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.
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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
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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
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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
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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???
In the future if they were to have the site in very good working order, they have advertised and pulled in the kind of traffic to warrant this structure it would be something to look into, but at this time this site has nothing I would be willing to pay $600 a year for, and the thought of paying for something so uncertain a year in advance is just plain foolish unless you are already making enough sales that the flat rate FVF perk is beneficial. JMHO
ReplyDeleteAs presented, your summary and conclusions are spot on! I especially agree with your statement about paying for REAL advertising.
ReplyDeleteI like Cheese.
ReplyDeleteMine opinions are...I am very disappointed in the effort made by Bonz to increase income for themselves rather than to benefit my selling efforts with increased sales. Too many things do not function correctly now and working on this is the cart before the horse. I want proof and to see a track records before I buy into all of this....I used to think eBay was bad but I can tolerate eBay because I get something for my money.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Pugs, Avocadolane and you too sandycourtney.
ReplyDeleteI want so much for Bonz to get the traffic we need so that everyone is selling. Bonanza is a great site.
Now - where's the Cheese?! Swiss please!
Well stated twysp2.
ReplyDeleteThe only difference I found in Bonanzle and eBay was at least with eBay I made sales. It did cost more but I was able to afford it.
ReplyDeleteI left over 1 1/2 years ago so I really have no place in these conversations. Still I do like cheese and just shared 8 crackers with my Granddaughter.
You're right James. It equals out to sales and the cost of advertising.
ReplyDeleteJust cannot justify any memberships at this time. Until effort is firmly directed at obtaining traffic I feel like I'm throwing money away. If they would work on advertising the site so that the name was least recognized I would pay. Now if I was selling high end antiques or purses it could be a real deal. Kind of seems to be helping those folks out and not the small sellers
ReplyDeletesometimes you just get what you pay for James
ReplyDeleteand I fear anyone paying out for these memberships will not be getting what they will be expecting
if you haven't gone to your "my bonanza" today.. when you do you will see them advertised on the top right side..they are really pushing them
maybe they are getting desperate... maybe that million they got is about gone and they still have all those high price salaries to pay.. like Ale's and the social guy.. has he done anything BTW other than that time he made people mad
@ sofy ..
ReplyDeleteyep, what good does it do to get more exposure on a site if no buyers know to vistit the site
we are still almost totally dependent on search engines for sales
and I don't need a membership for that
That there are no free trials for upgrades or previous subscribing members is another indication of how little regard Bonanza mgmt has for its most steadfast members (or what is left of them). Many good people nearly starved building that site for them, promoting their venue and waiting for the traffic to come, hoping to catch a break by now. Offering "consulting help" for only the highest level (I see they are back-pedaling on that now and also on the 5x more sales for platinum tier statement which been also been rescinded – but was in place at "launch") flies in the face of good business practices. In my world, your old customers are your lifeblood and you treat them like gold. And that is why Bonanza is no longer part of my world.
ReplyDeleteI have no words to add you all did just fine.
ReplyDeleteOh I was wrong.. here are just a few more words... I can truly say that I am very sorry that this site that seemed so promising did not live up to the original vision. The goal of "relentless simplicity". Instead they have replaced that with relentless stupidity :(
These memberships are a joke. I don't qualify for the free month to try the gold because I already had a plus membership. They don't tell you that upfront so when people sign up and get the bill they ought to be pissed. Not very bright of them cause if the 'free' gold had gotten the 5X sales they promise then I would have gladly paid for the gold from then on.
ReplyDeleteI would gladly pay for advertising! So when do you think we will get that?
Bonz will not be advertising for sure.
ReplyDeleteBut, I can say that the quality of the site, in my opinion, has gone down huge.
People being suspended for stating what they believe, that is just not right!
I have not had sales, but I do sell handcrafted items and the economy is still in a bad situation.
I just do not believe the site will be around in another 2 years. But, again that is my opinion.
I sell........on other sites, so I refuse to believe all that is wrong on Bonanza has to do with the economy. Actually, I sold a few items here and there on bonz, but the checkout was glitchy and very unreliable (along with many other things along the way), so I chose to move on to save myself some stress.
ReplyDeleteI agree, with what has been said above. Only someone that was very ignorant would go for what they are offering now, or someone who is selling enough to warrant paying $600.00 a year to sell on their site. Even that is way too much to pay, just to get free FVF.
ReplyDeleteThey do not intend to advertise in the way it should be advertised to bring in customers, and do not intend to do anything that will really help the sellers.
I would say Greed got the best of them, and they are now out for getting all they can with nothing given in return.
I don't think it's greed.. I think it's desperation.. just my guess
ReplyDeleteSadly I have to agree with all of the above statements. It's a mess!
ReplyDeleteAgree to all above! Google Analytic is free on almost any selling site but on Bonz you have to pay the membership to have it! I've been a paying member since I joined Bonz Nov.20/08 and cancel it after 1 year because I didn't make enough sales to pay for it. Took it again this month just to be able to get GA to see where my traffic come from and I will cancel it after the 30 day.
ReplyDeleteWent back to eBay 2 weeks ago, list only 2 items and sold one at the same price I had it on Bonz for 2 years! I'm working on my personal website right now and will keep moving on. No more time to waste!
this membership Ad has been misleading, thanks for the clarification; I was duped.
ReplyDeletethis latest glitch filled upgrade was/is the worst'BUT at least it wasn't done a few weeks before Christmas as done in the last few years.
Your analysis was numero uno
The way they presented it first was totally miss leading.
ReplyDeleteThey said you would get 5 X more sales, then had to amend that. They seem to think due to the membership level that is what gets you sales. That is totally miss leading, it is through the efforts of the sellers who promote their own items, that gets them sales, not anything that Bonanza has done. They won't even advertise for their own site, so how can they say any membership will get you more sales when they have not done one thing to bring in any buyers.
If their original business plan included having members do all the advertising for the site, then I believe all that can be accomplished has been accomplished. Although advertising is expensive, there are lots of creative ways to get your name out to the public.
ReplyDeleteHere in the Philly area, the local news stations run bits on area businesses almost every night. Just starting out small by sponsoring a local charity event is sometimes enough to get TV coverage. I don't think anyone is expecting them to empty their bank account on a one time, big deal promotion, but the truth is (as I see it) that you've got to start somewhere. If you want to start out small, then fine...but at least start!!
I started selling on Bonanza 1 year ago with a "Plus" membership and upgraded to a "Premeire" after 1 month. After giving 7 months of payments @$24/mo. I decided that this was definitely not helping us out at all. Our sales just did not warrant paying the monthly fee. I did stay until after the Christmas holiday season (not wanting to lose any exposure we might get) and then dropped back down to the "Plus" (now "Silver"). In the meantime I started selling on ADDOWAY.com; also immediately signing up for their "Pro" plan @$8.95/mo. I imported all of my Bonanza items, so the store is essentially identical, just a different site. Within 2 days we had garnered 6 sales from the Addoway site with none from Bonanza. This has continued with approximately 8-10 times the sales on Addoway as compared to Bonanza and with NO Final Value Fees. We get around 800-1000 visits to the Addoway site per month vs. 300-400 to Bonanza (Google Analytics) from many more sources, which tells me that Addoway is making a genuine and effective effort to advertise their site in many venues.
ReplyDeleteBottom line is; We will likely just drop our "Silver" membership and save the $10/mo. I expect we may lose some sales, but the $10 savings each month will make up the difference in the profit margin. Essentially, we will just use Bonanza as an advertising venue for our 6 other stores and take what sales we get there as a plus.
Bonanza needs to take a serious look at their operation or I predict they will fail soon. As with EBAY, it seems there are far too many high cost executives siphoning off the fees and too few workers doing what they should. There are far too many other venues that are free or relative inexpensive that are doing what is necessary to pull in buyers.
ADDOWAY---- A++++++ in our book...!!!
Thanks Kontry Korner. I've read similar from other Bonz sellers. I think I'm going to look into Addoway. It sounds like a viable alternative. I'm curious as to what Addoway is doing to drive traffic to the site?
ReplyDeleteAddoway to begin with makes and concerted effort to put items from all members, paying and non on the front page with the daily items that are featured on the home page
ReplyDeletebelow that you will find a rotation of featured sellers.. this is one of the things you get with membership... you will often find yourself on the front page, great exposure
below that on the home page are featured itmes.. this is a great perk for paid members.. you can choose which items you want to feature and they rotate on the home page... super exposure
IMO those 2 things alone are worth the cost in membership... much more exposure than any extra you get on bonz with membership
Addoway also features a seller each day on their FB page
but, Addoway seems to realize that the sellers are their customers and a commodity, an asset to the site ... all of those points seem to miss the bonz mentality
bonz does not realize what we need to function best.. that they need to help us bring in buyers.. for them to succeed we need to succeed.. one will not without the other
The boyz have their strengths but it seems to me business or at least online selling and understanding the functioning and marketing aspects are not their strong suits. They have now stopped listening to those with the knowledge and experience to help them.
I sincerely hope they start listening to those who understand such things and do not fall more in the way of ebay .... when ebay stopped listening to sellers they were huge... they shifted focus to their own pockets ... while things changed.. they were big enough that the site would still stay functioning and making money... just not the same as it was... Bonz is not huge and if it shifts it's focus from building a site like it was doing in the first year ... they will not make it to the site they could have become... they are thinking more of themselves it seems.. and if that is the case.. we will all loose, them included
It does seem to me that the Boyz are more fascinated with "bells and whistles" than they are with making sure the basic nitty gritty is working on the site, let alone advertising.
ReplyDeleteThe new pricing plan was quite frankly something that took me be surprise. IMO, it was the very last thing they should have been thinking about at this point.
My two year anniversary with the site is coming up in a few days, and the thought of having another holiday season come and go without any real improvement in the way the site works is quite disconcerting, to say the least.
I try to promote the site whenever I can, but quite frankly I'm getting tired of getting empty stares when I mention Bonanza. Getting my items on Addoway before the holidays will probably be my next move.
Wow! This was certainly educational. I have been a Bonz seller for over a year. My sales are not what I had hoped for. I left ebay due to the increased fees. I'm not sure what to do next. I will listen and learn.
ReplyDeleteEmme;
ReplyDeleteI joined Bonanza in March of 2009 from e-Bay. It took until the end of July to make my first sale. The next one wasn't until October. Things have picked up since then, but I usually have two or three sales within a week, and then nothing for weeks after that.
Bonanza definitely has potential, but I just can't see how they expect to be really competitive without some sort of name recognition.
I'd like to know what Addoway is doing differently, because they same to have more name recognition than Bonanza; at least the people I talk to at auctions seem to know about Addoway. Can't say the same about Bonanza, unfortunately.
Regardless of what happens, I will keep some things on Bonanza, drop back in my membership and use the money to get started on Addoway. I will be retiring from my job in June of this year, so that's when I make the move.
Reading the forums on Bonanza and reading the blogs off of Bonanza does provide valuable information at times! :-)
Great post pugs. Personally, I can't justify paying them for a membership. I'll soon be paying somebody monthly, but it will be the place hosting my own site.
ReplyDeleteOh my, I loved bonanzle when it was an infant. The boards were fun and informative. I signed on wanting simplicity. I left when bonanzle became anything but simple.
ReplyDeleteAs an update, I decided to join Addoway now instead of waiting until June. Just my opinion, but I found setting up my storefront to be much easier and less time consuming than when I did so at Bonanza (especially Google Checkout). Once Google verifies my bank account (again), I'll be posting items that I don't have on Bonanza. The success of that move will determine how many items I transfer over to Addoway. I find it fascinating that Addoway has only been around for a year, and many people I've talked to at local auctions have already heard of it, and have shopped their. I dearly wish I could say the same about Bonanza.
ReplyDeleteAs of now (2015), here's my humble opinion. Come-back coupons as Bonz calls them and markdown pricing should be available to everyone. Especially the so-called coupons; this feature should be enabled on the invoice. I really don't care about markdowns, but being unable to offer discounts to the repeat buyers? That is rather strange. Bonz doesn't welcome repeat buyers?
ReplyDeleteCategory Builder is nice to have, however am not sure how this appeals to the buyers. I can manually do a cross-promotion by inserting links into the related items. Done this on eBay and it works.
Re: repeat buyers. I meant you wouldn't be able to offer a come-back coupon to the buyers if you don't pay membership fees. I thought to maybe contact my old eBay buyers, now will think twice.
ReplyDelete
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