Name of your website?Authentic Sports Memorabilia
Your name?
Stan Smith
Your Location (city, etc)
Sutton
Please give us a short summary of your website?
Sales of authenticated sports memorabilia, signed photos, autographed jerseys, helmets and other sports equipment.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
I am tired of paying listing fees for items that don't sell in seven days. The profit margin is so tight on some items that after paying listing fees, seller fees, and the fee for processing the payment that there's only a couple dollars left.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
This would be my first sales website and it is just a few months old. I've played around with some websites that generate traffic for Amazon, Google, and eBay for quite awhile.
How did you decide on a name for your website?
It has been my eBay user ID for seven or eight years.
What makes it different from other, similar offerings?
It is small enough that I think I can offer more personal service. I try hard to bring that across on every page. I don't mind if people email me with questions about the products and people can even call to place an order as long as they aren't using a credit card. That is assuming I'm not out hunting pheasants or something.
The site isn't pretty, it isn't perfect and it doesn't have as many items as others, but there will be more as I have time to add them.
I think my pricing is competitive on several items even though I'm sure some of them would raise an eyebrow or two. If someone would take the time to compare my prices with the market they wouldn't be as surprised.
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
I want to move back to Europe where my wife and kids are living. I'm hoping that it will generate enough income that I can afford to live there with my family.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
I've put a lot of time into this and still need to invest more. Some of that time was wasted dealing with telemarketers promising me great things for a certain amount of money. Thank God for Ripoff.com or the money I have invested could have been worse. My monetary investment has been rather minimal considering I'm starting a business.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
It would be SEO Optimized, more content, and it would have a nice logo. I tried to make several logos myself, but they looked like my 5 year old daughter had done them.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
I retired from the military and after being in law enforcement for a few years decided to go back to college to use my Montgomery GI bill benefits. My classes don't take much time and as I mentioned my family is in Europe so there's not too many things competing for my time.
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
Starting an S-Corporation was an unexpected cost and took some adjustments in my being able to purchase as many items as I had wanted for the second website I was building alongside this one. As far as headaches I already mentioned that I've received too many offers for assistance and tried to weed out those who had my interests at heart or their own. Sadly too many were of the second type.
What has been your biggest challenge?
Convincing my wife this will work out if I stick with it long enough.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
On my budget or lack of I have used the social networking and blogging sites to generate interest and judging by the amount of traffic since I started doing that I'd have to say it worked. I've now started looking for linking partners to promote my site and that should help even more because it is targeted at my niche.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
It is a lot more work than I ever imagined it would be. Those adds telling you you can do this part time are certainly misleading.
How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?
The site is only a couple of months old. I'm not unaware of the fact that these things take some time and money to enjoy the big gains in traffic or income. I'm not stupid though and if it isn't self sustaining within a year or two I may have to look at going back and working at a real job with a salary.
Would it be okay for the editors to make changes to your answers for clarification and to make you look smarter than you actually are?
Absolutely!
What is your website address?
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