Monthly Archive for October, 2006

I have a deep antipathy for all things gee-whiz when it comes to marketing; thoughtless, “this oughta be cool” web tools particularly.

With this in mind, imagine my delight when I opened up Springwise today and found this latest bit of absolutely mind-numbing, “what the hell’s for breakfast” marketing ignorance: Sonifics: Soundtracks for Your Digital Life.

What Sonfics offers is a catalog of indy music that you can incorporate into any web site or blog via a flash player. Its free, its easy; its the perfect internet date.
Now my criticism re Sonfics is not about the music or indy artists trying to find their indy niche in the music world…on the contrary, I wish ‘em luck.

Nope, its about the overreaching, ill-informed and down right stupefying suggestion that music, in and of itself, makes for a great marketing idea in conjunction with an eBay listing, which Sonifics does, even going so far as to link to a dummy listing. A listing, I might add that is a poor example of a poor example. Also, there’s a little problem(s) with their recommending using their service within eBay.
So, what’s the problem?

• Oh, where to begin? Well, for starters, music in and of itself is not a motivator unless it is congruent with the product/message being sold.
• Next, it is intrusive to the sales process if it is not, once again, deeply congruent to the whatever it is being sold. Recognizable music that is carefully targeted to the message and product and to the intended demographic is an art when done correctly. An unknown song, an unknown voice entails the mind asking:”who’s that, what am I listening to?” and naturally,”how do I turn it off?” None of which are conducive to the message or to the intended result. Even if the customer has the option to play/not play the music…what is the reason for disrupting the marketing message by presenting the question?
• For those that remember, eBay listings were once awash in flashing applets and insipid sound tracks. They have now, for the most part, disappeared for the simple reason that they were counterproductive to sales. And those sellers that employed them are either now gone or on to other things, equally counterproductive. Its eBay Darwinism.
• Next, Sonifics revenue model is that once someone hears a tune they like, they can click-through on the flash player and purchase it. Simple enough except that when used in an eBay listing this would constitute a redirect of traffic for an off-site transaction. Additionally, they run ads within the stream itself; something I imagine Meg might find irritating. In short, you’d be better off posting your seller ID and password on a Bulgarian Warez site.
• But wait, there’s more! In a prime example of corporate disconnect, Sonific’s terms state:

you may not place SongSpots™ or the code for SongSpots™ on any page, email, programs, servers, websites or other locations on the Internet unless the destination of the SongSpots™ are registered with Sonific in accordance with Sonific’s on-site registration process and unless you control the placement and removal of the SongSpots™ on that destination (the “Destination”) at all times;

As you well know, on eBay you do not control anything as your auction can be DC’d for any reason at anytime.

• It gets better. Again, quoting from Sonific (”Destination” meaning where the audio player is used):

1. The Destination cannot be a clearly commercial site used primarily for the sale of products or services;
2. The SongSpots™ cannot be placed in such a fashion at the Destination as to be a tie-in to promote another product at the Destination such as for the purposes of a commercial for a product or service;

Yep, eBay isn’t “clearly commercial” and certainly isn’t “used primarily for the sale of products or services”. Its a venue, after all.

So, by my reading of this, you not only risk alienating your customers by employing a thoroughly pointless marketing gizmo but further risk inviting the wrath of one or both Sonifics and eBay.

Not a bad day’s mayhem for the simple insertion of a line of code.

Video and audio can be very effective in an auction or on any e-commerce site…but only if used as a natural, motivating compliment to the message and to the message’s intended result.

Its hard work selling; don’t make it any harder by deploying a tool that cuts both ways.

Feedback farms are a plague on eBay; one cent BIN, free shipping…but something else is up. Listen in as I begin my investigation.

Speaking of feedback, major sites (other than auction) are employing feedback with good results and for obvious reasons. However, their feedback is more in the form of testimonials. How can you employ this winning tactic in your auctions?

There is a very popular site that offers an easy way to not only attract potential customers but to have fun “stumbling around” the web.

Y Store Tools is now Y Store Wizards…and at the prices that they’re charging, “Y” you should think twice.

Searching for that elusive wholesaler with just the right product? Well, there is one company with 488 locations that’s doing $59 billion in sales that has what you need.

You need to post your email address but you don’t want to expose yourself to those malicious bots….here’s a site that allows you to produce an easy solution.

Speaking of e-mail, need an anonymous, disposable address for checking out various on-line services…here’s a site that lists over 20.

One of the largest online auction and e-commerce channel managers, ChannelAdvisor, also operates an auction site itself for surplus sales from manufacturers to resellers.

I found a site (thanks to Scott Prock) that is a nifty mutimedia authoring program that could be the perfect vehicle for your info product.

Die-cast collectibles are hot and one of the biggest names in the business invites retailers to apply directly. Before you do though, are you prepared for the questions that they will ask?

A Canadian importer and exporter of lifestyle oriented fashion jewelery, handbags, wallets, hair accessories and gifts.

A stateside distributor of all natural educational toys…(the unnatural toys are best suited for another blog)

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Links from this week’s show:

Stumbleupon - Channel surf the internet with StumbleUpon! Discover great websites,videos, pictures and more — all according to your interests….and drive customers to your auctions or store.

AccuBURST - $6.95 web hosting + Free domain + Free promo tools + Free site builder.

Y Store Wizards - $700+ for basic shopping cart tools is so 1999!

Costco - While the internet site is a good place to start, the real bargains for resale are to be found in the physical stores.

Safemail - Create an image of your e-mail address that is invisible to the bots ;—–>

Direct2Wholesale - From the folks at ChannelAdvisor, network of business to business auction sites that connects reputable manufacturers and retailers with qualified buyers of surplus inventory.

EZedia - Powerful multimedia authoring software.

Prospector, Temporary e-mail Accounts - List of over 20 temporary e-mail accounts.

Ertl Collectible Diecast - Retailer information.

Amazing Accessories - Lifestyle oriented fashion jewelery, handbags, wallets, hair accessories and gifts.

Bohemian Crafts - A stateside distributor of all natural educational toys.

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For those who don’t know me, I’m a long-standing eBay seller/entrepreneur who has over the course of time amassed a wine vat full of outside-of-the-box experience while doing business on the big E. As far as my style goes, I’ve been called many things, but only a few are printable so let’s go with “curmudgeon”.

Jon Winokur, in his sublime compilation _The Portable Curmudgeon_, writes:

“Dictionaries define curmudgeon as a churlish, irascible fellow; a cantankerous old codger…A curmudgeon’s reputation for malevolence is undeserved. They’re neither warped or evil at heart. They don’t hate mankind, just mankind’s excesses. They’re just as sensitive and soft-hearted as the next guy*, but they hide their vulnerability beneath a crust of misanthropy. They ease the pain by turning hurt into humor. They snarl at pretense and bite at hypocrisy out of a healthy sense of outrage….Nature, having failed to equip them with a serviceable denial mechanism, has endowed them with astute perception and sly wit. Offense is their only defense. Their targets are pretense, pomposity, conformity, incompetence.”

I couldn’t have said it better, Jon. Thanks.

As a computer industry veteran, I’m not easily dazzled by technology. I also believe that selling is selling, whether you’re standing on a street corner hawking hot dogs or offering 5 carat flawless diamonds online.

And if you want to boost your eBay sales you’ll be better off listening to the masters of the game rather going Google-gaga. Maybe someday I’ll actually meet someone who has made a Gbase sale.

Hasn’t happened yet.

fLufF

*Not really. -f.

I’m happy to announce that Charleen Larson (aka fluffythewondercat) has accepted my invitation to post on the E-Auction-Air blog as a contributor.

I, like so many of you, have been a long time fan of fluffythewondercat’s (Charleen’s nom-de-net) straight-ahead, no-prisoners posts on the boards (Vendio, OTWA among others).

Apart from being very knowledgeable, acerbic, and not suffering fools…qualities that have afforded her wide-spread admiration and qualities, frankly, that are in short supply wherever one might trod, either on-line or off; Charleen is genuinely concerned with helping sellers become better merchants. In doing so, she steadfastly refuses to give in to whining, nincompoopery or inferior obstinacy…(superior obstinacy has yet to be encountered).

fLufF’s posts will be her own, I’m simply here along with you to enjoy the ride.

Over the next few weeks, we will be launching additional categories on eBay Express. The included categories are Collectible Kitchenware, Historical Memorabilia, and Model RR and Trains. Please note that for all of these categories, except Historical Memorabilia, the “Item Condition” item specific is required for items to qualify into eBay Express. Other category exceptions can be seen here. Sellers who need to can bulk edit listings within My eBay.

Please stay tuned as we keep you updated on the latest changes on eBay Express. More information on selling in eBay Express is can be found the eBay Express Selling page.

You can also click on the following links if you would like to confirm that you are qualified to sell on eBay Express, or if you want to review a list of current eBay Express categories not requiring item condition.

Sellers must meet certain criteria in order for their listings to appear on eBay Express (http://pages.express.ebay.com/service/about/selling.html), and only Fixed Price, Store Inventory and Auction-style with Buy It Now formats are eligible.

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200610251334372.html

To find out about selling on eBay Express.

Current categories:

Every on-line marketer is aware of the importance of keywords and keyword research is the subject of endless posts (add one more, I suppose). Services such as Wordtracker & Overture’s Keyword Selector Tool are well-known and useful but there is a back-door, if you will, to keyword popularity on eBay in the form of “eBay’s Hot Categories Report” in a PDF download.

The Hot Category Report is published monthy and covers supply and demand across 34 major categories and then by sub-category.

Definition of degrees of “Hotness”:
“Super Hot” – at least a 35 percentage point spread between bid growth rate and listing growth rate. For instance, month-over-month bid growth for the L4 Category may be 50%, while month-over-month listing growth for the L4 Category may be 10%. Because the percentage point spread (40 percentage points) is greater than 35%, this category is deemed “Super Hot.”
“Very Hot” - a percentage point spread between 15% and 35%. For instance, month-over-month bid growth for the L4 Category may be 10%, while listing growth may be -10%. Thus, this category is deemed as “Very Hot.”
“Hot” - remaining hot L4s with spreads up to 15%.

Each category is analyzed and reported per the criteria above (e.g. Desktop PC Components —->Video Cards for Desktop PC——->Leadtek).

What you have then is a supply and demand snapshot, by category and keyword, from the worlds largest marketplace. Also, there is a pricing function to the data insofar as “bid growth rate” is a factor. Would that it was all reported in more detail but then we’re talking eBay here so be glad you’ve got what you’ve got.
Not a be-all and end-all and certainly not a substitute for keyword tools but nevertheless a very interesting adjunct to your current research and an excellent free source to mine for ideas.

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You can forget eBay’s Pulse as a reliable indication of what is genuinely popular on the site but there are two buyer data reports that are very valuable IF you know what you’re reading..listen in as I explain.

Does your site have a Google Site Map? Perplexed on how to go about generating one for your e-commerce site? I found a service that will do it easily and for free.

Over a year ago I reported on the rule-breaking site, Woot, and it’s successful take on a new type of retailing. Well, the electronic wholesaler behind Woot has just opened an auction site for re-sellers only.

Japanese pop culture is very popular on this side of the Pacific and there is an LA importer that can hook you up with some great items.

Apart from major sites such as eBay and Overstock, posting on multiple sites, particularly classified sites such as Craigslist & Edgio can be time consuming… I’ve found a new site, still in Beta, that offers a classified ad creation, management and submission platform that enables online sellers to quickly and easily create attractive classified ads or “virtual flyers” that can posted on dozens of leading online marketplaces in a few simple clicks.

Fed up with forums and all their rinky-dink rules? Well, why not start your own? Listen in as we describe how easy it is to become master (or mistress) of your very own internet menagerie.

There’s a new service that will generate single books on demand based upon material from Wikipedia and its all on the up and up. But beyond single books, is there a way for you to use Wkipedia information for your own e-book info products?

Track as many auctions as you like by keywords on one single page…its easily done on this site.

Speaking of e-books, there are many PDF printers out there that will render your documents into a PDF format for free…but there aren’t many that will do what is absolutely necessary to succeed as an information publisher on-line….listen in and I’ll let you in on one that does.

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Links from this week’s show:

Vigos Google Site Map Generator - Google Site Maps quick and easy.

PediaPress - Pick and choose from Wikipedia articles and have a single book published.

getPHPBB Free Forum Hosting - Tired of the constant meddling of board mod’s? Why not create your own forum where your meddling reigns supreme?

eBay’s 2006 Holiday Hot List - Predicted items that will be much in demand.

eBay’s Hot Item List - Valuable analysis each month detailing the site’s items in highest demand and in short supply. Valuable keywords based upon buyer search.

Synapse Micro Auction Wholesale Only Auction Site - From those wonderful folks behind WOOT.

PCR Distributing - Japanese pop culture items at wholesale.

easyPDF PDF Printer / Driver - Free PDF printing and document conversion including one very important element you won’t find in other similar products.

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According to an article appearing in Security News:

“A Yahoo! email address appears to be the weapon of choice for the professional identity thief, because the user of the address is untraceable in most cases. Yahoo! is also very popular and has a good name for reliability - an ideal thing to hide behind for identity thieves,” he said.

“Most internet retailers have little defence against a chargeback, other than to blacklist the card. Most will need to take additional steps to authenticate the purchaser before handing over goods and services or reconsider the commercial wisdom of continuing to deal with purchasers using high risk email addresses,” he added.

There certainly is enough advice re developing & using e-mail lists in your marketing…and good advice it is. However, many sellers come to the conclusion that they should be utilizing e-mail only to be faced with the fact that they haven’t kept accurate e-mail records or that the auction management system they use limits how far back in time records can be retrieved.
One solution for building a sizeable e-mail list of past customers is your PayPal history. While not inclusive of all transactions, it is nevertheless an easily accomplished task that will give you a good jump-start (and one less excuse not to) toward an active marketing campaign.

Here’s How:

1. Click on the My Account tab.
2. Click the History. subtab.
3. Click the Download My History link.
4. Choose the file type and date to download.
5. Click Download History.
6. Name your file and click Save to download it.

The download is available in Comma DeLimited or Tab DeLimited format and the exact fields can be further narrowed or expanded by clicking on the “Customize Download Fields” box that appears next to the date range.

The history itself can be as little or as much as you want…all the way back to your first transaction.

Once this data is in your hot little marketing mitts, you can easily export just the e-mail fields into an e-mail manager such as Constant Contact.

Google is planning to migrate Froogle into Google Base, thereby continuing the swan-song of Froogle in what would appear to be its last verse.

eBay is stepping up cancellations of auctions pre-selling Sony’s PS3 & Nintendo Wii systems.

Using on-line auctions for a second income? Maybe you should think twice before letting the rest of your day job know.

An eBay seller works all of the right angles to snare airport passenger’s discarded items for sale.

Forget West Texas Intermediate Crude, the real money is in, of all things, Read the rest …

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Google Base Store Connector has launched in Beta and it is an easy, fast way to get your eBay Store, Yahoo Store & Amazon Store (ZShops & Marketplace) uploaded into Google Base. Once you download the program (Google free registration required) it’s simply a matter of entering your store URL and it’s done.

You’ll want to configure store name, shipping and payment options, etc. in your Google account but this is easy and painless. One note, its available for Windows only at this point.
I’ll be going into some depth about Google Site Maps on this week’s upcoming podcast.

Using XML feeds is absolutely essential for communicating & propagating information across the web. XML is more flexible than HTML…think of XML as having a wider vocabulary. But because XML is a data description language, XML documents do not carry information about how to display the data. So, its flexible but it ain’t pretty.

Notice I said “using” rather than understanding. Understanding XML is decidedly wonkish…I have a grasp of it but in no way shape or form do I understand it. As a matter of fact in preparing this post, I tried to find information that would describe it in English that dogs & cats could read but no luck. In any case as with so much of what we seller’s do, we simply want reliable solutions.

Along those lines, I interviewed Brent Hill, VP of Advertising with Feedburner about employing their service as one solution. FeedBurner provides custom RSS feeds and management tools to bloggers, podcasters, and other web-based content publishers. including traffic analysis and an optional advertising system.
In my next post, I’ll deal with item specific data from eBay stores, Overstock.com Auctions and stand alone e-commerce sites.

 Brent Hill Feedburner Interview [14:43m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Still thinking that your own e-com site will deliver you the profitability you once enjoyed at auction…think again. Brian Smith reports in his ComparisonEngine blog on the average CPC (Cost-Per-Click) by category for several of the leading Shopping comparison sites…and as I’ve reported before, the stakes are getting higher.

eBay announces restricted use of Private Feedback as of 10/26, additionally they announced that it is probably not a good idea to run with scissors.

Overstock.com’s WorldStock is now the leading private employer in several third-world countries including one of our own, the Navajo Nation…with so much lip service given by so many to the transformative power of the web, WorldStock is truly a notable exception.

Urgency + gotta-have-it-or-else + scarcity are three factors that can Read the rest …

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While everyone is focused on the “eBust” story of Glacier Bays Randy Smythe, it occured to me that there was another earlier implosion by Brandon Dupsky of the now late lamented Sell2All that is a more interesting story…as far as these stories go.

Dupsky flew high on both eBay & Overstock.com Auctions and other auction portals as well as his own internet site…so much so that it was (and still is apparently) declared one of Forbes Best of the Web. in the rather un-Forbes like category of “Excess Inventory”. His business crashed for what appears to be the same unremarkable reasons as Smythe’s; over expansion, too much overhead…in other words poor planning.

What tickles me is that Dupsky is still front and center a featured “product” on one of the web’s foremost shrines to the “money for nothing and the clicks are free” hype-mills, The Internet Marketing Center.

How a ‘regular guy’ from Nebraska made $8,000,000 (yup, that’s $8 MILLION) in just one year with his eBay business!”

Yup, Brian is the internet’s $8,000,000 man and I fully expect Mr. Smythe to follow.

Well, its about time. I’ve *finally* finished the migration of the old site over to this WordPress platform…and I couldn’t be more delighted!..(Your delight, of course, will be the final word).
First off, I have to give all the credit for the design and implemetation to Michael Pollock @ Solostream Web Studio. Michael is an absolutely terrific WordPress maven but even more, he is very adept at translating (my) nebulous ideas into reality, all the while exhibiting extraordinary patience and counsel.

And that is not just an empty wave of the hand. It is one thing to promise outstanding service; it is quite another to deliver it per the customer’s expectations; the customer’s expectations being predicated upon either the promises and marketing of a particular service/product or upon their own misguided notions..or a combination of both.

In any case anyone involved in commerce has to expect and embrace the fact that, first and formost, they must Read the rest …