Jumpstart Your ProStores Web Store Contest

THANKS TO ALL THOSE WHO PARTICIPATED. WE WILL ANNOUNCE WINNERS SHORTLY. COMMENTS ARE NOW CLOSED.

We want to give all eBay sellers a chance to jump start your ProStores web store in time for the holiday selling season.

We know it can be hard to find time for anything when you’re busy launching or running a business. If you've been thinking about launching your own web store but haven't yet, or if you are already a ProStores merchant but haven't done anything with your store -- tell us your story.  We want to know why you need the most help getting started with your own web store. If you're the winning entry, we'll offer you a free ProStores Jump Start Package (retail value: $799), a setup and marketing service which includes:

* Setup of ALL Comparison Shopping Feeds - Google Base,
Shopping.com, Yahoo Shopping!, Shopzilla, etc. + general training on
Comparison Shopping Engines
* eBay QuickList and Sync
* One-to-One LIVE Online Training
* Assistance with Store Settings Setup
* And more! Click here for a list all features.

Just post in the comments section for this post here by November 9, 2009, or on your own blog linking back to this post, and tell us "Why you need the most help getting started with your ProStores web store.” You've got 350 words or less so make them count!
 
Remember, in order to be eligible for the Jump Start Package, you'll need a ProStores web store. If you don't have one yet, sign up today.  You can read the Offical Rules here. Good luck!

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Comments

[Anna]

Just to let people going my window-shopping from all over the whole World!

[Anna]

Just to let people going my window-shopping from all over the whole World!

[Jeff Stannard]

After my Prostores site remained essentially dormant for 3 years, I decided this year was the time to kick things into high gear. I originally imported my catalog from eBay and have since expanded my offerings on my Prostore- just recently over the last few months. Sales are starting to pick up.

My problem: My site is ugly. Like 2002 ugly.

I need the most help because Design is a skill a sorely lack. Its great to have customers refer me to others, but I fear those 'others' laugh at the horribleness that awaits them once they arrive.

It would be fantastic to have a little extra help and a second set of eyes helping me to perform my best.

Jeff Stannard
(ebay ID: melrose_stamp)

[Gyda]

I tryed this once and had to cancel my subscription. I didn't have the computer skills that it takes to make this a success. It would be nice to have a professional look and feel of a real store front.

[Cliff Aliperti]

I've tried ProStores twice in the past, once through eBay, once through a third party hosting solution, in my quest to find the "perfect" (for me) ecommerce store. Each round of improvements look great, I'm curious to see if ProStores has come to fit my admittedly demanding and specific criteria yet. Thanks!

[Maryjane Hanson]

My small business motto is it isn't about me..it's all about the customer. That email that has a question or the person on the other line..so important how I handle that transaction . I want and need help with reaching customers, in simple, but effective, ways. I spend alot of time on how and where,what should I do next ..Right now, I just have a basic shop,not the greatest. I am looking to Pro-Shops to see if that will solve my questions.

[Mario Elghoul]

I have been subscribed to Prostores for almost 4 years now and that cost me lots of $$, I have not been able to successfuly lauch my prostore using my ebay listings all this time because it never worked properly with ebay, 2 weeks ago I decided to give it a try after the new version release, what a nightmare! I have been struggling for for over 2 weeks trying to get it to work, called tech support numerous time, it is one problem after another, any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Ron Hassey]

I signed up for a Prostores website about 4 years ago. I have another website that is doing pretty good, but with no tie ins to ebay or my ebay store, so I thought that Prostores would be the way to go. But I am basically a one man operation and do not have the time available to make it happen.

Over the last few months I have done more work on my Prostore, but it is slow going.

I know that my Prostore website is the future for my ecommerce ventures and could really use a 'Jumpstart'.

Ron Hassey

Ebay ID: Cove

[Jason Grundstrom]

I think we could use this more than anyone else.We have a great ebay store with 2,600 different videogames but clearly could use a boost in this economy.We have the product and experience to really take advantage of this.I started the company back in 1993 and have continued to grow up until this economy started hurting and this is the boost we need!
Thanks for concidering us
Jason Grundstrom
megahit79
www.megahitvideogames.com

[Marsha Armstrong]

Wow, this is a great opportunity for anyone. I am a stay at home mother and caretaker and have found Ebay to be a wonderful way to sale items without leaving home.I have a store in Ebay now and would like this oportunity in Pro Stores to reach more customers,sell full time and make more money for both of us and reattain my Powerseller status that i miss so much.I have an array of items and have been trying hard to get back in the swing of things and this would be excellent for the holiday season. I'm ready!!!!Thank you for considering me and best of luck to everyone.

[Karen DuSavage]

I am trying to bring more money since the passing of my husband and cut in hours at work. What a awesome opportunity to enter and possibly win all that help. I'm a beginner and as user friendly as ebay is I still can use all available help in my new adventure. Thank you for giving everyone the chance.

[Heidie Green]

I would love this to win this opportunity! I am a single mother of one and have been out of work since Jan due to the economy. I am just starting out on ebay selling things around the house and I am very interested in having my our web store to create an income for my family. I have looked into doing this on my own however finacially I am at a DEAD END! I believe in fair prices and good, prompt, first class customer service! Thank you for your consideration.

[Lakeesha Jenkins]

I would really love to win this and would be so very highly appreciative! I think I need this more than anything.It wouldnt only help me, but it will definately help out my family. Ive been trying so long and hard to jump start a webstore to sell things, but never know where to start and with prices and me being a stay at home mom with 3 small children, Im not really able to afford it at all. I do however like how easy it is to post things on ebay so, I do post there every now and then. I love selling because some of the people I sell to are very appeciative, supportive and friendly and I love helping out people if I can. I just know that I have so many things that others can use so I do offer it for cheap and I love doing so. It makes me feel good to know that I am able to provide things for people, you know with the high prices out here now and days. This web store would help out me and my 3 daughters with income so much. Thank you so much for your time!

[Susan G. K.]

It's exactly the right time for me to open my web store for the holidays. I'm polishing, sorting and researching this year's estate sale finds in my living room this very day. The missing ingredient for my success is the online training, design and content, and marketing know-how of ProStores. (And a bit of courage.) This is really an exciting opportunity - a partnership with ProStores will certainly make my web store a success! Thank you so very much.

[Jacque Danielson]

With the recession hitting hard where we are, I thought opening an eBay store was worth a try. It has really taken off in just two months, so I was thinking about the web store. If I could jump into a ready made store, I am confident that I could quickly learn to utilize it to sell. To think about the hours needed for developing a store like that is just too overwhelming to even concider at this time, with being a mom & running another at home business already - this would give me the confidence and jump start I really need. Thank you for your consideration.

[Odie Dioneda]

Ebay has been a godsend to me and my family from day one. When I got laid off from a very good paying job I decided to do ebay to help make ends meet. I was fortunate that my ebay business gave me something to look forward to when things were turning gloomy and out of control. Ebay gave me my self-confidence back and I really would love the opportunity to own my own web store so I can continue to do what I love most, selling and being with people. Thank you for the hope you bring to those like me who have lost hope. Now I believe there's a pot a gold at the end of the rainbow. Even if I don't win your promo, I am already a winner because you gave me a chance to be a part of your company where I can work my own hours and be with my four small children (9-7-5-2) 24/7. Thank you for the opportunity.

[Ed]

I could really use some help in selling my very own designed altered art jewelry. I have no idea how to drive traffic to my ebay store and would love the opportunity to win something like this great offer of a pro store setup. Thanks for the offer and I hope to win!

[Dave Nevel]

We are Opticians who have had a bricks and mortar business for eyeglasses and contact lenses for 21 years. We have watched as the discounters, the conglomerates,laser surgery,and mail order contacts have had a dramatic and very negative effect on our practice. We have always prided ourselves on giving exceptional value and fast, friendly service to our customers. The problem is that the revenues keep shrinking along with the customer base and if we had a pro store it would give us a new lease on life,and provide others with the inspiration that you can change with the times and that Ebay is the greatest!

[Rodolfo Romero]

I have been unemployed since December 2008 so far no late notices. I started selling on half.com last month and would like to list more than DVDs. I have the time but not the skills to set up a shopfront on the internet for the holidays.A lifetime of collectables ready for new homes! Thank you for the opportunity to excel on EBay!

[Yvette Harris]

I am really new to the online marketing, would like to sell products that I myself use not just some information product junk you find everywhere else. I think I need some help setting up my store for profit. I am on information overload with all the information that is readily available. One person says do this one says do that and I just need someone that will really tell me the truth. I'm no dummy I know I will have to market, market, market on and offline. Some help would be great.

[Christine G.]

Hi, I am sending this blog in deep interest to entering the free pro store contest. I personally hate sob stories but, will reluctantly share mine. I am an entrepreneur at heart even though I am an out of work Quality Manager; quality always the first to get cut these days. Since I have been out of work and, on the work market, I have been negotiating business from home with manufacturers. And, like many others out there I am a single parent wanting to just keep a roof over my families head and offer them the best I can. So in thus, I am Not proud to say that I am on food stamps and cash assistance for the first time in my life. I had to sell my car this past month to make bills again much like many others out there. But, I have one thing going for me right now. In my negotiations I have been fortunate enough to start my own line of health, wellness, and anti-aging products with a local GNP/NSF approved manufacturer that does GNC's products and many others. I have posted a couple of my cleanses on line just to get started and be able to formulate and order the rest of my lines of products yet, need just a nudge of marketing help to really get going and roll money into introducing more of my products online. What is good about the products I have is that most of them are out there and are proven to work as well as the fact that I can offer them at an more affordable price than anything else out there so far; enabling the average individual the same enjoyment and benefits of these products as well. I am not trying to weezle or schmooze off the government just so everyone is aware. Nor are the products a scam. I want to work hard with valued products and believe that there is help out there to make this dream of mine come true as a first class distributer. I also have just started a 501C3 for rare and orphan lung disorders as to which I am losing my mother to due to lack of research upon them. A percentage of my profit goes to this for disorders such as BOOP. So, you see I have everything in place but, just need this piece of the puzzle to make things fit. As for the working from home part well, I have no choice at the moment just a bit car poor. But, as I tell my children hard work pays off and this getting up an hour early to take the bus to school won't last forever; it just make us more appreciative when a break of hope comes our way. Even if I do not win; I just want to say, THANK YOU for doing this contest because the little people out here really do appreciate big companies being able to give back.

[Jason Meyers]

I figured I might as well go live with my store even though the catalog and store is not set up completely. I made my first sale today! Prostores process was smooth and easy. Its just what I needed to get the ball rolling and finish my store for the holiday rush.

[sue richardson]

I need alot of help with my own store as I can't seem to draw the customers in.I wanted to open a little shop to sale jewerly and special occasion dresses to the high school girls. The ecomony has stopped that, most of the items I brought for the store came off eBay. Now I would like to sell. Thanks for looking at my comments and thanks for eBay over all. Sue R.

[Timothy]

We have been selling on ebay for almost 3 years now. We have other web sites, but decided to try webstores and we really like it better than the other guys. It looks tons more professional, and the tools are essential to what we do. I just opened up my prostores web store last month and haven't got much traffic but in time and with the help of the prostores team i know we can and will be successfull. Thanks prostores Team for your continued support and putting up with all my relentless fix tickets.
We just rying to etch out a living in this economy to support 2 teenage girls (Oh Boy) We can use all the help we can get prostores. Thanks for your kind consideration for this contest.

[Anthony]

I have been a eBay Fan for years. I got my start selling and buying comics on eBay about 8 years ago and have now ventured into security products. After hearing of so many people working full time right out of their own homes and actually making a nice living from it I was in love with the idea of breaking away from the corporate culture and cubicle routine. I was able to start selling on eBay part time in the evenings and weekends but was never able to branch out and start my own pro store site which I would love to do. It was extremely rough to keep going while helping out at home and becoming a new daddy. While my goal was to start out small and develop a full time plan and eventually break away from the 9 to 5 (actually in my case it was more like 7 to 8 and weekends too) it never happened. While wanting to break away from the office and in turn spend more time with my wife and family it never came. Our marriage fell apart. My wife has suffered from several mental disorders and has taken my beautiful 21 month old baby girl from me. The courts got involved and despite all the effort I have lost what was most important to me; my family. I have fought to still be a father to my daughter through court but it has not been fun. It has been months since I have seen my little girl and my hopes of making my dream a reality are gone. My wife has even managed to get me terminated from my employer in the last 2 weeks so I am now on my own and I cannot even blame the economy for it. Fortunately I am blessed with a lot of time to run and develop my niche market and product which I would love the chance to do. I am eager, willing, and pumped up to make this work. FYI I have finally reached power seller status as of this past month! Yeah! What a good feeling.