensleeves]

Crystal, If you want to send me the code I'll post it here.

Actually if any HOW members set one up and want it here they can PM me the code and I'll be glad to set something up on HOW to help promote their store.

[crystal]

Karyl,

Each seller gets his/her own code and gets to customize their widget..I'll send you my widget .


Toy,
You could, but I think it would be a lot of extra work. You'd have to code each into the description..but you "could in theory". Since its free..it would not take to long to upload when you created items. (and we back it up in three places ..It might be faster than trying to use your own.

crystal

[LdyGreensleeves]

Crystal, I kind of figured as much. I just need the code folks would plop into a blog, etc and I can probably get it to work here.

[Foothill Web Design]

Hi Crystal,

This is very exciting news. I read about it over on PowerSellersUnite. Helen is doing a great job helping with questions. I see you guys are still advancing the latest ecommerce technology. Good job and best of luck with the Stores!

Steve Arnold
Foothill Web Design

[crystal]

STEVE !! I didn't know that was you over there ..
I'll let helen know - she's not a board rat like me so she'll appreciate hearing that you think she's doing great!!

How have you been. Nice new GIG !! Whoohoo!!

Crystal

[Foothill Web Design]

Originally Posted by crystal

STEVE !! I didn't know that was you over there ..
I'll let helen know - she's not a board rat like me so she'll appreciate hearing that you think she's doing great!!

How have you been. Nice new GIG !! Whoohoo!!

Crystal

Yeah, I threw her a curve ball and she handled it fine . Everything's great, I've been at Foothill studying ecommerce the last year and will be doing the webstore thing ft/pt. Lots of serendipity so far! Nice to "see" you again!

Steve

[crystal]

so..Curious here

So who has built or is building a free store?

I ask, because I'm' curious..but also because I'd like to know if you need any help..

I've built a few so far and am enjoying it..so wondering..if any of you have tried..

crystal

[SneakyDave]

First, the Vendio store is 100% free. That's free listing, free hosting, free images and no final value fee (success fee).

Sounds like the same thing Auctiva is doing, did they stop their marketing push for their free services, and Vendio figured they'd better do the same thing?

Actually, it looks like everything at Auctiva is free, not just the store. I haven't used them, but it seems the price is right.

[SweetGalDecals]

I have a very small, very cheap little website for several years now. As soon as a site goes live you should start on the redesign, because they get stale so quickly, but I have not done so. This is just a sideline for me. If we had to live on what I sell we'd starve. Anyway, the site is horribly out of date, possibly even dangerously so; I had to take down the PayPal link because of a possible security issue that required a complete rebuild of the site and a several-hundred-dollar update of the software, and I don't want to do that.

So... what if I get a free Vendio store, and in the 3 months I have till my web hosting contract renews I build it up and get all the inventory listed, and then instead of renewing, I redirect my URL to the Vendio store, and just have that be my webstore instead? Is this a really stupid idea?

[crystal]

SweetGalDecals...
Not a stupid idea at all!!

Initally, just name it whatever..and your URL will be www.vendio.com/yourstore

There is a setting "publicly visible" and "not publicly visible" that fits your situation to a T. Go ahead an play around and "publish" all your changes so you can see what they look like..enter inventory..and then when you are ready to be live..just use the "user your own domain" instructions and then have a grand opening by making your store publically visible ..

crystal

[SweetGalDecals]

Thanks Crystal.

I'm working on my store. I went to the Community link to post a question and it asked for my credit card information?? And thinking it was a glitch I tried replying to another thread that was already started and it did the same thing.

Is it supposed to charge a person to post on the message boards?

maria

[SneakyDave]

Is it supposed to charge a person to post on the message boards?

Yeah, that's a great feature of Vendio. You have to pay something like $2.00 a month to post questions there. But the store's free!

[Empires]

Originally Posted by crystal

so..Curious here

So who has built or is building a free store?

I ask, because I'm' curious..but also because I'd like to know if you need any help..

I've built a few so far and am enjoying it..so wondering..if any of you have tried..

crystal

I passed.

[crystal]

SweetGalDecals

That is for verification and its a pre-auth charge. You credit card won't be charged. From our FAQ:

• If the store is free, why do you require a credit card on registration?
  You will not be charged anything when you register for a free store. Vendio collects credit card information in order to validate your identity and prevent fraudulent sellers from signing up.

Here is a link to the FAQ:
http://www.vendio.com/ecommerce/training (and you can read more by clicking on the link that says "more faqs"..

Crystal

[crystal]

Empire ..

To me the "I passed" means you passed for now. Who know..maybe someday we'll meet your needs.

I still do want to spend some time looking at your store for you. I've just been strapped for time.

I was all set to do it and got stumped by the Item Titles..but it is on my list to get back to.

Crystal

[Empires]

I emailed you as well. Not sure if you got it. But, I passed means that I think I'm booked with work for the rest of my life on earth is the only reason at this moment.

Does not mean I won't jump on board when I find 10 minutes to go to the link I have book marked. As for the code thingy. Not to worry, I'm working on a better idea for that I don't like them assigning the code and me having to re-think Mayan math again. Well, none the less. I'm here - your there and Sneaky well ... is nowhere?

Not a problem. Don't waste too much time on me. I'm buried and can find you if I have a question.

Anyways I'll pass along the link to a friend I have that may take you up on it.