Show 11-05-06: eBay Goes Pop - A Little Song, A Little Dance; A Little Seltzer Down Our Pants
This week eBay continues with its transformation into a maelstrom of every known web 2.0 social gadget with the introduction of it’s “Pop” page…its as if a 13 year old has been given the keys to the world’s largest e-commerce website and in true MySpace fashion, is trying to out cool the rest of his middle school classmates.
Additionally, there is another popularity contest pitting communities against one another in order to win $$ for the winning zip code’s favorite charity - so much for need-based giving - as well as another that encourages members to pound away on their keyboards in hopes of becoming the 1 millionth click on the Matchup popularity game ( e.g. Angelina Jolie vs. Muqtada al-Sadr, etc.). The latter contest resulting in a handsome payoff of..drum roll, please..$250!! This from a company that netted a billion or two last quarter.
Meanwhile, social scientists from Harvard and Berkeley have determined that the majority of internet users are clueless when it comes to what they’re doing on-line….many no doubt graduates of eBay’s click-till-you-drop school of netiquette.
Persisting to swim upstream, I have a recommendation on how to use auctions for A/B split testing….and maybe a formula for you to actually use your spare time selling (after voting for Angelina) to cleverly outwit your competitors.
Several wholesale sites to recommend, strategies for bundling, an example of text you should never put in your auctions….
I’d like to tell you more but you’ll just have to listen…..someone from a neighboring zip code has just challenged me to wikis at forty paces.
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Links from this week’s show:
BigCrumbs.com - Make money saving money from sites like Overstock.com, eBay, Gap, etc.. every time you buy something from eBay, you’ll get up to 36% of the SELLERS’s fees as cash back.
eBay’s Pop Page - Bread and circus; a million clicks and more or less nothing to show for it.
The Secret of Phisher’s Success - Its academic, people are clueless.
Bruce Schneier’s Blog on Fraudulent SSL - What you see is only what you think you see when it comes to SSL encrypted sites.
eShop Africa - Very good wholesale site for African Imports.
Turtle Papers- Wholesale fine stationery and gifts.
Aquarium Plants - Wholesale fish related books, equipment, flora, fauna, fins.
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- Music Marketing Mayhem
- Show 10-15-06: Sayonara Froogle, eBay PS3 Pre-Sales Pole-Axed, Selling Airport Confiscated Items, Baby Formula Coupon Bonanza, Auction Tools, Media Wholesaler, Luxury Bag Wholesaler
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November 7th, 2006 at 10:46 am
What the hell is noodle salad?
November 7th, 2006 at 11:18 am
Good point about getting sucked in to all the extraneous networking stuff.
I set up a myspace account for my business the other week and started adding “friends” from groups who may be potential customers. It’s not a bad way of driving a bit of traffic to your site but it’s easy to waste a lot of time on it.
I often find I’ve spent an hour browsing people’s profiles (usually the pretty girls!) and I check my friend count every few hours. In fact I think I’ll have a look now.
Don’t get addicted folks!
Jim - youtube, myspace, flickr and of course ebay omniture addict.
Add me people - myspace.com/tshirtsulikedotcom
November 7th, 2006 at 11:22 am
The remains of my day….
November 7th, 2006 at 3:02 pm
Michael,
I think you are getting too worked up over this and are misunderstanding it somewhat.
I understand you are cynical at heart and especially with eBay when it doesn’t involve selling specifically, but first of all, this eBay Pop beta page is not from eBay itself, it is a partnership effort from mpire.com which is basically an affiliate marketing model. Second of all most of what you are ranting about being a waste of time for sellers, is directed at BUYERS, and about having fun. Thirdly, a minor point, My World is not replacing the About me page, they will both continue, but MyWorld is search engine optimized, one thing you are always ranting FOR.
And Lastly, Why in the world are you bad mouthing eBay for giving back to the community?
More companies should be as responsive as eBay is when reacting to the local needs of its customer base. Making it a contest is just a way to drive more traffic to the SEO portions of the site. It only helps. Everyone.
Chill out,
Have Fun!
Mike
November 8th, 2006 at 1:52 am
Hi Mike;
First off you’re right it is a partnership with Mpire but then what difference does that make? It’s simply a platform that promulgates all theses various services, all of which are eBay’s creation, none of which are from Mpire…Mpire’s just the water boy.
Without the seller’s participation(and time and effort),none of these “fun” widgets exist. My point was that sellers need to be exacting in the expenditure of their time/effort.
My question is which of these should a seller participate in and why not the others?
Of what value is a eBay Wiki entry on eBay relative to My World..or Guides…or an eBay blog, etc.
For example, why spend the effort on an eBay blog when you are limited in what you can link to outside of the site, thereby defeating the fundamental usefulness of blogging?
Where is the empirical evidence relative to the effectiveness of any of these? Are they all equally effective? Just because they mimic on-going successful models (Wikipedia,MySpace, etc.), are eBay’s versions successful within eBay’s considerable constraints?
Optimize auctions and the search engines will find them; ditto the stores. Concentrate on product and converting the existing traffic you already have.
My World will replace About Me for the very reason you stated:SEO. What could be the possible rationalization for both?
As for eBay’s philanthropy & the zip code competition… I’d prefer they just write a check. I don’t understand how charitable acts have come to require a ball or a luncheon. But that’s just me.
As for my cynicism, it is well earned, believe me.
My opinions and recommendations (rants) are always with the concerns of small and mid-sized business people in mind.
Thanks for taking the time to write…I value the input.
November 8th, 2006 at 9:43 pm
Michael writes:
“Where is the empirical evidence relative to the effectiveness of any of these?”
No kidding.
Ronco used to run the same ad on multiple TV stations in a market. They’d track their sales by assigning a different 800 number to each station. Simple…straightforward…efficient.
What drives me mad about eBay’s attempt to convince sellers that social networking increases sales is that there is absolutely no way to measure the results. Warm fuzzies are fine, but from what I understand of marketing, if you can’t measure something, it doesn’t exist.
fLufF
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