During the past 15 days there have been many newsworthy changes made at and to eBay. First there was the various court rulings both for and against eBay. Secondly, eBay reversed several of their changes made to eBay listings and rules.
In the midst of this plethora of events, it is easy to get distracted from your own job which is selling on eBay and making lots of money . Should you adjust your About Me page? Why am I always #10 on the listing page? What is this about the new search engine that's coming out? What is the EBay Playground?
Most of these questions have a wishy washy answer at this time. It is really a game of wait and see. What does this mean? Well, we can sit in a chairs at home and wait and see what eBay will do (mostly to increase their bottom line - not ours) or we can get busy and list our items for sale just like we always have.
Instead of trying to guess what eBay may or may not do in their corporate offices, why not get your corporate office at home busy? The challenges are there for you. All you need to do is acknowledge that you can control your eBay earnings. If they drop off and you keep falling behind in what you made last year - then, for goodness sake, look for other venues. Continue with eBay, but be open to enlarging your selling experience. MySpace, blogs, online eCommerce sites, other auction sites.
We all need to keep focused on the prize: Earning as much as we can online.
As many of you know, I am developing a 4 part series on creating your own eCommerce website in 3 hours using WordPress. Part I - Beginners Level - was started last week and over 20 people participated.
It is still not optimized for search engine usage or set up for ROI, but Part IV of this series will do just that. Take a quick look at my: "Take The Leap Today" Blog . If you like the looks of the blog and want to have one for yourself as a new selling platform, then sign up for lessons Part I and Part II.
Part II - Intermediate Level has just been completed on July 15th and is ready for purchase. The cost is $5.95. We added 6 plugins to the site. You will notice the "Poll" on the right and the Photo Album at the top of the page. We also souped up the motor so to say of WordPress with some neat plugins
Blogs are becoming one of the easiest and hottest new ways to make good revenue on the internet. You can set up a widget on the sidebar of your blog with a picture of an item you are selling on eBay and take people right to your eBay store. .
Watch the first video from the second series - Intermediate Level
We will soon start level 3 - Advanced - where we actually create our eCommerce Site.Consider getting involved in this. This is a real deal and you get some real professional help showing you how to do this step by step. If you have never been involved with WordPress you really need to consider the first two levels before jumping into the advanced level.
Again, you can make additional income with a blog and by the time we finish this series you will have a blog and an eCommerce site up and running and ready to sell and make some money in addition to your eBay listings.
The Ears Have It - EBay Listens To Sellers
Well, shiver me timbers!
EBay made 2 announcements that are causing me to reevaluate my attitudes about eBay management. Lorrie Norrington, July 10th
Recalculating Feedback percentages without neutrals: Effective in late August, neutrals will no longer be counted as part of the Feedback percentage. This means we will be recalculating Feedback percentages retroactively for users worldwide. In the interim, no one will lose their PowerSeller status as a result of neutrals being included in their Feedback percentage.
Helping you resolve issues and satisfy buyers: By the end of October, we will roll out a new process to help you resolve issues with buyers, even after the buyer has left negative feedback. Everybody makes mistakes – buyers and sellers alike, and buyers should have a mechanism to change feedback if they make a mistake or if the seller rectifies an issue in a timely manner. Unlike with our previous Mutual Feedback Withdrawal system, our new process will enable buyers to change their feedback of the seller, not just withdraw the rating. We'll provide more details of this new process in the fall.Finally, we're working to resolve other important issues that eBay sellers have raised over the past several months.
Dinesh Lathi, July 11th
More Comprehensive Links Policy on Its Way We originally announced that we would start enforcing our new Links policy this month. However, we're continuing to review the policy and plan to provide you with a comprehensive update around mid-August. This means we will not change our enforcement of the existing policy at this time. Once the new policy is introduced, you'll have a four week "grace period" to give you time to adjust your listings.
Specified Shipping Not Required Until August – Improved Tools Coming Similarly, we've previously told you that starting this month, sellers will need to specify their shipping costs to make sure buyers have a clear idea of what an item's total cost will be. However, we've been working on improving our bulk editing tools to make it easy to update the shipping information within your listings all at once. These will be available in August, so we're going to delay the enforcement of this policy as well until these are available. Stay tuned for more information as we get closer to launch.
MY VIEWPOINT:
Any 8 year old could have seen that falacy in this recent change: The neutral and negative are same? So, using this method of inquiry I would ask you, "Are you pregnant?". And if you say you are "neutral", that means "no"?
I believe some of these decisions, the original one to make the neutral and negative the same, are talked about in brainstorming sessions by eBay employees. Great idea John. Yeah, let's do it. There seems to be little consideration for the seller - who pays their paycheck. Think of the anguish this has caused many sellers. Grandmother's trying to supplement their social security checks. Single parents hoping to sell enough to buy groceries for their kids. I only ask, where were the sellers when these decisions were made? This could have been avoided if eBay were more inclusive in their decision making process. i.e. Include the sellers at your meetings!
I just spent 2 hours today revising my about me page and making new graphics so I could be in compliance with their new "no links" policy. Rumor has it - they'll throw you off eBay if you violate this rule. Probably 500,000 other people have also spent 2 hours adjusting their about me pages. Now that adds up to 1 million hours of manpower that should have been spent listing items for sale on eBay.
EBAY RELEASES 2ND QTR FINANCIAL STATS
eBay just released it's 2nd quarter financial report which, on the surface looked good. GMV (gross market value) which is the total amount of sales that they made was up. But, on closer study, it became apparent that the 12% increase for the first 6 months amounted to only 4% increase during the past three. Also, eBay itself is predicting sales to improve only slightly or stay the same for the rest of 2008. It was also announced that online active users had increased by only 1%. Interestingly, the GMV was a grand total. No one knows what the USA was by itself. My guess is - not so good. But that's just a guess.
They site the automobile market dropping and recession. Actually, the sales improvement they showed were from the international arena. Remember, 40 million in Euros becomes 60 million in US Dollars. In other years, that 40 million in Euros would have amounted to 30 million in US Dollars. Therefore, there was a late day sell off of eBay stock.
Another reputable broker said that it seemed strange that the company would implement the changes they made in a weaker economy. And referred to their "fiddling" with feedback as an untimely error in the decision making process.
We'll have to wait and see, but my final thought is this: Solving a perceived problem can oftentimes create worse problems that have dire consequences. Involve eBay sellers in your brainstorming sessions and you could avoid some critical mistakes to your bottom line.
How To Use Buy.com Strategies To Advance Sales On Your Store And WebSite.
Recently, eBay struck a "secret" deal with online internet store Buy.com. Although the details of this deal were negotiated "behind closed doors", many sellers have become outraged countering that eBay no longer has a level playing field.
A friend of mine, in her "livid" mode decided to look into eBay User ID: buy, She wanted to see what makes them tick. Believe it or not, the way they conducted their sales, shipping and communication has become an eyeopener for me. I have now devised a "new strategy" for linking my Online Website Store to eBay and I am gleaning those methods from "buy". Watch both videos and see if this could help you to improve your sales on your online store, increase your customer base beyond imagination and use eBay as a selling platform to promote your store. This video is exclusive to this website and has not been placed on YouTube.
I ran across this free download and want to share it with you. It is great for all levels of Photoshop Users. Loaded with tips and tricks. It is selling on eBay right now for $49.95. It is 295 pages long and loaded with goodies.
If you are into "photoshop" or just beginning, you will find some very useful information to improve your Photoshop skills.
If you missed the last newsletter click here: June 27, 2008
Thank again.
Sally Olson
6201 N Kenmore
Apt 201
Chicago, IL 60660
773-636-6882
