The Ugliest Thing On eBay Contest

We've all seen some pretty bizarre things on eBay over the years but now there is a contest. Now if you find the Ugliest Thing on eBay you can win a prize. Go here for the details.

Squidoo Announces SquidBids for eBay Sellers

Squidoo announced today that they have launched a new promotional tool for eBay sellers called SquidBids. eBay sellers can use their eBay userID or eBay Store name to create a profile on their ebay business. It is a cool little tool and something even the big players on eBay should consider for their business.

I would love to see a SquidBid page for GrapevineHill, InflatableMadness, GothamCityOnline among others. Sellers need to reach out and find customers where they hangout and Squidoo gets tons of traffic. Here is an example of a SquidBid page from eBay Seller FreakNoodles.

Seth Godin does a much better job of explaining SquidBids then I would so here is a link to his blog post.

Combining SquidBids with the Red Door Store campaign that some store sellers have started might give eBay sellers some promotional juice.

eBay Launches Month Long Listing Promo

Warning - Read the Promo Details. This promo requires Gallery.

eBay is making a huge change in the way they handle promos for sellers, at least for this promo. I'm hoping this is a signal that there is a change in the wind at eBay and though it may just me the first move it’s not a bad first step. I honestly never thought I would see the day.


For years, eBay has trumpeted the use of gallery as a means of increasing conversion and providing a better buyer experience, and many sellers have agreed, well today eBay appears to be putting their money where their mouth is. Here is what Phillip Justus had to say:

"I have great news for you! Based on the success of our last Listing with Gallery promotion on 8/15, we are running a similar promotion for the entire month of September. Like the last promotion, if you buy Gallery and start your Auction-style or Fixed Price listings at $9.99 or less, we're going to give you the insertion fee for FREE. In addition, for items with a starting price of $10 or more, you'll save 25% off the listing fee (up to $1.20 per listing!).

But wait – there's more! This promotion runs from August 29 to September 30. That means significant savings for our sellers who will be able to take advantage of this promotion for an entire MONTH! (Read here for more promotion details.)"

If you've never used Gallery before this would definitely be the time to test it. Just be aware that your total cost will increase in two price ranges:

• $10 - $24.99 - You will pay .20 cents more to add gallery
• $25 - $49.99 - You will pay .05 cents more to add gallery

If you currently use Gallery you will be saving the following amounts:

• $.01 - $.99 - You save $.20 cents per listing
  
• $1 - $9.99 - You save $.40 cents per listing
  
• $10 - $24.99 - You save $.15 cents per listing
  
• $25 - $49.99 - You save $.30 cents per listing
  
• $50 - $199.99 - You save $.60 cents per listing
• $200 - $499.99 - You save $.90 cents per listing
• $500 - Up - You save $1.20 per listing

So if you are currently using gallery you will save in every price range. Think this through, don't go crazy using your savings to add a ton more listings but where it makes sense add listings that give you the best savings.

Remember eBay will launch Best Match in September and I'm sure use of Gallery is part of the criteria so if you were considering not taking part in this promo, you might reconsider to give your listings the best shot at being seen.

I've often commented on eBay using sticks to mold seller behavior but this time they are using a carrot. If this is successful they will use carrots more often.

Amazon Firing On All Cylinders

Amazon.com appears to have become the darling of Internet Stocks at the moment, with a lofty share price and a stellar Q2 behind them. Anecdotal evidence, coming from 3P sellers who sell on both eBay and Amazon say their Amazon orders are increasing while their eBay orders are flat to down. Many sellers, are now just using eBay for cashflow until they can ween themselves off of the site. I don't anticipate they will completely withdraw from eBay but they certainly want to change their mix of sales. Because it can take up to 18 months to generate measurable sales from a sellers own website, Amazon is currently the best place to move their business. Sure it has some of the same marketplace dynamics as eBay but Amazon is a retailer that understand ecommerce. eBay is an auction site that grew so fast, so easily that they let things get out of hand and no one wants to be part of the renovation.

In media categories, many sellers are seeing Amazon sales equal to or greater than their eBay sales and with the all important 4th Quarter just around the corner, many sellers are hedging their bets. Many are expanding to Amazon now to get all of the kinks out before the all-important holiday shopping season.

Amazon's model is brilliant, if you ask me, because they have added breadth to their product offerings without having to carry any inventory; they get the best of both worlds. They can be very aggressive with their owned inventory, stocking limited breadth but tremendous depth leaving the breadth to their high margin 3P business. Because Amazon controls the marketplace (they don't call themselves a venue or a community) they have more control over merchandising as well as seller quality. When a category has too much product for the projected demand they close the category to new 3P business. This is a fluid operation that allows them to open again when the demand picks up.

Amazon's 3P business, IMO saved the company. Imagine where they would be without the margins from 3P sales that are now north of 35% of sales and growing. They have the media market sewed up. Half.com has become primarily a Textbook Sales venue that has two key selling seasons in August and January. If Half.com was a real challenge to Amazon they would be expanding to other countries.

A recent search of Amazon, pulled up Collectibles, Apparel, Sporting Goods Equipment, Cosmetics, etc. In the early days of Amazon they tried to carry this inventory and sell everything including the kitchen sink (and we all know how that turned out). Now, with 3P sellers they can make a handsome margin on product sales where they have no inventory exposure. They've found the "Holy Grail" for an online retailer. eBay can't compete because they don't actually sell anything. eBay has always had sales velocity because of auctions but that is slowing and apparently Amazon is catching up.

eBay is the "King of Auctions" and should have become the King of Ecommerce but that mantel has been passed to Amazon. eBay's bet on improving CORE may have actually marginalized them even more. eBay's like a 55 year-old former starlet who undergoes plastic surgery to recapture some of her youth.

Amazon has been around for as long as eBay but they seem to be hitting their stride now while eBay seems to have pulled a "hammy".

One caution for 3P Sellers who are looking at Amazon as the "Holy Grail", they are still a marketplace and you are advised not to "put all of your eggs in one basket". Begin the transition to your own website because it may take up to 18 months to drive significant sales through it.

You can find more information on Amazon 3P offerings at their website or visit the AmazonServices website.

My New Role As Community Manager on Squidoo

As many of you know, I've been a Squidoo user (lensmaster) since March of this year and have enjoyed it immensely. I've created a personal lens on my life, a lens on being a single dad, published my Dad's first novel (we call it a Squidovel) and created a gallery of wonderful photography, travel destinations and video clips that I've Stumbled Upon. I was recently honored with the title of "Squid Angel", along with several others, a role that charges us with promoting the best content (lenses) on Squidoo and I've also become a Jurist in a monthly "Top Lens" contest. You would think that would be enough to keep me busy but I still had too much time on my hands.

As of last week, I have a new title (drum roll please). I am officially the Community Manager for the eBay Seller Community on Squidoo a wonderful group of sellers who use Squidoo to promote their eBay Stores, Websites, and online content. This community reminds me a great deal of what eBay was like in the early days. The community is very strong and active, with over 200 eBay sellers already taking part. Meg! This is the real "Social Commerce"

Now, here is the best part, this is not a staff position, I am a volunteer. I am committing my time and energy to make this a success because eBay Sellers need every bit of help they can get. As you know, I have not always spoken kindly of eBay's decisions over the years and I've done what I can to encourage sellers to open their own websites and diversify their businesses. I've said over and over again, "stop calling yourselves eBay Sellers" and begin to think of yourselves as online merchants. I'm still going to continue to do that but at Squidoo, we've created a community for online sellers to promote their businesses, it just happens that we are gearing the community around eBay sellers. It doesn't hurt that I have many years of experience with eBay.

Update:
Seth Godin has recently written a post entitled Jobs of the future, #1: Online Community Organizer and what he says really hits the spot.

"If you want to hire a union organizer, you probably know what to look for. Someone with resilience, passion, persistence and excellent interpersonal skills.

What if you want to hire someone to build an online community? Somebody to create and maintain a virtual world in which all the players in an industry feel like they need to be part of it? Like being the head of a big trade association, but without the bureaucracy and tedium..."

eBay sellers, understand the role that community plays in their success and they get excited about finding ways to reach new customers (especially when they are free). What Squidoo allows them to do, is build their own brand and develop their own expertise, sharing that experience with a whole new group of customers on Squidoo. Sellers are the experts on their particular product and they can drive targeted traffic to their listings, blogs, lenses and WebSites. In fact many of them are already doing that. Several sellers get over 10% of their eBay Store traffic from Squidoo. I get a growing portion of new visitors to my blogs from Squidoo and I know of one seller who is doing very well driving traffic to her own website; see it can be done. I'm very excited to be a part of this.

The power to succeed, is in the will of the individual, not in the marketplace. Being an eBay seller provides an instant connection with over 200 other sellers and my job will be to harness that power and channel it into a community that I hope to grow exponentially.

If you are an eBay seller and are interested in more information on Squidoo, please visit the eBay Seller headquarters or my new eBay Squidoo Blog for more information.

Squidoo, is the Web 2.0 tool I've been looking for. It is much more community oriented than MySpace or Facebook, it empowers the individual to speak about subjects they are the experts in. It rewards users (lensmasters) as it grows, by sharing the revenue with them and it provides eBay sellers a vehicle to promote their products, on or off eBay.

Another Big eBay Seller Opens Up Shop at Yahoo Stores!

The migration continues, as another large seller has opened up their website using Yahoo's Merchant Solutions; commonly know as Yahoo Stores.

eBay Seller Inflatable Madness is a "Top 30" eBay seller with over 200,000 Positive Feedback. I spoke with Kevin Harmon, Owner of Inflatable Madness and he said "We've been looking at our options for a website for awhile now and Yahoo proved to be the best fit. It is just another element in our multi-channel selling strategy" Kevin will also be blogging about the movies and anything else he can thin of so check out the Inflatable Madness blog as well.

The website will concentrate on Selling DVD's for now and provides a great selection at some unbeatable prices. Check it out at: http://www.inflatablemadnessdvd.com

Inflatable Madness joins two other large eBay Sellers at Yahoo Stores: eForcity and Rock Bottom Golf among others.

Maybe eBay Is Listening!

I just checked eBay's announcement board and found an interesting post: Making eBay Better Than Ever - Get a Sneak Peek

It looks like eBay has determined that giving buyers and sellers a heads up on changes coming to the platform makes sense. I could have told them that years ago. Here are some of their new initiatives. I think all sellers need to check these out to see how their business may be affected and give eBay feedback while there is still time to make changes.

• There is The Playground where you can see how the site looks with Finding 2.0
  
  
• There is the new Sneakpeak site where you can see what changes are coming down the pike to other areas of eBay.
  
  
• And there is the new Disruptive Innovation site where you can see how eBay is changing the landscape.

Information is a good thing, now sellers can get a heads up on the changes eBay is contemplating. Is the new FeeForcast site the next site to be announced. (I doubt it)

As much as I complain about the lack of information this is a small glimmer of hope that eBay is changing for the better.

Ebay Sellers on Squidoo - Version 2

I've been working on the directory I created for eBay Sellers on Squidoo and I would love to get your comments.

Squidoo ranks very high in Google search so I thought I would bring eBay sellers together in one place and see if we could drive some traffic your way. You will only get out of this what you put into it so take a quick moment to add your eBay Store, Website, blog or Squidoo page to the directory. This directory is for eBay sellers and former sellers worldwide so my Brit and Aussie friends please add your links also.

The traffic that is generated is not substantial right now but it will build, so add your store or items to the directory today.

You can't beat free. And if I can get some of my fellow eBay bloggers to mention the directory that would help move things along.

Great New Feature Being Tested In eBay Motors

eBay announced today that they would be testing something called semi-persistent Buy it Now. Please read the announcement.

This is something that I advocated for years and is needed to raise ASP's. While this is a test for the next several months it is a welcome sign that eBay is willing to test things that will improve the buying and selling experience. I think this will be a very successful test.

Now Is The Time To Develop Your Own Website!

There is no time like the present to begin working on your own website. I realize this can be a scary proposition but if you want to continue to grow your online business you will eventually need to have an independent online presence. One that is not dependent on any one marketplace.

Dan Wilson, former Community Manager of eBay UK in a recent Tamebay interview with Sue Bailey says, one of the reasons he revised his book Make Serious Money on eBay UK

"I also really wanted to look beyond eBay and how eBay sellers can use eBay as a springboard for other selling online. It strikes me that every serious eBay seller needs to be expanding off the platform and looking for other sales opportunities either with their own website or with other marketplaces. It represents too much of a business risk to have everything riding on eBay alone and truth be told if you’re selling on eBay you have all the skills to sell elsewhere." Bold is used for emphasis.

My own experience with Glacier Bay DVD proved that developing your own website is crucial to the growth of your online business don't wait too long to begin. I launched my site in February of 2005 and though I was able to generate $300,000 in sales from the web site that year it was not significant enough to keep me from shutting my business down. Had I launched my WebSite in 2004 I would still be selling media product online.

As Dan mentioned in his Tamebay interview "It represents too much of a business risk to have everything riding on eBay alone and truth be told if you’re selling on eBay you have all the skills to sell elsewhere."

Just My 5 Cents!

Drive Traffic To eBay And Get Paid For It!

Today's announcement from eBay, highlights the changes in the eBay affiliate program. Now sellers can get affiliate pay for driving traffic to eBay, even if it is only to their own listings. You would need to join the eBay affiliate program to participate. I'm not sure how this will affect the FVF credit that store owners receive.

One thought from my perspective: Why would you want to expend effort and possibly money to drive traffic to eBay; you will still only receive part of the transaction and eBay gets the rest for absolutely no effort? This move lessens eBay's dependence on paid search and benefits eBay in the aggregate while individual sellers get little benefit.

If you are a store owner and want to keep your store presence on eBay it may make since but I would think you would be better off creating your own independent webstore and driving traffic there. Why give eBay even part of the transaction if you are doing all of the work?

A Little eBay Stores Board Wisdom!

I regularly read the eBay Stores Board but never post -- I am deemed a "rabble rouser" by the team that runs the stores board. When I was selling I rarely if ever read the eBay discussion boards but I think I missed out. Sure most of the sellers on the boards are small sellers but if you read the boards there are nuggets of wisdom to be found.

I spend most of my time on the Stores Board because I believe eBay Stores are the weakest link in the eBay Empire. I think that eBay has "screwed the pooch" in regards to stores, mostly by limiting Stores potential. They feel if they improve visibility in Stores it will continue the decline of CORE and in its present form that is probably correct. My biggest beef is they don't appear to know how to do both (Core and Stores) effectively.

I have many complaints about eBay in regards to Stores but it is time for Sellers to take some responsibility for their own business. Stores are not the "Holy Grail" of online business; it is a tool to reach customers. Sellers should not make the mistake of believing if they "just list it they [customers] will come. Sellers are not entitled to a nice profit just because they list items. I don't blame eBay for my business failure because when the market dynamics changed I was not prepared to handle it. Sellers need to learn to be responsible for their own business.

This recent comment from the stores board is full of wisdom in this regard.
faeries_finest (709 ) View Listings 2 of 9 Apr-28-07 22:07 PDT

"Stores aren't part of Core. It's that simple. Stores can be a profitable part of an Ebay business but Ebay never claims it is one size fits all - they never say 'put all your inventory in a store and your sales will go up 'You have to be responsible for picking and choosing the services that Ebay offers. Only you can decide the best listing formats and the best mix of listing formats for your particular business. Of course Ebay is going to encourage you to use all of them. That's their job. Your job is to exercise judgment about whether their recommendations are actually a good business decision for you."

Sellers don't let changes in the marketplace catch you by surprise. eBay Stores are a tool, its up to you to become the Master Craftsmen.

Consider this before you Make Online Selling a Career Move

If you are new to online selling or considering jumping into it headfirst, please take a few minutes to read this post. I am usually not a How-to kind of writer so forgive me if I don’t follow a standard format.

There are at least three major considerations you need to address before opening up a business online: (There are many more things to consider but these are key)

• Do you have a product someone wants to buy and can you get sufficient quantities and steady supply? If you can’t answer positively regarding this question you should stick to selling items as a hobby or for extra cash. It isn’t a bad way to go -- you won’t get rich but you won’t lose your house either.
  
• Is this a commodity product that everyone is selling already and being the lowest price is the major merchandising method? You will not last long, selling online, if you don’t have sufficient margin. Leave the low-priced, high volume game to the big guys.
  
• Before you jump into online selling understand that from 15 – 20% of your total sales will be paid out to marketplaces like eBay and Amazon, Credit Card processors like PayPal and Google Checkout (eventually) If you choose not to go the Marketplace route you will spend from 10% to 20% on AdWords. Make sure you can afford to spend that kind of money before try and make a living at selling online.

Please don’t fall prey to the “Get Rich” fast schemes or the eBay Millionaire Stories. My company was profiled over and over again as an eBay Millionaire. While I made a good living for several years I was no Millionaire.

Think – Research – Test before you start an online business.

Just my 5 Cents (Adjusted for eBay economics)

The Dawn of a New Day - 24 hr. Notice for Listings Sales on eBay!

eBay announced a new .20 cent listing sale today which really is not news. It appears CLD's (cheap listing days as the Brits call them) are being announced each month. No, the news today is that eBay has given sellers 24 hours notice for the sale.

In the past eBay announced sales the day of the sale which limited seller's ability to pick the right titles to list many sellers just threw up items "to see what stick". With 24 hours notice sellers can pick and choose making for a more effective listing strategy.

eBay UK has been providing up to 3 days notice for CLD's in that market for awhile and that strategy has been very effective.

Meg Whitman on CNBC

Unfortunately CNBC does not provide a method for embedding their videos in a blog so I will just have to link to Meg's interview on CNBC this morning.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=261406629

It was interesting to hear her take when she mentioned the strength of eBay is the small businesses that use their platforms and services -- they certainly have a funny way of showing that to sellers, don't they?

Another humorous comment was when she mentioned Skype. She mentioned that Skype's business was 2/3rds from Europe and 1/3 from Asia then she added the US makes up the rest of it -- is this another example of eBay math.

Is eBay's Feedback 2.0 Coming to the US Soon?

I came across a great post on the eBay Store Discussion board regarding Feedback 2.0. Please read the Original Post as it is very fair and well written.

I don't think Feedback 2.0 will have as much impact on sellers as many think. Most buyers are lazy and if the transaction was favorable they will either not make the effort to rate the transaction further or give it all fives. The negative people are of course going to be negative regardless. The nice thing for US Sellers (though not great for International sellers) is they probably won't release Feedback 2.0 until after eBay live and they may make some modifications to resolve some seller's concerns.

Squidoo is Courting eBay Sellers!

I recently received an email from Squidoo promoting “The Lens of the Day” a nice little feature where they highlight a particular “Lens” for being unique, clever or in some way standing out. Yesterday’s LOTD was Freaknoodles and here is the email I received:

“Hi Randy,

Q: What happens when you cross Sock Monkeys with some Cherry Pie and Santa Claws?
A: Freaknoodles!

Huh?

Okay, once more, in English.

Freaknoodles is a cute eBay store that sells colorful pajamas. And they have a lens, which is today's esteemed Lens of the Day.

This is what every eBay seller should have! Tell a story about your items, why you're selling, who you are, share some testimonials, and point people straight to your auctions. You get more reach, more pages linking Googlers to your stuff, more sales.

Are eBayers with lenses the new elite of online trade? You better believe it.

Stop by the Freaknoodles lens and suck up some inspiration from a pro.

http://www.squidoo.com/NickAndNoraPJs/

P.S. The SquidTeam will be at eBay Live in Boston this year. June 14-16. Come out at say hi! “
I was struck by the focus of the email. It appears that the folks behind Squidoo see the value of promoting their site to eBay sellers, in fact they are going so far as to tell readers they will be at eBay Live in Boston. I have posted a couple of times on the value of Squidoo for eBay sellers – mostly small to medium volume sellers -- it is nice to see the management of Squidoo sees that value as well.

BTW - Freaknoodles received a substantial increase in activity to their Squidoo Lens as noted in a eBay Stores Discussion thread post number 2.

Be Prepared for Another eBay Store Fee Increase!

According to Scot Wingo of ChannelAdvisor, eBay is preparing to raise store fees once again. You can see Scot's take here at his blog eBay Strategies. The increase, that Scot predicts, seems very high to me but is possible when you consider that last years Stores Fee increase didn't move enough listings off of eBay and as Scot says "stores continue to grow much faster than core. eBay hit the brakes, [ Last July] they slowed down and now they are climbing again. ".

So, what is a store seller to do? My suggestion is to plan your exit strategy now. I don't suggest moving everything until the fee increase becomes a reality but you need to be prepared. Find a webstore that fit's your needs and sign up for Google AdWords using PPA (Pay Per Action) Keep your high volume items on eBay and move the rest to the webstore. With PPA you only pay when there is a sale and you can set the terms.

This strategy will be beneficial regardless if eBay raises store fees or not.

eBay Promoting Stores and New Sellers Again!

I was driving to get my coffee this morning when I heard my first eBay radio commercial ever. It was a 30 second spot encouraging people to find something around the house to sell on eBay and giving them their first 3 listings for free. This seemed odd to me because most eBay advertising in traditional media is geared to the buyer. This is the first time I’ve ever heard a radio ad for eBay let alone one promoting selling on eBay.

My first questions were: Is eBay, having trouble getting new sellers to replace those that are leaving? Could it be that the metrics are finally showing a leveling off in seller growth? If so, are existing sellers in line for some incentives to stay? I couldn’t help that last question; it is my nature to be optimistic.

Then I got home to do my morning surfing and saw this, on the eBay Announcement board: Grow Your Sales with eBay Stores – 30-Day Free Trial Offer. Wow, eBay is (I know it should be “eBay are” but it just doesn’t sound right and its my blog) once again promoting stores. After last years store fee increase I had the impression they didn’t want any more clutter. What will more stores do to reduce the clutter?

I think these two events are telling (here goes the conspiracy theory). eBay traditionally doesn’t promote anything unless it is new to the site or their metrics show the numbers are going in the wrong direction. It’s been my experience that they make changes very quickly if the metrics are not going their way so I have to come to the following conclusion: Sellers are leaving and not enough newbies are joining to make up for it! Is there any other explanation?

March will be an interesting month because SIS skewed eBay’s 2006 numbers and it is apparent they are having problems retaining sellers right now. PayPal is being very aggressive with new promotions and now eBay Stores are once again being promoted. I wonder how balanced the site is now. Stay Tuned, this could get interesting.

Squidoo is what eBay's My World Should Be.

I've been playing around with Squidoo.com for a couple of days now and have come to one conclusion. This is what eBay's My World Profile should be.

In an perfect world, if eBay weren't so determined to control the universe, the My World profile would allow sellers to generate incremental income from the content they create while expanding their ability to connect with their customers and maximize their marketing efforts. Imagine if you had a Squidoo Lens with eBays traffic. Of course we don't live in a perfect world so sellers that are creative end up going off of eBay to find tools like Squidoo.com to help them connect with their customers and network with other sellers and heaven forbid, generate incremental income.

The money you make at Squidoo.com may be small initially but if you use it as a tool for finding new customers connecting with existing customers and networking with other sellers your business will be better for it. Check out my Seller Evangelist Lens on Squidoo (I know the name sounds a little weird but it grows on you).

Just my 5 Cents!