TulipTools Internet Business Owners and Online Sellers Community

"our group witnessed some very nasty behavior on a forum attached to one of the venues. We could not believe our eyes! There was a thread where a seller was verbally attacked by a group of about 4 or 5 people and run right off the site. The sellers who did the attacking were as vicious as a rabid dog! They even took their fight to the seller's store and continued the abuse there. We were completely shocked and concerned. From what we could see, nothing was done to reprimand the offenders by the site administration."

Sound familiar?

http://thereevesreport.blogspot.com/2009...l#comments

I think the importance and impact on a seller's (or venue's) business of what is said on forums is often overestimated by forum participants.

note: by "seller" I mean full time seller.  If you're a hobby seller listing on one of the tiny sites that are self-promoted by their owners on PSU and  the only buyers on the site are your fellow boardies then forums are obviously of the utmost importance to your "business"

...and if you're a seller who only sells 2-3 items per month but posts 50-60 times daily on seller forums and you spend your time handing out blue cards like some people do, you need to get a life.

If an eCommerce site's forums are used properly... meaning not to figure out how to spam around the net to get the word out, not begging for sales, not running buying contests for points, not running listing contests... they can be incredibly helpful. I never would have learned how to sell regardless of my price on Amazon without watching and talking on the seller's forum.
I post daily on several forums connected to my venues to help new sellers (yes, my competition, the HORROR!) and in turn receive answers to my questions quickly as well. Someone starts to cause a ruckus on a forum, they are banned from the forum regardless of their "standing" in the community.
I watched a 3 year seller get banned from Overstock auctions because of a nasty comment he made about the site's unstated policy about handbags. After he was warned, he didn't comply and is gone. That is the type of social activity I appreciate on an eCommerce forum.
eBay certainly polices their forums. There are millions of members, and eBay is responsible for anything on the forums. A site like Bonanzle (which appears to be one of the sites in the article by the "seller called chat window auctions" section) though, polices the wrong members. Just because someone is paying they may receive a little leniency over a free member. That's their perogative. I've only had about 20 sales on Bonanzle myself in a year, which is still more than many who post many times daily in the forums. I won't, however, chat it up in the forum begging for sales. It costs me nothing, only took a couple hours to import the listings, but if I get entangled in the web I will make enemies... it's my nature to question things someplace like Bonanzle. 
Social aspects of selling are fine. I loved it on eBay, and talked every day in my regular forums and my eBay group I created for trading assistants in my state. But there are limits. I never had a sale from there, and never will expect one, so I don't worry too much with what folks there think of me.
Truthfully, if my Wagglepop memory serves me correctly, only about 50 or so sellers posted at the peak of Wagglepop's store count. If that holds true, then I will assume that about 5-10% of members at every site actually use the forums and place stock in what is said there. That leaves the whole 90% of the site that doesn't really care, and will shop with you regardless of what you say in the forum.

I hate articles like that that are pages long but don't say much. OK, what site? Why not say what sites were abusive, so everyone can stay clear of them.

I couldn't read the whole thing, but it sure would be nice if they could spill it out for us.

I mean that would be like us saying "Oh this one site inflates numbers"....um, ok, which site?

In reading this and other articles at the above link I find the author  overly dramatic and would not take his advice seriously anyway. I don't hang out on the boards or in chat at Bonanzle, and it doesn't bother me that others do.

There are two sides to every story. Like LOS says the author writes a lot, but he doesn't say much and doesn't seem very objective, either. I'm inclined to believe that at least some of the Sellers that experienced problems as extreme as the ones being discussed may have been fishing for trouble, and that's not a fair test in my book. It seems to me the author is too quick to condemn the evolution of communication on alternative sites. It's more likely that it's the right here, right now mentality sending some Sellers back to ebay.

[quote author=Cuff link=topic=18999.msg75157#msg75157 date=1252584712]
In reading this and other articles at the above link I find the author  overly dramatic and would not take his advice seriously anyway. I don't hang out on the boards or in chat at Bonanzle, and it doesn't bother me that others do.

There are two sides to every story. Like LOS says the author writes a lot, but he doesn't say much and doesn't seem very objective, either. I'm inclined to believe that at least some of the Sellers that experienced problems as extreme as the ones being discussed may have been fishing for trouble, and that's not a fair test in my book. It seems to me the author is too quick to condemn the evolution of communication on alternative sites. It's more likely that it's the right here, right now mentality sending some Sellers back to ebay.
[/quote]

It's pretty obvious who she is talking about, just look at the left sidebox for the poll. Interesting that PH and AsS didn't even make it into the test. For someone who didn't name names for fear or retribution, I find it funny how easy it was to find out who they were and where they were from, South Dakota.

Follow the links and you realize that this seller, as it appears, didn't even make the qualifications to be in the test, $250,000 gross or more. This makes it fiction even though a lot of what she said rings true.

Biggest targets were IMO OLA and Bonanzle.


Let the Truth be Told

The point is I'm probably not the ony one who didn't bother looking any farther than the author's text. Most people don't pay attention to or care about infighting between groups. The fodder that comes from a situation such as this is of no real use to anyone. The true intent of the article shines through which devalues it for this reader.

Quote: Follow the links and you realize that this seller, as it appears, didn't even make the qualifications to be in the test, $250,000 gross or more.

I didn't follow the links, but after glancing at her "ways to promote your site" links page I had serious doubts about the validity of her $250K+ claim.  She included methods like EveryPlaceISell, TheSelling Lounge forum tolensmiley:, Adsense, and dozens of others but one entire category that is heavily utilized by sellers in the $250K+ range to promote their stores was omitted: comparison engines (with the exception of Google Product Search).  Our combined daily sales from our top 5 CSE's (Pronto, ShopWiki, TheFind, ShopMania, BuySafeShopping) are almost equal to our sales from Google/Google Product.

Quote:I think the importance and impact on a seller's (or venue's) business of what is said on forums is often overestimated by forum participants.

Quote: That leaves the whole 90% of the site that doesn't really care, and will shop with you regardless of what you say in the forum.

If you're selling on your own website or Amazon the percentage is over 99%.  If negative posts on a seller's forum seriously damage your sales and business reputation you need to work on your marketing plan and start marketing to buyers instead of your seller boardies.

Whole Foods received a ton of criticism in the press and from bloggers after it was discovered that their CEO/Founder was using a sock puppet to bash the competition on several message boards but the criticism it received as a result of the CEO's forum posts didn't hurt its sales.

http://community.tuliptools.com/index.php?topic=14323.0

Of course Whole Foods doesn't rely on big banners in forum signatures for its sales either

What I think is funny is even after all of that drama, they only have 26 followers.

What would be nice to know is what their original posts were.

I can say I've had tantrums, but never one that long 

I think OLA for sure with the refund issue. I wonder if they were referring to Bonanzle with the whole store attack. If BZ members are willing to leave the forums and comment on your chat, you did a bit more than innocent commentary.

However, one would think if they are moaning about Bonanzle, they wouldn't have a Bonanzle widget on their blog.