Jim Cockrum Blog

Amazon Selling Expert & Internet Marketing Thought Leader

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How to drive traffic to your eBay and Amazon listings

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One of the questions I get asked occasionally by new eBay and Amazon sellers is this,

“Jim, how do I drive traffic to my eBay and Amazon listings?”

That’s the wrong question.

There’s an inherent problem in that question that I’d like to expose in this blog post. This post is aimed primarily at “newbies” with stars in their eyes and big hopes for fast success.

If that’s you, the next paragraph is important for you to understand and take to heart and could save you a TON of wasted time, energy, effort and cash:

The beauty of Amazon and eBay is that the massive customer base is BUILT IN and all of those people are in a SHOPPING MOOD. There’s no need to ‘drive customers’ to your listings if you’ve picked the right products to sell.

If you picked the WRONG product or are trying to sell your own original unknown product and are left trying to “drive traffic” to it you are playing an entirely different and more difficult game.

While you may hear stories of people promoting their eBay and Amazon listings using SEO tactics, you won’t find me spending (wasting) much time on that type of strategy for newbies b/c it’s such wasted effort for nearly all people who try to do it.

The fact is, even if you start driving traffic to your products on Amazon or eBay from an external source (i.e. your blog for example), the number of competing products that Amazon and eBay display next to your offer will offset any advantage you may have had. You’d have likely been better off just selling the items on your own blog -something I also don’t recommend trying.

If profit is part of your goal, you are better off putting your energy into creating and finding products that have built in demand vs. wasting time trying to drive traffic to your listings.

My best guess is that the concept of “driving traffic to your listings” is something you read on a shiny object sales page somewhere. I can assure you that there’s absolutely NO strategy that exists to make this happen more often than every once in awhile. When it does work, it works for only the rarest of lucky sellers who are also tenacious risk takers and who are also willing to see it all vanish overnight on the whim of a Google algorithm change. (If you don’t understand that last sentence you should DEFINITELY stay away from any “driving traffic” strategies.)

I spend a great deal of time on my blog talking about SEO. My views used to be considered crazy, but now more and more experts are acknowledging that I was ahead of my time on this topic…and that I’m right! Read through the SEO section of this site or my blog for more detail. I promise you’ll never look at “driving traffic” the same way!

And I’ll repeat my foundational advice for this post:

If profit is part of your goal, you are better off putting your energy into creating and finding products that have built in demand vs. wasting time trying to drive traffic to your listings.

Please leave a comment – let’s talk about it…

Comments

  1. Hey Jim, Great advice. And that shiny object tactic of ‘here’s a few ways to drive traffic to your amazon listing’ was part of that whopping $3500+ ‘course’ that was launched earlier this month. eBay and Amazon already have the rushing flood of eyeballs, anything else is just a slow drip.

  2. Jim,
    You are 100% correct. I once thought about promoting my listings via an external website. However, through proper coaching and taking a step back I’ve learned and see that it’s already there for you. All you have to do is learn the business model and find the right products to sell. The foundational advice is golden and if practiced then success is inevitable.

    Regards,
    Frank

  3. Heh Jim, Thanks for your post – always a good read. Just one question. Forgive me if you have answered it before – but I’ve looked around and can’t see it – so maybe there is no “Magic” answer, but if it’s “about creating and finding products that have built in demand”, may I ask how you find such products?

    • There are so many great answers to that question, but I won’t go into it here. The “finding” is the “work” that most people are unwilling to do though. That’s what makes this such a great biz model. We have multiple ideas (with more being added all the time) at MySilentTeam.com as well as in the ProvenAmazonCourse.com course. Here are a few that come to mind: First learn to research if an item will sell or not. (i.e. is it hot on eBay’s closed listings search?)

      Next find great streams of inventory: Form exclusive relationships with manufacturers of in demand products and help them sell them online, run cragislist ads for hot products, hire and train local trusted shoppers to find inventory in retail & closeout, hire coupon chasers/shoppers and sell ANYTHING that you can get cheap on amazon

      There are literally hundreds of ways to work this biz. Your local demographics and geography likely give you a big advantage as well. Look around…talk around. You’ll find great ideas right under your nose.

  4. Thanks for the timely post Jim. Have been thinking about this and wondering if there was more I should be doing on the marketing end. One question though, how does this relate to building a following I can sell to again and again? Is this post strictly related to SEO/PPC type strategies? You did mention sending people to eBay/Amazon from your blog in the post. Help me tie it together.

    • There are countless ways to grow your email list for repeat future business. I use aweber.com as my tool of choice. I have a course about how I use aweber (it’s cheap) at listbuildingclass.com (click the order button – it’s only $7).

      The easiest point to invite someone to your list is when the BUY something. With eBay I list multiple ideas in the SilentSalesMachine.com book on how to do this. With Amazon it’s far trickier and amazon is set up to prevent it.

      This article is a warning for you to avoid any “driving traffic” types of activities when selling on amazon and eBay. To be clear, PPC/SEO/Blogging/youtube videos etc. if being done to drive traffic to ebay/amazon is a wasted effort 99% of the time.

      Spend some time in the other sections of my blog, or pick up the SilentSalesMachine.com book – this will all clear up in your mind very quickly.

  5. Totally agree with you, Jim!

    The point is to source products that are in demand because you cannot “create demand” for a product – it’s either there or it isn’t.

    So the key is to source higher-demand products to enjoy a great eBay / Amazon business!

  6. Hi Jim,

    My friend on the east coast sent your stuff to me. I’m glad he did. Your advice is bang on. I’ve been on the internet since day 1. Really… I was on the BBS systems back in 1993 and I’ve been marketing online since 1998. I have done it all. I’ve had as many as 75 sites, including some html sites in the early days. I’ve purchased thousands of dollars of “shiny objects” over the years. All I can say is thankfully they are tax write-offs! The gurus are increasingly annoying to me and especially so lately with them seeming to be in a launch frenzy. Your advice is like finding an oasis in the middle of a desert. Keep up the great work. I’ll find your main site and link it to my own site.

  10. Your completely 100% right Jim. It is the simple stuff that works. It just takes persistance, hardwork, and just keep doing the basics. Madeleine Stokes asked a question tho that I would like to see more comments on: How do you choose the right products?

    • I’ve said my bit on the “sourcing products” for now, but the community inside the ProvenAmazonCourse.com forums have that as a central topic…with many more new ideas coming soon. If anyone has other ideas they want to share here though please do!!

  11. I agree 100%. It is better to learn how to source products that people want than to drive traffic to products they don’t. “If people want what your selling you’ll get rich”

  12. That’s the best piece of advice I’ve heard in a long time. I know too well what your talking about when you say you stand to lose everything on “the whim of a Google algorithm change”. I now choose to leverage Amazon’s traffic and concentrate on sourcing and streamlining my business processes. Loving the PAC course and having tons of fun while doing it. Awesome advice!

    • Keep rocking Jay! The PAC crowd is a fantastic community – I’m glad you are a part of it. Send me your story sometime…I’d love to hear it and add it to our STACK of success stories.

      Be blessed-

  13. Jim,

    How does this advice (which I think is very sound) impact your Amazon description and keywords for your listings. Do you think that using SEO tactics will help people find/pull up your listing over someone elses?

    I suppose the first question should be, “Do we have any control over what Amazon displays for our listings?”

    I guess I’m really asking, “How much time and effort should we expend on our listing description and keywords?”

    Jerry Nielsen

  14. I feel like I have been slapped across the face with a semi truck and thank God this truck is carrying a load of truth. I have been searching some time and buying shiny objects that only turned to rust. Now I realize what I have been looking for has been right under my nose.
    For many years. I had a successful off-line retail/wholesale business and was always wondering how could I put it online. Jim I Would like to Thank You for Giving Me That Answer.
    About 20 different gurus sent me the link to the $3500 Amazon program but one gentleman named Eric sent me your link. I have joined your program and have been reading your book the Silent Sales Machine. Now I see a light through the darkness.

  16. Just another quick thought to add. I’m definitely learning that sourcing products that are in demand is the most important part of a physical products business BUT at the same time, it isn’t necessarily a waste of time to “drive” traffic to your items on the marketplaces (ebay, amazon, etc). I have just started using Pinterest and Twitter to do some promoting of our items on both ebay and amazon. I am positive it has really made a difference and has helped to increase my sales. Just another view-point. 😉

    • Great tips for sure…but my advice would be don’t become reliant on driving traffic to make sales…make it more of an “icing on the cake” simple experiment. Finding products that are already in demand will outperform any “traffic generation” tactics in the long term.

      Keep up the great work!

  17. I know the BEST way to drive traffic to my eBay auctions.

    I send all my buyers an email telling them I just made out their shipping label and when to expect the package. Then I give them a short overview of my new auctions with a link. Depending on the product, I get 20-45% repeat buyers. The message is just a template I paste into a reply to the paypal transaction email. It takes about 2 minutes to fix up the message each week, then maybe 5 seconds to send it to each buyer.

  18. Hey Jim. I agree in that eBay & Amazon already have the built in traffic to see our products. We have been selling on eBay for over 13 years & still looking to source “in demand” items. Now to find what is in demand. 🙂

    What do you say about having an Amazon Affiliate site, where you make a percentage of every sale? Been thinking about it lately. Thanks in advance for your opinions.
    Jim & Donna

    • Thanks for the comment! Building an “affiliate site” is NOT a good business move in my opinion. While there’s certainly no harm in it, the odds of your success are very slim. Check out the “affiliate marketing” section of my blog for more details as to why this is the case. You’ll find many “gurus” selling courses about affiliate marketing, but please know that the only people who are predictably making money in the affiliate marketing game are those selling the courses. Everyone else has about a 5% chance of success long term.

      • Thank you Jim. Certainly appreciate this type of assistance. Jim & I agree, though at first really thought about it. You have saved us some money for sure & a headache. 🙂
        Donna

  19. OK, I’m convinced…no traffic driving for me…! However, that being said…and on behalf of those of us who are NOT product creators, would you consider writing an article on the where and how we look for products with “built-in demand” – using examples of course…!

    Thx Jim… from all of us still trapped on Planet Noob-e…!

  20. With experience doing it both ways I can tell you that if you know how to drive traffic and you are not doing it you are losing so much money. Its really a no brainier to send people to the big bad and trusted amazon with your affiliate link to your own product you then have instant amazon credibility, because of your increase in sale you will get much more exposure on amazon and in turn will sale even more products. I literately died laughing when I heard this advice.

    • So, in missing the point of my article you STILL got value (a good laugh). I’m here to serve…even if it’s just a good laugh. btw- I’m not against using an affiliate link if you send traffic to your listings. I do it all the time. That’s not the point of the article though.

  21. Yes Jim I don’t really feel like you know much about Amazon when you say that. Sorry but competing on the same SKU 150 other 3rd party merchants are selling with a negative margin even though it has traffic is a waste of time…Sorry but I should be writing your blog on selling sought after products anyway. But I wouldn’t do that because the old school distribution model is over…As a matter of fact the above blog is kind of scary.

    • I think you are missing the point of this article. I stand by every word. You seem to be saying that the hundreds of sellers that we’ve taught to earn thousands weekly on Amazon- many of whom are using the strategies I just laid out – are all actually not earning any money. They are all making up their statistics and screenshots then right?

      We don’t teach people to compete with multiple other sellers. We teach them to find hot in demand products that are selling for more on eBay and amazon than they can easily be sourced for elsewhere. We have multiple sourcing options available to our students beyond that as well. In the end though it’s basic supply and demand that determines winners and losers. I’m sure your ideas are fantastic as well if they are working.

  25. The internal traffic on Amazon is already very huge and high quality(in SHOPPING MOD as you wrote), so drive traffic from external souce like blog or forums is a kind of wasting time unless the seller have meet encountered a bottleneck to his sales and page views – which can not increase by doing Amazon in-site advertising any more.

  26. Thanks Jim and that’s very insightful argument for eBay and Amazon Seller.

    Actually, our company is facing similar problem of that. How about for those people who have already listed their product on Amazon or eBay? What’s your advice for such situation? If driving traffic is not the solution, does increasing brand awareness will do the trick?

    Our company is selling SSD product on Amazon and we’ll be appreciated if you can take a look and share some of your view about our listing:

    120GB: http://amzn.com/B01N0SFXQF
    240GB; http://amzn.com/B01MT0PNLO

    • you are going to love our ProvenAudienceFormula.com course when it comes out. It’s creative FB marketing strategies for ANY product.

      You can get the videos here of a training workshop we just did leading up to the launch of PAF:

      ProvenGrowthWorkshop.com

      look that over – you’ll like what you see I think.