Are any of you using the pro-stores? Are there real advantages over just a regular store. I never really looked into it before and just left my store as when I first opened it..other than adding catagories. Just wondering what experiences you all have had with it, so I can make up my mind whether to do it or not...thanks...Sandi
Some of us have used pro stores. And the question you ask has had responses in these threads before. Don't know if they were 'tagged' as 'pro stores' so they will be easy to find.
I've stated my personal bias of being willing to pay a reasonable flat monthly fee for a service, but not another company wanting a percent of my sales price.
I had asked this question a while ago, as Paul said I think if you look under Pro Stores it should come up. I decided not to bother, it seemed like just more money going out and nothing coming back in for it. Jo
I have a Prostore I've been working on. As soon as I get 36 hours in my day and divorce my husband I should have it up and running. You all are invited to the grand opening at some unspecified date in the future. Special discounts to my friends in the jewelry neighborhood.
Anyway, one of the reasons I went with Pro-Stores is that it interfaces with my e-bay listings and items can be listed in both places at once. But, if you don't choose to do that, you can also disassociate yourself from e-bay. These days, who knows what the best course will be.
However, the really big reason why I went with Prostores is that my listing software (Blackthorne) will eventually interface with Pro-Stores so that I can do all my listings for both as well as all the accounting all from one place. Ultimately this will allow me keep track of multiple e-bay accounts and stores all from one place which will probably have a lot to do with my sanity (or lack thereof!) later on.
Pro stores is an enormous amount of work and real life keeps interfering. I think that you can do really well with just the basic e-bay store and save yourself a ton of money and aggravation.
Dawnjewels said it perfectly! I signed up for prostore and thought it would be a good tool. Maybe it would be if I did not work fulltime and have a life besides that. I thought it would interface simply..........but no. It appears that I would need a week off to be able to get it up and running and maintenence I cannot imagine. For a part time seller, it is just too much work. Thanks for the reminder, I am going to call and cancel it before they start charging me. I got a promotion when I signed up.
I think that's smart canjiel. I started the Pro store before I quit working and that was a big mistake. I don't think it's a bad thing - I just think you really have to devote a lot of time to set up. Everyone makes it sound so easy to set up a website. Maybe if you're 20. But I'm old and cranky and ran out of patience for learning new computer programs back in about 1998.
Thanks guys, from everything that I have read too I think I'm better off just having a regular store, I'm having computer problems now...had to "borrow" hubby's laptop, my reliable Dell will not boot up or connect to the net. I have hours of grief ahead of me dealing with verizon dsl line people....
If you spend the time and money it takes to set up a pro store, and invested it in your eBay store, I think the results are better. Get your first store off the ground, running smooth and making you the money you want it to before you branch out in other areas.
Here's and idea that has help me tremendously to improve my search engine rankings.
Go to godaddy.com buy yourself a domain name and redirect it to your eBay store. It cost me something like 19.00 or less for each AAAgifts dot what ever domain I own for a 2 year period.
I own 5 AAAgifts dot what ever domains and AAAgifts.us is pointed to my auctiva store.
AAAgifts.net is my front door to my eBay store.
Every package I ship has 2 business cards in it with my domain names on them. One for the customer with the words " Thank you for your business " hand written on it and one asking them to " Pass Me On To A Friend ".
So use the time and money to promote what you have.
I totally agree with you aaagifts - except that you can't get an eBay store up and running smoothly without spending a lot of time at it. It's virtually impossible to do if you are working a full time job.
You are absolutely right about the domain names. I own dawnjewels, variations of dawnjewels and one other domain name and variations thereof. You gotta plan ahead!
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