Mind-boggling site folks, too much to take in all at once for my poor feeble brain. So happy to have found you & be allowed to join!
Searching for potential new home/s since the rotten treatment us aussies have received of late from u know who
Give me time to find my way, then I hope to be an asset to the group.

Yup, there is a lot of information available here and lots of super people who would like to share their knowledge too....

Nice to have you with us here at PSU!

CNote

Glad to see another new face. Good luck with your endeavors.

Hi & many thanks to you both.
dlrane, just had a look at your 30 hr site Wow! I'm impressed, keep up the good work.
Don't think I could ever do that, I'm a computer Neanderthal.

Thanks Reso,
I must admit I have put a few (15) more hours into the site since that post. I really need to spend another day tweeking it and adding my Atomic Mall Venue to it, but I have been busy loading my stores for the Holiday Season. There are a lot of places out there to build a personal website, with little or no HTML required. Most of my pages are templates that I just fill in the blanks, cut and paste some images, and wala! A new site is born.

I too was a neanderthal in May, but things are changing for me from the great posts and knowledge I have gathered from my fellow PSU members. The information comes in daily by the truckloads, it is up to the individual to do something with it or not. JMO

Welcome to PSU, reso_mad!

We're glad you're here!

copperpenny22


No trees were killed in the transmission of this message; but a large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced!

Do You TUG?

Welcome to PSU! Very glad to have you here

Check out the Search Forum at the top of the page, and the many useful links on the left side. One of the best featured forums I've ever used! Full of great info (and some not so great, but still....)

Welcome reso-mad- its nice to have another Aussie onboard to talk about specifically Australian issues.

If you Aussies have an answer, let me know... whenever... Where should an Aussie looking for an Aussie site be suggested to go besides eBay since Oztion sold out? Would eBid be a good suggestion? Or the free online stores? Or another international site? Or would it be more about what one sells? Or are you happy to use eBay since you folks won the PayPal fight? I have collected very few AU-oriented sites, but that may be because I have not looked in the right places...

Dear Purple,

Thanks for asking! There have been some great success stories involving former huge Aussie powersellers setting up their own web sites and paying a lot of attention to email marketing SEO etc..

I think the way forward for all ebay sellers, whether they be Australian or International, whether they have their own web site or list on the ebay alternatives is MARKETING.

Ebay is good in that this side of things is totally taken care of for us. When we move off ebay over the next 12 months, or least minimize our participation there, we see marketing as a major `new job' that will need to be taken onboard. To accommodate this, we are updating our inventory and worl metods so that we will have time for the new work.

I'm actually kind of excited about it, really. I got into online sales because I lam fascinated by online marketing. Ebay has left me feeling a bit stagnant lately, so the change to off-ebay selling will be a lot of fun and probably just what i need creatively speaking.

I agree that a new challenge can sometimes be just what one needs!

Based on user feedback, I would suggest BISI for an online-store jumping off point. Though I do not know if they currently have built-in AU shipping options, I'll bet that the owners would implement it if asked. They seem very attentive.

I note that though they insist on emphasizing their internationality, auctions8 (new site) has several early-in members from AU, and supports that currency. They are an out-of-the-box site, but honestly seem to have more features enabled or maybe some mods and they have done things to make it more individualized. Do a search of this forum for their name if interested.

I was, personally, very disappointed to hear that OZtion caved just when they might have taken off.

I think my attitude about what Australian sellers might need is colored by reading the report submitted against the PayPal only scheme. It showed data that well over 90% (I can't recall the exact numbers) of AU online sales were between Aussies. I figured that shipping costs might factor strongly in that. I know of a few other AU-based sites, but I think eBid might be most worth looking at.

One's own website seems to have the best chance of long-term success based on what I've seen from long-time members here.

Please let me know if you see anything you think I should add to my limited resources for AU sellers - even a good local web-host might be helpful to someone.

Hi again & thanks to all for the warm welcome, good advice etc.
#9 good question & one reason I'm here. We may have won the initial P'pal fight but it 'aint over yet!
The dirty tricks pulled on us aussies have to be experienced to be believed! I fear the rest of you are now starting to find out what we are up against.
Where to go? I think it boils down to trust & maybe what one sells. If I had a totally unique product, I'd think a personal site was the way to go.
Many of us down here have lost all trust in an international company who think they are above our laws. I'm looking for a home based site probably. Doesn't have to be free, but the cheaper the better naturally. I will check out the sites you mentioned, thanks for that. All the best from down under.

Bonanzle just said to user fairdinkum that they already have AU members. That site is taking off, though I worry it might temporarily implode every now and then simply because it is (as is AtomicMall) experiencing such explosive growth, and every new site will have growing pains. Never-the-less, many sellers have reported early sales to outside buyers - that's a very good sign. You might read those two threads and see what you think.

G'day Purple, I've had a quick look at the sites you mentioned & they all look good. Some seem a little too cluttered for me, one reason I shied away from Oztion - just personal choice I guess, quite apart from the recent sale. Other international based sites
I believe I'll keep out of as explained earlier, I'd probably stick close to home. auctions8 looks very promising to me & appears to have a growing international membership, including quite a few from your neck of the woods! The reason there may be more resident aussies at the moment, is the fact that we were the first to suffer at the hands of ebay & lots of sellers left for other alternatives. This is still occurring, have a read of the Au boards! I agree the postage problem here is unavoidable for us - the tyranny of distance & a smallish population see's to that! Thanks again.