Bonanzle.com again voted the best eBay alternative!

In the uncertain and ever-changing world of online eBay alternatives, one has risen to the top of the list. And risen fast. Bonanzle.com came out of beta in the start of September 2008, and in that time has grown phenomenally.

Some milestones to consider:
Bonanzle was named the best eBay alternative in July, 2008 by Ecommerce Guide. (Before even coming out of beta!)

Bonanzle was again named the best eBay alternative last week, this time by SmallBusinessComputing!

Bonanzle officially launched on September 3rd 2008- only 5 months ago.
Bonanzle reached 10,000 members on November 23rd 2008
January 6th 2009 - 670,409 listings, 5686 Booths, and 3,488 sellers, & 18,000 members.
January 27th 2009 Bonanzle hit 1,000,000 listings
January 30th 2009 Bonanzle had 1,031,856 listings, 7,735 Booths, 7,101 Sellers & 24,185 members.
February 2, 2009 Bonanzle has 1,074,292 listings, 8,282 Booths, 7,625 Sellers & 26,160 members.

A lot of us Bonanzle Sellers are actively recruiting buyers and sellers to come to Bonanzle.com. Disgruntled eBay sellers have been looking for a viable alternative for years, and the large majority of us that are selling on Bonanzle agree that a truly viable alternative has finally appeared.

We are purposefully rolling the Bonanzle snowball all over the web, picking up buyers and sellers by the thousands. Most all that we attract with our campaign very much like what they see and stay at Bonanzle to buy, sell, or both. And then many join us in pushing our snowball around the web and bringing in even more buyers and sellers.

Why do they stay? Why do they actively join us in recruiting? Why do we believe so strongly in Bonanzle? Because Bill Harding and Mark Dorsey took the time to figure out what small online sellers wanted and then added their very own personal and personable touch.

No listing fees. Zero. Zip. None. Low final value fees. Ease of listing. Top notch support. The ability to negotiate and share info in real time right in your Bonanzle Booth. A warm and helpful community. Importation of your hard won feedback. The ability to upload your items to Google Base. (Which many Bonanzle Sellers will tell you is the absolute best way to get people into your booth.) And wonder of wonders, Bill and Mark actually listen to the users on Bonanzle, implementing a 'suggest then vote for what improvement you want next' system.

They talk to and with us. They keep us apprised of what they are doing, and what they will do in the future by way of Bill's blog. If they have an issue they need help with, they ask us to help resolve it. And all of this is done with a warm, wacky, and sometimes not so subtle sense of humor that users see pervading throughout the Bonanzle site. Now I ask you, would the management at eBay ever do any of that? No. They, in fact, do the exact opposite.

You may be thinking, "Ok, that sounds good for sellers, but what about buyers? Are they there?" Yes. They are. If you reference the numbers above, you will see that there are over 18,000 potential buyers on Bonanzle. Now compared to eBay's numbers, Bonanzle's numbers may seem small. But once you throw in the fact that the site is less than 6 months out of beta, those numbers take on a whole new aspect.

When buyers first arrive on the Bonanzle homepage, they see a colorful and attractive interface with an ever-changing block of items for sale. There are Hand Picked Lists, where users can surf through all the listings and add 15 items that they like randomly, or as a theme. (Creating and/or looking through these lists can be a bit addicting.) The Search system on Bonanzle has undergone a few changes per the member's requests, making it easier to use. You can either search directly for what you want, (no "best match" leaving out many seller's items), or cruise through all the listings using the homepage portal, the categories/browse page, or the Hand Picked lists, or choose from these or a variety of ways to search by clicking the main "buy" button at the top of the page. These things make shopping and buying on Bonanzle just plain fun. And yes, people really are buying. Oh, and did I mention that buyers can pay with Google Checkout, money orders, Paypal, and in some cases, even personal checks?

We've got a long way to go to reach eBay's numbers. But considering that Bonanzle is just 6 months out of beta, we've got a very good start. (I can't even imagine how well Bonanzle would be doing if the economy wasn't in the mess it currently is.) I encourage all those small sellers who are looking for a viable place to sell their items to come over to Bonanzle and see for yourselves what it is that makes this site the award winning, fastest growing sales venue on the web.

Thanks for reading,
mrsmoondog of Graphics by mOOndog and catspaw on Bonanzle

(Special thanks to EyeCatchingBeauty who put together some of the numbers I listed above. Click this link to go to her amazingly informative squidoo lens on selling on Bonanzle.)