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The Wayback Machine - http://web.archive.org/web/20010809172412/http://www.fmn.net:80/FAQ/appropriate.html
Brought to you by FMNet. Full-service network consulting and
Internet access for Texas businesses, featuring Netscape Commerce
Server for your on-line sales.
Writing Ads for the Internet
What is appropriate to advertise, what isn't?
As an individual, you can advertise just about anything!
Computers, houses, and cars are often seen; garage sale announcements,
used railroad ties, and anything else you can think of would probably
be appropriate.
It would be best if your item is shippable and of
interest to the major Internet demographic groups. Anything wanted
by college students, young professionals, and college professors is
definitely fair game. The same goes for relatives of all of the
above. You will find quantities of such people reading your ad.
You should not exclude the eclectic, however. Just keep in mind
what audiences you need to reach. If you can't ship your house from
California to Kentucky, try to use local newsgroups only. Also, some
kinds of merchandise have specialized markets, like high-end
bicycles, airplanes, Japanese animation movies, and so on. And finally,
be prepared to answer whether you will ship to Outer Mongolia; the
misc.forsale.* newsgroups have readers in even the most remote corners
of the globe.
The one catch; don't try to make a profit by offering a high price.
The misc.forsale.* newsgroups are a forum to facilitate one person
getting rid of something she doesn't need, and another person
acquiring something he wants. If you offer a price as high as
the cheapest businesses, then your offering is not appropriate. Be
especially cautious with computers; your purchase price at Sears
or in Computer Shopper may be significantly higher than the going
Internet commercial price. That, and computer equipment devalues
very quickly. New hard disk drives, processor chips, and memory, for example,
may only cost a quarter of what they cost a year ago.
When it comes to appropriate ways to offer your material, three
sales methods are prevalent on the newsgroups:
Stating an asking price in
the ad
- If you have an approximate knowledge of what your item is
worth, then we recommend this method as the most
effective. Most people will pay attention to a stated
asking price, whereas they will often ignore other means,
because they do not want to waste the effort on an auction
they might not win. One tip: make sure you mention
whether your price is firm or negotiable.
Soliciting offers
- Another method is to solicit offers without stating an
asking price. This may be your best alternative if you
don't know what your item is worth, but it is not nearly
as effective as a stated price. "If you gotta ask,
you don't wanna know," is an American adage that sums
up the situation--many people who might otherwise be
interested will not offer a price, and thus you miss a
large number of potential buyers.
Conducting an auction
- A final method is to offer items for sale through an
on-line auction. This method is acceptable, but not
recommended. Again, many people will ignore ads without
stated prices. In addition, some readers object to
auctions because of the bandwidth they consume. The best
type of auction is a buy-or-bid auction, where you state a
maximum price at which you are willing to sell the item
outright. If you do decide to conduct an Internet auction, then
you would be well-advised to follow a few guidelines which
have been developed to minimize the problems caused by bad
auctioneers in the past:
- Auctions should end within 2 weeks of the initial
post.
- Auctions should be limited to 2 posted updates;
updates sent by e-mail to bidders conserve network
resources.
- Auctions should be conducted in an ethical manner; all
items should be sold to the highest bidder unless a
reserve (minimum bid) was stated in the initial post,
and at no time should any bidder be solicited for a
higher bid.
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