New eBay Parody Song

I came across an eBay Song and video today..Originated from Backstreet Boys’ I Want It That Way. It's a cool parody song about eBay and it’s usage in our lives. . I liked it, see what you think. http://findv.com/x.php?3uw

EBay – No cash bonanza for Playstation 3 touts

Many touts on eBay have been left holding the Playstation 3 game stations that they grabbed in the hope of making a big and quick profit on eBay. It appears that unlike previous launches of gaming devises like the PSP and Xbox the manufacturers got the supply and demand ratio just about right.

The delay in launching due to technical problems seems to have allowed Sony to ship in enough consuls to meet the demand. It is reported that over 200,000 machines have been brought into the UK.

For previous launches desperate gamers have paid up to double the retail price to get their hands on the latest technology but not so in this case. A couple of buyers have paid over £500 on eBay but there seem to be plenty listed at below the normal retail price.

EBay University announces its plans for 2007

eBay have recently announced their plans for 2007. There appears to be only 4 one day venues this year.

April 21st at the Ricoh Arena, Coventry

June 9th in London

Sept 22nd Glasgow

Nov 10th Manchester.

The price this year is £49 per day. This is quite a price increase, when I attended a University event at Sheffield a couple of years ago the fee was a very reasonable £15. Last year it rose to £30 and now a big jump to £49. Even so I think that compared to the price being charged by some marketers for eBay information material this still represents good value.

The event will run from 10 a.m to 6 p.m. with registration from 9 a.m.

For this unfamiliar with eBay university they are day long series of eBay-centric classes aimed at helping you get the most out of your eBay selling. Staffed by eBay staff, PowerSellers and industry experts, its also a chance to meet fellow eBayers, share your insight and get the opportunity to pick up tips and tricks in a unique environment. Over 5000 people have attended these events so far.

To find out more about the 2007 program visit http://pages.ebay.co.uk/university/

eBay doesn’t trust International Paypal payments?

Yesterday I decided that I would definitely go to the eBay Live jamboree being held in Boston between 14th-16th June. I booked my flight and hotel through lastminute.com and then thought I had better order my eBay Live tickets.

There was no real problem, just about 4 or 5 pages of information that had to be completed, all pretty straightforward. Then I got to the payment page. There was two choices of payment either Paypal or credit cards. As I have a surplus in my Paypal account at the moment I thought I would take this option and clicked to select it.

I was then amazed to get a message on the screen saying that this seller does not accept this form of payment for buyers outside of the USA and Canada. Now have I got it wrong or is this the same company that is urging us all to use Paypal as our payment method of choice on every occasion.

It would be interesting to know why eBay do not feel it is safe to accept International payments through its own payment service. Has any other readers had problems getting eBay to accept Paypal payments.

The good news is that I shall still be going to eBay Live as I paid by debit card in the end.

eBay - Fraudster trys to sell someone elses car

Terry Merrygold got quite a shock when a friend telephoned him and told him that his £20,000 classic Austin Healey car was up for sale on eBay. It was the first he knew about it and to add insult to injury the fraudster who was trying to sell it had used photographs of the car from his own web site.

Terry is the owner of a classic car hire company called “The Open Road”. When he went onto eBay he saw that the current bid price was £5,000 about a quarter of the vehicles true value. Once he contacted eBay Motors they removed the listing. Having checked the seller’s details he discovered the “seller” was offering another car that he did not have and he was able to warn the true owner.

There was never any danger of Mr Merrygold losing ownership of his car but obviously any “buyer” would not be so lucky if he or she parted with any money.

A spokesperson for eBbay Motors said: "The listing in question was removed as soon as the fraud report was filed and eBay are currently investigating the seller in question.

"Thanks to its transparent nature, eBay.co.uk is one of the worst places to sell stolen goods.

"Firstly, if it's illegal we don't allow it on the site and secondly, eBay's is so transparent that a seller's activities on the site are visible to the millions of other vigilant eBay users and also to the police and other law enforcement agencies we work with.

"eBay continues to work very closely with law enforcement including the Metropolitan Police's Stolen Vehicle Unit to assist them in investigating alleged illegal activity on the site, which helps them to make arrests."

eBay and the tax downunder

Over the last few months we have been reporting that the Revenue services both in the USA and UK have been taking a greater interet in eBay sellers. Now we have to add another country to that list.

The Australian Taxation Office has now asked eBay to hand over details of over thousand top Australian eBay sellers. What they are particularly interested in is the non payment of GST (the equivelent of our VAT) on eBay sales. The problem seems to have arisen is because eBay run its Australian operation from Bern in Switzerland. Because of this eBay does not have to either register for GST or include GST on their invoices.
Many sellers claim that they assumed that GST was charged on their invoices and have claimed back these payments from the ATO. A spokesman for eBay said it was the responsibility of the sellers to resolve problems over their GST payments.
"For people to say that we didn't point out to them that there is no GST on eBay invoices is an attempt to shift the blame on to us instead of their own accounting practices," the spokesman added.

There are currently about 5 million registered eBay sellers in Australia.

This is getting serious –and eBay deny responsibility

In the latest issue of ukauctionline.co.uk I told you about the Romanian guy who is hacking into eBay. Well he or one of his countrymen has gone a stage further. On 8th March , an alleged Romanian hacker calling himself "Born_To_Scam_American_Guys" posted records for 15 eBay users on an eBay forum for between 40-60 minutes before the company removed them. The post appeared on eBay’s Trst and Safety board.

I did not see the post myself bt according to FireMeg which is rapidly becoming one of the major eBay watching blogs the posting appeared early on Thursday morning. It started with some taunting and culminated in the the worldwide posting of confidential financial information of fifteen different eBay members, including social security numbers, credit card numbers, bank account and routing numbers, ATM PIN numbers, mother's maiden names, driver's license numbers, as well as home addresses and full contact information.

To see the full text of Firemegs blog go to http://firemeg.blogspot.com/

The information apparently remained on the screen for around 40 mintes before being pulled by eBay. Catherine England, a spokeswoman for eBay, said that only half the accounts were legitimate. The other half looked like fraudulent accounts based on verification information that didn't clear eBay's verification process, she said. As for the half that were legitimate eBay accounts, eBay was in the process of contacting the victims as of Friday, March 9, 7:40 p.m. EST.

Some of the victims eBay had managed to contact by that time said that all of the information posted about them was accurate, while others noted some inaccuracies, England said.

However, eBay stated that the information could not have come from them as some of the included details were never held or requested by eBay. There theory is that the information was gathered using “phishing” techniques.

This problem has been in the news now for several weeks and it is worrying that eBay have not been able to come p with a solution. At the moment we all need to be on or guard. From what I can discover the current threat seems to be to eBay.com but it would be foolish to think it cold not happen to us.

EBay seem to be saying it is all down to us, I am not sure that is totally true but we do need to be ultra cautious when giving anyone details of or eBay account. One step yo can take is to download the ebay tool bar which will alert you to any false e-mails purporting to come from eBay or Paypal.

Ebay Buying Guide - 7 Tips For Bidding Success

By: Adrienne Petersen

For the past four years I've been buying and selling on ebay on a daily basis. This guide shares my tips for buying on Ebay msuccessfully. Just about anything you want to find, can be found on Ebay. I've come to believe that if you can't find it on Ebay, it either hasn't been invented yet, or it's so rare that if you do find "it", you'd better hang on to that precious item!

Ebay Membership

First of all, are you a member of the Ebay community yet? If not, visit ebay.com and register as a member. It's free and very easy to sign up. Just fill in some basic information like your name, address and phone number, pick out a username and password and you're good to go. Don't worry about giving Ebay your phone number. Ebay does call me on occasion, but just to let me know about special promotions and never to try to sell me anything. Use an email address that you check regularly, as you will receive emails from ebay about your purchases there as well as in your Ebay messages.

7 Tips for Bidding Success

Now that you are a registered member of the Ebay community, here are 7 easy tips that I find helpful for a successful buying experience on Ebay:

1. Read the listing thoroughly...every word!

2. Make a note of when the listing ends (especially if it is an auction listing). If you are very interested in the item but are not ready to purchase or bid on it at the moment, click on the "watch this item" link and then you can keep an eye on it from the "My Ebay" page in your account.

3. Do you have any questions about the condition, size, or any other information about the item? Look at the upper right area of the listing page under where it says "Meet the seller" and click on the link that says "Ask seller a question". It's always a good idea to email a seller that you haven't bought from before to ask them a question. This helps to give you an idea of their customer service. Give the seller a day or so to respond, many people sell on ebay part-time, and have jobs they have to go to every day.

4. IMPORTANT: Find out what the shipping method and cost is before you bid or buy! If it isn't stated in the listing, ask the seller, as explained in Tip #3.

5. Look at the sellers feedback rating, again in the area below "Meet the seller". Personally, I won't deal with a seller that has less than a 98% feedback and much prefer to buy from sellers with 100% feedback. If a seller has less than 100% feedback, I will always read their feedback comments to find out why they received negative comments. Often, they are from customers that just didn't understand the ebay process and so left a negative before working things out with the seller. I also like to read the postive comments. If there are a lot of comments that note "fast shipping" and/or "great service or item", then I would feel more comfortable buying from that seller.

6. Check and see what types of payment a seller accepts and how long you have to pay. This will come in handy when you find an item that you'd like to buy. Sometimes the seller only accepts forms of payment that you do not want to use. For example: you want to pay via PayPal, but the seller only accepts money orders, or vice versa. Make sure you pay the seller within their time specified on the listing.

7. Buy It Now or Place Your Bid! If you are purchasing a "Buy It Now" item, click on the Buy It Now button follow the instructions to pay. If you are mailing payment, use check-out to let the seller know. You may also use check-out to request an invoice from the seller. Bidding on an auction? To avoid a bidding war and getting caught up in the heat of the moment (and paying too much), place a bid for the highest amount you would be happy with paying and then let it go. Ebay will only bid for you as much as is needed to out-bid the next highest bidder, up to the amount you entered. Make sure you consider the shipping cost when calculating your bidding amount.

Ebay can be a very rewarding experience! Using these tips will help you in purchasing that hard to find and one of a kind item that can be found on Ebay!.

About the author: Adrienne Petersen has been buying and selling on Ebay since 2003 and currently owns several Ebay Stores. Anyone over the age of 18 may register on Ebay by visiting one of the author's stores such as Discount Kitchen Faucets.

Why You Need Multiple Ebay Accounts

By Phil Morgan

Many people are unaware that ebay will allow you to have more than one account. All you need to do is set each one up under a different email address.

Why would this be to your advantage? There are four reasons I’ll suggest; the first two are “offensive” business strategies, the second two are “defensive” business protections.

1. To keep your niches separate One of the many advantages of niche marketing is that you are perceived as a “specialist” or “expert” in a particular field. This gives customers confidence to buy.

On the other hand, if you only have a single line of products and sales begin to slow, you may regret having all your eggs in one basket.

Many successful ebayers like to have two or three different niches. By using a different account name for each niche you are able to keep it nice and simple for your customers. They don’t have to wade through a page of listings of another line you sell in order to get to the products that they’re interested in. In addition, their perception of you as a specialist is reinforced. You’re the “go to” guy or gal for what they want.

Are you an ebay Store owner? Having separate accounts gives you the additional option of opening a Store for each niche. You can build your own ebay “empire” of stores.

2. To advertise multiple domains There’s a very simple little (perfectly legal) “trick” that many ebay sellers employ to get some free advertising for themselves. When choosing a user ID on ebay, they align it with their off-ebay web site. So, for example, they might use **explodingbiz.com** or www_explodingbiz_com (ebay will not allow you to use the regular http address line as is, but these alternatives are suggestive enough that people get the message easily).

By having multiple accounts you can advertise and get a little extra exposure for several domain names that you own.

3. To protect your positive feedback rating Most ebayers work very hard at building a good feedback rating. The goal, of course, is a high number of transactions and 100% positive comments from customers.

It’s frustrating when you work very hard to build that feedback only to have your score reduced by just one or two unreasonable customers. I’ve even heard stories of sabotage by a competitor who buys your cheapest line item just to return it and leave a negative. I believe that’s very rare, but it’s a possibility.

You can always appeal to ebay to have negative feedback reviewed (although they will never remove the actual comments), but having multiple accounts with a growing positive feedback score means that if, for some reason, one rating should be compromised you can consider switching over to do business under another account that you own.

One strategy that is particularly worth considering is setting up a separate ebay account just for buying. If you have a very bad experience with another seller on ebay, you might feel the need in good conscience to leave a negative comment in order to warn others. After all, that’s a big part of the reason why the feedback system was established. The problem is that most sellers wait until you’ve left feedback before they respond with feedback for you. Inevitably, if you have to leave a negative, you can be quite sure you’re going to receive “revenge” feedback.

Keeping a separate account just for buying on ebay means that anything like that can be kept away from your selling accounts where a negative will hurt you far more.

4. To insure against a misunderstanding with ebay ebay reserves the right to “suspend” or “terminate” your account at any time if they suspect you are not abiding by their rules.

All of ebay’s rules have been set up with two purposes. Firstly, to protect everybody who uses the site (which we all appreciate), and secondly to look after their own business interests (which we all understand).

The problem is that the application of these many rules is not always entirely consistent. ebay is notorious for “interpreting” their rules in changing ways. And let’s face it, it’s their site and they can do what they like.

I’ve heard some horror stories about sellers unintentionally breaking one of ebays rules and finding themselves shut down. After discussions to sort out the misunderstanding between the two parties, the accounts are often reinstated, but it takes time.

If you’re trading on ebay as a hobby that might be only a minor inconvenience, but if it’s your livelihood you could be “out of business” for days or even weeks until you can get it sorted out.

Again, having multiple accounts can save your bacon! It might allow you to keep trading while you’re in negotiations to clear your good name.

So, there we have it. Four good reasons to maintain multiple ebay accounts.

Some suggestions for setting up your additional accounts. We’ve already talked about how a good feedback score is coveted among ebay sellers. There’s no question that it increases sales. So one reason a seller may be hesitant to list items under a brand new account they’re trying to establish is that, without their good rating they might not get as many bids and therefore they might not realize as good a selling price. They’re all the way back at the starting gate again!

Well, I suggest several things that should help.

· Begin by using the new account to buy some things on ebay, and gain some positive feedback that way.

· List a bunch of very cheap items for sale – buyers are less nervous if they’re spending just a dollar or two on baseball cards or e-books than if they were buying larger items.

· Add a line in every one of your listings that lets bidders know that you have an established feedback rating under another account name. Say something like, “I am not a newbie on ebay. You can see the very positive feedback score I have (over 1200 transactions and counting!) under the user ID mymainaccount.”

By employing these few techniques it shouldn’t be too long before your new secondary account is established in its own right.

What’s stopping you? Go sign up for that additional account today!

About the Author:

Copyright 2007 Philip A. Morgan. All rights reserved.
Phil and his wife Alli are internet marketers who enjoy teaching others how to profit.

The Potential To Make Money On eBay Is Expanding - Make Use Of It!

By James Penn
If you’ve been reading forums or blogs on the internet or on eBay for any amount of time, then I’m sure you’ll of heard many bitter eBay sellers complaining about how there is no longer any money to be made on eBay and that making money on eBay is a ‘mugs’ game. Don’t listen to them, the potential for making money on eBay with eBooks is expanding – read this article to discover how to leverage the potential of eBay to ensure you can make as much money as possible from the all time high in the eBay market place.

Firstly, more and more people are listing cheap eBooks on eBay. While others would simply copy other sellers, why not RAISE the price of your eBooks. Buyers are still looking for quality eBooks to buy – they’d much rather buy a product for $10 than $1 or less if they feel they are getting better quality.

Secondly, the rising eBay fees are forcing sellers out of the market place, they are cancelling their eBay accounts in protest. This is reducing the competition for you and while you may have to pay more for selling your eBooks – at least you will receive more exposure. There will be fewer sellers, but just as many buyers.

There are my top two tips for maximising the potential of the eBay market place, even as others are complaining and whinging about the high fees and low priced eBooks – you now know how to use these factors to your advantage. So get down and start making SERIOUS money from eBay.

James Penn is an experienced eBay seller & has assisted many eBay sellers to help them make money on eBay in 2007 and for many years to come. Discover many of his other eBay selling tips that will help explode your eBay sales & grab a selection of free eBay eBooks by signing up to his free eBay newsletter.

Searching On Ebay

By Nathan Johnson

I’m going to give you some great advice about searching on eBay. I’m going to help you find the product or products that you’re looking for and I’m going to try and help make your eBay experience a fulfilling one.

Searching on eBay is so important and is a key step in the buying process and so many people out there are doing it the wrong way. A mistake that people often make is that their search is too broad and they are flooded with way too many products, that they simply won’t be able to look through. So many products come up that they aren’t looking for, so they just think that eBay doesn’t have what they’re looking for and leave. When in fact eBay very well could have had what they were looking for, but they just couldn’t find it.

Let me give you an example of what I’m talking about. A person might want a model from a certain year or time period, but they just search for the model and then they get back thousands of model’s from all time periods. They get frustrated and leave.

It’s alright to start with some broad terms, but if you get too many products that come up, then you simply keep narrowing your search until you find what you’re looking for. If I collected Star Wars action figures and I wanted to find the original ones. That is what I would search for, if I wanted an original Han Solo action figures then I would search Original Han Solo Action Figure.

Another good tip is if you know what you want like the Han Solo action figure then you should search both the title and the description. You just check that box under your search. This will help you find the product you’re looking for even if the title isn’t very descriptive. Sometimes seller’s have the product that you’re looking for but their title isn’t very good or they misspell something in the title and that could throw the whole thing off. They should be talking about it in the description somewhere, so you don’t have to rely on the title. Hopefully this advice will help you with your searching on eBay and help you find the products you want!

Nathan Johnson is an expert on making a fortune on eBay.
Learn his secrets here http://www.trueebaysecrets.info/secretsofebay.html

Make Money on eBay - How to Gain Loyal Customers

By Bob Hamilton

Repeat customers already know you, your business and the products that you market. Gaining the repeat sales that come from those loyal and satisfied customers is one of the best ways to make money no eBay. But how does an entrepreneur go about moving buyers to the list of repeat customers that make that difference?

While there are many pieces that all come together to create that relationship, they really fall into three main categories. Excellent communication, over-delivering and trust all come together to start sellers down the path to that relationship. Those three categories when repeated time and again create relationships that make money on eBay.

Communication is one of the keys to make money on eBay. Prospective buyers need to be able to count on sellers to provide all of the information that is required for them to make their buying decision. That includes complete information about items that are being sold. Timely and complete answers to all questions, instant information when purchases are made and follow-up communication throughout the payment and shipping process are included. Then there is the follow-up that comes with a simple ‘thank you’ inside the package when the product arrives.

Another step toward the goal to make money on eBay is over-delivering. This comes in many forms. It might include adding a small FREE extra item to the shipment. This works best when the FREE item relates to the item that was purchased. It might be providing a small discount on shipping for loyal customers. It might be by providing FREE gift wrapping when the item is being delivered as a gift or for a special event. The list is as big as your imagination. The little extras all give the message that you are over-delivering and that you appreciate your eBay buyers.

The most important step in building a base of loyal customers is being trustworthy. To make money on eBay means that every buyer can count on you to perform as committed. Everything that you write in descriptions and answers is absolutely accurate. When you say that a package will ship today, that happens. The list of actions that build trust is as long as all of the interactions that you directly and indirectly have with your buyers and prospective buyers.

Build a base of loyal, satisfied buyers and you are on your way to make money on eBay. Give it a try!

To your eBay success!

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Make Money on eBay - How to Use the Title to Make Sales

By Bob Hamilton

The auction listing is where the rubber starts to hit the road with your eBay business. The listing starts with the listing title of course. In fact to make money on eBay your listing titles must be more than titles. They must be powerful titles that bring traffic to your listings.

Since you are limited to just 55 characters for your title it is critical that you maximize the impact and effectiveness of each and every character. Invest the time to create a title that will use all 55 characters. To make money on eBay invest the time so that you never leave a character unused.

Make money on eBay by doing the research so that you use keywords that will attract prospective buyer attention. Be sure to use the keywords that are most popular with eBay buyers. Research takes time, but knowing just the right keywords can add up to high traffic and more sales.

Use the most popular terms to identify the item. Include information about what it is, what it is most often called, and the brand. If there is enough room special features and any limitations or imperfections should of the item be included as well. That’s a great deal of information, but to make money on eBay requires that everything possible be included in the title.

Those who know how to make money on eBay know that the listing title is critical to success. They know that all of the most critical information about the item should be included. They know that keyword rich titles attract traffic. They know that creating powerful titles takes time and energy. With practice your listing titles can bring large numbers of prospective buyers to you listings as well. They will bring sales to your eBay business.

To Your eBay Success!

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eBay launch Feedback 2.0 in Europe

Yesterday eBay announced that the new feedback system (Feedback 2.0) had become effective. With immediate effect buyers in the UK and Ireland, as well as Australia, Belgium, France, India, Italy and Poland, will be able to rate sellers on the four Detailed Seller Ratings .

The changes are that as well as leaving an overall positive, neutral or negative Feedback score, buyers can now rate sellers on Item Description, Communication, Dispatch time and Postage & Packaging Charges.
The Feedback Profile page has also changed and now includes a summary area for the Detailed Seller Ratings.
Buyers can rate sellers on a one to five-star scale for each of the Detailed Seller Ratings, with one the lowest and five the highest rating. Once a seller has received 10 Detailed Seller Ratings, the average is displayed on the Feedback Profile page. This does not however effect a sellers overall feedback percentage.
Additionally instead of just the item number being shown for 90 days after the feedback is submitted you will be able to see details of the item title and price. This should highlight those people who buy penny items to build up their feedback score. It will also give buyers more visibility into the types of items sellers have been selling, and consequently the type of sales their Feedback score is based upon.
EBay say that Feedback is the foundation of trust on eBay. The changes will ensure that the Feedback system continues to be a credible measure of trust in an ever-growing and changing community marketplace, enabling best sellers to stand out and buyers to make more informed decisions before buying.
These are laudable aims and should be applauded by all eBay users but I wonder if the overall effect may not be to deter buyers from submitting feedback at all. I am not sure what percentage of buyers actually submits feedback now but an additional with 4 separate areas to assess whether it might not fall under the heading of “all too difficult”. We shall see.

Ebay and Red Nose Day

In the run up to Red Nose Day on Friday 16th March eBay are joining stars such as Lenny Henry, Stephen Fry, Joanna Lumley and Rowan Atkinson in raising money to help poor and disadvantaged people across the UK and Africa turn their lives around.

EBay have set up a special special Comic Relief page featuring items where some or all of the final selling price is being donated. Comic Relief are also selling a whole of load of special items including the Ford Cortina from Life on Mars and the tracksuit top Kate Moss wore during her appearance as Vicky Pollard's sister in Little Britain's Charity Gala.
Sellers can also get involved by donating between 10%-100% of the selling price of an item to the appeal and eBay will donate the same percentage of the selling fees towards Red Nose Day. Your item will also appear on the special Red Nose Appeal page.
Buyers can also help by looking specifically for items in the Red Nose pages and get bidding.

EBay report listing up by 5.8%

Despite some reports that listings have been falling eBay.com have increased by 5.8% compared to the corresponding period last year. This covers from the beginning of the year until 4th March.

The total of International listing were 238.0 million which represented an increase of 13.2% but in the USA there were nearly 178 million listing which is 2.8% down on the same period last year.

Although total listings may be up this may be in part due to the increase of bulk listing of low priced items, which often do not sell. It is no secret that eBay are working hard to increase the number of listings that result in a sale rather than the mass listing of speculative low priced items.

There have been reports that items priced at 1 cent or 1p on ebay.co.uk are being refused in some cases as eBay considers them to be farming for feedbacks. I did even read that some 99c offers had been suspended for the same reason but I do not know it this is true or not. But perhaps it would not be a bad thing if some of this rubbish were cleared off of the site.
Congratulations to eBay.i.e the Irish auction site which has just announced it has reached ½ million registered users which represents 58%of all Irish internet users, and 16% of the over 18 population of Ireland.

eBay place restrictions on sale of Sony Playstation 3

Ina Steiner of Auctionbytes.com reports that eBay.co.uk is imposing restrictions on the sale of the new Sony Playstation 3. The reason given is the high demand and limited supply availability.
There are two major problems when this type of situation arises, firstly genuine retailers become over whelmed with the demand and are unable to meet the orders. This situation also offers a golden opportunity for scamsters to prey on a desperate market.
If retailers wish to offer Playstation 3 the must meet sopme strict conditions including using only Paypal as the payment method and the seller must be Paypal verified. To read the full story visit http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y07/m03/i02/s02

This is a bigger ebay news story

Josh Shaffer has contacted me after I published the news that J K Rowlings
was getting an injunction against ebay. In a message he sent me he says
"While the JK Rowling lawsuit certainly is big news, the bigger story on eBay
is the recent spate of hacker attacks by Romanian hacker, Vladuz, and the
associated hundreds of thousands of scam listings and hijacked accounts
(including those of eBay personnel) over the past week.
To get the full story visit Josh's blog
http://firemeg.blogspot.com

Keep an eye on the big guys

If there's something you've got to keep an eye on on the internet, it's the big guys. Their movements have ripples that reach to every corner. When Amazon thought of the idea of having other sites reselling their products, they changed internet direct marketing forever. Some caught the wave and surfed to the top, others are still wondering what went wrong.

There are some ripples being made as we speak. eBay in planning to gobble up Shopping.com with classifieds becoming a strong point in the eBay strategy. And with this new acquisition, millions of customers will certainly buy or sell through eBay. If you buy or sell on the internet, you have to watch eBay... great for price reference; many websites owe their entire income to eBay. If you're not one of them, you should give this some consideration. It seems the "eBay way" is here to stay with their endless online promotion. Many people don't even own a website and thanks to this way of selling, they are making pretty good money from their homes.

Have you been tweaking and putting more and more gizmos onto your site? Well, sometimes you'll have a better response if you do exactly the opposite. Any marketing expert will tell you that your site must look professional but plain -- and this is what European mobile phone companies are doing and making big profits in the process! What's chic now is low-tech cellphones targeted for people who want to use their phones to... yes, you guessed it -- talk! That's right -- there are a lot of people who don't care about all the new features the new cellphones have and they're trading in their hi-tech toys for simple-to-use devices. This "just in" from Current Analysis Inc. And this is great news because I have a whole drawer filled with old brick cellphones... finally my ecological conscience will pay off -- maybe an auction on eBay... :)

Skype is also making quite a big of a hype, becoming the popular choice of millions. VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is sure to be involved in a lot of online businesses. The visitors will now not only type questions, they will ask them verbally and listen to a human respond to their questions -- making the internet much warmer.

PayPal has reduced the the payment regulations; this will be big for all those web businesses that see the large opportunity of allowing visitors small payments. Ringtones, music downloads, articles with valuable content, greeting cards, pictures, donations, etc. You name it, it can now be sold. And who could refuse to give just some measly pennies? Micropayments can become a big source of income, especially if your website receives a lot of visitors that you have not figured out how to turn into buyers.