Selling WebDesign on Ebay?

[nick-harper]

Would it be worth it selling Web Design and Graphic Design services on ebay?

I have thought about making online stores (hours work for a simple one) and putting them on with a domain name and hosting and people who would like to start a business online could buy them!

Would this work?

[domokun]

Others a doing a similar thing on ebay so its worth a shot, especially as it would cost a few quid. From what I've seen however, I don't think there are many takers.

[Enigma121]

Speaking from experience, web design is an incredibly competitive business. The best you can do to get customers is work on referals.

This depends on producing a small quantity of high quality sites, then getting your customers to recommend you. In our competitive field, we find that this is the best way to get high quality sales contacts.

Pick a target customer base, then design sites to appeal to them.

[solidus]

Well, shouldn't this topic be "how to get more customers doing design services on eBay"?
Maybe designs that look really nice can be used... like ones based on Flash layouts?
Solidus

[TWD-Tony]

I have tried the exact same thing... "Get you own estore to complement your ebay business..." type of thing. Everything included etc etc etc

I had ONE sniff - that's it!

Save your money and if you want to try your luck at a site that advertises FOR designers then try www.freelancers.net

[Tipster]

Dont just rely on ebay

There is sooo much competition on "The Bay" that it will drive your profits down

Dont forget there are other places online to sell your wares that dont want fees for listing, final value ect.

Try puting ads on some classified sites.

They can cost you nothing more than the time to write the ad and most sites will send you a reminder when the ad is up so you can either delete, modify and repost or just repost.

[sharp]

I think you'd have to ask yourself the question...'if I was a retailer looking for an online store, would I look on ebay?' - the answer for me is a very definite no, never in a million years.

I think you are onto a definite winner in focussing just on online store development....the overall development costs are generally more, and the customers' perceived value is much higher, and it's much easier to deliver exactly what the customer wants - no grey areas of 'I thought you were going to include x, y, and z in the site'. Also, if you include Google Adwords set-up in the site, and do it well, then your customers will see results very quickly after site completion and will be able to assess a return on investment...that's a lot harder to do with a non e-commerce customer. Customers with flat content pages can tell themselves that increased enquiry levels etc have come from somewhere else etc. but for online stores, it's clear that the website is responsible for specific revenue coming in. Therefore, if you do it well...you'll have a stream of happy customers who will refer you on, or be happy to talk to other prospects you find. You'll also be confident in pitching to retailers because you'll have a stack of satisfied customers you can call on to back your story up.


So, rather than tout on ebay, why not set up an online store on your own domain, with a standard look and feel and then approach customers and show them your mock-up. You could even mock-up a front page in their chosen colours with their logo and their products so that they can walk through the system etc...and as you say, it is quite straightforward to set up such a store online. Your real money-making opportunities lie in training the customer to be able to manage the site themselves including taking product photos, cropping them and saving them in JPG format, and in maintaining a really good Adwords campaign.

Half the secret is going out and getting those customers that are just destined to be successfulby dint of what they sell and because they are pc-savvy enough to buy into the deal and to be able to go off on their own at the end of the project and not flounder. Ongoing assistance is hard to charge for accurately and ultimately reduces the profitably for you of the customer.

well, that's my take...I'd recommend to any web designer at the moment who's on their own to focus on customising out of the box packages, - particularly e-commerce software but also blog software or content management software, so that your customers get a robust, feature rich site that they can own themselves. There is no money to be made building 6-page information sites for provincial solicitors or tradespeople or whatever, and these customers will tie you up for ever with questions and non-chargeable distractions.

Hope that helps.