Tool Repair Parts

**brian.mark** · #1 (**permalink**) 07-19-2005, 05:14 PM

My question is pertaining to Tool Parts Direct.

Would it be worth the effort for me to create a function where people who have purchased broken tools on eBay can enter their auction ID and I'll try to find the right schematic for them?

We're selling a lot of parts already by people searching for parts, our Froogle feed is bringing in a lot of business as well as our text ads (Overture, Google, Kanoodle, etc.) and we're seeing a lot of traffic from our affiliates now, so I'm more to the point of being able to play with functions that would assist people in selecting the correct parts instead of trying to build traffic.

Anyone have an opinion as to if it would be worthwhile or not? Any other "out of the box" ideas from anyone would be very welcomed as well.

Oh, and ctabuk - you are welcome to run whatever it is you do so well for the site too. I think we have a decent handle on things, but you can try to impress me anyway. ;-)

Brian.

**ctabuk** · #2 (**permalink**) 07-20-2005, 06:12 AM

Done and e mailed to you. I did not choose your first keyword, I went for the second namely 'Cordless Power Tools' as this, I feel would be a fair search term to be used by the General Public. I did it on Google.com, I could have done it for any SE. You will find your competitors, their keywords, their positioning etc etc.
Now while I'm doing this, Stithmeister has made an excellent post on 'blogs'- now (not just you Brian, but all readers) I would welcome your views on this post as there is more to marketing than just my views. I am here to learn as well.

cspelts · #3 (**permalink**) 07-20-2005, 06:20 AM

Are you saying that the customer would enter the eBay auction number, then a real human would look at the auction page on eBay and determine what parts they need to fix the tool? And if you mean to do it without human intervention - all the better!

If I've got it right, then yeah, I think it would be VERY useful. And I suppose it would be no more labor than talking to that same customer on the phone?

**brian.mark** · #4 (**permalink**) 07-20-2005, 11:31 AM

We'd have to figure it out without human intervention. There are some eBay modules written in Perl that could do most of what we need with little other effort, so I think I'm going to try developing it. I would make it real-time of course - people don't want to wait.

Oh, and thanks David. I think I might need IBP now that I've seen a report from it. Although we don't sell cordless power tools on that site (stupid SEO firm - those metas stink), you pointed out to me that our other site is now in the top 10 on Google for that term, and I was able to apply much of the comparision stuff to that site. I know what I'm going to change here very soon. :-)

Oh, and about your comment implying that people wouldn't search for tool parts (that's what I took that as) - our CEO here used to agree, but I proved him very wrong. Being #1 for that term has brought us a ton of business.

You just never know what people are going to look for online.

Brian.

**ctabuk** · #5 (**permalink**) 07-20-2005, 11:43 AM

I agree, but it's cool stuff. I can track your positioning on any SE for any serch term in seconds. Which is why I love it.

**brian.mark** · #6 (**permalink**) 07-20-2005, 12:11 PM

It appears that our rankings have improved drastically since the SES conference pages put up their links to our site on both the Monday and Thursday agenda pages (both PR6). Maybe I just need to speak at a ton more conferences and our rankings will take care of themselves... LOL.

Brian.