AuctionCut

I want to inform your readers of a new site we have established recently;

http://www.AlternativesToEbay.com

As an auction site owners in a niche market we looked at ways we could force our brand into the limelight against the massive power of Ebay. One way might be to try and match the for advertising - not likely

No, in fact the are a lot of little inexpensive ways other auction sites can try to compete but we also feel the is one big way and that is to join forces in a combined effort. The above site is the first step in the effort.

In it's simpilest form it's a link exchange for auction sites and auction services. We have expanded that to also include a monthly press realease sent to as many online article directories and include in other online places.

The site also includes The Auction Owners Blog, this provided advice, help and ideas on how to improve your auction site. We plan to expande into other areas when we see those areas are required and will make a direct difference to auction sites that join us.

It cost nothing to join just a link exchange. The link exchange already has a Google Ranking of 3 after just three months and over 130,000 indexed pages in search engines. Add your site or service will only give you more exposure and that what it's all about. Here's the link again;

http://www.AlternativesToEbay.com

Due to the success of the above we recent registered;

http://www.AlternativesToAmazon.com - This is for general online shoping sites and services and so if aplicable you can signup for both at no cost.

Just update on this site.

Auction news section added which includes details of both online and offline auction around the world. This is intended to push up the traffic to the site and bring even more exposure to auction sites registered in the link exchange. Seems to be working as it's added around 50 unique visitors a day in it's first week. A lot of these come from our Twitter feed and also 30 people clicked to follow this week which should mean return visits will be high. http://twittercounter.com/kickoff3pm

Also added a forum, the idea here is auction site owners and service will request their own forum and use it to keep people updated on events and also answer pre-membership questions.
http://www.alternativestoebay.com/blog/?page_id=284

But the main reason for the forum is to boost traffic further for those people who signup to the link exchange (http://www.alternativestoebay.com/submit.php?su_categ=).

We have changed our Twitter name to represent the site.

http://www.twitter.com/A2Eauctions

Also now the top ten sites in our link exchange auction sections gets twitter updates every 30 mins 24 hours a day

Good luck, I hope you are successful.

Once bit, twice shy. What happens when you are bit dozens of times?

Of the "Alternative to eBay" sites I have tried I have been screwed at 4 auctions (never received goods or refund) and only received my auction items at one. I tried another site which I was lured to by a coupon offered by the site, but the auctioneer didn't not have to "honor" the coupon, so that was a bust too, as far as I'm concerned.

I have been screwed dozens of times on eBay, please explain again why I should give an "alternative" site a chance to screw me?

I too have tried other than eBay sites and to be honest no sales came from any of them, but I know that I did not try to promote them in any way either. I have tried Etsy, Ioffer, and OLA (onlineauctions.com). Anyway I know that eBay has the traffic, but the last few times I have tried to sell on there I could not compete with the big names. I finally realize that auctions are just like any other business and we can't depend on everyone else to do our marketing for us. I feel like any of the sites will work, if we drive traffic to our sites. I recently started driving traffic to my websites using Twitter and so far it's working good. I have not tried driving traffic to the auctions yet. We will see. Love this forum, so glad I ran across it.

@ handyman: The best of luck to you!

@Super_Buyer: Its so sad that scammers are lurking virtually everywhere on the net, even on eBay. As a buyer you have to learn to protect yourself (your pocket too!). Why not try doing the following before you close a deal:
- do a whois search of the supplier's site - ideally work with someone who's been online for at least two years.
- check and make sure that they use safe payment methods, such as credit cards and PayPal so you can easily do a chargeback or file a dispute if the deal goes sour.
- verify the contact details they provide, try calling them to check if their phone lines are working or send them an email to see how they reply to your concerns.
All the best with your next purchase, I sincerely hope it'll turn out right this time

@rcolby7400: Yup! you're right if you won't get up and do something to drive traffic to your site nothing will happen. Its great that you have discovered the usefulness that social media has to offer. Many gurus and top sites are actually using social media to promote and advertise their businesses/sites - you've got nothing to loose since these sites are FREE. You can also try making a Fan page on Facebook. Here's something that you may find helpful in your try at using social media: http://www.ecommercetimes.com/rsstory/69346.html

Cheers to all!

Lots of alternatives to ebay are present in this thread.. Will check them out.. I am sure they won't have traffic as ebay has..