So where do you spend most of your time during the day? 

Listing? Editing? Shopping? Researching? Selling? Tweeting? Facebooking? Pinning? Starting at your email waiting for orders? Watching television? 

The reason we ask this is because you really need to evaluate the limited time you have in each day. Many times we get caught in just keeping busy hoping that we are actually doing great work, but instead we are wasting our time. Spend time on meaningful tasks and you will be successful. Don't just list to list an item. Spend the time to make sure you are adding a unique description, great photo(s), and proper unique identifiers. Editing and listing an item is an art form, the sooner you realize that the sooner you start making it a work of art. 

Don't just Tweet items or Facebook items just to say you are social....  Read More

As many of you know, Google Analytics (GA) is a free service offered by Google that generates detailed statistics about the visitors to a website. GA is the most widely used website statistics service, currently in use on around 57% of the 10,000 most popular websites. Google Analytics can track visitors from all referrers, including search engines, display advertising, pay-per-click networks, e-mail marketing and digital collateral such as links within PDF documents. And if you didn’t know already, Pro Members on Addoway can use Google Analytics in their Addoway stores. 

...  Read More

I think it is time that we write a blog post about being successful on Addoway. We receive weekly messages asking us what we think someone could possibly do to get more sales and the only real way to answer this effectively is to do some research. But not boring old research with statistics and percentages, but research that tells a simple, easy to replicate story.

So the Addoway team decided to venture on a journey. A journey that lead them to watch all of the successful sellers on Addoway; what they did; how they did it; and most importantly what made them so successful and then share their thoughts with you. You don’t have to go out and do all of them tomorrow, but it’s important that you read through these and ask yourself those important questions about your business. It is also no guarantee you will get more sales right off...  Read More

We all get excited to get that first order and then our second and third and so on. The excitement never changes as each and every order brings joy and delight to every seller young and old, but what happens when you start getting multiple orders on a daily basis and selling online is not your full-time job yet? Things get challenging as you try to juggle both jobs (maybe 3), but if this keeps up maybe you will be able to focus full-time on selling and start making those dreams come true.

For the purpose of this blog post, we wanted to touch on just some thoughts for you to ponder as you begin to get more and more buyers and really want your business to grow as it gets more mature. 

Checking your emails throughout the day ...  Read More

The first month of 2012 is now coming to a quick finish. It seemed like we were just discussing the holiday shoppers and Cyber Monday deals, when suddenly we are now thinking about Valentine’s Day deals. Time flies, but it seems like it goes a little faster for online sellers. The good news is that preliminary numbers indicate that buying hasn’t really slowed down. Sales are holding steady as we begin 2012 and we are excited for them to continue into the spring months and hope you are too.

But no matter the times, it is imperative that we maintain consistency and do the same things that worked last year while also adapting and evolving to what our clients need.

Here are 6 Surefire tips on things you can start following now to increase your odds of success:

It is all about Simplicity: Too many sellers think they need to sell everything...  Read More

They often say, "A picture is worth a thousand words," but what if no one gets an opportunity to see your pictures or even your description or anything for that matter? Your pictures are very important in keeping your audiences attention; your description, essential in describing the items every detail, but what catches their eye? Some will say it's the pictures, but in this section we will discuss how the TITLE really captures your audiences eye and the remaining factors keep them and take them toward the checkout process.

The title of your listing is the MOST important piece of your listing. End of the story. I could end this blog post here and that's it, but I won't of course. 

The title is essential to your search rankings and more importantly your relevant search rankings. Relevant search basically...  Read More

Having a returns policy is critical to running a successful business. You can even have a zero return policy if you like, but the important step in this case is communicating that you don’t have one at all. Don’t leave shoppers in the dark. It doesn’t matter if it is the holiday season or not, shoppers want to know what they need to do in the case of returning a product, so it is imperative that you spend the time communicating your policy.

If you click on Edit profile in My Addoway and then click on Policies, you can add your shipping, payment, and return policies for shoppers to see. These will then be listed on your storefront for shoppers to read.

For the majority of us, if a client is unhappy all they have to do is let us know and we will handle it for them. This works in many cases, but it’s important that you communicate this...  Read More

As part of Addoway's ongoing partnership with SaleHoo, their blog writer, Alice Delore, has agreed to share some of her tips on paying sales taxes on your Addoway sales.

Do you need to pay tax when you make sales online? What’s a tax ID? If you have ever pondered these questions, you are not alone!

Plenty of online retailers are unsure about their tax obligations, so in this post, I’m going to demystify some of the hearsay and present the facts about sales tax so you can stay on the good side of Uncle Sam!

Your tax obligations when you sell online

In the US, when you sell items with the intention of making money, you must pay tax. You are technically also supposed to pay tax when you sell your own second hand items and make a profit by doing so (for example, selling a DVD for more than what you paid for it).
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If you haven't heard already, Forrester Research  reported last week that online holiday sales are expected to grow 15% in 2011 to reach nearly $59.5 billion, compared to $51.7 billion last year. How incredible is that? Forrester even indicated that while 58% of online consumers said that they are more price sensitive this year than they were previous years, they are saying that 12% of the overall 15% growth will actually come from increased consumer spending.

So the good news for us is that even though they will be checking out prices more and more this year, shoppers will be spending much more than previous years. But honestly who doesn't check out prices before they buy? Everyone does this for the most part. Consumer confidence is actually up and people feel better about spending more, which means you need to be...  Read More