Monthly Archive for February, 2007

In a New York Times article, eBay’s President of Marketplaces John Donahoe reveals that after two years at the helm, its about time the staff begins to communicate with one another via Skype and by getting the engineers and the businesspeople to make nice. He also allows that:

“Selling newer products on eBay ‘didn’t make any sense,’ he said. ‘It watered the experience down’.”

Which taken at face value, would appear to be a repudiation of Express:

“Last year, he rolled out eBay Express, a site for buying new products more efficiently..”

There’s more, much more to the article;reading it is a bit like riding a roller coaster, facing backwards.

Endlessly debated on auction boards is whether or not shipping should or should not be a profit center….listen in as I fuel the fire.

Hittail is an absolutely essential site and service for anyone who has their own website or store; one that allows you to easily see just exactly which terms buyers use to find you.

Brainchild of Seth Godin, Squidoo is a blog wherein blogs publicize themselves…and it can also work as a blog that is simply a blog unto itself. Listen in as I explain the blog equivalent of St. Augustine’s chat with the angel.

Mailum, a simple yet powerful way to create and manage newsletters for your customers.

BlueRectangle will buy your left-over books and pick-up the postage as well. Whether throwing in the towel on book selling on-line or simply off loading a forgettable read; you couldn’t ask for an easier solution.

Refund Please will track those thirty day lower price/money back claims on Amazon and notify you via e-mail when the price has dropped and you are due a refund.

Darmik describes itself as:

…a flexible and powerful content creation and ecommerce enablement platform.

And from then on it really gets hazy. Listen in as I describe how any site, including yours, should state its case clearly and make what it offers easily and quickly accessible.

Think you’ve got what it takes to be a real Powerseller?
I’ve got two words for you: plastic containers.

——————-

Links from this week’s show:

NYT’s Article on eBay’s John Donahoe - Read this interview as eBay’s Jolly Giant explains why new is bad, why Skype is fit for internal consumption and why some day, the engineers and the businesspeople will lie down together.

Hittail - Easy, free, essential tool for any web site.

Power Press Web Site Marketing Strategy - Write press releases that will drive traffic and buyers to your website or auction. Normally $37.97, you can receive $10 Off ($27.97) by entering “lonelyboy” (omit the ” “) in the Promo Code box.

e-Junkie - The best digital download manager available. Enter code: “SELL101″ for a one month’s free service.

GoDaddy Discount - Get $96 in Free Extras with your domain name from GoDaddy.com. Each domain includes free hosting with a Web site builder, a free Blog, Complete Email and much more. Enter code “pod54″ and get 10% off your order.

Squidoo - Seth Godin brainchild for “making sense” of blogs & search and blogging and searching.

Mailum - Easy e-mail newsletters for the rest of us.

BlueRectangle - Sell your books, get cash, free shipping.

Refund Please - The Original on-line price drop tool.

Darmik - A lesson in how not to describe what it is that you are selling.

CPS | Container and Packaging Supply - Sexy little bottles, nifty little tubs…and maybe an idea or two.

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The Wall Street Journal reports that eBay and MySpace are in discussions regarding a possible partnership. The idea is to let MySpace users buy and sell items from each other using eBay’s online-commerce technology and its PayPal payment system.

Meanwhile, CitiGroup meets with eBay officials and comes away with a targeted list of goals that eBay will focus on in ‘07…is it any surprise that “enhancing revenues per listing” will be a key goal?

An Australian economist suggests that selling water on eBay might be a way to bring market forces into play to help control water supply during Australia’s record drought….Marx,Keynes,Samuelson and now Megisian Economics.

According to HitWise, Google Base’s market share of visits has declined by some 18% from last July. Google Checkout’s market share was up over 350%, due to heavy promotion but still has not made any significant inroads into PayPal.

A free web based tool where you can check your web page (or eBay store) for keyword competitiveness vs. the top 10 sites for that keyword or phrase on the internet.

A French site,Zlio, launches its US counterpart where you can choose from a catalogue of thousands of products and arrange your own shop, collecting affiliate fees from the service.

A well designed site that lets you create your own online magazines, fanzines, brochures, catalogs, portfolios and more. Using the formatpixel online editor you can design page based projects, layout text, upload your own images, add interactivity and customize their appearance.

PayPal actually has an on-line forum…shiver me chargebacks!…I never knew! Perhaps a better way to deal with those convoluted PayPal problems.

One of my favorite tools is CCleaner (Crap Cleaner) a freeware system optimization and privacy tool. It removes unused and temporary files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster, more efficiently and giving you more hard disk space. The best part is that it’s fast! (normally taking less that a second to run) and Free.

I examine a missed opportunity for a lovable chocolate Lab (Maggie, pictured above) whose owners touted her lottery picking skills via an eBay auction. Too bad they didn’t take a page from my Power Press Press Release Book and really take advantage of the publicity Maggie so richly deserves.

—————————–

Links From this week’s show:

Power Press Web Site Marketing Strategy - Write press releases that will drive traffic and buyers to your website or auction. Normally $37.97, you can receive $10 Off ($27.97) by entering “lonelyboy” (omit the ” “) in the Promo Code box.

e-Junkie - The best digital download manager available. Enter code: “SELL101″ for a one month’s free service.

GoDaddy Discount - Get $96 in Free Extras with your domain name from GoDaddy.com. Each domain includes free hosting with a Web site builder, a free Blog, Complete Email and much more. Enter code “pod54″ and get 10% off your order.

eBay/MySpace Talk Partnership - A million here, a million there…pretty soon we’re talking a real crowd.

CitiGroup Report on eBay’s ‘07 Goals - Revenue Enhancement.

Australian Economist Says Sell Water on eBay - The Perfect Storm?

Google Base and Google Checkout Traffic Analysis - Don’t you just hate it when a monopolist can’t get its act together?

WeBuildPages Keyword Analysis Tool - A free web based tool where you can check your web page (or eBay store) for keyword competitiveness vs. the top 10 sites for that keyword or phrase on the internet.

ZLio - Site where you can easily and quickly set-up an internet store and share in the resulting affiliate commissions from hundreds of internet sites (e.g. Amazon).

formatpixel - Create your own online brochure or featuring your products/descriptions to augment your auction listings.

Official PayPal Forum - Ask questions and share advice with other PayPal Merchants, experts and developers.

CCleaner - Excellent free download for keeping your computer nice and clean.

Maggie’s Personal Lottery Service - A very cute idea that could have used a lot more imagination.

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Whenever I hear the term “disruptive innovation” I cringe. Notwithstanding the fact that many would say I cringe too easily, it nevertheless strikes me as term that arose ex post facto to describe a significant change rather than as a creative mandate.
Examples of generally accepted disrupters runs the gamut from the musket ( particularly disruptive if you are on the receiving end) to automobiles, PCs, the web, etc.. eBay can certainly be seen in this disruptive light in that it has profoundly changed the marketplace.

All well and good. But in almost every case I can think of, the disruption or the impact of any particular innovation wasn’t predictable, certainly by the standards of the time in which happened; it is rather only in retrospect that any innovation can be seen as truly revolutionary.

In other words, you just don’t memo all desks and proclaim that by week’s end, we’ll have a genuine, thigh-slapping disruptive innovation to announce….that is, of course, unless you trod among the khaki-klad of eBay’s recently proclaimed “Disruptive Innovation Team”

The Disruptive Innovation team was created with a specific purpose in mind: explore new concepts and create new tools to allow our 222 million buyers, sellers and developers to make better use of the eBay platform.

“…to boldly go where no man has gone before” just cries out to be inserted in right after “explore new concepts and create new tools” doesn’t it?

All in all a very butch attitude that will, I am sure, result in disruptive, tectonic-shifts in the march of civilization.

I feel much the same as you, I’m sure, huddled as we are in our primordial darkness waiting…hoping….praying that the resulting musket from our “team” doesn’t backfire.

There’s a little company in Redmond Washington that launched a very ambitious site, namely: Windows Live. Strangely enough, there hasn’t been much written about the scope of the effort (some 17 Beta releases) and one particularly that should be of interest for e-commerce sellers, Live Expo. Two weeks ago, I launched an item in Live Expo to test the waters…listen in as I detail my experience so far and why you should consider going “Live” yourself.

Forget PayPal, is Microsoft setting itself up to challenge Mastercard/Visa’s credit card monopoly? Maybe so and Bill Gates is proposing micro-steps to do just that.

An fatally attractive conversation on the Vendio board re the sale of a collectible poison bottle, complete with poison, and whether it is permissible and/or ethical to do so.

Overstock.com launches Omuse in Beta…and I for one, am not amused. Does Overstock really need a wiki or social aspect to the site that is not directly tied into selling?

PayPal’s going to give you $15 for purchases over $30 just out of the kindness of their heart…we knew they had the money; a heart however, is news.

WipBox aids creating listings by pulling product specific information automatically from Amazon, among other places…and this simply too easy to do you or your listing any good. Listen as I explain why.

A Craigslist clone that does a fine job of doing nothing new in a remarkably inert sort of way.

“eBay cannot guarantee exact listing durations with respect to availability of keyword or category search.” or in other words: we’ll list your damn auction when we can get around to it.

A site for CD/DVD duplication that can help monetize that e-book idea.

The world’s leader in “Sin Removal Products” has loads of other hip products that would make for some unusual gift baskets…”for Cheaters, Losers and Wrong-Doers”, you know, folks like us.
A wholesale hat site…I can’t think of anything clever to say other than its cool.

Does a site that produces items:”created by carefully injecting and trapping multi-million volt regions of electrical charge deep inside acrylic using a particle accelerator…” sound like something you’d like to sell? Sure does to me! And just try finding this in one of those drop-shipping guides.

Computer and electronic wholesalers and an auction and information site for Legos that is quite an eye opener.

—————————-

Links from this week’s show:

Power Press Web Site Marketing Strategy - Write press releases that will drive traffic and buyers to your website or auction. Normally $37.97, you can receive $10 Off ($27.97) by entering “lonelyboy” (omit the ” “) in the Promo Code box.

e-Junkie - The best digital download manager available. Enter code: “SELL101″ for a one month’s free service.

GoDaddy Discount - Get $96 in Free Extras with your domain name from GoDaddy.com. Each domain includes free hosting with a Web site builder, a free Blog, Complete Email and much more. Enter code “pod54″ and get 10% off your order.

Windows Live - Microsoft’s Basket ‘o Betas for practically every internet chore.

Windows Live Expo - a dynamic social listing service where you can buy and sell merchandise, discover local events, find a new career, and meet local people - all for free. Nicely done.

Overstock.com’s Omuse - A social wiki beta service desperately in search of a reason for its existence.

ProActionMedia - CD/DVD duplication service.

PayPal $15 Offer - Make a PayPal payment over $30 and Meg will credit you $15 cash. Limited time.

BlueQ - Manufacturers of life improving, joy bringing, mind altering, universally praised products since 1988.

Stoneridge Engineering - A million volts worth of interesting acryllic product.

Village Hat Shop - Whole lotta wholesale hats.

RS-Kit - The Internet’s largest online database of computer wholesale distributors.

BrickLink - A premium venue for individuals and businesses from all around the world to buy and sell new, used and vintage LEGO® through fixed price and auction services.

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

eBay has finally caught up with such radical web 2.0 forces such as J.C.Penney,Woolworth’s and Sears by instituting markdowns in fixed price and store listings. Its a good move to consider using them..that is if you know how and why…listen in as I explain a tactic that is as old as retailing itself.

Meanwhile, eBay has clamped down on auction extensions and automatic auction extenders, banning them from the site. However, extensions are still permitted for fixed price and store listings..if you’re not already using extensions to increase your listings visibility, you should be.

Craigslist has been a very popular topic in the past on the show. However, its a different kettle of fish than eBay and researching the Craigslist marketplace is an important first-step to selling there. Listen in as I go over several tools that will make that task easier, including one that you can use to generate an anonymous phone number for customer contact that is useful on eBay as well.

An new blog that will review your eBay store and perhaps be a source of future traffic for you.

A great site for doing all of your keyword searching in one place. Use it to find how and where (and how much the word or phrase will cost in Adwords or on Yahoo) on practically every significant site on the web.

Transactional e-mails are more than just the humdrum after the sale. They represent an excellent marketing opportunity…that is, if you know what to offer.

Could you and several of your friends use some of the hottest on-line bargain shopping communities to drive traffic to your sites? Its doable if you’re smart.

Jewelry photography is one of the trickiest pics you are liable to take when selling. I’ve found a very good site that spells it out for you. Also, these tips are applicable for anyone trying to photograph any reflective surface.

—————————–

Links from this week’s show:

Power Press Web Site Marketing Strategy - Write press releases that will bring traffic and buyers to your site or auction. Normally $37.97, you can receive $10 Off ($27.97) by entering “lonelyboy” (omit the ” “) in the Promo Code box.

e-Junkie - The best digital download manager available. Enter code: “SELL101″ for a one month’s free service.

GoDaddy Discount - Get $96 in Free Extras with your domain name from GoDaddy.com. Each domain includes free hosting with a Web site builder, a free Blog, Complete Email and much more. Enter code “pod54″ and get 10% off your order.

Craig’s Helper - a simple tool that allows you to search multiple Craigslist sites at once, quickly and easily.

CraigsNumber - Craigsnumber is an auto-expiring, FREE anonymous phone number for use not only on Craigslist but wherever you might need it.

MyBidlist.com - Turn ads into auctions on Craigslist, kijiji, Google base, Edgeio, Yahoo! Local Listing, LiveDeal, Oodle, Backpage, Vast for FREE.

Crazedlist- Search Craigslist like a madman.

Best eBay Auction Stores - Request a review of your Store and let them help bring business to it.

SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool - The best keyword research tool/service I know of.

BidThumbs - A gallery of eBay items of interest for reserve-met / no-reserve auctions ending within 24 hours.

Jewelry Photography Tips - Excellent one-stop site for tips to taking pics of all things shiny.

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download