Future Shop - Fascinating Look into the Future of eBay and Buy-Sell Culture

I’ve been reading a really interesting book on eBay and how auction culture is changing the way we use goods and shop. It’s called Future Shop – written by Daniel Nissanoff. Nissanoff is one of the early Web visionaries that “got it” and got rich in the process. He started one of the first online b2b exchanges, called PartMiner. It was a a half billion dollar company at one point.

The book talks about how the auction culture is reshaping the very definition of “consumer.” We’re shifting from a mass-marketed-to culture to a participatory buy-and-sell culture. Nissanoff considers this shift a huge opportunity for all kinds of business people, calling it an “economic juggernaut.” Businesses like I Sold It On eBay and Trading Post help facilitate this new buy-and-sell culture. All kinds of analytic services that help people figure out what to buy and sell (and when) are cropping up, too.

Nissanoff explains, “anyone who understands how to maximize the value-to-utility life cycle of their possesions will be rewarded with a more prosperous but less costly lifestyle.”

I’ll post more about Future Shop as I read on. It’s fascinating stuff.

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eBay Marketing Radio Show - Free MP3

As you may recall, I was a guest speaker on Conversations with Experts last week. The interview went really well, and since I was talking fairly quickly, I was able to get in a lot of good info in a relatively short period of time (1 hour). If you like audio, you can grab the file and slap it on your MP3 player or iPod.

I posted the file on my web site here: http://www.qualitywriter.com/radio

The original site, www.ConversationsWithExperts.com, has all kinds of other business topics and speakers. There are some really great presentations. It’s worth checking out.

The lead-in description of the topic is below:

How to Build an eBay Business that Generates Repeat Sales and Loyal
Customers

Wednesday, February 8, 2006, 8:30 p.m. ET
Guest Expert: Phil Dunn, author of “The 7 Essential Steps to Successful
eBay Marketing”

In recent years, eBay competition has become fierce. Tens of thousands
of new sellers have entered the eBay marketplace, including large-scale
retailers with the edge of professional marketing expertise and
power-house corporate experience. The eBay market has also been flooded
with small-time sellers, who sell at low margins for little profit and
make it difficult for other sellers to compete with their prices.

To succeed, you need pay attention to how you “market” your products.

In this discussion you’ll learn how to:
Understand buyers and position your products for faster, higher margin sales Present products more persuasively (in visual and in written form) Create urgency and sweeten the deal Differentiate your business from competitors Cultivate loyal customers and build positive feedback

Discover what makes buyers choose one item over an identical one, and
learn why customers come back to trusted sellers time an again.

Phil Dunn is co-author of “The 7 Essential Steps to Successful eBay
Marketing.” He’s also a marketing writer and strategic consultant for
Fortune 500 companies (Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, Pitney Bowes, Toshiba
Medical, IKON) and eBay businesses. With persuasive writing and
time-honored marketing approaches, he has sold everything from $22
haircuts to $50,000 cars to $1 million software licensing agreements.

Register: www.ConversationsWithExperts.com
<http://www.conversationswithexperts.com>

Conversations with Experts: How to Build Your Business On and Off-line Hosted by Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff.

Please read our book in the local library for for free. Or get it for 32% off the cover price: "The 7 Essential Steps to Successful eBay Marketing"(McGraw-Hill, 2005). Walmart.com sells if for 36% off!

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advertising, copywriting, journalism, media, news

More eBay Questions from Readers: Sinister Cynicism

Q: It appears to me that the larger eBay gets the more employees are hired to run the 'eBay computer system' and they make changes to justify their existence that increase the store owner's workload while offering marginal returns on that investment of time.

A: Perhaps you're right. Alot of the changes are probably in response to other off-eBay selling solutions like mPire and the services they offer to entice people to use their service over an eBay store. This is a very competitive market, and eBay's fighting tooth and nail to keep people using the eBay store (and paying them the fee to do so), over using a 3rd party solutions that interfaces with eBay for selling online.

Thanks Amy for this answer!

Please read our book in the local library for for free. Or get it for 32% off the cover price: "The 7 Essential Steps to Successful eBay Marketing"(McGraw-Hill, 2005). Walmart.com sells if for 36% off!

ebay, selling, sales, seller, marketing, writing, writer, book, books,
advertising, copywriting, journalism, media, news

Feb 6 Web Seminar: How to Build an eBay Business that Generates Repeat Sales and Loyal

I’ll be the guest speaker on a Webcast this evening @ www.ConversationsWithExperts.com

Pop in and have a listen or catch the archive.

Description below:

How to Build an eBay Business that Generates Repeat Sales and Loyal
Customers

Wednesday, February 8, 2006, 8:30 p.m. ET
Guest Expert: Phil Dunn, author of “The 7 Essential Steps to Successful
eBay Marketing”

In recent years, eBay competition has become fierce. Tens of thousands
of new sellers have entered the eBay marketplace, including large-scale
retailers with the edge of professional marketing expertise and
power-house corporate experience. The eBay market has also been flooded
with small-time sellers, who sell at low margins for little profit and
make it difficult for other sellers to compete with their prices.

To succeed, you need pay attention to how you “market” your products.

In this discussion you’ll learn how to:
Understand buyers and position your products for faster, higher margin sales Present products more persuasively (in visual and in written form) Create urgency and sweeten the deal Differentiate your business from competitors Cultivate loyal customers and build positive feedback

Discover what makes buyers choose one item over an identical one, and
learn why customers come back to trusted sellers time an again.

Phil Dunn is co-author of “The 7 Essential Steps to Successful eBay
Marketing.” He’s also a marketing writer and strategic consultant for
Fortune 500 companies (Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, Pitney Bowes, Toshiba
Medical, IKON) and eBay businesses. With persuasive writing and
time-honored marketing approaches, he has sold everything from $22
haircuts to $50,000 cars to $1 million software licensing agreements.

Register: www.ConversationsWithExperts.com


Conversations with Experts: How to Build Your Business On and Off-line Hosted by Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff.

Please read our book in the local library for for free. Or get it for 32% off the cover price: "The 7 Essential Steps to Successful eBay Marketing"(McGraw-Hill, 2005). Walmart.com sells if for 36% off!

ebay, selling, sales, seller, marketing, writing, writer, book, books,
advertising, copywriting, journalism, media, news

eBay Questions Continued: Managing Inventory & Listing Managers

Q: When an item having an inventory has had one sale and comes up for a change it has to be deleted as the system doesn't allow any changes to be made on that item.

A: Yes, the inventory thing doesn't accommodate changes . . . you need to use a listing management service to take care of that (see below).

Q: Figuring TurboLister might be the way to revise a couple of hundred listing and save time i updated my old version... only to find it kept crashing, thesolution was to spend hours downloading updates and i'm hoping today it willwork.

A: I agree that Turbo Lister is pretty buggy and does tend to crash alot. I still use it, since I'm used to it and just suffer thru the occasional crash and tedious updates. (Are you using a dial up modem? If you switch to cable or dsl, the updates download very quickly). If it continues to eat at you, you may want to look into other bulk listing managers like mpire, vendio, channel advisor. There's a pretty good review of available services at: http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/pages/ams

Thanks Amy Balsbaugh for these answers!

Please read our book in the local library for for free. Or get it for 32% off the cover price: "The 7 Essential Steps to Successful eBay Marketing"(McGraw-Hill, 2005). Walmart.com sells if for 36% off!

ebay, selling, sales, seller, marketing, writing, writer, book, books,
advertising, copywriting, journalism, media, news

eBay Questions Continued: Cross-Promotion Items Changing

Q: My cross promotion items change when there's been no reason for them to change and the eBay default is to promote the highest $ item which usually is a turn off to buyers who are shopping for the lowest priced item... The system tells you half of your items have automatically been revised, but it doesn't tell you specially which ones have been revised. What’s up with this?

A: It's easy to manage your cross promotions so that you can control which items will automatically pop up in your cross promotion boxes. From the "Manage Your Store" page, select the "Default Cross Promotions" button. The first page you'll be linked to lets you manage your general categories that get cross promoted. For my own business, I always cross promote from the same category. However, depending on what you sell, you may want to cross promote from other categories. (e.g. If you sell bowling balls, you may want to cross promote to your bowling shoes category).

If you scroll down to the bottom of this page, you'll find a link for "Cross Promotion Preferences" where you can specify that you'd like your lowest price items to be pulled up automatically, as well as specifying other preferences as well.

If you want your cross promotions to be constant and never changing, you can always manually set your cross promotions to specific items. Once the item listing has been created, open the item page and click the "Change your Cross promoted items" button. This will link you to an interface that allows you to select specific items to appear in your cross promotion boxes.

Thanks Amy Balsbaugh for this answer!

Please read our book in the local library for for free. Or get it for 32% off the cover price: "The 7 Essential Steps to Successful eBay Marketing"(McGraw-Hill, 2005). Walmart.com sells if for 36% off!

ebay, selling, sales, seller, marketing, writing, writer, book, books,
advertising, copywriting, journalism, media, news

Today Show Newspaper/Media Segment Bumped

... Again. I didn't see it on at 7:15 AM. I think the Red Sea ship sinking may have scrambled their schedule.

I'll keep you posted.

Meanwhile, I'll post the answer to another eBay question. To follow..

eBay Questions Continued: Finding the Right Categories

Q: Item specifics keep changing so I have to search each time to find a proper category. What’s the deal?

A: This is a pain. But it's worth the effort since many buyers search in specific categories instead of eBay at large. It's extra effort, but it's time well spent to find the right category for your item. Depending on what you're selling, the "item specifics" have varying degrees of usefulness. For some categories, it’s good to occasionally leave some of the item specifics blank.

Please read our book in the local library for for free. Or get it for 32% off the cover price: "The 7 Essential Steps to Successful eBay Marketing"(McGraw-Hill, 2005). Walmart.com sells if for 36% off!

ebay, selling, sales, seller, marketing, writing, writer, book, books,
advertising, copywriting, journalism, media, news

UPDATE: NBC’s Today Show Visits eBay Author and Blogger

The Today Show piece is scheduled to air tomorrow, Friday February 3 at 7:15 A.M.

The topic is "people who don't read (physical) newspapers." They got enough footage to make me either look like a whiz nerd or a total idiot. We'll see how the editing process goes.

I tried to insert "ebay author" and "ebay marketing" into my answers as much as possible. I hope some of that makes it into the piece -- or that they identify me correctly. I think they're going to paint us as an All-American family -- just consumers and everyday folks. We'll see.

Please tune in or Tivo, and be sure to pass the word along to others who might be interested.

My Best -
Phil

Phil Dunn - (949) 515-3510
Marketing Writer, Author
http://www.qualitywriter.com
http://ebay-marketing.blogspot.com
http://www.qualitywriter.com/blog/
http://www.allbusiness.com/blog/eBayEdge/11217/

P.S. Amazon.com knocked 32% off the cover price of "The 7 Essential Steps to Successful eBay Marketing"(McGraw-Hill, 2005). Walmart.com sells if for 36% off!

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advertising, copywriting, journalism, media, news

Say What? Even More eBay Shipping and Handling Questions Answered

Q: If I try not to have a return policy, it seems like the eBay system fights me. What can I do?

A: If you don't want to have a return policy, it's OK - however, you should just make your policy state "All Sales are Final." If you don't want to click the "Returns Accepted" button, it's perfectly OK. Your listings will work fine without it.

P.S. Amazon.com knocked 32% off the cover price of "The 7 Essential Steps to Successful eBay Marketing"(McGraw-Hill, 2005). Walmart.com sells if for 36% off!

ebay, selling, sales, seller, marketing, writing, writer, book, books,
advertising, copywriting, journalism, media, news

More of Your eBay Shipping and Handling Questions Answered

Q: Is it true that I can’t use the shipping calculator unless I’m offering UPS shipping? The nearest UPS shipping center is 12 miles away from me, so I’m hesitant to offer it.

A: You can use the calculator for USPS as well. When you're creating your listing, just select the USPS service or Services you'd like to offer from the shipping calculator setup. Or, if you ship alot, you may look into setting up a UPS account. They'll come to your place to pick up your packages and then you won't need to make the 12 mile trip.

P.S. Amazon.com knocked 32% off the cover price of "The 7 Essential Steps to Successful eBay Marketing"(McGraw-Hill, 2005). Walmart.com sells if for 36% off!

ebay, selling, sales, seller, marketing, writing, writer, book, books,
advertising, copywriting, journalism, media, news

eBay Marketing Discipline Compliments of the U.S. Army

One of the best funded, best organized outfits in the world is the U.S. Army. That’s why it’s often useful to pay attention to their mailings and advertisements. They hire some of the brightest minds in the advertising/marketing world. I recently received a piece of direct mail from them that was very instructive.

I wrote about it for AllBusiness – another venue for my blogging topics. If you’re interested in seeing the piece itself and reading a little about my observations, check it out here: An eBay Marketing Lesson from the U.S. Army -- The Most Compelling Brochure I've Seen in a While. I related the article to eBay, but the concepts are transferrable to just about any industry/situation.

P.S. Amazon.com knocked 32% off the cover price of "The 7 Essential Steps to Successful eBay Marketing"(McGraw-Hill, 2005). Walmart.com sells if for 36% off!

ebay, selling, sales, seller, marketing, writing, writer, book, books,
advertising, copywriting, journalism, media, news