Some of my pals lately have talked to me about wanting to connect with some of the "experts" in the eBay field. Why? Because they have big mailing lists, and you may be on those mailing lists.
So today, let's talk about guilt by association. Let's say a self-proclaimed expert out there has lost his integrity. He's for sale. Anybody can rent him, and he'll blog about you, promote your products, send his mailing list emails promoting you, etc... What happens when people find out that he does that? Is he still a respected expert? Do people feel better about your product, or might they feel worse because they feel "used' by the "expert." After all, you are only there in the hopes that you sign on and give the expert commissions.
If you didn't know that, you know it now. Some of these people want you on their mailing list, and will try to make their mailing list extra enticing, so that they can tell outside companies how many people are on their mailing list. 100,000! 250,000! Well, we all want to email to that many people, even if we have to rent this expert, right?
I still say no. If his mailing list members are not your target audience, then you've just emailed to a zillion people who don't care, maybe didn't read about you, and maybe won't click on links about you. You will have paid this guy to use his audience, and it may not get you very much.
Plus, what is it worth to you to NOT be associated with someone who is falling out of favour with his audience? Or has had to redefine himself to try to build that reputation back up?
I know a bit about this the hard way. I was hired to speak at the same seminars Adam Ginsberg spoke at in late 2003. So our names appeared together in advertising. Well, I got a FLURRY of emails from people, even years later, complaining to me about Ginsberg. People emailed me as if by speaking at the same event, I was endorsing him and everything he's done to people. Well, no I don't. But it was guilt by association, and something I could never have seen coming.
Nowadays, there are "experts" out there who make it really clear what's coming! We know who is for sale. How do we know? Well if you got a price from someone to email to his mailing list, be plugged in his blog, etc... HE IS FOR SALE. You'll never get a price from me because I don't do that. I blog about companies I like because I like them. I don't get paid to do it.
That's called integrity. Some of these "experts" should look it up, and remember that their 15 minutes is nearly up.
I was in Vegas for one night this past weekend to see the conference space we intend to use for our next RocketPlace event.
The hotel room had the biggest and most well-stocked mini bar I'd ever seen. I knew I didn't wany anything, especially at those prices, but I was curious at the whole thing. It had a refridgerated side and a non-fridge side. I noticed something in the non-fridge side that I didn't recognise.
I thought it might be sewing kit, so I picked it up. It was not a sewing kit. It said, "Intimacy Kit," on it. It said it contained 2 condoms, a packet of lubrication, and some clean-up towelettes. OK, these aren't exactly what springs to mind when I think of intimacy, but OK, I get it. It was $10. That's a bit high, but you know what? If intimacy in Vegas is an unplanned surprise and you're caught without this equipment, I think $10 is a fine price to avoid unwanted diseases or pregnancy. Anyway, I don't want to buy this item, and I put it back in the mini bar.
Cut to checkout, and my bill has a "refreshment" charge for $10. I ring the front desk. She asks if I took anything from the mini bar. No. She asks me if I took the intimacy kit. I said I took it out to look at it, but I put it back!!! "Hold on, I'll check if you put it back." Well, there was no knock at the door, so it was news to me that the mini bar has SENSORS. She gets back on the phone, says yes I put it back, and takes the $10 off my bill.
I had no idea they were using sensors that reported in the moment for the mini bar stuff. Makes sense, and is interesting. One of the hotel staffers told me that sometimes, people will take out say a beer and replace it with a can of soda. The sensors think you put it back, but when you check out, the hotel totally checks the mini bar. So crime doesn't pay, and you WILL be caught and charged for that beer. Plus you then wasted money on the can of soda, which knowing Vegas was $1.50. :)
Here are the changes coming to eBay's feedback system starting 19 May (in the US):
Sellers may only leave positive feedback for buyers (at
the seller's option).
Members will receive credit for repeat Feedback (going
back to 1996)
We will base the Positive Feedback Percentage on the
past 12 months of activity (and include neutral Feedback in the
calculation)
We will remove negative and neutral Feedback if a
member is suspended, or when a buyer fails to respond to the Unpaid Item
process.
We'll block buyers from leaving negative or neutral
Feedback for 7 days for active PowerSellers who have been on eBay for at
least 12 months.
Members can leave Feedback up to 60 days after a
transaction (down from 90)
We are introducing a new Buyer Requirement that will
allow sellers to block bids from buyers who have been reported by other
sellers for eBay buying policy violations (such as Feedback abuse, or
email threats).
We're also expanding the scope of the existing Buyer
Requirement for unpaid items, so that it supports more comprehensive
blocking of buyers who have a history of non-payment.
For those of you who aren't fully aware of these changes, here are a few things I noticed...
Negatives and neutrals will be removed when someone is NARU or doesn't respond to the UPI process. This should help sellers. Instead of the comment and score staying with "not a registered user" under it, it looks like it will be gone and no longer count.
If you're an active PowerSeller who has been on eBay at least 12 months, they will block buyers from leaving you a negative or neutral in the first 7 days after the item ends. I think this will help too as some of my clients tell me about weird buyers who buy, pay, and then immediately leave a negative or neutral because some made-up expectation in their head of what paying would be like wasn't met. ?!?!?!
You can leave Feedback for 60 days after the item ends. I hope this is to reduce extortion from buyers who come back MONTHS later and want to return something outside the return policy, for example. I'd like to see this even lower. If we're going to stop this sort of extortion, maybe it should be 40 days. You should know if you like something and it works with 40 days, if not sooner!
The last two look like eBay proactively trying to put some stops to abusive buyers. So people who have spammed other bidders/buyers and buyers with UPIs look like they'll get some sort of boom lowered on them too.
I think eBay is trying. They'll evolve a lot this year, but I think they're trying to make the site better for everybody. Execution may be clumsy at first, but I think they're headed in the right direction.
A few times a week, Kelly Gaba gets emails telling her how much her eBay shoppers love her eBay listing template. Compliments on her template are left in her positive feedbacks. With a matching eBay Store, business cards, and invoices, Kelly's "MsssKel" persona is a hit with buyers, of whom many are loyal, repeat customers.
Kelly met the As Was team at eBay Live! 2007. Days later, she contacted them wondering how long it would take to develop a custom template for her to use in Blackthorne. Within days, the contract was signed, and the project was off and running. The theme? Something fun, whimsical, retro, and starring a cartoon character that we can all pretend is Kelly herself.
The multiple As Was services Kelly purchased took around 8 weeks, and the new MsssKel image hit eBay in late August 2007, including the simple eBay Store designed at http://stores.ebay.com/MsssKels-Place. The effect was immediate at As Was. "We started getting flooded with requests to buy exactly what we had done for MsssKel," explains Debbie Levitt, As Was Founder and CEO. "Since every project we do is completely unique and totally custom to the seller's personality and target audience, the MsssKel template was not for resale."
From tens of thousands of entries, Msss Kel's Place, Kelly's eBay Store, was chosen as a one of four finalists in the 2008 eBay Best In Stores design contest. Her entry is under "Best Simple Store," but stands out from all of the eBay Stores in all of the categories. "We love simple eBay Stores," says Levitt. "They brand you, they can match your listing template, they streamline shopping, and they do all of this without providing distractions. Simple eBay Stores retain eBay's layout, which means that eBay shoppers don't arrive on the Store and have to wonder where the items are, or figure out what they can click on amongst collages and long columns of dozens of links. If the average eBay shopper doesn't want to read much or have to figure things out, simpler Stores will be more effective."
"Also ,when it comes to more advanced eBay Stores, we think there are better design options out there than collages, columns of dozens of links, or animated Flash that doesn't get people any closer to buying something. I feel like As Was is the only company designing with the eBay shopper's typical thought process and habits in mind. Attractive is nice, but these Stores need to be effective more than they need to be just pretty!"
The MsssKel designs aren't just attractive; they're effective. According to Kelly, "The Store and template design have helped with buyer satisfaction and DSRs. We've always had high buyer satisfaction, but I think the way the template has separate sections for the policies, have helped. I really think most people actually read ours. That says a lot!"
Kelly continued, "Since we had the store and template design done in August 2007, our monthly sales have increased 25% over our projections, based on the previous year."
As Was is a full-service consulting firm specializing in branding, design, sales and marketing strategies, operations management, and training for eBay and online sellers. As Was has been making the world’s marketplace your marketplace since it was founded in April 1995, and has been an eBay Certified Service Provider since August 2004. For more information, please visit www.aswas.com or call 520.204.1935.
I use Spam Arrest for my email, and every day, I go through over 2000 spams that it catches. I'm afraid that something really meant for me won't have verified itself through Spam Arrest's procedure. So I eyeball it all day.
Sometimes, subject lines make it hard to tell spam emails. There is something that I've found really helps. Sort them by subject line. Rather than by who they're from (since a stranger who wants to do business could be emailing you), or just looking at them by when they came in, sort by subject.
Once all those subjects line up, something that seems like it could be for you like, "I was hoping to chat with you," suddenly becomes obvious spam when you see you have 3 in a row with the same subject from different addresses.
If you are anything like me, and are often eyeballing hundreds of spams, sorting them by subject can quickly make a "hey this could be for me" moment turn into the realisation that it's spam. Save time!
This is an away message in an eBay Store. One of my staff wanted to buy from these people on 15 April 2008, and asked me if I thought she'd get the item in time.
We will be closed on April 17 till 22.
We will have very limited acces to our listings.
All items will be shipped after 14.22.08.
If you pay on 04.16, your item will go out 03.17. This is our last shipping day before store will be closed.
So now here is the mystery question. If you buy it on 15 April, when do you get it? They mention what happens if you buy on 16 April. Evidently in that case, your item is shipped last month.
If you buy while they're away, your items are shipped on a date that doesn't exist.
But what if you buy 15 April? Mystery!
To me, this could work against sales and DSRs. What DSR would you give this person for communication?
I've had a vanity license plate for years (one guess as to what it says), and here in Arizona, it's very cheap to do. I think they charge around $25 per year. Back in NY, I was paying based on the weight of my vehicle. My tiny sports car cost around $100 for a 2-year registration of my vanity plate. So here in AZ, lots of people have them since they're so cheap.
The article linked above lists some of the things you're not allowed to get on a license plate in AZ. Some surprised me. Some obvious. :)
The word "custom" gets thrown around a lot near the word "design" both inside the world of eBay templates and outside that world. For you Princess Bride fans, "This word you keep saying. I do not think it means what you think it means." :)
Let's say that you go and buy and outfit off the rack at any store... Target, JC Penney, Nordstrom. It's a little long on you, so you go to your local tailor or seamstress. He or she makes it shorter to better fit you. Would you call this a custom or customised outfit? I would call it custom-tailored because the other words would make me think that the tailor started with nothing but the idea of what you wanted to wear rather than starting with a totally ready-made item.
Let's say you head on down to Starbucks or your favourite coffee spot. You order off the menu, except you want shots of raspberry and sugar-free vanilla in that menu item. Is this a custom coffee? Is this something so new nobody has ever heard of it. Have you innovated? No, I'd again be thinking more along the lines of "personalised" since you took something that existed, and added a few personal touches.
Now let's get back to design and eBay templates. :)
I see a lot of templates being offered by a lot of individuals and companies. Nearly 100% of the time, they will say custom. I rarely see people other than us saying unique, so at least that still seems to be holding on to the truth. :) But just about everybody is saying custom. Without naming names, what makes these so custom?
Well, one company will let you pick the colour, what categories you'll have down the left, some info that ends up in a Flash file in the top, drop in your name, and that's mostly it. The rest is the same layout that they not only use for every client but use when they list their own items onto eBay. If it's "off the rack," with a choice of colour and a top banner, would you call that custom?
Many of the inexpensive ones I see around eBay will let you pick a background and colour, and that's mostly it. They are using pre-made things they already have on hand, and just piecing them together. Is that custom?
I think the difference here is that when I think custom, I think made from scratch. When my father used to have custom suits made in the 1960s, he picked out the fabric.The tailor measured him, and made it JUST for him. It might not fit anybody else but him. My friends in town do custom cabinetry. In some cases, they are out there hand-painting or hand-carving their own art onto cabinet doors. Nobody else is going to have those cabinets! That is custom.
But I can get those templates by asking those companies for the same colours and some of the elements that someone else may have already picked. They'll be thrilled since they already made it and it's ready to go. :) But these were designed from scratch just for that client. They were mostly ready to go, and just personalised.
If you're not using Twitter, go give it a spin! We are using it in a few ways, and we invite you to join us on these adventures. :)
What is Twitter? Twitter let's people write short running commentary on what they're doing or thinking. It also has business applications since you can include links. Most interestingly, for people/companies you choose to "follow," you can turn on or off text messaging. If you turn it on, every time that person writes something in Twitter, you get a text message.
Another cool thing about Twitter is that for each user, you can see the running feed on who they are following. That means that by people "following" each other, you are rippling out the pool of who sees the messages. That's free marketing!
There are also outside tools that helps you keep up with "tweets" or send them to your email. So plenty of ways to keep up with people and companies you want to hear from!
Information about our new innovations and business doings.
Get notified a half hour before each of Debbie's presentations at eBay Live 2008. You may want to turn on Twitter's text messaging feature for this. We found a lot of people forget when classes are while at eBay Live, so getting a text message about ours should help you show up! :)
Updates on what Debbie's up to. Sometimes it's not business. :) So get ready for fun!
The RocketPlace Twitter Feed RocketPlace is still the only conference for eBay sellers at all levels that twice a year will keep you up on the newest and best techniques, strategies, tools, and services to help you grow your eBay business. We're about 80% focused on eBay, and 20% focused on online selling and marketing outside of eBay.
We're planning the next conference event for September 2008 in Las Vegas. Keep up with our planning.
Be the first to know when registration is open, and get a special discount for following us on Twitter.
While at the event, get notified immediately about program changes or special things that are going on. You may want to turn on Twitter's text messaging
feature for this.
I boarded a flight to ChannelAdvisor's Catalyst event. The flight attendant came on to announce that a jacket was found in the gate area of the airport, and someone missing a jacket should please come up to get it.
Nobody moved.
The flight attendant said, "Claim it now, or find it later on eBay."
We all laughed. But I think it's true. There are people who sell the unclaimed lost and found on eBay. So did you lose a jacket before boarding a Continental flight a few weeks ago? Check eBay.
Did anybody find the hat I lost in the DC airport after the eCommerce Forum? I had that hat for nearly 20 years, and am still sad. Lost and found said nobody turned it in, so I guess someone found it, and decided they loved it as much as I did. Odd how someone can find a hat and decide it's theirs. It says "Horney Toad Activewear" and is yellow, green, and purple fleece.
Well, out of around 30,000 eBay Stores that entered for Best In Stores 2008, 16 were chosen. 4 each are finalists in 4 categories.
We are beyond proud to tell you that our very own Msss Kel's Place is nominated for Best Simple Store. And you know what, it is. It has great branding and personality. You know what she does. You can easily find what you want. It matches her listings fantastically. And you're unlikely to forget it. Don't your wish your eBay Store were that powerful?
So to all the companies and designers who say that they are the best Stores designer on the planet, or their "Advanced" eBay Stores are the best in their area code, I didn't notice any of your Stores listing among the 16 finalists. You may want to update your websites. :)
I hope Msss Kel wins because to us, it really is the Best eBay Store and one of the best listing designs we've ever done. I hope you will take the time to follow the link we dropped into her Store, and vote for her as Best Simple Store. Not because I'm telling you to do it, but because it is. :)
I remember an old Saturday Night Live sketch where Weekend Update anchor Norm MacDonald said the list was out, and the worst job of the year was assistant crack whore. I think that right now, this may be a job not too many people are dying to get into. This will put your photo on the dart board of many a seller and blogger. :)
I didn't make this up. eBay really has this listed on Monster.com as I type this.
Sr. Product Manager, Best Match
The
Finding Product Management team is responsible for one of eBay's most
important and exciting product areas, eBay's search and browse
platform. This Sr. Product Manager position reports to the Sr. Manager
for Best Match and is a key contributor to the 20+ person Finding Team.
The
Best Match team is responsible for developing systems and processes
that create eBay's relevance sort algorithm. We are looking for a
motivated individual to drive several product opportunities in this
area.
A Sr. Product Manager is responsible for writing
requirements and planning long-term product strategy. This individual
will gain exposure to many areas of the company and will be responsible
for developing and executing product and marketing plans to drive the
adoption of these products.
Responsibilities include: - Partner with cross functional leaders to create and execute product plans for the improving Best Match on eBay. - Own key business and product metrics and drive major improvement through product development and product marketing. - Optimize existing search and browse systems. - Competitive analysis. - Become an internal and external advocate for eBay search technologies. - Work closely with a team of product managers, designers, developers, and analysts to document product requirements.
Qualifications: - Strong background and understanding of search technology and/or ecommerce marketplaces. - Experience guiding the development of highly intuitive user interfaces for complex web or software experiences. - Strength in data analysis and interpretation. - Proven product and project planning capabilities. - Highly organized with acute attention to detail. - Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
Remember spamming search engine spiders and bots in the 1990s? Well, we were in business back then, so we do. :) We never did it, but we remember it.
Clients would ask us to put SEX over and over in the meta tags. We didn't. We tried to explain that someone actually looking for sex might find themselves completely uninterested in filters and pumps for zoos and aquariums. Or they'd ask us to put in other words they thought people searched for like "Madonna." OK, you might show up in search results, but those may not be quality leads.
The opposite seems true of the latest spamming of a system. eBay sellers are discovering ways to mess with Best Match. Best Match orders eBay search results through a mysterious algorithm that not everybody understands, but words in your title are part of it. It works better than saying "Sex" in the meta tags for a non-sex site because by showing you at the top of eBay results, you could be more likely to be the seller who makes the sale.
ChannelAdvisor reports on this here, so we wanted to give them credit for a well-explained example.
How do we feel about this? I think it'll go away soon in that I'm sure eBay can eventually rewrite the algorithm to tell the difference between a title where NEW appears once or appears more than once, and decide that saying a word more doesn't make it a better match.
I am looking at getting a small travel trailer that I can tow with my SUV. I went to see if Meetup.com has any RV meetups in town. No they don't, but one person was signed up to say that she was interested in an RV meetup group when it started. She was allowed to post a comment with her "I'm waiting for this group to be formed" choice, and this is what she wrote (I removed the URL).
"There is already a polyamory group here in Tucson. See [URL removed]
Perhaps, via meetup though, we can reach more poly or poly interested folks."
Um, this is the Recreational Vehicle meetup. Not the orgy meetup. I am not sure why she posted that for the RV meetup, but I think that I will not join her in waiting for an RV meetup. I'm scared that it wouldn't stay on topic.
I've noticed lately that there are some companies who seem to think they compete with us. OK, they are out there, and when I see their work, I tend to feel like we don't compete. It's something totally different done differently with a different approach. That makes it not compete in my opinion. If I really want a Coca Cola, a glass of soy milk probably won't do. :) Or better said, if you really want the top cut of organic beef, the tiny McDonalds burger probably will not satisfy!
So I tend to think there is enough pie for everybody. If you want to design for eBay sellers, and you're at least reasonably good at what you do, there's a piece of pie for you. :) The last statistic I heard was that 1.3 million sellers make a full-time or part-time living on eBay. That's my target audience.
My target audience is over 1.3 million people. That's not bad! That's a big pie from which a lot of pieces can be cut. Enough pie for everybody, right?
I'm not sure. I have found that some of these pseudo-competitors seem to want our piece of the pie, whatever it is in each moment. I've watched them write up ads that use the wording we use in ads, but the ad is for their design. I've watched them rebrand their company and start using a logo that looks bloody well like our logo. I've watched them stand near our exhibit area so they can hear what we say to people, and then while we're talking to potential clients, they literally pull these people away so they can talk to them. That just make you look weird if not desperate since the ones who are right for us aren't going to hire you anyway. They want what we do, and you don't do what we do.
I guess people want to be As Was. That's nice. But as Seth Godin says, decide what your world is so that you can be the best in your world. The companies who think they compete with us will not be the best in our world, which means that they should concentrate on the piece of the pie who really wants them, and go be those customers' best choice. We're the best choice for our piece of the pie, and if they want us, they are unlikely to want you even if you're faster and cheaper. We're offering something that may cost more and take more time, but is worth it.
I think we should each identify our key piece of pie and go after it. I think everything would go so much better for some of these struggling pseudo-competitors if they were cool with the piece of the pie that fits them.
I spoke on a panel at ChannelAdvisor's event last week. Now, I'm used to people coming up afterwards to say they loved our work or liked what I said. :)
But people came up to me and said something I was surprised to hear.
They were glad that I only took the amount of time that was alotted to me for my presentation. And they loved my presentation. It's not like they were glad I only took 10 minutes because I stunk. They were glad that I took 10 minutes because it was respectful to the flow of the session.
The audience was aware that we each got 10 minutes. I shaved my presentation down. I hacked away at it over and over. I took out things I wish I could have shown everybody so that it would be 10 minutes long.
The other two speakers ran well over. Evidently, 10 minutes to them was a general guideline or a nice idea. :) This meant that the session ran over and we had very little time for questions.
I was really pleased that people in the audience cared. Sometimes, I feel like I'm the only one who obeys rules, and I suffer because I don't take my alotted 10 minutes and do a 20 minute presentation. :) I'm glad that people cared.
Next time you have a presentation, please stick to your alotted time. The audience notices.
I've been doing a lot of flying lately. The TSA claims up and down that you can't bring this, that, and the other thing on board. Here is a list of things I've recently brought in my carry on AND made it through security without anybody asking me about anything.
Half a litre of water in a Camelback pouch in the front outside pocket of my backpack.
A small thing of hand sanitizer that was not in a quart zip bag.
My Swiss Army Knife.
You read correctly. I just went through security in Tucson and Raleigh, NC with my black Swiss Army knife in the front inside pocket of my carry on backpack. That means I had two knife blades, a little saw, and some other metal tools. I thought it was in my checked luggage, but there it is, in my carry on rolling backpack.
I'm not a terrorist, but evidently, terrorists have taken planes down with much less than a Swiss Army knife and a half litre of some sort of liquid.
The TSA is just crap, and it's embarrassing. If you're not going to police the stuff you claim is so awful, then just stop pretending these are against the rules.
If you clip a coupon for $1 off a 24-pack of Coca-Cola, when you go to the supermarket, here are some things to know:
You will NOT be able to use that $1 off on Pepsi products.
You will NOT be able to take $3 off your 24-pack of Coca-Cola.
You will NOT be able to take $1 off a one-litre bottle of Coca-Cola.
You will NOT be able to take 50 cents off a six-pack of Coca-Cola, and 50 cents off a bottle of Sprite.
You will NOT be able to take $1 off a 24-pack of Coca-Cola, and another $1 off a pound of ground beef with the one coupon.
I'm writing this because I feel frustrated. We created a few promotional discounts to offer very select sellers for very select reasons. Now that people are finding our web page with these discounts, we find that many people are haggling with us. Like because we are offering $500 off our custom eBay listing template design if you paid that or more to another company, people are looking to get $500 off anything for any reason.
Their coupon abuse :) emails often end with, "Will that work for you?" and I'd like to say NO. Creating your own discount doesn't work for me! If we made good money and were able to grow our company giving everybody these discounts, we'd just lower prices. But considering the amount of work we put into each client, and the amount of expertise and attention you get without being nickled-and-dimed, we have carefully constructed our pricing. We've also carefully constructed when, how, why, and who gets discounts.
We used to offer NO discounts or promotions because we found that people figured they could just "Best Offer" me any price they liked for our services. People thought everything was a negotiation, or a one-time discount was going to apply to them forever. These made for frustrating experiences for me, as well as for the client, who randomly decided that they were due all kinds of different pricing.
Most of our clients later tell us that we could have charged more for what they got from us and how well it worked for them. We are the only company broadcasting our track record; our average client grows eBay GMV by 15% within a few months of working with us, and keeps growing. I ask our potential and new clients respect the good pricing we're offering for the amazing service you're going to get.
I may have to stop offering the discounts if I find that they are bringing more negative experiences and weird client expectations. I was hoping that the promotions would bring great, new clients who really appreciated what we do and the great pricing we offer even without the discount. I did not want to enter into a world where everything is a negotiation.
For the $100-500 about which the client may be hassling me, how many more sales would the client have to make to have absorbed that? How much would our advice need to save the client in listing fees? We can probably save you hundreds per MONTH with some of our advice. Just trust that what we do is going to more than pay for itself. :)
That being said, April is 10% off month for us. All new clients get 10% off whatever is in their contract with all future services at regular price. Jump on now! :)
I heard two stores from my own clients. One seller had two not-so-great feedbacks on Amazon, and Amazon immediately limited his account. Another had an email glitch, where she missed three small orders that came in the same day. So they didn't ship in a timely manner. Amazon permanently suspended her, and she said they won't listen to any appeal at all.
Thanks to eBay for NOT doing this stuff to people!
We're hiring again. Someone filled out our employment form, and pasted in his resume.
The first bit of the resume mentioned his college education (graduated 1991), highlighting his B average and golf internships.
Huh?
Then, he had a list of all the places he's worked at over the years, and what he did there. He didn't explain what any of these places were, and I couldn't tell from the names. I didn't want to go look them all up.
Huh?
It looked like most of his jobs had him responsible for sales, purchasing, logistics, inventory, some accounting, and what I'll call corporate things. Our job is for someone who deeply, deeply knows eBay selling AND is at the advanced level with HTML, CSS, and Photoshop. I saw no mention in his resume of eBay, HTML, CSS, or Photoshop. The space I left for him to put in his eBay ID was left blank. He picked "Good" for his skill level with HTML, CSS, and Photoshop when our form page says that we are unlikely to hire people unless they choose Advanced or Expert.
But wait, it gets weirder.
I email him:
I'm a little puzzled by your email below. Based
on your resume and responses to the skill questions, you don't seem qualified for our position at all. Did I miss something?
His response was:
I
am very qualified however I saw no need to overstate or embelish regarding the
skill set. I am completey capable but do not perform all those skills currently
on an everyday basis.
Huh? I wrote him back that he didn't seem to be in any danger of overstating these things considering I saw no mention of any of the skills and experience our job requires anywhere in his email or resume.
People, when you write your resume, consider the reader. Is your golf internship at college nearly 20 years ago the main highlight of who you are? Are you applying for jobs for which you are qualified? If so, will your resume prove to the employer that you are perfect? If not, you need another version of your resume for that kind of job. It needs to tell the truth :) and it needs to clearly show why you're perfect for that job.
Don't overstate or embellish, but I dare you to wow me with how qualified you are. I can only imagine that when this guy said he didn't want to overstate or embellish, the translation there is, "I'm not right for the job, took a stab, and can't honestly say that I fit any of the qualities you want.
Then don't waste me time! Though you did give me a laugh.
We have a Samsonite outlet in a local mall, and I buy all of my luggage there as they have nice stuff at good deals. The last suitcases we bought came with some 8 or 10 year warranty. We bought them a year or so ago.
One of the retractable handles broke. I brought it back to the shop. They didn't ask for a receipt or anything. It's still a current model, so that might have helped. They said I just have to pay round-trip shipping of $15, and it'll be fixed for free in around 2 weeks.
HOORAY! A company standing behind the product and honouring the warranty! OK, it would be better if I didn't have to pay the shipping, or I paid a discounted rate of say $5 (splitting it with Samsonite), but at least the $180 suitcase will be fixed for very little money, and quickly.
Good marketing to Samsonite for being easy to deal with, not making me dig up an old receipt, and hopefully getting this done right and fast! I'll let you know how the suitcase comes back. :)
I got a spam email from a company who wanted me to see their amazing solution for generating more leads at a trade show. I think the idea was for me to have RocketPlace offer this to exhibitors.
http://www.ims.ca/r5/showkiosk.asp?listing_id=1723293 was the web page I eventually got to that described this company's service. If I'm understanding correctly, it's like the old magazine reply cards where each ad had a number. If you wanted to know more, you circled the number and mailed in the card. The card receiving service then gave your info to the people you circled so they could contact you.
In this case, it's a trade show, and you're circling numbers for exhibitors you want to hear from. Why wouldn't you just go to those exhibitors and give them your card? Why couldn't those exhibitors scan your badge?
As for the other services the page mentions, like plugging our exhibitors to our attendees before they get to the event, I plug them on the website. I could email people and plug some more, but hey, they're already coming to the event.
I think that most of my RocketPlace plugging needs to be to people who AREN'T yet coming. :) They need to know how great it is, and they need to be signing up. There's only so much I need to market to those who are coming since I know that once they experience it, they'll be hooked!
So bad marketing to the company stuck in some other non-internet era of business reply cards!
This interview with Brian Burke of eBay clarifies the recent changes to digital downloads. In summary:
If you ship a physical product such as a CD, DVD, or printed materials, you may still sell it as an auction, fixed price, or non-classified ad.
If you offer that but offer downloading as an option, you have to sell it in the Classified Ad format.
Now to me, here comes the most important question since the question is what about people who sell pre-made websites, custom websites, and eBay templates on eBay. Here is the new chapter and verse:
If you are selling a totally custom thing where there is collaboration between you and the client on a design that starts from scratch, it doesn't have to be a Classified Ad. You can sell it under Services as you would now.
If you are selling a pre-made template or website, even if you offer some customisations (like drop your name here, drop your logo here, pick your colours, etc...), eBay sees that as falling into their digital download group. You would have to sell that as a Classified Ad.
That means that all the $5 eBay template sellers need to list as a Classified Ad. The listings I see for templates where they'll do a bit of customisation, you'll have to list as a Classified Ad. Someone making a completely custom template, website, or the like can still list the same old ways.
Well, out of around 30,000 eBay Stores that entered for Best In Stores 2008, 16 were chosen. 4 each are finalists in 4 categories.