Antiques and Collectibles dealers can
save
hundreds if not thousands of dollars in advertising expenses if they
follow a couple of simple rules.
Rule number one:Unless you have thousands to throw
away on advertising, let someone else do the advertising for you.
I see many dealers either try to start their own
website and advertise or they go to a larger antiques mall and set up a
shop where they have to advertise their own collections anyway. Many of
these dealers spend hundreds on Google or Overture advertising and do
not get enough return on this investment.
My advice is to find a service that will advertise
for you but does not charge an advertising fee. The larger auction
sites are a good example but they are not for everyone. They can be
expensive and you may not be able to sell at a satifactory price. Look
instead for a dealers mall that is popular in the search engines,
either in the natural or paid for listings, that works off of
commision. In this way your advertising will be free and you will pay
little if anything if your items do not sell.
Rule number two: Use only sites that are made for
professional dealers.
Professional antiques and collectibles dealers
need to have certain tools.
a. They need to be able to load pictures, and lots of them, add a great
deal of decription.
b. They need to have a shopping cart that allows them to accept any
form of payment they need. They also need a history of sales and
commisions charged.
c. They need a space to call their own. Any site a dealer uses should
be able to give the dealer a URL that will show only their own items,
not everyone else's on the site. It would also be great if you could
search withing each dealers items
So sit back and let someone else worry about the
advertising and make sure it's free.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Marc Fischer is managing partner of JosephMarc.com a website for
professional antiques and collectibles dealers | 