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

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