Monthly Archive for February, 2006

eBay announces Ad Format is being rolled-out to include additional categories…sounds like a good idea; now how does this fit in with the new fixed price listings & expanded store search?…Is there enough room on the screen? Meanwhile, PayPal awakens to last week’s story re TextPayMe and is pulling together their own peer-to-peer cellular payment service.

Is Edgeio the next big idea? Sounds like it just might be…bypassing auction portals and letting you list via RSS straight from your blog, with no Final Value Fees. Googles App of the Week is a free web page creator; this is getting dull, almost as dull as most of their other Apps. On the other hand we have Yahoo’s Flickr, a lesson on how an App can be launched that is both useful, unbelievably viral and chock-full of ideas….like QOOP. Remember IBM? Quietly last year, they patented a vending machine that will take in your item, price it and, theoretically, make it available on the internet.

So, you change your eBay and PayPal ID / Password as frequently as you change your socks…trouble is, there might just be a back-door open equally in need of your attention. Need a Credit Card Processor? TopTenReviews is a good place to begin your search. In case you haven’t noticed, we’re dealing with a visual medium on-line and a lot of us could use some practical advice re design…and Before&After magazine makes it simple and fun. SilverJewelryClub.com is one auction seller’s e-commerce solution with some interesting twists.

Blurb.com is a step above other print-on-demand solutions….a smart, easy interface that can make your book projects look professional. I am so jealous of FlapArt…”How to Murder a Complete Stranger and Get Away With It”..Curious? United Auction for liquidation items. BagButton for sucking all the bad air out of your shipping and packaging problems.

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An eBay for loans?…That’s what E-Loan founder, Chris Larsen backed by Pierre Omidyar, have in mind…Any interest? Could payments be as simple as text messaging funds on your cell phone?… TextPayMe is banking on it.

One Trading Assistant takes on clients such as Toyota, HP and Martha Stewart…and yes, you can learn something from her. Need a pic to spruce up your store and auction image?..we’ve got a site that even auction sellers can afford. LastMinute Auctions is great for just that….last minute auctions; but there’s another idea lurking here that isn’t so obvious.

How about an item you can buy for 88 cents at thousands of locations and resell on eBay for $4.99 that is unique, has no competition and best of all, is actually kind of cool? Have you considered Big Box wholesalers as a source? You should; it works! Amazon has a “Price Drop Policy” that they don’t really talk at all about…and why should they? Listen in as well tell you how to not only save even more on your purchase but of a site that will notify you when Amazon prices are falling.

A simple, effective tool for calculating your eBay and PayPal fees. Clearance sale / sterling jewelry..need I say more? Ever thought about getting into the cosmetic’s business?..we’ve found a great site where you can test your ideas with first rate products / packaging and they’ll even help you with formulation; all for as few as 100 units!

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34% of eBay’s sales are fixed price and with Express being launched, the number will only grow…are auctions on the block? Now you see them, now you don’t…whats up with the auction listing count? Does this have anything to do with adding store listings to search results? We love Skype, Skype is the future….except don’t you dare try and use it in your listings! Could it be that NARU’d sellers like Glacier Bay are part of a general house cleaning by eBay?

Small surprise is that Google’s GWallet is actually called GBuy…the real news is that for now at least, they have set their sights on much bigger game than simply creating a rival to on-line auctions. “Slide” offers a way to dramatically enhance your listings without paying a penny.

Ever thought of “outsourcing” as a business model…not for goods but for a thousand other things that could make you more efficient?…might your next new hire be in Bangladore? So, you’re a Trading Assistant, congratulations!…but have you really taken advantage of what you know and are you marketing your service in a way that can bring you the greatest return? Probably not. Do First Class Rates with UPS type tracking and verification sound like a good deal?…sure it does, but where can you get them? Is $28,000 in prize money sufficient reward for you to tell the world about your small business….and to be mentored by Jay Conrad Levinson?

Make your own comic books made easy..780,000 products you can sell (you too can be the next Glacier Bay)..Klockwerks; time as art, art as time..and at wholesale! I found 2 slick deals at Slickdeals to resell; can you? The top 100 free downloads in one place with no strings.

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Question: When one of the top three sellers on eBay, with over 258,000 feedbacks is NARU, what does it mean for the rest of us?..the sound that you should hear is the marketplace speaking. Craigslist ups it’s fees for certain categories in a effort to bring the venue back under control…whose control is another issue.

Is Feedback spreading? Two sites try and expand the model to encompass the rest of the web. Will it work? And do they have the right stuff to pull it off? MIT and Cambridge scientists point out that Skype is “Rype” for hackers. A new PPC site that is two steps beyond Google and just might be an additional source of income for you.

Professors at the Wharton School weigh in with a study of bidding habits based on access to an extensive set of auction history….and the results are anything but academic. Are your funky old auctions keeping bidders at a distance? PixClinic offers you the look and feel of professionalism that your business just might need. Sim City meets webanalytics at Visitorville…really cool stuff, now if I could only get it to work. Follow-up on Zopa, the great idea the British are trying that US banks will fight tooth and nail to prevent.

Check out CloseOut Solution for everything from refurb cell phones to cameras and plasma TV’s. Booksalefinder lists most every charitable book fair in the country. RS-Kit is a rare thing, a genuinely valuable list of computer and electronic resources that is worth the cost of admission. The Switchboards; crafty sorts freely sharing a wealth of ideas and sources. Googleguide; how to search Google like a pro.

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