Antiques Business Articles | Fine Estate Sales, Antiques and Collectibles

Give Antiques and Collectibles Visitors What They Want

February 28, 2010

Or They Won’t Buy Your Antiques

It’s That Simple

Here’s The Big Web Secret: It ain’t personal; whether a visitor buys an antique or stays on your website is dependent on one thing and one thing only. Is your site useful to their search, to their objective for visiting your site in the first place. If not, they will leave, your bounce rate will remain high, and your Google Analytic’s will sink, and your site will tumble and fall through layer upon layer towards eventual mediocrity. And the biggest secret of all, is that the way your fortunes will fail, poised as they were on your ineffectual web strategies, won’t be personal.

Let Me Explain: It doesn’t matter how much money you’ve spent on your site, how fancy your logo is, how many hours you spent on your message. It only matters what the consumer of your little bit of PHP or HTML wants – that the information consumer, like the retail consumers of old, is always right. Yes they are, they are always right; what they want, how they want to see it, and how they will respond, is entirely in the hand that holds the mouse.

Please know that their surfing habits are just like your surfing habits, and like you, visitors to your site who do not either understand your sites navigation, or who do not resonate with your content will leave, and they will leave quickly.

And It Won’t Be Personal: The wind of their quick exit is impersonal. That’s just the way it is. They don’t know you, don’t care necessarily, and will only stay on your site if there is something in it for them. So give them something…

Websites and Antiques Have To Be Useful

It’s That Simple!

Antique Marketing Secret #1: In today’s economy it’s more true than in times of boom, that buyers tend to wear their practical shopping hats when shopping for antiques. Yeah they want items that look good, that are stylish, that have value, but more than ever what they buy has to provide a practical solution to something that is missing in their home.

Shoppers leave antique stores without buying, when the store they are visiting can not match their desire with anything useful to the utility of their search.

Websites Too, Have Secrets: Think of your website as the answers to questions – not the questions you pose, or the answers you found on a get rich quick SEO marketing site…the only questions that your site should answer, are the questions being posed by visitors to your site.

You see, your visitors are smarter than you about what they want to find on your website, they know what they want to find, and again, if they don’t find what they are looking for, they will leave quickly.

And It Won’t Be Personal: If you want people to stay, to enjoy what they read, then find out what they want to read. Every page on your website is like a test. This site for example has about 300 pages on it. Here in order of visitor preference are the top 5 most visited pages on this site:

When visitors get to these pages they tend to stay, they tend to read, and more importantly, they tend to take action, by either buying, or letting others know via various social networking platforms about this site. Here Are Mine: MY Twitter Profile – My Facebook Fan Page – My Stumbleupon

Visitors Stay On Websites When Given Something Of Value

It’s That Simple

Look At This Site: Notice the paucity of advertising, yes there is a bit here and there, but not much. My focus is clear: I want to give, and have given a lot of valuable Antiques and Collectibles Research Information away for free, as my gift of gratitude to the industry that has supported me for the last 14 years. I am not afraid that this gift of information about where and how to find an Estate Sales Professional will undermined me, to the contrary, I know that my Estate Sales Business has grown from this…I watch this happen everyday.

Your Antique Store or Website Can Do The Same: The Big Guys in the antiques business are slowly taking over, buying up URLs, setting up innumerable shopping sites, and slowly taking over the internet for searches related to antiques, collectibles, estate sales and so on. I describe this process here as Big Business Is Making A Web Mall Of The Antiques Business.

Take Control Of Local Antiques Searches: In the same way that you sweep and clean your store, and manage your store’s presentation, give some attention to the internet, to the way shoppers are looking for the kind of antiques you sell…never allow for them to find an antique on the internet – from some far away store or dealer, when they could find it down the street in your store.

Don’t let the big boys control your physical mall because they are more sophisticated about how to exploit and capture local search terms and present the answers to antiques and collectibles web queries on their websites.

Good Luck Out There…

Martin Codina

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2 Comments | Antiques Business Articles, Estate Sales Business | Permalink
Posted by Martin

OH My! What’s An Antiques Dealer To Do?

January 31, 2010

Is The Past Being Flushed Away?

Doulton & Co Simplicitas Antique Loo £850 From Leominster Reclamation

With rapid progress comes forgetfulness, and with forgetfulness comes disconnection and with disconnection comes apathy. And when forgetfulness is applied to history, then the apathy that follows is mighty, and that leads to the consequences of repeating all the worst that the forgotten past wrought upon the landscape of civility.

What Of The Past Should We Wash Our Hands Of?

Antique Earthenware Oval Pedestal Sink From Urban Remains

Certainly, I have no wish to remember everything, to wallow in the past, or to incorrectly state that all the past was “Glorious.” But, and I think that this is the important part, Do I want To Wash My Hands Of It…? For this writer, I’d say, I don’t think so, and I don’t think that the general population does either.

We can remember the past…with Antiques, and Odd Collectibles…

Quebec Parcheesi Board From Jeff Bridgman Antiques $6,500.00

Is the sky falling for the Antiques Business? Are consumers really not buying antiques? Will passing Baby Boomers possessions soon flood the marketplace? Well there certainly are marketplace changes afoot, and trends to analyze and take into consideration, but The Sky Falling, I don’t think so. But, if you are an Antiques and Collectibles Dealer who refuses to grow with the times, then this will be true – Your Antiques Business Will Fail…

As Dealers, It’s Time To Take Back The Internet

Golden Bridge Sparkling Water Neon Clock From Off The Wall Antiques $1,200.00

If you are an Antiques Dealer, and have moaned and complained that the malls, and Walmarts have made your selling life hell. Or if you think first eBay, and then other internet enterprises like Etsy, Bonanzle, Ruby Lane, and 1st Dibs have taken business away from you, then Take a Page Out Of Their Book, a web page that is…make your online presence stronger.

Big Business Is Making A Web Mall Of The Antiques Business…

1960’s Teaching Aid Map From Lisa Sherman Antiques $1,000.00

Own Your Territory!!!

If a local buyer in your area can’t find you on the internet, then guess what…they are going to find someone else outside of your area. Make no mistake, people are buying Antiques and Collectibles everyday: Billions of Dollars worth of Antiques and Collectibles, and many of them are making those purchases and developing relationships with online Antiques and Collectibles Dealers.

Sign On To New Concepts, or Be A Sign Of The Times

Image From: Lost City

Here are 5 things you can do.

Think Locally and Act Locally. The Major Antiques and Collectibles Websites can compete with you and blow you out of the water on a National Level, but they can’t compete as well with you in Local Antiques Markets. It’s just a fact.
Take Control of your website! Delegate the task of managing your web presence only after you yourself understand how the whole thing works. Think of yourself as the director, your store as a stage, and the buying public as a participating audience.
Spending lots of money on your website before you have a firm idea of how local shoppers are actually looking for Antiques and Collectibles Information in your area is a complete waste of your precious resources. So be cheap, until you more fully understand the most useful ways to apply cash to your web endeavors.
Befriend as many dealers as you can, read as much about Web 2.0 as you can get eyes on. Exclusivity was once a virtue in the Antiques Business, but now, it sometimes gets in the way.
Update your website often. There are basically two kinds of websites: Static and Dynamic. You want your site to be Dynamic, because Dynamic sites have a way of maintaining and increasing your sites SEO. Don’t know what SEO is, well look it up…