Hummer News – Vol. 4 – October 2009

As Halloween approaches, all the hummers have been gone here in Massachusetts for at least a couple weeks now. So, I’ve recently thoroughly cleaned all my feeders and tubes with my 10% bleach solution. Everything is nice and clean, ready for next spring, but I would strongly recommend that you use some gloves when you do yours – I didn’t and after a week of using a good hand lotion, the dry skin on my fingers is finally starting to get back o normal. The foliage is beautiful, but I miss the hummers and it seems like such a long time until spring right now…

Do you still have hummers where you are?

I know anecdotally that some of you have hummers all year round. But I would be very interested to hear from you about specific locations that still have hummers now, late in October, or who know they will have them all year. So, if you have a minute and are willing to drop a line, I would very much appreciate hearing from you. I am also, of course, always very interested to hear any feedback regarding the performance of or your experience with the Hummer Photo Feeder ™


eBay’s difficult new policies, new 100% guaranteed satisfaction and feedback


If any of you are small scale eBay sellers like I am, you already know that starting this month eBay changed its policies regarding “Top Rated Seller” and certain listing options that used to be open to help smaller crafter/sellers add critical online visibility. Now, it requires huge dollar sales per month – for me it would mean selling over 100 feeders every month – a very unlikely occurrence. The listing options that have been removed used to allow me to pay some fees and get elevated placement when customers searched for hummingbird feeders and products, as well as add a color stripe that helped my listings stand out.


The result was immediate and difficult. I went from selling a feeder just about every other day, to virtually no sales at all. I know the season was drawing to an end in many places, but it was like someone just turned off the faucet. Folks who were already “Top Sellers” now have all the advantages and I am trying to figure out some ways to deal with the changes.


To help stand out a bit when folks finally get to see my listings, in addition to free shipping, total customer support, Hummer Haven Blog and the best products I can provide, I have added a 100% satisfaction guaranteed policy to all my current feeder listings. If anyone is unhappy with their purchase for any reason at all, I will refund every cent they paid and cover all return shipping costs. Since that is true for new customers, I want to offer all of you the same protection. If you have had any problem at all with my products, it is critical that I know about it so I can address the issues in the products, as well as make you completely happy


As always, but now even more important than before, feedback is critical to small sellers like me. So, I wanted to take a moment to talk about that. First, if you HAVE NOT received feedback from me, it is only because I have not received feedback from you. Until I receive feedback from a customer, I do not know whether they are completely happy or if there are issues that need to be resolved. If you are someone that has not left feedback until now and it is because you are unhappy for any reason at all, I hope you will take advantage of my 100% satisfaction guaranteed policy, no matter when you bought a feeder from me. However, if you have been happy with your purchase, I hope you will consider taking a moment or two to leave 5-star positive feedback, as it is the lifeblood of any seller. I also hope you will recommend my feeders and supplies to others you know who might be interested.


Finally, if you are a small seller who is facing the same dilemma with the new policies and have figured out other approaches, I would be very happy to hear from you about them. I am trying an eBay advertising scheme that will present my listing at the BOTTOM of search lists as a “sponsored product” on which buyers can click to find my product. I pay only when someone clicks. In about two weeks, the ads have been presented about 4,000 times, resulting in only about 30 clicks and no sales so far.


Our blog awaits and welcomes you…


Please visit your blog Hummingbird Haven and better yet, please jump in. If you’ve lost the email inviting you to be a fully enabled post author, just drop me an email and I will send a new one. Just reply to that invitation and join the fun. Find the blog here: http://hummerhaven.blogspot.com/


Happy Hummers and Halloween until the next time…