Booth subscription and premium updates

“Member-only prices?” What dioes THAT mean? A different price than what any old visitirs would pay. If so, how do we set it up.

A very cool thing you’ve done – but please, tell me ’bout the prices.

Having 3 booths there’s no way I’ll ever be able to pay 75.00 a month to get a chance to be seen. So when search page comes up any non-paying or plus member is flanked on the left and on the top with those with the ability to pay 25.00 a month…kinda feeling like I’m back on ebay :(

Have to say I agree with sofyblu2. Used to pay subscription, but no sales – had to cancel. Now we get hardly any hits at all. Less and less all the time. Less than 5 hits on even our larger booths per day.

“Member-only prices?” What dioes THAT mean?? repeating above,

“Members-only prices” is indeed vague. The intention in the future is to allow booth owners to be able to directly email people who have subscribed to their booth with special deals/coupons. So what I was trying to communicate was that “if you sign up to follow this booth, the seller may email you later with exclusive deals.” But the words “exclusive” and “deal” both smack of cheesy marketing-speak, so I was trying to find something that didn’t. If anyone can think of a better way to communicate the same idea, I’d be happy to hear it.

@sofy: Our hope in the not-distant future is to use the left bar for premiere AND plus members, so a mere $10/month would get you featured there. Also, because we don’t have outline, bold, etc. listings, I think a more apt analogy would be comparing us to Google (who also sponsors their business with ads on the top and side), which is not a bad company to aspire to.

Thanks for the feedback! P.S. I’ll fix the broken avatars shortly.

Thanks Bill :) getting a chuckle out of a “mere $10/month”..if I had it I would buy the plus but unfortunately there are many of us rely on that mere $10.00 a month to buy the essentials of daily living.

Cool. Maybe “members-only discounts”??

Bill how do I know who I followed? What if I go on a following spree? Where will I see who I followed & who is following me?

How do I email those following me with special discounts if I can’t see who followed me?

There’s just to much darn following going on around here but no one is quiet following this. rofl!! okay I’ll stop! LOL

I like it idea, but it would be good to have ALL the pieces in place and introduce it all at one with GOOD instructions! ;)

JMHO

Thanks Bill can’t wait to see it in full swing!

So your not having buyers become members so they can search all the booths. They are to pick individual booths???
I hate to bring this up but isn’t that going to create tension between booths? Or am I picking up a faint hint of the beginnings of fee hike and competition within the confines of bonanzle. At feebay being a member meant you would be privy to all the stores/booths with paying stores being higher on the search for awhile anyway. I like the idea but it sounds like you are leaving a lot of your booths out. A soon as I sell something here I plan to upgrade but I can’t sell anything if you are narrowing the sellers sight to deals on followed booths. I can’t pay you until I sell something. I can’t sell anything if you are going to make deals with your paying booths by giving them a shot at being featured by having them lower their prices. Is this what happened at ebay? Just thinking out loud Ps I do all the other stuff like Google account, blog, attributes, update booth twitter, my face etc. As I see it, what I hear is if you are not a paying member you will probably not get followed. Now I know that sounds like the down side. So please help me to see what I am either miss reading or not seeing that is great about this. I am hoping it will be a great thing
As for being a buying member. What is wrong with becoming a member with a user and pass. Every site on God green earth requires this. No money account just a member

Bill, I think a bit of the concern for us is that Google right now has become hurky jerky to many of us. They changed their search format and stuff that used to come up in search no longer does. Many items from our booths doesn’t SHOW on Google, so modeling Bonanzle after them is a death knoll. Following them may be the biggest mistake in the history of history. I think Google eschewed Google, selling out to the top bidders may bring in more revenue stream for the home office, but it really totally disses the little people that were out there googling and bringing that search engine to heights of financial molecular excitement only to find out that their googling service no longer is the best way to go. They dumped us.

We’ve been supportive and hopeful for several years now, is it just time for us to go?

Hi again I just found a site that had me join to get coupons for bonanzle. Not a password just mt email. It then downloaded something and then I ran it and it took me to bonanzle but no coupon to me seen. Is this the thing you are working on? As I see it does seem to included the entire bonanzle family. But no coupons yet and nowhere to pick them up
Hi Alex thanks for the quick response. You probably don’t know what I am talking about cuz I’m not sure I am understanding the changes. And I do get gabby .
I found it . It is shop an home discounts.

I do want to tell you. I am not complaining. I do believe what motivates me at times is fear of being kicked to the curb again. The change at that bay place did not seem like a big deal until everything went core, all became auction format and my unique items were push wayyyyy down to the middle of the earth. It was like loosing a job, getting fired for no reason. I was making a nice monthly income and slowing growing.
Here at bonanzle, well I love this place. I reaaly want this site to work I have made so many friends here it is amazing. But there is this part of my brain that has now taken on this roll as a watch dog to change. So when I talk or ask questions, it is because I want to completely understand the ramifications. This empowers me to problem solve and make informed decisions.
I am even taking classes to network for business and have enrolled in a 6 week internet course my county has available called optimizing for search and getting to the best search engines. Then I hope to share this with others to optimize the sellers of bonanzle as a whole. I just wanted to you know this so you don’t say "oh here come negative Robin again.

I wrote about the 4 premiere items up top in the middle of the early morn, then deleted it as there seemed enuf negativity – but your comment brings it back to the fore. You say above:

“Clearly labeled and discoverable, but not too garish or consuming too much of the screen.”

That is exactly what I wrote about. I saw the 4 premiere items on the top of a search BEFORE I read about them here in the blog, and I wondered why they looked so faded and small, esp. in comparison to the listed search results – and thus uninteresting and looking like inferior items.

They would look much better if the photos were the same size and same resolution as the search results. In fact, they would look even better if they had some thicker outline to delineate them from the rest… or perhaps the entire background of those 4 photos could have a wash of Bonanzle color …a lighter shade of the bouncier pale green. What would be garish about it? (Aside from those who think the green and orange are garish. I don’t. I love the colors.]

Seriously – they don’t look good. It’s of no personal matter to me, since I am not a premiere member, but aesthetically they bother me as is.

As for the “following booths” – I don’t see how that “shuts out” other booths. Aside from my concern that every update would get teleported to followers, rather than having a choice of which updates can be e-mailed, I think it is an incentive for everyone to have sales and special deals. It has no effect whatsoever on the search, either here or at Google – does it?

That should say “side note” and I meant the first 100 pages are all the same card shopping site. Kind of a killer for the little guy.

I really love the fact that customers will be able to get updates !

I never did like the premium subscription thing as I do see a problem with it ..

I find it unfair for those of us who pay fees for the sales we make. Some months we can be paying almost as much or even more then those who pay for plus and premium membership in sale fees.

In the end, it ends up seeming unfair that some would get special treatment when they are paying just about as much as I am ans some months they pay less then me.

I understand it’s important income for the site though, I wish it could be done differently and I have no idea as to how. lol Maybe a certain amount of sale fees could be included in the package ..

All done my cry baby scene .. thanks again .. you guys do a wonderful job !

ATTENTION! THIS IS A POSITIVE REPLY! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!!!!!!!
With much negative discussion on this subject, many are focusing on the words to describe the people checking this box. I have heard lots of complaining but not many ideas. I admit I do not know what to call our customers who check this box, I think that subscriber is a good term. There seems to be a little bit of white space left next to the box, so maybe just a little re-wording would help.

On the new search page subject, I, as a premium subscriber like the 4 pictures along the top showing. Yes, they are small, but they do attract some attention. And, I’m sorry if I offend anyone, but I do pay for this. I have a very small booth, and since coming to Bonanzle I have found a warm community and personal support, but not a lot of sales. I do some of my own marketing as well. HOWEVER I BELIEVE IN BONANZLE AND FEEL THE MANAGEMENT ARE WORKING HARD TO BRING TRAFFIC HERE. Someone has to help them pay to get this done. I feel that I should receive some preferential treatment for this. As has been noted above, sellers who run specials and Bonanzas also get higher priority as well, so feel free to have them to get your items noticed! Bonanzle supports us all in different ways. All the while, the management is personally available to us at just about any time. I have had a few support issues, and again, quick response. I worked in a corporate setting for 24 years and can tell you, this does not happen everywhere. I am glad to help pay thier salaries!!!!!

I have a local retail booth that I pay rent for, up front, no matter how much I sell. This summer has been an especially slow period, and for the first time in 5 years, I did not make my rent for 2 of the months. The economy is terrible and people were spending money on vacations and such. However, this month things have already picked up and more people are starting to shop. THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS EVERY YEAR AND WILL CONTINUE THROUGH THE END OF THE YEAR. So get your booths ready now while you have the free time to do so. Lets all do what we can to get the Bonanzle name out there, while the Bonanzle staff is doing their jobs as well!! Thanks to all Bonanzlers! NMB

While they are trying to run a business, they are still accessible to us and that does not happen everywhere.

I have specialty booths at Bonanzle. By combining these for the upcoming holidays I can have premier membership for less than a store elsewhere. WITH FREE LISTING!
For the people who are feeding families with internet sales, RUN and get a day job now. Internet sales require an advertising budget. If you do not have it, other booths will always get the buy.
Google is a paid search engine, they did good for me until I stopped paying. I am on their “forget her” list for eternity. Sign up for other search engines now since it takes a month to see a noticeable difference.
Plus memberships give plus benefits. No since paying otherwise. A new enhancement with no fee raise in membership? Fantastic!
I love the suggestion of Bonanzle Booth Buddies. No different than giving repeat buyers a discount. Getting the buyers to sign up is the mystery, everyone hates getting advertising in their email.
All that said, the management here is something we need to cherish, appreciate, encourage and stand behind.

I know this post is several weeks old, but I’m just catching up on the blog. Since the comments aren’t closed, I’ll put in my 2¢ anyway.

I’m not in favor of using “Bonanza Booth Buddies.” While I hope I don’t offend anyone, I do think a Bonanza Booth Buddy sounds like a child’s toy (along the lines of Ty’s Beanie Buddies). I appreciate the relatively informal, community nature of Bonanza, but it is ultimately a business for you and the sellers both. Bonanza Booth Buddies just seems a bit juvenile or cutesy for any business not geared toward selling children’s items.

Again, I hope I do not offend anyone with my opinion!