Monday, March 28, 2011

By Golly Bonanza !!!

Bonanza just can not handle anyone that does not agree with everything they do. They want to whitewash their forums. This includes no discussions of serious issues. We see it time and time again.

Just so everyone is aware and never surprised (I know I wasn't). Do not disagree with anything on bonz or say anything that is not all "I love bonz, they do everything right", and don't blog either .

Remember when they want to get you they will. They will go back days, they will get as many as they need. You can be nice, polite, it doesn't matter, if its an honest answer but you are not waving pompoms ... look out. Agree with the powers that be and talk about how wonderful Bonanza is or they will bet you. It doesn't matter if someone else is wrong and you are right, if you point it out.. they will get you.

And, they do not DVM and let you know as they happen, so you can not post for awhile to avoid suspension, they wait and hit you will a bunch at one time.

One month forum suspension for 5 posts .. posted below, none are bad, I have seen much worse on the forum, as have all of you. But, this is really more about my blogs than it is about what I post on the forum.

Why do we blog this stuff?? Because we can not speak openly, honestly and freely on the forum !!!!!!!!

 As you can all see, there was nothing to cause these posts to be DMVed.. this was personal, against me.

>>>It is for these reasons I simply dont understand why it is taking SO long for the rest of the world to discover Bonanza.<<< easy answer.. no advertising by Bonanza itself members can only do so much as you say, you have done all you can and can only do so much wishing you all the best

The moderator also added the following note: Expressing negative viewpoints in a non-constructive manner. This applies to negative viewpoints about Bonanza, or negative viewpoints about life in general. There is more than enough unrequited bad news to go around, just check your local newspaper. If what you feel is unrequited dreariness, the Bonanza forums are not a good place to explore the depths of your feelings. Keeping subject matter upbeat is essential to making buyers feel positively when they arrive at Bonanza. More positive feelings for buyers means more sales for sellers, and by golly, that's what picks up everybody's mood.

but, this is bonz related.. these are the answers we have all been waiting for... has judy posted this elsewhere on the fourm? did I miss it? we have all been waiting to find out what she learned from her contacting google if it were on the forum first then people would have a better idea what questions to ask many are concerned and waiting for this info on the forum.. any idea when she will post it here.. many can not attend that broadcast this really needs to be on the forum where everyone will know to look for it



what she is talking about is bonz related and people here have been waiting a week for her to post what she apparently will be saying on that podcast I have no issue with the podcast.. that is ya'lls business but, I do feel the info should be here first.. where people are looking for it not on a podcast or someones blog juday said she would report back and answer all questions .. she said that on the forum and this is where people are waiting and where that important info for all bonz sellers should be .. and first as I stated, if for nothing else so people will better know what to ask I guess I'm crazy thinking this should be the first place for all members to receive this very important information... especially when we have been asking and awaiting her conversations with google


well, it does upset me.. a lot.. it is not your fault Phaedra, I feel Judy should have returned to the waiting people here with this info first instead of it appearing in the middle of the day with a few hours notice on a podcast.. and then going to a blog that many do not know about but, that isn't your fault and maybe I just expect too much


I'll try but the podcast isnt' that far off I guess I am more personally upset since when I recently went to google to get answers myself I was told, by Judy, I need to wait fro her to get answers she was expecting from google and she would report here so, I am not suppose to get answers on my own, am waiting here and by chance saw your thread it is confusing and upsetting I do not think blog links are the answer.... posting pertinent information directly to the forum is... have a great podcast
 

The moderator also added the following note: Attacking or bullying any user in any way for any reason. It's impossible to expect everyone to get along with everyone else, but regardless of your feeling toward another user, civility is a guarantee that every Bonanza user is entitled to and will receive. Expressing negative viewpoints in a non-constructive manner. This applies to negative viewpoints about Bonanza, or negative viewpoints about life in general. There is more than enough unrequited bad news to go around, just check your local newspaper. If what you feel is unrequited dreariness, the Bonanza forums are not a good place to explore the depths of your feelings. Keeping subject matter upbeat is essential to making buyers feel positively when they arrive at Bonanza. More positive feelings for buyers means more sales for sellers, and by golly, that's what picks up everybody's mood. Invoking drama. There are one thousand and one beginnings to a drama. This is great news for soap opera writers, but bad news for marketplace forums. Rule of thumb: if it is an emotional topic that people could even conceivably disagree about, it's quite possibly destined to become a drama. Other conduct unbecoming a good community member: expressing polictical or religious viewpoints, asking for donations, using foul language, engaging in threads of adult nature (drugs, drinking, etc.), threatening to talk to lawyers or file lawsuits, stalking, booth chat hijacking, starting topics about topics that have been reclassified, unnecessarily assuming the worst in others or Bonanza, spam.  


Friday, March 25, 2011

Expecting Too Much of Bonanza Staff ??? Learning Google Changes the Hard Way!

I would say I expect too much, too much logic, too much professionalism, too much everything. But, my expectations are based on years of experience with many people and many companies. Seeing how others do things I don't think my expectations are too high.

I feel Bonanza should put informing members of any changes and updates as a priority. Information is vital to the businesses of their customers, the sellers.Those of you who know me know I have been saying for a long time that Bonanza needs to send out informative emails about updates and changes. Not everyone goes to the forum, many do not even know there is a blog, and often times meaningful, informative information and discussions are deleted from the forum.

About a week ago a thread was started on the forum about new changes to google shopping and required attributes. This naturally caused a lot of questions and concerns. It would have been nice if before this Bonanza management would have issued an announcement and that once they verified some the details with google they would give us all the information we need to make changes, how to do listings in the future and so on.

Well, the official google staff member, Judy Oglesby,  answered questions on the thread, stated that she needed to clarify some things with google and would get back to everyone when she heard from them.

During that thread the subject came up of exemptions and an exemption form that could be submitted to google, Judy even said she was going to send one to someone. Naturally everyone else wanted one. After a friend emailed me a link to the forum, it dawned on me that we do not submit our own feed, the site does so we would not be able to submit individual exemption forms, the site would have to do something. I went to that thread and asked Judy about it and sent her a bmail asking her to go to the thread. I saw her on the site and responding on numerous other threads. I went to the google forum to ask for myself.  I found out we could not, meanwhile, Judy found me on the google thread. She responded on the thread and to my earlier bmail. I was suppose to be patient and let her get all the answers from google and she would let everyone know everything when she found out.

Meanwhile, she now knows she gave incorrect info about the exemption forms, I knew people were looking into this and thinking they could do it, I waited for her to go to the tread to let people know they couldn't do it.... after some time I made a simple announcement that individuals would not be able to submit them.

We have heard nothing official about these new requirements since.. not from judy or the boyz... so, we all sit patiently waiting...... then this morning

Phedra posts this on the forum ....
Today at 230 EST, 130 CST our very own Judy Oglesby will be on a special edition of the eCom Connections podcast.
Judy will be clarifying the new Google Product feed changes and requirements. Judy has been in communication with Google and is prepared to bring you the real scoop and info.

So if you have been concerned about the upcoming changes – Tune in. Find out clearly for yourself what if anything will need to be done to comply.
http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/talkCast.jsp?masterId=92253&cmd=tc


WTH

I have no problem with her doing a talk show that will benefit more than just Bonanza Sellers.. but, I would think her priority as a bonz staff member in charge of google would be to tell us first and someplace we can all see it and discuss it. Especially since we are all waiting .. .... and waiting.....

Not only that, this time of this show.. and with 4 hours notice.. when we bring that up...well, it's going to be on the blog and you can listen to the show anytime you want ..so what

for one thing had the info been on the forum first.. the questions would be better because people would know better what to ask ... many on dial up and with older computers have issues viewing podcasts

that show and that blog is not Bonanza... why can we not get the info we need on the site we sell on by the person who is supposed to give it to us and has us waiting

this is info that needs to be taught to bonz sellers not discussed first on some radio show.. do that at some point but talk to us straight up on the forum first

Judy works for Bonanza.. shouldn't her priority be to the site and to us.. not to someones podcast and that persons offsite blog... and what about those of us who try to help others...are we suppose to send them to someones podcast or blog.. I know I wont.

Considering the emphasis bonz puts on google shopping and the stress it causes many sellers, you would think they would want to put  this  on the forum ASAP.

I heard just yesterday from a different staff member how they are all so overworked.... sigh.. funny how we seemed to get more done and be more informed before there were so many people working there.. or am I imagining that?

is it too much to ask that we get this information first and get it on site or via email from management

so, what are your thoughts on this ???

LINKS TO THINGS I REFERENCED
thread about changes on bonz forum
http://www.bonanza.com/forums/4/topics/155412 
to Phaedra's thread
http://www.bonanza.com/forums/1/topics/156445?page=1#posts-2198043 
to the google forum thread
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/base/thread?tid=015b7c2f58a32994&hl=en 

Monday, March 7, 2011

Bonanza Memberships Are they a Bargain?

Sparking this blog is todays announcement of a paid membership revamp and new tier at Bonanza.

You will find the announcement and comments here
http://www.bonanza.com/blog/main/Upgrades_to_subscribing_member_programs

I am doing this blog in order to sort out the various membership tiers and see if they are beneficial, the pros and cons of each and to see if they are a bit misleading as presently advertised

Also to give a public place for those who wish to be able to comment  as not all are comfortable doing so on bonz.

*******************

Silver $10 monthly
1 - For small sellers
2 - Get a pro member badge on your profile
3 - Track customers with Google Analytics
4 - Eligibility to be a featured booth
5 - Control how Amazon reviews appear for your items
6 - Customize the item sorting in your booth
7 - Add booth panels to show special promotions to buyers
8 - View and print inventory sheets for easy inventory tracking
9 - Compared to non-members...
 2x more page views on average-
 3x more sales on average


1 -I personally think there is a better term
2 - nice badge but wont get me any sales
3 - nice
4 - that is good but I do have to wonder how many come and actually go to the buy page... most hit the home page and check out the HPLs and or do a search
5 - good
6 - some like this.. I feel buyers sort as they want to when they get there I do LOL but nice if you like it
7 - very nice to have
8 - convenient for some
9-  as pointed out on the blog, and  I wont bother to repeat it all here.. there is no real data to prove this


My personal conclusion, this is the best bang for your buck .. why, it's $10 and the booth panels are nice to have .. some benefit from the item sort

 COULD BE MISLEADING 
 Eligibility to be a featured booth

so, you are eligible .. does that mean it rotates and all silver members show up there .. or you may if they decide to put you there... are the booths featured by a fair means of doing this or are you just eligible for a chance

Compared to non-members...
 2x more page views on average-
 3x more sales on average


there is nothing to back this up and we constantly see people who think they will get sales if they get a membership and then are upset if they do not

as we tell them.. get the membership to support the site but do not expect sales because of it.. too many other factors and non of us have seen the proof in this one


******
 Gold $24 monthly
★ Best value ★
1-All Bonanza Silver features

2-Organize custom category hierarchies
3-See your items prominently featured on the home page
4-Get your items promoted in search
5-Get detailed information about where your sales are coming from
6-Promote your items with markdowns
7-Collect email addresses from buyers
8-Compared to non-members...
5x more page views on average
5x more sales on average


2- this should be available to all sellers IMO as it helps the sellers and if sellers do well so does the site and personally wouldnt' pay just to get this feature as we have all learned a work around to give us subcategories .. but this would be a lot easier and I think has a way to move them around.. nice but not worth the money a small perk that everyone should have
3- well now, unless someone puts them on a HPL that can't happen
4- they get that side slot .. more exposure.. I guess
5- thought that was provide with # 3 in the silver membership
6- this should be offered to all sellers .. again, it helps sellers with sales and helps the site
7 - a convenience but you can get them with PP and GC payments and GC even asks the buyer if they want to receive future info from you
8-  same as 9 above

COULD BE MISLEADING 
 3 -- many do not realize that to get on the homepage you have to first be on a HPL
4 -- Many think you get higher rankings in search
5-- Isn't that google analytics you get with the silver membership
8 .. same as the silver .. this will not necessarily get you sales.. on average or not and they have no real facts to support this

*******
Platinum $50 monthly
For power sellers
1- All Bonanza Gold features
2- No fees when your items sell. Period.
3- Get support from a dedicated sales consultant  


the term power seller has been removed or change.. again, they didn't think before acting or they would have realized the knee jerk reaction this would get from their customers

they also removed the 5X sales boost they had there since it was obvious they have no data to support that this being the first day and all

now, the only thing this is good for are sellers who are averaging $50 or more a month in FVF .. I dont' think there are that many at bonz right now ... more power to those who are .. congrats

but, they should just call it a flat rate FVF option and not a membership .. cause this is the only thing this membership has

consultation??? these sellers do not need a lot of help and Alex stated they consultants would help other people too that the platinum members would get priority .. well who is paying $50 in FVF a month that has an urgent issue about how to do their listings
********************************

IN CONCLUSION

If you would like to support the site and have custom banners get a silver membership.. do not have expectations of more sales

If you will benefit from the gold .. go for it but don't expect more sales

If you average $50 or more a month in FVF then go for the platinum.. but don't expect it to get you more sales

the way they have them set up and advertised now I find to be misleading to those who are not familiar with the site or online selling

Once again, they have done all this.. made changes that have messed up the site.. today all those with custom categories have non.. it's a glitch .. like always... something big to us is messed up and the improvements that Bonanza's customers are looking for are nowhere in sight.

Now, if they want to start doing REAL advertising.. I bet people would be happy to pay for that.

these are my personal observations... what are yours???