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View Full Version : Hiring 'Helpers' To Sell An Item



ker1265
10-19-2008, 02:01 AM
Hello :)
I have a small online business, and am trying desperately to get sales, so
I can get up and really running. (I've had over 5,000 hits to my website, and
Only 2 sales.

I was wondering, has anyone ever hired helpers, such as kids or seniors citizens looking to pick up extra money, to try and sell an item from their store.

I had this idea to do so, but was wondering, is it even a legal thing to do ?
What steps would you have to take to get something like that up and running ?

I got the idea from a card company who used to hire kids to sell theri
greeting cards.
The kids would make 3 dollars per item sold..I was thinking of trying something like that...has anyone done this, and is a good idea ? what
Flaws could there be in a plan like this ?

Thanks !

vangogh
10-19-2008, 02:12 AM
Welcome to the forum ker1265.

I would think anyone you hire would need to legally be allowed to work. I think the legal working age is 16. I'd also think you'd have to pay them minimum wage. I'm not a legal expert though.

Why not post a link to your site in our website review section (http://www.small-business-forum.net/website-reviews/). I'm sure we could offer some pointers and advice for helping to convert more of your visitors into customers.

ker1265
10-19-2008, 02:20 AM
I actually forgot about the legal age limit.
I will post a link to my site, I need all the help I can get.

One of the big problems I have on the site, is it is set up with yahoo stores,
And I can't for the life of me adjust the font to a decent size, and I have had
friends/relatives say the print is too small, it doesn't grab their attention, with
the item descriptions...

I've contacted yahoo, but didn't really get a helpful response.
I've adjusted the font myself, but it only made it minimally larger.

my site is www.rhamitreasures.com (http://www.rhamitreasures.com)

vangogh
10-19-2008, 03:34 AM
I don't know too much about working with Yahoo stores, but I do think a better design could help toward improving sales. If you check this page (http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/ecommerce/) for Yahoo Stores (The page is also linked to through the button on your store) and then click the link to view the demo it shows some things about choosing a new design and working with the one you have.

By the way I changed your link so it reads with your site's name. We prefer the links not be optimized with keywords when they don't need to be. Using your url made more sense here.

Steve B
10-19-2008, 05:49 AM
The minimum working age is going to depend on the state. !4 is a fairly common minimum age - but, may require a parent's signature. When I first started working in the 70's - I had to have "working papers" because I was only 14. I think it required a physical and my parent's signature. That was in PA. I don't know what is currently involved, but it wouldn't be hard to research.

ker1265
10-21-2008, 01:12 AM
Thanks for the info- I'll have to check into the age requirements and things needed to hire helpers.
Has anyone advertised their sites with newspaper services ?
a few weeks ago, I contacted the local paper, and they just got back to me about advertising my site..it's about 400 dollars for them to run an ad online for 2 weeks or so,
plus another 200 if I wanted the ad to run in the actual paper, and not just online.
I was just wondering if this was the going rate, or does this seem abit pricey ?
They said the online ad would be various photos of items taken from the website, and
advertised online.

Steve B
10-21-2008, 03:48 AM
It depends. Is this the New York Times or the Spencer County Magnet (my local paper that goes to about 3,000 people)?

KristineS
10-21-2008, 08:54 AM
It depends on how many visitors the site gets. Four hundred dollars could be pretty reasonable if a lot of people will see your ad.

Most people who sell online advertising can supply you with demographic and visitor information. You want to know how many visits the site gets in an average month, not how many hits. You also should ask for unique visitor information.

vangogh
10-21-2008, 11:48 AM
One more thing to keep in mind with advertising is that ads are more effective the more times people are exposed to them. You're better off paying for a small ad that will run several months, you would be paying for a full page ad that only runs once or twice. You see all sorts of different numbers, but people generally need multiple exposure to the same ad before it has any impact with them.

Also think about the paper. Is the paper read by your market? A smaller paper may have less overall readers, but may actually have more readers in your specific market. Try to align your advertising with the readers of any paper or magazine

the goat
10-21-2008, 12:54 PM
Having "helpers" sell your product for you sounds a lot like a grassroots affiliate marketing campaign. Have you looked into getting online affiliates to sell your products?