Power Sellers Unite

MistyRainbow · Joined: 19 Sep 2008 Posts: 60

there was a message that the site was down due to technical difficulities, a few minutes ago. Back up now and running.

sanibel · Joined: 16 May 2007 Posts: 205

Blujay seems to be a bit sluggish for me today.

Sometimes I can get the main page but when trying to view my ads or my store, it takes forever to upload and then I either get the internet explorer can't open this page or I finally get the page that I want but some of the pictures are missing or it says done but with errors at the bottom.

Then when I try to click on one of my items that I have listed, the picuture at the top where the advertisement for 'tell a story. share your photos. narrate in your own voice' is missing, there is just a large empty square with a red X

I am using internet explorer 7 and I am on cable internet. I was wondering if anyone else is having this trouble?

kevinatgrannys · Joined: 03 Jan 2006 Posts: 1799

I just went to your store and had no difficulties seeing several of your items. You might want to dump your cookies and temporary internet pages and try again.

sanibel · Joined: 16 May 2007 Posts: 205

Thanks so much, I will give it a try :D

ehustle · Joined: 18 Mar 2009 Posts: 621

Is there a problem with this site going offline?

It's on my list to try, and if it is..I'm not wasting time there.

sanibel · Joined: 16 May 2007 Posts: 205

I have not had any problems really in the past, maybe once or twice and I think it had to do with them upgrading something. That's why I checked here when I had a bit of trouble this morning since it is not common to have trouble getting on the site.

Really a nice place to list on and its totally free!

By the way I am on and listing with no trouble now :D

purple_reading_giraffe · Joined: 04 Feb 2008 Posts: 5485 Location: Indiana, USA

ehustle - while I have noted few downtimes at Blujay, I have noted extended periods of Google 'blackouts' in the past. There are several long-time BluJay sellers that do well there, and have spread backlinks, and so did not suffer much. It is also popular for free and its easy listing interface from what I read. However, there was an extended period when Blujay.com utterly disappeared from Google natural web search, and I never did find out why 'for sure'. They have also disappeared from Google Shopping on occasion.

DaLizardsLair · Joined: 15 Feb 2009 Posts: 4780

ehustle wrote (View Post): › docWrite("quote")Is there a problem with this site going offline?

It's on my list to try, and if it is..I'm not wasting time there.

I would cross it off of your list to try.

Yes, it's free and they have one of the simplest listing forms I've seen.

BUT, the site owner has gone AWOL for the past several months, if not longer. And since only the site owner can submit items to Google, it doesn't get done most months.

Their forums are run by Moderators, who allow their own personalities to decide who can and who can't post. They will delete any posts that they don't care for.

Two of their mods have abandoned ship so far. One right away, and the other more recently.

ehustle · Joined: 18 Mar 2009 Posts: 621

Thank you! :)

hotnana · Joined: 02 Feb 2008 Posts: 875

ehustle I wouldn't bother unless you have a great deal of time to bring buyers in on your own. As mentioned...the owner has not been around for a very loooong time, the thread you posted a link to before was by Melvin. He is a promoter through and through...I would venture to say he is one of the very few sellers who actually do well at Blujay. If you can run a successful online business without Google, well go for it! :wink:

ehustle · Joined: 18 Mar 2009 Posts: 621

I liked some of the informative threads at Blujay, there was some quality content.

With the current set up I'm running I have to bring results in $$$. This is definitely the biggest project I've ever handled.

Yesterday, I received stunning news that an additional 11 thousand feet were being added to the store, bringing the total vendor space to 26 thousand square feet of selling space. Oh, and that last 11K square feet? It's rotating stock for estate sales..yikes!

Can you imagine promoting that bi-weekly? YOW!

I really love it though, just a bit amazing is all.

I need a beer. LOL

I can just imagine sitting there at a review with the boss, loading up a site he's on and a 404 coming up.

No thanks! That is one scary idea. I could be fired over such a thing.

Instead, for the vintage end of it all, accessories, etc., I'm bumping up my cruise of Babylon Mall.

They have some nice social networking set up I could use. Once I have a few hundred pieces formatted, I'll launch them there.

Babylon Mall has to pay for itself though, it's membership is 15.00. That slows me down a little in the planning.

Anything which is pay / fee.. I literally have to sit down and do the business plan for it, and that's complicated and takes time.

purple_reading_giraffe · Joined: 04 Feb 2008 Posts: 5485 Location: Indiana, USA

Many folks have had to experiment to find the right alternative for their items - you may not be able to rely on what you think may be your best shot.

I would recommend you stick to sites that will take a CSV feed, and make a spreadsheet to divvy up the inventory amongst the sites you elect to use, and to make updates easier, as well as backups and record-keeping.

There are several savvy sellers who DO use Blujay very successfully. With your savvy, it's possible Blujay's structure/interface might mesh with your plans, though I can't evaluate that. I wonder sometimes if BJ's owner felt he built such a solid site he hardly needs to monitor it (or what?).

hotnana · Joined: 02 Feb 2008 Posts: 875

Like I said there are probably a handful of sellers who are successful on Blujay but I would say most are not. Those who are selling, are using BJ as a shopping cart and utilizing classified sites, link exchanges, Hovering and other means to drive traffic to their stores. If you are lucky some of your items might be picked up in an organic Google search...but I wouldn't hold my breath on that for consistent sales.

ehustle · Joined: 18 Mar 2009 Posts: 621

I've actually built something very similar to what you mentioned PRG.

What I did was to create a spreadsheet listing a control number for the item on the vertical axis.

The horizontal axis lists the sites name and attributes I'm concerned with such as store, fixed price, auction, web store, fvf's, payments accepted, membership, SSB compatibility.

I coded each of those attribute cells with color. Yellow for caution (fees involved) black for not available, and green for available/free.

As each item is posted and assigned a inventory number, after it sells, I then have the master sheet to work a tear down or delete on each site.

After sales are recorded, the dollar figures and length posted live until sale are recorded so I can track positive results.

I'll share site statistics when I have something very solid to present for stable averages.

If I were working with one narrow product I could head right out there and nail it, but this particular deal is so wide and varied I really need to apply all I can while controlling costs and the bottom line for it's budget.

Again, I could not say enough about statcounter.com, I use this in every single listing or advertisement.

I check stat counter in the morning before I even open my email.

Here is something I will share with you for traffic.

CL is always the first place I go for local buyers. I use ALL categories except pets pretty much...

Folks that buy jewelry will and have traditionally gone deep into posting archives, so there is not really a need to post there more than once a week.

One ad in that category will produce about 2K hits for me in seven days, and this is not a metro market I'm posting in.

They don't seem to mind looking through dated ads.

Just one of the many little tweaks I discover though stat counter.

Helps me guide my time well when it comes to posting and marketing.

purple_reading_giraffe · Joined: 04 Feb 2008 Posts: 5485 Location: Indiana, USA

pssst - INDEX(MATCH()) - very useful when properly created for interlinking spreadsheets and creating self-updating cells. Makes it very much a database.