Selling on iOffer Part 6: Promote Your Store

Did you upload your items to Google Base yet? That should be the very first step you take after listing your items.

Then it's time to promote your iOffer store. Start off with these iOffer promotional tools:

Store Widget and Profile Banner

A widget is sort of a custom advertising box for your store. It's very easy to set up, and you can post it all over the web (blogs, profiles, emails, web sites, etc.). Just post it and you're set; you don't need anything else. Profile banners work the same way, so start posting!

iOffer Community Clubs and Events

One of the better ways to expand your online presence is to interact with people. Join some iOffer clubs and participate in the discussions to get your name out there. Attend the live events to make friends. Your items will be automatically featured in events.

These tools should be a good start to your self-promotion. Remember, the more work you put into it, the better results you'll get in driving in more traffic to your store.

iOffer Seller Promotional Tools

After the little buying series last week, I'm going to talk about selling.

The season to buy is now, so I'm sure there are many iOffer sellers out there who want to make their stores stand out a little more. One thing about iOffer is that sellers need to do some self-promotion to get their name out there. Here's some seller promotional tools from the iOffer website that will surely help!

Google Base
Many members in the community clubs agree that Google Base gives them a bulk of their store visits. Google Base puts your items in the Google shopping search results. Only items with fixed prices may be uploaded.

Store Widget
Customize a widget for your store to feature it anywhere on the web. Simply copy and paste the HTML code provided onto your personal websites and blogs. Go crazy and post it all over the web!

Community Clubs
Get your name out there by interacting with other iOffer members. Once they get to know you, they'll visit your store, and your reputation will start to build up.

Host an Event
Host and attend events to interact with iOffer members to promote your store items.

Invite Your Friends
Send an invitation email to your friends and old customers to let them know about your new iOffer profile and store. You never know how many returning customers you'll be able to keep!

Profile Banners
Add a banner that links to your iOffer profile. Simply copy and paste the HTML code provided onto your personal websites, blogs, and emails. Like the widget, go crazy and put a banner anywhere you can think of!

Additional Tools
Another link they have with a couple of tips and hints.

- iOffer Dude

Why iOffer? Free Tools and Features

Why should people use iOffer? I've compiled a list of reasons why I started using it:

1. FREE listings

2. FREE seller store

3. FREE picture uploads

4. FREE multiple web addresses that link to you

5. Non-Auction Format
Making offers and negotiating with buyers and sellers make me feel like I'm shopping in person, rather than trying to make the highest bid in the last 5 seconds of an auction.

6. Mr. Grabber
It lets you transfer your items over from eBay, Overstock, and Sell.com. You can also transfer your eBay feedback rating so your buyer/seller reputation is intact. The best part is it's also FREE.

7. Store Widget
You can easily customize a widget for your store and post it all over the web, for FREE.

8. Group Offers
When you make an offer, you can make the same offer to other sellers who are selling similar items. Whoever accepts your offer first gets the deal. This seems like I'll get what I want quicker as a buyer, and probably a better deal too.

9. Events
It's sort of like a chatroom where people can get together and mingle away, while promoting and selling their items. How cool is that?

10. Live Notice
I thought this was a neat feature. I'm sure many sellers are online all the time, and this feature will pop up messages in your face when you sell an item or someone asked a question about your items or anything like that.

11. Community
I like this part the most. I mean, everything I've listed so far are awesome, mainly because they're all FREE, but as a newbie, I like how the members at iOffer are so nice and easy-going. They have hundreds of community clubs and I can guarantee that you will find some sort of help in any club.

Wow, sorry didn't think my list would go that long. And sorry that you had to read through everything. I'll try to add some pictures next time to even out the text/image ratio.

Am I missing anything else? Feel free to make comments and add some other features that I may not have found yet.

- iOffer Dude