New articles on Google Shopping from Ecommercebytes

Thanks for posting this. I “had” seen the articles, and am debating whether to read them or not.

I have gotten BEYOND TIRED of the incessant Cyber Hoop Jumping, and actually see some benifits in being dropped from Google Shopping.

I figure that there will be those who will do what they can to take up the gap. I plan on waiting to see what crops up.

I am so with you Yettalass. I started reading the article and just quite. It is so over my head and what it boils down to, you still have to invest money into all these ideas that these 3 guys are promoting. They have not walked a mile in my shoes, so they cannot tell me what will work if I do so and so. I can say one thing for sure, I submit my own feed to Google from my own website and the traffic has come to a complete standstill as far as Google is concerned. Looked at my Google feed dashboard and the searchable clicks have dropped down to 0. I am getting some traffic from Bing and The Find as I submit my feed there.
If Bonanza is not paying to have our products submitted, then that may account to no business here either.
Google wants the small seller gone period, and they will go to any lengths to see that it happens.

“Google wants the small seller gone period, and they will go to any lengths to see that it happens.”

And sadly they are succeeding. I hope it bites them in the butt big time in the end.

Meanwhile, IMHO it’s past time to stop thinking google is the be-all and end-all of the Internet. But until the masses accept this mentality, they will rule the roost, I guess. It’s a shame.

jsgear – agree on skinning that cat! The solutions are sure to come, as we are sure not alone. (Thank goodness!)

An interesting thing I saw in the articles was that they expect small sellers with their own websites will be turning to venues like Amazon and eBay to sell. [and Bonanza, of course, although Bonz was not mentioned.]

I had a realization of sorts last night, while doing some historical research on the area I live in.

Like most would, I used Google to research a particular house that I see in old photographs. My curiosity was peaked as to whether this house is still standing.

Guess what turned up when I searched for information on this house. Pages and pages and pages of Pinterest pins where this house had been posted, there, and been re-pinned by at least 50 different members on their lists.

So, in my mind, that is telling me that Pinterest is taking over the top spot on Google organic, despite the fact that they state

• That Pinterest should not be used to promote your store and it’s contents.
• That there are strict copyright laws regarding photographs being pinned that are being enforced…

But copyright laws mean nothing because this particular photograph(s) is not to be used without authorization, which the owner says is not permitted. Yet, it shows up on all these Pin Boards. And, there are also lots of folks selling photo’s of it on eBay as well as many others.

So while I think Pinterest may be a great option to replace the loss of Google Shopping, I have to wonder – at what cost? Is it worth the risk?

In addition, it also proved to me that Google is worthless when it comes to doing actual research on anything. Commercial references come up before anything else it seems, and I stopped at page 15 when trying to find refernces outside of Pinterest on this house. What a shame, and what a waste of time.

The biggest issue I see in Google doing this to us, is losing the ability to show up in searches done on cell phones that are internet enabled, these so called “smart phones” and other devices like tablets and IPads and such.

More and more, people are using these to shop with and since Google has already thrown us out of those search results, I’m pretty sure most of us are going to lose sales to the point that it’s no longer a viable option to sell on line.

I do not agree that simply switching to other search engines like Bing or the others are going to gain us those lost sales.

Like people that do the Rah Rah things for the small marketplaces taking Ebays standing away, I doubt that us switching to other search engines and things like Pinterest are going to get us those lost sales back.

Google is just like EBay in regards to internet standing. Both Google and Ebay are pretty much household names and are the most widely used sites on the internet. No other site is going to be able to take that away until they are ready to step up and get some advertising going.

Yes I know that it’s expensive, but the old saying “you got to spend money to make money” is true and until some of these other sites get off their collective butts and spend some money to get noticed, then they aren’t going to get very far in the game of getting noticed and building sales volume.

Personally, I’ve pretty much given up on ever making a decent amount of sales. The level in my store went to heck when this site changed it’s name.

then came all the retarded games and hoops we had to go through to make Google happy. And now they’ve thrown us out like last nights garbage. I just don’t see sales staying very good for any of the smaller sellers and it really stinks that they are going to do the final cut off right before the Holiday shopping season.

I don’t know about all of you, but I’m looking for a “real” job where I know I’ll have income and not have to depend on websites that won’t advertise themselves or search engines that are throwing my out cause I won’t pay up

I rely on search engines rather than Google shopping. Good content works for any search engines and I don’t care for all the Google changes either. Someone on another forum once said “if everyone stops chasing the Google horse, maybe the Google horse will stop running..” and yeah it’s like I don’t know… I just try to write good descriptions and drive traffic best I can myself. Good descriptions normally go over well with any search engine whether it’s named Google or not.

I certainly understand Rayven’s Rarities point of view here. Bills gotta be paid, that’s just how it is and sometimes sales on whatever sites just isn’t enough… but have you considered using your own website? True, you have cost of hosting and other things to consider, but then you can design your site how you want etc.

I don’t get any sales on Bonanza for a while myself and those that have purchased have not always left feedback, so it looks even less. I have a basic shop here and it doesn’t cost me anything so I have kept it. Plus, the community here is fantastic.

I have not considered my own website for the simple reason that I’d be paying for something that’s not going to make it into Google anymore than the store I have here or any of the other sites I list at will.

Google is the number one search engine. Like it or not that’s fact just like Ebay and Amazon are the number one selling sites and PayPal is the top payment processor.

Reason being is that

1) They’ve been on the internet the longest as far as I know

2) They’ve taken the steps to make themselves a household name by taking the plunge and actually advertising their own business which is their sites

3) They’ve ran targeted and major advertising during the biggest shopping season to get the recognition and traffic to their sites and to their sellers

Until some of the smaller selling sites like bonanza get off their butts and do the same, I can’t see any thing changing in regards to sales.

And with what Google is already doing, throwing us out of the search results on smart phones and tablets and the rest of those types of devices, I see sales getting worse and worse for most of the smaller sellers.

I’m pretty much done with running to the various social sites like Pinterest and all the rest like it.

I’ve been at this for many many years and I just can’t see any advantage to them. You may get some sales from them, but I’ve never seen any that I’m aware of. My sales for the most part when I DO get one, come right off the Google/internet highway, or occasionally another sellers here.

I’ve never relied on internet sales for a living. That would be plain stupidity as I’ve not ever seen where it could be a living, but I did like it to be a secondary income and it’s not even been that in more years that I can count.

I’m not going to close my store even when I do get a real job, but I’m not holding my breath for things to go back to where I had sales like I used to. I just don’t see it happening until these sites do some major advertising to get their own businesses recognized and on the internet “map” so to speak.

Once Google has completed tossing us out of their search results completely, I fully intend in re-opening all the stores I shut down to comply with their da__ multiple site listing rule. I’m also going to turn the feed back on at the stores where it’s off.

I see no reason to “play nice” with Google any longer

We also need to keep in mind that not everybody is going to find the purchase options on smart phones to be valuable. With Google seriously limiting their purchase options to those from sellers who have additional expenses just to be on their phone, I’m sure it won’t take long before peeps realize that they won’t find any bargains using their phone.

Just look at the whole Kindle thing. It’s a fad, really. Everyone I know that got one used it for a few months before giving it up for the real thing again. After all, nothing can replace the feel of a good book in your hands.

So, I’m in wait-and-see mode because I don’t really see this taking off since peeps will be expecting their phones to be opened up to ALL options. If all options are available, then there really won’t be a need to pay-to-play in order to be seen, now will there?

Besides, I’ve been one of the fortunate ones to see my sales steadily increasing. While there is still plenty of room for improvement, the improvement thus far is promising. The increase coincided with making a lot of changes to listings — all of them — and including switching to calculated shipping and adding international shipping where I can.

I’m in the process of moving again, but when things settle down and I get my office all in one place again, I’ll be getting back to listing new stuff. That said, I think it really helps to keep your booth and listings fresh. Tweak listings every now and then to improve SEO. Add new items frequently — even if just a few here and there. Play with keywords, pricing, shipping, and such.

I did all of the above and, despite a decrease in promotions and views, my sales have been on the rise. So, all hope is not lost. There are things we can still do to keep plugging along. Just don’t let your booth get stagnant like I did, which resulted in NO sales for several months at a time. Try freshening it up and see how that works for you. I hope it produces the same if not better results for you as it has for me.

Having a store anywhere is a lot of work, but having your own website is a lot more — and it costs more. You don’t necessarily have to worry about hosting your own site, but you can still have your own custom site. So that would be one less worry, but there’s still a lot more to worry about when you don’t have someone doing all the behind-the-scenes work for you. LOL

Yes, I could use something positive to build my spirits right now. I’ve been checking the forums everyday for the announcement. I feel like at times I have been holding my breath lol.

Marianna, thank you for your post and everyone else. I like the realism that we are sharing in this thread….I find this helpful because we do have something very big going on right now that WE are having to deal with.

You can see the new Lexity feature now in your booth.

Go to My Bonanza

Look in LEFT column options and you’ll see a new one:
VIEW BUYERS IN REAL TIME.

Click on it, sign up free and you’ll see stats of your items.

The Lexity feature is interesting, but how is it going to help the problem of small sellers not appearing in google search like we used to?

@Achildstreasure. The feature won’t help the crucial problem that sellers have lost Google exposure for their items and become invisible.

But, it will help sellers who have some $$ to advertise by targeting WHERE to
advertise by seeing traffic patterns ( assuming there are some) , whether from
Bing, FaceBook, Pinterest, Tweeting, Google organic, etc..

Also, it will be very valuable to see WHICH items have traffic, so a seller
can evaluate products which receive no interest.

Thank you. I just got done QT’ing you, so just ignore it