2008 is quickly shaping up to be a banner year for changes at eBay. The biggest being at the top. On January 23rd, eBay announced that CEO Meg Whitman will be stepping down at the end of March with Marketplaces President John Donahoe taking over. PayPal’s Rajiv Dutta will move into Mr. Donahoe’s slot with more shuffling going on down the line. Meg Whitman wrote a nice message to eBayers on the Announcement Board. I met Meg at eBay Livee 2007 in Boston, and found her to be very kind.

The week before brought the announcement of a re-launch of the eBay Trading Assistant Program. eBay Sr. Marketing Manager, Sharon Guldner and American Research Institiute (ARI), the team behind the amazing success of the eBay Education Specialist Program, are working their magic and bringing many changes and new features to the program (I will add details in a separate post). Because of the success of the Education Specialists, eBay will no longer hold the eBay University classes that had been traveling around the U.S.

If you listen to eBay Radio with Griff, you know he has been hinting at other changes to come, including one concerning Feedback. With so many changes coming early in the year, I can’t wait to find out what announcements are made at eBay Live in Chicago.

Have Fun!
Mike

Do You Twitter? Do you know about Twitter? If not, try it. Twitter is like a mini-blog that lets you keep friends and family ( and customers?) updated on your activity by giving a short (140 character) answer to the constant Twitter Question, “What are you doing?” People can “Follow” you to know what you are doing, and you can follow them.

You can make manual entries, which can include links, from your page on Twitter, from your cell phone, through widgets on Facebook, Wordpress, etc (see my sidebar) or though the use of third party tools that will make automatic entries for you from an RSS feed. I have recently started using one of these services, Twitterfeed, to make updates when I list new items on eBay using my eBay Store RSS Feed and it even puts a link to the item in the Twitter post. (those in the know call them “Tweets”)

I had signed up for Twitter a while back but always kept forgetting to post anything. Recently I discovered a new tool called 40Twitter that will pop up periodically (the default is 40 minutes, hence the name) and ask you, “What are you doing?” You just fill in the box, hit submit and it makes your Tweet.

There are many other tools available and a lively community to help along the way, so try Twitter, and Follow Me.

Have Fun!
Mike

Its that time of year again, people all around the world are making New Year’s resolutions. If you are like me, you haven’t decided what they should be just yet, but luckily Chris Malta of Worldwide Brands has given us a jump start. He has created a special ‘New Year’s Resolution Audio’ for you. It’s called…

“Top 5 New Year’s Resolutions for Product Sourcing”

Now, the main problem with most resolutions is they are quickly forgotten. Whether it’s losing weight, quitting smoking, or starting a new business, most people do not follow through with their resolutions.
What’s the big difference between those who accomplish their resolutions and reach their goals and those who don’t?

ACTION.

You must take immediate and swift action as soon as you make a resolution.
So what about you? Will you take action? Will 2008 be your big breakthrough year? I hope so. And I want to do something ‘BIG’ to help you reach all of your business goals this year. If you take action today by listening to the audio and getting your lifetime membership to OneSource, you’ll get a special bonus video called…

“Importing From China”

Importing is a huge multi-billion dollar market and if you know how to take advantage of it, your profit margins could soar. Plus, you’ll be able to market unique products from different countries that aren’t readily available to your competitors. It gives you a huge unfair advantage.
Recently, Worldwide Brands spent thousands of dollars to fly to China and get an ‘insider’s viewpoint’ of the import/export business. It was eye-opening.
This on-location video will be available to OneSource members just for the month of January. They’re going to expand on the video and turn it into a full-blown course in the future, but right now, it’ll be available for you to see in the member’s area until January 31st.

So, if you’re already a member of OneSource, log-in and check it out. And if you’re not a member, take action right now and join OneSource today.

Start the new year off right. Get your wholesale product suppliers lined up. 2008 is going to be a great year for eCommerce business. Forrester Research states that online sales will reach an estimated $229.9 Billion dollars in 2008. It’s time to get your share. Make sure you take advantage of this opportunity.

Best Wishes for 2008!
Have Fun!
Mike

P.S. – Please keep in mind that the import/export suppliers you can use to get going immediately are right inside of OneSource. Log-in today and check them out.

I received a most unique gift this holiday season. I was given an envelope in which was a printout of a web page and a code for an online gift certificate.

“What?”, you say. “An online gift certificate? What is so unique about that? Millions of those were probably given this year.”

Well, it is not what it is that makes it unique but where it is from and how it is to be used.

The gift certificate is from Kiva.org and is used to make a $25 loan to an entrepreneur in an impoverished area of the world.
If you are not familiar with Kiva, they facilitate loans between individuals and small businesses in the developing world. By sponsoring a business, you can help the working poor on their way toward economic independence. During the term of the loan you can receive email updates from the business you sponsored and as the loan is repaid, you get your money back. By partnering with microfinance institutions around the world, Kiva has gained access to entrepreneurs in impoverished communities worldwide. Those partners choose qualified borrowers and upload the profiles to Kiva.org so you can lend to them.

I chose Joan Batuwadde’s group. Joan is a tailor in Kasubi, Uganda. She has requested the loan to buy more stock including thread and hopes to buy a new sewing machine. the other members of her group are; Sarah Nansamba, Sarah Nakazibwe, Farida Akello, Viola Kabajwisa, Esther Namubiru, Merab Namugga and Beatrice Nesigamye. The total loan for the group is $3050.00 and was funded in less than 8 hours. The group will make monthly payments over 1 year to repay the loan.

Unlike other lending sites, you do not earn interest on your loans through Kiva.
In this case it is not about making a profit, it is about making a difference.

If you would like to make a loan, or give a gift certifiate to someone and allow them to make the loan, visit www.kiva.org.

Are you the type of person who waits to the last minute, or just has no clue what to buy and just settles for a Gift Card? That way they can get what they want, right?

Or Maybe you buy gifts for your best customers, or vendors, or associates and always struggle with finding something that is not quite as boring as last year.

Need a new way to get your website in front of new eyes?

Visa has just introduced GiftCardLab.com where you can create Personalized Visa Gift Cards. Its Easy!

1. Choose “Upload Your Own” or “Shop Design Gallery” to get your Visa Gift Card
   (Normal people may want to “Shop Design Gallery” but Brilliant Marketers like those at OSI Rock Stars will want to “Upload Your Own”, with your web address added.) [at least 840x840 but less than 10MB]
2. Add your selected Visa Gift Cards to your shopping cart
3. Personalize your Visa Gift Card with your recipient’s name, a selected message and packaging
4. Send or give your gift in person
5. Have your recipient activate their Visa Gift Card online
6. (I added this one myself!) Everywhere your Gift Recipient shops, Your Website gets noticed!

If you want to use your company logo it takes a few extra steps for approval. All the details are on GiftCardLab.com

Create & order a unique gift card online – using your own images at GiftCardLab.com

Have Fun!
Mike

Using eBay’s RSS Feeds for Instant Notification.

Several weeks ago I was at an estate sale and bought a vintage Pioneer Audio Rack System with several components. When I listed the first piece, the rack shelf, I mentioned that I would be listing the rack itself in a week or so.

A couple of weeks later I got a message from a potential buyer asking when I was going to list that rack. I had to break the news to him that he had missed it. It had sold two weeks earlier. I also briefly told him how to use my RSS feed to keep informed about my new listings.That question made me realize that there are many eBay users out there, both buyers and sellers, who don’t know that eBay provides RSS feeds, much less how to use them.

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. A feed is a summary of website content that updates regularly and it can be utilized to keep users informed of the latest changes. eBay provides feeds in RSS 2.0 format for search results, Stores, Announcements, discussion boards and more. Just look for the orange RSS button to subscribe.

The first thing you need to do in order to utilize RSS feeds is find yourself a good RSS aggregator or “reader”. Personally I use Google Reader but there are many others available, both free and paid, each offering its own set of features. Just experiment to find what works best for you.

As a Buyer who is waiting for a particular item or just wanting to know when your Favorite Seller lists new items there are a couple of ways to subscribe to an RSS feed that will keep you informed. If the seller has an eBay Store and has enabled his RSS feed (more on that later) you can just scroll to the bottom of any store page and click on the RSS button. If the seller does not have an eBay Store, you can add them as a “Favorite Seller” or do an advanced search for items just from that seller and then use the RSS button at the bottom of the search results page. This can be done for any type of search, by the way.

As a Seller, if you have an eBay Store you must turn on your RSS feed before your buyers can subscribe to it. If you go to Manage My Store, you will see on the left, in the Marketing Tools section, under Store Marketing is Listing Feeds. When you go into Listing Feeds you will need to choose the radio button for “Activate your Store Inventory listings via RSS” and click apply. Once activated, a RSS button will appear at the bottom of your eBay Store pages. If you do not have a store just have your buyers add you as a Favorite Seller and they can subscribe to a feed from your item listing page.

Now you can keep up to date with your Favorite Sellers and your buyers will know when you list new items.

Have Fun!
Mike

The 2 biggest questions you must have answered if you want to run a profitable internet business are..

1. What do I sell?

and

2. Where do I get it?

It doesn’t matter if you sell on eBay, Yahoo stores, or your own website. Finding hot products to sell is something you’ll always have to do for your business. I know companies who spend hundreds of thousands of dollars each year just to source products.

You don’t have to do that.

Worldwide Brands will handle the heavy lifting of product sourcing for you and let you concentrate on growing your business.

If you don’t already know who Worldwide Brands is, let me tell you about them…

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Everyday, many eBay seller use these and other acronyms in their Auction Titles thinking that they are providing the most information in the least amount of space. On the one hand, they are, at least to the buyers who know the meaning of these groups of letters. To many buyers though, they are just confusing. I’m not saying that sellers shouldn’t use them. There are a lot of savvy buyers out there searching for these terms. I am just saying that for new buyers, a little help may be needed.

Whenever I have three spaces left after filling my auction title with keywords (another subject entirely), I will add “NR” at the end if it is a “No Reserve Auction”. Several times I have had people email me asking about the meaning of the “NR”. I usually respond by telling them it means “No Reserve” and apologize for the confusion. I am considering adding the explanation to my listings where I state it is a No Reserve Auction.

Now back to the title of this post. Do you know the meaning of all of the acronyms? Are there others that you use frequently? Maybe there are some you could be using to save space but didn’t even know about. You can find more information about these and more on the eBay Acronyms page.

Go, decipher.

Have Fun!
Mike

UPDATE:

2008 eBay Hall of Fame winners, Uncle Joe Adamson and Danna Crawford have recently written a book listing all these acronyms in a handy desk reference called Words For Auction.

At the time of this update, Danna is donating a portion of the selling price to First Book.

eBay calls Feedback “your permanent reputation as an eBay member” and it is a valuable tool to be used both before and after your transaction on eBay. You can get an Overview of Feedback on the eBay site. Below are my thoughts on how to use Feedback to your benefit.

Before the Transaction

As a Buyer: You should always check a sellers feedback before buying from them for the first time. Even if they have 100% positive you should read the comments and look at what was sold before making your decision to buy or bid on an item. The new Detailed Seller Ratings give more information to consider as well. If a Seller has less than 100%, it is even more important to read the comments and check the DSR. Check the Recent Feedback Comments box and look for the number of Negative and Neutral Feedback and when it happened. If it was over 1 month ago it may no longer be relevant but you can still look for the comment. Sellers with high scores will take longer to go through, but at the bottom of the page you can choose to view up to 200 comments at a time so that can help speed up the process.
Once you find the Negative comment read it and determine whether or not it was justified. As we all know there are some folks out there who will leave Negatives just for spite. (You can go one step further and look at the feedback for the person who left the Negative. Do they leave Negatives frequently or is this an isolated incident.) Did the seller reply to the Negative Feedback? How did they handle it? Sometimes you can learn more about a seller by his reply to a Negative comment than from the Negative itself.

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Welcome to eBay eBiz Tips! A new PartyVegetable blog to help you succeed on eBay and other online ventures.