One of the changes that eBay just announced is that you won't be able to be (or stay) a PowerSeller if you have DSRs under 4.5. Many sellers I know who have low DSRs tend to have them for shipping. So let's take a look at what could be going on here.
When people leave DSRs for shipping, they are told that a score of 5 means VERY REASONABLE and 4 is REASONABLE. Both are good! Both imply happy people. So what's wrong with 4?
Reasonable is a subjective word. The same item with the same shipping sold to two different people could get a 5 for very reasonable or a 1.
Someone saying that shipping was unreasonable doesn't mean it was. I know of plenty of sellers who sell rare, fragile, collectible, expensive, and other items. eBay wants the seller to be good, and ship carefully. You even learn in Griff's Basics of eBay Selling to use brand new packaging and not reuse any packaging. So it's important to understand that eBay sellers HAVE to pack amazingly. For some, that means double-boxing... extra peanuts... airbags... extra tape... If the item requires that, sellers should use that, and buyers should pay for the materials and time. End of story. That's REASONABLE. Unreasonable is throwing a fragile item into a padded envelope.
I think that in general, I'd leave lots of 4s for good sellers. I'd reserve 5 for a really amazing seller who wows me. But since 4 out of 5 is good, I'd think I were leaving someone a good rating. In essence, I'd be helping someone lose their PowerSeller status, and I'd never know that.
So now great sellers might lose their PS status because their shipping DSR might be 4.3. That's an 86 out of 100 on a test, and that's not a bad score. You would pass that class. :) But it means that if these sellers lose their status because of these DSRs and the perception people make up about what's reasonable and what's not, then it means that the % of positive feedback comments didn't mean much. It almost seems easy to have 98% positive feedback with how DSRs are going for many sellers.
I've been asking for years for the PowerSeller program to be redefined. I wanted that changed, and I wanted standards raised. In a sense, I still do. But when I see some of my clients about to lose their status, and some of the sellers who were at the eCommerce Forum in danger of losing their PS status, I'm not sure that this change is the right change. I want change. Please bring change! But let's make sure that this is a change that strengthens good sellers and removes bad sellers. I'm just not convinced, and I'm afraid of who's going to go extinct because of this.
Maybe if you're not disadvantaged in search until your DSRs are 4.2, maybe that's a better threshhold? It's still an 84 on a test, which is not so bad. But if that's the line eBay is drawing for Best Match disadvantage, maybe it should be the same line for PowerSeller status, at least on the shipping DSR. I'd still want to see high standards for item as described as that's darn important!
And this is something I think sellers can help too. If shipping pricing is about expecting shipping to cost or be something, then a seller does have a chance to communicate more about the shipping in the listing. The trade-off is to not get too wordy or grumpy, but you CAN use images of how you pack and some to-the-point bullets about your packing to set up expectations.
PS: My client with feedback of over 30,000, 100% positive, and DSRs that are awesome except for shipping (4.3) suggested a 10-star scale so that eBay can decide, for example, that the threshhold is 8 or 8.5. At least with that, someone like me who doesn't like to give perfect ratings unless the shipping were AMAZING and exceeded expectations can still give great sellers a 9, which would be GOOD for them. Now, the 4 I might give hurts them.
The changes eBay are looking to make to Feedback prove that it is broken. And we know it's broken because:
If buyers are afraid to speak their minds about their seller out of fear of what that seller can do, then feedback is not honest. The comments future buyers would need to see won't be there.
If sellers aren't reviewing buyer feedback while they're bidders, and then cancelling bids from people they feel have too many negatives as a buyer, then leaving feedback for buyers is meaningless.
Look at Amazon. That's a marketplace many people like, and many sellers are happy on which to sell. You can't leave feedback for buyers, and somehow, life goes on. :) Sales happen, people get things, it flows. Maybe that can happen on eBay, but here are the differences:
Amazon doesn't put the buyer and seller directly in touch. When I buy a book from some other seller, I'm not given a way to contact him directly. That means that as a buyer, I have no chance to be the jerk who demands crazy stuff from him. Without that power, I'm just going to not leave feedback or I will rate the seller, but I won't have had the chance to imagine my own power in there.
Too much power for buyers on eBay. I think that any imbalance of power can lead to dishonesty, extortion, or just badness. If sellers can't speak their minds, then you have an imbalance of power.
I want to see Feedback changed. I agree that it's broken. I'm not sure how to fix it. I'm not sure this will work. It works on Amazon, but that's without connecting a buyer directly to a seller.
With eBay fees changing, I wanted to look at some other scenarios based on real data. For the purpose of this math fun, let's assume that these sellers use Gallery on everything, and their items are all in the Core. I know many of our clients use Gallery religiously, but often don't bother with the pack of upgrades. I'm also doing a 30-day Terapeak for real clients of ours to use real numbers without naming names. :)
Seller #1: 1640 listings, 45% sell-through, $5.03 ASP, $1.35 avg starting price Insertion fees go from $656 to $574. Not paying 35 cents for a gallery image on 1640 items saves $574. FVF on 738 listings selling for an average of $5.03 goes from $194.89 to $324.81. How it washes out: This seller saves $526.08 each month. So even a seller with an relatively low ASP and nice conversion rate can still save on fees each month.
Seller #2: 230 listings, 18.26% sell-through, $439.16 ASP, $40.35 avg starting price
Insertion fees go from $276 to $230.
Not paying 35 cents for a gallery image on 230 items saves $80.50
FVF on 42 listings selling for an average of $439.16 goes from $620.34 to $700.98.
How it washes out: This seller saves $45.86 each month. Not a huge savings, but it's savings! :)
Seller #3: 5374 listings, 31.95% sell-through, $47.87 ASP, $42.62 avg starting price
Insertion fees go from $6448.80 to $5374.
Not paying 35 cents for a gallery image on 5374 items saves $1880.90.
FVF on 1717 listings selling for an average of $47.87 goes from $3519.85 to $5133.83.
How it washes out: This seller saves $1341.72 each month.
Seller #4: 197 listings, 99.49% sell-through, $5.28 ASP, $20.53 avg starting price. This looks weird, but this is what Terapeak said, so for the sake of our math example, let's run with it! :)
Insertion fees go from $118.12 to $108.35.
Not paying 35 cents for a gallery image on 197 items saves $68.95.
FVF on 194 listings selling for an average of $5.28 goes from $53.78 to $89.63.
How it washes out: This seller saves $42.87 each month. I was really worried about this guy as I thought his fees might go up, but this is the math.
From the math I've seen, I think that the sellers hit the hardest are those using the feature upgrades pack that included gallery. I am not a fan of that pack as I'm not a fan of bold or border. Highlight can only be good when other people who might come up near you in search results AREN'T using it. If you were spending that much on feature upgrades, you don't save the 35 cents.
These numbers are also without the potential discounts eBay is offering to PowerSellers. Some will get 5% off FVFs and some will get 15% off FVFs. So our sample sellers here, who happen to be PowerSellers, will see even more fee savings.
I am not saying that nobody will be negatively affected by this fee change. I am sure people will be negatively affected. But from some of my own math and knowing how my clients tend to list and use listing upgrades, I think that most sellers will see a fee decrease, especially if they qualify for the PowerSeller discounts.
Marketworks, bought by ChannelAdvisor, is becoming Marketplace Advisor.
ChannelAdvisor Merchant, which is a system many of our clients like, will become Marketplace Advisor Premium.
I like CA, and you'll catch me at at least one of their conferences in April, but I am reminded of a Kids In The Hall sketch I often invoke. It's where a garage band called The Armada decides to change its name. They change it to, "Rod Torfulson's Armada featuring Herman Menderchuk," leaving out the name of the guy who is the lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter. I love that sketch.
And I often think of it when I see things rebranded as longer things that may not really anchor themselves well in the minds of users and potential users. The band as The Armada was fine. Marketplace Advisor and it's cousin, Marketplace Advisor Premium, are a mouthful and a half. They sound more like a contractual obligation someone promised someone rather than a really great, catchy name.
We're working on rebranding The As Was Conference to something shorter, more memorable, and more POW. I wouldn't make it longer. :)
Hi. It's Debbie from As Was, live blogging from the eBay eCommerce Forum.
New CEO John Donahoe gave the fist speech. They said these changes are for the USA, so if you're not selling on eBay.com, check your regional site to see what the changes rea.
eBay is changing the fee structure. Effective 20 Feb 2008 in the USA, insertion fees are being reduced in the Core and Store. Gallery images will be free. FVF will go up. They say that mathematically, people should see their fees go down, and with lower insertion fees, sellers now have less risk when listing items.
John says they're rewarding great sellers because eBay wants great sellres, large and small. PowerSellers, based on their level of "buyer satisfaction," will receive up to 15% off their FVF. Starting in March, sellers with more "customer satisfaction" as measured by the DSRs (Detailed Seller Ratings), wlil be given favourable positions in search results. eBay's stats show that a disappointed buyer won't just stop buying from that seller... they might completely leave eBay, which hurts the opportunity for good sellers to sell to that person.
Starting in July, PowerSeller standards will be raised, which I've been calling for for years. Sellers will need to meet minimum DSR scores. I wasn't calling for that, but I'm for raising standards. :)
John says they're going to be revamping Feedback. John says that Feedback is a big turn-off to buyers, who are afraid of retaliatory negatives. The system will be changed to try to improve buyer trust.
John closed by stressing how sellers and eBay need to work together to improve the buyer experiences.
Insertion fees are going down 5 cents to 80 cents depending upon the tier.
FVF are going well up. 8.75%, 3.50%, and 1.50%. That first tier is a BIG jump, bu that's only for the first $25. That means $2.19 of the first $25 instead of $1.31. I'm commenting to say that people shouldn't be too scared as that's only just another 88 cents. That'll hit the lower ASP people more of course, but it is only 88 cents.
Featured Plus will be cut to $9.95 in some situations as it'll have tiered pricing.
eBay calculates buyer disatisfaction from things like leaving neutral or negative, and a 1 or 2 rating in any of the DSRs.
More than 5% "dissatisfied" buyers in 30 days will flag a seller as not so great. Those people will see their items disadvantaged in search results.eBay will require the sellers who dissatisfy people to offer "safe" payments via PayPal or major credit card. These are designed to improve buyer trust.
The PS bar will be raised starting in July. Starting in July, you'll need to have at least 4.5 on each DSR in a 12-month period to quality for/remain a PowerSeller.
Sellers who meet or exceed eBay standards will be rewarded through discounts, better payment protectoin, and greater exposure for listings in search.
PS Fee discounts: starting in April, 4.6 or higher on all DSRs will get 5% off on FVF. 4.8 and above on DSRs will get 15% off FVFs. Bill said that as of current stats, over 60% of current PSers would get these discounts. He joked that this is his retirement gift to sellers.
You won't need to have shipped to a confirmed address to get Seller Protection. Any address to which you ship, even gift or work locations, will quality.
The $5K limit on claims will become unlimited for PowerSellers.
Right now PayPal only gives protection to sellers in certain countries. It will soon be offered to ALL countries that allow PayPal payments.
Since Best Match was rolled out, shoppers are converting more to buyers. Starting in March, it'll be THE default way site-wide. High DSRs over the last 30 days will be given an advantage in search results. Search results will still favour items ending sooner, but eBay wants to highlight the better sellers since they think that'll improve buyer satisfaction overall. That's part of the whole Finding 2.0 thing. Other changes have to do with connecting shoppers more closely to what they are looking for.
New Feedback tool starting in May... a Seller Dashboard that'll show PS status, billing status, FVF discount qualification, policy violations and risks, and buyer satisfaction measures (feedback, DSRs, and complaints). eBay hopes that sellers can use this to manage customer satisfaction. You'll know how you stand at eBay since it's similar to how eBay (internally) sees you.
Today, the biggest issue with Feedback is that buyers are afraid to leave honest feedback because of the threat of relatiation. The final straw for many buyers is getting a negative. Feedback is a two-way street, but eBay has a stat that retaliatory negs are way up, and sellers are 8x as likely to leave retaliatory negs than a buyer is. We need to regain buyer confidence on eBay so they'll bid and buy more. eBay worked with Pierre on bold changes...
Starting in May, sellres may only leave positive feedback for buyers. WHAT?! They will remove a fb when the buyer doesn't respond to the UPI. They wlil remove fb when someone is NARU, even retroactively. They will not allow buyers to leave neutral or neg within 3 days of the item ending. They wil reduce the number of days from 90 to 60 for buyers to leave you feedback. These are to help sellers avoid getting negatives.
Your % will be based on the last 12 months though the score will be lifetime. You will get credit for repeat business from 1 buyer/seller per week.
Bill says he knows not everybody will love all of these, but he feels the "overall package" of these changes is strong.
Well, we know sellers have a lot of questions and issues. How will they be found? Once they are found, how can they better convert shoppers into buyers? How can they use strategies to decrease fees, and how can they improve their shipping? Better and cheaper shipping will help those DSRs. Well, this is my plug for my company, As Was http://www.aswas.com as well as our upcoming conference, http://www.aswasconference.com. We're all about getting the sellers the help they need to grow and be more prfitable no matter what changes eBay might make. If you want to keep selling on eBay, and especially if you want to grow, you have to evolve with the changes and be proactive.
This weekend, I was in a discussion with someone who wanted to find out more about my company. They wanted more than what I had to say about which, which is GREAT. I wish more people did more digging! They even wanted something outside of the eBay website. Again, great. Please research companies before doing business with them!
They said they Googled us and didn't find much other than eBay pages, our blogs, our website, our eBay workshops, some radio interviews, and that was mostly it. I forgot to ask them what they THOUGHT they'd find, but I get the feeling they expected to find all kinds of nasty things people would be putting on the internet.
But you won't find that. And not because I had it removed. :)
I make sure that my whole team treats every client we have like they are make or break our reputation. We try to go above and beyond where appropriate, and we try to make people feel like we always have time for them. People like that! OK, we're not perfect and sometimes a relationship goes sour, but luckily it's rare. I would say we're mostly quite successful in making people happy.
So you're more likely to find a discussion forum saying we're nice people :) or we helped people or maybe they're fans of our workshops and classes. But if you Google us or me by name, you're just not going to find the typical vinegar and complaints that you might find about other companies.
Do your homework! Always research companies. See if you can find out if they used to operate under another name. Look for the CEO's name or your sales person's name. Dig dig dig! Hopefully, you'll find that you're considering doing business with someone great. If they're not great, hopefully you'll find things online that will help you save your time and money, and make a better choice.
Hey, Yahoo! Music. It's not Christmas. It's nearly February. Please stop playing me Xmas songs and saying they're popular on Yahoo! Music. I'm not sure who, after 3 solid months of Xmas music, is still choosing these and making them popular.
I also said the big NO NEVER to any Holiday music. You should know that's my stored preference and not be playing me Xmas songs.
The word's out about Meg resigning, and what does this mean for eBay. This makes me think of a comedy bit I heard on XM Radio the other day. A comedian was talking about the dumb opinion polls in USA Today. He mentioned one on "do you think there will be a terrorist attack at the Olympics." The results were something like 74% said not likely, 23% said likey, and 3% didn't know. The joke in the bit was that NOBODY knows. It's opinions, and you just don't know.
I think the same about Meg resigning. I like a lot of where the company went in the last 10 years, but I have no idea what's coming next. Most of us don't! It's kinda like the next president. We don't know what's coming next. We all just hope that the country and life get better. :)
Now how about fees. Well the word is that fees will be reduced. I'm for that in every situation except one. By reducing some of the fees, I think eBay has the potential to attract more of those people who attend seminars or watch infomercials, and then feel that they should be putting a whole catalogue of 25,000 drop shipped items onto eBay. They'll be making money from their pool rafts with no work! Wow! I think that any fee reduction has the potential to attract those people back to the site, yet it's my theory that it's those people putting thousands of items on eBay are what drove eBay to raise Store fees a year or so ago.
So I do want fees lowered, but I do want to find some way to let people signing up for those "systems" to know that they mostly don't work. I don't want lower eBay fees to draw those people to the site to post thousands of things that thousands of other sellers are already struggling to sell and little to no margins. :(
I have blogged before about Mirapex. http://aswas.typepad.com/hall_of_fame/2007/08/mirapex-is-the-.html It looks like it's becomng popular to talk about... I'm hearing people everywhere going bonkers over the side effects, specifically the idea that taking it may cause more gambling or sex urges.
Evidently, it's given for restless legs syndrome as well as to Parkinsons patients. ?!?!?
My prediction is that it will get another name and be prescribed to women who claim their sex drives are waning. If the drug increases urges, I bet that the women who hate their husbands but feel a responsibility to desire them more will want some pill they can take.
Enter Mirapex under some other name with commercials showing somber women with no idea what to do about their lackluster sex life.
I'm going to give some of my personal pseudo-medical advice today given that I'm sick and working from bed. Hello.
I have a cold and can't breathe through my nose. Those of you who've experienced that know that you're in for a crappy night of mouth breathing. That always dries my throat and wakes me in pain. But I found a way to fix it. Seriously!
Go buy baby oil gel. That's what it's call. Not baby oil. Not aloe vera gel. "Baby oil gel." It's often found in the baby care aisle. I get mine in Target. Get the ones without any smells so that it's as plain as can be. Baby oil gel is similar to vaseline but not so thick. It's not so moisturising, but it sure stays on a while like vaseline. Maybe vaseline would work with this idea too but I haven't tried it.
You take a bit of the baby oil gel and wipe it on the roof of your mouth, as far back as you can go without causing yourself to throw up. :) If you can get it back there up top, that's great. That's the part that dries out the most for me.
Now, you can mouth breathe and it won't dry out because the incoming air is hitting the layer of baby oil gel. As you swallow, it'll wear away, but I'll wake up and put a bit more on, and get back to sleep.
I know it's weird, but it works for me. Obviously, baby oil gel is not for eating, so you'll want to swallow it as little as possible!
Holy cats, I just got an email from a client. He asked a certain Certified Solutions Provider who will remain nameless why their software doesn't accept the template my company built for them. In a live chat, this is how that went.
Tech support guy: so at this time, we are not actually able to import
custom templates
My client: well how come?????????
Support: basically? Because customers are too demanding and the code doesn't always fit in the listings and it's just not worth it to pull an engineer off a project to do it ugh = (
WHA? Customer support just told a customer who wants to do something that customers who tend to want that are too demanding and get stuff wrong? That just sounds weird.
Meanwhile, here's a better question. If this company really CAN accept custom templates but it's the customer that gets it wrong, I bet that company can train my staff on how to get it right the first time. That would eliminate what they claim the problem is, and then my clients could use this company if they wanted. So far, nearly all of my clients have been totally fine with leaving this company when they hire us.
After eBay Live 2007, someone from that software company shot me a slightly grumpy email asking me why his clients can't use us and my clients can't use him. I reminded him that it's all about allowing our templates into their system. You'd think this might inspire them into a problem-solving mode, but the guy never wrote me back. I was always told that getting any designer's custom eBay templates into their software was not a priority, which is why this service is now one of only 3 pieces of software I can think of that still don't take totally custom HTML templates.
Guess I'll shoot a note to this company and see if they want to help us learn how to get templates ready for their system so that we don't have to pull a busy engineer off a project, ugh.
I don't understand the shroud of secrecy behind the eBay eCommerce Forum. Each January, eBay holds an event for big PowerSellers, invite-only. Lots of TSAMs come, and they invite some of us Certified Providers. It's a fun time. Jan 2008 will be my 2nd year attending.
Each year, the event is shrouded in secrecy.
Last year, they wouldn't tell me where it was. As in which city in the entire country. They told me that everybody gets that information a couple of weeks before the event... which means everybody has to buy a last minute plane ticket as most fares rise 21 days out. When I explained that I was coming in from Europe and needed to buy my plane tickets well ahead of time to go straight from Europe to wherever, they told me the location.
I kept their secret!
This year, they told us the city, but not the hotel. OK, well you chose a city with 3 airports. I have no idea which is best for me to fly into. I can't arrange an airport shuttle now because I don't know to which hotel they're going to bring me. This is just inconvenient and annoying for me as I love to make plans well ahead of schedule. Every year, I book my eBay Live hotel rooms 11 months before the event. That's just me.
So why the secrecy? I just don't get it. If the information is going to be public or more commonly known 2 weeks before the event, then what do we prevent by not telling people about it earlier? You don't stop an uninvited person from coming by keeping the event a secret. You prevent them from coming by checking badges and having security. Any uninvited crasher can buy plane tickets during those last two weeks when people know where this is.
I appreciate the event. I like it. I'd like to keep being invited to it. :) And I'll always keep any secret eBay tells me, should they be telling me anything. :) I just can't make sense of why it's such a secret, and what the secrecy accomplishes!
I think some people read some of what I write and wonder why I'm saying that. Well, these things make sense to me when I'm writing them. :) Some people wonder why I don't say it more delicately.
I never learned. I didn't grow up in a household where things were said delicately. It was all out there. There were no boundaries, and that's the style in which I was immersed. It's some of what's made me who I am, for better or worse.
My father has a lot of good qualities. He has a huge sense of injustice, and I think of him as the guy who takes on clients who can't pay him because they need him. It's helping people first, money second. And anybody who's ever spent a fun hour on the phone with me and then never hired my company knows where I get that. :) I get joy from helping people, so it's still rewarding even if I like money too.
I always thought my "sense of injustice" and wanting to defend the person who can't defend himself or herself was a good quality. Hey, if you needed help, you'd be glad you knew me because I'd stop everything to do everything I could for you. I may come off a bit rough, but my friends know me as a listener and problem-solver. I don't let problems hang around for long!
So people with problems come to me, which means I've heard it all. I hear about the bad apple that could spoil the bunch. And I want to protect these people and make sure future people aren't hurt or disturbed. So I speak out against certain things. Sometimes that comes off as totally appropriate and you agree or laugh along, and sometimes it comes off as brutal and tactless and just wrong. I never mean to be tactless and I don't see myself as wrong. :) I know I can be unflinchingly honest... I like to joke that I'm the girl who wants to hear that "my ass looks fat in that" if it in fact does. :)
But that's not most people. I forget that's not most people because I sit alone in a room with a computer. Growing up, I sat alone in a room (and as of 1985, with a computer), and tried to come up with ways to make sure that people never felt as hurt as I did. When I write or say things, I never mean to hurt anybody. I mean for the hurt and bad stuff to stop. I mean for the scam artists to go away. I mean for the lying authors to stop getting book deals. I mean for the people and companies breaking rules to stop breaking rules. I mean for the people who crap on me or some little guy somewhere to stop it. I mean for the seller who got wronged by someone claiming to be an expert to see his/her situations fixed. I mean for the bad instructor to maybe decide to stop instructing.
The good companies, instructors, authors, and experts should keep on keepin' on. :) But when I say I'm wary of something, it's the nicest way I can think of to say, "OK, there are a lot of good people out there, but I've spoken to a number of sellers who had bad experiences with certain people. That means that like any program or group, some are great and some are so-so and some are bad. People should be more careful about who they choose because not everybody is as great as they claim!" That doesn't mean I'm against the whole program or the good people. It means that I don't like that the not-as-good people out there hurt people or gave them a negative experience. So I'm wary. I'm allowed to be wary! More people should be more wary. :)
I don't find it easy to watch people on the crap side of some situation. I can't just watch people struggle. And so many people who are struggling call me. Email me. Stop me at eBay Live. They trust me and tell me their stories. I keep their stories private. They like that! But I feel like I'm the injustice confession booth of the world, and it pushes that button that I have... which leads to statements or blog posts that sometimes are exactly what I mean and sometimes come off in ways I don't mean.
So this is therapy post :) to say that I don't mean to hurt anybody but I do mean to stop the people who hurt, abuse, or lie to others. If you're doing that, you'll probably be written about again in this blog. It's who I am, and I'm not sure I'd change that. Everybody needs somebody looking out for them. But I know that I could be writing more carefully than I do so that I'm misunderstood less often. And that's my new 2008 goal: commnunicate more clearly and more positively so that my ideas can get across without accidentally hurting or bothering anybody.
It's the best I can do, and thanks for understanding. :)
Evidently, eBay will no longer be holding eBay University, which sent eBay and PayPal staff around the country with classes on the basics of eBay selling. Filling in the gaps will be a program from eBay's Education department that designates people as an Education Specialist Trained by eBay. The better of that crop are designated as Certified Education Specialists Trained by eBay.
These are typically eBay sellers who know eBay quite well, and are generally good with public speaking. :) They hold classes on a variety of levels, usually near where they live. So chances are that there's a least one near you, and you can attend their classes for reasonable rates.
Classes right now include:
The Basics of eBay Selling Beyond the Basics The Basics of Buying eBay Giving Works eBay Stores
This program is also designating better instructors as eBay Business Consultants. My company specialises in eBay Business Consulting, but we're actually not listed with those Business Consultants. You'll find us with the Certified Providers at this cool new website. :) http://www.certifiedprovider.ebay.com/
Another place to get education would be our conference! http://www.aswasconference.com We may not be looking at the basics of selling on eBay, but we'll be looking at intermediate and advanced topics to help eBay sellers at all levels grow and be more profitable. As a business event, you can write your whole trip off on your taxes, plus we'll be teaching you how to make more money. So it pays for itself.
You can find Education Specialists and their classes at www.poweru.net/ebay.
I did an interview yesterday with Ina from AuctionBytes. http://podcast.auctionbytes.com/ We spoke a bit about our upcoming conference, but she asked an interesting question. Are eBay Stores viable? Ina made it sound like ever since the Stores fee hike, maybe eBay Stores aren't a good option for sellers.
My opinion is that there's ALWAYS a good reason to have an eBay Store. The main reason is to make it your showcase on eBay. The eBay Store is a great place to offer some branding so you stand out, but then make your Store easy for your shopper. Great categories, great layout, great products, and focus everything on streamlining shopping. If your Store doesn't make shopping easy and attractive, then you may drive people away.
But a better eBay Store can be a great place, even at the Basic price of $16/month, to drive shoppers. Getting them in there is a click that is NOT on the back button to see your competitors in that shopper's search results. The eBay Store, no matter what else you think of it or Store fees, makes a GREAT showcase, a great one-stop place to show off everything you have on eBay. You also have a great chance to create your own category hierarchy to help your shopper find what he or she wants.
eBay Stores are extremely viable. I tend to think that the fee hike was really a correction for the people who had seen some sort of seminar or infomercial saying hey, all you have to do to sell on eBay is to take our catalogue of drop shipped products, drop them in your eBay Store, and just sit on your pool raft and make all that money. So you have thousands if not millions of items from hundreds or thousands of people, and those items just SIT there. They have an insane amount of competition, and as Store items, they may just not be found. Not only is that going to be a weight on eBay's system, but it's going to be a bad experience for the sellers who have all these high expectations. I was for anything that forced those sellers to make changes. I didn't like that it hurt some serious eBay sellers who didn't want that change, but I did want the people who fell for the informercial to change.
Registration is open for The 2008 As Was Conference. http://www.aswasconference.com
I've been looking at other events that are going on, and I'm just surprised...
Last October was Online Market World. They were charging $799 for 1.5 days. They didn't really focus on eBay last year, and they didn't serve much food.
You can attend the IMA conference in early March 2008 for $399 if you're not a member. Their event is 2 half days and one nearly full day. They're "internet merchants," so eBay is on their list but not the main focus.
You can attend a conference on sourcing in March 2008. It's $3495. I didn't forget a decimal point. It really is nearly $3,500. As an early bird special, they'll pay for 2 nights of your hotel. Still, yow! Skip McGrath lives up to his name (as in you can skip him :) in my opinion), but Magniphy and Worldwide Brands are nice folks. You can find them at our conference for a lot less money. :)
You can attend ChannelAdvisor Catalyst (we'll be there) in April 2008. It's $299 for the early bird reg, and it's 1.5 days of sessions plus a day for playing golf. They're serving lunch. CA tends to be focused more on eCommerce than eBay, but I know eBay will be in there.
You can attend the PESA and ECMTA Spring Summit in April 2008. They have no agenda up, but they have pricing and you can register... for a mystery event that might be 1.5 or 2 days long. No agenda, no idea! Early bird for non-members is $299, but goes up to $599 on site. Yowz! PESA is typically focused a bit on eBay but often is about the multi channel message.
So you have a bunch of conferences out there, and you have ours. We have an incredibly strong program, focused mostly on eBay. Let's help PowerSellers and future PowerSellers grow, be more profitable, work more efficiently, and make better decisions. We're only charging $299 and we're serving three full lunches. Not three cafeteria sandwiches. Three sit down, networking lunches.
http://www.aswasconference.com/paysforitself.shtml will tell you more about your total costs for the As Was Conference.
Let's do some math! :) Let's say that to attend our event, your expenses look like:
Conference attendance fee: $299
Flight: $350
Hotel including tax for 3 nights at Disney's Yacht Club Resort: $830
Rental car and gas: $0. Remember that if you stay in the discounted rooms Disney has blocked off for us in the Yacht Club Resort, Disney is giving you free round-trip airport transportation. Once you're on Disney's property, you can use their free, internal transportation system to get around all of the parks and hotels.
3 breakfasts and 3 dinners not included in our event (we're serving 3 full lucnhes): $165
Total estimated trip expenses, which you can write off on your taxes: $1,644
How much money can our conference make you?
The sky is the limit. :) We told one of our clients about one of the companies who will be speaking at our event. He started working with them, and said that they started saving him nearly $500 per month right away. That's from only one change he made!
Let's say that you're a Silver PowerSeller, selling $5,000-$10,000 per month. The techniques, strategies, and tools you start using because of our conference should immediately save you eBay fees and make more sales. Let's say that those lower fees, new sales, and repeat business bring you an extra $400 per month. Let's say that a higher-level PowerSeller could see an increase of $600, $900, or even more per month from using what we teach.
How long would it take for the conference to have paid for itself?
eBay Live! is in mid-June, and most people attend to learn as much as they can about how to increase sales and profits, and grow their eBay businesses. When this summer rolls around, you and your competitors will start putting into effect what you learned at eBay Live in June. By the time it's July, you will have been putting into effect what you learned at our conference all through March, April, May, and June. That's four months of the estimated extra $400 per month for our sample Silver PowerSeller, which is $1600, and our conference has paid for itself. A higher-level PowerSeller would see the conference pay for itself in only 2 or 3 months of sales.
Can you afford to NOT attend our conference, especially if your competitors are coming?
It's time for me to publish my all-time favourite restaurant review. This was in our local-at-the-time (Long Island, NY) paper in 1989. The review was of a local seafood place. I heard that after this review, it changed chefs a zillion times, closed, reopened, was sold, and finally became something else. However, this review lives on. It's so dear to my heart that I have taken phrases from it and I use them in everyday sentences.
Author:
PETER M. GIANOTTI
Date:
Mar 12, 1989
Section:
THE NEWSDAY MAGAZINE
Text Word Count:
975
CAPTAIN
BILL'S COMMODORE INN 122 Ocean Ave., Bay Shore (516) 665-3677 Assessment: Sail on by. Days Open: Tuesday to Sunday for lunch and
dinner. Closed Monday. Price Range: Main courses, $14.50 to $30.50.
Appetizers, $3.25 to $10.50. Soups, $2.75 to $3.75. Special weekday
dinners, $14.95. Credit cards. How to Find It: On the water, less than
a mile south of Montauk Highway.
THE BEST appetizer at Captain Bill's Commodore Inn is fresh, varied and colorful. Unfortunately, it's the fruit cocktail.
Once you go beyond the grapes and chopped apples, Captain Bill's ranks
no higher than seaman apprentice. Whatever stripes or insignias it
earns for the pretty waterside site are stripped away in the kitchen.
This is a "restaurant complex" where you must assume food is secondary.
On a sunny summer day, you could be content walking around the marina
and gazing at Great South Bay. You no doubt could be satisfied sailing
in, too. All you need is a warm breeze and a cool drink.
But be careful. The "framboise kir royale" is akin to Smucker's and
seltzer. For $6.50, you can imbibe a kiddiecough-medicine punch called
"The Commodore," and keep the glass as a warning. Other cocktail
suggestions could lead you to form a temperance union on the spot.
So, instead of accepting the formal escort to your table and immediate
decision-making, choose to wander. Survey the scenery and the expanse
of the establishment's quasi-colonial rooms. Captain Bill's sprawls
from catering spaces to a bar to the main dining area.
Tables for two have most of the top water views, especially those that
look onto the permanently berthed Commodore. The 72-foot
sloop-turned-schooner now claims Captain Bill's as home port.
Exiles are in the center of the room, where disappointment can be
remedied only by the company of very good friends. Some bucolic images
decorate an elevated gazebo that's set apart from the high-occupancy
tables.
The cuisine and service at
Captain Bill's tell you bluntly that, as at receptions gone by, the
meal is an aside. The food is carelessly prepared, sloppily presented.
In an unintended gesture of benevolence, a waitress may delay bringing
the bread, a substance so rubbery you wouldn't feed it to the ducks
that swim near the schooner. You do get a celery-and-carrot laden metal
relish tray. Don't fight over the lone scallion.
You won't battle over the soups, even if Burry Oyster Crackers come the
closest to a decent carbo. The soups are uniformly sad. The New England
clam chowder is dropped into your bowl like paste; the Manhattan
version is thin and watery. The content of the dense seafood bisque is
barely identifiable.
The hot
combination platter is a grouping of papery fried shrimp, stuffed
mushrooms coming apart, a tasteless "shrimp scampi" greasily afloat in
its own plate, and the sole survivor, an acceptable baked clam.
Its cold counterpart is a tribute to small, flavorless shrimp, tough
raw clams and what a waitress acknowledges as "Sea Legs," a testament
to culinary chemistry and engineering. Beneath the heavy mantle of
cheese and mystery that shrouds seafood au gratin is another sample of
the flavored fish paste - though any description implying flavor
shouldn't be misconstrued.
At $15.50,
this indignity is a moderately priced main course. You could, for
example, spend $23.50 for bendable, bland Alaskan king crab. Or drop
$30 for a two-pound lobster that's broiled into a steel-belted radial.
Or lament the fact that your tab here could end up more expensive than
the pre-theater dinner at The Rainbow Room.
A pale, monochromatic coating enfolds each item in the fried
combination seafood platter. Shape will enable you to tell scallop from
clam from fish filet. Lobster thermidor is a clearly defined travesty,
ruthlessly overdone.
Broiled swordfish
is a thin cut, not bolstered by the shower of slivered almonds. Two
mounds of stuffed flounder fall apart, revealing some kind of mushy
fishchow that Garfield would reject.
You can order the staple, lobster tail and filet mignon. It's an
adequate choice, given the alternatives. The cut of beef is tender,
especially compared with the charcoal-gray slab of juiceless sirloin.
The wine list is routine in an eatery that pushes cocktails. But the
1987 Drouhin Chablis ($19) is a dry, reliable white; and 1987 Drouhin
Beaujolais-Villages ($12.50), a fruity, friendly red.
Desserts receive their own carte at Captain Bill's. Key lime pie is a
single-shaded crime and apple-crumb pie is pasty. Cheesecake is
commercial grade. The "Double Chocolate Truffle Delight" mistakes
hardness for richness. You could support a mailbox in the chocolate
mousse.
But, be philosophical and
remember that in your end is your beginning. The best dessert at
Captain Bill's is fresh, varied and colorful. It's the fruit salad.
Someone was kind enough to point me to http://adamginsbergcomplaints.com/
Now in my opinion, that's a domain that should be getting a lot of use. :) I've heard that Adam himself or one of his many companies owns/runs this site. It is surprisingly Adam-supporting and Adam-apologetic for anybody who isn't Adam. Who other than Adam has time to post things like this?
It looks like he likes to rub salt in wounds. Evidently, if you have a problem with him and you're not calling him, you're a coward and not an adult. I don't like Adam Ginsberg, and I'm in no rush to call him, but that doesn't make me a coward or immature. Name-calling just makes HIM look immature! And based on what I heard about his seminars, he's being a coward; I heard he won't give out the eBay ID he's supposedly using right now to sell. I'd love to know what that ID is partially for my own fun and partially for a point I'll make later in this post.
Adam's right. One thing about him is that most of what he's done is public record. But don't just Google since on Google, it's too easy to find the sheep who are just recommending him. I think it's more fun to find the things on Google like the discussion forums about him. I love the posts years ago from pool table installers who were refusing to install pool tables Adam was selling on eBay because the quality was so low. You'd have to Google names like Zbilliards and Pegasus Billiards for that stuff.
Plus, you can see that his ID on eBay has been suspended for years. Adam had other IDs suspended as well like this one that hit eBay's automatic trigger for suspension at a -4 feedback score. That's public knowledge, and doesn't require a call to Adam. eBay's policy on suspensions is that if they suspend one of your user IDs for any reason, they are all suspended. It's not that eBay just doesn't want that name being used. If they suspend you, they don't want you under any name. That means that if you sign up to eBay again under another name and they find out, they'll suspend it pretty much immediately.
So if Adam is selling on eBay, it would not be with eBay's blessing. More importantly, I am not sure who wants to learn eBay from someone who went down in flames. His demise is not rumour or gossip. It's just true, and public records back that up. The question is do you want that guy as your eBay author or speaker or consultant. You can "be an adult" and choose for yourself. I would choose someone with a better reputation... someone who doesn't have to put up a defensive website.
I think putting up a defensive website is a bad sign.
I listen to XM Radio a lot, mostly the comedy channels. I hear an insane amount of stand up comedy. Some is recent. Some is from decades ago. Some I hear over and over. A lot of it is new. I notice a lot of the Canadian comedy has very quiet audiences. Evidently the audiences agree with me. In general, I find most of this not funny. I'm not sure why the audience is laughing sometimes. So in order to get some fresh comedy going, I'm going to solve the typical problems expressed by stand up comedians so that they can improve their lives and get some new material going.
Problem: Their wife/girlfriend/ex:
Nags, complains, bosses them around.
Doesn't like to have sex/won't perform oral sex on command.
Spends money wildly/shops obsessively.
Solution: Get a different wife or girlfriend. Try to find one who is like you rather than choosing someone with qualities that you don't want.
Problem: Air travel is just so weird.
Passengers stink.
Airlines stink.
Food stinks.
Security stinks.
Solution: There is none. That's the system we're stuck with. Passengers stink. Airlines stink. Food stinks. And security is a joke. We know. Get over it.
Problem: The stand up comedian:
Says he has a drinking problem.
Says he does a lot of drugs.
Hates paying for sex.
Hates having sex with the ugly and desperate women he meets on the road.
I don't know why the audience cheers at these as they sound like cries for help. Anyway, the solution is get help. You have self-awareness about your problem. Now make a change that will better you. You can stop drinking. You can stop having sex with women you don't like. These are within your control!
I recognise that once stand up comedians make these changes, they may have no act. I'm OK with that. I think anybody basing their act on this old schtick needs a new act or a new career.
The Pepto commercials are a little weird. The whole nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach diarrhea song is a little... unsettling. :)
The more recent commercials are just disturbing. They seem to have non-English speakers saying those words and dancing around, some in amazingly stupid costumes. Here is what I can't figure out.
If these people are not JUST English speakers but are also mental deficients, then why are we making these people do this? They kinda come across as possible mentally diabled people.
If they are not mentally disabled but are just non-English speakers and really awkward people in elf suits and 1980's leotards, then what is Pepto thinking? Are we supposed to laugh at these people as they seem to sing and dance their hearts out, and cheer for themselves? That doesn't seem right. Are we supposed to identify with them?
The bottom line is this: do you see this commercial and identify with those people? Do you feel like they and their digestive problems are just like you and yours, so this product must be for you?
Could Pepto please come up with a new campaign? When I use Pepto, I use it because it works. Their commercials make me want to stop using it as I feel like the mentally challenged and/or the non-English speaking person who needs some money is being exploited on national TV ads.
I just moved into a new rental house. It has this Vacu-Maid system thingy! http://www.vacumaid.com/ OK that's a stinky website, but what a neat feature.
Basically, many rooms and hallways in the house have what looks like a covered outlet plug. When you flip it open, it's a big hole. You plug the vacuum tube into the hole, and voom, the vacuum turns on. That means no more dragging a vacuum around the house. Just plug in and go.
Everything goes into a central canister of some sort in our garage. I didn't read the manual yet, but I assume we empty that every once in a while.
I didn't build this house, so I have no idea how much it costs to install or run, or if it adds any value to the house. I only know it's really neato and very convenient.
Good product, needs a better website, especially since it has plenty of competition!
On 12 Dec, I was watching The Today Show as I often do (while working). They did a story on how our economy is basically in big trouble. People are forecasting a recession for 2008 (I guess that's for those who think we're not already in one or something darn close). They said it was "all" due to the housing market... with interest rates messed up, all the foreclosures, and people not getting mortgages as much, it's rippling out to lots of other businesses that aren't getting business.
About 45 minutes later, The Today Show ran a segment on luxurious bathrooms. I don't mean a regular bathroom with some nicer fixtures. I mean bathrooms that they said cost $60-$80K to create (when the average bathroom costs around $7500). They asked the person they were interviewing if putting that much into the bathroom would likely be reflected in the value and eventual sale price of the house. The short answer is NO. The long answer the woman gave made it sound like the enjoyment you'd get from a bathroom that wonderful is worth it.
Is this really the story we need to give people who, statistically speaking, are drowning in credit card debt, can't afford their mortgages, can't sell their homes, can't buy something else, and are generally stuck in a pretty bad financial spiral? A $70K bathroom is "worth it"?
I think a smarter segment would have been how to spend $500 on your bathroom, make it look like you spent $5000, and have that add to the value of your home.
That's the Tiny URL for a survey on how your online holiday sales went this year. Please feel free to share this URL with other eBay, Amazon, website/e-commerce, etc... sellers.
Happy New Year to all of our readers! I hope that your selling season went well, and the holidays were fun and safe.
Just a note that this week, we'll be adding some new services to our Services and Pricing page at http://www.aswas.com/pricing.shtml. We'll also be raising the price of our template package, so if you want 2007 pricing, you'll need to sign a contract and make your deposit payment by the 6th of January. After that, it's new pricing o rama. :)
Also, now's a great time to sign up for The As Was Conference @ http://www.aswasconference.com. We still have some slots open, but we don't have the early bird pricing anymore. With the conf less than 2 months away, you're not an early bird if you're registering now. You're a regular bird. :) But it's still a FANTASTIC price for the fun you'll have, the information you'll get, and all the full meals we're serving.
