Atomic Mall's Owner Preaches the Seller to Seller Sales Doctrine

[let the truth be told]

and then again many of those "higher volume sellers" may have been working 16-20 hour days the past month even though they have staff or partners.  I know I haven't slept more than 2 or 3 hours any day this month.

Ah but the good shows don't come on until about 2 or 3 on some channels while others switch over to how to make money on eBay infomercials. If all else fails I Google Jeff Dunham or Tom Mabe, sure fire ways to wake you up.

That was RiverRat and her "partner"

Hey, thanks for the great new title, I have been looking for something for there ever since WPSSU Brian was last seen selling used car's on kijiji.


http://kelowna.kijiji.ca/c-cars-vehicles...dZ83983441


Let the Truth be Told

[regic]

a shared hosting account

Other issue with shared servers are security and reliability. Using a shared server leaves you vulnerable to the actions of the other 200 sites you share a server with.

Example: site A is a WordPress blog site - site A's owner doesn't install the latest WordPress security patches - Site A gets hacked and the hacker gains access to the MySQL database server putting all sites on the server that use databases at risk of having personal information compromised.

Example: idiot site owner B manages to corrupt a database table causing the database server to behave erratically and resulting in downtime for all sites on the server

Example: idiot site owner C installs a poorly written script which eats up the CPU power and/or RAM causing slowness on all sites, and downtime if the script crashes the server.

If you're running a site that thousands of users depend on for their livelihood, and if those users are also giving you personal information, you should not be using a shared server.

[sneakymagenta]

Ah but the good shows don't come on until about 2 or 3 on some channels while others switch over to how to make money on eBay infomercials. If all else fails I Google Jeff Dunham or Tom Mabe, sure fire ways to wake you up.

The PSU Comedy Channel is available 24/7 for free entertainment. 

Wow, went over to that site ("that site"=TT) and someone has some issues. Don't understand why they would spend so much time on one site though.

They should spend the time advertising and then they'd sell more. JMO <<<<<<<

It's not just this one, they do the same (and much worse) with other sites too. I guess this is what happens when people feel so worthless that they have put down other people to feel like they are 'somebody'.

:lol14n:

[bargainbloodhound]

They should spend the time advertising and then they'd sell more. JMO

The combination of AtomicMall's "great Google exposure and SEO" and following the advice of AtomicMall's owner to concentrate their advertising efforts on seller forums (AM, PSU) and seller social networks/directories (Plumdrop, EveryplaceIsell) has yielded the following results for AM sellers:

A. The "spend the time advertising" quote seller: 209 total visitors to their AM storefront home page in 3 months (70 per month, 2 -3 per day), 1 feedback in 3 months, (the 1 feedback was a 'welcome to AM' feedback from AM not a feedback from a buyer)

B. AM moderator/PSU AM cheerleader #1: 1974 visitors to AM store home page in 6 months (329 per month, 11 per day), 14 feedback in 6 months (2-3 per month, 0 since late October)

C. AM moderator/PSU AM cheerleader #2: 1076 visitors to AM store home page in 6 months (179 per month, 6 per day), 7 feedback in 6 months (1 per month, none in the past 30 days)


The above dismal sales and traffic numbers should be all the proof you need of the ineffectiveness of a strategy that relies on seller to seller sales and following the advice of the latest rinky dink messiah.


FYI :twistedevil: , through extensive research and daily laboratory testing I have found that taking a 1-2 hour nap  is a far more effective means of increasing sales.  Every time I take a short nap I wake up to several sales (and a few dozen emails and voicemails  )

note: I will be publishing the results of my "boosting your sales by taking a few hours off to go out to eat and forgetting to bring the Blackberry" research in a separate thread.  tolensmiley:

[let the truth be told]

[quote author=bargainbloodhound link=topic=18789.msg73557#msg73557 date=1229356489]
FYI :twistedevil: , through extensive research and daily laboratory testing I have found that taking a 1-2 hour nap  is a far more effective means of increasing sales.  Every time I take a short nap I wake up to several sales (and a few dozen emails and voicemails  )

note: I will be publishing the results of my "boosting your sales by taking a few hours off to go out to eat and forgetting to bring the Blackberry" research in a separate thread.  tolensmiley:

[/quote]

I think we have been doing the same research 


Let the Truth be Told

[sneakymagenta]

based on the invoice numbers I am seeing, there are about 100 sales per day at AM

ATOMIC MALL VS INDIVIDUAL EBAY STORES
Buy 2,500 daily sales on EBay
Acctation 1200
Pompous Jay 700
MovieMarz 600
1busyman 400
...and dozens more Ebay stores with more daily sales than AM
Wagglepoop 11/2006 250 <--site had been open 6 months which is how old AM is now
AtomicMall 100 daily sales divided by the number of AM sellers

How can a site be a "viable alternative to Ebay" when its not even a viable sales alternative to asshat Pompous Jay?  Even the hamster driven WP2 after 6 months of operation in 2006 kicked AM's ass in the sales department.

====

I had a flashback to the beginning of WP1

The use of hosted rent-a-forums is another similarity: WP1 Invision, AM Proboards

EDIT: the original PSU "Ebay viable alternative" circa 2005, TheAuctionMan.net resurfaced under new ownership recently.  400 listings.  What happened to all the rabid cheerleaders who were convinced it was their savior? Or that BidChaser was?  Or that Gegy was?
 
A slick talking forum junkie owner and a bunch of gullible Kool-Aid drinking cheerleader sheep doth not a viable alternative make.

[amy]

TheAuctionMan.net
What happened to all the rabid cheerleaders who were convinced it was their savior?

Duh, they moved on to the next forum touted Kool Aid stand.   There's a whole group of sellers who started at Wagglepop1 (aka FAS December 2004) and have spent (i.e. wasted) 4 years going from one failed next big thing to another.  You'd think they would have learned after the first few times that they were screwed over by a bullshi.tting rinky dink con man, but they continue to fall for the same BS time and time again.

edited to add:

AtomicMall 100 daily sales divided by the number of AM sellers

If a site owner can successfully convince his disciples to drink large quantities of Kool Aid and engage in group think then they will see "100 sales for us" rather than "0.1 daily sales per seller and a few pennies in the average seller's pocket".  The key to longevity for any (cult-like) rinky dink site owner is getting the members to think in terms of "we" rather than "me"...just ask Ray Romeo.  The key to success for any seller is to avoid falling into the con man's group think trap.

[regic]

The use of hosted rent-a-forums is another similarity: WP1 Invision, AM Proboards

Proboards is a free forum hosting service.  Wagglepop 1 paid $10 monthly to host their board at Invision.

[sneakymagenta]

I would have thought Mike would have sprung a few bucks for the bare essentials like dedicated IP address, SSL cert and a dedicated server but I guess I thought wrong.

Shared SSL and hosted at HostGator? Yep, that's correct, and there is absolutely nothing "odd" about it, at all.

As a new start-up site in July, and as a way to contain costs as a result, using a nice, perfectly secure, shared SSL cert, and hosting the site on a shared server that can adequately handle the volume of traffic encountered, made perfect sense... and still does for now.

Now, as far as some presumed "stigma" attached to using a shared SSL and shared hosting, there actually is none other than the "stigma" that some may want to presume exists.

You did think wrong. ONE of the wrong thoughts was the statement assuming that "Mike would have sprung a few bucks for the bare essentials."

There's the wrong thought... "bare essentials". By what measure, and by who's definition are these the "bare essentials"? And, exactly what specific advantages for the current state of Atomic Mall would be provided by a private SSL cert and dedicated hosting?

As pointed out already, at this point in time, the items you've mentioned are neither an issue, nor are they essentials by any means.

I haven't seen this question asked and it is a concern, IMO a major concern that should be addressed.

Please be specific as to what this "major concern" of yours is.

Please provide meaningful, valid, and specific information about the difference between shared SSL certs versus private SSL certs, and shared hosting versus dedicated hosting that actually lends credence to your major concern(s). Smile

Demonstrate how shared, versus private and dedicated, has an impact on anyone other that those whom are concerned with raising issues that don't exist.

The issue is that a startup which can't or won't spend more than $7 on infrastructure  when it launches is a startup that probably doesn't have the cash to do any advertising and like the hundreds of rinky dinks before it will have to rely on spamming OAI seller forums

atomicsurplus  (2177 ) View Listings | Report   Jun-30-08 20:44 PDT
ALERT! Just over 3 hours left to sign on at Atomic Mall to get their Charter membership benefits.

No listing fees and a lifetime 2-pt discount on FVF's.

Expires @ midnight pacific

AtomicMall
dot
com

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?m...2010958461&forumID=2000000005&x#2010958461

atomicsurplus  (2177 ) View Listings | Report   Jun-09-08 08:03 PDT  7 of 9
You should try atomicmall dot com

Totally free to list as many items as you want, and FAIR feedback for both buyers and sellers.

Sign up now while the 2-point Charter Membership discount is still in effect.

http://forums.ebay.com/db1/thread.jspa?m...2010695794&forumID=104&x#2010695794

===================

I do like the fact that AM is best viewed with several of the more progressive and up-to-date, more secure browsers such as Firefox. I'm pleased that this forces folks to stay away from the non-standards compliant Internet Explorer

It doesn't force anyone to use a specific browser. It forces them to leave the site and not return. It's common knowledge that people won't switch browsers to accomodate one specific site, which is why web designers strive for a site that is compatible on most, if not ALL browsers.

Over 69% of all online users use IE, with the largest percentage of those users still using IE7 and IE6 respectively.........

I also tested it with Opera, Safari and Chrome. Display was fine with the exception of a couple of spacing issues in the lower right-hand sidebox.

ALL of the browsers had a noticeable horizontal scroll bar, which personally drives me nuts.

Nope, Incorrect. Blanket statements such as this are misleading.
People do switch browsers, and it is by no means "common knowledge" that they don't

That's because your screen resolution is set to something less than 1280x1024.

Forget everything Jakob Nielsen ever taught, forget the hundreds of surveys of ecommerce buyers that have been conducted, AtomicMall's hobbyseller mod is the new usability guru! 

[regic]

Over 69% of all online users use IE, with the largest percentage of those users still using IE7 and IE6 respectively.........

20% (according to an 11/2008 W3C survey) still use IE6 with the majority of those users using it from their offices.  Corporate IT departments are notoriously slow to upgrade their systems. In December 2007, one year after the release of IE7, 55% of companies were still using IE6.  The overwhelming majority of companies use the bug filled Internet Explorer (IE7 is most common now). AtomicMall's strategy of writing off the majority of people who make their online purchases from work doesn't seem like the brightest move if they (um, he) really wants to be a "viable eBay alternative".  FYI, 50% of all CyberMonday shopping was done from "work" (source ComScore) and very few of those users had access to Firefox at work.